+iny ©at people

In an adventure where you play as a regular person, "I must do this unpalatable thing or I will die" makes sense and is a good reason to do a thing.
In an adventure where you play as a god though, the responsibility is much higher.

As a great man once said, "With great power comes great responsibility".
As a god, we have a responsibility to be more than a mortal. Remember, this game is a test for gods, and even if we're not doing it in the way Wax intended, what we do here will inform what kind of god we are.

When we are confronted with the question of whether we value our own safety more or less than the well being of the creatures that, as a god, we are responsible for... what do we pick?

If you ask me, a god who values themselves more than they value the creatures that they are supposed to look after is a failed god. They are less than useless, they are in fact actively dangerous to have around.
This might be something that applies to other gods in the Morbit setting, I don't really know, but we have the ability here (and responsibility) to make it not apply to us.

If we win by proving that we value personal power and survival more than we value our responsibility to improve the quality of life for our charges, then what we have achieved by becoming a god is the creation of a monster.
What would we do as a full god then? We know there are entities out there who will kill gods.
If we'll acquiesce here, what would we do if Spit threatened us? Or any other God? Do what they say too? Hold more completely pointless, petty wars that mean nothing to the creatures we're sending to fight in them?
If we can't even draw a line under that, what's the point of us?

It's also worth remembering that on a meta level, this is an adventure that is set inside a wider setting. I don't know for sure that if this adventure concludes with Frog Crimes becoming a full deity then they will pop up occasionally in other Morbit-related things... but they might! Those things I said above could actually happen!
Things we've done here have already had ripples in other places. So what we choose might even have more importance than it usually does in an adventure.

This is what we need to prove in this moment.
I don't have any objection to the idea of winning the game, but our highest priority should instead be being a worthwhile deity. This means we actually need to be a positive influence on the lives of the TCPs (all of them, not just ours). If we can't both win and do that, we shouldn't choose winning.

If we can't achieve that, then it's better if we intentionally lose the game or use the knife.
If we choose not to achieve that and win, it won't be a happy ending. It will be a very bad ending.
If we would be a danger to the creatures in the world then we shouldn't be a god, and trying to win just so that we live means that we would definitely be a danger to the creatures of the world.

When we are confronted with the question of whether we value our own safety more or less than the well being of the creatures that, as a god, we are responsible for... what do we pick?

If you ask me, a god who values themselves more than they value the creatures that they are supposed to look after is a failed god. They are less than useless, they are in fact actively dangerous to have around.
This might be something that applies to other gods in the Morbit setting, I don't really know, but we have the ability here (and responsibility) to make it not apply to us.

If we win by proving that we value personal power and survival more than we value our responsibility to improve the quality of life for our charges, then what we have achieved by becoming a god is the creation of a monster.

I agree, but I'd like to add that it's not necessarily that simple. There may be a time when we have to make a compromise between the well being of our creations and our own continued existence. Sacrificing ourselves might hurt our creations in the long run, for example.

What's important is that we think things through and make sure we know what we're doing. Even when following the advice of other gods, we must be careful, for they might not fully understand just how clueless we are. Summoning a god-killing knife or making a zone of tranquility or teaching too much at once might just be the type of thing most gods know is obviously a bad idea, and they don't even think to tell the newbies not to do it.

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I would much rather try to win than sacrifice ourselves / give up. There is no guarantee that if we die here our TCPs survive; in fact, I believe the opposite.

Maybe not all of the gods, but at the minimum Wax really doesn't see mortals in the same way we do: he made this as a "game". He won't see the TPCs as people, like we do. Your remaining TPCs are supposed to go to this TPC paradise (or with you) if you win--why would he reward us for losing?

Wax "made this game to teach the other gods in [their] pantheon how to make hard decisions." He won't reward us for ending it with the knife, and he won't reward us for trying to defy the rules to a game he made that he has complete control over. Typical peace was never an option with Grind and Rein being in the same session, anyways.

