Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest

Sirrocco · Sep 16, 2023

King crimson said:
Does that sufficiently clarify things?

It does! Thank you.

Then we turn around to the other side of things that we're interested in which is, broadly, Superman. As much as possible, we'd like to render his advantages superfluous while increasing access to his weaknesses and to viable responses to him as a threat. (More Kryptonite!) It's also the case that the US is going to have a number of ways to prosecute this war, and the things we help them out on are likely to be the things they use a lot of.

Oh, and we're going to be building up our own superheroes as well, and we want to have the Really Good Gear for them, ideally in a way that allows us to kit them out without having to take a full action on custom gear each time.

So... things I see?

- Modular Exosuit. basically, it's a way to set things up so that different supers with different needs can all find something useful from the stack (all of them Powered By Kryptonite, naturally). Even better if we can use that to offer a customizable battlesuit to the military that can go up and down the reasonable price range - everything from suits of full-body armor that it might make sense to equip standard infantry with that can let you shrug off small arms fire or survive a mine or grenade to the really elite high-end stuff that might let you and 11 of your closest buddies actually give Superman a serious reason to maybe not attack this particular convoy/base/whatever after all.

Doing it right is going to involve some heavy investment in power armor tech, and is best done after we've gotten as much as we're going to get out of the Brainiac tech, but could result in significant wins in three different places that we have strong reason to care about - monetary income, LexCorp Sponsored Superhero effectiveness, and Superman marginalization.

Happily, that's a nicely long-term desire on the part of the US military. It's all about having a response to metahumans that doesn't require that you have metahumans, and that one isn't going away any time soon. The Russia stuff is potentially a lot more immediate.

- Brainiac tech is likely to give us some really nice spyware boosts. Once we get all of that through the pipe, it should be a single low-DC action with an easy win for a quick buck and some happy customers.

- If we ever do manage to pick up Doc Brown, then Ration Pack improvements are another one of those quick wins.

- I wanted to propose "The AK-47, except it runs on Kryptonite", but the time for that is not now. Currently, the US government sees him as a strategic asset. They're not going to want to flood the battlefields of the Cold War with weapons that are specifically capable of doing him harm. Ah, well.

Randino Treviani · Sep 16, 2023

jonasquinn said:
Which is also true of Brainiac tech btw.

Only if we pick the right tech in subvotes. Brainiac tech is too broad. There are techs that could apply but no guarantee we pick them, where improve lasers is guaranteed to drop DC do to Odin's nature as a laser based weapon.

jonasquinn said:
Hence why we should go for the Wells option.

We should probably take the wells options turn 33, but Odin is higher priority and wells options will benefit enough from improve lasers that it's more worthwhile to do the later action first turn 32. Depending on our degree of success the wells action could become auto-success.

Simon_Jester said:
Is it really that important to us to dominate laser rifle technology?

If we've got the US military as a buyer then the answer is "yes," because that's a very profitable market that we don't want to lose.

If we're not selling the laser rifles far and wide to major national militaries, then us falling behind the curve probably isn't so important. Like, I'm sure some of our security personnel still use bullet-firing handguns, and it isn't a disaster if those handguns are weapons we purchase from another corporation (such as the DCQU counterpart of, oh, Glock or Beretta) rather than being an in-house LexCorp manufacture. There are limits to vertical integration, and those limits boil down to basic common sense.

@King crimson , can you list which kinds of LexCorp weapons sell well? It'd give us a clue as to which things we actually need to remain competitive in.

Definitely. We do want to dominate laser rifle weaponry, but more than just a major high stakes project for the US government we have only 7 turns and who knows what obstacles to finish, ODIN is also probably the Ace up our sleeve when it comes to dealing with the impending Kryptonian invasion. We need it ready and prepared for multiple kryptonean combat, so taking an action that benefits developing both it and future laser rifles production first is a more economic move.

King crimson said:
[ ] Sell close to home
DC 9 The United States government likes having shiny new toys and LexCorp sells only the best. Sell some of your newest stock to make some money and earn some friends in the military.

Depending on several factors, this is probably a must take for turn 33.

Some other points I'd like to make.

Preparing for Trigon is too high for just Rebecca now. Until we get occultists she can work with, we are better off taking Learn about Demonology instead, which would have a DC of ten with her.

Improve our current space building action has a DC of 13 as of turn 31, possibly going down depending on learn about space and improve construction machines subvotes. It's a good action to take both for Odin and our long term space plans.

We've succeeded at every Build a Lexcorp building since since turn 28, which has probably taken a decent chunk out of the 1500 workers we've recruited since, especially with the assumption that the trend continues turn 32. We need an influx of workers. With Bruce away from Gotham turn 32, it's a prime opportunity to meet with Selina kyle and arrange one. Turn 22 results indicates that Selina was able to sneak 3000 workers to us with Bruce none the wiser with success left over to smuggle a bunch of stolen wealth with them. A similar arrangement could tide us over for quite a while without needing the D'Ameris twins or Lex lead team assigned. She owes us two favors anyways and this as much a favor to her as it is to us, so even if the success isn't impressive getting an agreement would be easy. We could also cash a favor to arrange for her to rob Dukeston and send Krok after the guy who robbed the bank in Alexandria, saving us the trouble of spending actions and assigning a team to it ourselves.

we also have a unique opportunity turn 32. Bruce Wayne(and with him the batman) is leaving Gotham. Sure he is coming to metropolis, but that's hardly an opportunity for Lex. What is an Opportunity, and will annoy Bruce more than anything we get up to during his visit, is going to Gotham While he's in metropolis. Realistically the Jokers trip makes pulling off a Lexpo much harder since the Clown Prince of Crime can act as a big distraction for more subtle, and efficient sabotage or theft by operatives of foreign governments. Better to wait a turn until the distraction is gone, and take the chance to go to gotham and shake things up on Wayne. It would allow for a much more personal touch and good fun in visiting Gotham right after seriously pissing off wayne industries. Lexpo can be taken later for little cost and possibly some gain, but a chance to play while we know the Bat and Joker are away? This opportunity won't come again.

I like the idea of fouling up everything Bruce has planned for metropolis not by any direct sabotage, but because he is too distracted worried about what we are doing in gotham. It appeals to the prankster in me.

King crimson said:
The big one is exosuits. The US military is very, very interested in exosuits as military tech, especially if it's a viable counter to metahumans. Beyond that missile defense systems (with a priority on defense against nuclear missiles), long range missile systems (which you've already worked on), viable combat capable spacecraft (the US government isn't heavily investing into this because they think it's unfeasible to be viable any time soon but they'd be interested in this), easy to use simple handheld weaponry to equip foreign combatants with for a cold war style conflict, better rations and spyware. This section is by no means exhaustive, it's just some specific things I could think of that the US government is interested in that Lex could conceivably know the us government is interested in.

I think that should give you a pretty clear idea of things. The very broad strokes is that the US fears that they're getting into a potential cold war conflict with Russia. As such their main priorities are ensuring they can inflict MAD on Russia, ensuring that Russia's ability to inflict MAD is as limited as possible, gathering information, creating weapons that can be easily distributed to the appropriate parties and developing tech/systems/organizations to handle potential metahuman threats.

Does that sufficiently clarify things?

I'll add to this by saying that cloak tech we intend to reverse for Ra will also sell well.

we already have the better rations from turn 29, we just need a PR campaign to counter negative press, which will be easy with our expansion of lightyear entertainment.

Our surveillance drones will sell.
Anti missile guardian laser style defense system is another thing that will be made easier by improve lasers, though I think we already employ a short range version of it as one of the defenses in metropolis tower? Either way, a nation wide system will need significantly more accurate targetting system.

We have the worlds most advanced cyber security already. In the next three or four turns we'll probably do enough brainiac tech to drop the DC on improving it sufficiently to take with felicity and make something even better so we can sell the old system to the government just when their getting desperate.

Intel is also going to be a premium, which is why we should set up a spy network ahead of time before Europe and Asia go cold enough to raise the dc. No point on relying on our allies for every scrap of intel we gain.

Longterm if we can establish a Tower in each nation in Eilings G7 and build zeta stations to allow for effortless transport of agents between them it'll allow a level of coordination that they will appreciate to the point of earning us far more than just money. Remind me which nations those are?

Forcefield tech as a final defense will also sell well.

Sirrocco · Sep 17, 2023

Randino Treviani said:
we already have the better rations from turn 29, we just need a PR campaign to counter negative press, which will be easy with our expansion of lightyear entertainment.

Didn't the better rations have some weird science issue wrong with them? The thing that sunk Farmer Brown? I could swear that I remember something like that.

HavocOrder0999 · Sep 17, 2023

Sirrocco said:
Didn't the better rations have some weird science issue wrong with them? The thing that sunk Farmer Brown? I could swear that I remember something like that.

The ration packs are fine, just that the science behind it could be considered "dangerous" due to it being new territory, so we'd have to take an action to convince people it's safe, otherwise LexCorp could face the same backlash Enoch Brown did.

