Petals of Titanium -- My Life as a Mecha Setting Bridge Bunny Quest
- Thread starter Gazetteer
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Tayta Malikai
200% Space Whale
- Location
- Australia
Ouch. You sure know how to make an implication.
I'll admit, this one tugged at my heartstrings. Just a little. I will say, even though I didn't vote for it, I'm glad that option won. (Who voted to hug Mosi, anyway?
)That mad lad Lee, he's done it again!
:lolHmm... going all-out with Daring is tempting, but I'm wondering whether the power of anime determination applies to this setting - and I feel like it probably doesn't.
Furthermore, I distinctly recall that we stuck by the book in previous engagements, and it worked out well for the most part. Well... for a given value of 'well', anyway.
[X] Conservative
Ouch. You sure know how to make an implication.
I'll admit, this one tugged at my heartstrings. Just a little. I will say, even though I didn't vote for it, I'm glad that option won. (Who voted to hug Mosi, anyway?
Without going through and finding the actual post, looks like this person based on the last tally.
Edit: Hey, I just learned that the names in the tally actually link to the post where the vote was made. No searching required!
The actual vote was for
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[X] Daringly Meticulous
- Location
- United States
I'm confident in North and believe that she can do some amazing things if allowed to shine.
[X] Daringly Meticulous
All that said, if you're looking for a safe option - I recommend broad's approach. Lag and consistency can be managed and parsed through even if its cuts efficiency. Meanwhile, slow responses from conservative is the last thing we need in an evolving battle and faltering on the daring option will lead to horrific consequences.
[X] Daringly Meticulous
All that said, if you're looking for a safe option - I recommend broad's approach. Lag and consistency can be managed and parsed through even if its cuts efficiency. Meanwhile, slow responses from conservative is the last thing we need in an evolving battle and faltering on the daring option will lead to horrific consequences.
- Location
- Aotearoa
[X] Conservative
Battles can take a long time. Or, alternately, we could die fast. Still, is this the Dramatic, Climatic Moment? IDK.
Battles can take a long time. Or, alternately, we could die fast. Still, is this the Dramatic, Climatic Moment? IDK.
Tayta Malikai
200% Space Whale
- Location
- Australia
Pretty sure this is the big reversal that occurs after the whole first arc spent running and getting shot up. So it'll certainly be epic, but there's sure to be one more battle to push out the zealots for good.
After all, we still need time to wrap up the romance and appropriately differentiate between the two approaches we saw for it, and for Anja to make her friendship-affirming reappearance at a suitably climatic moment. It's not over until the opening theme plays!
Also I recall Gazetteer saying somewhere that we're around 2/3rds through the quest, so there's that.
I still maintain my interpretation of His Divine Majesty, Warrior Space Pope myself.
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[X] Daringly Meticulous
You might have something there... but I don't trust it. Pattern recognition. When has "we can do X later" ever worked out in a quest? Particularly this one, where we have yet to receive two similar votes, let alone in a row? Either something will come up that keeps us occupied, or we'll be too late, or both.
This quest has been extremely unforgiving. The time to pull out all the stops is when we are able to pull out all the stops. And if anime logic doesn't work out? Well, it could hardly be much worse than our "successes".
[X] Daringly Meticulous
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Okay, now while I pretty much always lose the votes in this quest, this time I'm going to make a case that we absolutely do not want to be daringly meticulous here. Why? Because what it's going to rely on is Amani's full and undivided attention. That's what it says on the tin.
If we do that, we can't spare any time to try to sway anything else going on out there. Just the strategic level.
That means that Amani's voice is going to be lost as Lori, Mom, and Mosi are all out here. Mom's dropping death flags right and left. Mosi is going to be able to scan for Mom and will beeline straight to her, and she's still on the mindset where she's going to try to kill our Mom.
Lori's going to be gunning for Mosi if she can. She might hate herself afterwards, and it might not be easy for Amani or Mom, either, if she succeeds, but I get the impression she'll kill Mosi next chance she gets, now. Mosi's gotten away twice, and things have gotten worse because of it, and Lori won't give her a third chance.
When these three clash, do you want Amani to be unable to drop in a word? Or, perhaps, a choice between "let the strategic level falter to save Mom and/or Lori"? The right approach from Amani at the right time might tip Mosi back, and if so, it'd be a strategic win in itself, not just a personal one, to get this pilot and her advanced mecha to, at the least, stand down, if not give us information and/or surrender.
Pick something else. Please.
[X] Conservative
If we do that, we can't spare any time to try to sway anything else going on out there. Just the strategic level.
That means that Amani's voice is going to be lost as Lori, Mom, and Mosi are all out here. Mom's dropping death flags right and left. Mosi is going to be able to scan for Mom and will beeline straight to her, and she's still on the mindset where she's going to try to kill our Mom.
Lori's going to be gunning for Mosi if she can. She might hate herself afterwards, and it might not be easy for Amani or Mom, either, if she succeeds, but I get the impression she'll kill Mosi next chance she gets, now. Mosi's gotten away twice, and things have gotten worse because of it, and Lori won't give her a third chance.
When these three clash, do you want Amani to be unable to drop in a word? Or, perhaps, a choice between "let the strategic level falter to save Mom and/or Lori"? The right approach from Amani at the right time might tip Mosi back, and if so, it'd be a strategic win in itself, not just a personal one, to get this pilot and her advanced mecha to, at the least, stand down, if not give us information and/or surrender.
Pick something else. Please.
[X] Conservative
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Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
How, precisely, do you expect Amani to be able to speak with Mosi or assist Nalah from her current position? Dropping in a word to Perbeck is the only one I could maybe see being an option, and frankly if she manages to kill Mosi I'll take that as a win at this point. Turning her would be preferable but seems sufficiently improbable that I'm not interested in sacrificing our own allies for the sake of a shot at it.
