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The Streetwalker's Guide to the Hierarchy

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Birdsie said:
As I am not a spineless coward, I have decided to enforce this. I've been warned by trusted individuals this may cause thread engagement to drop. So be it. Be angry if you wish. I won't be known as the GM who gives out timorous warnings that carry no real weight.
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I would have been disappointed if we somehow escaped with just a slap on the wrist, so I completely agree with you.

[X] Succumb
 
[X] Resist
-[X] The Devouring
-[X] Dreamless

Not like this...
Would this not be the first time a Quest Bad Ende'd should Succumb win?

We would leave behind the Realms worse than when we began. Having doomed one World and left our unknowing instrument to a fate worse than death.

This thoughtless pursuit of Power has less to do with Risk assassment and more with Gambling.

This is not a Game with safestates but a unique story with complicated Charakters and thought out Szenarios that deserve every bit of thoughtfull consideration a Questor can make.

I might as well be a empty voter myself what with my rare Quest participation but even I feel sadness if we essencialy abandon Dorian because of the Questors Hubris.
 
To any Resist voters who aren't honorbound to vote for Resist due to having a vote marker called on, I am offering 1 vote marker if you drop Resist and replace it with Succumb. If you are interested in such an offer, quote this post. The marker will be offered once voting closes.
 
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Tally is a bit of a mess, but it seems that Resist has a chance if they manage to rally against a single option
 
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This is a pivotal moment. The Resist voters are confident they can likely make up for the great loss we're getting here, but other people in the thread don't share that belief. As said by multiple people, Streetwalker doesn't work all that well as a quest. Resist is merely trying to delay the inevitable, as the risks needed to recover from the maluses we're getting from Resist make it more likely we wind up in this situation again, except with no option to recover.
I call upon those who believe that this quest, while having an interesting setting and premise and being a quest desired by many people, including the QM, has run its course and it is better to just end it now and let something new replace it sooner. Be they supporters of the Time Detective quest, those who seek to see how Birdsie's interpretation of Harry Potter, the JRPG Traitor CYOA enthusiasts who desire the return of Betrayed by Destiny after its short run and sudden death or anyone who championed the cause of another quest during the quest selection at the end of God Diversion... if you are not honorbound to vote for Resist, then I must ask for your aid and support of the Succumb option.
While Dorian Croft has met a tragic fate, his death can still have meaning by paving the way for a quest that works better. A quest that has a better start than this one, since the Import we have will be ported over and converted into whatever resource is relevant for the new quest. No more worrying about us being too weak and having to make optimal choices while making sure no mistakes happen and that the rolls don't hamper us. No more relentless optimization and ruthless aquisition of power. A new start, a clean start is what we all need. Support Succumb, so that you can reach your desired quest faster. Support Succumb, so that we have better leeway in whatever the next quest may be.
 
Birdsie has explicitly said that he's fine continuing either way - he has ideas. I feel the same way about Scabbard as you do for Betrayed by Destiny. It's what actually gotten me into questing instead of just being a reader.

But I refuse to turn down what I see as gauntlet thrown down. To dare to play on, in spite of the adversity. Instead of being comfortable with the existing build embrace the change.

As for the Import situation.. Let us review what Dorian has been upto since the start of the quest. For the first world we immediately uncovered the vampire plot. Sussed out Viscerality lead using a cool mask out of thematics. Farmed CL, Slayed zombies, aced the diplomacy. Got the power of the world successfully. Made useful escape/mobility mask.

Second world survived the werewolf ambush, made fast friends. Vis against lycanthropy exercise, brainstorm lunarism as secret power, dream guardian impressed despite bad rolls, Got intel about how powers work. Successfully navigated through high danger zone. Charmed person of import enough for them to agree to be recruited for the street. Then, we overstepped.

And all this, without a single import? Compare that with the starting of the other quests that's dependent on us purchasing various powers to do things of note. We've gotten a bit, coddled frankly. I ask instead that we be hard of core.

Import hadn't mattered. It's not the end of the world to be bereft of them. Whatever we lose give us a few more worlds and we will have more by then. The questors haven't let us down before, and I don't believe they will in the future.
 
