- Pronouns
- She/Her
Why are we revealing everything? Aren't we still planning to take over the world? It's better not to reveal more than we have to.
All Level, No Experience (Worm/Pathfinder Amnesia Quest)
- Thread starter Sckribe
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy Superhero
Because people knowing what we can do is a big plus for us. We want to be a known quantity and a known asset so people come to us for stuff.
I think the argument at the beginning is more that they may not even want what you have to offer anyhow, is the thing Wolfy. Also, I do feel like you're overestimating what a Teleportation circle can do. It only teleports whoever's standing on it, and whatever they are capable of carrying on their own. Also, come on, man, it's a fair enough rebuttal when your argument at least appears to have some surface level assumption at the least that they are going to be a fairly rational actor.
Also, the nepea-5 thing does still mean it is frankly illegal.
IC, being able to reliably tell what people want and such is one of the things y'all are comedically bad at.
Secondly, who in the hell treats 5 million as a not that much? Especially given that it's 2011 over there, and things probably aren't even as decent as they are here, given the whole 3 Endbringers and Villains blatantly outnumbering heroes thing.
Lastly, again, Wolfy, it's getting a bit much. There's a reasonable line between getting a bit invested into a back and forth, which is more than fair, and starting to claim other people said stuff they didn't. Particularly over a text based medium where what someone said is literally in plaintext.
Doesn't help that it's one of the things I most viscerally hate RL either.
So just, ease up a bit or people'll end up giving as good as they get, and then that risks the entire thread, whereupon I will promptly pack my writing up, and leave. And-
Oh damnit all, that's exactly the kind of thing I don't want to end up one of my stories being involved in causing, directly or not. Just, this is the second time I've ended up feeling the need to do this kind of message, and I don't like it, and I don't know if there's even a way for a thread creator to boot someone from their thread, and I don't want to have to start searching.
Also, the nepea-5 thing does still mean it is frankly illegal.
IC, being able to reliably tell what people want and such is one of the things y'all are comedically bad at.
Secondly, who in the hell treats 5 million as a not that much? Especially given that it's 2011 over there, and things probably aren't even as decent as they are here, given the whole 3 Endbringers and Villains blatantly outnumbering heroes thing.
Lastly, again, Wolfy, it's getting a bit much. There's a reasonable line between getting a bit invested into a back and forth, which is more than fair, and starting to claim other people said stuff they didn't. Particularly over a text based medium where what someone said is literally in plaintext.
Doesn't help that it's one of the things I most viscerally hate RL either.
So just, ease up a bit or people'll end up giving as good as they get, and then that risks the entire thread, whereupon I will promptly pack my writing up, and leave. And-
Oh damnit all, that's exactly the kind of thing I don't want to end up one of my stories being involved in causing, directly or not. Just, this is the second time I've ended up feeling the need to do this kind of message, and I don't like it, and I don't know if there's even a way for a thread creator to boot someone from their thread, and I don't want to have to start searching.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Fair, I guess. Let's not let this become a business simulator quest though. We have a clear goal, let's go after it.
Anyways, I think the S9 bounties are probably the best way to get the start-up money.
Not exactly? Nepea-5 means we can't compete with mundane businesses, but for example, forcefields were sellable by the Elite. Now, obviously, those who are already rich have a lot more ease in dodging that stuff, but it's possible that if it's useful enough for the PRT, they'd be willing to pay.
Anyways, I think the S9 bounties are probably the best way to get the start-up money.
Consider entire business of operating an airport. Planes, fuel, paying staff, all that stuff. We can offer all of that, except there is no travel time, with much lesser overhead, for laughable cost.
I do? 5 million is middling sum for a largish project when it comes to corporations and such, and I say this as someone who has some experience with projects and corporations.
If you want me to leave you can just ask. Like no need to even do publically just do it over DM or whatever.
Yeah, we do have enough targets that we can just hunt bounties to cover starting investment, and that will be much more interesting to read.
Huh, I just plain forgot that. Aren't the elite like, legally pretty grey at best though? I suppose it's complicated, and my memory is very much imperfect.
Yeah, fair enough. I'm not all that upset, more just, I feel like I'm seeing what looks like a snowball on a hill and panic pushing it up, only to realize it was just like, yarn. I've lost track of this metaphor, and finals are upon me.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Elite seem to be a complicated criminal empire. You've got the high leadership like Uppercrust living openly in New York and selling tinker-tech defenses to the government and Agnes Court with her network of corporate hero teams, somehow in the same org as Bastard Son, who would apparently fit right in with the S9. But that's the pros and cons of a decentralized cell structure.
