Bluebeard's Bride

[WickedCadrach]

I like that idea for the Sync track.

53 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Law requires emotion blockers for everyone to help ensure compliance - is that how the government works?

I'm up for this. I'd like to propose that civilians get medication, but military personnel get an implant so their commanders can switch them between calm obedience and overclocked adrenaline-pumped focus with the push of a button. Could be cool if the Empire's dirty secret is like in Equilibrium and the rebels know that the high-command are not on any kind of emotion altering tech (the privilege of the elite).

1 hour ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

how much detail goes into the Gear Aspect of the mechs? Or, are they characters unto themselves that are dar more effective with a pilot partner?

Ok-here's my thought (bear with me). What if the bio-mechs imprint on their pilots? Unhampered by neural-blockers and with rebel pilots free of emotional blockers, they form a bond as soon as they allow someone to pilot them, and whether that bond is good or bad, they're kinda stuck with it. Imperial mech pilots can switch their bio-mechs freely because of all the blockers: convenience and reliability at the cost of ever having truly brilliant pilot/mech pairs. This gives a lore reason why the bio-mech's features would be more-or-less locked in with the pilot as a set of Gear Aspects that work better or worse depending on Sync quality. 

The flipside is bio-mechs just having their own character sheets and being independent enough that someone's mech could literally leave them for another pilot that they get on with better. (Depending on how wild we want to get, people could each get a mech and pilot sheet and not necessarily be playing their own mechs. Like, Player A plays pilotA and mechB while Player B plays pilotB and mechA. Idk, could bog down gameplay, just a thought).

Right now, I'm leaning toward the first arrangement. But if the idea of mech-swapping while the squad finds their best match is appealing to people, I could get behind the second. (Or some third way of approaching this that I've just not considered yet, obviously, lol)

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think we go with the Gear aspect(s) solution at the outset. We can always "tear off" the gear aspect from a character and create a new character for the mechs later.

And I think the combination of Imperial (we'll need a new name) pilots having "hardware gates", citizens' food supplies being laced with emotional dampers and their mechs having neural blocks installed works.

Do we just add Sex as a skill? Or, between pilots, it happens in the fiction and we add a Mech Sex skill to cover mech intimacy with a bonus to the roll for the fiction?

[WickedCadrach]

I think we'll cover our bases by just having a Sex skill. 

It can work the way Drive skills tend to work in other RPGs. You just kinda assume everyone can do a narrative level of driving in a modern setting, but as soon as someone tries to get a specific outcome or tries to perform under extraordinary pressure, then you call for the skill roll. 

Same thing here. Characters and Mechs can just have narrative sex, but if someone tries to accomplish something (raise my Sync with my mech, get the handsome enemy spy to give up the location of the base, etc) then you're making a Sex roll. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I think we have everything we need.

Shall I start a new discussion thread for South East Command Sector, Liberation Union Strike Team?

Just run with a basic pyramid, and run through character creation?  Maybe formalize game creation a little?

[DreamsnThings]

I... am a little unsure if i want to commit to a pilot currently, im into trying out the mecha sexa angle we are looking at, but for more than a one off scene i dont know if im interested... any chance I could play say a mechanic who works on repairing mechs rather then starting off as one fully?

Im still interested, but not quite as much as normal 

[WickedCadrach]

I have no problem with it, in theory. Only that we're a little light on players, and I'm not sure how many you're hoping for @WritesNaughtyStories before you feel up for committing to a game. 

Even if we end up holding out, I'm happy to make a character and put them on the thread. Sometimes it's less intimidating to join in when there's someone already there and a template for making a character. 

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I don't think this is as dependent on player interactions as Bluebeard. It will be vastly improved by more players, but not pointless; which single player Bluebeard would be. So I don't see any reason not to make a character and drop in.

I don't have an issue with @DreamsnThings dropping in every now and again to jail break a Hive Frame and dip her toes in FATE waters.

I just had a thought. I like the mechanic being the first person to have sex with jail broken Frames. I think we give her a stunt like "I know it's your first time"

Edited March 23 by WritesNaughtyStories

[WickedCadrach]

12 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

I like the mechanic being the first person to have sex with jail broken Frames. I think we give her a stunt like "I know it's your first time"

Not me picturing robo-godzilla blushing demurely and tugging at her head-mounted laser array with a shy nod. 

Really though, that is a fun idea. 

 

Cool. I'm going to have to log off for a bit, but think I should have time to come back and put up a character later today. 

[DreamsnThings]

2 hours ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

I don't have an issue with @DreamsnThings dropping in every now and again to jail break a Hive Frame and dip her toes in FATE waters.

