These are pretty okay. If anyone has other suggestions as to what was happening in the past few months I'm willing to entertain them.
I'll tell you if you run out of tass or PE making them.
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
These are pretty okay. If anyone has other suggestions as to what was happening in the past few months I'm willing to entertain them.
I'll tell you if you run out of tass or PE making them.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
Metagaming 1, like all level 1 spheres, is primarily concerned with knowledge - in this case, actually knowing that, to some extent, you exist as a character in a forum game. This gives you an uncanny insight into how to adjust your own behaviors to make yourself more appealing (for example) to those involved - increasing the number who will make votes, write-ins, and omakes favor you slightly. It's a subtle thing, but useful.
Metagaming 4 allows you to project yourself, to a limited extent, into the "outer" world at large. This is primarily useful for doing things like reading the archives of the quest, voting, and making the occasional cogent argument or write-in in an attempt to sway the voters. It has some seriously vicious combos with moderate-to-high levels of Mind+Data.
Metagaming 5 lets you show up at the house/apartment of the QM with free pizza, in their preferred set of toppings.
Amorous Intent
Love the future
- Location
- Octavia, Venus
- Pronouns
- She/her
This will never not be relevant:
You should probably mention that Meta 1 lets you Sense Plot.
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
I thought that was Entropy 1.
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
Clearly Metagaming is a variant Sphere of Entropy, like Death is. This explains why those with Metagaming 2 are able to shield themselves against fate-manipulation by modifying their interaction with The Plot, and those with Metagaming 4 can trick their way into foreshadowing things in order to make them come to pass.
Yeah about that. The Nephandi still exist. And Serafina, broken and suicidal and so fragile, is in the exact best situation for a Nephandus to seduce. This world is sick and wrong and terrible and the only good and just thing to do is to end it all so nobody will suffer like she has.
Just in case people forgot that they existed.
Just as a note, this isn't just a cosmetic vote. It will have real, noticeable impact on Serafina and her state of... existence, shall we say?
And thus I can't start writing until there's more votes. It's not like it's the UK elections. I can't get away with claiming an electoral mandate for doing horrible things to vulnerable people with a only quarter of the potential electorate voting for that option.
(Well, actually, I can. It's just that if people don't care enough to vote - well, apathy is a dreadful thing. As is throwing your vote away assuming that it doesn't matter when I'm totally willing tosteal ideas from be inspired by well-reasoned arguments and votes/speculation, even if they don't win)
And thus I can't start writing until there's more votes. It's not like it's the UK elections. I can't get away with claiming an electoral mandate for doing horrible things to vulnerable people with a only quarter of the potential electorate voting for that option.
(Well, actually, I can. It's just that if people don't care enough to vote - well, apathy is a dreadful thing. As is throwing your vote away assuming that it doesn't matter when I'm totally willing to
Mm.
In that case, I'm thinking one of
[ ] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
and
[ ] It's in the back of an ambulance. There's a Vanessa watching over it, needler close to hand. There's something wrong with the construct - something mad-eyed and twitchy like it's ODing on combat stims.
because both imply that whoever has her body expects her to be getting up sometime soon. The former much more than the latter, but the former also implies rather significant resistance towards escape.
If this, as has been rather heavily implied by the appearance of Alicia's Avatar and Serafina's general survival beyond what should have been death in her paradigm, is a chance at Enlightenment 6, then it's possible that casting-without-foci might get her out of the cell, and the cell is definitely the option most likely to have her have retroactively survived. The latter is probably easier to escape (though not exactly easy, at least whoever's got her body isn't so sure of her survival that they've got her in a prison cell), but for the same reason is less likely to invoke Serafina's survival.
... Mm. Okay, actually, escaping from a concrete cell with new magic and biologically dead actually sounds like a lot of fun to read, so I'm going to vote for that on gameplay grounds.
[X] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
In that case, I'm thinking one of
[ ] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
and
[ ] It's in the back of an ambulance. There's a Vanessa watching over it, needler close to hand. There's something wrong with the construct - something mad-eyed and twitchy like it's ODing on combat stims.
because both imply that whoever has her body expects her to be getting up sometime soon. The former much more than the latter, but the former also implies rather significant resistance towards escape.
