Granted, its not like they're going to just sit there and take it after the first time we pop a surprise on their ass. They tend to ramp things up a bit next time when that happens so you can't use a predictable counter.
Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Silently Watches
- Start date
- Location
- Georgia
Every time we come up with a revolutionary bit of tech, Dragon makes money. Look at what Tim's made so far, and it would take an utter moron of a sadomasochist to anger the cash cow. Dragon is unlikely to ever have reason to stop supporting Tim in the course of the game. Twenty to thirty years down the line, he might feel cheated out of the accolades, but in the foreseeable future, anonymity will be a perk of working for Dragon.
- Location
- Erebus
Have you forgotten the two stories being crossed over here? That describes more than half the cast list!
- Location
- Georgia
That just means Tim and/or Dragon will need a refresher Befriending.
- Location
- Georgia
The vote closed on Monday. You also voted for the winning option, not that there was much of a chance of anything else winning even before SW opened the vote in the first place.
5 people voted for something else.
41 voted for this.
There was just a little bit of a landslide here.
- Location
- Germany
Sorry, I did not notice that. Thank you for the information
- Location
- Georgia
Hmm. An idea occurs. Let me introduce it to the wild here and see whether it gets devoured or multiplies as an invasive species.
We are giving the PRT a huge boost very soon.
We know a semi-villain who leans towards the hero side, Cailleach.
So far as I recall, we've never learned in character that this is because Jotunn is her father.
We spend a social action next week informing Cailleach of what we're giving the PRT, in a meeting Kayleigh is present for because you can't get rid of her
. It seems only right to warn her as an individual, even if the fact she will certainly let Winter Hill know makes this a more net morally neutral action.
Having informed her about this, we explain magic. I don't mean bring up aliens, the TSAB, etc, merely that we and Shipwright can use and teach magic and make magic tech that, unlike most tinker-tech, we can teach non-powered mage engineers how to build and maintain.
With this opening, we offer to scan her and Kayleigh to show them how this works
We discover that Kayleigh has a AAA rank core.
We discover that Kayleigh has the adaptive regeneration rare skill. And the damage propagation rare skill. And the summoning rare skill. And the pyrokinesis rare skill. And the magic nullification rare skill.
We realize that Kayleigh has the powers of the entire Slaughterhouse 9.
We run very, very far away.
We are giving the PRT a huge boost very soon.
We know a semi-villain who leans towards the hero side, Cailleach.
So far as I recall, we've never learned in character that this is because Jotunn is her father.
We spend a social action next week informing Cailleach of what we're giving the PRT, in a meeting Kayleigh is present for because you can't get rid of her
. It seems only right to warn her as an individual, even if the fact she will certainly let Winter Hill know makes this a more net morally neutral action.Having informed her about this, we explain magic. I don't mean bring up aliens, the TSAB, etc, merely that we and Shipwright can use and teach magic and make magic tech that, unlike most tinker-tech, we can teach non-powered mage engineers how to build and maintain.
With this opening, we offer to scan her and Kayleigh to show them how this works
We discover that Kayleigh has a AAA rank core.
We discover that Kayleigh has the adaptive regeneration rare skill. And the damage propagation rare skill. And the summoning rare skill. And the pyrokinesis rare skill. And the magic nullification rare skill.
We realize that Kayleigh has the powers of the entire Slaughterhouse 9.
We run very, very far away.
- Location
- Erebus
The joke was flat.
Eh, I suppose. Personally, I'd rather scan our highschool if we do something like this. Then the magic kids can get their parents to try and use the beast spell. Soon, it's all over the internet!We are giving the PRT a huge boost very soon.
We know a semi-villain who leans towards the hero side, Cailleach.
So far as I recall, we've never learned in character that this is because Jotunn is her father.
We spend a social action next week informing Cailleach of what we're giving the PRT, in a meeting Kayleigh is present for because you can't get rid of her
Having informed her about this, we explain magic. I don't mean bring up aliens, the TSAB, etc, merely that we and Shipwright can use and teach magic and make magic tech that, unlike most tinker-tech, we can teach non-powered mage engineers how to build and maintain.
