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

[MJ12 Commando]

Remember, the Autopolitans, like all of Threat Null, are caricatures. The Machine Cult could be cruel, relentlessly inhuman, and emotionless-but just as easily could be noble knights fighting for a good cause, who are backed by a god they themselves made. The Computer could sometimes forget that mankind naturally seeks to test its boundaries and rebels against the safe assurance of faith, dogma, and tools, but it still loved mankind and wanted to better it (why else would it act the way it did?). It still does, in its own twisted way, the same way an abusive spouse does.

Remember Reina? She would have been the head of the Machine Cult if she had survived that day. She might have worn that very body that's up for a vote, because she was a proud woman who, in her old age, sometimes missed the flesh and the beauty of youth. She's not exactly 100% good, but you can't say she didn't have mankind's best interests at heart. Just as much as you could have heartless cyberfanatics you had noble, pious people who fought to protect the weak with a divine blessing from their god. And sadly, their god was just as flawed and imperfect as they were, but they tried.

(This does mean that @EarthScorpion's idea of demilitarizing Rose could be modified if you take the ZERUEL-you could instead have Serafina try to transfer the Reina personality into the chassis and leave Rose alone. This may lead to some interesting metaphysical consequences though.)

[1] Or not so secretly. Thorn approves of Rose's change of Nature and may occasionally not be a bitch. It's shocking.

Asking for it could mean asking for it, as in submitting a Cyberconversion Form 03-A (in triplicate), or it could mean asking for it (being a horrible Reality Deviant, and being mostly still alive after Iteration X commandos stormed your chantry).

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I mean as in "I don't want to be like this anymore."

 

[Acatalepsy]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector

Look, as much as I like the S-25-B8 Symbiont Armor, the MA-38 AESS is simply the superior tool for what we need right now. The Symbiont armor meshes better with our usual mode of operating, but our enemy knows how we usually operate and is built to be exactly the kind of foe our usual method will not work against.

[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis
--> [X] Give it to Henriette. Make Mari and Rose maximum jealous. Turn the tables on stupid Auto-kun and their stupid cat.
--> [X] Maybe give it to Henriette. Or Reina. Or Elsa. Or, hell, one of the Interns or Tyrants. Just don't let Ms Clock have it. Apply maximum transhumanism at some later point in time.

I really do want the crate of RD weaponry for the plot hooks and the closure...but ultimately I don't think the pre-WoD stuff matters - I'm okay with it not mattering, in universe, and in the meta (of what we focus the story on). At the end of the day, I would like this to be the kind of story where a cyborg John Connor beats the stuffing out of the Terminators sent to kill them. There's a certain irony in killing Henrietta, in all her posthumanity, and then taking those advantages for ourselves - and making Henriette a better person in the process.

Also, what I said above about the Symbiont Armor applies - this really is the best tool for the job. Henriette is out of action, doing this removes that liability. Going full Cyborg lets Henriette and Kessler go toe to toe with the Anathema in it's own reality bubble. Another bit of irony - who doesn't want to bring some irony to the firefight?

(Actually, the possibility of using it for Reina is intriguing, as having a literal posthuman goddess and member of the Inner Circle around would be amazing, but it's not clear how feasible it is.)

I mean as in "I don't want to be like this anymore."

Click to shrink...

 

[Cavalier]

Henriette is, like, the worst possible choice for the ZERUEL thematically and narratively. And basically maybe Kessler or Elsa can actually use this right now, assuming their braincases come with a handy ejection button and cross-compability to plug in, taking some unknown amount of time. Otherwise it is basically a pile of stats to be used at some point in the indefinite future when we can do brain surgery without being killed by HITMarks. And I will trade a major narrative thread for a pile of stats any day.​

 

[Arcus]

So, what happens to the stuff we don't pick?

I don't want the party to have to fight another posthuman nanotech cyborg with enough firepower to murder a platoon of power armoured soldiers.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

So, what happens to the stuff we don't pick?

Like, I don't want the party to have to fight another posthuman nanotech cyborg with enough firepower to kill a platoon.

Click to shrink...

Ms. Clock gets to keep it.

