Question 12

[Voidus]

Except that people would still have to rewrite posts. The storylines kind of get slowed up enough as it is, if there are enough perspective'd characters in the room. Note the scene in the MoNA where there was a little "meet 'n greet" between 13-ish characters and it lasted forever.

 

I don't want to be "that guy," especially since I'm relatively new here, but I think that the format for writing this RP just can't support a character like this without severe backlog.

 

I'm glad you're here, though.

It's not too different from any other character reaction, like if I wrote 'Firemancer threw a fireball at Lightwards' Kobold would still have to write up a response, with time travel at least some of the work is already done.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

It's not too different from any other character reaction, like if I wrote 'Firemancer threw a fireball at Lightwards' Kobold would still have to write up a response, with time travel at least some of the work is already done.

 

I don't know... I could see this creating some real nightmarish situations if multiple characters are involved, considering that it normally takes days for storyline cues to be responded to. If this guy used his powers near a perspective character it could easily add an extra RL extra week or two to the time it takes to resolve the situation.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Mckeedee123

[Blackhoof]

I think it depends on the situation, a single minute might only cover a single post of game-time, you know? Depends how fast or slow the action is going.

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

I think it depends on the situation, a single minute might only cover a single post of game-time, you know? Depends how fast or slow the action is going.

 

Think about action sequences, though... Fighting scenes usually aren't more than 30 seconds a post. Oftentimes they only cover about 15-20 seconds. That seems to be the most common situation in which the power would be used, too.

 

And ultimately, the end result isn't really much different than if this guy were simply a powerful precog (a power that's actually canon.) That's what's bothering me the most. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I think everyone has a point so far as Flashback's powers are concerned, but I'm inclined to side with Mckeedee here. Even with characters retaining their memories, and Flashback's key ability being the power to learn what he needs to do to change the future, there's still some strong potential for retconning. Here's the way I'm looking at it: 

 

Flashback greets Timeport. 

Timeport gives him a battle-ax to the face. 

Flashback goes back one minute and determines that the best way to avoid the battle-ax to the face is to not greet Timeport. 

 

In that case, mail-mi's post where Timeport gives Flashback a battle-ax to the face would now be irrelevant. Timeport would keep his memory, yes, but the original post wouldn't have happened, so the only thing Timeport could do in that case would be to either try and find Flashback or shrug it off—and with Timeport being the way he is, I don't think the latter is likely. 

 

If I'm misunderstanding the power here, please correct me, but this is how I'm currently reading it. 

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

Now that I think of it, though, making him a precog would be an excellent way to have the same powerset without all of the rewriting that would be involved with the current idea. He would still be just as obnoxious, sneaky, creepy, or awesome (depending on how you want to write him) but he'd be a heckuva lot easier to include. A heckavu lot easier, believe me. Your call, though.

 

Speaking of cues, by the way: Blackhoof's Lady Deathskull just introduced herself to two of your characters, Venture Mistborn, and the story is at somewhat at a standstill until they respond. Just sayin' (in a friendly reminder sort of way) in case you didn't pick it up. I hope we can get through the "bar intro" scene pretty quick and collectively move on to an Arena fight.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Mckeedee123

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Now that I think of it, though, making him a precog would be an excellent way to have the same powerset without all of the rewriting that would be involved with the current idea. He would still be just as obnoxious, sneaky, creepy, or awesome (depending on how you want to write him) but he'd be a heckuva lot easier to include. A heckavu lot easier, believe me. Your call, though.

 

He'd have to be a very limited precog, simply because we pants so much around here that practically all fight scenes at the very least would have to be scripted in advance, with his moves revised to compensate for other players' actions before posting. Picture him getting into a fight with CorpseMaker: 

 

CorpseMaker locked eyes with Flashback, nullifying his precognition. In five seconds he would be dead. 

Flashback saw CorpseMaker's death stare and power nullification coming one minute before it happened and was well out of CorpseMaker's range when CorpseMaker tried to kill him. 

 

It still renders the previous post irrelevant, unless there's a good bit of planning beforehand. And in any case, that much planning would be nigh-impossible, because the way we write this RP, there'd be almost no room for spontaneity beforehand. Either we say Flashback wasn't using his precognition when Deathwish said he looked like a girl and flirted accordingly, or we say Flashback saw all that coming and avoided it, rendering the previous post irrelevant. 

