Play@YSDC

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:21 am**

There's a nice hotel, just called the 'Station Hotel,' right outside Euston Station during the 20s.

London's most famous hotels, eg the Ritz, are mostly in the Mayfair District - particularly on Park Lane. Obviously there are cheaper hotels throughout the city.

London Clues:

The Penhew Foundation – Archaeological organisation founded by the late Sir Aubrey Penhew. Based at 35 Tottenham Court Road, according to business card found at the scene of Jackson Elias’ murder,

Sir Aubrey Penhew – Co-Leader of the ill fated Carlyle Expedition to Africa of 1919. Believed to have been murdered in Kenya. Founder of the London based Penhew Foundation. Owned several stately homes, including a large house in London.

Edward Gavigan – Current director of the Penhew Foundation, according to the Penhew Foundation business card found at the scene of Jackson’s murder.

Inspector James Barrington – Scotland Yard detective leading the investigation into the so called Egyptian Murders, mentioned in Jackson Elias’ scrawled London Notes.

Nethaniel Moore – London based researcher, close friend of Jackson Elias, may be in danger according to Miram Atwright of Harvard University.

The Scoop – Weekly London tabloid newspaper, mentioned in Jackson’s London Notes.

The London Notes of Jackson Elias – Crazy scrawled, handwritten notes written by Jackson Elias during his visit to London, shortly before his murder in New York.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:40 am**

I'll be moving all of the the chapter one threads into the 'previous chapters' sub-forum in another 24 hours time.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 5:18 am**

http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1328997

5 - persuade, 3 Fast Talk.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:01 am**

I've added a quick summary of 'London Clues' to the first post of this thread, I'll try to remember to keep updating that post as the chapter progresses, so that you always know where to look for the list.

I'll be updating character sheets at lunchtime.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:13 pm**

I've now moved the chapter one threads into the 'Chapter One' sub-forum in the previous chapters area.

Here's a hyperlink to them

If you missed the updates over the weekend, don't forget to read them for the details of chapter one's skill checks.

I still need details of the two 'discretionary skill increases' from a few players, and also the single skill increased aboard the ship.

@Trixie: Locksmith is fine, hope Timour wasn't trying to intrude on Andrei's grief!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 12:26 pm**

I shoulda upped Maks' drive again! Seems to be the main thing he does.

Ah well, with a Persuade of 85% and an APP 17 he'll never want for female company again!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:18 pm**

Ok, as far as I can tell, I've updated all character sheets to be correct for everything that's been posted so far.

Imme: You haven't made a roll to heal Elizabeth's sanity during the voyage (+1d6)

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:21 pm**

Oooh, free San!

san gain (1d6=4)

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:27 pm**

imme wrote:Oooh, free San!
san gain (1d6=4)

Thanks, I've updated Elizabeth's sheet.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:31 pm**

Elizabeth wrote:"Should we stay here or go to the Ritz or ...?"

Apparently as well as extremely fashionable, the Ritz was very 'forward thinking' for the time, they even allowed unchaperoned single women to stay there.

Imagine the scandal of it!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:33 pm**

Caroline isn't unchaperoned!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:37 pm**

No, but Elizabeth is.

Or has been, since Andrei started locking himself up on the ship.
(Yes, I know, Johnny is technically the chaperon.)

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:39 pm**

Maksim does have two elbows on which to hang the ladies!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 3:48 pm**

imme wrote:No, but Elizabeth is.
Or has been, since Andrei started locking himself up on the ship.
(Yes, I know, Johnny is technically the chaperon.)

Timour would gladly offer his arm!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:09 pm**

One thing that’s still outstanding from chapter one, is my long awaited (:oops:) summaries of those books from the safe in the Carlyle library. Since you’ve all been so patient with me, I’ve included a summary of all four books, and not just the three that you examined during Erica’s party.

Perhaps the ‘Guardian’ of The Pnakotic Manuscripts is one of the reason’s that Andrei locks himself away.

The Books in Carlyle’s Safe:

Selections de Livre d’Ivon: A French commentary written in 1240 by Gaspard du Nord of Averiogne, France. Gaspard claims to be a sorcerer of great power, and that this work is based on his interpretations of a Greek book called The Book of Eibon - itself supposedly translated from earlier Atlantian and Hyperborean works. The original tome was reputedly penned by the Hyperborean wizard Eibon, and was found amid the ruins of his blasted tower.

The Pnakotic Manuscripts: An Old English translation by an anonymous translator. The first portions of these manuscripts are written in a curious sort of cuneiform and dot-group glyphs, which is possibly a cipher. Later portions are mostly commentaries and efforts at translation by a succession of translators, each of which have been translated in turn into Old English. Again claims are made by the author that the manuscripts have been handed down since hyperborean times, and indeed that the original ‘fragments’ predate human civilisation. The translated portions of the manuscripts carry the warning that ‘A Guardian’ will be extract a price from all who read from them.

Note: Professor Cowles also mentioned The Pnakotic Manuscripts.

The People of the Monolith: Volume of poetry by Justin Geoffrey. A rare prepublication draft from 1919. Includes such poems as “People of the Monolith”, “Dark Desires”, “Mirror of Nitocris”, “Out of the Old Land”, “Star Beast” and “Summer in Darkness.”

