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Swordland (SAO-inspired, but it makes more sense)

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I'm voting for sunshine because a) a significant portion of the deaths come from infighting that it would help us avoid or take advantage of, b) disguise might work on monsters in which case we can infiltrate the dungeons, c) it's potentially fun and lighthearted, depending on what we make of it.
 
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Lazy Minx said:
...How? Also, people trying to paint me as an unreasonable asshole, bro, that wasn't a compromise. It was a full out sweeping of the board. \
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I'm assuming you mean my comment on the dungeon crawl being mocked? Castle Aincard, the floating castle in SAO. The thing I hate is that castle because it has floors that screw with my understanding of mmorpgs. That thing is neither, an open world, dungeon crawler, or anything, but a franchise toy to sell. There is no kitchen level, no shrine to the departed level, no look onto the land below level, no story questlines traversing all floors. That thing is the declaration this is no game, but a sadistic bullshiters bullshit of sell the sexy.

Edit; And both MB and sunshine use the rogue class with similarities in what makes them special, I'm more partial to sunshine being mistaken as an npc, than the bastard package with the inevitable meme pics.
 
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I am starting to think people do not really get the Xanatos Gambit, lmao. Just a thought that is bubbling.
 
dunk1010 said:
It looks like a Path To Victory [the Human Edition] to me.

Is that not what it is?
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No, that's not what it is at all.

A Xanatos Gambit is a plan for which all foreseeable outcomes benefit the creator — including ones that superficially appear to be failure. The creator predicts potential attempts to thwart the plan, and arranges the situation such that the creator will ultimately benefit even if their adversary "succeeds" in "stopping" them. When faced with a Xanatos Gambit the options are either to accept that the creator will get the upper hand and choose the outcome that is least beneficial to them, or to defeat them by finding a course that they didn't predict.
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You can beat someone who is doing the Xanatos Gambit, a bunch of fucking Gargoyles managed. It does, however, make and keep things interesting.

Especially since we're Xanatos.

Imagine us predicting the whole PKer/Laughing Coffin thing and always being three steps ahead as we crush the entire idea, the entire concept of them even as they think they're particular brand of chaos is winning?

Imagine turning all of that into destorying Kayaba and making sure that he never gets to enjoy watching us flounder around in the little fish bowl he sat us in?
 
Lazy Minx said:
No, that's not what it is at all.



You can beat someone who is doing the Xanatos Gambit, a bunch of fucking Gargoyles managed. It does, however, make and keep things interesting.

Especially since we're Xanatos.

Imagine us predicting the whole PKer/Laughing Coffin thing and always being three steps ahead as we crush the entire idea, the entire concept of them even as they think they're particular brand of chaos is winning?

Imagine turning all of that into destorying Kayaba and making sure that he never gets to enjoy watching us flounder around in the little fish bowl he sat us in?
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That really does look like a nerfed path to victory.

You make it so that every possible path benefits you so that, regardless of outcome, you win somehow if only in minor ways.

Or am I misunderstanding this?
 
Lazy Minx said:
No, that's not what it is at all.

You can beat someone who is doing the Xanatos Gambit, a bunch of fucking Gargoyles managed. It does, however, make and keep things interesting.

Especially since we're Xanatos.

Imagine us predicting the whole PKer/Laughing Coffin thing and always being three steps ahead as we crush the entire idea, the entire concept of them even as they think they're particular brand of chaos is winning?

Imagine turning all of that into destorying Kayaba and making sure that he never gets to enjoy watching us flounder around in the little fish bowl he sat us in?
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That's a bit out there.

I really don't think Prince of Hell would roll over and die that easily. Crushing the idea of LC...I don't even know how that would work. Most of LC are legitimate psychos who are being enabled by the game. How would you go about suppressing them? I actually want to know.

'Destroying' Kayaba is going way to far with a beginning trait. That guy created an entire virtual world and made the game industry a fool by allowing him to put death traps in first gen technology consumer product.

Yuki is a 25 year old girl. How are we expected to believe that she can do anything to Kayaba? He's the master of the world, through his own talents, and as long as people are trapped here, he gets his rocks off. Either you play his game like he wants, or beg Kirito to release everyone if he ever gets to the motherboard instead of reviving his daughteru.

I guess you could try to sabotage Heathcliff, but there's no gurantee he's still Kayaba (to combat meta knowledge) and even if he is, we have no way of knowing that IC, so what ends up happening is that we're way antagonistic to a well respected guild that fights on the front lines, and he can't be killed unless he wants to.

You can't Xanatos someone who holds all the cards and is aware of the game.
 
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Space Multiply said:
That's a bit out there.

I really don't think Prince of Hell would roll over and die that easily. Crushing the idea of LC...I don't even know how that would work. Most of LC are legitimate psychos who are being enabled by the game. How would you go about suppressing them? I actually want to know.

'Destroying' Kayaba is going way to far with a beginning trait. That guy created an entire virtual world and made the game industry a fool by allowing him to put death traps in first gen technology consumer product.

