#bound rogue

[askvectorprime]

Dear, Vector Prime.

Are there any other Cybertronians named "Transit" besides Primax, Uniend and Tyran?

Dear Bus Busybody,

Of course, but they're mostly alike. Transit is little more than a low-level thug, rarely involved in matters of consequence. On Earth, he likes to hide in populated areas, where the threat of collateral damage is enough to keep Autobots from picking a fight with him.

Even amongst the Decepticons, Transit is one of the most sadistic of them all. When approaching a traffic light, he will deliberately slow down just enough for it to change to red. At a bus stop, he'll surreptitiously angle his rear-view mirrors so the driver can't see people running to the doors before they close. He swaps out his route number and destination when in motion. He declines most contactless payments. He drops most luggage from his compartment. Once a month or so, he'll pretend to break down for no reason at all. And worst of all, he isn't wheelchair accessible. There is simply nothing in life that brings Transit greater satisfaction than making people late, and so despite what he may report to the Decepticon leadership, Transit is such a miserably ineffective soldier in the "war on cars" that he may as well be a double agent.

The one incarnation of Transit I can think of who ever did anything of note did so entirely involuntarily. One of the largest Maximals ever sparked, Transit ferried Micromasters and proto-formers around Damaxus, together with his driver, Arrowbolt. With budget slashes, a standard Class-H energon ration wasn't enough to power Transit's frame, and so he was stuck in vehicle mode indefinitely—not unlike many of the Builders.

Now, Damaxus, as you may know, was one of the first cities to be overrun by Vehicons, with most of the population just trying to go about their lives in the unstable climate of the time when the infection began to spread. Transit was on his usual route, when his passengers saw the chaos begin to unfold outside the windows. Fleeing from the drones, a Cyberdroid, Omega, ran alongside the bus, banging on the door—and Arrowbolt ignored the protests of Socket, one of the Micromasters on board, to stop and let him in. One of the motorcycle drones was right behind him, and it was only the quick action of Major Mayhem, a Predacon in one of the front seats, that stopped the Vehicon getting aboard. Major asked Arrowbolt to take Socket's advice: to not stop again for any reason.

Transit's energon-starved chassis turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his body had such poor internal conductivity that the virus wasn't immediately transmitted to his spark from his exterior. He thundered through the growing mob, as the Vehicons pounded on his windows and piled onto his roof. Major Mayhem ordered everyone to barricade the entrances as the Vehicons began to break in, and they were able to fend off the attackers for a time—but in the claustrophobic interior, their hostility soon turned to the other passengers.

The other riders were Rockbuster and Bound Rogue, both Maximals; and Yardarm, a Decepticon laborer who bristled at the idea of taking orders from a Predacon. Making matters worse, Rockbuster suggested that the Vehicons were the Builders' doing, blaming Socket and Yardarm. From the driver's seat, Arrowbolt tried to keep the peace, but Major Mayhem accused her of condescension and cowardice he saw as typical in Maximals—which in turn led Bound Rogue to brand him a bigot.

Although Rockbuster's hardwired Claw Buster gun was their most effective weapon against the Vehicons, he quickly ran out of energon. Bound Rogue pointed out that Socket was still practically fully-fuelled, but the Micromaster refused to share some of her own so Rockbuster could reload. That was enough for Rockbuster to finally snap; he turned on Socket, crushing the Micromaster's body in his claw. At that point, however, an ethereal purple light filled the bus—where Omega had been sitting, there was now a tank drone. With Yardarm preoccupied tackling Rockbuster in the aisle, it plunged a claw into the floor. Major Mayhem blasted the Vehicon, but it was too late: the effects of the virus began to take over Transit, reformatting his body into another mindless killing machine… with his passengers still inside.

[transmetal-tk]

Legacy United Robotmasters Universe Bound Rogue

You can't catch what you can't see

[hayweerc]

Covering their fur with the scent of lavender

[ct-9902]

the best way to do rogue's (jay's) character arc wouldn't be him getting his memories back and rejoining the ninja, it would be him getting someone who honestly cares about him. not nya, who only wants her husband from before the merge back. not arin, who only wants the info jay might have about his parents. everyone is looking for jay walker, but no one is looking for rogue. jay walker is the boy from before the merge who grew up in a junkyard and joined the ninja. jay walker is the past, but rogue is the future.

