I'm skeptical stunting in a cape not among the list of dispatchable capes is allowed.
Alchemical Solutions [Worm/Exalted] Thread 18: Ravaging Rapscallions Rapidly Regret Regular Rampages
- Thread starter Gromweld
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Grom said we could stunt OC's from the gangs. I figure we stunt in a dude in power armor that would give Jack and Shatterbird fits. A tinker (and brute via armor, though I might change to clockwork since that seems more Brutey) also helps against HF.
Here, alternative that has Jack standing still, doing his favorite thing:
-[] PRT officer Sasha Freeman waited in a ruined penthouse suite... The tinker-plastic power-armored Void Knight flits around Shatterbird. Slash stands a distance away, yammering on. There's a signal between the teams, holding their own vigil on Weaver's instruction for a shot to kill the fucker and save the teleporter. She breathes smoothly, focused, the perfect shot in her sight. Bang.
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Looking at this from a strategic point of view, what are the S9 thinking with each of these attacks?
This is a pin. They are forcing us into a battle on their terms by attacking something they know we're obligated to defend. By attacking the civilians they can keep us from interfering in any other battles and force us to engage them closely. If we try to keep away from them they can simply turn to slaughtering civilians and force us to either accept the casualties or close with them again. Since we don't know IC who is controlling Siberian only ourselves and Chevalier are capable of IDing the controller, but Chevalier is too slow without assistance, and Siberian will try to keep us close to the civilians.
The mission is to kill extras. Shatterbird might be there to recruit an NPC.
Mannequin is probably there to recruit Armsmaster again, aside from killing Uriel. Philanthropic will no doubt be using telekinetically controlled bomb swarms, possibly mixed with conventional weapons. This attack is as much about breaking the city's morale as it is about disrupting our operations.
This is a pin. They are forcing us into a battle on their terms by attacking something they know we're obligated to defend. By attacking the civilians they can keep us from interfering in any other battles and force us to engage them closely. If we try to keep away from them they can simply turn to slaughtering civilians and force us to either accept the casualties or close with them again. Since we don't know IC who is controlling Siberian only ourselves and Chevalier are capable of IDing the controller, but Chevalier is too slow without assistance, and Siberian will try to keep us close to the civilians.
The mission is to kill extras. Shatterbird might be there to recruit an NPC.
Burnscar is there to recruit Xylophone, if she hasn't been turned already. On the face of it Burnscar and Bonesaw would be a poor match-up against the geokinetics of the Boulder Builders, but Philharmonic-the-living-stun-gun should be very effective at disrupting them. And I am pleased/displeased to note that I was right about the Philly Phils being a high priority target.
Mannequin is probably there to recruit Armsmaster again, aside from killing Uriel. Philanthropic will no doubt be using telekinetically controlled bomb swarms, possibly mixed with conventional weapons. This attack is as much about breaking the city's morale as it is about disrupting our operations.
This one is simply a resource sink. Lacking an on-site intelligent controller they will mostly use suicide swarm tactics. More than just being easier, this battle promises to be simpler than the other fights, the only real wild cards being the use of bombs to breach the defensive line.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
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Better still, have Jack monologuing over how the cape has a Sophie's choice between losing his wife and son. He loves that shit.
The reason why there needs to be a lag in acquisition and shots fired is because coordinated attacks take time and we want everybody to have a nice big aim bonus so they do lots of damage.
With Weaver calling the shots they're not going to do a mercy kill anyway since if you can shoot his backpack you can also shoot him. And it also tells him you've got snipers.
The reason why there needs to be a lag in acquisition and shots fired is because coordinated attacks take time and we want everybody to have a nice big aim bonus so they do lots of damage.
With Weaver calling the shots they're not going to do a mercy kill anyway since if you can shoot his backpack you can also shoot him. And it also tells him you've got snipers.
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I'll go back over my stunt with that in mind.
