Bound to Earth: A CK2 Earthbound Quest in an 8-bit Dystopia

[Josiah]

So, I don't exactly know about the plan (albeit I lean strongly to voting for anything that has playing baseball there), but lets talk about the organization?

Cass Darnell has a heart of gold, which, in my opinion instantly disqualifies a criminal organization.
And plain corporation would be boring and not exactly thematic for CD and her situation.
Which brings us to the archaic organization, which could be like, anything.
So my proposal is the Onnet* Sport and Culture Assosiation. Its not a Corporation because its primary goal would not be a profit, but a propagation of sports, healthy way of life and various cultural activities, like robot/machine builing competitons, art exhibitions or whatnot.
But initially sports obviously, as CD is a sporty and not an artist. This does not preclude of gaining some profits (from sport competitions, tickets, merch and advertising and what-Ever), or from having some less-than-public security or informational operations. But those would not be a main focus.
And of course destruction of humanity by big bad alien is in a direct contradiction with these goals, so hey, he should be stopped!

*obviously with a potential to grow to an Eagle Quarter Sport and Culture Assosiation

 

[KnownParadox]

Diplo: Hm. People keep talking about forming an organization...but I want to capitalize in our momentum from the Fresh Breeze sabotage, and talk with the Sharks. Remember, people still dislike aliens in this world, even more space invaders. If we can bring them under our flag, we would have a solid foundation for our group, or at least a strong ally. That said, the organization choice wouldn't be too bad either.

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I don't think forming an organisation will lock us out of interacting with the Sharks, might even be better honestly, then we'd be in a position of power.

 

[Martin Noctis]

What about Onnet Self-Defense Force: A neighborhood watch/Self defense class

 

[griffinlw]

Cass Darnell has a heart of gold, which, in my opinion instantly disqualifies a criminal organization.
And plain corporation would be boring and not exactly thematic for CD and her situation.
Which brings us to the archaic organization, which could be like, anything.
So my proposal is the Onnet* Sport and Culture Assosiation. Its not a Corporation because its primary goal would not be a profit, but a propagation of sports, healthy way of life and various cultural activities, like robot/machine builing competitons, art exhibitions or whatnot.

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You know I wasn't on board at first, but I kinda like that idea. A sports club that just, hangs out and does things and also fights alien invaders. Not sure how much support we'll get but, it sounds fitting and like a fun time.

I'm still leaning halfway toward being criminal though. Being able to sidestep the law is definitely a good thing in this setting

 

[Crosswire]

I did it! I decipered the code!

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Are anti-corp organizations considered Anarchic or Crimminal

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Any organization that operates primarily outside the law, be it good or evil, is considered 'criminal'. Anti-corpo groups would primarily or even a Robin-Hood esque group would be considered criminal.

Archaic would be if you wanted to try and form your own monarchy, or something outdated like a democratically functioning nation state.

Cass Darnell has a heart of gold, which, in my opinion instantly disqualifies a criminal organization.

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C.D has a 'Heroic Heart'.

And heroic individuals can come in lots of forms, shapes, and flavors.

Just as a reminder the laws and rules of this world do not equate to goodness by any stretch of the margins. Also, CD is already a delinquent.~

 

[Josiah]

What about Onnet Self-Defense Force: A neighborhood watch/Self defense class

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I do not hate it, but it lacks in ambition? Like, ok you've taught the Onnet residents the self-defense, what next? And its limited in scope to self-defense only.
and Sports and Culture is nearly unlimited and ambitiously strives to a betterment of everyones situation by bringing them to a various healthy activities, striting from lacrosse games to jazz events to historic (one of the treehouse boy looked like a some sort of a history buff, talking about oscure figures like Hitler) exhibitions.

And it kinda plays against all the malicious and/or cynical profit-seeking orgs, by being idealistic? But not in a cringe "Break the Wind" way?

And heroic individuals can come in lots of forms, shapes, and flavors.

Just as a reminder the laws and rules of this world do not equate to goodness by any stretch of the margins. Also, CD is already a delinquent.~

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Sure, but, like, I think an idealistic "lets build a society" (not that Cass would EVER put it this way) organization is much more against the attitudes of this world than straightforward criminal organization. And once again, professional sports have a ton of crimes if these are needed.

 

[Martin Noctis]

Archaic would be if you wanted to try and form your own monarchy, or something outdated like a democratically functioning nation state.

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Workers of the City Rise UP!!! JK

 

[IronBig21]

Just going to add my two cents to the orgs.....

