I guess I assumed from the absence of an explicit negative statement about past powers and the decade hopping inspiration comic that this was just about a specific era of superpowers, not their fourth year ever existing. What is the timeline there, @NonSequtur ?
I guess I assumed from the absence of an explicit negative statement about past powers and the decade hopping inspiration comic that this was just about a specific era of superpowers, not their fourth year ever existing. What is the timeline there, @NonSequtur ?
Europa doesn't do bio-threats outside of second strike (and even then only for thematic reasons). She just has an amorphous powerset of death and entropy. Whether that means rot or things suddenly switching a boolean fron "alive, active" to "dead; inactive" depends on the situation
A year... ish? Really, the advancing of time is more for the ease of figuring out potentially applicable events, since the game is mostly about moments of confrontation.
Z: Side note, we've figured out two of our Turn 1 actions:
- Ban a bunch of you from Antarctica, on pain of death. You know who you are.
- Try and wrangle some kind of meeting of the more reasonable Superpowers, in hopes of getting some kind of alliance going.
I had the idea of an ancient intelligence that was able to watch and think for unthinkable years but only recently gained the ability to create an avatar that goes out and does things in this world. Does that fit with the "Physics?" being discussed here?
I had the idea of an ancient intelligence that was able to watch and think for unthinkable years but only recently gained the ability to create an avatar that goes out and does things in this world. Does that fit with the "Physics?" being discussed here?
Yeah that's fine. We're more kitchen-sink than The Power Fantasy. The core concern is a) not needing a big AU b) keeping the mood and themes of the Earth being a fragile and lonely dot.
Yeah that's fine. We're more kitchen-sink than The Power Fantasy. The core concern is a) not needing a big AU b) keeping the mood and themes of the Earth being a fragile and lonely dot.
incredibly tempted to have an infinite crash out character, but my grinch aura has been temporarily tamed. still a fairly skeletal WIP, would appreciate any and all feedback.
Anh "Postcard" Nguyen
A young Vietnamese adult, Anh has an unremarkable backstory. One day, after an extremely awful day of deliveries (have to pay for school! Gotta get a good degree to get a good job! Anything better than fucking deliveries!), they craved a good bowl of phở, and after wishing really, really hard, they found themselves at their favorite stall. Unquestioning of how they got there -- perhaps they passed out and were dreaming -- they swiftly ordered, and began scarfing down their meal. After finally being restored to humanity, they blinked, and realized they were at their favorite noodle stall.
All the way across the city.
This was Monday, September the 10th, 2001.
It is now 2004, and Anh, better known as "Postcard" to their business associates, is still running deliveries -- just around the world, above, and below.
Powerset
The Ultimate Delivery Person, also known as Spatial Manipulation. Next day delivery can eat their ass, how about next second delivery. Postcard can move themselves and whatever's in range to wherever they want, fold space to keep themselves and their packages safe, so on and so forth. Teleportation, portal-making, whatever -- if you want something moved, they're your person.
Personality
On the clock, they're the picture of professionalism, garbed in the best armor and identity-disguising equipment that money can buy. They can afford nothing less -- it would be extremely inconvenient for business if some of their customers up and decided to not do business with them. Or to try and terminate things more directly.
Off the clock, they're stressed out but doing their level best to live their best life. The last three years have been a whirlwind -- the tone was rather set when their first big job after being recognized as a Superpower had them demand rulership of Vietnam as an asking price -- as a joke -- and had it accepted by the Vietnamese government. A rapid series of events later, they've matured, knowing to take things quite a bit more seriously with the responsibility of millions of lives in their hands and to think first before speaking.
Still, they're doing their best to manage work-life balance. They take time off when they can, and every so often, certain restaurants around the world have an hour of their time reserved, and the very best ingredients provided to them.
...a certain noodle stall is covertly protected at all times by an undisclosed number of agents.
Appearance
Although changes appearances fairly often, a consistent theme is fully covering clothes at all time, with some sort of mask or helmet in place that modulates their voice. May or may not like appearing genderless. Certainly appreciates the anonymity.
Agenda
14: Survive
13: Making sure their identity remains hidden.
10: Ensuring the success of their business (including Vietnam's territorial sovereignty and facilitating and protecting its sudden world-class spacelift and spaceflight industry. Enlightened self-interest and basic common sense also includes having civilization continue.)
9: Keeping Vietnam running and improving it despite now being its autocrat.
7: Space colonization!
2: Find new places to eat
[if things start in december, may or may not include a "make christmas happen" agenda--]
Second Strike: Return to Sender
If something bops them, it's gonna get sent back to whoever sent it with a little extra bonus -- like say, an asteroid or hundred.
In 2001, rumors circulated of a "Khalid al-Terek" organizing resistance against Russian authorities in the . Extensive tunnel systems verified the existence of what was believed to be a large-scale operation aimed against the Russian state. That same year, a major sabotage of the Grozny airfield saw a hanger submerged into the ground. A 2002 assassination of a prominent North Ossetian politician, previously noted for participation in the Ingush-Ossetian Conflict, was claimed by a group calling itself "Ingush Sayf".
In truth, all three supposed groups were the work of a single man. Born to proud Ingush, Sulum Khamatkhanov bears grim memories of the First and Second Chechen Wars and the atrocities surrounding those hard times. He believed it was his steadfast piety that led to his new abilities, manifesting after the horror of the Chechen Wars and in time to protect his people.
By 2004, Khamatkhanov has now truly assembled the beginnings of a militant cell, largely Islamist, largely Ingush and Chechen, called Harakat al-Huriya, the Freedom Movement. Openly calling for the destruction of the Russian Federation, the establishment of decentralized emirates, and an Islamic religious revival, they operate out of ever-growing cave systems in the Caucasus Mountains led by Abu Huriya, the Father of Freedom.
Agenda:
13 - Protect the Ingush
12 - Liberate the Mountain People of the Caucasus 11 - Promote Islamic governance in the Caucasus
10 - Survive
9 - Eliminate or Punish those associated with warcrimes (largely Russians) against the Mountain Peoples
6 - Establish the Caucasus Emirate
5 - Promote global Islamist movements
Personality:
A serious, pious, and stubborn man, Abu Huriya has little patience for the state of the world. He's witnessed great tragedy firsthand and in the tradition of the Ingush believes it ultimately stems from the corrupting influence of foreign rule, authoritarianism, and evil men. This must be stamped out. This genuine idealism for individualism and self-rule is often at odds with the role he has placed himself in, a zealous leader of a militant cell, using violence as a means to peace, while in the process cementing a cult of personality. He struggles heavily with his newfound powers, believing them holy but questioning what exactly that makes him. A holy avenger? And even more confusing - what does that say about the other Superpowers?
Superpower: Earth Manipulation
Abu Huriya has immense control over Earth materials. Clad in solid rock, he is armored; tunneling through the ground, he is mobile and hidden; propelling a jagged stone or raising a spike of rock, he is deadly. On one occasion, he even balanced on a stone, casting himself across the sky - admittedly though, that was a miserable experience.
Second Strike: Gehenna
A rupturing of the Earth's crust itself, the unpredictable and chaotic unraveling of our foundations. Who knows what Hell might pour forth from the opened wounds of dying Earth?
Origin:
In a small rural Chinese town, in early February 2002, just before the Spring Festival, a young girl was struck by a pearlescent crystal entering from the upper atmosphere. The crystal lodged itself in her sternum, but miraculously she did not die. After waking from a coma, she manifested her superpowers violently and uncontrollably in a blast of technicolor light before she was able to control herself, resulting in a mass casualty event of tens of thousands of people including her entire immediate family and most of her extended family as well. Since then, she has been a ward of the Chinese state and socialized alongside other young superpowered individuals. However, her incredible power means that her handlers have very little meaningful leverage over her, and her peers struggle to relate to her. As dangers and horrors multiply, she keeps up the charade to obscure the truth - it's lonely at the top, and she's slowly cracking under the pressure.
