Headway/Nexus Quest 4 (Worm/Gamer-lite/Multicross/Dimensional Travel/One Piece/X-Men Evo)
Headway/Nexus doesn't come with an inventory. Taylor's been storing stuff in the basement, garage, around the house on Bet, or in the storeroom on the Going Merry.
Circus is around and known to Taylor. They were mentioned in Synch's cape research update in 2.15.
Per canon, they've been working in Coil for a pretty long while, presumably in Brockton Bay. Obviously, Taylor does not know that Circus is working for Coil. Circus is believed by the public to be an independent cape, and Taylor has no reason to assume otherwise.
I can add a Circus investigation projects, but I think any Bet cape/cape group investigation projects you have will be mutually exclusive. I don't want Taylor running three projects at once looking for Circus, the Crook Club, and the Merchants, that would get a bit silly.
Circus is around and known to Taylor. They were mentioned in Synch's cape research update in 2.15.
Per canon, they've been working in Coil for a pretty long while, presumably in Brockton Bay. Obviously, Taylor does not know that Circus is working for Coil. Circus is believed by the public to be an independent cape, and Taylor has no reason to assume otherwise.
Coil - Monarch 16.10 said:
I can add a Circus investigation projects, but I think any Bet cape/cape group investigation projects you have will be mutually exclusive. I don't want Taylor running three projects at once looking for Circus, the Crook Club, and the Merchants, that would get a bit silly.
[x] Plan This is a Croc v.3
-[x]Day 1
--[X] There's the Crocodile/Princess Vivi elephant-in-the-room to deal with. Right now, Princess Vivi is still known to the crew save you only as Baroque Works' Miss Wednesday. You've hinted at this to Luffy, he knows she's a Blue Mystery Girl, but that's as far as it goes. This is likely to be a very complicated conversation, but it needs to be broached, ideally before you and the Straw Hats get yourself buried in a complete mess. 1 action.
---[X] Broach the topic with Nami and Zoro, tell them everything you know about Alabasta's situation and get their help with planning the talk with Vivi. And when they should ask Luffy.
----[X] If they need motivation besides sympathizing with Vivi or Alabasta and wanting to help, or that you want to (which is fair, it's a big ask and Vivi is a stranger)...well, Baroque Works offers a lot of challenges and their members also happen to clearly be bullies who deserve a thrashing. And as royalty, Vivi is rich, she'd surely be grateful to those that help her and her kingdom, right? Maybe monetarily grateful. And you can take Baroque Works' stuff.
---[X] One of your ideas is to prime Vivi for the conversation by casually dropping hints and stories about the Straw Hat crew's power and heroic tendencies. Maybe set up another gathering to tell stories? To highlight their abilities, and also their inclination towards fighting pirates that hurt or oppress civilians. Arlong Park and Clockwork Island should especially resonate with Vivi's plight. You won't ask Nami to get personal on the former unless she wants to. If not bringing it up before, those things could be brought up when actually talking to her.
---[X] The talk should be done away from Mr. 9 since Vivi obviously hasn't revealed her identity to him yet.
---[X] Reveal you know her identity with the excuse of keeping track of the noble lineages that attend the Levely every 4 years (if you need an excuse at all). From encounters with other officers (you with Nezu and Zoro with the former Mr. 7) you pieced together that Baroque Works is targeting Alabasta and that there's some mysterious boss pulling the strings.
---[X] Lean into your shared idealism. Both yourself and Vivi want to make the world a better place, even if for Vivi it's just her own kingdom for now.
---[X] The goal is to get her to accept our help and get as much info about Baroque works as possible. If successful, she should ask Luffy for help directly (not that his response is really in doubt, it's an adventure that involves punching jerks in the face with a victory feast among the likely rewards, but he's still the captain and should be the one that decides to set course for Alabasta)
--[x] Ninjutsu (category skill). The ninja you fought on Warship Island had a few special techniques she used that seemed beyond human ability. Headway tells you that these techniques are derived from mastery of other skills. 0% of Ninjutsu 0. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Meteorology, Geography, Disguise, Acting, Meditation, Tactics, Stealth, Swimming, Freerunning, Horsemanship, Knives, Polearms, Swordmanship, Blunt Weapons, Explosives, Demolitions, Bombmaking, Killing Intent)
-[x]Day 2
--[x] Online driver's education. New Hampshire lets you drive supervised at 15 1/2, and take your full test when you turn 16 in June. But just knowing how to drive could be handy in emergencies, or on other worlds. 1 action/2 days. (0/3 to completion, next skills: Driving)
--[x] Ninjutsu (category skill). The ninja you fought on Warship Island had a few special techniques she used that seemed beyond human ability. Headway tells you that these techniques are derived from mastery of other skills. 0% of Ninjutsu 0. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Meteorology, Geography, Disguise, Acting, Meditation, Tactics, Stealth, Swimming, Freerunning, Horsemanship, Knives, Polearms, Swordmanship, Blunt Weapons, Explosives, Demolitions, Bombmaking, Killing Intent)
--[x] Introduce ourselves to New Wave
---[x] The intent is to start a cordial relationship and avoid problems from lack of information sharing. Reveal we are a skill-learner and plan on focusing on the Crook Club and Merchants for the foreseeable future, offer to teach skills we have picked up if they're interested.
