The whole premise of this quest is that we're not a "chosen one" like Rolan, and thus contracts are far harder to get.
I imagine we'd have to reach 30 or 40 weight to start seeing custom contracts on the FIRST offer. ALternatively, go higher on the chain. I imagine the first 2 or 3 contracts are standard, but 4th and above are likely more custom.
About the "ongoing dedications of time", it's not really that bad.
"1 ap on teaching" can likely be cheesed into "teach your enemy to fear you". "teach your patient what he was sick about". "teach the crow a new trick". "teach your brother you're actually a grown up girl who can take care of herself"
and so on.
just like we're already cheesing the experimentation AP. Academics (gods) will help us understand some of those loopholes more easily I imagine.
About the "ongoing dedications of time", it's not really that bad.
"1 ap on teaching" can likely be cheesed into "teach your enemy to fear you". "teach your patient what he was sick about". "teach the crow a new trick". "teach your brother you're actually a grown up girl who can take care of herself"
The whole premise of this quest is that we're not a "chosen one" like Rolan, and thus contracts are far harder to get.
I imagine we'd have to reach 30 or 40 weight to start seeing custom contracts on the FIRST offer. ALternatively, go higher on the chain. I imagine the first 2 or 3 contracts are standard, but 4th and above are likely more custom.
About the "ongoing dedications of time", it's not really that bad.
"1 ap on teaching" can likely be cheesed into "teach your enemy to fear you". "teach your patient what he was sick about". "teach the crow a new trick". "teach your brother you're actually a grown up girl who can take care of herself"
and so on.
just like we're already cheesing the experimentation AP. Academics (gods) will help us understand some of those loopholes more easily I imagine.
"Ongoing dedications of time" are the awful deals you have to take at the start in return for chump change in order to get enough power to make it into the big leagues. We've managed to make it past the first big hurdle with only one of them, which is great... especially since it's in a field that Leviathan is legitimately dedicated to and thinks is awesome.
We repeatedly have gotten warnings, both in this game and in its predecessor, about how taking the wrong contracts can screw you over, and ongoing dedications of time are among the more costly of contracts of that variety. They don't just constrain plans. They constrain every plan, forever. Eventually the piddling little Weight you got for that starter contract will be reduced to insignificance by inflation. The power that you get off of it will be worth very little (assuming you don't seriously care about that area of endeavor for its own sake). The fact that you absolutely must dedicate an action every week to doing whatever this random god thinks is important will, inflexibly, remain.
...and, honestly, I like to play as if the characters I'm playing have a future. It's not just about the power they have this week, or this month. It's not just about whatever immediate hurdles they have to face. It's about what their life looks like in 10 or 20 years, once they're done with the adventuring bit and have settled down... and in that timescale, ongoing dedications of time are an extra load you have to carry forever. It's just not worth it. It's really, really not.
The best deals are the "do this awesome thing once" deals. The next best down from that are the ones like the first one from MD Old Bones, that only require that you not do certain things, where it's something that you're legitimately okay with never doing again, and something where not being able to do it won't interfere with having a real life. Down past that? The specific Power that they offer had better be *really* shiny, because inflation means that the weight just isn't worth it long-term, if you've gotten far enough to earn it in any other way... which, now, we have.
...and for the teaching thing in particular... you're right. It is possible to cheese it a bit (though it might annoy the god if you do). Doesn't matter. Even with that broadening, it's still something that we wouldn't be choosing to do on our own, and it's still a requirement that just keeps going on forever without surcease. So no.
Green and Yellow contracts are generally the best, but usually aren't offered unless you have the power to change the world in such a way that the god wants.
Of course many Green and Yellow contracts are tasks that simply aren't possible to complete without changing who you are in some way. Technically both of the current ones on offer are that type in that we would need super human levels of skill to complete them. But since we are generally ok with becoming superhumanly skilled that's fine.
But sometimes the contract is something like "Kill and eat a innocent bystander that you abduct without even learning their name" which is also a task based contract which generally requires you to change who you are to do.
Then you have red natural changing contracts the ones that don't change what you do, but what you feel.
"You feel genuine loyalty towards those you work for."
