Jade Imperium - OOC 14

punkey 2011-03-23 23:17:13
Go ahead and write in whatever your character is doing on the day off if you want, and if you need an NPC for a bit, let me know.
punkey 2011-04-25 20:26:10
I think I can take some time to delineate some background on how Whirr-sign works, since we're here. :D

Whirr-sign is a combination of a few different methods of communication. The vocalizations in Whirr-sign are usually sounds that they can make natively (including some that human vocal cords can't quite process, but those are more rare), but they can say English and Imperial words with practice, or rather, reproduce the sound of English and Imperial words. It takes either a lot of effort or some practice and experience, so you won't catch many Whiirr natives saying things like "kauka" or "Manta". That doesn't mean that they don't know what you mean when you say it, it's just quicker and easier for them to say the other thing.

Their signs make up the bulk of the language. They can say basic broken sentences without sign ("Go there", "soldier here", also see the scene with Angel, Davis and Ngawai where Swims was in another room), but the linguistic heavy lifting is done by sign. It's no more complicated than ASL, which is good for us humans who want to or need to speak Whirr-sign. Basically, vocalization can cover basic root actions, descriptions and nouns, while sign is what modifies or links those vocalizations into complete sentences.

Lastly, their coloration. Since Wherren coloration is, unless they concentrate, involuntary, the role that coloration plays is more akin to human body language. Along with posture, motion and facial expressions, the pattern and hue of the coloration on Wherren is a big indicator of their demeanor and emotions at that moment. It doesn't modify words as much as it adds inflections and tone. Wherren from their homeworld find humans profoundly flat and lacking in affect, since we don't have color-shifting fur, but those who are used to being around humans, such as those who have lived for a long time or grew up off-world, can read our facial expressions and body language much more proficiently than the average human can, and of course, those who are trained to be perceptive of human body language, like Swims-the-Black, can be almost psychic in their ability to read a given human.

There isn't a hard barrier between the species when it comes to language. A practiced human, like Davis, can sound perfectly fluent to a Wherren who can read human body language, and there's nothing technically stopping Swims-the-Black from speaking in English or Imperial, with a lot of practice and effort. Wherren, especially Alef-ka like Swims-the-Black was, do learn Imperial. It's just simply more convenient and less effort for both humans and Wherren to speak in Whirr-sign to each other (and depending on who you ask, more respectful).
skullandscythe 2011-05-02 05:57:42
If you check the wiki, he is. :)

In a previous and different game of Jade Imperium, Simmons was captured by the Imperials and worked with them to enhance his own position. However, in this game of Jade Imperium, Simmons wasn't captured in the Turai invasion, so we're stuck with him.

Now I'm thinking about tossing Simmons through a Gate. They can keep him. :twisted:
punkey 2011-05-11 13:46:08
Okay! Two things:

One, if you guys want to insert any dialogue or RP at any point in there, just let me know and we'll work it out.

Two, planning! We've got the list of possible ringleaders or at least higher-level participants in the conspiracy against the GRHDI and Task Force 815 that Ngawai and Angel put together, but beyond that, the question is, what do we do now? :D
Admiral Duck Sauce 2011-06-06 17:39:14
Apropos of nothing, a coworker sent me this link and besides the subject matter itself, I think it's a cool visualization of how Turai helmets enhance vision:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/shuttle_station/features/sts-134_launch_photo-video.html
Gatac 2011-06-16 06:51:13
Okay, here's my plan for how to approach this:

1) We have names now, and Barnes is more plugged in than we are. We request profiles on all four so we know what we're up against.

2) Baseline is diplomatic approach. We'll have a harder time approaching those guys in disguise because they presumably know who we are. I'd like to find good reasons for them to start supporting us, thus starving Simmons and Russell at the source.

