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Hmmph... this junior is a good seed [Cultivation Management Quest]

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New Good Seed and Omake Rule Updates
  • Threadmarks
    • Good Seed and Omake Spreadsheet Rules:

    Firstly, if you have questions about Good Seeds and the like please read here. If that doesn't answer your question please ping me in thread, or on Discord.

    If you write a new Good Seed, or write an omake, please update the spreadsheet if you have access.

    If you do not have access, please ping a collaborator (Swordomatic, Alectai, Quest, TehChron, Insane-Not-Crazy, Humbaba, ReaderOfFate, Kaboomatic, no., BungieONI) letting them know what you want and they will update the spreadsheet here. To gain access, you will need a gmail account of some kind. Throwaway emails are fine (I'm using one for the spreadsheet), but to gain access it's as simple as sending me either your email via PM, via DM in Discord, or just in Discord's #spreadsheet-requests channel.

    This is mandatory. If a Good Seed does not record their omake by pinging collabs (or just requesting access and editing things themselves - this is the preferred option), I won't give out awards. If a new Good Seed is not recorded here, they won't advance. By doing this it makes the whole thing manageable for me - it's gotten pretty unwieldy!

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    Omake Writer Instructions:

    There are four fields you need to fill out.

    Omake Link, which is just a link to your first omake for the turn. This makes it easier for me to read them as I do the update - without this it's tough to know off the bat which omake were written this turn, and to properly

    Requested Bonus, which is your requested bonus for your omake. You can leave it up to me if you like. You can see more info in the Good Seed infopost here.

    Cultivation Aims. For those following unorthodox paths - higher than 9th Heavenstage or later than 7th Dao Pillar paths. Please put in what you are aiming for before you break through. I have left it as 'default'. If you do not edit it, I'll go with that.

    Turn Notes - Do you want to do something specific? Enter a Secret Realm? Help the Clan out in some way? If you have something specific you want to accomplish on this turn, put it in turn notes so I can adjust your Fate around it.

    All other fields are for QM use to record character information to properly run the flow of the game.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • occipitallobe said:
    Pretty much. Foundation Building is where you choose your first Dao-Pillar, something you believe in strongly enough to resist Heaven trying to destroy it. Tribulation attempts to shatter your Pillar. Physically this looks like lightning shooting at your body, metaphysically it's magical lightning constantly introducing doubt into your mind. If you can't resist the doubt, you don't break through and suffer terrible backlash.

    Also, for those reaching Foundation Building this turn, I forgot to introduce the Tribulation mechanic which would tell you what your chances of a breakthrough are and cause you to have to build up strength to try and break through.

    You will be benefiting from my mistake, and may enter Foundation Building sans Tribulation rolls, Lifesaving Treasures, etc, etc - unlike everyone from next turn onwards.

    This is manifestly and grossly unfair to those who follow after you, but the Heavens aren't fair either!
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    Is that for them choosing ascending to Foundation Building in this turn, btw, or does it hold for the future?

    If so, that's a great opportunity to have 100% odds to ascend from the Thirteenth Heavenstage for these three.
     
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    ReaderOfFate said:
    Is that for them choosing ascending to Foundation Building in this turn, btw, or does it hold for the future?

    If so, that's a great opportunity to have 100% odds to ascend from the Thirteenth Heavenstage for these three.
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    Just this turn. I meant to bring out the mechanic first, but I'll do it tomorrow or the day after. Any attempts to get into Foundation Building in future will be harder at the expected difficulty given the love the Heavens has the Clan.
     
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    Peta Condos and Wajo 4 - The Wandering Girl
  • Sidestory
    • The Wandering Girl - Peta and Wajo

    What did Wajo almost die for?

    She didn't have an answer. It circled in her mind, again and again. Her aunt might kill her for such traitorous thoughts, but the truth is she wouldn't trade her brother for anyone in the Golden Devil Clan. Not what remains of her human family, not for her entire _____, not even for the Grand Elder, as vital and cunning has that old monster was. She would watch the clan burn before she sacrificed Wajo.

    Traitorous indeed. As a child she'd promised herself to mix, to listen and learn so she could forge her own path. Her aunt sought to carve loyalty in her heart with cruel repetition, as if it was another muscle she could grow with sheer stubborn effort. Yet every year, she grew to understand her fallen parents more, and her aunt less. What value did the clan hold, if it was nothing but service and pain, a pointless defiant scream at heaven and an ignoble death?

    When Wajo was fully recovered, Peta put in her request for an honorable discharge to focus on closed cultivation. She would return to active service no less than 30 years before the Trials.

