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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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MadScientist said:
The point of the trouble aspect is to get you FP semi-reliably by being an aspect that will cause compels/problems with some regularity. The issue I'm taking is that the degree of trouble this aspect is causing isn't worth the FP. So we should do what any normal FATE player would do and rename it into something less likely to completely ruin the character's life, taking a hit to FP if necessary.
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Blowing an attempt to improve Keiko's mood isn't ruining Hazou's life. It isn't even ruining Keiko's life.

"Sometimes Hazou says things that cause him to fail to achieve his conversational objectives," isn't all that bad a Trouble.
 
Briefvoice said:
Blowing an attempt to improve Keiko's mood isn't ruining Hazou's life. It isn't even ruining Keiko's life.

"Sometimes Hazou says things that cause him to fail to achieve his conversational objectives," isn't all that bad a Trouble.
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I think they assumed it was a 'until end of update' thing and so responsible for the Akane obliviousness.

That's not foot-in-mouth, that's just socially awkward teenage boy being in denial. As we already knew was the case.
 
Briefvoice said:
Blowing an attempt to improve Keiko's mood isn't ruining Hazou's life. It isn't even ruining Keiko's life.

"Sometimes Hazou says things that cause him to fail to achieve his conversational objectives," isn't all that bad a Trouble.
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The conversation in question may have influenced the pangolin issue, and when genocides (and whether or not we enable them) are on the line I am absolutely going to fight against taking unnecessary risks. Also, Hazou is in political circles now, by virtue of being Jiraiya's son. What he says and who he says it to is important now. More important that the FP we would get by having this trouble aspect instead of a different one.
 
@MadScientist

Join me in the coallition to fix this Akane problem. I dont care if next Thursdays plan is a stopsign to the face, this is getting tedious to the point of annoyance.

All are welcome in this noble venture.
 
Velorien said:
She cut him off. "The need to prevent further harm on the Seventh Path is much more immediate than any personal concerns of mine, and must take priority over them."
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@thread

I really don't see the problem here on this one. We're talking about being responsible for genocide and how to keep it from going further. Keiko being upset/emotionally distant as we work through this is an afterthought, as she herself correctly points out here. It is not neccessary for this issue to be faced while everyone is smiling and happy. In fact, that would be a strong indicator of a much unhealthier defense mechanism being used than what Keiko displays here.

--Which, if I'm being honest, is not all that bad in the face of things.
 
A proposal for a resolved MEW
@OliWhail - I know you ere thinking about doing something about MEW - here's a thing that might help
Key- Component: Setting (Strain Cost)
Effect: 0 (0)
Duration: Several Minutes (100)
Durability: Settable, 4 to 3+AB/2 (round up) (82, 128, 183, 249, 324, …)
Range: AB/3 (round down) (30 - ad hoc, 1/2 of expected max cost of 60 for range 3 at AB 9/10)
Casting Speed: Standard (0)
AoE: Special (Utility/Defense), or Target + Melee (Offense) (20)
Adjustable Casting Time
Major Skill Bonus (30)
Permanent Effect (10)
Tunable Durability (20 - ad hoc, as tunable effect)

Total Strain = 210 + Durability =292, 338, 393, 459, 534, ...
Total CP = 59, 68, 79, 92, 107, …

Using elemental earth reduces costs by an additional 2 CP.
Taking longer will likewise reduce the CP cost.

The base technique has the same cost and effect as the current rules version.

General Text:
Create up to 28.5 m^3 of Granite, that may be distributed in contiguous panels of minimum dimension 0.9x0.9x0.3 m. The earth grows from a surface at rate of (5+MEW level) m/s. If the MEW technique is drawn from elemental earth (dirt, stone, etc) then the effect is permanent. Otherwise, the construct lasts for the proscribed duration.

Summon up to 28.5 m^3 of Granite, that may be distributed in contiguous panels of minimum dimension 0.9x0.9x0.3 m. If all walls are set at 0.3 m thick, this allows coverage of 95 m^2 with contiguous walls. This allows for an A-Frame (equilateral with floor and endcaps) of about 5.7 m per side and 5 m long (This could be approximately sufficient for the 5 member team in one casting, so may be consistent with prior observation - more castings would have been used for additional layers of security).
Generally, can put up a 2m high wall of border: 1 enclosing a zone, which blocks line of sight from ground level, or a directional border that applies border:1 across 4 contiguous zones against travel along a particular direction.