"You never ignore the suffering of others"
"You do a great evil laugh whenever your schemes come together"
"You don't feel guilt"
Honestly not sure if those are better or worse then don't do something contracts. Yes in character they are obviously worse, but on our side of the screen they are basically enforced character development. We have not been offered any of those yet. But they are a great way to give an otherwise ordinary character a extra edge by having them take a road less taken.
Green and Yellow contracts are generally the best, but usually aren't offered unless you have the power to change the world in such a way that the god wants.
But sometimes the contract is something like "Kill and eat a innocent bystander that you abduct without even learning their name" which is also a task based contract which generally requires you to change who you are to do.
Fair. I'll grant that those can also be bad. The green version of that would be fairly gameable, at least (no one said that the innocent bystander had to be human) but yellow....
Then you have red natural changing contracts the ones that don't change what you do, but what you feel.
"You feel genuine loyalty towards those you work for."
"You never ignore the suffering of others"
"You do a great evil laugh whenever your schemes come together"
"You don't feel guilt"
Honestly not sure if those are better or worse then don't do something contracts. Yes in character they are obviously worse, but on our side of the screen they are basically enforced character development. We have not been offered any of those yet. But they are a great way to give an otherwise ordinary character a extra edge by having them take a road less taken.
I think in this case they're good or bad depending on what the change is, how much of a change it is, and how the person feels about that change. Sometimes they can be awful - worse than the worst of the aforementioned yellow contracts. Sometimes... it's not that big a deal, either because the person is already mostly that way or because that's a change they wouldn't mind seeing in themselves.
So yeah... I'd put red nature changing contracts into the "be seriously suspicious but at least consider it" pile, and at least some of that consideration would be in character. After all, if you're taking personality-changing contracts for power when you don't like the personality traits that they instill... well, that's an aspect of your personality too. I'm pretty sure that "greedily grabs contracts for power even when they're a bad idea" is a character trait that we don't want her to develop.
I think in this case they're good or bad depending on what the change is, how much of a change it is, and how the person feels about that change. Sometimes they can be awful - worse than the worst of the aforementioned yellow contracts. Sometimes... it's not that big a deal, either because the person is already mostly that way or because that's a change they wouldn't mind seeing in themselves.
So yeah... I'd put red nature changing contracts into the "be seriously suspicious but at least consider it" pile, and at least some of that consideration would be in character. After all, if you're taking personality-changing contracts for power when you don't like the personality traits that they instill... well, that's an aspect of your personality too. I'm pretty sure that "greedily grabs contracts for power even when they're a bad idea" is a character trait that we don't want her to develop.
Imagine if a god offered us a red contract where the price was growing a conscience. Or maybe if Dr. Bone's next contract had You genuinely care about your patient's well-being as the price.
I have been genuinely cackling since I realized that Tweed's contract doesn't require any new expenditures of AP. Teaching yourself something counts since it's white. Any experimentation inherently entails teaching yourself something, and inventing is teaching yourself how to make something.
I have been genuinely cackling since I realized that Tweed's contract doesn't require any new expenditures of AP. Teaching yourself something counts since it's white. Any experimentation inherently entails teaching yourself something, and inventing is teaching yourself how to make something.
Scheduled vote count started by JayTar on Jun 10, 2024 at 10:58 PM, finished with 34 posts and 8 votes.
[X] Plan: adventure!
-[X] Yes (Costs 3 decent dots. Allows moderate exposure outside of protected areas.)
-[X] Yes (Costs 2 decent dots.)
-[X] A Gun (1 Decent dot. Allows the use of Combat (Firearms))
-[X] An Explorers pack (4 decent dots. Contains a crowbar, a hammer, duct tape, a can of grease, a lighter, basic climbing equipment, and a large coil of rope)
-[X] Breaching charges (1 decent dot. Consumable. Small explosive, big enough to knock open a door.)
-[X] Expanding foam sachet. (1 decent dot. Consumable. Very sticky and hardens quickly. Roughly enough to seal a door.)
[X] Plan: hide and don't die
-[X] Yes (Costs 3 decent dots. Allows moderate exposure outside of protected areas.)
-[X] Yes (Costs 2 decent dots.)
-[X] A Gun (1 Decent dot. Allows the use of Combat (Firearms))
-[X] Antitoxin packets (1 decent dot. Consumable. Provide +15 to a single Medicine roll to treat poisoning or other similar issues.)
