- Location
- Singapore
Tempting. We have to see how well we roll next Action Phase
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Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The next six chapters are already planned, as are snippets of the next ???this is disadvantage with Planning type of GM.
Hope Simon doesnt burn himself out because he is our only steady source of income.
I may slow down or speed up, but that's not the same as burnout IMO.
Like, I actually know the stories of all Lex's ancestors up until his father, about whom I have little. Though I may revert back to 'dry account of decades of history' at some point. Partly because I kind of want to at least mention his more recent ancestors rather than leaving this big gap for Leonardo, Louis, and Lorelei Luthor.
I'm not sure it's even worth it to have him as a guest star. The biggest reason to bring on more guest stars is to identify recruitable talent, and Eiling's not realistically recruitable. Or we can be doing it to appease some powerful person... but Eiling is unlikely to be very much appeased by that decision.
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The next six chapters are already planned, as are snippets of the next ???
I may slow down or speed up, but that's not the same as burnout IMO.
Like, I actually know the stories of all Lex's ancestors up until his father, about whom I have little. Though I may revert back to 'dry account of decades of history' at some point. Partly because I kind of want to at least mention his more recent ancestors rather than leaving this big gap for Leonardo, Louis, and Lorelei Luthor.
I'm not sure it's even worth it to have him as a guest star. The biggest reason to bring on more guest stars is to identify recruitable talent, and Eiling's not realistically recruitable. Or we can be doing it to appease some powerful person... but Eiling is unlikely to be very much appeased by that decision.
Thats why i suggest for him episode about patriotism, Oswald is patriotic as well, and i figure what Eiling would like is not the TV but able to help mould the children, thats why i suggested Ozy show instead of Voice actor.
Which do you think should be Lex's order of priorities to research for the next turns? I think:
1. Kryptonite. It plays a central role in his strategy and may present unknown risks.
2. Spacefaring Plane. Again, a key piece of his long term plans and a source of income.
3. Computers. It has gotten a good streak, and it can only help to improve the supercomputer, the phones, the internet services and other projects.
4. A transhumanist enhancement. I like the cybernetics myself, but the bone serum seems more urgent to improve before using it on humans.
5. Weapons. It's the base of Lexcorp, and with metas and aliens coming soon, Earth will need the means to fight back.
6. Biology. It can only help with the transhumanist enhancements.
7. Military strategy. It's low DC, it'll likely raise the Martial Stat, the owner of a PMC should find it useful, and we're likely to have more enemies like Intergang to fight.
We don't want Lex to overfocus on Cassandra, certainly. But there are three actions that I feel are key to her developement and that Lex should absolutely do personally:
[ ] [Cass] Educate Cassandra on behavior and diplomacy DC 13
[ ] [Cass] Desensitize Cassandra to death DC 44
[ ] [Cass] Debut Cassandra to the public DC 0 (To ensure the very best first impression)
There are also two actions that are very important for Cassandra to navigate in society and not being taken advantage of. It'd be preferable for Lex to do, but depending on the DC could be delegated to other hero units:
[ ] [Cass] Socialize Cassandra with adults DC ???
[ ] [Cass] Socialize Cassandra with children DC ???
Finally, there are some low DC developement actions that would be useful to Cassie and can be left to other hero units. Not all need to be taken, but the more the merrier:
[ ] [Cain] Teach Cassandra how to handle weaponry DC 2
[ ] [Cass] Hire a scholastic tutor for Cassandra DC 13 (Stewardship)
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra more about basic biology DC 10
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra ballet DC 34
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra more about chess DC 18
I've listed 10 actions, only 3-5 for Lex to take personally. If I'm counting right, Cassandra was 8 when we adopted her on turn 10. She'll be 10 on turn 18. Her learning options are available till she turns 16, so there's time till turn 42 (If the quest lasts that long) to do them. It shouldn't interfere too much in running LexCorp.
For the record, there's still 10 successes needed for AMAZO to be complete.
The PI could probably help in tracking the evidence Whale has against Lex. We should probably find it and destroy it. Whale may not dare using it, but someone else could find it and be bolder.
Which one of these two would be better for it?
[ ] Meet with Lucy Lane to talk about her family
DC 21 Lucy Lane is related to your third biggest problem right now. Granted the reporter is a minor nuisance right now compared to the League and whoever framed you but you didn't get as far as you have by ignoring problems and letting them grow larger. A conversation with Lucy about her family could prove insightful. In the wake of the attack on her sister you now have the pretext for steering the conversation this way
[ ] Recruit Lucy Lane as a personal lawyer
DC 33 Right now Lucy works for a form that is in the employ of LexCorp not Lex Luthor. The distinction is rather pedantic but if you want to get her under your thumb it's best to have her working for you personally. Lucy has recently been reassured of your benevolence and as such is easier than ever to fully sway to your side.
Shouldn't Lex get closer to her to avoid being suspicious when he hires her?
