thisavrou March Player Plot: Enter the Arena

[pillz]

Hello Moirans! A new alien race has been discovered by the Savrii. If you accept this mission, you may save the Ingress, the Savrii, and yourselves.

THE ARTIFIXX
A Technologically Advanced Race With Some Major Trust Issues

The Artifixx are a race of people with a heavily technologized planet. Their bodies are bio-mechanical and their minds are fundamentally software-oriented. Their advanced grasp of cybernetics, physics, and mechanics could truly change the local universe and improve the lives of thousands.

They have one fatal weakness: they cannot tell a lie with any use of language. Due to this difficulty, their culture has developed the following unusual characteristics:

• Borderline xenophobic distrust of outsiders,
• A strong sense of honor and
• Combat orientation, where dueling is one of the primary methods of conflict resolution.

Incidentally, they possess a type of technology that would be extremely useful to the Savrii, a forcefield generator that absorb high threshold impacts or even divert oncoming projectiles, causing no impact damage to the objects upon collision, with adjustable rebound. The forcefield would be an enormous asset to the Savrii with major repercussions for all inhabitants of Ingress zones. Including the Moirans.

However, the Artifixx have been exploited before. They are wary of the Savrii, the Ingress, and the strange and unusually diverse peoples who have allied themselves with them.

In short:
The Artifixx's forcefield technology is critical to long-term survival on the twin planets
as the Ingress' energy radiates down with unstable force.

The Savrii believe it will dramatically reduce the risk of widespread destruction.

DIPLOMACY
Plot Part I

This portion of the plot will take place over the network. The Artifixx will be introduced by the Savrii. They will ask for the Moirans' opinions on why they should start a trade agreement after thousands of years spent successfully in isolation.

Your characters can take any approach to this! However, some potential avenues are:

• Tactical persuasion, remind them the Savrii need to know their enemies! Though hopefully it won't come to that.
• Talk of honor, charm them with similarities in warrior culture.
• Discussing fine art, theater, and other cultural factors that have been stunted in development because their inability to lie has impaired other artifice
• Appeal to compassion and honor. To willfully endanger the populations of 2 whole planets is not very honorable, is it? Don't you jerks have kids?
• Screw it, challenge them to a duel.

Note, your characters can ask them for information about the duels (see the righthand box).

No signups are required, just post to the network entry when you see it!

THE DUELS
Plot Part II

It is inevitable that the Artifixx will ask to decide the fate of the technology through combat duels. These duels will take place at the Shock Box Arena (owned by Kavinsky). Moirans will be expected to first fight each other, demonstrating their honor and skils, and then a finalist will battle one of the Artifixx's greatest champions.

But there's a twist: all characters will receive a special weapon that adapts to themselves, their opponent, and the environment of the arena. This can be a truly equalizing factor, as even the most powerful individuals have a vulnerability.

duel formula (in signup):
+ combat coefficient (1-10, basic skill)
+ luck (1-5 totally randomized; includes environment)
+/- risk (1-5, how much risk your character takes; the +/- will be randomized, allowing for the possibility their risk backfired)
+ cheating (1-3, dirty boxing)
+ Artifixx weapon bonus (1-10 randomized)
     = TOTAL (higher score wins)

OOCly, the outcomes of the PC-versus-PC duels will typically be decided by use of the above formula. The randomized factors are intended to drive IC story and reduce OOC concerns with winning. The players can choose to ignore this calculated outcome if they mutually agree (e.g., if their character throws a battle, or for other personal/IC reasons). All are encouraged to RP out or drabble the duels, or at least the "handshake" after, as well as the healing (or H/C) with interested medical staff after.

The PC-vs-Artifixx duel will be NPCed by me! The PC will win by default unless the player otherwise requests a special story outcome.

Signups are required. Please see the comments space.

Some logistics:

• The /prize for the finalist will be a toned-down, single-person version of the shield technology or a simplified version of the special weapon. It will be irreplicable and may have plot limitations.
• Environmental factors in the arena may include such extra challenges as: sudden flooding/water traps, laser fields (non-lethal), moving platforms, etc.
• No death or maiming injury will occur due to safety parameters set in the arena. What the referee says, goes!
• Though the duels will be broadcast, the Artifixx will commit as a whole to erase any tactical data they gather about the combatants. Whether you trust them is up to you. It will be not used in future plots against your character without explicit OOC permission.