--[x] Engineering (category skill). This could be a massively useful skill. 20% of Engineering 3. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Bombmaking, Clockwork Engineering, Earth-Bet Engineering, and Shipwright)
The Vivi vote is copied from Bonuses and Photos, and I'm doubling down on Ninjutsu twice because a 0% chance of levelling the skill (even if it's de facto 20%) probably needs a second bump to make it useful going forward.
What do people think about keeping one language getting trained until we get to the point where we can reasonably go to pretty much anywhere in the globe and find someone that we can talk to (or unlock some sort of polyglot trait)? I figure between English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and French we've got most of the world covered and can probably speed-learn any languages we need after that like we can do programming languages.
If we ever decide to make contact with Tony Stark, let's do it as a talking bear just to troll him. Keep making bear puns when talking to people but refuse to admit it (you're just talking normally after all). We'll want to make an outfit for Taylor to wear and perhaps a sign saying 'I am a friendly bear'.
Access to an industrial powerhouse can be a boon if we play our hand correctly. If we get the language learning software completed we would have a product to sell (and incentive to have more languages to add to it), while setting up something like Wikipedia or Google to help their internet get rolling could potentially be another source of income. If we were going to make things like that, we probably want to do so after making contact with Xavier as I presume he's better able to find someone to deal with the day-to-day frustrations of getting that set up and popularized, presumably with us drawing a stipend for our work on other affairs. Also, while I'm thinking about it, is Earth-Bet Engineering different enough from Earth-Mahon engineering (hologram tech, arc reactors, Cererbro etc) to be a different skill to learn?
We know (or think we do) Spider-Man's name is Peter Parker and he's probably in high school right now. If we really wanted to, and I'm not suggesting we do, we could probably get a small list of candidates to investigate based on that. Alternately we could vigilante around the mean streets of NYC and see if we bump into him, but that's a matter of happenstance more than something we should really plan on. If we do meet up with him, getting his recipe for web fluid could be quite helpful so as to give us an equivilent to Containment Foam.
*shakes fist to the sky*
Next time!
Oh well.
I'm not so much thinking 'gain allies' (although it's always nice to have the local healer think well of you) and more 'avoid problems in the future' and 'Factota is a super-learner style Thinker' planted in the ear of New Wave so they're more willing to trust us when we say we can do a thing or explain why we're learning lockpicking or something.
I'm unsure what sort of leverage we're likely to get just going on patrols, but I wonder how difficult it would be to set up a radio for a giant bird with someone sitting at a police scanner feeding us updates on whether there's a jewelry store robbery somewhere. I imagine we could arrive on the scene pretty quickly by diving out of the air and surprise reinforcements could turn the tide of things. We'd probably need to set up some support staff to do that though.
Better to beat up Uber to get his power. IIRC other GMs were going to have it act as a floating bonus skill level for physical things, with varying degrees of helpfulness (swimming would benefit more than sewing or fishman karate, for example). Plus 'we beat up a supervillain' looks better as a white hat than 'I interned for Those Two Guys for a season'.
Would my New Wave write-in be acceptable, considering the Crooks seem to be on their way out? I'm assuming 'we help see them off and then focus on other low-hanging fruit' would be how it's framed.
-[x]Day 1
--[X] There's the Crocodile/Princess Vivi elephant-in-the-room to deal with. Right now, Princess Vivi is still known to the crew save you only as Baroque Works' Miss Wednesday. You've hinted at this to Luffy, he knows she's a Blue Mystery Girl, but that's as far as it goes. This is likely to be a very complicated conversation, but it needs to be broached, ideally before you and the Straw Hats get yourself buried in a complete mess. 1 action.
---[X] Broach the topic with Nami and Zoro, tell them everything you know about Alabasta's situation and get their help with planning the talk with Vivi. And when they should ask Luffy.
----[X] If they need motivation besides sympathizing with Vivi or Alabasta and wanting to help, or that you want to (which is fair, it's a big ask and Vivi is a stranger)...well, Baroque Works offers a lot of challenges and their members also happen to clearly be bullies who deserve a thrashing. And as royalty, Vivi is rich, she'd surely be grateful to those that help her and her kingdom, right? Maybe monetarily grateful. And you can take Baroque Works' stuff.
---[X] One of your ideas is to prime Vivi for the conversation by casually dropping hints and stories about the Straw Hat crew's power and heroic tendencies. Maybe set up another gathering to tell stories? To highlight their abilities, and also their inclination towards fighting pirates that hurt or oppress civilians. Arlong Park and Clockwork Island should especially resonate with Vivi's plight. You won't ask Nami to get personal on the former unless she wants to. If not bringing it up before, those things could be brought up when actually talking to her.
