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You Are: A sector admiral of a strained imperium.

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[X] Arrest Her. She is attempting conspiracy to treason, broadcast to all ships that she is a traitor then board the Fafnir and take her captive.
 
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Gunman said:
I hate to "white knight" a QM because @Packrat is an adult who can handle polite constructive criticism but this wasn't as bad as the last time. This time there were a handful of votes and not even a plurality. He keeps a the quest moving at a fast pace and we all appreciate that.
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kaeim said:
I appreciate a fast paced quest, but I also appreciate votes and discussion on what is clearly a well thought out and detailed world that has already made me had to rethink about my own ethics and opinions on things. The problem is that we don't know when a vote is going to be closed, or even when its been closed. I mean, no offence to the QM, but its a unwritten common curtesy to let people know when the vote is tallied and closed.

I also know that there's been a few times now when a update has come, and it turned out that the original plan that @Packrat had been working from had actually lost the vote.
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To add to this myself, beyond just agreeing wholesale with kaeim on the matter of quest etiquette (seriously, there's a reason that every quest but this one I've ever read actually closes votes before writing up). No, I don't appreciate a fast moving quest when it sabotages quester agency and directly reduces the ability of questers invested in the quest to bring their ideas as part of the hive-mind controlling the MC to the table. QM overrides are to be used when consensus doesn't appear at all - a flat draw - but only when given sufficient time. This entire 'noble scion' plotline has been a chain of fast-closed votes, and we've been flailing the entire time for context to make decisions with, which hasn't been given. Frankly, I'd prefer more context and world-expansion so we can actually make choices from a baseline similar to what our MC would be able to than speed-running some of the most important decisions of the quest so far.
 
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I understand how you feel @Snowfire . Reinhard is not a desperate bitch who will throw himself at the first rich woman to shakes a wad of cash in front of us. Still, she has been reasonable enough and I believe we have a shot at actually marrying her.

It is too bad @Packrat didn't give us an out to put this off so we can receive advice from Sones and have the time to digest what happened. We're stuck between hiding under the skirt of the Viscountess or Governor General depending on the choice we make.
 
DarknessSmiles said:
We literally are unable to record any of this. The big issue with the arrest option is we have no proof. Zero. Its our word against hers and she is a viscountess.
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Our own side is recorded, and there is the question of how much proof we really need for House Arslan to not throw her to the wolves or for the Imperial dynasty to prosecute her.
 
I'm inclined to simply refuse and wait until we can bring in the Gov General as a heavy-weight to back us up in the subterfuge department. The issue, of course, is delay.

The other issue is that we're likely about to start shooting our own ships and her other two cruisers are more likely to be personally loyal to her.

On the other hand arresting her now prevents her from potentially actig against us.

On the other other hand we're probably about to strip down our potential combat power.

It's a tough choice. I'm not sure I like arrest, but I'm also cautious by nature.

EDIT: the more I think about it the more I feel like Refusal gives us more flexibility and the ability to do said reflection. She'll be worried about us but we won't have outright made an enemy of her; we can always approach her again later if we feel the need.

Morally and ethically, I am inclined to like "arrest", though. I like loyalty as a character trait.
 
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Well @Snowfire why not simply put up your write-in option anyway for completeness sake. If its good and enough people vote for it im sure packrat might be swayed.

Anyway until that time:


[X] Demand A Lot More. Agree to her proposal only if she will make you a baron immediately, with another five shares to follow and a guarantee that you will be given strategic command when you openly move to her families' side in the future. Given people will know where the shares come from, this is going to make it obvious that you are a client of House Arslan, but also a terrifyingly valued one. You would be asking for the value of a planet or nearly two squadrons of capital ships, enough to build up House Arslan's navy by at least a fifth and probably a quarter instead.
[X] Infrastructure & Surrender. You will limit bombardment of Chuang Mu to infrastructure and take the monitor's surrender. You will seek to provoke the war another way.

Going with Gunman here. The Arrest option gives us just enemies. This gives us resources (and enemies). Since i have no clue whether the current Empress is ruling well or bad i'll go with the folks who hand me the most dosh.
 
@Packrat do we get to keep our diplomacy or will it be reduced? This affects how we vote. If we have a diplomacy of 7 we can't demand more.

Gunman said:
If it takes a turn for us to feel the diplomacy bonus of an increased lifestyle, why not let us keep the high Diplomacy for a turn that is about to end?
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How off am I about the possibility of marrying her? She hinted we can become a Prince if we cooperate. If you don't want to give possible spoilers, is there any precedent of extraordinary upjumped serfs marrying ducal heirs?