Life as a God: A handwritten diary by Montgomery Crompton, an English artist who travelled to Egypt in 1805 and claims to have became a minor priest of a cult calling itself the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. The work appears to be bound in human skin, and narrates all manner of unspeakable acts committed for the ‘Pharaoh of Darkness.’

Obviously one or more of these books could contain important clues, and Thomas still has access to them all. I’d like you to decide between you which one he attempts to study first (I don’t think he can read French though). Any information that he can extract from the books will eventually be forwarded to you via Paris.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:22 pm**

Forgot to put Caroline's name in there:
http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1329680

First Aid +6
Library Use: +4

Yea! She's better at Band-Aids.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 4:24 pm**

Laraqua wrote:Maksim does have two elbows on which to hang the ladies!

I'm not sure the Ritz is *that* forward-thinking.

Plus, you don't want to blow our cover.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:03 pm**

I'm rolling for Andrei in Cthulhu Mythos* and Occult - the majority of his time in Chapter One was spent reading Jackson's Notes, and any other literature they picked up.

Occult +3% Cthluhu Mythos +6%

*If I can't do Cthulhu Mythos, I'll change that roll to Archeology or Anthropology. Keeper's choise of whatever's most appropriate. If Cthulhu Mythos will take down my SAN by 6, I'm willing to take the hit!

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 9:44 pm**

I'd prefer that you don't gain Cthulhu Mythos skill through these increases, there'll be plenty of opportunities to boost that skill through the campaign though.

Of the two alternate skills that you listed, I'd recommend Archeology, but either would fit in with Andrei's reading.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:17 pm**

I'll do Archeology then - adjusting Character Sheet now.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:59 pm**

Oh, Coffee, you're so good at making poor Andrei throw tantrums. Don't you feel sorry for him?

I think I'll wait to give other people a chance to post before I do.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:07 pm**

It's the Station Hotel, not the Stanton Hotel. I've added a photo.

Posted: **Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:24 pm**

I just adjusted my post so it says "Euston Station Hotel". Sorry 'bout that!

Thanks for the compliment, Imme! I don't feel sorry for Andrei - its his own fault.

He needs some serious conversations with a counsellor or something. "Emotionally unbalanced" would be a good way to describe him. Or "Repressed". I imagine that he's a very tender person inside, but he was trained to hold that in, and be a man. He holds a lot inside.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:25 am**

coffee demon wrote:He holds a lot inside.

Hopefully not like that dude at the end of Hellboy.

I've duped the list of cluesinto the Masks wiki. Link is at the bottom of my sig (can't get more than one html link in there... quite troublesome, had to use tinyurl just to get what I had in).
While I think it's great that Raiko is posting it for everyone to easily skim on the message boards we can all type into the wiki at well, so it has certain advantages.

Generally speaking I've been trying to collate -all- the clues, etc into the master list. It's 'organized' sort of, with the Chapter 2 stuff on top. But the best solution is just to search for what you're looking for.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:18 am**

Nice work on the update, Grafster! It's much appreciated.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 10:50 am**

Thanks very much for the updates Grafster.

I've created wiki accounts for all of you now, I was waiting until I was sure I'd got Grafsters settings right first.

I've sent login details to you all via PM.

I'll add the new players to the wiki users once they enter the game.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:04 am**

Grafster wrote:I've duped the list of cluesinto the Masks wiki.

...snip...

It's 'organized' sort of, with the Chapter 2 stuff on top. But the best solution is just to search for what you're looking for.

That's really great Grafster.

I've added a table of contents / index to the start of the clues list page so that it should remain easy to navigate.

Just add a heading2 tag (!!) before any "chapter" heading, or a heading3 tag (!!!) before any sub-heading eg "Newspaper articles"

Grafster wrote:While I think it's great that Raiko is posting it for everyone to easily skim on the message boards we can all type into the wiki at well, so it has certain advantages.

I think wiki's are great as 'players notebooks,' much better than creating a separate thread on the forum for example.

I'll make sure that I keep that first post up to date as well. In chapter one I kept posting the same (updated) list again and again, this way at least it's easy to find.

Grafster wrote:Link is at the bottom of my sig (can't get more than one html link in there... quite troublesome, had to use tinyurl just to get what I had in).

I'll see if there's anything we can do about that. It's probably a board or user setting that I can fix, or get Lee to fix.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:45 pm**

New characters! I'm so excited to meet them!

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:21 pm**

I didn't move things along too far; as I wasn't sure that you'd finished talking yet.

I'll move to The Ritz with my next post. You'll be able to hire cars from The Ritz, as fast as you like.

BTW: You can all split up if you like! Then I can kill you one at a time.

Posted: **Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:02 pm**

I've been going through adding at least a short description to most of the npc's and locations in the wiki.

Grafster's shamed me into doing some wiki-work.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:13 am**

Imme wrote:Elizabeth is literally tight-lipped during the taxi ride. Any who tries to make eye contact with her can see the anger smoldering in her eyes.

Oh man! I can deal with a confrontation with Timour, but I didn't think Elizabeth would get so angry. I actually cringed when I read that post! Awesome!