But honestly, maybe we'll end up getting involved with them if we really want to go big building ourselves up independently. They'd probably be more accommodating to a high powered rising star than the PRT would be to an independent in the short term. I expect we'll have to really bust our ass to earn the PRTs trust to do big projects if we insist on independence.
But honestly, maybe we'll end up getting involved with them if we really want to go big building ourselves up independently. They'd probably be more accommodating to a high powered rising star than the PRT would be to an independent in the short term. I expect we'll have to really bust our ass to earn the PRTs trust to do big projects if we insist on independence.
Anyway, I suppose I could explain something. In general companies have two kinds of expenditures - capital investment, or capex, are basically them putting in money to get something new i.e. a project. Operational investment, or opex, are their day to day expenses - salaries, purchasing material, paying licenses and certs and so on. If we are talking a bigger company, i.e. 10k people, just salaries alone can easily reach something like 300m per year.
One of the first things you learn when talking with upper management is that they absolutely fucking hate opex. Everything opex related is literally devil, because opex doesn't make money. On the other hand, they absolutely love capex, because it is usually just a one time cost to get value, with as little of operational cost as you can get away with. Doing capital investment that reduces operational investment makes them moist.
Not that related to the quest, but something I always found interesting when it comes to basics of inner workings of companies.
One of the first things you learn when talking with upper management is that they absolutely fucking hate opex. Everything opex related is literally devil, because opex doesn't make money. On the other hand, they absolutely love capex, because it is usually just a one time cost to get value, with as little of operational cost as you can get away with. Doing capital investment that reduces operational investment makes them moist.
Not that related to the quest, but something I always found interesting when it comes to basics of inner workings of companies.
- Location
- florida
They are not asking you to leave. Neither am I. Its been nice having you. Even if we are butting heads here.
They are explicitly a villain group? But the prt forcefield was made by uppercrust.
So a little extra hypocrisy from the PRT.
Perhaps we could join the Guild if we want to cooperate with the government while remaining independent? I know nothing about the non-worm side of the crossover but MC seems uniquely suited to a nomadic lifestyle considering our past achievements. And we're apparently also fuck off powerful.
[x] Yes
-[X] Do not hold back in the slightest
-[X] Request amber for crafting Teleport Circle, and gems for crafting a magic item
-[X] Do not hold back in the slightest
-[X] Request amber for crafting Teleport Circle, and gems for crafting a magic item
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JayTar
Idea briefcase
Okay, so while teleportation circles are something we can make it big with in the long term, they really aren't in the short term. 1000 gp of amber dust is $100,000 which sounds a good deal more then they would have budgeted in for power testing.
Maybe if our CHA was as high level as our INT we could smooth talk and promise enough for them to shell out for it. But given our current social acumen the odds are about zero.
Not to mention that it would be the sort of thing that even if we convinced them of, would require time. They can't just wave their hands and turn $100,000 into $100,000 worth of amber.
Really, if we want to demonstrate crafting magic items we are going to need something under like, 100 gp. Even $10,000 seems a bit steep for a power test. Maybe 50 gp or less. Anyone got any good ideas?
Something that doesn't have limited charges or is consumable if we want to establish our ability to provide items with persistent supernatural effects that don't break down over time like Tinkertech.
I looked and there isn't much that both has a permanent supernatural effect and cheap. Maybe if we can pull some clever abuse of the cursed item rules to reduce the cost?
Shame we don't have continual flame. We have plenty of ruby dust at least.
As for the current vote of not holding anything back....
It has some significant room for improvement. Yes we want to wow them and establish our self, but there are 100% things we don't want them to know. Like, any human-master stuff like Charm Person or Dominate Person. That is 100% something we should not tell them about.
Beyond that, stuff that contributes to us being harder to kill should be under-sold or omitted. The more someone coming after us underestimates us the better.
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
Alternatively we could just not do power testing. Let our deeds speak for us when we go take out the S9 or something.
[X] No
Maybe if our CHA was as high level as our INT we could smooth talk and promise enough for them to shell out for it. But given our current social acumen the odds are about zero.
Not to mention that it would be the sort of thing that even if we convinced them of, would require time. They can't just wave their hands and turn $100,000 into $100,000 worth of amber.
Really, if we want to demonstrate crafting magic items we are going to need something under like, 100 gp. Even $10,000 seems a bit steep for a power test. Maybe 50 gp or less. Anyone got any good ideas?
Something that doesn't have limited charges or is consumable if we want to establish our ability to provide items with persistent supernatural effects that don't break down over time like Tinkertech.
I looked and there isn't much that both has a permanent supernatural effect and cheap. Maybe if we can pull some clever abuse of the cursed item rules to reduce the cost?
Shame we don't have continual flame. We have plenty of ruby dust at least.
As for the current vote of not holding anything back....