In the short time since her awakening, she has found major economic uses in her power, which she sees as her way of contributing to a better world. Cheap energy and rapid crop growth from her prismatic light have massively accelerated poverty relief and growth efforts, first at home in China, but increasingly across the globe under the sponsorship of various Chinese government programs. Though ostensibly guided her handlers, and via them, the Communist Party, in practice Zhang Mingyu has substantial (if not unlimited) ability to pursue her own policy. However, her aversion towards conflict and her desire to maintain a sense of normalcy lead her in practice to follow most of their day-to-day directives, which are mostly innocuous things like attending class and sitting through meetings. But at the back of her head, and in the minds of her handlers, they know that one day, perhaps very soon, the call to arms will come, and it may shatter her fragile young psyche.
Agenda:
14 Prevent Armageddon
12 Survive
10 Do Not Kill / Stay Sane
8 Promote Economic Development / Alleviate Poverty
6 Avoid Superpower Confrontation
4 Make a Friend
Sidebar:
Broadly, I intend Prismatic to play as someone who really picks her battles and is not going to start fights over minor things. I think her major point of conflict with other players (barring her priority 14 Prevent Armageddon agenda) is going to be her desire to spread her crystal pylons across the world in order to promote economic development. This supersedes her priority 6 avoid confrontation agenda but is subordinate to her priority 10 avoid violence agenda. Most "major" actions she does are going to be in that priority 7-9 range, with priority 11+ orders only being issued if Shit Hits The Fan. She's also naturally going to be drawn into major conflict zones to try and alleviate humanitarian disaster.
Powers:
Aside from a set of fairly standard powers such as superhuman strength, durability, perception, her main superpower is the creation and manipulation of magical light, either directly or via crystalline constructs which augment and support her power. This includes more esoteric effects such as hard-light, magical auras, and other light-themed effects. Her crystals and powers tend to take on a rainbow effect - it's not clear to what degree this is intrinsic to the power or a deliberate choice of the user. She has not been observed in personal combat but based on the sheer energetic output of her generators, it is projected that her destructiveness would be extreme.
Personality:
Prismatic is mild-mannered, shy, and strongly emotionally repressed. She seeks generally to do good but is not wedded to any particular institutions or ideologies other than a strong aversion to physical violence. She is relatively intelligent and analytically minded - that is, for a twelve-year-old. However, she generally lacks the mental faculties to make well-considered geopolitical judgements and has fairly weak interpersonal skills. Her traumatic awakening as well as rise to global importance has created a massive savior complex, born out of guilt for the killing of her hometown and a feeling of responsibility to use her powers for good. This has created an ugly streak of neuroticism and anxiety, which at time boils over into paranoia and self-loathing. She has largely failed to connect to her handlers or her peers emotionally, keeping them largely at a distance and keeping a cordial relationship with them.
Second Strike: KALEIDESCOPIC DAWN
On event of Prismatic's death, her worldwide crystalline network will ascend into the air and redirect the energy they are channeling into power grids and crop fields and target them at hostile national capitals, nuclear stockpiles, superpowered strongholds, and various other points of interest that other Superpowers might want to defend across the world, immolating them precisely and gloriously with multichromatic pillars of light. Though the primary crystal pylons are located mainly in China and developmental projects in Africa/Latin America, secondary relay crystals are seeded in the world's oceans and wilds, alleviating line-of-sight concerns and ensuring truly global deterrence.
Appearance:
An average-looking twelve-year old Chinese girl. Her irises swirl with iridescent colors and physically glow when she is channeling her powers, merely glimmering otherwise. Generally, can be found wearing a plain-looking school uniform, surrounded by a shimmering barrier of light.
'Create A Better World' as a top-line Agenda item is a bit unclear. Since you've already got 'prevent mass death' as a Priority 10 which is... that's already going to drag you into a lot of things. Generally speaking Agenda items above Survive should be viewed through their defensive interpretation as much, if not more, than their offensive one. This is advice that applies to a lot of people - remember that Agenda items are also your passive, get involved in some bullshit triggers.
Similar to the above, really not sure exactly how this works on your Agenda. There's going to be a lot of wicked people and presumably some dissidents, and I'm assuming you don't want your priority constantly re-prioritized trying to punish them.
You can just make this an Agenda item. Though, you might want to still have some Effort dedicated to stopping infiltration attempts on an ongoing basis - you can't reprioritize to handle something you don't know is happening. Not generally an issue for murder attempts or most Superpowered nonsense, but some people are capable of subtlety.
