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[LP CYOA] 傳

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I'm going with C > B.

I don't want to surrender at this point, so D is out. Going with A gives away too much about who we really are to anyone familiar with the Maniac's signature technique. We should use our anonymity for as long as we can, especially now that we have stumbled on the main plot as well. B and C would be completely new to everyone, and of these two I would prefer C as it does sound slightly less risky to me (if we break her arm, it would result in a disqualification, right?).
 
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I'll have to take the bait and take the Abbess' advice here. We might reveal the sword, but what the hey. The Emei already know about it, it'd mean we'd get revealed, but that reveal is coming up soon anyhow.
I don't think we have our Emei sword with us, all we have is a blunted training sword. It's not as if we would have given them our priceless blade to blunt. I hope so anyway.
 

Esquilax

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I don't think we have our Emei sword with us, all we have is a blunted training sword. It's not as if we would have given them our priceless blade to blunt. I hope so anyway.

If this technique in C is a variation of a Yuchang Sword technique, then that probably means that it can't be used with some crappy wooden training sword:

To start off with, it's faster, lighter, and sharper than any short sword. That means there are certain moves that can only work with the Yuchang Sword, where other blades would be too ungainly to pull them off with. Also, there are other attributes. Which you may discover in time, if it isn't taken from you along with your balls.

I dunno, I'm still skeptical of C.
 
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I don't think it's a wooden weapon, just not a sharp one. Anyway, when we made our original sword technique we didn't even have the Yuchang sword, we had a larger sword with a really crappy balance. So we should be able to make another variation with whatever weapon we have here.
 

Azira

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That larger sword with crappy balance was the yuchang sword that had been disguised with an external and badly made sheath of other material.
 
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Well yes, but it's not as if we developed our technique specifically for the Youchang sword. We used our technique first when it was still a very crappy and much heavier sword, very different from the Yuchang.
 

Esquilax

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I don't want to surrender at this point, so D is out. Going with A gives away too much about who we really are to anyone familiar with the Maniac's signature technique. We should use our anonymity for as long as we can, especially now that we have stumbled on the main plot as well.

Well, the question here is: who is familiar with the Maniac's signature technique? Definitely Abbot Fangzhang and the Grand Taoist Wang Zhengchong, who both are Great Pugilists and saw his skills first hand at the Huashan Summit. The Kunlun sect head is also probably familiar with Master Zhang too, and of course Abbess Miecao.

Note that the Abbot and the Grand Taoist aren't watching this match, they are watching their own students at their respective matches. Truthfully, I think very few people would actually recognize the Shouwang Mad Claws if they saw it, because you usually don't see Zhang's style in action and live to tell about it. Other than the sect heads, I just don't see who'd be able to tell. And the people most likely to recognize it aren't paying attention to us right now.

So yeah, while the Abbess would probably recognize us, we already have an agreement not to rat each other out. I don't see modifying the move in order to disarm Yiling problematic in terms of anonymity. I suppose it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that it might look familiar to someone, but I see it as a calculated risk if we want to win the match. I'm still not sold on C.
 

kazgar

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Well, do we want to win the match? Weight of opinion seems to be yes so far.

edit, the way i see it

A - High chance of winning match, may shock onlookers, reasonable risk of breaking the rules, new skill not much use outside of tournament

B - Pretty good chance of winning match, high risk of breaking the rules, less likely to shock onlookers, new skill some use outside of tournament

C - Small/Medium chance of winning match, low risk of breaking rules, low risk of shocking onlookers, new skill possibly of good use outside of tournament.

D - No chance of winning match, small chance of shocking onlookers, no real risks but limited rewards.
 

Smashing Axe

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Divinity: Original Sin
A>C
I was going to vote for C, but after some careful thought I don't think it's worth it, as much as I would like to continue to develop our self-taught sword style. That said, A is an innovation in and of itself, and should help us make Zhang's techniques less deadly in future.

I'm against B because I think it will result in injury and disqualification. If we screw up with A, we hurt our fingers. If we screw up with B, we break the girl's ribs or worse, kill her. In A we'd be attacking her weapon, not her. It's much safer comparatively.
 