[thistlefur]

[secondstar-acorn]

can’t think of anything to say other than it was everything I could have ever expected and wanted and hoped for. seeing them perform truly is an electric experience and I am so, so grateful I got to be there. I’ve never felt such overflowing joy and love in one room before and that truly is down to what a one-of-a-kind group Starkid is. I’m so happy and a little emotional that it’s over but like it’s sung in days of summer, “don’t wanna see you go but it’s not forever, not forever” ⭐️💜

[theoutcastrogue]

Bounded Accuracy, why it was necessary, and why it doesn't have to apply to skills

"Why Bounded Accuracy?", by Justin Alexander

"Let’s start by talking about bounded accuracy. Endless ink has been spilt on this topic, but I think one of the clearest way to understand bounded accuracy — what it is, why it works the way it does, how it’s supposed to be used — is to look at the design lineage which created it.

To do that, we need to go back about twenty years to the development of the Epic Level Handbook for 3rd Edition. The concept was to extend play past 20th level, allowing players to continue leveling up their characters forever.

The big problem the designers faced was that different classes gained bonuses to core abilities — attacks, saving throws, etc. — at different rates, which meant that their values diverged over time. By 20th level, the highest and lowest bonuses had already diverged so much that the difference exceeded the range of the d20 roll. This meant that any AC or DC you set would either be an automatic success for some PCs or impossible for others.

The designers of the Epic Level Handbook tried jumping through a whole bunch of hoops to solve or ameliorate this problem, but largely failed. As a result, the Epic Level Handbook was a pretty flawed experience at a fundamental level (and its failure may have actually played a major role in Wizards of the Coast abandoning the OGL and the doom of 4th Edition, but that’s a tale for another time)."

[The Rogue notes: I think the big problem with 3.5 was that the breaking of the d20 roll (where the AC or DC you set could be auto-fail for some and auto-success for others) happened LONG before epic levels, if players made characters with different levels of optimisation. Which was sometimes a result of, well, studying, pouring through splatbooks and looking up combos on the internet, but other times it just happened, without any effort. Some classes had to jump through hoops to keep up with the rest, and that was bad.]

"On that note, fast forward to 4th Edition: The designers knew this was a problem. (Several of the designers had actually worked on the Epic Level Handbook.) They wanted to avoid this problem with the new edition.

Their solution was to level up everyone’s bonuses across the board: Classes would be strong at some things and weak at others, but the values wouldn’t diverge. This methodology was, furthermore, wedded to 4th Edition’s design ethos of “level up the whole world with the PCs” and more or less fundamental to its My Precious Encounter school of encounter design.

Fast forward again, this time to 5th Edition: The 4th Edition of the game had burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp, and 5th Edition’s mission was to win back the D&D players they had lost. The whole “level up the world” ethos was widely identified as one of the things people who hated 4th Edition hated about 4th Edition, so it had go.

Bounded accuracy was the solution. Importantly, bounded accuracy was about two things:

Controlling AC & DC so that the target numbers never become impossible for some of the PCs.

Controlling bonuses so that the results don’t become automatic successes for some of the PCs.

In other words, all of the results exist within that boundary. Hence, “bounded accuracy.”

If you go back to the original problem experienced in 3rd Edition (and which metastasized in the Epic Level Handbook), you can see how this solves the problem. It also avoids the 4th Edition problem where your numbers get bigger, but your results never actually improve because the numbers increase in lockstep: As long as the DCs remain consistently in bounds, the moderate increases to the PCs’ bonuses will see them succeed more often as they increase in level, resulting in high-level characters who feel (and are!) more effective than 1st level characters."

– Justin Alexander | The Alexandrian, September 2022

Commentary: Bounded Accuracy and Skills

This very well-written summary was part of an article roasting the 5e skill system, and specifically arguing that Expertise is bad because it breaks Bounded Accuracy, and Reliable Talent makes it worse. And with this, I disagree.

I think that Bounded Accuracy is excellent for combat's standard rolls: attack vs AC, and saving throw vs DC. That's when you need numbers that challenge the whole party: some characters may have a better chance than others, sure, but the d20 roll doesn't become irrelevant because this one is guaranteed to succeed and that one is doomed to fail.

But for otherwise interacting with the world, I actually don't think the numbers need to challenge the whole party. I think immersion and simulation (I like these!) are better served by making such challenges tricky. Occasionally they will be too easy for some, and/or too hard for others, depending on where the characters focused their training. And when that happens, it's up to the party to figure out ways to make up for it, to look for other, creative solutions rather than get stuck on a skill check that one or more of them are doomed to fail, and in the end to acknowledge that some tasks are suited for only some of them.

