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Orc Quest; or, A Critical Examination of Agency Through in Interactive Fiction (Warcraft)

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@FractiousDay I agree with your suggestions, those sound much more fun. How rare is that Flamebender's tome?

[X]Plan: Rogue Son & Friend
-[X] Prudent (-1CP)
-[X] Devious (-2CP)
-[X] Vengeful(+2CP)
-[X] Curious (-3CP)
-[X] Friend (-2CP)
-[X] Existing social obligation (+1CP)
-[X] Hunted (+5CP)

@Warlord D Thoran, @Negation, & @Mavs I made a new plan with QM's suggestions.
 
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VexMasterTyrant said:
Oh well my plan isn't gonna win anyways
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I didn't think Burning Blade would have won either, so you never know. I do also wonder about how to integrate other choices. There are some questing systems I've seen which have all votes influence things a bit, which I can kinda see, but I think would be too complex. I do like the idea of integrating previous choices though, for example the 'Reverse Image' choice from the first chapter which was eventually beaten by the Blademaster choice.
Warmach1ne32 said:
I agree with your suggestions, those sound much more fun.
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You came up with some very interesting narrative hooks in your original plan, so its really just me offering suggestions to optimise it. I'm aware this quest is a little unusual because I'm offering you relatively little freedom because of all the obligations to the clan etc, but that also means I want to be clear on how those obligations really work. I can certainly see the Goblins confiscating things in the manner of a bailiff for non-payment of debt, and I realise that may not be readily apparent to some people as there's sometimes a tendency for options to be entirely independent like in RPG games where you have the 'angry' conversation option or the 'witty' one or whatever. In that sort of game its more difficult to have the interactions but in this interactive fiction is fine because I can just write them. For example, 'Mount+Faction enemy' might be the Centaur being annoyed that your giant wolf has been eating their livestock.
Warmach1ne32 said:
How rare is that Flamebender's tome?
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So says Khadgar, who's a fairly knowledgeable dude, thinks its very interesting:
The Iron Horde, and the Burning Blade clan in particular, have forged a unique relationship with Draenor's ancient elementals. They can work with iron and flame in ways that even I don't fully understand.

This runic language here seems similar to the ignan kalimag dialect spoken by Azeroth's fire elementals. A full translation may take years.

But these parts written in orcish - yes, these I can probably decipher. Not just to bend steel, but to bend elemental power itself to our will.
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That's about the Iron Horde so isn't necessarily relevant to this case, but I think its a safe bet that as one of the more unique clans the Burning Blade have kept up their tradition of writing stuff down, and have added some notes on demonic magic to their books on firebending in Draenor. For the purposes of this quest I'll say there's probably a few around as family heirlooms, some scattered about when they've been taken or looted by other factions. Some are more complete than others, and this one specifically is probably your fathers, given hes called 'Fireblade' and all. I don't imagine he's written much down of note in it given he wasn't senior enough to be in the Shadow Council before it was destroyed etc. The in game text for it implies there are more, so you could probably consider it to be a wizard's grimoire, not necessarily rare because there are plenty of wizards, but rare enough to be notable, which is more important for you because of the Burning Blade's unique traditions.
 
[x]Plan: Rogue Son

I like Rogue, but would also prefer to avoid Hunted. Local Faction Enemy is fine though.
 
Warmach1ne32 said:
It will probably be a danger when we go out adventuring so if we stay near our clan we should be safe for a while until we can take care of ourselves.
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Indeed. Hunted is the most dangerous one which has no peaceful resolution. They're probably hunting you for your farsight abilities, but equally that means you'll be protected and defended. If they're so evil other people (Thrall) will be able to sense them and will oppose them.
 
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I like the mentality you're approaching this with, senor QM. Will be following this with great interest.

[X] Plan: Nascent Spellblade
 
So we've swung from Warrior Scholar, then to Rogue Son, and now to Nascent Spellblade! Most unexpected.

I'll leave the voting open for a bit in case there's another swing to go. I'm somewhat surprised that this choice has been chosen given it gives no bonuses or options to indirect or non-orcy actions. You've got prudent, which will allow more prep and questioning of actions, but you're also honourbound to ignore that questioning sometimes.

A couple of things regarding voting in general, as although this is the first quest I've run there seems to be some obvious arrangements. For example, I'm not planning to close the voting early when its close, although I will be closing it later today. Also, I'm planning to have consequences for voting as I've suggested, for example sub-optimal results and events due to your inability to navigate the competing allegiances involved in Horde vs Azeroth vs Clan. Just to let you know...

