So...you all knew it was going to happen...

Time for a FLYING CIRCUS MECHANICS EXAMPLE THREAD!

Because I'm lazy, I'll be using my character, Wolf, and their biplane, a used Ritter Model C "Spatz" - which has been up-gunned to have two machine guns instead of one.

All games of Flying Circus begin with preflight checks. In this case, Wolf and their friends are out in town, strapped for cash, looking for work when a lookout begins cranking the air raid siren - and the town criers open up: Goths! Dead out of the sun! Our heroes look and...

There they are - a Goth raiding plane, bedecked with turrets and goth war-raiders with swords, rifles, spears, and gas masks. And flanking it are three goth biplanes, each painted stark white. but rather than guns, they have flamers and wingblades, glittering in the morning light

The mayor of the town - stern, storklike woman named Etta - runs up to the leader of Wolf's circus, a brash skyborn pilot named Rache, and says: "Please, we can't hold them off!"

"...twenty thalers?" Rache suggests.

"Rache!" Wolf grabs her arm, then drags her to the airfield.

Our heroes rush for their biplanes and scramble inside. The mechanics, working with frantic haste, spin the props - CONTACT! - and they buzz forward almost before the mechanics are out of the way. As one, they take to the skies!

Wolf's dash looks like this: His RPM is set to 1 for starting the engine, and he hits his max speed and the cruising altitude of 15 before the Goth's arrive in engagement range. But now, we roll to see how the wing engages with the goths. It's a flat 2d10 and we get...

A 9 - a miss. (10> is a miss, 11-15 is a partial hit, 16+ is a full hit. Some rolls get even better hits for 20+)

The Goths have a definite advantage: They're in a good formation and, worse, have a serious altitude advantage, being at 2,000 meters, a full 500 above the wing.

Wolf pulls back on the stick while revving his engine hard - by taking +1 RPM, he can trade speed for altitude at a 3 to 1 ratio. Doing so puts him at definite risk, and so the GM makes a hard move: One of the Goth planes, seeing the approaching enemies, dives!

The air fills with bullets as the Goth shoots towards Wolf - who now has to make a Take Fire move. That's 2d10-Keen, but it operates exactly like Opening Fire - meaning the MINUS is actually good, since it's more likely that the enemy will miss.

He gets a 12!

This is a partial hit, meaning that the Goth's effective range increases by 1 band. Since the Goth opened up at close range, that means we'll bounce them back to Long Range. A forward mounted gun hits 100%/75%/50%/25% at knife range, close range, long range and extreme range.

So, of the 8 potential hits, only 50% hit, giving us 4 hits. Wolf now rolls to see if the goth gets a critical hit - which is a 1d20+Hits (or 4.) He gets a 7 - bullets whine through his fuselage, but don't hit anything major. His plane takes 8 damage (2 per hit.)

As it is rickety and old, that's almost all of his 9 toughness. Toughness can be lost without much worry (it's just holes in canvas), but once it's gone, you begin taking real structural damage. And once that hits 0...well, hope you have a parachute.

Wolf, in response, is going to grip his joystick harder, aim straight at the Goth flying at him, and focus in on him and just let the machine guns rip. In moves terms, he's engaging in a dogfight - using "boost" (+1 RPM to add +3 speed to his total) and then "dogfight"

Boost bumps his speed from 9 (just above his stall speed) to 12. Now, dogfighting costs speed. Specifically, it costs your Speed Factor (the 10s on your speed) plus your plane's turn bleed, which is 2. So, he gains 3 speed, then spends 3 speed.

Since he is attempting to line up a shot, this would normally be 2d20+Hard. But his Hard stat is -4. However, Wolf has the move of "lets try spinning", which lets him sub in Daring for any air combat move, at the risk of spinning out of he rolls a 1 on either d10.

He lucks out and gets a 16, meaning he has the Goth right where he wants him! Now he rolls his shooting check, spending 2 ammo per gun for a long burst, giving him advantage (roll 3d10 and take the highest, rather than 2d10 straight.)

Shooting is +Hard, normally, but since Wolf is "drawing a bead", he can sub in Calm instead of Hard, which he's much better at (+1 instead of -4.) Drawing a Bead can be done at any time, but it has a downside we'll get to later...