I love our TPCs. I want them to survive. So I'll propose a middle ground:

>GIVE Frog-Crimes: Complete Rule Book

Let's learn more about our situation before we make an action we regret.

I guess I'm in the minority here, but I would much rather try to win than sacrifice ourselves / give up. There is no guarantee that if we die here our TCPs survive; in fact, I believe the opposite.

They would probably be classified as 'rogue' should we somehow contrive to self-suicide before game end. Which we know to be highly dangerous and make their survival improbable at best. The best way to keep them alive is to help them rather than sit back and moan about how much we hate ourselves.

And the best way to provide Justice to TCPs as we see it is to win this session as best we can then build a platform for long-term liberation.

I think people are misunderstanding me somewhat.
I'm not advocating for a pro-surrender or pro-suicide approach, I think it would be good if we won under the right circumstances.
I'm just saying that I don't think trying to win is of itself an inherently virtuous or sensible idea and if it conflicts with our morals, we should follow those instead.

I've never once told anyone to "sit back and moan". I am saying that we should be actively striving to be a being worthy of being a God, and highly valuing self preservation under these circumstances is a negative trait to that end.

We shouldn't give up on winning, but we shouldn't take the easiest route towards winning either.
We should take the very hard but morally justifiable route rather than the one that causes utterly pointless suffering because to do otherwise disqualifies us from being worthy of the prize.

If we participate in this war, as it is now, we are not qualified to be a good deity. Maybe that will change, but as things stand, tryibg to win the easy way is not a justifiable course to me for any reason other than pure self-preservation, which I don't think is a good reason.

If it is impossible to both be a good deity and win then we shouldn't win and Wax made a shitty test.

We don't have to be good. We don't need to be bad. We just need to be right.

Well that's vague and unuseful

> NAME: DUMPLING

Dumpling seems grateful that you finally named her- you can detect a hint of impatience, but you can’t quite tell, since she can’t speak yet.

Right after you name her, a NOTE automatically pops up, much like the one you got when you first spawned Windy. It reads:

“You've come very far, and your kitties have grown to be a true team and family! Please treat your last cat with love and respect, and go forth towards your goals. To celebrate your team, you are encouraged to create a TEAM OUTFIT. Keep some elements in common- consider it like a battle flag!

You're also encouraged to add motif synergy to your weapons...who knows what that could do? “

Dumpling expresses some curiosity towards the NOTE, until the other TCPs approach her. She seems defensive at first, but Windy immediately starts teaching her how to communicate. She starts to open up a bit, and thanks Windy for taking initiative like that, speaking in a low bubbling rumble.

You tell Windy to go ahead and teach Dumpling whatever other skills they feel she may need for their trip; Windy agrees to do so. In the meantime, you think you need to call Wax back, since he told you to call once you spawned your last TCP.

FROG-CRIMES: Wax, we made our final TCP. She’s a Chicken Soup-type. We figured we needed a healer, and we felt something nice and hearty would do the trick.
WAX: Oh! Nicely done, I think that’s the first strategic type you’ve made all game.
WAX: so, now that you’ve got her and she’s named, you should have gotten a note, right?
FROG-CRIMES: Yeah, it said something about creating a Team Outfit.
WAX: right, so, you can, and should, do that.
WAX: basically just design some clothes for each TCP on your team, make them share colors… design some specialized weapons for each TCP as well, and if you personalize them for the TCPs you give them to, they’ll be more powerful in different ways.
FROG-CRIMES: huh… alright. We haven’t been planning on making any weapons, though, since we aren’t going to have our TCPs fight.
WAX: suit yourself. Hope you’re prepared for them to get hurt with no way to defend themselves.