---[X] The talk should be done away from Mr. 9 since Vivi obviously hasn't revealed her identity to him yet.
---[X] Reveal you know her identity with the excuse of keeping track of the noble lineages that attend the Levely every 4 years (if you need an excuse at all). From encounters with other officers (you with Nezu and Zoro with the former Mr. 7) you pieced together that Baroque Works is targeting Alabasta and that there's some mysterious boss pulling the strings.
---[X] Lean into your shared idealism. Both yourself and Vivi want to make the world a better place, even if for Vivi it's just her own kingdom for now.
---[X] The goal is to get her to accept our help and get as much info about Baroque works as possible. If successful, she should ask Luffy for help directly (not that his response is really in doubt, it's an adventure that involves punching jerks in the face with a victory feast among the likely rewards, but he's still the captain and should be the one that decides to set course for Alabasta)
--[x] Ninjutsu (category skill). The ninja you fought on Warship Island had a few special techniques she used that seemed beyond human ability. Headway tells you that these techniques are derived from mastery of other skills. 0% of Ninjutsu 0. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Meteorology, Geography, Disguise, Acting, Meditation, Tactics, Stealth, Swimming, Freerunning, Horsemanship, Knives, Polearms, Swordmanship, Blunt Weapons, Explosives, Demolitions, Bombmaking, Killing Intent)
-[x]Day 2
--[x] Online driver's education. New Hampshire lets you drive supervised at 15 1/2, and take your full test when you turn 16 in June. But just knowing how to drive could be handy in emergencies, or on other worlds. 1 action/2 days. (0/3 to completion, next skills: Driving)
--[x] Ninjutsu (category skill). The ninja you fought on Warship Island had a few special techniques she used that seemed beyond human ability. Headway tells you that these techniques are derived from mastery of other skills. 0% of Ninjutsu 0. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Meteorology, Geography, Disguise, Acting, Meditation, Tactics, Stealth, Swimming, Freerunning, Horsemanship, Knives, Polearms, Swordmanship, Blunt Weapons, Explosives, Demolitions, Bombmaking, Killing Intent)
--[x] Introduce ourselves to New Wave
---[x] The intent is to start a cordial relationship and avoid problems from lack of information sharing. Reveal we are a skill-learner and plan on focusing on the Crook Club and Merchants for the foreseeable future, offer to teach skills we have picked up if they're interested.
--[x] Engineering (category skill). This could be a massively useful skill. 20% of Engineering 3. (+20 bonus available) (subskills are Bombmaking, Clockwork Engineering, Earth-Bet Engineering, and Shipwright)
The Vivi vote is copied from Bonuses and Photos, and I'm doubling down on Ninjutsu twice because a 0% chance of levelling the skill (even if it's de facto 20%) probably needs a second bump to make it useful going forward.
What do people think about keeping one language getting trained until we get to the point where we can reasonably go to pretty much anywhere in the globe and find someone that we can talk to (or unlock some sort of polyglot trait)? I figure between English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic and French we've got most of the world covered and can probably speed-learn any languages we need after that like we can do programming languages.
If we ever decide to make contact with Tony Stark, let's do it as a talking bear just to troll him. Keep making bear puns when talking to people but refuse to admit it (you're just talking normally after all). We'll want to make an outfit for Taylor to wear and perhaps a sign saying 'I am a friendly bear'.
Access to an industrial powerhouse can be a boon if we play our hand correctly. If we get the language learning software completed we would have a product to sell (and incentive to have more languages to add to it), while setting up something like Wikipedia or Google to help their internet get rolling could potentially be another source of income. If we were going to make things like that, we probably want to do so after making contact with Xavier as I presume he's better able to find someone to deal with the day-to-day frustrations of getting that set up and popularized, presumably with us drawing a stipend for our work on other affairs. Also, while I'm thinking about it, is Earth-Bet Engineering different enough from Earth-Mahon engineering (hologram tech, arc reactors, Cererbro etc) to be a different skill to learn?
We know (or think we do) Spider-Man's name is Peter Parker and he's probably in high school right now. If we really wanted to, and I'm not suggesting we do, we could probably get a small list of candidates to investigate based on that. Alternately we could vigilante around the mean streets of NYC and see if we bump into him, but that's a matter of happenstance more than something we should really plan on. If we do meet up with him, getting his recipe for web fluid could be quite helpful so as to give us an equivilent to Containment Foam.
*shakes fist to the sky*
Next time!
Oh well.
I'm not so much thinking 'gain allies' (although it's always nice to have the local healer think well of you) and more 'avoid problems in the future' and 'Factota is a super-learner style Thinker' planted in the ear of New Wave so they're more willing to trust us when we say we can do a thing or explain why we're learning lockpicking or something.
I'm unsure what sort of leverage we're likely to get just going on patrols, but I wonder how difficult it would be to set up a radio for a giant bird with someone sitting at a police scanner feeding us updates on whether there's a jewelry store robbery somewhere. I imagine we could arrive on the scene pretty quickly by diving out of the air and surprise reinforcements could turn the tide of things. We'd probably need to set up some support staff to do that though.
