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  1. - Top - End - #31
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    GrayDeath's Avatar

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Well, if you CHOOSE to have your house ruling 4 empty stretches of Land, and spend your land ressources on that alone, its supposed to be ... hard. ;)
    A neutron walks into a bar and says, “How much for a beer?” The bartender says, “For you? No charge.”

    01010100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001 10111101110010001000000110111001101111011101000010 00000111010001101111001000000110001001100101001011 100010111000101110

    Later: An atom walks into a bar an asks the bartender “Have you seen an electron? I left it in here last night.” The bartender says, “Are you sure?” The atom says, “I’m positive.”

  2. - Top - End - #32
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    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Well, got back from my second session, and boy do I have an update for you guys.

    Right off the bat, there was a complication: the daughter's player had tired herself out with moving stuff between apartments and dealing with other personal issues over the past several days, so she decided to not come this time. Understandable, but that left the GM in a bind, since by his own admission the session was supposed to focus on her character. So already his plans were thrown for a loop. But then he did something interesting.

    He told us that the captain of the personal guard (who he mentioned was also our master-at-arms at this point) could either be in it solely for the money or part of a bigger plot... And since the daughter's player wasn't there, the rest of us would get to vote on it. Since the Essos character also wasn't there, that left me, the bastard, and the heir to decide. I voted for the money, but the other two voted for the bigger plot, with the heir being the tiebreaker.

    So what this meant was while the heir was running around the castle raising the remaining guards and dealing with a fire the saboteurs started in the stables, my character and the daughter were set up by a campfire (apparently, he had decided between sessions that the mines were far enough away that we wouldn't make it in one night) and once alone were told by the guard captian that no, he wasn't a traitor, he just had to make it look like he was, and that the lord had told him to do this.

    Apparently, the plan (which I confirmed was actually given to him by the lord once I was rescued) is something like this: the lord had told the captian, who owes him a life debt, that he wanted to wage war on the Farens, our rival family in the Westerlands who have their castle (Faircastle) on an island across the bay from us, in order to seize their land. However, since both of our houses are banner men for the Lannisters, if we started a war without just cause Tywin would come down hard on us. So to fabricate a cassus belli, the lord had told the captain to make it look like he turned traitor and bring the daughter to Faircastle as a hostage. From there, the daughter was supposed to have a year to convince one of the lord's sons, or the lord of Faircastle himself if she got lucky, to marry her. If that failed (or succeeded, in hindsight that part wasn't very clear), she was to send information to me, who in the meantime would be busy either sabotaging their alliances or finding evidence pointing to them conspiring against the Lannisters. Then at the end of that time, our lord would use the 'abduction' of his daughter as an excuse to declare war. The captain, believing this plan to be worth sinking his own reputation over, agreed, and gathered every soldier and knight he could find with a grudge against our family to assist him, planning to leave them to ransom me off in the morning while he rode with the daughter to catch a ship to Faircastle.

    Needless to say, this was not the brightest plan, not the least of which is because Faircastle is on an island and our house has neither ships nor a port to dock them at. But considering that the two of us were outnumbered 5 to 1, neither of us could fight, and the captain obviously wasn't going to be swayed (and even if he was, the other 9 people there who were only in this for the money might not be convinced the same way), I didn't really have much say in the matter. More importantly,
    I felt uncomfortable potentially torpedoing a plot thread for a player who wasn't there to say whether or not she wanted to take a part in it, or worse, get her killed if I botched a roll badly enough. So while I wasn't necessarily happy about it, I accepted that it was most likely going to happen one way or another and let the scene continue, which in hindsight I feel like was the wrong choice, but oh well.

    In any case, the heir discovered something interesting during his own investigation: apparently the traitorous group of guards was much smaller than it was made out to be. Only six crossbowmen and two Knights (not including the captain) had fled, and the remaining personal guard had been drugged to avoid having them come help. I don't know whether this was planned from the start or a guilt retcon like the daughter's player predicted would happen when we were hanging out a couple of nights earlier, but either way it is somewhat a relief that we didn't lose most of our forces (100 crossbowmen and 20 knights, for those of you wondering). That said, we still trust precisely none of them.

