- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
Crouching Tigers, Hidden Spiders and all.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
- Start date
- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Crouching Tigers, Hidden Spiders and all.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
I'm trying to grab what remains available, because we aren't going to get another bite at this apple for a long while given voters.
There are two main errors I think are being made here, one in this post specifically and the other implicit in the posts following.
1) We chose/it's now our responsibility to take the hit.
This is either super patronizing to every other person at this party who may want to not be treated like a baby bird, or it is an attempt to show how *useful* we are to the people we are trying to impress. This isn't our hunt- we are not the commander here, we don't have that set of obligations, we have been acting as tiebreaker and advisor to the actual person who should be in the bait group if there were real danger. And taking the path that says "I totally believe I'm better than you" is way more likely to solidify that -2 with the rest of the emerald sea than it is to change it.
Trust Sixiang. These aren't children. Don't treat them like they are.
2) 'little leagues', kiddie pool, why would we lower ourselves to the red/yellow crowd?
We need to treat people less powerful than us as people. We're pretty good at this when it comes to the lowest classes, although I suspect that's more affinity from Li than anything else, but we stick at it when it comes to cultivators. Do we want to be liked? Then don't sneer at the less talented and act like that means they have nothing interesting or useful to say. Especially if we are founding a family, these are the people that everyone *else* in our house and employ has to deal with. We make life better for our little sister and Mom if we treat these people like people, and try to make friends.
We are here to socialize and we are worried about our skills with peers, so let's go where we have an advantage and practice. Bonus points in that it humanizes us to the vast majority, which I'd take as a more significant victory than impressing the top three.
Although if we were looking to impress with skill, I think the top few are the only real audience and they just got a demo. A quiet, subtle, very competent demo.
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At the end of this, i want a fanboy/girl come at us in adoration and squee.
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
You know, I was focused on what I assumed the elements would be, but I guess Zhengui and whatever Mud Boy's Puddle's name is show that elements aren't the whole story there.
You're right, that would be perfect for Fang.
- Location
- Florida
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
Look, I know I'm complaining a lot about something that's already done and settled, but the longer we drag our asses on legitimately entering the social arena, the more @yrsillar's hands are tied with the encroaching PLOT that supposedly began back at the start of turn 4. If we don't start to make inroads, our side in the (mostly social/political) conflict should reasonably suffer, and setbacks aren't something we and Cai can really weather too many of. Sure sure, she says our job is just to get stronger and meet her mother's expectations, but how well has that kind of narrow focus worked out for her in following Cai Shenhua's assigned targets, hm?
Ling Qi shouldn't be able to jump into the deep end and not drown. We need to wade into the shallows for real, and soon. There's broader issues at play than just this one outing.
Ling Qi shouldn't be able to jump into the deep end and not drown. We need to wade into the shallows for real, and soon. There's broader issues at play than just this one outing.
- Location
- Lost!
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
...Honestly, the 'noble' talk is kind of boring (and I agree with Sixiang, makes everything feel padded), and I'd much rather see anything else ={
...Honestly, the 'noble' talk is kind of boring (and I agree with Sixiang, makes everything feel padded), and I'd much rather see anything else ={
- Location
- The Space Between
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
people like tanks and supports and love to feel powerful and valuable. We can enable that, while putting our "pride" where our mouth is and going for the riskier role when we chose the riskier prey. Falling back to socializing seems like a bad look after picking a big beast, but if we pick a big beast and the yellows get good shots in because of us they'll think better of us and themselves <3
people like tanks and supports and love to feel powerful and valuable. We can enable that, while putting our "pride" where our mouth is and going for the riskier role when we chose the riskier prey. Falling back to socializing seems like a bad look after picking a big beast, but if we pick a big beast and the yellows get good shots in because of us they'll think better of us and themselves <3
Look the problem with choosing to join the archers is it can go two ways:
1) They are in fact all weaker than us. Taking the safe role is us chickening out. Position espoused by the speculation you refer to here.
2) They're just as good as us, except they're actually archers, which we're certainly not. We look incompetent.
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- Location
- The Space Between
we shouldn't think about either option as being purely social or purely minmaxing the fights. Showing those here what we can do, and what our general suite is will be a sincere act, I think it will be better than using our baby archery. Especially since we have non-zero chance of showing someone up or showing we're incompetent with it
let's debut on a stronger foot, and do this SL again sometime. Our opening hunt being one in which we take the danger on ourselves, keep others safe and enable their best attributes to shine? That's someone that you can like you know? even if we're still hard to approach haha
"light shines brightest in the dark" after all
D
let's debut on a stronger foot, and do this SL again sometime. Our opening hunt being one in which we take the danger on ourselves, keep others safe and enable their best attributes to shine? That's someone that you can like you know? even if we're still hard to approach haha
"light shines brightest in the dark" after all
D
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- He/They
We're here, doing it.
The narrow focus get stronger vote would have been one of the other two SLs. Instead we jump on this one (I think ) the first time it shows up.
We're doing it in a way that showcases our strength, because reminding people we're better than them is its own virtue.
Show them we earned it and all that.
Show them they can't do what we are.
Uh, its more like HOW we want to sell our position and why they should respect us:
-Bait - Respect us because we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. We push for the risky option and then make it happen, unlike say...the Chu, who buggered off when the risk happened. They won't LIKE us or know us better, but they can trust us, and thats important because ultimately we're part o the same armed forces. This will likely appeal more to Alingge's type.