Results: Rapid growth ration package created and is effective, discovered some of Enoch Brown's research, discovered that you will need to heavily market and campaign for the ration package before you can release it at large without potential pushback.

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

Sirrocco said:
Didn't the better rations have some weird science issue wrong with them? The thing that sunk Farmer Brown? I could swear that I remember something like that.

People spooked his giant pig and it rampaged, and then his competitors in the food industry used the scandal plus general ignorance to push an inaccurate idea about growth serum food we simply need to advertise to counter.

HavocOrder0999 said:
The ration packs are fine, just that the science behind it could be considered "dangerous" due to it being new territory, so we'd have to take an action to convince people it's safe, otherwise LexCorp could face the same backlash Enoch Brown did.

Yup. With Lightyear Entertainment drastically expanded it should be much easier now.

King crimson said:
[ ] Begin marketing the rapid growth ration package
DC 64 The rapid growth ration package is currently a bit controversial. However, with sufficient campaigning you are confident that you can get it to be a viable and accepted commodity and begin to make money off of it that way.

Though probably still need at least Marie on it.

PickleJar · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
To jump back to the Iron Dome example, because I like that one, the way the Iron Dome system works (in a massively oversimplified manner) is that it detects the launch of a rocket, calculates the trajectory of that rocket and then intercepts it by firing another one along the projected path of arrival. It's completely unable to account for missiles that could stop, or redirect themselves on a dime. With IRL tech, it's simply not worth it to develop missiles/rockets that are capable of such feats as those systems would compromise a missile/rocket's ability to quickly hit its target accurately.

I think that this is slightly misleading. The argument wasn't that the Iron Dome could shoot flying people out of the sky (it can't even shoot planes out of the sky, or at least it wasn't designed to do so), but that systems that can knock human-sized targets out of the sky exist (he argued that people are too small for such systems to reliably hit them).

Generally, Surface-to-air missiles can easily cover 3 km in one second, with the fastest ones breaking Mach 10 and IIRC NASAMS 3 has an effective range of 25 km with some other systems reaching even 35 km. Unless you have some way of seeing them coming preemptively, are already in high-speed motion, or some combination of the two, you are not dodging them (assuming that you aren't superhuman, obviously). For human targets, they only need to be in your general vicinity and explode to take you out as well, which is why the Iron Dome example was necessary since for targets this fragile you don't need a direct hit or anything close to it.

Obviously these are extreme examples but I think that the point still stands overall.

Fighter jets have technologies that can locate them as they're fired and they are constantly on the move and at multi-mach speeds as well, so I think that the comparison is unfair.

Simon_Jester said:
Is it really that important to us to dominate laser rifle technology?

I think so since Laser rifles read to me as a sort of "basic" advanced combat tech. They aren't limited by ballistics and have superior piercing power to bullets. Both of these factors make them usable for all ranges of combat, from close range to ultra-long range and even planetary scale attacks.

Randino Treviani said:
Preparing for Trigon is too high for just Rebecca now. Until we get occultists she can work with, we are better off taking Learn about Demonology instead, which would have a DC of ten with her.

Another reason to get occultists is to find someone who can train Jinx and hopefully increase her learning, with us manually increasing her learning after that via stat boosts. After all, it's easier to got from 13 to 14 than from 19 to 20 and it's a shame to invest exp at that level.

Randino Treviani said:
We've succeeded at every Build a Lexcorp building since since turn 28, which has probably taken a decent chunk out of the 1500 workers we've recruited since, especially with the assumption that the trend continues turn 32. We need an influx of workers. With Bruce away from Gotham turn 32, it's a prime opportunity to meet with Selina kyle and arrange one. Turn 22 results indicates that Selina was able to sneak 3000 workers to us with Bruce none the wiser with success left over to smuggle a bunch of stolen wealth with them. A similar arrangement could tide us over for quite a while without needing the D'Ameris twins or Lex lead team assigned. She owes us two favors anyways and this as much a favor to her as it is to us, so even if the success isn't impressive getting an agreement would be easy. We could also cash a favor to arrange for her to rob Dukeston and send Krok after the guy who robbed the bank in Alexandria, saving us the trouble of spending actions and assigning a team to it ourselves.

You are very big on Selina for some reason I see. Back then it was after the Menagerie riot though, so if you want a similar result then I'd wait until after Bain makes his move on Gotham and there are plenty of "refugees" around.

Randino Treviani said:
we also have a unique opportunity turn 32. Bruce Wayne(and with him the batman) is leaving Gotham. Sure he is coming to metropolis, but that's hardly an opportunity for Lex. What is an Opportunity, and will annoy Bruce more than anything we get up to during his visit, is going to Gotham While he's in metropolis. Realistically the Jokers trip makes pulling off a Lexpo much harder since the Clown Prince of Crime can act as a big distraction for more subtle, and efficient sabotage or theft by operatives of foreign governments. Better to wait a turn until the distraction is gone, and take the chance to go to gotham and shake things up on Wayne. It would allow for a much more personal touch and good fun in visiting Gotham right after seriously pissing off wayne industries. Lexpo can be taken later for little cost and possibly some gain, but a chance to play while we know the Bat and Joker are away? This opportunity won't come again.

I like the idea of fouling up everything Bruce has planned for metropolis not by any direct sabotage, but because he is too distracted worried about what we are doing in gotham. It appeals to the prankster in me.

Lex has better things to do than this IMO.

Randino Treviani said:
Anti missile guardian laser style defense system is another thing that will be made easier by improve lasers, though I think we already employ a short range version of it as one of the defenses in metropolis tower? Either way, a nation wide system will need significantly more accurate targetting system.

Brainiac has something like this that we can reverse engineer IIRC

Randino Treviani said:
We have the worlds most advanced cyber security already. In the next three or four turns we'll probably do enough brainiac tech to drop the DC on improving it sufficiently to take with felicity and make something even better so we can sell the old system to the government just when their getting desperate.

It will make infiltrating the government harder for us should we want to.

Randino Treviani said:
Intel is also going to be a premium, which is why we should set up a spy network ahead of time before Europe and Asia go cold enough to raise the dc. No point on relying on our allies for every scrap of intel we gain.

A spy network is a must for turn 33. Intelligence is immensely valuable and we are lacking in it.

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

Nobody134 said:
You are very big on Selina for some reason I see. Back then it was after the Menagerie riot though, so if you want a similar result then I'd wait until after Bain makes his move on Gotham and there are plenty of "refugees" around.

It was arranged pre menagerie riots because Selina was already feeling overwhelmed keeping her swelling organizations none combatants safe. Brainiac was 3 turns ago and because they allied with Batman to target the shrink devices they took the brunt of his retaliation.

King crimson said:
Somehow, against all odds, Batman and the Menagerie managed to get the explosives into place and destroy the structure. Batman felt a momentary bit or relief and satisfaction before it was promptly once more swallowed up by despair and a feeling of helplessness. When the alien invader's forces suddenly grew vastly more deadly and effective, Batman realized that they had never been a serious threat to the alien invader. The alien invader had been deliberately holding back this entire time and now as things escalated the casualties were only going to mount. He felt despair but still endeavored to fight on.

So they likely have hundreds of former combatants who are now forced to a none combatant roll by injuries on top of whatever more civilian members they accrued as they expanded their territory and influence during and after the menagerie riots over the last two years. There is also the crimewave that followed Brainiac, particularly scarecrow and other loons, as well as the beating Menagerie has been receiving recently from batman and the negative optics from the recent breakout, with pressure from bane moving his army into Gotham piecemeal contributing to how overwhelmed they feel. Their ripe and swollen with more people than they can protect with their Brainiac losses and an increasingly crowded Gotham criminal underground.

King crimson said:
"The whole gang became a way for outsiders to find a place to belong in and as such we've got a lot of people who can't support themselves or fight properly, including kids, as members" Selina continued elaborating "As such they need to go somewhere because when tensions in Gotham boil over, and they well with the heavy lean on ideology the Menagerie has, it'll be the weak and defenseless in our group who suffer the most. As such we need to get them somewhere else"

This has already started happening again, as indicated by there steady losses and being forced to escalate to ensure they didn't lose one of their best fighters, even if the jail break only added to their list of competitors, and before bane has even begun acting overtly enough in the criminal underworld of Gotham for us to take note of, and it will only get worse. Menagerie needed us to drain the excess blood two turns ago, but they'll be eager enough and swollen enough now.

Nobody134 said:
Lex has better things to do than this IMO.

It isn't necessary for Lex to personally be assigned to the action for him to go on the trip...

