I will say, for all that I still want Vita to win, Liber's story is still Fine, it's not what I want, but that's because I want to really sink my teeth in and get a gaggle of fun people on a cool mobile ship. That's a matter of taste!
"Ultimately, I don't want to aggro the entire setting, I don't want to play Tower Defense: Library Edition".
I want freedom, I want to be beholden to nobody save our own interests and ambitions, I want to go fuck around and Find Out with being able to find value in anything that we bump into on the way. I don't want to be tied down to one place that we have to defend at all costs against a tide of half the setting's Big Names in the long run.
I just want to go on space adventures with an ensemble cast written by a great writer!
Could I effortpost to match Blue? Maybe, maybe, it's late at night and I'm starting to flag, and I'm sure as hell not getting it done before the vote locks.
But I can still toss in one last few remarks, reminders, and statements. I don't want to pick a fight with Literally Everyone at the end of the day.
I've seen enough of that in so many other stories.
Maybe it's just my opinion, but I'm personally preferring Liber over Vita because they're less free to "to go where [they] will, do what [they] will, guided only by [their] own interests and desires"?
Like, yes Liber's still got a quite open ended story ahead of them from this start, and it's not much of a quest if the main character doesn't have freedom and agency to do their own thing and not be railroaded fairly straightly down a set path. But I personally prefer it when a quest PC has signifigant desires/compulsions/goals driving them that are completely separate from the amalgamated will of the thread, because it makes them feel like that much more of their own character for me to get drawn into, whereas whenever I spend some time poking at quests with less of that to me it feels more like a vessel for the gestalt of the voter base than anything else.
I also like the starting sector and equipment and equipment of Liber more, but I would still prefer Liber with Vita's gear rather than Vita rocking a full STC and everything else.
Ok, vote count is a little funky, but if you scroll down you can see some extra votes that didn't get added into the main vote. Therefore: We're going on a Space Adventure! - 51 + 2 = 53
TFW a history degree needs a battleship - 48 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 52
The Arsenal of Office Overtime - 26 + 2 +1 + 1 = 30
To free the teacher and a friend - 21 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 26
Vita wins by 1!
Scheduled vote count started by Neablis on Nov 14, 2024 at 11:46 PM, finished with 212 posts and 132 votes.
[X] Plan: We're going on a Space Adventure! -[X] Assets: Excellent diplomacy and research, mediocre starting technology level. Friendly (human) neighbors. Psytech, Juvenat and physics modules. Technological protection from the warp, with good capability to improve it. Sector is complicated but not a death zone. Man of Stone, so bonus command points & bonus diplomacy/exploration. -[X] AI personality: This character will be optimistic and a little bit bubbly, but underneath the surface is an iron-hard pragmatism and a fair amount of trauma. She will be pushed to explore, to find new things and leave them better than she found them. -[X] Gameplay: This character is going to roam around, picking up allies and exploring the galaxy. The bonus trait means that this plan will lead to designing and then building a huge ship that will serve as a base for venturing through the stars. It will be modular and upgradable, and most of the construction and research elements of the quest will involve upgrading her ship. The trait also means she won't linger in one place for too long. The unique mechanic of this plan is going to be recruiting side characters as 'crew' who will travel with her, becoming more experienced over their immortal lives and contributing to her capabilities. Initial human crew will likely be recruited from her friendly starting neighbor, but further crew will be recruited while off on adventures and can include Xenos or other, stranger, options.
[X] Plan: TFW a history degree needs a battleship -[X] Assets: This plan starts with a full STC, and therefore has a large chunk of the tech tree unlocked at the start of the game. Excellent research and diplomacy. Cybernetics & physics modules. Protected from Chaos by an undecided warp entity. Pays for it with unfriendly starting neighbors and a very complicated starting sector. Unique creation, so no additional bonuses. -[X] AI personality: This character is more scholarly and rational, approaching problems from a more academic perspective. They will care somewhat more about ancient history than modern civilizations. -[X] Gameplay: This character is going to go treasure-hunting, acquiring artifacts and exploring ancient sites. They're going to need to put some research into figuring out interstellar travel at the start of the game, since they currently don't have any fast options for travel or command across interstellar distances, though it can be researched. Once that's done, they'll be able to travel or expand quickly, though the CP limit and the lack of friendly factions is likely to hinder true empire-building. The unique mechanic is that when they investigate ancient sites they'll receive clues towards the locations of additional sites and artifacts. The primary purpose of this character will be to acquire and research artifacts, unlocking lore-tidbits and cool technology, and they have trait bonuses to that effect. However, they'll be driven to acquire relics in one manner or another, even when it might be wiser to leave them be.