[Voidus]

I think everyone has a point so far as Flashback's powers are concerned, but I'm inclined to side with Mckeedee here. Even with characters retaining their memories, and Flashback's key ability being the power to learn what he needs to do to change the future, there's still some strong potential for retconning. Here's the way I'm looking at it: 

 

Flashback greets Timeport. 

Timeport gives him a battle-ax to the face. 

Flashback goes back one minute and determines that the best way to avoid the battle-ax to the face is to not greet Timeport. 

 

In that case, mail-mi's post where Timeport gives Flashback a battle-ax to the face would now be irrelevant. Timeport would keep his memory, yes, but the original post wouldn't have happened, so the only thing Timeport could do in that case would be to either try and find Flashback or shrug it off—and with Timeport being the way he is, I don't think the latter is likely. 

 

If I'm misunderstanding the power here, please correct me, but this is how I'm currently reading it. 

It's not too different to healing really, both parties still remember the event as though it had happened, it's just that Flashback isn't dead now.

 

Now that I think of it, though, making him a precog would be an excellent way to have the same powerset without all of the rewriting that would be involved with the current idea. He would still be just as obnoxious, sneaky, creepy, or awesome (depending on how you want to write him) but he'd be a heckuva lot easier to include. A heckavu lot easier, believe me. Your call, though.

 

Speaking of cues, by the way: Blackhoof's Lady Deathskull just introduced herself to two of your characters, Venture Mistborn, and the story is at somewhat at a standstill until they respond. Just sayin' (in a friendly reminder sort of way) in case you didn't pick it up. I hope we can get through the "bar intro" scene pretty quick and collectively move on to an Arena fight.

We haven't used precogs up til now because they're insanely hard to right with so many different authours, you'd either need to check ahead of time just exactly how every character in the scene would react before making your post or just have your precog inexplicably still able to be surprised by things.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

We haven't used precogs up til now because they're insanely hard to right with so many different authours, you'd either need to check ahead of time just exactly how every character in the scene would react before making your post or just have your precog be Backtrack, if Backtrack were a precog.*

 

*Fixed.  

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

He'd have to be a very limited precog, simply because we pants so much around here that practically all fight scenes at the very least would have to be scripted in advance, with his moves revised to compensate for other players' actions before posting. Picture him getting into a fight with CorpseMaker: 

 

CorpseMaker locked eyes with Flashback, nullifying his precognition. In five seconds he would be dead. 

Flashback saw CorpseMaker's death stare and power nullification coming one minute before it happened and was well out of CorpseMaker's range when CorpseMaker tried to kill him. 

 

It still renders the previous post irrelevant, unless there's a good bit of planning beforehand. And in any case, that much planning would be nigh-impossible, because the way we write this RP, there'd be almost no room for spontaneity beforehand. Either we say Flashback wasn't using his precognition when Deathwish said he looked like a girl and flirted accordingly, or we say Flashback saw all that coming and avoided it, rendering the previous post irrelevant. 

 

Arranging fights would be complicated, yes, but they're partially scripted already anyway. More importantly, the job of making the sequences work would go to King instead of the rest of us. Workload avoided 

 

Mostly, I just visualized him as having some extra knowledge. He basically just knows what would happen if he did not have knowledge of the future for a space of 10-ish seconds or so ahead of him.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Mckeedee123

[Blackhoof]

He could always have Fortuity level precognition if Paranoid likes that- he senses danger coming and avoids it accordingly. So Timepoet* could swing his axe at him, and then Paranoid writes that Flashback started moving almost before Timeport did and dodges the swing. We would just have to write, for Flashback, in a way that we normally wouldn't with deaths. So instead of "I shoot this guy in the head", write "I shoot, aiming for his head". And we could always assume that he is dodging any attack we send his way in any way he feasibly could. So Corpsemaker would try but fail to lock eyes with him, every gunshot would miss, etc.

*misspelled Timeport and it was too funny to change back XD

[Mckeedee123 he/him]

He could always have Fortuity level precognition if Paranoid likes that- he senses danger coming and avoids it accordingly. So Timepoet* could swing his axe at him, and then Paranoid writes that Flashback started moving almost before Timeport did and dodges the swing. We would just have to write, for Flashback, in a way that we normally wouldn't with deaths. So instead of "I shoot this guy in the head", write "I shoot, aiming for his head". And we could always assume that he is dodging any attack we send his way in any way he feasibly could. So Corpsemaker would try but fail to lock eyes with him, every gunshot would miss, etc.

