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Scheduled vote count started by Velorien on Oct 18, 2024 at 9:22 AM, finished with 26 posts and 13 votes.
Nearly forgot...

 
Nearly forgot...

My browser did not immediately load the second picture so I was like "Ah, he dies immediately, that makes sense."
 
@Paperclipped, @Velorien, @eaglejarl

What mechanical effect does Minato Seal #8 have? It's been described as medically-useful by Noburi, and Minato himself wrote down to "ask Rin about medical applications." Further, since it allows for a chakra-sense that's fine detailed enough to allow normal medics to act like a Hyuuga ninja during surgery (as per Noburi's own testimony), then does this chakra sense provide a boost to THing?
 
Mechanics change: Seal/rune difficulty checks require a FP but give extra bonus
PSA: Mechanics change related to seal/rune research



Doylist: We're having trouble managing the deluge of prep days. It's heavily impacting the spoons of all the QMs except for the bizarrely indefatigable @Paperclipped, who I am absolutely positive is in fact a normal human being and not a benevolent superintelligence or dragon.

In order to save our sanity and investment in the quest, we're going to make a change to the mechanics. We're doing our best to make this fair to the players and even provide a slight advantage in exchange for the slight nerf. The change is as follows:

Doing a difficulty check is no longer a regular prep day. Instead, it represents a significant effort at getting everything ready and all basic details handled in advance – the equivalent of laying all the ingredients measured and carefully arranged on the counter before starting to bake. This requires spending 1 FP. If you immediately continue into the research then that FP becomes an Invoke and you get the benefit of 2 prep days for the one difficulty-check day, meaning +2 on the Sealing/Primordial Sealing and Calligraphy/Earthshaping rolls. (This extra day does count against the total prep days you can do, so you aren't getting a larger overall bonus, you are simply moving through the research faster.)

Obviously, you are free to start the research without doing a difficulty check but you don't get the difficulty check result or bonus prep day without using the above mechanic.
 
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More stuff that's been sitting in QUINOA:


  • Ask the rest of Uplift if they recognise the 8-point symbol carved on the cave.
Yuno recognizes it from her coming-of-age party, as one of the symbols on the Vestments of Injunction, but she doesn't know what it means.


  • Test the Cave water
    • Can it be brought to the 7th path?
    • How quickly does the effect fade if stored outside of the grotto?
Respectively: yes, and about 24 hours.


  • We suspect the Otter scroll might be nearby, and we want to do a search. Brainstorm search plans with uplift.
Aside from "run around the area doing a grid search, and maybe have Canvass with us in the unlikely hope that there will be something relevant to smell", no one has any special ideas.
 
Doing a difficulty check is no longer a regular prep day. Instead, it represents a significant effort at getting everything ready and all basic details handled in advance – the equivalent of laying all the ingredients measured and carefully arranged on the counter before starting to bake. This requires spending 1 FP. If you immediately continue into the research then that FP becomes an Invoke and you get the benefit of 2 prep days for the one difficulty-check day, meaning +2 on the Sealing/Primordial Sealing and Calligraphy/Earthshaping rolls. (This extra day does count against the total prep days you can do, so you aren't getting a larger overall bonus, you are simply moving through the research faster.)
I'm okay with this. It also makes seal research more resource intensive (and thus, more dangerous), which better fits within the narrative worldbuilding of Marked for Death. I especially like how the bonus is applied only if you immediately pursue the research. It reflects the real-world nature of "I've spent some time thinking on it, and I have some creative insights that might fade from my memory if I don't pursue this, immediately."

The fact that it helps QM spoons is also a rather nice feather in its cap. Collaborative storytelling means that this should be fun for both the players and the QMs.
 
The actual effect of this is going to be significantly more cautious players moving more slowly with research.

But it'll also produce more "research chains", so if that was a goal then this is a success...
 
Can't say I've been a fan of the prep day gatcha strats, so this change seems good to me for a variety of reasons beyond stopping them from becoming a massive spoon drain.
 
But it'll also produce more "research chains", so if that was a goal then this is a success...
Honestly, I think this is more of a feature than a bug. We've already done difficulty checks for a bunch of dangerous runes that, together, should be able to take out the Akatsuki. I think it's better that we actively pursue these, rather than continuing to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Besides, this means that we can dedicate more clones to FOOMing, or medical notes, rather than research.
 