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:34 am**

(p.s. it was a bit of a mistake for me to look at that thread. I don't usually look at other characters' threads, but one year of training is hard to break! I believe it's been a year since we started, hasn't it?

Checking now...

Wow!

Yesterday, Oct 22, 2006, the first character sheet was posted (Elizabeth)

BIZARRE!

Today is the birthday of the first IC and OC posts! How wierd that, of all days, I would check that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MASKS! A Chapter per year! I'll get (re)married and raise my children to this game! And I'll like it!

I think we should all treat ourselves somehow today. I already did (take-out Chinese food and a swim in the ocean)

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:15 am**

Take out chinese? Yum....Swim in the ocean?

It's c..c...c..cold here for anyone that doesn't know Vancouver weather. Coffee! You crazy ass.....tell me you don't swim the polar bear swim on Jan 1st!!! No, I know you do. You must.

I'll clink glasses as the newbie at the anniversary party, but I'm afraid that's all I'll get away with. I can't take any credit for the last year of this large, impressive, game. Oh yes, and *ruffles Andrei's feathers by smelling Elizabeth's hair when she's not looking....* lol

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:42 am**

Polar bear swim is for pansies - i used to do that swim every day, all winter, when i lived in vancouver. I'm gonna get back into that habit, i think.

trixie wrote:Take out chinese? Yum....Swim in the ocean? It's c..c...c..cold here for anyone that doesn't know Vancouver weather. Coffee! You crazy ass.....tell me you don't swim the polar bear swim on Jan 1st!!! No, I know you do. You must.

I'll clink glasses as the newbie at the anniversary party, but I'm afraid that's all I'll get away with. I can't take any credit for the last year of this large, impressive, game. Oh yes, and *ruffles Andrei's feathers by smelling Elizabeth's hair when she's not looking....* lol

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:47 am**

Damn, and all while I was sleeping!

I hope I don't think up anything particularly witty that Maksim can't say now.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:48 am**

Wow, happy anniversary everyone!

I think some sort of confrontation between A&E has been building for quite awhile. Should be fun.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:49 am**

Laraqua wrote:Damn, and all while I was sleeping!

I hope I don't think up anything particularly witty that Maksim can't say now.

The lesson is ... don't sleep.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:11 am**

Raiko wrote: Just add a heading2 tag (!!) before any "chapter" heading, or a heading3 tag (!!!) before any sub-heading eg "Newspaper articles"

Most awesome.

Raiko wrote:
Grafster wrote:Link is at the bottom of my sig (can't get more than one html link in there... quite troublesome, had to use tinyurl just to get what I had in).
I'll see if there's anything we can do about that. It's probably a board or user setting that I can fix, or get Lee to fix.

It is a board setting (according to the error message).
I can appreciate not wanting to have a lot of links in sigs; or large sigs. But if we're going to put it in then it seems reasonable to be able to hide it.

Raiko wrote:Grafster's shamed me into doing some wiki-work.

Apparently shame is a powerful motivator for you; that's a lot of updating that just happened....
In the interests of full disclosure my goal was actually for you to not feel that you needed to worry about the wiki. Of course, now I've remembered who Raoul Luis Piñera is....
Virtually my "work" has basically just been copy and pasting from info you've already given us.

Practically speaking in tabletop the medium (i.e. aural) means that the GM has to be a note taker (unless you're players are wizard at note-taking they won't catch every detail). This isn't really true on the boards.

I think we, the players, ought to see be primarily in charge of the wiki going forward. Especially since it's really just cutting and pasting things you've already painstakenly prepared for us.
(obviously some of the editing and correction is best done by the GM). But if we just make sure to update the wiki as new info appears it'll be pretty easy going.

I also enthusiastically participate in the one year anniversary!
Yay!

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 12:59 pm**

Wow! Happy Anniversary yesterday everyone, well spotted Coffee.

Hmm, one year per chapter.

I think I originally estimated that the campaign would take 2-3 years.

I guess 5-6 looks more realistic, assuming you don't all get wiped out somewhere.

Someone, Laraqua I think, asked early on how your progress compared to tabletop sessions. From what I've seen the campaign is expected to take approx 1 year to play as a tabletop game.

I've no firsthand experience of the entire campaign though, as my own tabletop Masks campaign eventually stalled in Chapter Three - mostly because several of my players just prefer hacking orks, or assassinating cyperpunk sleezebags to foiling the machinations of unspeakably powerful entities from outside time and space.

Chickens!

****

Laraqua mention this in what's now the Andrei & Maksim thread:

Maksim Rukov wrote:OOC: They probably got their money changed over while in New York or perhaps at the train station. Far as I'm aware, only English money is used in England.

I've assumed that you have changed some money, wired some more money and also bought some travellers cheques while in Boston. I mentioned it in passing at while wrapping up the 'Boston section' of chapter one.

As Elizabeth is very wealthy, and Caroline & Andrei also are to a lesser extent, I'm just assuming that you have enough money for most things while you're all still in the US or Western Europe.

If it becomes important, one British Pound is worth approximately five US dollars in 1925.

