Important decisions "what if"

[nietzsche_waifu]

Your characters' lives and fates, and sometimes even the shape of their canons and settings - they often depended on single, important decisions. For events that already happened, you obviously decided on a course of action already (or had the decision made for you if it's an event already established in the canon) - but what if you'd have decided to do something else?

This is a thread for such speculation. If your characters acted differently than they did when given an important IC decision that already happened in the game, what would have changed? How different would they, their canon - hell, maybe even the whole game be?

Comments

[sonofgucun]

IF Cheng didn't get hitched with Devon, Ironlock Solid would be a completely different story. He would have gotten back on his feet, and still did his best to rebuild Gucun, but it would lack a certain drive as he has to do it alone.

Without Devon's assistance to keep the more troublemaking elements of Gucun in line he has a harder time getting everyone to work together, establishing supply, trade and defense becoming harder than ever.

Because of this lack of Organization, when the Inspectors turn up its a slaughter. A second Razing of Gucun with truly massive amounts of casualties. Cheng himself dying in order to protect a group of survivors. The irony not being lost on him.

Ironlock Solid then becomes Ironlock Revengeance - the story of two leaders and the people they struggle to keep alive. Han Zhi and Wang Ding Bang become the protagonists. The former having been Cheng's Aide and friend would do his best to ensure the protection of what little remains of Gucun, while the latter, being a fiery nationalist wishes for revenge for the untold slaughter.

[sonofgucun]

In terms of Mechanics in an actual SRW game:

Han Zhi would be a support type. Piloting a Blindsight Combat Frame - He has armor and four attacks - the first two being being a rifle and PUNCHING an enemy. The last one however is to bring out all the firepower heavy Combat Frames among the survivors and bombard the enemy. There is a MAP version of this attack as well.

He has a low level command ability, as well as the ability to 'mark' targets, making them more vulnerable to other units. His seishin are purely support/defense.

Wang Ding Bang is purely aggressive. Piloting a Long Blade that has been modified with parts from a Flood-type Combat Frame. He excels in close range assaults, using machineguns, shotguns, missiles and knives. He additionally would have an attack in which he leads a squad of Zephyrs, Long Blades and Floods into a head-on Charge against the enemy.

His seishin would mainly be for an aggressive Real Pilot build. Hot Blood being a definite one.

[sexygodofscienceandwar]

The biggest shifting point for Roads' stuff is the failed attempt to capture and ransom the children of several federation officials. Should the team have succeeded, the Black Valkyries never break up, and they go on to help the White Chalice in a sort of partnership-the White Chalice attracts business, as it does, and they take care of it.

Nicolai becomes a Federation official, and offers them several missions for him to reduce their sentence. When, SHOCK! he's corrupt and evil and a vampire, he turns on the team, while framing them for even worse crimes. The team then has to fight to clear their names, save the world (can't make money if it's dead), and maybe learn what it means to be a hero along the way. Instead of being Castlevania+Garo+Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, it's more Water Margin+The A-Team+Castlevania.

There are many people who become vampire kaiju hunters; first, the ones you know.

Roads Blackwell is now a secondary character, and uses a GM Sniper 2 with an ABC cloak and beam sabers for better close combat. Roads is the wide-eyed idealist of the team, and the most "kiddy" of the group. He still gets a thrill out of battle, but he jumps at the chance to be a hero and fight a real evil monster. Roads' spirit list starts out like that of a real robot pilot, but ends up in strong offensive-based super territory. His midseason upgrade lets him heal allied units nearby him, and augments the sniper rifle with magic so its shots can change direction midflight-this way, they can hit the same target dozens of time. Said upgrade also adds the [Solar] tag to his rifle, allowing for freakishly high damage when facing off against Id Beasts.

Sophia Bradshaw Is now the lead. She's more calm and serious compared to Roads' excitability, and uses the Vigna Zirah for the first part of the game. Her midseason upgrade just makes her all-around better. Her spirit commands are a solid Real pilot set mixed with some support abilities. Notably, she has Command at a fairly high level.

And now for the ones you don't.

Dr. Reinhardt survives the first mission, and becomes a non-combat scientist helping the team develop new weapons to combat the vampire threat. Partway through he is forced to confront Nicolai directly in a battle of magic, which he loses. His parting message shows the team the new presents he's just finished, the midseason upgrades.

There are also two more team members-a big russian guy who uses a Kampfer loaded down with not one but two double beam rifles, and a vaguely hispanic guy with a Gouf Hunter. The first focuses on heavy offensive and has more super-y defensive spirits (Iron Wall, Invincible), and the second focuses on being dodgy as hell while stabbing people in the face.

That's one option, of course...