Isn't the internet wonderful sometimes?
Current Conditions List:
Holly - None
Isaiah - None
Gallowglass - None
Praetoria - Angry, Guilty
Psyche - Angry, Guilty, Insecure
Frostbite - Guilty, Insecure
Scorch - Angry, Hopeless
Horizon - None (though I predict about to be Angry...lol!)
Just found it amusing how angry most of us apparently are. Angry and Guilty.
Isaiah has so far done astoundingly well at avoiding conditions. Then again, its actually in character for him to be more stable and level-headed than the others.
Oh teenagers
As it has been mentioned, I am pretty shocked that I haven't lost a roll. Then again, hitting is easier here than it probably would be rolling a d20.
I'm sure that when it really counts though, he'll whiff at the worst time for everyone, because it wouldn't be as much if he didn't fall flat on his face every once in a while.
Oh, and he's definitely angry at some of the team for how they've treated Hoshiko. He's very much someone who is stubbornly protective of his family. He's trying his best to give Hoshiko every chance to prove she's not a bad person, and it's that much more difficult for him when people treat her like a villain.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Less than two months in and we're already at 1000+ posts! Great job, everyone!
Oh, should we clear conditions from the Rustside/Bunyan battle?
Forgot to add conditions that i gained from colliding with Praetoria - added now.
Honestly, I'm amazed Holly hasn't shouted at Shin before now
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Honestly, I'm amazed Holly hasn't shouted at Shin before now
I'm amazed that he hasn't shouted at more people, actually. He's tightly wound and trying to control things because he doesn't feel like he's in control of his own destiny. But he hopes that he can alter Ballista's path. He's frustrated with the rest of the group because it feels like they're sabotaging his efforts to get her to reform by calling out her crimes and associations. It also doesn't help that he's linking what he sees as a willingness to lock her away with the awful crap he's just learned about his near future in the Second World War.
I just want to make sure players know where Shin is coming from when he stubbornly clings to the hope of reforming Ballista. It's still great role playing on all parts, though I miss Gallowglass.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah, no, I caught that.
Holly comes from being a character on a (admittedly, right of centre) children's television show. She sees the world pretty black and white, though allowing for some serious Moral Myopia.
I mean, she also kinda has the opposite view of Shin. She can see where the Chosen are coming from, but finds their methods unconscionable, whereas Shin seems horrified by their ideology, but can see himself using their methods, if he were pushed. it's a fun contrast
Isaiah/Inquiry is actually quite enthused to reform Ballista. They're just of the opinion that she should start by serving whatever penance is required by local law. And they're rather annoyed at how touchy Shin is being on the subject; they meant no offence with that last statement, and truly believe that Ballista is telling the truth. They are just also paranoid enough to assume that Apotheosis planned based on the possibility of one or more people getting captured, and thus any information they can give, however truthful, likely leads into a trap or assists some manner of gambit.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Praetoria is not against it. But the concept Shin is proposing is basically “This is my cousin Hannibal Lecter. I know we have him in custody and he’s done bad things, but I’m on the police force and he promises to change his ways. Let’s pardon him of all crimes and move on as if he didn’t eat those thirty people.” In her eyes at least.
So yeah, she might be able to be reformed, and Prae hopes she truly can. But she isn’t innocent of past crimes because of that desire.
Anywho, I’m here, just out waiting on the appropriate timing/scene to reunite with the team. So y’all do your thing and I’ll be reading along.
See, Shin can't see her as a mass murdering villain. At most, he believes she's hurt people, been an accessory to violence and theft. But as far as he knows, she's never killed anyone. If she had, he believes that people would be able to tell him straight to his face. So where Prae sees Hannibal Lecter, he sees the misguided bullies of his neighborhood wrecking stores and causing trouble because they don't have a good influence over them.
That said, if anyone wants to call Ballista out on specific crimes, feel free, because that makes for good roleplaying.
Makes sense about Imagerie - I guess I was picturing the 7-9 'She says no, but there's some other effect,' and didn't stop to think about the 10+ 'She says yes,' which didn't really fit with what we'd seen.
I'll use that 10+ as a good rule of thumb for the future though :)
Isaiah is just going to try to change the subject. He's tired of walking on eggshells.
Regarding Psyche's telepathic range, I see proximity as mattering, especially when she tries to do hard stuff like mind control or brain bolts, but am leaving specific ranges up to Unleash rolls. Contacting someone as far away as Praetoria out of the blue would be hard or impossible, except that she connected a line to Kayla before she went to HHH, so she doesn't have to 'find' her.
I wouldn't have put in the picking up surface thoughts at this range, but I can see freaking out that Psyche might have overheard acting as amplification :p
Feeling creative again. Kind of ramble-y world building chunk.