BTW: Since I think we eventually resolved the 'paying the Rukovs' stuff in chapter one, I'm also assuming that Maksim, Timour and Johnny all also have a small amount of cash on them at any time, from wages paid by Elizabeth or Andrei.

It the campaign eventually moves to Africa or Asia, or if you have to go properly into hiding, then I may have to track you finances properly.

****

Grafster wrote:Apparently shame is a powerful motivator for you; that's a lot of updating that just happened....

Well it's addictive, you fill something one page in and there's all these other question marks to click on.

Grafster wrote:I think we, the players, ought to see be primarily in charge of the wiki going forward. Especially since it's really just cutting and pasting things you've already painstakenly prepared for us.

I'm just tidying up what's already there really.

I'm likely to keep adding locations and NPCs as they appear, but I'll just say who or what they are - I won't be adding your characters' apparent opinions any more, like some of the early posts.

I also intend to manage the timeline myself. I'll fill in chapter two as we go, and hopefully eventually add the details of the second half of chapter one.

BTW: Every npc on the wiki now has at least brief summary, I'll be trying to add in any additional NPCs that have been missed out now.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:20 pm**

Grafster wrote:
Raiko wrote:
Grafster wrote:Link is at the bottom of my sig (can't get more than one html link in there... quite troublesome, had to use tinyurl just to get what I had in).
I'll see if there's anything we can do about that. It's probably a board or user setting that I can fix, or get Lee to fix.
It is a board setting (according to the error message).
I can appreciate not wanting to have a lot of links in sigs; or large sigs. But if we're going to put it in then it seems reasonable to be able to hide it.

I've changed the board settings to allow 4 links for now, and I'm PMing this post to Lee in case he has a problem with it.

I suspect that 1 hyperlink per signature is probably just the default, it's possible to remove the limit entirely, but I didn't want to do that myself.

The new forum software, and Lee's management seem to have entirely stopped all the spam problems for the time being, so hyperlinks in signatures shouldn't be much of a problem. And your links are very useful for me and the other players.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 1:45 pm**

Raiko wrote: BTW: Since I think we eventually resolved the 'paying the Rukovs' stuff in chapter one, I'm also assuming that Maksim, Timour and Johnny all also have a small amount of cash on them at any time, from wages paid by Elizabeth or Andrei.

I've been assuming that, since the Downings trust Johnny with their daughter, they probably also trust him with their money. I wouldn't be surprised if he had access to Elizabeth's account on her behalf and can therefore draw funds as needed.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 2:31 pm**

That's a good point, fair enough.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:17 pm**

Wow....everyone's mad at each other! Crazy!

It'll be relieving to see the first argument ensue, just to cut the tension. I can't help but feel Timour is to blame for a lot of it.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:25 pm**

I think Timour should comfort Elizabeth.

Posted: **Wed Oct 24, 2007 5:45 pm**

I agree.....*does the yawn and stretch....arm happens to go around Elizabeth*

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:44 am**

Oh, I'm good. Oh yeah... Yeah, I'm good. Oh yeah! I win! I've won already! It's only a matter of time ... ooh yeah. Maks has won! Oh yeah! Diplomacy's cool! Oh yeah!

Gotta admit, I play a guy with Persuade 86%.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:03 am**

Don't worry, -I- don't think Maks is prattling (its a very good argument) - I'm describing it from Andrei's POV.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:47 am**

I still win!

You just CAN'T stay there now.

THEY won't let you.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:01 am**

Oh yes, don't get the getaway car driver what he wants. Of course not, you want a strong engine, not a car that can out-distance pursuers! Ai karumba, Maksim's just not gonna drive it, y'know that right? Of course you know it, it IS Maksim.

Ah well, we'll be needing two cars anyhow with all these people. Maksim will have Caroline and Andrei in his car and THEY'LL be the one to escape pursuers.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:41 am**

Laraqua wrote:Oh yes, don't get the getaway car driver what he wants.

I confess that my original post was a bit different. But I think the current one is more in character.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 8:44 am**

But what do you got against a fast car? Please, tell me you grab one that handles well! Who cares if the car can pull a tractor behind it. I have a NEED for SPEED!

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 10:34 am**

Sorry, the kids are off school this week, so I don't seem to be getting time to post from home.

I'll have the next post up at lunchtime today.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:07 pm**

I've updated the map at the start of the IC thread to show The Ritz.

I'll be updating the copies in the maps thread and on the wiki later today.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:18 pm**

You're the updating king!

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 2:30 pm**

Hmm, two suites with two bedrooms each (plus the butler spot for Johnny, I suppose). Makes for interesting possible combinations. Do Maksim and Caroline share a bedroom? Who's in Elizabeth's bedroom (if anyone)? Who shares the suite with her/them?

Of course, if Andrei does stay at the other hotel, then everyone can have their own bedroom ...

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 3:49 pm**

Actually there's a butler's spot in each suite.

Posted: **Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:14 pm**

Laraqua wrote:But what do you got against a fast car? Please, tell me you grab one that handles well! Who cares if the car can pull a tractor behind it. I have a NEED for SPEED!

