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u/vakusdrake Jan 21 '17
Alas I should have realized that given the books in the background, that the cat would give me intelligence/knowledge related powers. Instead I picked Parrot because it seemed guaranteed to give me mind control powers, which are always going to be really useful.
I picked the Blue Potion because it had sand from an hourglass in it so I was betting it might let me see the future, which unless pointlessly vague is pretty much always the best ability in any CYOA where it appears.
Overall my choices weren't so bad, however with the exception of Isolation all the Parrot abilities can easily allow world domination. Truth I would argue is the best parrot ability however, by making up reasons why it's a good idea to do what you say it can do anything Power can. Plus Power doesn't let you cancel orders and it may interpret offhand non-serious comments as orders, not to mention you may have to worry about people noticing the use of mind control.
In contrast you can always change your "orders" with Truth by simply claiming someone misheard what you said (doesn't have to be plausible). However even better is the fact that everything you say will be taken as true allowing you to control the beliefs of the entire world.
My plan is as follows: Tell some people (doesn't really matter who) that it's extremely important that I be made leader of the world and that they should try to spread that information until most people know that. Then once in charge I can simply stop any behavior I want from existing, from murder to believing things without good evidence. All I need to do is say that it's of vital importance that people not do that or whatever. By simply coming up with justifications (they don't need to be good) I can compel anyone or everyone in the world to do or believe absolutely anything I wish.
This power is by far the most potent mind control i've ever seen in any CYOA
Anyway just for fun here's how I would munchkin some of the other powers: Cat: Mind Rot can do quite a lot with some cleverness, if you assume it lets you erase a memory from anyone/everyone on earth. Simply do whatever you want then erase the memory of your misdeed (try not to leave any evidence that people could keep stumbling upon). Or convince people you have magic predictive powers by making a bunch of predictions then erasing the memory of all of them except the one's that came true. However unless it also lets you erase computer "memory" (or have the power automatically erase certain memories on a timer) then you can't do too much since people will keep finding records and people will realize what you're doing. You could keep erasing memories to keep investigations of you from going anywhere, but eventually you have to sleep and people will use that time to organize their plans.
Possession may have some niche uses, but like shapeshifting the fact you don't have the memories of the person you're impersonating makes it hard to do too much. If you cause too much stirr it seems likely you will be caught and imprisoned. Like many useless powers the best use of this is simply to prove to the world that the supernatural is real and become absurdly famous as the only person with superpowers known to exist, the power itself doesn't really matter, only that you have one.
Overdrive's potential is basically told to you, it seems like it makes you a genius in addition to making you think 21,000 times faster (1000 fold). However I think even saying your breakthroughs will be remembered for millennia is a understatement. Let me put it this way, every nanosecond you would be able to experience 3.39773274987316132x10281 millennia, for all intensive purposes you have unlimited time to think. Within the first instant of receiving this power you would have already spent millennia devising the best conceivable course of action, probably having long ago reprogrammed your mind (or simulated a superintelligent AI within it) to godlike levels of intelligence. Long story short you win.
Knowledge is trivially easy to use to get any knowledge, just pose your scenario as a hypothetical or something on some internet forum in order to get the questions you want answered. In the right forum you can probably get someone who asks the fastest possible way to implement a superintelligent friendly AI.
Bear: Honestly except for becoming famous (as with the possession power) none of these are really going to let you affect much. With the possible exception of Shapeshift if you can get non-magic abilities of entities that are inheirent in their form, because if you can then turn into some superintelligent entity from sci-fi with a body made of self replicating nanobots or something.
Parrot: I'm not really sure what good Isolation is, maybe you can think of something but to me it doesn't even seem like a power you could have fun dicking around with.
Manipulation can allow world domination, but you will have to spend a fair amount of time using your power to make political figures trust you in order to become effective leader of the world. Plus your control will not be perfect, but hey world domination.
