[LP CYOA] 傳

[Nevill]

We don't actually know anything about the son, though. We also don't even know that he was behind the poisoning. It is quite possible, but we have no definite proof. There is also no proof that he would kill Cao'er either. You going into this moral hypothetical is really quite fallacious. It assumes all these unknowns and deigns that we are on some sort of detached moral exemption.

Besides it doesn't matter what we, the reader, think of the situation, it matters what the onlookers would think.

Oh, but I am asking you as a fellow reader. If you think this is all hypothetical, let's just ask treave when the chapter is over what was the purpose of the forest escort, and what was the role of Rong Jr. in the poisoning plot. I am quite positive it is as it seems. I am trying to determine whether the reason people are appalled by C is internal or external.

External reasons I can understand and argue against. I can't do anything if people think that the course of action I propose is just morally wrong, because I don't suppose I can change a person's outlook on the world.

I think that it is interesting that you think that we are overgeneralizing your choice when you are doing the exact same for us.

Uh... care to elaborate on this?

 

[treave]

treave, it seems that B will be working with these two techniques, or at lest their principles:
Junior is using something like the former and Jing will try to emulate the latter. But isn't the sword we've been given too soft for such a technique, built to be flexible like our opponent's? Or is it different form Junior's and better suited for that?

Your sword is slightly strange. The center of gravity is off and it is heavier than it looks. Somehow I missed putting this part into the update. Jing believes he can use this to his advantage with the counter he comes up with in B.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I don't see what's so suicidal about A. Its a bit complex, but that's it. Its mostly stuff we can do, know how to do (even if theorically), taping our stats vs trying to defeat a superior swordsman on his own field by using his emotional state vs killing him in a cowardly way that might as well get us killed when we finish or utterly dishonoured, IF it works.

The way Rong.jr is, if we thrown the sword and do this, he won't be able to react. This guy is a orthodox swordsman, even if he knows how to be underhanded. He's not going to have any answer to the shit we will pull up in A. Pretty sure his previous master never told him something like "in case someone throwns a sword against you, then momentaliry steps our of your view and tries to kick you in three points which will kill you, Do X." That's not the kind of shit Orthodox swordmen come up against often.

A is playing our game. This is also unorthodox, but we ARE unorthodox, and this is way less unorthodox than, say, throwing poison darts on him.

B is playing his game. This guy seems to be 8 ST 6-5 AG with 3-4 Sword skill. He's clearly our superior here, trying to play Swordman against him get us killed.

C is playing our game, but more treacherous and dishonoured. They might as well consider it cheating and attempt to kill us.

(assuming similar conditions, I would never try this on the Woman-in-Black or Huluzi orn a similar fighter, they would be able to easily react against our attack)

I voted for C two updates ago because I believed (and still believe) that it was better to get rid of a potential arch-enemy before he grows in power and comes for us. We might as well get this guy giving us so much trouble that the reward we could've gotten will pale in comparison.

It aslo suggests you would be trying to kill him with one move and I don't see anything about further plans. You said it yourself that you do not expect to kill him. So what is going to be the next step once it fails and you find yourself without a weapon?

Or do you seriously think Jing as he is now is able to kill with a single unarmed strike?

At least in B you will be striking Rong Jr. with a sword that actually has a chance of killing him once it connects. But B has its own problems.

IF our oponent just got the shit kicked out of him and can barely raise himself up, I think we win because we might as well kill him with our sword. The end.

 

[Baltika9]

treave, it seems that B will be working with these two techniques, or at lest their principles:
Junior is using something like the former and Jing will try to emulate the latter. But isn't the sword we've been given too soft for such a technique, built to be flexible like our opponent's? Or is it different form Junior's and better suited for that?

Your sword is slightly strange. The center of gravity is off and it is heavier than it looks. Somehow I missed putting this part into the update. Jing believes he can use this to his advantage with the counter he comes up with in B.

Give me the version for dummies, please, since I never actually was in a serious sword-fight: what does the offset center of gravity affect and why does Jing think he can use it to his advantage?

