Doctor Malsyn wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:22 pm
*claps* Well, that was awkward! Kenmadragon, I see you had some nice intentions here, but you need to ask for permission before going in and rewriting someone's whole build. Extreme break down critique is meant to be my job, here! Have some faith in my abilities of a GM eh?
jmucchiello wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 2:44 pm
My apologies to everyone else in the thread.
...Yeah, after waking up and taking a shower, I realize that "No-Sleep Ken right after a long road-trip with family and a stressful holiday get-together with extended family" is probably not "Good decision-making & considerate of others Ken".
And looking back at what I posted, I fee like a real f*cking tool.
Sorry Malsyn, and I'm
really sorry jmucchiello... That was poorly done. There were plenty of ways I could have handled that better, and I clearly was too obtuse to consider otherwise.
Social stuff online has always been a struggle for me -- especially when I'm not in the best head-space. I usually prefer the whole "conversation by post" thing because I can typically take the time to actually think about what I'm writing before I do it, and go in to make edits if I need to change things -- easier than having to do that on the fly by talking to a person in real life. But it's still really f*cking hard to gauge how other people will react when all the lessons people give about "how to read a room" don't apply to an online format and you've gotta think it through a lot harder than just saying whatever the hell comes to mind like I usually do. Normally that involves me taking an hour to ponder over how to write something that would normally take, like, five minutes... but I suppose that just went out the f*cking window last night and I didn't have the presence of mind to realize it was very poorly done. Making my own version of the build as a thought experiment was one thing, but fucking posting and and explaining all my thoughts behind it was very much a mistake in the clarity of hindsight, a proper night's rest, a shower to clear my head and everyone pointing out "yes, that was stupidly done."
All I can say at this point is that I feel crummy about it and will try to be better in the future.
Also, thanks for pointing out that I was being a dick about it, I honestly appreciate the reminder of where the lines on what is and is not acceptable are to be drawn at times. Having them laid out sometimes is really f*cking helpful when I slip up and stick my foot in my mouth during a rant.
Speaking of being painfully unclear about the etiquette for things like this, should I just edit the post and delete the parts where I made a complete ass of myself by posting that build and the bullet-points and all that? I'm not really sure what the right move is here in this situation right now, and could really use some input lest I make a bigger mess of things by just doing it without asking about it first...
jmucchiello wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 12:13 pm
* Deciding to treat the Octa-Armor as an "Alien Bracelet that turns into a battle-suit" gave the justification to add a Feature to the entire Armor and make it Collapsible. That way, Shelley is never without access to the battle-suit. If she ever runs into trouble anywhere in her civilian identity, she just needs to activate the suit and will be immediately battle-ready.
This I might use.
Well, if there was at least one positive that can be taken from me putting my foot in my mouth and coming off as a total ass-hat, we can at least say you have an idea of where to put that point freed up by removing Favored Environment?
Yeah, I'm honestly not sure if that's something to focus on, though, because that's clearly not the takeaway from this situation.
Spectrum wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 4:21 pm
I've been having a lot of fun turning the concept of the game inside out- concentrating on the MMO genre and the streamer community.
I'll be honest, you have put a lot more thought into the "streamer" idea than I did when I was throwing up character ideas. My initial idea for it was something along the lines of "record videos of exploration and magic-adventures to post online because the graphics are just absolutely stunning" combined with "live-stream with the chat on so that people can see the pretty graphics LIVE!".
But the idea of having a PC who has to deal with an active, commenting fanbase and who builds their playstyle around being a streamer in the way you describe...
sounds exhausting. And it occurs to me that my idea of what "streaming" in an MMO would be like obviously doesn't gel with the way it probably would work with an MMO game IRL. Sam would be acting like this is a "Let's Play" or making a documentary about secret areas of Premium City and giving guides about how to explore some of the more obscure locales and stuff... but cultivating a fan base, gathering supporters, and putting on a persona to sell for entertainment doesn't sound like something "math and software nerd Sam" would find appealing in the slightest.
Hmn... might have to tweak that bit of the character background a bit. Rather than having Sam be a Streamer, maybe just one of those guys who posts recordings of "How to find <Some Cool Easter Egg or Secret Trick> in the game!" type of things, or just makes Lore Videos about the game's magical communities and what-not. Perhaps have his focus be on trying to test the verisimilitude of the game-world as designed by the God-Shard? It would fit with his real-world background as a mathematician and computer scientist who made his mark desigining such powerful AIs if he has a keen interest in testing the full extent of the God-Shard's ability to create detailed settings (albeit confined by the premise of an MMO and all the tropes those imply).
Thanks Spectrum! It's unfortunate that you won't be joining us in this campaign, but you've given me plenty of food for thought!
Doctor Malsyn wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 5:11 pm
@Kenmadragon: Reverse situation here, as I really like the background fluff of it all. Tons to work here if I want to bring in some mystical threats for you to fight in-game. And of course, having an arch-nemesis in the form of another player could be a lot of fun.
