Grrl Power #667 – The hubris inversion
Yeah, I know, it’s only a 3 panel comic, but I hadn’t planned on doing two doubles in a row. I will say page 666 was one of my favorite in a while, but that’s the sort of stuff I always wanted the comic to focus on. But you know, fights happen in superhero comics. I didn’t really want to show the entire blow by blow fight, and it really was death by a thousand cuts. Sydney’s cutting beam is super powerful, but doesn’t have the same collateral effect as Maxima’s big booms. That thing is so big she had to whittle it down, and that would have been boring to watch.
You know how in games like God of War, they pit you against a miniboss like a minotaur, and then as soon as you beat it, they immediately pit you against two more? That’s basically what Sydney’s got going on here. Beating the first one feels epic cause it’s the hardest thing you’ve fought so far, but as soon as the two others show up, you’re like “You’ve got to be kidding me” but after a moment you realize it’s not really that big a deal because you’ve got them figured out. Now you have to apply it with the twist of dealing with two at once. Sydney must be playing on hard mode, because she’s jumped from 1 to 3. Don’t worry though, this leg of the battle will be much shorter than the first.
Really the only question is why the ship waited for Sydney to wreck the first one before sending backup. The answer is simple. That first guy was a real jerk. He eats everyone’s lunch from the fridge, even has the balls to complain when they don’t bring food he likes. He plays his music in his (gigantic) cubicle without headphones, invites himself to the after work karaoke sessions. Stuff like that.
Everyone on the alien screw ship was technically rooting for him, simply as a matter of racial solidarity or whatever, but… really they were hoping he’d at least be limping back with a slightly subdued attitude. When Sydney actually took him out they were like, “Oh, shit! Uh… I guess, you three, suit up!”
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Goodness – I wonder how many points she’s going to have to spend when the action finally all stops? Her previous level ups were almost trivial, coming from less than a couple of days use each of the orbs and perhaps using a new power (Achievement Unlock! Sight beyond sight).
Heavy combat, actually stressing the shield, tactical use of teleporting (rather than mistaken, near fatal use) … what’s this going to be, a half dozen new points?
Or they might have a super-archaic experience bar that won’t let you gain EXP before spending your skill points, so all those giant squidaliens are collectively worth one point.
Which is why no one answered the previous owner’s Squidslist ad, so he dumped the orbs on an uncharted world in the unfashionable backwater arm of the galaxy: Phenomenal cosmic powers; itty bitty level-up slots.
And that’s why I use an Event Based leveling system.
This one here? Easily worth one level per alien.
I found that it is best to just level up the whole party at the same time, and not keep track of EXP at all. Less work for the GM, less chance of feelings hurt when somebody role-plays their butt off and then gets the same amount of EXP as another player who pretty much phoned it in.
My general rule is (1 + next level) sessions before there is a chance of a level increase.
See, this is why I love point based systems like HERO and GURPS, I just give however many points seem appropriate, no need to worry about when the next level is. If there’s a great roleplay moment, then everyone gets a point and congratulations are given to the roleplayer(s).
Hero system is awesome. Until you get a mixed bag of players. The RP players that put thought into their characters back story and realistic disads with powers built to fit the character. Then come the average players that do a simple background, fairly decent build, and is balanced between a good design and believable if thin background. Then the rules rapists that build the character for maximum power in everything and then try to fit a character background to fit what they built despite how many inconsistencies their characters story has. As a GM I award equal portion of points to RP, staying in character, creative use of character abilities, and team support. I do not hesitate to screw over rule rapists that try to manage other players characters because “they know that they can do something”. I don’t care for hurt feelings if someone tries to half ass the RP and just goes for blast it all and that 1000 point bad guy wipes out your character when the situation required talk, tough shit, learn to play the game and not try to “video game it” where you reset or add another quarter. The players in my group have over a 175 point gap from the most recent character to the oldest character and the players have learned to actually play the game. Sydney is an average player, thinks about things but enjoys the power also.