Better to beat up Uber to get his power. IIRC other GMs were going to have it act as a floating bonus skill level for physical things, with varying degrees of helpfulness (swimming would benefit more than sewing or fishman karate, for example). Plus 'we beat up a supervillain' looks better as a white hat than 'I interned for Those Two Guys for a season'.
Would my New Wave write-in be acceptable, considering the Crooks seem to be on their way out? I'm assuming 'we help see them off and then focus on other low-hanging fruit' would be how it's framed.
- Pronouns
- He
[x] Plan This is a Croc v.3
Are we talking about a PHO message and a quick meet-up scheduled same-day? What would probably happen is you message them on PHO/some other social media (it's odd how PHO is the only one people come up with for Worm) and they do a same-day/next day meet up, depending on scheduling. With four adults, someone can probably meet with you, though I suspect Brandish or Lady Photon would prefer to be the ones. I'm going to say yes. Thinking on it, I can see those two making time to meet a new hero for a brief coordination meeting/introduction, with the expectation of scheduling something more substantial in the future.
The skill-learner thing is all you want to reveal, correct? Not the power copying or dimensional travel, I presume?
Yes. I suspect those would be closer to multiple types of Magic (As defined under the Headway system, not sorcery magic -we may need to change the name) - something like a skill for Holographics, Psionic Tech, Arc Reactor Tech for Iron Man stuff, and so on. With ease increasing as you learn more about each type of anomalous (for Bet) tech, and the skills themselves relying on a high level of Earth-Bet Engineering.
You may want to reconsider that.
Uber and Leet have a reputation not only as losers, but losers who are complete assholes that go around hurting and beating innocent people for cheap thrills. Zero chance Taylor works with them outside of S-class events.
Correct. With Uber and Victor in town it's not like 'skill-based cape' is a hard sell and it shows we're able to contribute but is unlikely to set off alarm bells like 'by the way I skip dimensions and can be Lung 2.0 if I give him a solid wallop' would. I intend to keep those skills hidden for a while yet, at least on Bet, until we're able to better bear up under the scrutiny of being another Haywire or Glastig Ulaine might bring.
Keeping mum about our power copying abilities also lets us moonlight as another cape or two later if we need to; either using copied powers to emulate a specific, known cape or Devil Fruit stuff so Factota can be in Brockton Bay the same time Madame Slip-Slip is in Denver doing something nefarious, or we get outed as someone and just appear elsewhere as something else.
"Just" being a fast learner helps mask some of our (at this point presumed) tech imports; if we introduce holographic watches like Kurt has for Case 53s, that's "just" us being good with learning electronics, physics, programming etc. It starts looking impressive if we, say, try to stand up a Municipal Arc Reactor (and train up a few dozen people to maintain it and build more), but it gives a clear 'okay I can see how we got from "learns good" to "makes fancy tech people can make"' instead of 'why can the shape-changing cape also make smart watches that have a disguise feature?'.
I mean, four adults but one of them has severe clinical depression. Even if he's having a good day I doubt Flashbang is who they'd want to meet the new cape. As for meeting...using PHO sounds like it'd work (and might be intended for such meet-ups), or New Wave might have a website with a 'contact us' function, or Brandish's law office has a public phone you can probably call (though they probably want to keep that to business affairs instead of cape groupies, so that's not a premier way to contact).
The other avenue I can see to catching their eye is when one of them (likely Glory Girl) is out and about and approach them then, but that feels more threatening ("I am approaching you via your children") and may set them more on edge than we'd like.
I'd be willing to entertain an engineering rework if that's what you're suggesting. Probably easier to do now when we're comparatively uninvested in the skill rather than
I did not mean to disparage the idea of having friends in the business, just that this wasn't what I intended to do with the meeting.
- Location
- Koszalin, Poland
From what I remember Bakuda only needed to pay a few hundred bucks for Uber & L33T to join forces with a maniacal bombing nutjob. As this discussion reminds people of this fact.
So yeah, those guys can become so desperate for money that I wouldn't be shocked if they'll do it for 200 dollars or something.
I think I would also include German on this list. It's pretty widespread country-wise as well.
Also, it may be even more popular on Earth-Bet, because of Gesselschaft's influence. And well, it's nice to know the language of the enemy which is Nazis here, so it's easier to infiltrate them.
But yes, I would say everything you mention covers most of the world.
Tony Stark isn't the expert in this specific field I have in mind, but if he would capable of doing it, it wouldn't surprise me as well. What I mean here is dimensional tech. Because the main problem with Headway right now is that we can't move others with us. And the ability to move Straw Hats alone to help Taylor out would pretty much cover the cape team angle.
Or get access to someone who can do it power wise. But realistically options are... well, very limited here. Doormaker counts, but good luck getting easy access to him.
So yeah, dimensional tech sounds like the most reliable way here.