-[X] Emergency shelter (4 decent dots. Pop up tent. Can be quickly deployed to create a protected area.)
[X] Close down the clinic and tell your brother and Leader? that you'll be unavailable for a week or so. Ask your brother if he knows a Professor Sinter.
[X] Plan: adventure!
-[X] Yes (Costs 3 decent dots. Allows moderate exposure outside of protected areas.)
-[X] Yes (Costs 2 decent dots.)
-[X] A Gun (1 Decent dot. Allows the use of Combat (Firearms))
-[X] An Explorers pack (4 decent dots. Contains a crowbar, a hammer, duct tape, a can of grease, a lighter, basic climbing equipment, and a large coil of rope)
-[X] Breaching charges (1 decent dot. Consumable. Small explosive, big enough to knock open a door.)
-[X] Expanding foam sachet. (1 decent dot. Consumable. Very sticky and hardens quickly. Roughly enough to seal a door.)
The Skydock is hive of activity that makes your previous visit look like an empty maintenance tunnel. Cliques of scientists festooned with all manner of technology have whispered conversations. The tension in the air is thick.
"Oh there you are! Wonderful! Come meet the rest of the team." A windstorm by the name of Professor Sinter sweeps you up and cheerfully deposits you in front of a pair of scientists before flitting back to the bus.
"Leviathan Grimm" You calmly introduce yourself.
The taller one speaks first, carefully noting the bird on your shoulder. "So. You are our newest colleagues. You may call me, Nathan Fulminate. We meet for the first time. " His tone is dark and gravely. He probably thinks it sounds menacing, but instead it makes him sound like he spent a little too long working on internal combustion engines, or perhaps a coal fire. To be fair the heavily coil-wrapped backpack and pointy gauntlet could perhaps intimidate the weak minded.
"My name is Carl. Um. Carl Smith. For your information we have met previously." the shorter one adjusts his oversized goggles. Besides a pocket protector full of pens and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder his appearance is aggressively bland.
"Really? When?"
"On the transit platform, when that vagrant stole your book. The alacrity of your chase suggests traits that possess a positive correlation with our expeditionary successes."
You nod. Rule one of social interaction, never admit you don't remember someone. "Mmm, that was quite something wasn't it." You look around. "Are we expecting anyone else?" Four people seems a little small.
Carl winces. "No. In fact I'm happy we have you."
"Professor Sinter has a… Reputation." Nathan rumbles.
"I'm sure you've been informed of the Rocket Lab incident. Her involvement led people to draw, um, certain conclusions."
"Heh. Never a normal boring trip with her."
Rocket Lab incident. That does tickle a faint thread of memory. "If she has such a poor reputation, then why did you join her expedition?"
"Um. Well, for your information-"
*Ding Ding!* A bell ringing cuts Carl off. "Quick, the departure time is almost upon us!" Professor Sinter calls from her bus's open doors. "AllAboard!" You feel a faint flicker of some sensation as you follow Carl and Nathan onto the bus. It vanishes too quickly to put a name to.
Then with a heavy ka-chunk, the platform opens. Down the bus falls into empty space. The city unfolds beneath you. For a moment you are in free fall, then the back of the bus ignites with a terrific whoosh.
Acceleration presses you back into your seat. What strikes you is how gentle it is. Just enough force and vibration to let you know you are traveling but no more. You have taken elevators less gentle then this.
Through the rear window you notice other vehicles detaching from the skydock. Some race in your wake. Faster and faster the city passes, until you suddenly are at the forcefield's edge. In an instant you are through. The view out the windows is replaced by endless grainy brown. The blue glow of the forcefield fades into the dust behind you.
With the lack of view out the windows you could almost pretend you were stationary. Perhaps drifting underwater. Then you break the cloud layer. Below giant mountain sized banks of dust flow and move. Fluffy shapes which curl and flow with deceptive speed. What looks like a gentle swirl must be made of winds strong enough to tear apart buildings.
Above and around you ultra-fine dust fills the air with a faint haze. The horizon is still largely visible, but any view of the stars is obscured by haze.