I will be compiling all my stunts in a single post later. In the meantime...
- [ ] Stunt: "Hah, I'm a Big Girl - darkness doesn't scare me! Tactical Hug! ...it didn't work?" For an instant Weld pondered how a puzzled Bonesaw could be simultaneously adorable and terrifying. He charges through the smoldering wreckage as he converged on Bonesaw's location. Hope Inquisition's correct. Elsewhere, earth and crystals smother flames. A joyous shout, "Meet the Ro-er-Rocks!"
Where Geode tries for a silly reference and nearly forgets about maintaining her secret identity.
Not sure if earth-moving is Stonewall's power though. Anybody know? Anyway, I figure this would confirm Geode,Stonewall, and Xylophone FIGHTING Burnscar.
Edit:
-[] Stunt: Officer Sasha Freeman waited in a ruined loft. Slash stands opposite the tinker-plastic power-armored Void Knight, yammering on about choosing between loved ones. There's a signal between the teams, holding their own vigil on Weaver's instruction for a shot to kill Slash and save the teleporter. She breathes smoothly, the perfect shot in her sight. Bang.
I'm still trying to find room to indicate that the drones are dealt with.
But I'm hesitant to allow Jack to actually directly talk to anybody in a stunt. Seems like a bad idea. We DON'T want him getting the chance to turn anybody.
And unless Who can be involved in the stunt somehow...just how is she helping here?
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
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I'm not sold on stunting in Geode, but you can tighten up the language and save a few words by going with,
- [ ] Stunt: "Hah, I'm a Big Girl - darkness doesn't scare me! Tactical Hug! ...it didn't work?" For an instant Weld pondered how a puzzled Bonesaw could be simultaneously adorable and terrifying. He charges through the smoldering wreckage, converging on Bonesaw's location. Hope Inquisition's correct. Elsewhere, earth and crystals smother flames. A joyous shout, "Meet the Ro-er-Rocks!"
That puts you at 54 words, which should allow you to make integrating Geode more interesting (right now it's a very jarring shift).
My suggestion is to imply their presence by using earthy sounds - rocks crashing, crystal singing, etc.
I think more success might be had by restructuring the narrative so that the sniper is being alerted to Jack's presence by Weaver, and thus implicitly by a stealthed Who. This also implicitly informs the audience that the snipers are being coordinated.
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Kind of hard to do implicitly...we might have to give some kind of solid indication.
Back to the drawing board for those two. But here's some revisions for three more stunts!
- [ ] Stunt: A thunderous crack sounds, the ground in front of Gully's shovel buckled, forming a jagged path around PRT HQ. Pillars of fire and ash rise towards the sky in response. Gully place a hand on Willow's shoulder. "Never give tinkers prep time." "You have no idea." Dual voices emerge from within, their own tinkers, releasing their cloud of nanite Death.
*shrug* Dragon's been busy. She had Colin's designs, right? It could be something else.
- [ ] Stunt: "NOW!" Perfect timing. With Crawler focused on Vajra, the young Striker darts out from behind the frozen rubble, sliding underneath an errant tentacle as he slaps the monstrosity's rear leg. "Excellent. Now help Alexandria evacuate-" The Siberian erupts from a storage container, your bugs giving barely enough warning to dodge. Clever girl. But as we move you're also being hunted.
Implies that we're orchestrating the fight to search area for Siberian as we go.
- [ ] Stunt: Skein grimaces as another bomb detonates in the hallway, turning her frilly cloth mouse into prismatic confetti. Fucking Tinkers. This sentiment is shared by Bulldozer, who is using a cyber-panther to bat the cyber-gorilla through the wall. Gallant is slightly disturbed as yet another zombie curls up in despair. The PRT soldiers with guns take the zombie apocalypse in stride.
This gets us a PRT squad. With guns. Lots of guns. Always handy against zombies.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
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I don't like this. There are better ways of implying/seeding Dragon's participation, and it guts the deliberate characterization I put in there for Gully.
