Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
...no?
"The Red" is winning. It now has 9 votes for it.
The tie was between "Among the Dikes" and "Republic Commando" at 7 votes each, which has a winner as of this post.
Cracking Masquerade, a Dresden Files/MCU Second World War quest
- Thread starter mouli
- Start date
- Alt. History
...no?
"The Red" is winning. It now has 9 votes for it.
The tie was between "Among the Dikes" and "Republic Commando" at 7 votes each, which has a winner as of this post.
Just earlier today they were at 7 votes each. The tally is not up to the minute but only refreshed from when I made the edit to my earlier post.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
As mentioned earlier, I have not divided votes by task. Since each background synergizes differently with the missions, I chose to tally as a whole. The winning vote set under this assumption is:
[X]Republic Commando: You're not a very great agent or a superb diplomat. Hell, you're not even ex-military. The one thing you've got going for you is the ability to blow things up. Be it from explosives, from magefire, or from those funny little glo-sticks that Stark handed you on the way here, you're pretty good at starting fires. That means your objective is what the Japs call the Hakkoda Facility, a place for testing and implantation of preternatural enhancements. A place which was founded by the infamous Dr. Shiro Ishii. A place where they're making supersoldiers - or at least trying to. You are a minor mage equipped with Stark-made 'special explosives', and your mission is to sabotage or damage as much as possible the Japanese super-soldier program.
[X]Nisei: You have one huge advantage here, and that one thing made the high command in Washington send you. That, and the fact that it's foolish to keep a Jap close to the heart of the intelligence community, or so the colonel that briefed you said. You're California born and bred, but you're Japanese by blood - and in the America of the 1930s, it's blood that will out. Still, it means that you speak fluent Japanese, with the downside that you look Japanese in China. In a wartorn China, invaded by the IJA. Good luck, you'll need it.
You can pick two magical disciplines, start with contacts in the Black Chamber, and are Japanese-American. Now comes character customization, then we move to Nanjing alongside the NRA's 88th Infantry Division. You have one 'key item', the explosives Stark gave you to blow up the labs, but note that you can expend them early if you so choose.
Let me know in the next hour or so if you feel this arrangement of tallying is unfair.
[X]Republic Commando: You're not a very great agent or a superb diplomat. Hell, you're not even ex-military. The one thing you've got going for you is the ability to blow things up. Be it from explosives, from magefire, or from those funny little glo-sticks that Stark handed you on the way here, you're pretty good at starting fires. That means your objective is what the Japs call the Hakkoda Facility, a place for testing and implantation of preternatural enhancements. A place which was founded by the infamous Dr. Shiro Ishii. A place where they're making supersoldiers - or at least trying to. You are a minor mage equipped with Stark-made 'special explosives', and your mission is to sabotage or damage as much as possible the Japanese super-soldier program.
[X]Nisei: You have one huge advantage here, and that one thing made the high command in Washington send you. That, and the fact that it's foolish to keep a Jap close to the heart of the intelligence community, or so the colonel that briefed you said. You're California born and bred, but you're Japanese by blood - and in the America of the 1930s, it's blood that will out. Still, it means that you speak fluent Japanese, with the downside that you look Japanese in China. In a wartorn China, invaded by the IJA. Good luck, you'll need it.
You can pick two magical disciplines, start with contacts in the Black Chamber, and are Japanese-American. Now comes character customization, then we move to Nanjing alongside the NRA's 88th Infantry Division. You have one 'key item', the explosives Stark gave you to blow up the labs, but note that you can expend them early if you so choose.
Let me know in the next hour or so if you feel this arrangement of tallying is unfair.
- Location
- Florida
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Well, mouli, you pointed me here and...
I can't wait for the fun to get rolling.
Consider me impressed. Between Asia intentionally having zero details in Dresden Files and Marvel's colorful-but-tainted WWII comics, you've certainly got alot of material to work with. And you've gone right for the subject that has the most familiarity to the audience, the closeness to the Imperial Japanese ideology and strategic situation, and the easiest bridge between fantastical technology and magic.
I can't wait for the fun to get rolling.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
When tallying I selected Divide Votes by: None. That gave the above two as with 7 votes overall, the next one at 4. Is there another method?
- Location
- The US
So it's because those two together are the largest block? That makes sense, I was just misinterpreting what you meant. Question withdrawn, this looks good and I'm excited for more
Always!!?!? Yo this quest just became super legit. Hope you are okay with the vote results from earlier today. Let's lock and load marines!
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
>MFW me being here is somehow a metric of quality.
Seriosuly though, I am bemusedly flattered.
I'm honestly just as interested in the social dynamics of being pretty much hated by everyone in the country. We're dancing on a fine line every step of the way...
