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In Progress [LP CYOA] Tower

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
1. A>C.
Fuck cloud. Ewwww. Just painful cringe. Might as well rename the girl to cortana. More importantly, Jack is the kind of nondescript name that won't stand out, and it's also an easy name to switch from when we need to refresh our identity.

2. V & II.
Enhancing our trapping is an obvious choice. Arithmetic & Alchemy are both interesting, but alchemy will synergise well with our wilderness-wise ways in the future, and something that can be useful in both civilised and wild areas.

3. A.
As Absinthe says our choices might as well synergise; our choice to study a bit of alchemy (or arithmetic if it wins) should get some support here. I'm not opposed to other options, though.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Initial Voting Tally:
Name:
A 7
B 4
C 6
D 1
E 2
F 1
!B 2​
Activities:
I+II 9
I+IV 1
I+V 3
II+III 1
II+IV 1
II+V 7
III+V 1​
Focus:
A 14
B 5
C 4​

After Flops:
Name:
A 8 (+2 "not B")
B 4
C 8 (+2 "not B")
D 1
E 0
F 0​
Activities:
I+II 10
I+IV 1
I+V 3
II+III 1
II+V 7
III+V 1​
Focus:
A 15
B 6
C 2​

Kz3r0 !B, II V, B
Baltika B>C, I+V I+II, A
Absinthe C>B, I>II>V, C>A
Oscar A, II+V, B
Zerafall B, I+II, A
Azira C, I>II>IV, A>B
Nevill B C, II V, B
ERYFKRAD !B, II V, B
CappenVarra A, II V, B
Asxetos B, II+V, A
MoistCloister D, I+II>II+V, A>B
Egosphere A, I,V, A
Tigranes A>C, II+V, A C
A bear named spigot A, I,V, A
Kipeci A, III V, A
Storyfag B, II+III, A
Esquilax C, I+II, C
Hello friend B F>G>B, I+II, A
Grimgravy E>F>G>C, I>II>V, A
Lambchop19 A, I IV, C>B
ItsChon C, I+V, A
Life of the Party C>A>B, II>IV>I>V>III, A>B>C
baud E>A, I II, A
I'm currently interpreting the second option as package votes, but if we are just summing votes for all individual options and taking the highest 2 in the end:
I 13 (13 after flop)
II 18
III 2
IV 2 (1 after flop)
V 11​
 
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Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
2. V & II.
Enhancing our trapping is an obvious choice. Arithmetic & Alchemy are both interesting, but alchemy will synergise well with our wilderness-wise ways in the future, and something that can be useful in both civilised and wild areas.
I think you underestimate the value of knowing your numbers when you want to sell your catch at the market (or get your ratios right for alchemy, or build complicated traps later on). Right now we're full-on innumerate, which is really bad if we ever want to, like, make money. Or buy shit.
 
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Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
c. Arithmetic is also going to come in handy later on when our traps start turning into carefully engineered contraptions.
Right now we're full-on innumerate, which is really bad if we ever want to, like, make money. Or buy shit.
I am mostly in agreement with you on this vote, except for the name. And thanks for doing a second tally.
The value of arithmetic extends far beyond trapping and haggling, however. We're pretty interested in alchemy and guess what? Alchemy (or chemistry) is all about proportions and stoichiometry, which means maths. I'm not saying that we should go all the way to higher-level calculus, but the world of the 20th century is very much notable for being one in which mathematics is important. Mathematics also helps develop abstract, critical and creative thinking, which we will need for this life we've chosen for ourselves. Plus, it has a very good synergy with 3A and I suspect that we'll get a greater benefit from both of these choices if we pursue them at once. There's really no reason not to take Arithemtic.

Besides, some studiousness would be good for making a solid first impression on the priest.
This is key for unlocking the secret boxing training option from Father McClellan.

Next up, the name.
Fuck cloud. Ewwww. Just painful cringe. Might as well rename the girl to cortana.