Inserting Dragon:
- [ ] Stunt: There was a thunderous crack as the ground in front of Gully's shovel buckled, forming a jagged path leading to the PRT building. Pillars of fire, ash, and sizzling haze raised towards the sky in response, confirming Dragon's warning. Gully placed a gentle, almost motherly hand on Willow's shoulder, "And that's why you don't give Tinkers time to prepare."
This minimizes the impact while keeping most of the stunt intact, although I still don't like it because it takes away from Gully's mentoring Willow. I based the whole stunt around Gully, a more experienced Case 53, taking the younger Willow under her wing. Having Dragon swoop into the rescue, either by information or action, diminishes that.
This is not terrible but I'm going to give it a minor revision because I feel like it.
Stunt: "NOW!" Perfect timing. With Crawler focused on Vajra, the young Striker darts out from the frozen rubble, sliding underneath an errant tentacle as he slaps the monstrosity's rear leg. "Excellent. Now help Alexandria evac-" The Siberian erupts from a storage container, your bugs giving barely enough warning to dodge. Clever girl. But now it's my turn to hunt you.
Hmm.
Still don't like how that reads.
We can fit in the whole, "hunting the Siberian" thing into the FPoP free action, which was my intent anyway. The revision you're suggested doesn't really change much and rereading it I don't like the addition of Taylors thoughts beyond a simple one-liner.
Notice how the overarching theme of the three capes is they're having varied emotional reaction to Fucking Tinkers. Skein is annoyed, Bulldozer is angry, Gallant is mildly traumatized because he's smart enough to get the implications of the zombies feeling emotion. Having PRT troopers there taking everything in stride kills that.
The flow also becomes choppy and repetitive, "A does B, C does D, E does F, etc." Plus, I don't like the hyphens.
But now I think it's to the point that we're splitting hairs. The Docks revision is OK but I'm not cool with the other two as they don't line up with the tone I was trying to set for those stunts.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
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[ ] FPoP - Free Action: With Crawler frozen in time you and Clockblocker dash to the warehouse containing the remaining civilians. Signaling the Ward to reinforce the walls in case Crawler thaws sooner than expected, you gingerly lift a comatose senior into the back of a rusty pickup truck. With the civilians gone there won't be anything stopping Weaver from hunting down the real threat.
Covers all the basics. I'd like to fit more descriptive adjectives in there though.
Covers all the basics. I'd like to fit more descriptive adjectives in there though.
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I would rather make sure Armsmaster and Dragon are actually IN THE FIGHT over some extra characterization.
It's a one-liner said originally said by a character who was a hunter who was subsequently EATEN. The point is to add something to that line and make the one saying it the hunter again.
How about 'But you still fail to realize we're hunting you'?
The hyphens are where they should be. It's still the same amount of words (for those words, anyway), just correct.
I thought the normal humans just casually shooting shit like it's another day at the office was funny.
Anyway...back to the Street Kings and Bonesaw
- [ ] Stunt: "Hah, I'm a Big Girl - darkness doesn't scare me! Tactical Hug! ...it didn't work?" For an instant Weld pondered how a puzzled Bonesaw epitomized 'adorrifying'. He charges through the smoldering wreckage, converging on Bonesaw's location. Hope Inquisition's correct. The darkness expands, joining towering earth and ringing crystals that smother flames. A joyous shout is heard, "Meet the Ro-er-Rocks!"
In my mental picture of the scene Slate's darkness connects the first part to the second. The darkness joining with the earth, crystals, and the music as they combat the flames...very dramatic. And then Kinzey interrupt.
-[] Stunt: Officer Freeman waited in a ruined loft. Slash stands opposite the plastic-armored Cellophane, yammering on as the tinker flips Slash off. A signal from Weaver's Stranger indicates the drones are cleared to her and the other teams, holding their own vigil for the shot to kill Slash and save the teleporter. She breathes smoothly, the perfect shot in her sight.
