Star Trek RPG - Setup thread

[choie]

That's an excellent question that Rangin has pondered to himself. My guess is because the Hsus think the Admiral or his aide is involved. Personally I think Fastolfe is the perp.

Eh, I've read enough mysteries to know how this works. Fastolfe's the most obvious suspect, which means he either isn't guilty, or he's so obviously guity that the twist will be that he is guilty.

And when EH opens his PMs, he'll see that Wilson being murdered was my top guess. Fastolfe being dead was second, and the Admiral was third. So, yay me.

(Jan was my dark horse option, and only because I thought the prospect of his being killed would give us some suspects among the PCs, but I considered it unlikely since Jan's "importance," such as it is, was only stepped up as a last-minute decision.)

[CatInASuit]

Well, it fits in with what I think might be going on but I'm usually completely blindsided by the real answer

Oh well - on to the scene of the crime.

[choie]

Just in case WES and anyrose don't catch this, you may want to revisit post #1111, which was around, oh, 7:00PM say? Shortly after the gang had dinner, anyway. When Collins, T'Var and Delaney asked the receptionist, Wilson wasn't expected to be on duty until "tomorrow morning." I suppose that doesn't have to be inconsistent with Mrs. Hsu's comment that he usually worked until midnight, but it's one discrepency you might want to follow up on. None of the rest of us know that info* (unless you mentioned it to Rangin and Graham and I forgot) so it's up to y'all.


* well, we know, but our characters don't.

[choie]

Wow, is Graham going out of his way to be a know-it-all, chauvinist schmuck? He's coming very close to Collins in being a chapeau de derriere. What exactly is wrong with asking Mrs. Hsu questions about Wilson's last known movements, or where he was expected to be, while Graham is busy being Mr. Tough Cop with Mr. Hsu? Thanks to those questions we already have one discrepency, noted above. Is ol' Booksie disconcerted by having a wee slip of a girl asking pertinent questions? And of course the amusing thing is that Kylah's skills will likely be of at least equal value to all his macho posturing.

As an aside, I would also give Collins thirty credits to bitchslap him and tell him "It's Lieutenant, gramps -- not L.T. LOO - TEN - ANT! Lietenant JG Collins if you're nasty. Got it?"

[general_urko]

Wow, is Graham going out of his way to be a know-it-all, chauvinist schmuck? He's coming very close to Collins in being a chapeau de derriere. What exactly is wrong with asking Mrs. Hsu questions about Wilson's last known movements, or where he was expected to be, while Graham is busy being Mr. Tough Cop with Mr. Hsu? Thanks to those questions we already have one discrepency, noted above. Is ol' Booksie disconcerted by having a wee slip of a girl asking pertinent questions? And of course the amusing thing is that Kylah's skills will likely be of at least equal value to all his macho posturing.

As an aside, I would also give Collins thirty credits to bitchslap him and tell him "It's Lieutenant, gramps -- not L.T. LOO - TEN - ANT! Lietenant JG Collins if you're nasty. Got it?"

Graham's got a way he likes to handle situations like this. Of course, that's bumping up against the fact that now (a) he's not in command and (b) he's not on a 100% security or law enforcement assignment/team.

Meta: I hope the post was clear that he chided himself for jumping to dismiss Kylah - it was intended to indicate that he recognized the value of the question, even if it wasn't exactly when he wanted it asked.

[choie]

Mmmm. Let's just say I'm not taking kindly to snark about Kylah's slutting-it-up post-sporeape!

[general_urko]

Oh Graham is not at all going to go the slut route, but I'll bet the way the previous day's events re-direct his paternal issues will annoy Kylah waaay more

[anyrose]

Wow, is Graham going out of his way to be a know-it-all, chauvinist schmuck? He's coming very close to Collins in being a chapeau de derriere. What exactly is wrong with asking Mrs. Hsu questions about Wilson's last known movements, or where he was expected to be, while Graham is busy being Mr. Tough Cop with Mr. Hsu? Thanks to those questions we already have one discrepency, noted above. Is ol' Booksie disconcerted by having a wee slip of a girl asking pertinent questions? And of course the amusing thing is that Kylah's skills will likely be of at least equal value to all his macho posturing.

