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Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns

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The MA-38 offers pretty ridiculous, immediately available combat power, and Jamelia is already familiar with its capabilities and has used them to killer effect before. Likewise, considering what we're facing here, the IX-881 plasma weapons will be more useful blasting through high end HITMarks and combat constructs than the Seeker Rifles will. It's the best combination for blowing through whatever Ms. Clock can throw at us right now, without taking any time for further adjustment or retrofitting bodies.
 
[X] S-25-B8 Symbiont Armor + IX-18R Seeker Rifle

I definitely see the appeal of turning Jamelia into the Guyver.


That said, I'm definitely torn between the Guardian rig and the crate of RD artifacts, action movie guns (unlimited ammo), and the plasma projector. I think an argument could definitely be made towards the use of the plasma gun in the fight we know is coming, versus the hardlight guns that are limited to whatever we currently have on hand.

Plus I think there's some interesting potential for stuff in the box of artifacts and I'd like to see those options explored, particularly since the lines are becoming significantly blurred here.

With that in mind, I'm going to vote for:

[X] Miscellaneous RD Artifacts + R-series "Rambo Specials" + IX-881 Plasma Projector
 
Jamelia has already used the MA-38. It is superior at straight up combat with a lot of tried and tested functions she put to excellent use in the running battle in the Museum at Moscow. Right now we need immediate combat power, not "stealth" functions. Do not allow the new shiny to distract from what we actually need right now.
 
Sarpedon said:
This is true but how long will it take to jack Kesslers brain into the new body?
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It'll lead to a massive crisis as Kessler seemingly flatlines and everyone leaves him.

After the vote there will be a short scene involving Men in Black checking his body and then- one of the eyes opens with a blood-red glint.

(We then cut to the rest of the party as they're fighting a losing battle which turns around due to PLASMA.)
 
[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
[X] Miscellaneous RD Artifacts + R-series "Rambo Specials" + IX-881 Plasma Projector

We're probably going to want firepower, so the plasma projectors are appealing. And the MA-38 is a known quantity, which I think edges out the symbiont.
 
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URGH damn you @Sarpedon and @Cavalier with your persuasiveness.

[X] S-25-B8 Symbiont Armor + IX-18R Seeker Rifle

[X] Prosthetic Rejection Inhibitors + IX-18R + Guardian Rig

Switching my vote to

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
[X] Miscellaneous RD Artifacts + R-series "Rambo Specials" + IX-881 Plasma Projector

I was mid-way between the Symbiote and the MA-38 anyway, and after seeing its stats again it was enough to flip it.

The other option, by contrast, is mostly based off narrative, not mechanical effectiveness. Damnit, this way we at least complete some of our original quest mission. It's just fitting that we complete some of our mission, especially if we gate from here to some obscure abandoned Russian facility that only Harlan knows about.

I'm willing to, as I see it, take a hit in mechanical effectiveness for narrative completeness.

But it's actually the plasma caster and the crate full of R-series weapon that's the mechanical prize here. These are "just" weapons made of Matter 5 impossible alloys, maybe with a few other minor effects.

(there may be a magical katana here, because Elsa is strong with katanas due to her nature as a lesbian cyborg ninja)
 
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Cavalier said:
We have two cyborgs, and two heavy plasma casters. I think our choice is obvious. Well and also I kind of do want to pick up the thread of the Artifacts and the relevance of the pre-WoD and the grand cosmic themes those suggest. It's an appropriate way to set up the endgame conflict over the path of the Technocracy to Ascension. Also, Kessler with a Daiklave is win.
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(The joke is that the pre-WoD really is only as relevant as you make it)

That was kind of the underlying theme of Moscow. In the end... the stolen artifacts weren't actually that important, what was important was what was done with them. People might have different interpretations and those can be equally valid but my personal interpretation of Moscow was that lesson. In a way, that might well be a fitting resolution in Panopticon about the past. The past is only as important as people make it so.

And maybe, maybe, it's better to not be bound by the past. Jamelia's story might have been one of finding herself but Henriette's has been one of letting go, as has Kessler's.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
(The joke is that the pre-WoD really is only as relevant as you make it)

That was kind of the underlying theme of Moscow. In the end... the stolen artifacts weren't actually that important, what was important was what was done with them. People might have different interpretations and those can be equally valid but my personal interpretation of Moscow was that lesson. In a way, that might well be a fitting resolution in Panopticon about the past. The past is only as important as people make it so.
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Yes. Hence my vote is based around "completing our mission", not the benefit from the weapons. They're useful as evidence, not really as weapons. Well, apart for Kessler keeping one in his coat, but that's just because Kessler collects weapons and still has that silver werewolf klaive. Also, "ancient sword" is a pretty kick-ass Dreamspeaker focus for him. After all, a hundred year spirit is a thing. Just imagine what a thousand year spirit can be used for.

