Usagi Quest (CK3/Princess Maker) (Sailor Moon)
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
As long as Makoto understands what the Dark Kingdom is- and we unambiguously passed that roll- she'll reliably fight against it with all her strength; she's like that.
Whatever else happens, there's that.
Whatever else happens, there's that.
- Location
- Louisville, KY
I don't want one of our Senshi thinking we're crazy, which is probably what the crit fail would entail. Besides, it's the QM's decision.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"My Lady" may also be a way to speak to your fiancée, similar to how a prince(s) would ask a girlfriend out for a dance. (My lady may I have this dance.)
It would also explain why the Silver Millennium is on the moon
- Location
- Chile
When rolling 5d10, the odds of at least one rolling a nat 1 is like 40%.
If you want to make it rarer then roll another dice on a 1 or a 10 to acertain if they will count as crits or just regular successes or failures.
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- Location
- Vancouver
True, but not all nat 1s equal a critical failure. Our system only reduces the degree of success on a 1 by one step, and with our numbers there's a lot of other rolls that wouldn't have gone down to that level. That combined with the other dice lead to a unique result
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yeah, we only have that 1/10 risk of a critical failure on actions where a 1 would have been a failure anyway. Which is less of them than you'd think, though a significant number overall.
Given the genre conventions of the show (lots of social stuff that fails hilariously, and combat can get ugly against tough opposition), I think this is a good system. On the other hand... it is true that tricky actions are likely enough to critical-fail that the prospect can never be dismissed.
Given the genre conventions of the show (lots of social stuff that fails hilariously, and combat can get ugly against tough opposition), I think this is a good system. On the other hand... it is true that tricky actions are likely enough to critical-fail that the prospect can never be dismissed.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I just wanted to circle back and do a bit of overview, since I've been rereading the updates. First, an item we found at the wacky old magic shop:
Having Sailor Mercury look at the bracelets might be a good idea; she's better equipped to fix them than Luna is, though honestly I'd support the two working together on this if there weren't so many other things to do.
Also, let's compare the first several episodes of the anime to what's happened so far in-story. Our operational tempo is a lot higher (significantly more than one youma plot per week), but the sequence is:
Episode 1: Already happened as a prequel to the quest.
Episode 2: The fortune-teller incident. Cleared it more or less as in canon. More or less.
Episode 3: The sleeping sickness. This is a plot being closely supervised by Jadeite. It's snagged Miss Haruna and we have not, as yet, done anything about it. This is Sailor Moon's first encounter with a dark general, who blocks Moon Tiara Action instead of, y'know, exploding like the common run of youma.
Episode 4: The Shapelin Gym. Again, Jadeite is closely involved. Also, we are scheduled to go check it out literally tomorrow in-story; it's our next scheduled interlude sequence.
Episode 5: The Chanela plot. Usagi's brother Shingo brings home a pet critter. It's a youma plot to drain his energy. This has already happened. A youma construct is actively draining Usagi's brother; we'd better sort that.
Episode 6: "Protect the Melody of Love." Some kind of energy-draining music plot. As of yet we have no evidence of this plot materializing. That may just mean we haven't spotted it yet. May need to check with our fellow students.
Episode 7: The talent show plot. We're working on it. Needs no further discussion, except to note that the unknown male judge is... I'm pretty sure that's Jadeite now, because Jadeite is very hands-on about his plots.
Episode 8: The cram school plot. Resolved. Recruited Sailor Mercury as canonical. Important difference: In canon there was only the one youma, the one throwing worksheet attacks at us. In quest we had to deal with like six extra youma transformed from the cram school students. It made for a bigger, messier fight.
Episode 9: Clock plot. Police tried to raid it; this was their other target besides the Panama Cafe, which I don't think is mentioned in any of the early episodes. At the Cafe the police won (Kimiko Quest). At the clock shop, the youma won. The police most likely died after being sucked into a pocket dimension and never seen again.
Episode 10: Cursed bus plot. Sailor Mars gets recruited here. We've heard rumors this is happening but haven't checked it out yet. It's unclear whether the police have tried to investigate. We saw a roll indicating that they're trying. If we don't get involved next turn, they likely will.