Okay, I just wanted somebody to give Jack Slash the finger. But I think it does cover all the bases.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
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Tough cookies.
What you're suggesting is not the kind of fight I want to see. I want to establish more Case 53 camraderie, I want a more uplifting section where the wide-eyed Young Willow gets mentored by some of the best street-level capes in the PRT (Chevalier and Miss Militia are there too, don't forget!).
I don't want to see Dragon swoop in and save everything because she's so kewl.
We are going to get better bonuses by constructing a better narrative, not by trying to jam everything we possibly can into 60 words.
That's part of the joke. Guess it didn't work. We could change it to, "Clever girl. But cleverness won't save you" which turns it around so that the Siberian is the one delivering the line if that's a big issue. The FPoP free action is supposed to give a more in depth look at Taylor's plan anyway.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
How about this?
Stunt: "NOW!" Perfect timing. With Crawler focused on Vajra, the young Striker darts out from the frozen rubble, sliding underneath an errant tentacle as he slaps the monstrosity's rear leg. "Excellent. Now help Alexandria evac-" The Siberian erupts from a storage container, your bugs giving barely enough warning to dodge. Clever girl...but you're not the hunter here.
Stunt: "NOW!" Perfect timing. With Crawler focused on Vajra, the young Striker darts out from the frozen rubble, sliding underneath an errant tentacle as he slaps the monstrosity's rear leg. "Excellent. Now help Alexandria evac-" The Siberian erupts from a storage container, your bugs giving barely enough warning to dodge. Clever girl...but you're not the hunter here.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
If he talked standing where there were firing lanes, he would have been sniped years ago. I've already mentioned my theory that he reflexively slashes up all potential sniper's roosts in the area before getting out of cover.
Although, if she was wearing Weaver's spider silk armor she could've survived that.
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Gromweld
Learning By Mistake
The In-Cast List still isn't completely omniscient, and combined with Alexandria's quoted statement on the matter I've been working under the belief that it's more just about a combination of her memory/intelligence power being focused towards the ability to read peoples' faces and body language to determine their mood - nothing like Gallant or Cherish's abilities to sense emotion directly. It's still likely better than most humans will ever get, but I wouldn't bet on it being usable on a crowd of panicking people.
No reason for her to smuggle the gun - they'd be handing that shit out to anyone able to use it right now.
GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
- [ ] Stunt: PRT Officer Sasha Freeman couldn't believe her luck. Eight years she'd waited for this chance. Weaver had ordered sniper teams into position to take out Jack Slash without killing the mutilated Ward, and now she had a clear shot. She took the tinkertech round she'd borrowed from evidence and loaded it into her rifle. "This is for my brother."
This better?
Alternatively we focus more on the scene itself and assume that they're using the best ammunition they have for the job. This is Jack, the number one field priority and tinkertech ammo can be vulnerable to Shatterbird if there's any microelectronics in them(not to mention potentially getting Broadcast hints). I suggest working more on the scene itself to improve the stunt rating over cramming trivial details in. Jack's skull might be reinforced but it's nothing armor piercing or explosive rounds can't handle.
Like so:
[ ] Street King Castle: Bladedancer, Bulldozer,
-[ ] Stunt: PRT Officer Sasha Freeman couldn't believe her luck. Eight years she'd waited for this chance. Weaver had ordered sniper teams into position to take out Jack Slash without killing the mutilated Ward, and now she had a clear shot. She pulls the trigger as he evades a spray of blades, stopping at a shattered window. "This is for my brother."
Like so:
[ ] Street King Castle: Bladedancer, Bulldozer,
-[ ] Stunt: PRT Officer Sasha Freeman couldn't believe her luck. Eight years she'd waited for this chance. Weaver had ordered sniper teams into position to take out Jack Slash without killing the mutilated Ward, and now she had a clear shot. She pulls the trigger as he evades a spray of blades, stopping at a shattered window. "This is for my brother."