Online gaming may be a way to do it as well. Creating something similar to YouTube so early on is also an almost surefire way to set up an incredibly lucrative business.
Although again, with how absurd her sewing skill is, and her fashion knowledge, she may aim for the fashion industry instead.
I approve of hiding most of the skills, although selling the potential 'bulletproof' ability as a 'skill-based' cape may be tricky. Although if she is careful, she may simply not go for any showy fights, and instead for quick takedowns like a Batman. IMO it's a good way to approach Earth-Bet. We roleplay her as someone who aims for genuine changes, and not for showy fights.
Another way may be presenting yourself as a 'Thinker who works with technology'. Any potential 'bulletproof' may be explained by her technological prowess instead. Heck, skills may be explained by her 'uploading the skills' via tech.
In theory, it could be possible for Taylor to pretend to be more than one person. One cape persona for public speaking, and more 'heroic' actions, while the other one is for more spec-ops/more subtle type of deals. Having a second cape persona may come in handy, and also make it easier to cover her tracks. Yeah, I think this is something we may aim for later on. One for Brockton Bay, other one for other cities.
Yup, technological 'thinker' may explain weird tech acquisitions from both One Piece and X-Men Evolution worlds.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I really want to get Leet and Uber's powers. They would be so amazing in our hands.
Leet is a free trinker which should combine amazingly well with all the crafting we do. The only able to make anything once limitation sucks for him because it's his only power, but for us it's a trump card for any situation we can't deal with. Also it helps cover our tech imports.
Uber's ability should help us train skills at an even more accelerated rate.
Of course we also want Victor's skill draining power, but beating him is more complicated because of E88 backup he has.
What action do we take to attack Leet and Uber? Or is that a project?
_____________
On the list of Brooklyn bay villainous capes who's powers are likely to save us more time then they take to master.
Leet: Because tinkering syncs with crafting.
Uber: Because skill enhancement stacks with our skill enhancement.
Squealer: Vehicle tinkering would be perfect for upgrading the Going Merry.
Victor: because skill stealing is skill training
Colin: because having two timelines means double the training.
All powers are of course useful, but these are the villain powers in Brooklyn bay that I feel fairly sure will save us more training time then they cost.
Leet is a free trinker which should combine amazingly well with all the crafting we do. The only able to make anything once limitation sucks for him because it's his only power, but for us it's a trump card for any situation we can't deal with. Also it helps cover our tech imports.
Uber's ability should help us train skills at an even more accelerated rate.
Of course we also want Victor's skill draining power, but beating him is more complicated because of E88 backup he has.
What action do we take to attack Leet and Uber? Or is that a project?
_____________
On the list of Brooklyn bay villainous capes who's powers are likely to save us more time then they take to master.
Leet: Because tinkering syncs with crafting.
Uber: Because skill enhancement stacks with our skill enhancement.
Squealer: Vehicle tinkering would be perfect for upgrading the Going Merry.
Victor: because skill stealing is skill training
Colin: because having two timelines means double the training.
All powers are of course useful, but these are the villain powers in Brooklyn bay that I feel fairly sure will save us more training time then they cost.
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Ah yes. The evil super villain Halbeard manipulating timelines in his secret bunker in Brooklyn Bay.
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fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Can we do a write in action to go find and beat up Leet and Uber, because they seem well within our abilities to beat and their powers should be helpful.
I think jcw3 is planning to write up some Projects for going after the gangs/other targets in the next update.
I also would love to get Uber's and Leet powers but imho the highest priority should be getting Squelaler's power. Vehicle tinker would incredibly increase our range and reaction time if a cape we are interested in made an appearance it should also be trivial to beat her since outside one of her vehicles she is a baseline human. On the other hand Leet and Victor might be better martial artists than we are right now, not to mention the immense advantage Uber's tech and Othala could give them. I'd say we should make progres with Fishman Karate and Kachi Kachi no Mi before we try to fight more dangerous capes.
As I think about it right now if we could convince new wave to have a sparing with us we could gain some sweet powers. At the very least convincing Victoria to have a friendly fight with us should be relatively easy and would give us incredible power if we succeeded. And please correct me if I am wrong but from what I remember she should be more of a brawler that relies on her strength and force field in battle and not technique. I think that at our skill level we should be able to beat her if we get through her force field and that should be doable with our sword skills.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Our amazing skill in current events, computer and ambush mistress leans towards us finding the villains when they aren't in the act. Off course the unwritten rules that everyone talks about, but no one actually follows don't allow that.
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lockingbane
If you're crazy and you know it clap your hands!
- Location
- Waxahachie tx
I am loving the planning and ideas being tossed around even so long a gap has taken place. It makes me very happy to see a good story come back like this
Thank you for the discussion, everyone. It kept me going on the treadmill. Brainstorming H/NQ ideas has been a mainstay of my exercise, and I'm glad I'll be able to keep going with that.
