Special Play

Carl and Donut come up with Special Plays as a system for quickly taking specific actions on the battlefield. Each play is supposed to be followed immediately and without question upon being called.

Description

Carl describes the play system:

For the past day, I’d been trying to organize scenarios such as this in my mind. We needed to come up with contingencies, ways to respond to certain threats. If Donut and I trained, we could call out the play and each of us would know how to respond. I had one such contingency already worked out in my head, something for this exact scenario—surrounded by powerful monsters. The problem was, I hadn’t explained this yet to Donut.^[1]

“To solve the issue, Donut and I came up with the first move of what I would call our “playbook.” I gave a name to each play, and as soon as it was called, we’d follow a set of predetermined reactions. While it was good to be adaptive and fluid, the fight with the mold lions taught me that having a set of canned reactions to certain situations could be beneficial. Either of us were allowed to call plays, and once someone did, we needed to follow the play without question. That way we’d work together and know what each other were doing. This first one I called “Panic.” I’d cast Fear, and Donut would hit it with a missile. Simple. It wasn’t complicated, and it was pretty much what would naturally happen anyway. But I figured it would be a good start. As time went on, we’d have more and more complicated sets of reactions, including ones that integrated Mongo.”^[2]

List of Plays

Spoiler Warning through Book 7

Call	Characters Involved	Description
Panic[2]	Carl & Donut	Carl casts Fear, Donut casts Magic Missile
Boomy Boy[3]	Donut, Carl, & Mongo	Donut casts Clockwork Triplicate on Mongo and one of the clockworks suicides with a stick of dynamite in each hand (Carl needs to be involved as he is the only one who can safely handle the dynamite)
Slime Time/Hekla[4][5]	Donut	Donut casts Second Chance and then Clockwork Triplicate on a dead mob
Mold Lion[6]	Carl & Donut	Carl casts Protective Shell in the middle of the group to scatter and injure the mobs, Donut casts Second Chance on any that die.
Mic Drop[6]	Carl & Donut	Carl throws a boom jug straight up, Donut uses Puddle Jumper to move them far away.
Go Long[7]	Donut	Donut goes a distance away and then casts a specific spell.
Doubleshot[8]	Donut	Donut casts Magic Missile x 2.
Formation One[9]	Katia, Donut, Carl, & Mongo	For tight areas, V-shape of Mongo, Carl, and Katia (in that order). Donut stays on Carl's shoulder.
Formation Two[10]	Katia, Donut, Carl, & Mongo	For open areas, Mongo, Carl, and Katia abreast (in that order). Donut starts on Carl's shoulder, but then stays behind while the others charge.
Formation Three[11]	Katia, Donut, Carl, & Mongo	For open areas, Mongo goes far left with Carl and Katia close together (in that order). Donut stays behind and in the gap between Mongo and Carl.
Doozy[11]	Katia, Donut, Carl, & Mongo	The party starts in Formation Three, Carl drops a smoke screen, and then he and Katia both move three steps right. Donut casts Hole in front of the charging mob, while Carl also casts Fear.
Surprise One[12]	Donut & Mongo	Donut casts Hole, Mongo puts his head through and snaps
Surprise Two[12]	Carl & Donut	Donut casts Hole, Carl drops a bomb through the hole
Surprise Three[12]	?	?
Peeping Mongo/Tom[13]	Donut, Carl, & Mongo	Donut casts Hole, Carl (or Mongo) looks through the hole, Donut casts Clockwork Triplicate on the other side.
Leatherface[14]	Katia	Katia drops the giant buzzsaw scavenged from Ruckus
Predator[15]	Carl & Donut	Carl and Donut both down Invisibility Potions, Donut switches to IR mode on her glasses, and she sits on his shoulder to call out targets.
Yankee Doodle[16]	Carl & Donut	Carl bribes someone to get them to move forward, Donut casts Astral Paw to push them from behind, Carl to then hit them in the back of the head with a ball from his xistera.
Nope[17]	Carl & Donut	Carl and Donut both down Invisibility Potions, Carl drops a smoke curtain, Donut casts Wall of Flame, and then Donut casts Puddle Jump to get them away.

References