As an aside, I would also give Collins thirty credits to bitchslap him and tell him "It's Lieutenant, gramps -- not L.T. LOO - TEN - ANT! Lietenant JG Collins if you're nasty. Got it?"

If I had Janet Jackson's body, I might react like that. But Collins knows Graham is "old school" and as long as he respects her and doesn't disobey direct orders, she's okay with "L-T". She even kind of likes it, like a brother giving his kid sister a nickname

[CatInASuit]

Damn, GU, you ninja'd me.

I'd just had the same thought and was going to have Rangin mention it.

[general_urko]

Oh man that's priceless that you/Rangin were thinking the same thing.

I think for Rangin & Kylah there is sort of a "Graham Accounting Balance" - a shifting tally of game incidents that argue he is either awesome or a total jerk, respectively.

It's most interesting if they stay in tension...

[choie]

I dunno, general, I'm not sure the dial has ever swung to the "awesome" side of the meter. But hope springs eternal!

So.... How long a walk is it to this crime scene, anyway? Maybe we should've just beamed there!

[CatInASuit]

It's probably just around the corner...

[CatInASuit]

Collins should really have asked for a coffee before she came out

[anyrose]

[choie]

That was hilarious.

[CatInASuit]

On second thoughts, Collins owes Rangin a coffee.

[anyrose]

Dunkin' or Starbucks?

[general_urko]

Graham enters the lovely park, gives the tall guy the finger for no reason and shoots a small bird with his phaser, solely to live down to Kylah's and Rangin's current opinion of the Security team.

[choie]

He approaches Collins. "Ah, if you want my input, ma'am," he says softly, "I'd put T'Var on examining the body for sure, Rangin scanning the hell out of the area in expanding circles--I'd bet he knows more tricks with a tricorder than we do--and I'd include Kylah on any interviews. And one of us checking out the body and then the area, or doing twenty questions with the officer who found Wilson." He pauses and clears his throat. "Anyway--that's my two cents."

"And Delaney can go straight to hell. I don't like that guy and clearly you don't either. Fuck him, I say, L.T."

[general_urko]

He approaches Collins. "Ah, if you want my input, ma'am," he says softly, "I'd put T'Var on examining the body for sure, Rangin scanning the hell out of the area in expanding circles--I'd bet he knows more tricks with a tricorder than we do--and I'd include Kylah on any interviews. And one of us checking out the body and then the area, or doing twenty questions with the officer who found Wilson." He pauses and clears his throat. "Anyway--that's my two cents."

"And Delaney can go straight to hell. I don't like that guy and clearly you don't either. Fuck him, I say, L.T."

Son of a... totally forgot Delaney. But would anyone else have caught it?

[choie]

Yeah I seem to be the main Delaney-rememberer of the group. I think it's 'cause when I first started and Kylah was new (and Delaney was still a PC rather than the lowly NPC he is now), she had a bit of a crush on him.

Oh yeah, then that switched to Pourtash, but he was a twit once he became an NPC and Kylah had no truck with him. I guess she's fickle. If Rangin ever goes NPC (God forbid), she'll turn her wanton seductress ways to Graham.

[anyrose]

I caught it before I came in here. Collins just delegated everything so there will be no more gaffes.

[choie]

Collins just delegated everything so there will be no more gaffes.

That's what Chris Christie claims, and look what's going on with him. Setting up plausible deniability, Collins?

[anyrose]

who, me?

[general_urko]

He certainly is not an expert on reading people, or he would know just how much she cannot bear to be crowded right now.

True enough, no freakin' clue!

[CatInASuit]

Dunkin' or Starbucks?

Any chance of a Raktaijino?

[choie]

T'Var kneels down to examine the body. She gestures for Graham to join her.

"We should transport Mr. Wilson's remains to the medical center," she says.

Wait, we need to look at the body exactly where it is, first. We don't want to move the corpse without taking a good measure of it where it's lying now, so we can see how he fell, whether he's holding anything, heck whether he's got dew on him that matches the grass (as well as his temperature--if he's moved inside, that will change), and any other clues that only a body in situ can provide us.

[anyrose]

"DiNozzo, sketch! McGee, pictures! Ziva, bag and tag!"