King crimson said:
[ ] Attend a welcome home party for Bruce Wayne
DC 0 (the roll just affects who is there. Assigning a hero unit to this action does give you some more prep time and will prevent some things from blindsiding you)
Roll 92 (a lot of people will show up and there will be plenty of opportunities)

Details will be expanded on in the Welcome Home Wayne interlude

As we see during the original trip to gotham. While not a likely possibility, we may even be able to work visiting Gotham while Bruce Wayne is in metropolis into the Welcome Wayne subvote as a sort of open snub, though we'd probably just spend a few days in that case and King crimson might shoot it down. Either way, we don't necessarily need to have Lex assigned to a "Visit Gotham while Bruce Wayne is in Metropolis" action to take it. Even I'll admit there are better places to assign lex, but if it isn't monopolizing the turn so much as briefly making use of a rare opportunity it's worth an action if the DC is reasonable. Otherwise go with just meeting Selina if it really is too much trouble.

Nobody134 said:
Brainiac has something like this that we can reverse engineer IIRC

Thought he did but wasn't sure and It was late where I am. Thanks. That makes things easier.

Nobody134 said:
It will make infiltrating the government harder for us should we want to.

It'll make hacking the government harder. I'll say the position of trust and dependence it grants us alongside when added to everything else we are going to provide will encourage from the G7 will make old fashion sapient infiltration easier than ever, and once we have someone inside who knows the codes, it doesn't really matter how resistant to hacking they are.

Nobody134 said:
A spy network is a must for turn 33. Intelligence is immensely valuable and we are lacking in it.

100% behind you on this. Honestly it's tempting to have Lex lead the action himself to ensure the spy network is personally loyal to him with typical Lex manipulated loyalty, but as always it's up in the air what we'll assign Lex too.

Also, for turn 32 Lex action, I doubt we'll be dealing with another 3 crit fails, but none the less, I get the feeling we all agree an occultist recruitment needs a double down to guarantee at least a single reroll.

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
[ ] Collect Brainiac tech
DC 53
Roll 68
Bare success

@King crimson isn't clearing the DC by 15 or more typically a decent success?

PickleJar · Sep 17, 2023

So here's a fun exercise. I took the list of actions that, from my understanding, players want. I assumed 3 doctors with at leat one of them having good Stewardship and 2 of them having good coops with Karl (which is the goal of the action IMO).

This isn't a suggestion to fill in the blanks and it isn't a "plan" but rather it's an attempt to lay down our resources for next turn at this point.

I think that it's a good thinking exercise to decide which other actions we should take, what things we can commit to, or how our priority list looks. This isn't necessarily the most ideal unit distribution or anything since, again, that's not the point.

I also separated child actions from normal actions since they don't "count" as actions for the purposes of our limit.

Actions thus far (21 + 3? child actions):

Carol and Roxanne crush crime in Metropolis (Martial) - Carol + Roxanne (+92)
Build labs with the twins (Stewardship) (Double down) - Vivian + Constance (+78)
Have Siobhan train her powers with Leslie (Martial) - Siobhan + Leslie + Lisa (+90)
Have someone go to therapy with Rene (Either one of Paige or Artemis should she seem like she needs it assuming that we get her) (Diplomacy) - Renne + Artemis/Paige (+25 and some debuff)
Build new Lexcorp building (Stewardship) - London? No units.
Try to finish Zeta tubes (Stewardship) - Frost + Moon (+39)
Meet Amy (Diplomacy) - Hopefully just Oswald (+19 and another 5 at the end of the roll from his trait. Maybe +39 based on if Amy's a child for this action)
Start our superhero team (Diplomacy) - Marie + Lance (19 + Lance's contribution)
Develop Biyalia (Stewardship) - Carl (+17)
Develop Alexandria (Stewardship) - Nathan (+19)
Continue rebuilding Metropolis (Stewardship) - Leonard + Sam + Mick (+49)
Build a hospital (Stewardship) - Felicity + doctor? (Varies)
Hire magic users (Diplomacy) - Lex + Pamela + Paige? (Without Paige +82. With Paige + 98)
Start music company (Stewardship, would depend on Lightyear expansion results) - Hopefully this gets resolved with Lightyear's expansion.
Deal with Le Blanc (probably Intrigue) - Talia + Lady Vic (+49)
Tech for Ra's (Learning, probably rifles) - Louise (+17)
Another tech for Ra's (Learning) - Caitlin (+40 after Learning increase)
Bone Serum (Learning) - Karl + 2 doctors? (Varies)
Improve Lasers (Learning) - Meena (+25)
Life Model Decoy development (Learning) - Turgo (+24)

***

Indoctrinate Raven (Intrigue) (Double down) - Raven + Jinx + Helena + Mercy (Varies based on Helena contribution)
Child action for Cassandra - Cassandra (Varies based on stat)
Child action for Artemis? - Herbert + Artemis? (Varies)

Remaining Resources

Katherine Kane, Rebecca Carstairs, Mari McCabe, Edward Nygma, Lucy Lane, Lana Lang, Fixit and Starfire

Jade Crock as supporting help.

1X Double Down

Actions in the list that some people disagreed with along with their argument

Therapy with Rene - The impact that we are hoping to see from this action is not likely to happen.

Building a hospital - Not enough bang for our buck.

Additional thoughts:

* We probably want to meet with Vertigo this turn to come up with a preemptive agreement. I'm not sure if it's worth putting anyone on this action since the DC is 10.

* I think that we should have Starfire help with Cassandra's child action this turn. The most notable team-up is their Martial (+83) but a Diplomacy team-up is also viable (+60). Personally, I'd prefer to teach Cassandra strategy and tactics to prop up her Martial/Stewardship/Intrigue, but if we want to meet Cassandra Sandsmark for example then now would be a good turn for it. (Personally I don't see Cassandra Sandsmark as anything more than a Martial beatstick)

* We should wait until our meeting with Queen Bee to commit any more resources for the next turn.

* @King crimson What is the DC for Paige's therapy? Also, can we get some action to investigate Mandragora to potentially make Helena's attempt on his life easier for her?

* A lot of this may change based on our meeting with Queen Bee and additional actions that might become available next turn.

* This doesn't address Batman

jonasquinn · Sep 17, 2023

Randino Treviani said:
Only if we pick the right tech in subvotes. Brainiac tech is too broad. There are techs that could apply but no guarantee we pick them, where improve lasers is guaranteed to drop DC do to Odin's nature as a laser based weapon.

Sure but considering the amount of Brainiac related stuff that would effect ODIN (Lasers, computer tech, space tech) odds are we will pick at least one or two that will impact it.

Honestly I'm kinda of the opinion that we should never not be doing Brainiac tech, we have such a massive backlog that we kinda constantly need to be working through it.

Randino Treviani said:
We should probably take the wells options turn 33, but Odin is higher priority and wells options will benefit enough from improve lasers that it's more worthwhile to do the later action first turn 32. Depending on our degree of success the wells action could become auto-success.

Fair, I'm just worried about someone else doing it before we do. The option has been around for quite a while after all.

Randino Treviani said:
Preparing for Trigon is too high for just Rebecca now. Until we get occultists she can work with, we are better off taking Learn about Demonology instead, which would have a DC of ten with her.

Ideally I'd also like Raven on that but that would delay it.

Randino Treviani said:
We've succeeded at every Build a Lexcorp building since since turn 28, which has probably taken a decent chunk out of the 1500 workers we've recruited since, especially with the assumption that the trend continues turn 32. We need an influx of workers. With Bruce away from Gotham turn 32, it's a prime opportunity to meet with Selina kyle and arrange one. Turn 22 results indicates that Selina was able to sneak 3000 workers to us with Bruce none the wiser with success left over to smuggle a bunch of stolen wealth with them. A similar arrangement could tide us over for quite a while without needing the D'Ameris twins or Lex lead team assigned. She owes us two favors anyways and this as much a favor to her as it is to us, so even if the success isn't impressive getting an agreement would be easy. We could also cash a favor to arrange for her to rob Dukeston and send Krok after the guy who robbed the bank in Alexandria, saving us the trouble of spending actions and assigning a team to it ourselves.

we also have a unique opportunity turn 32. Bruce Wayne(and with him the batman) is leaving Gotham. Sure he is coming to metropolis, but that's hardly an opportunity for Lex. What is an Opportunity, and will annoy Bruce more than anything we get up to during his visit, is going to Gotham While he's in metropolis. Realistically the Jokers trip makes pulling off a Lexpo much harder since the Clown Prince of Crime can act as a big distraction for more subtle, and efficient sabotage or theft by operatives of foreign governments. Better to wait a turn until the distraction is gone, and take the chance to go to gotham and shake things up on Wayne. It would allow for a much more personal touch and good fun in visiting Gotham right after seriously pissing off wayne industries. Lexpo can be taken later for little cost and possibly some gain, but a chance to play while we know the Bat and Joker are away? This opportunity won't come again.

Ehh I'm not sure how useful that would be and I'm hesitant to touch the delicate ecosystem that is Gotham while Batman is in our city.

Randino Treviani said:
Remind me which nations those are?

The US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan.

So we already have a strong presence in two, ample reason to set up in the UK and a connection to France through the twins.

