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Ex Machina (Worm Tinker AU)

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Banjofrog said:
Side note, I will be rolling dice.

For everyone.
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My initial reaction to this is an emphatic 'Please don't.' Letting dice rolls take control of a story's direction is a recipe for disaster.

But for the moment, I'll reserve judgment enough to ask how exactly you intend to be 'rolling dice' for people. I have no clue if Wildbow ever said or posted how he did it for canon beyond just that he rolled dice to determine character deaths, but my point is that it's almost certainly more than just taking a big list of capes and lopping off 25% of them. How do you factor in different risk levels? Different capes have different roles in the fight, and they also have much different odds of individual survival. Does Alexandria have the same odds of survival as all the other frontline Brutes? If not, how do you factor in her increased likelihood of survival?

Just...please be careful. I'm enjoying this story, and that's in no small part because you are controlling the direction of the story and not a random number generator.
 
munchkinomatic said:
That kind of helmet means you have to be very, very careful with where the hair goes.

Then again, hair is inefficient.
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"That's why my hair is enhanced. It's comprised of extremely durable powered microfibers capable of arranging themselves as I wish, including moving out of the way of my helmet."

"Really?"

"Really. And no, Armsmaster, I'm not giving you a beard augment."
 
JumperPrime said:
Wreck, her house, her lab, and Brooke's house, and she has nowhere to teleport to.
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Exactly. Levi has to destroy 3 sites miles apart then actually kill her. Whereas Regent or Tattletale can be killed by knocking down the building they are standing on. They also are baseline humans that can't do superjumps, and aren't friends/allies with several flying capes.
 
I mean, personally I don't agree with rolling dice for a fic, especially on the main character, but if you're the sort of person who just makes up things as they go rather than plotting it out, I suppose it could work? I'd not be as interested if the protagonist died off, though.
 
The Stormbringer said:
I mean, personally I don't agree with rolling dice for a fic, especially on the main character, but if you're the sort of person who just makes up things as they go rather than plotting it out, I suppose it could work? I'd not be as interested if the protagonist died off, though.
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The main thing is that (not saying that Banjofrog is doing this) but in and of itself saying that they "rolled dice" for a character's survival is completely meaningless. If you're rolling 1d100 and killing on a 1 that has to be confirmed on another 1, yes you are technically rolling dice but practically speaking no it's not going to happen.
 
finbikkifin said:
Halbeard 2.0: Bayonetta but with cyberbeard instead of hair.
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You do realize that Bayonetta's clothes is entirely hair and that she become momentarily nude by whipping it around in a fight, right? And you wanted to apply this to Armmaster?

Don't get me wrong, that is very creative. The kind of creativity that get Jack Slash handing you a free pass into S9 membership.
 
munchkinomatic said:
You do realize that Bayonetta's clothes is entirely hair and that she become momentarily nude by whipping it around in a fight, right? And you wanted to apply this to Armmaster?

Don't get me wrong, that is very creative. The kind of creativity that get Jack Slash handing you a free pass into S9 membership.
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Sufficiently-augmented beard > power armour. He can dye parts of it blue.
 
Here's an option that should prevent the story from imploding;
If somebody important rolls to die, check if another character or two would be willing to trade dice with them.
 
For the dice rolling thing, the entire premise of the story is Taylor doing human augs. If she die, then you kinda need a new title...and a new concept.
 
The wording can be played with for lots of fun.

1. no one can really fight the endbringers and win.
2. everyone has a dice roll.
3. Dragon does not have a dice roll.
4. Dragon is the "no one"
5. Dragon can fight the endbringers and win.
 
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Everyone wait just a minute! Does anyone recall the brain in a jar discussion from earlier in the month? Maybe if Taylor roles a significant injury role we'll finally get our brain.

But on a more serious note, how does the significant injury work, and how does it differ from normal injuries?
 
A significant injury is something that would put someone out of the fight for the rest of it after sustaining it. For example, being dismembered, almost drowned, sustaining a serious concussion or something else that Panacea can't immediately cure (Othala can't get to everyone)

Additionally some sort of psychological injury, like seeing a friend or leader brutally pasted by a rogue wave, or just a sustaining an injury much worse than one would normally experience (extreme example, Grue's 2nd trigger) which could fuck with their mental state, leaving them afraid, or aggressive, listless, or otherwise effected.
 