[Elendil's Heir]

...Wait, we need to look at the body exactly where it is, first. We don't want to move the corpse without taking a good measure of it where it's lying now, so we can see how he fell, whether he's holding anything, heck whether he's got dew on him that matches the grass (as well as his temperature--if he's moved inside, that will change), and any other clues that only a body in situ can provide us.

All excellent points, choie. Eventually an autopsy will be necessary.

For questioning of witnesses or suspects from here on out, please ask as many questions of them as you want to in a single post. I will post their answers, and then you can ask any followup questions, again, as many as you want. This will move the game along more quickly than going post-by-post, single question followed by single answer.

[general_urko]

For questioning of witnesses or suspects from here on out, please ask as many questions of them as you want to in a single post. I will post their answers, and then you can ask any followup questions, again, as many as you want. This will move the game along more quickly than going post-by-post, single question followed by single answer.

Kylah asks Officer Adelman "What are you doing later?"

Kylah asks Dr. Halsey "What are you doing later?"

Kylah asks Mr. Hsu "What are you doing later?"

Kylah asks Mrs. Hsu "What are you doing later?"

[general_urko]

While recalibrating his tricorder to try again, he goes across to Delaney and asks very quietly, "Excuse me Sir, could you tell me if there have been any teleport signatures in this area. I'm wondering if Mr Wilson wasn't necessarily killed here."

[CatInASuit]

EH, can you clarify the shape of the park and position of the body further, as I think my understanding of the layout is incorrect.

The park is roughly 100m square with two sets of paths, cutting it effectively into four parts. Various dotted bushes, trees, benches etc. Houses are around the edge of the park with Mr Wilson's body in one corner of the park. I take it that there is also a path around the perimeter of the park, right?

So when you say Mr Wilson is in the corner of the park, do you mean right next to the path that runs round the edge of it, assuming it exists, and not, as it looks I wrongly assumed, somewhere towards the middle of one of the park quadrants and away from any paths?

Any chance of a picture?

[Elendil's Heir]

Can't give you a picture, but yes, his body is close to the edge of the path that goes around the perimeter of the park. He could, as noted in the game thread, have fallen onto the grass without walking on the lawn. I never said he was towards the middle of one of the quadrants.

[CatInASuit]

This is why I'm asking to make certain. Thanks for the clarification.

Bang goes most of Rangin's actions and theories then

Although please could you comment on the scent trail theory that he has been following. If he walked down the path and was attacked there, it should be obvious where he came from.

[Elendil's Heir]

I don't think Rangin has a particularly keen nose, and I don't recall tricorders ever having been shown as being capable of tracking scents.

[CatInASuit]

I don't think Rangin has a particularly keen nose, and I don't recall tricorders ever having been shown as being capable of tracking scents.

You mean my tricorder has less complex chemical finding and tracking capability than a dog. Where do I get a refund?

Being serious, if you want to say its not possible to do, so be it, its your call. I was trying to use Rangin's knowledge in a more unusual way than just scan for stuff.

The main reason it would never have been shown in Star Trek is because we still don't fully understand how it works, even nowadays, let alone when ST:TOS was made.

[Elendil's Heir]

If you want to make an argument here for Rangin, or his tricorder, having that capability, I'm all ears... er, eyes.

[CatInASuit]

It would be the tricorder, not Rangin. Rangin can smell coffee a mile off, this would be a little trickier. But the principle is the same in a way.

Scent, aroma, odour whatever you want to call it is effectively a set of complex chemicals that are emitted by something. When enough of them gather, they set off the nerves in your nose and it triggers the brain with stimuli. Rangin was effectively trying to convert his tricorder into something similar to a bloodhound, which is capable of following scent trails over several hours old. The tricorder should certainly be capable of detecting the chemicals in the air and on the ground, that's its job. Mr Wilson is right there, so its easy to get a sample of those chemicals from him into the tricorder to try and follow his trail as to where he had come from.

As to why Rangin is doing it, as a xenobiologist who likes animals, he's looking to try something different. The main animals involved in work like this are used to track people, so he's doing the same. Besides, its something most people never consider, much preferring to use their eyes instead.

[choie]

FWIW I think it sounds logical. One more vote for giving the tricorders smellovision!

[anyrose]

make it unanimous ::sniff::

[general_urko]

I personally think EH should make Rangin crawl on all fours, nose to the ground like a bloodhound in order to use his nose.