So maybe half the party auto-failing to scale that wall means they need to find another way in, or use their spells, or have the athletic ones climb up and throw down a knotted rope. That's good! It's a complication that requires a solution other than rolling a single check! Maybe only the Wizard (with 2024 rules) has a chance of making that extreme Arcana check about a long lost artifact. That's great! It makes sense and it's immersive, they should be the only one able to make it. And maybe, if your goal is to stealthily scout ahead, don't send forth the clanging armoured warriors, only send the sneaky rogues. That's fantastic! It's basic tactics! What's not to like?

I have BIG beefs with the 5e skill system, on account that it's half-baked (and 5.5 is somehow even less baked), and doesn't give details or DCs even for the most bog-standard skill uses that you expect to come up at every campaign. A generic DC table from very easy to nearly impossible is great as a guideline for niche cases, and crazy things the players came up with. But things like climbing walls and picking pockets should come with instructions and numbers. As is, the DM is either winging it every time and the players are in the dark, or the DM is doing the designers' work for them, and homebrewing DC tables for everything. But bounded accuracy is not the problem here, imo.

[blacknight7890]

It's funny that the one time Pomni says fully within the bounds of the level is the horror adventure

[halamshirals]

man...

[residents-of-the-darkforest]

I realized that of the afterlives in Warriors, only two have official names. So I’m gonna make the names for the rest

Loners --> Sun-Bound Place

Loners travel a lot, so it would be logical to assume that where the sun is is an important, or at least daily, aspect of their life so that they do not get lost. When they die, they go here, named such because being ‘bound’ to the sun means they can never get lost from home again--they are where they should be, in a paradise.

Some may also believe that they have become part of the sun (this is up to you) and that they are now what guides their loner kin. 

Rogues --> Sunless Sky

I believe that rogues are the more violent versions of loners, and so they would basically go to the “Dark Forest” equivalent. They go where they cannot even tell where they are. 

They are the colourless night that kits get lost in. Mothers often warn their kits not to leave while she is sleeping, otherwise the nasty rogues who died long ago will capture them and take the kits with them into the black sky, where they’ll be lost forever.

Unlike with the Dark Forest however, because there is no code to guide behaviour, cats from the Sunless Sky can join the Sun-Bound Place if proven trustworthy enough.

Kittypets --> Neverending Twolegplace

For kittypets, much different to warriors, the Twolegplace is their home and, to them, a great place. They imagine it as a Twolegplace that never ends, each home filled with all the toys they could want, large gardens with plenty of trees and perhaps real prey, and each of the homes have a friendly fellow housecat. It is a perfect community.

If they believe the Twolegs come with them depends on the cat, some believe it is only for cats, others believe that the Twolegs come too, but only those who have cats.

Others as well believe that no dogs or other nuisances are present.

Kittypets Who Are Dicks --> Barren Land

The opposite of the Neverending Twolegplace, it is a place that has nothing from a household. No toys, no catfood or nip, no large gardens--no grass at all--no houses. It is a barren desert, basically.

Much like rogues, these cats do not follow a code and are thereby not ‘breaking the law,’ they are only condemned because they can be dangerous and disrupt the peaceful afterlife of others. They may also be able to join the Neverending Twolegplace if proven trustworthy.

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Because kittypets, loners, and rogues are way more widespread than Clan cats, it stands to reason that names of their afterlives may be different as well. These names are the most commonly used among the cats in range of the Clans.

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Taglist: @ambitiousauthor @starfalcon555 @frightnightindustries @elementaldeityoffood @wills-woodland-warriors @liberhoe

[lususnatura]

i feel like it's fellow rogues would just come to accept at some point that blamore is going to be eating around them at least 40-45% of the time around them, because his metabolism is literally just THAT hyperactive that it pretty much is always carrying snacks on his person. which is,, well, really not so good on one hand. but on the other hand, if blamore likes you, then you may just get free snacks from him... so yay for that??? idk LOL

[uldren-sov]

so was no one going to tell me that Heinrix van Calox of all people was Like That or were you just waiting to see him lay me out like he did

[hayweerc]

❄️ Snow Day

Happy Holidays 🔥

[5-htagonist]

i think ive settled on laios being a knight of breath and kabru being a rogue of blood...... i think......

[thistlefur]

[tophatofdoom]

god help me if Henrix Van Calox were a woman I would never shut up about her.