    Good! Said her brother, I learned much of human cultivation, but it living in a herd is very hard. I spent two years with my mother and have never seen another of my kind. She told me that if I see another male, we will greet each other and float in different directions. If I see a female, I should flare my Qi and impress her, so she will mate with me. Then I should float in a different direction.

    They walked for a time. They lived in the wild and hunter beasts, but found no satisfaction in it. So they came to a struggling mortal village. At first they screamed and ran from the giant metallic bear, but they were terribly slow and their flailing farm tools didn't even hurt, so it was easy for Peta to explain that they came in peace. Did they… Have any work?

    Peta built them a new fence, lifted some stubborn boulders from their fields, and dug a new well. Wajo pulled a plow and sharpened their tools with his claws. Peta felt something in her heart settle as she used her superhuman body to ease the hard lives of these people.

    "What is this feeling?"

    Kindness! Wajo laughed in her mind. My Dao. They will never repay us. That's good. The karma becomes a seed. For everyone. You seek the meaning of your clan? You will find it here.

    Peta barely cultivated in the next decade. She had no spirit stones, no beast cores, and the qi in the air was weak. She slowly expanded her dantian, when she could, preparing for the next heavenstage, but it was not her focus.

    With that strange fellow Xiao Yi's Formation research and her own experience sharing the power of her blood with Wajo, Peta developed a technique to grant a portion of her regeneration to those beneath her. The clan would no doubt find it pointless. Their formations were about combining the power of the weak to fight the strong, not taking the power of the strong to help the weak. Yet, Peta found it enormously valuable. She could seal wounds, purge sickness, and give the infirm a few more pleasant years.

    The people grew to love her, they told stories of the great wandering healer and her magic bear. Peta found joy and peace in it that she'd never felt before. She could have spent the rest of her life this way, stuck in the 8th​ heavenstage, a good seed grown not into a towering oak but into a beautiful flower.

    Then she strayed across the border.

    She saw devastation. Suffering beyond suffering. Her paltry powers of healing were nothing to this. How do you fix a stolen soul? What can you do, for the desiccated husk of what was a village?

    She had understood, intellectually, that the other sects were evil. Now she saw it. Now she could feel it. She felt a fire of rage grow in her soul. The weak should be helped, protected, cherished. People are not livestock.

    She followed a bloody trial to a war camp. All condensation cultivators, all beneath her 8th​ heavenstage. With Wajo's help, she killed them all.

    Nothing. Empty. You cannot wash away blood with more blood.

    Peta cried, and shook. She screamed. Nothing. You can't bring back the dead with grief.

    The strong grow on the backs of the weak. This is our world.

    "It's too cruel."

    Yes. That too. It is our world. It is too cruel. This is the heart of your herd. Not service and pain. Not a defiant scream against heaven. Your herd is these things, but its Dao is brighter. To forge a better world within this one.

    "You knew." Peta whispered.

    Yes… A bear can see much from the mountaintop. I could not just tell you. You didn't need to hear it. You needed to see it. To feel it. You planted seeds of kindness in this cruel world. But such seeds are not suited to this soil. You must tend them.

    "I would sacrifice you for a better world."

    Then you can go home. You have found your Dao.

    Omake Bonus: Tribulation Reduction

    Would be nice to have a life-saving treasure, but the story didn't take me there.

    @occipitallobe Omake, if that's how you tag?
     
  • Sidestory
    • occipitallobe said:
    Just this turn. I meant to bring out the mechanic first, but I'll do it tomorrow or the day after. Any attempts to get into Foundation Building in future will be harder at the expected difficulty given the love the Heavens has the Clan.
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    May i suggest not allowing people to choose what kind of treasure we get (cool thing, lifespan, tribulation or lifesaving)? because otherwise as many have already stated i think all good seeds will always have at least one lifesaving treasure on them. Being able to specify exactly what treasure we get establishes a meta and doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the setting if the young masters of a cursed clan are always decked out in hard to find treasures.

    if i may offer some possible solutions
    1. you just set a 1d8 roll (1-2 cool thing, 3-4 lifespan, 5-6 tribulation and 7-8 lifesaving) and people need to specify what type of treasure they want and what type the really don't want. reduce the size of the thing they don't want by one (ex: 1 is cool thing) and add one to the type of treasure they want (6-8 is lifesaving treasure instead of 7-8). That way our good seeds aren't always decked out in exactly the treasures they need or want and we can have some fun variety.
    2. Treasure of the condensation realm aren't actually all that rare. but starting from foundation you have to actually roll to see if you get a treasure due to increasing scarcity.
    3. the same 1D8 system as "1" but instead of declaring intent you can have good seeds trade treasures via omakes. Thus generating MORE OMAKES FOR THE OMAKE THRONE and actually having character interaction.

    apologies if my thoughts are unwelcome.
     