OOC DATES

• Diplomacy: Entry to be posted on thisavrou on 3/7/17
• Duels: Log to be posted on thisavrou on 3/12/17 or earlier. A final schedule of fighters and outcomes will be included. Signups must be complete 3 nights before (3/9/17 11:59PM PST); approximately 24 hours will be alotted to OOCly negotiate outcomes for story value.

Feel free to use this post for plotting!

FAQ
To be added from comments.

UPDATE MARCH 10 Duel Round 1 results are in (click here)! You have 19 hours to dispute before the final round is rolled and the log is posted.

Comments

DUEL SIGNUPS

[pillz]

Please fill out this form to sign up!

<b>Character Name:</b> <b>Character Journal:</b> <b>Anyone you've opted out of playing with?</b> Yes/No, please PM me the details <b>Combat coefficient:</b> Choose 1-10 for combat skill, where 5 is peak human proficiency and 10 is effectively Superman. Reminder, even a 10 can lose. <b>Luck:</b> Notify me if your character has a specific 'bad luck' curse/streak! <b>Risk:</b> Choose 1-5 based on how much risk your character will takes; note, this has a change of backfiring and turning into a negative! <b>Cheating:</b> Choose 1-3, e.g., throwing dirt in someone's eyes <b>Comments:</b>

SAMPLE:

Character Name: Jackie Chan
Character Journal: Journal
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? No, kumbaya

Combat coefficient: 5
Luck: RNG me!
Risk: 5 RISK-TAKER HEART-BREAKER
Cheating: 2

Comments: Secretly hydrophobic. He will react badly if the arena starts to flood.

[inconsequence]

Character Name: :)
Character Journal: inconsequence
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? I have at least one player who's opted out of being tagged by Chara. In the interests of privacy, I believe all parties would prefer PMs for details.

Combat coefficient: 6-ish; they're adept at combat, extremely nimble, and pathologically stubborn, but they're also physically a prepubescent human
Luck: RNG!
Risk: 4; they have no self-preservation to speak of
Cheating: 3; they will FIGHT as dirty as they have to
Comments: Their weapon of choice is the Real Knife, which is the most powerful weapon in their canon at 99 ATK. Their armor of choice is simply The Locket, which is the most powerful armor item in their canon at 99 DEF. However, it is worth noting that these objects have easily exploitable weaknesses, are essentially useless against the only enemy they're used against, and are nowhere near as powerful in game as they are in canon.

[lavelly]

Character Name: Inquisitor Lavellan
Character Journal: lavelly
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nopes

Combat coefficient: I'm gonna say 9, explodey magic counts for a lot and he's killed like ten dragons and a god in canon
Luck: RNG
Risk: 2, since him specifically winning isn't super important
Cheating: 1

Comments: Has magic but can't aim for shit and is missing an arm. Will be bringing his staff along with!

[deconstruct]

Character Name: Andyr Prince
Character Journal: deconstruct
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? no

Combat coefficient: 7-8?? Where is Steve Rogers on this? He's right under that rank by a teeny bit.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 4, bad at realizing he's not the most durable fish in the pond anymore
Cheating: 1, nah, not interested in that noise

Comments:

[mylawn]

Character Name: Soldier: 76
Character Journal: mylawn
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 6.5-7. 76 is an enhanced human (heightened strength/speed/stamina/agility) with extensive military training. He's an extremely proficient hand-to-hand fighter and carries a really big gun.
Luck: RNG!
Risk: 3
Cheating: 2. Less actual cheating, more fighting dirty.

Comments: He's bringing that really big gun. If he likes the weapon he's given better, he'll use that instead. Or just use the gun to hit people. You know, like you do.

[promises_to_keep]

Character Name: Lea
Character Journal: promises_to_keep
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 6ish? He's technically human, but he's spent 12 years as a highly efficient mafia enforcer, basically; he's fast as hell and way stronger than his twiggy form would suggest. Also he can teleport and use magic and has weapons he can summon from hammerspace.
Luck: RNG me! He's got a knack for wheedling his way out of trouble, but I'm not sure I'd call it luck.
Risk: 3. He's not Evil Kneivel now that he's got his heart back and kind of wants to stay alive, but he might be a smidge overconfident.
Cheating: 2. He was really never very good at being a villain, but he's definitely the sort to pull a WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD THAT BE??? and sweep your feet out from under you.