Guys, come on, 'Cloud and Rain' is just an adorable combination, how can we not do it? It's okay to do cute stuff with our baby sister sometimes. We didn't smile at her, so can we at least have this much d'aww?
:negative:
we may need to flee at a moment's notice and being able to live off the land instead of stranger's kindness is essential
I would rather we not try to predict the apocalypse for every update. I think we have a fair amount of time before the Hentai Nazgul come knocking on our door again.

Sephiroth Goku the Stampede, since we don't wanna be Cloud.
It's pretty contested, actually. The d'aww option could use your support, bro.

As Absinthe says our choices might as well synergise; our choice to study a bit of alchemy (or arithmetic if it wins) should get some support here. I'm not opposed to other options, though.
:rpgcodex:
I do want to say this, though: I think we can reasonably assume that the second and third choices can provide synergies, e.g., we can expect greater results from our scholarly pursuits if we choose to focus on getting an education, etc...
template-am-i-a-joke-to-you-thumbnail-300x300-70.JPEG
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
A III V A

“You’ll go back, back, back, to Jack, Jack, Jack, for more, more, more..”

I do think it is fundamental to hit the books and study so as to open up our future since intelligence is a critical component in all manner of disciplines- as expected for the time.

That said, I do think we should lean into some existing strengths and balance that out with a bit of pragmatism because I doubt we’ll have peace here forever. We should go to the pub and develop more of a circle in this small town who care whether we live or die and get started on how to carouse there so that we’ll be able to mingle readily with the lower classes elsewhere. Plus, the town hobo/drunk seemed to be a hobro. On top of that, get better trapping knowledge to rely on; we have little else to defend ourselves with since our bow broke and I wouldn’t have us be defenseless. Don’t want to go and put all our eggs into the basket of scholarly pursuits.
 

Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
Baltika9, any chance you'll change your vote to I+II? It increases the odds of I winning and honestly we need alchemy more than another rank of traps right now. Incidentally, my name vote actually flops to Cloud anyway.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Yeah, I'm down with that, but fair warning: I'll flip-flop back to I+V if that combination has a chance.
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
1. C - I dunno, I don't think that I'm sold on any name just yet. It'll come in time.

2.
I + II - I get the II+V combo, because it'll round out our woodsman knowledge, but getting a "civilized" background in numbers will pay off more in the long-run, I think. If only to get around and navigate the world around us.

3.
C - Because this is Codex, we must argue stat boosts. Because I'm arguing in favour of shoring up a weakness rather than emphasizing a strength (which is always tougher to do), I'd really like to push in favour of charisma. I think that it offers a lot of intangible benefit that you wouldn't see with the Strength/Intelligence boost, especially down the road. While Rain thinks that our character is Superman right now, being able to communicate on a more functional level as she grows up, as well as empathize and understand her emotions will be important. Even if our character is stoic and usually the silent type, whenever he does speak, he should be able to express himself properly.

On top of that, due to his lack of experience of being around anyone, our character is really naive:

You remember the day you were first handed a bow. It was perhaps a week after your master had told you to live in this little hut from now on. The burns scarring half of your body still hurt, the raw, pink skin oozing clear liquid. Yet, he had thrown the small wooden bow at you, and told you to hunt. If you did not hunt, then you would not eat.

At the time, you were confused but grateful, thinking that he had made the tool for you by hand. He had even picked you out of the ashes of your former home, after all, and dug a grave for your family. Expecting boundless charity just because you are a child would be too much to ask. It was not until later that you learnt the bow was just something he picked up in the trash.

Poor kid still thinks that this was an accident. Wouldn't hurt to be a bit more wise in the ways of the world through interacting with people.

Don't get me wrong - I get that being smarter has great synergy with the education that Father McClellan is offering, I just think that the intangibles offered by charisma outweigh it.

Plus, I rather like the character arc of a feral child slowly trying to come to terms with civilization.
 
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Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
That's a good point. Jackcloud has grown up a bit since then, and I think our decision to take matters into our own hands recently is helping, but yes, we definitely need to get some civilisation/people-awareness so we don't just end up Miltiades' henchman.

3A to 3C flop
 

Esquilax

Arcane
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
4,833
Jackcloud has grown up a bit since then, and I think our decision to take matters into our own hands recently is helping, but yes, we definitely need to get some civilisation/people-awareness so we don't just end up Miltiades' henchman.

