Question 20

[the winter system]

I’m not very sure about time stuff. It’s always a bit confusing to think about.

[DrakeMarshall]

To be fair, I'm pretty sure most characters wouldn't really get it either. They would just know that if you try to cross a barrier it speeds everything up around you, and in fast-zones it slows everything down around you.

[Bladestorm]

1 hour ago, Drake Marshall said:

I would suggest that epics with stronger offensive powers should tend towards glass cannons, while epics with prime invincibility should tend towards weaker offense.

Basic admittedly makes more sense. But I kind of like maples. I wouldn't be against both being used.

This reminds me of Khepri.

Have yet another pitch.

 

For the last couple years, Edmonton has been under the rule of Epoch. Epoch is a time epic with a prime invincibility of reincarnation, and the ability to create areas of increased or decreased flow of time. This power is not very precise, and creating such an area takes time, but the area of effect can be very large.

Shortly after taking control, they did several things:

• Placed barriers of slowed time to regulate travel. All of the city's borders were blocked off, and the city was divided into five sectors. It is possible to cross these barriers, but even in a speeding car you'll lose about a day in the outside world, and the enforcers will get you for it.
• Placed several corridors of accelerated time, overlaying the highway system. These corridors connect the five sectors, and a single passage controls travel in and out of the city. These corridors form a network of extremely fast transportation.
• Placed a speed-time effect over all of sector 5, the agricultural sector. Crops grow at about 10x speed in here. It also gets about 1/10 the sunlight though, so artificial lighting is required. From the outside world, people who work here appear to age very quickly.

For a long time, Epoch ruled Edmonton fairly unequivocally. He controlled the infrastructure and he could not permanently be killed. Anyone who attacked the city would inevitably find themselves lured into a region of slow time and then overwhelmed by Epoch's enforcers.

At the start of the RP, there are two major catalysts that change everything:

• There are an influx of displaced epics from other regions into Edmonton. Some of them are fleeing the destruction in Oregon, some of them are fleeing an unpopular new dictatorship in Calgary. Edmonton is an obvious choice for many opportunistic epics who want their very own territory. It's small enough to stay beneath the notice of a really powerful epic, but thanks to Epoch's power it is quite prosperous.
• Somebody discovers Epoch's weakness. And then promptly sends out a message to every mobile in Edmonton announcing said weakness. Epoch was never much of a front-line fighter in the first place, but has become exponentially more reclusive and paranoid now that everyone in the city knows how to kill him. He is still entrenched as ruler of the city, with several lesser epic underlings plus a team of trained maple enforcers, but his position is obviously weakened, and the new epics in town are poised to take advantage of the fact.

Thoughts?

I really really like this idea. I say we run with it.

Would you be writing for Epoch(great name) and his team of enforcers?

[DrakeMarshall]

I would be happy to write for Epoch, if this backstory actually catches on.

I would also be fine with letting somebody else write for Epoch if they wanted to.

[Kidpen]

1 minute ago, Drake Marshall said:

I would be happy to write for Epoch, if this backstory actually catches on.

I would also be fine with letting somebody else write for Epoch if they wanted to.

2000th post. Good job!

[Bladestorm]

2 minutes ago, Drake Marshall said:

I would be happy to write for Epoch, if this backstory actually catches on.

I would also be fine with letting somebody else write for Epoch if they wanted to.

2000 posts! 

Also I’m a fan of the “many similar sized factions” idea, so it would be cool if his enforcers were pretty average. Skilled, but not like deathgale and Bloody Mary we’re for lucientia.

That way there could be both a reason for them to try to recruit new Epics to the guard and a way for other factions to present a serious threat.

[DrakeMarshall]

15 minutes ago, Bladestorm said:

2000 posts! 

Also I’m a fan of the “many similar sized factions” idea, so it would be cool if his enforcers were pretty average. Skilled, but not like deathgale and Bloody Mary we’re for lucientia.

That way there could be both a reason for them to try to recruit new Epics to the guard and a way for other factions to present a serious threat.

2000, huh. Didn't notice that 

And yes, I quite agree on the "many similar sized factions" front. If the Epoch thing happens, I would want his ultimate fate to be that a worthy newcomer epic murders him at some point in the story. The time zones he created would stick around after his death, and everybody would pretty much just carry on making their bids for control over the city.

