Boring. This is a nice low risk situation where we can push the envelope without problems might as well take advantage. Also if we make things boring I expect to be attacked by something.
Oh. I guess that could work, but I don't see the point. That's kind of high profile as an excuse, and only of limited additional value compared to using the technology without explaining it to people.
Potentially gives us access to high profile directors and movie stars. Imagine you are... George Lucas, let's go with that. You invested heavily into special effects. And suddenly, there's this small studio with some shady investors on the side that comes to you, and shows you a promo reel of a movie with photorealistic, yet absolutely impossible effects. Fantastic worlds and non-euclidian space. And then they tell you that they have this breakthrough device that allows them to put you into a lucid dream, give you essentially absolute control over environment, and then record this.
And half a year later they are saying that they can actually link dreams of multiple people together.
I am assuming that:
a) Rosie is not the only oneiromancer in the world, even if, with our help, she might become the best
b) Hollywood wouldn't actually care how our technology works, as long as it works
c) It's a route to legitimate income for oneiromancers and a possible first step to masquerade erasure.
There has been a valid point raised that Rosie is limited by her imagination dice pool. If we get good actors, and good directors, she wouldn't be. Imagine a movie with essentially infinite CGI budget, infinite make up budget (and, in fact, impossible makeup, like height and age adjustment), actors who don't need stunt doubles and can perform superhuman feats and need not fear injuries...
Rosie on her own with a machine spirit observer to record her dreams onto tangible medium would make tons of money. Rosie and other oneiromancers providing a shared dreaming experience would completely revolutionize entertainment industry, without outright breaching masquerade. It gives us tons of connections, gives us tons of resources, gives Rosie and a number of other minor talents meaningful employment. It sadly doesn't save us from Matrix Reloaded or the prequels, but probably results in a ton of great entertainment being made.
That might actually make her more interesting from a FCF perspective, especially if dream recording/sharing works out as a concept.
You know that feeling in a dream where even the strange stuff makes sense? Where you know things at least vaguely even if it wasn't explicitly laid out like a narrative would?
Stuff like a dream where you know you're speeding without actually knowing the speed limit, or where you're talking to someone you've never seen before but know they're your teacher/boss/ect anyway.
If you could record that with the actual sensory track it'd make for a fascinating experience and convenient tool for establishing context.
True. Braindance analogs would be interesting, if only for novelty values. And dream magic is completely unknown in the courts, might in fact be impossible for court members. There's potential there.
I think we can agree on the main point - Rosie's future is likely in some form of mass entertainment with the help of her magic.
[X]Fill Mrs Evens with Christmas spirit
-[x] Manipulation Empathy exilancy plus ATB
-[x][Stunt]It once again strikes you just how different interacting with 'normal' people is now. You don't actually care all that much about Mrs Evens. Before you got supernaturally empowered social powers you would likely have actually been rather hostile to her. But now that feels a bit like kicking a bad tempered Chihuahua. Yes it has a bad attitude, but it's not threatening at all so showing hostility back just feels cruel. So instead with the cold and calculation of an engineer you joke and laugh at Evens jokes. You disrupt negativity in her head before she is even aware of the compelted thoughts. It really actually kind of fun to make someone have a wonderful time when you don't actually care about them or what they think about you. Like drawing scribbles without the pressure of making fantastic artwork.
We don't need to approach Hollywood. We already own Red Sun Productions (name is sort of ironic couldn't be more on the noise without being called Green Sun Productions). If Oneiromancy plus brain implants works as we are hoping it should allow for making block buster movies including marketing for less than $100,000 which means that even comparative flops are likely to make at least a 100x times return on investment. We don't need to tell anyone about how we are doing it just release the movies.
[X]Fill Mrs Evens with Christmas spirit
-[x] Manipulation Empathy exilancy plus ATB
-[x][Stunt]It once again strikes you just how different interacting with 'normal' people is now. You don't actually care all that much about Mrs Evens. Before you got supernaturally empowered social powers you would likely have actually been rather hostile to her. But now that feels a bit like kicking a bad tempered Chihuahua. Yes it has a bad attitude, but it's not threatening at all so showing hostility back just feels cruel. So instead with the cold and calculation of an engineer you joke and laugh at Evens jokes. You disrupt negativity in her head before she is even aware of the compelted thoughts. It really actually kind of fun to make someone have a wonderful time when you don't actually care about them or what they think about you. Like drawing scribbles without the pressure of making fantastic artwork.
