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  1. #1
    Mighty Member Shai-Hulud's Avatar
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    Default Become a Master - One of Four

    You may choose one of these four bestowals. There's no downside, but you can instead say "no" and get a free five hundred dollars ($500) as a consolation prize.

    Master of Commerce - You are a master of all forms of human economic activity. This includes buy and selling, doing deals of all kinds, playing the market, running businesses, and so forth. As good as the greatest market wizards and robber baron tycoons are/were (guys like Warren Buffet, J.P. Morgan, etc.), that’s how good you are.

    Master of Esoterica - You are a meditation master on the level of real-life Buddha (good enough to attain enlightenment, at least). You may enter a trance and receive clairvoyant information at the level of Edgar Cacye. If demons exist, you know how to protect yourself from them and perform exorcisms. If ghosts exist, you can see/sense them, and help them “move on” so they no longer haunt an area. You are a master of acupuncture, reiki, and yoga (real-life versions, not comic-book versions).

    Master of Games - You are a master of all games, equal to the very best humans who have ever mastered such games. For example, you are as good at all games on the level of Bobby Fischer and José Capablanca at chess. This includes boardgames like Chess, Go, Stratego, Monopoly, Risk, and more. Video games/computer games are included, everything from Pong and Breakout, to the most complicated online gaming. Include wargaming such as the old Avalon Hill games, and all RPGs. You are also a master of games associated with gambling, such as poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, and so forth. You understand game theory as well as any human has ever understood it. Just for yucks, you are also pinball wizard, a gift you retain even if you go deaf, dumb and blind.

    Master of War - You are a master of all forms of battle and combat, including personal combat and large scale troop tactics and strategy. As good as Napoleon and Alexander were at their areas of expertise, that’s your level in all known human forms of warfare and combat. Boxing, wrestling, karate, swords, knives, rifles, handguns, etc., you get it all, provided it exists (or has existed) in real-life. To the extent that the very best real-life martial artists can use their chi to do things like resist damage and break materials, you can do this.
    Last edited by Shai-Hulud; 01-18-2022 at 09:31 PM.

  2. #2
    JUST DO IT?!?! Postmania's Avatar
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    Gonna be Commerce probably.

    I don't really see a use for Esoterica although doing more Yoga might be nice.

    I don't have one for War either. Generally I live in a society and war disrupts that. I also don't have any sort of stat/improvements to myself so if I wanted to do anything Martial Arts related I'd still have to get in shape which doesn't interest me. I guess I could become an Olympic shooter or something, but still, not my thing.

    Games is second in my interest. It'd probably be pretty fun. But still not as great an immediate draw as Commerce.
    “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.”
    -Stephen McCranie

  3. #3
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Probably take esoteria, since that gives you actual superpowers lol.

    The ability to make supernatural nonsense actually real is pretty overpowered and rather lucrative.
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

    Arx Inosaan

  4. #4
    Mighty Member Shai-Hulud's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
    Probably take esoteria, since that gives you actual superpowers lol.

    The ability to make supernatural nonsense actually real is pretty overpowered and rather lucrative.
    You get the real-life versions of these things, not the comic-book versions.

    Also, if you're enlightened at the level of Buddha, you're probably not interested in power or money.

    If you want lucrative, wouldn't Master of Commerce be a better choice?

  5. #5
    She/Her Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud View Post
    You get the real-life versions of these things, not the comic-book versions.

    Also, if you're enlightened at the level of Buddha, you're probably not interested in power or money.

    If you want lucrative, wouldn't Master of Commerce be a better choice?
    No, I'll take "makes nonsense real for $500 Alex."
    Yeah, but if you... man, we're getting into weird analogy territory, like if you disintegrated Superman's arms he wouldn't be able to go "fool! Little did you know that my arms and I are one and can be remade from me!" and will his arms back into being from pure nothingness. - Pendaran

    Arx Inosaan

  6. #6
    Mighty Member Shai-Hulud's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh View Post
    No, I'll take "makes nonsense real for $500 Alex."
    The Esoterica package doesn't make nonsense real. If real-life Buddha and Edgar Cayce couldn't do anything, you get nothing, like rolling snake eyes, you lose.

    If demons and ghosts don't exist, you get nothing.

    If acupuncture, reiki and yoga don't really do anything other than limber up your muscles, that's all you get.

    So if you think all that stuff, in our universe, in our reality, is nonsense (maybe it is?), then you shouldn't choose that package.

  7. #7
    Incredible Member Sol_M's Avatar
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    Master of Esoterica seems really vague, what does enlightenment entail anyway?

    Master of Commerce seems like the only obviously useful one here, although it sounds like a title given to a post. <_<

    Master of Games actually sounds like a title befitting a true master. I have to wonder though, how far you can stretch the definition of "Games" here. People have variously described both business and warfare as games (games, do, after all, attempt to simulate aspects of real world things much of the time). Not to mention things like Game Theory are obviously very applicable in economy and commerce.

    So becoming a Master of Games could technically make you a Master of Commerce and Warfare. But it's not obvious that it does so, it's just a possible interpretation of what it means.

