Tyrant_Rayne
Probably Not Evil… Maybe
- Location
- Canada
[X]Plan Heroes of the Philosopher's Kingdom
The God Diversion
- Thread starter Birdsie
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Louisiana
Ok so unfortunately this chapter showed 2 things. The Ohio situation is more critical than before and I'm starting to worry that informing archetype might have actually been counterproductive. The metaphysician stated that he has agents working to prevent what is happening. The terrorist has been shown going to great lengths to clear Columbus of people so he can wipe it off the map. The dots connect pretty easily there, we just empowered the people stopping the terrorist from doing what needs to be done with knowledge that important things are happening there. Ideally, had we known this before, we could have tried to connect with the old students of the metaphysician and worked to develop a plan with them. Maybe we can convince archetype that the terrorist is actually the good guy right now? Unsure, will have to think on it. But this whole conundrum is why focusing on the apocalypse just went absolutely critical.
So that's one of our choices that is borderline mandatory. This apocalypse threatens the educator himself, and he is critical for our enrollment. And for the world most likely. From there, we get into the other thing revealed. Mental balance is important because the themes threaten to overtake your identity. Look at the metaphysician. He explicitly warned us to focus on our humanity and our sanity. Sol is already frayed, his mental stability was his greatest weakness from the start of the quest. He's improved, but that improvement has developed into guilt at his previous state of inaction. This needs to be remedied, he needs to spend some time working on coming to terms with who he is, what he can do, and what he wants
So sanity is another locked in item, and both of these are blatantly critical. Much more critical than any of the other options. I don't think any plan should be taken that does not address the above two options. With the fact that more time means splitting focus, I almost want to just pick those two and nothing else, but I'll discuss the other possibilities.
Spending time and effort with his friends might be synergistic with the two options. I enjoy the characterization implications that with the weight of the apocalypse on his back, and a mental breakdown fraying in his mind, he runs to his companions to help and be helped. Come to them with what is happening and confide in them, work together to be greater than the sum of your parts.
Spending time with Mona is slightly time sensitive due to the wedding, and due to the fact that she almost assuredly has secrets we do not know. I think this can be held off until the end of summer break, but I do think socializing with our formal wedding partner is something we should do sooner rather than later.
Advancing our enrollment would go nicely following the explicit advice of the greatest enrolled to ever live. Could potentially see a greater return on investment here. It would look good to the educator to know Sol is committed to his studies. However, I don't think this solves any of the short term problems presented.
The kingdom falls in a similar state as Mona, where its something we should do soon that is not quite as time critical as the mental state/apocalypse. Personally, I think our next turn should focus on these two things while we spend summer break fixing our critical problems.
I wonder if we can do an altered friends option, where we include Mona explicitly to foster trust and mutual understanding? Introduce her to everyone more in depth and explain our problems and goals? That to me, would be best as a third option.
[X] Plan Stay Human
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
So that's one of our choices that is borderline mandatory. This apocalypse threatens the educator himself, and he is critical for our enrollment. And for the world most likely. From there, we get into the other thing revealed. Mental balance is important because the themes threaten to overtake your identity. Look at the metaphysician. He explicitly warned us to focus on our humanity and our sanity. Sol is already frayed, his mental stability was his greatest weakness from the start of the quest. He's improved, but that improvement has developed into guilt at his previous state of inaction. This needs to be remedied, he needs to spend some time working on coming to terms with who he is, what he can do, and what he wants
So sanity is another locked in item, and both of these are blatantly critical. Much more critical than any of the other options. I don't think any plan should be taken that does not address the above two options. With the fact that more time means splitting focus, I almost want to just pick those two and nothing else, but I'll discuss the other possibilities.
Spending time and effort with his friends might be synergistic with the two options. I enjoy the characterization implications that with the weight of the apocalypse on his back, and a mental breakdown fraying in his mind, he runs to his companions to help and be helped. Come to them with what is happening and confide in them, work together to be greater than the sum of your parts.
Spending time with Mona is slightly time sensitive due to the wedding, and due to the fact that she almost assuredly has secrets we do not know. I think this can be held off until the end of summer break, but I do think socializing with our formal wedding partner is something we should do sooner rather than later.
Advancing our enrollment would go nicely following the explicit advice of the greatest enrolled to ever live. Could potentially see a greater return on investment here. It would look good to the educator to know Sol is committed to his studies. However, I don't think this solves any of the short term problems presented.
The kingdom falls in a similar state as Mona, where its something we should do soon that is not quite as time critical as the mental state/apocalypse. Personally, I think our next turn should focus on these two things while we spend summer break fixing our critical problems.
I wonder if we can do an altered friends option, where we include Mona explicitly to foster trust and mutual understanding? Introduce her to everyone more in depth and explain our problems and goals? That to me, would be best as a third option.