It's a Long Trip to Frisco: Nisei Commando Character Creation
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
It's a Long Trip to Frisco: Nisei Commando Character Creation
Shanghai lies broken and half in ruins from weeks of warfare, fought within sight of the peace of the International Settlement. Shanghai, once the premier city of the eastern coast, now burns beneath the rising sun. Where once were docked the yachts and freighters of a dozen nations, there is now the Imperial Japanese Army's disembarking infantry, the sun on the banners as red as the bloodstains on the cratered roads.
Now it's central China that hears the guns once more.
For all that the mission is to deal with the IJA's enhancement program, there's a hell of a lot more to be done here. You're mentally wincing at the sheer destruction on display, a single artillery regiment doling out carnage akin to a battle-wizard from beyond the horizon. You've waded through more blood than you care to think about, and you've seen more nightmare fuel in Shanghai than you did in all your years in San Francisco.
The mission's gonna be a long one. Long, and with no support. Little intel. The only thing going for you behind enemy lines is that you look Japanese.
Of course, the difficulty is that you look Japanese. Sure, you've got a passport and a decent grasp of Mandarin. You've got a letter from Chiang and another from the American legation in Shanghai's International Settlement. You've even got an NRA uniform.
But you're Japanese to them, and that's all that matters.
The first time a shopkeeper turns his back to you on the street rather than listen is what drives that home. The first time the cook doles out the dregs at chow call is what brings the old, familiar anger. The first time someone spits on your for being 'one of them' is when the 88th Division seems less an ally and more a danger zone.
Well and good, 'cause that's what your old mission brief was. Hostile landscape, in and out.
Just one problem. One big one. The city of Nanjing, and the fact that it's currently surrounded. The fact that you can't get transport out, because nobody's willing to sell or give to a Japanese.
You're here for the long haul, and the one thing keeping Tang Shengzhi from having you shot as a spy is Chiang's letter and your English.
[]Name?
[]Gender? Gender discrimination in the mundane world is a thing in 1937, so be warned. You're already a Nisei, so I feel it's fair to write out the warning.
One piece of good news is that you've got magic. Decent magic. Not really Council material, but then who is? In the Black Chamber, nobody.
You make do with guns and explosions, and you haven't yet seen the vamp that still walks once John Moses Browning has his say.
Pick two magical disciplines from: This is what a non-Council practitioner has access to learn. They will start at Trained(0/400):
[]Artifice
[]Evocation:
-[]Fire
-[]Lightning
-[]Wind
-[]Force
[]Culture
Pick two Mundane skills to start at Skilled, the others begin at Trained:
[]Combat: Ranged
[]Combat: CQC
[]Technology
[]Speech
[]Tactics
Pick one starting gear/piece:
[]Modified BAR: Ever heard that joke about the zombie that walked into a BAR? No? Good, 'cause the Black Chamber likes to keep it that way. Adds +5 to all attacks at range, medium range, ammo is scarce in China. Pros: Automatic fire. Cons: Cannot be used as a marksman's weapon.
[]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
[]Shaman's Knives: You're a Nisei with a Chumash shaman's ritual knives. When the old man you pulled out of a smuggler's truck gave 'em to you, you didn't ask where he got them either. All you said was thanks. Adds +2 to all melee attacks, evocation focus with no magic limit. +1 to Ritual actions.
I think that covers all of it. Votes are open for 24 hours or so. Feedback is as always welcome, for I keep getting the feeling I'm not writing the American right.
Oh, and vote by plan. I'm not counting non-plan votes.
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- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't know anything about Dresden magic. But I think the Mauser with wind or lightning would be a good combo. Artifice sounds good for a precision, finesse build but I don't really know what it or culture would entail.
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mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Artifice is essentially building enchanted gear, so for instance hardening a leather jacket to bullet-resistant levels. Culture is more 'soft', it's what lets you recognize a gribbly, know the weaknesses of a gribbly, and negotiate without making an ass of yourself with supernatural entities that you haven't seen in person. You want this if you feel that summoning, Sidhe, or exotic supernatural beings are in your future.
[X] Plan Marks Man
-[X] Name: Mark Shirokawa
-[X] Gender: Male
-[X]Artifice
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Wind
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Tactics
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
-[X] Name: Mark Shirokawa
-[X] Gender: Male
-[X]Artifice
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Wind
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Tactics
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
1. Shanghai was always a place that looked nice in the foreign concessions and shit everywhere else. But yes, living in Stalingrad in China's a hell of alot worse.
2. What date is it again? I know you mentioned winter, but are we talking October or November here?
3. The 'single' artillery regiment is on the one hand an independent heavy artillery regiment: twenty four of these WWI-era 150mm junkers. Seriosuly, even the Nationalists' few artillery have them beat. They're packing these. On the upside: they are on strict limits on the shells they can fire. There's alot more artillery, but IJA logistics are already overstretched by this point and only getting worse. That one regiment is probably the only one allowed to fire their listed amount of shells.
Yup. We'll need to be very good at bluffing.
And that's all stuff the IJA will shoot us for having if they search us.
Aaaaand here we go.
