The Found Arcana – Fourth Interlude [OOC]

  • gilga

    Member
    July 30, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    As tempting as it is to get more dice, AM did not cast the spell prior to opening the door, and would not cast spells in front of imposing gangers that may take offense. The spell is obvious (she has skill 5 and it is F5), so she would not do it.

    The only thing reasonable would be to excuse herself, but that might as well surrender the situation to Jawsey that was negative about this entire interaction (and not that bright in negotiation recently – e.g., distracted by the dragon in the Mayor’s room). Considering these factors, I don’t think she would cast the spell before getting into negotiations.

  • beta

    Organizer
    July 31, 2020 at 9:50 am

    A quick general note about Jawsey and negotiations: as a player I have no negotiation skills, borderline the incompetent quality (I have a couple of lovely Moroccan rugs that I’d had no intention of buying, and I shudder to think how much salary I’ve missed out on over the years). It is the part that I hate about playing a face type character (etiquette, con, those are fun, it is just negotiation).

    So my general approach to negotiation is “character says something that indicates we’ve entered the negotiation phase, now can we roll some dice, because the more I try to RP it, the worse it is apt to go.”

    In the particular case here, yes, Jawsey was trying to turn the job down originally (by making a demand that he knew they were not likely to meet, because his preference was for them to go away without the provocation of directly turning them down). So in this particular case it wasn’t me being bad at negotiation RP, and AM is right to not leave this to Jawsey — he may be backing her play now, but he no doubt lacks enthusiasm.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    July 31, 2020 at 2:07 pm

    Big Stank’s roll: https://orokos.com/roll/832222 Charisma + Negotiation: 11d6t5 4 hits

  • gilga

    Member
    July 31, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    Well, as I hinted in the IC thread. AM does not feel much love for Jawsey right now.

    I am uncertain what harsh words I am going to put in her mouth once Big Stank leaves, but it is all IC drama. I love playing with you Beta and I love Jawsey.

    P.S: I am reasonable in negotiations and I and my wife often work together to get a better price. We negotiate more mundane things than we do in this game though. Interests on loans, price of car/house/renovations/furniture. Not sure if it makes me good at writing these scenes though.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    July 31, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    I think the IC is harsh in the sense that many of the criticisms are targeting IC vs. OOC disparities. Who posts first or more extensively is part of it (due to OOC availability or comfort with the topic or whatever). Or maybe Jawsey’s unreasonable demand is part of a good cop, bad cop strategy. Or maybe he thinks that Big Stank will respond better to a female, especially if he’s looking for a female. Not saying any of this is true, but it could be, or it could be details that we skim over because we don’t examine every second of every day of every character.

    On that note, I think it’s likely that Jawsey will be highly attuned to AM’s mood, via the astral if nothing else. Now maybe AM is cold and tired while Jawsey is warm and well-rested, or maybe AM’s afraid of her debt and being unreasonable/irrational. All of these are valid reactions based on human imperfections, but it’s also just as likely that Jawsey senses AM’s anxiety and talks with her about it off-camera. The ‘just ignores her’ criticism seems like a stretch, since we don’t cover every moment of our characters’ lives.

    Or maybe Jawsey really is ignoring her and is busy thinking about Urubia in a thin silk robe. Only Beta can say for sure.

  • gilga

    Member
    July 31, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    It is not rational anger, and Jawsey may very well be Mr. Thoughtful.

    To put the finger of what she is feeling, perhaps greed is the cynical term. It is like, let’s say you ask to buy a car- the seller wants 20k you say 15k and then the buyer just agrees with you on the spot without thinking. Now you think you could have gotten the car for 12k, You got what you asked for but you may still feel bad about the deal. Wheres, if the other guy says no way 15k and you settle on 17k you would feel like you got a good price. So your feeling toward the outcome does not revolve just about objective success. E.g., the 15k outcome is better than the 17k outcome.

    So Jawsey just wants the man to leave and the deal to explode. AM does not care that much about it because 10k to find and bring Bonita to possible interrogation, torture does not look that attractive to her, but then she manages to get 30k – and it suddenly feels like very good money. Now she is disappointed that they could have gotten more of the man and that all that negative approach hurt them. Again, not rational they had a great roll, and Mr. Big is a good negotiator on his own right (better than AM actually).

