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In the Wake of Monsters - an Advisor's Quest

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[X] Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint
-[x] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[x] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Monetary Debt

This make sense to me.
 
[X] Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint
-[x] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[x] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Monetary Debt
 
veekie said:
Personal preference then:
[ ] Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint
-[ ] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[ ] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Monetary Debt
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Boo! Hiss! So many delicious possibilities, so you design something as bland as humanly possible?
 
[X] Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint
-[x] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[x] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Monetary Debt

Incredibly talented, constantly having money trouble. Sounds kinda like a certain Twin Tail Tsundere who likes the color red and gems.
 
*Screams in frustration at forming bandwagon*

I implore the thread to consider the story hooks this choice opens up. Great Clerk, Poor Restraint doesn't really open many doors for characterization, particularly when compared to the other options.
 
[X] Plan Super Clerk in Debt
-[X] Twisted by the Abominations
-[X] Monetary Debt
-[X] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[X] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[X] Quick: You're naturally brighter than the average person. +1 to all stats, though no narrative advantages.
-[X] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[X] A Bag of Holding: This small cloth bag is much larger on the inside and practically weightless no matter what you put in it. Enables you to always be well-prepared for anything and everything, even on short notice or when travelling.
 
Exmorri said:
[ ] Very Divided Loyalties
+3 shinies. Go back to the first post and choose a second motivation.
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Possibly the most crippling flaw, but having a second motivation offers some pretty impressive story opportunities.

Exmorri said:
[ ] Touched by the Abominations
+1 shiny. You were visibly marked where their shadow fell on you. Some may look at you in sympathy for what was done to you, others in horror as they remember what was done to them. You do not get to choose the mark. Cannot be taken with Twisted.
[ ] Twisted by the Abominations
+2 shinies. You were permanently altered by the wake of their passing. Perhaps a hive of locusts nests in your chest, or perhaps you can only sleep in the depths of the river. You do not get to choose the alteration. Cannot be taken with Touched.
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These two flaws tie strongly into the backstory and emphasize the fact that we're living in a city recently scarred by monsters. I feel like they have the most promise for characterization.

Exmorri said:
[ ] Political Debt
+1 shiny. Clan Avalanche has put a lot of work into getting you your position and the elders are insistent you return the favor before they help you with anything else.
[ ] Monetary Debt
+1 shiny. You have borrowed a great deal of money for previous inspired projects that sadly did not work out as well as you had hoped.
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Both introduce a fairly straightforward plothooks: we're going to have to pay them off somehow.
Political means that someone will be leaning on us to shape policy, monetary means we're probably going to have to embezzle, putting us at odds with our employer.

Exmorri said:
[ ] Vendetta
+2 shinies. You have a rival of similar skill and power who feels slighted by being passed over for the post of Steward, who will seek to ruin and discredit you and take your place.
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Oooooooh, fun! Pushes us towards wanting intrigue and diplomacy to handle court politics, although assassins/thugs are possible. My second favorite.

Exmorri said:
[ ] Tattered Meridians
+1 shiny, -2 Learning. Your qi flows are blocked in some places and overflow elsewhere. You will absolutely never be a cultivator, and worse, you suffer severe pain in the presence of any beings who are channeling qi, such as cultivators or gods. Cannot be taken with Promising Meridians.
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Along with the Abominations options, helps feed into the "scarred survivor" storyhook.

Exmorri said:
[ ] Coward
+1 shiny, -2 Martial. You shy away from violence and battle, and are easily intimidated. Cannot be taken with Brave.
[ ] Cruel
+1 shiny, -2 Diplomacy. You are prone to using pain and threats to enforce your will.
[ ] Loose Lips
+1 shiny, -2 Intrigue. You have an unfortunate habit of blurting out whatever's on your mind. Cannot be taken with Levelheaded.
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Explicit character flaws, all could be interesting. I slightly prefer them in order of cruel, cowardly and loose lips.
 