    DangerKitty said:
    May i suggest not allowing people to choose what kind of treasure we get (cool thing, lifespan, tribulation or lifesaving)? because otherwise as many have already stated i think all good seeds will always have at least one lifesaving treasure on them. Being able to specify exactly what treasure we get establishes a meta and doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the setting if the young masters of a cursed clan are always decked out in hard to find treasures.

    if i may offer some possible solutions
    1. you just set a 1d8 roll (1-2 cool thing, 3-4 lifespan, 5-6 tribulation and 7-8 lifesaving) and people need to specify what type of treasure they want and what type the really don't want. reduce the size of the thing they don't want by one (ex: 1 is cool thing) and add one to the type of treasure they want (6-8 is lifesaving treasure instead of 7-8). That way our good seeds aren't always decked out in exactly the treasures they need or want and we can have some fun variety.
    2. Treasure of the condensation realm aren't actually all that rare. but starting from foundation you have to actually roll to see if you get a treasure due to increasing scarcity.
    3. the same 1D8 system as "1" but instead of declaring intent you can have good seeds trade treasures via omakes. Thus generating MORE OMAKES FOR THE OMAKE THRONE and actually having character interaction.

    apologies if my thoughts are unwelcome.
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    Might be better for each writer to throw dice in post, so OP won't have even more to roll
     
    I wonder how many of those advocating the restriction of life saving treasures would sing a different tune should they invest several thousand words into a Good Seed only to have it get unceremoniously dumpstered by the whims of the dice.

    Because I and Alectai can both tell you that choosing to go for a Life Saving Treasure over a generic cultivation boost is still a pretty considerable gamble for us.

    Myself especially.
     
    Oh man, Ilias just can't get any luck. Which is horrid because he was supposed to have good luck! Just wait. I've been too busy to write any omakes, but I'll have some time coming up. Hopefully his fur tunes turn around shortly.
     
    occipitallobe said:
    Pretty much. Foundation Building is where you choose your first Dao-Pillar, something you believe in strongly enough to resist Heaven trying to destroy it. Tribulation attempts to shatter your Pillar. Physically this looks like lightning shooting at your body, metaphysically it's magical lightning constantly introducing doubt into your mind. If you can't resist the doubt, you don't break through and suffer terrible backlash.

    Also, for those reaching Foundation Building this turn, I forgot to introduce the Tribulation mechanic which would tell you what your chances of a breakthrough are and cause you to have to build up strength to try and break through.

    You will be benefiting from my mistake, and may enter Foundation Building sans Tribulation rolls, Lifesaving Treasures, etc, etc - unlike everyone from next turn onwards.

    This is manifestly and grossly unfair to those who follow after you, but the Heavens aren't fair either!
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    Heaven smiles upon Hektor today! Time to write the most typical of typical Xianxia scenes ever.
     
    TehChron said:
    I wonder how many of those advocating the restriction of life saving treasures would sing a different tune should they invest several thousand words into a Good Seed only to have it get unceremoniously dumpstered by the whims of the dice.

    Because I and Alectai can both tell you that choosing to go for a Life Saving Treasure over a generic cultivation boost is still a pretty considerable gamble for us.

    Myself especially.
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    Yeah this. I've spent way to long on Achille to just let him die. I think restricting life saving treasures would be a bad mobe
     
    KreenWarrior said:
    Could also be that Life Saving Treasures, due to their all-or-nothing nature, should be restricted to random drops only.
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    DangerKitty said:
    May i suggest not allowing people to choose what kind of treasure we get (cool thing, lifespan, tribulation or lifesaving)? because otherwise as many have already stated i think all good seeds will always have at least one lifesaving treasure on them. Being able to specify exactly what treasure we get establishes a meta and doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the setting if the young masters of a cursed clan are always decked out in hard to find treasures.

    if i may offer some possible solutions
    1. you just set a 1d8 roll (1-2 cool thing, 3-4 lifespan, 5-6 tribulation and 7-8 lifesaving) and people need to specify what type of treasure they want and what type the really don't want. reduce the size of the thing they don't want by one (ex: 1 is cool thing) and add one to the type of treasure they want (6-8 is lifesaving treasure instead of 7-8). That way our good seeds aren't always decked out in exactly the treasures they need or want and we can have some fun variety.
    2. Treasure of the condensation realm aren't actually all that rare. but starting from foundation you have to actually roll to see if you get a treasure due to increasing scarcity.
    3. the same 1D8 system as "1" but instead of declaring intent you can have good seeds trade treasures via omakes. Thus generating MORE OMAKES FOR THE OMAKE THRONE and actually having character interaction.