Gunman said:
I am certain @Packrat planned this all along. I don't know if you were around for the conversation @George but the thread once argued over the merits of restarting the relationship with Ranca and marrying or waiting for a better match when Reinhard has more fame and power. The next update we are informed of a ducal heiress arriving as reinforcements. I was suspicious then but didn't say anything. Now that she is hinting at the possibility of becoming a Prince? There are only so many ways we can become one. Packrat could be intentionally leading me to the wrong conclusion, but she is the opposite of Ranca in terms of marriage material. Ranca is a black sheep of her family and will inherit the position of Countess. Arslan is a Viscountess, heiress to a Ducal House that is the most powerful of the seven and one that intends to take the throne. A relationship with her would start for political reasons whereas the relationship with Ranca starts as a romantic relationship.
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[X] Arrest Her. She is attempting conspiracy to treason, broadcast to all ships that she is a traitor then board the Fafnir and take her captive.

Stop right there, criminal scum!
 
Valerian said:
What if all of this is a game to them? A high-stakes drama like Game of Thrones, except its live.
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I'll bet they can make better TV shows in their movie studios (or equivalents thereof). More likely, the rest of the galaxy looks like space-Syria to them and the overall gestalt is indecisive and occasionally pulling strings to make things better and getting frustrated when it doesn't work.

@Packrat: On the issue of update speed, in general I've not felt that you've been going too fast. But this whole conversation with the Viscountess... Yes, you're going too fast. I didn't even have enough information to make a vote after update 29. Also, I didn't feel that the conversation in update 29 resembled very much what we actually agreed to say to the Viscountess. So... At the moment I am feeling railroaded here and kinda want this scene to end in the way you want so that us players can get on with real choices and real interaction with the universe... I am assuming that this impression is just because you are wanting to keep momentum going and because you looked at an old version of Snowfire's plan while writing the update, even so, it's disheartening. In future, I'd advise that you give more time for players to discuss and ask questions during major plot turning points like this.

Criticism aside, the thrust of the plot is very interesting, so don't get discouraged by the players taking issue with one element of how you've managed the quest. These things happen to all GMs and QMs.

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Onto the choice of this update...

[] Demand More. Agree to her proposal in return for five shares, sufficient to make you a baron, along with assurance of strategic command when you openly move to the side of her family in future. This will make it obvious that you are a client of House Arslan, people take note of that level of share transfer. You would be asking for the value of a pair of battlecruisers with screening fast ships or a flotilla of light cruisers, a significant investment even for a rich ducal house.

I am inclined to this since if she agrees, since it's much harder for her to dispose of Reinhard if he's obviously joined her. It's not good politics to dispose of people you've very publicly bought.

[] Infrastructure & Surrender. You will limit bombardment of Chuang Mu to infrastructure and take the monitor's surrender. You will seek to provoke the war another way.

And to attach these conditions to it.

fasquardon
 
Ghazkull said:
Well @Snowfire why not simply put up your write-in option anyway for completeness sake. If its good and enough people vote for it im sure packrat might be swayed.
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There's no point. It's past the point where it would do anything, and there's no write-in option for the vote. To be honest, if there was I'd be arresting her for Conduct Unbecoming an Officer or some shit like that to give us time. But again, no-write in option. @Packrat clearly wants to force us to pick from the options present, so there's no point trying to create new ones.
 
And guys. Demanding a lot more and then not going with her plan just probably doesnt work at all. It would almost definitely require an insanly hard diplomacy roll, probably with our base diplo score.
 
ya I gotta say I am dissapointed with the way @Packrat has been forcing these votes over and over again. Though to be fair a LOT of people also need to stop being idiots and waiting for 1 person to make their plans so they can bloc vote. They need to start thinking for themselves so that packrat does not feel the NEED to push the quest forward.


honestly though I am not even going to bother voting here, and if it happens again I will probs end up dropping the quest because it will have stopped being one. And this is no where near good enough for me to read as a regular fiction.
 
Snowfire said:
There's no point. It's past the point where it would do anything, and there's no write-in option for the vote. To be honest, if there was I'd be arresting her for Conduct Unbecoming an Officer or some shit like that to give us time. But again, no-write in option. @Packrat clearly wants to force us to pick from the options present, so there's no point trying to create new ones.
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I'm not sure anyone other than you has any idea what a viable third option would look like. We can't read your mind and you've carefully kept it secret, so it's not much surprise the quest moved on...
 
DarknessSmiles said:
And guys. Demanding a lot more and then not going with her plan just probably doesnt work at all. It would almost definitely require an insanly hard diplomacy roll, probably with our base diplo score.
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On the other hand, if people are trying to say "no" without saying "no", it could maybe be the best option.

Honestly, I think "demand alot more" just makes Reinhard look greedy. But I for one would shed no tears if we went with "demand more", attached conditions, failed the diplo roll and had to blow this person to space dust...

Then Reinhard can go become a pirate, because nuts to the Imperium! (OK, maybe we should build up our cadre of loyal officers first.)

fasquardon
 
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