The cast is maybe too small. That's my only negative critique of it.
I actually think he filled out the Decepticon high command perfectly.
The Tyrant (Megatron)
The Treacherously Ambitious (Starscream)
The Black Hat (Soundwave)
The Amoral Scientist (Shockwave).
And yes, you could claim Starscream was also an amoral scientist but that facet of his character has never been emphasized.
Every antagonist faction needs its Sick Bastard, and Overlord was a particularly strong counterweight to Shockwave in that department, since both filled the role in completely different ways.
I disagree with you about Shockwave, by the way. I don't particularly like his origin story in IDW-verse, though I won't deny it has a ton of pathos.
When he walked out of the Space Bridge in TF: Prime, and Starscream shat out his metaphorical heart, I jumped up out of my chair.
I can't speak for Jack too much, but I think the goal for BRoB's Sabbat genre is to explore that the sect, while rowdy, has its own swirl of politics and clan agendas, and that there's a LOT you can do in it aside from coming up with the most creative way to disembowel a human*.
At least, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm playing a Tzimisce whose clan politics are decidedly neo-feudalist, and whose sect politics are wholly Loyalist.
*That's still on the table.
I wouldn't mind seeing Overlord and Galvatron running the hard-line Decepticon forces, and hating one another's guts the entire time. Overlord's got some fantastic swish.
And there's maybe... six transformers I can think of who're still alive who could stand up to him. Megatron, Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Grimlock, Kup (you know he could), Galvatron...
I do find it interesting how Megatron is being written as sort of a Che Guevara with a fusion gun who lost sight of his ideals, and is trying to find them again. He's unusually candid. I liked his line about not thinking you mean what you say, then realizing you do--at least at the time.
I also think that in as much as Transformers can pair-bond he has a thing for Optimus. Sort of an 'Enemy Mine' deal.
Starscream on the other hand is being written as a complete asshole. And I love it. Who do you think Rattrap is really working for? My money's on Optimus, but you can't take anything for granted with the current crop of writers.
@Bobotron Some of my favorites are dead at the moment. I mean, I love Shockwave. And I highly doubt most people would be willing to play Starscream's impending INCREDIBLE fall. He can't not be treacherous, and it's going to cost him everything. They have to make him sympathetic, or heroic, or other things Starscream's not.
My favorite moment of Megatron's trial was when he was all set to plead guilty and walk to his death -- and then he heard Starscream open his mouth.
'You know what? I think I'm going to fight to stay alive. Why? Because fuck Starscream!'
Everybody knows that song. We sang it in music class when I was a kid, oh... twenty-five years ago.
So did the Trial of Megatron take place in your game? Because as awesome as that is, the Cons are in a WEIRD place right now, since all of their potential leaders have either renounced the spot or are dead. I think the only one who's neither is Overlord, who got... fired into a sun or something?
I actually really like where it's going, because even a four million year-long war has to end SOMETIME. And when you've been fighting for that long, how the heck do you build a peace?
I eventually plan to talk Jack into adding a Cam genre back in... in a city far enough away from Miami that players can A: comfortably play in both and B: Open warfare between the cities is not really tenable. I think adding in the Diplomatic Option from the V20 books might be tenable...
But if you've always wanted to play that Harbinger of Skulls, Serpent Houngan or Salubri Warrior, this is the place to do it.
Thinking about it, Occupation is just a fucking terrible idea and I'm surprised military theory doesn't strongly stress that you should NEVER, EVER DO IT. I can't think of an instance in history where occupation hasn't been a colossal clusterfuck.
Where I see it, with every episode of the series she's losing control of the situation just a little bit more. Unless something happens to absolve her like a giant tidal wave washing Stupid City into the ocean one side or the other is going to revolt.
That she is. I won't deny that. I suppose what I'm doing is musing that instead of conquest, she's opted for occupation... and that is, so far, her biggest mistake.
Also? That bit with the old slave in Season 4 was bullshit. Would his old master not have taken him in without some sort of writ of ownership? In that case, that institutionalized old man's tears were meaningless and he didn't know what was good for him.
@coin I disagree. Decimating the existing noble class and filling the void with those loyal to you is an entirely legitimate, if brutal tactic, and in this case one she probably should've employed.
To paraphrase the War Nerd:
Buy the corrupt. Make sure they know to stay bought.
Spare the incompetent and the used-up figureheads.
Brutalize the ambitious members of the old elite, ESPECIALLY the most egregious, if your conquest had a moral imperative (like Daenerys' did). Do not spare them, because they will come back to haunt you.
To which I would add: empower those who have a reason to love you and loathe the old order. Make sure they stay empowered. Find the best of them. Give them land, titles, money, and men.
Daenerys is being way too angsty and is way too willing to listen to the Masters' bullshit sob stories.
A real conqueror would've had their desecrated remains hung from the city walls.
Actually I find that games are often too lenient with morality checks. Half of HM's mage genre should've been cackling and insane, and ALL of their Changeling genre should've been.
Wal-Mart is the most Southern of companies.
Employees? Chattel.
Product: As shitty as possible. Force competitors out of business so people wind up having to buy it.
Community: Bullied. Relentlessly.
That was the idea, yes. Changing Breeds 20 discussed the Ahadi in some length. The preamble to any game I cooked up would set up events that led to a similar alliance in North America, or at least the part of it covered by the game's geography.
Part of the meta would be that not all shapechangers had bought into it -- some remain deeply opposed to it, though I'm not really a fan of splitting a playerbase against itself. The playerbase would be operating from within the alliance. But one of the things noted about the Ahadi is that it takes any shapechanger willing to join. While the more exotic stuff would be controlled, I would want to allow it.
Well, here's the thing. Instantaneous travel is a Thing in Werewolf. If there's a Moot in Maine a dude scouting the Pit in Centralia, PA's travel time is mostly getting to the nearest Caern and hopping a Moon Bridge.
Heya.
So I've been kicking around a concept for a W20 game involving an Ahadi-style alliance set in the Northeastern U.S. and Canada, running from, say, Pennsylvania to Maine, possibly including Ontario/Quebec/New Brunswick/Nova Scotia. Games have concentrated their setting down into one city since FOREVER, and I'm not sure that has to be the case.
Thoughts? Could this be made to work? Is there any interest? I can get space and I can get a coder. The only problem is, I work 9-to-5 and teach when I'm home, so I couldn't hope to spearhead this alone.
That's how they operate. One day they'll get theirs, but it might take a generation or two before something comes along to bust their business policy of "it's a department store! But as shitty a one as possible!" right in the teeth.