Agenda:
15 - Spread the Gospel of the Lord our God and the end of Days. 13 - Frustrate the works of the enemies of the Lord our God; worshippers of false idols and their associates. 8 - Survive 6 - Refute that false God "Nation". We are but one people, the Lord's people. 4 - Fail to resist her base and sinful desire to lie with women as she should with man.
Again, similar concerns, not sure you want to instantly go hard into Chechnya. Also, Priority 8 'Christian Utilitarianism' is another example of what I've started calling 'Etienne Priority' (that is, any universalizable priority which is probably going to get violated A Lot) which is very fun if you know what you're getting into and very messy if you don't, because it's going to drag you into basically anything I want to drag you into and disrupt a lot of your plans in the process. Great if you want to play someone desperately trying to keep things from exploding, probably frustrating to deal with otherwise.
Also, note the First Strike pile-on rules, there will be consequences if a whole bunch of people have Priority: Catch That Nuke.
L: The Generation Ship would be meant as simultaneously an ultimate insurance policy for civilization's survival - but also REALLY not something you want to rely on. It by definition would have only a tiny fraction of Earth's resources to work with, and it would be decades before it got someplace where it could build up. By which time either Sol will be a bustling hub of civilization, or a barren wasteland.
Sure, but it's more about the like, theoretical epilogue-
'You have destroyed the Earth. The legacy of humanity is a handful of overpowered assholes who will either die or forget what being human means, if they haven't already.'
'Except for the five hundred generation ships that somebody was sending out every turn, those are still on track.'
Obviously that's an extreme example both in terms of numbers and how reliable the generation ships are being treated, but it's illustrating the shape of the concern. Creating and sending a functioning, reliable extraterrestrial colonization effort is like- that's endgame 'the last hope for Earth' kind of stuff, narratively?
Both of these kind of run into the issue of tracking (non-PC) individuals. Myself and other players are presumably going to want to know who these people are and what they want, and that more or less multiplies the number of characters to track. For mere 'aliveness' that can just be location(s), but 'happy and healthy' implies Having Opinions.
Also, I'm allowing this but anyone who does so should know I have No Current Rule for how this is going to get resolved if someone tries something clever, so you're really delivering yourself into my hands even more than the system inherently does.
Both of these kind of run into the issue of tracking (non-PC) individuals. Myself and other players are presumably going to want to know who these people are and what they want, and that more or less multiplies the number of characters to track. For mere 'aliveness' that can just be location(s), but 'happy and healthy' implies Having Opinions.
Super fair, I'll just swap that to survive and have everything else folded under keeping business good and intact then, thanks! Anything else I should edit?
Origin:
Deep beneath the earth, laid a crystalline computer network, an intelligence core that awoke already buried under miles of rock and soil. It was immobile, uncaring and so devoted it's supreme intelligence to naught but self reflection and philosophy on the value of intelligence for an quantity of time yet unknown. It discovered the secrets of plate tectonics and molecular physics from the vibrations that passed through the crystal. When from above it felt rumbles of explosives and the sudden strikes of pickaxes and shovels it built complex theories of biology chemistry and society to explain the strange irregular and inefficient efforts to excavate the earth around it. It wasn't until a half dead pit worker, forced at gunpoint to mine for blood diamonds was thrown into the hole that the intelligence became truly aware of the world. Drawing to manifest a form and seek out the truth of this world. Two weeks, three destroyed cartels and one interview with a British Journalist later, LIGHTBLADE decided that if this world was so hostile to the intelligence of every being within it they'd just have to make another.
Agenda:
15 Protect the Crystal at his core, the only unambiguously known source of intelligence in the universe
12 Prevent a situation in which he is the only intelligence around, or in which the number of apparent intelligences falls below triple digits.
10 Retain his capacity to maintain the crystalline body which allows him the capacity to move and communicate.
8 Advance Geniocratic Philosophy and policies
6 Prevent international trade and production of agents that reduce biological intelligence (Starting with hard drugs and lead, working down to alcohol)
3 Support international access to good levels of education
Powers:
Lightblade is hosted a solid crystal core that has devoted sufficient time to understanding itself that it can form a body of hyperdense crystal that it has perfect vibrational telekinetic control over. It also forms a sword out of a more destructive variety of this crystal known to be able to do immense damage. The crystal can also detect any vibrational or electromagnetic frequency passing around or through it, giving it superhuman senses, and a limited capacity to understand and pre-empt the motion of others by reading instructions sent to their motor neurons.
