In reply to Wuji (msg # 18):

Oh derp, I totally missed that line. I think that putting a point into Wit and into Spirit would make her well rounded.

It will play into Mei Hua being particually friendly and like to support others in their passions, but be completely blind to how they feel about herself and allows for an easy mistake regarding trying to overhelp. (-1 heart), presuming that they tolerate or appreciate her efforts at best, even after weeks or years of friendliness.


In reply to Jia Li (msg # 19):

That's totally fine by me! Mei Hua might be the affectionate one, but she might not be wholly aware that Jia's interest isn't anything but just being extra attention since Mei Hua already needed to be helped once. This might not even been the first time Jia Li's interest has swung to Mei Hua, given that they've worked together for a time, and I wouldn't begrudge her being a little exasperated at Mei Hua's obliviousness.

I think you just need to place a number of strings that I may already have on you, but not be outright smitten.

Per page 9 of the handout : "When all PCs have answered the questions, each PC gives zero, one, or two Strings to each other PC, depending on how much emotional sway the other character holds with them."

Both of these sound good to me.

For my relationships, here's what I think:

Who has seen you at your most bestial? I'm thinking this would be Jia Li as it would work nicely with her having been smitten with Xiao Hu until recently, maybe she witnessed a bout of anger causing the Beast come out and was discouraged.

Who most reminds you of a beast? I'm thinking the protective nature of Mei Hua makes Xiao Hu see her as some kind of Mama Bear.

Okay, that takes care of the missing points. We should have an idea about the emotional conflicts your characters have. Perhaps talk a little bit more about those. Complete the remaining questions in your playbooks, too. You should copy them into your character descriptions so everyone can read them. Unless you want secrets, then I'll open the private sheets.

Next step is relationships, aka strings. I trust you all have the rules? if not, I can copypasta the relevant bits for you. If there are unclear special rules, ask about them now.

If you have any particular squicks, this is also a nice spot to put them down.

Xiao Hu's beast form pic is borkened.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:35, Fri 18 Dec 2020.

My last question is Who has almost as much flair as you? Neither of the other PCs sounds as though they have much flair, so unless one of them objects to that characterisation, I'll answer the question with nobody.

For strings, I'll give one to Xiao Hu because Jia feels bad about how shallow she was in not trying to work past her beast side. And I'll give two to Mei Hua, in part because they sound fairly close, and also because Mei is the new object of Jia's desire.

So one of the group is an ex-crush who Jia feels she has treated badly, and the other is a current crush who is oblivious to her hints.

In terms of her emotional conflicts, she questions whether she's good enough, but tries to prove that she's the best at everything, all while trying to act as though she doesn't care whether she's the best. She also tries to plan ahead, but when things get heated she will often get carried away and act without thinking. And though she doesn't stick with women once they hit problems, she does feel bad about that and wishes she would treat them better.

In reply to Xiao Hu (msg # 21):

I like that! Maybe Mei Hua can fill her third question as "Who did you save from a terrible fate?"

Perhaps Mei Hua didn't see Xiao Hu transform, but helped reassure her that she was still welcome to the team, no matter what, which helped Xiao recover from feeling as discouraged, because Mei Hua was trying to help patch things up with Jia Li, who Mei assumes still has feelings for Xiao.

(Mei Hua put her misguided heart into trying to reassure Xiao, which gives her two strings, and one string to Jia Li.)


In reply to Wuji (msg # 22):

Regarding emotional conflicts: Do these work with out themes?
- Mei Hua has always been obsessed with the Empire's military, particularly General Yong, as seen by her memorabilia. Any sort of conflict or contradictions her expectations would definitely upset her. Being less than perfect would be enough to shake her.

- Mei Hua is still not assertive enough to throw out her ideas, too ready to see them batted aside as bad.

- Mei Hua has trouble hurting people, even bad people, when the time comes for her to draw her sword. It hasn't affected the team's performance yet, but she'll usually refrain from delivering a final blow, preferring rather to bring them alive to 'empire justice'.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:49, Sun 20 Dec 2020.

So I think I'll give 2 Strings to Jia Li because Xiao Hu feels vulnerable around her as Jia Li saw her beast out, and 1 String to Mei Hua since Xiao Hu feels comforted by her presence.

Also I fixed the pic!

This message was deleted by the player at 09:11, Sat 19 Dec 2020.

Oh... white tiger? Oh my we are stepping into chinese idiom territory quite heavily here! :D

Please list your strings on the character sheets.

As for your emotional conflict ideas:

Mei Hua:
- deifying general Wong is a nice idea. Perhaps she's an illegitimate daughter of his, and the man she's called father was hiding a secret? May I use this? General Wong (is it Yong or Wong? you spelt it both ways) will get a string on you, and I'll give you a free shiny XP right now too if you let me :)
- not assertive enough is the chinese female stereotype, worth turning around and using to your advantage.
- Having trouble hurting people? There are many chinese idioms dealing with this. The most popular is "Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to yourself". Doing this will bite you back later.

Jia Li:
- so the superficially sloppy perfectionist with deficient self-control Scoundrel it is. Perhaps others might see her practicing sword moves deep in the night, because she dreamed of an imperfection in her sword technique?

Xiao Hu:
- hmm, she's a Beast so nothing much to say. A time bomb, you are.

You might want to toss an idea or two about what you want to see explored here as well.

I'll be making the first post later today.

I guess one of them is...*sunglasses*...General Wrong.

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oops, well I am super embarassed. It should be General Yong. My apologies! v_v'

Teehee.

Then again, you didn't answer my questiong about general Wrong and you. ;)

I believe it makes perfect sense for General Yong to have a string on Mei at this point, sight unseen, for sure. I was caught up in my mistake and missed the line.

I also promise not to make Mei Hua a completely useless lesbian, Jia. She's just target fixated on other things at the moment, ha.

you can call for moves, you know. :)

This has been your regular useless prodding announcement from the announcer on call.

Mei Hua, that's fine; I think we can probably get a fair bit of humour out of the situation. I'll try to keep Jia's words and actions ambiguous for now.

Merry xmas :)

should I move things on without waiting for all the players to respond?

Merry Christmas. Yes please; I was waiting for a response to Mei Hua's questions before having Jai act again.

Ditto; I think we should have some kind of consensus on when to wait for everyone to respond vs. when to wait for the MC's response?

Ah! I usually wait for all players to post before moving on. I'll switch to random updating for now :)

I mean usually it's okay to wait a few days to let everyone get a post in, but when dice come into play sometimes players would wait to see  how the roll turned out first while the GM waits to see if anyone else wants to do anything, which is why I say we need a consensus; like, maybe wait a week for everyone to get a post in before doing an update when people are just talking, but post the result of a move as soon as possible so others can react to the outcome, or something.

Oh good, to be honest I thought maybe I'd said something wrong my post.

Apologies for the delay on my end.

if you are trying to change Burcu's mind, you'll need to roll something... Little Tiger's approach is almost Fight, no?

I promise it won't hurt :D

Happy New Year everyone! I'm looking forward to seeing where this game goes in the new year.

well, I for one won't be missing 2020, not with the virus and earthquakes and insane overtime. I sure hope 2021 won't try to be worse than her predecessor :D I mean, what more could happen? Cthulhu awakening? Aliens landing? :D

Happy New Year <3
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:03, Fri 01 Jan 2021.

Okay, so I've finally sobered up. Had to, working today. :D

I hope your slide into the new year went well?

 Its been a, uh, long year already, for sure.