dramatispersonae

You are one half of a story to be played out today: either a hero or a monster. You must invent a backstory, motivation, set of powers, and anything else necessary for your monster or hero to defeat its opponent. Both consistency and creativity will be factored into scoring; for best results, tie their powers into their archetype as well as the backstory and motivation you give them.

"A Giant Spider lurks in wait in its lair for some unwary prey to stumble into its web. Will the Adventurer be more than it bargained for?"

You will be designing The Giant Spider. Peridot will be designing The Adventurer.

Why must the monster and the adventurer be at odds?

That might be a good place to start thinking about the story.

Well, yes. But I'd honestly rather the two of them not need to fight at all... though I realize that goes against the spirit of the game.

I don't necessarily have a problem with playing that way, but I'm drawing a blank on how you reform a spider.

Because it is a spider, we can assume that it doesn't possess any particular ill intentions. It is simply living its life according to, well, how a spider should behave, yes? If we give it some amount of intelligence as far as dealing with humans go... I doubt it would like to come in contact with one.

But if it's intelligent, it can have have intentions.

That doesn't mean its intention can't be to stay out of trouble.

Yes... you have a point. The spider intends to stay out of trouble, which includes coming into contact with humans, as that might result in mobs with weapons and flaming torches.

[sighs]

But when an adventurer stumbles into its web, it must decide whether to let them go free in good faith or kill them. Both options have risks. If freed, the adventurer may attack or find their way back to the lair at a later time, with friends. If killed, someone may come looking for the missing adventurer.

The spider might be invested in its web—if it's proud of its work, it won't want to run away if the Adventurer stumbles into its web.

It's spent some time working on it, after all, and good lairs are hard to find.

So what's winning mean for the spider?

It wants to win the Adventurer's trust?

I suppose so. If the Adventurer will leave it alone, then it has won.

It could work.

Obviously, we should say that the spider has the power of human speech, so that it can communicate with the Adventurer.

It'd be convenient. How'd it learn that?

When it was a younger spider, and smaller, it lived closer to human civilization and simply picked it up from observation.

But it had to leave as it grew.

It would know how humans treat spiders that way.

Precisely.

So what's that leave?

Oh, we should probably give it some abilities for self-defense, just in case. Though spiders usually come pre-equipped with those. Strength and agility, web-making, venom...

I think that's implied.

I suppose it's a classic.

The spider was not always a giant spider. Once, it was smaller, and lived near humans. At that time, being intelligent, it picked up the secrets of human speech. However, it also learned that humans are not fond of spiders living in their spaces, and so as it grew, it left on a journey to find somewhere it could live in peace.

Eventually, the spider found its current lair, far away from the prying eyes of humanity. It had by this time grown quite large, and could defend itself if the circumstances demanded it with use of its strength, agility, web-spinning, and venom. However, the spider's greatest wish was simply to be left alone to live what would be considered a fulfilling life for spiders. Part of that involved painstakingly spinning a splendid web that any spider, or indeed weaver of fine patterns of any species, would be proud of.

When an Adventurer one day stumbles into the spider's lair, it is concerned. It cannot simply hide, because it has invested much time and energy into its web. However, it does not particularly wish to kill the Adventurer, either, which might cause other humans to come searching for their missing friend. As such, the spider resolves to try to talk to the Adventurer, and explain to them that it simply wishes to be left alone and that there is nothing for the Adventurer in its lair. It will even free the Adventurer from its web traps if the Adventurer agrees to leave and not speak of the encounter to anyone.

The shadows on stage flicker and follow your cue...then fade for the time being.

A pot of tea and some cups appear for you to refresh yourselves with.

The players in this show have been created! Now it's time to plan your attack. You can see what your opponents designed; give an explanation of how your hero or monster attacks it.

The Adventurer is looking to start a 'Five Yen Only' franchise with the hopes of expanding into different products, but has chosen to start with spider silk due to the almost guaranteed ability to drive out all competitors. Once his franchise has taken off, his status as a successful CEO means he can ascend to godhood. However, to do that, he needs a reliable source of spider silk that no-one else has access too, which requires going off in search of a giant spider to take them from.

As an experienced cardfighter, the Adventurer could make an educated guess that the spider probably uses a Megacolony deck, so our Adventurer trained against several other Megacolony fighters to learn the deck inside and out. That way, once he faces the spider in a cardfight, he'd know what to expect and be able to react accordingly. All he had to do was win a cardfight, and then demand some eggs as a reward.

Edited 2014-09-10 01:49 (UTC)

Ah... I'm not entirely certain I understand all of that, but I believe that we're in luck. It doesn't seem that the Adventurer wishes to harm the spider, either.

We can work with that...

[slowly]

If... the Adventurer really wishes to open a business, then perhaps the spider would be amenable to that. After all, with a human business partner, it's less likely to be attacked by other humans... though that would mean it wouldn't really be left alone.

The human could come to collect the silk periodically, and help keep others away the rest of the time. They could make a bargain.

If the spider is proud of its weaving, it might like the idea of getting to show off its silk too.

Edited 2014-09-10 02:18 (UTC)

I agree. It seems like a good plan.

Then there we go.

The spider is willing to work out a deal with the Adventurer. It is proud of its weaving, and as such has no issue providing silk to the Adventurer in return for the Adventurer's protection. Obviously, the Adventurer would not wish for a valuable investment to be harmed by others.

The curtains roll away to reveal the Ring once more. You may proceed to endgame.

CORAL

ROUND ONE

ASSIGNMENT

DISCUSSION

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SUBMISSION

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ROUND TWO

OPPONENT

DISCUSSION

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