What's better than one new CYOA? Two new CYOAs! Happy belated Christmas and early New Years everybody.
Elemental Interest
This is a fun one, very evocative blurbs. Here are two builds: one for cowardice, the other for courage.
Connecticut Yankee - Purity, Speed (Deep)
There are
dozens of us. That may not seem like many, but the Earth will soon buckle beneath their weight. What happens when someone with deep knowledge of Power decides they don't like the results of the next presidential election? Is there a point to the democractic process when mastery of Purity allows one to dictate outcomes? Even assuming the political framework will last long enough for such questions to matter is optimistic.
Either the planet will be destroyed or a new order'll be born from the information age's pyre, but either way this world will end. Perhaps an equilibrium could balance the competing interests of titans, peace reached through the promise of mutually assured destruction once more, but I doubt it. The throne of god only seats one comfortably. When you face the facts, running's really the sensible thing to do.
Purity's taken as a first-order defense, but it can't be relied on against the powers of his peers. So the Yankee flees. Far out into history's hinterlands, climbing far-flung branches on the tree of time. Touring alternate timelines, scattering temporal clones throughout probability space in search of the perfect possible future. In the end, the ability to choose which world one inhabits is just as personally significant as the power to change the world.
Silence is Golden - Purity, Emergence (Deep), Animation / Arcana: Quiet
This revelation is the greatest gift ever given to humankind. A transcendent epiphany like a bolt from the blue; nothing less than grace, unasked for and undeserved. To spurn this supernal charity would be the height of ingratitude. What is one to do with opportunities other than seize them? Hearing and speech are small prices to pay for precious knowledge. Text-based communication's common and actions will speak louder than words in the coming time of glory anyway. I'll miss music, but not tinnitus.
The Silent One takes one level of Purity for defense and anagathics. Spamming the self-repair function of Animation provides some protection, but Purity's both passive and more comprehensive. The two synergize, since anything that penetrates short of a fatal blow or full subversion can be restored. Better still, Animation can be aimed externally, allowing for the repair of any damage done by others. The description doesn't state whether resurrection's possible, but healing whole worlds is promising.
It's well and good to secure one's safety and shelter others, but restoration alone is insufficient. Whatever purpose we were chosen for, it can't be to simply uphold the status quo. That's where Emergence comes in. Obliterate the real and bring forth the ideal, setting new baselines for Animation to restore. In time the Silent One will be able to conjure the contents of his mind directly, overcoming the bottleneck of creative expression that plagues all writers and artists.
Surprisingly fertile soil for such a short CYOA! I contemplated a Can't Stop the Signal (Deep Echoes) build that treated spreading knowledge as a sacred duty, paying the gift forward. I'm also curious about what - if anything - happens when you take the deep versions of all knowledge in one category by shouldering all three available drawbacks, but not even the Silent One version of me is
that gung ho.
An Alpha Draft of the complete work. Enjoy this fully playable version of the CYOA!
A Winter Dynasty
I'm certainly feeling the festive spirit! Such generous gifts, with no need to make ourselves pariahs or incur the wrath of Apocalypse to finance our greed. Instead, we've got gacha. Making builds before knowing where they're heading feels like walking out onto thin ice, just waiting to hear a crack. Here goes nothing:
The Mathemagician
Passage: A Quest +1
Patronage: The Forester (Mental Power & Agility) -1, The Mandarin (Forester) -1
Provision: Fisherman's Association Membership +1, Titan's Abacus -3
Panoply: The Abacus is dangerous enough without Heroic intensity
Function over form is the Mathemagician's motto. Cultivating an indifference to aesthetic and narrative considerations will be difficult, but with the incentives and stakes being what they are he'll adapt eventually. For my first pass I decided not to dive headfirst into the tumultuous waters of hubris, so the Mathemagician's built around basic synergies to achieve safe use of the Abacus. Rather than multiplying (heh) its more-than-sufficient strength with the Mandarin, both Mental Power & Agility are taken.
The former minimizes the time spent stuck at the mastery bottleneck; the latter's sound judgment minimizes the odds of the Mathemagician self-destructing by pulling a Seram and trying to suppress 'the ground' or something. One boon from each category also nets the Mathemagician both circumstantial bonuses, though obviously the 20% risk reduction for prudent actions is the more relevant of the two.
An elementary application of the Abacus can sort food so the Mathemagician's never at risk of forfeiting Fisherman's Association membership. With unerring memory and the boost to learning speed, adept status shouldn't take too long. From there focus shifts to self-quantification and advancement, with the eventual goal of creating a spatially quarantined training realm where there's no risk of the Abacus being stolen.
A variant could take on Debt to purchase the Genius as an additional safeguard, but without Barrister to litigate the deal that's a tad too spicy (and involves too much Gisena) for my taste. This is really a rather simple build! But to paraphrase Vanreir, "that which is simple is also strong." All that remains is to see where the Mathemagician will land, the one calculation beyond even Functionalism's ability to administrate...