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It's not about being cool. It's trying to ensure Armsmaster and Dragon aren't dead/disabled already. But whatever.
I like it too. But the original version is fine so long as we have some action (FPoP) to make clear we're going hunting.
Ugh..I don't think I have the will to re-write it again.
*twitch*
The revenge thing seems off to me. The feeling I get from trying to give this deep back story to the NPC like that is that it sets her up to be done in all of a sudden before she even gets the shot off, rendering it all pointless.
Skip the revenge, make the sniper a (highly) competent professional that blows the super villain's head off.
Well, shit. Maybe we do want Chevalier on the Siberian hunt? Line of Sight might be good enough if Manton is pretending to be a civilian? Or just be helpful in searching in general.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I'd rather go with the version that describes her location, as a 2die stunt requires her to interact with the scenery. Hmm.
I think I've got something.
- [ ] Stunt: In a trashed penthouse suite, a confident voice whispers into PRT Officer Sasha Freeman's ear, "Target sighted, check your six." She slides off the musty chair, sweeps glass from the broken window on the other side of the room. "I see him." "Synchronize your shots. Five..." She chambers the PRT-issued Tinkertech round into her rifle. ...Pete says hi, asshole.
I'm trying to convey a sense of professionalism and vindictiveness here. Hopefully that came across.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
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Where? I did a search for the name and it didn't turn up anything beyond the stunts in this thread.
They'll be fine. Grom's not going to kill them off just because we didn't include them in a stunt. Sensible QM is sensible.
Chevalier is too slow. We're much better off having Alexandria fly off busloads of people because Manton's hours are numbered the moment Weaver is free to start searching for him.
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It does. But it misses the factors we were trying for before. A carefully planned killshot assumes Tatsu isn't being targeted (taking that much effort to aim, you can spare the hostage for crying out loud) so there is that.
But what about Who and the drones? Can we imply one of the voices is Weaver's Stranger giving the all-clear?
Edit: ....that's Who whispering in her ear, isn't it? I first thought it was another team member over a network. (God, I'm tired)...but it's probably Who. Still, wonder if there's any way to make that just a bit clearer and that more strongly imply that Who only gets involved when the drones are gone.
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FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
Here's how it works:
The voice is Weaver's, relaying information.
This implies that Who is in the sky acting as spotter, with her power active.
Who can't act as spotter unless the drones are cleared.
Hell, the snipers can't even get set up unless Legend and Gust have done their jobs.
We don't need to map out every little thing. Just implying it is enough.
Turns out I was mistaken on Sasha. Got her mixed up with another named minor character...but it's not really relevant because again, people don't randomly get killed when we mention them(or don't mention them) in a stunt.
One big advantage of using Legend instead of Alexandria at the Docks fight, other than battling Crawler. He's FAST, and able to take out Manton in the time between identification and Manton's realization. Alexandria isn't QUITE fast enough to prevent Manton from resummoning Siberian to defend him.
Chevalier works by line of sight, he can spot parahumans in a horde of civilians without paying close enough attention to see faces, as we know what he sees is somewhat similar to a 10 mote anima display. As long as the evacuation is occurring in the open he can vet them rapidly even at ground level. Just look over the crowd and tag any parahumans, then inform Legend.
One big advantage of using Legend instead of Alexandria at the Docks fight, other than battling Crawler. He's FAST, and able to take out Manton in the time between identification and Manton's realization. Alexandria isn't QUITE fast enough to prevent Manton from resummoning Siberian to defend him.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
As I already said, Manton isn't going to be in the mass of civilians at the docks. It's a stupid risk when he can do the same thing while hiding in his car, and it also means that he got gassed by the stink bomb too.
Manton resummoning the Siberian is irrelevant as Marrow can pop her with a perfect parry (and probably Ping damage too, but that's unconfirmed).