May The Invisible Hand Be With You - (Star Wars CK2-Style Quest)
- Thread starter Dr. Snark
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- star wars canon what canon tsundere dice ck2 quest actions have consequences all the credits all work and no play makes ciaran a dull girl best sister capitalism ho! despairing qm teetotaller society member gotta catch 'em all insanity looting off the rails sage dice approaching spicy sheev tsundere asajj
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I like the Kaleesh training bonuses and improving the planet/welfare.
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Oh I know you guys are working on things, but I wanted the opportunity to Lay Down The Law, something that every GM wants to do at least once but can't always find the excuse for.
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
When the referee is biased, you just have to play so much better than the other team you win anyways. Challenge accepted Doctor.
A Totally In-Character Meeting (Mostly Canon)
Panory
The Omake Dragon
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You'd think that having Thrawn and Grievous around would reassure your military advisors, except now they're worried that you're going to be doing even more audacious things to profit from the war.
Martial Advisor Xruk: A Gand and former bounty hunter. All in all there is likely much to know about him but nearly nothing one actually does know about him aside from the fact that he has a great tendency towards violence and also tends towards sadistic glee when he is told to train your minions.
"To make a man a great soldier, you must first completely destroy his old self. Fortunately for you I am very good at that."
Martial Advisor OOM-9: The former Commander of the Trade Federation's Droid army during the Invasion of Naboo. Stolen and slightly reprogrammed by your men.
"Roger, roger."
"To make a man a great soldier, you must first completely destroy his old self. Fortunately for you I am very good at that."
Martial Advisor OOM-9: The former Commander of the Trade Federation's Droid army during the Invasion of Naboo. Stolen and slightly reprogrammed by your men.
"Roger, roger."
Seems legit.
A Totally In-Character Meeting
"Thank you for your input Uncle Borvo. I'll be sure to take it into account when looking at the Abyss Watcher's actions this coming quarter." said Ciaran, looking at the spreadsheets she and Borvo had been going over for the past few hours while making a finger gun with her free hand. If it weren't so damn satisfying to see numbers go up and just spend time with her advisers, Ciaran would probably dread these meeting with her advisers.
"Think nothing of it." said Borvo, intentionally ignoring Ciaran's pun. "That PR-1 droid of yours has been a real help too ever since you got him that accounting update. Give my compliments to whoever designed those routines."
"Will do. Speaking of…" Ciaran turned to the protocol droid that shadowed her most days. "PR-1, what's next on the schedule."
"The meeting with your martial advisers begins in twenty minutes, Lady Ciaran." said PR-1. "Shall I get you some refreshments in the meantime?"
"If you would be so kind, thank you." Ciaran closed the spreadsheets and pulled up a tactical map of the galaxy, outlining relevant factions and disputed territories. "Hmm… that Wesker rat is a problem better dealt with sooner rather than later. Perhaps Grievous can lead the assault, seems like it would be right up his alley…"
The time passed in similar fashion, with Ciaran drawing up a general plan to run past her advisers. They'd probably veto some of the more audacious proposals, which was a real shame. Ciaran would have loved to see Dooku's face when he found out the Abyss Watchers had conquered Null. Maybe she could justify it by citing the benefits of such a diverse set of flora and fauna. Worth a shot.
"Lady Ciaran, we need to talk." said Xruk as he and OOM-9 entered the meeting room.
"You're right about that. Galvin has been introducing me to some of his bounty hunter friends, and I was thinking of hiring them to kidnap Sev'rance Tann for us. That would free up forces to terrorize Skako into joining the CNS. Then I can convince Thrawn to convince Jango to convince Satine to tax the hell out of the Techno Union for us." explained Ciaran excitedly, circling relevant systems on the map as she talked.
"That's exactly what we wanted to talk to you about. This convoluted plans just to make some quick credits." said Xruk.
"What are you talking about Xruk?" asked Ciaran. "This involves several layers of deception and separation. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, it's a long con."
Xruk sighed and turned to OOM-9. "Do it."
"Roger, roger. Initializing intervention protocol. Friends and allies, please enter the room." Thrawn and Grievous walked through the doors and took their seats. "Beginning lockdown." The security features of the room activated on command, shuttering the doors and windows until the release code was given, trapping them all inside. "Lady Ciaran, we are here to assist you."
"An intervention? What is this all about?" asked Ciaran.
"Xruk and OOM-9 have brought it to our attention that you may have been growing overconfident in our abilities." said Thrawn, gesturing to himself and Grievous. He glanced at the map, still covered in expanded borders and circled systems. "Looking at the evidence, I'm forced to conclude he may have a point. We are skilled. We are not panaceas to the problems of war."
"I don't treat you like that." insisted Ciaran.
"Your solution to the problem Black Sun was literally to just give Grievous a ship and tell him the location of all known Black Sun bases." said OOM-9. "While ultimately effective, this strategy was far from optimal or efficient."
Before Ciara could defend herself, Xruk continued. "And when telling me of the events, I believe your approach to Death Watch was, and I quote, 'Thrawn can handle himself'."
