Breakdown
Chain-Drawbacks
- Gauntlet-Kun (Special)
- Absolutely, Not (+250)
- Bigger Fish (+300)
- Jumper Prime Directive (+200)
- JumpSeed (+200)
- Law of Unintended Consequences (+100)
- Old Home Week (+100)
- Random-Chan (+200)
- Single-Shot (+100)
Drawback CP Total: 1450
Gauntlet-Kun: x2
New Drawback CP Total: 2900
Chain- Drawbacks
Gauntlet-Kun
JumpChan’s hardcore brother has decided to get into the game and sponsor you as a Jumper. All your Universal Drawbacks are worth twice as much… but you start every jump with Zero CP and must get all your CP from Drawbacks. HARDCORE!!! Also, he thinks it’s funny if you die, so he won’t send you home. Instead, he’ll take all the perks and items you got from any jump you fail and hold onto them until you Spark, but he’ll send you into the next jump as normal. This applies to all the perks and items your Companions bought as well. You do get to keep Companions from jumps you failed. Chain-Only. Halves all non-CP stipends from jumps. Cannot be put on Hiatus. Cannot be Revoked. Does not increase Companion CP Stipends / Item Stipends / Supplement Bonus points from Drawbacks. Warning, Gauntlet-Kun thinks Cheesing Drawbacks is Lame. He will guarantee you deal with the full force of everyDrawback you take…because you failing is funny to him. Gauntlet-Kun does not double the value of ‘What Are Drawbacks’ nor ‘Retail Rocker’.
Absolutely, Not
Any of your Perks or abilities (regardless of source) that would create an “absolute” effect will fail to do so. An invincible shield will just be very sturdy, absolute immortality will just mean being extremely long-lived, and attacks that can pierce any defense will only be able to pierce most defenses. This effect applies to all of your Companions as well.
On the bright side, this applies to everyone equally, at least when you’re involved. As long as you or your Companions are directly involved in a situation, other Absolutes will suffer the same restriction as yours.
Bigger Fish
Absolutely nothing is ‘fiat’ backed to be unbeatable, absolute, or a perfect defense. You might get sick if exposed to something really obscure or virulent, you might find someone who’s able to penetrate your mental defenses, some people might be able to tell you’re lying, no matter what your perk text might say. Everything is on the scale now and if you want to survive, you’re going to have to play this very very smart. Chain-Only, Cannot Hiatus.
Jumper Prime Directive
It’s far too easy to wreak havoc on a perfectly good culture with your vast power and reach as a Jumper. Even if you’re not carrying a personal empire around in your pocket, you could so easily destroy the natural state of a setting by mistake. As such, your Benefactor has declared that you are not allowed to use your abilities or resources to visibly enact any sort of wide-scale change on a setting. The exception to this is if the resources in question are something a local could realistically get their hands on. It’s not exactly an iron-clad rule though. You can also still use your fancy tech and powers, but you have to keep your intervention very well-hidden. If you do get caught, however, then whatever you were using to enact those changes will be sealed off until the end of the Jump.
Just so that we’re clear: it’s the locals that you need to hide your cheating from, not your Benefactor. They’ll turn a blind eye to your actions as long as you can at least make them look like they belong.
JumpSeed
When you started jumping, you weren’t the first. You were, as far as you can tell… the last. One by one, the voices in the JumpChain forums began to go silent, until you were the only one left. Weeks passed, and you were beginning to wonder if the fad had run its course. But you checked the CYOA forums and they seemed as alive as ever. Something was up. You began to do websearches, trying to find out why all traces of the Chain seemed to have vanished…when the pod arrived. You recognized it from your most fevered dreams. It was the Body Mod Pod. It even said so in stencil on the front. It was where your bed used to be, impossible to have come in through any door, and it steamed gently in the soft glow it was emitting. There was a clock next to it, a pack of stickers, and a note. The clock was counting down to zero, and there were only 45 minutes left on it.