That seems to be about it. Everything past that point, either I don't think we've heard any rumors about, or it's a plot that heavily involves Sailor Mars (e.g. the final confrontation with Jadeite in, uh, Episode 12-14 or so, I forget). Sailor Jupiter doesn't show up until Episode 25, so we're sequence-breaking hard there.
Anyway. It's been three weeks and we've encountered evidence of nine of the first ten canon youma plots, plus the noncanon crossover with Inuyasha, the possible youma plot involving Chen, and the Panama Cafe. Of the thirteen plots in question, the breakdown is:
4 blown up by Sailor Scouts (Episodes 1, 2, 8, and Inuyasha crossover)
1 stopped by police at high cost (Panama Cafe)
2 under Sailor Scout investigation (Episodes 4 and 7)
1 rumored/under police investigation (Episode 10)
2 actively underway and draining people close to us (Episodes 3 and 5)
1 actively underway, ate a SWAT team (Episode 9)
1 suspected but unproven (Chen plot hook)
1 unaccounted for (Episode 6)
If you allow for the core premise that roughly 10 episodes worth of plot have happened in the past three weeks (!)... Well, we're obviously behind canon on "number of youma plots resolved," though doing better than canon if you don't allow for the crowding of plot events (four plots in two and a half weeks, and we're likely to take out at least one or two more in the next few days, I suspect).
We've so far gotten farther than canon without encountering a dark general (again, probably Jadeite), but that's unlikely to last. Jadeite took personal involvement in both the plots we are now investigating, after all.
Takeaway observations:
1) Sailor Moon trips over a LOT of youma plots when they affect one or more of her classmates or occasionally family members. Our vigorous program of self-improvement without doing much socialization may not actually be a good strategy if we're trying to put these plots down, because we don't engage with them as much. Note that the Episode 3 and 5 plots are active and actively draining Usagi's teacher and brother, respectively; Usagi hasn't really gotten involved, though to be fair that was partly because her "write love letter" action crit-failed and stymied her the midnight radio show.
2) In the quest, I suspect that the longer a plot goes on, the more likely the government is to find out and get involved. And then we get a sudden genre shift to eldritch horror because they're trying to fight youma with automatic rifles instead of sparkly magic tiaras. Again, I recommend that we actively chase down leads a bit harder.
3) We do need to prepare for confrontation with Jadeite; he's almost certain to be involved at one or both of the two plots we're investigating over the next few in-game days.
4) In canon Jadeite went down to a Moon/Mercury/Mars teamup. We may be able to take him in the near future with Jupiter on-side. That would be nice. If we take out Jadeite on an early appearance things may really escalate. On the other hand, Jadeite may be smart enough to leg it when he realizes he's outgunned; in canon he spent several episodes clashing with a Sailor Moon who was entirely alone and frankly a bit softer than ours.
5) Big targets for next week, guided by OOC information, as follows:
5a) The Chanela plot. Iguara uses possession victims and the cops don't have Moon Tiara Stardust, so that could get ugly. Also it's draining our brother.
5b) The haunted bus. This may lead toward Sailor Mars recruitment, and hopefully forestalls a youma getting a chance to eat another SWAT team.
5c) The sleeping sickness/love letter plot. This plot is affecting our teacher and seems to be flourishing; the cops apparently haven't figured out the pattern yet.
5d) The clock plot has probably gone underground since the police know where it's operating from, but may reopen or we may see Ramua, the youma responsible, showing up elsewhere in some other capacity.
6) PreCure appears to be fighting their own battles, at least assuming that "PreCure fights a battle" corresponds 1:1 to "that rainbow beam attack gets used as a finishing move" thing. Their confrontations don't seem to involve our episode plots, or at least not locations associated with our episode plots.
So, these are wind-themed fans with the astrological symbol of Uranus on them. Much like the lightning-themed bracelets with the astrological symbol of Jupiter, these are almost certainly a Silver Millenium artifact. They may still be at the store. On the other hand, like the bracelets, they probably need repair.[ ] Petals of the Storm - Costs 4 Funds
- A pair of beautifully designed hand fans designed to look like a flower unfolding. There, at the center of each fan is a strangely familiar looking symbol. An H, but it has a third pillar, and at the bottom of the pillar is a circle.