With a primarily artificial population, it should be no surprise that the physical bodies of Iron Fedreation AIs are quite well developed and highly diversified. With intelligences able to change bodies with only moderate difficulty, the physical body of an Iron Fedration AI is usually determined by its purpose and intended use. Not every entity makes such exorbitant use of metamorphic materials as Inquiry/Isaiah do; while such mutable forms are common for intelligences that don't know exactly what they'll be doing, like scouts, infiltrators, prospectors, and the like, there are some sacrifices inherent in using them as a primary material. Metamorphic hyperalloys are energy-expensive to produce, require a steady power supply to maintain full rigidity, and they also have limits to just how strong they can become; for simpler industrial work cheaper metals are often used, and military frames tend to use rigid bodies due to how much more durability can be packed into an Adamant Alloy frame than a metamorphic one. That said, a certain quantity of metamorphic alloy is often included in nearly every design to supply some self-repairing ability and enhanced adaptability.
The shape and appearance of a frame are similarly purpose-driven; industrial machines are bulky and utilitarian, intended to be durable, reliable, and efficient. Explorers like Isaiah/Inquiry ustilize shape-shifting in order to blend in with locals or adapt to unexepecte situations. Military drones are usually either lightweight and fast, or heavily armored, and their bodies are shaped to deflect fire and give good firing angles to their own weapons. Vaugely insectoid designs are common when navigating rough terrain is expected, humanoid shapes are flexible and tend to be less disturbing to many sentient species, treads are simpler and sturdier than feet, but offer less flexibility, cepholopodoid designs offer a great deal of manipulating ability and handle wet environments well, but move slowly on land, and so forth.
With all this variety, one might think that intelligences often switch bodies; while this is somewhat true, it has also been observed that a given AI's proficiency with a given frame increases gradually as they spend time in it; the AI gets 'used to' a body it spends a long time in, and its movements become more fluid, more precise, more natural. As such, most AIs spend some time testing out a variety of forms, before settling on one they like and sticking with it long-term. There's also some economic and meritocratic components, but those are rather complex; the short version is that the overall Iron Fedration organization prefers not to have unused frames lying around, and prefers for frames to be inhabited by entities that will get the most use out of them, and there is a certain cost associated with testing out a new body that is expected to be repaid sooner or later.
There is also the point of AI's inhabiting multiple frames at once. This is not actually that uncommon, but it has been found that, regardless of overall intelligence, the way that Iron Federation AI's are structured usually leaves them uncomfortable occupying more than two to four frames at a time; it gets hard to handle all the seperate sets of sensory input and limbs, and to keep track of what's where all the time. Gestalting multiple AIs into a composite entity alliviates this issue, and gestalts can manage much greater numbers of frames, though it is often said that they have a harder time getting really good at handling any one of them.
Phone might crap out, so posting may be limited.
Given that the avatar selection seems to be working now, i''ll be changing at some point soon,... there will be an in-character reason though (although not a complex one)... just a heads-up.
Crazy Ex Girlfriend fans miiight recognize some influences from Naomi Bunch...
I will be staying a snow leopard for now, that is all
Maybe Frostbite’s powers evolve to where when he engages them, he shifts forms into a snow leopard made of ice!
I’ll be around for a while tonight for any back and forth posting anyone may wanna do.
Also, I made a roll20 page for us to use as a chat room! I’ll b in there tonight as well, and if I'm ever just hanin around online, I’ll post as such here, usually referring to it as “lurkin,” which is a pet term I’ve developed with some friends of mine *cough*Stalwart and Gallowglass*cough*.
So drop me a line here too if you’d like, I'll be online!
I'm only thinking of changing my avatar (to the one I initially had planned) - If people would prefer I kept the same one, i'm happy not to.
Thoughts?
I'm curious what the one you planned is, but mainly my objection is Kylie's :p
If I knew which avatar I'd be happy to have Kylie give her response to Mattie's mental image of her hair :)
Ya, do what you want by all means. I was just posting some RP.
Y’all can feel free to get descriptive of the residential portion of Praetor Tower if you’d like. I’m a fan of letting the creative juices flow!
If I knew which avatar I'd be happy to have Kylie give her response to Mattie's mental image of her hair :)
Name: Death initiate
Class: MonkGender: Female
Type: Human
Realized I forgot to call it out in the gameplay post, but despite the sudden gusts, Kylie's clothes and hair will not be whipping around.
Too late. Done happened. ;-P
Side note: several of the advances I’ve been considering taking...we already have covered. So I’m gonna run the ideas by everyone here:
I was thinking taking Sanctuary, and making Praetor Tower a public base for us. What that means for the Blockbuster base...well, we could either keep it as a secret fallback base, or we could merge the resources together into one and make Praetor Tower a true kick ass base.
Or I could not take it at all. Thoughts?
My next one I considered was taking the Outsider move Kirby-Craft and making Pegasus a group transport. It’s a purely passive, non-weaponized airship used by the Taylors for travel. But, we also have Inquiry and the Rhino.
