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Birdship: A Suggestion Game

Baltika9

Arcane
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Jun 27, 2012
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Any more takers for the Archer?
 

Jick Magger

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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Bubbles In Memoria
The character and their patron god sound more like the types to get their asses kicked for the lord.
False one worshiper detected.


Truth be told F is weird enough to get me interested to see where it's going. Not awfully interested in the others, but we'll see how things go.
 

Bibbimbop

Arcane
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I'll be leaving the thread open until friday, on the principle that there might be a few potential stragglers who would want to get in on the ground floor, but are currently overwhelmed with real life. A thread only gets one beginning, so no need to rush forward. Still, 13 players are already an encouraging start!

Confession time. As a voter in other CYOA threads, I never did quite grok the flip-flop voting system, and never really needed to do so. I understand that there's a 3-way tie at the moment? Either way, all three options are sound in their own ways.

Being a Natural at a certain skill puts you on a separate progression path entirely for that skill. 'Natural' exists as the 'Novice' rank in a progression outside normal boundaries. Not only is he immediately better than several tiers of normal progression and can advance beyond the normal limits, but his skill is less easily fouled by an unexpected circumstance. For example, an expert swordsman has trained and fought a decade to reach his rank, but he may never have fought in a narrow tunnel, or in waist-deep water, on ice, or while swinging upside down on a trapeze while patting his head with his off-hand and counting backward from a thousand. A natural remains naturally skilled.

Of course, the holy man's extreme constitution is extra Plot Armour, and takes your survivability to an epic, albeit not an Epic, level. I believe in both Cs in C&C, so that's not a trifle, either. His zeal and scary scars may hamper your Biowarean urges to pursue fair maidens and gaiders, though. However, I do know one creepy holy man that was rumoured to have done pretty well in bed.

CZCM9TD.png


The merc captain is good at command, starts with some wealth and followers, is able to branch toward more social grace than (C), can intrigue a little but not as (H) could, knows the value of a coin and could do well moving toward economic matters.

Another key distinction among the branching options is the level of recognition, indebtedness, perceptions of your competence and overall feel that the King has toward you.


3BORnlD.png


Option (E) may look like a joke in this chart, but has its own advantages. As Esquilax infers, (E) is prone to such wild extremes of luck that any starting point is meaningless, however... The king whimsically granted him the destrier of the fallen champion, and in modern terms, that's like possessing an F-22 Stealth fighter. If you keep it, you're deadly; if you sell it, you're already the richest starting option.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
As a voter in other CYOA threads, I never did quite grok the flip-flop voting system, and never really needed to do so. I understand that there's a 3-way tie at the moment?
Pretty much, yes.

The flop is a statement akin to 'if my primary option doesn't win, consider me voting for something else'. It is mostly used to vote for several preferred options without changing your vote dynamically. For example, H probably isn't winning any time soon, and my H>D vote is, or all intents and purposes, a vote for D, yet I do not change it in case the 'Dex has a mood swing and the option suddenly gains traction overnight.

Some options will get overlooked if people think they don't have a chance to win, so it is sometimes important to show that there is a support for them.

The tie is 3-way in a sense that a single vote for any of 3 options would be decisive, however, if, say, A and D receive 1 more vote each, it would be A's victory since it is clearly a preferred option out of the two.

By the way, why is archer's notice and esteem so poor compared to the others who saved the day? I imagine saving the wounded King's life and slaying the enemy commander was not a small factor in the overall victory, far above what could be expected of a soldier.
Nevill H>D
Esquilax F
Kipeci C>F
Grimgravy D>E>B>A>C
lightbane F
Baltika9 A>F
Night Goat F
Elfberserker A
a bear named spigot E
GreyViper E
archaen C>D>E>H
oscar A>D>C
Jick Magger F
asxetos C>A
hoodoo C
TOME F
wjw H>G>F
3man75 G>H>B
root E>B
Random Word G>C

A - 3 - (potentially 5) - (1) oscar (C) Baltika9 (F)
C - 4 - (potentially 7) - (7)
D - 1 - (potentially 4) - (0) Grimgravy (C)
E - 3 - (potentially 5) - 3
F - 5 - (potentially 8) - (7)
G - 2 - (potentially 4) - (1) Random Word (C)
H - 2 - (potentially 4) - (1) wjw (F)
 
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Bibbimbop

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By the way, why is archer's notice and esteem so poor compared to the others who saved the day? I imagine saving the wounded King's life and slaying the enemy commander was not a small factor in the overall victory, far above what could be expected of a soldier.

Sir Ansel pulled the battered shield off the prone form of his King, and found the King alert but exhausted. "It's over, my liege!"

King Berengar accepted a helping hand up, and winced as he put his weight on the pile of welts that his body had become under the relentless assault of the Duc de Luche's warhammer. The Duc de Luche. Berengar looked at the corpse, an arrow protruding dead centre from the eye socket. "So it would seem, Ansel. For some rogues, it is all quite over now. He had a good run, the old warhorse! We could only wish his death had come at our hand."

