A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not
- Thread starter Tabula Rasa
- Start date
Nando
they, them
a) It's not just making deliveries, but also collecting orders and running through the village, doing the shopping.
b) Coming from an introverts perspective (I might be projecting): Even having to just answer the door for a random stranger can be exhausting. Having to talk to a bunch of strangers, go into several shops (which might be full of people, at least that's my understanding of Hogsmeade Weekends), dealing with people...I'd avoid it, in Jacobs situation. *shrugs*
c) Not sure about the timeline, but wasn't there some issue with dementors at one of the Hogsmeade trips? Also, just checking for it, canon-wise we'd actually only get another weekend there in February (probably the 12th).
d) Yeah, true. Changing it now would be quite unfair for those that voted for the plan, and a new plan wouldn't get many votes...
- Location
- Where Jokes Die
I don't think Jacob's really an introvert, just kind of socially inept. The two are not mutually exclusive, but they are different enough to be separate entities. He seemed more than happy to... well, for lack of a better word, accuse the Grey Lady of "not being suitable" for position as the Ghost of Ravenclaw, not to mention his presence in the Dueling Club and his kind-of friendship with Megan. He also had a good enough time asking ghosts more about their nature during NHN's deathday party. Those seem to be things that would exhaust one pretty thoroughly, and I'm at least aware enough to know that introversion doesn't mean you're not good at talking. It simply means to interacting with others for any extended period of time is a draining endeavor.
If he is an introvert, he's not one that would be really bothered by doing simple business. Heck, even framing it in his mind as "a job to do" can help.
Same deal with buying stuff. I know from personal experience that the process of buying things and whatnot can get kind of awkward for various reasons, but he's done it enough times there shouldn't be much issue. Jacob's social ability will be impacted because he's likely drawn further in on himself for now in order to properly reflect on the circumstances of his birth, but that shouldn't affect his ability to put a Dungbomb on a counter and slide over a few Sickles.
I'm afraid I'm not entirely certain as to what you mean by the weekend thing, but if you mean "he won't be able to access Hogsmeade" that's explicitly countered by his knowledge of the various secret passages in and out of the castle. That's the entire reason why he can make a profit doing this; he can supply people with objects "out of season," as it were. The dementor issue... mm, that's a good enough point, true, but I doubt he'll run into one out on the streets of Hogsmeade. I'm hoping someone's a good enough fellow to save him, at the least, but it's true we might need to put it off overall until we learn Expecto Patronum.
Speaking of, wonder what the trait we get from it will be! I expect something like "when learning spells with a high DC, gain a bonus to your rolls" or something like that. A trait that helps with challenges.
Edit: Apparently QM has already addressed dementor argument. Too busy right now to check through entire thread (why must I procrastinate so?), but there's that.
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Wait ... I recognize this ... @Tabula Rasa were you by any chance influenced by Bob's Beard's Golem Quest? Not the Paridisian war one, the one with Modre.
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Nando
they, them
Ooooohhhh...I did a dumb on that one, totally forgot that he'd be doing his Hogsmeade Business via secret passage...
Well, on the one hand that takes a lot of people away from the village, on the other it kinda adds the "shouldn't you be in school"-talk to it. But, I guess it's supposed to be just an option to earn money, so we probably wouldn't be punished for taking it.
Would still feel a bit strange to me, but yeah.
Leaves me with "I don't think one action on this is going to make much of a difference, and right now I'd prefer to pursue other things". Also, I'm not sure of the mechanics of the "Multiple Actions on this count as multiple rolls stacking" part. Anyone knows when we did that last?
- Location
- Australia
[X] These are for Exploration Only
[X] Plan This train has no brakes v4
Personal actions x10
-[X] Train Intelligence
-[X] Train Creativity
-[X] Train Constitution
-[X] DADA x2 (if DADA training fails skip protego)
-[X] Spell learning x3 (Protego deep understanding, Focillo, Draconifors, Expecto Patronum)
-[X] Potion learning x2 (Wideye Potion)
[X] Plan This train has no brakes v4
Personal actions x10
-[X] Train Intelligence
-[X] Train Creativity
-[X] Train Constitution
-[X] DADA x2 (if DADA training fails skip protego)
-[X] Spell learning x3 (Protego deep understanding, Focillo, Draconifors, Expecto Patronum)
-[X] Potion learning x2 (Wideye Potion)
- Location
- Where Jokes Die
[X] These are for Exploration Only
- Location
- Asia
Looking at ourselves with ghostly goggles would be interesting.
