Skyscraper Graveyard II: Jealousy and Ambition

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

With risk.

This is the second time someone made that joke, I swear.

Oh heck did you drop the original link in Gathering of Mists?

[the_druid_droid]

Speaking as a Moros, it baffles me why you would actually kill yourself when you can just use Suppress Own Life for practically the same effect?

Unless there's more to that specific spell that I'm missing...

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by the_druid_droid

Speaking as a Moros, it baffles me why you would actually kill yourself when you can just use Suppress Own Life for practically the same effect?

Unless there's more to that specific spell that I'm missing...

Doesn't leave a ghost.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

Doesn't leave a ghost.

Ah. Guardian of the Veil cyanide pill.

I see your point on the short lists being unimaginable, but do you think perhaps they instead thought they covered all the bases? I know with, say, Forces, hearing, seeing, Mage sight, infrared, radio trasnmissions and such are all separate spells. For no reason.

What other things could time do that aren't on that list?

[Tiki Snakes]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

EDIT: on Bjork and Skunk Anansi: why aid Charlotte singing she has no dots in expression

Uh...Sorry, I think I'm missing something here. Charlotte?

Originally Posted by Thanqol

It's Time 8 and an Imperial working to create a stable time portal you can freely step through (Practise of Entities). Lesser Time stuff lets you do stuff to influence the past indirectly but that's what you need to actually go back and kill Caesar with your own hands.

To be fair, a stable time portal you can freely step through is like the anti-tardis.

It's more a semi-sentient time machine that will drop you pretty much wherever it wants/thinks you need to be. It's also pretty innacurate most of the time. I'm guessing this wouldn't actually reduce the arcana etc needed to create one very much, though.

Of course, Timey Whimey and a bit of Bill and Ted logic would potentially sidestep that issue nicely. Get myself destined to reach the appropriate power level, send the box back through time to pick me up and begin my hilarious travels through space and time. Once I reach the appropriate mana, create the box and dispatch it to my former self.

But I'm taking Mind instead of Spirit and I'm not sure how much space hilarity is available in the fallen world, so I'll leave that as Idle musing.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes

Uh...Sorry, I think I'm missing something here. Charlotte?

It makes more sense when you realize the 'aid' was supposed to be 'is'. No idea how the extra digit got there.

In light of the fact I enjoy your company and don't want to be a dingus though, Charlotte is a wizened chatelaine of the spring court - a changeling. She is also apparently base on Bjork in that video before I knew that video existed and while I was in a state of mind to not know who Bjork was.



Bjork's eyes, man. Distinctive.

[Tiki Snakes]

Ah, I see. Well, you can't go far wrong basing a character on Bjork, even if you do ignore the fact that the Bjork is a singer first and foremost. Little Goth Bjork is such an intruiging concept.

[SiuiS]

It wasn't even close to intentional. It's the aesthetic, and her facial structure. Bjork reminds me of Charlotte in that in passing who cares, but if you stop to look you realize Mein Celeste, she's pretty.

I had a similar reaction with Errant though. I decided asking Thanqol if his Mage was raiding my changeling's closet would win naught but scathing rebuttal however.

[Tiki Snakes]

Oh to answer your rhetorical question via incredibly incomplete system knowledge;
Charlotte is singing because she can as all she has to do is craft an appropriate changeling contracty thing and bang, free ranks in Expression, right? I may be entirely misremembering.

[Anarion]

They definitely have some contracts running around there. Charlotte is supposed to be a painter though.

[SiuiS]

She's getting a point of expression and a specialty in whistling as soon as I can justify the expenditure. Her original concept was ballerina - a broken doll spinning on a music box. Metaphorically, rather than as a durance. That changes because she's too fragile for a ballerina's grace. She has the fluidity of crystal glass, a sense of impending breaking, sharp edges and splinters amidst the poise. It wouldn't work out, professionally. Yet being broken seems to be a painter's mark. That and abstractions, as the access point to her hollow is going to be a gallery; a series of pictures which, when viewed from the proper angle, give the sense of a path one trods.

Of course, Hollow is on the merits list after resources, new identity, status, retainer, fame, contracts, clarity and some skills.