[X] Plan Stay Human
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Switching to this because this is what I was going for with Shockwave Flash
[x]Plan Stay Human
[x]Plan Stay Human
GildedSergeant
Tarnished Gold and Rattling Bones
- Location
- Over There
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Plan: Salvation Through Connections
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] His Wife
-[X] His Friends
-[X] Saving the World
Basically the idea here is to maximize synergy between our social options, which have been shown to help Sol a lot, and work with our friends to get to the bottom of what's going on in Columbus while growing closer together.
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] His Wife
-[X] His Friends
-[X] Saving the World
Basically the idea here is to maximize synergy between our social options, which have been shown to help Sol a lot, and work with our friends to get to the bottom of what's going on in Columbus while growing closer together.
This has been quite a fun read, with one exception: it's near impossible to comprehend what the outcome of the vote has been each turn. Nothing in the posts themselves except vague oblique references, and even if I scroll back through the thread all I get is "vote closed" rather than saying what option won. Could we perhaps get a spoiler at the start of threadmark posts, saying what the outcome of the previous vote was? It would really help a lot for reader comprehension.
Also:
[X] Plan Stay Human
Also:
[X] Plan Stay Human
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
Priorities:
[ ] His Education: Sol's power relative to his classmates is why we have the Tower, the Kingdom, and the Architecture. It'd be fully irresponsible to skip this option.
[ ] His Curiosity: We've been rewarded pretty consistently for exploring Fortuna. Access to the Educator is valuable partly because our time before going back to Earth is so limited. Similarly, Fortuna has a shelf life. One good exploration action got us a wife and an industrial base. Another round of exploration will compound on that new resource.
[ ] His Kingdom: One of the ways that Birdsie has limited Sol is through limited endurance and access to resources. Fully exploiting our new kingdom will help to ease some of those constraints and allow expeditions (& the Exploration club) to pay off even more.
[ ] His Sanity: I'm not actually convinced by this 'self-doubt' plot point, but it provides an important narrative counterweight to the Metaphysician's identity crisis.
[ ] His Friends: Connections means that our power scales through combinatorics. It's a much bigger advantage to have a slice of Penny's powerset if her powerset is growing at pace with our own.
[ ] His Wife: She's got a similar powerset, maybe she has tricks or experience that we can leech off of.
[ ] Saving the World: Nothing happening on Earth is as important as juicing every scrap of power out of the Educator while we've got him.
There's only one responsibility in HomeworkQuest and that is the ruthless and efficient accumulation of power.
Welp at least they're being through about it.
The Educator is amused at this whole thing.
Meta is really scary.
Meta has humanity issues, let's learn from him and not carve off Sol's humanity.
It is pretty interesting how concepts carry over in different worlds.
Well that was interesting, Meta seems to think Sol is interesting but not living up to his potential. He's trying to use Sol both to potentially return and to stop the world from getting hurt, but he does want Sol to grow and not make his mistakes.
Meta's advice is good here, Sanity is important.
I would like to look into Fortuna and the new Kingdom because we could find a lot there.
Utilizing our Kingdom that we just got from the marriage is important.
Dealing with Sol's personal life is important to his humanity.
Becoming stronger is important to maintain his power over the class and to potentially become an Architect quicker.
It's kinda a huge mess by what Meta says so it's important to deal with.
- Location
- United States
[X]Plan Heroes of the Philosopher's Kingdom
[X] Plan Stay Human
I think we told Archetype the entire thing and not just to focus on the Terrorist. We told them about death toll and Sandra did say the Terrorist's action improved the overall odds. That should have gone in our report. Archetype has thinkers and they could get to the bottom of things - maybe even coordinate with the agents if they roll well.
[X] Plan Stay Human
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
[X] Plan: Salvation Through Connections
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] His Wife
-[X] His Friends
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
[X] Plan: Salvation Through Connections
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] His Wife
-[X] His Friends
-[X] Saving the World
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
Your argument here is pretty shoddy. Preemptive action has *just* backfired on us. What benefit could there possibly be from going back to the same well with the same set of tools? If you really want to engage with the Apocoplot then the correct play is to leverage as many force multipliers as Sol can get his hands on. He needs to orient his Kingdom towards building a communications array, redouble his studies, and search Fortuna for the kind of XP multiplier that we found with Symon.
Sol isn't close enough to the situation to apply any real leverage against a cognitohazard through his Role. We picked a build that acts subtly and the nature of this threat directly punishes scheming behind the scenes. The Magician needs to spend time in his tower preparing for whatever calamity is inbound. Rushing to a premature confrontation is a recipe for failure.
