Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

[eaglejarl]

LETS

FUCKING

DO

IT

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Yeah, that'll be great. I can just see it: players are going to start voting on what Harry Johnson, Hazou's character in H&H, should tell (Akane | Keiko | Noburi | Kagome | Mari)'s characters to do in order to get promoted at the accounting firm. Lots of exciting narratives to be had there.

...
Hm.
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Hell needs accountants, right? And so do evil corporate entities. And supervillains. Suppose you had a demon, freshly arrived on earth, who had just created an evil 501c3 foundation with an ostensible mission as an anti-animal-cruelty group but the secret goal of world domination -- he'd need to hire some accountants, right? And one of them starts going through the books and finding lots of odd line items and dodgy book-cooking moves.
...
Hm.
...
I just finished writing The Tinker's Daughter....

 

[Kiba]

They have some, though, and we need all we can get right now.

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Draining the fishes till they're dead would leave an obvious trail for them to follow. Rivers are where I would also be concerned about patrols. It's an obvious transportation route and landmark, also where you get water and food as well.

Want to write out those plans so we can see the math?

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I don't really care about other EXP except making sure that we have higher stealth over tactical move across the board.

 

[OliWhail]

What's up with all the 'fake edit' tags? I take that to mean that it was added before actually posting, in which case it's not an edit and doesn't need a tag. If it was added after posting then it would just be an 'edit'. What makes it fake?

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It's for changes made after you hit post, but before SV adds a "last edited" info tag to the post. So they are real edits that SV doesn't acknowledge as such.

My rationale for using it is to avoid confusing anyone who loaded the page in the brief interval between post and unregistered edit who then goes back and looks at the post later.

atomspace

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Huh, I don't know if I've ever heard it described as atomspace rather than meatspace

I don't really care about other EXP except making sure that we have higher stealth over tactical move across the board.

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Am I misreading this or do specifically want our stealth skills to be greater than our TacMov skills for some reason..?

E:

...
I just finished writing The Tinker's Daughter....

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I will play in this game or really any game you run, tbh

 

[Kiba]

Am I misreading this or do specifically want our stealth skills to be greater than our TacMov skills for some reason..?

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Yes. Not getting noticed is better than escaping. Escaping is better than getting into a fight.

Right now, short term survival is more important than saving EXP for research.

 

[Sleeps Furiously]

I don't really care about other EXP except making sure that we have higher stealth over tactical move across the board.

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I'll add that stealth seems less likely to be something we can't train while injured. I seem to recall Akane couldn't get all of her Tac Move after the Liberator arc because she hadn't recovered yet.

Fake e: come to that, isn't that note still on her character sheet?

Fake e2: I don't know about the others, but I use fake edits when I've remembered something before I hit post, but I don't want to go back and reword what I've already written to make it all flow properly.

Fake e3: ok, yes. These are getting pretty contrived.

Fake e4: ninja'd, except I didn't know about that SV tagging thing, so to me they mean the thing I just said.

 

[minimap_op]

Question for the thread: What's up with all the 'fake edit' tags? I take that to mean that it was added before actually posting, in which case it's not an edit and doesn't need a tag. If it was added after posting then it would just be an 'edit'. What makes it fake?

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Personally I use fake edit when I notice someone has posted or edited something that would change a post I've written but not submitted yet but can't be assed to rewrite accounting for the new or changed info.

 

[TenebrousDreamer]

zap lunch

 

[Sleeps Furiously]

Signal boosting that it would be preferable for Noburi to be taught by a pangolin medic rather than his old teacher as long as we don't want Jiraiya to discover our whereabouts.

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I don't think hiding from Jiraiya is a good idea at this point. One of the benefits of going to Yuni is that it gets us back on his radar.

Do we know, though, whether Jiraiya's request that she teach him covers until skill 10, or are we going to need to pay for lessons from here out? We may need to check with Noburi on his understanding.

 

[OliWhail]

Do we know, though, whether Jiraiya's request that she teach him covers until skill 10, or are we going to need to pay for lessons from here out? We may need to check with Noburi on his understanding.

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He can pay partially by being her assistant as well, given that he has some skill.

Also she's keeping one of his barrels for us, and there's another one hidden in the woods nearby. (E: And therefore we should grab one and see about storing it in the Summon Realm)

 

[TenebrousDreamer]

zap lunch

 

[Kiba]

That's fair, especially if we treat him as a rational player who'll think something is up if we avoid him. That doesn't mean we should throw ourselves at his mercy. I don't think the current plans have adequately addressed how to reveal ourselves to him, so would prefer delaying it an update. Plus, if Noburi is pangolin trained, we don't have to worry about compensating the doctor from Yuni and could be earning money instead(of course, the pangolin would still need to be compensated).