Oh you know me...I'm just playing ic. Timour's secretly pissed at Maks for leaving him with Caroline. Spying his mom's wedding ring on her finger makes his skin crawl, especially after knowing Maks stole them without their knowledge.

I feel the tension.....I could cut it with a knife! lol So the car is the only bitter pill he has left to play with. Piss lil brother off to show him what it feels like! grrr!

In the end...he'll get the fast one. But he'll never let his little brother tell him what to do.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:27 am**

You can hire one of these, 90mph but only 4 seats. It should suit Maks' speed requirements though, a 3-litre Bentley won the 1924 Le-Mans 24 hour race

Bentley 3-Litre Speed Model 4-Seater Tourer 1925

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:02 am**

imme wrote:
Raiko wrote: BTW: Since I think we eventually resolved the 'paying the Rukovs' stuff in chapter one, I'm also assuming that Maksim, Timour and Johnny all also have a small amount of cash on them at any time, from wages paid by Elizabeth or Andrei.
I've been assuming that, since the Downings trust Johnny with their daughter, they probably also trust him with their money. I wouldn't be surprised if he had access to Elizabeth's account on her behalf and can therefore draw funds as needed.

I was thinking about this a bit today.
My initial response was that trust and money are funny things. If Johnny came in with a check and said "I need to you sign this to take care of X" it's possible that Miss D would sign without reading closely.
And I have no doubt that he's regularly paying for things and reimbursing himself from petty cash (or getting periodic alotments of petty cash in advance for the same purpose. -- taxis, food, etc). But I doubt that he has access to Elizabeth's actual accounts.
If the checking system is as well developed in the US I think that's probably how we're paying for the larger things. In Europe there may be some barriers to that...

The problem, really is, what does credit rating represent...
If it's a ready supply of cash so you can go on adventures (relatively small amounts) then Johnny probably can tap effectively into Miss D's in some fashion (in New York anyway, or any place with telex/telegram capacity to New York). If it's "actual wealth" then Johnny probably can't access more than 10~20%.
Of course if it's actual wealth that raises a whole lot of other questions I mean, most of their assets aren't going to be liquid anyway. Does it represent taking out a loan on a specific asset? Or tapping into some sort of existing loan facility that the Downings have.
In this day and age companies still make loans to directors so cash could even be availible from Downing corporate assets.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 8:15 am**

Y'know, if Maksim doesn't succeed with Andrei, he and Elizabeth will be having a few words ... likely quite heated words.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:06 am**

Please could somebody post the details of this invisible castle roll for here for me:

http://invisiblecastle.com/find.py?id=1336656

I'm at work at the moment, so I can't access invisible castle.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:29 am**

sorry, it's 30.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:41 am**

Credit rating, for this campaign anyway, is 'social standing' rather than wealth.

Wealth's just handled by career, and Elizabeth's is considerable.

Credit Rating receives penalties and bonuses as you journey from country to country.

For instance Elizabeth being an 'eligible American heiress' may actually receive a bonus in London (American 'old money' was very popular in Britain in the aftermath of the Great War, as the English nobility attempted to marry into wealthy American families to restore their own fortunes).

In Egypt or Kenya though, Elizabeth's credit rating will be penalised, as would any non-English credit rating. As traditional English snobbery is still very much the norm in 'the Colonies'.

Any of you can use a credit rating roll at any time, in place of any persuade or fast-talk roll, providing you are dealing with 'decent people'.

Alternatively the Maksims of this world can use fast talk in place of credit rating.

People (particularly in Britain and its colonies) will naturally assume that Johnny is a servant of Elizabeth, so he'll sometimes be able to use her credit rating in place of his own. At other times he'll be penalised purely for being Chinese.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 1:02 pm**

Laraqua & Coffee: Thanks for some excellent roleplaying, and for resolving the Andrei situation so quickly.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:04 pm**

I'll wait until Laraqua and Coffee have made one more post each, then I'll be able to move along both IC threads.

For those at The Ritz, please stay in the Palm Court Restaurant chatting until after my next post, so that I can keep both threads in sync with each other.

Posted: **Fri Oct 26, 2007 3:26 pm**

A quick way of getting around London, other than by car is on the London Underground, which was almost as extensive in 1925 as it is now. There are stations close to both The Ritz and the Penhew Foundation for example.

I'll be posting this 1925 underground map, taken from this website later today from home.

Traffic's heavy enough in London, that the underground's often a quick way to get around, particularly if you're cross the River Thames.

If you're splitting up then the Bentley and a couple of Underground tickets will get you all around London easily.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:21 am**

Didn't mean to break up the flow with my second to last post btw. Hopefully i've corrected the situation with the most recent one.

I think all the wiki work has made me aware of just how many tantalizingly scary strands there are in the web.

I'm not sure if Maks/Andrei are going to join us... but if they aren't it would be good to get some investigating going soon (i.e. the lady's trip to the foundation). We have us some ground to cover.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:08 am**

Don't look at me! Andrei's calling all the shots here.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:30 am**

Those men, always taking so long to get ready.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:03 am**

Don't worry; nobody's holding the game up at the moment. I've got all the information that I need to continue.

Neither Maks nor Andrei turn up at the Ritz before the rest of you are ready to leave.