We do criminal organization, we have to name our group "Section 8". Or whatever the Eagle Country equivalent of Section 8 is.

And it works, as C.D.'s home probably counts as a low income housing environment (given how broke it looks).

 

[Josiah]

And, not least, I think it would be much more fun if the big bad alien humanity-destroyer was defeated by a sport club rather than by a criminal organisation. I mean criminal organisation is kinda straightforward, "yeah it's violence" and its also secretive so its like a halfway to a james-bondy thing? Like, too obvious.

and sport club does not preclude THAT, and it makes (in a funny way) sense that the sport club would be opposed to a world-destroying alien boss. And I think it opens a ton of hilarious possible side-events and whatever.

"Sure, we are a Sport-association. And a Culture, I guess. So this baseball bat is totally for sporting purposes. And I would break the knees of every corporation that stands in a way of us promoting the healthy way of life and opportunities to residents of Eagle Quarter and the City. Just try and I would put you in our non-profit museum, in a "wrecked losers exhibition"!

 

[The3rdCorinthian]

Here's the thing though.

Prikle. Monotoli. poochyfund and all the rest.

I want to toss them off their gilded thrones.

Whilst some of that might happen regardless, I want to actively make major change for EQ, and I want to do it without having C.D. end up beocming some kind of ruler herself.

So like... Yeah, I kinda want a resistance group, but one where importantly, we also find ways for communities to come together and build something that's better than what came before. I don't just want to beat Giygas, I want to save Eagle Quarter.

...Now granted, I could totally see some kind of hybrid Reistance group and Community Sports movement. So probably what josiah is mentioning but with some more teeth.

 

[Josiah]

...Now granted, I could totally see some kind of hybrid Reistance group and Community Sports movement. So probably what josiah is mentioning but with some more teeth.

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Am totally for teeth and for bringing change to an Eagle Quarter and for kicking all those tossers in the sitting muscle! (Just in a funnier way)

In my opinon ideally it should work like Cass bringing all the great changes to the Eagle Qurter and defeating all the tossers without even realizing it. Like "I guess it just happened? Ok duh, they were in my way".
Probably would not be exactly that way but I hope I managed to explain the idea.

 

[Martin Noctis]

Maybe the sports club thing could be cover for our real activities?

 

[The3rdCorinthian]

Am totally for teeth and for bringing change to an Eagle Quarter and for kicking all those tossers in the sitting muscle! (Just in a funnier way)

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I mean. either way it's funny tbh.

I just prefer the anti-Status-quo side first because I feel the joke lands better when there's some teeth to it.

Like. Community Sports people saving the world is one thing. Paramilitary anarchist teenage community sports people (They'll overthrow your local dictator and then play a game of Baseball to celebrate) just feels like the joke goes further without getting stale to me.

Maybe the sports club thing could be cover for our real activities?

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My idea now is Hybridising them.

Sports stuff is how we get people in and generally try to help out the community. But like, we're still openly a resistance movement.

I see this resulting in some ridiculous shenanigans.

 

[hleghe]

lot of fun ideas being said right now. seems we all agree on diplo/intrigue faction-specific actions being the priority, which is great.
baseball is also pretty popular, which I guess is great for character development? wouldn't rush for it myself, since it might end up being given as a personal option so we'd have more opportunity later.


think it might be a good time to bring up my idea for a faction if we're getting in that conversation

now personally, I'm currently leaning towards founding a corp1 and I've got a whole bunch of ideas and possible advantages to convince everyone☆

feel free to discuss any issues you might have with this concept, I'm fine refining things to improve it/make more people happy, since it's going to impact a whole bunch


ok first off, our business can be called something like

"brainshock spiritual healing"2​

TBH about the only thing we really have to market is our exploiting ESP powers for medicinal purposes, but let's be honest the existing medical infrastructure is a huge jerk that should be knocked down a peg and I can imagine a lot of benefits to entering the sector (it makes a ton of money and lets us provide health benefits to our faction), on top of being a great way to do a whole lot of good


Yes I'm saying we start a MLM or whatever, we'd probably need to train a bunch of people under us anyhow. still not convinced? I have boundless enthusiasm for this concept so here's why it's good:

Spoiler: various potential advantages, spoilered for size

using this sort of company we can easily justify doing a bunch of weird-seeming stuff and sell whatever we want as a cover for whatever we need to do to resist Gygas, I.E, anti-posessed lampost tech/culling the hypnotic alien slugs because they're bad vibes™ , and so on.

it's probably important to get the general public to listen to us when we say something like "the slugs are evil, here's what you need to do to not be brainwashed", and about the only way i can think of doing that is by marketing ourselves as experts there.