He rolls a 4 - a miss! so, he shifts TWO over on the range chart, meaning he only gets 2 hits. The Goth just rattled him badly. But he lucks out and rolls a nat 20 on his critical roll giving him a crit anyway! So, ontop of doing 4 damage to his toughness, he hits something vital

The enemy chooses where the crit goes - and we'll say it goes to the engine, since that's mostly what was facing towards Wolf at the time. Two hits from machine guns, means 2/3 spaces filled on the engine damage.

But now...since Wolf used "Draw a bead"...

The GM gets to reveal what his tunnel vision missed. And so, as he screams past the Goth fighter plane, he feels a thump and a whump and his plane suddenly feels sluggish and heavy. Looking back, he sees that as he roared past...

Three Goth raiders leaped from the enemy fighter to his plane and hooked on, with pistols and swords in their hands! The rest of the battlefield forgotten for the moment, he rolls ground combat initiative (2d10+Keen) and gets 13 allowing him to choose one of three options.

1) see red, shoot first.
2) Run and hide and be a low priority target
3) take cover, but act second

Wolf, furious, draws his pistol and shouts, "Get off my FUCKING PLANE!" and starts blazing away at the three Goths.

He rolls 1d20 per hit + Hard. since he has a self loading pistol, that's 2 hits! He gets a 12 and a 7, a hit and a miss. He shoots one Goth in the shoulder and misses the second. Normally, 1 damage isn't enough to incapacitate an enemy, but we'll say it's enough to dislodge him.

The two remaining goths attack using their own revolvers (1 hit each), meaning Wolf rolls 1d20-Keen to try and dodge. One misses, but the other manages to half stand on the wing and shoot Wolf in the leg for 1 injury (-1 to all future actions.)

Wolf grabs his leg in pain, crying out - and because no one is flying the plane, we roll 2d10+Stability to see what happens next. And we get a 3 - a miss! The plane begins to tumble out of control! Oh no!

When in a stall or spin, you have a choice: Make an action or try to recover. Ignoring the Goths for the moment, Wolf tries to grab onto the stick, rolling 2d10+Calm+Stability (-1 for his injury.) This, in total, is a +2 and he gets...a 5.

The plane immediately loses 12 energy.

This means that he has to lose 12 from either speed or altitude. We'll say he looses 6 from both - plunging down out of the sky! The altimeter spins wildly, the propeller whines and the wings rattle as we roar down! Each altitude lost increases speed by 3 (since he IS diving)

By the end, he's at 1100 meters and going 210 KPH (his speed was 9, dropped to 3, then bumped up by 6x3, which is 18! 18+3 = 21 speed!) That's over his engine's top speed, so it takes +1 RPM. But worse, he has to now PULL UP!

Pulling Up inflicts a G-force equal to your speed factor (2 in this case.) Fortunately, that's just under the line of his plane's strain factor (2) so it takes no damage. The only good news is he lost the Goths somewhere back there - there's just a single hook jammed in his wing

Now, Wolf looks around wildly, to try and figure out how the rest of the fight is going. This is an Eyeball check, which is 2d10+Keen-Visibility (-1 for his plane...and -1 for the injury.) However, luck is with him and he gets a 20!

This means he learns the answer and it's good news: The main goth raider has been shot to pieces and is beginning to tumble towards the ground, while the other fighter is turning for home. That just leaves the plane that he was dogfighting before - and it is at altitude 9!

Revenge! First, Wolf loses 2 speed for his plane's energy loss (he's still going above max speed.) Then he spends 2 altitude, dropping from 1100 meters to 900! This adds +6 speed to him, putting him at 25 (which bumps him over overspeed again, so, +1 RPM)

Wolf spends 4 speed (2 speed factor since he's going 25 speed +2 for his turn bleed) to dogfight. Then he leans into the turn, losing 8 speed to add +4 to his dogfighting roll. This DOES add +2 to his G-forces penalty.

So, we're at +4 for his daring (he's risking spinning out), +4 for leaning into the dogfight, -1 for injury, -2 for G-forces, for a total of +5! He gets a 13, meaning he lines up the target momentarily.

