September 25, 2008 at 1:13 pm (Uncategorized)

Any and all attempts at time travel in the KMV have been rebuffed by it coming under what would normally be the Hyperspace is a Scary Place trope, as well as it being extremely difficult to come close to already. Considering the one mad scientist who made a serious try at it went further insane in a much less useful and more mad-from-the-revelation fashion and had to rely on a malfunctioning backup system to restore what was left of her sanity*, it’s not exactly going to be a common storyline concept anytime soon.

This does indeed retcon Apocynthion pretty badly, but considering that’s all after the point when I lost all ideas I don’t mind a bit…

[* Yes, this implies that Darian can become more insane than she already is--]

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September 15, 2008 at 3:51 pm (Uncategorized) ()

In KMVRPG, the battles against Julien, Serena and/or Darian all have different versions of the same rough melody/theme (or possibly each theme is just a third of a larger song, I’m not sure); “Reconstruction”, “Psycho Gear” and “Outer Heaven” versions respectively. Still no idea what the overall theme is called or what it sounds like, though… not like that stops me from rambling about it.

Also the amount of Bonus Bosses the KMVRPG appears to be having is pretty ridiculous. Almost half of the game seems to be bonus, probably in some sort of postcredits “hay walk around the world you saved for fun for a bit” way.

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September 14, 2008 at 11:44 pm (character-related) (, , )

So the GURPS writeup of Blackgaard-Serena* basically has a bunch of general thievery/other criminalish skills (…yay for an ST 9 character with an intimidation rank of 16.) until SUDDENLY a number of points in random engineering/mechanic re: mecha.

Why do I find this so funny?

Am assuming Blackgaard canons are TL8 with TL9 minor bits and TL7 larger bits until corrected; also assuming srs canon characters default to 125-175pt, as it’s not all that realistic. Just moreso in comparison to casual canon. (Which I do not believe is particularly impressive.)

[* Mostly casual version. Srs canon version seems to break 150 points in terms of skills and be less stealth-balanced, as she's more of a hybrid with Julien. And also a less clueless Otacon apparently.]

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weapon tallies

September 13, 2008 at 8:40 pm (character-related)

just to assure myself that I’m not being as unoriginal as a lot of science / fantasy authors, mostly.

Barehanded or gauntlet: Harker, Ethate, Darian … two of whom really haven’t appeared in anything yet hmm

Double-edged sword(s): Ignatius (dual-wield), Lunedi du Clare (magic knight-style), Laura

Single-edged sword(s): Tobias, Julien, Serena (dual-wield), Darian (secondary), Antinomy (also secondary)

Rapier: Markellos, Helena

Axe: Sarisa, Elias

Spear or polearm: Kain, Lowen (… sort of), Lancer/Colette, that’s it? what? I’d expect to have a lot more in this category

Staff: Mikkau/Michael

Knife (melee): Kyle (Mycroft), Alita, Miles (secondary)

Knife/etc. (thrown): Antinomy, Janelle

Guns: Alexander, Dale, Mikkau (secondary), Miles (tertiary), Helena (tertiary)

Tomes of Eldritch Lore: Kyle (Moriarty), Miles

Morph Weapon: Dale, alt-Alexander, Helena (secondary)

Mainly Elemental Powers: Lowen, Dylan Colver

Killsat: HELENA.

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September 12, 2008 at 4:48 pm (character-related, setting-related) (, , )

The Telos series of Artificial Humans were some of the first created in the Multiverse, before it became a ridiculously common trope. It originated as a project of the Central Administration to create a sort of mostly-artificial supersoldier; considering two of three are pyrokinetic, I’d say they had access to some sort of data on Dylan Colver available to copy. Originally it was developed in concert with the RH series, but after the Super Prototype proved implausible to copy in large numbers due to feasibility issues with calibration, materials, Lowen being an outlier compared to most armor drivers, etc., the Telos project was discontinued and the RH project scaled back significantly.

Three models of the Telos type exist, then; one was created in part using IRIS-level data (Ignatius) but proved ever-so-slightly impossible to control or monitor, and thus sort of exploded a considerable amount of the project and left, so they also decided to scale back. The second (Mona) removed the IRIS component, and the third (Molotov) removed the somewhat unstable pyrokinetic factor in favor of general enhancements to speed and combat strength. Ultimately, neither of these removals really helped the controllability all that much…

All three models of Telos are comparatively high-Constitution versus more normal psuedohumans. They also use a more copper-based artificial blood system, which mostly adds to clotting and is artifically modified to boost air circulation capacity; the downside of this is that it’s blue rather than red. (Ignatius has a visible sort of pale bluish-grey tone to his skin, not to mention his normal hair color, which was later adjusted in Mona/Molotov to look more typically human.)