... I'mma go for it.
Heh.
Right, time to start wiki-diving.
Hoo boy.
Any weapon that has 'you consume alot of ammo and can't replace it' is pretty much destined for the scrap heap.
Oh right, a Kar 98k.
Evocation is what Dresden got his fame for, and rituals are how low-level Practitioners "cheat" like hell.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Tinker
-[X] Name: Alice Ikari
-[X] Gender: Female
-[X]Artifice
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Lightning
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Technology
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
-[X] Name: Alice Ikari
-[X] Gender: Female
-[X]Artifice
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Lightning
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Technology
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
November. As in, the last days of November. The NRA is desperately forting up in Nanjing and whoever can get out is doing so. The IJA already has a loose cordon around the place, enough to hinder a breakout attempt. Rough terrain, terrible logistics, and a punishing pace mean that IJA heavy artillery has yet to come into play, but their air is already here in force and beating down the Soviets.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
[X]Plan Rad like Rei Hino
-[X]Name: Mikasa Shirohime.
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Fire
-[X]Culture
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Speech
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
So here's my logic: This is WWII. We kill shit by shooting it. And this is also Dresden Files: You're basically fighting a Stand Battle mixed with feudal court politics. The only way is to be smarter, think five steps ahead of the guy who's five steps ahead of everyone else, know the rules beforehand, and be able to improvise on the fly. So we have two things going for us. One, we can assassinate someone from afar when they don't know we're there by bullet or by a fuckton of magic napalm. Two, we can bluff our way past whatever magic the IJA is bringing or their guards. The Japanese officer corp was legendarily corrupt, with officers bringing along their own little coteries of geishas and luxury good providers. If they want to treat us as an invisible object... they won't live to regret their mistake.
-[X]Name: Mikasa Shirohime.
-[X]Evocation:
--[X]Fire
-[X]Culture
-[X]Combat: Ranged
-[X]Speech
-[X]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
So here's my logic: This is WWII. We kill shit by shooting it. And this is also Dresden Files: You're basically fighting a Stand Battle mixed with feudal court politics. The only way is to be smarter, think five steps ahead of the guy who's five steps ahead of everyone else, know the rules beforehand, and be able to improvise on the fly. So we have two things going for us. One, we can assassinate someone from afar when they don't know we're there by bullet or by a fuckton of magic napalm. Two, we can bluff our way past whatever magic the IJA is bringing or their guards. The Japanese officer corp was legendarily corrupt, with officers bringing along their own little coteries of geishas and luxury good providers. If they want to treat us as an invisible object... they won't live to regret their mistake.
Oh right, the IJA units were literaly dumping everything but guns and ammo try and beat each other to the city despite the generals' orders for a steady advance. Ah, middle officer insurrection, one of Japan's crippling weaknesses.
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mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Gekokujō, as exemplified by Colonel Masanobu Tsuji. A bit more nuanced than insurrection, but not really by much. This is a chance to nerd out a bit, this quest.
The British (in-quest canon) famously did this instead by dumping a couple of fifteen-inch HE shells on top of the Redcap, courtesy of HMS Terror and a suicidal strike team in Flanders. Even a high Sidhe can't really shrug that one off, I think. Not without serious prep.
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Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is "Evocation: Force" a Star Wars style Force or does it mean something else?
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Yeah, the whole issue with the image of Japanese fanatical discipline is that it only half existed. By this time, you're either a believer or a follower in the military. But the discipline only comes from those middle officers creating the culture of 'take your frustration out on your lessers' and being starry-eyed enough to make everyone else die for their dreams of glory.
We don't have a naval monitor with battleship guns.
But I do have knowledge of PLAV booby traps and how the various Insurgency groups in Iraq made their IEDs. So I think it evens out.
Now, I do believe I have a The Flowers Of War DVD in my collection somewhere... hell of a way to ring in Christmas.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Directed, shaped kinetic energy. So more pure 'force' as a concept. Not really all-powerful, since you need to both land a hit to get an impact, and you need to invest quite a bit of energy into shaping the force right. You don't get the blinding flare of lightning, the burn and heat of flame, or the way wind fucks with other wind patterns in the area and disrupts scent-tracking. You just get a really big punch to whatever you don't like.
Somewhat versatile, but a bit of a hammer.
[x]Plan Tinker
[x]Name Miki Kanemitsu
[x]Gender? Female
-[x]Artifice
-[x]Wind
-[x]Speech
[x]Mauser Focus: Other magi like to have staves, blasting rods, and so on. Too much magic through any focus that's got moving parts kills it - but joke's on them, you don't have that much magic. You've got a trickle, and that trickle plays well with a Mauser's reliable action. Adds +2 to all attacks at range, slow-firing bolt-action, long range. Ammo is plentiful, common-caliber with NRA weapons. Scoped. Acts as evocation focus.
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- Location
- United States
[X]Plan Rad like Rei Hino