-Striker - In this case we leave the risk-taking to others and play the politicking game. This is a riskier gambit, it relies on the Green 1s and 2s not being meaningfully hurt by the beast outclassing them a lot, but allows us more time to personally talk to Wujing and his clique of Heavenly Peaks-styled nobles. In this event, if the weaker bait get hurt we'd probably be identified as less trustworthy, after committing to a risky plan but not backing it up, but regardless we'd have the opportunity to sell it to the Nobly-nobles.
TLDR version:
-Bait - This is a martial society on a border province, with border fief nobles, which means skill and commitment is respected if successful. This is socially speaking a defensive play, aimed at deterring others from talking shit about you, but you won't get immediate benefits.
-Striker - This is a society which emphasizes personal connections, which means you need them to actually GET favors and support. This is socially speaking an offensive play, where you push to get SOMETHING you can use...at the cost of potentially making enemies.
-Bait - Respect us because we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. We push for the risky option and then make it happen, unlike say...the Chu, who buggered off when the risk happened. They won't LIKE us or know us better, but they can trust us, and thats important because ultimately we're part o the same armed forces. This will likely appeal more to Alingge's type.
-Striker - In this case we leave the risk-taking to others and play the politicking game. This is a riskier gambit, it relies on the Green 1s and 2s not being meaningfully hurt by the beast outclassing them a lot, but allows us more time to personally talk to Wujing and his clique of Heavenly Peaks-styled nobles. In this event, if the weaker bait get hurt we'd probably be identified as less trustworthy, after committing to a risky plan but not backing it up, but regardless we'd have the opportunity to sell it to the Nobly-nobles.
TLDR version:
-Bait - This is a martial society on a border province, with border fief nobles, which means skill and commitment is respected if successful. This is socially speaking a defensive play, aimed at deterring others from talking shit about you, but you won't get immediate benefits.
-Striker - This is a society which emphasizes personal connections, which means you need them to actually GET favors and support. This is socially speaking an offensive play, where you push to get SOMETHING you can use...at the cost of potentially making enemies.
- Location
- Chicago
- Pronouns
- She/They
Ok, so your analysis then is that this is a neutral audience to be won over, but one which is unsure of our martial prowess.
I disagree- I think we've been manipulated into the position we are in now as a test by our host, and not playing out 'earnest but powerful commoner' is a better move.
You are, again, treating these nobles as children to be guided and protected. That works from a commander. It doesn't from an interloper. I think we are getting baited.
I disagree- I think we've been manipulated into the position we are in now as a test by our host, and not playing out 'earnest but powerful commoner' is a better move.
You are, again, treating these nobles as children to be guided and protected. That works from a commander. It doesn't from an interloper. I think we are getting baited.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[X] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
Not letting someone else act as bait when it was our idea.
Not letting someone else act as bait when it was our idea.
- Location
- Staring into the void
Inserted tally
I do agree, and honestly find the framing here annoying. Ultimately, while I think we'd contribute best in the bait position, I'm fine with either. If there are lots of other people keen to be bait then I don't see any need to tand in their way. The "going for glory" justification isn't really one I like.
... At the same time though, either option can easily be portrayed badly. Bait can make us look like we're just trying to show off, archery can make it look like we're trying to foist our dangerous idea off on others.
- Location
- Espoo, Finland
[x] Ling Qi would take the role of bait, it was the best use of her abilities within the limitations of the hunt. It would be more impressive and she was suited to protecting the other 'bait' cultivators.
ps. I have a conspiracy theory: Alingge found Mirage Lion so easily by asking Moon Deer if there were pests it would like taken care of.
ps. I have a conspiracy theory: Alingge found Mirage Lion so easily by asking Moon Deer if there were pests it would like taken care of.
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Being here is better than nothing in purely social terms, but if my argument rested on this not being true, I wouldn't be making it because it would be an obviously false premise.
Mechanically, I do expect to get some social-relevant exp from the event. Narratively? Fuck no, Ling Qi hasn't done a single thing so far that demonstrates or should lead to greater social adeptness or even tolerance for noble gatherings. Her empathy scanning of people from a distance was her sole performance and basically a repeat of Renxiang's gatherings. They're still "others" who she does not, probably can't effectively, and didn't try to engage with. Granted, Luo basically flung her off into the wilderness where she couldn't, but that was our choice as players.
A social strategy that lies principally in sidestepping actual social engagement, of any stripe, is fundamentally and deliberately one that doesn't rely on social skills. Claiming an event where we pursue that strategy is a good-faith effort to "enter the political arena" strikes me as disingenuous. It's not actually developing skills. It's trying not to. We're not Cai Shenhua, we can't blow off politics. Cai Shenhua isn't Cai Shenhua enough to blow off politics.
On the other hand, we explicitly voted to show off on the first place, and that... didn't really pan out. We traded away a more ideal social opportunity for it, so it seems weird to second guess to that less neutral position because we haven't yet accomplished the goal we set out to attempt? Why would Ling Qi change tack now, basically? It doesn't seem coherent to me. She either meant her reasons in the first place or she didn't. I don't see how the context has changed to prompt the diversion. The hunt she opted for hasn't actually happened yet, after all.
Waffling back and forth in events doesn't have the best track record, which kind of makes sense since it plays merry hell on the narrative inertia. We'd be better off if we closed the deal on more of our choices. Obviously imperfect knowledge is always a thing, but that doesn't seem especially relevant here.
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I think we voted to agree with the cool kids and do the more interesting hunt