It means we can take actions without police instantly bum-rushing us for being criminals and ruining everything. this would be so much off our shoulders in the mid term I can't state it enough

(with a criminal organisation, we'd probably have an easier short-term but could get bogged down. this seems better once we get set up a little bit, and long-term success is probably the key to success.)



if anyone remembers our turn 1 investigations, captain strong currently listens to Pirkle because they're the biggest corp, which sounds like a possible fracture point to me. doing so is probably a massive pain but if we can get enough legitimacy it might be possible to oppose and eventually unseat them. (it'd be hliarious to show them up, being a delinquent. don't worry, we don't need to put our face on everything)



in terms of the disadvantages of being a corp, i wouldn't worry about that whole "some people will never join a corp" line we got earlier. there should be plenty of perspective recruits even without hardline rebels, and we should be able to gain any gang/delinquent etc street-cred directly. (so it's not too bad :). I feel like it's something that can be worked with? they're probably a pain to deal with anyhow



plus I imagine a lot of people people would have issues with joining criminal gangs, so it would be nice to make things more trustworthy early on and grow more reliably. far easier to make people sign up for indirect action for now,

a lot of these kids probably don't want to join the sharks, so why would they be happy to join a different gang? would make it easier to convince things

1Personally feel it's important to go all in on things, third option isn't too good unless we have a clear idea what to do and that *can't* be either or a corp or a gang. (e.g: freedom fighters are criminals from the perspective of other factions>why wouldn't we class as criminals and get the advantages of it? it doesn't mean you have to be evil)

just feels like third option sacrifices specialties for lukewarm generality so we shouldn't do it for the sake of it


2 This is a terrible idea but I think it would be fun if we pulled a homestuck "naming your company over the one thing your enemy fears, just as a taunt." except Gygas probably wouldn't react to anything other than ninten or something and that's just a glaring "I know what's going on you should attack me" sign. (i get homestuck and earthbound mixed up a lot. homebound? earthstuck?)

Stewardship: Honestly, anyone's game. I'm kinda wanting to go for Beak Change. It could go around many problems if we get that by legal means. And I say we use our faction bonus here, even more if people are deadset in forming the organization.

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want to clear up here, isn't grift issues to get someone else to buy beak point? we probably wouldn't get it unless something's wildly successful. maybe with a faction we'd be able to save for it?

 

[Josiah]

I mean. either way it's funny tbh.

I just prefer the anti-Status-quo side first because I feel the joke lands better when there's some teeth to it.

Like. Community Sports people saving the world is one thing. Paramilitary anarchist teenage community sports people (They'll overthrow your local dictator and then play a game of Baseball to celebrate) just feels like the joke goes further without getting stale to me.

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To be quite honest I do not want it to be a straight resistence movement. It's too, to allow a self-quotation, "straightforward yeah-it's-violence, and its also secretive so its like a halfway to a james-bondy thing? Like, too obvious."

And with a Sport and Culture Associating it's anything but straightforward, deliberately "legal" (in as much things are "legal" in this world) but also like 100% against the crooked villains and for-profit corps by design. By choosing to promote community health and culture it's on a collision course with everything about this jaded egoistical 8-bit world.

it does not preclude from violence (on the contrary!) or having shady secret operations, and it should bring great changes to the world - preferrably even without Cass and the Assiciation members realizing it.

 

[Josiah]

but let's be honest the existing medical infrastructure is a huge jerk that should be knocked down a peg and I can imagine a lot of benefits to entering the sector (it makes a ton of money and lets us provide health benefits to our faction), on top of being a great way to do a whole lot of good

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You can't really promote active sports without having the good and affordable medicine! It's totally it the books!

 

[KnownParadox]

I'd be down for exploiting our psychic healing powers to fight back against Giygas. Labeling it as a spiritual and/or healing thing could be great fun.

Training others to do PSI Lifeup could be a pain, but we really don't need anything more than alpha level to be honest for most things seems like, and fighting off Giygas' forces can be hidden under that umbrella too. A little percussion maintainance and voila your oven is no longer trying to kill you.

I like it more than the sports association thing anyways.

Edit: also watch out for double posts

 

[Rise Shine]

I'm leaning towards Corinthian's resistance idea, myself.
Though, whatever we choose, our faction shouldn't reveal itself as an anti-Giygas PSI using group right away, that would spell disaster, as it pretty much tells Giygas exactly where to strike, and we really can't afford to fight him head on for a long time.