3) At the same time, we need to continue to keep the pressure on Simmons and Russell. Goading them into acting and making mistakes in their haste has proven a promising course of action. I presume Russell's going to be very very nervous about the break-in at his office, we should capitalize on that without giving him any solid evidence that it actually was us, though I'm sure he suspects and is trying to nail us for it right now.
punkey 2011-06-16 06:54:16
Davis and I disagree on one point in there. These are all people of relatively large power, but none of them sit at the top of anything. It'd be worth finding out how far this thing goes before we start making kissy-face with them. Don't want to put out anything that we won't get back.
Gatac 2011-06-16 06:55:54
Hm. Well, still, they're the names we have, and we can start working them. If the research turns up that they're really acting on behalf of someone else, well, we peel that particular onion another layer and repeat.
punkey 2011-06-16 23:01:57
As has been made abundantly clear to me over the last day, almost all of you are completely unhappy with how this game is being run. Despite me asking for feedback over and over, none of you have shared any of your quite serious concerns with me about how the game is being run, what's going on in the game, or plans for what's coming up. And now, I apparently am too much of an asshole to run this game. So, I'm done.
punkey 2011-06-17 13:15:49
Okay, having had a chance to sort everything out and get better information from everyone, I'm going to stay on as GM. I'll sort out the issues with everyone individually.
Gatac 2011-06-18 19:26:45
Chat transcript with Rob of our little planning session.