Any plan I vote for needs Curiosity and Education, but I'm pretty ambivalent about the other slots. Failure to use the kingdom feels like a waste, but sanity / friends are a good pairing.
- Location
- 1
I think it's probably worth it to at least communicate to Archetype, in case they did not register this already, 'probably the best course of action is to just make sure there's nobody in that area within a few months of now'. That said, that probably shouldn't take a quarter of summer break! That's the kind of thing which takes at most a third of a month in the normal Action system, so like 11% of the break.
- Location
- Louisiana
Preemptive action without all the relevant information just backfired. We did not have confirmation that the terrorist was explicitly a metaphysician backed actor, or that his followers were aware of and countering the upcoming apocalypse. We knew that the terrorist was working to stop whatever was happening, but not the why or how. Metaphysicians suggestion to nuke the place off of the map and the implications of extreme danger for the educator if things go awry there also moves up the risk estimation for me at least.
The issue with the "just power level Sol" mindset is that sol won't even really interact with Columbus. Unfortunately, the event will happen well before Sol graduates from his enrollment. Whatever preparation work or things we do must be within the next few months, unless you'd rather just face the consequences of the apocalypse with no attempt to lower the danger level? We have more information and explicit confirmation at details we were guessing at before, let the genius planner who works best behind the scenes update our current plan to stop/delay the apocalypse.
@Zampano @GenericName
I need to reiterate again..
We explicitly communicated with Archetype even the part about the Terrorist's actions lowering the massive death toll. The preemptive action didn't necessarily backfire - unless Archetype rolls poorly and the second hand message through Chris falls through.
It might have made the work of Meta's agent less straight forward, but this enabled the likes of Olympian to contribute to a different way than outright nuking. Unless they drop the ball and end up advancing the Apocalypse. Meta as we have seen is not his full self anymore - he might need the support of other minds to not fall into blindspot pitfalls.
This was the winning vote..
I need to reiterate again..
We explicitly communicated with Archetype even the part about the Terrorist's actions lowering the massive death toll. The preemptive action didn't necessarily backfire - unless Archetype rolls poorly and the second hand message through Chris falls through.
It might have made the work of Meta's agent less straight forward, but this enabled the likes of Olympian to contribute to a different way than outright nuking. Unless they drop the ball and end up advancing the Apocalypse. Meta as we have seen is not his full self anymore - he might need the support of other minds to not fall into blindspot pitfalls.
Code:
Bring up Sandra's vision to the club as a whole and utilize the resources offered by Fortuna and the club
members working in concert to contact the Archetype as soon as possible. Let Penelope take point. Warning them
about Ohio's death toll and the potential for overreaching doom. Share the portents about the Terrorist's action
reducing the death toll as well and the pattern in the targeted areas.This was the winning vote..
- Location
- 1
...Wait, that wasn't obvious?
Like... Someone was doing Architecture, for good, to deal with the Apocalypse (Which we'd already seen Meta rolling against). What was the alternative theory here?
Meta lost part of his humanity, not his intellect. That said, it's not relevant either way, because Meta isn't closely watching what has happened in the area- he's too far away. His advice is a heuristic observation that the safer methods don't seem to be working(according to reports), and this is a situation where success is very important, so escalate to more costly but substantially more reliable methods like nuking the city.
hm... It seems like our best chance for substantial impact might be just, getting better at Architecture until we can maintain this Connection, then letting Meta piggyback home... The question is if we can get a substantial increase in Architecture in the time we have. We'd probably need to write in a Remedials selection, unless that's covered under curiosity.
- Location
- 𐌂 ̢͎̩̤̲̙͓̑̀͂͒̀͆̏𐋏 ̛͏̫̚𐌀 ̛͉̥̩̤̰͈̂̅͒͊͟𐍈 ̣͛𐍃 ̡̅̈́
[X] Plan Stay Human
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
-[X] His Sanity
-[X] Saving the World
-[X] His Friends
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
This is not responsive to the Cognitohazard issue. If Sol learns everything there is to know about Birdsie's metaplot, he still cannot describe the threat to anyone who can act. Sol will need to intervene personally, from across universes, against an event that seems to have a very strong Architectural inertia.
If Sol is the only character in this 'verse who can avert the apocalypse then our optimal play is to begin forging artifacts and alliances that will be valuable when we return to post-apocalyptic Earth.
But that's not the situation we're in. The Terrorist is mitigating the harm, the Metaphysicist's agents are working to prevent it, and the Olympian (et al) will certainly be around to handle the aftermath. The world as described is not so fragile that it can't survive an apocalypse or two. Sol, at the end of his freshman year, is.
I certainly won't be paying earth currency to boost Sol above the rising waterline of competence if his friends can catch up to him with just 104 days of summer vacation.