1. Kryptonite. It plays a central role in his strategy and may present unknown risks.
2. Spacefaring Plane. Again, a key piece of his long term plans and a source of income.
3. Computers. It has gotten a good streak, and it can only help to improve the supercomputer, the phones, the internet services and other projects.
4. A transhumanist enhancement. I like the cybernetics myself, but the bone serum seems more urgent to improve before using it on humans.
5. Weapons. It's the base of Lexcorp, and with metas and aliens coming soon, Earth will need the means to fight back.
6. Biology. It can only help with the transhumanist enhancements.
7. Military strategy. It's low DC, it'll likely raise the Martial Stat, the owner of a PMC should find it useful, and we're likely to have more enemies like Intergang to fight.
We don't want Lex to overfocus on Cassandra, certainly. But there are three actions that I feel are key to her developement and that Lex should absolutely do personally:
[ ] [Cass] Educate Cassandra on behavior and diplomacy DC 13
[ ] [Cass] Desensitize Cassandra to death DC 44
[ ] [Cass] Debut Cassandra to the public DC 0 (To ensure the very best first impression)
There are also two actions that are very important for Cassandra to navigate in society and not being taken advantage of. It'd be preferable for Lex to do, but depending on the DC could be delegated to other hero units:
[ ] [Cass] Socialize Cassandra with adults DC ???
[ ] [Cass] Socialize Cassandra with children DC ???
Finally, there are some low DC developement actions that would be useful to Cassie and can be left to other hero units. Not all need to be taken, but the more the merrier:
[ ] [Cain] Teach Cassandra how to handle weaponry DC 2
[ ] [Cass] Hire a scholastic tutor for Cassandra DC 13 (Stewardship)
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra more about basic biology DC 10
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra ballet DC 34
[ ] [Cass] Teach Cassandra more about chess DC 18
I've listed 10 actions, only 3-5 for Lex to take personally. If I'm counting right, Cassandra was 8 when we adopted her on turn 10. She'll be 10 on turn 18. Her learning options are available till she turns 16, so there's time till turn 42 (If the quest lasts that long) to do them. It shouldn't interfere too much in running LexCorp.
For the record, there's still 10 successes needed for AMAZO to be complete.
The PI could probably help in tracking the evidence Whale has against Lex. We should probably find it and destroy it. Whale may not dare using it, but someone else could find it and be bolder.
Which one of these two would be better for it?
[ ] Meet with Lucy Lane to talk about her family
DC 21 Lucy Lane is related to your third biggest problem right now. Granted the reporter is a minor nuisance right now compared to the League and whoever framed you but you didn't get as far as you have by ignoring problems and letting them grow larger. A conversation with Lucy about her family could prove insightful. In the wake of the attack on her sister you now have the pretext for steering the conversation this way
[ ] Recruit Lucy Lane as a personal lawyer
DC 33 Right now Lucy works for a form that is in the employ of LexCorp not Lex Luthor. The distinction is rather pedantic but if you want to get her under your thumb it's best to have her working for you personally. Lucy has recently been reassured of your benevolence and as such is easier than ever to fully sway to your side.
Shouldn't Lex get closer to her to avoid being suspicious when he hires her?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'd like to bounce Carol back and forth between spaceplane research and building things for us; if her building trait fires it'll be good.
I think I want some time to integrate the advances in computing we already have- not least because one of the key bottlenecks in our computer projects is "Felicity can only do one thing per turn." While we CAN research these projects without Felicity, those -20s she puts on the DC make a real difference if we're not throwing big megacollaborations at the project.
So far, "weapons" has been low-DC and can safely be done without hero units, one of the relatively few learning actions that can be. That's a good thing IMO; it lets us concentrate hero units on must-succeed tasks.
I agree that both these areas should be done. Military strategy especially.
One note: I want to look for opportunity to roll high-scoring successes that boop some of our hero units' co-op scores above 1. Rebecca and Karl are obvious candidates for this.
I think Oswald might be a good choice for the last two- he has a really high bonus for Diplomacy actions involving children. Having Lex do the first three does indeed make sense, but I want to dial back a bit to maybe 1 action in 3 or so being specifically aimed at Lex boosting Cassandra. Lex+Cass is a great teamup for normal grownup tasks too, but only in Learning, Martial, and Intrigue, which kind of limits the possibilities since the last two of those are Lex's weakest stats.
Hiring a scholastic tutor is definitely a good idea. Cassandra will probably be a lot less resistant to academic learning than Jinx. Come to think of it,
@King crimson , could we transfer Dr. Rice over to tutoring Cassandra, and then hire a new tutor more experienced with middle school age children for Jinx? I think Rice might actually do a better job with Cassandra, who is a very enthusiastic student, whereas Jinx often has to be persuaded or cajoled into learning things. Can we have "reassign Dr. Rice to Cassandra" or something like it as an option?
Yeah, but our supercomputer predicted that Ivo would need transplants on like... three of the next four to five turns. He doesn't have long to live at all at this rate, and transplants mean hospital time (even if we can get him to accept magical healing it'll still take time) which detracts from his work. If we want the project to get anywhere close to complete we need to lower the DC, and the Red Tornado data is itself one of our best options for doing that.