Grr. Your pacing hurts! I wanna know what happens next! I have ideas about this Slade thing, I want to see the realization and execution from he player's end.

[Tiki Snakes]

Originally Posted by Anarion

[As the only person with resources 4, I really don't see any scenario where Jack doesn't end up as somebody's personal piggy bank. And he seems to have trouble saying no to sweet ladies with a winning smile.]

The only thing more dangerous than having trouble saying no to sweet ladies with a winning smile is when the sweet lady catches on.

It may just be my sporadic Fate-Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works playthrough talking, but I sometimes get some very Tohsaka-ish mental images from the Jack-Tessen relationship (Even though Tessen is generally something of Tohsaka's opposite).

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes

The only thing more dangerous than having trouble saying no to sweet ladies with a winning smile is when the sweet lady catches on.

It may just be my sporadic Fate-Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works playthrough talking, but I sometimes get some very Tohsaka-ish mental images from the Jack-Tessen relationship (Even though Tessen is generally something of Tohsaka's opposite).

There's a tiny bit of Tohsaka in Tessen's character. Mostly in the sense of wanting to do things properly, which is a characteristic of the whole Tohsaka family. Tessen definitely isn't Tsundere though, she's just the dere-dere part.

[the_druid_droid]

Originally Posted by Anarion

There's a tiny bit of Tohsaka in Tessen's character. Mostly in the sense of wanting to do things properly, which is a characteristic of the whole Tohsaka family. Tessen definitely isn't Tsundere though, she's just the dere-dere part.

A tsundere Obrimos sounds terrifying, actually...

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by the_druid_droid

A tsundere Obrimos sounds terrifying, actually...

Sounds like a good character idea to me!

edit: Hmm, who haven't I defined in Hong Kong yet? *scribble scribble*

[the_druid_droid]

Originally Posted by Anarion

Sounds like a good character idea to me!

edit: Hmm, who haven't I defined in Hong Kong yet? *scribble scribble*

I immediately regret posting that.

[Anarion]

"The things you can do when you don't have to worry about those bothersome laws of physics," Firebee said breezily. "Free Council groups all over the country send me unusual items for analysis and research. In facilities like this, the Order pushes the boundaries of what the impossible makes possible,"

And then I realized that the Arsenal of Democracy was Free Council and for some reason I thought that they were Adamantine Arrow the entire time even though it states it quite clearly in their post.

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by Anarion

And then I realized that the Arsenal of Democracy was Free Council and for some reason I thought that they were Adamantine Arrow the entire time even though it states it quite clearly in their post.

Firebee is personally Adamantine Arrow, but she's sworn to the Arsenal and that overrides her loyalty to the 'Arrow' as a thing.

[SiuiS]

Originally Posted by the_druid_droid

A tsundere Obrimos sounds terrifying, actually...

Have you met Jayden?

Originally Posted by Thanqol

Firebee is personally Adamantine Arrow, but she's sworn to the Arsenal and that overrides her loyalty to the 'Arrow' as a thing.

First rule, no order or consulting will ask you to betray your cabal. Upon joining, they expressly tell you never to do so. Because once one Mage gets away with it, there is nothing of trust left in the culture. An I honestly think mages learnin to trust each other led to the rise out of a life of fiefdoms, oaths and small-viewed psychos.



Anarion: Hong Kong. Time period? General theme ideas? I have two ideas that are probably wildly innapropriate. Wanna try and narrow in on something that would work.

[the_druid_droid]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

First rule, no order or consulting will ask you to betray your cabal. Upon joining, they expressly tell you never to do so. Because once one Mage gets away with it, there is nothing of trust left in the culture. An I honestly think mages learnin to trust each other led to the rise out of a life of fiefdoms, oaths and small-viewed psychos.

I wouldn't trust a Mastigos as far as I could throw them >.>

Speaking as someone contemplating a Mastigos <.<

Of course, I'm not sure I'd trust any of the paths...

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Have you met Jayden?

Heh, point.