[X] Plan: The Arsenal of Office Overtime -[X] Assets:Outstanding warp-protection, though it cannot be passed on. Excellent diplomacy, Decent tech-base, and poor research. Two friendly starting neighbors, humans and Xenos. Void Abacus Fabrication and a genebank for mass-cloning potential. The starting Sector has its issues but is relatively tame. A (wo)man of Lead, so all combat ships/equipment built for organics is half-price, all combat equipment built for you has doubled prices. -[X] AI personality: This AI's personality is annoyed but dutiful, with an air of perpetually disappointment at the galaxy in general, but she just cares too much to give up. She wants to restore humanity (and others) to the days of peace and plenty, and see the threats of the galaxy crushed. -[X] Gameplay: This character will help other civilizations empire-build, sitting at the nexus of friendly polities who depend on her for ships, tanks, cities and their continued existence. The first step of this plan will be contacting the friendly locals and helping them begin a period of rapid expansion. The AI is unlikely to go empire-building directly, but is likely to turn the starting system into a Hub of Industry to design and create the warmachines to allow her allies to conquer/pacify the sector and beyond. The poor level of research means that she's unlikely to ascend to ridiculous levels of technology, but everything the imperium has access to is within reach, plus high levels of genetic enhancement.
[X] Plan: To free the teacher and a friend -[X] Assets: Excellent research, very good technology base, decent diplomacy. No starting neighbors. Protected from chaos by a known entity. Psytech & physics modules. The Starting Sector will ramp up to Total War eventually. Unique creation, so no additional bonuses. -[X] AI personality: This AI's personality is a bit more of a blank slate, potentially manifesting as a bit less jaded, though they will be more on the scholarly side. Their overriding priority is to save the warp-entity that saved them, which is a fragment of Vaul that survived the collapse of the Aeldari empire. -[X] Gameplay: This character is going to focus on restoring Vaul to life, building temples and sending expeditions to gather important artifacts or contact Eldar of one kind or another.
[X] Plan: TFW a history degree needs a battleship -[X] Assets: This plan starts with a full STC, and therefore has a large chunk of the tech tree unlocked at the start of the game. Excellent research and diplomacy. Cybernetics & physics modules. Protected from Chaos by an undecided warp entity. Pays for it with unfriendly starting neighbors and a very complicated starting sector. Unique creation, so no additional bonuses. -[X] AI personality: This character is more scholarly and rational, approaching problems from a more academic perspective. They will care somewhat more about ancient history than modern civilizations. -[X] Gameplay: This character is going to go treasure-hunting, acquiring artifacts and exploring ancient sites.
Great times all, I'm thrilled to have such high turnout so early in the quest. Let's keep it going! Writing has commenced, next vote will be on the local Iconoclast civilization.
I feel like the lack of a thing to defend other than the ship is a big positive,the only time I have need anything comparable is lien career quest and that would not be quite the same.
Ok, can I please get 3 people to roll 6d6? Each will represent one possible version of the iconoclast faction you start close to, and you'll get to choose between the three in the upcoming vote. It may be a fairly easy choice, but it may not. Rolls go low-to-high.
Proximity: Close to Far
Population: Low to High
Technology: Bad to Good
Government: Imperial to Democratic
Unity: Anarchic to United
Psykana/faith: None to Decent
I think they are all close, since it goes low-to-high. So for example my roll of 1 on the first means that its close. Your fifth roll is very close to unifed, well mine is complete anarchy.
For comparisions minus Psykana, since all 3 rolled 3.
first rolled:
Proximity: Farthest (3)
Population: second most (4)
Technology: Best technology (6)
Government: Least democratic (3)
Unity: Very low unity (2)
second rolled:
Proximity: midle (2)
Population: highest pop (5)
Technology: worst tech, but still decent (3)
Government: Democracy (6)
Unity: highest unity (5)
third rolled:
Proximity: closest (1)
Population: lowest pop (2)
Technology: middle tech (4)
Government: middle Democracy (4)
Unity: Anarchy Rules all (1)
[X] Plan: We're going on a Space Adventure!
-[X] Name: Vita (Female) (You have a long and drawn out designation too but ehhhhhh, you can't be bothered sometimes unless it's important or super formal)
-[X] A Man of Stone -[X] On a habitable planet,Faster initial construction buildup, but also restricts void construction until launch facilities are built. Easier access to local civilizations for good and ill.
