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CYOA mix tape: Space Wizard in SPAAACE!
CYOA mix tape: Space Wizard in SPAAACE!
#1
Also posted on SB. Le gasp. I realize it's not entirely the popular style here on DWF, but maybe it'll revive the OPF forum a little?

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Argh, I don't even like fantasy settings as such, so why is that Mage Academy CYOA being such a goddamn facehugger? Well if I'm stuck working with it (thanks ever so much, brain) I'm gonna mix it up with some random, hopefully more actively attractive stuff, because fuck you I write what I waaant.

So! Let's grab a few things out of the bag of CYOAs! I've linked to the posts in the SB CYOA General thread about them, but am fairly sure you shouldn't need to refer back to them to understand the builds as listed. If you want to go look at them and possibly do one of your own that's a different story, of course.

(Note: listed in story order, not draw order. High Fantasy, magic-granting (up to the end,) horror, specific settings I don't recognize, and anything hosted on poobucket discarded. All CYOAs were chosen and reviewed before beginning on any builds, to make a coherent plotline out of them.)

(Also note, I've worked a fair bit of commentary and explanation into the build listings themselves, so they should be more interesting to read through than to usual bullet point copy of options. Maybe. A little. Give it a chance?)

(Story notes between builds will be golden to spot them easily if you do decide to skip down.)


Space Magic CYOA
Upgraded Clones: You can make up to a dozen clones, with the abilities, knowledge, and skills of yourself up to the moment you created them. Creating or destroying one takes only a few seconds, and they are absolutely loyal. As well as the increased numbers, the upgrade allows activating a mental link between clones to share skills and memories, or just put more brainpower to work on a problem, and as long as at least one clone exists somewhere else any that get killed just count as having been destroyed/absorbed normally. No range limit, which synergizes well with what comes next.


Immortality CYOA
25pt

+10pt = 35 - Fate: roll 1d12 for the form of immortality (unless it sucks, then I just won't take the points.) 11 = Slime

-1pt = 34 Slime - an indestructible, sapient mass of self-shaping goo that requires no sustenance and produces no waste. Can be reshaped by outside force but not destroyed or divided (unwillingly.) Just call me Solution from now on. Also conveniently explains the clone ability. Shapeshifting mimicry of other creatures or objects is included, but you're always a mass of toothpaste-lookin' goo. Surface consistency is unspecified, but assumed to be again visually similar to tooth paste or a jello mold. Perfect control of your body material means that you don't drip or leave things you come in contact with wet unless you mean to, however. In context of the Mage Academy CYOA and its Slime Pet perk, obviously this is a Royal Slime, not the common, animalistic monster type.

-7pt = 27 Size Change - absorb or evaporate material to become as large as you can find matter to eat or as small as you can conceive. So, ou can pull off that trick from the Disney movie about King Arthur where Merlin turns himself into a bacterium and makes what's'er'name the witch sick. Where's my "that's horrifying" image macro gone?

-4pt = 23 Environmental Immunity - never freeze, or melt into a runny puddle.

-6pt = 17 Flight - 60mph in atmo, no cap in space. None. I am an intergalactic space slime! Taking details from Built in the Heavens CYOA, I'll assume that sublight space flight is via gravity and inertia control while FTL operates on Alcuibierre's principle as an extension of that. Where the power comes from? Last Star CYOA's Cyclic energy, I guess, which is another way of waving a hand and saying "don't investigate this too closely.".

-4pt = 13 That's Normal - No one will make a fuss about your immortality. Your actions and being a shapeshifting mass of goo is not covered, however.

-1pt = 12 Hard Reset - sent to the beginning of the universe just after becoming immortal, to watch it develop. (added for integration with later parts) "No Czly, you are the Precursor." More precisely, Solution-me forms as a Boltzmann brain coalescing out of the very first set of quarks to collect into baryonic matter, in what would be a ludicrously improbable event without fiat intervention.

-12pt = 0 Always Something To Do - guarantees that you can never be imprisoned or stranded against your will and will always have access to a habitable world with compatibly intelligent life even if the Earth (or whatever other planet you happen to be on) is destroyed. While not specified, I take this to mean that some more relateable intelligences form very shortly after the Big Bang to keep me company, though at least I have my clones while waiting for more conventional matter to form and arrange itself into suitable levels of complexity for life as we know it. With not much to do or think about besides recreating and extending theoretical physics and unequalled opportunity to observe the early universe, we math that shit out until they reach a level of understanding sufficient to ascend to higher planes of existence, the first of many such partings between now and the end of the universe.

(automatic) Death-Proof Warranty - no matter the circumstances, you will not permanently die unless you buy "Pull the Plug." While not specified, I definitely count "death of personality" through mental illness or memory loss, so while some gradual change and imperfect recall is still there, my now incomprehensibly ancient self will still be someone I can still at least imagine the personality and reactions of. Convenient, no?


(It's a bit hard to integrate the plot outline with the build list where it's split across time periods, but part of the Built in the Heavens CYOA Complications material happens next - the stuff about the Vesperians/Space Drow, inserted in the early universe to play to elves-as-one-of-the-elder-races memes and because their write-up specifies having been in a period of imperialist expansion without meeting any other sapient life. Dealing with them is the major arc for most of Season One's episodes.)


Built in the Heavens spaceship CYOA - So much yummy crunch in this one. So OP. I love it. In story terms she mainly exists to not be available in the crisis of the moment or represent overkill that would lead to undesired collateral damage and just be the "KICKIN' RAD!" home base used between adventures with the yacht from Last Star or in earlier installments a shuttle being the regular-use vehicle, but every adventurer needs a castle to return to, right? Mine just flies through space.
100pt +50 from Complications = 150

Origin: I am The Precursor. I designed her, I built her, she has been my home in spirit since before the existence of helium. When I began sculpting the first rough rendition of her hull from clouds of hydrogen gas with my innate space drive wake the only light to see it by was the fading radiance of the Big Bang, and the newborn universe's first stars formed around the swirls where I perturbed it. Antimatter is so rare in the modern universe because I (well, and the civilization I developed it in cooperation with for their own, now vanished, ships) collected most of it to become the core of her degeneracy reactor. She is mine, as she has always been.