(they're totally going back into an underground vault once this is all over, Indiana Jones-style for TOP MEN to look at. TOP MEN.)
 
EarthScorpion said:
Yes. Hence my vote is based around "completing our mission", not the benefit from the weapons. They're useful as evidence, not really as weapons. Well, apart for Kessler keeping one in his coat, but that's just because Kessler collects weapons and still has that silver werewolf klaive. Also, "ancient sword" is a pretty kick-ass Dreamspeaker focus for him. After all, a hundred year spirit is a thing. Just imagine what a thousand year spirit can be used for.

(they're totally going back into an underground vault once this is all over, Indiana Jones-style for TOP MEN to look at. TOP MEN.)
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Look only the Syndicate gives XP and money awards for mission success. :(

Also you outleveled the purple ego Mjolnir IV they were planning to give you anyhow. Even if it does have gold trim and ivory grips.
 
Eh, I quite understand the pre-WoD threads in the narrative are as important as we make them; and I want to see them again and follow them to a conclusion. At the moment, mind, I think it is very likely for a number of reasons that taking down Ms. Clock will be our big focus in the short-term. And we'll either do that fast and effectively, or fail and die, or start a Technocratic Civil War. But if we do manage to take her down without blowing up the Technocracy, then we'll have a brief breather before dealing with Li and then maybe another breather before the final confrontation with Augustine Aleph. And learning the secret history of Creation would be an interesting backdrop for the confrontation for the soul of the Technocracy, even if, perhaps especially if, we decide it doesn't actually matter to the future.
 
Cavalier said:
Eh, I quite understand the pre-WoD threads in the narrative are as important as we make them; and I want to see them again and follow them to a conclusion. At the moment, mind, I think it is very likely for a number of reasons that taking down Ms. Clock will be our big focus in the short-term. And we'll either do that fast and effectively, or fail and die, or start a Technocratic Civil War. But if we do manage to take her down without blowing up the Technocracy, then we'll have a brief breather before dealing with Li and then maybe another breather before the final confrontation with Augustine Aleph. And learning the secret history of Creation would be an interesting backdrop for the confrontation for the soul of the Technocracy, even if, perhaps especially if, we decide it doesn't actually matter to the future.
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This is a good argument.

But but but the sweet nanotech cyborg chassis :(

Nobody ever takes the cool posthuman upgrades anymore :(
 
Acatalepsy said:
Why do you keep making us choose between posthuman goodies and narrative stuff :(
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You're supposed to choose the posthuman goodies to determine the narrative. That is to say, to make the narrative one where instead of running away from Skynet John Connor becomes a super cyborg and has a rocket powered sword fight on top of a reentering space shuttle.

But people don't like that narrative for some reason :(
 
MJ12 Commando said:
You're supposed to choose the posthuman goodies to determine the narrative. That is to say, to make the narrative one where instead of running away from Skynet John Connor becomes a super cyborg and has a rocket powered sword fight on top of a reentering space shuttle.

But people don't like that narrative for some reason :(
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Possibly because we already have TREADSTONE as a pretty central theme, and that runs counter?

"Look at us. Look at what they made us give." is not a narrative that is super voluntary-transhumanism friendly.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
"Look at us. Look at what they made us give." is not a narrative that is super voluntary-transhumanism friendly.
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Yes it is?

If anything, it demonstrates that NWO's paradigm is demonstrably more toxic to human well-being than any amount of transhumanism. TREADSTONE asks for your humanity, because asking you to sacrifice and sacrifice and sacrifice is the only way they understand getting results (almost like, deep down, they still believe in some kind of RDism like a 'just world' or 'karma'). Iteration X and the Progenitors say fuck that noise. If you want to be powerful, and smart, and dangerous, and make a difference in the world, you need the tools and technology to make yourself better.

Transhumanism is one possible rejection of the NWO's vision of humanity as a thing to be sacrificed. Transhumanism asks you to reject human weaknesses without rejecting the the concept of humanity.