HavocOrder0999 said:
The ration packs are fine, just that the science behind it could be considered "dangerous" due to it being new territory, so we'd have to take an action to convince people it's safe, otherwise LexCorp could face the same backlash Enoch Brown did.

Randino Treviani said:
People spooked his giant pig and it rampaged, and then his competitors in the food industry used the scandal plus general ignorance to push an inaccurate idea about growth serum food we simply need to advertise to counter.

Keep in mind it isn't just a PR thing, Brown was ordered to stop his experiments by a, probably corrupt, Gotham judge which means there is already a legal precedent that might work against us here.

Hence why tracking down Brown is part of it because we can work with him to have that ruling appealed.

Nobody134 said:
Actions thus far (20 + 3? child actions):

I also think we should have our security patrolling the city, potentially with Kate on it, and be working on combat robots like we tried to this turn.

Also don't forget we have Turgo and potentially Fixit on LMD's.

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

Randino Treviani said:
@King crimson isn't clearing the DC by 15 or more typically a decent success?

Yes you are correct. I'll be fixing the error shortly, thank you for pointing this out.

Nobody134 said:
* @King crimson What is the DC for Paige's therapy? Also, can we get some action to investigate Mandragora to potentially make Helena's attempt on his life easier for her?

The DC for Paige's therapy is 67 and she'll almost certainly contribute negatively to it.

I can give you an action to investigate Mandragora specifically but it's likely not going to help Helena in making her attempt next turn as you'd be gaining the information on the same turn that Helena makes the attempt and I generally make it so that action rewards come into calculation after a turn is over as opposed to during it. It'll definitely help out future attempts post turn 32 but you need a big roll and/or a beneficial interaction from the Gotham underworld to have it affect things this turn.

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

jonasquinn said:
Ehh I'm not sure how useful that would be and I'm hesitant to touch the delicate ecosystem that is Gotham while Batman is in our city.

We have pretty clear picture of how usefull it would be based on our understanding of the previous influx (thousands of workers for a simple 15 dc diplomacy action as opposed to needing multiple roll success on a stewardship action).

The deal doesn't need to occur in Gotham or Metropolis, especially when the slant of favors in lex's favor means he can easily dictate where they meet, and honestly, the batman being distracted by lois and clark being difficult and ferreting out Joker in an unfamiliar and still mostly destroyed city is the perfect opportunity to go meet Selina.

The workers would be coming turn 33, as part of results 3, rather than this turn. with more than half a dozen new buildings, including one built turn 32, most of them wouldn't even need to work at metropolis rather than onenof our other 4 or 5 towers in the USA. With bane do to ramp up his presence in gotham it wouldn't even look that suspicious.

King crimson said:
It'll definitely help out future attempts post turn 32 but you need a big roll and/or a beneficial interaction from the Gotham underworld to have it affect things this turn.

We could also cut deal with Menagerie to assist in the assassination, either directly with Catwoman or discretely by attacking one of Mandragora's holdings to lure manpower away.

jonasquinn said:
The US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan.

So we already have a strong presence in two, ample reason to set up in the UK and a connection to France through the twins.

Cool. Let's build a tower in manchester england then. It may synergize with our Occultist recruitment.

A connection is nice but the point is to be an option for the instant, nearly untraceable coordination between nations by sending agents through zeta stations in towers in those nations.

jonasquinn said:
Keep in mind it isn't just a PR thing, Brown was ordered to stop his experiments by a, probably corrupt, Gotham judge which means there is already a legal precedent that might work against us here.

Hence why tracking down Brown is part of it because we can work with him to have that ruling appealed.

I'm not sure that matters much. We would primarily sell to the US government which makes the ruling of a District or state judge irrelevant. We specifically have annaction for advertising it. Let's take that and if the results are good and it tells us we need to do something else, we do more then.

jonasquinn said:
I also think we should have our security patrolling the city, potentially with Kate on it, and be working on combat robots like we tried to this turn.

Also don't forget we have Turgo and potentially Fixit on LMD's.

Assuming eiling is satisfied with the results of our improve spacesuits action.

PickleJar · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
The DC for Paige's therapy is 67 and she'll almost certainly contribute negatively to it.

Mm, that's unfortunate. Out of curiosity, what's the DC for Mick getting some therapy? While we are at it, what's the DC for Lucy Lane running for Mayor, Senator and Governor?

If we do end up recruiting Artemis and decide against giving her therapy, then it's as good of an opportunity as any to try and launch Lucy's political career since elections are on turn 36 IIRC and Rene + Lucy is a +53 in Diplomacy.

Oh, what about an action to create a distraction for Mandragora? That should take an immediate effect, no?

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

Nobody134 said:
Oh, what about an action to create a distraction for Mandragora? That should take an immediate effect, no?

That's what the beneficial interact ion from the Gotham underworld is intended to carry out. Essentially we would contact a criminal element(coughselinakylecough) and they would act against Mandragora to stretch his forces this so there is less security between Helena and him in addition to the absense of the batman. We can't do it ourselves without risking discovery.

That said, if Helena were left to her own devices, and failed, it might be enough to make her more open minded about undergoing human plant conversion to our benefit.

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

Randino Treviani said:
We could also cut deal with Menagerie to assist in the assassination, either directly with Catwoman or discretely by attacking one of Mandragora's holdings to lure manpower away.

Stuff like that will fall under the things I'm going to include next turn specifically for actions to assist Helena in her assassination attempt.

Nobody134 said:
Out of curiosity, what's the DC for Mick getting some therapy?

The DC is 34. Mick's pyromania is by no means easy to cure but it's nowhere near as intrusive and dominant as Karl's issues were or Paige's issues are where they actively skew their whole day and state of mind around it.

Nobody134 said:
what's the DC for Lucy Lane running for Mayor, Senator and Governor?

7 for mayor, 28 for senator and 23 for governor.

Nobody134 said:
Oh, what about an action to create a distraction for Mandragora? That should take an immediate effect, no?

It would but it falls under the general "assist Helena with her assassination" actions I plan on including next turn.

My current state of mind on how to frame things is that I'm just going to give you a list of actions in their own category specifically about actions to help Helena with her assassination immediately. From there you can pick as many or as few as you would like to. From there you can assign heroes as you'd like.

Randino Treviani · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
My current state of mind on how to frame things is that I'm just going to give you a list of actions in their own category specifically about actions to help Helena with her assassination immediately. From there you can pick as many or as few as you would like to. From there you can assign heroes as you'd like.

Huh. A "Vengeance Support" catagory. Interesting.

Randino Treviani said:
That said, if Helena were left to her own devices, and failed, it might be enough to make her more open minded about undergoing human plant conversion to our benefit.

Which brings the question do we prefer to help helena, or let her try her own luck and should she fail, see if she can be convinced to let us boost her with Human Plant Integration Serum?

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

So status report on how things are going. Good news everyone, assuming all goes well, the update lands today. The worst of it is already completed and I should be able to wrap it up soon. I will say that with the 20 or so traits given to Cassandra, I'm quite interested in seeing what people do with them. Not all of them are equal and some are stuff you've seen before but I managed to throw in some creative ones in there. Hope you all enjoy what's to come as I tried to experiment a bit with balancing things. I also experimented a bit with the tower renovation 1 subvote to make it a little easier on me. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your reactions soon.

jonasquinn · Sep 17, 2023

Randino Treviani said:
We have pretty clear picture of how usefull it would be based on our understanding of the previous influx (thousands of workers for a simple 15 dc diplomacy action as opposed to needing multiple roll success on a stewardship action).

The deal doesn't need to occur in Gotham or Metropolis, especially when the slant of favors in lex's favor means he can easily dictate where they meet, and honestly, the batman being distracted by lois and clark being difficult and ferreting out Joker in an unfamiliar and still mostly destroyed city is the perfect opportunity to go meet Selina.

The workers would be coming turn 33, as part of results 3, rather than this turn. with more than half a dozen new buildings, including one built turn 32, most of them wouldn't even need to work at metropolis rather than onenof our other 4 or 5 towers in the USA. With bane do to ramp up his presence in gotham it wouldn't even look that suspicious.

Maybe, I can see where you're coming from but with all the stuff we have to do I think visiting Gotham might be a bit much. If we manage to get another decent Diplomacy hero from the Lightyear a entertainment stuff I could maybe see us going for it or else meeting with Selina.

Randino Treviani said:
Cool. Let's build a tower in manchester england then. It may synergize with our Occultist recruitment.

I think London might be the better call here. Manchester is the magic capital sure but most of the people who live there are associated with John Constantine which uh isn't the type of magic we want to be associated with.

London meanwhile is the actual capital of the country which gives us more access to the government and the heroes that live there,

Randino Treviani said:
A connection is nice but the point is to be an option for the instant, nearly untraceable coordination between nations by sending agents through zeta stations in towers in those nations.