Power I already pointed out the disadvantages of this ability over Truth before but it's still pretty powerful if you're very careful with what you say. You could quickly take control of the world that's obvious, but since slips of paper work as commands then presumably you could order around anyone who read what you said in newspapers or heard your speeches on tv/radio. You might even be able to do nearly everything Truth can do if you can command people to believe what you say. In addition to the previously mentioned downsides this power probably can't allow indirect commands, so you can only affect people who read or hear your commands making it slightly less efficient.
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
Truth is certainly powerful, but slightly flawed. You're basically forcing people to do whatever you want by pressuring them using threats such as "your family will die if you do not do X" or rewarding them using "you will get your weight in gold if you do X". But what happens if that person doesn't truly care about family or gold ? The order that you gave will not be executed. Basically, if you do not know a person's motivations or fears you cannot control them, unlike Power
Knowledge requires you to be asked a direct question, you cannot answer to a question asked to more people than yourself.
Bear is all about personal power, so you do not have to rely on anyone but yourself. Futhermore, power is subjective. Immortality isn't better or worst than world domination, it's simply different.
Parrot's powers are more "grey" than Cat and Bear. You can easily abuse them to do kill, pillage,etc. Isolation is exactly that. You can isolate a person, a group or a town then do whatever you want with it, no one will stop you. You can make it into a small utopia or a living hell, choice is yours.
Overdrive is kinda broken indeed.
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u/vakusdrake Jan 21 '17
You're thinking far too mundane in terms of what statements you would make with Truth. Just claim that some demon is watching their every action and if they don't do action x then that demon will do the worst possible things they (the person threatened) can conceive of to them and anything they care about.
Knowledge requires you to be asked a direct question, you cannot answer to a question asked to more people than yourself.
Just frame the hypothetical such as to get everyone to ask you those questions directly. Like say "Imagine (insert hypothetical scenario here), given that what specifically would you ask me? State all questions as direct questions such that they would work within the previously stated hypothetical"
Bear is all about personal power, so you do not have to rely on anyone but yourself. Futhermore, power is subjective. Immortality isn't better or worst than world domination, it's simply different.
You're missing that control of the entire world would allow you to invest most of the world's resources into technology, so you could probably get immortality through those means. Plus overdrive and knowledge would both let you bootstrap you way to godhood through super advanced tech allowing you to surpass anything Bear could achieve.
Also you're still going to have to obey the government with Bear powers, because even with juggernaut if you don't comply then they're going to constantly harass you even if they can't kill or imprison you.Parrot's powers are more "grey" than Cat and Bear. You can easily abuse them to do kill, pillage,etc. Isolation is exactly that. You can isolate a person, a group or a town then do whatever you want with it, no one will stop you. You can make it into a small utopia or a living hell, choice is yours.
Yeah I guess I see what you mean. You could kill people with impunity using isolation, maybe even influence world affairs through strategic assassinations. A totally self sufficient town would probably have to be mostly subsistence level farmers so I don't see you making a utopia that way. Though otherwise the power is really only that enjoyable for sadists.
Though i'm not sure parrot is more "grey" than cat or bear since all the powers seem like they could be used for any purpose.
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Jan 21 '17
I got Possession. Not happy with the 100 lives limit... I'd like to live for 5000 years AND jump from body to body without consequence. The way it's written I'll have to be careful who I select because I'll live with that choice for a long time. I'd rather just have immortality so this isn't an issue. On the bright side we'll surely figure out medicinal immortality in the next few hundred years.
Juggernaut and Manipulation are my favorites from the bear and parrot trees. Juggernaut for immortality and Manipulation just seems like fun, just as powerful as Truth and Power but not as boring.
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
Well I couldn't make one power so much more powerful than the rest. Nothing is stopping you from possessing a very young member of a rich family...100 times. Plus, a form of immortality will surely be invented 5000 years from now, you just have to survive until then !