If this, as has been rather heavily implied by the appearance of Alicia's Avatar and Serafina's general survival beyond what should have been death in her paradigm, is a chance at Enlightenment 6, then it's possible that casting-without-foci might get her out of the cell, and the cell is definitely the option most likely to have her have retroactively survived. The latter is probably easier to escape (though not exactly easy, at least whoever's got her body isn't so sure of her survival that they've got her in a prison cell), but for the same reason is less likely to invoke Serafina's survival.
... Mm. Okay, actually, escaping from a concrete cell with new magic and biologically dead actually sounds like a lot of fun to read, so I'm going to vote for that on gameplay grounds.
[X] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
- Location
- in the trash
[X] The cell
MJ12 changed casting without foci to casting using foci not in your paradigm if I remember it right-
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
only for technocrats. They get disadvantages to with their advantages (no WP cost for Devices)
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Actually it's the opposite - the problem is that I care too much. I have no idea what any individual option portends and that feeling of ignorance, coupled with my desire not to get Serafina killed (or worse, like being subverted by Nephandri), is locking me into a state of general paralysis.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sorry, mate, but it's the same for me as the oneiros was - if I wanted to fuck over a quest I have invested as much time, effort and love in as I have with PQ I'd... well, I would vote on contextless options.
I readily admit I am not nearly invested enough into or know enough about the oWoD to decipher what is what, and generally too unhappy to have this happen again (wasn't Yellowfields and the Oneiros enough for contextless confusion?), to be able to puzzle out what is what, especially since two of the three people that I consider the go-to for oWoD stuff - @MJ12 Commando, @Cavalier and @EarthScorpion - are writing this particular part of PQ.
Therefore, I am left with many sads and no vote.
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*pinches brow*
It is a scene-setting vote. It's offering a number of "starting locations", with a few implied assets/mysteries to hand. It is the equivalent of telling a character in a noir game "You are a ex-cop who went private and is now a PI. Are you a) at your desk, the ceiling fan listing lazily overhead, wondering how you're going to meet the rent, b) at the bar, a half-full glass and an empty bottle of whiskey in front of you, or c) being beaten up in a backstreet alley, wondering how in God's name you got into this mess?". And, yes, b) implies your character is an alcoholic while c) means that you're starting fighting for your life, but the basic plot is still going to involve the blonde in the red dress with legs which go all the way up.
If the choices being offered were as fundamentally different as "Cross got you out" / "The Nephandi have you and are about to stick needles in your brain" I'm pretty sure I'd be more explicit about that. And going "Oh, woe is me, I can't decide" and refusing to even discuss things makes it a damn sight harder to actually write something people want to see.
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Clearly, therefore, the best starting situation is the one where a possibly-crazy hot Vanessa is crouching over us with a loaded weapon and a bunch of combat drugs [1].
"Soon as she walked in, I knew she was gonna be trouble. Partly cause'a the dress. But mostly cause of the fact that I was dying from a suicidal drug overdose and she was jacked up on combat stims, carrying a loaded needler and smuggling my body out into an ambulance.
"That sorta thing tends to give a lady what we in the business call 'a hint'."
[1] In fact, if you lose the "combat" part and be a bit generous with the definition of "weapon" (not to mention "loaded"), Donald could tell you some stories about nights that start like that. Also mornings, lunches and late afternoons.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
[X] The sky is dark above her. Dark earth surrounds her. She's at the bottom of an open grave.
Detailed analysis will, bluntly, have to wait until I'm not typing on a smart phone. But it is a classic, evocative setup. Elegant, even. There's a sense of the open missing from the other options. Serafina literally emerging from the grave has some symbolic resonance for what is bound to be a major transition in her life.
Or unlife, idk. If we're choosing enemies here I think the grave is classic Sabbat...
Detailed analysis will, bluntly, have to wait until I'm not typing on a smart phone. But it is a classic, evocative setup. Elegant, even. There's a sense of the open missing from the other options. Serafina literally emerging from the grave has some symbolic resonance for what is bound to be a major transition in her life.