Ship name: Arco Asteria - AR-ko ah-STAIR-ee-ah, "treasure chest (of the) starry sky." This mixes Latin and Greek and is therefore wrong, but it sounds good so if I had a fuck to give I'd still be saving it for later.

Hull Type: Streamline Moderne - a fork-forward U-shape wrapped around four flattened spheres with two long, low dorsal towers aft and one even longer and lower amidship ventrally, most of the hull is clad in gold with white and black porcelain trim stripes. The materials were chosen not as a display of wealth, but for their extreme resistance to corrosion and aging. I made another post with images and a fly-around video further down this page.

Size Category: Dreadnaught. You don't even have to ask; this is Spacebattles after all. My favorite ship was always Vader's Executor, at least until I started designing my own. Approximately 32km/20mi in the largest dimension. (More precisely, she's 31,700m L x 16,000m W x 2800m T)

Nominal Crew capacity: 450,000 + 100,000 bioroid maids + 500,000 passengers or troops + 2,500,000 stasis tubes
Minimum crew: 1 + 20,000 cranky, overworked bioroid maids (Seriously, don't do this.)
Life support maximum capacity, indefinite: 5,000,000 + stasis vault
Life support maximum capacity, 6 months mean time before failure: 15,000,000
Life Support maximum capacity, 4 weeks MTBF: 25,000,000

Star Drive: Subspace Diver. You want to see panic? Try having a ship big enough to blot out the sun over a decent sized city slip gracefully out of a crack in the sky about a hundred meters over the tallest local feature. This can, or course, be either a benefit or a problem, but that's what shuttles and teleporters and if all else fails, going out through an airlock and flying myself around are for. Last Star phase corridor drive is a somewhat less versatile version of this effect, something I intentionally did not bring them further up to par on to limit the military applications.

Real Space Drive: Subspace Travel, essentially the same mechanism as submerging or emerging from the star drive but traveling along the dimensions of real space rather than perpendicular to them. Possible but impractical with the Last Star implementation due to energy and computational requirements.

Power Source: Degeneracy Reactor - because nothing says class like poking a hole through extra-dimensional space to the center of a singularity's gravity well and sipping from it like a juice box with a crazy straw.

Ship Intelligence: My precious child and most trusted companion, Miranda ☆ Rockwell. The ☆ is pronounced "Asteria" like the name of the ship. (Ghost variant, just as loyal and devoted but not because of being abandoned for eons, it's simple familial affection.) Yes, she does also sing, it's the same name I use for player characters in Macross setting games. No, that has nothing to do with my RL name.

Secondary Systems:

(free) - Self-Repair and Maintenance: no other crew required, though there are certainly duty stations for hundreds of thousands to fill if they are available.

(free) - Medical: mediocre by the standards of the civilizations I cribbed them off of, the automated medical care is still plenty to cure even death as long as the brain is mostly intact, and the soul willing where applicable.

(free) - Captain's Cabin: More of a free-standing manor house in the internal open green space (see Biosphere below,) the Captain's Cabin is decorated in the luxurious materials and geometric Art Deco style of most of the rest of the ship. Polished wood with dramatic grain patterns, plush fabrics, bright accent colors, metal tones, and stained or cut glass abound. Pun absolutely intended.

(free) - Bridge: Normally laid out more like a royal audience hall with a high, barrel vaulted ceiling than a working naval command area aside from the massive holographic display in the space before the command throne due to Miranda's ability to run the ship entirely on her own, functional duty stations for various purposes can be extended from hidden panels in the floor when needed.

(free) - Crew/Passenger Quarters: not as palatial as even the guest rooms in the Captain's Cabin, these suites are still appointed in an attractive and comfortable style, and certainly fit to satisfy the need for rest and relaxation for the crew and any guests brought aboard.

(free) - Shuttlebay x5: From sleek personal transports to stiletto-sharp strike gunships to bulky yet still in their own way elegant troop transports, mining craft, tugs, and cargo haulers, a total of around fifteen hundred shuttles in a range of classes and configurations stand ready to serve where the Arco Asteria herself would be inconveniently large or noteworthy (and still with plenty of space left for the yacht gained from the Last Star CYOA below.) Most also have independent FTL capability and some form of defensive systems, whether armed or only provided with shielding. Capacity ranges from 4 to 500 passengers and 100kg to 500,000t.

-2 = 148pt - Telepathic Control Link: Allows for constant contact with Miranda along with instant translation of languages I don't personally know but which she has on file and relayed communications as needed, even when not aboard the Asteria myself. No range limit given.

-2 = 146pt - Librarium Vault: A soaring mixture of museum and library, loaded with both artifacts and ancient manuscripts, many preserved in stasis fields against the ravages of time and an atmosphere containing oxygen, water vapor, and a thousand other damaging substances. Special care has been taken to preserve things thought in their time to be "going too far," "playing God," or "things sapients were not meant to know;" albeit also to ensure that they do not cause undesired consequences through accident or misuse. A great many of these exhibits are merely a single defining or earliest example accompanied by reams of documentation on the minor variations invented in other times and places. The ones which are truly unique, or which lack full details due to having been developed and discarded before I learned of them and never seen again, are tragic.

-2 = 144pt - Biosphere x2: Much internal volume has been dedicated to accommodate lightly wooded green spaces for the combined purposes of helping to refresh the ship's atmosphere, room for recreational activities for any crew aboard, and the preservation of natural history; numerous smaller areas are also scattered through the rest of the ship to house less compatible samples of plants and creatures from other climates or evolutionary paths. Of course, many such samples have been aboard the ship so long that they have evolved thoroughly away from the distant ancestors that were collected or otherwise found themselves aboard, but such is the nature of a ship older than many planets.

-1 = 143pt - Epicurean: Still other areas are explicitly reserved for food production; gardens, farms, and aquaculture tanks alike.

-5 = 138pt - Smart Matter: Much of the Asteria's habitable spaces are augmented with programmable smart matter, allowing them to be easily reconfigured at will. This allows even the even the most everyday working spaces to be outfitted with sybaritic luxury if desired but still have unnecessary distractions and obstacles cleared rapidly for alert situations, and has considerable additional utility for repelling or containing boarders or other unruly elements. Personal quarters and recreation areas are more likely to have actual (often antique, from various civilizations and periods) furnishings rather than smart matter pretending.