*misspelled Timeport and it was too funny to change back XD

 

Or we could just pretend he's burning Atium, except without the enhanced reflexes (or maybe with them... either way.)

Edited June 12, 2015 by Mckeedee123

[Voidus]

He could always have Fortuity level precognition if Paranoid likes that- he senses danger coming and avoids it accordingly. So Timepoet* could swing his axe at him, and then Paranoid writes that Flashback started moving almost before Timeport did and dodges the swing. We would just have to write, for Flashback, in a way that we normally wouldn't with deaths. So instead of "I shoot this guy in the head", write "I shoot, aiming for his head". And we could always assume that he is dodging any attack we send his way in any way he feasibly could. So Corpsemaker would try but fail to lock eyes with him, every gunshot would miss, etc.

*misspelled Timeport and it was too funny to change back XD

It's pretty bad manners to say you shot a character in the head without permission anyway but I get your point. So yes that works as just a dangersense PI but without powers limited dangersense like that is pretty useless, Fortuity it seemed could predict at least several seconds in advance and didn't someone ask him to predict something about the coming day?

It also kindof negates his whole spy character if it's just a dangersense, I really don't think the time travel thing is that big a deal, I even had a character called Rewind who could loop time in a somewhat similar manner that I think Twi used in backstory somewhere.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Yesterday I thought it has been awefully quiet here the last couple of days and now look at all the stuff going on today,   let's hope I got everything.

 

Okay, perhaps he sends the zeppelin on ahead, which by the way could be camouflaged as I never specified the color, and he could approach the museum by a much smaller and less obvious balloon. Or perhaps they went really high, and he could skydive to the museum, go in through one of the rear windows, get chased by dinosaurs into the main hall, get shot, then explode things.

I supposse using the zepplin that has a brightly glowing gravitron device, that would make it easily visible given the dark sky, as a distraction works. Not so sure about a humans chance to not to be easily outrun and caught by a dinosaur but I guess you can go ahead with getting your character killed to cause some easily repaired damage and derail the plot (although probably not for a long while given both the intel available to Lightwards and the difference in strenght) in a way that will get rid of the MEE long before it has outlived it's use for us.

I'll also go and make some alterations to the last Lucentia segment.

 

Message to all players with characters in The Dalles:

 

 

In most RP threads, weaknesses are to be PMed both to Our Lady Empress TwiLyghtSansSparkles and the sub-GM of the specific city, usually Edgedancer or Comatose. The Dalles, largely as we were novices at game expansion at the time, has never really enforced that as a rule.

 

This past couple of days Twi and I have been discussing whether I should become privy to Epic weaknesses in The Dalles. There are many factors I've been considering, and it seems like a good idea to me--but then, I'm a bit biased. So I thought I'd take it straight to the people and see what they think.

 

My main reasons for wanting to see weaknesses are as such:

 

• Since I effectively control the entire Dalles City Guard, the chances of me absentmindedly creating a new setting detail that happens to set off someone's weakness are not inconceivable. If I were to be made aware of weaknesses, I could make sure I don't set any off without their players' permission.
• Vondra works hard at uncovering the weaknesses of the Epics in his employ. If people tell me their characters' weaknesses, we could either guide him to them or steer him down the wrong rabbit holes. Whatever makes for a better story.
• Going slightly mad with power. [Lucentia whine] Comatose and Edgedancer get to see weaknesses! Why can't I? [/Lucentia whine]

 

So that's that, fellow Oregon RPers. The choice of weaknesses is pretty much up to you now, so tell me what you think.

I'm in the same boat as Voidus in that I've already told you the weakness of all my characters but I can send them to you again in a PM for easier reference, if you want to.

 

I'm planning out a healer character for Corvallis.  Right now, I'm thinking a damage transference power, similar to Deathwish and Decoy (that NPC epic who died in my first Corvallis post).  This epic would basically have the power to transfer damage from one body (the patient) to another.  Both have to be living, so it wouldn't work to transfer the injuries to corpses.  What I like with this power is it works well with Euphoria's ability, and could cause problems without Euphoria to compliment it.  What I'm imagining is that this epic transfers injuries and illnesses from more useful people (mostly epics) to less useful people (usually vanillas), and keeps a bunch of invalids around to transfer injuries and illnesses to until they die of them.  These invalids would be kept happy with their state by Euphoria's power, but with her gone, I think they will become much less satisfied with their situation, causing problems for the Doctor.  

 

Thoughts?