  8. #8
    Legendary God of Pirates Nik Hasta's Avatar
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    None of these seem attractive to me.

    To expand a bit on why:

    I have no interest in running a business or going into stocks or market stuff. I have been pretty open about my general distaste for capitalist structures and, while money would be nice, I don't want to do that stuff. I've worked in morally bankrupt industries in the past and I would not do it again for any amount of money.

    The enlightenment stuff sounds like basically nothing. The health benefits of being good at Yoga are about the only thing that are attractive about it but I feel like just being given spiritual one-ness kind of defeats the purpose of trying to better oneself.

    Being impossibly good at games kind of defeats the point of them to my mind. I am not very good at games, both board and video, but I enjoy throwing myself at the challenge. If I can just one and done literally every game and never lose to anyone but the best then that means I won't be able to play with my friends without sandbagging and that just removes a social outlet for me.

    I don't have any interest in war, conflict or contributing to the military-industrial complex. The fitness and being good at martial arts is attractive but I don't think it's worth changing my thought processes to be combat optimised.

    So I guess $500 for me.
    Last edited by Nik Hasta; 01-19-2022 at 03:18 AM.

  9. #9
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nik Hasta View Post
    None of these seem attractive to me.

    To expand a bit on why:

    I have no interest in running a business or going into stocks or market stuff. I have been pretty open about my general distaste for capitalist structures and, while money would be nice, I don't want to do that stuff. I've worked in morally bankrupt industries in the past and I would not do it again for any amount of money.

    The enlightenment stuff sounds like basically nothing. The health benefits of being good at Yoga are about the only thing that are attractive about it but I feel like just being given spiritual one-ness kind of defeats the purpose of trying to better oneself.

    Being impossibly good at games kind of defeats the point of them to my mind. I am not very good at games, both board and video, but I enjoy throwing myself at the challenge. If I can just one and done literally every game and never lose to anyone but the best then that means I won't be able to play with my friends without sandbagging and that just removes a social outlet for me.

    I don't have any interest in war, conflict or contributing to the military-industrial complex. The fitness and being good at martial arts is attractive but I don't think it's worth changing my thought processes to be combat optimised.

    So I guess $500 for me.
    This pretty much nailed it for me.

    Real life 'business wizards' normally started with a huge fortune given to them by their parents. Skilled? Sure. Also good at absorbing any losses they might get hit with, because they have tons of money to start with. Either that, or they took all of their lives to build up their fortunes, like Warren Buffet. Starting at 50, for me, means...meh. I'm gonna need to focus on business and nothing but. So that's the practicalities making it less-attractive for me. And like Nik, no thanks, I don't really want to be part of that world anyway.

    Getting free spiritual one-ness, like with Nik, seems to defeat the point. Or it'll change me into something I'm not (ugh). I'd rather work to change myself, incrementally, with my own choices.

    Being a gaming genius is...kind of pointless for me. Sure, I could probably make money on it, but again, this is real-world stuff, so I'd need to devote my life to building that up, and I have no desire to live that life.

    The military/war stuff is ugh. I practice martial arts a lot. It's a hobby, one I'm good at. It's not my life goal and, not to be terribly cliché, it's the journey, not the destination. Were I suddenly perfect at it, practice would become dull. I'd lose interest. Not even going to get into whether or not the chi stuff is real.

    $500 sounds good!
    Last edited by Sharpandpointies; 01-19-2022 at 06:06 AM.
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  10. #10
    Mighty Member Shai-Hulud's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    Real life 'business wizards' normally started with a huge fortune given to them by their parents. Skilled? Sure. Also good at absorbing any losses they might get hit with, because they have tons of money to start with. Either that, or they took all of their lives to build up their fortunes, like Warren Buffet. Starting at 50, for me, means...meh. I'm gonna need to focus on business and nothing but.
    Master of Commerce means you're also as good at day trading/computer trading at the level of the very best people who do it.

    So, while it would take a while to become a billionaire, you could start drawing a reasonable income from trading on your electronic account very soon. While sitting at home in front of your computer, one window open to the market, another open to Rumbles.

    Don't really expect to change your mind; just pointing that out.

    There's lots of people who regularly make an income doing this, and unlike them, you have no learning curve. You're already there, in the sweet spot of being an electronic account trading master.

    Btw, I spent some time electronic trading with one method of doing this. It involved looking for patterns through technical analysis of market trends, recognizing them, and trying to be correct on maybe 6-7/10 trades.

    So it is possible, but yes, it would take much time to get to billionaire level through this method. But you'd see income sooner than you'd expect.
    Last edited by Shai-Hulud; 01-19-2022 at 06:14 AM.

  11. #11
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud View Post
    Master of Commerce means you're also as good at day trading/computer trading at the level of the very best people who do it.

    So, while it would take a while to become a billionaire, you could start drawing a reasonable income from trading on your electronic account very soon. While sitting at home in front of your computer, one window open to the market, the other open to Rumbles.

    Not trying to change your mind, just pointing that out.