Rob Davidoff: All right, So, JI.
Gatac: Okay, here's my take. Simmons and Russell want to convince a couple of congressmen on a specific subcommittee to screw us over. We're already planning to circle the wagons, but the way I see it, this gives us another possible angle of attack: convincing those congressmen to side with us, instead. And then there's the list of their backers we got. We can also dig down there and maybe find a way to make their paymasters reel Simmons and Russell back in.
Rob Davidoff: Hmmm.
Rob Davidoff: The way the US works, it probably will come down to some congressional subcommittee.
Gatac: And if we can find out who's on it...we can start working those guys our way.
Rob Davidoff: Maybe the Committee on Armed Services?
Rob Davidoff: But, yeah, that seems like a good thing.
Gatac: I don't know which committee, but I figure we can ask Barnes for that.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah, I suppose it might also be a joint select committee specifically about the Gates.
Rob Davidoff: Whatever.
Rob Davidoff: It's a goal they would need to accomplish to break up GRHDI, and if we can switch them, then we can turn it into a chance to establish GRHDI (or perhaps a new agency that's GRHDI's people and goals with a new office and a better acronym) as an independent agency.
Gatac: Yeah.
Gatac: So, the way I see it, we've got four possible approaches in total: Powerful friends protect us, we make it impossible for Simmons and Russell to concinve the committee, we get their backers to call them off, or we discredit the two directly, where I think Russell's the weak link.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: Especially if you can link him directly to the attack on you and Swims.
Gatac: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: Revealing that the people testifying against you tried to have you mudered by US troops in a parking garage tends not to help their cause.
Rob Davidoff: "Senator, my opposition considered what I am aout to say so dangerous and distasteful that they tired to have me murdered not five miles from this spot."
Rob Davidoff: That's a piece of political theatre that is not often seen.
Gatac: Of course, we'd need rock solid proof of that.
Rob Davidoff: Yes, we would.
Gatac: And even then, they might simply burn Russell, so we also need rock solid proof linking him to his paymasters.
Rob Davidoff: It couldn't just be circumstantial, we'd basically have to find the paper trail, or get him to confess.
Gatac: Of course, if we can turn up the evidence that slam-dunks Russell, maybe he can be persuaded to help us bring down his backers to save his own skin in a plea bargin.
Rob Davidoff: Hmm. Maybe. He really, really _hates_ Davis and the rest of us, though. I'm not sure how that would balance against the need to save his own skin.
Gatac: And that might give his paymasters enough time to simply have him cleaned up as a loose end.
Gatac: ...so, yeah, probably won't work.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: One thought I did have, though, is whether there's anything Luis can say on the Stewart show to do more than strike back at the allegations already leveled against him, but also make it harder to do what they're planning on doing.
Rob Davidoff: Ideally without making it clear that's what he's doing.
Rob Davidoff: I'm not sure it's really doable, but if we could sort of innoculate public opinion about what they'd try to dump before they do it, then we get the benefit of making them seem like the one responding.
Gatac: Good idea.
Rob Davidoff: i mean, both Arketta's and Swim's packets are mostly based on the idea of revealing what they did for the Imperium in the past to cast doubt on their loyalties now. But if we've already adressed that past to some degree, in the context of who they are now, then that attack begins to seem like old news.
Rob Davidoff: I'm not sure what we can do about Angel's, it's a bit too secret, and seems unlikely to be easily linked to an interview with Luis (whereas swims and Arketta could be worked into several responses, like answering a question about our chances of winning without a massive decades long war by pointing at the dissatisfaction of many within the Imperium which makes the possibility of fommenting a change in government possible someday, personified in an ex-Turai, who followed a family tradition of service in the defense of the people, found her orders improssible to even think about but followed because the penalty for not doing so was execution on the spot, and then turned to us in part because _we don't do that_.)
Rob Davidoff: Or whatever.
Rob Davidoff: If you've previously said something like that, then it becomes only a minor question of details when the records of her actual career are released.
Rob Davidoff: Well, maybe not "minor," but maybe one or two news cycles max instead of a permanent black mark.
Gatac: Yes.
Gatac: I also think Angel's past isn't actually that hard of a hit. Somebody getting killed in a covert op on a distant planet won't get the masses going, that's more of interest to the committee, I guess.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: Unless they play it as another person in 815 who got Earth into trouble and risked lives over some alien woman because he couldn't keep it in his pants.
Gatac: I'd play up the tragedy more. "Good people are dying out there, Jon."
Gatac: "Good people who risked - and gave - their lives to help us."
Rob Davidoff: Yeah, that'd be a way to fight it. It hinges on their characterization of Tora.
Rob Davidoff: If we can innoculate her reputation, then the understanding of the rest of it falls into line.
Gatac: We should emphasize that she was an intellectual with pre-existing rebellious tendencies, not some cheap floozy Angel picked up when he went out to score chicks.
Rob Davidoff: And that's an answer that could be worked into the same sort of "the Imperium is rotten inside, Jon, and there are people there who see it, and want something better. We can show them that it's possible" sort of answer.
Gatac: Yeah.
Gatac: Arketta's still iffy, if they bring up the incident where she was forced to shoot into the crowd.
Rob Davidoff: And that's ground we've worked before, so this doesn't look like we're specifically setting out to break their accusations before they happen.
Rob Davidoff: Yes, it is.
Rob Davidoff: Very Soviet, that policy.
Gatac: I'd go with the toll on Arketta's psyche. "She was forced to participate in shooting into a civilian crowd, Jon. It's been a long road for her to find forgiveness for herself in her heart."
Gatac: She was forced. She participated. Sounds better than following orders and killing 20 people.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Gatac: Yeah? ;)
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Gatac: Okay, I think that's gonna be a tough sell, but doable.