Or unlife, idk. If we're choosing enemies here I think the grave is classic Sabbat...
[X] It's in the back of an ambulance. There's a Vanessa watching over it, needler close to hand. There's something wrong with the construct - something mad-eyed and twitchy like it's ODing on combat stims.
Serafina can do things with drugs. Wonderful, terrible things. And who knows? Maybe Park requisitioned the Vanessa and ambulance, and it will turn into a highway chase-scene with desperate medicine happening in the back of the swerving ambulance. Also, while this is most likely to have her in Technocratic hands, even if they're not the ones we'd prefer, that's still better than Nephandic ones. (Probably.)
And for the scene-setting vote, this is much more of something I can work with rather than "fade to black/white", where even if it was just setting the scene, I had no idea what they meant.
Serafina can do things with drugs. Wonderful, terrible things. And who knows? Maybe Park requisitioned the Vanessa and ambulance, and it will turn into a highway chase-scene with desperate medicine happening in the back of the swerving ambulance. Also, while this is most likely to have her in Technocratic hands, even if they're not the ones we'd prefer, that's still better than Nephandic ones. (Probably.)
And for the scene-setting vote, this is much more of something I can work with rather than "fade to black/white", where even if it was just setting the scene, I had no idea what they meant.
[ ] It's in the back of an ambulance. There's a Vanessa watching over it, needler close to hand. There's something wrong with the construct - something mad-eyed and twitchy like it's ODing on combat stims.
While we only see one Vanessa, I suspect that more are hiding out of view, such as up front. Given the type of story, I expect we'd be strapped down, and might be stuck riding all the way to the 'hospital.'
[ ] It's in a meat locker. The walls are frosted over and pig carcasses hang from hooks. There's the smell of flowers in the air, over the stale scent.
I could have sworn that meat lockers can't be opened from the inside and this seems more like a freezer. Laying about trying to keep warm until someone comes to get her is likely to be troublesome.
[ ] The operating theatre looks empty, but anything could be lurking in the shadows away from the pool of light. Countless surgical tools gleam in the light.
Spoiler alert: It's not empty. On the other hand, Serafina probably knows how to use most of the tools. Assuming she isn't tied down, this could open a lot of options. On the other hand, if this is post surgery, then who knows what they already did.
[ ] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
This might as well be a jail cell for all the good an escape attempt would do. On the other hand, it seems more honest about what is about to happen: we will wait for them to decided it's time to talk, and then we will talk about what they want to talk about.
[ ] The sky is dark above her. Dark earth surrounds her. She's at the bottom of an open grave.
Given that we can see the sky, climbing out seems like a distinct possibility. On the other hand, starting the story in a creepy graveyard at night isn't the best.
Right, leaning toward the last one, but I also suspect that this is a multi step process in roughly the correct order, and I'd really wouldn't want to wake up at the end of it.
While we only see one Vanessa, I suspect that more are hiding out of view, such as up front. Given the type of story, I expect we'd be strapped down, and might be stuck riding all the way to the 'hospital.'
[ ] It's in a meat locker. The walls are frosted over and pig carcasses hang from hooks. There's the smell of flowers in the air, over the stale scent.
I could have sworn that meat lockers can't be opened from the inside and this seems more like a freezer. Laying about trying to keep warm until someone comes to get her is likely to be troublesome.
[ ] The operating theatre looks empty, but anything could be lurking in the shadows away from the pool of light. Countless surgical tools gleam in the light.
Spoiler alert: It's not empty. On the other hand, Serafina probably knows how to use most of the tools. Assuming she isn't tied down, this could open a lot of options. On the other hand, if this is post surgery, then who knows what they already did.
[ ] It's been laid out in an unpainted and windowless concrete cell. The heavy iron door is bolted. A single candle provides the only illumination.
This might as well be a jail cell for all the good an escape attempt would do. On the other hand, it seems more honest about what is about to happen: we will wait for them to decided it's time to talk, and then we will talk about what they want to talk about.
