Cloud is Dead (Final Fantasy VII CYOA)

Random · Dec 12, 2013

This is a Choose Your Own Adventure game. I know, there's a lot of them already, but it's not really worth waiting for someone else to finish theirs considering these take years to finish.

There's not a whole lot of rules. There will be character stats and dice rolls for skill checks and so on. This will be expanded on at future dates. At the end of most segments, a choice will be presented. The choice with the most votes from readers will be taken. If a majority number of votes go towards the "other" option, there will be referendum on community generated choices instead, and you all can choose your own custom choice to make. For the most part, we're going to play this by ear, and if there's a hiccup, I'll resolve it then.

Prologue

Guard duty sucks. It's even worse when you're sitting in the single most secure (boring) building in the world, watching customers walk around with bags full of cheap merchandise and their screaming kids. Well, it could be worse. At least there's air conditioning and the junk food is all free. Could be patrolling under the plates in the muck of the slums, or outside the city where monster attacks are ever-looming. Then again, the children here are a real hassle, especially when they run up to you and try to play with you when you have standing orders to not fraternize with citizens.

As an MP, though, this is just another crappy part of the job. Then again, a part of you might actually enjoy growling at children to beat it and sending them crying back to their moms, who shoot dirty glares at you. Might. You glance at the giant electronic clock on one of the holographic displays advertising the latest in fashion, toys, and cool gadgets. Still about an hour and a half until your shift is over and you can go back to your apartment and crash. You adjust your grip on the rifle, moving it to rest on your other shoulder instead with a disciplined snap.

That's when another @$%#ing snot-nosed brat comes running up the escalator holding an animal balloon and charges straight for you. "Whooaaaaaa look at the soldier mommy!" he screeches at a painful pitch. His teeth are crooked and he's got a tremendous underbite. He looks like a tiny little fat gorilla, and his mom is unbelievably even more obese, lumbering after her son with haggard breaths that betray her complete lack of physical fitness. Great. Here we go again. Why couldn't the kids just run after the guards at the entrance? Guess they are too excited about getting to go to the biggest building and store in the city for that.

You notice as the kid sprints across the wide plaza that his shoelaces are untied. You've seen the natural consequences far too many times. He is going to trip, fall, cry, and his parent is going to have to buy him something overpriced to make him forget about the whole ordeal. However, despite all odds, he somehow manages to make it to you without tripping. Just as you brace yourself to scare him off, it happens. His foot falls onto his untied shoe lace, and when he tries to pick up his other foot, it is kept down. He loses his balance, leans forward, and his enormous momentum guarantees that in a fraction of a second he's going to be flying at you on a collision course. You have a brief moment to consider your options.

As luck would have it, you're leaning on a very hard wall. You could easily just avoid him, but that means he hits the wall face first. You could let him hit you, providing a softer crash, but that's going to hurt quite a bit for you. You could try to catch him, but you may not be quick enough to do it, and you'd have to drop your rifle. Or, if you're feeling particularly vicious, you could lift your knee so that you knee him as he falls to deal maximum damage to his ugly mug.

What do you do?

Choices:
A) Avoid the kid
B) Let the kid crash into you
C) Try to catch the kid
D) Knee the kid
E) Other

Imperator · Dec 12, 2013

Anabanana · Dec 12, 2013

D.

Let's go full asshole. We never play proper assholes in these games.

Kipeci · Dec 13, 2013

ERYFKRAD · Dec 13, 2013

E. Tl;dr, play BATTER UP! using rifle. Or shoot him for posing a security risk.
THAT is how you go full asshole.

That said, I'm voting B.

Bloodshifter · Dec 13, 2013

Random · Dec 13, 2013

Four hours later, the vote ratio is: two to one in favor of option B. Voting is now closed, commencing update.

Random · Dec 13, 2013

Prologue Part 2

The gorilla child flies forward towards you by his own momentum. But by then, you've already resolved yourself to your fate. With grim inevitability, he smashes into your left thigh, head first. It hurts like hell, just as you thought. It will probably bruise really badly, but at least the kid is none the worse for wear. His cat balloon, though, is floating up towards the high ceiling, lost forever due to the accident.

You reach down and help the overweight child right himself. He's blinking back tears, but seems to have a handle on the pain. His mother trots up, aghast. "Oh my goodness, are you okay sir?" she asks. Funny, most parents would ask if their child was okay before a stranger. Then again, you were wearing the uniform, body armor, and carrying the rifle of military police. It was a natural reaction to make.

"I'm fine, ma'am. Just keep the scamp on a leash, and teach him how to tie his shoes, why don't ya," you say gruffly. She gets the picture, and drags her son away to one of the nearby bistro tables to sternly lecture him about something. You touch your thigh to confirm what you already knew: the area he hit was definitely sore. You adjust your rifle, leaning it against the other shoulder. Glancing at the clock, you see that only three minutes have passed since you last checked it. You decide that it is time to take the second and last of your allotted daily twenty-minute breaks. You reach for the radio button built into the side of your helmet, holding it down. "Sergeant Mendez, sir. I'm going on break."