Oh sure, I was just saying that we do already kinda have an in with France through them. An action to build a tower in Paris with the twins assigned could easily get some bonuses that we otherwise might miss out on.

Randino Treviani said:
I'm not sure that matters much. We would primarily sell to the US government which makes the ruling of a District or state judge irrelevant. We specifically have annaction for advertising it. Let's take that and if the results are good and it tells us we need to do something else, we do more then.

The issue isn't that it's illegal it's that a precedent against something similar has already been set. Sure it's not an identical scenario but it means that if someone were to draw attention towards it and/or take us to court things look bad for us.

Getting Brown's ruling repealed both endears us to him and makes it harder for people to criticise what we're doing.

Randino Treviani said:
Assuming eiling is satisfied with the results of our improve spacesuits action.

Yes assuming that.

Nobody134 said:
If we do end up recruiting Artemis and decide against giving her therapy, then it's as good of an opportunity as any to try and launch Lucy's political career since elections are on turn 36 IIRC and Rene + Lucy is a +53 in Diplomacy.

It's a good idea but we should probably try to boost Lucy's Stewardship first, like we saw with Pamela that's a fairly important stat for government work.

King crimson said:
The DC is 34. Mick's pyromania is by no means easy to cure but it's nowhere near as intrusive and dominant as Karl's issues were or Paige's issues are where they actively skew their whole day and state of mind around it.

Plus Mick knows he has a problem and already takes steps to deal with it whereas Karl and Paige are in deep denial.

King crimson said:
7 for mayor, 28 for senator and 23 for governor.

As a non American is there any particular reason for the difference between senator and governor? I've never been entirely sure what the dynamic between them is.

Randino Treviani said:
Which brings the question do we prefer to help helena, or let her try her own luck and should she fail, see if she can be convinced to let us boost her with Human Plant Integration Serum?

I'm if the opinion that we help her. Enhancing her in some way would be nice but there are other potential options she might accept without risking her being caught and/or exposed.

I say we give her an invisibility suit, the instant stroke drug and maybe one of those digital decoy masks Trugo reverse engineered.

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

jonasquinn said:
As a non American is there any particular reason for the difference between senator and governor? I've never been entirely sure what the dynamic between them is.

Yes. To oversimplify the matter in the US every state has their own independent government and then there is the federal government which exists above them (though the exact degree to which this is the case is the subject of a few dozen supreme court cases and hundreds of legal doctrines, the civil war and more). Governors head up the executive branch of the state government (they're like mini-presidents only with less diplomacy with other nations). Senators meanwhile are members of the legislative branch of the federal government. They make federal laws which (again actual legal systems are more complicated than this) the entire US follows. There are technically state level senators but I'm not digging into Maryland's state government enough to track that stuff so when I say "senator" I'm referring only to the federal level. Senatorial seats are especially valuable because, unlike assembly person seats which are distributed based off of population, there are only two per state. The simple reason why there is a difference between senator and governor in the model of the quest is because senators can mess with stuff outside of their state and affect the whole nation (though on their own as 1% of the senate they usually can't) while governors stick within the state.

TLDR: Governors are the heads of the state government and deal with issues within the state. Senators, at least as used colloquially in the US, are at the federal level and draft laws for all fifty states.

Does that sufficiently clarify things?

Edit: To crudely equate to the British parliamentary/colonial system, a governor in the US is like a governor of a colony who nominally runs the entire colony on his own while a senator is like a person in parliament, only more valuable because there are way less of them, who broadly speaking helps introduce laws that govern both the nation and the colony.

Simon_Jester · Sep 17, 2023

Negation said:
I thought our core development is Exo-Suits? With our biggest competitors being Wayne-Powers?

I mean, we make laser rifles. It's entirely possible that we're a major supplier to the US military through that. If so, I'd like to keep that contract.

Likewise, I don't think Wayne even sells exosuits to the military?

King crimson said:
Define "sell well". If it's most profitable, I'm not doing it, I don't keep track of things to that degree. If it's most units sold I might do that though it would not be the priority. If you're looking for "most valued by the US government", then I lack the expertise to give you a list but could tell you that exosuits are very high up in their priorities.

I think in this context I'm asking for information on "what kinds of military equipment does LexCorp (1) have a clear lead or at least parity with its competition in and (2) sell to the US military or some other buyer of comparable importance?"

And a list that is not exhaustive or not complete or not ordered would be (would have been) just fine.

...

Those are areas where if we fall behind, we stand to lose out on a profitable contract pretty fast. Whereas if we merely remain behind in an area where nobody's really buying our stuff, it doesn't hurt us. It's like, we know everyone's using our phones and therefore we know that any indication that someone is threatening to roll out a better phone is cause for immediate concern.

But if we're also the Army's supplier of, say, tanks, and we're in danger of losing that contract to another company whose prototype tank designs are getting really good, we don't know about that threat to us, even if we know the other company is designing great tanks. Because we don't know we're the ones manufacturing the Army's tanks in the first place. Even if we knew we have tank designs, knowing whether or not we're selling enough of them to matter is important, if that information is available and if we're in a situation where we could be undercut by someone outdoing us in specific fields.

Another aspect of this is that it's inefficient to keep obsessively perfecting a product where we already dominate the market unless we're serving a greater agenda by doing so (e.g. spamming kryptonite weaponry just to screw over Superman). But conversely it's dangerous to fall behind in an area we already come to depend on for income.

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

Simon_Jester said:
I think in this context I'm asking for information on "what kinds of military equipment does LexCorp (1) have a clear lead or at least parity with its competition in and (2) sell to the US military or some other buyer of comparable importance?"

And a list that is not exhaustive or not complete or not ordered would be (would have been) just fine.

It might actually be faster to talk about stuff you're not contributing massive amounts to. It's been stated before but LexCorp is a massive part of the military industrial complex, on a scale no IRL company ever achieved.

A short list of things LexCrop sells to the US government that they have a major share of the market (that I can remember off the top of my head).

traditional firearms (rifles, pistols, snipers, machine guns, submachine guns etc.)
rocket launchers/rpgs/heavy ordinance weapons
laser rifles
body armor
non-lethal munitions and weapons
land mines
sea mines
exo-suits
drones
fighter jets (LexCorp directly does not but Ferris Aerospace contributes a decent amount even if they're not anywhere near market dominant compared to most other stuff)
missiles
targeting systems
missile counter systems
anti-aircraft guns
artillery

Edit: LexCorp is big enough that without them the military industrial complex of the US completely tanks.

jonasquinn · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
Does that sufficiently clarify things?

It does thank you. So essentially if we go the political route with Lucy we have to decide if we want her to have a large amount of control over the state we live in or a small amount of control over the entire country.

Simon_Jester said:
Likewise, I don't think Wayne even sells exosuits to the military?

They don't, I believe they're thinking of Powers International. A weapons manufacturer that we know has had at least some dealings with Wayne Enterprises, likely developing some of Batman's anti-metahuman equipment, and is most well known for merging with them to form Wayne-Powers in Batman Beyond.

Afaik Powers International doesn't make exosuits or if they do they're worse than ours and they aren't really a major competitor.

King crimson said:
It might actually be faster to talk about stuff you're not contributing massive amounts to. It's been stated before but LexCorp is a massive part of the military industrial complex, on a scale no IRL company ever achieved.

A short list of things LexCrop sells to the US government that they have a major share of the market (that I can remember off the top of my head).

traditional firearms (rifles, pistols, snipers, machine guns, submachine guns etc.)

rocket launchers/rpgs/heavy ordinance weapons

laser rifles

body armor

non-lethal munitions and weapons

land mines

sea mines

exo-suits

drones

fighter jets (LexCorp directly does not but Ferris Aerospace contributes a decent amount even if they're not anywhere near market dominant compared to most other stuff)

missiles

targeting systems

missile counter systems

anti-aircraft guns

artillery

Edit: LexCorp is big enough that without them the military industrial complex of the US completely tanks.

It's easy to forget with all the other stuff we do but LexCorp is first and foremost a weapons manufacturer, one with arguably the greatest genius in the world leading it and designing its products,

King crimson · Sep 17, 2023

Hooray an update that actually came out in a timely manner! I did have a lot of fun writing this update and I'm very curious to see and hear people's thoughts on the matter. I've said it before but I got a little experimental with things. I hope you guys enjoy it. I'll say right now for the tower renovations stuff, I'm going to be flexible and let you guys kind of run wild with the tower renovations subvote so long as you keep it to stuff that won't affect gameplay. It's a chance for people to be creative and lean into more "this stuff is cool" type options than the usual sort of optimization questions brought into decision making. I look forward to seeing people's responses. If you see any errors or weirdness or have a question, feel free to reach out by typing @King crimson and I will do my best to respond as soon as I reasonably can.