 

[KnownParadox]

Personally I think corp or criminal will work out best in the long run rather the wishy-washy archaic, as a corp (Brainshock Spiritual Healing or whatever) Captain Strong will at worst just watch us, as long as we openly follow the law he can't do shit, and that goes for many other groups in Eagle County and beyond. As a criminal (Media Pirates or whatever) we'd have the bonus of "we can do whatever the fuck we want, so long as we have the strength or guile to take it". Raid every mayors house, kick a CEO off their 700th floor balcony, jaywalk, whatever. It also let's us recruit the people who would never join a corp, and a I imagine a few of those folks are pretty hardcore and can't be bought with money.

Listen, I'd just rather do anything except Archaic. The idea of hiding our operations behind a spiritual healing corporation also just tickles me, I like that idea a lot. Plus, our new age crap actually works! And it's far cheaper! The people will love us.

 

[IndustrialVice2]

That's not how the loyalty bonus works.

For one, I don't know if this triggers at 25 or 26.
And for another if it triggers, we get a 15% of bbs martial bonus, not 20.

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Y'know, these are both fair criticisms. It might not proc at this level, and you're right that it would only be a 15% bonus, putting it at +5 instead of +7.

Also, his actual martial is 2. Remember, the psi warrior trait is it's own thing.


Still, I agree with the thrust of what you're saying, just clearing up some things.

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This, however, is decidedly not. PSI Warrior clearly states that Buzz-Buzz can substitute his PSI score for his Martial score unless the QM specifies otherwise, and I don't see a big flashing no-no sign on that-there action.
Having thought it over, even if we don't get the improved bonus it doesn't matter. between Buzz-Buzz getting (35+3) = 38 effective martial and CD's 16 Martial, we have 54 Martial available. Exactly enough to pass it on a natural one.
If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.

 

[The3rdCorinthian]

2 This is a terrible idea but I think it would be fun if we pulled a homestuck "naming your company over the one thing your enemy fears, just as a taunt." except Gygas probably wouldn't react to anything other than ninten or something and that's just a glaring "I know what's going on you should attack me" sign. (i get homestuck and earthbound mixed up a lot. homebound? earthstuck?)

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So first of all before I react to anyhting else, know this post caused me literal PSI damage IRL. Congratulations.

More on the rest...

Whilst the core idea seems good, It's also a bit limiting?

For example, we know that there's a lot of variance in PSI usage. What about the more offensive users? Or people who don't specialise in healing nearly as much? I feel it'd be better to branch wider instead of pigeonholing ourselves into health from the start. Gets us more customers, and the health stuff is still important in a place that's retained the American Healthcare System.

However

Spoiler: spoilered for length, this got out of hand :(

(with a criminal organisation, we'd probably have an easier short-term but could get bogged down. this seems better once we get set up a little bit, and long-term success is probably the key to success.)



if anyone remembers our turn 1 investigations, captain strong currently listens to Pirkle because they're the biggest corp, which sounds like a possible fracture point to me. doing so is probably a massive pain but if we can get enough legitimacy it might be possible to oppose and eventually unseat them. (it'd be hliarious to show them up, being a delinquent. don't worry, we don't need to put our face on everything)



in terms of the disadvantages of being a corp, i wouldn't worry about that whole "some people will never join a corp" line we got earlier. there should be plenty of perspective recruits even without hardline rebels, and we should be able to gain any gang/delinquent etc street-cred directly. (so it's not too bad ). I feel like it's something that can be worked with? they're probably a pain to deal with anyhow



plus I imagine a lot of people people would have issues with joining criminal gangs, so it would be nice to make things more trustworthy early on and grow more reliably. far easier to make people sign up for indirect action for now,

a lot of these kids probably don't want to join the sharks, so why would they be happy to join a different gang? would make it easier to convince things

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This is where I have a lot of issues.

First of all - Getting enough Legitimacy to overthrow Pirkle without Pirkle cotonning on and stopping us, entirely legit, will almost certainly take ages. Pirkle has Giygas actively on his side, and he's also the law, and thus could create new rules to make our gaining such legitimacy significantly harder. I don't see the challenge and AP investment being worth the reward, when it's likely that by the time that's passed, we'd already have buisness in Twoson or Threed.

Besides, we already have a way to deal with the OPF as a criminal group. It's called "We're too big for them to actually enforce the law". Sure, they're going to be an issue, but we're going to be a group dedicated to fighting an alien invasion. If we struggle to deal with the Fuzz, Giygas has already won.