On further thought, given how it's described, oneiromancy shouldn't work on our subjects while inside our Courts. Which actually presents a slight issue, as said subjects outside of it wouldn't know to be prepared for it.
[X]Fill Mrs Evens with Christmas spirit
-[x] Manipulation Empathy exilancy plus ATB
-[x][Stunt]It once again strikes you just how different interacting with 'normal' people is now. You don't actually care all that much about Mrs Evens. Before you got supernaturally empowered social powers you would likely have actually been rather hostile to her. But now that feels a bit like kicking a bad tempered Chihuahua. Yes it has a bad attitude, but it's not threatening at all so showing hostility back just feels cruel. So instead with the cold and calculation of an engineer you joke and laugh at Evens jokes. You disrupt negativity in her head before she is even aware of the compelted thoughts. It is really actually kind of fun to make someone have a wonderful time when you don't actually care about them or what they think about you. Like drawing scribbles without the pressure of making fantastic artwork.
[X] Proverbs 27:6
-[X] Use excellency, TTC, WHWH, BSM, and CCC to assert dominance through bake Christmas cookies and apply Molly's 'disguise'
—[X] If possible, use TLF to make the cookies more energizing and better help whoever eats them tolerate the cold.
—[X] Spend WP for additional success
—[X] Split the result into 4 containers.
-[X] Use social excellencies and ATB (via willpower) as needed.
-[X] Dress like Margret Carver going caroling:
—[X] A dress in dark and warm colors, well tailored but still conservative and tasteful.
—[X] A full length grey wool peacoat and matching hat.
—[X] No hair dye, or jewelry save a cross of beaten brass.
-[X] [Stunt]: Pulling up to the church, Molly turned around and checked on the boxes of cookies she had in the back. She's had to drive in separately to prepare them in her lab, and it'd be shame if they'd been ruined. Taking a deep breath, she straightened her clothes and prepared for what'd could turn into a long night.
—[X] Approaching the church with an easy stride Molly projected a confidence that was hard to place, and more difficult to challenge.
—[X] Stepping inside, she made her way over to the chaperones. Just happening to catch Evans on the way. "Merry Christmas" Molly says cheerfully, before continuing in a slightly softer tone "Listen, I wanted to smooth things over a bit. I was sharper than I could have been last time we spoke; I was just looking out for my siblings"
—[X] Gesturing with her armload of Tupperware, she made an offer "Want one? I made some Christmas cookies and I could use an opinion from someone who isn't too used to my cooking to give constructive criticism". That was a bald faced lie if there ever was one; even if her family actually was used to her baking she knew she had something special.
-—[X] In each box was a hefty number of what had started as from scratch sugar cookies in a variety of shapes. In making them she'd gotten a little lost in memory though; snowball fights, 'helping' baby Daniel open his first Christmas presents, the cold nipping at her nose as a certain knee high girl held her mother's hand while singing along to songs she didn't quite know properly, and it seemed like something in those memories had made it into the dough.
—[X] As Mrs. Evens took a bite, Molly continued " Mind helping pass them out?"
-[X] Have Charity, Molly, and Evans circulate passing cookies out to the adults. 'Conscript' Matthew and Jackie to work together passing out the contents of the last box to the kids. Slip them into Molly's group in the shuffle.
===
Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy"
Because I enjoy playing with ambiguous interpretations/applications of biblical advice for our Catholic hell princess.
In this particular case the goal is to present a startling new image to Evens that busts her notions of who Molly is and plays with where we left her last time.
She sees Molly as a bratty teenager acting out because she can, indulging in bad influences and dragging others down with her in the process. Margret Carver is a mask that pushes 20 to early 30s Molly, a successful young professional filled with confidence who's a step away from showing up as a success story in the local paper. Too bad Evens judged her too quickly to see that isn't it?