Also, here's the narrative that was set up for the Spellblade option previously:

Alectai said:
Good Guy Orc with a strong latent connection to fire, and a more technically focused style to make up for inferior physical strength. One can get away with being a little weaker if you're acting three steps ahead of the other guy and have the potential to really fuck someone up with a touch (If we can tap into that Fire affinity eventually).

The way I see it, while he's not a physically impressive specimen, he has a towering intellect and superlative potential as a captain or general, which is hampered by the fact that Orcs have trouble wrapping their heads around a leader who isn't also the strongest in a straight 1v1 duel.

We'll have to lean hard on the elemental affinities to help compensate for this, but our character's high latent potential in all fields but Air is no fucking joke. Hunted is a dangerous pick--but it also feels right--there's a lot of powers out there invested in keeping the Orcs as a bunch of brutes who can be easily twisted to one cause or another, and seeing someone pop out who could theoretically continue pushing Thrall's agenda once he falls off the wagon would be concerning to some of them.

Now, of course, the other flipside of this is "Potential doesn't really mean anything if you can't rise to the challenge", and poor physical strength and mediocre spiritual resistance kind of makes us catnip for CORRUPTION, which is frustratingly common in Warcraft.

On the other hand, to raise it up requires a brutally expensive premium, and I want our CP to be balanced, so welp.
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Character Creation 3 Results
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    • Adhoc vote count started by FractiousDay on Dec 26, 2020 at 3:17 PM, finished with 68 posts and 21 votes.
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    Voting is now closed!

    Nascent Spellblade wins!

    Rogue Son was leading at the start, but Spellblade then caught up, so that's interesting. I've left it a couple of hours longer to see if there were going to be any other surprise reversals.

    Interestingly there's no immediate ways to get out of obligations, which I find a little unusual but it'll probably be quite interesting to write out as well, and for you to play as the questers. In this plan you've exchanged a more prudent approach to Orcish honour culture for physical advantages of the enchanted sword and magic book. You've also got 'Hunted' which is somewhat more serious, but I won't implement this immediately because you getting ganked in the first chapters would be boring.

    I'll note again that your traits can change. If you choose to 'Investigate Human Honour' or similar you might get the Curious trait eventually, similarly if you consistently choose certain options that conflict with your understanding of honour then you might lose that trait as the character wouldn't be able to maintain their own self-image.

    Under the narrative for the winning plan we have a more technical fighter, preparing for battles, which will ordinarily be mandatory, as will obeying orders, under the dictates of 'Honourbound'. There are going to be certain character traits you'll have already which will have mainly narrative effects, such as being resentful because you're small etc and people make fun of you, but the narrative becomes that you've chosen to prove yourself by honourable actions and martial skill instead. The Elements are indeed your friends in this and are a significant force multiplier, however your low spiritual score will indeed increase risks of corruption.

    I'll start writing the next update tomorrow, so should be out sometime then.
     
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    • I feel like Honourbound will bite us when our Hunters found out that we can't refuse a challenge and gank us for our stuff after the tutorial chapter.
     
    We can't refuse an official challenge, Prudent + Honorbound doesn't mean we're committed to a suicide pact when a Dreadlord jumps us in the wilderness and challenges us to one on one combat, and being honorable doesn't stop us from employing tactics and strategem against potent foes either, it just means we can't resort to shit like poison or blackmail or dark magic to solve our problems for us. There's a lot of crazy shenanigans that can be employed by a well educated expert with near precognitive battle-sense that don't rely on dishonorable skulduggery.

    But we have a build that can escalate up from there--and while Honorbound limits our options, it also makes us a more reliable investment from the perspective of the Horde in general, which means they're invested in seeing us come to our potential--and most importantly, if we reach even a portion of our potential Thrall is going to be able to trust us not to fuck it up like a lot of his other senior officers risk when anything more complex then "Kill Mans" is involved in a theatre. If he gets a level headed captain committed to the idea of keeping the new home of the Orcs in one piece, and has the actual skills to be trusted in the complicated clusterfucks that are Azerothian Wars not to buy more enemies than are removed? You can be damn sure he's going to grab onto that with both hands