The Note Said: Sorry, sorry. You don’t know me, but I’m Jump-Chan’s assistant / minder / unappreciated
scut monkey. We call her ADHD-Chan behind her back. She’s recently decided that she couldn’t be bothered to pick just one Jumper, so she’s blown the entire budget out the window and sent you all. All of you. You’re the last. It’s been a busy couple of months. Don’t worry, the others aren’t too far ahead of you, only 3 to 10 jumps max. I know, I know, you thought time stopped while you were jumping. Doesn’t really work with so many jumpers. Every jump is a week in your world, no matter how long it might take in that one. So get ready. You’ve got until the clock stops to tag anything you want to take with you with a sticker and get in the pod. If you’re 1 second late… you don’t want to be late. The pod will protect you when the others start coming back…and they will be coming back. Everyone will… though I don’t know if they know that or not. How much do you trust the others? Will you risk everything to return to this world, or will you find some place to stay? The road will grow harder the more power you gain. Oh, and don’t forgetto keep the boss entertained, she gets bored so easily. Endless grinding gets so tedious. These worlds exist to be experienced. Oh, I fudged the budget to get you a few goodies.
Rules: Everyone who’s ever been active in JumpChain has been sent a pod and they’re all 3 to 10 jumps ahead of you, all of them trying to maximize their own power or find some place to go to ground before the inevitable happens and they’re dumped back to your collective starting reality. For every week that passes,they each will integrate another jump. If you Spark, you will be returned to this reality after being given a bonus of 25,000 CP to be spent anywhere you like on anything you like. You may choose to Stay but if you stay you stay for good. The Pods cannot be destroyed or damaged, nor can the Jumper inside. The area around a pod is sacrosanct, meaning that nothing that contains an active pod can be destroyed or significantly damaged. Stickers can be applied to anything up to the size of a semi-truck / winnebago, and will take everything inside it. Stickers cannot be applied to people. Stickered items appear in your Warehouse / Personal Reality.
Restrictions: All Jumpers have whatever rules you’re jumping by, so be aware of that. If you die or otherwise chain-fail, your pod will deactivate and you will be returned to this reality immediately with whatever you’ve gained. While things are Fiat-backed to work, nothing is absolute, especially not against other jumpers. Also, since the pods cannot be destroyed by anything any Jumper has or can get, the Universe (solar system, house) they are in / Planet they are on, cannot be destroyed either. All inter-reality hopping abilities are blocked by taking this… even post Spark. Jumps will continue to get more and more dangerous as you go, as things get harder and luck begins to run out. You still have to be entertaining, and sitting around for hundreds or thousands of years isn’t.
Bonus: Because you started later, you’ve been given your choice of two one time bonuses which you can select from the following list. Each may be selected only once.
Chosen Bonuses:
- Slush Fund: +1000 CP for each of your first five jumps. These are mutually exclusive picks.
- Do Over Card: Allows you to repeat a single jump for any reason once every 10 jumps. You can use this to either reset your current jump or to actually take a jump a second time in a new instance of that jump.
Clarifications:
- Anything one Jumper does can, in theory, be opposed by other Jumpers. Destruction can be countered by Creation, Offense by Defense, Killing by Resurrection.
- This challenge is about telling a Jump-Chain Story, not about an individual’s quest for all the Cheez. It can be that as well, if you like, but that’s up to you (the Author) and your sense of narrative flow.
- You the Author are choosing this Challenge for your SI / OC Jumper. You, the SI Jumper, are not.
- You the Author determine just how trustworthy the other Jumpers are…and how competent.
- Increasing danger is not the only way Chain-Fail can be achieved. More and more challenging elements or increasing bad luck… or just ADHD-Chan deciding you’re being boring and sending you home are all valid methods of Chain-Fail.
- Yes, it is possible a single jump jumper could return and accidentally wreck all the shit ever. It is also possible that a 20 Jump Jumper would return and retcon everything that happened. It is also reasonable to assume that, since you’re the last and the next to last is at least 3 jumps ahead of you, anyone who failed or chose to go home in the first 3 jumps has returned already and hasn’t blown up the world.
- The purpose of this is, once again, to tell a compelling story about, at your discretion, a battle royale which engulfs the universe… or a bunch of jumpers with all sorts of powers teaming up to make sunshine and rainbows…or anything in between.
- Since you (the Author) determine the rules by which all jumpers are jumping, you could decide they all have to follow a specific path, or are all random, or that there’s a power cap on which jumpscan be taken.
