0. Status, Basics, Summaries, & Tech List
LoserThree
Finds writing poorly easy
- Location
- Greater Seattle Area
- Pronouns
- he/him
0
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NOTICES
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Cacophonous Interlude is NOT active
(Bianca does NOT hear what you write right now)
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Next story update : soon, I hope
Next vote closing : TBD
Progress toward next update : 2,724 words
We're on step 5: reading & composition of in-line replies
Total words in 'what Bianca's been told' notes : 3,119
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Anything I post that's not in vote options, quote boxes,
code blocks or in spoilers may be understood to be said
by Bianca.
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Players do not need to use code blocks or spoilers
outside of cacophonous interludes
If you use code blocks, please limit yourself to 32 lines
and your lines to 57 characters, so that people on mobile
can read them without scrolling within the code block
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You can quote other sources, but I don't want this to
turn into Plagiarism Quest.
You're not discouraged from using outside reference
material or quoting other sources. When you do, please
cite your sources in spoilers or a code box.
Please do not use Large Language Model assistants like
ChatGPT or similar to compose your effortposts. I mean
for this game to be about communication, not prompt
engineering.
Thank you.Check the summaries in this status post and read the latest story post in the Threadmarks to get a rough idea of where things are at.
If you're not already involved in the game and you want to get right into it without digging through the back catalog, consider doing this:
If there's no Closing The Vote post in the Informationals corresponding to the latest Threadmarks, then the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude and Bianca will hear what you post, unless you post inside spoilers or code boxes. The NOTICES portion at the top of this post should also tell you if the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude.
If the game is not in a Cacophonous Interlude, you can still post. It's just that Bianca can't hear you. You might still want to post so you can coordinate with other players, make suggestions, ask questions, and propose plans. You can compose a message to Bianca all whether or not the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude. And once the game returns to a Cacophonous Interlude, you can vote and/or send a message to Bianca by creating a post in the thread.
If you want to vote, simply do so as you would in other quests on this board. You may look at other players' votes to see how yours should be formatted. And you may check the tally to see that yours are counted as you intend them. I should find the 'how to vote' general post and link it here, I guess.
If you want to send a message to Bianca, keep in mind that she is a creature of another time. She may not understand what you mean if you don't take the time to make it clear. This game rewards and demands work from its players. When a player wants to introduce a concept or tool or technology to Bianca, that player will probably need to expend effort to explain it carefully, and take into consideration the limits of her understanding of the world. You might even need to consider her biases and values.
I think this is similar enough to Graeber's 'interpretive labor' that we can use the term colloquially to describe what is being asked of players. Put yourself in the mind of Bianca and ask yourself how such a person can be made to understand what you want to tell her.
Bianca has different values than we do. She has different assumptions about the world and objects and forces within it. Her goals may not align directly with number-go-up or color-get-big gaming agendas. But she wants power and will listen most attentively to players that tell her how to get more of or closer to what she wants.
Keep in mind that you players are not trusted advisors. You're the Astute Cacophony: voices that Bianca mostly can't tell apart from each other.
If you're not already involved in the game and you want to get right into it without digging through the back catalog, consider doing this:
- Read the summaries in this Status Post.
- Pull up the latest Threadmark.
- Skip to the line that says "B R E A K."
- Skim from there to get an idea of what's going on.
If there's no Closing The Vote post in the Informationals corresponding to the latest Threadmarks, then the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude and Bianca will hear what you post, unless you post inside spoilers or code boxes. The NOTICES portion at the top of this post should also tell you if the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude.
If the game is not in a Cacophonous Interlude, you can still post. It's just that Bianca can't hear you. You might still want to post so you can coordinate with other players, make suggestions, ask questions, and propose plans. You can compose a message to Bianca all whether or not the game is in a Cacophonous Interlude. And once the game returns to a Cacophonous Interlude, you can vote and/or send a message to Bianca by creating a post in the thread.
If you want to vote, simply do so as you would in other quests on this board. You may look at other players' votes to see how yours should be formatted. And you may check the tally to see that yours are counted as you intend them. I should find the 'how to vote' general post and link it here, I guess.