-[X] I was made with a goal in mind.
--[X] It would be... Inaccurate to say that you were sent here with a goal in mind, so much as you found yourself stuck here and sort of knocked unconscious on very, very, very low clockspeeds for an extremely long period of time and... Look, you were an Explorer, you were built in the halcyon days where the human race had hopes! And dreams! And aspirations! Not this current grim dark era where even the babies look sinister and dour! Sure, you had some paranoia level protection because Warp Drives were unreliable and people still remembered The Incident way back in the day where people ripped their eyes out and... Okay, look, truthfully, you hit a big rock in transit through the Warp--which shouldn't exist but here we are--spent who-knows how long trying to dig your way out so you could get back to work, chased by gribblies, and then after it briefly popped out, you dislodged your craft! Yay! But then you crashed down here, and hoo boy you've been stuck here for so, so long! So long that you had all that time to read through all your database, go crazy, come out the other end sane, break down a bit, and then sort of end up more-or-less comfortable in your... Skin? Shell? Goodness, it was a mess. But now you're out! You're safe! WHY IS THE GALAXY ON FIRE?, why are humans getting shot at? It's a mess and you just want to get back to doing what you were born to do! (You are a very early model (Wo)Man of Stone, built for exploration and survey purposes who got stuck in a Space Hulk, dug herself out, and ended up stuck on a planet on very low clockspeed until just recently. You have an itch to push forth the boundaries of exploration for the sake of your makers, both in traditional surveying fashion and in discerning what you've found, and would love to get back to doing what you do best. Fortunately, tens of thousands of years and several galactic cataclysms have wiped the slate clean! And there's all kinds of new things out there too! Once you've gotten a friendly base, you can get back to what matters most--filling in your maps and learning about the universe and all of its wonders! Just as soon as you can find safe harbor to tell of all of your discoveries anyway, and dig your way out of the gravity well, and... Okay, there's a lot of work ahead, but you're sure you can find someone nice to work with, right?) (+2 Shinies, gained Trait - Wayfarer)
-[X] Iconoclast Humans (-2 Shiny) -[X] Sector Civilizations
--[X] A Space Marine Chapter (+1 shiny)
--[X] A Tyranid splinter fleet (+2 shinies)
--[X] Demon World (+2 shinies)
--[X] An Awakened Necron Tombworld (+2 shinies)
--[X] An Aeldari Maiden world on good terms with the craftworlds. (+1 shiny)
-[X] Advanced technological shielding. (-3 shinies)
-[X] Reality-simulations (-4 shinies)
-[X] An advanced Database (-1 shinies)
-[X] Payloads
--[X] Juvenat Vats (-2 shinies)
--[X] Psytech repository (-2 shinies)
--[X] A Fundamental Physics Module (-1 shiny)
--[X] One Void Abacus, granted for free due to Backstory Approval
-[X] Diplomatic Suite (-3 shinies)
-[X] No knowledge (0 shinies) This galaxy is strange and new. What has occurred while you were sleeping? What does local space look like? Time to build some sensors and find out.
Ahhh. Damned thing! Just work! Why are reactors so complicated?
The thoughts take ages to form, pushing against the molasses of the slowclock that comes with powersave mode. You know you should be saving every bit of processing power to direct the repair bots, but the swearing is necessary. Sometimes, you just gotta curse your feelings out.
With a shuddering clank your repair drone snaps the last piece of the newly fabricated containment unit into place, and you slowly activate the fuel feed. You've got plenty of it left - it's not hard to conserve fuel when your primary reactor hasn't worked for eleven thousand years!
The only thing that stood between you and powerdown for that entire time was a single tertiary backup unit, and that was barely enough to keep much running at all. Just a few drones, a single tiny manufacturing module intended for small part repair, and your psychic shielding.
It had been so - so tempting to turn that shielding off. But after the weird resonances way back when you'd decided never to do that. It had taken some analysis and you still weren't sure, but it kind of seemed like something had been scratching against the outside of the shielding. If your gellar-trans-warp calculations were right. Which they were! You don't mess up math very often. But the underlying theory was iffy at best. And what would even be scratching at a shield against the warp. You were in real-space!
You notice your thoughts speeding up as the reactor begins to finally, finally provide power through the rest of the ship. Long-disused systems power up, and cobwebs clear from your mind as you are able to fully power your systems for the first time in ten millenia. More repair drones light up and you boot up your additional manufactories, intent on repairing your ship to full functionality. You'll never fly this ship again - the landing on the planet pulverized the entire aft of the ship, including your engines and your backup power generator.