I just had a thought. I like the mechanic being the first person to have sex with jail broken Frames. I think we give her a stunt like "I know it's your first time"

I dont know much about fate, but I find the dynamic there rather silly, im into the idea I think... not 100% sure about how often I would be into the pilot x frame angle, but im interested at least a bit

[WritesNaughtyStories]

Which dynamic feels silly? The whole mech x pilot thing? Yeah, i guess it kind of is.

My thought was that it's some kind of tentacle arrangement that forms the interface, but with the neural blockers deactivated it becomes sexual. But I hadn't really thought much about the how. Thoughts, anyone?

[DreamsnThings]

2 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Which dynamic feels silly? The whole mech x pilot thing? Yeah, i guess it kind of is.

exactly this, ill give it a go, but im not really sure how... lasting it is for me

[WickedCadrach]

  

3 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

My thought was that it's some kind of tentacle arrangement that forms the interface, but with the neural blockers deactivated it becomes sexual. But I hadn't really thought much about the how. Thoughts, anyone?

I was imagining something similar.

Beyond that, I was thinking that because the Bio-Frame mech and the pilot are neural-linked, they have a level of virtual sense-sharing and might project mental experiences into each other. For a well-synched pilot x mech who trust each other (and aren't reflexively pulling their minds back), I imagine they'd be able to immerse each other in VR projections from each other's minds. 

So for example, yes, my Bio-Frame mech is a ten-meter tall lizard with autocannons, and in a literal sense, I'm hooked into an internal pilot's seat with throbbing tentacles, silicone and metal sensor rods, or other things like that. But while I'm neural-linked my mech might pull me into a full sensory experience of being beside a pre-war lake house while they manifest themselves as a gruff, stubbled man with the same color eyes as my mech's sensor array. 

If you're not in a combat situation where you need to be aware of the surrounding world, I could see mech and pilot neural-linking going very deep with what sort of shared experiences are possible. 

(And of course, then there's the more grounded player x player interactions too)

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I feel like the BioFrames' urges would be more primal, almost feral. A pilot might try to urge their frame to a more romantic, erotic encounter. If the relationship is good, the frame will enter those strange, restrictive spaces, just like the pilot will be will to engage in raw, primal rutting.

 

I don't think I made it clear that I think the idea of these shared fantasies, or virtual sexual encounters, is a great thing. I do think the actual tentacle interface can be gratifying as well, but the pilot and BioFrame have enough Synch (+2 or +3?) they can transcend to that shared dream space. While there, they can, in addition to have sex, use the synchronicity to fight especially effectively, allowing them to use Synch instead of Fight or Shoot.

Edited March 23 by WritesNaughtyStories
Clarity

[WickedCadrach]

6 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

I feel like the BioFrames' urges would be more primal, almost feral. A pilot might try to urge their frame to a more romantic, erotic encounter. If the relationship is good, the frame will enter those strange, restrictive spaces, just like the pilot will be will to engage in raw, primal rutting.

That's fair. If pilot and mech's minds are too similar then there's no reason for the Bio-Frames not to be completely independent. 

[WickedCadrach]

26 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

the pilot and BioFrame have enough Synch (+2 or +3?) they can transcend to that shared dream space. While there, they can, in addition to have sex, use the synchronicity to fight especially effectively, allowing them to use Synch instead of Fight or Shoot.

I'm having a little trouble with the idea of fighting while having your senses wrapped up in a synched-VR-dream.

Maybe being able to use Synch instead of Shoot/Fight could be a Stunt instead of a general rule (or the sort of skill bend that usually costs a Fate Point)? Like, not every bonded Bio-Frame and Pilot can do it, even if their relationship is good, because you're essentially fighting blind using pure shared-instinct (or something like this).

[WritesNaughtyStories]

I actually like the idea of having it be a stunt or a skill bend, just because it makes it rarer and more magnificent. I think that for a pilot, combat is always through the shared sensory input from the Frame's senses - otherwise the pilot can literally see only the inside of the cockpit (which, in this particular setting, is an especially accurate turn of phrase)

Unrelated; should we move the FATE discussion to the FATE of The Liberation Union Strike Team thread?

Edited March 24 by WritesNaughtyStories
Added suggestion to move the discussion to the other thread

[WickedCadrach]

9 minutes ago, WritesNaughtyStories said:

Unrelated; should we move the FATE discussion to the FATE of The Liberation Union Strike Team thread?

Probably a good idea. We're really going to confuse anyone who comes stumbling in late curious about BBB, lol