I'll be able to post at lunchtime. I'll move the ladies to the Penhew Foundation in my next post, Johnny and Timour might as well pick up the Bentley while they're deciding where to go.

BTW: Before storming off Andrei mentioned that he would be getting in touch with Jackson's friend Nethaniel Moore. So if you are trying to cover several fronts at once, you might want to follow up one of Johnny's other suggestions.

Posted: **Mon Oct 29, 2007 2:53 pm**

I'm going to wait a few more hours, to see if anyone else has anything to post, I don't want to cut the conversation short.

I will post again today though, so Elizabeth and Caroline will arrive at the Penhew Foundation at the very least.

Note: As far as I can tell, car hire at this time was handled through hotels. So Johnny and Timour just need to wait at the Ritz for an hour or two for the Bentley to be delivered.

Unless of course Elizabeth is paying for them to actually buy the car.

Posted: **Tue Oct 30, 2007 12:33 am**

I've started a new thread for Elizabeth and Caroline:

http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/viewtop ... f=17&t=970

Johnny and Timour are still in the main thread for the moment.

Posted: **Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:17 am**

Raiko wrote:BTW: Before storming off Andrei mentioned that he would be getting in touch with Jackson's friend Nethaniel Moore. So if you are trying to cover several fronts at once, you might want to follow up one of Johnny's other suggestions.

Unless of course Johnny was cunningly planning on "running into" Andrei.

Posted: **Tue Oct 30, 2007 7:21 am**

Grafster wrote:Unless of course Johnny was cunningly planning on "running into" Andrei.

Of course.

Posted: **Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:04 pm**

Ok, I'm ready as soon as Johnny and Timour decide where to go.

You know where to find New Scotland Yard, if you want to contact Inspector Barrington.

You don't know where to find the offices of 'The Scoop', but if you can't get the address any other way then Fleet Street would be a reasonable place to start looking, it's where many of London's newspapers are based.

You don't know much about Nethaniel Moore, other than that he's a friend of Jackson's. He's possibly in the phone book.

I'm not sure that either of you have underworld contacts in London to get you grenades, but there is a notorious Chinatown in London's Limehouse district, Johnny could possibly acquire illegal weapons there. Limehouse is one of the worst parts of London's docklands, so do take care.

Alternatively perhaps Timour has an 'old war friend' in London that could help.

Posted: **Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:14 am**

The GM seems supportive of our acquisition of more military grade weaponry.
Should I be elated

or fearful

?

Posted: **Wed Oct 31, 2007 1:24 am**

Probably both!

Posted: **Wed Oct 31, 2007 8:11 pm**

I'm having a tonne of fun in this game! So many clues - I just read through a lot of them again. It's a really great combination of eerie documents. I really feel like I'm in the middle of a HPL / Indiana Jones story.

Really impressed with the module, and Raiko's solid Keepering, and everyone's roleplaying so far.

It's nice to have Andrei alone for a bit (maybe forever?), so I can roleplay his mental state.

Posted: **Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:19 am**

To quote a Simpsons halloween episode:

Homer: All work and no play make Homer something something.
Marge: Go crazy?
Homer: Don't mind if I do!

Happy Halloween!

Posted: **Thu Nov 01, 2007 1:34 am**

Yes Happy Halloween everybody! Sorry I've nothing scary to mark the occasion with, hopefully I can offer a 'belated Halloween scare' next month.

Posted: **Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:48 am**

I predict that someone's going to DIE in London, and we'll never know what happened to them! (which I personally think would be very cool)

Too much splitting up!

None of this would have happened if the horny Rukovs could keep their mitts off my lady.

(I haven't read any of the other threads, but it looks like we're all going all over the place...)

Posted: **Fri Nov 02, 2007 3:55 am**

horny Rukovs? lol....how do you know which it was, anyways? perhaps Maks grew a stache while you were hiding in your room....

Hey question for Raiko (or whomever wants to answer) Are we playing the wiki for knowledge our character doesn't have (in other words not playing out the additional information of asking questions and being answered?)

grafster...you're so good at linking the info to the place I'd find it, but in the latest instance, Timour was asleep and wouldn't really know what he's talking about.

Posted: **Fri Nov 02, 2007 6:47 am**

Not to answer for Raiko but I play it pretty straight myself. I've never read any of the threads that Johnny hasn't participated in So I really have no idea, for example, what was talked about with Erica Carlyle. I keep thinking I'll do it, but I feel like (to the limited degree that it's necessary) I can play Johnny more easily by just focusing on his experiences.
So, I don't think, if I were in your shoes, I would feel compelled to either read the link, or reflect the information there in your character. (See bottom paragraph for more about hyperlinking).
To my mind it's more than fair to either stop the action for your character to find out, or to "pass it buy" (i.e. I.e. let the action continue while registering that the character doesn't know -- Timour looks quizzically at Johnny says, "Sure man, whatever you say. You do the talking." and follows him into the building)

My impression is that the wiki is general knowledge shared amongst the party, but I don't think that it's necessary that everyone knows everything; it just means that you -could- know if your character would be the sort of person that knows or has a need to know. Example: I don't think Johnny knows the name of the books in the safe. I think he could easily find out and if it came up I might have him using that information without necessarily roleplaying it out (i.e. I call Thomas and ask him for the name of that book, or I talk to Elizabeth/Andrei and find out).
But if you were to ask me right now if Johnny knows the names of the books? No. He doesn't really think they're important and he doesn't know. Unless it would allow for some sort of really cool scene... (nothing springs to mind but you never know...)

My linking isn't meant to be any sort of "go read this" thing. I think I just like hyperlinking. I've been doing it a lot recently. Maybe I have unexpressed blogging urges. I messed around with a hyperlinked wiki novel recently (for like an hour but anyway...) it's still in the weird/cool/new stage for me.
Also, practically speaking, some of this stuff is pretty freaking obscure. I couldn't remember hearing anything about the Scoop but I thought we'd found out about it in the aftermath of Elias' murder. It turns out that we hadn't, that Cowles was the first person to notice.
I figure that anything that I had to search for most folks are going to have to search for, and since I searched, and had the link page open making the link was trivial.
Who knows, maybe I'll get bored and stop in a few weeks?

Posted: **Fri Nov 02, 2007 9:46 am**

It's up to you how you treat what's in the wiki.

For example, as far as Timour's knowledge of the conversation with Professor Colwes is concerned, you can either assume that somebody filled him in with the details during the voyage, or assume that Timour still doesn't know. But it's up to you, I don't mind either way.

There was sufficient time on the ship for Timour to have learned all of the 'general knowledge' stuff, but only if you want him to.

When we played this campaign as a tabletop game, my players had a huge notebook that quickly filled up with an impossible number of clues/characters. The wiki just seems a better way to keep track of a huge and (in the beginning) confusing campaign. The Scoop clue is a good example, and so long as it's kept up to date, the wiki is easier to search than the forum.

I must confess that I'm not sure how to handle it in the wiki if, for example Andrei or Maksim never rejoin the rest of you. Though I suppose it's easy to create 'sub-wikis' and then link everything up later.

coffee demon wrote:I predict that someone's going to DIE in London, and we'll never know what happened to them! (which I personally think would be very cool)

Too much splitting up!

You can't have too much splitting up in a horror story. It's great.

Posted: **Fri Nov 02, 2007 1:46 pm**

coffee demon wrote:I predict that someone's going to DIE in London, and we'll never know what happened to them! (which I personally think would be very cool)

Or, someone will die, be turned into a zombie, we'll never notice that they've changed until it's too late and they've betrayed us all and ... uh, I mean ... I'm sure we'll all be fine.

Posted: **Sat Nov 03, 2007 3:13 am**

Grafster & Trixie: If & when you're ready to enter the building let me know and I'll post again. Until then I'm leaving you to chat.

Posted: **Sat Nov 03, 2007 5:04 am**

So Raiko, you mean that Maksim only has to do that one little thing to be forgiven all his sins by Ny...

Oh bugger, this is a Post not a PM.

Posted: **Mon Nov 05, 2007 2:47 pm**

I've started a new thread for Johnny and Timour, and locked the main IC thread for now.

Kola_Bear never got back to me with a character sheet, so there will now only be one new player introduced into the game: DSIGFUSS.

Jtull_84 also has a new character, who will hopefully be joining you soon.

That means that there will be eight of you altogether, which is better anyway I think (the adventure's designed for 4-8 characters).

Hopefully everyone will live long enough for you all to be reunited.

Imme: Decrepit had let me know that he won't be able to post between Wednesday and the end of the week, so I'll concentrate the conversation on Elizabeth once you've replied.

Posted: **Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:25 am**

As some of you are either playing in or used to be in Welsh's Lure of the Nile / Cults of Cairo game, and maybe one or two of you are reading along, please could you all let me know how much you know.

I'm not expecting any synopsises, just "I've read it all," or "I know about Max and Reginald."

I'm asking because eventually your characters are likely to move onto Africa, and I'm trying to see whether I need to take anyone's knowledge of Welsh's game into account at all. Some NPCs are common to both of these games (obviously as Cults is a sort of prequel to both Masks and Shadows of Yog-Sothoth).

Posted: **Fri Nov 09, 2007 3:37 pm**

I was playing Reginald up through the "let's all meet and share what we've discovered" and the incident of a liquidy beast erupting from a member of the group at the IFAO. Then I handed off the reigns to Pianoman.

Posted: **Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:48 pm**

I read a fair bit of Welsh's game in the past. I've been reading Max's antics since DSIGFUSS started playing him. I have no idea what's happening overall, though, so I think I'm fine.

Posted: **Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:18 am**

Dood... I play Max and I just got out of the freaking Nile river. Don't have a clue what's going on. I took over the waking up on the shore of the Nile with no pants and no memory of how I got there. I've been fumbling in and out of the river since I started. It's been awesome, but I know next to nothing. Currently in Lure of the Nile, some hot young chick is molesting Max in front of her husband. Is that important?

So I guess that means that I know nothing of Max and nothing of Reginald. Eventually I imagine I'll piece it all together. Will that ruin Masks for me?

Posted: **Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:33 am**

I know nada.