Here is how our character would see Miltiades:

"Miltiades? One minute he was offering me really great deals on some wares purely out of the goodness of his heart, then the next minute, I was attacked by thugs. Their swords tickled a bit, and I tried to hold them down, as I'm terribly ticklish, only to find out that I had crushed their ribs and killed them while I put them in a bear-hug. I feel terrible, I only wanted to talk it over! And Miltiades is nowhere to be seen! I hope he's okay and that one of these guys didn't hurt him."
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
In particular, because I'm arguing in favour of shoring up a weakness rather than emphasizing a strength (which is always tougher to do), I'd really like to push in favour of charisma. I think that it offers a lot of intangible benefit that you wouldn't see with the Strength/Intelligence boost, especially down the road.
I have been thinking about this for a while, actually, and the decision we have to make between pursuing a generalist vs. specialist path is one that goes beyond this update. This may be a bit on the long side, but please bear with me.

Right now, our character is defined by his hunting skills, well-above-average fortitude, both mental and physical, slightly-above-average physicality, and his repugnant appearance and poor social skills. I think we should double down on our strengths, rather than trying to shore up every weakness, because of the opportunity costs involved: we will have to invest a lot of effort and pass up many opportunities to fix our low Beauty and Charisma scores, opportunities that we could instead invest in becoming an better physical specimen, or developing our mental capacity to match our willpower. In other words, I fear that in trying to become a jack of all trades, master of none will result in a character that is less than the sum of his parts: not particularly good at anything.

While Rain thinks that our character is Superman right now, being able to communicate on a more functional level as she grows up, as well as empathize and understand her emotions will be important. Even if our character is stoic and usually the silent type, whenever he does speak, he should be able to express himself properly.
And then there is Rain to consider. The question we must ask ourselves is this: how can we best contribute to her life and development? You are correct in that she will not view us as a god forever but the bottom line is that we will have to face serious challenges as essentially, a single parent in a not-so-friendly world: we must feed her, clothe her, raise her, arrange for her education and return her to her people. And that's without accounting for the scary tentacle monsters that may or may not be coming for her. I think that we will be better able to serve her by specializing in physical and mental aspects, while letting our charisma suffer. It's not like we are incapable of speech, or of expressing ourselves intelligently (a higher INT may help with that +M), so we'll be able to sell our catches and tinctures, and I don't think that not pursuing C will lead us to not communicating with her at all. We'll still be caring for her while we study or lift.
Poor kid still thinks that this was an accident. Wouldn't hurt to be a bit more wise in the ways of the world through interacting with people.

Don't get me wrong - I get that being smarter has great synergy with the education that Father McClellan is offering, I just think that the intangibles offered by charisma outweigh it.
I think that 3C is not the only option that offers intangible benefits: intelligence also measures a person's ability to think critically (which is useful in hunting and navigating foreign environments, for instance), while strength will make us an even meaner dude than we already are (also useful for hunting and ripping off rapey tentacles, as well as scaring off bozos who want to mess with our baby sister). Also, we are not as naive as we were at five years old and I think that your're taking that snippet out of context. To me, it it describes our character's disenchantment with his master and life in general, and underscores his loss of innocence instead of reaffirming it. I think that we're plenty jaded by this point, and do not tend to trust people easily.

But more than that, a general education will improve our knowledge and understanding of the world, and maybe (hopefully) make it easier to find her people.

1. C - I dunno, I don't think that I'm sold on any name just yet. It'll come in time.
Oh, come on, bro. Cloud and Rain, it just sounds so intimate and adorable.
You would prefer to come up with your own name. Since Rain is Rain, perhaps you can call yourself… Cloud.
How can you not d'aww at this?
:love:

Jackcloud has grown up a bit since then, and I think our decision to take matters into our own hands recently is helping, but yes, we definitely need to get some civilization/people-awareness so we don't just end up Miltiades' henchman.

