Rules affecting Parson?

[Daran]

Parson's unit description said "special" and he seemed also suprised, that units can't move at night. How does that count for Parson? He is not originally from Erfworld, nobody can see his status for example.
Wouldn't it be possible for Parson to ignore the movement/attack and other rules?
Why doesn't he try to move himself at night over the field for example? Okay, there might be a chance that he gets croaked when engaging enemy units, but he might be able to use such an ability, if he's careful. For scouting for or peace treaty maybe.

What do you guys/girls think-a-mance about it?

[Arkenputtyknife]

Why doesn't he try to move himself at night over the field for example?

Probably because he's a great fat tub of lard who has difficulty just walking down the stairs at Efdup Tower. The mere thought of walking to the next hex might be enough to kill him.

Heck, walking might not even occur to him. I read an anime fanfic the other day where the lead character was stranded in town after school because he'd missed the last tram and his home was the impossibly huge distance of half a mile away. Whoever wrote it had obviously never walked farther than to the end of the drive.

[PyritePyro]

*gasp* a whole half-mile? Oh my god, you mean, he'd be walking continuously for something like 10 minutes. Inconceivable that anyone could have that sort of endurance while carrying school books. Damn, that's just terrible. It's not like a normal human can chase down a zebra or anything because of innate endurance. And it's not like a high school student would be expected to make it a meer 800 meters to his home.

[Justyn]

You know, the headache Parson had when he was summoned, combined with Wanda's line on page 19 could be inferred to mean that Natural Thinkamancies have been instilled into him.

[Freederick]

You know, the headache Parson had when he was summoned, combined with Wanda's line on page 19 could be inferred to mean that Natural Thinkamancies have been instilled into him.

Perhaps the lack of a "support plan" means that the Natural Thinkamancies haven't been instilled--and that other Erfworld-specific adjustments haven't been made, like visible stats.

[Aquillion]

You know, the headache Parson had when he was summoned, combined with Wanda's line on page 19 could be inferred to mean that Natural Thinkamancies have been instilled into him.

I doubt it. When you get down to it, a protagonist with no free will isn't that interesting...

And we do have one strong indication that he isn't subject to "natural" thinkamancy: Early on, Wanda repeatedly said that "the summoning spell compels you to XYZ" and so on. Both the people who made that spell and Wanda herself are experts in Thinkamancy; they'd know whether or not Parson would be subject to natural Thinkamancy, and clearly are of the opinion that he isn't, since they felt the need to install those safeguards in the spell.

Which means he's subject to certain "crude" restrictions (as we've already seen, he is physically forced to obey orders) but he may not be subject to the more subtle mental ones everyone else is... and the spell on him may be removable, (presumably) unlike the natural form.

It's not clear whether he's even really one of Stanley's units in the Erfworld sense... he might just qualify as an unaffiliated mercenary, like Jillian, who happens to be subject to certain mind-control effects as a result of the summoning spell. In that case, he might not be subject to natural thinkamancy anyway... although we don't know enough of the rules to say anything about that, really. Could Ansom disband Jillian or the Archons, say, just because they're fighting on his side? It seems unlikely (or if he did, anyway, they'd just be released from their contract). It would be logical if Parson's rules worked the same way... but we don't know enough, and obviously Parson isn't eager to bet his life on it.

[Khanderas]

A thoguht I had for a while, is that you can see the Erfworlders as alittle less real then Earthworld (since in earth they are a wargame, and perhaps there are higher dimensions above our own that are even more "real" then our own dimension).
If that holds true, Parson is an Outsider, a Demon of sorts, and might have immunities based on his higher ratio of "realilty". DR would come to mind, swords and spells used against him would have less effect then it does on any Erfworld creature of the same size, due to a higher density of "reality".

Crazy theory count.... +1

More intresting to discuss what rules does NOT apply to Parson then what rules that does.

[ralphmerridew]

Both the people who made that spell and Wanda herself are experts in Thinkamancy

From Maggie's comments, Wanda is not an expert in Thinkamancy.