"Roger. I'll have one of the cameras cover your position while you're out. Hope your leg is alright," your direct superior says over the radio.

"It's fine. Just a bruise. Over and out," you mutter, giving a sharp salute up towards one of the surveillance cameras before relaxing a little and heading for the employee restroom. After relieving yourself, you wash your hands at the sink, then remove your helmet, and take the opportunity to splash some cold water on your face to freshen up. Getting drowsy on guard duty is something that gets you thrown in the brig. Turning off the faucet and grabbing some paper towels to dry yourself off, you glance up at the mirror, looking into your own eyes. After everything you've done in your life, just to get to where you are now, is it really worth the crap you had to put up with?

~~~

Character Generation

1. Characteristics

There are four characteristics. All of your characteristics start at 4, as one above the average human baseline to reflect your military training and life experience. You can choose which characteristics have a bonus of +3 at the start. 6 in a characteristic is considered great. 9 is the peak of human ability.

-Strength (determines lifting strength, movement speed, and power)
-Agility (determines reaction time, physical skill, and precision)
-Tenacity (determines physical durability, willpower, and ability to overcome personal limits)
-Intelligence (determines book smarts, intuition, perception, social ability, and talent with magic)

Your choices, which will determine your class, are:

A) Soldier (Strength and Agility)
B) Scholar (Tenacity and Intelligence)
C) Warrior (Strength and Tenacity)
D) Ranger (Agility and Intelligence)
E) Savant (+5 to one characteristic and -2 to two others)
F) Knight (+1 to all four characteristics)

2. Skill Packages

There are many skills, so many it would be impossible to just list them and vote on them individually. Instead, based on your chosen upbringing, you will have a selection of personal life skills to use during the CYOA. Having a skill at level one means that you are trained, possess field experience with it, and are generally competent. At level two, a skill is at the expert level. At level three, you can be considered a true master, one of the best in the world. To gain a skill or improve a skill during gameplay, you will have to use it repeatedly or acquire training from someone else who has the skill at a higher level than you do. Each skill package below offers a variety of skills that you can have at level one. Choose two skill packages to reflect your life experiences. As a member of the military police, you already have the soldier package. If two packages have the same skill, buying both will give you level two of that skill.

Packages:

-Soldier (Marksmanship, Hand-to-Hand, Athletics, Discipline, Fieldcraft)
-Student (Academics, Observation, Electronics, Computer Use)
-Pilot (Piloting, Mechanics, Driving)
-Thief (Sneaking, Sleight of Hand, Acrobatics, Observation)
-Social Butterfly (Charm, Bluff, Persuade, Drug Use)
-Chef (Cooking, Chemistry, Sleight of Hand)
-Rancher (Animal Handling, Mechanics, Fieldcraft)
-Mercenary (Marksmanship, Bluff, Sneaking)
-Medic (Medicine, Discipline, Academics)

3. Inner Nature

Choose one.

-True Grit (You are one tough ass motha@#$%&. Ain't nobody killing you, no how.)
-Heroic Impulse (You have an itch that needs scratching, and the only way to do it is save people. You are capable of overcoming your own limits for the sake of saving others before you.)
-Tactical Genius (You aren't stupid. You can calmly observe a situation, analyze the factors, and determine the option with the best chances of success. When choosing a choice with low odds of success, your chances of success greatly improve if you can create good inferences about the choice based on observation or knowledge.)
-Cold Blooded (You are a natural born killer. It comes easily to you.)
-Leader (You are talented at leading others and can rally even the most ragtag rabble to your cause.)

4. Name

Taking suggestions.

Night Goat · Dec 13, 2013

Class: Scholar
Skill Packages: Thief, Social Butterfly
Inner Nature: Cold Blooded
Name: Benjamin Slick

Edit: changed inner nature, 'cause no one's colder than Benjamin Slick.

Esquilax · Dec 13, 2013

Random, can we pick another "Soldier" package to double up on our skills, or is that taken already?

Class: Warrior (toughness and testicular fortitude, don't take shit from nobody)
Skills: Mercenary, Medic
Inner Nature: True Grit (Balls of steel)
Name: Magnus Mcclain (action hero name, alliteration, shout-out to Die Hard; what's not to like?)

Might flop to Scholar/Medic Merc./True Grit because I like the idea of a brainy nerd who is willing to throw down and doesn't give a fuck. Although going full diplo with the leader trait is pretty cool too.

ERYFKRAD · Dec 13, 2013

Class:Warrior
Skills:Soldier
Inner Nature:True Grit
Name: Spade, or Stab.
