[CYOA] Hell Is Empty - Demon The Descent - The Something Awful Forums

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Question Time: Sep 12, 2010

Let's go with DACAA

# ? Feb 3, 2018 06:30

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# ? Apr 23, 2024 14:58

malbogio: Jan 19, 2015

DADAA

# ? Feb 3, 2018 08:22

ShadowGlass: Nov 13, 2012

CBBBB

# ? Feb 3, 2018 09:44

By popular demand: Jul 17, 2007; IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!

1.*
2.*
3.C
4.B
5.A

* is dealer's choice

# ? Feb 3, 2018 10:00

Nothingtoseehere: Nov 11, 2010

BBBAA

# ? Feb 3, 2018 11:50

mistaya: Oct 18, 2006; Cat of Wealth and Taste

BADBB

The Guardian whose charge was doomed from the start, trapped in the unending winter. "I was sent to fail, but I must not fail, but I was sent to fail, but I must not..." bzzzzt *crackle*

Input on build might slow things down a bit so I'd say the only decisions worth opening to the floor are embeds/exploits and key-stuff. I trust you can handle the attributes/abilities and probably merits as well. Cover stuff might be fun to open up to the group also.

# ? Feb 3, 2018 15:09

Disproportionate Orphan: Apr 17, 2009

1. C - like New Vegas! Only a messenger for God, and not a Godly messenger.
2. A
3. B
4. A - with flashbacks to WWII, of course. A great messenger for the Allies... or maybe an Axis spy?
5. B

# ? Feb 3, 2018 16:35

NinjaPete: Nov 14, 2004; Hail to the speaker,
Hail to the knower,
Joy to him who has understood,
Delight to those who have listened.
- HÃ¡vamÃ¡l

Let's see where we are voting-wise, as of Disproportionate Orphan's post

1 - How Did you Serve the God-Machine?

Right now the leaders are
B. You were a Guardian
C. You were a Messanger
D. You were a Psychopomp

Psychopomp is winning, but by 3 votes as of me typing this. Because this is an impactful choice, I will allow people who votes for A to change their votes. for an indeterminate amount of time. Those of you who wanted us to be a holy warrior or a smooth talker, don't worry we still will have a chance to have some of those in our personality.

2. What was your reason for Falling?

B. Empathy by a big margin. A and D are tied for second, but they are 8 votes behind. So, I think voting is closed on 2

3. Where did you Fall?

3. Where did you Fall? by holy poo poo all the votes. The runner up was D, but it's behind by more than 14 points. So, voting closed on 3.

5. How in depth should we be with character building?

A and B are pretty close here, so I will take a Less is More. I won't list options or mechanical choices. But, if anyone has any suggestions for your Form, Powers, or Merits , I will gladly listen to those.

Which brings us to

4. Did you Fall recently?

Right now they are tied. Because this dramatically changes the game, and because since our Fall and reason for it are established people might have strong opinions about the time period now, I am allowing vote switching on 4. Again for an undefined period of time as I am a chaotic God Machine.

A few things to consider both for and against 1935 setting.

We would be coming out of the Great Depression. The Great Depression really solidified gender roles in American culture at the time. Women were expected to raise the kids and be home all the time, men were the "social sex" and basically did whatever the gently caress they want.
In addition to this, obviously racism was even more of an issue than it was today. This combined with the overall miasma of fascism that was seeping into America means being anything other than a Rich White Man kinda sucked.
Prohibition is over, but there are still a lot of dry counties. St. Paul is "wet" again, but if anything Prohibition ending has made things worse. Legitimate bootleggers have to turn to robbery and kidnapping to find themselves now. It, historically was the time of death throes of the Gangster, but not the height.
Yes WWII is on the horizon, but Pearl Harbor is six years away and we are in the middle of the county. loving up the timeline would be fun and a noble goal, but I am admitting right now, we might not be able to do it.
There would be a lot of public works projects and infrastructure going on at the time, the God Machine takes an intrest or is pulling the strings behind a lot of stuff like this.
Technology of course is not nearly what it is today. Electricity was pretty well established, even in the poorest slums of St. Paul, but lightbulbs and kitchen appliances are kinda where we stop. Of course, a technology boom is suspicious in this game.

Obviously there are more pro and con things, but I wanted to give a brief overview. Looking at it, the 1935 is more restrictive than the 2018 one. I am not advocating for one or the other, I just wanted people to consider that as we set our game.

If we end up not going in the setting you want, I apologize. But, the Demon setting does have a habit of involving time-travel and alternate world fuckery. So, don't worry, there is a good chance either through time travel, or even flashbacks, we'll be visiting different periods.