It has some significant room for improvement. Yes we want to wow them and establish our self, but there are 100% things we don't want them to know. Like, any human-master stuff like Charm Person or Dominate Person. That is 100% something we should not tell them about.
Beyond that, stuff that contributes to us being harder to kill should be under-sold or omitted. The more someone coming after us underestimates us the better.
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
Alternatively we could just not do power testing. Let our deeds speak for us when we go take out the S9 or something.
[X] No
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
I was thinking about the same thing. Seems unlikely they'd be willing to blow big money on a complete unknown.
I mean, I could actually see $10,000 being put into a tinker test, they are a three letter agency. But still, best to be reasonable.
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
I was thinking about the same thing. Seems unlikely they'd be willing to blow big money on a complete unknown.
I mean, I could actually see $10,000 being put into a tinker test, they are a three letter agency. But still, best to be reasonable.
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
JayTar
Idea briefcase
Yeah $10,000 seems like it could be maybe reasonable, if on the upper end.
$100,000, there are probably tinkers who get less then that on their yearly budget. Not like Armsmaster, but low-mid level ones.
If we want to get a bit silly however, I do have a thought...
It's probably something that has been pointed out before, but the Robe Of Infinite Twine seems broken (Economically).
It's cost is 1,000 gp right? 500 gp if you make it.
From it you can get 10 feet of rope per round. 10 rounds per minute. 60 minutes per hour.
So 6,000 feet of rope per hour.
The usual cost for 50 feet of rope is 2 gp. (That would be $200. The real world price for rope varies depending on the type and thickness. Some rough searching puts $50-$100 a more reasonable price for rope of decent thickness. On the other hand things might be more expensive on Earth bet so who knows. Point is, good rope is worth money.)
6,000 feet of rope becomes 120 gp. $12,000 Use it for oh, slightly over four hours and you have paid off the creation cost.
Even if we go by more real world prices for rope, you are still making thousands of dollars in rope every hour.
Even if we assume various limitations (Like inability to automate, needing a person to manually use it) it generates enough value that paying a generous wage to do so is a minor expense. (Plus some magic to make sure they don't run off with it.)
So lets take an absolute lower bound. Say it generates just $1000 in profit every hour. That is still $168,000 every week. Which is hardly nothing.
Now the market for rope isn't infinite. But globally it is a billion dollar industry. So I expect it would not be too hard to keep finding buyers.
Of course we would probably run into issues with Nepea-5... But that is only a law in the US correct?
So am I suggesting we establish a global rope hegemony based out of Canada (or perhaps some other country) which funds our crafting via sales of cheap rope? Well not quite. But I'm also not-not suggesting it.
$100,000, there are probably tinkers who get less then that on their yearly budget. Not like Armsmaster, but low-mid level ones.
If we want to get a bit silly however, I do have a thought...
It's probably something that has been pointed out before, but the Robe Of Infinite Twine seems broken (Economically).
It's cost is 1,000 gp right? 500 gp if you make it.
From it you can get 10 feet of rope per round. 10 rounds per minute. 60 minutes per hour.
So 6,000 feet of rope per hour.
The usual cost for 50 feet of rope is 2 gp. (That would be $200. The real world price for rope varies depending on the type and thickness. Some rough searching puts $50-$100 a more reasonable price for rope of decent thickness. On the other hand things might be more expensive on Earth bet so who knows. Point is, good rope is worth money.)
6,000 feet of rope becomes 120 gp. $12,000 Use it for oh, slightly over four hours and you have paid off the creation cost.
Even if we go by more real world prices for rope, you are still making thousands of dollars in rope every hour.
Even if we assume various limitations (Like inability to automate, needing a person to manually use it) it generates enough value that paying a generous wage to do so is a minor expense. (Plus some magic to make sure they don't run off with it.)
So lets take an absolute lower bound. Say it generates just $1000 in profit every hour. That is still $168,000 every week. Which is hardly nothing.
Now the market for rope isn't infinite. But globally it is a billion dollar industry. So I expect it would not be too hard to keep finding buyers.
Of course we would probably run into issues with Nepea-5... But that is only a law in the US correct?
So am I suggesting we establish a global rope hegemony based out of Canada (or perhaps some other country) which funds our crafting via sales of cheap rope? Well not quite. But I'm also not-not suggesting it.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
As for the global rope hegemony... I know I said no business stuff. But that's stupid and funny enough that I'm sort of tempted to go for it anyways.
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
As for the global rope hegemony... I know I said no business stuff. But that's stupid and funny enough that I'm sort of tempted to go for it anyways.
- Location
- florida
[X] Yes
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
Probably prestidigitation or acid splash.