"The Petals of the Storm! Beautiful craftsman ship. Not a clue what they are made from. Old as hell too. Not as old as the Thunder Guardian's Bracelets, but still old. Not sure how they work either. Open the fan as wide as it can, then wave them. They generate winds strong enough to blow leaves off of trees, and possibly just knock the trees right over. Very dangerous if misused. Unfortunately, the handles are not the originals, and are a little loose. Wave the fans too hard, and the handle might break."
-- Luna: "I know that..."
Having Sailor Mercury look at the bracelets might be a good idea; she's better equipped to fix them than Luna is, though honestly I'd support the two working together on this if there weren't so many other things to do.
Also, let's compare the first several episodes of the anime to what's happened so far in-story. Our operational tempo is a lot higher (significantly more than one youma plot per week), but the sequence is:
Episode 1: Already happened as a prequel to the quest.
Episode 2: The fortune-teller incident. Cleared it more or less as in canon. More or less.
Episode 3: The sleeping sickness. This is a plot being closely supervised by Jadeite. It's snagged Miss Haruna and we have not, as yet, done anything about it. This is Sailor Moon's first encounter with a dark general, who blocks Moon Tiara Action instead of, y'know, exploding like the common run of youma.
Episode 4: The Shapelin Gym. Again, Jadeite is closely involved. Also, we are scheduled to go check it out literally tomorrow in-story; it's our next scheduled interlude sequence.
Episode 5: The Chanela plot. Usagi's brother Shingo brings home a pet critter. It's a youma plot to drain his energy. This has already happened. A youma construct is actively draining Usagi's brother; we'd better sort that.
Episode 6: "Protect the Melody of Love." Some kind of energy-draining music plot. As of yet we have no evidence of this plot materializing. That may just mean we haven't spotted it yet. May need to check with our fellow students.
Episode 7: The talent show plot. We're working on it. Needs no further discussion, except to note that the unknown male judge is... I'm pretty sure that's Jadeite now, because Jadeite is very hands-on about his plots.
Episode 8: The cram school plot. Resolved. Recruited Sailor Mercury as canonical. Important difference: In canon there was only the one youma, the one throwing worksheet attacks at us. In quest we had to deal with like six extra youma transformed from the cram school students. It made for a bigger, messier fight.
Episode 9: Clock plot. Police tried to raid it; this was their other target besides the Panama Cafe, which I don't think is mentioned in any of the early episodes. At the Cafe the police won (Kimiko Quest). At the clock shop, the youma won. The police most likely died after being sucked into a pocket dimension and never seen again.
Episode 10: Cursed bus plot. Sailor Mars gets recruited here. We've heard rumors this is happening but haven't checked it out yet. It's unclear whether the police have tried to investigate. We saw a roll indicating that they're trying. If we don't get involved next turn, they likely will.
That seems to be about it. Everything past that point, either I don't think we've heard any rumors about, or it's a plot that heavily involves Sailor Mars (e.g. the final confrontation with Jadeite in, uh, Episode 12-14 or so, I forget). Sailor Jupiter doesn't show up until Episode 25, so we're sequence-breaking hard there.
Anyway. It's been three weeks and we've encountered evidence of nine of the first ten canon youma plots, plus the noncanon crossover with Inuyasha, the possible youma plot involving Chen, and the Panama Cafe. Of the thirteen plots in question, the breakdown is:
4 blown up by Sailor Scouts (Episodes 1, 2, 8, and Inuyasha crossover)
1 stopped by police at high cost (Panama Cafe)
2 under Sailor Scout investigation (Episodes 4 and 7)
1 rumored/under police investigation (Episode 10)
2 actively underway and draining people close to us (Episodes 3 and 5)
1 actively underway, ate a SWAT team (Episode 9)
1 suspected but unproven (Chen plot hook)
1 unaccounted for (Episode 6)
If you allow for the core premise that roughly 10 episodes worth of plot have happened in the past three weeks (!)... Well, we're obviously behind canon on "number of youma plots resolved," though doing better than canon if you don't allow for the crowding of plot events (four plots in two and a half weeks, and we're likely to take out at least one or two more in the next few days, I suspect).
We've so far gotten farther than canon without encountering a dark general (again, probably Jadeite), but that's unlikely to last. Jadeite took personal involvement in both the plots we are now investigating, after all.
