Subject: Oh, I think drones can make for an interesting story.
Author:
Posted on: 2015-07-25 23:35:00 UTC
You just have to focus on the drone pilot, cf. Good Kill and Forever Peace. If your characters are good enough and your grasp of the setting is good enough, you can wring tension and pathos out of pretty much anything you set your mind to. =]
while the current method of stealth utilized by agents are effective, i want to know if any there are other, more effective methods. While there are some, they're few and far between, though I do find the Amnesia Effect from Gatchaman Crowds an effective stealth. It can hide objects, like ones self from the sight of those not in possession of a NOTE, aka the notebook of one's soul.
Pick the right disguise.
While the classic Original Series situation of Uruk-hai at the Council of Elrond would certainly get the agents noticed if they didn't use some additional means to stay hidden, there are times where it would be possible to walk around in plain sight - even in front of the Sue.
For example, if a Stuish Imperial Guardsman is outshining even the 40k canon Stus, then the agents could simply disguise themselves as Commissars. This would allow them to a) walk around wherever they liked without being out of place, and b) execute the Stu perfectly canonically.
- Irish
The Inquisitors know all the secrets of the Imperium, and some even know basic Demon lore. (To better slay them, of course.) They can stomp around anywhere they wish, with absolutely nobody able to question them. Even the Sue would not be able to get the canons to turn against them: not without putting the Sue's resident planet under threat of Exterminatus. Then, all the Agents have to do is brand the Sue with HERESY!
Then, there is not a soul in the Imperium who would dare stop the agents from slaying the Sue. If they do, they are clearly heretics too, and must be slain, in the Emperor's name. We can even have a PPC branch hidden in the canon, so we can have our Spies looking around in broad daylight too. We either join the Ordo Hereticus, or make up something, like the Ordo Canonicus. It fits, and there is always a chance for a small group of Inquisitors that nobody has heard of yet.
The challenge is telling when a character in 40k is a Sue, or just a Space Marine. And not getting slaughtered in the vast, vast ways the canon wants to kill you. It would probably be the first actively hostile canon, as it seems to have a taste for canon Sues. If anyone has played Dark Heresy... They know how hard it can be even for Inquisition to live to see the next day.
... she discussed the idea of a Department of Mary-Sues, Avon District. In the unlikely event that one of you decides to play with the notion of resident PPC agents, I propose 'xx District' as the naming structure. (If they were Inquisitors, they'd presumably be 'Imperium District', for instance.)
Sounds like a structure change, though, and we know how badly people react to the idea of those...
hS
And it would not be that much of a structure change. We already have All-Purpose, don't we? Agents that specialize in everything about one canon? All we would have to do is have it be proposed that the agents operate within the canon directly, rather then HQ. The list of people who would want to operate in multiple canons, or have to, would still work out of HQ. And seeing how many people write for All Purpose as is, the PPC as a whole would look very similar.
I think internally, the departments would be called Districts, but would have a code-name within the canon. So, to continue the Inquisition example, within the PPC they would be known as the Imperium District, but to themselves and canon bit characters, they are the Ordo Canonicus. After all, part of thee point is integration. How can they be truly integrated, if they have a massive SEP field over everything involving it?
Invisibility Cloaks from Harry Potter, cloaking devices from Star Trek, Tau XV-25 Stealth Suits from Warhammer 40,000, the list goes on. However, that's not really the point. If we used everything - if we really munchkinned our way out of problems - well... it'd be against the spirit of the PPC. We're not a bunch of power-armoured ultra-badasses with the pick of equipment from across every continuum. We're harried, sleep-deprived, mentally ill people with tech that barely works and has a tendency to explode. And yet we still succeed. =]
Hunter-killer drones from any number of continuua. The agents simply release the drone, and then go home while it kills the target.
Whaddaya mean that's not an interesting story? ^_~
hS
You just have to focus on the drone pilot, cf. Good Kill and Forever Peace. If your characters are good enough and your grasp of the setting is good enough, you can wring tension and pathos out of pretty much anything you set your mind to. =]
Y'know, so that we don't end up accidentally giving the agents work to do.
Because heaven forfend.
hS
I guess it could be useful for Intelligence missions where you don't want to be noticed in any way even when you're in a locked room with a character replacement currently doing stuff with a canon's brain. (Yes, I have been thinking about this for a while.)