If you want to send a message to Bianca, keep in mind that she is a creature of another time. She may not understand what you mean if you don't take the time to make it clear. This game rewards and demands work from its players. When a player wants to introduce a concept or tool or technology to Bianca, that player will probably need to expend effort to explain it carefully, and take into consideration the limits of her understanding of the world. You might even need to consider her biases and values.
I think this is similar enough to Graeber's 'interpretive labor' that we can use the term colloquially to describe what is being asked of players. Put yourself in the mind of Bianca and ask yourself how such a person can be made to understand what you want to tell her.
Bianca has different values than we do. She has different assumptions about the world and objects and forces within it. Her goals may not align directly with number-go-up or color-get-big gaming agendas. But she wants power and will listen most attentively to players that tell her how to get more of or closer to what she wants.
Keep in mind that you players are not trusted advisors. You're the Astute Cacophony: voices that Bianca mostly can't tell apart from each other.
If the total amount of player-generated content gets to be more than I can handle either because there are so many players or because player posts get so long, I will set a cap. At this time, I intend that the cap will be some total number of characters, with each player who speaks to Bianca having access to an equal share. Unused share gets divided up among the rest of the players until it runs out. If each player's share seems too small, I will also set a limit on the number of players Bianca will hear in a Cacophonous Interlude. And priority will be assigned based on post order.
I guess ideally the story doesn't attract so many people who want to guide the uplift that I have to set these limits.
I do not at this time plan to set a limit on voting players. I don't see how that could get out of hand on a niche quest like this.
I guess ideally the story doesn't attract so many people who want to guide the uplift that I have to set these limits.
I do not at this time plan to set a limit on voting players. I don't see how that could get out of hand on a niche quest like this.
- I post and Threadmark a story update that has 3 parts:
- Bianca's responses to player posts made during the last Cacophonous Interlude, followed by 'B R E A K'
- An update by Bianca following a hiatus of varying length but usually some number of years, covering what she believes is worth mentioning
- Requests by Bianca for direction on a number of issues, which the players will provide in the form of votes
- Following each story update, players' posts are audible to Bianca until voting is closed.
This is the Cacophonous Interlude.- Players may convey any information they can represent in text.
- No images, sounds, or hyperlinks will get through (this is my limitation, not a limitation of the game, so please do not try to transcend it with clever protocol tricks).
- Players may use spoilers or code blocks to communicate with me and with each other without doing so in ways Bianca can hear.
- When votes are tallied, I collect player posts in an Informational so that it may be known what Bianca heard.
- Votes are tallied in the conventional fashion. So only votes in the most recent post by each player are counted. [X] marks what the player is voting for. And only effectively identical write-ins accumulate votes.
- You can vote your own write-in any time you want anyway, of course.
- I collect player posts and post them in the vote results for reference. This is the point where what is said in the Cacophonous Interlude is locked in.
- I read player posts, take notes, determine what Bianca already thinks she knows, and compose Bianca's in-line replies to those posts that invite replies.
- I research player advice, claims, and suggestions, check my notes for precedent, determine what Bianca's right or wrong about, how likely she is to engage with the topic, how likely Blanca's followers are to follow through in the matter, and finally what the result is going to be, later in the narrative.
- When the narrative benefits from uncertainty and chance, I devise tests for Bianca or other characters and make those tests using die rolls on a post made just for that purpose.
- Skill or attribute tests will be made with a largely undocumented homebrew that's mostly the Burning Wheel system, notably including War and Factions from the Burning Wheel Anthology -- which I really, really would have benefitted from the last time around -- on d10s with different 'shade' ranges (see below), no Artha, no Beliefs or Instincts, no Stock-exclusive skills, probably no Emotional Attributes, and clocks from Blades in the Dark because setting automation is fantastic. (The Burning Wheel is a good system and I encourage you to check it out.)
- I will post the dice, threshold of success, and results of each test before rolling it.