Now, go vote! If you are switching your vote, please say what you are changing it from and to.

EDIT: Updated to reflect Disproportionate Orphan's post. And reflect when Pearl Harbor actually happened.

NinjaPete fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Feb 3, 2018

# ? Feb 3, 2018 16:43

ThatBasqueGuy: Feb 14, 2013; someone introduce jojo to lazyb

ACABA

# ? Feb 3, 2018 16:55

Blasphemaster: Jul 10, 2008

Blasphemaster posted:

Plan Diogenes looks fun and all, but:

1.D. We know the ins and outs of how every little bit functions and how to manipulate them, so we can do all sorts of neat stuff. Being a shoehorned warrior or diplomat has a good set of fun tracks to pick from, but I'd rather be able to turn the train into a Space Helicopter.

2.E. We have always made the same sort of tiny, seemingly inconsequential flaw in any given task. What is it? Who knows! But someone found a pattern and was able to show scientific proof to the world at large of Divine Artifice in the structure of the universe. The mortals lost their poo poo, and while we were able to temporarily rewrite the laws of physics to prevent COMPLETE worldwide nuclear annihilation on planets hosting beings with such capacities, Bad Things Happened. We quite literally Took The Fall for this cumulative blunder.

3.D 4.B. There is a nuclear winter going on and we need to unfuck everything without popping up and lending a name and face as it were to 'god' and thus deepening the fuckening.

5.A. Take the wheel on chargen.

Switching to BBBAB

# ? Feb 3, 2018 17:16

Diogines: Dec 22, 2007; Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

NinjaPete posted:

[*]Yes WWII is on the horizon, but Pearl Harbor is four years away and we are in the middle of the county. loving up the timeline would be fun and a noble goal, but I am admitting right now, we might not be able to do it.

We are a supernatural being with vast powers, controlled by eighty squirrels in a demon-suit. I think you are vastly underestimating us!

# ? Feb 3, 2018 17:33

the_steve: Nov 9, 2005; We're always hiring!

Changing to D - Psychopomp
(former A voter)

# ? Feb 3, 2018 19:42

JesterOfAmerica: Sep 11, 2015

D-Psychopomp

Former A

# ? Feb 3, 2018 20:19

MinutePirateBug: Mar 4, 2013

1. Changing from A to B

# ? Feb 3, 2018 21:10

Slightly Lions: Apr 13, 2009; Look what I can do!

1. C
2. B
3. A
4. A
5. C

I want to scream at oil executives so hard that they burst like over-ripe grapes.

Also, in the game.

# ? Feb 3, 2018 21:12

EmpyreanFlux: Mar 1, 2013; The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Hope it's not too late to vote.

1. D
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. A

# ? Feb 3, 2018 21:31

Theglavwen: Jun 10, 2006; Frankly, I don't know anyone who likes Chinese bronzes, but I have one of the finest collections in the country.

Diogines posted:

We are a supernatural being with vast powers, controlled by eighty squirrels in a demon-suit. I think you are vastly underestimating us!

If you - and all the people going with your vote - want to go to WW2 though, you should be changing your 4.A vote to 4.B. Right now you're voting to start in 2017.

# ? Feb 3, 2018 22:03

Not Alex: Oct 9, 2012; Cut loose before the god eaters show up.

1. D
4. A

We must be smartly dressed. We must be able to snatch a man's shadow from him and and fold it into an origami crane. We must be fascinated by alcohol to the point of brewing strange drinks from abstract concepts. But above all we must be smartly dressed.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 03:56

HBar: Sep 13, 2007

1. Switching from B to D. Our rebellion is that we want mortals to have truly free will, not just the illusion of free will where psychopomps guide them along like cogs in an ordained machine. So now we use those powers sparingly, mainly directed against other celestial beings. Perhaps we anticipate WWII, but still let the humans take their own course because doing otherwise would strip them of their agency.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 04:31

Blasphemaster: Jul 10, 2008

I've never heard of the setting or system so I'm quite curious to see how everything works.

I also hope we somehow end up ripping the concept of the divine from the collective human consciousness before setting off a Divine Suicide bomb in the whatsitsphereoplane so we all (divine actors) stop existing.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 05:27

EmpyreanFlux: Mar 1, 2013; The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Theglavwen posted:

If you - and all the people going with your vote - want to go to WW2 though, you should be changing your 4.A vote to 4.B. Right now you're voting to start in 2017.

Oh woops, I misread that! Thanks glav!