Doing a difficulty check is no longer a regular prep day. Instead, it represents a significant effort at getting everything ready and all basic details handled in advance – the equivalent of laying all the ingredients measured and carefully arranged on the counter before starting to bake. This requires spending 1 FP. If you immediately continue into the research then that FP becomes an Invoke and you get the benefit of 2 prep days for the one difficulty-check day, meaning +2 on the Sealing/Primordial Sealing and Calligraphy/Earthshaping rolls. (This extra day does count against the total prep days you can do, so you aren't getting a larger overall bonus, you are simply moving through the research faster.)
Pinging also @Velorien @Paperclipped

Does this affect redoing difficulty checks we've already done?

Does this affect prep days voted in previous to this rules change but still pending results?

Does this count as an Invoke of "Out-Touched Sealing Genius", or is it a different Aspect (ie, can we also invoke OTSG)?

EDIT: I assume we'd also get the difficulty tier after a research roll?
 
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The actual effect of this is going to be significantly more cautious players moving more slowly with research.

But it'll also produce more "research chains", so if that was a goal then this is a success...
Yeah, it means we can still try shot-in-the-dark rune ideas, aborting if they're not in a category we can handle, but it'd be wasteful to do that any more than we have to. Instead there's more comparative value in the stuff we have reason to believe will indeed be within our capabilities, like research chains or replicating other known chakra effects, etc.

But mainly what I'm glad to retain is that shot-in-the-dark protection. TNs are mercurial at the best of times, so without it we'd be second-guessing even the most trivial incremental seal idea for fear that this is the point where it suddenly jumps 50 points of difficulty. Doing our prep days only when we have room to start the project is a fine compromise.
 
Oh! With difficulty checks being more expensive, and research being more dangerous, this also helps to better enforce the "most sealmasters only have one or two tech trees of research!" So this change just further helps to better support the existing worldbuilding!
 
ELF Explosive seal, Landmine Rune, Remote Explosive Rune (Chapter 684 Research)
These are the research results from Chapter 684, which will also be edited into the chapter.



Day 1
Prep Remote Explosive. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Landmine Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive. Difficulty Result: Chūnin.
Prep Null Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. A rift is by definition a hole between two dimensions, meaning that Hazō has no idea how to create a rift from one Path to the same Path. He cannot rule out the possibility of a portal effect from one point on the Human Path to another but that would be distinct from a rift.

Easy runes only require one of full-prep or DoB, and these runes were assigned DoB-status, so Hazō can rip it ASAP on those, but chūnin seals require one of DoB or 5 days of prep, so Hazō will prep for a full rune-cycle before infusion in order to sync up the cycles.

Day 2
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Microrift Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy. Hazō notes that this rune could be potentially extremely dangerous, as he has no control over whether the rune connects to a Path, the Out, or something else entirely. He would rather not accidentally connect a particularly dangerous/malevolent part of the Out to the Path where he lives…

Day 3
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Pathbound Rift Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard. Without any way to target, Hazō thinks he might be able to target a random location on the Paths, but he doesn't know for sure whether it's possible, much less any information about where the rift would actually open. He does think that the targeting problem might be ultimately solvable if he were willing to open hundreds of rifts in the process.

Day 4
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Contracting Force Dome Rune. Difficulty Result: Hard.

Day 5
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
Prep Space-Contracter Rune. Hazō doesn't know how much compression he can manage with runes, but he thinks that starting with 2000x+ would be too much to ask for. He'd rather start smaller and chain up, so he preps a variant which compresses a cylinder of space 10 meters long and 10cm in diameter down to a cylinder 0.1 meters long and 10cm in diameter. Difficulty Result: Medium.

Day 6
Infuse Remote Explosive.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) - 3 = 51
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 9 = 84

Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!


Infuse Landmine Rune.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 + 10 (prep) - 6 (timeladder down) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75

Hazō makes massive progress; he thinks he's over halfway done with this rune!


Infuse ELF Explosive.

Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 57
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60

Hazō makes substantial progress, he thinks he's a third of the way done. He thinks he could probably afford to drop some prep, but he'll give it another cycle before making such decisions…


Prep Great Seal.
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 18 (crossover bonus from unboosted Sealing) + 6 = 55

Result: [TBD]

Day 7
DoB rest.


Day 8
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.
A "track" worth of clone-hours from here on out is spent on seal-scribing, stockpiling skywalkers for the big trip to the southern isles.

Day 9
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 10
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 11
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 12
Prep Remote Explosive.
Prep Landmine Rune.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 13
Infuse Remote Explosive.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 54
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72

Hazō completes the Remote Explosive Rune!