(There is a possibility if Elsa/Kessler/etc. choose a plan that takes a while or roll really badly that you can get more time to loot and/or spike the guns because there's nothing else to do, but don't count on it as being more than a consolation prize.)

 

[Cavalier]

I don't think there's any particular obstacle to a write-in blowing up the armory.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

I don't think there's any particular obstacle to a write-in blowing up the armory.

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Well, time mostly. Also, the most dangerous stuff-the ZERUEL, the MA-38, the S-25, etc. are tough enough that they're going to take significant effort to wreck, as would anything similarly dangerous that you didn't discover because you didn't choose to turn it upside down. So you'll have to be very, very thorough to do more than just wreck the R-series guns and other similar gear.

Even inert, blowing up the ZERUEL for example is like trying to blow up a self-repairing cloud of Kessler (because you want to make sure it can't be fixed). That'll take a good long while.

If it didn't there'd be a choice to just shove all of this shit into the Rothmobile's trunk. (If you had chosen the last two options and rolled well that may well have happened for some of the choices).

 

[Cavalier]

Well, "self-destruct system" is surely some kind of focus for the Technocratic paradigm? Throw in the Terrorism ability and Kessler's coat of infinite plastique we might manage to do enough damage to make recovering the surviving gear a pain in the ass. That said getting the hell out has to be the biggest priority, and since we can't actually use the ZERUEL for this...

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Well, "self-destruct system" is surely some kind of focus for the Technocratic paradigm? Throw in the Terrorism ability and Kessler's coat of infinite plastique we might manage to do enough damage to make recovering the surviving gear a pain in the ass. That said getting the hell out has to be the biggest priority, and since we can't actually use the ZERUEL for this...

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Definitely-but like I said, it takes time. Time and a lot of C4. And some napalm. And some Forces as well.

But who knows. Maybe Kessler and Elsa and Wufan will all roll really badly and this will be moot because Jamelia and Harlan will be shoving more shit back into the trunk since their priorities are:

1. Grab what looks most valuable immediately
2. Set up some demo.
3. Grab anything else shiny until they get back.
4. Get the fuck out.

 

[Acatalepsy]

Henriette is, like, the worst possible choice for the ZERUEL thematically and narratively

Click to shrink...

I...very much do not see it that way. Could you justify this?

And I will trade a major narrative thread for a pile of stats any day.

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I don't think of it that way. Stats are not something that happens to be in the game just so grognards will like it or something. They're a reflection of the story being told; choosing a powerful posthuman device is a totally valid narrative. It's choosing posthuman firepower because it's something we need and that makes the lives of the characters better, and that's reflected through the stats.

I think there's this...false tension, between picking powerful technology and picking interesting things to do. In a way, there's sort of a belief that grabbing power or capability to affect the in-game universe must be balanced against out of game 'interesting' options, like kind of story-based karma or just-world. We're giving up this powerful posthuman device, therefore we must be getting some cool narrative opportunities I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I think that choice is false and misleading.

(And, agree or disagree, you have to admit it's wonderfully meta.)

(Also, the knowledge that Ms Clock will be getting her hands on the stuff we don't pick makes grabbing ZERUEL an important option on the grounds that we really don't want it coming after us.)

 

[Cavalier]

I...very much do not see it that way. Could you justify this?

I don't think of it that way. Stats are not something that happens to be in the game just so grognards will like it or something. They're a reflection of the story being told; choosing a powerful posthuman device is a totally valid narrative. It's choosing posthuman firepower because it's something we need and that makes the lives of the characters better, and that's reflected through the stats.

I think there's this...false tension, between picking powerful technology and picking interesting things to do. In a way, there's sort of a belief that grabbing power or capability to affect the in-game universe must be balanced against out of game 'interesting' options, like kind of story-based karma or just-world. We're giving up this powerful posthuman device, therefore we must be getting some cool narrative opportunities I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I think that choice is false and misleading.

(And, agree or disagree, you have to admit it's wonderfully meta.)

(Also, the knowledge that Ms Clock will be getting her hands on the stuff we don't pick makes grabbing ZERUEL an important option on the grounds that we really don't want it coming after us.)

