Remove ads

Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

Reader mode
Silently Watches said:
Yep, I'll go over it in the AAR, but I expect some people will have a good idea after next week's interlude.

The end result, though, is that you fought exactly as Calamity Witch would have fought. Normally that's a good thing. In this case, you played into the enemies hands.

Just so I'm clear, are you saying that it was an accident that the winning plan led to you dying, or that your killer killed you on accident? Because the second is not the case.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Fair enough. Can't always munchkin our way through everything by playing only to our strengths. Next time we better apply some of that Extinction Knight class on these jackasses.

I'm sure Taylor and IAE will both appreciate the chance to get at them hand to hand after this. :)
 
Faraway-R said:
Well, it was them who decided that "shooting first" and "shooting lethal" was the better option, nevermind the impact of their decisions - in a world that does not speak their language and already has problems.

@Silently Watches, what were those un-translated demands?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
"Stand down" was the first statement. The second was "I'm… I'm sorry".

They kind of figured you of all people would know the language they were using. "You" did before.
 
So I'm going to assume whoever the next protag is will definitely not be Taylor? Well this would be the first Quest to do that... I'm incredibly split on this, on one hand yaye? Something new but on the other boo? This is in no way subtle or really makes sense since it hints at the agents not getting a briefing or even updating people on the situation and lastly there's an urge to just personally think that the Quest ends here without it actually ending... -_-* complicated...
 
Last edited:
So... about IAE BS. How does that work. Will IAE just brainwash the next shmuck to pick it up and turn them mentally into us, or is it a full physical convertion?
 
steamrick said:
I take it that this was the TSAB team sent to figure out what's going on?

If so, 'attack first' was a major dick move for them to pull...
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, to be fair, they thought we are brainwashed slave sent to convert mages into more brainwashed slaves.
And we didn't do anything that could dissuade them.

Like, we didn't immediately surrender when we saw bunch of unknown guys shooting us.
We didn't deliver a speech about inevitable victory of good (us) over evil (them).
We didn't fight creatively, using the spells we shouldn't have by their opinion.

In other words, we fought like we are facing mooks, but it actually was a Boss fight.
 
Shaseyu said:
Well, to be fair, they thought we are brainwashed slave sent to convert mages into more brainwashed slaves.
And we didn't do anything that could dissuade them.

Like, we didn't immediately surrender when we saw bunch of unknown guys shooting us.
We didn't deliver a speech about inevitable victory of good (us) over evil (them).
We didn't fight creatively, using the spells we shouldn't have by their opinion.

In other words, we fought like we are facing mooks, but it actually was a Boss fight.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
To be fair, there wasn't much indication that they were anything but mooks.

At least I thought we were being attacked by a bunch of suicidal Maras...
 
Well, according to this article, "Tit for Tat with forgiveness" is a superior strategy when miscommunication is introduced.

So this is what my next vote will be - give them one chance to solve all the world's problems, and go full IAE on them if they refuse.
 
Silently Watches said:
«BELKANS!»

Perfect Storm's scream of hate echoes in your mind while you continue your game of keep away with the sword-wielding mage.
...
«Belkans. Savages, murderers, monsters. Kill them, Mistress! Kill them before they kill you!»
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ohhhhh, shit.

Silently Watches said:
Your chest doesn't hurt so much now, which is a relief, though you're pretty sure the blackness rolling in is a bad thing all on its own…


​
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
...
*starts to say something, stops*
I am this close to walking away from the quest.
 
…I'll be honest, I was expecting a little less hostile of a reaction to this chapter considering I had made it clear that it wouldn't be the end of the quest. There's a reason I took the image from Dark Souls, where character death is ultimately an inconvenience.

So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
 
Last edited:
Silently Watches said:
…I'll be honest, I was expecting a little less hostile of a reaction to this chapter considering I had made it clear that it wouldn't be the end of the quest.

So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hostile reaction only tells me people are invested in the quest. I'd say no changes are needed. Nurture the hate you've cultivated in your players, it'll be useful motivation both in and out of character for the future of the story.
 
Silently Watches said:
So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Are these TSAB? Because if so then they should know that Taylor is a native that can't speak Belkan.
 
I think the issue isnt that we insta-died (although that is a pretty big issue)

The issue is that as far as I can see there was no reasonable way to avoid it. The only option I can see is if we went full murder-blender everytime we get ambushed by anyone, instantly, without regard for identifying our targets.
 
Silently Watches said:
…I'll be honest, I was expecting a little less hostile of a reaction to this chapter considering I had made it clear that it wouldn't be the end of the quest. There's a reason I took the image from Dark Souls, where character death is ultimately an inconvenience.