Several hours later the four of you have a planning meeting. The inside of the bus is reconfigured into a lounge more reminiscent of a luxury transport. Several comfy booths with their own little workspaces, all facing inwards to a central table which projected a hologram of a map.
"This, is our route!" Professor Sinter happily announces. "This is the city, this is our current location, and this is our primary destination." She points at a blue dot, a blinking yellow dot, and green dot in turn. "We won't be arriving for several days however."
"Then we have time to prepare." Nathan grunts, splitting his attention between the map and the workspace he claimed.
"Well um. By my analysis of the preliminary scans I have additional information to share." Carl pokes the air a few times and a new set of points appear on the map. "I've detected a number of interesting anomalies we could investigate with minimal detour."
What do you do during the journey?
You have 16/2=8 AP:
Side objectives:
[] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
[] "There is this one spot where the scans keep glitching. Coming back lost or distorted. It doesn't match any of the standard jamming patterns. I can't even tell if it's natural or artificial. But there is certainly something to investigate there." (3 AP)
[] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
Other actions:
[] Nathan Fulminate is more then a little prickly. Spend some time picking him apart. What motivates him to join a mission like this? (2 AP)
[] Grill Carl Smith on this Rocket Lab incident business. What exactly happened, and why do people care? Or not care as the case may be. See what information he spills when you shake him.(2 AP)
[] Professor Sinter is supposedly a professor. Maybe you could get her to teach you something? (2 AP)
[] Craft or invent something (What?) (Variable AP)
[]Something else: (Write in) AN: Not entirely satisfied with this but I didn't want to delay it more. Life is busy but I am committed to continuing this.
[X] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
[X] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
[X] Grill Carl Smith on this Rocket Lab incident business. What exactly happened, and why do people care? Or not care as the case may be. See what information he spills when you shake him.(2 AP)
There's plenty of situations where it's outright advantageous to admit you don't remember someone. To provoke anger or bruise someone's ego, pretending to have a bad memory, to help people understand if you actually have a bad memory, to make people think you're overly honest do they trust you, ect.
I have to ask, why don't we have access to our TAP?
Will we spend it once we actually arrive?
In regards to weekly restrictions: even though we're not using all of our AP for the week yet, I'd like to point out that this entire expedition is an experiment. This implies that we are almost entirely free of Infinitum's restriction for the duration.
[X] Plan: ohhh shiny
-[X] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
-[X] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
-[X] Professor Sinter is supposedly a professor. Maybe you could get her to teach you something? (2 AP)
-[X] At some point introduce Kutkh, it's only polite.
The first could have interesting materials. The second one I picked potentially has humans, and if memory serves we're good with those. The third is so we potentially have a teacher to use our TAP with. Unless we make a write in we have to pick two side objectives and a social action in order to cleanly use our AP. If we do decide to speak with Carl I would suggest a less hostile method of gathering info. Social friction can build up when you're going to be essentially living with people for a while.
We do still need to spend at least one action this week inventing or experimenting. I don't think that'll be hard, but if we spend all of our AP and haven't fit it in, that would be... bad.
We do still need to spend at least one action this week inventing or experimenting. I don't think that'll be hard, but if we spend all of our AP and haven't fit it in, that would be... bad.
[X] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
[X] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
[X] Grill Carl Smith on this Rocket Lab incident business. What exactly happened, and why do people care? Or not care as the case may be. See what information he spills when you shake him.(2 AP)
There's plenty of situations where it's outright advantageous to admit you don't remember someone. To provoke anger or bruise someone's ego, pretending to have a bad memory, to help people understand if you actually have a bad memory, to make people think you're overly honest do they trust you, ect.
Leviathan is both talented and reasonably skilled (But not truly a master) at social manipulation/interaction. She is thus somewhat prone to confidently asserting sweeping statements which may or may not be true.
We do still need to spend at least one action this week inventing or experimenting. I don't think that'll be hard, but if we spend all of our AP and haven't fit it in, that would be... bad.
Basically this. Though I would say that not all your actions are necessarily experimenting, the chance of you not fulfilling it's conditions this week is effectively zero. Venturing into the unknown to discover new things absolutely counts for the contract.
"On the transit platform, when that vagrant stole your book. The alacrity of your chase suggests traits that possess a positive correlation with our expeditionary successes."