Okay. This is not me criticizing your plan - this is me asking questions as the GM so I can better plan for the future. If you're planning for Factota to be a skill thinker, do you plan to use powers when fighting villain capes like Skidmark or the Crook Club? Like, okay, let's say Factota will be a skill thinker/combat thinker in the public eye. So we'll say the Mundane Skills + careful application of Sube Sube no Mi.
What level of villains can be defeated solely with those abilities? Is Taylor used to fighting only with those abilities? You want to keep the Powers/some Magic aspect of Headway secret for now, okay. So in the short term and medium term when you want to avoid scrutiny, how will Factota fight on Bet? Forgo the use of bear, fishman, Kachi Kachi, giant albatross entirely, and only use the subtler powers? Only use small albatrosses/petrels for navigation, combat thinker-skill thinker only for fighting villains?
Do you plan to have multiple cape identities for this purpose? How will Taylor sustain this as she is now - people are gonna get suspicious if two heroines, around the same height, similar voices, both having a wide-array-of-powers theme, show up in the same city around the same time.
Not what I was suggesting. I was suggesting that the more exotic technologies from Mahon might be split into their own categories of Magic, with the Mundane Skill of Earth-Bet Engineering required at a certain point to even start training them.
Taylor does not respect or like Uber or Leet enough to give them money. It's a lot easier to justify her tracking them down and kicking their ass. But that comes with its own problems.
For instance, Uber and Leet are always livestreaming. Do you want the attention of taking down two capes who are very much in the public spotlight, specially if you're interested in segregating your identities as mentioned above, hiding your power level? I'll give you guys the option to hunt down Uber and Leet, but it could very easily be counteractive to a goal of staying on the down-low for now, if that's what you want to do.
Gesselschaft is a powerful group in the underworld, that holds a lot of ground in Europe and in predominantly white nations abroad, but they haven't increased the spread of German that much. Your point about infiltration is sound.
I'm going to say no, just for my convenience as the GM. Could it theoretically work with reduced odds? Sure, but that would get inconvenient and annoying to write.
You're forgetting about the fact that you'll have to train his power up, that you'll start out making absolute dogshit if anything at all, and that you'll have to make stuff with his power to even train it in the first place. How many one-time uses will you use up on crappy garbage that doesn't even work, running through your list of options until suddenly everything you make has a huge chance of blowing up in your face?
Leet is interesting to me in the context of his quest, because out of all of the tinkers in canon, he almost has an anti-synergy with Headway.
This is correct. They will be mutually exclusive, one-at-a-time deals. You pick one 'hunt a villain/villain team', you stick with it until it's done, if you pick one at all. And ideally, I'd like the players to come to a consensus on how you'll be using your powers as Factota before we get too into the weeds. I want us all to be on the same page here.
That's not how Headway works. It has to be a genuine fight against someone or something that Taylor genuinely considers to be a threat to those around her, that she genuinely views as an enemy. An angry territorial bear? Sure, absolutely. A Protectorate cape that can turn into a bear, that Taylor asks for a serious spar? No. A giant man-eating albatross terrorizing a small fishing island? Sure. A bird Zoan pirate in a crew allied to the Straw Hats that challenges Taylor to a duel? No.
(Don't feel bad about making this mistake, it's a common one, and I expect to have to correct people on this multiple times as the thread goes on. Though I'd obviously prefer not to lol)
You're very, very, very wrong on Victoria being an unskilled brawler. She is an incredible combatant, New Wave is all very highly trained. They have memorized, borderline militaristic strategies, they fly in trained formation, they understand each others' capabilities and have plans of attacks recommended. Consider reading Ward to find out more.
Right? This is exciting, so much discussion, so much to talk about!
Okay. This is not me criticizing your plan - this is me asking questions as the GM so I can better plan for the future. If you're planning for Factota to be a skill thinker, do you plan to use powers when fighting villain capes like Skidmark or the Crook Club? Like, okay, let's say Factota will be a skill thinker/combat thinker in the public eye. So we'll say the Mundane Skills + careful application of Sube Sube no Mi.
What level of villains can be defeated solely with those abilities? Is Taylor used to fighting only with those abilities? You want to keep the Powers/some Magic aspect of Headway secret for now, okay. So in the short term and medium term when you want to avoid scrutiny, how will Factota fight on Bet? Forgo the use of bear, fishman, Kachi Kachi, giant albatross entirely, and only use the subtler powers? Only use small albatrosses/petrels for navigation, combat thinker-skill thinker only for fighting villains?
Do you plan to have multiple cape identities for this purpose? How will Taylor sustain this as she is now - people are gonna get suspicious if two heroines, around the same height, similar voices, both having a wide-array-of-powers theme, show up in the same city around the same time.
Not what I was suggesting. I was suggesting that the more exotic technologies from Mahon might be split into their own categories of Magic, with the Mundane Skill of Earth-Bet Engineering required at a certain point to even start training them.
Taylor does not respect or like Uber or Leet enough to give them money. It's a lot easier to justify her tracking them down and kicking their ass. But that comes with its own problems.