The way Rong.jr is, if we thrown the sword and do this, he won't be able to react. This guy is a orthodox swordsman, even if he knows how to be underhanded. He's not going to have any answer to the shit we will pull up in A.

The one unknown here is his reflex: he already used his quinggong once to evade our attack, how can we know he won't just dodge again once he figures out the sword was a trick? Then we're defenseless against an armed opponent.

By the way, I retracted my vote for now. Really want to hear input from everyone here.

 

[treave]

Regarding Rong being tentative and timid, there's been a slight misreading. He's nervously anticipating getting his first kill, not that he's afraid to kill you. He's gotten wary because you don't seem to be panicking or scared like he'd expect of someone about to lose and/or die.

 

[Nevill]

The one unknown here is his reflex: he already used his quinggong once to evade our attack, how can we know he won't just dodge again once he figures out the sword was a trick? Then we're defenseless against an armed opponent?

He can do so in B, too. Or he can just change his moving pattern and skewer us, since we graciously offered an opening.

Between A and B, I'd choose A. If we just aim to close the distance up to a point where he can't take a swing, instead of opting to kill him, it might actually work.

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Uh... care to elaborate on this?

You say that we are overgeneralizing the whole "become a bandit" part of C, but you are also saying that all the other choices are suicide and that the moral justification of C will somehow prevent that from happening.

There is really just a lot of hand-waving going on from all of us, so i think right now we should just choose what we think is the coolest way to die and see if we actually survive.

 

[Nevill]

You say that we are overgeneralizing the whole "become a bandit" part of C, but you are also saying that all the other choices are suicide and that the moral justification of C will somehow prevent that from happening.

Moral justifications of C and the reasons I think it would work are separate paragraphs in my original posts. I never mixed them up. It's just that people started concentrating on the former and the whole discussion went south from there.

There is really just a lot of hand-waving going on from all of us, so i think right now we should just choose what we think is the coolest way to die and see if we actually survive.

Since my option is not winning any time soon, I take jabs at other options to try and evaluate how they hold up. I don't want to die and abandon my dream of khandom just yet.

 

[treave]

Give me the version for dummies, please, since I never actually was in a serious sword-fight: what does the offset center of gravity affect and why does Jing think he can use it to his advantage?

Neither have I. I'm making it up as I go because wuxia is supposed to be made out of crazy moves.

...realismfags might want to step out of the thread. >_>

Basically the sword is unbalanced. It's not solely the center of gravity either, just its odd construction. It handles in a difficult manner. The sword appears to speed up partway through a swing, after a certain point in the arc. Jing thinks this can be useful.

 

[Baltika9]

Oh, so it helps with muscling through our opponent's "soft sword" (hurr), eh? That's a point in it's favor, I thought it was meant to flow like Junior's.

 

[ScubaV]

B

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

A

He's already demonstrated that when we adapt to his style, he can switch to another insanely fast and C will completely dishonor us and make an enemy of Rong Sr and the entire school.

 

[Tigranes]

A.

Although, I don't think my vote has won for a single choice this LP... in the end it's hard to gauge which of A or B will win out, but I'd rather play our game than his, given that the entirety of the last update's description was telling us about how we are not at all his level in swordplay. The only thing we've ever done right is kick him before he's ready earlier, so...

C is so, so obviously off the table it's not even funny; when we thought A1 or B1 our concern was how do we help Master Rong, not how to kill Junior. What we were not setting out to do was kill someone in an utterly despicable manner - even if that man is (probably, not certainly) a poisoner, as well as do it in a way that costs us basically every single ounce of trust and respect and goodwill the majority of the population will ever have. We would be nothing more than a common bandit, thief and killer, and depending on hwo the code in this setting runs, the school might even feel they are authorised to kill us or imprison us or punish us otherwise. Killing Junior is not so important that we want to do something terrible and destroy our social identity entirely; we are only trying to kill him to save Master Rong.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Brazil has me convinced.

A

 

[Nevill]

Although, I don't think my vote has won for a single choice this LP...

I wonder who it was who decided to go to Songfeng in the first place instead of establishing contact with beggar network.

