Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - OOC: Discussions

[Eingar]

Well, either is good. So's

[z-The Morrigan]

Wildly Beating Hearts is open to all PCs who are in Kinshana between the Jungle Storms thread and Wild Things.

[Karren Gaunt]

I think, but I'm not quite sure, that we're good for the informal royal dinner by the general tone of comments from everyone in Jungle Storms. Any naysayers, brave comrades?

[Quantum Fire]

Just so folks know where I've been lately, recently at work one of my coworkers had his grandmother die and is very busy with the funeral, some of us have been working extra to cover him... I'll be off and around tomorrow.

[LydaLynn]

Thanks for letting us know. Condolences to your coworker and get some rest before worrying about us.

[Dawn OOC]

Yes, real life trumps game, Krul, always.

[Wyrd]

Thank you for letting us know where you were, my condolences to your coworker, and I'm sorry you had to shoulder that much extra work.

Morrigan: Unfortunately, I can't join in on wildly beating hearts, as I haven't been shot at that point. Oh well. I hope some of the others give you someone to interact with other than Ein.

[Bombshell]

I was considering having Bombshell entering Wildly Beating Hearts, but that will only be possible if she doesn't run into Maia, Coraline, Marina, or Alexandra, as she meets them for the first time a week after the Jungle Thread. Let me know if a possible opening occurs.

[Quantum Fire]

After some consideration, I'm adding the following to Power Maxing.. it does make N-stage node very powerful, but it's supposed to be, and yes, it works this way even with a terat..

N-Stage Node: Because of the change in rules regaring power maxing, I'm making this change regarding N-Stage node, to match some of what it already offered, 8th Instar (N-Stage Node 2) reduces taint gained from Power Maxing by 1, 9th Istar (N-Stage Node 3) reduces taint gaind by power maxing by another 2, meaning that one can max a power up to 3 times without gaining taint, this stacks with the Taint Resistance Merit.

Finally, 10th Istar makes it impossible to botch when maxing a power, sense this rule is for the old rules, instead, the nova with N-Stage node this high gets to roll Node (just Node, so 5 dice (+ Channeling if they have it) and for each success reduces taint gained by 1 point, this is only possible when one has maxed out N-Stage node, and it stacks with the above reductions.

[Bombshell]

So, effectively, that means people with high node can can get three times their Quantum Rating in boost points for effectively nothing (considering the Quantum Pools in this game, spending 9 Quantum is pocket change), meaning there is no reason NOT to power-max. This really takes away from the idea that Power-Maxing is special and rare, used only in dire circumstances.

Just the way I see it.

[Quantum Fire]

A valid point... *sigh* hmm, then it doesn't work... *sigh* I need to figure out some other way, N-Stage node is suppose to affect the taint gain here..

[Courier]

This really takes away from the idea that Power-Maxing is special and rare, used only in dire circumstances.

Yes and no. You can only powermax once per scene, and it takes a willpower point. Regaining willpower is fairly hard (basically once per day).

On a side note this is where some of the setting doesn't match the rules. Utopia supposedly had its novas throwing power maxes all over the place in the Eden project, but with regaining Willpower as a rate limiting step that's hard. Terats powermax to get taint and oddly the math works pretty well if you assume your hard core Terat does a powermax once per day, every day, but with that as the obvious solution it's never mentioned as part of the Terat lifestyle.

My suggestion: We accept that willpower really is the rate limiting step and increase *that* cost for these super powermaxes. For example: You spend one point of willpower to max, then you spend one more point of willpower for every point of quantum you spend above 5.

Warren can throw an 8d powermax, but it's going to cost him 4 points of willpower and that's just not something he's willing to do very often.

Or if you want to be grim, powermaxes cost one point of willpower per point of quantum. Warren's 8d powermax costs 8 willpower, and he's seriously not willing to do this sort of a barn-burning emergency because it's going to take more than a week to recover.