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Jiraiya is an S-rank nin. He will find us if he want, and he will be able to squish us like a bug. Better get it over with.

 

[TenebrousDreamer]

zap lunch

 

[Kiba]

QuestRank update: Managed to get back in the swing of things after a two days absence in which my productivity was bombed. Anyway, I managed to extract the days when we made record number of posts. Let look at it, shall we?

{:date=>"Dec 10, 2015", :count=>98}
{:date=>"Dec 11, 2015", :count=>199}
{:date=>"Dec 12, 2015", :count=>287}
{:date=>"Aug 15, 2016", :count=>329}

Only until our greatest fuckup did the we break records in posting. That day is on August 15, 2016, generating 13 whole pages in a single day. Can we break records by celebrating a big victory instead?

Wiki is continuing to prod along with daily editing update, but there's a lot of information to process and not a whole lot of active editors.

Tvtrope page is doing even worse.

We have an active thread. What is up with you guys not helping out?

 

[OliWhail]

QuestRank update: Managed to get back in the swing of things after a two days absence in which my productivity was bombed. Anyway, I managed to extract the days when we made record number of posts. Let look at it, shall we?

{:date=>"Dec 10, 2015", :count=>98}
{:date=>"Dec 11, 2015", :count=>199}
{:date=>"Dec 12, 2015", :count=>287}
{:date=>"Aug 15, 2016", :count=>329}

Only until our greatest fuckup did the forum break records in posting, August 15, 2016, generating 13 whole pages in a single day. Can we break records by celebrating a big victory instead?

Wiki is continuing to prod along with daily editing update, but there's a lot of information to process and not a whole lot of active editors.

Tvtrope page is doing even worse.

We have an active thread. What is up with you guys not helping out?

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I would love love love to see a graph of the posting rates

Would it help if I promise to do more on the wiki when Verizon turns on my god damn internet?

 

[Kiba]

I would love love love to see a graph of the posting rates

Would it help if I promise to do more on the wiki when Verizon turns on my god damn internet?

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Not really. I won't go faster or slower.

However, I bumped up priority on this project because my mod is currently broken by a bug in the game. It also help that the project can be easily more justified(Web development skills make you money. Making mods don't.).

 

[OliWhail]

Don't have time right now, but I'll note some low hanging fruit we can exchange for our lives.

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Jiraiya: "The shit you guys pulled cost Fire a huge amount of diplomatic capital to prevent a goddamn world war. Give me three reasons I shouldn't drag your corpses over to Hot Springs right now to get some of it back."

Hazou: "Three foreign bloodline holders to add to Leaf?"

J: "I'll count that as one, even though we already have the Uchiha so yours only counts for half a bloodline."

H: "A sealing genius and a jounin with knowledge of foreign techniques including original genjutsu as well as military info?"

J: "Okay, that's two."

H: *hands him the sealing shortlist* "Those are the ones I decided I could show Kagome without him exploding."

J: *reading* "Impressive, but they're hypothetical, doesn't count."

H: *throws PMYF* *substitutes*

J: "Alright, proof of concept, you're at two and a half. Show me the rest of them."

The Entire Party, Simultaneously: "You really don't want to--"

J: *glares*

H: *unseals a thick tome and hands it over hesitantly*

J: *reading again*

J: "..."

J: "You were right, I didn't want to see this. And now I have to kill you."

 

[MadScientist]

Jiraiya: "The shit you guys pulled cost Fire a huge amount of diplomatic capital to prevent a goddamn world war. Give me three reasons I shouldn't drag your corpses over to Hot Springs right now to get some of it back."

Hazou: "Three foreign bloodline holders to add to Leaf?"

J: "I'll count that as one, even though we already have the Uchiha so yours only counts for half a bloodline."

H: "A sealing genius and a jounin with knowledge of foreign techniques including original genjutsu as well as military info?"

J: "Okay, that's two."

H: *hands him the sealing shortlist* "Those are the ones I decided I could show Kagome without him exploding."

J: *reading* "Impressive, but they're hypothetical, doesn't count."

H: *throws PMYF* *substitutes*

J: "Alright, proof of concept, you're at two and a half. Show me the rest of them."

The Entire Party, Simultaneously: "You really don't want to--"

J: *glares*

H: *unseals a thick tome and hands it over hesitantly*

J: *reading again*

J: "..."

J: "You were right, I didn't want to see this. And now I have to kill you."

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J: *spends the rest of his life having nightmares about blackholes, brain-death genjutsu broadcasters, and artificial demons*

 

[Cariyaga]

On the plus side, we managed to make it look like it was Rice's doing. So that's nice.