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If Rune dies, the main character's most developed relationship (which was basically the focus of the entire fic) is gone, which honestly doesn't seem like a good thing for the story.

If Taylor dies, you are basically throwing out the whole fic and starting a new one, which is very strange to decide based on RNG.

You sure you want to go with this?

(please don't go with this)
 
Man, I picked a great time to start reading, huh? I hate it when people roll dice for Endbringer fights, it could ruin every plotline already in progress, and just due to random chance. I guess that's accurate to real life, it's common that people die like that, but even if you want someone to die randomly to make things realistic, there's a difference between randomly in world, and randomly to the writer.

Anyway, if Taylor dies, I'll stop reading at that point. I don't care if there are backup protagonists, I'm interested in the one we've got. I like happy endings, as well, or at least hopeful ones. If Rune dies, I'll keep going. I'd rather she didn't, certainly, but that at least could make a good story. It is Worm, after all, this wouldn't even be that dark. Maybe even good, if Taylor manages to get out of the Empire and reaches out to New Wave or something.

When the main character dies, their story is over, and I'm very rarely interested in a story that doesn't follow the main character of the universe in question. I've read other stories that roll dice, and they always end up having a few characters die that had really interesting subplots I was interested in. And then usually the story dies not long after, so that obviously doesn't help.
 
Señor Salsa said:
If Rune dies, the main character's most developed relationship (which was basically the focus of the entire fic) is gone, which honestly doesn't seem like a good thing for the story.

If Taylor dies, you are basically throwing out the whole fic and starting a new one, which is very strange to decide based on RNG.

You sure you want to go with this?

(please don't go with this)
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If Rune dies, it can be turned into a good character developtment for Taylor. Probably tie ressurection and denial of death into the story. Both are strong themes in transhumanism.

If Taylor dies, it's kinda like playing football without the ball.
Zavvnao said:
The wording can be played with for lots of fun.

1. no one can really fight the endbringers and win.
2. everyone has a dice roll.
3. dragon does not have a dice roll.
4. dragon is the "no one"
5. dragon can fight the endbringers and win.
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There's something wrong with this, I just can't quite put my finger on it...

...

...

OF COURSE! You forgot to capitalize Dragon!
 
Kaustos said:
Why is everyone freaking out? All the author said is that they're rolling dice. They never said what they were rolling for.
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Yes they did.
Banjofrog said:
I'm going to be rolling d4s for pretty much everyone except people like Alex, Legend, MM, Narwhal, Alabaster, Lung, ect, people who have survived multiple fights and/or have some way of staying alive after being rekt by Levi.

Levi will get a d100, if he crit fails, well, he crit fails.

Healers and intel weenies like TT, Panacea, and Othala will also get better chances, probably a d10 for each of them.

A one for anyone, anyone, is death. a two is heavily injured, anything more, they make it out fine.

The only person not getting rolled for is Dragon, because she's remote piloting a suit.
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Emphasis mine.
 
Ah. How did I miss that? Still, I don't see any reason for panic. Dice add an element of chaos, but if the results would destroy the story I'm pretty sure most authors will fudge them.
 
Kaustos said:
Ah. How did I miss that? Still, I don't see any reason for panic. Dice add an element of chaos, but if the results would destroy the story I'm pretty sure most authors will fudge them.
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The author was quite clear what would happen if Taylor rolled a 1:
Banjofrog said:
StatelessGem said:
So what happens if Taylor rolls a Critical Fail?
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Then she dies and we have a new protagonist.
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which, going by the comments so far, would destroy the story for the majority of people, myself included.
 
I would like to point out a possible outcome. It's not very likely, but it can sastifies Taylor dying, the introduction of a new protagonist, and still preserve the story (somewhat).

Basically, dead doesn't mean removed from the story. What if Taylor got so badly damaged that she needed extremely intensive cyberization, and even that failed to preserve much of her. The result is Taylor crossing the line between human and machine, going so far that she can be considered effectively dead.

Getting a new protagonist at this point will serve to illustrate just how alien and other she had became,by viewing her from an outside perspective.
 
I hope this doesn't end up being an E88:Taylor fic. As ruthless and uncaring as canon Taylor could seem she never wtemporary, and i have trouble seeing her ever joing up with the E88. So if she does I hope its only temporary. Id love to see a DuesExTaylor in the undersiders thoDuesExTaylor pretty sure Rune goes to Immaculata or whatever the christian school is called
 
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