Too many things to do and too few actions points...
Too many things to do and too few actions points...
- Location
- California
And how often do you think people stop Jacob just to talk?
I would say no one, so taking a Hogsmeade business action does not count as a social action. Also, Jacob's knowledge of shortcuts means he can avoid any crowds, and go to the village whenever he wants to fulfill an order. Meaning, he can leave Hogwarts and return when no one would be walking outside.
Alright, so we will talk on Easter the earliest.
I asked because Jacob was clearly struggling with the painting (and everything else...). With the artist's identity confirmed I think the meaning is quite clear, I just enjoy thinking of frog symbolism. Having those paintings become a mother-son dialog just makes it all so much cuter.
[X] These are for Exploration Only – Use these boots for Emergencies and during your Exploration Activities only. While you are of no particular mind to keep their existence secret, you don't want everyone to know them either and it might be useful to have a set of trump card in place for a later time.
[X] Plan Empathetic Adventures V3
-[X] Break through your Horizon I – Hogwarts is built in a valley area — surrounding mountains are part of the landscape. You had always wondered about them, because they were your daily horizon. Usually there would not have been enough time for you to get there, wander around to explore the lands and come back in time for curfew. Having access to a broom would have helped you, but now that you had secret exits out of Hogwarts… the horizon was not your limit anymore. Use the unknown passageway in the north end of the castle. (Takes 3 Actions, can't be taken in the same month as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and What hides behind trees)
-[X] Business School of Hogsmeade (Multiple Actions on this count as multiple rolls stacking) – This is the first year, in which you can go to Hogsmeade. Good that you've been planning for this since first year: Buy Books, Ingredients, Joke Shop Articles, Instruments and other things. Go and look, if you can make some money by buying things for first and second years. Roll for how many are interested and then for how much they want to spend. Take 15% as a fee.
-[X] 8x Personal actions
--[X]1x Training Empathy
--[X]1x Train Intelligence
--[X]1x Training Potions (Hits P-)
--[X]1x Training Alchemy (Hits D-)
--[X]4x Spell learning (Focillo, Draconifors, Glacius, Diffindo)
- Location
- Germany
These are not new skills. He has been painting and sculpturing for years with his parents. He only finally decided what he really liked to do, that's all.
For now, I wouldn't think so. You're not actually flying yet. The only thing it does mechanically is add Constitution as an attribute to any combat roll, when you use it.
Hm. I don't want to give so much information through random posts that are no chapters. But you guys are not really the exploration type yet, which is opposing the way this quest was build.
You can fuck up in actions such as exploration, but who cares. Jacob will have fun nonetheless, you guys are going to have fun and I am going to have fun writing it. I promise you, no one will want to read 80% "and then he trained x".
But if that's what you guys want to do, I'll see how to turn that into an interesting story as well, I guess. It's just ignoring the potential of what we're doing here.
Never heard of that, sorry. What is it about?
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
I remember reading that a long time ago. IIRC its about a war golem powered by the souls of the dead plus or minus suffering who suddenly became sapient. A lot of the quest was growing more powerful by absorbing more souls and exploring the setting by learning new knowledge and skills while trying not to get discovered for what he was.
Nando
they, them
...I'm still a bit...confused? About the scope of the Exploration actions, but, fine, you seem to have a plan with it. *shrugs*
And, well, I'm pretty sure one chapter of "Jacob trains X, Y, and Z" should be fine. And I do like reading about characters (rapidly) improving
Also, we've got like half a dozen plot hooks, so it's a bit difficult, for me, to focus on exploration...and we do have a lot of other potential in this quest, I think. The whole research spells/potions/alchemy stuff, the "what the hell is going on with our MC" stuff, the social stuff, and not to forget the "what do we do with canon?" stuff.
So, I think it's fine to wait a bit with the next big exploration, if only for one chapter.
- Location
- Portugal
I think we as the players are really focusing on how to get better, stronger, smarter. And we're focusing on these skills. Mechanically we are in the right path to improve our character. What we are forgetting is that we are molding Jacob away for what made him, Jacob. The endless curiosity, the need to search for new things, how eager we were to discover the secrets that are all around us. That was really fun.