[ ] The sky is dark above her. Dark earth surrounds her. She's at the bottom of an open grave.
Given that we can see the sky, climbing out seems like a distinct possibility. On the other hand, starting the story in a creepy graveyard at night isn't the best.
Right, leaning toward the last one, but I also suspect that this is a multi step process in roughly the correct order, and I'd really wouldn't want to wake up at the end of it.
[X] It's in the back of an ambulance. There's a Vanessa watching over it, needler close to hand. There's something wrong with the construct - something mad-eyed and twitchy like it's ODing on combat stims.
Its the start of a chase sequence in LA(language is crude), how could I not vote for it.
Racing through the giant storm canals, tearing through LA's subway tunnels and its freeways
Its the start of a chase sequence in LA(language is crude), how could I not vote for it.
Racing through the giant storm canals, tearing through LA's subway tunnels and its freeways
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Nephandi try to make people step into cauls of their own accord right?
Maybe the cell is some kind of find a way out before you get convinced to go Nephandi situation? Or it could be Stanley Gimble from Bloodlines. Or maybe a Vampire blacksite ran by an old-fashioned jailer meant to keep vampire prisoners? Possibly a past life flashback.
The Meat Locker... maybe Werewolves who brought her back to their larder? That or Nosferatu, they've got low dietary standards after all. Scent of flowers suggest it may be Verbena or Changelings maybe?
The Ambulance could be vampires. It could also be a case of spiritual possession, but whether or not it's one of An-Jin-Choi's or sayyy... Agent Tinker is a separate issue.
The only alternative to technocrats/threat null I can see for the operating theater is Etherites. It could be a Nephandic Progenitor. It could be something out of Crank. Or maybe we've been exposed to something kind of like Blacklight that we need to keep from consuming our mind or something.
The grave... I have no idea. Vampires makes sense I guess.
Vote:
[X] The operating theatre looks empty, but anything could be lurking in the shadows away from the pool of light. Countless surgical tools gleam in the light.
Maybe the cell is some kind of find a way out before you get convinced to go Nephandi situation? Or it could be Stanley Gimble from Bloodlines. Or maybe a Vampire blacksite ran by an old-fashioned jailer meant to keep vampire prisoners? Possibly a past life flashback.
The Meat Locker... maybe Werewolves who brought her back to their larder? That or Nosferatu, they've got low dietary standards after all. Scent of flowers suggest it may be Verbena or Changelings maybe?
The Ambulance could be vampires. It could also be a case of spiritual possession, but whether or not it's one of An-Jin-Choi's or sayyy... Agent Tinker is a separate issue.
The only alternative to technocrats/threat null I can see for the operating theater is Etherites. It could be a Nephandic Progenitor. It could be something out of Crank. Or maybe we've been exposed to something kind of like Blacklight that we need to keep from consuming our mind or something.
The grave... I have no idea. Vampires makes sense I guess.
Vote:
[X] The operating theatre looks empty, but anything could be lurking in the shadows away from the pool of light. Countless surgical tools gleam in the light.
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I'm going to reiterate that you had time to make pet projects and using this time is a great idea right now.
Remember, a well-supplied-with-ideas QM is a happy QM. Also this might help you not die.
- Location
- Southern Virginia
The Vanessa being possessed by a powerful Nemissary in Choi's service is perhaps a distinct possibility. I doubt for many reasons it would be as simple as the mooklings having recovered her. And since Ms. Clock is the most likely option for Technocratic recovery, well, I think I strongly prefer another adversary.
And I like the aesthetics of her waking up at night in her grave; also if it is Sabbat that might be a way to work in killing Andrei the Tzimisce, and that bastard can never be killed enough.
And I like the aesthetics of her waking up at night in her grave; also if it is Sabbat that might be a way to work in killing Andrei the Tzimisce, and that bastard can never be killed enough.
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Sarpedon
Knight Errant
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well since Rose does have DSci 3 she could have made GHOST KILLING bullets, or Mind 3 GROUP MIND SHIELD modules for peoples exoskeletons. Or better medkits, while Donald can do things like order some Iterators to make him some emergency 1 shot Mat-Trans units orrrr some stuff that can make Rose GO FASTER Time 3, Immune to precog/bullets Corr 3+ Time/Entropy. Or emergency ghostbuster traps since his has Spirit 4 who knows.