- Tests may:
- Be made by rolling one of an entity's attributes against a static target, or may
- Be made by two entities each rolling one of their attributes where the one with the greater result wins to some degree, and may
- Have absolute results, or may
- Have tiered results, and may
- Result in pyrrhic victories or welcome defeats.
- The rules being used and followed will be described in each Informational in which tests are made.
- Normal mortals count 7s and better toward success.
- Heroic characters and characters who are otherwise innately magical count 6s and better toward success, so long as what they're doing aligns with their heroism or their magical theme.
- Demigod characters and characters who otherwise possess some spark of divinity count 5s and better toward success, so long as what they're doing aligns with their divine heritage.
- Gods and count 4s and better toward success, as do their avatars, so long as what the avatar is doing aligns with the god's domains.
- Gods count 3s and better toward success when what they're going aligns with their domains.
- 1s and 2s never count toward success.
- Sorcery, other magic skills, and some magical tools lower the threshold of success by a non-cumulative 1 to a minimum of 3 only when they are or are essential to the skill being tested, not when they help with other skills. Players may note that a god's threshold of success when they are acting within their domain does not improve when they use magic or magical tools.
- Helping dice provided by magic, magical items, tame (not domesticated) warbeasts larger than hounds, or any incendiary devices more complicated than a burning arrow roll an additional die after each 9 or 10 and keep counting successes. Further 9s & 10s lead to further rolls. Unless the magic, magical item, or incendiary device is the product of an especially refined industry or practice (no exceptions for non-domesticated big warbeasts -- if the animal is dangerous to the enemy it is dangerous to everyone), these same helping dice cancel successes on 1s & 2s and roll another die for each 1 or 2. Additional 1s & 2s cancel additional successes. More 1s, 2s, 9s, or 10s mean more rerolling and more successes or cancelations, but only in the manner of the original die. That is, when a 9 or 10 on a helping die from war elephants provides an additional die and that die rolls a 1 or 2, that doesn't cancel successes or lead to further additional dice.
- When players expect a test -- for example if they vote for an invasion or to send a diplomat to manipulate a foreign leader -- they might be able to add helping dice to the test by providing Bianca with advice specific to that matter. If the advice is not mistaken or outright bad, there will be at least a chance it will help. Often, decent advice adds dice. Sometimes good advice may outright guarantee success, preventing the test entirely.
- I'm going to have to choose some kind of accumulation-of-progress-toward-a-goal mechanic that fits the faction clocks from Burning Wheel but I'm not sure about how that's going to work right now. Maybe Conflicts from Mouseguard or Torchbearer?
- Similarly, since this is an uplift quest and players will often provide incomplete but potentially sufficient information, some kind of test will be needed to see if Bianca and/or her minions are able to fill in the gaps and implement the desired technology. This is probably just going to be some skill test with a high obstacle and not-a-complete-failure thresholds that make the next test easier and whoops-all-on-fire-now thresholds that make the next test harder.
- Skill or attribute tests will be made with a largely undocumented homebrew that's mostly the Burning Wheel system, notably including War and Factions from the Burning Wheel Anthology -- which I really, really would have benefitted from the last time around -- on d10s with different 'shade' ranges (see below), no Artha, no Beliefs or Instincts, no Stock-exclusive skills, probably no Emotional Attributes, and clocks from Blades in the Dark because setting automation is fantastic. (The Burning Wheel is a good system and I encourage you to check it out.)
- I compose Bianca's post-hiatus update, new questions for vote, and new vote options.
- GOTO 1
Bianca will be the only character the players will directly interact with in this game.
Bianca is a human-shaped interface in the material world for a powerful soul entity. She's smaller than most of the human and human-like people she's met. And her phenotypic expression is unique from all surviving human-like populations. She looks really old and she'll tell you that she wears it well.
Bianca has magical abilities related to her original function as a vault guardian for her missing maker. She has other magical abilities related to the hundreds of years she spent traveling the world after she gave up waiting on her maker. As a being of divine heritage, Bianca counts 6s and better as successes on all tests. The nature of her divine heritage means she counts 5s and better as successes if what she's doing is related to getting into god crypts or similar, keeping others from getting into the same, or awakening great soul-things that have been cut off from the material world since the last time magic wasn't forbidden by reality. Other applications exist and haven't appeared in the game.