No, right now the best way to keep everyone (except Mosi I guess) safe is by doing our damn job. There's room for debate as to how best we could accomplish that, of course, but my inclination is to pull out all the stops here - on an IC level we're at enough of a disadvantage that we need any edge we can get, and on an OOC one I don't expect the "right" answer to be the same every time so arguments based on past by-the-book success don't grab me.
[X] Daringly Meticulous
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
What are the failure modes here? Because remember, in this quest, people die when we flub rolls. We have to chose who dies on partial successes.
Conservative- we are going to be slower to react to things past the far edges of our own scan radius, which is pretty big. We also may be slower to react to things hiding in patches of debris or radiation, depending on angles and range. So, ambush and extreme-long-range fire.
Broad- we are going to lose patches of coverage as we lose allies, which might allow foes to sneak close. In places where sensors disagree, we could be sending bad or out of date data to guns and helm. So lowered combat effectiveness, chance of ambush.
Daringly meticulous- it seems like this could fail one of three ways. Fallback to broad, fallback to conservative, or fall apart completely. Given we don't get to chose between the first two, I'm thinking the third is most likely. And this means that we'd get the worst of both worlds: lower combat effectiveness, empty patches as allies fall, and likelyhood of missing things at the far ranges and strange angles.
These are all three different ways of trying to get at the same objective, but it seems like not failing is more important to survival of everyone than succeeding brilliantly.
And, we'd basically be doing the same thing for conservative and daring (hop through other scan feeds looking for things the current map is missing) but daring adds the addition task of integration, and additional risk if we don't keep all the plates spinning.
Conservative- we are going to be slower to react to things past the far edges of our own scan radius, which is pretty big. We also may be slower to react to things hiding in patches of debris or radiation, depending on angles and range. So, ambush and extreme-long-range fire.
Broad- we are going to lose patches of coverage as we lose allies, which might allow foes to sneak close. In places where sensors disagree, we could be sending bad or out of date data to guns and helm. So lowered combat effectiveness, chance of ambush.
Daringly meticulous- it seems like this could fail one of three ways. Fallback to broad, fallback to conservative, or fall apart completely. Given we don't get to chose between the first two, I'm thinking the third is most likely. And this means that we'd get the worst of both worlds: lower combat effectiveness, empty patches as allies fall, and likelyhood of missing things at the far ranges and strange angles.
These are all three different ways of trying to get at the same objective, but it seems like not failing is more important to survival of everyone than succeeding brilliantly.
And, we'd basically be doing the same thing for conservative and daring (hop through other scan feeds looking for things the current map is missing) but daring adds the addition task of integration, and additional risk if we don't keep all the plates spinning.
Wiadi
Uncompromising Radical Leftist
- Location
- Something Clever
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Pretty sure this quest doesn't actually use dice, we just automatically get "partials" with our choices determining what (and how good) the options to choose between are. Give me a bit & I think I can dredge up some earlier discussion on the topic...
EDIT: found it!
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- Location
- Illinois
- Pronouns
- Ze/Zer/Zem
Actually, that's part of the reason I'm thinking about you meticulous. See, because Conservative says, "This may slow your response time to urgent information sent from other sources, however," I'm afraid that we might not be able to see it or react in time. And I really want us to be able to do that. If @Tayta Malikai is right about us being two thirds of the way through, then, to reference Gundam: Seed, then this most closely corresponds to the battle outside Orb. If that is an accurate comparison, and considering what happened on Iaptus there are some parallels, I am very afraid about what happens next.
Also, I loved that last chapter and I loved how our choice turn out. Thank you for making this quest.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
That's fair, but I'm more worried about what the advantages that conservative has implies about the weaknesses of the other approaches.
We still get the long-range data and things, but within our effective weapon range it is more reliable. Let's not be the weak link.
Daring to me means we are more likely to miss the shots we take, and our point defense is weaker.
Night_stalker
Slava Ukraini!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Conservative
- Location
- Aotearoa
Having seen more of her, under my imaginary system, I think I now grasp Mosi well enough to make her mini playbook, clearly meant to explore what 'surviving' really means.
Scarred Survivor
Mosi North
+0 Grace - Grace Under Pressure;
+3 Guts - Direct Attack; Endure Fire
+0 Guile - Read a Person; Get What You Want
-2 Galant - Pull Rank; Heroic Defence (protect another)
+2 Gifted - Assess a Situation; Proper Procedure
With at least one or two playbook moves:
Survivor: You do whatever it takes to survive. +1 Guts, and you can burn a Bond (relationship) to roll Guts in place of Grace when threatened with immanent deadly harm- if you have none to burn, the QM will give someone a Death Flag. Maybe even you.
Still doing whatever it takes: When you Assess a Situation, you can always ask "What can I sacrifice to survive this?" even on a failed roll. The QM will tell you the price. If you pay it, take +1 Forward to survive the situation.
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- Location
- Aotearoa
If this is the core 'Intimacy Move' of the setting- perhaps exploring what principles are worth in the face of brutal war, or similar... That could be pretty explanatory.
Dame North- the Haunted Knight- When you survive a Battle, choose someone who definitely made it out alive. The QM will tell you another person who was lost. Decide if this is your fault- if it could be seen as such by someone who matters, they may just be MIA.
(This was of course her post-Ceres move).
Mosi North- the Scarred Survivor- When you survive a Battle, someone else pays the price. If you won, they were on your side. Tell the QM who, they will tell you what the price was.
Amani North- the Bridge Bunny- When you survive a Battle in which you played an active role, choose two- immediate personal safety; a Strategic Goal wasn't failed; the losses weren't personal.
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