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ThatGuyWithIdeas
Treize died for our sins
- Location
- Romania
[X] Plan Stay Human
- Location
- Louisiana
I was under the assumption that Meta could not contact anyone, that even with our high proficiency in connections we were barely able to open up a channel. Birdsie had claimed there was a third student of the educator who could utilize architecture who could not be named due to plot spoilers. I wasn't 100% convinced it wasn't this unknown actor making moves against the apocalypse. Sol also was not aware of these details and wouldn't really be aware of the metaphysician connection in character (the rolls/knowledge that meta is fighting the apocalypse).
Anyway while I understand the doubts and concerns about what Sol can explicitly do for the apocalypse proc, I'd rather take the chance we can improve our odds. If things in Columbus go bad, I'm concerned our timetable will be moving forward. I'd like to spend as much time with the educator as possible, and it seems like Columbus has the chance to cut some of that time short. So if spending part of the summer break researching into what else we can do has a chance to improve the outcome, I think we should do it.
[X] Plan Stay Human
[X] Plan Stay Human
- Location
- Louisiana
Collected ramblings of a certain cursed waterfowl regarding the portents of Columbus, posted in the hopes of improving Sols theorizing/research:
"The Terrorist was attacking schools: a clear relation to Enrollment. He attacked tennis courts and cemeteries as well, robbed people of phones, and burned down libraries. Where did all of these connect?"
According to "The Second Shepherds' Play" the shepherd gifted the Child Christ
"a bob of cherries," a bird, and a ball ("Have and play thee withal, and go to the tennis!")"
So the Tennis connection is quite clear, but one could also make the connection of the Bird being Social media either in the form of Twitter or the general act/form of communication that birds were used for (Along with a possible link of Inforhazard)
Cherries-Cemeteries/Libraries I am still working on, but perhaps it's linked to their choking hazard or possible connection to the elixir of life in Chinese myth.
Or perhaps Cemeteries/Libraries is linked to something else with the Theme of Knowledge of/over Death... so maybe the Elixir of Life.
"The Terrorist was attacking schools: a clear relation to Enrollment. He attacked tennis courts and cemeteries as well, robbed people of phones, and burned down libraries. Where did all of these connect?"
According to "The Second Shepherds' Play" the shepherd gifted the Child Christ
"a bob of cherries," a bird, and a ball ("Have and play thee withal, and go to the tennis!")"
So the Tennis connection is quite clear, but one could also make the connection of the Bird being Social media either in the form of Twitter or the general act/form of communication that birds were used for (Along with a possible link of Inforhazard)
Cherries-Cemeteries/Libraries I am still working on, but perhaps it's linked to their choking hazard or possible connection to the elixir of life in Chinese myth.
Or perhaps Cemeteries/Libraries is linked to something else with the Theme of Knowledge of/over Death... so maybe the Elixir of Life.
Zampano
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
- Location
- Simping for DSB
Your plan is not actually a response to the risk that Solomon's education could end in less than six months. If there is any real chance that Columbus could end our Enrollment prematurely, then Solomon should exert all possible routes (including the Outlined Tactics) to resolving the threat. He should be expending limited resources, burning favors, and writing blank checks to resolve the situation.
He should not be navel gazing about feeling nervous at the altar, an occurrence so psychologically mainstream that the idiom of "cold feet" is an almost ubiquitous narrative trope across many extremely different genres. He should not be spoon feeding favors to his friends: Harrison's strength, Penny's distraction, and Damien's... conversations (?) will not replace the second-year curriculum in the event that Columbus "moves our timetable forward".
GN, if you actually think that Columbus is a real threat (and you're not just rebutting me to preserve your preferred options) then you are pretty much obligated to something like the following:
[x] Modest Ambitions
- [X] His Education
- [X] His Curiosity
- [X] His Kingdom
- [X] Saving the World
- [X] use the Outlined Tactics
Additional Education is necessary to overcome Architectural inertia, especially when Sol will be acting at a distance. Assets from Fortuna have been an extremely lucrative slot machine, and finding a silver bullet for a fated doom is well within the Tarot's thematics. Kingdom offers an assembly line of inter-dimensional communicators, given that Sol's magic and the Abyss seem to work on similar principles. All of these assets must be turned fully towards Saving the World if there's even a sliver of a chance that Columbus will be the end of our time with the Educator. Getting returned to Earth as a mildly precocious rising sophomore is a Bad End.
Edit to add: I don't have any Outlined Tactics yet, but i'd give a Zampano vote marker to anybody who has a particularly clever way to leverage the Kingdom's resources into Saving the World
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[x] Modest Ambitions
- [X] His Education
- [X] His Curiosity
- [X] His Kingdom
- [X] Saving the World
- [X] His Education
- [X] His Curiosity
- [X] His Kingdom
- [X] Saving the World