[X] The sky is dark above her. Dark earth surrounds her. She's at the bottom of an open grave.
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DarkLight140
Credit to Team
- Location
- Lost in my thoughts
Okay, ideas for things we could have built. Rose has Primal Utility 3, Donald has Primal Utility 4, and Serafina has Prime 3, so presumably all three of them could get in on making things. Fair warning that half the reason I normally don't bother to post here is that my grasp of Mage mechanics is loose at best.
Donald has a new very nice, very expensive watch. Most of the cost comes from the fact that it constantly monitors the real value of the one wearing it a few seconds into the future and, in the event someone's net worth is about to fall catastrophically (which is to say, they're about to be shot/killed), the watch reacts by [putting up a force field (Correspondence ban)]/[teleporting them and anyone wearing matching watches to a predesignated location (Correspondence movement)]/[making them move really, really fast so be sure they can retain their value (Time acceleration)]. A nice bit of insurance against snipers and hypervelocity missiles, standard for high-powered executives under threat of assassination.
He can also have built on his prior trick with contract law by doing a lot of advance research as to how he might be able to manipulate other EDEs that think they're Technocrats, pulling a few quiet strings to get policies put in place he can take advantage of, and generally setting things up so that he can instantly hit any Threat Null spirit that isn't packing a lot of primium in its chassis with a giant stack of successes on a Spirit binding roll. Not incredibly useful against, say, an avatar of a machine-god, but one can't win 'em all.
Serafina is paranoid about Control getting to Rose, and while she can't be sure that she's completely clean of programming, she is able to embed even more mental triggers such that in the event of neural activity characteristic of responding to programmed commands such as Control uses, there will be an immediate release of counteragents which will disrupt any forced action on Rose's part and protect her against further manipulations until the chemicals are fully absorbed.
Rose doesn't like the way that Donald is so incredibly vulnerable and, with some advice from Serafina, has reverse-engineered her own biology into a powerful, fast-acting combat stimulant which will hopefully restore any injury and give him the ability to extract himself alive from any trouble. Donald's suggestions that she make a more mild stimulant with no side effects so they'll have it on hand for casual use after this has all blown over have been shelved for now.
Donald has a new very nice, very expensive watch. Most of the cost comes from the fact that it constantly monitors the real value of the one wearing it a few seconds into the future and, in the event someone's net worth is about to fall catastrophically (which is to say, they're about to be shot/killed), the watch reacts by [putting up a force field (Correspondence ban)]/[teleporting them and anyone wearing matching watches to a predesignated location (Correspondence movement)]/[making them move really, really fast so be sure they can retain their value (Time acceleration)]. A nice bit of insurance against snipers and hypervelocity missiles, standard for high-powered executives under threat of assassination.
He can also have built on his prior trick with contract law by doing a lot of advance research as to how he might be able to manipulate other EDEs that think they're Technocrats, pulling a few quiet strings to get policies put in place he can take advantage of, and generally setting things up so that he can instantly hit any Threat Null spirit that isn't packing a lot of primium in its chassis with a giant stack of successes on a Spirit binding roll. Not incredibly useful against, say, an avatar of a machine-god, but one can't win 'em all.
Serafina is paranoid about Control getting to Rose, and while she can't be sure that she's completely clean of programming, she is able to embed even more mental triggers such that in the event of neural activity characteristic of responding to programmed commands such as Control uses, there will be an immediate release of counteragents which will disrupt any forced action on Rose's part and protect her against further manipulations until the chemicals are fully absorbed.
Rose doesn't like the way that Donald is so incredibly vulnerable and, with some advice from Serafina, has reverse-engineered her own biology into a powerful, fast-acting combat stimulant which will hopefully restore any injury and give him the ability to extract himself alive from any trouble. Donald's suggestions that she make a more mild stimulant with no side effects so they'll have it on hand for casual use after this has all blown over have been shelved for now.