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ThatGuyWithIdeas said:
The Resist voters are confident they can likely make up for the great loss we're getting here, but other people in the thread don't share that belief. As said by multiple people, Streetwalker doesn't work all that well as a quest. Resist is merely trying to delay the inevitable, as the risks needed to recover from the maluses we're getting from Resist make it more likely we wind up in this situation again, except with no option to recover.
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Though I've voted for neither, I'd be less worried that it's infeasible to recover from this and more worried that the questers will walk off another cliff for no reason. Someone in Dorian's position can definitely recover from this, as long as he picks the right mix of options (the Devouring + no-dreams, make an Artificer's before the facelessness you just used dissipates; or any option that maintains access to Masks, few though they might be) and doesn't make any big stupid mistakes, because 'power of get whatever power you want' is a really good power. What they can't do is survive jumping off a cliff without taking the time to craft a survive-jumping-off-cliffs mask first.
 
_brightwing said:
And all this, without a single import? Compare that with the starting of the other quests that's dependent on us purchasing various powers to do things of note. We've gotten a bit, coddled frankly. I ask instead that we be hard of core.

Import hadn't mattered. It's not the end of the world to be bereft of them. Whatever we lose give us a few more worlds and we will have more by then. The questors haven't let us down before, and I don't believe they will in the future.
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Import here seems to be not important because we are still early on in the quest. There's no guarantee that later on we will be able to coast on without making good use of Import. Even if the quest continues, its Import generation will be significantly lower, given that a lot of people are unlikely to want to continue being involved with this quest until the very end. The thread may be able to do just fine with a small amount of voters, planners and Import generators, but it will be a struggle, one where the desire to do whatever people want to or consider to be interesting will clash with the necessity of very optimized decisions and very thin margin of error-making.

I would also disagree with the fact that questors haven't let us down. While this might not be something people want to hear, everyone who voted for Into the Fire have let the rest of the thread down, since their decision to do so is partially why we are in the current situation, for they made a bad call on a risky move and had the misfortune of rolling very low. JOE is right unfortunately. I expect that even if we continue here, we will inevitably get ourselves into this situation again.

While persevering in the face of overwhelming odds is an admirable quality and something to be emulated, one must also understand when it is a good time to let go of that habit and accept things as they are. This isn't about being coddled, it's about seeing that the quest has no future where this situation doesn't happen again, only with no capacity of saving ourselves, without commiting to perfect play and constant power aquisition from now on to the detriment of everything else.
 
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JOEbob said:
Though I've voted for neither, I'd be less worried that it's infeasible to recover from this and more worried that the questers will walk off another cliff for no reason. Someone in Dorian's position can definitely recover from this, as long as he picks the right mix of options (the Devouring + no-dreams, make an Artificer's before the facelessness you just used dissipates; or any option that maintains access to Masks, few though they might be) and doesn't make any big stupid mistakes, because 'power of get whatever power you want' is a really good power. What they can't do is survive jumping off a cliff without taking the time to craft a survive-jumping-off-cliffs mask first.
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Depending on the height of the cliff we might survive thanks to Viscerality :thonk:
 
Huh, I though for sure succumb would win

It has a lead of 5 votes for individual vote blocks, but if all succumb resist votes are counted Resist is winning by a whopping ~7 votes (~50% lead) instead.

So this would be kind of strange. With Devouring and Dreamelss in the lead, Dorian is not too terribly personally injured (except by being unable to have any dreams), and otherwise the situation is quite similar to the feared future where someone robbed dorian of all his masks.

Even if this did not dissuade Musorov otherwise, the lack of masks will probably prevent him from trying to gain mentalism.
Then there's still the Crimson Lost, but dorian won't be able to fulfill his side of the bargain which can lead to unpredictable outcomes (Musorov could help, being able to convince or bribe him (he probably has valuable resources at his disposal that are too difficult to bring to the street))

On the other hand it's entirely possible Henry has already started fixating.. (okay, this is a bit far-fetched. Mild fixation shouldn't cause that much of a significant effect)

And finally, the hit to creativity will probably hinder attempts to re-create a facelessness source quite a lot.

[X]_brightwing
 
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