For me the best thing about this quest was when we solved and helped the Sally-Anne case. That was one of the most powerful, wonderful moment of any quest that I have participated in. And that was what Jacob was all about.
If we're thinking purely in actions/results, the way we're going right now is the right one. But there are other kinds of rewards and opportunities just by going into the world and discovering what we don't yet know.
Basically I'm just saying that we're just dumbing down the quest, where we're making almost all the decisions an action reward system instead of enjoying the complex world that Tabula is trying to build for us.
For me the best thing about this quest was when we solved and helped the Sally-Anne case. That was one of the most powerful, wonderful moment of any quest that I have participated in. And that was what Jacob was all about.
If we're thinking purely in actions/results, the way we're going right now is the right one. But there are other kinds of rewards and opportunities just by going into the world and discovering what we don't yet know.
Basically I'm just saying that we're just dumbing down the quest, where we're making almost all the decisions an action reward system instead of enjoying the complex world that Tabula is trying to build for us.
SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
My intent is that the next few turns will be exploration and social heavy, as we've done the vast majority of the improvement work to get the duelling improvements it was front loaded to make a big difference to our duelling results.
- Location
- USA
I really think you are worrying about nothing here. We need to take exploration actions to see what they are like. If we encounter a problem, we will retreat if needed.
That we haven't taken a single exploration action since October is pretty disappointing tbh. The thing that hooked most people into the quest were the cases and the exploration. The past few updates though have seemed to focus more and more on just making the numbers go up.
Edit: I also fail to see how making Jacob stay in the castle an entire month doing nothing but repetitive training is good for his health (mentally or physically). The entire reason we didn't do a journal action this turn was because we didn't think that seeing a war would be good just after his experience with the Flamels. Doing an action he has always enjoyed doing like exploration should help him get in a better mental space.
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SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
Won't be the case in the next turn, we gave Jacob a focus and we've put a lot of effort towards it but the majority of the improvements for that is done already.
- Location
- USA
Really. What focus is that?
Edit: My entire problem with your plan is that you have us doing nothing. He has no focus right now.
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Nando
they, them
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I guess for me that's other quests coloring my decision making. Not knowing if our character is taking reasonable/necessary steps before following through with a voted action is...uncomfortable
Hm, for me the whole Runes Club stuff is also exploration, and really interesting.
And we have the Dreams of Old stuff.
So...yeah, I don't really get this "we have only focused on numbers" thing *shrugs*
Random Encounters are also not "making the numbers go up".
I'd assume the whole Dueling thing? It was voted for Jacob to aspire to be really good at that...
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SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
[ ] "This is the Road to the Top" – Tracey's goal seems to be clear. She wants to rise in ranks, however long it takes her. Her fierceness inspires you as well; this is something you can do. You will aim to win the dueling tournament at the end of this year, however farfetched that goal is. Because this feels like something that could be a lot of fun.
We voted to do this, my plans front loaded a fairly large amount of the work for this. Which is why if my current plan wins we'll be A ranked in DADA and we can reduce the focus down.
I'm expecting to only put 1 training action a turn into DADA for the next 3 months.
- Location
- USA
People have been pretty insistent on raising Intelligence and Creativity through natural means, and as a result have avoided doing anything that might give us more experience and net us a level up. Things like that. Looking at the mechanics and deciding, hey instead of doing some really cool stuff, lets instead spend 3 Personal Actions in an attempt to raise Intelligence by 1 point. That and the desire to somehow become better than most 7th years at a subject (DADA) at the expense of other skills. That is the what I mean by focusing on the numbers.
The Dreams of Old isn't exploration, it is learning about our past. Runes Club is more hanging out with friends with a bit of exploration thrown in, but nothing that truly takes your breath away. The true exploration I'm talking about is the bit of Indiana Jones type stuff that we had a taste of early on in the beginning of the quest.
Edit: Nvm, I misremembered.
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SuperSonicSound
Shadowmancer of the Shadow Cabal
A Harry Potter Quest: He who was not
Some of you may know me from my other Quest (Rien ne va plus – A Marvel based quest you should...
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
It won.
Had a four vote lead.
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