With this opening, we offer to scan her and Kayleigh to show them how this works
- Location
- Georgia
I threw in the joke at the end because an omake built around that punchline has been bouncing around in my head and I've given up trying to make it work. I figured throwing it in at the end of how we could realistically approach scanning the two, something I've seen over and over reading through the forum version of the story*, would maybe put the thought to rest. I do want us to warn Laura regardless of what else we do, as returning the favor to the head's up she gave us about gangs moving in after MS13 if nothing else.
Of course, now that it's been brought up in character, we could slip "send a telepathic message" into most socializing votes to see if people respond. Making a couple hundred semi-parahumans from the PRT first keeps that from being quite so overwhelming of a power for the players to exploit.
*Like many, I came here from fanfiction.net after reading through the Black Queen's War.
- Location
- Erebus
I got that, and I dont disagree...I just think making her worm Nanoha fan sue is......boring.
Assuming for a second, Laura actually represents winter hill, I'd have no problems with this.
I'd just rather do it to the schools if we're really worried about the PRT.
I've explained my reasoning regularly, so lets not go over that again.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
This can't end badly. Nope, not at all.
- Location
- Erebus
*Hey.., if you can hear me, don't freak. This is a dog whistle. It means you can become parahuman. But don't jump now, the normal way is really dangerous and I'm offering you a safer path. Normally, 1 in 20 people could become parahuman. Of those, 1 in 10 will actually face the horror of a trigger event. Of those, typically only 1 in 40, even survive their trigger event. But... but... if find me, Calamity Witch, I can show you how to awaken your power without dying alone and in pain, having your brain explode, or ending up a super with PTSD.*
It's a lie, I know, but it answers the magic population, the parahuman population, and keeps them from freaking over how we're talking to them.
- Location
- Georgia
Well, we don't want to do it willy-nilly. As is, you've said that the more we interact with an NPC before scanning them, the better the chances that they'll have a core. However, in Nanoha, it seems like telepathy is really easy to mistake for somebody actually speaking, so we could wait for her to be looking away and send <Hey, Kayleigh> and see if she responds. We just need to be careful not to overpower the message to keep from getting a false positive.
That said, that we are capable of sending a telepathic message to them might be something we should discuss with Cailleach in case we ever need to get her attention without making noise or something similar.
- Location
- Erebus
Do we really have that many people we could do it to? Our cast list isnt big.
- Location
- Georgia
It works as a joke, because it only exists for the moment of the joke. I agree that it wouldn't work as a character or story arc. Giving a character too much power can ruin the storylines they are in. This is a struggle Superman writers have long had to deal with, to varying levels of success.
We're going to get a lot more traction with giving magic to friends than with giving it to everybody. As for representing them, I see it more as acknowledging that she's a member of Winter Hill and will thus pass the tip on. It's a personal favor for her repaying the personal favor she did us. I fully expect the PRT to go a bit overboard in the early days while they're adjusting.
People have been wanting a subtle way to check for mages from the get go. Now that we have one, people will keep bringing it up, even with people it makes no sense to try it on.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
… … … Define "overboard".
- Location
- Erebus
Zerg rush all over the 'unwritten rules' now that they have a method for easy majority.
Not sure what Wyrd is thinking.
- Location
- Georgia
Mostly, I'm thinking they'll get a little drunk with power and try to take down everybody they have an off chance of being able to charge. The bump in strength is highly likely to result in them overreaching the limit of their power and/or authority. Ignoring the unwritten rules despite still needing people like Jotunn at Endbringer fights or claiming that those rules don't apply to the PRT, even with their new powers and minions. Parahumans are not a passive, accepting group on the best of days. Pushing things too far now could create a massive villain response to attempt to stop this program before it has a chance to spread.