    The rest of the session was pretty much busywork to deal with the traitors. In short, the captain rides off with the daughter, the heir finds us the next day, he manages to pay the ransom and convincing them to give up one of their own as a hostage for 300 extra gold, who we subsequently interrogate to find the location of the mine that the captain had said he would meet them (and I knew they would be stuck waiting at). He rode out with a group of knights, they seized the mine, killing two crossbowmen and capturing the other three. I interrogated the three for the location of the two other knights (who had bolted with the money when the captain didn't show) and found out that they were heading for Lannisport, and we sent the bastard to hopefully catch them before they found a ship out of the Westerlands.

    So in all, the session ended better than last time, even though steam was lost by the end. That said, the fact that we no longer trust anyone under our employ has led to one last interesting development. The heir (whose player I suspect has stopped taking the game seriously at this point) has decided to created a special contingent of 'criminal soldiers' personally led and trained by him, starting with the crossbowman he managed to get from the ransom deal. His justification for making the guy his personal bodyguard is that, since he already backstabbed him once, he and everyone else knows that the guard is untrustworthy. Therefore, if he was ever killed in a remotely suspicious way, said guard would be the first suspect, and thus the guard would have a personal incentive to keep him alive. Considering he also pardoned one of the other crossbowmen because he was bat**** insane and he wanted to make him the 'court fool' (which he at least appears to believe is his most trusted advisor, to the point where he's started asking everyone in the keep about the mighty 'Dagon', which is actually a random word the fool scribbled on a piece of paper one morning), my character doesn't trust his logic, but other than a warning that it is a stupid idea can't do much about it.

    So yeah, it seems like our main Confict until the War of Five Kings starts is going to be attempting to take over Faircastle. Not sure if things will progress well or not, but at least none of us are in immediate danger.

    Oh, and because the heir can't keep his big mouth shut, the GM knows about this thread. Apparently he hasn't actually read it, but he knows enough that I figure I should at least give you his rebuttal to the whole 'screwed us over in the beginning' thing: "Most people think that a game/story beginning with something going wrong is bad storytelling, when in fact it is usually the opposite."

    "Also, they don't know my name, right? Then tell them to go **** themselves."
    Last edited by The TechnoGnome; 2016-05-06 at 06:51 AM.

  3. - Top - End - #33
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    GrayDeath's Avatar

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Ohh....huh.

    approves this plan.


    Hooboy, good luck.
    Last edited by GrayDeath; 2016-05-06 at 02:41 PM.
    A neutron walks into a bar and says, “How much for a beer?” The bartender says, “For you? No charge.”

    01010100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001 10111101110010001000000110111001101111011101000010 00000111010001101111001000000110001001100101001011 100010111000101110

    Later: An atom walks into a bar an asks the bartender “Have you seen an electron? I left it in here last night.” The bartender says, “Are you sure?” The atom says, “I’m positive.”

  4. - Top - End - #34
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Good luck, indeed. IT's a little convoluted, but hey, it could make interesting story.

    The issue most of us took, though, wasn't that "something bad" happened. It's that it turned things you paid to be great into weapons against you, and you never even got to have any benefit from them. Plus, it seemed awful railroad-y. Like it was going to happen this way no matter what. That kind of "this has to happen to set it up" railroad is best handled by starting the game with it already done.


    Not a criticism of this game past this point, but a musing in general: It might be interesting to start a game en medias res, with the captain of the guard (for example) already having kidnapped the princess and the uncle, and then having an alternating set of scenes where the PCs have to play out how they got there, and play out what they're doing.

    This would take buy-in and cooperation from the players, though, to essentially get them on board with HELPING railroad their PCs to the starting point in the middle of the action.

  5. - Top - End - #35
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Good luck, indeed. IT's a little convoluted, but hey, it could make interesting story.

    The issue most of us took, though, wasn't that "something bad" happened. It's that it turned things you paid to be great into weapons against you, and you never even got to have any benefit from them. Plus, it seemed awful railroad-y. Like it was going to happen this way no matter what. That kind of "this has to happen to set it up" railroad is best handled by starting the game with it already done.


    Not a criticism of this game past this point, but a musing in general: It might be interesting to start a game en medias res, with the captain of the guard (for example) already having kidnapped the princess and the uncle, and then having an alternating set of scenes where the PCs have to play out how they got there, and play out what they're doing.