Bianca needs to return to the vault that her maker entrusted to her every few years for magical maintenance on her material form. She's pretty sure that if her material form is destroyed without injuring her soul and the stuff in that vault is intact she can rebuild her material 'body.'
Bianca has claimed to perform Soul Magic, Wayfinding Magic, and Healing Magic. She can also enchant objects under unspecified circumstances.
Despite sacrificing autonomy to connect with the Astute Cacophony, Bianca values her independence.
Bianca is a human-shaped interface in the material world for a powerful soul entity. She's smaller than most of the human and human-like people she's met. And her phenotypic expression is unique from all surviving human-like populations. She looks really old and she'll tell you that she wears it well.
Bianca has magical abilities related to her original function as a vault guardian for her missing maker. She has other magical abilities related to the hundreds of years she spent traveling the world after she gave up waiting on her maker. As a being of divine heritage, Bianca counts 6s and better as successes on all tests. The nature of her divine heritage means she counts 5s and better as successes if what she's doing is related to getting into god crypts or similar, keeping others from getting into the same, or awakening great soul-things that have been cut off from the material world since the last time magic wasn't forbidden by reality. Other applications exist and haven't appeared in the game.
Bianca needs to return to the vault that her maker entrusted to her every few years for magical maintenance on her material form. She's pretty sure that if her material form is destroyed without injuring her soul and the stuff in that vault is intact she can rebuild her material 'body.'
Bianca has claimed to perform Soul Magic, Wayfinding Magic, and Healing Magic. She can also enchant objects under unspecified circumstances.
Despite sacrificing autonomy to connect with the Astute Cacophony, Bianca values her independence.
- 1. Era Choice
- 2. Three Quests at the Dawn of the World
- 3. Launching the River Warrior's Legend
This list is of things that Bianca has described to exist in the setting independently (or -- later in play -- at least seemingly independently) of actions she has taken based on player advice.
Bianca reports failure
Bianca reports success - Skill exponent opened (if any)
- Language
- 'Wolves' (dogs)
- 'Hide' clothing
- 'Webs of vegetation' clothing
- Sharp sticks
- 'Broken rocks' (knapped stone tools and weapons)
- 'How to live in the places they go' (local plant, animal, mineral, weather, and geographic lore)
- 'Brimstone' (elemental sulfur at volcanic sites)
- Murder
- 'Dragon Glyphs' (actual ideograms (as opposed to logograms) that are used by or the product of magic)
- 'Counting by dozens, grosses, great gosses, and so on' (base-12 eunmeration)
- 'Dragon counting' (base-8)
- 'Bulbs that grow leaves like a hawk's tail' which nearly all people plant wherever they go
- Spreading the seeds of every plant they use as they travel
- 'Don't handle shit, don't eat rotten things, & keep the midden away from living spaces ' (very basic hygiene)
- Rope
- Gold, silver, iron, and copper (all very rare)
- Needles
- Thread
- 'Boats' (logs that dream of being as cool as caballito de totora but have a long way to go before they get there)
- 'Webs' (nets, this time)
- Resource raiding
- Poisoning
- 'Sunstead' (understanding of the seasons sufficient to identify a solstice)
- Bows and arrows
- Soft metal seen once that might have been lead
- "Where beasts' seeds fell outside the womb" (ectopic pregnancies in animals)
- Bees and honey
- Toys that spin in the wind
- 'Stones to weigh down webs' (weighted nets)
- Buckskin tanning
- Unicorns, horses, and zebras
- Unicorns are larger than horses, not as robustly build, and have a magic horn
- Zebras have family dynamics
- Stallions do not lead horse herds, they herd from the back