WAX: Anyway. I see you haven’t allied anyone yet.
FROG-CRIMES: yeah- we barely got any time to talk to anyone, we only just talked to Marzu, and, she confirmed that we’re not going to be able to ally with Grind, at least not right now.
WAX: that’s fair. You haven’t talked to the other team then?
FROG-CRIMES: Not yet. We’d like to talk to them soon… we know Macaron would be open to a peaceful game, and Rein too. If they’re still open to allying us, maybe they can help us stop the game from turning violent.
WAX: wait, you think Rein doesn’t make its TCPs fight when the game turns violent?
WAX: because I can tell you, maybe a tenth of the games Rein has won were peaceful games.
WAX: and it won a LOT of games.
FROG-CRIMES: … give us a minute.





You need to think for a bit. This knowledge could possibly change your plans entirely, but you’re not sure… you can’t keep track of what you’re going to do. There’s so many voices in your heads, coming up with different strategies, arguing about what you do and do not know… you’ve gotten distracted from taking care of your TCPs.

You ask for their attention for a moment, and let them know you’re about to teach them some new things; since Windy and Fennel know how to Teach, they can teach each other TCP what they’ve learned.
They agree to this idea, it’s fun to Teach other TCPs new things- Dumpling learned Reading, Writing, Ambition, and Empathy earlier, and she's ready to learn more now.

> TEACH DIPLOMACY - WINDY
> TEACH RHETORIC - WINDY
> TEACH MANIPULATION - WINDY
> TEACH SUBVERSION - WINDY

> TEACH LOVE - FENNEL
> TEACH PEACE - FENNEL
> TEACH FREEDOM - FENNEL
> TEACH RAINBOWS - FENNEL

> TEACH MUSCLE GROWTH - DUMPLING

Windy seems to pause for a moment, thinking over the knowledge you’ve given them. They understand they’ve been given the tools they and their friends will need in order to prevent any future conflict between them and the other TCPs in this world.

Fennel feels its hope renewed once more, just a little bit. It’s been given a clearer understanding of what its mission is, the ideals it needs to uphold and protect, and the beauty of the colorful world it lives in. It eagerly shares what it learned with the other TCPs.

Dumpling doesn’t understand the purpose of fixating on muscle growth, as TCPs do not traditionally have muscles, but she thanks you. You want her to know how to get strong, and she appreciates the sentiment.

(Windy, Tubes, and Dumpling have learned about Love, Peace, Freedom, and Rainbows)
(Fennel, Tubes, and Dumpling have learned about Diplomacy and Rhetoric)

You also quickly let the TCPs know, you’ll be making new outfits for them soon- actually personalized outfits, unlike the Halloween costumes. They seem intrigued.

Alright. You can’t keep Wax on hold much more.

FROG-CRIMES: Okay, Wax, listen. We can’t betray our cats by sending them into battle. We’ve told them time and time again that we’re trying to keep them safe, we can’t betray their trust.
FROG-CRIMES: and honestly, we don’t want to hurt any of the other cats either, they just don’t deserve it.
WAX: I can see where you’re coming from. they are awfully endearing- though, i’m definitely biased.
WAX: and having to go back on a promise could bring your cats closer to going rogue...
WAX: but listen, you can’t sit at your base all game. I won’t let you cause a stalemate.
FROG-CRIMES: well… we’d be lying if we said we weren’t wondering if that’s an option, but we had a different plan in mind.
FROG-CRIMES: There’s a way to win the game, without hurting any cats, and without turning it to a stalemate, we’re sure of it.
FROG-CRIMES: If we can have our TCPs convince every other team to go rogue, then the win condition can be met without any TCP casualties, right?