Shadow of All Things
Passage: A Quest +1
Patronage: The Overlord +5, The Seraph +1 HF, The Forester (Physical Agility) -1, The Mandarin (Barrister) -1, The Heir (Thievery) -3, The Barrister -5
Provision: A Debt +2, Obols of Paradise (Tuxedo Mask) -1
Panoply: A Sword (Specialist: Thievery) -1 HF
As it turns out, all the ambition missing from the Mathemagician was stolen by the Shadow of All Things. Bring on the burdens and debts, the endless ordeal of Heroic expectations; greater challenges beget greater rewards. Brilliant as the stars may be, it's the void between them which gives their light context. The Shadow is not an agent of mere anarchy. Instead, he aims to imitate the Barrister's role in the Winter Dynasty: excising evil to allow for virtue's flourishing.
Mandarin-boosted Barrister is the backbone of the Shadow's build. His obligations to the Overlord are pared down to a manageable four hours per day. It should make Debt easier to handle as well - only fitting, accounting for Aeira's backstory. The Shadow views himself as permanently 'on retainer' for the Seraph of Heroism; having been paid handsomely in advance, he acts out of honor and a sense of gratitude to those who empowered him. A more mercenary conception of Heroism than most, but what does that matter to those saved?
The Shadow's supernal facility for theft from Heir has enough overlap with Fatal Threnody to be amplified by it. Completing the deadly trinity is his eternal accomplice, the sword Expropriation. Its blade is velvet darkness, with edges crisp as a silhouette against the evening sky. Lights flicker and foes fall silent when it's unsheathed. Expropriation's bite steals the strength of the wicked to be sealed in an amethyst set in its pommel, which gleams in proportion to the might thus acquired.
Aesthetics aside, the Shadow's intent in taking both Overlord and Seraph is to steal from the abundant acceptable targets summoned by the latter and funnel their power into his debt to the former as payment. Mastering the Fatal Threnody takes time, so the Praxis gets passed over to avoid splitting focus. Painful, especially with the Seraph's version being so user-friendly, but the compounding modifiers to maximize the Shadow's skill at thievery are just too good.
The remaining two Gifts are at loose ends. Genius stacks with Barrister for a total of +15 Luck. Dropping Debt's possible but wasteful. One of Physical or Mental Agility would synergize with Shadow's sub rosa playstyle, leaving a Gift to exchange for one Obol to be traded to what's likely the Curse Broker or an associate. Blood of Pedigree's pretty good too, even if I'm not nuts enough to parachute into the Usurpation in hopes of curing Odyssial's Great Curse. I think I'll leave those in reserve and edit that choice in later, after rolling for quest settings.
Edit: 1843 words.
Alea iacta est. Naruto and... Sailor Moon, of all things. At least I didn't roll one higher and land in PMMM, I'd have nobody but myself to blame. If only the order was reversed, the Shadow could've claimed the title of Issaikage!
Anyway, I know little about Sailor Moon except for some heavily distorted crossover tidbits that haven't slipped through the cracks of memory. One spare Gift's allocated to Physical Agility, for speed stacking and genre-obligated bishounen status. The other snags a setting-appropriate powerset. The Shadow has Tuxedo Mask's tendency to vanish, but is actually helpful. High levels of Threnody are concerned with aesthetics, making a version of TM's powerset tailored to my sensibilities more useful than it might appear. The minor psychic powers also marginally expand my repertoire.
Ally-wise I suppose I'll have to hope the characters are aged up or get used to playing the mentor to a bunch of teenage girls, a prospect that'd make hurling myself headlong at the villains appealing after a while. There are a few high-end cosmics to worry about, including a Sailor Galactus if I recall correctly? Quite a harvest for Expropriation to reap, a conveniently paced multi-course meal starting with Metallica (sp?) and working my way up the food chain. If they have sealed evils in cans going spare, the Shadow will happily avail himself of the clearance sale... though the fact that these are among my first thoughts means staying true to Heroism is going to be challenging.
But not as challenging as playing the Mathemagician in Naruto! Holy fuck, rolling a setting filled with ninjas - however far some stretch the definition - when my primary power comes from an item vulnerable to theft? Quite the pickle. Any shinobi would kill for a chance at power like this, and consequently no Village can be trusted. Maximum paranoia is going to be necessary, combined with a conservative strategy that sees me parked far from anywhere plot-relevant until I can grind up to adept status. Lacking access to chakra's also unfortunate, and I don't think the Abacus can be implanted for added safety.
There aren't even a surplus of mathematicians whose brains I can pick (unless fuinjutsu specialists count), because all the brainpower and funding probably goes to weapons research! A lot depends on where and when I end up, honestly. A lull between Shinobi World Wars means time to scale, even at the cost of roughing it for a while. If I get unlucky again, there are situations where no amount of Mental Agility or meta-knowledge can bail me out. With no Heroic strictures, the Mathemagician may end up going full Shinra Tensei if forced to fight before developing superhuman attributes. At least imposing turn-based combat would nerf speedsters (poor Noboru) even if they still win the metaphorical initiative roll.
