[LP CYOA] 傳

[Absinthe]

Tigranes, I'm actually for learning the poisons too, but then, he's going to learn poison needles anyway. He already learned acupuncture and one poison according to the character sheet. The reason why I think 2C technique will be so powerful is not just because of the technique itself (which by itself sounds worthwhile. I mean, it's a ki healing technique. Those are good to have.), but because the Killing Physician is teaching it, because it infuses the user's ki, which is quite extraordinary ki in our case, and because treave said it would be very useful down the road.

Esquilax, I'm a bit mixed on 1A and 1B. High intelligence improves the ability to learn anything, devise a cohesive style as an unorthodox martial artist, and courtesy of losing the Yinglang Step scroll, it will be necessary to play it off of memory and creativity (int) to improve. It also gives him some decent social skills and a dubious sleight of hand skill. (Thief is not a good route to go.) Getting 1B will make the character more rounded, improve his combat stats directly, and give him a better base for the physician skills he is trying to learn. Also apparently drinking is a viable social skill, which sounds interesting.

 

[treave]

treave, is the sleight-of-hand skill applicable in combat? (i.e. using wacky flailing movements to distract an opponent, then strike him.) I can actually see a loophole in the Doc's logic, but good luck exploiting it: remember that his philosophy means that saving a life means that he has to take a life. Well, what if we saved his life or his apprentice's life? I don't really want to think about the sort of deep shit that we'd have to be in for the Doc's life to be in danger, though.

Flailing, no, but at higher levels you can do tricks like pretend to attack from the front and then voila you suddenly have a dagger in the other hand that you sink into his throat. But you need a technique for that, which you can probably invent yourself when you're experienced enough.

As for the Killer Physician's principle, he only applies it to himself, he doesn't insist that you or Cao'er follow it. Don't question the self-imposed rules of marginally sane men.

Regarding railroading:

1) Bad luck. I do hate to say this, but you'll have to deal with it. More often than not you will be thrown deep into unfortunate events that you have to use your wits and skills to escape. Anyone who wanted to be fully in control of their destiny should have really rallied for anything but the adjutant, I figure.

2) I felt the need to really demonstrate that the protagonist is a very small fry in a very big pond. If that means throwing him into fights he has no chance of winning, so be it. But you can think of it like setting a tier level for you to aim for. Right now you can't beat bandits, but you know you were on the same tier as Yunzi. So you have a rough idea of where she is as a fighter, where you are, and where a group of bandits would be considered. So first you progress until the point where you can take out a group. Once you've found that you're at that level, you will feel that the character has progressed and grown. If I only throw him against fighters he can match, you would have zero sense of progression beyond characters saying, wow, they're really good, I can't keep up.

3) Obviously I won't keep pitting you guys against opponents out of your weight-class forever.

 

[LWC1996]

To be fair, the kid is just 14 and probably learned only basic swordplay, horseback riding, etc...all harmless nobleman type pursuits. And he's only been in two serious situations (the one with Yunzi does not count.) where combat skills is a must.

And as for being railroaded, well, that's in part our lousy luck and our choices? We could've opted to send the kid to Wudang to learn his combat skills, but hey, his luck leaked into real life and cursed our chicken bones.

If you're looking for faster arming of combat skills then I'd say go for 2A or 2B. 2A wouldn't hurt your righteousness and integrity (I think). Not sure if the orthodox sect feels that way. They seem to think anything that comes from the unorthodox sect is bad news. 2B is good if you want to do things quietly and with no mess. Very much less righteous. I just happen to favour flying projectiles in the form of needles a lot. As for 2C, find someone who can clean up your qi, and you can use that move till your heart content. Depends on whether you're looking at short term or long term wait.

I think treave has been reminding us that Jing has no special combat skills many times. But most keep thinking that his Wolf Shadow Step thing is all he needed to survive in the world, and even then he couldn't remember the whole movement formula.

But that's moot point now. What's done is done.

 

[Tigranes]

1) Bad luck. I do hate to say this, but you'll have to deal with it. More often than not you will be thrown deep into unfortunate events that you have to use your wits and skills to escape. Anyone who wanted to be fully in control of their destiny should have really rallied for anything but the adjutant, I figure.