    Hunted isn't nothing, it's in fact a big deal! But that's not the same as being doomed, (Especially as it's the only flaw we took, so it can't synergize with the others to give them a legal avenue to fuck us) and the upside of being a notable up and comer with a set of skills Thrall very much wants to see fostered, with an agreeable mindset combined with that Valley of Trials roll we got? The best defense against extralegal shenanigans going on is to have a Great Power invested in seeing you reach your potential, because they'll make sure that kind of extralegal shit doesn't get to act unopposed. In that sense, our mediocre Clan results means they're less likely to go All In to see us dead by blowing their cover to go over Thrall's head to order us into a certain ambush (Because we're not actually a Burning Legion sleeper agent like we should be), because as far as they're concerned, we're a mediocre fighter who has little potential to become an elite by their standards, and are best kept as far away from anything important as they can keep us--but we're not so valuable that they have to risk exposure to eliminate us.

    Surprised my option won TBH! But it's interesting that it did, a character who actually is invested in their home culture rather than a hobo is a nice change of pace, and as we have a net neutral CP we should be relatively balanced.

    Anyway, the Flamebender's Tome is useful in that it gives us a route to master the Ancient Arts of the Burning Blade, which lets us lean into that super Fire Affinity and fairly decent Earth Affinity. We just need to be careful to avoid the Fel Magic additions in the later portion even if they're easier--but the actual Demonic Corruption thing was short-lived enough and the Burning Blade in particular so singleminded about it that it's unlikely they had the foresight to literally go into their old tomes and doctor them to trap the earlier portions on the off-chance someone discovers it later and can restart the cycle. The corrupt portions should be relatively easy to discern based on our traits and skillsets at least?
     
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    Alectai said:
    There's a lot of crazy shenanigans that can be employed by a well educated expert with near precognitive battle-sense that don't rely on dishonorable skulduggery.
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    Glad you're leaning into the narrative more, I'll weigh in on a few specific points. Firstly, Honourbound is more extreme than just 'Honourable'. You are bound by it, you don't just do it most of the time. To use an example, if a Dreadlord did indeed jump out you'd know you have no chance so you'd probably run off, however you'd be obliged to join any force sent out after it, and to eventually kill it. A magically powerful individual can 1v1 a Dreadlord, though this would be difficult. Thrall and Grommash thought they could kill Manneroth, while in WoD Garrosh used his uptime tech instead. Garrosh arranged a subterfuge to draw the Pitlord out and then ambushed him. You'd generally be opposed to ambushes. If you'd gotten Brash you would just have to fight the Dreadlord 1v1 though and get splatted.
    Alectai said:
    makes us a more reliable investment from the perspective of the Horde in general
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    I'm glad you're recognising this. While you're bound by lots of obligations you're also allowed to leverage your connections and community. You can rely on people giving you command and so on.
    Alectai said:
    Thrall very much wants to see fostered, with an agreeable mindset combined with that Valley of Trials roll we got?
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    Thrall probably wants to talk to you actually. Once the report circulates back to the relevant parties and he gets word of a powerful, honourable seer etc. Shaman stuff is regarded very positively in Orcish society and that alone would get you an audience potentially.
    Alectai said:
    mediocre Clan results
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    So from the clan perspective you have a much higher likelihood of being exiled for being weak etc. Draka was born similarly small and her family had to live on the outskirts of the clan settlement and they weren't allowed to go to the festivals because she was a cause of shame etc. If you were of lower rank you'd probably have already been exiled, but because you're higher up, the son of the (public) chief your actions reflect on Feldad. If you managed to perform well they might consider you a more acceptable member of the clan. However you'll probably remain politically unreliable.
    Alectai said:
    The corrupt portions should be relatively easy to discern based on our traits and skillsets at least?
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    Depends, if something's written in demonic yes that would be obvious, but keep in mind that terminology might not be obvious. Kil'jaedan disguised himself as one of the ancestral spirits of Draenor and the in general the Orcs don't have a specific typology like the Kirin Tor do because they just aren't a scholarly culture. The Burning Blade combine shamanism, specifically fire, with other arts but I'm inclined to say they use Arcane to bind elementals, or as Khadgar says to 'bend them' to their will. If there's a passage in the book saying 'Here's how this new spirit taught us to use fire magic better something something fel demons' you won't necessarily perceive that because you don't have a complex understanding of magic in general, so you might accidently go with fel magic.
     
    Well, yes, of course we'd still have to fight it, but point is that Honourbound isn't a suicide pact. We are permitted to do our damndest to get an ideal outcome, and our other skills are well suited to threading the needle.
     
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