[Bladestorm]

So for my two Epics, Knox and Silhouette(who I’m thinking of renaming shadowboxer) I think I’ll have them stroll into town and try to take on the upper class of the city. Maybe an Epic guard who’s been living a little too lavishly? 

[the winter system]

Meanwhile, we have Chaos Agent trying to start fights for the lulz. Red going after Voidgaze, as she is the High Epic who managed to take down Nighthound, would be kinda funny. 

Hey what if I named them Discord. Cause like. Reality warper. There for the lulz. You know.

[Kidpen]

My epic, who I am tentatively thinking about Armageddon for his name, (He chose it himself.) will probably try to either find away to stay hidden, but also talk to as many people as possible about his mission. I've never done this before, obviously, so I'll probably wait for a bit of activity other than me before I post anything.

[Voidus]

I like the time dilation idea as a means of separating the city out, but that seems to be more of a utility Epic to me rather than one capable of single-handedly controlling a city without major rivals. I would suggest just have the city controlled by a handful of groups, Epoch leading one of them and kind of hiring his powers out to the other factions when they want their use.

Alternative city backstory / backstory for another city if we branch out: One prominent Epic in the city is a web-user, similar to spiderman but capable of creating webs remotely and of a much larger scale. The city buildings are connected at higher stories by large silk pathways, some lone threads hang off of other buildings. Major roadways are blocked off entirely to inhibit travel, and some houses are completely enmeshed in webbing, doors and windows sealed off and their inhabitants trapped inside.

And now that I've started planning for cities I'm going to spend the next few hours creating a binder full of city ideas.

[Arrae]

The vanilla I'm doing (haven't thought of a name yet) is probably going to be accidentally spreading chaos in the refugee group via information that's wrong for the Reckonersverse. So, if you want a vanilla who encourages anybody with powers to fight or make things so their powers don't mess them up big-time later...  Well, lets see how many people make it out of that group, hmm?

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

So Prof made some cool Epic-tech, helped with it, but I bet he wasn't the only one. I suggest a Maple that is doing the same sort of thing, but in Canada. He  (or she) could be off-map, and only referred to, or could make an actual appearance. Is this a cleared idea?

[Bladestorm]

34 minutes ago, Hemalurgic Headshot said:

So Prof made some cool Epic-tech, helped with it, but I bet he wasn't the only one. I suggest a Maple that is doing the same sort of thing, but in Canada. He  (or she) could be off-map, and only referred to, or could make an actual appearance. Is this a cleared idea?

Well prof didn’t make it, but I get your point. What would this character do?

[Hemalurgic Headshot]

14 minutes ago, Bladestorm said:

Well prof didn’t make it, but I get your point. What would this character do?

My Reckoners knowledge is a little rusty. This character takes existing things and adds Epic-tech to it. Like this weed-wacker can now phase through space-time. Something like that. Pretty much, the character would live in seclusion, known only to a few who act as the character's lifeline (one of these is Liam the Moose). These guardians of a sort in return get cool gadgets.

It sounds cool to me, at least.

[Edgedancer]

 

6 hours ago, Drake Marshall said:

Have yet another pitch.

 

For the last couple years, Edmonton has been under the rule of Epoch. Epoch is a time epic with a prime invincibility of reincarnation, and the ability to create areas of increased or decreased flow of time. This power is not very precise, and creating such an area takes time, but the area of effect can be very large.

Shortly after taking control, they did several things:

• Placed barriers of slowed time to regulate travel. All of the city's borders were blocked off, and the city was divided into five sectors. It is possible to cross these barriers, but even in a speeding car you'll lose about a day in the outside world, and the enforcers will get you for it.
• Placed several corridors of accelerated time, overlaying the highway system. These corridors connect the five sectors, and a single passage controls travel in and out of the city. These corridors form a network of extremely fast transportation.
• Placed a speed-time effect over all of sector 5, the agricultural sector. Crops grow at about 10x speed in here. It also gets about 1/10 the sunlight though, so artificial lighting is required. From the outside world, people who work here appear to age very quickly.