Comments: He's got three hammerspace weapons and magic at his disposal, but unless his opponent turns out to be a real dick Lea is fairly inclined to keep the fight clean. He hates losing, but now he's got this pesky conscience always on his back about remembering he's a good guy now, sheesh.

[soldiergenes]

Character Name: Solid Snake
Character Journal: soldiergenes
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 6. Snake is baseline human, but he's got years of combat experience and is extremely proficient in it. He's also well-armed and used to non-lethal methods of taking people down.
Luck: RNG!
Risk: 3.
Cheating: 1.

Comments: He'll be coming in with an arsenal of non-lethal weapons. Tranq gun, stun grenades, knock-out smoke, etc. He can also just straight up choke people out to knock them unconscious.

[notglitching]

Character Name: Rinzler
Character Journal: notglitching
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 8.5. Superstrength, superspeed, flawless target tracking, weapons that can break just about anything, and 1000+ years spent beating every other superhuman in his world at exactly this. Rinzler's durable enough to shrug off exploding vehicles and quick enough to match a motorcycle on foot (while running on a wall). He also has a very loose relationship with gravity. Skills-wise, he's a ten, but he lacks any real defenses against magic he can't dodge, and electrical attacks could give an edge to his opponents.

Luck: RNG!
Risk: 4. Rinzler is a showoff in the worst way-- if his enemies don't aim well enough to make it interesting, he's been known to jump toward the attacks just so he can backflip over them. Part of looking awesome means not taking hits, so he'll exercise the bare modicum of caution, but he's supremely confident in his abilities, and this has screwed him over in canon before.
Cheating: 3. "Oh, come on. Is that even legal?"

Comments: Weapons of choice are his disks (surprise, surprise), glowy laser weapons that can slice up most things at long and short range. He'll inspect the Artifixx weapon curiously and use it where and how he thinks it'd help, but it's more likely to get relegated to a utility than used as his main offense.

Also, that no death and maiming thing is getting so many invisible eyerolls. Way to take away the point, users~

[gh0stamidstthec0mbat]

Character Name: Zer0
Character Journal: gh0stamidstthec0mbat
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? NAH

Combat coefficient: 7.5iiish? He has higher stamina than your average buckeroo but doesn't have like crazy superhuman strength, nor is he a wizard. He's just absurdly good at shooting and stabbing things.
Luck: RNG me baby
Risk: 5. Zer0's all about looking for a challenge. He knows his limits, but will most likely ignore them completely and throw caution to the wind if it means getting to fight something badass.
Cheating: 1. A challenging fight isn't any fun if you have to cheat to win :U

Comments: Zer0 excels at long range sniper style combat and close range melee combat. He can manage at mid range, but things will probably be more annoying for him. He has the ability to cloak all invisible like and can deploy holographic decoys to fuck with people, because that's funny. Said decoy can also explode and deal electrical damage to anyone who gets too close to it. How shocking.

He might hang onto the Artifixx thing but he's most likely going to bring along his sniper rifle, pistol, and sword. Because swords are cool.

[kickeminthepistons]

Character Name: Gaige
Character Journal: kickeminthepistons
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: Variable, which makes this hard and I'm sorry, please help. On her own she is a 4; she's an experienced combatant, but other than her cybernetic arm she is bound by the limits of being a shrimpy human girl. However, if she can summon Deathtrap, he is a killer death robot that hits around 8. Her luck and risk scores should probably factor into this, since she doesn't send him out and duck for cover like she should.
Luck: Maybe a modified RNG? See below:
Risk: 5. Unless she can get an exception for something higher, because her Anarchy skill is based on increasing her risk/rewards beyond the normal levels. To put it in D&D skills, everything from 1 to 19 might be a wild miss, but her 20s are that much more devastating.
Cheating: 3. She min-maxxed her risk to make up for her weaknesses and is hiding a killer death robot in her arm. So yeah, safe to say she'll take any advantage she can get.

Comments: Gaige's weapon of choice is guns, and she has a strong affiliation to electricity. Also, please let me know if this makes sense or you have recommendations? Since by design, everything about her is very unconventional.

[shiro2hero]

Character Name: Shiro
Character Journal: shiro2hero
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: Probably 5. In hand to hand, no pun intended.
Luck: nothing official.
Risk: 4
Cheating: 1

Comments: He's a big risk-taker who doesn't value his own safety, with an attached weird space metal arm that glows hot enough to weld metal and apparently impervious to harm.