"Well he did." huffed Ciaran.
Xruk sighed. "Ciaran, we're not telling you to stop with these crazy plans for profit and power, and we don't fault you for trying them so often. From Naboo to Kamino, you've always come out on top when you try them. But one of these days you won't, and we're worried everything you've built will come crashing down when that happens. Take some time and consolidate what you have."
Ciaran stood with finality. "You are all trusted friends and confidantes, but I am insulted you think I am that stupid. I am fully aware that my plans involve obscene amounts of risk, but in every circumstance I have weighed the risk against the reward and never found the latter lacking. I do not take blind risks, and I'm sure you will all remember times I have dropped a plan at your urging for being too dangerous, risky, or complicated."
"I'm sorry for doubting you, it's just that your recent plans have been even more risky than usual. Even the relatively safe plans are more dangerous than anything we've tackled in the past." explained Xruk.
"There is a very good reason for that. Despite how fragile my accomplishments may be, I cannot afford to take time to consolidate them. Because the minute I stop taking insane risks, the enemy can predict me. And if they can predict me, they can and will crush me without a second thought. So then, who's up for kidnapping and interrogating Count Dooku? We'll lure him in by invading Null…"
The doors to the intervention did not lift for several more hours. When they did, OOM-9 found himself on the business end of an angry PR-1.
"You buffoon! Lady Ciaran's tea has grown cold, and your meeting has gone on far too long! Her schedule is a mess now, a mess!" screamed the protocol droid as he chased OOM-9 around the room smacking him on the head with a tea kettle. "I'd make you fix these mistakes if I didn't know you'd merely manage to misconstrue matters more!"
AN: Seriously, why are our advisers worried? We've been doing this since Naboo. Anyways, is this good enough to justify a plus ten under the new standard of quality?
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Spoiler Alert: the intervention didn't work at all. Presumably it was because Grievous is the last person you would want in the room; he just kept encouraging her "path to glory." Mostly canon, +10, again.
That's what, 5 more to go? Fucking hell.
Last edited:
You're reading my mind.
How did you know what I wanted for Christmas?
Ciaran Interrupt!
"...Excuse me? Have you met Grievous? The man is the definition of optimal efficiency. Oh, it wasn't elegant -- if I wanted that, I would have sent Thrawn along for the ride as well. But I didn't want the criminal underworld to gain an aethetic appreciation for how the Black Sun was defeated. I wanted them to quake in their fuckin' boots at it. I wanted them to wear adult diapers for the rest of their lives on the off-chance that they would ever have an idle thought that might lead them to butt heads with us. So yes: I gave Grievous a ship, a starchart, a gun, and told him to impress me."
Bones
Don't look behind you.
- Location
- Behind you.
If we're gonna actually I kidnap someone, Tann would be best. She may not know as much as Dooku, but that's actually a good thing. Kidnapping Dooku would be a) actually really damn hard, since no one we have can take on the man himself, yet alone the security he'd have and b) would risk Sidious dropping the heavy end of the hammer on us immediately.
And unlike with Dooku, we can good cop bad cop Tann using Thrawn and Asajj.
This is also something I'm for.
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
...Look, I'm going to level with you; much as I'd like to you've already got two more potential Hero Units in the pipeline; I have to stop somewhere.
That being said I might be able to do something more with them in the future. We'll see.
cokerpilot
Here comes the rain.
Clearly the questers must find someway to flip Should for even more hero headache inducing shenanigans.
- Location
- Latvia, Riga
Sorry to argue, but as I understood @Shadow-86 didn't mean a "Hero"upgrade, merely "advisor improvement" as in OOM-9 (huh, sounds like "Omni", who knew?) having better or different proposals;
Come to think of it, there are some improvement-classes, take for example, Ciaran went to Abyss agent school, for training...
On another note:
Is it me or does that Darth Traya character sounds like Khorne and Tzeech in one
0_0 son of a ...
@Dr. Snark, a question about the Learning options
Will this action have a higher chance of success and/or better rewards after we attack the Wesker compound? (Presumably due to more dead mutants being available for study, as well as possible direct access to the research facilities, laboratories and computers...).
Considering we'll be fighting Wesker this turn, would this research benefit us in any way for that fight? Either during the fight (familiarity w/ various viruses means we won't be caught off guard if they use a bioweapon to attack us) or after the fight (a virus library would ensure we have a place to put various samples we recover from the lab)? I'm asking because we could double-down our research to complete it this turn. Alternately, would this have a higher chance of success and/or better rewards if we wait another turn?
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
Hmm...not sure what this would look like, but I'll at least consider it.
Yes on both. What the new reward would be is spoilers.
Your forces would be smart enough to wear armor/hazmat suits, so it wouldn't provide any major benefits. As for what the new rewards will be after the battle: spoilers.
Thanks for the heads-up. Looks like we should definitely wait another turn before starting either action.