Takeaway observations:
1) Sailor Moon trips over a LOT of youma plots when they affect one or more of her classmates or occasionally family members. Our vigorous program of self-improvement without doing much socialization may not actually be a good strategy if we're trying to put these plots down, because we don't engage with them as much. Note that the Episode 3 and 5 plots are active and actively draining Usagi's teacher and brother, respectively; Usagi hasn't really gotten involved, though to be fair that was partly because her "write love letter" action crit-failed and stymied her the midnight radio show.
2) In the quest, I suspect that the longer a plot goes on, the more likely the government is to find out and get involved. And then we get a sudden genre shift to eldritch horror because they're trying to fight youma with automatic rifles instead of sparkly magic tiaras. Again, I recommend that we actively chase down leads a bit harder.
3) We do need to prepare for confrontation with Jadeite; he's almost certain to be involved at one or both of the two plots we're investigating over the next few in-game days.
4) In canon Jadeite went down to a Moon/Mercury/Mars teamup. We may be able to take him in the near future with Jupiter on-side. That would be nice. If we take out Jadeite on an early appearance things may really escalate. On the other hand, Jadeite may be smart enough to leg it when he realizes he's outgunned; in canon he spent several episodes clashing with a Sailor Moon who was entirely alone and frankly a bit softer than ours.
5) Big targets for next week, guided by OOC information, as follows:
5a) The Chanela plot. Iguara uses possession victims and the cops don't have Moon Tiara Stardust, so that could get ugly. Also it's draining our brother.
5b) The haunted bus. This may lead toward Sailor Mars recruitment, and hopefully forestalls a youma getting a chance to eat another SWAT team.
5c) The sleeping sickness/love letter plot. This plot is affecting our teacher and seems to be flourishing; the cops apparently haven't figured out the pattern yet.
5d) The clock plot has probably gone underground since the police know where it's operating from, but may reopen or we may see Ramua, the youma responsible, showing up elsewhere in some other capacity.
6) PreCure appears to be fighting their own battles, at least assuming that "PreCure fights a battle" corresponds 1:1 to "that rainbow beam attack gets used as a finishing move" thing. Their confrontations don't seem to involve our episode plots, or at least not locations associated with our episode plots.
- Location
- S.E.A
The next precure plot is the bad guy hitting their school... Nagisa and Honoka are 14. Any chance that they go to the same school as the scouts?
- Location
- Vancouver
These are some good observations, thanks for doing all this in-depth work. It's pretty interesting how little we've run into Jadeite while it looks like this week (and maybe the next) we're going to run headlong into him a rapid number of times. With luck (and mostly Makoto), we might even take him out this time with our investigations and numbers... but I worry that like the cram school plot, he might have a bit more backup than usual so even then we won't take him out (that might not be a terrible thing though; as you pointed out, beating Jadeite might cause them to escalate hard).
Striking a balance between getting involved in plots and training will be important. We want to protect people and keep the police out (for the moment), but if we strike too hard, we won't be strong enough to deal with the escalation once we take out some of their bigger guns/plots. The cram school is also very worrying as it makes it seem like even early plots may be tougher than anticipated. Recruiting the other sailor scouts early will help, giving us more firepower and more actions to train/work with. Having the crossovers might also help us out a bit, though there's more unpredictability with when they'll be involved.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
It would be an improbable coincidence, but then, it was a pretty improbable coincidence that Kagome attends our school as it is.
If I were going to bet, I'd bet on us running into him once.
Zero times is vanishingly unlikely (among other things because we've rolled up several of his plots already and he's presumably Taking Steps)
Twice is fairly plausible- if he's there at the Shapelin Gym on Friday, and we hit the talent show HQ on Saturday, even if he's not there at the HQ, if we actually accomplish anything against the plot there, he'll almost certainly show up Sunday to try to square things up and retrieve the situation personally for the sake of siphoning the energy.
Yeah, I figure on Jadeite skirmishing with us a few times, probably by throwing expendable youma and possession victims at us and skedaddling while the Sailor Scouts are preoccupied.
The canonical pattern involved... pretty much that, it looks like, until Beryl issued him an ultimatum and he straight-up challenged the Sailor Scouts to a duel at the airport.