I actually feel that the Long term bonus goes to Criminal overall. Corps are bound by their image. We can't take Everdreads money to free the runaway 5, for example, because taking money from a Known Criminal wouldnt be what a law abiding company does. We can't break into private property to find a macguffin we need to open a door, as another example.

Also, some people don't want to deal with corps not because you need a certain level of street cred, but because they're, for example a scientist whose previous corp employer was close to considering the 'Dropped from a skyscraper' retirement plan and they decided to quit and run to winters instead.

That being said, I do like a lot of the core of this. I disagree on some of it, sure, but the core of it I think would make for a solid group. Offering PSI for better living gives us an in that could definiteyl be useful. And whilst I really, really don't want to be another corp in a City actively ruined by them, it's a useful idea whatever we choose to do. Solid core for a corp, and a good front for a criminal enterprise.

I'm leaning towards Corinthian's resistance idea, myself.
Though, whatever we choose, our faction shouldn't reveal itself as an anti-Giygas PSI using group right away, that would spell disaster, as it pretty much tells Giygas exactly where to strike, and we really can't afford to fight him head on for a long time.

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...

Alright so hear me out.

Lupin III esque Phantom Thieves, with a bit of P5 mixed in.

With PSI abilities, it would be way easier to pull off supposedly 'Impossible' heists. Once we manage to use it reliably without draining ourselves, imagine using a precise application of Plushie to bust open a lock in a vault and just waltz in?

That nets us the wealth we use to fund our actual resistance movement, which can then get us information about major figures like Monotoli, and we can then take them out with whichever facet of our group is more fitting for the task.

We disguise our main criminal activities with totally different criminal activities!

Y'know, these are both fair criticisms. It might not proc at this level, and you're right that it would only be a 15% bonus, putting it at +5 instead of +7.

This, however, is decidedly not. PSI Warrior clearly states that Buzz-Buzz can substitute his PSI score for his Martial score unless the QM specifies otherwise, and I don't see a big flashing no-no sign on that-there action.
Having thought it over, even if we don't get the improved bonus it doesn't matter. between Buzz-Buzz getting (35+3) = 38 effective martial and CD's 16 Martial, we have 54 Martial available. Exactly enough to pass it on a natural one.
If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight.

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Yeah, wasn't disagreeing with the thrust, just the specifics.

And I would have thought that it would still have used bb's martial there since, whilst it was about replacing it, it would be kinda busted to have that much of a bonus.

But I could absolutely be wrong, and I will cop to that. I thought the ability was worded more limitedly off the top of my head, that's my bad.

 

[KnownParadox]

You know, a Cult would probably count as a criminal group, and we have psychic powers to shoe off to our followers, loyal ones fanatical enough to fight off an alien god...

We already started it off with that one guy, we could do it.

 

[Martin Noctis]

You know, a Cult would probably count as a criminal group, and we have psychic powers to shoe off to our followers, loyal ones fanatical enough to fight off an alien god...

We already started it off with that one guy, we could do it.

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Only if without Human or Uplift or whatever Sacrifices. Also Possible name: Church of Peace Strength (and) Yourself

 

[Hex]

Whatever we do, I don't feel like Archaic is the method no matter what. By nature it's harder to get people into, and even a sports club wouldn't fit.

I personally think Criminal is best. Not because we are criminals but because it allows us to operate outside of the law. As had been mentioned, much like Robin Hood and such. A Corporation just feels like we'd be fighting against most threats on a turf where they are already established, better to work around the rules.

As for the specifics? None of the ideas here yet have really caught my interest but I'm thinking on it. Though it's a little sad how divided we are all of a sudden.

 

[Crosswire]

Though it's a little sad how divided we are all of a sudden.

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Don't be sad! The discussion of ideas and the voicing of individual wants like this is really wonderful to see for me.

If someone's idea doesn't work out there's nothing stopping you from trying to take that idea and turn it into an action for the faction. Establishing a non-profit, setting up a 'spiritual healing' gig, founding a cult, etc, etc.

You'll be able to get up to plenty of shenanigans, I'm certain.

It's easy to get excited for ideas that really get stuck in your head, but it's important to remain flexible.

Don't take the failure to reach the 'ideal' of your idea as something to be disappointed by. See it as an opportunity! Creativity under limitations or with restrictions due to circumstances can lead to surprising things.

Also, I feel everyone's been very civil and really cool so far about talking about concerns, ideas, potential problems, and such. You're all doing great <3