[RESOURCE] Management Q&A

[ChibiGingi]

So, are any non-Negaverse officer allowed to touch a Negaverse weapon, either to try using it, preventing it from hitting them or someone else, or even just to inspect it and throw it back at them? By non-Negaverse, I mostly mean Senshi, but Knights and maybe even other Negaverse officers as well.

For example, let's say Serpentine drops his rubber snake, and Super Sailor Tsui wants to scoop it up and throw it back at him. Would she be allowed to do that, or would there be some kind of force preventing her from being able to do so?

A Negaverser's (and knight's) weapon is a tangible object. Other characters can touch it, try to push it out of the way, grab it, etc etc. (For instance, Chibi Egeria's power involves if she can touch a weapon it turns it into foam/balloon/something useless for a few moments). It is totally reasonable for a senshi to grab it and throw it back at them.

HOWEVER. Both Negaverse and knights have the power to basically... 'recall' their weapon to them. So if they lost it or someone stole it and was holding it hostage they could simply recall it to them because it is connected to them, it would disappear out of the other person's hand and reappear where it belonged.  

[cibarium]

Hey, can solos be written in the Realms of the Past subforum?

ye, though they don't count for growth.  

[Verithe]

This may have been asked before, but I didn't see it: Does Destiny City have large ethnic neighborhoods like a Chinatown or a Little Haiti?

Sure, why not.  

[MoonKitsune]

If my Negas youma wears armor that I want to draw and decorate, can I have the Earth symbol on it seeing as humanoid youma were once Earth soldiers?

Unfortunately, that could have game breaking implications. Since even Negaverse agents [some of whom are really Earth Knights] do not have such symbols, we would like to request that youma do not, either, unless it is for some larger Meta purpose as decided by the GMs. ICly, you may consider this the influence of Chaos on the being, warping any former connection to their past existence.  

[shibrogane]

Can Negaversers teleport to the wonders of Earth Knights, since those places actually exist on Earth? I mean obviously the Earth Knight whose wonder it is would have to show them. But assuming the knight in question showed the negaverser in question... Could it be done?

Theoretically yes but it would be incredibly exhausting for anything but a fourth stage unless the wonder was located within a state or two of Destiny City. Even then, that's mostly only something a general could do, and they would nearly kill themselves trying.

Teleportation is mostly for getting around town quickly, not traveling the globe. I would also think that this is something that needs to be passed through the mule with a specific instance.  

[Quicksilver the Archangel]

I've been wondering this for a while, but... why does Howlite refer to herself as a General-King rather than a General-Queen? I thought she was definitively female before that? Did she take in a second, male form during her promotion? (I.e. something equivalent to Tanz's phoenix?)

The reason I ask is because I don't know how characters are supposed to view her/react to her when they see her. Do they see a masculine woman? Or a completely ambigious Chaos entity?

This is a question that is more appropriate to ask the player of a character, however, since that player happens to be a GM, we'll go ahead and address it!

We don't enforce a gender binary in this shop, but beyond that, Howlite refers to herself as such [and is referred to by all] due to not recognizing the need for a military title to reference her sex. Her superiors have been called "sir" or their chosen title, regardless of their gender, and up until stage four, all titles are gender neutral, she's just continued with the practice and there's no rule against it.

Also, it just sounds better.

Zinkenite could have been General-Queen, if he wanted to. Tanzanite took the title Youma Queen. If Howlite was actually a senshi, she'd probably be a Prince. If someone like Ganymede [though he identifies as male] wanted to be Princess, that would be fine.

Characters can react to her however they choose, as always. Kess, and Howlite, are both very ambiguously gendered [and Howlite's uniform is relatively unisex, especially when she has a helmet on]y, and have responded to others referring to them by female or male pronouns. There's really no way to go wrong. In RP, since her promotion, many that see her completely suited view her as ambiguous, but some have confused her for a guy, or think she's female. It really doesn't matter.  

[Whimsical Blue]

As Knights were assigned to their wonders and swore to them (rather than being born to them like senshi), would it theoretically be possible for a knight to change their allegiance, or are those contracts binding for eternity?

Aka: Knight Boy of Earth awakened, did some living, and now there is a New Royal around that wasn't there before. With the right plot, could he give up his old connection to Earth and become Knight Boy of New Royal?

This (how knights are assigned and what not) is something that we will be expanding upon/going into in more detail about in upcoming months hopefully. However I believe I can still answer your question.