Here is how our character would see Miltiades:

"Miltiades? One minute he was offering me really great deals on some wares purely out of the goodness of his heart, then the next minute, I was attacked by thugs. Their swords tickled a bit, and I tried to hold them down, as I'm terribly ticklish, only to find out that I had crushed their ribs and killed them while I put them in a bear-hug. I feel terrible, I only wanted to talk it over! And Miltiades is nowhere to be seen! I hope he's okay and that one of these guys didn't hurt him."
No, this sounds more like our Glorious Revolutionary Comrade Bull, before Miltiades' dirty tricks enlightened him to the true nature of capitalism and drove him to study the writings of uncles Marx and Engels.
 
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Absinthe

Arcane
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
In particular, because I'm arguing in favour of shoring up a weakness rather than emphasizing a strength (which is always tougher to do), I'd really like to push in favour of charisma. I think that it offers a lot of intangible benefit that you wouldn't see with the Strength/Intelligence boost, especially down the road.
I have been thinking about this for a while, actually, and the decision we have to make between pursuing a generalist vs. specialist path is one that goes beyond this update. This may be a bit on the long side, but please bear with me.

Right now, our character is defined by his hunting skills, well-above-average fortitude, both mental and physical, slightly-above-average physicality, and his repugnant appearance and poor social skills. I think we should double down on our strengths, rather than trying to shore up every weakness, because of the opportunity costs involved: we will have to invest a lot of effort and pass up many opportunities to fix our low Beauty and Charisma scores, opportunities that we could instead invest in becoming an better physical specimen, or developing our mental capacity to match our willpower. In other words, I fear that in trying to become a jack of all trades, master of none will result in a character that is less than the sum of his parts: not particularly good at anything.
I think you severely underestimate the value of not being total shit at things here. For instance, being garbage at social skills will hurt us in a lot of situations. Nevermind the question whether an unsociable big brother / parental figure is good for our girl here, or the question of how we're going to handle elf diplomacy down the line, even having slight speech proficiency will make sure that we aren't instantly closed off from being able to tell our side of a story if we need to or that we can't negotiate with people for shit when that's necessary. And in a treave CYOA I'm pretty sure that if we do end up being a jack of all trades, we will have the opportunity to combine our various proficiencies in highly useful ways, unlike most computer RPGs where all you can do is be mediocre at a variety of tasks.

And then there is Rain to consider. The question we must ask ourselves is this: how can we best contribute to her life and development? You are correct in that she will not view us as a god forever but the bottom line is that we will have to face serious challenges as essentially, a single parent in a not-so-friendly world: we must feed her, clothe her, raise her, arrange for her education and return her to her people. And that's without accounting for the scary tentacle monsters that may or may not be coming for her. I think that we will be better able to serve her by specializing in physical and mental aspects, while letting our charisma suffer. It's not like we are incapable of speech, or of expressing ourselves intelligently (a higher INT may help with that +M), so we'll be able to sell our catches and tinctures, and I don't think that not pursuing C will lead us to not communicating with her at all. We'll still be caring for her while we study or lift.
I think on the subject of parenting skills, you aren't making a strong argument against charisma here. I think it's pretty clear that improving the ability to understand and communicate with our girl is also worthwhile.

I do agree that the synergy from I+II & A seems pretty solid though.

Jackcloud has grown up a bit since then, and I think our decision to take matters into our own hands recently is helping, but yes, we definitely need to get some civilization/people-awareness so we don't just end up Miltiades' henchman.

Here is how our character would see Miltiades:

"Miltiades? One minute he was offering me really great deals on some wares purely out of the goodness of his heart, then the next minute, I was attacked by thugs. Their swords tickled a bit, and I tried to hold them down, as I'm terribly ticklish, only to find out that I had crushed their ribs and killed them while I put them in a bear-hug. I feel terrible, I only wanted to talk it over! And Miltiades is nowhere to be seen! I hope he's okay and that one of these guys didn't hurt him."
No, this sounds more like our Glorious Revolutionary Comrade Bull, before Miltiades' dirty tricks enlightened him to the true nature of capitalism and drove him to study the writings of uncles Marx and Engels.
Miltiades's friendship would definitely ruin us. Now that we're on Arcanum-style stats we can no longer just lean on WIS to tell us if someone is untrustworthy. Instead it's going to be hybrid Perception+Charisma for people-reading talents.
 

hello friend

Arcane
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
7,847
Location
I'm on an actual spaceship. No joke.
I think having a low stat or two makes things a little more interesting. If you can pass any challenge with flying colours, where's the fun in that?