    So she would not be very rational, it is mainly her debt/stress and the fact that they have no electricity, she had no shower. Jawsey comes from paradise which she cannot afford and does not feel as eager as her to get them good pay. At any case, I edited a bit because it felt a bit much reading it again.

  • beta

    Organizer
    July 31, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    I only read the edited version, I think. But no worries, the writing clearly was from the characters POV, not a veiled accusation. Jawsey and AM can work it out once the others have left.

    Also Jawsey never would have thought that gangers could go so high with their offer!

    ETA: IC post up, with all that he is saying for now. AM has this under control, he isn’t going to butt in much until he has talked with her.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 1, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    Let me get an Assensing roll from anyone sneaking a peak on the astral.

  • beta

    Organizer
    August 1, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    aura reading: 13d6t5 5

    If it is general asensing rather than aura reading, drop 2 dice / 1 success leaving 4 successes.

  • gilga

    Member
    August 1, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    It took me several tries to try and imagine what the situation is. So I made AM a lot shorter and edited my post. I’ll cancel it entirely if things go so fast that she can’t calm down the situation.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 2, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    @gilga I liked the line about the Treaty of Denver.

    @all Good IC posts. Tapping this rich vein of RP was the goal of the Interlude.

    The job itself is not intended to be part of the Interlude, if only because:

    1) as Bobby points out, it’s not really a contracted job,

    2) there were doubts about whether you would even accept/pursue it, and,

    3) there are open-world alternatives, like the ones Bobby mentions (e.g. talking to Bonita, talking to the Mayor).

    Let’s keep this conversation going for a bit. If it comes down to a vote or something where Mato’s input would be desired ICly, he is available to return.

  • jack_spade

    Organizer
    August 2, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    I think having Mato back would be very usesful in this situation

  • gilga

    Member
    August 2, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    I agree, it would be very nice to hear from him and what’s he been up to in his time away from us.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 2, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    I’ll let Jawsey respond ICly, then he’ll return.

  • beta

    Organizer
    August 2, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    Sorry for the positively Addie-length reply, but given me mostly posting once a day right now, I wanted to dump out Jawsey’s whole argument, instead of trying and do a back-and-forth that might have taken days to get through.

    And by the way, I have no objections to us having taken these jobs. I have been in a bit of a fog from the way the world has been, so there has been a lot of ‘me needing to make some post, but not having any ideas that seem good, so putting it off, and still not having ideas that seem good, so finally before heading to bed hammering out something on my phone, just to keep things moving, even though I’m not fond of what I’m writing’ … so a lot of what I had Jawsey say is really just post-hoc IC justification for that sort of thing.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 3, 2020 at 1:40 am

    Karma spending to help inform some of the coming IC post, including 3 karma I had saved up:

    – 25 karma on Body 5

    – 20 karma on Charisma 4

    – 7 knowledge karma (languages) on Sioux 3, Sioux Sign Language 3, Spanish 1

    – 6 knowledge karma (interests) on Drum Music 2, Gardening 2, Recipes 2

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 3, 2020 at 3:02 am

    Got my own wall of text up. I thought about breaking it in two but it was easier to just keep going.

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 3, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    @gilga I’m not sure I realized that AM was so much in favor of Urubia’s plan/vision.

    Both the Mayor and Urubia were meant to provide viable visions of the future. The Mayor’s approach might be summarized as a reasonably traditional “let’s divide and conquer the gangs and take back the district from the criminal elements that control it so that the city/state can provide basic services.” Urubia’s approach is more like “your human ways aren’t working, so let’s create a new order (with me on top) to try and help people.” In a way it’s pitting a dysfunctional democracy vs. a benevolent (?) dictatorship, with the understanding that it’s still going to be a dystopia either way.

    Neither of them are necessarily right or better than the other. What matters more is which one the characters believe in and support, and how that affects the jobs we accept and how we pursue them.

  • gilga

    Member
    August 3, 2020 at 2:57 pm

    @Tecumseh AM is SINless and so both of them are dictatorships. She cannot vote or anything, one is dysfunctional and the other may be functional, and no matter what she selects there is a dragon calling the shots;)

  • Tecumseh

    Member
    August 3, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Sure. An entirely valid opinion. But, to Jawsey’s point, what’s the price of (possible) functionality? Everything has a price.

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