That all it takes to get a GB is a short pamphlet's worth of study and having the right genes will get out sooner or later. How fast that gets out could influence whether the villains focus on attacking the PRT or on trying to get these minions for their own. Parahumans with Tome GBs in particular would see a large boost to effectiveness.
A small worry is whether our role in this gets out. We may have to deal with people coming after us directly as a form of reprisal. If the PRT mages ignore the unwritten rules, these villains might come after us in our civilian guise, and our family and friends. How dark that goes depends more on SW than on what any of us believe is likely, as I see a wide range of potential responses.
The thing to consider, @Solusandra, is that, regardless of our personal beliefs on human nature, we're playing a game. Games where everything goes according to plan aren't all that fun. Umbrella Corp evidently manufactures idiot balls as a major product given how often they're holding it in Resident Evil, but if they kept the first facility quarantined and never let the virus out, what would we be doing? Going for a picnic instead of killing endless waves of undead.*
*This makes me want to have a game where you take a break in the middle of fighting off the zombie hordes to have a pleasant picnic. I'm thinking fried chicken or burgers and my mom's potato salad.... Now I'm hungry.
- Location
- Erebus
psh... everybody in their dimension is holding one of those balls. You couldn't have a proper zombie Apocalypse without them.
...You speak as if I'm unconscious or unaware of this.
They'd have to be carrying a massive idiot ball, ignore their own threat rating system, ignore their institutional charter, and cross all their sponsors at a time when their budget demands just exploded with a massive number of new Tinkers who need parts and tools.
What the Guardian Beasts give is coverage. They are not very strong combatants as capes go, but the Gear beasts would be able to build and maintain equipment which gives every PRT trooper a Brute 2/Blaster 2/Mover 1 spread, on top of the PRT squad all being drawn from veterans of other paramilitary branches.
This is great for pushing the gangs back, limiting the territory they can hold, because the PRT can field squads capable of rolling over conventional criminals, and when coordinated, stonewalling enemy capes, forcing the gangs to reduce territory so they can respond with parahumans to ANY PRT probe.
This is kind of useless for actually going after say, Kaiser or Lung aggressively. For THEM, what matters is that the capes normally stuck on street patrols are now freed up to respond in force.
And of course, theres ButcherLung out there.
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
The thing with the unwritten rules? Even in canon, they apply to the people who have the power to enforce them.
Hmm…
From an authority perspective, I think you'd have a hard time pushing the argument that dismantling parahuman organized crime and putting them in prison is overstepping. What it's sometimes hard to remember is that the canon situation with a delicate balance between heroes and villains is not at all how things should be, and if it was allowed in the real world people would be having fits.
As for the Endbringers, one's dead and you're actively trying to kill the other two. Legend and RCB are both aware of that.
dead
- Location
- Erebus
The point is that it IS a delicate balance. And if they zerg rush before they really have the proper weight, they'll make everything worse.
If otoh, they use the increased support to arrest and hold the villains successfully in the line of normal duty, the chances of things blowing up nationally or globally go way down. You'l face somewhat stiffer resistance, but easy for the new numbers to handle without mass villain outrage.
That, and I still want to find a way to release GB's and magic publicly, so them going ZOMG DA POWA! is more likely to lead to suppression than them simply stepping up from increased support via GB's and magi.
- Location
- Georgia
I actually agree that I want to spread it to everybody. I just feel establishing police forces and laws built around magic before that explosion happens is the best way to limit the damage that will inevitably inflict. Every major advance in human history is accompanied by disruption of the old status quo, with some people advancing and exploiting the new at the expense of everybody who isn't on the cutting edge of that change.
As for going beyond their legal reach, I mean that some people will want to arrest, attack, or detain people "everybody knows" is a criminal without having the legal background and proper evidentiary material to stand a chance of successfully prosecuting, not to mention that lawyers are going to have a field day with the PRT, which has in its charter that members CANNOT be parahumans, now suddenly has a large force of "parahumans" working for it. The difference between mages, guardian beasts, and parahumans won't matter until the law catches up with the realities of magic.
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