Show up like that and treat her seriously in a relatively public setting, which implicitly gives her some respect and social points as an older member of the church. The cookies are for the most basic of food bribes and because baked goods are essentially an intra-church dick measuring contest*. We establish ours is bigger, then let her borrow some heft from the delivery phase.
So we blow her preconceptions out of the water (and in a direction that suits our purpose), get her in a good mood, and ask a favor that's really a favor to her. Then we move on with our responsibilities and get our group -which just happens to contain Jackie - our the door with the others.
Note that I'm making some assumptions here from my experience that might not be universal. Specifically that when organizing caroling chaperones volunteer in advance, but that they split people when they're getting ready to go instead of presorting them, and that most people will bring little desserts or drinks like hot chocolate to pass around.
If that's not how this is meant to play out I'll change the stunt.
On the TLF stuff; we've talked about the issues with preparing beforehand, but since we're making these cookies in temperatures cold enough to trigger WHWH and the goal is to feed people in and protect people from the cold I'd argue it's directly in the charm's purview.
Assuming this works out we'd be baking with 16 - 2 (out of specialty) + 2 (stunt) + 2 (WHWH) = 18 dice
Against Diff 6 - 1 (BSM) - 3 (CCC) - 3 (TLF) = -1 Difficulty. The book basically says not to bother rolling anything below 3, so we're good even without TLF.
* If my childhood is any indication at least
Added a spoiler because I didn't realize how long I let this post get. A little self conscious about it, but I already put in the effort so I'm going to post anyway.
Tldr: vote for mind games, potentially reality bending baked goods, abusing proverbs for fun and profit, and seeing Charity's reactions as it all goes down.
Edit: fixed a phrasing issue in the crafting clause.
Edit2: phrasing tweak in stunt to read smoother.
Edit3: added will power expense since we're currently full and if we can crit fish it significantly improves our odds of hitting 20 success.
Ok, I got to respect the effort. Also life-changing cookies. And I do mean life-changing, what with 15+ successes we can expect. @BronzeTongue would the christmas elves be involved in cookie making?
[X]Fill Mrs Evens with Christmas spirit
-[x] Manipulation Empathy exilancy plus ATB
-[x][Stunt]It once again strikes you just how different interacting with 'normal' people is now. You don't actually care all that much about Mrs Evens. Before you got supernaturally empowered social powers you would likely have actually been rather hostile to her. But now that feels a bit like kicking a bad tempered Chihuahua. Yes it has a bad attitude, but it's not threatening at all so showing hostility back just feels cruel. So instead with the cold and calculation of an engineer you joke and laugh at Evens jokes. You disrupt negativity in her head before she is even aware of the compelted thoughts. It is really actually kind of fun to make someone have a wonderful time when you don't actually care about them or what they think about you. Like drawing scribbles without the pressure of making fantastic artwork.
[X]Fill Mrs Evens with Christmas spirit
[X] Proverbs 27:6
We've pretty wholeheartedly embraced the people can be better with a bit of help approach to things. It doesn't need to be grand cosmic things though. It can be a casual bit of helping a woman unwind and embrace Christmas before going caroling.
Ok, I got to respect the effort. Also life-changing cookies. And I do mean life-changing, what with 15+ successes we can expect. @BronzeTongue would the christmas elves be involved in cookie making?
They're basically just a speed booster right? I don't see why not, but there isn't much of a benefit when we're not on a time crunch. If the stunt included baking I'd add something for them as a flavor thing, but it's already pretty large for the space it covers.
In terms of successes theres a bit I'm not sure about. I thought there was a lower bound rule, but looking at the book this is essentially it for difficulty rules:
diFFiCulty loCK
In Exalted vs World of Darkness, the difficulty of your rolls never goes over 9. If something suggests that it should push the difficulty to 10, it remains at 9 instead.
