- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
I'm more worried about Hot-Blooded, since that seems not to have great prospects in a setting like this.
The Mask and the Rattle [Claymore/Bleach Inspired Original Quest]
- Thread starter Gargulec
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
-
- Tags
- original ominous beanpole
- Location
- Brittany, France
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Surprise write-in that comes too late to get enough votes to matter
- Location
- Chicago
These things do tend to cascade.
I take it that you then agree with my point about the importance of physique for a combat focused character.
This is a more significant concern and one you should of raised earlier. It is true that penalizing lifesense is not desirable. In fact, the option is by far the most tolerable drawback is determination. Focus is something that is nice to have, but is not essential. However, that option won't win so we are choosing between penalizing lifesense and physique. Either option has valid arguments in a vacuum. Fundamentally, the role of the Masked to is to destroy monsters. You can achieve that with a melee combat build or more magey lifesense build. However, we are not operating in a vacuum, we have already chosen to specialize in combat art. Thus, we have already committed ourselves to a direct combat build. Let us push our strengths higher instead of crippling our development with contradictory choices.
You claim that we can "hire swordswomen or train our bodies" and I must dissent. There are two issues with your first claim, both of which are shown in this quote from the QM's intro:
This implies that the Masked are cast out of society and would struggle to hire warriors to support them. Secondly, and more importantly even if we could it wouldn't matter as per the quote the Masked are the only people who "wield the only weapons capable of slaying the never-born monsters." Thus, any mercenaries we did manage to scrounge up would be ineffective against our primary foe.
As for your second assertion, that we could simply "train our bodies" I think you may be confused. Training our body is literally what physique represents. Which I remind you authority penalizes.
Post note: I forgot to post this last night so I am going to put it up now even though the vote has closed. Not so much as a persuasive piece, but to give your post the response it deserves. Always fun to engage with somebody on build choices.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Incorrect. I am making a point that I am far from ignorant of the physical demands of combat in armor in a harsh environment, and then explicitly disagreeing with your conclusions and choice of path. I am hoping that establishing that yes, I am aware of all the points you raised, and an unconvinced thanks in part to direct experience would carry some weight. I've never had to kill someone with a sword, largely because the US Army no longer issues them. I have, however, fought in armor with full weight weapons.
I'm glad you established your own credentials as an experienced swordfighter and combat veteran first before inquiring 'how many veteran swordsmen do you know in this modern era?' and 'Do you know anyone who has fought for their life?'. Otherwise this would seem silly.
Alright, no, that was perhaps unkind. Forgive me, tone is impossible in text, but your early arguments did carry a dismissive note of 'what do you know? Are you a swordfighter? Have you ever fought?', and then shifting goalposts when I said 'why yes, in fact'. (As it happens, Iaido is not fencing. It is 'The Art of Drawing and Cutting', Japanese swordsmanship where all katas begin with your weapon sheathed. It is not meant for sport.)
Amusingly, I am qualified to lecture on modern small arms doctrine. 14 years of combat experience, yo. I doubt that will come up in this quest, though.
One vote is hardly committing ourselves. We're on page 5, just the second vote, and still demonstrably in chargen.
Yes, quite right. I did try:
To cite things from that first battle:
He met the beast with no weapon in hand, did magic to block, then swell to fight.
When he bursts from it's chest, he is huge and visibly non-human in appearance. He did not do this with a program of sensible exercise. He did this with the magic that is core to our vocation. That means Lifesense is rather key to this. We can improve swordsmanship via mundane means. You cannot say that about Lifesense. You can argue that Physique will tie in to just how he hulked-out like this, which is possibly true, but we've been arguing swordsmanship here, which was... not even involved in the only fight we've seen. Magic was.
All that having been said, I'm not unhappy to have Analytical. I just fear handicapping Lifesense will be more of a difficulty than Physique, and we're going to be involved in a lot of magical battles where we're going to have to make up the lack by leaning on Analytical hard to compensate. I worry that in the name of having a strong arm, we've chosen to be half-blind.
Then again, you might be right, and this will be more like Dark Souls or Berserk directly, where 'Hit the monster in the face with a sword that is somehow 2.5m long and should weigh 10kg' is a reliable tactic. I have faith that Garg will make it entertaining at the least. We should prod him to post his 'Tales of Castle Hasteenough' sometime.
I mean if he is basing this off bleach we have the Kenpachi build, no bankai's no kido. I think swords are even more key to Masked Men then lifesense, there are only 108 swords so they gotta be some type of special. As long as we commit to such a build it should work out well, if we start deciding to go magic halfway through we will probably be fucked.
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Gargulec
impact!
- Location
- a garden
I will not be elaborating on that yet, but the Masked Men have a great variety of approaches to their task. The weapons they use - the 108 blades - are necessary for landing the killing blows on the beasts they hunt, but the preceding beat-up can take many different forms. Some choose to go full Kenpachi/Berserk route, others mix magic with sword-fighting, others still go full dark sorcery and there are even stranger approaches out there.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
We have to go
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
So kinda like D.Grey Man
An admission of failure
Gargulec
impact!
- Location
- a garden
Okay, so - the quest has not update after Christmas and as you may already suspect, it will not be updating in the future. After writing and throwing away several drafts of the update, I've come to the conclusion that while I had a solid idea for a setting and powers, they did not combine into a Quest I felt like running. Turns out I am not Omicron and the stories that I want to be told are not Bleach-like. In this sense, the Quest is a failure of not realizing what you want to write and instead attempting to get some easy publicity. I seriously apologize for that and hope that if I ever decide running something else in the future, you will not hold this stillbirth against me.
Gargulec out.
Gargulec out.
LucidProp
Pocky Eating MafiaDoka
You've always had great ideas for quests Gargulec, everything from Iterant Pilgrim (Personally one of my favorite quests of all time) to The Mask and the Rattle have been top notch in quality, so whatever it is that you write in the future, we'll probably read it.
- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I too will one day reach the city of Step.