Esquilax

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I was going to vote for C, but after some careful thought I don't think it's worth it, as much as I would like to continue to develop our self-taught sword style. That said, A is an innovation in and of itself, and should help us make Zhang's techniques less deadly in future.

I agree, I think that C would involve losing the match, but further refining our sword style. I just don't see Yiling getting really careless and allowing herself to get suckered into a counter - she's proven to be quite intelligent and great at thinking on her feet. A would still leave us a long way from turning the Shouwang Claws into a weapon-disarming move. But fuck it, it works in the context of the match, and it isn't illegal, so we should go for it. I want to at least make it past Yandi.

A would be a tad risky in a real fight, B is a bit too lethal sounding.

This is a fair assessment, but what makes you think C would actually win us the match? Just like in a lot of martial arts, we'd be exploiting the ruleset to win the match, not necessarily performing a technique that works in a real-life situation. A is the equivalent of point-sparring... but hey, it'll win us the match.
 

ERYFKRAD

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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
Esquilax I don't recall saying it'd win us the match. All I figure is that if we're coming up with something, it could as well be more useful in a fight than A and less brutal than B. We've got brutality covered, mostly, anyway.
 
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Well, the question here is: who is familiar with the Maniac's signature technique?
I think you might be underestimating the number of people that could know of Zhang's main technique. The Maniac is hardly the most subtle person and there could be many that saw him rip some unfortunate bastard apart. He could be famous for ripping people to pieces with his claws in front of an audience. Using a claw technique now with the rumours of his apprentice participating (and now an actual false-flag attack) could mark us his disciple both to the competitors and to the mysterious attackers.
 

Rex Feral

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A. I'm all about winning. And what an irony it would be if it turns out to be the losing choice.
 

Absinthe

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C. Jing can spend 1 night practicing the first step of Songfeng swordplay to defeat the heir. With how much experience Jing has against the Emei (and he just spent the first match observing Yifang), this should be very doable. It's already been noted that if Yiling gets hasty, she leaves openings, so a counter should be quite effective against her. Also, using the Abbess's advice might result in +rep for Emei.

A would definitely win it but choosing A reveals one of Jing's trump cards, and he will need them against Murong Yandi.
 
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ERYFKRAD

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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
Say, treave, do we have any way of knowing if the techniques we're working out on the fly are truly original techniques? As opposed to being existing techniques that we're developing independently?
 

treave

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I'm not sure what you mean by original - are you using it in the sense that the technique is something you have come up with on your own, or are you asking if the technique is unique and there are no others like it in the world?

If the latter, there are surely other techniques that do the same thing, although in a different manner or approach. I mean, snatching weapons and punching people in the arms would have crossed other people's minds, and some of them would have found ways to do it.
 

Baltika9

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A would definitely win it but choosing A reveals one of Jing's trump cards, and he will need them against Murong Yandi.
And revealing our bitchin' sword skills against a superior swordsman won't do the same?
 
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Absinthe

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Baltika9, the alternative to revealing a technique that you just made up on the spot is not having that technique at all.

On the other hand, using Shouwang claws reveals Jing's best offensive technique which is also Zhang's signature technique. Not only would opponents anticipate his best move, but there is a good chance he would be exposed as Zhang's apprentice. There are a lot of eyes on Yiling, after all.

Also, Jing's unarmed skills are superior to his sword skills.
 

ERYFKRAD

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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
I'm not sure what you mean by original - are you using it in the sense that the technique is something you have come up with on your own, or are you asking if the technique is unique and there are no others like it in the world?

If the latter, there are surely other techniques that do the same thing, although in a different manner or approach. I mean, snatching weapons and punching people in the arms would have crossed other people's minds, and some of them would have found ways to do it.
I meant that if we've developed one sequence of movements as a technique, how likely is that some one else would've developed the very same sequence? Makes sense?
 

treave

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Extremely unlikely. Near impossible, in fact, unless by some strange quirk of fate where someone, somewhere, sometime, with the same physical and mental capabilities, has undergone the exact same experiences and come to the exact same conclusion to create the exact same technique independently.
 

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