Design Note: This is a decision made simply be- cause the math on difficulty 10 rolls is fucked to the point of being utterly nonfunctional on any roll where you aren't invoking a Caste Ability or a specialty. Un- less one of those mechanics is in play, the size of your dice pool is literally irrelevant because every die has an equal chance to add or take away a success
We don't subtract 1s here since it's key, so in a case where we have a -1 difficulty do we just get our dice in successes or do we fish for 10s?
18 successes is great, but if we get to check for 10s we have an 84% of 1 additional success, and a better than 50% chance of getting at least 2 additional successes, which would really be something to see.
If that's how it works I'd be tempted to add a WP to the success of the roll, just to maximize our chance of 20 success cookies.
They're basically just a speed booster right? I don't see why not, but there isn't much of a benefit when we're not on a time crunch. If the stunt included baking I'd add something for them as a flavor thing, but it's already pretty large for the space it covers.
In terms of successes theres a bit I'm not sure about. I thought there was a lower bound rule, but looking at the book this is essentially it for difficulty rules:
We don't subtract 1s here since it's key, so in a case where we have a -1 difficulty do we just get our dice in successes or do we fish for 10s?
18 successes is great, but if we get to check for 10s we have an 84% of 1 additional success, and a better than 50% chance of getting at least 2 additional successes, which would really be something to see.
If that's how it works I'd be tempted to add a WP to the success of the roll, just to maximize our chance of 20 success cookies.
Do it! For science! Let's see how deep this goes. Because at 20+ successes we should be going past "perfect atomic arrangements" and into "invoking the platonic idea of cookies and mucking around with universal substrate to ensure perfect flavor by redefining what flavor means".
About the difficulty, here are the house rules as they have been discussed:
So, about this. Does this mean that there is no limit of how low crafting DC can go? I think you changed your mind for this on several occasions, between "DC 3 is the lowest" and "it can go down to autosuccess".
If you take a DC to 2 you just succeed, I have rolled a Dc 2 roll once, but just to see what would happen, that did not inform the narrative. As a general rule if the roll is for something with a pass/fail state 'do you break down the door' lets say then that door is splinters and we move on. If on the other hand the roll is for something where the number of successes matters the DC will only go down to 3 and be rolled, but for every -1 you would have had past three, you get an extra 2 dice.
Do it! For science! Let's see how deep this goes. Because at 20+ successes we should be going past "perfect atomic arrangements" and into "invoking the platonic idea of cookies and mucking around with universal substrate to ensure perfect flavor by redefining what flavor means".
Do it! For science! Let's see how deep this goes. Because at 20+ successes we should be going past "perfect atomic arrangements" and into "invoking the platonic idea of cookies and mucking around with universal substrate to ensure perfect flavor by redefining what flavor means".
About the difficulty, here are the house rules as they have been discussed:
20 dice at difficulty 3 -> 80% chance of 15 or more successes, but very little chance the wp will matter. This number doesn't include 10s because I'm using an online calculator that doesn't support that, but looking at the odds of a 10 in that same pool size it's pretty unlikely to make a difference in terms of breakpoint.
With it:
26 dice at difficulty 3 -> 86% chance of 19 or more success. 74% chance of 20 or more even without willpower. Again without 10s, so our true odds are slightly better. We'd likely get 1-2 more success on top of that looking at the odds of 10s alone. If we're particularly lucky we could conceivably hit 25 successes counting willpower.
The last time we did, we godforged Bane when trying to ward an apartment. The "muck around universal substrate to redefine perfect cookies as the ones we make" was only partially a joke
The last time we did, we godforged Bane when trying to ward an apartment. The "muck around universal substrate to redefine perfect cookies as the ones we make" was only partially a joke
Just to keep expectations in check (I know, boo!) when you were making Bane Molly was doing something magical, just making cookies without putting any essence in them will not have overt magical effects unless you are in an area where the laws of the universe are ill defined.
In Exalted terms you would have to be in the wyld in this cosmology who knows.
Just to keep expectations in check (I know, boo!) when you were making Bane Molly was doing something magical, just making cookies without putting any essence in them will not have overt magical effects unless you are in an area where the laws of the universe are ill defined.
In Exalted terms you would have to be in the wyld in this cosmology who knows.