Yuki is a 25 year old girl. How are we expected to believe that she can do anything to Kayaba? He's the master of the world, through his own talents, and as long as people are trapped here, he gets his rocks off. Either you play his game like he wants, or beg Kirito to release everyone if he ever gets to the motherboard instead of reviving his daughteru.

I guess you could try to sabotage Heathcliff, but there's no gurantee he's still Kayaba (to combat meta knowledge) and even if he is, we have no way of knowing that IC, so what ends up happening is that we're way antagonistic to a well respected guild that fights on the front lines, and he can't be killed unless he wants to.

You can't Xanatos someone who holds all the cards and is aware of the game.
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Lmao, you are vastly underestimating our abilities.
 
dunk1010 said:
How is that possible on any level?

How is he "underestimating" the ability to plan?
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Easy. Read what he typed. Now read the blurb that OP wrote for Xanatos Gambit.

Now, tell me this, if he's right, how would the Xantos Gambit work then, if we're not able to plan for something our ability expressly gives us the ability to plan for?

So, yes, at the very least he's underestimating our ability.
 
Lazy Minx said:
No, that's not what it is at all.



You can beat someone who is doing the Xanatos Gambit, a bunch of fucking Gargoyles managed. It does, however, make and keep things interesting.

Especially since we're Xanatos.

Imagine us predicting the whole PKer/Laughing Coffin thing and always being three steps ahead as we crush the entire idea, the entire concept of them even as they think they're particular brand of chaos is winning?

Imagine turning all of that into destorying Kayaba and making sure that he never gets to enjoy watching us flounder around in the little fish bowl he sat us in?
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???

Birdsie said:
Also, if the "Magnificent Bastard" wins then I might have to postpone the Quest for some time to ask my sensei/guru on how to properly write one. He knows everything about writing.
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1). The Xanatos Gambit thing was a write-in that the QM didn't think up for the quest. Granted, Birdsie did approve of the proposal, but clearly it would require a deal of extra work on the QM's part to set up a bunch of elaborate situations for our mastermind to exploit.

2). Kayabe has God Mode in a video game he created. He's immortal. He can also kill us and anyone with a keystroke. Not sure how being a smart-ass is going let us politicaly outmaneuver that. (I will also concede that while understanding how to exploit the game may provide some defense against death-by-admin, our cheating may attract his attention faster. So in this case Magnificent bastard and True Magic are kind of equal but with different strengths and weaknesses).

3). I can't help but think that being a mastermind would work better if we had magic. Like healing or scrying or whatever. It would give more options for clever actions than whatever rogues or thieves can do. Granted, high sneak and a bow and arrow are great... but Sunshine has that option too and doesn't involve the QM pausing the game to set up elaborate flowcharts for our scheme.
 
Lazy Minx said:
Easy. Read what he typed. Now read the blurb that OP wrote for Xanatos Gambit.

Now, tell me this, if he's right, how would the Xantos Gambit work then, if we're not able to plan for something our ability expressly gives us the ability to plan for?

So, yes, at the very least he's underestimating our ability.
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No, I do not think he is.

We know- that kayaba is responsible for the game.
He likes power over our lives.
He is Omnipotent for all intents and purposes in game.

That is not something that will help us beat him in any way. Maybe we could pray to him?

The Coffin but would be something that we have, literally, no way to know, plan for, or avoid in any way but the most abstract: "some people might go murderhobo in a group of millions".


If I am wrong, please explain.
 
I don't like the idea of forcing the GM to give us specific options because we weren't smart enough to come with it on our own. That's outsourcing our ability to plan, cheapening our own agency by playing a character who basically does it for us. That's automating a process that should be intimate.

It seems cheap. It isn't giving us a tool that we can use, but a crutch that we can lean on.

The bad guys have agency to. Their not puppets on our strings.
 
Aaah. Spur of the moment stuff. Not really thought out, or be taken seriously to be honest.

[] The Casual 'Genius': Things always come easy to you. Whether they be real life or online. Games weren't really any different. They were fun, and helped pass the time. Not to mention helped elevate your sense of self awesomenesss. Thing is, anything too hard and you pass it off as not worth your time, or too lazy, or any other form of excuse to not do it because failure meant losing your Genius status.
+ Generally head and shoulders above the average individual in almost any situation-related aspect.
- Increased difficulty when faced with arduous situations. May flat out lock out options deemed "not worth your time" because they happened to be too hard.

[] Faceless In Majority: You're just another pawn on the chessboard. Not a knight. Not a rook. Not even a bishop. You're nobody special, regardless of how good you actually are.
+\- People don't really notice you unless you actively try to draw their attention. What would God want with just another dude?
-\+ You're mostly just another average player. And you know you have limits.
 
At the end of SAO, Kayabe uploaded his mind into his computer through his modded FullDive, while allowing it to kill off his mortal body. He got away with everything. Lol, so much for closure.
 
.....I'm gone for a few hour and after coming back due to being tagged I see the plan I voted for has been spilt into two versions.

What the hell happened?
 
[X] Plan Sunshine in a Bottle

Can we Roleplay as Solaire?
Let us Praise the Sun, because we wont be seeing it for a long time yet.
 
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