    This would take buy-in and cooperation from the players, though, to essentially get them on board with HELPING railroad their PCs to the starting point in the middle of the action.
    Yeah, we actually tried to explain that to him before we started, but he didn't seem to realize the distinction between the two. Perhaps if we pushed the issue for longer he might have, but none of us wanted to start a huge argument just before a game, especially when said game was going to be GMed by the guy we were arguing with and, like I said, he's a good guy who usually doesn't pull crap like this. And as long as the daughter's player is fine with where her story is going, we're in an at least acceptable position this time.

    That would be an interesting game, I agree. But yeah, something like that would definitely need to be hashed out and agreed upon ahead of time.

  6. - Top - End - #36
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    So it was the Lord's plan all along, and he... didn't bother to tell anybody, not even his... spymaster, who would be the one he should trust to change a, to be frank, fairly idiotic plan such as this into something workable?

    The daughter's player is right, this sounds like a guilt retcon.

    You should probably be happy, since the new situation lets you actually play your character in a meaningful way, but still... what an awful plan that put the Lord's closest family in danger for absolutely no reason.
    Avatar made by lankybugger - Thanks a lot!

  7. - Top - End - #37
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by aberratio ictus View Post
    So it was the Lord's plan all along, and he... didn't bother to tell anybody, not even his... spymaster, who would be the one he should trust to change a, to be frank, fairly idiotic plan such as this into something workable?

    The daughter's player is right, this sounds like a guilt retcon.

    You should probably be happy, since the new situation lets you actually play your character in a meaningful way, but still... what an awful plan that put the Lord's closest family in danger for absolutely no reason.
    I know, right? Funny thing is, once he got the lord to confirm the story, one of the first things my character asked was why he wasn't told about this before he got himself captured. The Lord's answer basically boiled down to 'if I told you, you would have put a stop to it.' Which to be fair, my guy totally would have, because he, unlike the lord apparently, cares about keeping both children safe, rather than just the current heir. And, of course, the plan itself isn't that smart, though the lord seems to think it is.

    Now, of course, it's too late to stop the kidnapping, and directly sabotaging the plan now by telling the other people at the keep or the Farens would only put her in even more danger, and potentially label me a traitor.

    I am, however, debating attempting to sabotage the plan indirectly. The bastard is about to ride out for Lannisport to catch the other two Knights, which coincidentally happens to me the closest port city to us that the captain may use to transport the daughter. I could have my spymaster tell the bastard that his informants 'got word' about the captain trying to smuggle the daughter to Faircastle, and that the lord would be very happy if he happened to use that information to prioritize finding the traitorous captain and rescue the daughter. Of course, I would have to talk to the daughter's player before I begin setting it up, since she may actually want to do stuff at Faircastle, and like I said before, I don't want to torpedo a plot thread that she might actually want her character involved in.

  8. - Top - End - #38
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    It's interesting that the Lord knew his spymaster would've put a stop to the plan. It's either that the Lord thinks the spymaster's caring for the daughter is a weakness, or he knew on some level the plan was bad, but wanted to go with it anyway (which is a very childish thing to do; "I know Mom will tell me 'no,' but I wanna so I won't TELL her.")

    I would not sabotage it just to sabotage it; now that you know about it, see if you can turn it to your (and the other PCs') advantage. Depending on how much your PC cares about his Lord, you might even sabotage it to remove this Lord or to gain more influence so he can't actually pull things behind your back anymore, making yourself the power behind his throne or making the heir inherit ... early.

    What I would do, OOC, is talk to the other players and see if they want to make the plot about taking over Faircastle, as the GM has pushed, or make it about taking over your own territory from your Lord. Whether the lord of Faircastle should be an ally (to your PCs) or an enemy. One possibility, if Faircastle has a daughter or sister, an exchange of brides could work, and unite the houses as allies. Force your Lord's hand and finagle the power-behind-the-throne angle, there. Get the loyalty of all the hands that actually DO anything to be to your character or the heir, so that if the Lord gives an order, permission to actually execute it is passed by you and the heir. If you don't agree to it, the order is quietly put on a pile of things that never quite get done. "Yes, of course, my Lord!" they say, and then it doesn't happen. Surround him only with your own people, so he can't give an order that will ever be heard if you don't want it to.

    I mean, he's clearly an idiot. This is for his own good.

  9. - Top - End - #39
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    It's interesting that the Lord knew his spymaster would've put a stop to the plan. It's either that the Lord thinks the spymaster's caring for the daughter is a weakness, or he knew on some level the plan was bad, but wanted to go with it anyway (which is a very childish thing to do; "I know Mom will tell me 'no,' but I wanna so I won't TELL her.")