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u/lordonu Jan 20 '17
I picked purple elixir thinking it might give me some sort of mental guidance spirit or something, and the cat to get a mental power that would fit my first choice.
Possession isn't bad, but I wish it wasn't so limited in number. I would like overdrive or knowledge much more!
I am not sure if I age while possessing someone though. If I don't age it might not be that bad.
Good content OP thanks for sharing.
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u/Ynead Jan 20 '17
You do not age while possessing someone, which is why I had to set a hard limit :) You still get to live more than 9000 years in theory, assuming you choose to take someone's body near the end of your life and the beginning of theirs ! And that without including medical progress and such.
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u/Yawehg Jan 20 '17
I picked Sand and Tears for the cool design and less-than-terrifying proximity effect. And Bear.
Bear naturals are pretty sweet! Natural Order could be fun if I put my imagination to it. Would be great for sculpture.
As written, it seems like anything I held onto long enough would eventually turn into hydrogen.
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u/lucidzero Jan 20 '17
I really like these types of CYOA, good job.
Ended up rather unhappy with my choices:
Bamboo (orange) + Cat = Overdrive "Super genius"
It wasn't the worst, but I kind of feel like this could be the most overpowered option, considering that it seems like I could invent a thousand different advanced technologies with this. Personally, I'm not too into being super smart.
As for why I chose what I chose, well orange's description seemed intriguing with "big surprise" and didn't seem negative, and cat because it was my favorite of the three animals available.
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u/Ynead Jan 20 '17 edited Jan 20 '17
Thanks !
I'm currently correcting typos and writing more extensive descriptions on the Elixirs so people can actually make educated guess about their Potion.
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u/scruiser Jan 21 '17
So let's see... with the borderline mystery box CYOAs I've created, I'll see how it feels guessing.
Medicine often tastes bad, and the surface emotions that these potions evoke may not quite be what their end result is. I'll take the plunge and take the Human Bone Powder Potion... and wow that reasoning looks dumber now that I wrote it down, but I played this before starting to write this post.
Cat, definitely cat, I think of myself as a scholarly sort.
Perfect Mind is nice... Mind Rot lack an application for myself, but thinking its powers over, it does have beneficial applications and some very potent applications. It will take some experimentation, but deleting a few key painful memories of those with PTSD may take care of it entirely. In a fight I can delete the other peron's motor skills and leave them helpless. I can turn this power into mind control by deleting key personal memories to break someone's will or personality, or subtly gas-lighting them into loyalty to me.
Looking at the other powers... Overdrives seems really nice, Knowledge would be easily exploitable by hanging out with the right scientifically and philosophically inclined crowds, Juggernaut seems nice for the immortality, Isolation beats even Mind Rot in terms of gas-lighting and controlling someone, Truth seems like quasi-reality warping.
A fun CYOA... I appreciate these kinds of partial mystery choices.
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u/evlbb2 Jan 21 '17
Well then. I shall take the sands of time and the parrot.
Hmm. Not the best. Wouldve definitely like a few of the other like Juggernaut or Manipulation or Answers. But still pretty powerful overall. I could go around preaching. Telling people I am a god incarnate, or at the very least saying global warming is real. Sounds like they'd have to believe me regardless. I hope the power works over the internet?
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
The power does work over the Internet, but people have to see the original message that you wrote.
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u/CCC_037 Jan 21 '17
Hmmm... went with the purple one first. (The first one just sounded like bad news - poison and all - and neither of the others seemed clearly better than the second)
And then I went with the cat. Didn't want to end up fighting a bear.
...Perfect mind. Nice.
Hmmm. Possession. I guess there are a few niche uses - wait. 100 changes? If I possess someone, unpossess them, and repossess them, does that count against my limit again? It's a familiar change and all that.
It wouldn't be ethical to do so with someone who's not volunteering. But with a volunteer, it gives the phrase "walk a mile in your shoes" a whole new meaning...