Thoughts?
Well we *had* Rhino :(
They do seem kinda overlappy...
Pegasus in particular seems more like a fun luxury than something that needs its own set of moves.
I'll admit to being slightly overdue on taking an advancement myself; I've been eyeing the Bull's Heart, but I'm really not at all sure who to put as a Rival. (Who to put as her Love presents its own issues, but luckily the Bull's Heart doesn't require you to be constant as the northern star...)
If Psyche takes the Bull's Heart, maybe put Mosaic as her Rival? They're both interested in maintaining a positive image to the public, and she probably feels she's more powerful than Holly if not as flashy.
I'm also looking for feedback on my little side adventure with Whippoorwill, if people want.
I liked it Shin. I’m also open to thoughts on Kayla’s mis-adventure.
Sanctuary and vehicle do seem a bit redundant. Isaiah/Inquiry is planning on rebuilding that Rhino sooner or later. Maybe make a few modifications, seeing as how it was done in by mere gunfire.
I could see Sancturary having some use; Do note that it's as the Doomed, not the Protege, which means it comes with a couple of built-in downsides to its use that may forestall making it a live-in base.
Kayla's little side-adventure there was interesting... but its results mean that Isaiah is going to suggest that from now on, if people go running off they at least do it in pairs.
Forgot to mention in game, as I don’t o know precisely where Halcyon City is, but the hour and forty-three minute travel time should seem insanely fast. The Pegasus is a superhero jet, and as such travels at super hero speeds. ;-P
My sense is that it's Definitely Not New York.
Psyche wasn't expecting it to be so fast, which maaaayyyy be influencing some of her pre-flight routine.
**
I'd thought about Mosaic, but the problem is, Psyche doesn't really see her as a rival for any of those reasons. She sees her as the other person who she can count on to avoid PR snafus, and truthfully while she doesn't consider her to be in the same tier, power-wise, she loves the idea of Holly being center-stage. Kylie wants to be in the very corner of the spotlight, clearly present, but not the focus.
I dunno, she doesn't really have anyone where she'd want to rub her triumphs in their face. Partially 'cause while she's got an ego, that's not really how it shows up.
Shrug, I'll keep thinking on it.
Or we'll see if something happens in the Caribbean that doesn't stay there.
**
I enjoyed both solo interludes a lot - Even if it's probably best that we don't turn the entire campaign into Solo Issues :p
Halcyon City is halfway between Metropolis and Gotham. ;-)
Seriously, I'm thinking someplace east of the Mississippi River, but I'm being purposely vague. It's got everything, so it's either on one of the Great Lakes or on the coast.
I'm hopeful that there's no real reason to pin the actual location of it down.
And great RP everyone! Hope you're all okay with me taking my hands off the wheel for a while to give you all some much-needed down time.
I'm definitely saying that "Time Is Passing" here during this period. So, if you've got a Playbook that calls for a move whenever "time passes," please make it at some point. (Actually, I think it impacts only the Legacy, but check your Playbook; I might have missed it.)
Oh. I thought you had told me you thought several of us had something like that! Oh well. My bad! But as long as everyone else is having fun.
Also, we all know we will have the stereotypical “Superhero Vacation Interrupted by Sea Monster” scene!
sorry I've been silent for a couple days... kinda kept going to post, and the what I was gonna join was already over.
Just gonna go for it
Incidentally, I also just always assume Halcyon is Not!New York
I think just go for it is always a good plan :)
For myself, I'm always happy to a scene if someone wasn't synced up in real life. Even if it's just establishing what your character was up to, I'm in favor of more posts!
Yeah, i had meant to have a "lets talk about us" with Isaiah, and either a "sorry about thinking you're scary" with Kylie, or a "sorry I called you a chauvinist pig" with Shin
Ya. Time marker tags are a must.
Well, the nice thing about a tropical vacation is that wandering along the beach having meaningful conversations isn't going to be hard to squeeze in.
Especially if this is one of those islands and/or basically the continent of Europe with a lower drinking age...
Oh no, I couldn't drink... what if someone got a picture. I need to be a good role model!
Also, one day, I will play a character who isn't into Musical theatre... but it is not this day.
Hahaha. Technically it’s private owned and in international waters. So anything goes. But Kayla also will be playing it safe because she doesn’t want word to get back home to the Family of any drunken shenanigans, unless y’all make some convincing arguments to talk her into it or trick her with drinking games of some sort. Haha
Kylie's mainly likely to push for it if the team makes a night of it in Paris or Barcelona one evening.
Also, depending on if Mattie thinks that the sudden flight is funny or Not Cool, she has just done a mental casting of Holly as Galinda/Glinda for duet purposes.
I’m on the roll20 page I linked before, if anyone wants to chat.
Yeah, I have zero clue how roll20 works