He draws a bead (risking a hard move again) and this time, rather than rolling +Calm, he declares he's going to aim at the engine. This means he rolls -hard, but if he DOES get a crit, he hits those engines. He rolls 11, a partial hit! He gets 4 hits in!

He rolls 1d20+4 and gets...a 21! A crit!

Wolf's nose lines up and he stitches bullets across the Goth plane. Smoke explodes from the engine and it tumbles into the ground and explodes. But now, the hard move: He has dropped to low and is skimming towards some massive trees!

bHe rolls 2d10+Keen to try and evade - and he gets a 15! A partial success. He can choose between being left vulnerable, going into a spin, or taking structure damage. He takes the first option and has to swerve around for a while before he comes back to town.

Wolf lands, trembling - and now, we do some end of combat checks. First, he rolls 1d20 for each RPM tick he got. 2 of them get above 11 and 3 get below a 10, so he gains 3 "wear" on his engine. It's fine, the mechanics will fix it.

Now...the reality of what happens hits.

Now, he gets stressed. His plane has a stress value of 1, so that's 1 stress. Next, we check his triggers: He got hit by enemy fire (1 stress), he took a life (2 stress.) And the GM, in a fit of capriciousness, throws in 1 stress for being boarded by Goths, for a total of 5!

The pilots are hailed as heroes and are ushered into the town's center - now it's time to unwind and relax. So, Wolf buys a round of drinks for everyone in his wing and a box of fine reefers for himself (2 hits on the company tab.) He lounges back and starts smoking weed.

This is a familiar vice, so it counts as 1 hit on the vice track.

Then one of his wingmates, a Fisher girl named Nixie, hops onto his lap and asks if he's ever communed with the old gods.

"Uh..." Wolf says.

You see, Nixie has the familiar vice of Lust. And psychotropics.

Wolf, being a naive farmer, cannot indulge in unfamiliar lusts without...help. So, Nixie drags him upstairs, gets him out of his pants, and starts showing him why the Fisherfolk and the Old Gods beneath the sea got along so well. This means he rolls 2d10+Her Daring (2) to...

...well, see how it goes. He gets a 14 and a 20 for the LSD and for the sex. He gets a partial success and a full success, meaning that he's gotten 3 hits on the vice track, but gets a single automatic fail to the End of the Night check.

Lounging in bed with a sweaty and verrrrry happy Nixie, Wolf indulges in his other familiar vice, day-dreaming, until sleep takes him. That's 2 more hits on the vice track, but since he used day-dreaming twice, that's a second automatic fail on the end of night roll.

This means he rolls 5d20 (one per vice) and checks how many successes and how many fails he gets. He gets a 20, 2, ,4, 14, 17! So, So, that's two rolls above a 16 (each clearing 2 stress), one roll above 11 clearing 1 stress, and 2 fails, giving him -5 stress and 3 fails

Since he got 3+ fails, he is either addicted to a vice he indulged, immune to a vice he indulged, or takes +4 stress. I'm going to say he has very *intense* dreams about worshiping the Old Ones, dreams involving gloriously handsome fishmen from beneath the sea.

He awakens with +4 stress and confused, weird feelings about his sexuality...and a lot of paperwork to look forward to. The entire Circus, in total, hit the tabs 6 times (his NPC pilots got ROWDY.) This means they have to roll 6d10 and each 1 adds +1 to their total costs.

Oh, also, since the town is well to do (+2 wealth), thats actually 8d10. Nicer towns are more expensive. They get two 1s, so that's +2 expenses. Next, there's 1 thaler per pilot (4), 2 thaler per plane (8), 1 thaler per injury (1), then 2 thalers for their live in mechanics (2)

And thus, the 20 thaler pay they got for saving the town is down to...3 Thalers in the bank.

Looks like they need to find a new job before their planes fall apart on them. And so, they rustle up a mission flying an escort for a trade zepplin and off they go.

In the moments before flight, Wolf reflects on his latest adventure and gets 5 XP (1 per stress removed) to spend on raising stats, buying new moves, and so on. Once he does so, he stubs out his cigarette, hops in his plane...

And...

Contact!