For a long time, Epoch ruled Edmonton fairly unequivocally. He controlled the infrastructure and he could not permanently be killed. Anyone who attacked the city would inevitably find themselves lured into a region of slow time and then overwhelmed by Epoch's enforcers.

At the start of the RP, there are two major catalysts that change everything:

• There are an influx of displaced epics from other regions into Edmonton. Some of them are fleeing the destruction in Oregon, some of them are fleeing an unpopular new dictatorship in Calgary. Edmonton is an obvious choice for many opportunistic epics who want their very own territory. It's small enough to stay beneath the notice of a really powerful epic, but thanks to Epoch's power it is quite prosperous.
• Somebody discovers Epoch's weakness. And then promptly sends out a message to every mobile in Edmonton announcing said weakness. Epoch was never much of a front-line fighter in the first place, but has become exponentially more reclusive and paranoid now that everyone in the city knows how to kill him. He is still entrenched as ruler of the city, with several lesser epic underlings plus a team of trained maple enforcers, but his position is obviously weakened, and the new epics in town are poised to take advantage of the fact.

Thoughts?

I like it in concept, though I think I should point out that the timezones would not only be confusing for the characters but likely also for us, the players. Especially when it comes to keeping track of time relative to other characters. 

3 hours ago, winter devotion said:

Meanwhile, we have Chaos Agent trying to start fights for the lulz. Red going after Voidgaze, as she is the High Epic who managed to take down Nighthound, would be kinda funny. 

Hey what if I named them Discord. Cause like. Reality warper. There for the lulz. You know.

Discord works though I'm actually starting to warm up to Chaos Agent.

2 hours ago, Voidus said:

I like the time dilation idea as a means of separating the city out, but that seems to be more of a utility Epic to me rather than one capable of single-handedly controlling a city without major rivals. I would suggest just have the city controlled by a handful of groups, Epoch leading one of them and kind of hiring his powers out to the other factions when they want their use.

Also that, yes. Though if we go back to multiple factions we're either starting with a rather stable city or are back to Portland dynamics. In either case, the weakness of one of those Epics being leaked isn't really much of a draw for people to migrate to the town. 

[DrakeMarshall]

3 hours ago, Voidus said:

I like the time dilation idea as a means of separating the city out, but that seems to be more of a utility Epic to me rather than one capable of single-handedly controlling a city without major rivals. I would suggest just have the city controlled by a handful of groups, Epoch leading one of them and kind of hiring his powers out to the other factions when they want their use.

Alternative city backstory / backstory for another city if we branch out: One prominent Epic in the city is a web-user, similar to spiderman but capable of creating webs remotely and of a much larger scale. The city buildings are connected at higher stories by large silk pathways, some lone threads hang off of other buildings. Major roadways are blocked off entirely to inhibit travel, and some houses are completely enmeshed in webbing, doors and windows sealed off and their inhabitants trapped inside.

And now that I've started planning for cities I'm going to spend the next few hours creating a binder full of city ideas.

I like the web idea. That would be fun.

I’m okay with giving Epoch rivals, if Epoch is even a thing. But I do actually have a rationale for why Epoch would be initially in charge:

1. Control is not all about being the toughest person in a fair fight. Utility is actually pretty important. Epoch has a knack for tactics, and the power to easily control commerce and transportation. He can afford to hire the city’s largest army of redshirts with guns (and even some lesser powers), he can slow the progress of invaders to a crawl, and he can drop speed bubbles to let his redshirt army prepare tailor made death traps. From there, he can recruit more combat-oriented epics.

2. There really weren’t that many powerful epics in town before. It was of coarse inevitable that someday somebody powerful would come along and dethrone Epoch, and that is exactly what is happening in the RP.

1 hour ago, Hemalurgic Headshot said:

My Reckoners knowledge is a little rusty. This character takes existing things and adds Epic-tech to it. Like this weed-wacker can now phase through space-time. Something like that. Pretty much, the character would live in seclusion, known only to a few who act as the character's lifeline (one of these is Liam the Moose). These guardians of a sort in return get cool gadgets.

It sounds cool to me, at least.

