SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread IV

[Force Lord]

Can someone give a brief rundown of the disciplines one can participate in at the Esper Tournament?

The only ones I can think of right now are Virtual Combat, Speed, Precision, and Memory. I'm sure there's more, but I'm burnt out a bit right now.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Can someone give a brief rundown of the disciplines one can participate in at the Esper Tournament?

The only ones I can think of right now are Virtual Combat, Speed, Precision, and Memory. I'm sure there's more, but I'm burnt out a bit right now.

Here is a list:

Telepathic and Precognitive Fencing-- Split into two different competitions, competitors use their respective discipline (either telepathy, or precognition) to fight in a fencing match. Different types of weapons can be used to further split up the contest. Rapier, Foil, Staff, Poleaxe etc.

Scan and Counterl: Telepaths a simple thought. A clear precise image given to them by a referee. Each telepath then tries to get past the others blocks and take the information. This can be displayed through the use of brain scanners to see what each telepath sees in their thoughts.

Precognitive and Metacognitive Speed Chess: Exactly what it sounds like.

Telekinetic, Pyrokinetic, and Electrokinetic Duels. Very impressive

Various Physical Contests for Body Augmentation.

Telekinetic/Electrokinetic strong man contests.

Far-Seeing Marksmanship: Bow, Crossbow, Blaster Rifle etc.

ID This Substance and its Properties using different ranges and interposing barriers.

And last but not least--though there will only be a few competitors... Mage Duel for those nations with magical traditions.

[Force Lord]

Speed Guessing What Number I'm Thinking Of is also appearing. The Centrality is well known for such contests.

[Siege]

Hmm, the Shield won't want to participate in combat routines (not their specialty, and there's Bragulans watching so best not to give the game away). Precision and Memory are probably more to their liking. Still, I imagined there'd at least be some Creative disciplines as well though. You know, create candy or fireworks out of thin air, something less militaristic.

[Simon_Jester]

EDIT: For the record, LoC9 has 'outsourced' the writing of the Prussian attack on Zebes to me. My latest post is part of the setup for that. If there is anything particularly objectionable about it in the eyes of the mods, or of LoC9 himself, they are welcome to PM me.

I want to assure all involved that I will act in good faith and will carefully represent the Prussian state in a way I believe to be consistent with LoC9's own work, and with the insights that can be deduced about it from that work.

Speed Guessing What Number I'm Thinking Of is also appearing. The Centrality is well known for such contests.

Speaking of the ones I thought of, Speed Guessing What Number I'm Thinking Of would be a relatively low-impact telepathic 'combat' sport. It's the psychic equivalent of, say, very stylized fencing: no use of techniques that are even theoretically lethal, no all-out attempts to mindcrush or anything.

I'm not sure whether the competitors are guessing the numbers each other are thinking of, or if they're trying to read the mind of a neutral judge (who may himself be a powerful telepath). It just seemed like a... Centrality-esque name for a telepathic sport.

Ditto for Precision Electromagnetics, obviously an application of electrokinesis which tests the contestants' ability to manipulate electric and magnetic fields carefully, rather than their ability to throw huge-ass bolts of lightning.

Also Telekinetic Ice Sculpting (thank you Shroomy!), again a test of finesse more than brute force.

Precognitive and Metacognitive Speed Chess: Exactly what it sounds like.

Heh. Of course, all our high-end precognitives decided to stay home; you can decide for yourself what to conclude from that...

[Agent Sorchus]

Don't forget telekinetic endurance lifting or others that are more specialized endurance rather than brute force events.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I still have some catching up to do, but I hope to do some writing of my own soon.

*HINT HINT*

Hurry up and eat your damn meal you damn Karlack!

[Lonestar]

Obviously there will be no GD Pyskers at the Tourney, all of them are gainfully employed.