[Bombshell]

I heartily disagree. In PbP, Willpower expenses are really negligible, regardless if you count the 'days' in game or in real life. When threads are necessarily updated every day and threads happen days, weeks, or months apart, people generally assume you have a full Willpower score each thread. It's far less a limiting factor than the possibility of taint.

I'd say, if you power-max, there is NO reduction to the taint whatsoever, with the only exception of converting a point of it to Chrysalis. N-Stage node helps you in no way to handle taint, only the taint derived from having a grapefruit squeezing on your brain. When you power-max, you're forcing your node and power to handle energies it's not meant or used to handle and you should pay for it. In full!

(Personally, if the costs in Quantum and Taint were even higher, I'd be fine with that, especially since there is no chance that Power-maxing can actually fail anymore, only that you fail to hit your opponent.)

[Adrian Moss]

I'm fine with the way it is.

[LydaLynn]

I do have a question - since someone brought up grapefruit sized node . . . I remember reading that 2nd gens don't have the centralized node, but have it dispersed - it's why I didn't take the . . . whatever it is to disperse the node. Is that incorrect?

[Bombshell]

2nd Gen do have a dispersed node, which is why they don't suffer taint from high Node ratings. That function of N-Stage Node in no way benefits them.

[LydaLynn]

Okay, that's what I was thinking - thank you.

[LydaLynn]

Um . . . the Where do we go from here? thread - there might be something happening from Pip before it. I sent a PM to Krul about it on the 30th but he's been too busy for a response, so I havn't been able to move forward with it. But it's something Pip would do as soon as she figured out how, after her talks with Ein and Maia and her stroll with Warren. And it might affect all kinds of things meeting related depending on the answer I get back from Krul.

[Quantum Fire]

My appologies, I completely forgot about your request.. I looked it over, then checked on the way to do that, and replied, you can make up your mind what you want to do based on that information..

[LydaLynn]

Thank you.

[Karren Gaunt]

LOL. Oh, Butch. Way to start your meeting off on a high note. Anyway, for sake of fluff (and plot when we hit cora's turn to talk about her hopes and dreams and what she can do to further them) Pip is going to find 32 soak worth of mental shield between her and re-adding cora to the link.

[Adrian Moss]

Can I get in on this "meeting"?

[Butch_Cole]

LOL indeed. Why no love for the family meeting?

Apologies for the assumption. I incorrectly thought that we were all still in the Congo and Butch would have some concept of where his siblings were. I had no way of knowing where you all were gonna put your characters at the time. Forgiveness, please. Clearly we are more disconnected than I thought and people would just fly off to Kuala Lumpur or Dinoworld or Three Weeks Ago without telling anyone else so, theoretically, Butch would have no idea where everyone was when he called the meeting and would look like an idiot when everyone shows up after Uncle Shen picks them up and complains that his instructions weren't specific enough.

In the future, it'll go all smooth-like, like this:

1. I'll start a thread just with the concept of a meeting. Ethereal, ephemeral, a vague notion...

2. I'll have Butch inquire into the whereabouts of everyone. This will give me a chance to logically acquire a dot in investigation. Woo and hoo.

3. I'll wait for a reply. From everyone involved. Which, of course, will happen with great speed...

4. After receiving such rapid replies, I will calculate precisely what time zone all characters are in so that there can be no confusion as to meeting times. Knowing that, say, Warren is in Baku, Azerbaijan, Butch would add "...and for you Warren in Baku, Azerbaijan, that would mean 1 AM. And technically the next calendar day."

But hey, if y'all prefer Butch to look the fool, then I guess that's how you see him

I'm sure there's a jester's cap somewhere in the palace for him to wear...

P.S. I'm joking. Mostly

P.P.S. In response to Pip's question about how much time they'd have, everyone will have just enough time to whine about having to attend a family meeting and throw a fit when the network goes down

P.P.P.S. Still joking. Mostly.

P.P.P.P.S. Seriously though. Do I need to be that specific in the future?