Knights do not swear themselves to a person, be it a prince/princess/emperor/etc. They swear themselves to the very planet (or homeworld in the case of Cosmos, Chronos, Polaris). So while it's great if they try to get along with the ruling leaders of the planet it is not obligated. As such, they would not change simply because they preferred one royal to another. Their loyalty goes to the planet and it's the planet that feed them their power (just as a senshi homeworld's gives them power)

I think I didn't explain my question well, it was less about the royal and more about the planet. Say a knight awakened before Polaris became a princess and before the planet was available for knights (I assume the two happen at more or less the same time). Now that knights are awakening to polaris, if there were the right plot for it, could a Knight of Earth become a Knight of Polaris?

Is it a case where the knights of a planet ONLY start awakening once the princess has? I could see that being a thing. Sort of almost unrelated side question there.

The idea behind the question is less about the 'I want to change because I feel like it' and more about if it were even possible that a great plot could ultimately end with that happening. Its more a curiosity than because I have any sort of plans or desire for that. xD

I still think Iris had the right of it! Unlike purifying/corrupting, which changes where you access your power, a knight's power is meant to be channelled through one particular place. Consider it this way-- you're a knight on Earth and you fight valiantly for your King, then decide to be part of another King's army. You just committed treason!

Knight's are awoken to a new prince or princess once they awaken themselves, and would NOT have awakened as a different Knight-- I COULD see there being a plot where a knight awakens to a new princess/prince that doesn't yet exist but that would be highly irregular and would involve a lot of planning! Since we introduced past life, switching from planetary powers is just not on the table.
Then again if it's the greatest plot of all time, and this is true for pretty much anything, you never know!

Well put!

Basically even if a brand new prince or princess were to emerge in our shop that royal (and the knights of their homeworld) have technically existed in their past life (It's just something they haven't remember/realized yet). So barring some really spectacular plot a knight wouldn't awaken as an earth knight if they had in the past been a Polaris knight, they just wouldn't awaken at all until the time was right.  

[SpaceSalt]

So I have quite a few knight questions! Most of them are from the update.
I always thought knight weapons were supposed to be timeless or traditional weapons from the past? I mean, it says

Old Knight Thread

Important Note: Knight weapons, unlike the Negaverse, are timeless. These are the tools that have been passed on throughout the ages, which means that your character's item needs to be something that would have existed in the past on their sworn planet. So, for example, a Knight of Mercury may have something a little on the high-tech side, but a Knight of Mars would not wield a Super Soaker that evolves into a gatling gun.

So I guess a lot of my confusion stems from the suggestion of using plastic. It doesn’t seem to fit in with all the previous information at all and honestly seems to bring them closer to Negaverse weapons rather than the wall of separation that was there before. Plastic is a very cheap, very modern substance that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere at all.

This is an oversight that was corrected, thank you for pointing it out. It was supposed to have been removed but was missed in the hullaballoo.

And speaking of weapons I noticed these restrictions on squire stage:

New Knight Thread

This weapon cannot be made of stone/crystal nor metal at this stage. It can, however, be made of more dense and less breakable wood or, if you desire plastic, than it would have been in the previous stage

That seems very restrictive! Especially given the range of densities between stone, crystal, and metals and even wood! There are tons of lightweight metals that are dented easily and tons of dense woods that would break your hand if you hit them! And then there’s crystal which not only has different properties but could have magical properties in shop that also alter it’s strength. Crystal dinnerware, for example, is incredibly fragile and even large chunks of crystal chips and breaks easily where certain plastic polymers can even be bulletproof and glass depending on it’s density and quality can be brittle or rock hard. Lots of metals are also actually very light! Sabers are incredibly light where a sledgehammer is a pain in the a** to lift, but for some reason, per the weapons rules, the saber would be considered the more dangerous weapon? I was just curious for a little more explanation here because as it is written it doesn’t make much sense to me at all and some clarification or a little illumination behind the reasoning would would probably go a long ways to helping in coming up with weapons, because the boundaries being described here seem a little contradictory and vague.

A sledgehammer would probably be in the range of 'offensive weaponry' that is not allowed, depending on what it is made out of. If it was made of breakable wood that shattered on contact, is it more dangerous than a saber at that point? Part of the problem in writing this guide is that every weapon design needs to be taken on a case-by-case basis as to what it is you want as a weapon, what the material is, and the size of it.

However the staff decided that most metals as well as the type of crystal we saw in mind were all above a certain hardness. If you would like to make a case for a certain allowance to the rule I'm sure our stamping staff would be glad to hear out your case as to why you should be allowed. For the most part this is a rule, however.