""Shall I find the archer who spoiled your glory and have him whipped, liege?" The king's bodyguard turned a sharp eye toward the chaotic dispersion of humanity that churned about in the wide gaps between the small knots of formed battalions, hundreds variously running, walking, stumbling or crawling in a direction chosen seemingly at random. "There can't be many roaming this flank. The woodland shires took the left, anchored on the marsh."

"By the holy dames! Nay! Dispel that notion entirely! Find him and make him a most kingly reward, as befits our royal gratitude, for today he was the hinge upon which our life did swing. Let a thousand more such spoilsports be born of his example! Now send for horses that we may ride to Taillebourg, while this news is fresh and despair runs in their streets!"

--

Tl;dr: It's a long-range weapon shot into a confusing melee, so the king did not get a good long look at you, plus bows are considered slightly popamole by nobles when used in combat; but greatly admired as a skill in the hunt and too effective to resist the temptation of exploiting in war.

It helps clarify to point out the contrasts to the other natural combatant. In the case of the natural swordsman, for example, he was fighting for a long time within speaking distance of the king, no helmet to hide his face, and displaying great skill at a weapon that the nobles associate with their own class. (B) actually gets more Esteem than he rightly deserves, since a natural swordsman is not equally a natural leader, or a natural steward of land, but the minds of the nobility fallaciously regard skill at one noble activity as an overall fitness to perform 'noble' tasks. However, while (B) certainly contributed to avoiding a major defeat (the default outcome) his contributions were not as focused and pivotal as (A). The king is impressed but does not heap much credit on (B) for the 'bloody stalemate' instead of defeat.


 
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Kipeci

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Vicksburg
I'll go ahead and flop to C > F now that C has a chance, actually. Still a fan of being touched by the swan maiden, though!
 

wjw

Augur
Joined
Jun 6, 2007
Messages
287
G is pretty cool as well. In that case we are helping a defeated king. Defeated kings are more desparate and prone to new friends/advisors/aides. Still voting H for the actor story-arch.

H > G > F
 

3man75

Literate
Joined
Sep 29, 2015
Messages
7
I'm going to pick G primarily and H as a secondary.

An just to join the bandwagon i'll trow in B because swordsmen sounds awesome.
 

Bibbimbop

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I'll give it another day. If there's still a tie tomorrow, only the tied options will remain, and they will each other fight to the death in a steel cage. Two options enter, one option leaves.

The differences in outcomes are quite vast, so it's hard to even begin a skeletal outline of the next update just yet.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
F between those two. Because one prosperous LP is not enough. :prosper:
Nevill F
Esquilax F
Kipeci C
Grimgravy C
lightbane F
Baltika9 F
Night Goat F

Elfberserker - ?
a bear named spigot X
GreyViper - ?
archaen C
oscar C
Jick Magger F
asxetos C
hoodoo C
TOME F
wjw F

3man75 - ?
root - ?
Random Word C

C - 7
F - 8
 
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Grimgravy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
3,469
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
C - A swan semen enema may grant great stamina, but it's not worth it!
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
The guy in C at least derives most of his badassery in getting other folks to do what he wants to do, I just don't want the archer.

I'll flop back to:

F > C.
 

oscar

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2008
Messages
8,036
Location
NZ
The archer had a certain sangfroid about him that I liked. This is a tough decision. I wouldn't mind F if we played him as a mystic Rasputin-like figure but the straight brute nature of C could be fun as well.
 

Bibbimbop

Arcane
Zionist Agent Vatnik
Joined
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Messages
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I'm calling it for (F) but with a disclaimer that you were informed up front that this could become very... Prosperous.

The old Lordship rejected the influence of religions entirely from the outset--a decision which I understood at the time, but which, I couldn't help but feel, had erred on the side of caution and spoiled the entire concept a bit, since you can't have a verisimilitude to the Middle Ages without attempting to approximate the same culture and beliefs. That means there must be a necessary inclusion of religions that, unlike fantasy pantheons everywhere, are not explicitly revealed to mortals. When made manifest and incontestable, religions lose their real power, which is that you cannot define their extent and capacities in purely physical terms. When Lathander or Lloth is granting you magic missiles to do 4 points of holy damage on a goblin, there's no longer any room to wander the metaphysical, or to disagree with those wandering a different path in the same, who in the end are still capable of doing the same 4 points of holy damage. Belief is a magic beyond the magic of fantasy, and certain of its spells can do 4 million points of damage to the unwary. However, I didn't want you to stumble into the casting of such a spell.

The plan, therefore, was to include religions with which you could interact, but as a lay person who could step back when it got too frothy. My purpose here is to present you with choices, however, and actually being in the thick of that froth should be an option. So, it became one option in eight, from a sense of duty. And then it became one option in two, out of diligence. And then it won. I'm looking forward to finding out the consequences that follow. Choose as you will, but keep one thing in mind... the rabbit hole goes plenty deep.
 

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