    apologies if my thoughts are unwelcome.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Firstly, thoughts are always welcome! Your perspective as a player is very different to my perspective as a QM (I want to minimise administrative overhead even if it simplifies gameplay, for instance), so

    On Heavenly Treasures: lifesaving Heavenly Treasures are the last thing I want to restrict. Essentially, they're my 'buy insurance for your guy with omake' option, and even if I restricted everything else I wouldn't restrict them. If you rock up, write a 200-word Good Seed background and he dies, maybe you're annoyed, but not the end of the world.

    If you write 10,000 words in omake and your Good Seed dies because I didn't give you any options to save your own life, you're gonna be pissed. And rightfully so, in my opinion. The Good Seed system's primary focus is 'generate good omake' - it's really me saying 'Good Seeds from omake writers are going to be prioritized' - unless you decide not to take a lifesaving Heavenly Treasure as a reward (which to me is deliberately accepting the possibility of death for your character), you won't be killed.

    You might fall behind, get older, have to get Lifespan Treasures, maybe be one of the least talented juniors of your generation, but these all make for a fun story and a point from which to write. Death - not so much.

    On treasure amounts, xianxia dudes are usually decked out with random crap - someone having a bunch of stuff doesn't bother me at all. In a clan of millions, a select few having a bunch of stuff doesn't seem too unlikely.

    On rolling for treasures and such - this comes down to overhead. I'm largely fine with people getting want they want to write the stories they want - Cool Thing is just a generic bonus, after all. If I have to determine it, someone can't write an Omake gaining their new skill or treasure, meaning they need to write an omake, wait for me to roll, tell them what they get, and then write about it. It's a lot of difficulty for both me and the writer.

    I don't want to gate treasures behind rolls after you write an omake. The exchange rate is pretty simple - you write an omake, you get something cool. To me, having a player write an omake, and me roll for a treasure and you don't get one just sucks.

    Very lastly, on trading treasures. I'm not actually against this, but it means I have to track all the trades! As it stands I go to a Good Seed post. Someone has their omake listed, turns, requested rewards. When it comes to rolling it makes it very easy. I'm not against trading as such (and if people write omake to trade, I'm happy for them to do so!) but trading as a mechanic does seem difficult. My other concern is that I don't want to restrict omake writers in what they choose to cover. If you just want to write 'cultivator relays his tales while drunk', that's fine. If you want to write about how your cultivator perceives their Dao and don't care to write in the fights or anything else at all, also fine.

    Good Seed updates offer launch points (sometimes, for those without very generic fates) to help writers find something to write about, but they don't have to write about the stuff in the update. I don't want to say 'you must write trading omake'.

    LordEdric said:
    Might be better for each writer to throw dice in post, so OP won't have even more to roll
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    I'd strongly prefer not-this. Two reasons. One, collating dice is just as hard if not harder than rolling them (I copy/paste a dicebot roll on a Discord server that generates each character's rolls). Secondly, the '99% of people are honest, some are not' problem - it means I need to enforce dicerolling mechanics, ensure people don't delete rollposts, and basically be on guard against shenanigans to protect honest players. As it stands, I don't need to do any of that.

    It also lets me not have to justify my 'fudge factor' - which is based on the problem the character is facing and the solutions they have at hand. If players roll, I have to answer 'why did my Good Seed get wounded on an 13, where his Good Seed escaped on a 12' when my answer will always be 'I eyeballed it based on how I felt about the situation'.

    Lastly, it gives players too much insight into mechanics. I'm fine with a little bit of metagaming, but I want to incentivize 'writing omake', not 'figuring out my mechanics and exploiting them'.
     
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    occipitallobe said:
    Demetrius Ceres - Slew a Spirit Pine Tree Ghost, gaining absurd benefits. The Devilpine Sap allows him to absorb attacks well above his level when coated with it, allowing him to absorb blows from even Foundation Building experts temporarily. The spirit of his grandmother looks down up on him proudly. Went from 1st Heavenstage to 6th.
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    Mwahahahahahahaha
    Soon he will catch up to those other scrubs that received a head start. Nothing like earning a great reward from crushing Humanity's true enemy
     
    occipitallobe said:
    Minerva Bardina - Or: She can't keep getting away with it!