-5 = 133pt - Internal Heaven Array: Internal tractor and energy shield emitters allow for easy manipulation of objects inside the hull, as well as crowd control and various utility effects like fire suppression and sealing hull breaches until smart matter barriers and self-repair systems have time to close the physical gap.

-1 = 132pt - Stasis Crypt: In addition to the hundreds of thousands of regular crew accommodations, 2.5 million roughly-human-sized beings can be preserved in stasis tubes if needed. While still far from what would be needed to evacuate even a single major city alone, this has been used countless times to preserve a genetically viable sampling of a species' population along with common crops and domesticated animals to rescue them from some otherwise extinction-level calamity.

(free) - Maid Deployment: Many of the "automatic" repair and maintenance tasks aboard the Arco Asteria are actually handled by bioroid crew in the forms of various sapients past, present, or merely imagined. While it is possible for Miranda to control these units directly, they are as a rule allowed to operate independently and form their own personalities over time, customizing their appearance to suit, and free to leave (usually with the gift of a long-range, FTL capable personal or light cargo shuttle and whatever gear they request from the ship's stores) if and usually when they evolve beyond the desire to tend to their initially programmed tasks or other shipboard duties. There are around one hundred thousand of them active onboard at any one time. (Cost negated due to Maiden Assault complication.)

-20 = 112 - Backup Core x4: A complete mirror of all runtime data as well as periodic write-once backups are maintained in a set of widely separated, hardened vaults to guard Miranda against catastrophic loss from damage to her primary CPU or electronic warfare. As if I wouldn't give my daughteru the best protection? She can also desynchronize the runtime copies to give herself a version of my own clone trick, but with her normal multitasking and telepresence abilities are so extreme it would take truly extraordinary circumstances to require it.

-(5+5) = 102 - Heavy Drone Command Array & Bay: a fleet of FTL-capable automated fighter craft along with the ability to replace them rapidly, and to remotely operate any of the ships other auxiliaries (shuttles mainly) as needed.

-5 = 97 - Manufactory: Automated construction facilities for everything from small personal items to shuttles and architecture. Primarily used in its own dedicated bay but capable of being deployed as needed, even outside the ship in orbit or on a planetary surface. Also includes the design database to set up a full contemporary infrastructure base from scratch for settlement or disaster recovery purposes.

-10 = 87 - Shipyard: Going beyond the scale of the standard Manufactory, the ship's construction capabilities extend to other full-up starships and even to building larger macro-scale space structures, though the addition of external space docks and further infrastructure would be needed for truly large projects.

-5 = 82 - Drive Redundancy: When a more stealthy approach or exit is required or subspace transitions are blocked somehow, the Arco Asteria also possesses a Black Forest type star drive that produces a signal-absorbing effect reminiscent of black fog or a smoke screen, which obscures the ship from detection while entering or leaving FTL and leaves no traces while underway. It is significantly slower than the usual Subspace drive and not quite as accurate in its emergence coordinates, but entirely undetectable even with specialized scanning devices.

-4 = 78 - Command Core x2: In the unlikely event of the main hull of the ship being destroyed, the central and backup command sections are even further shielded and reinforced, and equipped with enough of the ship's manufacturing capacity to completely rebuild the rest of the ship from locally harvested resources if necessary. The central core has Miranda's primary CPU and one backup at opposite ends while the secondary has two more, the fifth being its own independent escape craft, and while lacking shipyard-grade manufacturing ability is still capable of creating such infrastructure per the standard Manufactory at need.

-5 = 73 - Teleportarium: A series of satellite chambers scattered at convenient intervals throughout the Asteria allow for easy access to locations within about a thousand kilometers of the ship without needing the use of a shuttle via a variation on the principle of the ship's star drive, though their use is subject to various forms of energy interference and requires a clear sensor scan of the target arrival area or being to be retrieved.

-1 = 72 - Warchive: A major sub-department of the Librarium devoted to tools and techniques of battle, with complete manufacturing data as well for most.

-5 = 67 - Phase Cloak: Another variation on the Subspace Submergence drive principle, this version does not in itself confer any form of mobility but instead leaves the ship in just enough contact with normal space to use its own sensors while invisible and intangible in relation to anything not included in the effect.

-5 = 62 - Singularity Core: Miranda's core nodes are equipped with space-time warping field effect generators that allow them to operate at computational speeds defying the properties of normal space physics. Trying to quantify her capabilities without the benefit of such effects in the measuring equipment returns a divide by zero error and appears to break causality.

-5 = 57 - Biomedical R&D: You got wetware biology? We got you covered. Hardware prosthetics and augmentations too.

-5 = 52 - Engines of Creation: It takes a bit of time, but the Asteria is capable of terraforming (or xenoforming) barren worlds into complete biospheres if called for, or repairing the biospheres of worlds ravaged by war or disaster.

-10 = 42 - Gravity Lifters: A deployable network of subspace drive field relays, these allow for macro-scale constuction and solar system engineering when such activities are worth the time investment.

-5 = 37 - Astrometrics: Capable of detecting minute objects like a single shuttle or high-energy power source over hundreds of light years or scanning for anomalous activity and presences in higher dimensions as well as straightforward stellar mapping and navigation.

-5 = 32 - Effector Beam: You think your data systems are safe because they're not connected to or even equipped with the ability to interface with any form of network? Ho ho, they are now. No, the firewall on your regular networked equipment isn't doing a thing either.

Weapons:

-5 = 27 - Heavy Warhead Launcher: Quantum filament torpedoes that suppress the strong nuclear force when released, leading to all normal matter in the area ripping itself apart from like-charge repulsion of the component subatomic particles during the thankfully brief duration of the effect before recombining, mostly as elemental hydrogen, helium, or lithium with a few odd traces of heavier elements about up to oxygen at the largest, and bursts of intense radiation. Only similarly exotic defenses can protect a target from them.

-5 = 22 - Slicer Beam: A more focused and targeted example of quantum filament manipulation, capable of servicing targets with less collateral damage. You still won't want to use them on a ship (or something within a hundred fifty or so kilometers on a planetary surface of) where anyone you like lives, though.

Defensive Systems:

-1 = 21 - Void Screens: A projected energy field that shunts all incoming attacks into other-dimensional spaces. It can be overloaded, but negates all damage up to that point.

-2 = 19 - Reactive Shielding: More capable than the Void Screen, the reactive shield instead redirects the energy of incoming attacks in a bubble around the ship in normal space, becoming a shield and CIWs powered by the enemiy's own attacks in one. Usually not intense enough to affect other capital ships even if they somehow get into knife-range, but devastating to both fightercraft and projectile-based weaponry. The effect can also be powered form the ship's internal energy if your enemies are not so obliging as to provide a continuing supply of weapons fire as their small craft approach.

-10 = 9 - Singularity Block-Form Mathematics: When it's time to be serious about defensive measures, the Arco Arsteria uses high-order mathematics to generate and artificial naked singularity and its accompanying warp-space, stabilizing and enforcing reality around the ship itself to prevent any intrusion by hostile actions whether active or passive. Also useful when traversing higher dimensional spaces or anomalies where reality itself becomes more fluid than is strictly healthy.

Personal Augmentations & Equipment:

(free) - Operations training: millenia beyond counting of running the Asteria and managing her crew have well ingrained the necessary skills to handle such duties, even if Miranda takes care of the details most of the time.

(free) - Form Fix: irrelevant or inapplicable due to the Immortality CYOA effects

(free) - Aesthetics: As mentioned previously, the general tone of the ship's interior is Art Deco or Streamline Moderne, though some areas, particularly those primarily frequented by other crew members, are decorated in other styles chosen by them.

(free) - Uniform Equip: Though usually well enough suited by simply shapeshifting into however I want to appear, having a wardrobe of suitable formal clothing is useful from time to time, and sets a good example when officially on duty aboard.

-1 = 8 - Personal Sidearm: Not all that visually impressive, perhaps, a small, rocket-shaped Atomic Age sculpture of the stereotypical ray-gun, devoid of frivolous glowing Tron-lines or blinking lights, this unassuming little pistol can none the less core through heavy power armor and mechanized infantry vehicles with ease.

-2 = 6 - Softsuit: Minimal combat-ready body-augmentation harness with carbon nano-tube muscle fibers, reactive feedback evolving nanoswarm, and a semi-sapient onboard AI to control them which can also assist in data security and intrusion activities. Acts as a full-body medical suite as well as granting increased reaction speed and strength, capable of keeping a Near-Human or closer user fully combat capable despite extreme traumatic damage. Also features full augmented reality data interaction and active visual cloaking. Softsuits are the standard duty uniforms for crew members, with similar models in other body types for Not Very Near Humans and a range of Real Wierdie body plans.

-5 = 1 - Combat Skin: Utilizes hardlight, reference-locked energy fields, and programmable smart matter to create a customizeable, rapidly deployable personal armor over the softsuit-like underlayer and any other clothing being worn, with vastly increased speed and strength. It also adapts to any attacks made upon it, greatly reducing both initial impact and even more so any subsequent incidents of the same type. Medical and neurological monitors and effectors allow for near-instantaneous reversal of physical or, in the event of facing eldritch horrors, mental trauma, and fully capable of supporting a user's wellbeing in the face of uninterrupted exertion and stress. Kept in general stock only for Near Humans and closer; crew with more exotic body types will have a unit custom-fitted if assigned to a position where personal combat is expected.

-1 = 0 - Biomechatronic Interface: Getting it to play nicely with being an immortal Royal Slime was quite the trick, but eventually compatible wetware enhancements were developed to allow access to a range of beneficial effects including enhanced comprehension and thinking speed, AR access and seamless, intuitve VR immersion, data interface and security operations via shapeshifted interface ports, technopathy, and so on. As a side benefit, granting such capabilities to nearly any other life form is easy by comparison.


Complications: (already included in the point totals above)
start: 0pt

+5 = 5 Refugees: Around one hundred fifty thousand sapients of various sorts live on the Arco Asteria full time, rescued from various situations or descended from those who chose to join the ship's crew rather than leave for a new place to settle afterward. There is room for three times as many crew and another five hundred thousand supernumerary dependents, passengers, or troops without crowding.

+10 = 15 Vesperine Empire - long dust by the Last Star CYOA timeframe aside from descendants hosted aboard the ship, they were still major troublemakers in the early galaxy. Space Drow with bio-ships and xenomorphs instead of spiders, except that their society is only half as murderous, insane, and rapey, with no Lolth actively making it worse for shits and giggles. Among the distant progenitors of many of the Space monster variants in Last Star.

+10 = 25 Riofaldian Empire - similarly, the Riofaldians were bad news to far more than the Eru (see below) in their time. Far fewer persist to the Last Star, perhaps a dozen total. Blue-skinned Space Nazis who also share the Space Elf ears, but not biologically related to the Vesperine.

+5 = 30 Broken Toy - B3-Ta was a bioroid crafted to fight in a pointless war that had already seen the original creators of her fellows driven to extinction centuries before. Pursued to destruction for evolving beyond her programming and choosing not to fight, she ultimately proved to be the factor that united the factions of killbots that battled endlessly over their war-torn homeworld, eventually becoming known as the Xeraphim. By the time of the Last Star, she is head of the Librarium staff, and still the only higher priority on the Xeraphim's kill list than me. Important: Do not let your library books get damaged or go overdue, she is still fully combat capable and as a department head completely able to schedule anyone she feels like for remedial martial arts training.

+5 = 35 A Jewelled Collar - Members of high Vesperine nobility toppled by their rivals, the survivors of House Lyral and their few remaining loyalists were rescued from a slave transport in one of the first encounters with the space elves, and eventually became the majority of the ancestors of those Vesperine descendants who still live aboard in the Last Star era.

+5, free Maid Deployment = 40 - Maiden Assault: Allowing the maintenance bioroids to operate independently and develop their own personalities and quirks does lead to some reduced efficiency and occasional conflicts in task resolution. Still a minor price to pay for not creating and keeping an oppressed slave race, though.

+10 = 50 A God, Am I? - the Eru were a collectively pacifistic, hobbit/kemonojin hybrid that were next on the menu for the Riofaldians when you came into contact. An entire season of anime could be made about the trouble along the way to safeguarding their world, and they are the most numerous single species still counted among the Asteria's complement by Last Star.



(Then we move on to Season Two, full of Slice Of Life and mostly planet bound, as SI-me tries to integrate back into something like a recognizable life on Earth after so long waiting and hoping his changes to the early universe were already part of the OTL the first time around so it will still exist.)



Banana CYOA - Lol wut? Ok, why not. Sometime after planets and life as we know it reforms, possibly even on Earth and approaching the modern era, I am the most trusted banana merchant in all of Banatswana. The Founding Mother herself bought her bananas from me!

(No, that's not the same as what the That's Normal perk covers - it's like having done business with a particular family for hundreds of years and more; it just happens that I've been the point of contact with that family the whole time. Nothing too odd about that, right? After all, lots of folks have a particular family member who customarily takes care of such business. Wink)

Start: 25pt

-4 = 21 Banana (Small Bunch) - popular with customers, not so much with employees. To bad for them, they're there to serve the customers.

-8 = 13 Under-Ripe Bananas - Still green, they have a little time yet to go before they'll be edible. Great for disaster-preppers and those who like to only need to go shopping once every week or two.

-4 = 9 Just-Ripe Bananas - Just beginning to form brown spots on their skin, these bananas are perfect for immediate consumption, at their peak of sweetness and flavor before they spoil. Also great for baking or parfaits.

-9 = 0 Banana Ride - Lol, sure, the kids love it, and so do people old enough to stop worrying about looking silly for a bit of fun. The CYOA makes a mild innuendo about it but fuck it, I'm Solution the Precursor and I do what I want, so I'm going to have a giant flying banana instead of a broomstick when I get to magic school. Then all the "Wanna ride my banana?" jokes shall be mine! :rofl:


[color="gold"](insert more filler episodes here)[/color]


Boxful of Puppies CYOA
One puppy and three gifts:

Mechapooch - a robot pup that will nevertheless grow normally into a full-sized representation of the chosen breed. (Newfoundland Retriever.) Doesn't need food or produce waste, just daily recharges and the occasional spare part. Who's'a'g'boythen? You are, yes you are. His name is Sir Isaac Newton, because he is one bad motherfucker... INNN SPAAACE!

Doggy Tesseract Toy - changes into something new any time the current user gets bored and puts it down. Newton may even get to play with it sometimes :p

Mellow Flowers - exude a calming scent that lets anyone in the area feel calm and experience a time dilation effect that greatly speeds their mental processes. Also effective when dried and prepared as tea. Because obviously, tea time is courtesy time even if you didn't pick the Mahou Inu.

Subspace Backyard - A nice green-space area fenced in by short deciduous trees and thick shrubbery that can be accessed from any point in normal space, suitable for keeping any of the pooches and letting them have outdoor exercise time. The weather is always pleasant and it has a number of bottomless holes for disposal of waste. About large enough for a baseball diamond given Newton's particularly large adult size, but about a third of it is a clear, freshwater pond suitable for swimming, again due to the (simulated) breed.


DLC addon, help the dog girl for two weeks until he can break the cursed transformation for an extra puppy and gift:

Domesticated Kumiho - sadly, even a fox spirit will age and be gone to dust by the time I get to the Mage Academy after The Last Star. Still, probably the hardest of the fully sapient options to find a suitable home for otherwise, even preferring sweets over human livers and mischief to malice.

Dampening Slipsuit - perfect protection from any kinetic energy based damage for one human or very-near-human wearer


(I could pull a few more inane/modern day ones out of the hat to fill this out, but it would just be filler. The Banana CYOA is funny and the Boxful of Puppies is where Solution accepts that despite a few billion years of nostalgia, boring old Earth is in fact boring even when it's comparatively a young whippersnapper, and heads back out to space for Season Three, which centers on the Totally Not Gamilons vs. Eru with a side order of Totally Not Nier's 2B vs. Totally Not Skynet. Season Four is an even more massive time skip than from one to two, going from 20XX to just before the last star in the universe burns out. The plots are about finally wrapping up the B3-Ta vs. Xeraphim thread, settling the hash of those Pact assholes, and helping the GCF complete their escape hatch.)


The Last Star CYOA - fuck this setting is awesome, why does no one seem to have used it? Now I want to do a bunch of flashbacks about this stuff interspersed with Totally Not Hogwarts material. Of course, that's the purpose of adding a bunch of other CYOAs on to it, so mission accomplished.

Faction: Grand Celestial Fleet
925pt, +150rp toward a ship. That's already handled, but a comfy space yacht can be a nice "shuttle" and possibly a disguise as Not The Actual Precursor so people don't bug me too much. Main point is the GCF are the ones working on a portal to a new universe to escape the now-immanent heat-death, which I can support with my Precursor technology and use as the mechanism to finally arrive for classes.

Background: Space Monster since it's the closest fit for a slime - unlocks Aberrations, T3 combat free

Skills: Obviously T3 across the board... and that's just what I admit to. I would be a very sad Precursor if I didn't at least match the state of the art in all categories, what with being literally older than the universe itself if you count pre-Hard Reset lifespan. Not that a few paltry decades really matter after the 110 trillion years estimated for stellar formation to end and the last red dwarfs to burn through their supply of fusionable elements, but the premise is that humans have survived so long so I feel free to count events on a human time scale, particularly when aligned with the Rule of Cool for a badass boast.

-30 = 895 - T3 Leadership: People want to do things for you and are willing to go far out of their way. +2 Companions

-20 = 875 - T3 Piloting: The vessel is an extension of your will. You seldom have to pay for drinks in spacer bars.

(free) T3 Combat: War is an intricate dance... and you know all the moves.

-35 = 840 - T3 Engineering: Simply looking at a device lets you figure out how it works and ho to make it work better, you can keep even the most complicated systems functioning perfectly even under extreme stress.

-35 = 805 - T3 Programming: A master of programming and security, even the possibility of being targeted for a hack is enough for people to burn their data media and physically disconnect all network equipment.

-40 = 765 - T3 Science: A polymath highly capable in many fields, and able to rapidly integrate new learning

NPC Factions:

-75 = 690 - Drojnar: Favored due to a trade history as long as their existence as tool-using sapients, they will offer far better deals and go to great lengths to avoid conflict.

+150 = 840 - Xeraphim: I am The Precursor. The Xeraphim definitely know my name, and hate me with a T2 intensity because they're a bunch of omnicidal little wankers and I'm the oldest form of life in the universe, and hence fly directly in the face of their stupid mission to kill absolutely everything because fuck life in general. Not that I don't sympathize sometimes, but those feelings go away after getting some alone time, or sufficient directed violence at a specific target. Also, as developed after writing this, my harboring B3-Ta was sort of directly responsible for them organizing into their current form instead of endlessly fighting each other in the ruins of their original world until its sun went nova. Even AIs can be hypocrites, I guess.

Pact: Fuck those defeatist quitters sideways with an Aeonic warhead. Do it again even harder for working with the Xeraphim to refurbish a set of Sequence stellar engineering gravity-lifters and arranging for the Omega Hope dyson sphere to crash into the shell around the Event Zero Order's supermassive black hole, shattering both and ending hundreds of billions of innocent lives as they fell into the event horizon along with the last still-burning star in the universe.

Aberrations:

-20 = 820 - Monofilament Talons: Imagine a water-pressure cutter that can actively focus itself into a true edge instead of just a stream. That's me, wherever I like, whenever I feel like shapeshifting to it.

-20 = 800 - Enhanced Senses: Sight, sound, scent, touch, magnetism including planetary navigation, IR, UV, electroreception, surface vibration, etc. Still no sense of pain as such, thanks to being a Slime.

-20 = 780 - Pheromonal Tracers: can deposit tiny amounts of material on a target that can then be tracked from miles away

-25 = 755 - Spinnerets: can create large amounts of incredibly strong, thick and tough silk

-30 = 725 - Lightning Reflexes: Much faster thinking and reaction times

-45 = 680 - Perfect Ambush: able to move almost totally silently and actively adapt coloration to camoflage for any environment. Yay! Now I can control the color and surface consistency of my goo! Still not perfect mimicry, but "look like skin and hair instead of toothpaste" is within my grasp.

Cyclic Powers:

-100 = 580 - Unlock: Magic potential by any other name. It's time, I do need to know it's there to be trained before heading to magic school after all.

-25 = 455 - Remote Viewing: Mark a tiny, invisible point in space. The area surrounding it can be viewed remotely at any time. Only one can be maintained at a time. (Because fuck Magic Academy CYOA and it's solely future-focused scrying/divination.)

-25 = 410 - Deepsight: See glowing SFX wherever Cyclic Powers are in use, even if normally invisible like TK or RV

Items:

-15 = 395 - Hovercase: A flying box to carry your stuff at moderate speeds, also vacuum capable.

-20 = 375 - Medical Kit: Nanite and conventional tools and supplies for restoring (other) people to health.

-25 = 350 - Portable AI: all but guaranteed Hollywood hacking against anything but contemporary-quality military systems

-25 = 325 - Handscanner: Displays physical and chemical makeup, internal circuitry, etc.

-30 = 295 - Morphtool: Any hand-held tool from tweezers to a crowbar to datajacks to a quantum computing logic probe to physical melee weapons.

-(10+5) = 280 - Variable Stunner w/Collapsible: Nonlethal suitable for stunning most wetware via selective nerve stimulation, able to fold into a much smaller form (like a small cell phone) for ease of storage and carrying.

-(10+5) = 265 - Electromagnetic Disruptor w/Collapsible: Suitable for disabling most hardware.

-15 = 250 - Lasblade: Variable length and power blade. The coolest weapon ever. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

(secondary) Ship:

Name: Farthing Gleam

-250pt = 0 - Yacht hull: free Luxury Fittings

500rp +150 = 650rp

-40 = 610rp - Cyclic Propulsion: Mechanical telekinesis produces (relatively) low thrust but needs no fuel

-30 = 580rp - Phase Channel FTL: travels >100ly/day but requires ~10min prep, less (halved at T2?) with advanced AI

Weapons:

-40 = 540rp - Cyclic CIWs: first-rate point defense

-100 = 440rp - Vaser x2: A pair of variable-frequency laser turrets, low-gigawatt output at thousands of kilometers (long IC) range.

Utilities:

-25 = 415rp - Enhanced Arrays: improved sensors and communication range

-50 = 365rp - Sensor Platforms: low-visibility remotely operated spy units

-50 = 315 - T2 AI: human equivalent, gives improved weapon and ship management/FTL control. Haven't developed this character since there's a buch of cast members already just with the immortal-ish hold-overs from Built in the Heavens CYOA let alone the Companions section below. Might just use Lauha for this.

(free) Luxury Fittings: All craftsdwarfship is of the highest quality. It menaces with spikes of Auritanium.

-30 = 285rp - Entertainment Room: A rec room suitable for lounging as well as physical activity or electronic media.

-45 = 240rp - VR Bay: for immersive VR environments

-30 = 210rp - Galley: A real kitchen and dining room, not some shoddy synthesizer shoehorned into a cramped mess hall. Though there is a very excellent food synth in the corner of the rec room too.

-30 = 180 - Bar: A room for booze and partying, adjacent to the Entertainment Room so both spaces can be combined for larger events.

-5 = 175rp - Cargo Bay: Large and empty, well suited to carrying whatever you like.

-35 = 140rp - Infirmary: Suitable for both wetware and hardware

-65 = 75rp - Factory Module: Copy bought items and spaceship parts over time, and replace lost drones

Drones:

-20 = 55rp - T3 Drone Hangar: Contains ten drones

-10 = 45rp - Self-repair: capable of fixing themselves in the field as long as a basic level of functionality remains.

-10 = 35rp - Mining Arm: Drones can collect resources, and could also be repurposed for attacking armor...

-15 = 20rp - Superior AI: much better decision making, targeting, etc. Still only as bright as a bright pet or a dim child.

-10 = 10rp - Laser: 100km range, megawatt class.

-10 = 0rp - Flack Gun: Very fast ROF, also useful for point defense.

Companions: Chosen with an eye toward quickly investigating and establishing relations among the people of a new universe, whatever their level of advancement may be.
standard 5 +2 = 7

Unaffiliated:

* Permeryn, Human Hunter/Warrior - her slowboat's multigenerational civ crashed and reverted to primitive hunter-gatherer levels but most have adapted well enough to high technology since their arrival, herself among them.

* Gallatine, Cultural & Linguist Droid - He had hoped to fully catalogue the languages and cultures of the Omega Hope Dyson sphere before leaving the old universe, but is excited about exploring the worlds of a whole new one as well.

* Lauha, Neohologram Strategist - Adept in all forms of warfare, perceptive and level-headed, tends to sisterly affection toward her friends. Not commonly known is that she was previously ejected from a GCF ship for insubordination; nevertheless she has earned her place as second in command of the Last Star-era party.