2) I felt the need to really demonstrate that the protagonist is a very small fry in a very big pond. If that means throwing him into fights he has no chance of winning, so be it. But you can think of it like setting a tier level for you to aim for. Right now you can't beat bandits, but you know you were on the same tier as Yunzi. So you have a rough idea of where she is as a fighter, where you are, and where a group of bandits would be considered. So first you progress until the point where you can take out a group. Once you've found that you're at that level, you will feel that the character has progressed and grown. If I only throw him against fighters he can match, you would have zero sense of progression beyond characters saying, wow, they're really good, I can't keep up.

3) Obviously I won't keep pitting you guys against opponents out of your weight-class forever.

So we're playing the equivalent of a 1 INT Fallout character, you are level scaling our opponents, and you're promising that in a future update the game will remove level scaling. Gotcha.

(Yeah, I'm totally fine with how you've handled it, I ain't griping )

 

[treave]

Isn't level scaling when you constantly get opponents matched to your own level, hence removing any sense of character progression?

Or is the whole post meant to be reverse-ironic hipstery?

Though I was just explaining the reasoning behind the railroading. I mean, you just had to go and mention DA:O. A proper Codexer can't let that comment go unremarked.

 

[Baltika9]

2C guys are making a decent case for the technique, but I'm just not comfortable taking it without the survival skills of 1B.

If you're looking for faster arming of combat skills then I'd say go for 2A or 2B. 2A wouldn't hurt your righteousness and integrity (I think). Not sure if the orthodox sect feels that way. They seem to think anything that comes from the unorthodox sect is bad news.

It's not the orthodoxes I care about, it's Xing and his personal morality. That and I find poisons distasteful. Again, nobody says an unorthodox character has to be an evil douche.

But most keep thinking that his Wolf Shadow Step thing is all he needed to survive in the world, and even then he couldn't remember the whole movement formula.

No, alone it never will. But it can be a large part of that, stealth in forests and jungles is a very powerful weapon, bro.

 

[treave]

I didn't want to comment on gunpowder just yet, but it is rather related to poison. When you think about it, what's the difference between using gunpowder and poison?

You can always brew a merciful, painless poison. Not all poisons are painful and horrible, or even lethal. But getting shot with a rudimentary gun will always hurt. Let's not even get into the use of gunpowder for explosives. Poisons can be targeted and elegant. Explosives are indiscriminate and brutal.

What's the difference between blowing someone up with a bomb and poisoning his tea? The difference between standing a safe distance away and shooting someone in the face, or standing a safe distance away and throwing a poisoned needle in his face?

When it comes down to it, murder is murder. It would be rather... disappointing if the anti-poison (it's dishonourable!) crowd suddenly turns about and fall in love with gunpowder.

 

[LWC1996]

.

But most keep thinking that his Wolf Shadow Step thing is all he needed to survive in the world, and even then he couldn't remember the whole movement formula.

No, alone it never will. But it can be a large part of that, stealth in forests and jungles is a very powerful weapon, bro.

Welp, I concede this point to you. Yes, Wolf Shadow Step thing is useful in the wilds.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Gunpowder and needles are both for pansies. Real men throw boulders.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Votes for each choice will be counted separately.

BC - For maximum pressure point goodness. Sets us up to use our crazy internal qi as a weapon.

Also, no way am I going to read the last 5 pages of arguments.

 

[Absinthe]

2C guys are making a decent case for the technique, but I'm just not comfortable taking it without the survival skills of 1B.It's not the orthodoxes I care about, it's Xing and his personal morality. That and I find poisons distasteful. Again, nobody says an unorthodox character has to be an evil douche.No, alone it never will. But it can be a large part of that, stealth in forests and jungles is a very powerful weapon, bro.

1A still helps with survival skills, since the Yinglang Step needs memory skills & creativity (both Int) to improve without the scroll now, and treave already indicated that a high int is good for an unorthodox martial artist to build his own style. Quick thinking will be good in any circumstance, anyway.

You could also just vote 1B 2C.

 

[Baltika9]

When it comes down to it, murder is murder. It would be rather... disappointing if the anti-poison (it's dishonourable!) crowd suddenly turns about and fall in love with gunpowder.

Probably HERESY coming from me, but I'm not keen on Xing using explosives in combat either. We should know about them, yeah, but I'm against using them in combat. Sabotage and demolitions are different matters entirely.