(See Defense for a scaled down version, which may be useful in some small utility applications)

Action: Standard
Target: single target in range + Melee
The user rolls (MEW level + 1/3 trapmaking) level to ensnare/squish the opponents with a vice-like trap. Opponents roll athletics to dodge the effect (active earth travel techniques, e.g. hiding like a mole, result in an automatic dodge)

The user can choose to cast a substantially scaled down technique as a reflexive supplemental action. Casting the technique in this way makes the following mechanical changes
  • reduces the duration of chakra constructs to 1 round (-90 strain)
  • summons only 2.7 m^3 of granite (-50 strain, ad hoc substantially reduced (1/10) effect)
  • Range: -1 (-30 Strain)
  • AoE: single target (-20 Strain)
  • Casting Speed: Supplemental (+20 Strain)
  • Reflexive Casting (+30 Strain)
Reducing the Strain by 140, and CP cost by 28.
Total costs therefore: 31, 40, 51, 64, 79, … (Elemental Earth reduces costs by 2)

Summon a 3x3x0.3 m wall in the chosen direction, which blocks melee attacks, ranged attacks, and most AoE effects.
The Reflexive MEW-Barrier is intended as an alternative to Substitution (when Substitution is infeasible, insufficient, or inefficient). The strain of rushing the technique severely limits the amount of Earth-Wall produced for the chakra consumed, and chakra construct Walls last significantly shorter than those produced by a normally used MEW technique.
The user gains 1/2 * MEW level towards Athletics checks to dodge
If the barrier remains in subsequent attacks/rounds, it is thereafter an aspect of the environment, and the user gains 1 free tag that can be used within this scene on a subsequent check

I reduced the duration of chakra construct walls down one rung of the ladder. Really, this could be reduced down to 1/2 to 1 minute without major loss in utility, while also reducing chakra cost per casting by 20+ CP. I left it rather high, because 1) Wanted final cost to match original, and 2) I figure the ad-hoc permanent cost of 10 strain was tied to a high chakra construct duration cost.

I added 3-level scaling mechanics:
  1. At higher levels, can choose to use more chakra to make the walls more durable (4 at AB 1-2, 5 at AB 3-4, … 8 at AB 9-10) (originally, walls were meant to grow stronger with level)
  2. At higher levels, can project the technique at range (basically an extra zone range at 20, 50, 80) (originally, level allowed use of the technique at greater distance)
  3. At higher levels, provides a larger bonus in attack and defense (user is faster and more skilled, and the technique travels more quickly)
I added a kind of bimodal function for the reflexive barrier: Can use ~30 CP rather than ~60 CP to get a supplemental, reflexive but relatively small wall in the local zone to e.g. block attacks. Might want to change it to personal so people cant use it to defend for other people.

Edit:
Actually, I think I'd find it easier to believe if the technique was actually 2 separate techniques:
Offensive/Utility MEW - which we have at level 1.
Defensive, Reflexive, Supplemental, and Restricted MEW - which we have at like level 6.
Alternatively, enforce that both techniques must be kept at the same level (effectively making it a double-cost technique)
 
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I think we should include Trouble Aspect changes in a plan, or a poll or something. I prefer plan, especially so that we get that literal actual Character Development on-screen.

I like the idea of being Excited About Sealing, especially if we back up the Aspect change by ranking up our socials some more. I enjoy reading about sealing failures, and enjoy reading the social trouble caused by Hazou talking too much about his special interest.

@MadScientist has a good note about political ramifications not being worth the single Fate Point, too. I'm given to understand that Compels are supposed to mess up a scene, and take two to work around. Having a social Compel at our fancy new social importance is.... less than ideal. I have no issues with dice saying it's time for World War Eight: This Time We Brought In Kakashi's Nin-Dogs, but a Compel when we're out of FP feels bad.
 
A general observation:

1) in an ideal world, all Trouble Aspects should have a similar level of impact on gameplay, since they all share the same role.

2) The QMs are evil.
 
Okay, more seriously, Aspects like Open Mouth Insert Foot are a method of mechanically expressing character traits. I don't think we can simply vote to change Hazou's characterization, and I wouldn't really want to even if we could.

However, this is an Aspect that can be applied incredibly broadly. The description literally states "says the wrong thing at the worst time", which would, if anything, imply that it's more likely to happen in important conversations. Analogous Aspects for Keiko and Noburi are more situational - for example, during the tournament, we can expect Noburi to be vulnerable because it's the kind of circumstance where his Aspect applies. For Hazou, said circumstance is "when he talks to people", which, depending on how frequently it's invoked, makes it feel like either a consistent malus to social skills, or a random chance of arbitrary failure in important conversations. Both of which are a bit frustrating to deal with and incentivize the playerbase to let other characters interact with people in Hazou's stead (like Noburi reflects this update, that it should've been him talking to Keiko). I don't think that's what we want.

The primary reason this became part of Hazou's characterization was the killbox incident, and the Aspect is described as "Hazou's mouth running ahead of his brain", which implies situations where he's acting emotionally and improvising. So maybe that should be the limitation. In this chapter, for example, Hazou clearly spent a significant amount of time thinking about what he wanted to say to Keiko and how it should be phrased, so the Aspect wouldn't be invokable unless the conversation became a lot more heated. (For the record, I don't have a problem with the invocation in the current update, it's perfectly within the scope of the Aspect as it is right now.)

In any case, I'm not going to support outright exchanging Hazou's current Trouble for a different one. But I do think there's some wiggle room for adjustments here. Maybe we could also try to vote for activities that would counteract this trait of his?
 
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