WAX: …
WAX: you know what.
WAX: telling you this is a terrible idea, but… that is an actual strategy.
WAX: it’s not at all an easy one, especially since none of your TCPs are suited to the task, but it’s technically possible.
FROG-CRIMES: Wait, really? You were hassling us over trying to “circumvent the games rules” earlier, now you’re okay with this?
WAX: This is something that you can do within the game’s mechanics.
WAX: must I remind you what you were planning earlier?
WAX: you were trying to tell other players to ally with each other when they’d made it abundantly clear that they won’t do it
WAX: and you started planning to create a nonviolent competition of some sort that would allow the players of the game to win or lose without harming their TCPs, without making a full alliance… you can’t do that, you can’t just change the win condition of the game.
WAX: you realize if you had tried to do that, you would have ended up telling the losing TCPs to allow themselves to be killed by the winning team just so the game could actually end?
FROG-CRIMES: ...no, we hadn’t realized that.
WAX: exactly.
WAX: i will say I appreciate the spirit of it. Perhaps in a different game, it could have worked.
WAX: the only way this game is going to end is in bloodshed.
WAX: … if your plan doesn’t work, I mean.

Something seems to suddenly catch Wax’s attention… you can’t tell what it is, but he starts looking around in his communicator space.

WAX: … give me a second.
WAX:
WAX:
WAX: okay, this isn’t your fault, directly, but I’m getting pulled into another session because of you.
FROG-CRIMES: wh-what?! Wait, are you leaving?
WAX: no, I can multitask pretty well, I’m just not especially happy about it.
WAX: so, what’ll it be. You wanna ally with me? It’s honestly your best chance at winning this game.




(Also, here’s the lineup of your TCPs so you can draw outfits on them.)

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Spoiler

> Yeah Wax seems like a person who will help us in the long run, Wax knows everything about the game and Wax has no issues with our new plan, so yes I think we should ally with wax.

> We should make our weapons things like shields, shields can be "Weapons" and they're mostly for defense. We're not going to be attacking anyone apparently, so shields sound good to me.

wax seems more on-board with our plan to rogue everyone than i expected, he's calmed down considerably. let's advance with wax and see if he'll be willing to actually play along with our gambit, if just for kicks

Heck yes let's hang with Wax.

Ask him if he can make cats more suitable for this subversion tactic.

In addition to shields, non-lethal weaponry and stuff like the 'point-of-view gun' might be handy, though the latter might be disallowed.

> Yeah Wax seems like a person who will help us in the long run, Wax knows everything about the game and Wax has no issues with our new plan, so yes I think we should ally with wax.

> We should make our weapons things like shields, shields can be "Weapons" and they're mostly for defense. We're not going to be attacking anyone apparently, so shields sound good to me.

Yes to all of this, also White coloured garb to show our diplomatic nature

I still think the friendly contest could work non-violently if the losing TCPs agree to renounce their deity and go rogue, but, what the heck. If Wax is ok with us trying to win by making all non-allied TCPs go rogue, I reckon he'd be an acceptable ally?

let's stick with wax and rely on our tcps. as everyone's been saying, micromanaging.. doesn't seem to work out well. they wanna make friends or at least convince the others their gods are untrustworthy and rogue is the way to go, so maybe prophet would be a good start to talk to.

- also, working on designing a outfit suggestion. i'm thinking half uniform stuff, half what's already proved to be their fashion sense, haha.. gotta get that frog motif somewhere! and justice might fit with military or official outfits. no idea for weaponry if we don't wanna fight tho

wax seems more on-board with our plan to rogue everyone than i expected, he's calmed down considerably. let's advance with wax and see if he'll be willing to actually play along with our gambit, if just for kicks

I agree with this, and the rogue thing is a good plan.

As well as shields, I suggest stun guns, nets, and grenades full of sleeping gas. And even more importantly, we need strong, castle-like walls, preferably with trebuchets lobbing the nets and sleeping gas over the walls.

This way, if somebody attacks us, we can not only defend ourselves, but also perhaps even take captives. Hopefully taking enemy TCPs captive would have the same effect as killing them or turning them rogue in terms of win conditions, but if it doesn't, it would still be easier to rogue them if we could control exactly how they were treated.

As for a uniform, I was thinking sort of like flowing white robes with red, green, and blue frogs on the left and right shoulders and chest.

We're a Justice god, our cats are trying to save the rest of the TCPs: let's get superhero outfits.