If we hire a PI they'll basically just be an Intrigue hero unit specializing in investigations. My point is that they won't automate anything; we'll still have to actually take the relevant actions, and probably assign hero teamups if we want to be sure of success on important projects (like finding the blackmail files, which we do NOT want to screw up and which Whale has probably cranked the DC of rather high)
Tempting, but there are considerations of action economy to consider. We only have so many high-Diplomacy people to put on the job, and they're only available so often, and we don't want to screw up.
- Location
- Philippines
Kinda want to put samuel on solar panels it should trigger his trait and hopefully he gets a new trait out of it. Looking at the character sheet we really should take a recruit scientist action most of our scientists are biologists and our one phycisist hero gets unstable if he is put on another project other than the thing he is focused on.
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
Lex shouldn't be the one desensitizing Cassandra to death. It should be someone else who kills more. Like Mercy or Rose.
we need megacorp on red Tornado. and we might want to try to find some other ways to help IVO.
- Location
- Kazakhstan
Is there a reason everyone wants to desensitize her to death? Do we want to use her as a killer?
Don't get me wrong, killing someone is valid way of dealing with problems as a supervillain. But. Doing it to a 8-9-year girl we consider a daughter seems unnecessary and cruel.
Don't get me wrong, killing someone is valid way of dealing with problems as a supervillain. But. Doing it to a 8-9-year girl we consider a daughter seems unnecessary and cruel.
- Location
- Philippines
Why do we need to help ivo as he is right now he is completely dependent on lex to live and do keep in mind that he is an egotistic maniac and that once amazo is finished and he now has the body he always wanted he will more than likely seek to use his new found power to opress others in order to prove to them his superiority or to get back at them for some percieved slight.
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- Location
- Fifth Dimension
Because she's overwhelmingly good at fighting and may accidentally kill someone. if she does, she literally has a mental breakdown and cannot function as a human being. Even seeing death can cause this.
- Location
- Where I an right now
And Tobi is a good boy
I'm surprised no one used this line yet
also I now have this image of the two meeting and Tobi getting beat up by a little girl
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Yes you could.
- Location
- Coro, Venezuela
@King crimson What are AMAZO's capabilities in this quest?
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
The DCAU versions capabilities. Basically it starts with super strength and advanced durability and keeps on adapting and getting better from there.
Kir the Wizard
The Sun King
- Location
- Ukraine
DCAU? That one was... a bit too overpowered.
- Location
- Coro, Venezuela
Can't we just use magic or pheromones to get Amazo's schematics from Ivo?
Also, can we start investigating Soul Magic? That way Lex will transfer his own soul into the android to avoid having two Lex Luthors.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
There are counters to it in a larger DC universe but yeah it's strong as hell.
No you cannot since not all of the "schematics" are finished yet. A good deal of AMAZO is Ivo making shit up along the way and improvising.
You cannot start branching into soul magic as you don't even have confirmation that souls exist.
I will say that the inevitable transfer will result in only one Lex Luthor and a left behind body so the concern of having to deal with two of Lex is not warranted.
- Location
- Coro, Venezuela
1) You mean Chaos Magic? Would that be countered by upgrading AMAZO with magic?
2) Could we finish AMAZO with just Lex Luthor?
3) Then we should start searching for confirmation, that would open up new paths of power.
4) That's good to read.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I meant more general stuff. Entities of sufficient power to just blitz past AMAZO's adapting capabilities and instantly kill him could do it, Fifth dimensional imps could remove his ability to adapt and a few other things are out there that would be capable of beating or ending him. There is no feasible way to counter absolutely everything since the sheer range of esoteric effects makes it impossible (how do you guard against the Anti-Life equation for example without knowing how to guard against it since it's not something you can adapt to)
Yes although the DC would be way higher.
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- Location
- Coro, Venezuela
1) Actually, how do we deal with those kinds of beings?
2) Would an upgraded Supercomputer help in the process?
...also, the android was capable of changing the basis of his body, could we make Lex Luther into an organic being after the tranfer? That would avoid some of the legal problems that being an android with a company would create, by that time Meta-Humans should be a lot more commom.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Entities of sufficient power cannot all be beaten in one way but they tend to share a common factor of being predictable and set in their ways. They also tend to not care too much about things that don't draw their attention. How you choose to deal with it is up to you.
Fifth dimensional imps generally have a game of some kind and can be outsmarted.
It would add a huge amount of extra steps to make AMAZO organic. There is a simpler solution to this problem though. Don't tell anyone that AMAZO is mechanical and cover it with some false flesh and you are good to go since people wouldn't just assume you are not human if you look act and behave like a human.
- Location
- Existence
True but he effectively would counter anyone without reality warping and even then he is capable of adapting to magic and even other normal intangible things so he might be able to just figure out how to get by it.
Darkseid's avatar for instance would get trounced by Amazo
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