[grandpaladin]

Character Name: Reinhardt Wilhelm
Character Journal: grandpaladin
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? None

Combat coefficient: 8, with armor, 4 without.
Luck: nothing.
Risk: 5, because Reinhardt throws himself into everything and anything.
Cheating: -3 1. He won't cheat. Ever. He is in this for HONOR.

Comments: He'll be wearing his Crusader armor, and carrying his rocket hammer. Both of which are very tough and durable, but don't make for fast attacks. He's a tank, not a speedster.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!

[squadgoals]

Character Name: Commander Shepard
Character Journal: squadgoals
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope! Hit me with them pairings.

Combat coefficient: 7.5, 8.5 with bodyarmor. Reconstructed human with enhanced bone, muscle, and skin weaves, as well as being made mostly out of cybernetics at this point. Proven to survive insanity situations with a disgusting sort of ease.
Luck: RNG! Tends to fall on her feet.
Risk: 5. A hella risk-taker as a normal rule of thumb, all caution is currently being thrown into the wind due to a sort of shitty headspace. It's been a weird couple of months, and almost a year away from home.
Cheating: 2. She won't, but she won't not.

Comments: Bringing that bodyarmor. And a gun. And an omni-blade. >:|

[desynched]

Character Name: Lena "Tracer" Oxton
Character Journal: desynched
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: 6. Former agent of an elite global peacekeeping initiative. And a time-traveler.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 4 yolo
Cheating: 1

Comments: She has a pair of pulse pistols with infinite ammo, though though they take a moment to reload. She can jump forward and backward in her personal timeline, mostly crossing a few meters at a time in the blink of an eye. She can also rewind her own time, which has the side-effect of undoing injuries. There are cooldown times for everything, though, because she relies on a device to time-travel.

[survivra]

Character Name: Katsa
Character Journal: survivra
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? No

Combat coefficient: 7-8? Katsa has been trained in combat since childhood but more relevantly, she's Graced with survival, which basically means she's superpowered with getting out of bad situations and finding ways to survive. She's human, just with super-enhanced speed/stamina/reflexes and doesn't really feel pain.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 4
Cheating: 3, absolutely not above playing dirty

Comments: Katsa's weapons of choice range from hand-to-hand combat to knife-wielding to swords. She'll be much weaker/more susceptible to mental or magical attacks than physical ones, and while she has insane amounts of stamina and is strong, she doesn't usually win on muscle alone (so in a match of brute strength, she's put on a much more human level despite her Grace). She can be pretty willing to do things that might hurt her as long as she sees an advantage in it for herself in the long run. The thickest armor she wears is leather.

[brochtuarach]

Character Name: Jamie Fraser, but he'll be using the alias Alexander Malcolm.
Character Journal: brochtuarach
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? nope

Combat coefficient: 5 - good fighter with lots of experience, baseline human.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 3
Cheating: 2

Comments: not good with any tech level higher than a flintlock pistol. He'll try to find a sword to bring, and possibly dual wield with the special weapon if he can (he's ambidextrous).

[fuelthefire]

Character Name: Krieg
Character Journal: fuelthefire
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 7.5-ish? Some of Krieg's strength and stamina comes from the Mysterious Human Experimentation he experienced in his forgotten past. He's a lot tougher to take out than your average human.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 5
Krieg's battle tactics include setting himself on fire in order to A.) reduce any damage he takes while fighting and B.) produce powerful homing fireballs that seek out and explode on his attackers. The upside to this is that it's freaking awesome. The downside is he still takes damage from being on fire, and if there's no one around to inflict with elemental damage - which returns a portion of his health - he can easily burn himself out.

(See what I did, there? :B)

He also has a tendency to fling himself suicidally into a fight; 10:1, 20:1, he doesn't care, he'll melee them all to death! Unless they shoot him to death, first. Someone should tell him to stop bringing his axe to a gun fight.

Cheating: 1 - unless homing fireballs are cheating, Krieg's a pretty straightforward guy. What you see is what you get.
Comments:

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Character Name: Darin Altway
Character Journal: forgeabettertomorrow
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope!

Combat coefficient: 10 - Darin's body houses the soul of an Archfiend and God of Destruction. He's a capable and trained fighter with superhuman strength and resilience, but even he's not aware of his own limits due to being so scared of what he can do.
Luck: RNG!
Risk: 4
Cheating: 1! He wouldn't want to win through underhanded means!