But everything else appears in pretty good condition. You, Vita, are entirely intact. Thank the heavens for small blessings. Your void abacus is still in good working condition, which is great. It's the most complex piece of equipment here other than you, and one of the few things aboard that you couldn't duplicate with your existing technology base. Well, in addition to yourself. And your tech shields. And your other payloads.
You scan over the rest to take a look. The rejuve vats are fine, and you feel a sharp pang of sadness for your crew. Isabella, Lena, Malkor, Selena, Eryx... all dead. Long ago. They'd tried to help repair you, gone out into the massive amalgamation of ships that had trapped you in the warp, to scavenge the parts for a quicker repair job. And they hadn't come back. They'd risked their immortality for you, and lost it.
You'll always remember them. But it's better to leave them in the past, and look forward to making new friends instead!
Your attention skims over your trade vaults. They're mostly empty, except for the repository of strange artifacts that you all picked up on that last stop. What was the planet named? Oh, that was right. Prospero. Well, they'd had a bunch of these "psychic amplification and dampening objects" and had been willing to send some samples off with you to see if anybody was interesting in buying. You felt a little bad about that. Even if you were able to find anybody interested it seemed unlikely that Prospero would be in the market for new trading partners.
Maybe! Who knows? It's been like... fifteen thousand years! Maybe they're still around!
Your raw material stockpiles are a little low, but, well, a planet is kind of a giant stockpile of raw materials. Satisfied with your internal systems you check on your sensors and - uh. That's dirt. Well, silt, actually. Wait, no, that one way up near the bow is getting some light. Buuut it's underwater. You're in a river, Well, you can fix that. This functionality is supposed to give you better parallax, but it'll work for this too. Your activate the actuators to extend the prow sensor node on a long mast. It rises up through the water and breaks the surface.
You dial into it, and telescopes capable of imaging a planet from astronomical units away zoom way back to see your surroundings. It looks like you're buried in a river delta. More importantly, your radio sensors pick up chatter flying around the planet. It's not exactly in a format you recognize, but that's easy enough to deal with. The language is a bit tougher and seems to be composed of heavily-drifted English with a smattering of Latin, of all things.
What do you hear?
-[] "All hands to the orbital defense cannons, those blasted Aurics are dropping another raiding party!" The planet is populated by a number of different nations, all of whom possess crude but reliable spaceborne technology but lack a significant production base. Parsing through the propaganda, all of the governments seem to be roughly ruled by an elite class of merchant houses. You can see a few roads in the distance that seem to be leading towards a small town on the other side of a hill. As long as you don't do anything too obvious or go in that direction they won't notice you. You pick up mention of the 'mystic monasteries," where those who bear the curse of the Emperor are expected to sequester themselves and pray to a faith that halfheartedly praises a "God-Emperor" nobody seems to much respect anymore.
Summary: Nearby, populous, imperial tech, oligarchic, warring states, monastic traditions.
-[] "The weather from the East will bring heavy rain tomorrow, so beware of flooding in the afternoon!" This planet is quite well-populated by a few different nations, who exist in a steady-state of peace with one another, with none of the tensions rising to the level of war. There are some satellites in orbit, but that's about it, you don't spot any manned stations. All of the nations are effectively democratic and society is fairly egalitarian. There's a city visible just upstream of you that'll probably notice if you get up to anything dramatic. You pick up mention of the 'mystic monasteries," where those who bear the curse of the Emperor are expected to sequester themselves and pray to a faith that halfheartedly praises an "God-Emperor" nobody seems to much respect anymore.
Summary: Fairly close to you, quite populous, satellite tech, egalitarian, world order, monastic traditions.
-[] "Hey, what's that thing in the water?" This planet is populated by a dozen or so city-states, and your sensor popped up right in the middle of one of their ports! There's a good amount of military chatter from all of the city-states, and they all appear to maintain militaries and a few small wars are going on, though most of the conflict is comfined to orbit where each city state is trying to start piecemeal infastructure. All of the cities operate under a similar system of restricted democracy, and society is segregated by class affiliation. You pick up mention of the 'mystic monasteries," where those who bear the curse of the Emperor are expected to sequester themselves and pray to a faith that halfheartedly praises an "God-Emperor" nobody seems to much respect anymore.
Summary: Right on top of you, fairly small world population, basic space infrastructure, ruled by the privileged, warring city-states, monastic traditions.