Anyway, flopped to A.

 

[Esquilax]

I'm not convinced by The Brazilian Slaughter 's reasoning here. We want B.

Rong steps back, suddenly wary. Though the arrogant look has not been wiped off his face, there is a hint of fear in his eyes. You just smile at him. From the way he acts, you can tell that he has not truly killed a man before, at least not with his own hands. If he succeeds here, you would be his first.
...
Regarding Rong being tentative and timid, there's been a slight misreading. He's nervously anticipating getting his first kill, not that he's afraid to kill you. He's gotten wary because you don't seem to be panicking or scared like he'd expect of someone about to lose and/or die.
...
Having studied the first step of the Songfeng Swordplay all throughout last night, and seeing it in action multiple times today, you think you can derive a counter for it now. You draw your sword and taunt him into another lunge. You are certain he doesn’t have the skill or control to stop his lunge, and then you will strike with a move of your own - utilizing your strength and speed - designed to defeat that bending pine branch and take his life in one blow.

Rong Zhiyu is ready to come at us all guns blazing right now, and I say we ought to let him get careless. Have you ever seen an MMA fight where one guy hurts his opponents, gets too reckless as he tries to finish him, then gets knocked out for his trouble? I don't mean to be a realismfag here, I'm going somewhere with this: my point is that our opponent is about to get careless in his aggression, and this is something that we can exploit.

We are smart enough to devise a counter for the Songfeng style after we've spent our time studying it last night, I am certain of that. The problem is, how will we know if Rong will attack us using a Songfeng technique? Easy, by taunting him; our guy is clever with words, and I'm sure that he'll come up with some Ali-caliber shit-talk. "That pathetic Songfeng style of yours is worthless, I bet you couldn't cut through a stick of butter with that sword of yours".

Rong has shown himself to be arrogant and easily provoked, so let's provoke him. When someone is swinging wildly, getting careless, and not worried about defense, that's the time to counter - we just have to bait him into doing what we want to do. With some well-placed shit-talk, I believe we can. Keep in mind what the Speech skill is for:

Speech
The ability to talk and convince others of your viewpoint. A good talker may avoid needless bloodshed… or cause it, if that is what they desire. (CHA)

We want his blood, and we're going to get it with the right words at our disposal. He isn't used to the anticipation of killing, so he isn't thinking strategically here, which means that he is far more likely to fall into a trap. And once he does, we counter him and kill him.

B

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And we shall name our counter- grass that breaks the pine branch.

 

[Baltika9]

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake", eh? Good enough for me. B.
He's been kicking our ass with his sword the whole fight and now he's on edge because we seem too calm for our situation. And what do we do when he jumps out of range of our feet? Fist to a swordfight, I say.

 

[LWC1996]

treave, just want to ask, you said high level technique requires high level of skills. What level of skill would you normally need for the moves in A?

And to address something someone mentioned about the fear, fearful people can get aggressive and violent. Just like cornered animals. And Young Rong isn't the brightest sword in the armory. I agree with Esquilax tht now is the time to taunt his vanity.

 

[treave]

Hm, good question. It's rather high level. I'd say you'd usually learn a possible instant kill move like that around unarmed level 6, perhaps 7.

 

[Tigranes]

Although, I don't think my vote has won for a single choice this LP...

I wonder who it was who decided to go to Songfeng in the first place instead of establishing contact with beggar network.

Anyway, flopped to A.

Oh, yeah.



Well, Esquilax makes a good case so I'll be even more sheepheaded and flop to B. I knew already that A would probably not 1-hit Junior, but given treave's last post it makes me consider - if we fail we at least want our sword in our hands.

 

[LWC1996]

I see... That's pretty high skill stat requirement. Pretty risky gamble for Jing to take if we choose A.

I'm gonna go with B.

 

[treave]

Well, all choices will have their risks regardless.

 

[Baltika9]

All I know is, that should we survive, we're definitely getting some badass scars. Don't die, Tigerbro, you've left so many hearts unconquered.

 

[m4davis]

B