    There's lots of people who regularly make an income doing this, and unlike them, you have no learning curve. You're already there, in the sweet spot of being an electronic account trading master.
    The issue for me is two-fold.

    Number one, that sounds agonizing. And it's something I'd need to always be on top of, due to the fluctuations in trade, if I want to get rich semi-fast. Get a growth rate of 10%? Sure, that's something I could set up and leave alone (mostly). But there are funds out there that get that NOW, easily. Get a growth rate of 22%, which as I recall is something that Buffet managed? That would take a ton of me watching, making sure I'm moving stuff around quickly, etc. NOT what I want to be doing.

    Number two, it takes capital. I'd either need to float a big loan, or put my home on the line, or whatever. You need money to make money. If I only have $10k to put in, assuming I'm getting 22% over time (Warren Buffet level), my money is doubling every 3.5 years. Hooray. You can see why this is taking a long time. If I put my apt. up for sale, I'm working with ~200k (probably a little more these days). Great, I'm a millionaire in eight years. I'm also now 58 years old. It's going to take more than a while to become a billionaire (or even a high multimillionaire), and I've spent those last 8 years pouring over stock markets obsessively. Say I want to hit 5 million, which is kind of my 'life of luxury' level where I can STOP doing anything to support myself and coast on completely safe investments while doing everything I want to do, living where I want, and not worrying about money. That's another 8-9 years. All with me actually WORKING on this.

    In the financial world.

    And that's not even considering that if I put up my house and get that 200K loan or whatever, I'm still at risk. As good as these financial geniuses are, this the real world. **** can happen. It's great when one already has fifty million dollars, and can afford to take a hit because something weird happened. It's less-great when one is basically leveraging everything they have.

    And again, all with a big chunk of my time for the next two decades being taking up focusing on the stock market and businesses and such.

    Not for me, though mileage may vary. ^_^
    Why are we here?

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    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

  12. #12
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    I'll take master of games. I would move to one of the big gambling places (Vegas, Reno, Monte Carlo, etc.) and just be a professional poker player. I love the game, could easily support myself (probably get lots of comps and sponsorships too) and never have to work again. It has the financial advantages of being a master of commerce, but is a lot more fun.

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member Jackalope89's Avatar
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    What's the quote? "Money makes the world go around"?

    Yeah. War is nice and all (power speaking), but you need money for troops, supplies, etc. Games? You need money for resources to make said games, and to pay the people that make them. Esoterica... Technically they wouldn't want money, but they still need to eat.

    Commerce it is. As the rest can branch out from that.

  14. #14
    Incredible Member Sol_M's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sharpandpointies View Post
    And again, all with a big chunk of my time for the next two decades being taking up focusing on the stock market and businesses and such.

    Not for me, though mileage may vary. ^_^
    This would be valid if you wanted to become a millionaire, but with the utter ease of investment these days (takes all of 10 minutes to download an app and put money into something if you have the appropriate bank account) I'm reasonably certain the ratio of effort to reward is skewed in the favor of this being better than taking a flat, one time 500 USD.

    Relatively small investments that you don't need to put any real effort into managing will probably net you far more than picking the consolation prize even in the span of a few months.

    Although, with that said, you probably don't need to be Warren Buffet to do that anyway. ^_^


    As a side note I'm more and more convinced that Master of Games should cover everything anyway. XD

  15. #15
    The Weeping Mod Sharpandpointies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sol_M View Post
    This would be valid if you wanted to become a millionaire, but with the utter ease of investment these days (takes all of 10 minutes to download an app and put money into something if you have the appropriate bank account) I'm reasonably certain the ratio of effort to reward is skewed in the favor of this being better than taking a flat, one time 500 USD.
    It's pretty valid as is, given my situation.

    I already have investments for my future (not huge, but yes, retirement stuff). If doing this, and having to get involved with fiddling with money, isn't going to get me significantly better than those investments - which are actually looked at constantly by people who are experts in this - then I don't see the point.

    See, that's their jobs. And they have a great rep, and good results. And they're at it, adjusting and shifting and tweaking all of the time.

    Without actually doing the same, ie putting a lot of work into it (which is what top investors getting the best gains over time are doing), I'm not going to get better than the people who I already have managing my investments. They are real-world experts, putting in a ton of time every day into their various funds; me dropping a few hundred into an app, picking a company and investing into it without actually putting in the time, the research, and then watching it constantly isn't going to do better. Real-world, remember, not some magical investment skill that allows me to 'win' by just putting my money wherever and not looking at it again.

    Although, with that said, you probably don't need to be Warren Buffet to do that anyway. ^_^
    Exactly my point Edit: I guess, because my point is 'there are places that will do that for you, and still do quite well, better than a Warren Buffet who pays minimal attention to such things I'm sure.'

    Since I'm already doing as much as I can, with the level of effort that's comfortable to me, and actually sticking my nose into it and doing better than that would actually require significant time on my part, thanks, I'll take the $500, rather than taking something into which I have zero interest in investing (haha) time and effort.
    Last edited by Sharpandpointies; 01-20-2022 at 08:56 AM.
    Why are we here?

    "Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
    "...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
    "Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate

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