Gonna go with B for the name. It's dumb but it made me laugh - it will also make for an amusing/embarrassing story we can tell Rain when she's older, as we will definitely have to change it to something else, in time.

As for the rest, we have led a terribly neglected life. We should jump at the chance for some education, considering the setting and the time period it's worth it's weight in gold. I'd prefer to pump STR, but storywise there's really no other option than:

I+II
A
 

Grimgravy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
3,469
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
E - I don't like Cloud. Rain comes from clouds and she didn't come from us. Going back to the white knight brigade, Rain saved us. She filled us with happiness and purpose. We should be Lake or Pond or some such rain filled thing. Maybe Loch? Yeah, Loch.
I, II - V would be my third choice.
A - there's no bad choice here, but Loch is young. We should boost INT to speed our learning.

treave
Aren't we supposed to have 1 point in ranged weapons?
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I think you severely underestimate the value of not being total shit at things here. For instance, being garbage at social skills will hurt us in a lot of situations.
I agree with this. I'm not saying that we need to abandon all plans for developing our social skills forever. I'm saying that we should give higher priority to our mental and physical development, precisely to make up for the fact that we're such a terrible talker and will be that way for a very long time.
I think on the subject of parenting skills, you aren't making a strong argument against charisma here. I think it's pretty clear that improving the ability to understand and communicate with our girl is also worthwhile.
Rain is an infant right now, and all of the care she needs reduces down to 'eat, shit, sleep and get some positive socialization when I'm not doing any of those.' In fact, I think that this is one of the last time periods when we'll be able to sit down and study in peace, because once she becomes ambulatory, we will be able to and should spend time with her doing physical stuff like playing, ranging, socializing and teaching. This actually reinforces my desire to go for 3A.

And bros, vote for 1B. Please. It's adorable.

Edit:
Miltiades's friendship would definitely ruin us. Now that we're on Arcanum-style stats we can no longer just lean on WIS to tell us if someone is untrustworthy. Instead it's going to be hybrid Perception+Charisma for people-reading talents.

Citation very much needed. treave, what stats does insight into people and their intentions rely on.
 
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Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
I mean, Cloud is about as dumb as all of those. Or "Shine".
You're just jealous because you didn't think of it first.
:rpgcodex:
It's a way of establishing kinship between us in a cute and childish way, in the best sense of that word. It is also a funny (not for everyone, admittedly) inside joke.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I don't mind the cutesy duo name thing, but Cloud is just an interdimensional vortex to a bad Final Fantasy fan fiction. Years on we would be talking about the good old days with Xu Jing, Ean, and.... Cloud?

Anyway, that's not even the primary issue. If the 'master' ever comes looking for us, or in our future life, I think it's better for our low-CHA Hunter to have an inconspicuous name rather than a world-unique weird ass memorable name.

Jack isn't very fun, but it does the job, and when we grow up we can always choose a cool pseudonym. Hell, if we wanted, we could do a different typical Scottish-style name like Alasdair, Ciaran, or hell, Raibeart.
 

Baltika9

Arcane
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Messages
9,611
Anyway, that's not even the primary issue. If the 'master' ever comes looking for us, or in our future life, I think it's better for our low-CHA Hunter to have an inconspicuous name rather than a world-unique weird ass memorable name.
I disagree. Our unique appearance will render any attempts at anonymity mostly moot. If we call ourselves 'Jack,' then we'll be 'Burned Jack' in this small village.

I don't mind the cutesy duo name thing, but Cloud is just an interdimensional vortex to a bad Final Fantasy fan fiction. Years on we would be talking about the good old days with Xu Jing, Ean, and.... Cloud?
Well, yeah...
Are you sure you're not a grumpy old man?
:lol:
 

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