When you’re playing a RPG, a game of the imagination, you should expect that you’ll run into players who can both make a very powerful character and also come up with a backstory that isn’t full of holes. If a player made a really powerful character and had a backstory that didn’t make sense I’d suspect that they weren’t really interested in the game, because that doesn’t take much time and effort at all.
The whole ‘powerful character, great backstory’ thing? That’d be me.
It takes a lot of experience with HERO System to make an earth-shatteringly-powerful character on fewer points; by that point, the player is usually familiar enough with RPing and backstories to make a decent one that doesn’t have to bend in strange ways to give reasons for the powers; frankly, you can have a simple-as-hell backstory and still have Phenomenal Cosmic Powers. It’s skills that require backstory; powers can whack onto anyone. (Ref: Halo, Maxima.)
Yeah, that exactly. And with open ended character building systems it’s really up to the GM to reign things in. I recall a game of GURPS in a somewhat Scooby Do setting. We were all young college age kids with a few skills, some actually useful, some just going on realism and letting the GM make them work in one session or another if he wanted to. The heaviest weapon amongst us was a .22 rifle. I don’t think anyone had anything like hand to hand combat skills. Then about 6 sessions in another player joined the game with his adult psychic detective/magic user/mystic/whatever and just wrecked the entire feel of the campaign.
BTW, I almost picked up your forum name for another reading a couple days ago, but decided to go with a different book. Maybe once I’m done with this one I’ll re-read you yet again. :-P
OBJECTION!
Points don’t care when the action stops. Merely when you’re not flying.
Sustained. Level up happens when no orbs are in active use or have been for some small amount of time.
Agreed. Though, low-speed flying might become grey eventually.
Well big assumption being made here. If she gets one point, it looks like her orbs deactivate entirely to allow her to pick, hopefully the system waits until she’s SOMEWHAT secure before allowing that, but you never know.
It seems to me that as long as she has her shield up the orbs will hold off on an upgrade cycle. The orb creators would have been smart enough to know that if the current situation requires the shield, then it most likely is a fatally bad time to shut down everything.
I think Sydney is navigating her moves pretty well, considering one of the lenses in her glasses is shattered.
When a lens pops out of my glasses, I can honestly see a lot better without them on than with only one lens. Otherwise it’s very confusing for my brain.
Also, she isn’t so blind that she can’t see skyscraper-sized aliens walking around.
Indeed. I’m short sighted and need to wear glasses to see details at a distance, but I can drive fine without them as long as I don’t need to read road signs. It just depends how short-sighted she is and her glasses don’t seem to be that thick.
*ahem* Oculus Reparo!
– Well there is magic in this canon :)
I would love to take a close look at Dabblers cybernetic eye. Even if you could set it up externally.
Also Dabs would probably love to examine/debug Syds comm-orb for the true-sight features.
Talk about making iBall 2.5 giggles like mad
‘I would love to take a close look at Dabblers cybernetic eye.’
Go ahead:
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1167
:)
when you look at the eye, the eye looks back at you
Well soul searching does happen from time to time when you put it in backwards .
Didn’t she say at some point she’s farsighted? Or am I misremembering?
I was thinking that at some point someone said she needed them for reading, mostly…
I don’t remember that, but she was wearing them to drive which suggests short sight to me.
https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/196
So even if she gets back to Earth she managed to take one of them down… these things are probably going to be paying Earth a visit some time soon.
You’re assuming a few things:
1. They know where Earth is
2. They know Syd’s an Earthling
For all they know, she’s native to that planet and just now came out of hiding/sleep.
Maybe they’ll think she’s that planet’s Dead Hand,
automatically activated when the planet is destroyed.
(Had she been there earlier could she have defended the planet,
or only suitable for Mutually Assured Destruction due to collateral damage,
they might wonder.)
Squidward: I just figured why you give me so much trouble.
Halo: Why’s that, do you think?
Squidward: Well, I haven’t fought just one person for so long. I’ve been specializing in groups. Battling Alari for local genocides, that kind of thing.