Also, for 'Personal':
If we do pick this, what default bonuses would apply? Likewise if we add 'Personal Attention' and Hero support -- what stat category would apply in this case? (I'm guess 'Lore', but there might be fighting, or research... (Martial/Learning), and definitely a lot of sneaking...)
Last edited:
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
They're like Wraith Squadron. Give them forces, intel and objectives and they will accomplish their tasks in the most awesome way possible.
And another!
EDIT: one more for the road:
@Dr. Snark, what default bonuses would apply to this Hero Action? We has the +10 from our R&D and Lab, and I'm pretty sure this would qualify as cybernetics, but what about 'medicine'? What about 'biotech' (Shards are silicon-based but still living -- is that biology?)
Shards are confusing.
EDIT: one more for the road:
@Dr. Snark, can you clarify what these rewards would do for us mechanically? "Increased general performance" seems... nice, but rather vague? Likewise for "more effective starfighters". What I noticed is that, according to the front page, it was our starfighters & support fleet that provided us with the extra Martial Action each turn.
Would improved starfighters give a bonus for our Martial rolls, or something else?
Last edited:
Dr. Snark
Exactly As Planned...Probably
- Location
- Right where I want to be
- Pronouns
- He/His/Him
I'm going to say that medicine and biotech bonuses wouldn't apply. Shards are weird, yo.
Effectively, the Oracle would be upgraded from a regular Lucerhulk to what I will vaguely refer to as a "Lucerhulk Custom," which means that it would have considerably more advanced weapons, shields, and what have you, not to mention whatever Raith decides would be an interesting addition to the ship.
The improved fighters would be because the ones you have now (as I mentioned in the description) were basically either bought from the lowest bidder or salvaged. Getting that upgrade would trade those out for Headhunters, guaranteed to be top-of-the-line by Seti and Incom.
Mechanically...well...it's a dangerous galaxy. Having a bit of extra firepower can never go wrong...
I have a question about the Wesker mission.
Would you be willing to treat the roll as 'how well prepared you are for the mission' (and/or 'how many people you persuaded to join the mission') and use the roll to determine who & how many are available to be brought along? (As in, a decent success (70 or so) would be the threshold to invite (within the mini-arc) hero units that we didn't attach to the original roll, while an 80% might bring along Delta Squad or Darra Thel-Tanis, while a >90 roll might let us invite Anakin and/or Obi-Wan as insurance?)
As it stands, between default bonus (+5) and omake bonuses (+20), we have a 95% chance of success, without requiring the addition of any Hero support. However, you've told us:
So it would be smart (?) to bring along at least one friendly face/Hero Unit, if not for the odds then at least for narrative purposes. The problem is, either Thrawn or Grievous would be ridiculous overkill -- if Thrawn acts as the mission command and provides his full stat bonus, then our chances of success would be 113%. So yeah.
EDIT: on the other hand, adding Cheriss would give a more reasonable 103% chance of success, and with her her instinctive understanding of computer technology (as a shard) I imagine we would probably learn quite a bit more from the labs & facilities as a result.... Would Cheriss affect the rewards you'd be willing to hand out after the mission?
Would you be willing to treat the roll as 'how well prepared you are for the mission' (and/or 'how many people you persuaded to join the mission') and use the roll to determine who & how many are available to be brought along? (As in, a decent success (70 or so) would be the threshold to invite (within the mini-arc) hero units that we didn't attach to the original roll, while an 80% might bring along Delta Squad or Darra Thel-Tanis, while a >90 roll might let us invite Anakin and/or Obi-Wan as insurance?)
Last edited:
Hm, are the Agents proficient in lightsaber usage? Also, how do they compare to your average, non-legendary Jedi?
Finally, are the Republic and the Jedi aware of the existence of Agents and their connection to the Abyss Watchers?
Finally, are the Republic and the Jedi aware of the existence of Agents and their connection to the Abyss Watchers?
For Martial actions I believe if we want should take 'An End to the Nightmare' just to avoid him creating more problems, Senatorial Protection Detail also looks very useful.
Diplomatically we need the Integration Bureau so we do not have to tie up CNS Diplomacy, for the other action while talking to the senators looks good it may bring about a harsh reaction.
Intrigue, I want that droid and believe Dooku is too high risk.
Lore, Diascovery corps so we can do archeology without completely tying up lore.
The only urgent Hero action is for Silas.
Diplomatically we need the Integration Bureau so we do not have to tie up CNS Diplomacy, for the other action while talking to the senators looks good it may bring about a harsh reaction.
Intrigue, I want that droid and believe Dooku is too high risk.
Lore, Diascovery corps so we can do archeology without completely tying up lore.
The only urgent Hero action is for Silas.
Jack_Trade
Chasing the Green Fairy
- Location
- Scotland
Reported on our dealings with the Hutts to the Jedi council and is currently doing something that Jedi do (meditating, being hypocritical, getting shoot in the face by droids ect ect)
- Location
- Northern Ireland, UK
Didn't her cybernetics fail just after she reported to the jedi?