As you yourself point out his power works on the same principle as Deathwish's, so talking about wheter or not it works is kind of a moot point. What I'm more worried about is that using him only as a healer would be a waste. He could easily kill Epics like Converter (though she would still resurrect) or Bubbles and Rainmaker with only a bit of effort. If he can actually use his power on himself he would easily be one of the strongest characters in the entire RP.

 

It's an awesome idea, but would it work? Even though he's not a gifter, a few AMA answers have implied that Epic powers interfere with one another, so I don't know if he'd be able to use his power on Epics or not.

On the interference bit, I'm of the opinion that the inteference happens if the power has to stay with/become a part of the other Epic like with gifting ior mind cintrol, which admiddetly is a bit of a vague guideline.

 

Except that people would still have to rewrite posts. The storylines kind of get slowed up enough as it is, if there are enough perspective'd characters in the room. Note the scene in the MoNA where there was a little "meet 'n greet" between 13-ish characters and it lasted forever.

 

I don't want to be "that guy," especially since I'm relatively new here, but I think that the format for writing this RP just can't support a character like this without severe backlog.

 

I'm glad you're here, though.

No no please feel no need to hold back on being "that guy" if anything it's refreshing for me not to be the only massive nitpicker around.

 

It's pretty bad manners to say you shot a character in the head without permission anyway but I get your point. So yes that works as just a dangersense PI but without powers limited dangersense like that is pretty useless, Fortuity it seemed could predict at least several seconds in advance and didn't someone ask him to predict something about the coming day?
It also kindof negates his whole spy character if it's just a dangersense, I really don't think the time travel thing is that big a deal, I even had a character called Rewind who could loop time in a somewhat similar manner that I think Twi used in backstory somewhere.

Yeah, the effort of a time rewinder and a Precog powerful enough to achive the same effect don't really have much on each other, just with the exception that the precog variant wouldn't be able to cause character growth compared to the rewind with keeping memories variant.

[Kobold King he/him]

I'm in the same boat as Voidus in that I've already told you the weakness of all my characters but I can send them to you again in a PM for easier reference, if you want to.

 

I would appreciate that. I don't actually remember Shiny Sparkle's weakness at all.

[Paranoid King he/him]

A precog makes sense when it's pretty much the same effect either way. But then to make his name fit, I would want him to be able to discover an object's recent history by touching it. (secret conversation happened in room, flashback goes into room, touches sofa, gets secret plans.)

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

A precog makes sense when it's pretty much the same effect either way. But then to make his name fit, I would want him to be able to discover an object's recent history by touching it. (secret conversation happened in room, flashback goes into room, touches sofa, gets secret plans.)

I still think a precog with anything but a sort of Spidy-sense would be very difficult to sustain in this format.

[Kobold King he/him]

A precog makes sense when it's pretty much the same effect either way. But then to make his name fit, I would want him to be able to discover an object's recent history by touching it. (secret conversation happened in room, flashback goes into room, touches sofa, gets secret plans.)

 

Just so you know, we already have a retrocog, albeit one who can see history going back millions of years. How powerful were you considering this retrocognition being?

[Paranoid King he/him]

Just so you know, we already have a retrocog, albeit one who can see history going back millions of years. How powerful were you considering this retrocognition being?

About a week.

[Kobold King he/him]

About a week.

 

Hmm. I was hoping to keep Backtrack unique in the retrocog department, but I suppose this is limited enough that it doesn't supplant Backtrack's hard-earned usefulness.

Edited June 12, 2015 by Kobold King

[Edgedancer he/him]

Hmm. I was hoping to keep Backtrack unique in the retrocog department, but I suppose this is limited enough that it doesn't supplant Backtrack's hard-earned usefulness.

Being Backtrack is suffering.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Poor Backtrack. He can't even be unique anymore.

[Edgedancer he/him]

Poor Backtrack. He can't even be unique anymore.

Or we simply go with the rewinding. It's not like we actually save any amount of effort on doing it this way.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Or we simply go with the rewinding. It's not like we actually save any amount of effort on doing it this way.

If we do this, I propose making it so Flashback is in the exact same place he was before the rewinding, so as not to make previous posts moot. He'd be able to see the best way to dodge or where to run while rewinding.

Edited June 12, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[Paranoid King he/him]

Keep in mind that Flashback's ability is object-oriented: He can pickpocket a watch from someone and figure out where the person carrying it was yesterday.

 

So you don't need to worry, Backtrack is still unique