Turn 31 Results Part 4
Please keep all votes in approval format. Any votes in plan format will be discounted. There is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

Cancelling Crash Alley subvote
Crash Alley is an area in Alexandria that is notorious for intense illegal street races using heavily modified vehicles. There is a very high risk of injury or death for participating in this event, it is a holdover from Jump City that is quite popular with many people and it generates a fair amount of interest and income. With Siobhan and Jade fighting crime in Alexandria they've stumbled upon the leadership of this illegal street racing event and given you an opportunity to take control of things and shape your city to your whims. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Crash] Permanently cancel and arrest all relevant members of the Crash Alley street races
Picking this option ensures that the Crash Alley races will never occur, the organization will be thoroughly dismantled and outside opinion of Siobhan as a superhero will be improved. That being said, it comes at the cost of causing the people of Alexandria to become significantly more disenfranchised with Lex's running of the city.

[ ] [Crash] Cancel all Crash Alley street races
Picking this option will ensure that the Crash Alley races as they are known will come to an end. While there might be some minor discontent amongst the general public, it also leaves avenues for potential malefactors with chips on their shoulders to come into the picture.

[ ] [Crash] Take over and rebrand Crash Alley Street races
Picking this option will allow you to turn the Crash Alley street races into your own event, allowing you to gain all the benefits from keeping it around and then some, at the cost of you needing to put in a lot of work and planning yourself. Picking this option will trigger a second subvote to assign a hero unit (including Jade Crock) to run it and will open up additional actions to increase the benefit you can get from taking control of the Crash Alley races.

[ ] [Crash] Have Crash Alley pay a tithe
This option will result in you having minimal control over the street races but will allow you to constantly gain money from the organization. In addition it doesn't generate all that much hostility and can potentially be used to gain information. In addition you might get some minor egg on your face if someone finds out what's going on but you're unlikely to get into serious trouble.

[ ] [Crash] Have Crash Alley be an open testing ground for experimental vehicles
This option lowers the DC of building/improving new vehicles and can potentially get you information on specific types of vehicles other entities might want to test but it comes at the cost of being a potential major scandals of what you are doing gets discovered.

[ ] [Crash] Do nothing to Crash Alley
This option nets you no benefits but also comes at no costs (save perhaps the continued existence of an organization/entity in your city not controlled/planned by you). It leaves the status quo as is.

Tower Rennovations 1 subvote
Future Construction has made significant headways in renovating LexCorp and bringing it up to the standard you'd like it at. The following choices will be less likely to have a long term effect on the future and instead are generally more aesthetic and are for your own enjoyment and interest. Please feel free to pick as many options as you would like to from the list below. The options with the most points will be selected with their existing a concrete cut-off point that will be determined based off of which options make it in. Write-ins are available for this subvote but as always all write-ins are subject to QM approval. All write-ins combining options will be discounted on this vote, due to wanting to make things clear and easy to read, though some degree of additional specificity is acceptable. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Tower] Make non-impactful renovations to LexCorp tower
-[ ] [Renovate] Have large American flags be prominent in the lobby of LexCorp tower
-[ ] [Renovate] Get Janus a room that's meant to imitate a Savannah
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a giant fish tank at Lightyear Entertainments headquarters
-[ ] [Renovate] Create a designated sauna room for Snowy
-[ ] [Renovate] Allow Cassandra to decorate her personal gym
-[ ] [Renovate] Allow Jade to purchase kabuki masks to hang on her rooms walls
-[ ] [Renovate] Have the screaming plants line the outside of the greenhouse area people are not supposed to enter
-[ ] [Renovate] Update the bowling alleys to use animations involving prominent LexCorp figures
-[ ] [Renovate] Let Cassandra get a collection of animal skulls for her room
-[ ] [Renovate] Let Jinx install a chocolate fountain in her room
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a large painting of Lex to look down on the lobby
-[ ] [Renovate] Update LexCorp's internal color scheme to be more overtly green and purple
-[ ] [Renovate] Install soft carpet flooring in the hallways with repeated LexCorp logo designs
-[ ] [Renovate] Build an extra 3 bookshelves for Raven
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a waterslide
-[ ] [Renovate] Build a room in Lightyear Entertainment's headquarters that plays their material nonstop
-[ ] [Renovate] Build a popcorn machine for the theaters
-[ ] [Renovate] Allow Jinx to stick a gold name plate on the door to her room
-[ ] [Renovate] Improve the inter-kitchen intercom system
-[ ] [Renovate] Hang a mold of a Quetzalcoatlus skeleton in the ceiling of the lobby
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a comfortable massage chair in Mercy's office/command center
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a statue of nemesis before the law offices
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a giant chess board with remote control pieces
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a statue garden dedicated to LexCorp's success on the grounds outside
-[ ] [Renovate] Install a performative "Ultraviolet signal" on the roof of LexCorp tower
-[ ] [Renovate] Install coffee machines on every floor available to the general workforce
-[ ] [Renovate] Include a "the doctor is in" sign on Rene Carpenter's office
-[ ] [Renovate] Install more L-Phone charging stations
-[ ] [Renovate] Write-in

[ ] [Tower] Don't make non-impactful renovations to LexCorp tower

Director Daphne Dean subvote
Daphne Dean has been talking and she's become increasingly interested in returning to her directorial role, especially after the incident with the Atomic Skull tainting her previous movies. Daphne has got a wealth of ideas and with LexCorp and Light Entertainment's backing, she's ready to dive in and try her hand at really branching out and flexing her creative muscles. For you and your companies, this is a chance to potentially put out some propaganda or to expand the prestige of Lightyear Entertainment's cinematic offerings while making some money on the side. Please pick your three favorite options from the list as movies you want to greenlight. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Direct] Cry of the Unborn God
This film idea is a distinctly odd horror movie centered around events in Japan. A series of strange incidents occur in which women in a village near a volcano in Japan are all found completely burned to death. As such two special investigators are called in to try to get to the bottom of things. As they look deeper into the mystery, more questions get raised as they learn of mysterious unplanned pregnancies, disturbing prescient nightmares, and slowly but surely the cry of the unborn god is heard before it all goes up in flame. This movie will almost certainly not be popular amongst the masses and its dark and obscure material makes it potentially polarizing. That being said it could prove to be a cult classic and draw people's attention to Japanese culture. Additionally making this sort of film would help show off Lightyear Entertainment's ability to do things very far removed from kids fare and would potentially allow Daphne Dean to make her mark as a director with a ton of range who is able to do very out there movies and push for them.

[ ] [Direct] Hexed in the West
Hexed in the West is a western movie starring the legendary figure of Jonah Hex. In it the legendary gunslinger wanders into a small town in California, haunted by the sound of Luthor guns and the trauma of the civil war. Jonah Hex seeks to put his past behind him and retire quietly and peacefully but that will not last. The vicious Quinten Turnbull, angered by Jonah's perceived cowardice during the war hires a veritable army of thugs outlaws and killers to bring down Jonah Hex. Now to protect the small town as well as his life, Jonah Hex must become the legendary figure of the wild west history knows him as and put his ghosts to rest. This movie could prove immensely popular and potentially drive further interest in western themed products. In addition to proving a nice popcorn flick, you can subtly advertise some of the Luthor family's history and on top of all of that, with Lana Lang's father being an expert historian in this field, it might get Lana invested in this product as well. Daphne Dean is personally less invested in this project, though she does think it could be interesting.

[ ] [Direct] King of Crime
King of Crime is a biopic chronicling the rise and fall of the legendary Gotham mobster, Lewis "Lew" Moxon. A young down on his luck poor Jewish boy, Lewis attempts to do well in school and earn a living for himself and he swiftly proves to be both incredibly clever and very good with numbers. However he builds up a slight resentment of others as he repeatedly faces discrimination for being Jewish. As a young banker, things get even worse and eventually Lewis has enough. If he won't get paid and respected for being an honest man he'll become the best dishonest man there is. Lewis finds great success working with smaller Jewish gangs and sets his eyes on bigger prizes. However when he attempts to go to Cosa Nostra in Gotham he's mocked and his ideas are stolen. Lewis then uses his own ingenuity, street smarts and a whole lot of violence to reach the top of the criminal underworld. This can't happen without making enemies and eventually even the FBI get involved. Seeing the noose closing in around him Lewis Moxon decides to make one last play and forever cement himself as the king of crime. Daphne is very fond of this movie and it could find great success with critics. While it likely won't be a mega-hit it could earn quite a bit on return. The main catch of the whole thing is that people with poor media literacy could be inspired by this movie to commit crimes, especially in Gotham City where Lewis Moxon actually lived and shaped the criminal underworld.

[ ] [Direct] Isle of the Deluge
Isle of the Deluge is a simple action-adventure movie that draws heavily on the Shakespeare play "The Tempest". A family goes on a sailing trip and end up marooned on a foreign island. On that island they encounter a powerful wizard and his beautiful daughter, who forbid the natives of the island from ever leaving designated areas for fear of something dark and terrible coming after him. Meanwhile a giant monstrous crustacean with the voice and intelligence of a man terrorizes the island every night, devouring those who leave the designated areas, all the while calling out and taunting people with the secrets the wizard is keeping. The family is forced to navigate this dark and dangerous mystery and come together to uncover the secrets of the island. This movie is fairly straightforward and is likely to prove successful in the box office. It doesn't stray far from standard Lightyear Entertainment fare and could end up being forgotten fairly easily if it doesn't become a box office blow out.