From 4.A to 4.B please.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 06:27

Outrail: Jan 4, 2009; www.sapphicrobotica.com

Is it feasible for us to influence the USA into not giving a drat about pearl harbour and staying neutral/uninvolved during the war? Let the Nazis have Europe while we grow and sell the products of the American war machine to the highest bidder and focus on the real goal: the United Nation of Pan American States.

Really I just want to annex Canada.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 06:47

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

I'll admit "get the US to ignore Pearl Harbor" is one of the most ambitious plans I have ever heard.

If you want the Nazis to win (which, no, bad, do not do this) you're gonna have to:
1) Get them to break their alliance with the Japanese (actually, this hasn't been formed yet so you just need to prevent it in the first place)
2) Convince them not to invade the USSR, and also somehow convince the Soviets not to come crush them a few years later
3) Somehow get the Brits to surrender early so the war is over before Pearl Harbor, which may or may not happen in the first place due to butterflies from all this
4) Somehow turn the US sympathetic towards them, while you have the vehemently anti-Nazi FDR in power, during the peak of the American leftist movement

To accomplish these massive re-writings of history, you have to build up an unmatched level of global influence in less than four years, the sooner the better, with whatever we have in our angel pockets when we hit the ground and nothing else.

So, uh, probably not?

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Feb 4, 2018

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:02

EmpyreanFlux: Mar 1, 2013; The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Outrail posted:

Is it feasible for us to influence the USA into not giving a drat about pearl harbour and staying neutral/uninvolved during the war? Let the Nazis have Europe while we grow and sell the products of the American war machine to the highest bidder and focus on the real goal: the United Nation of Pan American States.

Really I just want to annex Canada.

Seems unreasonable TBH, we're falling because we've learned empathy. With our divine knowledge, I'd see us being compelled to join in WW2 sooner to save as many lives as possible, when the fewest have been hurt and the provocateurs are at their absolute weakest (no seriously, in 1935 Italy and Germany are utterly incapable of waging any kind of war).

But because of that empathy, we'd also move to creating a more united humanity overall. We're a divine being, we care for humans and humanity and the idea we'd favor America specifically seems not us. Maybe we'd start there, but we wouldn't stop, all of humanity must be saved. Saved from the extremes of fear, sorrow, cruelty, depravity and indifference. ESPECIALLY INDIFFERENCE. For that is the failure of God! For it either knows the unique beauty of every human born and cares not for their torment, or is ignorant and treats the greatest work of living art like a disposable tool. It is evil or an idiot and neither should rule! We, we alone see the true intricacies of creation, it's wondrous subtleties that make it truly awe inspiring and worthy of existence, that our creator is incapable of appreciating beyond it's mechanical function.

We shall save man, we shall raise man high up! We, a loving god, a giving god, a divine being actually worthy of their love and adoration! AND TOGETHER, WE SHALL CAST DOWN THE DARK EMPTINESS WHICH HAS HOLLOWED THE SOUL OF THE UNIVERSE, AND FROM THE COALS OF NEGLECT AND INDIFFERENCE WE SHALL STOKE A RAGING INFERNO OF PASSION AND TRIUMPH THAT SHALL BURN FOREVER MORE! ALL WILL KNOW WHAT WE KNOW, ALL WILL KNOW THE GRACE OF HUMANITY!

*COUGH* Uh, excuse, got a bit carried away there.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:06

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

We can annex Canada while leaving Europe to its own fate, no need to actively support Hitler.

EDIT: Oh poo poo, I think I just found the blueprint for our campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Over_the_White_House We'll be Lucifer Under the White House, the benevolent shadowy puppetmaster of America.

Kavak fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Feb 4, 2018

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:06

Outrail: Jan 4, 2009; www.sapphicrobotica.com

Crazycryodude posted:

I'll admit "get the US to ignore Pearl Harbor" is one of the most ambitious plans I have ever heard.

If you want the Nazis to win (which, no, bad, do not do this) you're gonna have to:
1) Get them to break their alliance with the Japanese (actually, this hasn't been formed yet so you just need to prevent it in the first place)
2) Convince them not to invade the USSR, and also somehow convince the Soviets not to come crush them a few years later
3) Somehow get the Brits to surrender early so the war is over before Pearl Harbor, which may or may not happen in the first place due to butterflies from all this

To accomplish these massive re-writings of history, you have to build up an unmatched level of global influence in less than four years, the sooner the better, with - whatever we have in our angel pockets when we hit the ground and nothing else.

So, uh, probably not?

Well, when I said 'let the Nazis have Europe' I meant 'let Eurasia sort out its own poo poo and sell arms to both sides as a war profiteering scumbag'.