Comments: Darin will likely bring his dao, but will likely fight with his fists unless the opponent is armed themselves. He'll do his best to hold back, but if pressured or threatened, he probably will up the ante. He does run the risk of giving into his rage, however, if pushed too far. And if that happens, Diomuhr, the entity that inhabits his body, may temporarily take over.

[businessinfront]

Character Name: Keith
Character Journal: businessinfront
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: 5.
Luck: RNG!
Risk: 5. His #1 hobby is reckless endangerment.
Cheating: 2. He won't start it, but if his opponent does, well...

Comments: Gonna bring his armor and proooobably his sword, though he might decide to be a good sport and use the provided weapon.

[fight4theusers]

Character Name: Tron
Character Journal: fight4theusers
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope, I'm all good

Combat coefficient: 8.5 - Super-human strength plus hundreds of human years of arena-style combat.
Luck: Nothing specific good or bad.
Risk: 3.5, he's a bit of a showoff but he won't take uneccessary risks with his life or his opponent's. (5 if "glitched")
Cheating: 1.5, he's pretty noble. (3 if "glitched")

Comments: One caveat: all of this can shift to higher cheating and risk should Tron "glitch" and have his coding shift into Rinzler. He's had this happen before on multiple occasions when he's been in combat situations. He'll become far more aggressive and less likely to care about lethally harming his opponent, but he'll also become more suggestible and able to be ordered by anyone he perceives to be in command of him. Tron is more likely to "glitch" the more intense the combat becomes.

Given that the combat is determined by pre-rolls please PM me first to decide if Tron will glitch or not during the fight. It may depend on who he's fighting (PC or NPC).

[yablueit]

Character Name: Lance
Character Journal: yablueit
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: 3. He has what is essentially military training, and he's a damn good sharpshooter, but he's not an expert by any means, nor is he super human. Or even that good at hand to hand at all.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 2. He prefers planning, but he can be goaded into stupidity pretty easily.
Cheating: 1. He'll keep things above board.

Comments: He'll be bringing his flight suit armor and his bayard to the fight, which is essentially a handheld weapon that transforms into an energy rifle. It's not great for close range combat, but at range, it's pretty powerful.

SO LATE IM SORRY

[wallride]

Character Name: riptide
Character Journal: knaval
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? nope

Combat coefficient: 7! he'll use his holoform for this which doesn't have any extra powers or anything. riptide just uses his own skills which... well, after four million years of fighting...
Luck: RNG
Risk: 5
Cheating: 3, while he won't be able to give the holoform super strength or anyhting, he can certainly make stuff phase through it. he's a bastard so he'll fight dirty, too

Comments: sure he could just sit in the middle of the ring as a giant robot BUT WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT

[a_shadow]

Character Name: Agent Texas
Character Journal: a_shadow
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: I'm going to go with 6 as she's got fancy battle armor, but she's still sort of recovering from an injury.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 4
Cheating: 2

Comments: In canon Tex is stated to be doomed to fail, but that's like, just Epsilon's opinion, man.

[otiosity]

Character Name: Marian Hawke
Character Journal: otiosity
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? No.

Combat coefficient: 9.5? Hawke is a pretty famous fighter and one of the most powerful mages in her world. Magic is pretty damn baller and she's also a good scrapper. She took down some of the most powerful demons, dragons, and big ox men in her world.
Luck: RNG though combat is one of the few places Hawke tends to get lucky.
Risk: 5
Cheating: 3

Comments: Hawke is a mage with lots of magic at her disposal but she's physically rather thin and frail looking. If her magic is shut down, she's still pretty competent but at a distinct disadvantage. She'll be bringing her armor and her best staff.

On the disadvantages side, she can't swim.

hopefully I'm not too late!

[frankensteinian]

Character Name: Erik Lehnsherr
Character Journal: frankensteinian
Anyone you've opted out of playing with? Nope

Combat coefficient: 9. He's above average when it comes to hand-to-hand, but his main advantage is his ability to control metal. It is difficult (but not impossible) to injure him in some way, as long as there's metal around.
Luck: RNG
Risk: 5
Cheating: 3. He will absolutely fight dirty.

Comments: He has no specific weapon that he would use, but anything metal or with metal components (no matter how small) can be used as a weapon by him.