And speaking of, the information on summons seems a bit contradictory as well, if that could be clarified!

Summons Pose

A spirit creature may not be larger than an average horse in weight or size. Otherwise there are no limits as to what this spirit creature may be. Horse, dragon, falcon, rabbit, unicorn, hippogryff. Again, this should have significance to the knight! You are probably thinking 'But guys, dragons are bigger than houses!' but that's why we say it cannot be larger than you. For example, say you really want an elephant. Well, okay, but that elephant cannot be of greater height or mass than a human being.

Human beings and horses have a huge mass difference! Not to mention an animal would have to be pretty big or strong to even carry a human. So what ARE the size and strength limits?

Another minor oversight. Originally we were writing up human beings but the size of 'human' was confusing, so we had to swap to 'horse'. I just missed a passage when editing.

I also have some questions on this mysterious change in relevance to past lives. Does this mean your past self or ancestor would have the original weapon progression or this same one all along? What are the ancestors going to think? What should they know about this or think when offering advice to their present day descendents?

I would say that is up to you. Perhaps your ancestor had the same fog over their memory that you did. Maybe you guys are just different. Ancestors and descendants have always been able to have different weapons. I am pretty sure this has been true all along but it certainly is now.

And speaking of past lives, this doesn’t have anything to do with the update but while rooting around in the realms of the past forum I noticed this:

Realms of the Past Welcome

At age fourteen, part of your coming of age was that every young person was tested for the potential to become a knight; if you passed you were sent to the Academy to be trained in the basics before being assigned to a wonder as a Page

How does this jive with the knights whose titles were passed down through the generations? Actually, how does this work with any of the knights’ heritage? What about the talk of mentors and pages succeeding knights or the previous generation? Does this kind of negate a history of a wonder if they were just assigned? Then what does this mean for ancestor ghosts that are there to train their present day pages if there was an academy for this sort of thing? Is this optional or all encompassing? How long has this been a facet of knights because it totally slipped under my radar.

Please believe that we're not done with knights yet! We're laying the foundation for a hugely expansive, detailed history of the knights, how they worked, and why some knights are reincarnated and some only have ancestral ghosts. This is, however, something that the staff feel very strongly about introducing ICly. Weapons and powers are, for the most part, OOC mechanics and are the very foundation of the entire faction. It was considered important to push out this particular update before we spent literal months trying to expand the knight lore, as it were. More updates will be coming and we ask that for now you bear with us as we decide what to do.

Also ancestral ghosts are taking up the place of the Academy that is now longer around. What reincarnated knights can learn through regaining their memories, descendant knights need to hear from someone who was there. Ancestral ghosts were not always at wonders; this is a new thing! Also 'assign' is a loose word designation. You could very well have chose it or have been down to have worked there since birth but there is still a formal 'assigning' done. The knights are no less a bureaucratic force than any other organized fighting collective and would need to keep records of who was where!

I have a whole lot of ideas, the staff have a whole lot of ideas, and we're hoping to push out an IC lore patch to the knights within the next few months. However, we chose to focus on the playable aspect more than the IC aspect first as it was the most affecting.

Mostly I'm just confused because this is a lot of information and it is not clicking in my head so some further explanation would be greatly appreciated! Thank you <:

 

[LP]

Okay so rolling along with knight questions again since I've been debating on what to do with Buyan.

I HAVE SUMMON QUESTIONSSSSS

- Can summons be something other than normal "land/air dwellers"? That is could they be a sea animal - dolphin, shark, fish, etc?
- Would the magic used to summon them allow that?
- Or is this just limited to actual land animals? Aka: No swimming through air and defying gravity?

Since Neptune knights are basically from an underwater world I kind of wanted to stick with a sea theme and I just wanted to make sure what sorts of mounts would be allow.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

They are magical, ethereal animals so there isn't any reason it couldn't be a normally aquatic animal. As you mentioned they'd likely just levitate a little or swim through the air within reason. (aka, if might be dangerous to try and make your magical dolphin swim you to the top of a huge building).

I admit I'm dying to see someone do a giant goldfish. I will kiss whomever does this.

/edit: 3/4 I.... wasn't thinking goldfish persay ... but .... well you'll see >> <<  

[ChibiGingi]

So, question. Does anyone else in the Negaverse (or game in general) know of Queen Beryl's fate (in character, of course)? I ask because I'd like to see if this effects any Nega characters in play or if we must wait for it to be revealed before we get to work that factoid into our characters' developments.