Halo: Why should that make such a difference?
Squidward: Well, you see, you use different moves when you’re fighting half a dozen people than when you only have to be worried about … one.
[Squidward drops unconscious to the ground]
Halo: I do not envy you the headache you will have when you awake. But, in the meantime, rest well, and dream of large kraken.
Inconcievable! :P
Ho! Ha ha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!
Sproing!!!
+1
Contextually appropriate The Princess Bride quotes always get another +1!
Calling it now… since I don’t see that anyone else has….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtJzw-hgTTw
I actually liked the Glover version over the Schwarzenegger version.
They don’t look like the friendly type, or honourable for that matter…
Nifty! ;)
A chu noo that word you youse all de time I don thin it means what chu thin it means !
“We don’t need an army we’ve got HER!”
“I have an army…”
“We have a Sydney…” :P
“Also a Maxima. Hello, we’re Archon… Basically, Run.”
“Run?”
“Really?”
“The best answer you can come up with is to trigger my CHASE-reflex?”
The worst would be if these things are actually some kind of automaton and the ship is recording how Sidney fights to send new opponents adapted to her way of doing things.
So, the next fight will be harder than the first and so on … it obviously doesn`t work because she will go up a level sooner or later and than everything changes.
Anyway, attacking the ship itself seems reasonable.
Of course they’re self-learning battle prototypes; they’re sending 3 more because this is a perfect chance to try out some of the more promising variations!
I have my own therory, about the battle, but I refrain from espousing about it, so as not to upset Dave’s plan!
I believe Dues and Vale are playing a different end game at Alari (prime) with the SkyBreaker.
DaveB reaches for the little brown envelope on the center of the game board…
If I may go off topic for a moment… The previous page (666) is currently sitting at an aggravatingly close 616 comments. Can we just get another 50 comments to bring it up to the magic number? Maybe it will cause a rip in the space-time continuum or something.
Right now, it is at exactly 616. The Space-time continuum seems to be doing ok though…
D’oh! I thought you were talking about tha whole 666/616 thing people were talking about! It’s late over here, that must be it. Yes.
Honest question but does Sidney have to get out of combat for her orbs to let her upgrade? Also do they save up points or is this just going to give one solitary point?
Eh, We’ll probably find out soon enough.
Wish we could edit comments, I just wanted to add that the drawing of Sidney on the last pannel really sells her… I don’t know the word for the emotion but you know what I mean.
Hope you see this Dave. Great Job.
The orbs have shown a kind of safeguard about not engaging a system update while the user is doing something important (looking at YOU Microsoft).
This probably got worked out in Beta Testing.
Programmer Notes: “Upon review of the latest incident it was decided to disable system updates while the user is engaged in flight mode. The verbal comment recorded by the tester into the personal log (brown orb) was “AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGHHHHH”
I’m guessing the brown color for the recorder orb was chosen based on non-verbal feedback from the test pilots – or least whoever launders their jumpsuits.
LOL
You win the comment thread!
You know, fighting multiple boss monsters actually isn’t that much harder than fighting one if their attacks aren’t going to penetrate each other’s shield.
And if their attacks do penetrate each other’s shields…
Friendly fire!
Remember, kids: ‘friendly fire’ isn’t.
Dragonball Super wtf Krillin and 18. play ping pong with an energy blast. adding power with each pong. until finally the enemy gets hit.
On the plus side, those things are way too big to be able to group up on her if she’s too close to them, as long as she picks one that doesn’t have a killzone aura.
FFFRRRIIIITTTZZZ! SHE GOT FRITZ!
Holy crap, a Wizards quote? +1
So are these more like the Matroty mega beasts from Sym-Bionic Titan (essentially mindless monsters sent by smaller monsters),
or
The “Ro-beasts” from Voltron which are actually giant bio-mech mutated soldiers?
-or just a race of very diverse looking giant aliens?