    I would not sabotage it just to sabotage it; now that you know about it, see if you can turn it to your (and the other PCs') advantage. Depending on how much your PC cares about his Lord, you might even sabotage it to remove this Lord or to gain more influence so he can't actually pull things behind your back anymore, making yourself the power behind his throne or making the heir inherit ... early.

    What I would do, OOC, is talk to the other players and see if they want to make the plot about taking over Faircastle, as the GM has pushed, or make it about taking over your own territory from your Lord. Whether the lord of Faircastle should be an ally (to your PCs) or an enemy. One possibility, if Faircastle has a daughter or sister, an exchange of brides could work, and unite the houses as allies. Force your Lord's hand and finagle the power-behind-the-throne angle, there. Get the loyalty of all the hands that actually DO anything to be to your character or the heir, so that if the Lord gives an order, permission to actually execute it is passed by you and the heir. If you don't agree to it, the order is quietly put on a pile of things that never quite get done. "Yes, of course, my Lord!" they say, and then it doesn't happen. Surround him only with your own people, so he can't give an order that will ever be heard if you don't want it to.

    I mean, he's clearly an idiot. This is for his own good.
    Well, I wasn't going to sabotage it just to sabotage it. My reasoning would be that, if the daughter wasn't willing to go through with the plan, that the spymaster would be doing it in order to get his niece out of a potentially dangerous situation she wasn't ready for, on some level out of guilt for not preventing it to begin with. Of course, if the daughter (and by extension her player) are on board with the plan, he would instead go into working with the plan and offering support himself, as even though it was poorly thought out, between the two of them and the muscle provided by her brothers they might be able to salvage it into something workable.

    That said, everything else you said seems like a pretty clever plan. Next time I hang out with the others, I'll be sure to talk to them about it.

  10. - Top - End - #40
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    Gamgee's Avatar

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Trial by combat!

    Edit
    Oh I didn't see your update. No longer relevant.

    Last edited by Gamgee; 2016-05-11 at 06:16 PM.
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Well, thank you all for your advice. However, our GM wants to run Shadowrun instead, so it seems like our house is no more. A shame, but no one in our group is especially torn up about it for reasons that should be clear by now.

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by The TechnoGnome View Post
    Well, thank you all for your advice. However, our GM wants to run Shadowrun instead, so it seems like our house is no more. A shame, but no one in our group is especially torn up about it for reasons that should be clear by now.
    Ah, Shadowrun! That's perfect for if you should expect your "loyal" allies to betray you for the first profit motive that waves a red penny!

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    waves a red penny!
    What is the penny red from, blood?

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by goto124 View Post
    What is the penny red from, blood?
    Well, since it's money, it's the root of all evil. Which means, depending on whether you lean left or right, politically, it's either put out there by the dastardly Republicans or the nefarious Communists.

  15. - Top - End - #45
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Ah, Shadowrun! That's perfect for if you should expect your "loyal" allies to betray you for the first profit motive that waves a red penny!
    Which is why it's a good idea to have everyone in the team's backstories say they've been working together for a while now....
    Imagine if all real-world conversations were like internet D&D conversations...
    Protip: DnD is an incredibly social game played by some of the most socially inept people on the planet - Lev
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kelb_Panthera View Post
    That said, trolling is entirely counterproductive (yes, even when it's hilarious).

  16. - Top - End - #46
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Ah, Shadowrun! That's perfect for if you should expect your "loyal" allies to betray you for the first profit motive that waves a red penny!
    I know, right? At least this time it would make sense to get betrayed immediately.

    Quote Originally Posted by Arbane View Post
    Which is why it's a good idea to have everyone in the team's backstories say they've been working together for a while now....
    Ha, guess again. GM says we're street level, so it's very likely tomorrow's session is going to be our group's first gig. Should be fun, especially since I'm the only guy not playing an elf. Doubly so because I've never made a character for 5e, or Shadowrun in general before, and I have a little over 24 hours to do so on my own.

    For those who are curious, I'm planning on playing a cat burglar type who does his damn hardest to keep his professional and personal life separate (hard thing to do in Shadowrun, but hey, Joe Everyman has to get his adrenaline fix somehow ). Question is, how I'm going to do that. Not even sure if I want to play an adept or just risk having my guy be very, very athletic, since I'm hesitant to sink what little starting money I'll get into cyber ware.