But that's just 'cause he was hassling Graham

There's a very interesting question overall given the limits of the imagination at TOS's time versus the limits of technology as things have panned out...

Transporter beams for biological organisms are probably no closer to being a viable thing - but (I am not arguing the point, because I don't want a pile of rocks to fall on Graham ) as one example, a surveillance system that recorded every moment of every inch of the facility and was able to pattern-identify a "violent action" (or even a "behavior likely to turn violent") is entirely feasible today - it would be super expensive, but it's technically doable.

In our real world, the time period of TOS I'd bet "the entire city of London or New York" will have such a thing.

[Elendil's Heir]

Hmm. If Rangin wants to take some time to set and calibrate his tricorder to follow scents, he can try. Delaney may be able to help him.

[choie]

Kylah gets the sense from Adelman that he is calm, straightforward, and believes what he is saying. He seems to be telling the truth - but she cannot detect "lying," as such, with any degree of certainty sufficient to convince, for example, a Federation court of law. She is an empath but, as with polygraphs on 21st century Earth, some people may seem to be lying when they're not, and some people are very skilled and convincing liars.

Oh I know. I was really just using shorthand, y'know? I didn't want to keep writing (as I have been, but it's getting tiring) "Kylah knows it's not necessarily damning or proving anything, but..." every time she does a sense check. So basically, please take it as read that I mean, "Kylah tries to sense whether ___ is hiding anything/being straightforward, as far as she can tell anyway although she knows that he might be a very good liar." Fair?

[Elendil's Heir]

But of course.

[general_urko]

T'Var considers Halsey a possible suspect. It would be a good idea to keep him close at hand to observe his behavior.

"Perhaps we can perform the autopsy together," she tells him. "Your assistance would be greatly appreciated."

[CatInASuit]

Hmm. If Rangin wants to take some time to set and calibrate his tricorder to follow scents, he can try. Delaney may be able to help him.

He already did - see post #1421.

But I'll follow it up between Rangin and Delaney and hopefully keep the story making sense.

[Elendil's Heir]

I just took another look at post 1421, and he doesn't mention scanning for scent, in particular. Now that I think of it, I don't think it would work, unless you built, in essence, an artificial nose as part of the tricorder - something that would actually suck air in and analyze it. You can always scan for particular elements or substances, though.

[general_urko]

unless you built, in essence, an artificial nose as part of the tricorder - something that would actually suck air in and analyze it.

One million quatloos if Rangin and Delaney build this *and* post a sketch of what the jerry-rigged mechanical nose sticking out of the tricorder looks like...

[CatInASuit]

I just took another look at post 1421, and he doesn't mention scanning for scent, in particular. Now that I think of it, I don't think it would work, unless you built, in essence, an artificial nose as part of the tricorder - something that would actually suck air in and analyze it. You can always scan for particular elements or substances, though.

Hold on a mo.

If there were creatures who could follow a scent from a scene like this, he would be doing the same with a tricorder. It was all a matter of knowing what to look for.

But the scent trail Rangin was expecting to see of Mr Wilson didn't appear to be there either. If he had been assaulted here, there should be some trace of it leading off down one of the paths.

Rangin doesn't mention that he knows Wilson didn't make it to this point due to the lack of scent trail he was looking for.

Nah, you're probably right, not scanning for scent with a tricorder at all

As for tricorders being able to smell, smelling is the interaction of complex chemical chains with the olifactory senses. ie. your nose. In order to know if those chemicals are there, you need to breathe in through your nose, so the nose knows at that point. A tricorder can detect those chemical chains remotely, just like it can detect most other things without needing to come into contact with the substance. Effectively, you could say a tricorder is constantly smelling its environment.

Actually, if you look at the modern medical tricorders they are trying to build, they are calling them electronic noses. I hadn't realised that, but that's so cool.

Now, all I need to do is get a tricorder, a welding kit and giant nose...

[choie]

One million quatloos if Rangin and Delaney build this *and* post a sketch of what the jerry-rigged mechanical nose sticking out of the tricorder looks like...

Now, all I need to do is get a tricorder, a welding kit and giant nose...

Kylah decides that Graham can pay in installments. Rangin... well, Kylah hopes he'll find an appropriate way to thank her.