[ ] [Direct] Mister Pyg
Mister Pyg is a romantic comedy loosely inspired by the myth of Pygmallion and Galatea. The titular character is an awful terrible person to date as his inordinately high standards leave him incapable of maintaining a relationship despite his intelligence and good looks. Every relationship he is in with a woman he destroys by constantly obsessing over how she isn't good enough and focusing on her flaws. Eventually by sheer random chance Mister Pyg comes across the one woman who does meet his standards. At first he starts obsessively following her to see how she'll fail to meet them only to grow more and more infatuated as she proves to live up to every one of his absurd and arbitrary standards. Hijinks ensue and eventually Mister Pyg attempts to confess his love to this woman and start a relationship with him. The woman tears him down, pointing out all the ways in which he isn't good enough for her standards, reversing the dynamic from the movies start and leaving Mister Pyg heartbroken and alone. Realizing how much of a terrible ass he was Mister Pyg goes off on his own. The movie ends with a Mister Pyg meeting someone new who does something that annoys him but he looks past it and tries to get to know her and form a genuine relationship not hemmed in by impossible standards. The movie as a romantic comedy plays to Daphne Dean's reputation as an actress and could prove decently successful. It's a safe comfortable film, though the end is a bit non-standard as you've come to expect from most of Daphne Dean's work. In the end that's the main problem of the film, it takes very few risks and as such it's unlikely to see any big rewards.

[ ] [Direct] Pirates of Nassau
Pirates of Nassau is an adventure film meant to throw back to older Errol Flynn style movies. The movie opens with a young child washing up on the shores of a colony with a mysterious map. Time passes and the child, now a young man, wants to marry the governor's daughter but can't due to his status. Chaos ensues when a pirate crew attacks the city, ransacking it and kidnaps the governor's daughter. In order to save his love the young man teams up with an unscrupulous duplicitous pirate who knows how to follow the mysterious map to get to the pirate republic while the governor's daughter is forced to navigate the treacherous waters of both the pirate crew that kidnapped her and pirate politics in general. The film relies heavily on its characters being excellent and it can draw heavily from history as appropriate, though Daphne has already made it clear that she intends to deviate from history heavily and focus on telling a good story. It can prove exceptionally successful though there would be a good amount of investment into it and it's unlikely to fully revive the genre.

[ ] [Direct] Cubicle
Cubicle is a movie that Daphne Dean has pitched as a dark comedy, telling the woes and stories of an overworked, depressed office worker who one day snaps and decides to fully and totally go postal and get back at his bosses and the company at large. While the satire seems solid enough and the concept is there, as the head of a large corporation, there's always a chance of self-inflicted damage when you release a movie about how awful a large corporation is. You could try to push to make it more overtly anti-Wayne pro-LexCorp but the more you meddle in the film the more you are likely to sour working relations with Daphne Dean and potentially compromise the core product. It's still a movie potentially worth considering.

[ ] [Direct] End of the Line
End of the Line is Daphne Dean's take on both an action movie and draws on some elements of the superhero situation. In the movie a charity ball, which includes the mayor and the chief of police, is taken hostage by a deranged supervillain and his gang of thugs. The supervillain claims that he intends to force a fight with a superhero who is off being busy elsewhere. As such it is up to a young rookie who avoided getting captured by sheer happenstance to take down the supervillain and his gang. Daphne promises that there will be interesting twists and a solid action piece though based on the initial pitch it sounds like fairly standard fare for an action movie. It could prove commercially successful but it likely won't establish Lightyear's brand to be any more incredible then it already has.

[ ] [Direct] Space Station Io
Space station Io is Daphne's attempt to write a sci-fi spy thriller. The basic pitch of the movie is that important classified information is being kept on the space station Io to help keep humanities defense network secure. However recently there have been a spate of accidents and as such a top galactic agent is being sent to the space station to protect the classified info and root out who the infiltrator might be. While the story concept is decent, the main twist of having the true villain not be the alien invaders but rather a weapons dealer who wants to start a war with aliens to maximize profits is potentially problematic for LexCorp. It should be fine and you can potentially make some tweaks but it is something worth noting. This film would also be very, very expensive though it could also prove very marketable if need be.

Confronting Crocks subvote
With both Paula and Artemis Crock located by your forces first and foremost, it stands to reason that you hold the initiative on getting in contact with them. Paula planned on taking Artemis to the UK where she'd likely disappear but you know that at the very least the League of Shadows and the US government will still be looking for them, and HIVE remnants could similarly prove problematic for the Crock's goal of disappearing. With the initiative solidly seized, it's up to you to determine how you want to approach confronting the Crocks and getting them moving in the direction you want them to. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Be aware that this is not the negotiation proper but rather merely the start of the negotiation. Write-ins are available for this subvote though all write-ins are subject to QM approval. Know ahead of time that overly long write-ins or write-ins that try to combine more than 5 different options will be rejected. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Crock] Have Talia and Lady Vic approach Paula Crock in private
[ ] [Crock] Have Talia alone approach Paula Crock in private
[ ] [Crock] Have Talia approach Paula Crock in a public area
[ ] [Crock] Have Talia approach Paula Crock in public while Lady Vic attempts to capture Artemis Crock
[ ] [Crock] Have Talia and Lady Vic attempt to capture the Crocks
[ ] [Crock] Call the US government to reveal the Crocks location
[ ] [Crock] Have Talia get Ra's al Ghul to deal with the Crocks
[ ] [Crock] Covertly leave the Crocks with a picture of Jade at LexCorp and an invitation to meet her
[ ] [Crock] Tap the Crock's phone and covertly place a tracking device on them
[ ] [Crock] Write-in

Cassandra Trait subvote
Cassandra has managed to continue to make solid headway in her studies and with her newfound capabilities in the field of anatomy and pathology, your daughter is liable to prove quite adept at a wide range of things. As she pushes herself further and further you can't help but be glad that you've gotten yourself a truly worthy heir. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Trait] Hit Them Where it Hurts
All injuries Cassandra inflicts during combat are multiplied by 1.5 and rounded down

[ ] [Trait] Human Hunter
Cassandra can use her martial stat for intrigue checks against injured units

[ ] [Trait] Does it Bleed?
Any time Cassandra encounters any biological hero unit she can roll a D10. If she rolls a chance, she discovers the weakest part of them at the instance of encounter. Giving her +20 for all martial actions against them until they leave.

[ ] [Trait] Voices in Your Head
Cassandra gains the ability to throw her voice and to perfectly mimic any voice she has heard within a humans natural range. Cassandra can force all hero units with Madness based traits to reroll for a madness check and Cassandra gains +15 for intrigue checks against discerning that she has been disguised, new Cassandra special actions opened up

[ ] [Trait] Hale and Healthy
Cassandra gains +50 resistance to any virus or disease based attacks

[ ] [Trait] Memetic Me
Cassandra gets a +5 bonus to starting viral trends and her diplomacy goes up by 1, new Cassandra special actions opened up

[ ] [Trait] Prodigy in Medicine
Cassandra gains a +5 in any action that involves medicine

[ ] [Trait] Poisonous Person
Cassandra gains +5 to any rolls to resist poison, +5 to any rolls using poison and +2 to any rolls involving creating poisons

[ ] [Trait] Overdose Tolerance
Cassandra can delay the effects of overdosing on any chemical till the end of the turn, new Cassandra special actions opened up

[ ] [Trait] Bodies in Motion
Cassandra gains +10 diplomacy and +5 intrigue against any hero unit that is attracted to her

[ ] [Trait] Master Contortionist
Cassandra becomes a master contortionist and is no longer capable of being bound like a normal person though she can still be imprisoned or captured, +2 intrigue

[ ] [Trait] Human Nature
Cassandra gets +5 for any intrigue checks against normal baseline humans

[ ] [Trait] Doctoral Debutante
Cassandra gains +15 at the end of any roll that involves becoming a medicinal doctor, new Cassandra special actions opened up

[ ] [Trait] Body Horror
On any interaction with any biological unit, Cassandra can initiate a diplomacy check and an intrigue check. If Cassandra passes both checks, she gains +25 at the end of her roll to all interactions against them for the duration of the interaction.

[ ] [Trait] Monkey See, Monkey Better than You
Cassandra cannot fail actions that involve copying the movements of normal baseline humans, new Cassandra special actions opened up

[ ] [Trait] ?????
When in combat Cassandra can roll a D100, if she rolls 90 or above she can use chi to enhance her martial, Cassandra gains +2 at the end of her roll to all actions involving chi (including learning about chi)

[ ] [Trait] Sadist Supreme
Cassandra adds 8 to any relevant stat so long as she is inflicting pain on someone during the action. Whenever she takes an action that doesn't involve inflicting pain, Cassandra flips a coin. If heads she takes the action as normal, if tails she substitutes it for a less efficient action that inflicts pain and the bonus from this trait is reduced to a fourth its normal potency and rounded down.