  17. - Top - End - #47
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by The TechnoGnome View Post
    I'm the only guy not playing an elf.

    I'm planning on playing a cat burglar type
    Is 'catfolk' a race in Shadowrun?
    Last edited by goto124; 2016-05-19 at 12:37 AM.

  18. - Top - End - #48
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by goto124 View Post
    Is 'catfolk' a race in Shadowrun?
    No, but it sounds like you could get cat ear and tail implants, judging from some of the descriptions. Which actually give you a stealth penalty, since it makes you stick out like a sore thumb.

    Obviously not something my guy will have then. But he will be acrobatic as ****.
    Last edited by The TechnoGnome; 2016-05-19 at 04:18 AM.

  19. - Top - End - #49
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    GrayDeath's Avatar

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    You can, and if the Style is more Caberpunky than "realistic Tak Squads in a supernatural Setting" you totally should.

    I ahv emost experience with SR 3, but in total: make sure to get enough edge, up your Speed and relevant skills, and while not OP in any way you should be fine with the concept.

    maybe (if you can afford it) think about adding Artificial Muscles.


    But Street Level and a whole Elf Squad? Spounds like something along "fresh from the High Society Dilettante ball you wake up in the Sprawl...." ^^
    A neutron walks into a bar and says, “How much for a beer?” The bartender says, “For you? No charge.”

    01010100011011110010000001100010011001010010000001 10111101110010001000000110111001101111011101000010 00000111010001101111001000000110001001100101001011 100010111000101110

    Later: An atom walks into a bar an asks the bartender “Have you seen an electron? I left it in here last night.” The bartender says, “Are you sure?” The atom says, “I’m positive.”

  20. - Top - End - #50
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by GrayDeath View Post
    You can, and if the Style is more Caberpunky than "realistic Tak Squads in a supernatural Setting" you totally should.

    I ahv emost experience with SR 3, but in total: make sure to get enough edge, up your Speed and relevant skills, and while not OP in any way you should be fine with the concept.

    maybe (if you can afford it) think about adding Artificial Muscles.


    But Street Level and a whole Elf Squad? Spounds like something along "fresh from the High Society Dilettante ball you wake up in the Sprawl...." ^^
    Well, I don't know the style quite yet, but judging from the past games we've played I doubt 'tac squad' is what our DM has in mind. And if I don't take any magic, I should have enough points to bump my Edge to a five at least. With that, I can invest mostly in Attributes and skills. Not sure if I can up my speed, but I'll look and keep it in mind.

    As for the elf thing, I was honestly tempted to make one mysellf solely so we would have an all-elf squad, but my character concept so far is basically just an average, possibly lower-middle class worker who decides one day 'you know what? I can totally be a Shadowrunner' and dives into it in an attempt to get his adrenaline fix. Think the kind of guy who looks like he would be the last person to become a Shadowrunner, but would secretly probably join Fight Club if he could. Hence, I wanted to make him as white-bread and 'average looking' as possible when he isn't on the job, which is another reason I'm hesitant about cyber ware, as it's kind of hard to pull off the whole 'average joe' look when you're decked out with enough chrome to blind someone just from a headlight reflecting off of you.

    As an aside, should I start a new thread to solicit ideas? I have less than 24 hours at this point, so it might not be worth the extra effort to do so here for relatively little response, but I'm not sure what the forum policy is on going off the original topic of a thread, and what advice I can get before the deadline would be very much appreciated.

  21. - Top - End - #51
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Having stumbled a month or two ago across something called "Miraculous Ladybug" (which is sort of a cross between a magical girl and a shoujo version of Kamen Rider...but made in France, not Japan), I am now picturing your character as Cat Noir.



    Admittedly, in-story, he's probably magically athletic even without using his one overtly magical power.


    Unless you have a high tolerance for episodic shows aimed at 12-ish-year-olds (and more towards girls than boys), I won't recommend the series. But it's not BAD. Just...definitely could do with more of an overarching plot and plot advancement. Definitely a heavy anime influence in it.

  22. - Top - End - #52
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Unless you have a high tolerance for episodic shows aimed at 12-ish-year-olds (and more towards girls than boys),
    Having watched MLP:FiM, I wonder what this last part means /genuinecuriosity.
    Last edited by goto124; 2016-05-19 at 09:23 AM.