[dsollen]

Since Parson has been threatened with being disbanded (and Sizemore seemed rather concerned by the threat) I think we can exclude the 'mercenary status' theory. If he was a mercenary disbanding presumably wouldn't be much of a threat.

Now natural thinkmancy and its possible affects are a bit more complicated. Wanda could have meant 'this spell explicitly causes you to listen to the short guy with the hammer' or she could have meant 'this spell caused natural thinkmancy to take effect, which means the loyalty effect will force you to obey.' Of course from a meta perspective I have to agree Parson must have free will because the story wouldn't be as captivating to it's audience if he didn't.

[Arkenputtyknife]

Since Parson has been threatened with being disbanded (and Sizemore seemed rather concerned by the threat) I think we can exclude the 'mercenary status' theory. If he was a mercenary disbanding presumably wouldn't be much of a threat.

We still don't really know what disbanding means. I'm still wondering whether what happened to Jillian when Faq fell counts as disbanding.

When discussing comic strip characters, it's easy to forget that losing one's home and livelihood is an enormous threat for most people, and for a basically insecure person the threat is even larger. It doesn't have to be life-threatening, or even bad in the long run, to be horrible when it's right in front of you.

Can you really imagine someone like Parson living a mercenary lifestyle? It's unlikely that he relishes the idea.

[Takila]

We still don't really know what disbanding means. I'm still wondering whether what happened to Jillian when Faq fell counts as disbanding.

Ansom seemed to think that she could rebuild Faq, and Jillian wasn't compelled to follow that train of thought. Seems like she's still the leader of a very small faction. That brings up the question of faction origins, which is a thread all to its own.

Other than lateness, I have nothing to add.

Toodles.

[Kish]

From Maggie's comments, Wanda is not an expert in Thinkamancy.

Maggie may have been assuming based on Wanda's failure to turn the backlash on Jillian. If Wanda could have done that but chose not to, she could easily be Maggie's equal or superior for Thinkmancy skill.

[SteveMB]

Maggie may have been assuming based on Wanda's failure to turn the backlash on Jillian. If Wanda could have done that but chose not to, she could easily be Maggie's equal or superior for Thinkmancy skill.

Given that she's competent, but not very interested, in non-Croakamancy magicks, I think it's unlikely that she's more capable in any of them than the appropriate specialist.

[Kish]

Given that she's competent, but not very interested, in non-Croakamancy magicks, I think it's unlikely that she's more capable in any of them than the appropriate specialist.

Probably. Still, it's possible...It depends on how specializations work. Let me give you an example. In 2nd edition AD&D, a 4th level thief who focused on Open Locks would be better at picking locks than a 4th level thief who focused on Climb Walls, but a 15th level thief who focused on Disarm Traps would still probably be better at opening locks and climbing walls than either of the lower-level thieves. Similarly, a 10th level invoker is going to be better at necromancy than a 5th level necromancer. This line of speculation hinges on two questions--"Just how powerful, as a caster, is Wanda?" and, "Do enough levels let you throw a caster into the shade in his/her own specialty, like in D&D?" We know it's possible for a Croakamancer to learn Thinkamancy, or that would be the first of three questions.

[Thanatos 51-50]

The most recent page seems to suggest a few things to me -

1> Parson is becoming a Mercanary unit, hes offering the powers of his Mathamancy Glove, maybe not the glove, itself, but him USING the glove. Mathamancers, IIRC, are pretty powerful, especially combined with Luckamancers.

2> Parson has acquired himself a sword, enabling him to engage in actual combat, now, maybe his stats have changed from "unknown" to an actual, quantifiable number, at least in Attack and Defense.

My two coppers.

[Leewei]

Parson has been bound by Thinkamancy effects before, such as being unable to speak until spoken to, as well as having to laugh at Stanley's aorry jokes.

It seems that the rules do apply to Parson, at least in part. This doesn't eliminate free will by any stretch, however it does mean he has to be very creative in his internal justifications of his actions.

[VaeVictis]

I'm just thrilled with the idea of human beings (Parson) as 'Outsiders'. That's fantastic.