Click to shrink...

At the moment she's unconscious so unless you want to completely ignore ethics and consent just like Threat_Null, it's obviously not a possibility. To make any good use of it even remotely quickly it has to go to someone else anyway. And Henriette's narrative arc has had to do with growing as a person outside of IterationX dogma. Throwing that away by getting the UBERCOOL CYBORG BODY is a betrayal of the integrity of that journey in favor of the worst sort of banal transhumanism as apotheosis.

Nor do I think you understand what the choice actually is. Getting the RD artifacts is almost certainly the last chance to pick up a narrative thread going back to the very beginning of the Quest. I want to pick that up and bring it to an end, even if that ending is the realization by all of the characters that this mythic past full of grandeur doesn't actually matter as they stride forward into the future. This is not some abstract feeling that we're trading power for some reward; this is a concrete choice between the suit and all of the little bits of Exalted backstory thrown our way. Trading that narrative thread away for UBERCOOL CYBORG BODY and a heartwarming validation for Transhumanism does not appeal to me in the slightest.

 

[DeltaV11.2]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector

Big gun and equipment that we don't have to learn to use. The S-25 doesn't really offer particularly more capabilities than the MA-38, except possibly in pure firepower. The MA-38 comes with a big gun, which should compensate with any theoretical firepower deficiency.

[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis

Steal all the big guns that aren't nailed down. Yes, the daiklave's are nice and all for figuring out the past. Right now though, we're trying to escape our own headquarters, and after that we'll have to rescue our members who are respectively trapped in the internet and being chased by whatever Panopticon is throwing at Christos. Having a whole bunch more firepower will be very, very nice when the Anathema decides to be unsubtle and just murder us. And also there's the logic that we're denying assets to the enemy here- and this seems to be the biggest possible asset to deny them.

Also the name seems super thematically appropriate for Henriette. With that name, how can we not give it to her?(I agree that we should wait until she's conscious though).

Nor do I think you understand what the choice actually is. Getting the RD artifacts is almost certainly the last chance to pick up a rather important narrative thread going back to the very beginning of the Quest. I want to pick that up and bring it to an end, even if that ending is the realization by all of the characters that this mythic past full of grandeur doesn't actually matter as they stride forward into the future. This is not some abstract feeling that we're trading power for some reward; this is a concrete choice between the suit and all of the little bits of Exalted backstory thrown our way. Trading that narrative thread away for UBERCOOL CYBORG BODY and a heartwarming validation for Transhumanism does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Click to shrink...

Wouldn't ignoring the stuff as unimportant serve the same narrative purpose though? The past is long dead, what matters is the world that we're working to save.

 

[Cavalier]

There is a big difference between exploring the grandeur and majesty and wonder and horror of the ancient Creation and rejecting it, and just ignoring the plot thread because the voters would rather have shiny new equipment.

Also, no. Just.. arrrgh. No. It is not appropriate for Henriette at all. She hasn't even lived at all as a regular human being before having her brain cut out and shoved into the ULTIMATE CYBER-BODY. Assuming we can actually afford to leave the damn thing unused long enough to be able to carry out the surgery necessary to transplant her brain. Because that would be incredibly stupid in our current circumstances. Or that using it to give Reina a body wouldn't be a better choice anyway...

 

[Acatalepsy]

At the moment she's unconscious so unless you want to completely ignore ethics and consent just like Threat_Null, it's obviously not a possibility.

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That's a fair point, though there's still nothing stopping us from throwing it in the trunk and either letting Henriette (or Elsa, or Reina) use it later. And, of course, stop it from coming after us.

Vote changed.

[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis
--> [X] Maybe give it to Henriette. Or Reina. Or Elsa. Or, hell, one of the Interns or Tyrants. Just don't let Ms Clock have it. Apply maximum transhumanism at some later point in time.

Nor do I think you understand what the choice actually is. Getting the RD artifacts is almost certainly the last chance to pick up a narrative thread going back to the very beginning of the Quest. I want to pick that up and bring it to an end, even if that ending is the realization by all of the characters that this mythic past full of grandeur doesn't actually matter as they stride forward into the future. This is not some abstract feeling that we're trading power for some reward; this is a concrete choice between the suit and all of the little bits of Exalted backstory thrown our way. Trading that narrative thread away for UBERCOOL CYBORG BODY and a heartwarming validation for Transhumanism does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Click to shrink...

