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Reply Subj: Re: There's a by-law? Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 at 11:13:28 pm EST (Viewed 510 times) | |||||||
Quote: Quote: You may note that as of the latest Untold Tales the Hood probably has a method of travel but is not yet using it. Other preparations must be made.Quote: Or he hasn't got enough for the toll yet.Logistics is only the beginning of a campaign. Quote: [Chiaki] would have a lot of difficulty against firearms. If she knows he is without psychic warnings, she'd probably start to adopt the virtues of running away. Blades, on the other hand, she might have far less trouble with.It's very unfair to drop a fictional-competence-level adventurer in a real-world-physics situation. James Bond wouldn't last one fight. Quote: However, it would all be a moot point, because real-world police are much smarter, and way less patient with someone carrying a sword around in public and claiming to be a Samurai. She would most likely never get into a single fight, as she'd be arrested walking to her first destination.In the PV it's a bit different, because the police there often expect a superhero to walk in and deal with the robbery gang or whatever. When the rules have changed and expectations haven't it becomes a whole new kind of danger. Quote: Quote: What does an articial intelligence do when it knows that within 24 hours it maight no longer be sentient?Quote: If it does happen gradually like that, Nena and Anna's systems would detect a malfunction and would go into emergency sleep mode and stay there for the duration of the change - because there would be no system to wake them up any longer. They'd be stuck in an enforced suspended animation, because the computer parts and the battery still work, but nothing else does.But as personalities they would face the same emotional and intellectual concerns as anyone else who faces possibly-terminal health issues. For example, I had brain surgery a couple of years ago with a 5% chance of not waking up from it and a 15% of brain damage. Those last few days before the operation sure got me thinking hard about things. Quote: Of all the characters in the Parodyverse, the best prepared for such a scenario would probably be Chiaki Bushido. She has no superpowers, she's not even super-strong or trained better than anyone else who trained as a samurai. Her prowess comes from training daily from age 12 or so, and then after graduated from formal training, she continues to work out every day with weighted swords and ropes. Not quite so that she has a bodybuilder's physique, but she's more muscular than an average woman her size.That's the point of the scenario I was positing. it helps to illustrate characters' resources and limits. For example, quite often Chiaki resolves problems without violence. Those aspects of her skillset remain unaffected. Quote: Where she *would* fail is where the PV's physics allow her to do some things by will alone. She would find herself fighting defensively all the time rather than offensively, and she would be surprised that her trusty sword has trouble cutting through a lot of things, like doors.I could see her teaching self-defence classes to people who are no longer invulnerable. Quote: It's kind of funny to think about, because she trains harder than Keiko does in World Class, but World Class *is* bound by real-world physics. And because of that, Keiko has learned to handle doors better than Chiaki had so. Keiko makes a fist, and punches a very small hole, which she uses to reach in and unlock the door - as long as its wood, otherwise she has to go in a different way. Every fictional universe has to set where it's "reality" limits are. It's not just in terms of violence (all those TV series and movies where heroes avoid automatic assault weapons). Fictional events have to make sense and link up in the way that real-life ones don't. Crimes always have clues leading to solutions. Random interruptions never occur. Quote: And most important real-world-physics in World Class: Keiko avoids fights whenever possible, because she knows how easily she can be hurt, but if she has to be in one, she falls back in ninja training to cripple them as soon as possible. Because in real-world physics, long drawn-out fights are counterproductive - the chance of real injury goes up rapidly the longer it lasts.And in real real-life, even the best stealth and combat-trained operatives have severe limits, of course. Quote: On that topic, I'm particularly proud of the opening scene I wrote for the World Class novel, where Keiko is running from fellow assassins through a field, and comes upon a train that's moving slightly faster than she can run. She has to take a chance and jump for it before it's gone. Quote: Fantasy physics of her jumping successfully and mocking her pursuers? Not a chance. She barely manages to get ahold of the car's railing, and even the slow train's power is enough to throw her hard against its metal side, and she spends a few minutes lying on the walkway exposing about how much it hurt, until one of the train staff comes out to see what the noise was.There's quite a lot of milage to be got out of that kind of risk. It helps with suspension of disbelief and it ramps up reader engagement and suspense. It;s not right for every kind of story but I think that's the kind of gloss that "World Class" benefits from. Quote: By the way, the second best prepared person to deal with real-world physics would be Lara Night, because she always treated her power like a gift rather than a way of life. She often goes days or weeks without using it.Her problem would be that she can't get home anymore. Quote: Least prepared would be Yuki, who can't survive without her cyborg body, and would likely die very suddenly.In the sketchy plot as far as I got it, Yuki was literally in a different time-zone, circa A.D. 1650. Quote: Quote: What does the Hooded Hood do if he's suddenly without retcons? Does that make his less or more immediately dangerous?Quote: That depends entirely if his network of retcons is also suspended. If not, one of the slower-acting ones might start destroying the universe while he couldn't stop it.Quote: Then again, with sufficient planning, maybe it was HIM. He could pull off "one last retcon" which enforces real-world physics on the Parodyverse - knowing that he's now powerless, but so is everyone else, except that he had time to plan for it.Indeed. But more on that if I ever decide to run with the plotline. As i mentioned, it would probably have been "coming up" had I continued with regular Untold Tales back in the day. | |||||||