Any Black Company-ish name gets my vote.

Azira · Dec 13, 2013

Scholar
Medic, Chef
Leader
R. Hubbard...

Zero Credibility · Dec 13, 2013

Class: Ranger - for agility and intelligence
Skills: Mercenary and Student - marksmanship, some thief skills and plenty of knowledge skills
Inner Nature: Tactical genius - I'm torn between this and True Grit, but I'm curious how this is going to play out
Name: Shepard? - I'm really bad when it comes to making up names

a bear named spigot · Dec 13, 2013

Savant +tenacity, -int -agi
Thief, Merc
Cold Blooded
Shlappy Addoss

Saw this thread too late, would have liked to have seen that kid smash into the wall.

actually, i went with thief mainly for acrobatics, but given the loss of agi with savant, would dude still be no good at it? if i wanted to go for a bad man who can take anything shitheads throw at him via tenacious savant, it doesn't seem like any of the packages offer skills that aren't dependent on the other subpar characteristics.

Smashing Axe · Dec 13, 2013

I'll bite

Scholar
Student, Social Butterfly

Tactical Genius

Name I don't know. Sebastian Edwards?

Culminating in:

oscar · Dec 13, 2013

Warrior
Pilot
Mercenary
Cold Blooded

Marcus "Maverick" Westford

Sick of playing cunning manipulators, frail geniuses and dudes with hearts of gold. Time to go for a over-the-top stone cold alpha badass.

Anabanana · Dec 13, 2013

Ranger
Student, Medic
Tactical Genius
Light of War

Random · Dec 13, 2013

Yeah, you can double up on Soldier packages if you so desire. It means leaving out a lot of potentially useful skills (which you probably won't be in a position to learn during gameplay unlike your soldier skills), though, so consider it carefully. I'll tally up the votes in about seven or so hours. At that time I'll also create a strawpoll to see which naming options are the most popular and pick the most popular one.

As of right now, Warrior and Scholar are tied with Ranger taking up third.

Out of the skill packages, Mercenary, Medic, and Student have the lead, with Mercenary at four votes, and the latter two at three votes.

For inner natures, Tactical Genius is leading with four votes, and Cold Blooded is second with three. True Grit has two votes and Leader has one.

a bear named spigot said:
actually, i went with thief mainly for acrobatics, but given the loss of agi with savant, would dude still be no good at it? if i wanted to go for a bad man who can take anything shitheads throw at him via tenacious savant, it doesn't seem like any of the packages offer skills that aren't dependent on the other subpar characteristics.

Acrobatics is based on Agility, yes, but it's not essential. Having a skill helps a lot more for doing skill-based activities than having a high characteristic and no skill.

Nevill · Dec 13, 2013

1) Scholar
2) Social Butterfly*2
3) Cold Blooded
4) No preference.

AKA the return of the Drabbit.

GreyViper · Dec 13, 2013

Looks interesting
Ill second Zero Credibility

Class: Ranger
Skills: Mercenary and Student
Inner Nature: Tactical genius
Name: Shepard "walks again" :D

Night Goat · Dec 13, 2013

Come on bros, let's get some more Social Butterfly votes. I know the name's girly, but it's the only package with the crucial Drug Use skill.

Gondolin · Dec 13, 2013

Night Goat said:
Class: Scholar
Skill Packages: Thief, Social Butterfly
Inner Nature: Cold Blooded
Name: Benjamin Slick

Edit: changed inner nature, 'cause no one's colder than Benjamin Slick.

Meh, I'll support this. Why not? If we can acquire the soldierly skills later, it's not a bad idea to secure the social ones early.

Random · Dec 13, 2013

Two hours to the deadline and the tally so far is:

Class: Scholar leads by one, with Ranger at second and Warrior at third
Skill Packages: Social Butterfly and Mercenary at 6 votes each, Student has four
Inner Nature: Tied between Cold Blooded and Tactical Genius, Leader and True Grit have two votes each

Gondolin · Dec 13, 2013

Social Butterfly + Cold Blooded = Full-blown psychopath.

Random · Dec 14, 2013

The time has come to finalize your character.

Your class is Scholar.

The skill packages have been narrowed down to three in particular, so the top three choices will be voted on here. You are allowed multiple votes, but keep it to two, mmmkay?

http://strawpoll.me/860033

There is also a tie for the Inner Nature, so the top two choices will be voted on:

http://strawpoll.me/860048

Finally, the name poll is here. Multiple votes allows, vote for each name you are okay with:

http://strawpoll.me/860077

I hope to god there aren't any more ties. If there are, I'll make the deciding vote.

Cloud is Dead (Final Fantasy VII CYOA)

Arcane

Scholar

Augur

Arcane

Barbarian

Educated

Arcane

Arcane

The Immovable Autism

Arcane

Barbarian

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Augur

Arcane

Arcane

Prophet

The Immovable Autism

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane