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Cloud is Dead (Final Fantasy VII CYOA)

Joined
Sep 19, 2012
Messages
784
yeah C, let's put our intelligence and skills to good use and really dig deep into our contractual obligations before we make any big decisions.
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
A > C

I guess they want some sort of leverage on him before future use? Having protected him from cooties, I’m now inclined to bite that hook firmly.
 

Random

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
2,812
Looking like the Cs have it with a side dash of A or D, will update later today/evening. Better get any remaining votes in.
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
o_0 Huh.

I've not been on the 'Dex for a year and a half, and I came back out of sheer respect for the guy who can resurrect his CYOA after nearly 5 years. :salute:

A) Just accept the interviews and get this shit over with; the money's great, you become famous, and it doesn't really impact your convictions much. If anything, you might be able to use the newfound star power to great advantage in the future for achieving your aims.
 

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
We're kinda blessed that, opposed to the typical Codexian CYOA, we know exactly what is gonna happen if we fail to Do Something.

I am not entirely sure that Star Powah and a healthy bank account are going to help much when the planet gets broken in half, but Nevill has a point. Stardom and propaganda work both ways, and if we are smart enough it can start a positive parasitic relationship instead of ruling us.

We need resources and we need status. We aren't going to save the world with The Power of Friendship, we're going to save the world through Corporate Greed and Superior Firepower.

C then A

I've not been on the 'Dex for a year and a half, and I came back out of sheer respect for the guy who can resurrect his CYOA after nearly 5 years. :salute:


By the way when you are going to accept the call of your Slavic blood and play Dominions?
 

Nevill

Arcane
Joined
Jun 6, 2009
Messages
11,211
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I am not entirely sure that Star Powah and a healthy bank account are going to help much when the planet gets broken in half
It might secure us a place on the escape shuttle. :M
By the way when you are going to accept the call of your Slavic blood and play Dominions?
Need some coaching sessions from gurus first. The only way to learn the game is to play against a max level opponent willing to explain exactly how he owns you.
 

Random

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
2,812
EDIT: Personally I would prefer if we had one update per page, to make it easier to navigate this thread as it grows, so don't mind me just gonna get on to the next page real quick
 

Random

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
2,812
On second thought, let's not make that a rule and I'll just deal with it if I have to post updates twice per page.

The Hero Returns, Part IX

It takes a little while to mull over your options, but you decide to play it safe for the time being.

"Could you send me the contract?" you ask. "I just want to be sure."

"No sweat, baby!" he says, cheerful as ever. He must be absolutely positive there's no way you can wriggle your way out of the terms even if you go over it with a fine toothed comb. Your phone pings with a whole bunch of texts in a row.

"Thanks. Give me, uh, thirty minutes to read the fine print," you say.

"You got it! Make it quick, though, a car's already on its way to pick you up for the first interview."

You hang up. It's not that you are totally against the interviews themselves, anyways.

You pull up the images you were sent. It's your Shinra employment contract, the whole damn thing. It's been years since you last looked at it, and it's such a beast that you never actually read it all the way through and you've never met anyone who ever has read the damn thing front to back. Usually, one hires a lawyer for that. But you're not made of money right now and you don't have the time for it anyways.

You take a second to try to remember where you gave up on reading it way back when. If you recall correctly with your impressive faculties... [Intelligence check passed] it was somewhere around page 284, about a quarter of the way through it. So you can skip all of that, at least, and focus on finding the specific clauses about TV appearances. You immediately start skimming. Given the time constraints, you don't bother with the fine print and just dig and dig and dig away, tapping the arrow buttons on your PHS at lightning speed.

[Observation] But no matter how far you skim, it doesn't pop up at all. You scroll and scroll and scroll until you hit the very end of the mammoth contract, and realize you must have missed it. Panic sets in. You immediately scroll backwards, but while you're doing so, you get a call.

"Hey, my man! Car's waiting for ya outside! Come on down!"

You curse under your breath. You wanted to be more prepared than this, but you decide you were probably going to agree to it all anyways and decide to go do as you're told... for now.

It's a short elevator ride down to the lobby, which is still being rebuilt from the attack, and from there you trot out the doors and down the steps to the street. The chauffeur is waiting for you, recognizes you on sight, and opens the door of the short black limo. Sitting on the far end of the back seat is a man in a perfect black suit who smiles and waves with a million-dollar grin, and the moment he opens his mouth you recognize him as the man on the phone just by his artificially 'cool' way of talking. "Hey boss, get in!"

With nothing better to do, you oblige him. The second you're in your seat, the chauffeur shuts the door, locking you in with the guy whose name you don't even know yet. Before you can even catch your breath or lock your seatbelt, a thick pile of paper is thrust into your arms.

"The interview questions!" the man in the suit says helpfully. "I'll coach you on them real quick before we get to the studio. Oh, and I've already forwarded your answers to the studio as well, so they'll have a teleprompter set up for you to read the answers off of in case you forget."

"Wait. Hold on. Answers?" you ask. The fuck?

"Yeah. The answers the Company has decided, of course. What, you're surprised? It's not like Shinra would just let you say whatever you feel like on television! It's written flat out in your contract, you are bound by the corporation's internal laws of confidentiality. Don't worry, you'll still get to talk plenty about your heroics. Just... not the other stuff, got it?" he said, straightening his tie. He grabbed a trunk behind the driver's seat and opened it up, revealing a dark suit with a red tie. "Don't worry, it's your size. That's all on file. I'll help you get dressed."

Before you can even think of protesting, he's practically got you in a chokehold and is tearing your ordinary clothes off, replacing them with the articles of the suit piece by piece. He combs your hair, hands you a toothbrush with some toothpaste already on it and a cup of water, and while you brush just to get him off your back he's already rattling off from the list of canned questions for the interview.

"When did you realize AVALANCHE was attacking HQ?"

"What did you think when you saw the carnage unfold? What compelled you to go into the fray when you were, legally on vacation?"

"How did you manage to delay the attack and force the enemy to split up? You survived a run-in on your own with the deadly and vicious female terrorist known as Tifa Lockhart. How?"

"Later you ran up the entire emergency staircase to floor 59, correct? Where did you find the stamina for something like that?"

"When you finally caught up with the assailants, how did you manage to stop them where half a battalion of troops and an entire building full of automated robotic defense units failed?"

How do you respond?

A) Read directly off of the answer cheatsheet that Shinra provided; it's not worth going off the reservation and risking retribution, legal and otherwise. Logically, you will benefit more from just playing the good boy for now.
B) [Charm] Disregard the cheatsheet and try to be more charismatic than the canned stuff would allow. If you're gonna do an interview, you're not going to just say what some asshole in marketing thought up for you based off your debriefing and the video footage of the attack. You can do better, you can captivate the audience, and you can strike a chord with them just by being real to yourself. You still won't talk about anything classified, though.
C) Rip up the answers Shinra gave you and don't even bother putting a filter on what you're going to say. You'll tell it all, even the part the Turks warned you not to talk about. The people have a right to know what's going on in HQ. Legions of monsters kept for experimentation breaking loose, Sephiroth coming back from the dead and assassinating President Shinra, and so on. You'll face the consequences of your indiscretion like a man.
D) [Bluff] Try to weasel out of the interview. Maybe you can bullshit a good excuse even though you didn't manage to find anything of use in the contract?
E) [Bluff] Fake an illness or something and bolt the first chance you get
F) Any combination of the above, or alternatives

Roll Results

Observation roll to find the relevant information in time:
Roll: 1d20 + Intelligence 7 + Obs Lvl 1 - Exhausted status effect + passed intelligence check = 1 + 7 + 2 - 2 + 4
TN for success: 14
Final Result: 12
Failure!

Character Sheet
Name: Marcus "Maverick" Westford
Class: Ranger
Profession: Major of the Shinra Co. Peacekeeping Corps, Department of Public Safety, Military Police Division
Age: 23
Inner Nature: X
Dominant Inner Nature: None
Health: Fine
Status: Exhausted

Characteristics:
Strength 4 Agility 7
Tenacity 6 Intelligence 7

Skills:
Discipline Lvl. 3
Marksmanship Lvl. 2, Athletics Lvl. 2
Hand-to-Hand Lvl. 1, Fieldcraft Lvl. 1, Bluff Lvl. 1, Stealth Lvl. 1, Academics Lvl. 1, Observation Lvl. 1, Electronics Lvl. 1, Computer Use Lvl. 1

Inventory: civilian casual clothes, PHS
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,241
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
D, E is too risky, I don't think b is good considering exhaustion.
Not bad, an update per page. :M
 
Joined
Sep 19, 2012
Messages
784
we couldn't even talk a pretty girl who was paid to bone us into coming jogging, we are not going to suavely shoot from the hip in front of a live audience without fucking up.

I think maybe some version of D where we talk a bunch of big words and legalese (is our high intelligence of the booksmart variety or are we just a naturally clever boy?), or just go for A

D > A then

really though I just hope armed madmen attack the television studio for Reasons so we can go back to doing badass things
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
B

Really want to see how he can embarass himself in front of the nation, but would prefer if he wasn’t executed straightaway for it.
 

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