I'm fully aware that it could (as in, potentially - there's absolutely nothing saying we couldn't recover them from Ms Clock later, or have it reintroduced other ways) be our last chance to get these artifacts or pick up this thread. I said as much in my post. We've basically ignored those plot threads at every turn thus far...and at the end of the day, I have less than zero interest in Exalted backstory stuff, and less than zero interest in linking any of that to Panopticon.

If we're going to focus on setting backstory stuff, I'd rather focus on the Seers of Avalon and Vigilance. Those were some threads I was sorry got dropped. The backstory stuff for the RD artifacts is a nice sort of bookend/closure, and if we could take both I would...but we can't so I won't.

 

[13th Bee]

[X] RD shit + Rambo guns + Plasma Cannon.

The RD shit is useful in that we complete(ish) a mission and we might be able to make Panopticon look bad.

 

[DeltaV11.2]

There is a big difference between exploring the grandeur and majesty and wonder and horror of the ancient Creation and rejecting it, and just ignoring the plot thread because the voters would rather have shiny new equipment.

Click to shrink...

But ignoring ancient Creation implicitly rejects it even more as unimportant. Sure, it doesn't have the satisfaction of a explicit rejection, but isn't that kind of ignoring what we're IC here for in favor of shiny backstory?

Also, no. Just.. arrrgh. No. It is not appropriate for Henriette at all. She hasn't even lived at all as a regular human being before having her brain cut out and shoved into the ULTIMATE CYBER-BODY. Assuming we can actually afford to leave the damn thing unused long enough to be able to carry out the surgery necessary to transplant her brain. Because that would be incredibly stupid in our current circumstances. Or that using it to give Reina a body wouldn't be a better choice anyway...

Click to shrink...

That's why I didn't vote for doing that, duh. We can bring it with us and make the choice of who to use it on later.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Nor do I think you understand what the choice actually is. Getting the RD artifacts is almost certainly the last chance to pick up a narrative thread going back to the very beginning of the Quest. I want to pick that up and bring it to an end, even if that ending is the realization by all of the characters that this mythic past full of grandeur doesn't actually matter as they stride forward into the future. This is not some abstract feeling that we're trading power for some reward; this is a concrete choice between the suit and all of the little bits of Exalted backstory thrown our way. Trading that narrative thread away for UBERCOOL CYBORG BODY and a heartwarming validation for Transhumanism does not appeal to me in the slightest.

Click to shrink...

You guys have convinced me that "the crate of Daiklaives" is important enough narratively that putting it to a vote was a mistake and you should just get it because of what it means for everyone. Instead, replace the crate of daiklaives in the "[ ] Miscellaneous RD Artifacts + R-series "Rambo Specials" + IX-881 Plasma Projector" choice with:

[ ] HT/VARG Variable Agent Response Garb (Agency Variant)
High Threat/Variable Agent Response Garb

• Clean Shirt (Forces 2 self-cleaning)
• New Shoes (Life 3/Mind 1 Enhanced physical strength, agility, minor combat assists)
• Silk Suit (Matter 5 Silksteel armoring protects against non-AP small arms fire, AP assault rifle fire)
• Black tie (Forces 2 nanomaterial coating provides limited optical stealth)
• Gold Watch, Diamond Ring (Mind 2 effect: Can draw attention)
• And Cufflinks, Stick Pin (hidden weapons: Cufflink microgrenades, lapel pin single shot laser
• Top Coat (Matter 3 appearance morphing)
• Top Hat (+3 Style)
• Black Shades (enhanced vision modes-thermal, UV, lidar)
• White Gloves (Forces 2, Prime 2 CQB enhancement)
• Looking Sharp and Looking For Love (can harden/sharpen cuffs to act as edged weapons).

 

[Cavalier]

But ignoring ancient Creation implicitly rejects it even more as unimportant. Sure, it doesn't have the satisfaction of a explicit rejection, but isn't that kind of ignoring what we're IC here for in favor of shiny backstory?