Gatac: Now, Hugh. Expplaining why he killed Greene.
Gatac: This one, we might have to straight-up lie. "It was the only chance we were likely to get to have a shot at the Emperor's avatar. Greene was in the way, and Captain Verrill...he thought we could win the conflict right there. He opened fire. If only we had known that destroying the avatar wouldn't make a damn bit of difference."
Rob Davidoff: I don't like having to lie about it. But I think you're right that the real reasons are an even harder sell.
Rob Davidoff: OTOH, I'm not sure it falls into the same theme as well, and that might make exposure of what we're trying to do more likely.
Gatac: Well, we can't cover everyone.
Gatac: That'll make it too obvious.
Rob Davidoff: Now, that's a reason we could keep in reserve, and you certainly have enough of a record of past heroism.
Rob Davidoff: I'm sure Luis isn't the only past member of Hugh's unit in Iraq who'd be willing to stand up to defend his character if it's impugned.
Gatac: Yes.
Gatac: Play Hugh as an officer who's not afraid to make tough choices. When you're in his position, you have to be able to make a call and follow through.
Rob Davidoff: Yes.
Rob Davidoff: And has brought people home from rough situations before because of it.
Rob Davidoff: Where's Junior these days, you think?
Rob Davidoff: From Whirr I?
Rob Davidoff: He's the only remaining survivor from that _not_ on 815.
Gatac: Yes.
Gatac: I think that's a sensible choice, he's been away from us long enough that they can't easily claim he's been corrupted like us.
Gatac: Kasey also suggests Andy Tupolev.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah. Unless they point to his radiation damage, but I'd love to see them try that.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah, I was thinking of him too.
Gatac: Okay, what else do we have? Luis is already covered.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: Luis, Arketa, Swims, (Hale?), Angel (indirectly through Tora), and a plan for defending Hugh that if we have lined up, we could roll out at any time.
Rob Davidoff: And it's strong enough (and the acussations weak enough) that I'm not as worried about first impressions there.
Rob Davidoff: Zaef, possibly?
Gatac: What do the bad guys know about him, though? I don't think he's really on the public radar, either.
Gatac: Asking Kasey what the dossier says.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah, that's my read too. Whatever it is, it's enough to scare him ,but he's not as much in the public eye as Arketta or Swims.
Rob Davidoff: He probably doesn't know. I'm not sure I'd be surprised if Ross didn't think of anything specific.
Gatac: Well, then we don't have to defend against anything. :)
Rob Davidoff: He just wrote a generic "oh, shit, they know _that_ reaction."
Gatac: Probably the stim abuse.
Rob Davidoff: Let me ask Ross if he's interested in fleshing that out so we _can_ defend him.
Rob Davidoff: I'd love to shine a bit more spotlight on Zaef if Ross is up for laying the groundwork like that.
Gatac: Same here.
Rob Davidoff: He's a great character, and I'd really like to see more spotlight on him. I mean, I can do Luis/Arketta scenes until the sun goes out, but they'll never impress me quite as much as some of Russ's Zaef stuff has.
Gatac: He's certainly hinting at a lot of depth that I'd like to see.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: I'm so glad I got Ross into gaming.
Rob Davidoff: Any thoughts on what you'd like to see after this current bit?
Rob Davidoff: Once the homefront is sorted out again?
Gatac: Well, I think my "persuade the backers" idea is still strong. Have Barnes run the four names and see if we can't roll this up from the top.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: I meant after all this is sorted, once we've dealt with the committee and the accusations against us, and all that.
Gatac: Because while Simmons and Russell will only back up if we stone-cold beat them, their superiors might be convinced that we can make enough noise that victory for them will come at too high a price.
Gatac: Oh.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah, I agree there too.
Rob Davidoff: I was just trying to think about where to take the campaign against the Imperium next.
Rob Davidoff: We still don't have a fleet, so major actions like Boronai would be trickier.
Gatac: True.
Rob Davidoff: Infiltrations like Hedion are possible, as are Whirr-style raids to turn areas thought of as low value but that have signifigance in the PR side.
Gatac: Yeah, but I think we need to do something bigger than Hedion. We'll never turn the Imperium around piecemeal, we gotta make some sort of impact with the upper echelons of power.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
Rob Davidoff: And Hedion and Whirr are hard to do like that.
Gatac: One thing that's clear to me is that turning an Emperor alone doesn't work. We need a foothold in the bureaucracy.
Rob Davidoff: Indeed. Especially because if we want to win without prompt and total destruction of one party, we need to have a government left to sign the treaty.
Gatac: Ideally, get someone who is viewed as impartial and concerned with the well-being of the Imperium on our side, maybe circulate some sort of "Peace Report" that could pick up steam as more people read it and discuss it.
Rob Davidoff: And one that can actually administer post-war.
Rob Davidoff: Yeah.
punkey 2011-06-19 02:04:22
So, if you guys could translate that into a list of things to actually do, that would be great. :)

Also, this would be in addition to the current progress in "going around to those involved in off-world stuff and getting their support for 815/GRHDI" mission and "finding the top of the ladder of people trying to sabotage 815/take over GRHDI", yes?
CrazyIvan 2011-06-19 08:21:50
Punkey wrote:

So, if you guys could translate that into a list of things to actually do, that would be great. :)

Also, this would be in addition to the current progress in "going around to those involved in off-world stuff and getting their support for 815/GRHDI" mission and "finding the top of the ladder of people trying to sabotage 815/take over GRHDI", yes?


So, this is going to sound absurd.

Angel cracked about a TV appearance.
We need to sell Tora as a strong, independent woman.
He's a handsome, salt-of-the-earth soldier type.

It's time to hit the housewife talk show circuit.
Gatac 2011-06-19 10:09:26
Prettified and up-to-date plan can now be found here.

Please keep discussion of the plan here, and note updates to the plan document you make in the sticky thread. Thanks!
punkey 2011-06-19 11:05:51
Well? Anyone have any particular preferences? :D

We need to talk to Barnes about the committee members and White House staffers that matter in this, but there's also more dirt to be dug up on our new-found conspirators.