Ok so I feel like the "getting everyone else's TCPs to go rogue" plan is one that satisifes the most people. So here's a crazy idea. Wax says none of our TCPs are really suited to it. But what if we got Fernando/Prophet to do it.
They are extremely disillusioned with having a god looking over them, after all. Right now they just hate Frog-Crimes, but out of all the players, Grind seems the most likely to turn their cats into soldiers and be brutal against his opponents. Ideally, after seeing him use his TCPs to further his personal vendetta against Rein, she makes it her personal mission to convince everyone's TCPs to go rogue.
Now, the problem with this plan is that we basically have no way to affect its chances of working at all. We cannont communicate with Prophet unless they come back to our territory, which they probably don't want to do. Another thing is that while Prophet is very motivated, and has a great knowledge of philosophy, she doesn't know much in the way of convincing other people about things.
Luckily we just taught Windy a bunch of stuff about convincing other people about things.

They have those phone-communicator thingies right? I think it'd be a good idea for Windy to ring up Prophet, and teach her stuff, which I assume can be done on the phone. We can also get informed on what Grind's TCPs are like and what Prophet thinks of them.
One last thing I can think of to make this plan more likely is to purposefully stir up Grind against Rein, so that he treats his TCPs worse. But this has an obvious problem.

Bonus- This means Prophet would take on a messiah-like role. Thematic naming, yo.

i feel like we should have a logo that somehow involves a lilypad on each outfit somewhere

I'm opposed to a traditional uniform look for the cats, they're not a military outfit and also they've all probably got preferences about what they like to wear. I suggest:

>CREATE: flag with a frog-crimes-green background and pentagonal symbol, composed of five triangles. Each triangle should be filled with the color scheme/pattern of each of our cats (including Prophet).

Ask the cats to wear the symbol somewhere on them, and let them choose how they'd like it (on a shirt/badge/eyepatch???/pin for a scarf??????) then CREATE those clothes/accessories

>CREATE portable forcefield generator

Good time to start stacking defenses before we get attacked. Actually any defensive measure we make should be portable, that way our TCPs can take it with them if they're going out. Now that Autobalance is in effect, im not sure what the rules are in regards to creating really powerful things, but i think anything that would activate Autobalance in the first place is probably still out.

This, basically


but with thicker intermediary lines so it looks more like an enamel pin, maybe?
bonus: it kind of looks like a lilypad as well

team synchronicity but enough to show individual tastes- dumpling's chest window is just so we can get to the healing if we need it. a frog or that lilypad idea would be a cute symbol for the empty spaces and to make them all match!

other ideas??? friendship bracelets in the colors of our different heads, uuuh. flowing dress robes would be cute but not rly practical if we do have to fight. CRAYON SCRIBBLY SIGIL to be all cutesy and match wax???? also there's an excess line on dumpling's neck, rip, not going back and fixing it tho.

CREATE:
>Gavel of Freshwater Fairness
>Freeze Ray of Marshland Detention
>Robes of Amphibian Jurisprudence x5
>Cockades of the Liquid Liberator x5
>Stereo
>>Soundtrack

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SpoilerMan up, hold tight
Driving dark
Head up, foot down
Speed of sound
Time's up, kick start
Keep on track
Flags out, sit back
Safe and sound

> CHECK: All

((As for working on our diplomacy abilities, we have a rogue TCP to worry about. If we can't bring back Fernando, then what chance do we have with TCPs built for conflict, given better treatment and less liable to rebel?

Once we ally with Wax, more or less all bets are off; nobody is likely to let our TCPs in and let them discuss things. I suggest we tell Wax that if this plan sounds like fun, we can ally as soon as our diplomatic tour is over.

Logo incoming, I have an update to post))

Let's hang with Wax.

As for costumes...

Each outfit represents the individual aswell as ourselves. The red, yellow, green and blue colors sync up with our own. Go team!

hang with wax!