* Reuia, Not Very Near Human Medical Doctor - Usually modest and self-deprecating, but if roused to anger has quite a temper. A white/red feathered bird-woman with fine-scaled hands and tough, scaly, taloned feet modifying the basic humanoid body plan.

* Ktherrla, Real Wierdie Chef de Cuisine/Warrior/Jill of All Trades - your basic insectoid/draconic Space Monster with a heavy carapace and vestigial-looking but nevertheless functional-when-unfurled paper fan style wings and a prehensile tail, Ktherrla has held a multitude of jobs that gave her a wide range of skills, but foremost is her excellent cooking. Has no objections to a little of the ol' slay-and-fillet but is perfectly happy to keep busy in her kitchen.

* Aleksandra, Human Intelligence Analyst - excellent data sifter, cryoship immigrant

GCF Specific:

* Equarus, Crowd Control/Security/Soldier Droid - best in a combat support role, resembles a humanoid in light grey armor with orange accents

(and finally, we come to Season Five, with a massive change in tone that most of the fandom hated, even more so because almost the entire cast from last season was left behind on the ship doing orbital surveys or exploring the planet off-camera in favor of an all new fantasy-themed group, and the immensely skilled and experienced MC decides to attend a magical school as a "teenager" where next to none of that applies. Seriously Czly's Brain, WTF!? At the same time, it served as the jumping-on point for a whole new audience, and did maintain continuity with previous seasons rather than being a complete reboot.)

Big Grin


Mage Academy CYOA

Using Solution's Clone and Shapeshifting abilities, "my twin sibling Colloid" will also be attending, as there's easily enough interesting classes for two full programs and then some. (If disallowed, replace Purification and Animal Talking in Colloid's courses with Curses and Nether Talking and give them to Solution... and laugh as the mages double take over having assembled a full course load to graduation that does not qualify for any of the existing titles. Really, why would anyone need more than "Progenitor" and "Captain of the Arco Asteria" anyway? Note that while Survivalism would be expected to cover hazards, plants, and critters unique to the new world in a more magical universe, Martial Arts is supremely useless for someone with Last Star T3 Combat and 110 trillion years of experience, and the Deepsight Cyclic power already covers both Detection and Detect Curses as it reveals the pattern of any Cyclic/Magic energy present, while Remote Viewing is an entirely different branch of clairvoyance than what Migorn teaches. Using additional clones in Solution's or Colloid's forms to trade instruction one on one with other students or staff in these in exchange for other elements (including Darkness and Gravity,) Combination, Familiar crafting, or Exorcism outside of the official class schedules is definitely on the table.


Dorms: (assuming "ungendered shapechanger" counts as either for balancing occupancy, though Colloid will keep a masculine body-morph and use male pronouns and Solution the reverse for the convenience of their roommates since after so long taking whatever form is handiest to deal with the current company it really, really doesn't matter.)

Colloid shares a large room with Juniper, Sil, and Yuuko in the Knight dorm, #4. They're a short way down a corridor and around a corner from the Knight common room and bathrooms, but it's not a bad spot even if not the most desired. They do have some south facing windows, for nice daytime illumination without needing magical assistance, and without upleasant glare in mornings or evenings. The Knights' dorm is entirely invisible in the CYOA picture, even its tower hidden behind the central Queen's Tower with staff quarters, Summoning and Binding classrooms, and the school's bell.

Solution shares a large room with Pelama, Serene, & Zieki in the Pawn dorm, though Serene is not exactly a friend due to a dislike of Slimes from her adventures and disgust at Pelama and Zieki's attitudes toward studying. They're in room #7-A, across from Pyhno & co. in #7-B, both being small cantilevered extensions off the sides of the tower that houses the Pawn dorms as a whole. In the castle image at the top of the CYOA it's the second from the right in the far background, but foreground objects obscure it to the point the side-towers cannot be seen. The main tower's floor seven has the shared common room and bathrooms for them and the next two floors up and down, making it a prime location that they were very lucky to draw from the available rooms.

Year one:
Colloid: Magic 101 Gy2, Levitation Gy4, Spirit Talking Gn2, Herblore Gn4, Purification Wh8.
Solution: Blink Gr3, Illusions Bu5, Earth Rd5, Survivalism Gn1, Nether Talking Bk2, Defensive Wards Wh4.

Year two:
Colloid: Mana Channeling Gy5, Force Gy6, Animal Talking Gn1, Cursebreaking Wh4, Blessings Wh4. Mystery: Eternal Student
Solution: Jewelcraft Gy4, Conjuration Bu4, Curse Object Bk5, Curses Bk7. Mystery: Study Hall

Kriras's locker room incident, Savvas as his long-suffering roommate, friend, and general minder

Caelica and Zeiki as regular sparring partners, possibly leading to the Kriras incident

Vacation? Shenanned Again! - Serene gets in contact via some magical effect, uncharacteristically pleading - the bandits her friend stayed with when she came to the school have gotten into a turf war with another gang and made too much of a disturbance; the Adventurers' Guild has been offered contracts to wipe them all out and if that fails the army will be deployed. She needs a party to get in and extract her (captured by the rival gang?) friend before they're killed, and her dorm mates are the obvious first choice since Adventurer's Guild members would just as likely try to double-cross her and turn in both of their heads for the bounty money, ignoring that she hasn't been a member of the gang for a year.

Year three:
Colloid: Enchanting Bu6, Potion Brewing Gn6, Healing Wh8. Mystery: Hidden Library
Solution: Toxic Rd5, Water Rd6, Growth Gn5, Offensive Wards Bk4. Mystery: Impostor?

Something with Gabe and Violet

NPC Mystery: Carrie and the Heart of Silvered Glass (involves Damien and Freida)

Last break before graduation major adventure/movie: Pelama summons a demon army to conquer the world to live up to the prophesy made at her birth, ends up having to defeat them herself (with the help of the other main cast) due to attempted backstabbing and is hailed as a hero, offered rulership of several kingdoms whose upper nobility were wiped out in the process. Discovers that being an empress is like being stuck in a full load of theory-heavy classes except even worse because it's not just school hours and she can't just slack off or ditch or else nothing gets done. Ends up naming the most effective advisors as local regents and bunking off to the Arco Asteria with Solution at the end of the term to be a wandering adventurer as they explore other worlds in the magical universe.