    Bottlenecked at the 8th Heavenstage at first, but once again fought an expert in the Foundation Building Realm. A Late Foundation Building Cannibal was disabled and forced to retreat by the poisons of young Minerva, allowing her to trap and kill an entire raiding group of thirty Qi Condensation Cannibals. This victory has cemented her name as one of the great young talents of the clan. With the sheer number of Contribution Points coming her way, she was rapidly able to advance into the 9th Heavenstage at first, and now stands just a half-step away from Foundation Buiding.
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    How does she keep doing this! Well more power to her then. I dread to think how many more Foundation Building scalps my murderous lady might acquire before she completes her breakthrough.

    Looking forward to the mechanics post on Tribulations. I need to decide if a bonus vs tribulation or just a lifesaving treasure would be a better choice. Or if she should take her time and get both first.

    I suppose this event might be a good excuse to try my hand at writing a fight scene, which I don't think I have ever had reason to before. How do most Poison Masters engage in open battle? I am envisioning lots of conjured dragons and demons, all made of deadly mist and vapour.
     
    Note that lifesaving treasures are a big opportunity cost - they literally do nothing unless you die and the death is from a source in the right level of the treasure and its not sequential death that kills you again right after
     
    Katana1515 said:
    Looking forward to the mechanics post on Tribulations. I need to decide if a bonus vs tribulation or just a lifesaving treasure would be a better choice. Or if she should take her time and get both first.
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    I would say this.

    For any Good Seed without a Lifesaving Treasure.

    If the dice hate you (and statistically a Good Seed will die every 2-3 turns, this turn being an absurd outlier in terms of bad Fate rolls) and you have no Lifesaving Treasure I will kill your character. I'd feel bad about it, mind you. But for the sake of integrity in my Good Seeds, I'd kill any single one of them, no matter how many omake they've written.

    veekie said:
    Note that lifesaving treasures are a big opportunity cost - they literally do nothing unless you die and the death is from a source in the right level of the treasure and its not sequential death that kills you again right after
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    Mechanically they just save your life. If you have a Treasure that can only defend against Foundation Building, your death will come at the hands of a Foundation Building enemy - and you'll avoid it. In out-of-character terms they are as follows:

    Lifesaving Treasure - A magical Treasure, Pill, sliver of an older Cultivator's will, etc. Can save your life from a disastrous Fate roll once. I will note who has Lifesaving Treasures and who doesn't. If you get a bad roll and have no Lifesaving Treasure, I will kill off your Good Seed. Even if you're an amazing Omake writer. Even if I think you're a top contributor to the thread. Even if we're best friends!
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    Katana1515 said:
    How does she keep doing this! Well more power to her then. I dread to think how many more Foundation Building scalps my murderous lady might acquire before she completes her breakthrough.

    Looking forward to the mechanics post on Tribulations. I need to decide if a bonus vs tribulation or just a lifesaving treasure would be a better choice. Or if she should take her time and get both first.

    I suppose this event might be a good excuse to try my hand at writing a fight scene, which I don't think I have ever had reason to before. How do most Poison Masters engage in open battle? I am envisioning lots of conjured dragons and demons, all made of deadly mist and vapour.
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    Go for it, sounds like it would be a good battle. Dont forget the liquid poison you coat your weapons with
     
    occipitallobe said:
    Wei Feng - Disaster in cultivation, thoroughly without talent. Merely made it to the 2nd Heavenstage. However, this is due to his personal choices perhaps - spent far too much time assisting villagers and unfortunates without hope of return for himself, even outside of Contribution Point Missions. Excellent behaviour the Clan hopes to encourage. Rewarded with a Soul-Filing Rasp, allowing him to hide himself from anyone in Qi Condensation, disguising himself as a mortal.
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    Oof, those must have been some terrible dice rolls for cultivation. Well at least he's alive, and the Soul-Filling rasp sounds useful.
     
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    Oh wow! Everything went better than expected!

    I've already made my feelings clear I think, that Rina's going to push for the Tenth Heavenstage. While a freebie at passing Foundation Establishment is extremely tempting, I find myself realizing that she'd still be in the early reaches of it during the Hundred Year Trials that are three turns out.

    So... Yeah, I've already set on this path of turning my serial headpat victim into a Heaven Defying Genius, I'm going to keep going on it I think. Rina Callista reaches the Tenth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation @occipitallobe .

    Speaking of which, how does this interact with Greater Bronze Paragon? Is she now functionally unrivaled within Qi Condensation? Can she jump Great Realms and at least resist--if not necessarily defeat--Foundation Establishment?
     
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