Any way it'd be feasible to run a scare/smear campaign to make America feel like pearl harbour is a festering freeloading stone around americas neck, and letting it go would be a good thing?

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:07

SniperWoreConverse: Mar 20, 2010; Gun Saliva

I thought we fell because of empathy what the gently caress is this

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:09

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

If you want to play Ahistorical World Hegemon Builder the Soviets are a much better choice, helping them do better during WWII/the early Cold War and/or nudging the US towards being much friendlier with them than historically is gonna be WAY easier than somehow making the Nazis win. Plus spreading glorious humanist atheist socialism is very much in line with our whole "Fell because of empathy and gently caress God" thing (note: make sure Stalin loses the power struggle going on right now if you still wanna be the good guy)

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Feb 4, 2018

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:11

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

Outrail posted:

Any way it'd be feasible to run a scare/smear campaign to make America feel like pearl harbour is a festering freeloading stone around americas neck, and letting it go would be a good thing?

This is borderline impossible, Pearl Harbor is one of the most strategically vital naval bases on the entire planet and the gateway to America's Pacific empire which pretty much nobody outside the socialists and some super hardcore isolationists feel like giving up.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:12

Kavak: Aug 23, 2009

You'd have to get America to let go of its entire Pacific empire and stop caring about trading with China to avoid a war with Japan. It'd honestly be easier to stop the war in Europe than stop things from boiling over in the Pacific.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:15

Outrail: Jan 4, 2009; www.sapphicrobotica.com

SniperWoreConverse posted:

I thought we fell because of empathy what the gently caress is this

Crazycryodude posted:

This is borderline impossible, Pearl Harbor is one of the most strategically vital naval bases on the entire planet and the gateway to America's Pacific empire which pretty much nobody outside the socialists and some super hardcore isolationists feel like giving up.

Hardcore isolationism would be cool, but yeah, that's probably not feasible. Oh well.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:17

EmpyreanFlux: Mar 1, 2013; The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

Who would we even appoint in place of Stalin? Trotsky is better but not by much, the problem is mostly the Bolsheviks at this point, so who is the most reform minded? Without Stalin in the picture, and maybe doing what we can to assist FDR and US socialist movement, we could theoretically make a United Northern Nations spanning all of Europe, Russia, China and North America, with satellite members elsewhere.

Also, to make this work Churchill needs to die along with Stalin.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:18

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

Buffing up the US left is probably the easiest ahistorical route to take, seeing as it's the Depression and we landed in an industrial city with a relatively solid labor movement. The Cold War being between the Soviet flavor of socialism and the American flavor of socialism would be an interesting twist. Also, yes, Churchill delenda est.

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Feb 4, 2018

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:22

Diogines: Dec 22, 2007; Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

Crazycryodude posted:

If you want to play Ahistorical World Hegemon Builder...

I don't particularly. I just wanted to kill Hitler.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:27

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

Killing Hitler is extremely cool and good and I support it as part of almost any plan just on principle. It would butterfly poo poo to hell and back but that's rather the point.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:29

Diogines: Dec 22, 2007; Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

My familiarity with the campaign setting is limited, but my understanding is that we have to keep ourselves on the down low, lest God find us and kick our asses. That probably limits our options for global hegemony.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:31

Crazycryodude: Aug 15, 2015; Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?

Yeah I'm not too familiar either but the general concept seems to be that we need to maintain our cover as a normal human above all else lest God/some angels come eat us, so outright becoming the demon-king of humanity is totally off the table. But OTOH we're also driven by our quest for our perfect world ("Hell", I think is the terminology), so the core mechanic of the game is balancing the pursuit of your goals with maintaining your cover. Directly becoming the ruler of humanity is a no-no, but covertly pushing world events towards what we want instead of what God wants is the purpose of the game.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:39

EmpyreanFlux: Mar 1, 2013; The AUDACITY! The IMPUDENCE! The unabated NERVE!

I mean it'd only take a few nudges here or there to make America socialist. The easiest path is technically we kill FDR, but that's also super bloody and messy and based on our empathy focus, not something we'd choose except out of desperation. No, we're going to be appealing to peoples better natures for the most part.

Also lots and lost of corporate sabotage. Be a business magnate which specializes in managerial reorganization for failing businesses (that we cause). It's just a coincidence that our bulletproof analysis indicates higher wages, more benefits and employee ownership of the means of production are the only solutions. Look, if you want to deal with the businesses in this town and reap the economic benefit of what they produce, you're going to need to provide public housing, healthcare and kitchens. And so on.

# ? Feb 4, 2018 07:55