Given that pattern, and his ability to withstand individual Sailor Scout attacks better than a rank-and-file youma, I don't think we're going to have a good chance of taking him down until he's forced to stand and fight by Beryl. We might get lucky, though... and a big part of why I'm glad to have Sailor Jupiter on-side is that I fully expect situations where Sailor Moon unsupported, or Moon and Mercury, could be in over their heads just dealing with the muscle he happens to have on-site. Having cavalry to ride to the rescue (or to kick in the door right alongside us) would make me feel a lot easier about tangling with two youma plots that both closely involve Jadeite in rapid succession like this.
As with all good quests: Action economy is hell.
We have more urgent problems than available time to solve them and also need to prep and improve for future problems that are rapidly becoming urgent.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'm not saying no to that, but it's definitely a stretch goal. If circumstances permit it, well and good. If not, and I doubt they will, I won't worry about it.
The redemption option ties into the whole "dark generals infatuated with various members of Team Moon" plot point, I would argue, and I don't know how Lunaryon intends to handle that or if she intends to just punt it out of the plot entirely.
No way to predict.
You're right, but I think (knock on wood) that we may actually have achieved sufficient preparation. We've got a good spell lineup (purification, limited healing, a couple of Big Honking Attacks) and if we can get Sailor Jupiter up and in the running we've got about as much muscle as the team had for half the canon first season- enough to see off the likes of Jadeite, that's for sure.
About the only self-improvement actions that I think are appropriate right now for us to keep battling Season 1 Sailor Moon antagonists would be:
1) "Usagi cracks a book on basic medicine and first aid to improve Mend effectiveness."
2) "Sailor Mercury and/or Luna work on the Thunder Guardian Bracelets."
3) "Naru keeps studying magic."
That's not to say I wouldn't want to do anything else- for instance, honing Usagi's magic senses would help us avoid embarrassingly "HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE" instances of tripping over youma plots, I'm sure. But I think we may want to tip the balance slightly farther over in favor of investigation and actually busting the plots.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
OK fair, that's important. Having Makoto on-side will help with that a lot too, mind you.
But I think that for this coming week, Week 4 specifically, we may want to focus on clearing youma plots before they eat any more SWAT teams.
- Location
- Louisville, KY
Staff Notice- Rule 6: Please be mindful of how your posts can come across in the future.
I had a thought when I was going to sleep last night. Basically at some point Usagi mentions that she is either Bi or Pan, not sure which she is in the quest, and off handedly wonders if there is a spell for two women to have kids. Ami looks it up in her computer and finds that there is, and it's a penis growing spell. Usagi asks Ami to let her have a copy of the instructions for the spell, for if she falls in love with a girl. There is also a joke in there about Ami's previous life being frigid.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I don't want to be the no-fun allowed party pooper but, these are 14 Y/O girls we are talking about. Could we please reduce any copulatory references to kissing and hand holding, like fairys do it? I don't want to be on a list for being found on the same page as this.
- Location
- Louisville, KY
Umm, I'm not talking about 14 year old Usagi having sex. I'm talking about Usagi preparing for when she eventually wants kids. Of course she wouldn't use it before she's at least maybe 17, or older.
While I, like many it seems, do think that is the more intresting course of events don't be afraid to take it in a difference direction if that works better. Or even to just swap the rolls like proposed earlier. Sometimes an idea for a scene just doesn't work, or isn't practical to implement, despite how great the idea itself seems.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I'm a schoolteacher. Believe me it can happen.
I'd try to help somehow, except I don't know which completely different thing you're aiming for.
Lunaryon
Dual Aurora Wave
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think I have figured it out, with Usagi's rambling explanation continuing to keep sliding off topic before she manages to wrangle it back, only to lose the topic again.
The one thing I'll 'Spoil' from her explanation
Ami thinks that the Greek Gods may have been the Diet of the Silver Millennium
The one thing I'll 'Spoil' from her explanation
Ami thinks that the Greek Gods may have been the Diet of the Silver Millennium
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
...Beautiful.
I feel sorry for Luna's brain later on.
Then again, Usagi is, quite frankly, more level-headed and responsible in this incarnation thanks to having her forebear's ghost whispering in her ear, so there has to be some form of conservation of Luna Suffering to compensate, I suppose.
I feel sorry for Luna's brain later on.
Then again, Usagi is, quite frankly, more level-headed and responsible in this incarnation thanks to having her forebear's ghost whispering in her ear, so there has to be some form of conservation of Luna Suffering to compensate, I suppose.