Me I’d get over to the ship. Get it behind me so that if those three aim at me, all misses hit their own damn ship. Get inside the ship’s shields. Start cutting it up. Inside the ship, they won’t have shield-threatening level weaponry, after all.
Unless they decide to activate the self-destruct, just to get Sydney…
boss battle meet boss rush
https://imgur.com/a/wCHkae9
I TOTALLY MADE A THING ON MY MOST RECENT READ THROUGH!
I have no idea if there’s actually a better break down than this but I’ve not run into it yet. A baseline assumption of this is that their ‘core power’ might be unlocked by the bars themselves.
Tell me what you guys think.
Hmmmmm, not bad.
So, I’m probably way off here. But, i’m thinking if whoever made the orbs had only 2 hands. Maybe the cross bars make it so that one orb can control the other. (to a limited extent at least.) She can already mentaly control orb position with some concentration. So, what if, with more concentration, she could use one orb to activate a cross connected orb. Like she currently has flight connected to the PPO, so maybe while flying she could move the PPO in front of her and shoot while holding flight.
Mind you this would take her knowing she can do that, plus there’s something like a safety on the PPO. So this relationship would be hardest to accidentally trigger. But what if she bought the cross between PPO and shield? And suddenly she gets auto shielded when she needs it while firing.
Or maybe, PPO is using the flight orb’s “vertigo cancellation” effect in the fighter fight scenes already?
I’d say shield would be most likely for her to panic desire. she hasn’t thought to try to control the flight orb from the PPO, since she has only been using the PPO without flight the one time so far, and her mental capacity was focused on other things at the time.
We haven’t seen it on panel, except for that one time in the pool. So has there been any “off panel” “orb practice”? She really does need to just spend a day or two at the firing range to “debug” PPO functionality. and i don’t see that happening yet, as she’s not even halfway(?) through basic training. She was mainly on this mission because of her ability to transport the “A team” faster than the osprey. I’m pretty sure she’s not rated as “fieldworthy” yet. She just ended up on one mission that was SUPPOSED to be (just) a meeting.(that she got kicked out of btw) And another because she’s the only one who could easily transport max to the vault’s location.
Hmmm… control function seems off to me, that would suggest that she could be controlling the PPO while flying or fly while controlling the PPO, I think that would have happened in the heat of the moment already, given how much she’s using both in conjunction if not together. I think it’s far more likely to be a combinational power. Maybe leaving attacks along her flight path or similar?
I DID say i was probably way off. And i agree control function is way less likely than some kind of combined power.
But i think control function would require a different type of input from Sydney. Making it somewhat impossible for her to activate accidentally.
However i do agree it far more likely to be just “side effect” sharing or something like that. We have already seen Sydney panic over height when not holding the fly orb, yet in this battle she seems to be calmly plummeting while shooting. So is the PPO sharing the fly orbs “vertigo cancellation?
For that matter is she even falling much? maybe the connection could allow for “mid air aim steadying”. I think tossing yourself up, grabbing your, gun(or orb), and aiming and firing would be pretty hard, if not extremely difficult.
And as far as connected (bonus)powers go, it seems more likely to be if both orbs are active at once.
One of my first thoughts as far as connected orb powers went was a counterattack for the shield, when connected to the PPO on the grid.
And speaking of combo powers. What would “comm ball” + “PPO” give? (they have a connection point on the grid)
– hypno communicwtion. mind control the enemy. or
– Shouting loud enough to crack armor.
– mind fry the enemy.
new word: communicwtion: makes the receiver go W T Ion?
Indirect firing from a projected image of herself from around a corner.
I theorize the “Boo!!” attack follows.
Speaking of the projecto port, did she ever tell anyone she can?
I have a big favor to ask of DaveB. Could you please give us panel 2 minus the dialogue as a desktop wallpaper? That would be one hell of a fantastic wallpaper.