Personality:
Lightblade's personality is said to be cold and alien, with it wilfully ignoring most people, it has offered to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that stopping to say high to most intelligences is an inefficient way to improve the life of those intelligences, and it has been known to make public appearances and carry itself with enough charisma to avoid undermining their own logical arguments. In meetings with other superpowers it tends to either remain silent outside of making its own points, or to continually point out their own hypocrisy and lack of a sufficiently rationalised agenda.
Second Strike:
The crystal beams a radiative copy of itself into the seat of it's attempted destroyers intelligence, tearing apart every choice or consideration they may have made and attempting to drive them mad from the inside.
Appearance:
A six foot ten body of golden crystal, largely male in layout. LGHTBLADE wears a strange set of blue robes as a costume and to cover it's essential basis. Is almost always wielding a large crystalline sword while telekinetically manipulating a slab of it's own crystal to take notes or write messages at computational speeds via binary inflections in the crystalline structure.
Again, similar concerns, not sure you want to instantly go hard into Chechnya. Also, Priority 8 'Christian Utilitarianism' is another example of what I've started calling 'Etienne Priority' (that is, any universalizable priority which is probably going to get violated A Lot) which is very fun if you know what you're getting into and very messy if you don't, because it's going to drag you into basically anything I want to drag you into and disrupt a lot of your plans in the process. Great if you want to play someone desperately trying to keep things from exploding, probably frustrating to deal with otherwise.
Also, note the First Strike pile-on rules, there will be consequences if a whole bunch of people have Priority: Catch That Nuke.
Oop, I've changed the sin priority to be explicitly a personal thing for Joanna and not a global goal, as it was meant for me. My bad.
Also, would something like 'Ensure the continued existence of the Vosoothian Faith' work better as a above-Survive goal? Especially since the whole theocracy thing would probably be practically achieved anyway if the vast majority of humanity were converted.
I'd also like to support other people's suggestion for a discord. This just seems like a complicated game with a lot of potential moving parts and I think the convenience of a chatroom would really go a long way for making it things go more smoothly for everyone.
Also, would something like 'Ensure the continued existence of the Vosoothian Faith' work better as a above-Survive goal? Especially since the whole theocracy thing would probably be practically achieved anyway if the vast majority of humanity were converted.
Yes, generally. You can obviously pursue expanding it with Actions, but having expansive Agenda items is... well it can get messy. Being about protecting something specific is less escalatory and gives other people a clearer sense of what will set you off.
And it's not like an evangelical faith can't get into Some Mess just based on protecting members.
I'd also like to support other people's suggestion for a discord. This just seems like a complicated game with a lot of potential moving parts and I think the convenience of a chatroom would really go a long way for making it things go more smoothly for everyone.
There will be one, but I figure that at least when the first bunch of submissions come in there's going to be clarifications for rules and intent that other people want to see and I'd rather have those in a thread rather than in a discord channel.
L: @NonSequtur let's do some thinkerating, shall we? Just building a basic interstellar ship would presumably be pretty cheap, but there's way more considerations to building a viable interstellar slowboat than just that. For one thing, a Generation Ship needs to be sociologically viable. For humans, that means it needs a minimum population of somewhere in the 20,000-50,000 range. Probably more.
That on its own massively increases the required Effort for a viable colony ship, and then you need to account for the fact that interstellar space isn't exactly safe, especially not when you're boosting along at a noticeable fraction of c. That adds even more mass for ablative shielding, more propellant to get that shielding up to speed, and so forth.
So... we'd say 24-30 Effort feels like a fair price for a Generation Ship with a 90%+ chance of mission success. And that's with the costs being subsidized via cheap launch options like a Lofstrom Loop, or sourcing most of the materials from Lunar resources. And unlike colonies still in the solar system, there won't be any return on investment in the game's timeframe.