[Dark Hellion]

Won't the speed chess be hard to judge? IIRC anyone with enough processor speed or accurate enough precog should start stalemating consistently against all other competitors who pass that same barrier. There simply are not enough possible moves in chess to not end up in this situation given the processing power that can be thrown around in the games time period. Unless its "Future Chess" which has a far higher number of possible moves.

[Simon_Jester]

Hi, DH! Good to have you back.

So, what's you guys' response to the Refuge?

Won't the speed chess be hard to judge? IIRC anyone with enough processor speed or accurate enough precog should start stalemating consistently against all other competitors who pass that same barrier. There simply are not enough possible moves in chess to not end up in this situation given the processing power that can be thrown around in the games time period. Unless its "Future Chess" which has a far higher number of possible moves.

Use of computer processor power is going to be a no-no for this event for the same reasons it's a no-no to bring a shotgun to a wrestling match and 'win' that way.

With precognition, what's being tested is precog versus precog: in a direct competition between two precognitives, "always in motion, is the future," as Yoda might put it. What's impressive is the ability to use precognition to scry an opponent's moves two or three moves in advance, given that they're trying to do the same. The margin of superiority, if any, will be very narrow between two master-class precognitives, and every glimpse you get of the future of the game is a sign that you are doing better than your opponent.

Of course, if you're both really good... well, I'm sure there have been occasions where two precognitives walk into the room with the board, size each other up, nod to each other, and one of them concedes amicably.

Sort of like the Umerian precognitives deciding not to come to the game at all...

[Master_Baerne]

ESP Chess intrigues me.

There can be Pairs MAD Chess, where two precognitives from different teams have to try and reach a stalemate in the shortest amount of time possible, and 4D Chess, (because everything's better with four dimensions!) in which is chess on a pyramidal board with occasional time skips, and Elemental Chess, where electro-and-pyrokineticists play chess with pillars of fire and suchlike.

Also, are there any other fencers here? Because if nobody objects, I'd like my competitors to take that event.

[Shroom Man 777]

There could be rowboat events, dragonboat racing and like long-distance rowing where they test their telekinesis stamina. Sure, esper superfreaks can lift enormous masses with their brains, but can they use their telekinesis for prolonged periods of time for repetitive motion (rowing) to propel their dragonboat across, say, the Shroomanian Channel? They will have to use telekinetic paddles!

BTW, the grand winner of psychokinetic sculpting built this:

[Force Lord]

So, when would be the best day for the Tournament to start?

[Force Lord]

*looks at Shep's post*

Uh oh.

[Agent Sorchus]

ESP Chess intrigues me.

There can be Pairs MAD Chess, where two precognitives from different teams have to try and reach a stalemate in the shortest amount of time possible, and 4D Chess, (because everything's better with four dimensions!) in which is chess on a pyramidal board with occasional time skips, and Elemental Chess, where electro-and-pyrokineticists play chess with pillars of fire and suchlike.

Also, are there any other fencers here? Because if nobody objects, I'd like my competitors to take that event.

I would like to take the one part of the fencing sports. After all humans would be going up against the reflexes of Mongooses, a particular challenging prospect, though the heavier blades would have an advantage for the humans alongside their greater reach.

Of course Eoghans would be at a disadvantage for most of the sports thanks to the fact that the powers are not entirely under their own mental control. I can deal with it though.

[Siege]

I hope that Force Lord will forgive me man-handling his Centrality without prior permission, but I just wanted to arrive in style, y'know? And when it comes down to psykionics it don't get much more stylish that a sweet honkin' grey saucer with lotsa lights!

[Mayabird]

Once we get through some more Refuge-Centrality posts I'll find out if the Refuge will be sending a delegation of observers. If things are going to be a mess, might as well throw in panicked birds, right?

[Simon_Jester]

I always envisioned the Bragulan-Apexai war going down like Superiority by Arthur C. Clarke: overwhelmingly superior technology on the Apexai side, based on physical principles far in advance of anything the Bragulans had... coupled with a catastrophic failure to integrate that technology into something a military could really use.