- Hills and walls of ice in high places and far north and south (Glaciers and polar caps)
- "The world is round like a perfect river stone"
- "There is something in the work that brains do with substance that touches the Soul Lands"
- Bone setters (she says people just figure that shit out all the time)
- Basket fishing and fish weirs
- Baskets in general
- Non-domesticated grains, beans, and nuts
- River dolphins
Bianca reports failure
Bianca reports success - Skill exponent opened (if any)
- Writing
- Paper
- Soot ink
- Printing press
- Cypher Wheel
- Farming
- Irrigation
- Evolution
- Selective breeding
- Food preservation
- Disease
- Sickmakers (pathogens)
- Wound care - Field Dressing
- Undersuckling (nutritional deficiency)
- Slow poisons
- 'Free problems' 'wardful flesh problems' (immune problems)
- Cankers (cancer)
- 'Origin problems' (genetic problems)
- Sickmakers (pathogens)
- Lye-making - no Skill opened
- Soap-making - no Skill opened
- 'The stain' (alcohol) making - Distiller
- Clay pots and other shapes - Potter
- Waterproofing clay with ash - no Skill opened
- Bricks & mortar - Mason
- 'Rock-cooking tower' (smelter) - Tree Cutter & Miner (kind of incidentally)
- 'Air-cooking tower' (blast furnace) - no Skill opened
- 'Bubbling cooking tower' (finery) - no Skill opened
- Metal
- Copper
- Malachite
- Chalcocite
- Tin
- Cassiterite
- Bronze
- Zinc
- Smithsonite and hemimorphite
- Brass
- Iron - Blacksmith
- Magnetite
- Hematite
- 'Firm iron' (steel) - no Skill opened
- Copper
- 'Blue-making' (steel bluing corrosion protection) - no Skill opened
- 'Fat on iron' (steel oiling corrosion protection) - no Skill opened
- 'Blow-bags (bellows) - no Skill opened
- 'Charred coals' (charcoal) - no Skill opened
- 'Biters' (tongs) - no Skill opened
- 'Burning' (annealing)
- 'Pot-ash-niter crystals' (potassium nitrate) - Munitions
- 'Outclappers' (explosives)
- The value of falsifiable claims (Scientific method)
- 'Improved midden' (covered latrine) - no Skill opened
- Long bows - Bowyer
- Fletched arrows - Fletcher
- 'Trunk and take' (block and tackle and related compound bow)
- 'returning doves (homing pigeons)
- Nose and mouth masks when in the presence of sick people
- Storm signs
- Birds fly low
- Smoke stays low
- People ache more
- Pests bites more
- Smells are stronger
- Clouds that are tall, fast, or change direction
- Certain people's headaches
- Volcanos should show up in lines (plate tectonics)
- Lighting lure - no Skill opened
- Bog iron - no Skill opened
- Boats
- Dugout boats - Boatwright
- Second boat fastened to first by stout branches (outrigger) - Carpentry
- Pitch - Pitch Collector
- Oars - Wood Carving
- Sail
- Seabirds fly away from land in the morning and toward it at night
- Shallow water reflects more light to the underside of clouds
- Buildings
- Cob
- Start walls below the ground (foundations)
- Fire in home with smoke pipe (fireplace and chimney)
- Arches - Architect
- Concrete
- 'Breaking rock with outclapping stuff' (blast mining with explosives)
- Tools
- 'Shover' (shovel)
- 'Point' (pick)
- 'Striker' (hoe)
- 'Cutter' (chisel)
- Breaking up rocks with fire
- Hafting by shrinkage and spike and even glue
- Agriculture
- Plow
- 'Dirt making' (compost) - Farming
- Basket with layers of green & brown, little water, ready 6 months later
- Use the seeds of the plants that work best
- Remove undesired plants
- Mushroom farming - Farmer
- Grow branches as forms for clay pipes
- Hills and ravines against flood rivers (levees and canals)
- 'Fighters that only fight' (Standing army)
- People should have a plan and a leader they'll listen to if they want to win combat
- And they should play at fighting to get better at fighting
- Murder axes should the lighter so they're faster
- Glassmaking
- Glue - Mending
- Liquor social
- Hypothermia recovery
- Math
- Vertical addition
- Vertical subtraction
- Partial product multiplication
- Long division
- Body weight poison determinism
- Saltpans - no Skill opened
- Phonetic alphabet - Read and Write
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