MJ12 Commando said:
But people don't like that narrative for some reason :(
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Bioconservatives :(

Oh, and...is there any reason we can't pick someone else to use ZERUEL other than Kessler? Like, say, Henriette?
 
Acatalepsy said:
Oh, and...is there any reason we can't pick someone else to use ZERUEL other than Kessler? Like, say, Henriette?
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Nope. You could give it to Henriette and make Mari jealous. Amusingly, because it's a high-end chassis intended for a high-up ur-transhumanist and thus makes no sacrifices in things like 'quality of life' for 'being able to turn into a horrible nanomachine cloud of death' it'd actually lower her effective paradox. :V

Well okay, it actually has way more permanent paradox but it's got Prime 5 enhancements that basically mitigate it all at the cost that you can afford like, a half-dozen Kesslers for one of these (and even two Kesslers will probably beat it given equivalent skills and Enlightenment), which is why you don't see these sweet cyber-bodies outside of Iterator leadership and nowadays they're rare and highly prized even in Iteration X leadership. The scary thing is, this is effectively an Autopolitan yard sale. "Homo sapiens sapiens will no longer be supported as of December 2015 because of stupid useless Henrietta, all products intended for use by homo sapiens sapiens are going at bargain prices."

No, Auto-kun is not bitter. Not even slightly.

The 'high end' part of this combat chassis is that it maintains a very high quality of life while making you very very dangerous. For that reason some Machine Cult purists looked down on it because you should be getting a more efficient form, possibly one that looked like a polymorphic mechanical gunsquid made out of smart matter.

The others were like, "Look at all the sex you aren't having. But I am. Because I have the sexiest cyborg body." Yes, even in the Machine Cult not everyone abandoned their emotions. :)
 
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Acatalepsy said:
Iteration X and the Progenitors say fuck that noise. If you want to be powerful, and smart, and dangerous, and make a difference in the world, you need the tools and technology to make yourself better.
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The problem with that is stuff like the DEI which removes unneeded concepts like moral, doubt emotions if we stay with classical Iteration X Transhumanism, while the progenitors are debating as always what makes humanity 2.0 .
See also the concept about Efficiency that MJ-12 mentions right above me.
And well the problem of the Iteratiors with a lack of guidance is after all well known in that quest after there religion lost there Deus intus Machina
 
Acatalepsy said:
Yes it is?

If anything, it demonstrates that NWO's paradigm is demonstrably more toxic to human well-being than any amount of transhumanism. TREADSTONE asks for your humanity, because asking you to sacrifice and sacrifice and sacrifice is the only way they understand getting results (almost like, deep down, they still believe in some kind of RDism like a 'just world' or 'karma'). Iteration X and the Progenitors say fuck that noise. If you want to be powerful, and smart, and dangerous, and make a difference in the world, you need the tools and technology to make yourself better.

Transhumanism is one possible rejection of the NWO's vision of humanity as a thing to be sacrificed. Transhumanism asks you to reject human weaknesses without rejecting the the concept of humanity.
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Oh, look, cold hard logic as opposed to the visceral/emotional reactions that still dominate human thinking.



People are uncomfortable with the idea of losing humanity, and the narrative thus far has HEAVILY pushed that button because the whole plot is underpinned by VOID ADAPTATION.

You may make a distinction between NWO Humanity Loss and ItX Humanity Transcendence, but it's a subtle one, that our emotional sides don't parse well, so many people are going to react pretty much the way I noted.

Also, the old ItX convention book had a framing narrative of some poor bastard being unwillingly cyberdized. Any positive "be better human, not a post human" transhumanist messages tend to be lost in the clutter.
 
Chloe Sullivan said:
Also, the old ItX convention book had a framing narrative of some poor bastard being unwillingly cyberdized. Any positive "be better human, not a post human" transhumanist messages tend to be lost in the clutter.
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It actually didn't. It was a crippled guy who Iteration X willingly recruited because he could get a sweet mini-mecha as a wheelchair and feel like a sexy shoeless god of war. Revised has the main character being a wheelchair-bound ex-Virtual Adept who was also promised some sweet cyberlegs.

ItX doesn't do much unwilling cyberization, even pre-Revised. They clearly and definitely do it sometimes, but the implication is that most of the guys who had their emotions stripped out and their brains turned into HITMark CPUs? They asked for it. Efficiency, remember? Iteration X reserves the right to turn you into a killer robot against your will.

They don't do it much because there are so many people who would totally sign up for becoming an awesome supersoldier.
 
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