For instance, Uber and Leet are always livestreaming. Do you want the attention of taking down two capes who are very much in the public spotlight, specially if you're interested in segregating your identities as mentioned above, hiding your power level? I'll give you guys the option to hunt down Uber and Leet, but it could very easily be counteractive to a goal of staying on the down-low for now, if that's what you want to do.
Gesselschaft is a powerful group in the underworld, that holds a lot of ground in Europe and in predominantly white nations abroad, but they haven't increased the spread of German that much. Your point about infiltration is sound.
I'm going to say no, just for my convenience as the GM. Could it theoretically work with reduced odds? Sure, but that would get inconvenient and annoying to write.
You're forgetting about the fact that you'll have to train his power up, that you'll start out making absolute dogshit if anything at all, and that you'll have to make stuff with his power to even train it in the first place. How many one-time uses will you use up on crappy garbage that doesn't even work, running through your list of options until suddenly everything you make has a huge chance of blowing up in your face?
Leet is interesting to me in the context of his quest, because out of all of the tinkers in canon, he almost has an anti-synergy with Headway.
This is correct. They will be mutually exclusive, one-at-a-time deals. You pick one 'hunt a villain/villain team', you stick with it until it's done, if you pick one at all. And ideally, I'd like the players to come to a consensus on how you'll be using your powers as Factota before we get too into the weeds. I want us all to be on the same page here.
That's not how Headway works. It has to be a genuine fight against someone or something that Taylor genuinely considers to be a threat to those around her, that she genuinely views as an enemy. An angry territorial bear? Sure, absolutely. A Protectorate cape that can turn into a bear, that Taylor asks for a serious spar? No. A giant man-eating albatross terrorizing a small fishing island? Sure. A bird Zoan pirate in a crew allied to the Straw Hats that challenges Taylor to a duel? No.
(Don't feel bad about making this mistake, it's a common one, and I expect to have to correct people on this multiple times as the thread goes on. Though I'd obviously prefer not to lol)
You're very, very, very wrong on Victoria being an unskilled brawler. She is an incredible combatant, New Wave is all very highly trained. They have memorized, borderline militaristic strategies, they fly in trained formation, they understand each others' capabilities and have plans of attacks recommended. Consider reading Ward to find out more.
Taylor will not break the unwritten rules unless the cape literally has a kill order.
Right? This is exciting, so much discussion, so much to talk about!
I'd suggest separating that out into its own vote next update.
[][PowerUse] Only mundane skills
[][PowerUse] Use of subtle magic and powers
[][PowerUse] Only powers that you can say are you 'taking a mundane skill to supernatural levels'
[][PowerUse] We're the Trumpiest Trump to ever Trump
or something.
Actually now that I mentioned it, I like this one: [][PowerUse] Only powers that you can say are you 'taking a mundane skill to supernatural levels'
It'd allow us some pretty big lee-way for swording and supernatural martial arts as well as tinkering and stuff.
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- Location
- Koszalin, Poland
My opinion on potential two cape personas (I would stick with 2, more than that would be too complicated) would be that the 'truly heroic' one that she uses now would pretend to be a Brute or something similar. I think the truth is that people would feel safer and more protected by someone who can tank hits for them, and act like a shield. In both literal and metaphorical meaning of the word.
So if you people want to go with 'gank people for powers' full camouflage cape persona/full body costume cover is the way to go about it. She even has ninjutsu, so going with a 'shinobi costume' could easily work. Let's call it a Combat Thinker / Low Mover persona who specializes in a quick hit-and-run. While her heroic persona would be a direct combatant.
My personal opinion - keep transformations a secret, unless it's life and death. Rest I think is possible to use subtly in a way that as long as she is careful, may be tricky to detect.
I think you underestimate the power of good make-up alone. This video alone shows how DRASTICALLY good makeup may change how you look, with nothing supernatural about it. It's mind-boggling. And this Taylor has also skills like acting, supernatural costume creation, knowledge of how to understand people, etc.
Also... to say it politely... her lack of 'assets' and tall body type can easily allow her to even fake being a guy. The only issue is the hair, but again, something she can hide with her supernatural ability to sew/craft costumes. Heck, she can blacksmith some items or clothes parts as well.
The voice may be more tricky, but with her crafting, she could even create some sort of voice changer. Voice changers also exist, so dismantling something like that, and sewing it into a costume is something she should be able to do. It would be very obvious, but it would do the job.
I don't think this would be a problem if she really wants to create a second identity for more 'subtle' caping. Especially if it aims for hiding your identity. Classic shinobi costume (like from movies) is VERY good at hiding your looks, as it pretty much fully covers your skin, almost. It may be something more like riot gear policeman for example look wise. There are options that almost completely cover your body. Heck, it may be even medieval-like armor, although this surely doesn't count as subtle. But again, if the main thing about this 'second cape persona' would be to 'collect' powers, acting like a cocky knight that provokes people to fights may work as well.
And while she is tall, she isn't any sort of giant. So people may take her most likely as a lanky, tall adult of either gender, depending on how she creates her costume, her body language, and her acting. Although acting like a guy would also require things like a different way to walk, etc.