Glad to hear it! Especially since Spectrum's post gave me the inspiration to shift Sam's fascination with the game to move from "stream videos of the pretty graphics" to "explore the game's versimilitude and see how far the AI running the show can go".
Martin's Complications are predominantly related to
people in the game, both PCs and NPCs, and dealing with them should be a lot of fun because people are complicated and interacting with NPCs is an excellent way of testing how "real" the AI can make them.
...Now I'm wondering if Martin might gain another Complication in the future if he ends up falling for one of the NPCs in the process.
Doctor Malsyn wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 5:11 pm
I do agree with Vivid that there's some overlap between the two characters that could lead to some issues in-game. Perhaps nixing 'Conjuring from Thin Air' and 'Mischief of the Rakshasa' if you were both to enter the game, but we'll see how things progress.
With regards to overlap with Vivid's Operative, I'm fine with dropping Mischief of the Rakshasa. I'm not terribly attached to the Illusion power, though I should also point out that Exemplar
also has Illusion, just of a different kind. But I'm not really attached to the Illusion in either case.
...I'm much more hesitant to drop Conjuring -- making stuff appear out of thin air is fairly thematic and common trope for magicians. Especially now that Spectrum's inspired me to give Sam the motivation of testing the AI's limits, but I think that Sam/Martin is more likely to use it for either casual things or for just making temporary constructs that Warlock will need to focus on.
Besides, even though Operative and Warlock both have the Create power, we approach it from two
very different methods. Warlock's use of Create is far more fleeting that Operatives -- his lasts only so long as he has the power active in his Array and the instant he switches to use one of his other powers the objects vanished. Even then, once he conjures them, he can't move them because swapping to Move-Object would dispell the construct anyways. Operatives' constructs last for two minutes, even if she swaps to a different AE, and can be moved around or locked in place with impunity (so she could fling them around or hang them in thin air, unlike Warlock's whose constructs are subject to gravity), can be dispersed with a thought, and look very real.
From my perspective, Operative's Create feels far more useful than Warlocks', since she can do much more with hers than Warlock can with his. Only advantage Warlock's version has is that it's higher ranked and ranged. But they otherwise have very different descriptors (science vs magic) and seem to work quite differently in-use that I don't see the overlap as being as dramatic as it seems you guys are making it out to be?
Doctor Malsyn wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 5:11 pm
'Revelation of the Third Eye' I have some problems with, however. I presume it's a container power? It's a very powerful sensory ability due to having 30 points to load into it, and I'm not a fan of 'Quick-Cast Hedge Magic', especially with it's check-required flaw. You have +20 in expertise, and the DC is 12. That's less a flaw and more just free points. I think I'd prefer you to have a separate 'detect magic' power, with a scaled down version of True Seeing alt'd off it.
Yeah, I'm still workshopping that one. Was planning on just dropping off the Extras and the Check Required so it'd be a plain ol' Variable 1 for various cantrip-levels magics, none of the other frills to it. Standard action to change around, and still only five points and stuff.
Revelation of the Third Eye was meant mostly for non-combat and exploration -- gave Martin tools for finding magical secrets and hidden stuff, as well as options for looking at the after-math of mystical events and figuring out what happened so he could track down culprits and the like. The Variable was just added in so he could do cantrip-level magics while he did his "ooh, pretty magic colors" thing... and because it seemed like a waste to just leave those seven points inside the AE alone.
So, it's
kind of a container? Honestly, it could easily have been a single Senses power that combines the "detect magic" and the "true seeing" parts and then adds the enhanced Investigation+Perception skills to help make use of them (like a magical version of "detective mode" from the Arkham games)... with the Hedge Magic effect just tacked on because I had the points and wanted something so Martin could cast cantrips without needing to power-stunt for really cheap effects he uses just to roleplay as a wizard who uses magic for every frivolous whim.
Though, since I'm removing the Mischief of the Rakshasa power, I could always move that point over and make the Hedge Magic effect an AE off of Mystic Levitation -- though it opens up those points again, LOL.
Alternately, I might just replace it with Quickness and a flaw limiting the Quickness to use of the Expertise: Magic skill -- maybe describe it as "the Third Eye reveals pure magic, which makes using his Expertise skill
absurdly fast since he can just look at the magic and see how it flows and works with perfect clarity". I was originally toying around with using the points that way before I swapped over to using the Variable for it (though I kept the Quickness idea as a potential setting in my notes). Original thought behind it was to speed up design and implementation/cosntruction of Artificer gear and Rituals as a way of explaining "What is Martin's actual Job in-game". Because even if he's got a Sanctum, he still needs money for various odds and ends and he doesn't have a normal job so I figured Martin would pay for in-game-world expenses through selling magical stuff he makes or through desigining Ritual recipes for other players to use and having Quickness to make that whole thing go faster.
...Whoof, spent nearly 3 hours writing this all out and trying to find the right words for it all.... Then I hit 'Preview" and see there's already a bunch of posts that I need to read though again. Gah! Now i need another couple hours to figure out how to reply to the new stuff!
Screw it, I'm just gonna post what I've written so far and post again once I've gone through the new stuff!