-[X] Put on a show, you want to impress. Keep some of your most powerful and exotic abilities hidden however.
-[X] Don't mention anything about effects that can control or influence people. Undersell any info-gathering abilities. Avoid providing information on the underlying mechanics of your abilities or any weaknesses (Like needing a spell book to prepare spells).
-[X] Inquire upon the resources available for crafting. Demonstrate with something minor if possible.
The cheapest thing we could make would be... a scroll. Of a cantrip.
Probably prestidigitation or acid splash.
The easy way to think about this would be something like this - say you are airplane company. You could just buy a plane and have your own maintenance crew, pay for spare parts and so on, or you could buy a plane with 10 year contract that has the company you bought the plane from be responsible for all the maintenance and parts. Then after 10 year you sell back the airplane and get a new one for next 10 years. Now in reality you would do a case study to see which option is more profitable, but in vacuum upper management would vastly prefer later option as you can just pay upfront and everything afterwards is just pure profit + you don't have to think about stuff. It is similar to why people prefer cloud instead of having their own IT team developing internal services.
One of my favorite manager tricks is overhiring. Say you have team of core 10 members. Year is good, you guys are being very productive. You go to your boss, complain how you are overworked and people are getting burned out, you need more people. You managed to get three new people in the team and now it is 13 person team. They don't really need to do anything, just to be there.
Two years later, company has a bad year. C suit orders 20% reduction to all teams. Because you expended your team earlier, now you can just cut it back down to your starting 10, instead of having to make a very tough decisions about your core team.
I obviously don't expect them to just have 100k worth of amber running around. The point is to establish both our capability of creating these kinds of TP circles, as well as just how expensive we are. Asking is important, even if we know answer in advance, because question itself gets something important across.
100k$ is pennies for stuff like this. Consider that any one of devices that are used in testing, and thus at risk of being destroyed by errant power interaction can cost millions. 100$k is like a APC random fucking police department in bumfuck nowhere Texas can afford. It is entirely reasonable amount Piggot can call for if we are interesting enough. Once she has it in a couple of days(because we made it clear what she gets), we can establish our TP circle and with that, everyone knows what kind of product we have on hand.
Then we just find random Musk equivalent, he pays upfront for materials + our cost of our Circles, they get to become new Steve Jobs and we get hassle free gems and stuff for our needs. Next to no time investment required on our part. Hell, we don't even need to go to locations(we could easily via Greater Teleport, mind) we just enhance iron slabs with teleport to New York or whatever and they can move the slab to location of their choice. It's kinda nuts if you think about it, for like 500~600m$(so hundred or so two way links) you get to completely replace function of Frankfurt airport.
JayTar
Idea briefcase
Issue is that a consumable item doesn't really prove we can make non-degrading tinkertech.
Isn't Piggot's department rather overstretched? Not saying they couldn't, but this is their bad year. Or rather their bad decade, and it's only been getting worse.
Besides that my big issue with this plan is that it relies on our social skills. It doesn't matter how good your idea is. Nobody is going to listen to it unless you have just as good an ability to sell it. (Often it seems like the ability to pitch your idea is the larger factor sadly.)
Since CHA is our dump stat however, trying to attract investors sounds like the least likely to work way to get startup capital. Fortunately we have other options.
Plus it is one thing to be able to set up a system that can in theory transport a thousand or so people per day (Assuming efficient packing and 24 hour use). It is quite another to actually get people to use it to it's full use.
At least with rope we would be selling a physical good that is hopefully indistinguishable. Not asking people to try out an entirely new form of mass transit.
Basically I see this as a mid-long term plan. Not one to peruse in the short term. This will be the work of months. Making an awkward request of the local PRT for them to turn down doesn't really help us at all.
- Location
- florida
Is making consumables bad? Look at confoam.
Soul Soap – d20PFSRD
www.d20pfsrd.com
200gp. Soap. Get a new save against mind affecting... everything. (Eat your heart out masters)
Doesn't care about magic or tech or whatever. You get a new save go.
If they aren't likely to make the save just use more.
Send it dragons way. Mass produce anti mind control bars.
I feel like it might be helpful to mention something that y'all would be aware of IC, but just hasn't come up in the way the story has been written so far. While you haven't cracked on how you'd begin to make something like the Divinity Drive,
You do know how to (nonmagically) make and repair a Graviton Generator (and all other forms of Technological Generator). It's very very expensive, at, I'm going to rule 400,000 GP Price Equivalent (Price, not Cost). Which, very expensive, yes.
You do know how to (nonmagically) make and repair a Graviton Generator (and all other forms of Technological Generator). It's very very expensive, at, I'm going to rule 400,000 GP Price Equivalent (Price, not Cost). Which, very expensive, yes.