Mechanics:
The blank is 5x larger (i.e., consumes 5x more substrate) than an equivalent explosive rune and can be made in the same sizes as an explosive rune (puffer, training, full strength). It is shaped like a point-type crystal instead of being approximately spherical.

At infusion time, the creator chooses a distance to target, which can be anything up to 1 mile. This is the maximum range that the rune can fire, not a fixed distance. (In general you will probably always choose the 1 mile range but you have the option to choose shorter if, e.g., you are giving the rune to someone else and want to disguise its full capability.)

Activating the rune is a Standard action. Upon activation, the air within 3 zones of the rune starts to faintly ripple and warp and there is a clearly audible hum that steadily builds in intensity. Shortly thereafter, the rune triggers, and the effects of an explosive rune occur within a zone in front of the crystal's point and distance-to-target away.

The rune can be slowly rotated in three dimensions in order to change the target zone. It will typically require at least a Standard action to get it rotated and on target and may require several such actions.

The rune can fire up to 3 times and then burns out. It deactivates after firing, meaning you need to reactivate it for each new shot. [The rate of fire is still under QM discussion]

Sighting in the rune requires at least one practice shot. When you initially fire it, you choose a zone within the range and flip a coin. If the coin lands heads then you hit the target zone. If it lands tails then it hits a randomly-selected adjacent zone. The shot-drift is consistent for a specific rune so once you have done the sighting shot you can always hit the target zone even when retargeting. Each individual rune must be sighted separately.

The rune requires line of effect but not line of sight. That means you can shoot through (e.g.) the canopy of a forest but not through (e.g.) a Force Dome.


Infuse Landmine Rune.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 66
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 78

Hazō completes the Landmine Rune!

Mechanics:
After a small amount of chakra (seal-activation levels) is applied to the rune's surface, the rune's humming/glowing quickly crescendos. At the same point in the next combat round, the rune suddenly explodes (so if Hazō triggers the Landmine Rune on Round 1, it activates on Hazō's initiative in Round 2).

Same mechanics as the explosive rune, but triggers much quicker. Compatible with ARS/MARS.


Infuse ELF Explosive.

Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 12 = 72
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 3 = 60

Hazō thinks he should finish this seal in another cycle. He thinks he could skip prep, but at this point, it won't save much time and will add some risk, especially given that he's going to be trying new runes next cycle. His Calligraphy is so high that he thinks that Sealing is his limiting factor here, and without DoB, that's pretty limiting. He thinks he could have gotten this seal done in 4-6 days if he'd been willing to spend a DoB track on it.

Day 14
DoB rest.

Day 15
Prep Storm Rune. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep Air Leadening. Difficulty Result: Easy.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 16
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 17
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 18
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 19
Prep Storm Rune.
Prep Air Leadening.
Prep ELF Explosive.

Day 20
Infuse Storm Rune.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) + 6 = 60
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 9 = 66
Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) - 3 = 72

Hazō thinks he's about a third of the way done with this rune.


Infuse Air Leadening Rune.

Hazō (Earthshaping): 50 - 6 (timeladder down) + 10 (prep) - 6 = 48
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 31 + 22 (crossover bonus from DoB-boosted Sealing) + 12 (Disciple of the Beyond) + 10 (prep) + 0 = 75

Hazō thinks he's also about a third of the way done with this rune. This has a pretty similar difficulty to the Storm Rune.


Infuse ELF Explosive.

Hazō (Calligraphy): 47 + 3 (Dampeners) + 10 (prep) + 3 = 63
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) - 6 = 57
Probably won't cause a sealing failure, but Hazō doesn't want to spend even more time on this seal if this roll by chance happens to prevent the seal from completing… Hazō spends a FP to reroll!
Hazō (Primordial Sealing): 53 + 10 (prep) + 6 = 69

Hazō completes the ELF Explosive!

Day 21
DoB rest, starting travel to the Southern Isles.
 
Does this affect redoing difficulty checks we've already done?
Assuming you mean "redoing difficulty checks under the old 'well-within'/'maybe'/'beyond' system", yes.


Does this affect prep days voted in previous to this rules change but still pending results?
No, you'll still get all those for free once they're ready.


Does this count as an Invoke of "Out-Touched Sealing Genius", or is it a different Aspect (ie, can we also invoke OTSG)?
It can be any Sealing-related Aspect that is invoked, but we would default to OTSG unless you found another one for a given project.


EDIT: I assume we'd also get the difficulty tier after a research roll?
Yes.
 
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