Credits/Titles earned:
Colloid: Gy17, Bu6, Rd0, Gn12, Bk0, Wh24: Priest, "the Radiant Palm"
Solution: Gy7, Bu9, Rd16, Gn6, Bk18, Wh4: Witch, Alchemist, "the Poison Swamp"


Roomies in brief:
Juniper - Tricksy Pixie Alchemist, wants to become a wandering adventurer and vanquish evil. Pelama rival?
Sil - Spellblade with little talent, works hard to overcome it in order to become a hero of renown. Good study-buddy.
Yuuko - Hot-blooded tomboy Priest, jokey and lacking modesty, basically a Shounen protagonist with boobs.

Pelama - Lich with hammy aspirations of world conquest. Darkness, Summoning, Necromancy, slacker otherwise.
Serene - Sorcerer, 19, 5yr Adventurer, has friend still in a Bandit gang for plot hooks. Impatient with less advanced students.
Zieki - Dragonkin Defender, misses getting a good physical challenge since arriving. Not deeply invested in magic.


Other interesting students:

Moé Hufflepawn duo plus roomies:
Pyhno - Harpy Alchemist, likes making people happy. Has trouble with pronouncing advanced spells.
Moiré - Cephalophore* Wizard, squeamish about doing harm, good at TK. A bit clumsy, especially when startled.
Jewels - Unenthusiastic Witch from parents evil enough to have been raided by heroes. Big on wards, cursed items/traps, and prepping.
Weiss Glamir - Refined and studious genius Sorcerer, yet easy to get along with; just don't mention family pressures. Tea time is courtesy time.

* Lit. "head carrier," most famously certain Catholic saints or the Irish dullahan death spirit. Moiré is not a knight, a man, typically riding a horse or on a cart or carriage, or for that matter a saint, however.

Slytherclaws:
Savvas - Sorcerer, proud but unconfident in magic vs. the blade. Noble life goals but got in through connections and politics, also responsible for being housed in the Rook dorm.
Kriras - Genius bishonen Wizard, absentminded. Secretly dreams of fame for academic accomplishments.
Carrie - Witch, appears good natured and serious but actually yandere. Probably crushing on Damien; divert attentions to Kriras to defuse? (gets the Beautiful Mirror)

Bishops:
Rodmei - Defender, excellent defense but not so much offense or speed. Highly loyal and charismatic, but easily led by a pretty face.
Lynne Outerbridge - Sorcerer, talented oracle with a sideline in Lightning, bored easily and eager to try new things. Likes the wild.
Caelica - Mana-limited Battlemage, tends to overwork and suffer for it. Sparring partner for Zieki?
Damien - "Cool and mysterious" (actually, shy) bishonen Lich from the war-torn north continent with a blabbermouth animated skull. Crushing on Freida.

Griffinjocks:
Violet - Spellblade with no talent except in Enchantment, mouth even quicker than her blade or her wits.
Gabe - good-natured Priest and excellent cook, not offended by fat jokes. Good at defense, an adventurer at heart.
Freida - devout Priest, usually wears full armor, concealing robes otherwise. Dislikes being called a zealot. A serious powerhouse.


Aaand I'm going to call it a wrap for now. I did want to get some more detail filled in for the Mage Academy adventures at least, but this is the fourth day I've been working on this and I just want to post it and do something else for a while.
Reply
RE: CYOA mix tape: Space Wizard in SPAAACE!
#2
(05-08-2018, 06:46 PM)I Wrote: Hull Type: waiting on napkin sketches a design session
Well wait no more! (As if anyone but me was...)

Hull Type: Streamline Moderne - a fork-forward U-shape wrapped around four flattened spheres with two long, low dorsal towers aft and one even longer and lower amidships ventrally. Most of the hull is clad in gold with white and black porcelain trim stripes. The materials were chosen not as a display of wealth, but for their extreme resistance to corrosion and aging.

Size Category: Dreadnaught. Approximately 32km/20mi in the largest dimension. (More precisely, she's 31,700m long x 16,000m wide x 2800m tall.)

Nominal Crew capacity: 450,000 + 100,000 bioroid maids + 500,000 passengers or troops + 2,500,000 stasis tubes
Minimum crew: 1 + 20,000 cranky, overworked bioroid maids (Seriously, don't do this.)
Life support maximum capacity, indefinite: 5,000,000 + stasis vault
Life support maximum capacity, 6 months mean time before failure: 15,000,000
Life Support maximum capacity, 4 weeks MTBF: 25,000,000

(...)

(free) - Shuttlebay x5: From sleek personal transports to stiletto-sharp strike gunships to bulky yet still in their own way elegant troop transports, mining craft, tugs, and cargo haulers, a total of around fifteen hundred shuttles in a range of classes and configurations stand ready to serve where the Arco Asteria herself would be inconveniently large or noteworthy (and still with plenty of space left for the yacht gained from the Last Star CYOA below.) Most also have independent FTL capability and some form of defensive systems, whether armed or only provided with shielding. Capacity ranges from 4 to 1000 passengers and 200kg to 100,000t internally stored cargo.

imgur album:
https://imgur.com/a/dbOHiaK

Fly-around video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exVM9rtKFk0

Also manually linked for people like me on mobile or with scripts turned off so embedded videos and albums never work:
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RE: CYOA mix tape: Space Wizard in SPAAACE!
#3
One more image, for a more solid idea of the Arco Asteria's relative scale, and the Executor (at the modern 19km canonical size) in a similar but slightly larger-scale shot:

I suppose I'll have to adjust the upper bound crew capacity and bioroid maid population again - "nominal crew 2.5 million and able to carry the population of NYC in emergency conditions" doesn't sound nearly as impressive when Manhattan Island alone hosts about 8.9 million during a normal workday, and would effectively occupy only a single slice as tall as the trim fins around the sides of the ship after averaging building heights into empty spaces. Even allowing for a higher proportion of greenways than the New York park system and the shuttle bays, that's still a LOT of usable volume. If the work was done end-to-end instead of frame-outward, her Shipyard bay could build two or possibly three Executor-class SSDs simultaneously, with materials being brought in to be processed in the Industrial bay and transferred via the internal connections.
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