First rule, no order or consulting will ask you to betray your cabal. Upon joining, they expressly tell you never to do so. Because once one Mage gets away with it, there is nothing of trust left in the culture. An I honestly think mages learnin to trust each other led to the rise out of a life of fiefdoms, oaths and small-viewed psychos.

(Only the Guardians of the Veil have that rule.

The others mostly obey it, but only the Guardians of the Veil will never put you in that spot.)

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Anarion: Hong Kong. Time period? General theme ideas? I have two ideas that are probably wildly innapropriate. Wanna try and narrow in on something that would work.

Probably about the same time as Skyscraper Graveyard, few years in the future, but essentially the present. I'm still writing, but the themes are shaping up to be related to the ties between wealth/poverty and free will/oppression, and another is watching how a powerful but conservative organization (in Mammon) deals with change or fails at doing so. A big part of my writing for the city is inspired by Deadly's description of Amun and the idea of a whole city as a grand magical experiment, which is related to the forces that are causing the change that is upsetting the established order.

Also still writing, so this isn't exactly set in stone.

[SiuiS]

Gorgeous. Plan A, 90% chance of eventual Seer sympathies. Plan B, may hold off on Striking Looks just for interparty drama with Thanqol.
Probably angling B.

DD, I woul actually be more wiling to trust a Mastigos, provided they seemed moral. Think about it. Someone who not only knows you intimately, but knows exactly what the ramifications of that knowledge are? It's actually kind of comforting. Plus every time they went out to eat and didn't bring me back coffee would be a personal affront, and they know it. It woul be the most loving platonic relationship ever.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Gorgeous. Plan A, 90% chance of eventual Seer sympathies. Plan B, may hold off on Striking Looks just for interparty drama with Thanqol.
Probably angling B.

K, well if you play a girl and don't take striking looks, that's your own funeral. If you're committing to this game though I think I'll get a ooc thread up sooner, since that means I have all the players I want. Also because I've discussed some stuff with Thanqol and I'm not sure what to keep quiet and what should be shared with the players.

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by SiuiS

Gorgeous. Plan A, 90% chance of eventual Seer sympathies. Plan B, may hold off on Striking Looks just for interparty drama with Thanqol.
Probably angling B.

Funny you should say that because I'll be playing a Seer.

[Anarion]

Originally Posted by Thanqol

Funny you should say that because I'll be playing a Seer.

Okay, well that answers part of what I was talking about there.

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by Anarion

Okay, well that answers part of what I was talking about there.

Keeping secrets from the party, with players passing notes to the GM, is super lame in my opinion. Every player should be aware that they're being set up for betrayal because being blindsided by that stuff sucks.

This is basic social contract stuff; the only time when that's okay is when it's in the contract that your betrayal will be sudden and inevitable, such as when playing Paranoia.

Also I'm going to need to put this to the group to work out a good reason to be working with the party in the first place.

[Tiki Snakes]

Huh. I thought that kind of thing would be a whole-party or no-one kind of choice, like Sith/Jedi in a Star Wars game, or Loyalist/Traitor Marines.

Will be interesting to see how that works out.

Edit - Damn Seer Ninjas.
(Looks like it works more closely to how I'd figure after all)

[Thanqol]

Originally Posted by Tiki Snakes

Huh. I thought that kind of thing would be a whole-party or no-one kind of choice, like Sith/Jedi in a Star Wars game, or Loyalist/Traitor Marines.

Will be interesting to see how that works out.

Think of a Sith, except instead of 'passion and power' it's 'cash and hookers', and instead of 'loyalty unto death' it's 'being a Seer is pretty great, you should try it'.

Seers don't stomp any puppies or anything, most of the one-sided frothing hate comes from the Pentacle's side. Moreover, since Seer ideals are so totally selfish it makes perfect sense for a Seer to go over to the Pentacle if it would help their position - such as using the Pentacle to kill their higher ups before taking their jobs.

EDIT: As Vulcan would say, "The best part of being a materialist is that you've got nothing worth dying over."

[Tiki Snakes]

Hmm. I see. Certainly more workable than a Thousand-Suns / Space Wolf teamup, at the very least.

Still, it's enough of a thing for a raised eyebrow or two, I suspect.