  23. - Top - End - #53
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    Segev's Avatar

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by goto124 View Post
    Having watched MLP:FiM, I wonder what this last part means /genuinecuriosity.
    It's probably not quite as targeted at girls as MLP:FiM; the action level is higher.

    If you're familiar with some of my (relatively rare) discussions on how the old Rainbow Brite cartoon was actually a boy's-show formula with a heavy painting of girl's-show window dressing, this is closer to that.

    Spoiler: Rainbow Brite digression
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    Rainbow Brite focused very much on evil villains' efforts to destroy/conquer the main setting and/or do great damage to Earth, with emphasis on the hero(in)es' efforts to thwart said plots using magical powers in a direct, confrontational fashion. A la He-Man or G.I. Joe or Transformers.

    The "dressing" changed the threat from "kill people" or the like to "drain all the color from the world," but it was still far more shonen in style than shojou. If you can apply the Japanese terms to it at all.


    Miraculous Ladybug would not seem out of place next to Sailor Moon, especially on the non-transformed plotlines' side, where it's more middle school antics following the female lead than anything else. Cat Noir is much more active as a foil and a partner-in-crime-fighting than Tuxedo Mask, though, and is probably a deliberate effort to give boys a character onto whom to latch their interest as a hero (much as "the chick" often is in more directly boy-slanted works).

    While MLP:FiM has its share of direct-action episodes, I believe it tends more towards the slice-of-(magical-)life style than this does.

    In some ways, Miraculous Ladybug is "What if Peter Parker was a middle-school-aged girl in Paris?"

    That's not entirely accurate, but the "balance private life and secret identity" aspect definitely has that vibe.


    Overall, though, it doesn't seem to advance much from episode to episode, and is highly formulaic. They literally title episodes based on the monster of the week (who is either a random schmuck or a friend from school that gets infected by The Bad Guy twisting some bitterness in their life into an all-consuming, magically-empowered obsession...and the magical twist doesn't always make much sense as a tie-in to the obsession). The heroes fight them, both find a reason to use their One Magical Trick (which immediately puts them on a detrans-timer), and then Ladybug uses a Sailor Moon-esq purification on the defeated monster-of-the-week to return them to normal.

    The best reasons to watch it are the characters. I think they could do more with the magical/crimefighting side of it than they do, because those tend to devolve to predictability whereas they actually put more effort into the slice-of-life side of things.

  24. - Top - End - #54
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    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    Having stumbled a month or two ago across something called "Miraculous Ladybug" (which is sort of a cross between a magical girl and a shoujo version of Kamen Rider...but made in France, not Japan), I am now picturing your character as Cat Noir.



    Admittedly, in-story, he's probably magically athletic even without using his one overtly magical power.


    Unless you have a high tolerance for episodic shows aimed at 12-ish-year-olds (and more towards girls than boys), I won't recommend the series. But it's not BAD. Just...definitely could do with more of an overarching plot and plot advancement. Definitely a heavy anime influence in it.
    Heh, I was even thinking last night about how I was pretty much making Catwoman, but this works too.

    **** it, you've convinced me to take another look at the adept powers and see if it's worth giving myself an astral signature people can track me with. It might be worth it to give me a Cat mentor spirit at this point.
    Last edited by The TechnoGnome; 2016-05-19 at 04:50 PM.

  25. - Top - End - #55
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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    If you go that route - and I'm not saying you should; there's something to be said for being a non-magical cat burglar - maybe get that cat-mentor-spirit to share your astral signature and be able to lay false trails every which way?

  26. - Top - End - #56
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    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: My niece is a prisoner, my nephew's going to be killed, and I'm being framed for

    Quote Originally Posted by Segev View Post
    If you go that route - and I'm not saying you should; there's something to be said for being a non-magical cat burglar - maybe get that cat-mentor-spirit to share your astral signature and be able to lay false trails every which way?
    Not how it works, sadly. It's not so much a familiar as it is one of those beings you'd make a deal with as a D&D warlock. Give me additional powers and stuff, but they don't actually accompany me on missions and stuff.

    There are feats that make my signature harder to trace, however. Though we have less points to spend on those at Street level too, so I run into the same problem as with Cyberware in that fewer resources need to be spent wisely.

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