[Karren Gaunt]

No worries. I'm sure everyone will be cool by the time of the meeting. It's just a little bit of drama, although, fyi, butch can choose to stop answering his messages instead of crashing the link next time. That's what cora does.

[Dawn OOC]

I just noticed Nature's Path and Wild Things are both set for a week after Storms. Because Morri's not starting off pouty in WT, I'm going to put that first and shift it to five days after Storms. Ein, does that work for your calender?

[Eingar]

Lemme consult my people....

Sure. We'll do lunch.

[Courier]

I heartily disagree. In PbP, Willpower expenses are really negligible, regardless if you count the 'days' in game or in real life. When threads are necessarily updated every day and threads happen days, weeks, or months apart, people generally assume you have a full Willpower score each thread. It's far less a limiting factor than the possibility of taint.

Threads are, almost by definition, the description of rare and significant events.

Q: Where is Warren?

A: Everywhere.

RE: Family meeting.

Thank you.

[LydaLynn]

Anyway, for sake of fluff (and plot when we hit cora's turn to talk about her hopes and dreams and what she can do to further them) Pip is going to find 32 soak worth of mental shield between her and re-adding cora to the link.

So Cora's going to try and block the network?

[Karren Gaunt]

Yup. Go ahead and roll 'em if Pip cares to force the issue.

[LydaLynn]

I think that will be an interesting encounter to rp.

[SkyLion]

:strolls along whistling:

Just a-waitin' the word from el Capitan to make my entrance...

[z023]

Sky, if you've been approved, I think you just jump in. I coordinated with a couple other players and just set up my intro once my character was approved.

[SkyLion]

Krul said something to me about having a way to introduce me but wanted to do it in a particular way so I've been waiting for the green light.

[Quantum Fire]

I'm going to introduce both Rain and Carnal in the Count thread, when I get up from sleep... but if either of you have ideas you want to run with, or talk with some of the other players about a connection... feel free to run with it.

[Wyrd]

QF, would you rather me close the Strawberry bomb thread and start a different one for what I am doing next, or just put my following actions in the existing thread? My next planned post is to leave Jason's house, followed by what I do afterwards.

[SkyLion]

My take: Carnal is Casablanca but also smart enough to realize he is vulnerable to Mother Hunters, and being seen publicly with Sin Eater would draw a lot of attention he doesn't want from the ever present prying eyes. Id say he's with the Count, but hanging out in the private rooms rather than the main party. If I've judged the situation wrong though and it makes moe sense for me to mingle can work with that too, but Carnal knows he is still young and weak compared to those who would want to kill him. You don't get Cipher 6/Enigma by not being too careful...his anonymity is his greatest defense right now...people can't hunt what they don't know exists...

[Toby Lupin]

It's a safe party. Orzaiz does expect that some are spies, so if Carnal wanted to keep his anonymity, sure, he can be in one of those private rooms. Besides, Darrik steals all the attention.

[SkyLion]

For now... mwahahaha

[z023]

Hey, QF, is there any way we could get an actual calendar of dates for the threads? Perhaps filching the calendar formatting from DR? I've been, and have heard from others, a general level of confusion of when which thread is happening so people know where they can be involved or if their character is off doing something in a concurrent thread. There's been a lot of "this thread occurs before or after this other thread", making referential lines of threads, but there's like three or four of those and they don't have a good reference between them to know when how one sequence of threads relates to a different sequence of threads.

I'd even be willing to set it up and maintain it, if it's too much time/pain the butt for you. I'd just need to get firm dates on all the threads from you or the player that started the thread first.

[SkyLion]

Hmph. Now that I'm in the scene I find I'm not quite sure how to react...

Perhaps I'll wait for the Count to continue with an introduction, or perhaps Sin Eater should respond...she is on the Pantheon after all and Carnal is an unknown. Also, do I need to roll anything to resist Darrik's aberration or do we just wing it with roleplaying?