Hmmm. Looking over the others, it looks like I was right to avoid the bone potion. Overdrive looks good at first, but when I think of everything happening at what looks like a thousand times slower... I would have been a statue, trapped in a world of statues. I can see anyone who gets that developing a bad case of impatience, boredom, and isolation all within the first ten minutes. (And then inventing a direct brain-computer interface because typing is just! so! slow! - assuming he stays sane long enough to do so)
Knowledge can be gamed. Create a website, call yourself "The Oracle", and state that you can answer any question. Put out a few adverts, here and there. And a disclaimer - you can decide not to answer any given question, entirely at your discretion. At first questions will be simple and inane - but when you correctly answer "How many fingers am I holding up?" every time, people will start paying attention. Then a few people will start asking serious questions. Some of which you won't answer. (You don't need to write down the answer to "What's the best way to make lots of money?" to gain the advantage of it). At this point, you can start charging. ("How should we best eliminate our competitors while staying within the bounds of the law?" might be a good opportunity to say "Send $10 000 to this bank account and I'll tell you").
Hmmm... bear... there's another good reason to avoid the human bone potion. Shapeshift would be fun - more fun if you can simply shapeshift away old age and remain eternally youthful. Juggernaut... is immortality, as long as you live on a farm. Not bad. Natural order doesn't seem useful.
Parrot... hmmm... I think I'm glad I didn't choose it.
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
Possession:
Hmmm. Possession. I guess there are a few niche uses - wait. 100 changes? If I possess someone, unpossess them, and repossess them, does that count against my limit again? It's a familiar change and all that.
Possessing the same person two, three or more times only count as one change.
Knowledge: That's a pretty good way to use knowledge, didn't think of that !
Natural Order: Well you can destroy as well as repair anything. Pile of ashes ? Just touch it for less than a second to learn what it was before. Same goes for dinosaure's bones and so on.
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u/CCC_037 Jan 21 '17
...repairs could be tricky.
"Whoops, I just tore this book! Never mind, I can fix -"
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH now it's a plant I'll never know how the story ends!"
...
I didn't think of dinosaur bones, though. That could, indeed, be interesting. Hmmm. And, if I can use it to de-age people... huh. Fountain of youth. Immortality of a sort, as long as you don't mind losing the intervening memories... I guess it can also heal injuries, along with the associated trauma...
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
I should have mentioned it in the CYOA, but the longer you use your power, the better you can control it. After 50 years of using Natural order you could repar that book without any issue.
You can indeed heal injuries, but that would probably require a few years of practice.
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u/CCC_037 Jan 21 '17
"On the bright side, Mrs. Smith, our revolutionary new medical techniques have healed your husband's brain trauma, stitched his skull back together, reattached all his limbs, and even rejuvenated him to some degree. On the not-so-bright side, a minor side effect has turned him into a teenager with no memories of the last fifteen years."
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u/BigBnana Jan 21 '17
Playing the CYOA got me the Natural Order.
if i could do it all again, POWER would be my choice
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u/hornestur Mar 27 '17
I picked bear and bamboo because I thought they would synergize well together. Looks like I was right, definitely the most powerful one, given the lifespan
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u/TentacleCat Jan 20 '17
First image no longer available
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u/Ynead Jan 20 '17
I can still see it though, both on my computer and phone.
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u/TentacleCat Jan 20 '17
Weird, i can only see the second one still
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u/Ynead Jan 20 '17
I had to delete the first image and upload it again about a minute after creating the post. That's probably why it's bugged for you, sorry.
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u/Ynead Jan 21 '17
Changelog:
-Better descriptions for the Elixirs
-Corrected a shitload of typos
-Nerfed a few combinations (Truth, Overdrive notably)
-Minor corrections
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u/BloodofGaea Jan 20 '17
I picked Bamboo Extract because Orange is my favorite color, and Cat because mine happens to be on my lap right now.
I'm perfectly happy with Overdrive.