- It is important to note that some Jumpers will choose to Stay.Others will fail so badly that they just get erased. While some may be utter monsters, others might be saints. It is possible to buy either path and get just as powerful… And others might be inhuman eldritch things that have no concerns beyond calculating pi to the octillionth decimal, or making as many paperclips as possible. Cosmic poweris what you make of it.
- It is up to you to determine if any of the other jumpers have any idea about the rules of the JumpSeed or not. It is possible that only you know about the rule about coming back.
Law of Unintended Consequences
It seems to be a habit, Jumpers and ‘Fixing’ things. Introduce a panacea to cure all disease, create a utopia, get rid of all corruption… or if you’re one of that other breed of Jumper, the ‘Evil’ kind, crushing all who would oppose you and stealing all their… let’s say ‘socks’. And by and large, you get away with it. Things go swimmingly to plan… Well, that’s in the past. Now, all sweeping social changes you make will have all sorts of weird consequences… introduce a cure for cancer? Now everyone’s turning into furries. Obliterate the Mafia? Why are huge hats coming back into fashion?! Introduce universal conscription in your undead army? Oh good, now there are talking trees!
Old Home Week
Are you afraid you’ll forget about all your loved ones back home? Well worry no more! I mean, technically, this is a Drawback, so you know bad things are coming, but don’t you worry about that particular problem. You see, your Warehouse, or equivalent, is now connected to your home back on your homeworld… where time isn’t stopped, but rather slowed. Your family members and friendscan and will drop by regularly, and (for them) every year that passes in your jumps will be 28 days. While they’re in your warehouse (and they do have keys so you can’t keep them out) your jump progress will be paused and you’ll have to spend time with them (expect roughly 36 hours per 28 of their days). They cannot be invited to become your Coworker (i.e. another jumper or companion), cannot exit into any jumpworld with you, cannot be given any abilities, cannot be given any souvenirs (CP backed or otherwise) that cannot work in the Real World or exceed modern technology, and in general will treat Jumping as if it were a very odd and relatively unimportant job. You can, however, buy them things with any money you earn on the job. Once you Retire (stop jumping for any reason), the ban on giving out tech or using perks is lifted. Each year in jump-time you may opt to take up to 60 hours off, during which time you can actively leave your warehouse back into your homeworld. While outside of your warehouse on your homeworld, your abilities, stats, and skills are all limited to 80% of peak human (this doesn’t boost you if you weren’t at 80% already). You may only bring cash (no more than 1 million USD per homeworld month) or technology and goods that are not uncommon in your homeworld out of the warehouse with you. Companions and pets gained in Chain may accompany you back to your homeworld, but they will also be limited to 80% of peak human. Finally, no one on your homeworld will be freaked outif you bring a weird ass alien dog, robotic butler (companion type), or 3 meter tall amazon with you. They will, however, treat anything out of the ordinary as if it’s just your weirdo friends from your lame-ass job. Yes, your job is lame, even if it pays you a million in cash every month. Expect the IRS or equivalent to demand you fill out forms and to audit you if you don’t. Remember, your perks don’t work on your homeworld until you Retire. No Hiatus. No Revoke. Chain-Only.
Random-Chan
Her full name is RNG-Chan… but that’s not as cute. You (as either the jumper or author) cannot dictate the order of your jumps. You, the author, must generate a jump list (using at least 250 different jumps). You, the jumper, never get to dictate which jumps are included on your chain. Chain-Only. Cannot Revoke. It is permissible to randomly generate 3 jumps and pick 1.
Single-Shot
Death is no longer a revolving door for your Companions. Those that die in a Jump stay dead until the end of the Jump, rather than respawning after a day or three. If they have a Perk, Power, or Item that allows them to respawn (a 1-up), that works as normal. If you have Rez abilities, you can use them, though it is actively draining to do so. Incompatible with All By Yourself or Kidnapper-San. All your Companions gain 100 CP automatically every jump this is active for. If taken with Hate Squad, they gain an additional 200 CP every jump, just to annoy you more. If a Companion is not imported,they cannot getfreebies or origins. If you don’t have any current Companions, this cannot be taken as a Jump Drawback, and it grants no points as a Chain Drawback.