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[X] Plan Social Beast
[X] Plan Honorable Monstrosity
[X] Plan Twisted Insight
[X] Plan Twisted Enlightenment

[X] Plan Super Clerk in Debt
 
[X] Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint
-[x] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[x] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[x] Monetary Debt
 
Angelform said:
It is almost like people want to play an ADVISOR rather than an unusually stationary adventurer.
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Please look at the plans I've put forward. Aside from the last, how does any of those not fit into the adviser role? Its just that each has more to it than just being an adviser. They're intended to play into the theme of a scarred city.
Social Beast and Honorable Monstrosity are both specced to both be good at their jobs and able to play the court, which I think will be important considering that this setting is loosely based on Exalted/wuxai (just seen from the court official's eyes).
Twisted Enlightenment links our inspired motivation with Lovecraftian enlightment: the touch of the abominations gave us insight and an alien perspective.

Now, what makes Great Clerk, Poor Restraint pop? What makes it stand out as an interesting combination of traits?
It is serviceable from a vaguely min-maxy perspective, but it has only the most basic story potential.

Edit: Imagine if Embers in the Dusk had been set on an Industrious world with no other picks. That is Great Clerk Poor Restraint.
 
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[] Plan Blinded By the Future
-[ ] Very Divided Loyalties (Vainglory)
-[ ] Monetary Debt
-[ ] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[ ] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Quick: You're naturally brighter than the average person. +1 to all stats, though no narrative advantages.
-[ ] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Prophetic Dreams: From time to time you get glimpses of futures that may come to pass.
-[ ] A Silver Brush: It writes in any color, creates its own ink, and even takes dictation. So much more practical than a magic spear. +2 Stewardship, +1 Learning.

You have a vision of a glorious future, and by your hand it will be realized! No matter the cost!
Ultra clerk with visions of the future and an ego.
Utterly ridiculous when allowed to work on their dream project, kinda shit when it comes to the mundane day to day.
 
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Exmorri said:
If you have leftover shinies after the winning plan, they will result in very favorable random events and strokes of luck during the first few turns. You are allowed to spend more shinies than you have and start the game with negative shinies, and each of those will instead be converted into a botch or a sudden misfortune.
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[] Plan Tempting Fate
-[ ] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning

A bright spark full of optimism and promise. What could possibly go wrong?

[] Plan Really Tempting Fate
-[ ] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[ ] Honorable: You consistently stand by your word and your friends even when it costs you. +1 Diplomacy
-[ ] Helpful Predecessor: The previous Steward of Silverport has graciously agreed to assist you and ensure a smooth transition. Bonus die to job-related Stewardship actions during the first year.

Everything is looking up for our protagonist. This should be smooth sailing to the end!

[] Plan Things Are Going Way Too Well
-[ ] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
-[ ] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
-[ ] Honorable: You consistently stand by your word and your friends even when it costs you. +1 Diplomacy
-[ ] Helpful Predecessor: The previous Steward of Silverport has graciously agreed to assist you and ensure a smooth transition. Bonus die to job-related Stewardship actions during the first year.
-[ ] Prophetic Dreams: From time to time you get glimpses of futures that may come to pass.

Everything is amazing! Unfortunately, you have an understanding of Karma, so you can't really enjoy it since you're waiting for the other shoe to drop.
 
[X] Plan Superhero Steward
-[X] Troubles (+5 shinies)
--[X] Very Divided Loyalties (Vainglory)
--[X] Political Debt
--[X] Monetary Debt
-[X] Nice Things (7 shinies)
--[X] Levelheaded: Nothing ever seems to startle or upset you. You always have your wits about you, even under stress. Cannot be taken with Loose Lips. +1 Intrigue
--[X] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
--[X] Quick: You're naturally brighter than the average person. +1 to all stats, though no narrative advantages.
--[X] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
--[X] Past Life Memories: You retain fragments of knowledge from your previous incarnations. +1 Learning, tiny chance of randomly boosting any roll.
--[X] Promising Meridians: If you somehow find the time required for it between your job, your clan and your projects, you might also make a decent cultivator. Mutually exclusive with Tattered Meridians.
--[X] A Silver Brush: It writes in any color, creates its own ink, and even takes dictation. So much more practical than a magic spear. +2 Stewardship, +1 Learning.