But I don't think it would be necessary at all. It's an option, but good costume, make-up, wig and again, acting should let her pretend to be a completely different woman than she looks normally.
I suspect as much. I mostly answered to the person talking about them. As yeah, they don't deserve any respect really.
This is a good point about Uber and Leet. But I think we could go with a persona that may be burned just for them, and make it 'disappear'. The good thing about this is that in Brockton Bay vigilantes tend to... well, disappear. So if suddenly this 'new cape' doesn't show up anymore, many people may simply suspect that this specific cape was killed or ran away.
German is still one of the most popular languages in Europe, so this alone makes it worth learning. And Germany is also one of the richest and most influential countries on the planet.
Also, Gesellschaft is a very long-term project I suspect.
At this point, I think I would personally focus on trying to master Clockwork. It sounds very versatile by itself.
Uber sounds useful, but Leet? Yeah, it has issues.
I suspect that once she learns how people like Coil tend to act, she will change her mind on this.
Also Brockton Bay (in my headcanon) is the main place that likes to ignore them when convinient, while the rest of at least the US takes it more seriously.
Piggot Interlude:
When Legend himself points out the rules, and how uncomfortable it makes him to break them, I think we can assume that the rest of America at least takes them somewhat seriously. I talk about this, as I already saw the comment in this thread about rules not being taken seriously.
Yup, this makes most sense.
Also:
[]Cape Persona Use. Only one identity, the current one.
[]Cape Persona Use. Second Identity. Knight Look.
[]Cape Persona Use. Second Identity. Full Body Cover.
Something like that, to make it more precise in a vote.
This works. I suspect in PRT ratings she would count as 4-6 depending on powers. If we keep transformations, etc. secret, I think it would end up with fours all around the board in a few categories like Tinker, Striker, etc.
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That's only sustainable up to the point you start making waves. At which point you get people like Tattletale or Effervescent or any other thinker starting looking into your personalities/personas, especially if you're taking down major gangs. The question I'm trying to gauge is - how long will you all be hiding your power level, if at all? The longer you are, and the more waves you make, the more likely it is that a thinker in someone's service catches you.
That's a question I can best gauge in the next update. It may even get its own update. It's critical for me to understand and for the thread to reach a consensus.
As I see it Taylor's cape persona will not achieve much if we limit her to only using mundane skills. It works for Leet because he has access to tinkertech and for Victor because he is a member of a powerful organisation and can weaken his opponents using his power. If we want her to achieve something beyond beating up normals we have to let her use some of her magical abilities as a cape.
One possibility to do so is to say that once we master a skill we gain access to a superior version that can't be achieved by normal humans. For example if we use Sube Sube no Mi and someone notices and asks about it we can claim that once we mastered dodging attacks simply started to slide of our skin. We can use Fishman Karate and claim it is something we started developing after mastering sufficient amount of martial Arts. So long as we can come up with a mundane skill that once mastered could lead to our power giving as superhuman version PRT shouldn't dig too deeply after all it wouldn't be the weirdest power.
Excuse like that is unfortunately necessary because we won't be able to achieve much as a cape using only mundane skills. Sooner or later something will happen that will force Taylor to visibly use her esoteric abilities in a place public enough that PRT will notice.
It probably isn't the best way to do it, if only because it would give us a decent Trump raring, but I can't think of anything better if we don't want Taylor to create a new persona every time she wants to use one of her supernatural skills more openly and we can't do that because sooner or later someone will see through it and will start digging into why we hide our abilities in such a way.
We might also consider training Taylor in lieing. If we are sufficiently good at this and acting, to the point that Taylor can control her body language, tone of voice etc. she could potentially spoof Thinkers like Tattletale or Armsmaster's lie detector.
One possibility to do so is to say that once we master a skill we gain access to a superior version that can't be achieved by normal humans. For example if we use Sube Sube no Mi and someone notices and asks about it we can claim that once we mastered dodging attacks simply started to slide of our skin. We can use Fishman Karate and claim it is something we started developing after mastering sufficient amount of martial Arts. So long as we can come up with a mundane skill that once mastered could lead to our power giving as superhuman version PRT shouldn't dig too deeply after all it wouldn't be the weirdest power.
Excuse like that is unfortunately necessary because we won't be able to achieve much as a cape using only mundane skills. Sooner or later something will happen that will force Taylor to visibly use her esoteric abilities in a place public enough that PRT will notice.
It probably isn't the best way to do it, if only because it would give us a decent Trump raring, but I can't think of anything better if we don't want Taylor to create a new persona every time she wants to use one of her supernatural skills more openly and we can't do that because sooner or later someone will see through it and will start digging into why we hide our abilities in such a way.
We might also consider training Taylor in lieing. If we are sufficiently good at this and acting, to the point that Taylor can control her body language, tone of voice etc. she could potentially spoof Thinkers like Tattletale or Armsmaster's lie detector.