That sounds cool to me too  It would be fun to have somebody in the RP that makes motivator tech, and to my knowledge this doesn’t break canon.

45 minutes ago, Edgedancer said:

I like it in concept, though I think I should point out that the timezones would not only be confusing for the characters but likely also for us, the players. Especially when it comes to keeping track of time relative to other characters.

I’m perfectly happy not having Epoch be a thing if the time powers are too mind-screwy. I honestly did not expect this would be a real candidate when I started writing, I just wanted to play with a different take on “portal system” and “canyons” 

Edited June 24, 2018 by Drake Marshall

[The Young Pyromancer]

If that ended up happening we might split into basically 2/3 threads sharing the same space because of different time gaps.

[antgrgmn]

I really like the idea of Epoch, as long as his powers don’t make the timeline too wonky.

With Borrower, I’ll probably have him lay low, at least by epic standards, until he can find someone, or some group, powerful enough to imitate. 

[Voidus]

3 hours ago, Hemalurgic Headshot said:

So Prof made some cool Epic-tech, helped with it, but I bet he wasn't the only one. I suggest a Maple that is doing the same sort of thing, but in Canada. He  (or she) could be off-map, and only referred to, or could make an actual appearance. Is this a cleared idea?

Well I have PP from last campaign and I've been considering having another version of my original plan for that character come up, I think having Epic-tech available is probably fine as long as it's not overwhelming. Might actually be an interesting motivation for characters to fight over the handful of Epic tech that exists in the city.

[antgrgmn]

12 minutes ago, Voidus said:

Well I have PP from last campaign and I've been considering having another version of my original plan for that character come up, I think having Epic-tech available is probably fine as long as it's not overwhelming. Might actually be an interesting motivation for characters to fight over the handful of Epic tech that exists in the city.

It might be interesting to have one of the factions of the city a group of maples that remain in power through epic technology. This is more plausible if most of the epics are less overpowered.

[I think I am here.]

This sounds fun, how do I join?

[DrakeMarshall]

53 minutes ago, The Young Pyromancer said:

If that ended up happening we might split into basically 2/3 threads sharing the same space because of different time gaps.

If we tried this, and multiple threads turned out to be necessary, I would probably want to find a suitable way to kill Epoch off quickly and have his time zones die with him.

For most of the story, the time zones should basically function as "barriers you probably shouldn't cross" or "plot reasons to quickly travel throughout the city." In short, they ought to facilitate RP, not make it more difficult.

I realize they will inevitably cause a few time gaps, if people are fighting to control the network of fast-travel highways for example. But I would not want them to cause very much more time gaps than what might naturally occur already in an RP where multiple scenes are written at once.

14 minutes ago, antgrgmn said:

It might be interesting to have one of the factions of the city a group of maples that remain in power through epic technology. This is more plausible if most of the epics are less overpowered.

I was toying with a maple character who would eventually try to become what you are talking about. I'm toying with kind of a lot of random ideas at this point though, so I am hoping HH will go through with their character idea.

EDIT:

14 minutes ago, I think I am here. said:

This sounds fun, how do I join?

To my knowledge, all you need to start is a cool character idea to RP. You could make the character an epic, or a non-powered person.

The actual RP thread hasn't really been posted yet. The RP died off a while ago and we are rebooting. But the thread should be up soon (I think).

Edited June 24, 2018 by Drake Marshall

[the winter system]

I don’t know if anyone else is a fan of Danganronpa but I have a really strong temptation to make the chaos agent/discord/whatever’s name Kokichi.

[Ataraxian Wist]

So, apparently a social media fast can magically revive threads that I only got to participate in a little bit?

I've been staying off of social media this past week, so of course I get a hundred email notifications from my phone titled "question 20" that I don't read. I followed the thread right before it died when I was trying to hey in with a couple of cool Epics. I didn't unfollow it in hopes that it might be revived, and now look where I am!

I'm other words, I'm totally in. I'll just have to go back and read more of what y'all decided for sure...

EDIT: Okay, so Vanillas have become Maples, right? Good to know, especially since my nickname has been Vanilla in other circles so whenever I came on and read RP stuff I felt like ask of the Epics were out to kill me specifically.

 

Edited June 24, 2018 by Sazedezas