[Siege]

Well, that's pretty much ridiculously accurate insofar as I'm concerned.

[Shroom Man 777]

Who kicked the Centralist ambassador out? I bet the Centralites, in some weirdo bragskirovka, kicked their own ambassador out of Shepistan and blamed it on the Sheps!

[Force Lord]

I hope that Force Lord will forgive me man-handling his Centrality without prior permission, but I just wanted to arrive in style, y'know? And when it comes down to psykionics it don't get much more stylish that a sweet honkin' grey saucer with lotsa lights!

Hey, no prob. You handled it nicely.

EDIT: And some more Triumvirate discussion.

[Shroom Man 777]

You're a clever cookie, Force Lord. You've gone a long way from getting your boats captured by the Anglicans.

The Loin Stars/Spin Zone is gonna be an interesting place. Koprulu Two!

[PeZook]

We must struggle to out-violence them!

[Dark Hellion]

Since I am at least partially back in, can someone please give me the TLDR version of what has happened up until now so I can make some semi-informed decisions until I get a chance to read 30 something pages of the story thread?

[Steve]

Well, a bunch of things happened at Pendleton, including a Collector Monolith roughing the fleet up until the examination of both a slave-owner and a former slave on Pendleton made it decide the Pendletonians were corruptions of sentient life that were unworthy of Collector support and Shep nuking a chunk of the planet to protect a dropship from planetary defenses that had no realistic hope of hitting it.

A rogue Collector entity called LEGION was stiffed on his pay by a smug Solarian megacorp owner, so he attacked the guy's company and its assets, prompting the Solarian intel agency to step in. When they found out about LEGION, they assumed he was a part of the Collectors still and blew up a Collector trade station in retaliation. The Collectors nearly started Galaxy War III by racing two of their $10,000 point Monoliths into Solarian space, but some deft negotiating by Sidney Hank and the Collector CIs on the scene defused the situation (much to the annoyance of the trigger-happy Imperium, which slagged a planet on its way home out of pique at not blowing up robot xenos). However, a second situation erupted from this, as a Chamarran stealth ship had been following the Collector fleet for its own reason, and it's badly-programmed AI ended up blowing the ship up after it was evacuated by the crew with a Solarian boarding team aboard. This, naturally, pissed off the Solarians toward the kitty-cats, but after some tense negotiations this situation has been allowed to cool.

There was a diplomatic crisis after the inconstant Prussian Star League annexed a neutral system, under a fascist neo-Nazi government, close to a vital trade route, resulting in Umerian naval maneuvers and tensions between the Prussians and Umerians. A deal has been brokered on arranging a final disposition in this system and for the Grand Trunk Hyperspace Lane.

Zebesian pirates have been acting up in the "northwest" quadrant of the map, prompting a major international effort among various states, including former enemies, to deal with them. Unknown to the powers that be, the mysterious "Boskonians" are behind the Zebesian campaign.

The Centrality is now hosting an Olympic Games for Espers; the Shepistanis, taking umbrage at someone honoring hated psykers, is plotting to mess the games up in some way, though none know what nefarious plots are being considered.

Nor are the Shepistanis the only group going about against the Esper community - the organization of the enigmatic "Mr. Williams" has just recently suffered a setback on the Outback world Hanson where a merc secretly working for Hiigaran Intelligence and some Sisters of the Silver Moon wrecked their local facilities and made off with crucial data on their activities on Hanson, including experiments on how to suppress Esper powers.

Spinward of the Outback and New Anglia, the Refuge has appeared in the former Outland Commissions, a collection of biological and computational intelligences that are on the lookout for strange and malevolent entities that once tormented them long ago and which have driven them across the cosmos.

And, finally, last but not least.... Q has made his hand known once again, as some of the "participants" of SDNW2 have been revealed as alive and well over a thousand years after most of them "died"... but their new lives aren't entirely fun and games due to what Q has done.