[ ] [Trait] Get Down with the Sickness
Cassandra gets +15 to the end of her roll for any actions that involve biological warfare.

Happy Campers subvote
While it's by no means perfect, Diana managed to fairly swiftly erect a summer training camp for adolescent metahumans to attend. While the majority focus is on teaching these young metahumans to make use of their power in mundane settings, there are significant self-defense options available and it will allow Diana to have some pitch in to ensuring that whoever you send them is up to snuff. Most of the more educational elements about metahumans roles in society have been cut due to how fast this was put together and the amenities at the location are not the best but it is a chance for young metahumans to meet and interact and learn about their powers. In your talks you'd specifically mentioned sending Raven over for a one on one training session and this is an opportunity to do so covertly and effectively while also socializing her with others. Additionally you could also potentially send Starfire or even Jinx to participate in this event. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Be aware that the more heroes you spend to the camp, the more certain rewards will be diminished as focus will be further split amongst the hero units Diana assigned to the training camp. Additionally be aware that heroes sent to this camp will be available for turn 32. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.

[ ] [Camp] Send Raven to the camp
While Raven likely will not enjoy the outdoors all that much, nor is she liable to be especially sociable, she would benefit from getting to attend the camp and it would make it easy for Diana to pull her out for a more specialized DOMA training session if need be.

[ ] [Camp] Send Starfire to the camp
Starfire would likely enjoy the camp and is friendly and sociable enough that she could make and meet a good number of potentially valuable contacts at this meeting. That being said, Starfire would likely miss any bad actors and it would potentially put her at risk of outing herself as an alien or behaving a touch oddly around other individuals her age.

[ ] [Camp] Send Jinx to the camp
Jinx would likely despise being made to go to the camp and would only go with the idea that she's a metahuman if explicitly ordered to do so. Jinx would be able to flex her power's potential but would likely be belligerent and unhappy.

[ ] [Camp] Send Raven and Starfire to the camp
Raven and Starfire have become tentative friends so perhaps in addition to the benefits already provided, it might help the two of them bond more and learn to work together more effectively.

[ ] [Camp] Send Raven and Jinx to the camp
Jinx and Raven are friends and both are likely to dislike being outdoors at the camp. That being said, while it will completely compromise their ability to network, having the two of them show up as friends united in their opposition would likely cause the two of them to become closer friends overall. It's a gamble but it might be worth it.

[ ] [Camp] Send Jinx and Starfire to the camp
It's unclear if it would work but perhaps Jinx's focus on benefitting LexCorp could balance out with Starfire's exuberance and together they could prevent each other's worst qualities from kicking in.

[ ] [Camp] Send Jinx, Raven and Starfire to the camp
Sending all three candidates to the camp will result in the most attention split but it will also ensure that each one of them at least gets something out of the trip.

[ ] [Camp] Send no one to the camp
Things have just been too rushed. You appreciate Diana living up to her end of the deal but you'll need to delay until conditions are more stable and more favorable.

wabbitking · Sep 17, 2023

King crimson said:
[ ] [Crash] Take over and rebrand Crash Alley Street races
Picking this option will allow you to turn the Crash Alley street races into your own event, allowing you to gain all the benefits from keeping it around and then some, at the cost of you needing to put in a lot of work and planning yourself. Picking this option will trigger a second subvote to assign a hero unit (including Jade Crock) to run it and will open up additional actions to increase the benefit you can get from taking control of the Crash Alley races.

So this would be a Legal takeover? With forms and wavers and stuff so we don't get sued into the ground? If so I'd love some LexCorp sponsored Whacky Races. Plus it seems like a place Roxy would just love.

King crimson said:
Confronting Crocks subvote

Whatever we do Lady Vic isn't the nicest person so she should be involved as little as possible.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Hexed in the West
[ ] [Direct] King of Crime
[ ] [Direct] Pirates of Nassau

I like these ones best.

King crimson said:
-[ ] [Renovate] Build a popcorn machine for the theaters

We haven't done that already? Truly we are a supervillain.

jonasquinn · Sep 17, 2023

Thanks for the update KC, not let's have a look here..

King crimson said:
[ ] [Crash] Take over and rebrand Crash Alley Street races

This feels like the best option here. It lets us keep a fairly ,Anjou tourist attraction, keeps the citizens happy, doesn't incriminate us and potentially nets us some other benefits down the road.

Admittedly I'm not sure who we'd have run it but we can decide that later.

King crimson said:
Tower Rennovations 1 subvote

A lot of fun options here though I'm not sure what I want to go for quite yet.

I do think it would be a good idea to hang the flags of all the G7 members rather than just the US and it would be nice to have a portrait of Lex and Cassandra in his office.

King crimson said:
Director Daphne Dean subvote

I'm gonna break this down movie by movie because it's fun and they all have their ups and downs.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Cry of the Unborn God

This feels like a good pick to me. It would sell well in Japan, expand Lightyear Entertainment's repertoire and potentially let Daphne cement herself as a proper director.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Hexed in the West

This has a lot of potential, there's enough western DC characters that we could easily start our own WCU if it does well, we can use it to introduce some light propaganda and it'd be nice to have a project that engages Lana a bit more. The only potential downside is that we'd be making movies about real people and might get called out for altering the facts to suit us but meh.

I suppose there is the brief chance that time travel causes us some problems here but that's unlikely.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] King of Crime

You're telling me that we can make an Oscar bait movie that will make Daphne happy and cause Batman problems? Sold!

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Isle of the Deluge

Fun but safe and doesn't have any particular benefits as far as I can tell.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Mister Pyg

Hard pass. It seems pretty meh and we should avoid another movie that will eventually be coopted by a villain, especially one as fucked up Pyg.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Pirates of Nassau

Making our own Pirates of the Caribbean would be fun but I think there are better options.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Cubicle

Yeah it's probably best to avoid making an anti-corporate version of Falling Down when we're a megacorporation ourselves especially since it would take a ton of meddling to make it specifically target Wayne.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] End of the Line

Fun but safe, if we're going to do a superhero movie I'd rather wait till we can do one about one of our actual heroes.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Direct] Space Station Io

Would be cool but the arms dealer stuff could easily backfire and people might be a bit sensitive about space stuff right now.

King crimson said:
Confronting Crocks subvote

I think having Talia approach Paula by herself, maybe with a photo of/message from Jade?, is the best opening move. Lady Vic isn't exactly approachable and being outnumbered might make Paula jumpy.

The big question for me is where to approach her. We're less likely to be spied on in private but she also might be more likely to fight or run…

King crimson said:
Cassandra Trait subvote

Some interesting choices here. Personally speaking I'm less interested in the ones that require Cassandra to get into a fight but let's have a look.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Voices in Your Head

Potentially useful, especially if Joker or Harley are showing up soon, but would require us to send Cassandra undercover a lot to get the full benefit.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Hale and Healthy

Generally nice though hopefully wouldn't be particularly relevant.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Memetic Me

Now this has potential. A stat boost is always nice but this could also make Cassandra the first celebrity influencer and unlocks a whole new world of manipulation for us.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Bodies in Motion

Could be very useful but, hopefully, not for a while and only situationally.

Ironically if Lex ends up marrying Queen Bee it would be something for her to bond with her stepmother over.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Master Contortionist
Cassandra becomes a master contortionist and is no longer capable of being bound like a normal person though she can still be imprisoned or captured, +2 intrigue

Potentially useful though only in an emergency but +2 Intrigue is nice.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Body Horror

This has the potential to be very useful though I'm slightly concerned by the implications.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Monkey See, Monkey Better than You

This would basically allow Cassandra to become a master at anything a regular human could do which is as useful as we choose to make it.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] ?????

This is interesting for opening a whole new avenue for Cassandra and might make Richard Dragon more likely to take her on as a student.

King crimson said:
[ ] [Trait] Sadist Supreme

No thank you.

King crimson said:
Additionally be aware that heroes sent to this camp will be available for turn 32.

Can I just clarify that this isn't an error @King crimson?

King crimson said:
[ ] [Camp] Send Raven and Starfire to the camp

I'm leaning towards this. Raven for the personal benefits and because we told Diana we would and Starfire to try and befriend some of the other people at the camp.

Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest

What sort of tone should I shoot for with this Quest?

Go as crack fueled as you can we want Ambush Bug, Snowflame and Duckseid

Go for something silly but keep a little bit of reason

Adam West Camp

Balanced as all things should be

Mostly serious but not self-involvedly so

Dark and brooding but with light at the end of the tunnel

We're evil and we don't want anyone to be happy

Pedantic

Pedantic

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph

Confusion Will Be My Epitaph