The only real ‘tell’ apart from endurance is the different blood color; they’re still biological, although Molotov has some degree of cybernetic add-ons.

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September 12, 2008 at 11:37 am (Uncategorized) ()

At this point it’s probably safer to just assume any given character in the KMV started out as a reference to something. Because basically everyone from both Sigeki and the Sphere has some sort of internal referential core, although a mostly ineffectual one. It’s only beyond that where things get more ‘whatever was in my head that day’…

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September 10, 2008 at 9:29 pm (character-related) (, , , , , )

I have no clue how to balance J. Costley-Donovan. In the Spherian Backstory Arc timeframe it was pretty possible to kill her, but in the present/Sigurd timeframe although she has low hit points if you just leave her alone long enough she’ll recover. And possibly have time to launch a Macross Throwing Knife Massacre at your retreating back, depending on how low you’ve gotten her health bar.

The only way to actually remove her as a threat permanently would probably be locking her in some sort of attack combination which would just continually damage her until she reached about -50x HP… that or damaging her multiple times in the heart (or other core segment, considering I wouldn’t be surprised if she was an Artificial Human of some sort) with gold or something*.

Admittedly this isn’t much of an issue when writing, and most stories don’t give her enough time to recover from something that traumatic, but it still bothers me**.

[* Wait, wrong weakness.

** Much like Lowen's ridiculous balance towards combat. But that's justifiable, if only on grounds of no fourth wall-type continuity reference...]

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Mytharc Ideas

September 6, 2008 at 10:11 am (scripting, setting-related) ()

right so alternative continuities:

1. More realistic physics in general (although still definitely a superheroic universe), more on the cynical side than the mainstream (but still definitely more idealistic in general)… Cara takes over after Elias’s death instead of dying in the same battle; five-year war becomes fifteen-year war, Kain and Ignatius die in it at some point, Lowen isn’t dead but in the absence of Lancer being operational is stuck offworld. Where Estragon/the first alt-Alexander comes from (Lieutenant General, rather than whatever rank he held in the main continuity, looks a lot like Dale Kuiper except with dark red hair and has his Morph Weapon). Helena’s solution to the fifteen-year war problem involves alt-Alexander using IRIS corruption to gain enough power to destroy their version of Cara; this might have led to this part of the entire mytharc, and thus alt-Helena is quite possibly the most important character to appear in one scene and nothing else.

2. IRIS-Darian’s continuity; mostly just the Good and Evil bits of her and Janelle’s alignments are swapped. Presumably everything else is as close to mainstream as it can be under these circumstances.

3. Heroic Elias and Cara. Yeah, I don’t know either. Probably where the slightly-older Lt. Col. Lowen Tremearne comes from, who’s the only alternate version of him in anything (probably because in most other for want of a nail situations he winds up dead or close to)

As they just get progressively less and less detailed after that, most of the rest are also just ’single character continuities’. Maybe they’ll get fleshed out later.

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bards are the best class ever

September 2, 2008 at 5:51 pm (Uncategorized) (, )

> AB VOICECRAFT HAIKU
Syntax: RECITE HAIKU AT <target>
Afflicts your target with confusion.

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September 2, 2008 at 11:43 am (setting-related) (, , )

Spherian Fantasy Counterpart Cultures: (for all descriptions, plz append ‘with mad science!’ afterwards. It goes for all of them, although disproportionately moreso for Unnamed Country #1.)

  1. Unnamed country. Despite being unnamed it seems to be the ‘main’ one for story purposes, as it’s where the Magometry Research Agency is based and where most of Prismatic takes place. Mostly in the style of 1920s England / America combination, probably with a minor Russian influence towards the north. Probably on an isolated (but fairly large) continent towards the northern end of the northern hemisphere.
  2. Galzburg (name of the country and its capital). Considerably German, crossed with a bunch of near-desert influences and inexplicably Space Westerny in terms of general style due to the climate of most of its territory. Another of the main countries, location of the Great Library of Galzburg in its capital, and where the Spherian Backstory Arc almost entirely takes place.
  3. Unnamed country two. Mostly Greco-Roman, but doesn’t have much of an existence yet as nothing’s really taken place there. Sort of similar to D’Alembert, although more coastal/mercantile than it due to a more optimum port location. Probably shares a border with Galzburg.

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