An Inspired bureaucrat looking to go beyond what lesser men would attempt. Fortunately, despite some not-necessarily-failed business ventures in the past, he has the skills to do it. Plus he's got the potential for cultivation, mainly for the plan name, and the memories of his past lives because he's the protagonist.
 
thamuzz said:
Please look at the plans I've put forward. Aside from the last, how does any of those not fit into the adviser role?
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There is a difference between being capable of a role and appropriate for said role.

All your plans make the PC the sort of tragic snowflake that screens RPG PROTAGONIST to the heavens. A twisted wreck of a person destined to be killed by the touches and pitchforks brigade, martyr himself or derail the very train of fate and or destiny.
I just want to play an advisor.

Now, what makes Great Clerk, Poor Restraint pop?
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Not being like every other minmaxed RPG protagonist. Not having horrific, crippling drawbacks. Being a normal guy doing his job in a world of abominations, titans and demi-gods.

Edit: Imagine if Embers in the Dusk had been set on an Industrious world with no other picks. That is Great Clerk Poor Restraint.
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Actually I would have loved to play EitD on a world that didn't require the GM to institute massive power creep every dozen turns just to present minor annoyances.
 
[X] Plan Narrative Advantage
-[X] Troubles (+5 shinies)
--[X] Very Divided Loyalties (Vainglory)
--[X] Political Debt
--[X] Monetary Debt
-[X] Nice Things (7 shinies)
--[X] Levelheaded: Nothing ever seems to startle or upset you. You always have your wits about you, even under stress. Cannot be taken with Loose Lips. +1 Intrigue
--[X] Organized: Through habit or obsession, you keep everything neat, tidy, and in it's place. +1 Stewardship
--[X] Supernumerate: You can crunch numbers with ease, making bookkeeping and trigonometry a snap. +1 Stewardship
--[X] Promising Meridians: If you somehow find the time required for it between your job, your clan and your projects, you might also make a decent cultivator. Mutually exclusive with Tattered Meridians.
--[X] Eidetic Memory: Unless severely distracted, you are able to memorize anything at a glance and recall it in perfect detail later. +1 Learning
--[X] Gossipmonger: You have a knack for keeping one ear on the buzz of gossip all around you, giving you early warnings when something isn't quite right in your immediate vicinity and a source of low-level local information. +1 Intrigue
--[X] Prophetic Dreams: From time to time you get glimpses of futures that may come to pass.

Because while I liked superhero steward, the fact is we can train stats way easier than geting special traits and narrative advantages make a huge diference, and honestly in the mess of a thousand plots and problems that this city is looking like the combo of gossipmoner and eidetic memory would be amazing to keep ahead of the mess.

I just hope Plan Great Clerk, Poor Restraint doesn't win in the end, a simple plan to make someone that is sut a good stweard seens to defeat the purpose of a quest whose point is to show advisors have lives beyond their jobs, and that is way more interestin with a mix of problems and potential.
 
thamuzz said:
@Exmorri
How common are the Abomination traits in the city's populace?
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One of the tasks assigned to the Steward is going to be holding censuses to figure out how bad the problems are, so I'm not going to give an exact answer - but at the least, you've heard several hundred people were twisted that way and Silverport supposedly has a population of a million.

Mutants who went into hiding, masses of deaths and departures, or the population figure being exaggerated in the first place could put the actual rate much higher.

And to some extent it's a question of definition: for example, if the Abominations have a spat and one of them throws a lightning bolt at the other and twenty bystanders get all their hair burned off, do we count them?
 
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