You nod. Rule one of social interaction, never admit you don't remember someone. "Mmm, that was quite something wasn't it." You look around. "Are we expecting anyone else?" Four people seems a little small.
*Ding Ding!* A bell ringing cuts Carl off. "Quick, the departure time is almost upon us!" Professor Sinter calls from her bus's open doors. "AllAboard!" You feel a faint flicker of some sensation as you follow Carl and Nathan onto the bus. It vanishes too quickly to put a name to.
Then with a heavy ka-chunk, the platform opens. Down the bus falls into empty space. The city unfolds beneath you. For a moment you are in free fall, then the back of the bus ignites with a terrific whoosh.
Acceleration presses you back into your seat. What strikes you is how gentle it is. Just enough force and vibration to let you know you are traveling but no more. You have taken elevators less gentle then this.
Through the rear window you notice other vehicles detaching from the skydock. Some race in your wake. Faster and faster the city passes, until you suddenly are at the forcefield's edge. In an instant you are through. The view out the windows is replaced by endless grainy brown. The blue glow of the forcefield fades into the dust behind you.
With the lack of view out the windows you could almost pretend you were stationary. Perhaps drifting underwater. Then you break the cloud layer. Below giant mountain sized banks of dust flow and move. Fluffy shapes which curl and flow with deceptive speed. What looks like a gentle swirl must be made of winds strong enough to tear apart buildings.
Above and around you ultra-fine dust fills the air with a faint haze. The horizon is still largely visible, but any view of the stars is obscured by haze.
What do you do during the journey?
You have 16/2=8 AP:
Side objectives:
[] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
[] "There is this one spot where the scans keep glitching. Coming back lost or distorted. It doesn't match any of the standard jamming patterns. I can't even tell if it's natural or artificial. But there is certainly something to investigate there." (3 AP)
[] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
so some kind of flying structure, unknown jamming that might even be natural or biological in nature for all we know, and some moving radio signals that might indicate something like a caravan or nomadic group.
We only have 8 APs so we can only pick 2 at most, sadly. I'm honestly not sure which one I'd give up on, PROBABLY the unknown jamming. It sounds like the potentially most dangerous one.
Other actions:
[] Nathan Fulminate is more then a little prickly. Spend some time picking him apart. What motivates him to join a mission like this? (2 AP)
[] Grill Carl Smith on this Rocket Lab incident business. What exactly happened, and why do people care? Or not care as the case may be. See what information he spills when you shake him.(2 AP)
[] Professor Sinter is supposedly a professor. Maybe you could get her to teach you something? (2 AP)
The taller one speaks first, carefully noting the bird on your shoulder. "So. You are our newest colleagues. You may call me, Nathan Fulminate. We meet for the first time. " His tone is dark and gravely. He probably thinks it sounds menacing, but instead it makes him sound like he spent a little too long working on internal combustion engines, or perhaps a coal fire. To be fair the heavily coil-wrapped backpack and pointy gauntlet could perhaps intimidate the weak minded.
"My name is Carl. Um. Carl Smith. For your information we have met previously." the shorter one adjusts his oversized goggles. Besides a pocket protector full of pens and a messenger bag slung over his shoulder his appearance is aggressively bland.
Scheduled vote count started by JayTar on Jun 23, 2024 at 8:03 PM, finished with 10 posts and 5 votes.
[X] Plan: ohhh shiny
-[X] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
-[X] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
-[X] Professor Sinter is supposedly a professor. Maybe you could get her to teach you something? (2 AP)
-[X] At some point introduce Kutkh, it's only polite.
[X] "This spot has a really strong sensor return above the cloud layer. Whatever it is, it's big, solid, and floating entirely still at a really high elevation. Given the low density of the dust there is no telling how long it's been there." (3 AP)
[X] "This one has been elusive, but I'm pretty sure these are radio signals. Normal human radio signals, though I don't recognize the encoding scheme. It's been moving about, so we would have to track it down first." (3 AP)
[X] Grill Carl Smith on this Rocket Lab incident business. What exactly happened, and why do people care? Or not care as the case may be. See what information he spills when you shake him.(2 AP)
You tossed out a few rough plan ideas, and a bunch of people looked at one of them and said "That one looks good enough. We'll go with that." Sometimes, that's the way it happens.