 

[OliWhail]

On the plus side, we managed to make it look like it was Rice's doing. So that's nice.

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You're welcome.

The tradeoff is, of course, that WW4 tensions jump higher.

Again, you're welcome.

 

[Jello_Raptor]

You're welcome.

The tradeoff is, of course, that WW4 tensions jump higher.

Again, you're welcome.

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You know. Maybe we should work on figuring out how we'll exploit WW4 rather than trying to hide from it. Especially given how much we seem to be exacerbating the situation.

As long as we're going to be ratcheting up tensions anyway, we might as well find a way to benefit.

 

[Cariyaga]

You're welcome.

The tradeoff is, of course, that WW4 tensions jump higher.

Again, you're welcome.

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That is something I had considered too. If we're going to try to ratchet down tensions between nations, what can we do? The economic uplift program for Iron is a more medium-long term project. Is there anything we can do in an immediate sense (beyond turning ourselves in or something dumb like that) to reduce the chances for a world war?

 

[faflec]

That is something I had considered too. If we're going to try to ratchet down tensions between nations, what can we do? The economic uplift program for Iron is a more medium-long term project. Is there anything we can do in an immediate sense (beyond turning ourselves in or something dumb like that) to reduce the chances for a world war?

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Work for Jiraiya?

 

[Jello_Raptor]

This thread sometimes

Post 1: We're making a devastating and costly world war more likely.
Post 2: As long as we're doing it anyway, how do we exploit a costly and devastating world war?
Post 3: Maybe we can, you know, try to make the costly and devastating war less likely instead?

In my defense, I do think we should answer both questions. I am somewhat pessimistic about our ability to help any de-escalation, whereas we escalated tensions by mistake. Fixing things is much harder than breaking them and in this case we don't seem to have access to any of the channels needed to improve the situation. The only route I see is Jiraya popping in to give us a task that helps relieve tensions.

It's a pain, but I do think we should plan for the likely but bad outcome as much as (if not more than) we plan for the unlikely but good outcome.

The world is in a touchy state, and there are multiple actors who are both much more powerful than us and trying to tip the world towards war. We don't punch hard enough to fix those issues on our own and we aren't really cooperating with those who are working to improve the situation. (Vague notions of working for Jirarya don't count until he gives us a mission to that end.)

Depending on the exact timelines involved, we're much more able to set up an environment where conflict benefits us and pushes us towards our goals of setting up society to be significantly less exploitative and broken. So, I ask again, how can we benefit from WW4?

The obvious avenue is to find some out of the way place that we can take control of and grow while staying out of the conflict. If we do that, we'll end up with more power than we would have doing the same thing in a world where major polities aren't bleeding each other. The obvious problem is that we don't have magic bullshit demons sewn into our belly buttons, so our ability to grow in individual power is much weaker than various individuals in the major nations. But, maybe we can focus on making VHitM economically and socially prosperous while staying out of the war? Alternately building a power base in Iron, or in some island to the east that has a population we can train and grow while major players look elsewhere?

Many of our long-term plans require a large (for this world) industrial base (enough to support a few hundred semi-skilled workers whom we could direct). Non-trivial amounts of surplus labour we can use for economic or infrastructural projects. Maybe there's some way we can build that up?

We could also take a gamble and try to participate in the war as a minor entity. Basically just to gain XP while pushing the conflict in a direction we like. We'll still never match bullshit nations, but it might serve to get us the personal power needed to protect a larger power base. As it is now, all of us need to be S-Class in order to make long-term plans like Hidden Heaven a reality. Do we think we could get there by participating in the war? is there some way to lower the personal power needed to defend an industrial base?

 

[faflec]

is there some way to lower the personal power needed to defend an industrial base?

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We could raze it to the ground. No need to defend (or attack) an empty patch of land.

On a serious note, maybe setting up the industrial base in another dimension? I mean, the pangolins can't possibly be overpopulated, right?

 

[Jello_Raptor]

Huh, looking at the map we might want to seriously consider hopping south to Sea. That island is a few hundred miles long, has a major city but no ninja village. Likely it's ruled by a number of ninja clans. It's also very far out of the way, the major villages who are fighting are likely going to completely ignore it.

We should explore a bit there and try to get a lay of the landscape to see whether it's a place where we could build a non-trivial power base. Possibly shelter enough to allow for a larger civilian population and surplus industry?

Edit: We should find a way to set up a way to get basic, if not perfectly timely, news from the major nations though. We need to build our power base and time our reveals properly if we want to come out better from all this chaos.