Welp, I concede this point to you. Yes, Wolf Shadow Step thing is useful in the wilds.

Funny thing is, I was originally dead-set against it, only now do I see it's full merit.
But being a sneaky forest git will have a lot of benefits too.

 

[treave]

Gunpowder and needles are both for pansies. Real men throw boulders themselves.

Fixed.

 

[Baltika9]

Where do the votes stand right now?

 

[treave]

I believe it's:

1. A - 13, B - 7
2. A - 9, B - 2, C - 9

Cross-checked it with Absinthe's previous count and it should be correct.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Gunpowder and needles are both for pansies. Real men throw boulders themselves.

Fixed.

Can't argue with that.

 

[Baltika9]

You know what, fuck it. I'm down with 2C, making my vote BC, coming from BA. Fixing our qi definitely is on the agenda, since I'm not so hot about sitting on pills our entire life. Besides, injecting our tumultuous energies into other people just may result in pain rather than healing. Making it an awesome attack technique.

Yes, Yuhe involves you putting your internal energy into other people. No word on whether other people will like it.

But for now any effects will be minor, since most of your qi is being suppressed by the pills you take.

 

[Absinthe]

The gunpowder discussion has just reminded me of something important: With 1B you are setting yourself up for explosives. Making gunpowder is a herbalism skill (Chinese word for it literally means "fire medicine") and traps are an obvious use of gunpowder.

Back to 1B, so it's BC for me too.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

That requires a level of qi that we can't possess at the moment.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Heh, we really should have gone Wudang. Learning to balance and harmonise our qi would have been much easier there.

 

[treave]

Making gunpowder is a herbalism skill (Chinese word for it literally means "fire medicine") and traps are an obvious use of gunpowder.

That is correct. It will give you the opportunity to dabble in some alchemy.

Though at this point in time, gunpowder hasn't actually been discovered yet. Their first recorded use as weapons would be during the Song Dynasty, I believe, though the concoction itself could arguably have been discovered in the late Tang. Should gunpowder appear during the course of this LP, you can expect it to be used rather crudely - and there will be uses - but the actual refinements required for guns or cannon or muskets will not come about for at least another hundred years or so.

 

[Absinthe]

2C is still usable as an attack technique for now. A hilarious one at that: EAT MY HEALING FINGER!

Later on it's going to do something ridiculous with the main character's ki, so it's going to pay off anyway. This is an opportunity not to be wasted, folks. Would any of the 2B voters consider setting their votes so that if 2B fails, their votes are interpreted as 2C?

That is correct. It will give you the opportunity to dabble in some alchemy.

Though at this point in time, gunpowder hasn't actually been discovered yet. Their first recorded use as weapons would be during the Song Dynasty, I believe, though the concoction itself could arguably have been discovered in the late Tang. Should gunpowder appear during the course of this LP, you can expect it to be used rather crudely - and there will be uses - but the actual refinements required for guns or cannon or muskets will not come about for at least another hundred years or so.

With a high enough int, would it be possible to be the guy who invents guns?

 

[Smashing Axe]

Also, given how volatile the making of gunpowder is, we might not want to go that path ever, with our luck we'll end up two hands short.

 

[Esquilax]

Heh, we really should have gone Wudang. Learning to balance and harmonise our qi would have been much easier there.

Yeah, we probably should have - I'm regretting voting for the free-form choice. The call of MYSTARY was too alluring even for me. I get the feeling that we are trying to spread our guy's skills too thin - his aptitude lies in direct combat, and with some gentlemanly manner and smarts on his side as well. Trying to turn him into a sneaky guy with pressure point skills seems like it isn't a great use of our strengths. I'm on the verge of flopping to AA.

The extra charisma point would really allow us to get a few friends in the orthodox sects if and when the time comes.

 

[Absinthe]

...and Esquilax raises an important point about befriending orthodox sects. As for spreading skills thin, actually 1A (+1 sleight of hand) spreads skills thinner than 1B (+1 herbalism), but high int helps with learning/improving any skill or move. Flopping back to 1A, but keeping 2C, so 1A>B and 2C>B>A

Seriously, 2C is the way to go. Healing art from the physician whose "skills are bordering on the realm of the divine" is a much better skill to obtain from him than a martial art.