That's why I didn't vote for doing that, duh. We can bring it with us and make the choice of who to use it on later.

Click to shrink...

I want to explore it before rejecting it. If we reject it. I want that choice, not a default ignorance of the whole thing because we dropped that thread. And we're here for firepower to get out of the Amalgam. A plasma gun we can use now is better than a cyberbody we can use after the need is past.

 

[Acatalepsy]

I want to explore it before rejecting it. If we reject it. I want that choice, not a default ignorance of the whole thing because we dropped that thread.

Click to shrink...

I agree with this, and it looks like everyone gets to go home happy.

(I still want that ZERUEL though. Dem micromachines...)

 

[DeltaV11.2]

I want to explore it before rejecting it. If we reject it. I want that choice, not a default ignorance of the whole thing because we dropped that thread. And we're here for firepower to get out of the Amalgam. A plasma gun we can use now is better than a cyberbody we can use after the need is past.

Click to shrink...

Well, thankfully this argument has been rendered irrelevant and we both win. I would say that we're here partially for long-term interests as well- if we were just trying to get out, the door was in the other direction(admittedly it was probably mined, but details).

 

[notanautomaton]

Jamelia's the person who's doing the lootin,' right? So can we have her do a simple Time 3 Entropy 1 effect to pick up more than one thing, with the focus being her super-awesome instincts?

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Well, thankfully this argument has been rendered irrelevant and we both win. I would say that we're here partially for long-term interests as well- if we were just trying to get out, the door was in the other direction(admittedly it was probably mined, but details).

Click to shrink...

It's a Technocracy construct. If you're hostile, assume everything is mined and/or hides explosives. Everything. Even the vending machines. Especially the vending machines. Iteration X has statistics available as to the number of Reality Deviants killed by Union vending machines. It is greater than 1.

Jamelia's the person who's doing the lootin,' right? So can we have her do a simple Time 3 Entropy 1 effect to pick up more than one thing, with the focus being her super-awesome instincts?

Click to shrink...

I was assuming both Harlan and Jamelia were using their talents to loot as fast as they could while trying to also deny as much loot to the enemy as possible.

It's why you're getting all these cool toys instead of like, "a crate of Technocracy standard small arms designed for cyborg use."

 

[Serous]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis

 

[veekie]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis

Include R-9 machinepistols (handguns firing 7.62x51mm ammunition), R-16 assault rifles (fires 12.7x99mm ammunition), R-240 squad support weapons (fires 20x102mm ammunition), R-82 sniper rifles (antimateriel sniper rifle fires L/70 40x364mmR round from 10 round magazine). Also includes R-203 mini-mortar (fires 120mm mortar shells instead of 40mm grenades, 3 round capacity, disposable) attachments to R-16s. Roughly enough weapons to equip 2 ten-man squads.

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So, how many Kesslers worth of dakka is that?

 

[Orm Embar]

[X] MA-38 AESS + IX-881 Plasma Projector
[X] M-1992 ZERUEL Combat Chassis

Well, now that that particular plot thread is secured, we can freely pursue the chassis without locking ourselves out of opportunities down the road. Giving it to Henriette seems to fly in the face of the arc she had earlier in the quest, which culminated in her asking Kessler about how the bad old days actually were. After hearing some horror stories, she decided not to jump the gun on augmentation, and instead pursued the developmental path she's currently on with her paradigm gradually incorporating more NWO stuff about hyperpsych and instinct. I'm not particularly interested in doing a narrative U-turn and having her undergo massive enhancement simply for the hell of it, but seeing more of Reina is appealing. She's my favorite character thus far and having a walking, talking member of the Inner Circle could be extraordinarily useful.

Also, turning one of Project Exemplar's failures into a resounding success by resurrecting Reina might be a nice feather in Serafina's cap when it comes time to deal with Li once and for all. Assuming she doesn't end up defecting, that is; I imagine exposure to Christos probably doesn't help in that department, especially with him going out of the way to praise her for Moscow. She's in a very precarious position at the moment, so who knows how things'll turn out over there.