Well you know, three isn’t much worse than one if she repeats her tactic of getting inside a shield. What are the other two going to do while she is cutting up the third, shoot at their pal’s shield? Play rock-paper-scissors for who has to tell the boss that they shot their pal? That probably stings a bit when it finally breaks through, and if he drops the shield voluntarily they still have to try to hit a tiny, flying Sydney as she slices up their pal while presumably not hitting their pal. I mean the first guy was apparently trying to kill Sydney while she was cutting him up, we saw the big initial pile drive it got in that did zero to her. And clearly it both didn’t take and also didn’t seem to have even tired Sydney out any.
Unless something new is introduced disposing of these three should be just a little longer than three times the time it took to dispose of the first.
And I see that I was ninjad by MidnightDStroyer on the first page… Grats!
My headcannon for the fight coming.
At some point she’s going to cut her way inside one of them, and blast it from the inside, to keep from being hit.
anyone else notice the similarity between halo/sydney’s powers and the giant aliens powers, shield with no point defence, explodey beams, though there havent been any other powers shown yet i feel like they may be related
It’s almost as if their powers were thought up by the same person. Bow down minions of Dave World and pay homage to your creator!
Hmm. In our universe it supposedly all started with an ‘Apple’. Maybe that was what the creator of our world was using when he made all of us up. One comment to whomever: You had ichthyosaurs and then erased them, and later brought in dolphins that look almost identical. Total use of cut and paste.
Welp this is a twist I didn’t see coming, but where did those big guys come from all of a sudden? Eh Sydney just has a lot more to do and no doubt using those big guy’s to attack one another should be amusing. By the end of the battle though she will have garnered quite a lot of points afterwards.
There’s a triple ‘BOOM!’ in the second panel, indicating those three impacting the ground after being shot down from their ship.
Yeah okay, still seriously? The ship had to send the three stooges in? Do they know how she is going to make them hit each other?
In the next thrilling installment:
Halo, holding the forcefield in her left hand and the comm in her right pointing at the aliens:
“Surrender or be destroyed! ”
3rd alien: “There’s surrender? ”
2nd alien: “Yes! We surrender! ”
1st alien: “Let me handle this. What are your terms?”
Halo: “Um….”
“Surrender!”
“Oh, could we?! That would be so great!“
There’s a movie where the ‘heroes’ are told “YIELD!”
and they were surprised and relieved that that was an option.
What movie is that?
If this situation follows standard procedure, when the commander of the fallen alien finds out about his demise he will gruffly reply “Damn. And he was only one day away from retirement.”
Well, he *WAS* too old for that shit.
Maybe they are friendly?
That world and its pests are pretty fucked up but with a powerful shield you simply do not have to shot first.
I think Sydney is aiming for a galactic reputation.
“Destroyer of Armadas, Scourge of Mecha-Godzilas, She Who Eats Fire”
Considering this is Sydney, wouldn’t “She Who Sh*ts Fire”be more appropriate?
I say she goes for the middle one first, teleport inside its shield then start whittling. when the other two attack they will hit the middle one and maybe also each other. depending on how smart they are she might get them to start fighting each other.
If Sydney has a stealth mode, now would be the time to cloak up and GTFO.
No, Sydney is now in the MUST GRIND FOR POINTS mode. And she’s just seen new XP sources pop up.
Wait, it’s OK guys, I’ve seen this movie. This is the part where they gather up the remains of their comrade, then give Sydney a weapon from their collection as a sign of mutual warriors’ respect.
Ya know. If this was death by a thousand cuts, she’s used her orbs more killing this thing then she has in the entire comic so far. She has to have SO MANY points to spend.
I might be wrong, but I’m a little disappointed that Sydney hasn’t realized what actually levels Sydney’s orbs is being exposed to new/unique situations. Getting checkpointed (or maybe it was the stress from her almost dying?), her shield taking a Maxima explosion, now seeing new aliens/using the PPO a lot- I might be remembering wrong, but I don’t think the condition would just be “using her orbs”, I don’t think she was doing that much when the checkpoint thing happened? Oh, though it might be from teleporting for the first time and not the checkpoint, though it would be odd for just using a function the Orbs have by default one time to be enough use to constitute a level-up.