So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It wouldn't be taylor just someone brainwashed into thinking thimself to be taylor.
 
Silently Watches said:
Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'll be honest, this wasn't apparrent from the first reading. Second reading... ok, so it wasn't all that apparent at all. Still, I'm fine with it, it shows that consequences are a thing. Plus, the Dark Souls "You Died" image has always meant "Death is only the beginning" - noone actually dies in Dark Souls, so telling you that you died is straight up wrong.

I just hope we don't hollow out because of this.
 
Silently Watches said:
…I'll be honest, I was expecting a little less hostile of a reaction to this chapter considering I had made it clear that it wouldn't be the end of the quest.

So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
@Silently Watches, you fucked up. I really can't describe this any other way, I can't say it any nicer without being dishonest. You. Fucked. Up.
You're not running a casual D&D game here. This story has a year and a half of investment in it.
It's a bit of an unspoken, unremarked thing... but the longer a quest goes on, the harder any major loss is felt. It's part of why you almost never see Dynasty quests actually go beyond the initial character. Killing the main character after this length of time, even in a 'oh, she'll be back' manner, is a Bad Idea. Killing a beloved Secondary Character is a Bad Idea. Throwing out a massively built-up storyline is a Bad Idea. Doing all of the above, because of an out of nowhere fight, where we got punished for something we could never have predicted, is making it really hard to see how you had a clue when creating this turn of events.

And I'm not even touching the actual issues with the fight itself, like the TSAB going straight for the kill here.

So yes. I would say you'd be better served changing the ending to Taylor not dying. That'd be your best, and only, option here.
 
Last edited:
My problem with the update is that the misunderstanding that caused this situation seemed to be artificially exaggerated.
Like, we had this quote at the end of the last chapter:
Silently Watches said:
Something flickers in the corner of your eye, and you conjure Strong Shield just in time to block the cluster of energy blasts coming at you. Three figures charge out of a stairwell, clearly itching for a fight.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
By reading that combined with the fact that we had to make a plan without any chance of identifying the opponents, there was no way for the situation to end with words. Even if Taylor could understand the "stand down" command, why would she when they had already opened fire without trying to speak to her first?
There was also the fact that we have been burned before for not thinking though our plans (see the Cadejo fight), so we made a appropriately paranoid plan only for it to be the only time in the quest where trying to be optimal backfired. The main reason is that is that the quest only had a small number of main characters to begin with and over these two updates we've lost most of them (Danny, Sam, Taylor temporarily), meaning that all the character development and reason to care has been thrown away (and we have to wait three weeks to continue the story and find out what happened to Taylor).
 
Silently Watches said:
…I'll be honest, I was expecting a little less hostile of a reaction to this chapter considering I had made it clear that it wouldn't be the end of the quest. There's a reason I took the image from Dark Souls, where character death is ultimately an inconvenience.

So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The death here feels very sudden and hardly reasonable with the knowledge we were given.
Ultimately though it's your quest and your choice which way you want to go.

if you decide to adjust the ending of the chapter, I suggest Samantha crying out Taylor aloud and the TSAB suddenly noticing whom they are fighting makes them change their tune?

Silently Watches said:
Samantha screams, but unlike yours hers is one of complete and utter rage.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Here, I mean that line.
 
Okay, shit, fine. It's an easy fix. All I need to do is cut out the "You Died" pic and leave the ending ambiguous. Done and done.

I had next interlude mostly written, so I'll put that up as soon as I've finished it so you can see how I would have explained the situation.
 
Silently Watches said:
So, question time. Even with the knowledge that the quest would continue with Taylor as the protagonist, how many of you want to see the ending of this chapter adjusted? If it's going to be that big of a problem, I can change it. This is supposed to be fun, after all.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

If this is the TSAB, I'm a bit sceptical they would escalate to lethal force when their opponent isn't - an enforcer should be able to tell the difference - without multiple attempts to de-escalate the situation. Because here they went from warning shot to Ragnarok really fast. It's more that that breaks my SOD, since from what I know of the Nanoha universe, the TSAB doesn't really like lethal force in general.

Did they know they were looking for IAE? Because if so, they sent Belkan mages against a Lost Logia which hates them, really.
 
Well. Having read this. Probably a batter way to handle this could have been making the fight itself two parter, allowing us to identify that our current plan wasn't working in the first part as we're getting our ass kicked, with the second part being there for us to adjust our tactics or to try to fuck off.

As I will have to agree that being killed by an enemy that quite literally comes out of the blue with absolutely no foreshadowing aside from "You get shot from beyond your vision but you block. What do?" isn't exactly optimal.

IE; If a given antagonist is going to kill the PC, said antagonist should have the decency to introduce themselves first in the story.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top