Posted: **Mon Nov 12, 2007 5:00 pm**

DSIGFUSS wrote:Currently in Lure of the Nile, some hot young chick is molesting Max in front of her husband. Is that important?

I guess it probably is to Max.

DSIGFUSS wrote:So I guess that means that I know nothing of Max and nothing of Reginald. Eventually I imagine I'll piece it all together. Will that ruin Masks for me?

Masks won't be ruined for anyone, even if you've read everything in Lure.

I'm just gauging what OOC knowledge you have of some Masks NPCs.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 2:19 am**

Work + school = completely swamped for the next 48 hours.
Can I put Johnny on autopilot for the interim?

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 5:12 am**

Grafster wrote:I know nada.

Ditto.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:55 am**

Grafster wrote:Work + school = completely swamped for the next 48 hours.
Can I put Johnny on autopilot for the interim?

No problem.

Johnny, Timour, Elizabeth and Caroline all appear to be just about ready to meet up back at The Ritz. I'll move all four of you back there once I know that everyone's ready.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 8:59 pm**

FYI;

I believe DSIGFUSS is out of commission until next monday, Nov. 19th - he's travelling for work.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:11 pm**

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

I'll make a post in a few minutes that'll give Andrei something to do.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:20 pm**

CRAP!

Posted: **Thu Nov 15, 2007 9:53 am**

I've locked the two private threads again now, as they both seem to be complete.

So Johnny, Timour, Elizabeth and Caroline arrive back at The Ritz in this post. Please post in the main IC thread again.

Posted: **Sun Nov 18, 2007 11:42 pm**

Wow, Andrei's done a fabulous job re-making Maksim. Who woulda thunk it? He's actually channeling his aristocratic heritage!

And you thought sulky Maksim was bad enough.

Ah well, how's about another kiss, Andrei?

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:06 am**

Maksim Rukov wrote:Ah well, how's about another kiss, Andrei?

This is Andrei's revenge on Timour.

Timour 'stole' Andrei's girlfriend, so now Andrei's stealing Timour's brother.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:08 am**

If there's any more party splitting, I'm gonna scream.

Remember what Raiko said earlier about London being particularly dangerous?

There's a reason this game stretches to 8 players. You need 8 characters in tandem to survive it!

Oh boy...

So you other lot better stay together. The other threads are locked now. If there are more, random, separate threads appearing, I'ma gonna scream.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:52 am**

Screaming is to be expected in Cthulhu.....it's no big threat....

Just for the record, though....Maksim's screaming like a little girl?

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 3:22 am**

No, in frustration.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:03 am**

I'd forgotten Raiko called London dangerous.

In my defense... my initial version of my post suggested that Elizabeth and everyone hang out in the hotel bar, while Johnny lurks nearby trying to see if anyone is watching them.

Then I said... "we're never going to get -any-where doing that".

The problem with teams and sneaking is that, because of the way roleplaying games work adding an additional person decreases your chance of success drastically.

Look at it like this: Johnny's around 66% Sneak right now. If Timour or Maksim come along and try to follow somebody with Johnny? the odds of success drop to 6.6%. And that's if we only roll once. And if the GM does two resisted rolls (i.e. give the NPC two chances) then the odds become massively worse. I'm running out of hyperbolic adjectives... so I'll stop now.

We can also get information loudly (i.e. by talking to people) but that increases our risk of confirming someone is an evil cultist by way of them-pulling-out-a-knife, so to speak.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:11 am**

I would, of course, be very happy to have Timour sitting around the corner in the car with the BAR oiled and ready. I'm just not sure that that would actually work.

Is it possible to tail someone in a car? I, somewhat randomly, know that the standard CoC way to do this (from Delta Green) is for two skill rolls "driving" and "tradecraft". That seems a bit bothersome to me.
Of course, the fact that I don't have a tradecraft skill would make that an unappealing choice.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:38 am**

I think we do it with a Spot Hidden here. But you wouldn't want Timour for a job like that. No... You could, of course, tail him yourself, and then give Timour a call from a pay phone and have him drive by and lurk once you're there? Just so's you got back-up.

I get your logic. I'm just saying that the more we split up to do things the higher the chances are that someone gets caught and the lower the chances that the someone escapes.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:16 pm**

Laraqua wrote:Remember what Raiko said earlier about London being particularly dangerous?

Grafster wrote:I'd forgotten Raiko called London dangerous.

Actually once you leave New York everywhere is dangerous. Even New York if you go back.

I just mentioned London, because you seemed to be heading there next.

************************

Grafster wrote:And if the GM does two resisted rolls (i.e. give the NPC two chances) then the odds become massively worse.

This is quite a long post, and probably has loads of typos, but it should tell you exactly where you stand with me regarding skill rolls against NPCs. I'll be posting this into the thread with house rules in, in the general information sub-forum.

Personally, ever since thewhatchamacallit complained about the CoC shoot/dodge rules, I've decided that the BRP skill system works better using opposed dice rolls for most such tests.

As there aren't any formal rules for opposed checks, I'm still refining my own system, but here's how it stands at the moment. I'm happy with this, so it's unlikely to change.

1 Active vs. 1 Passive.

Eg: Johhny breaks into the Penhew Foundation, while the night watchman sits reading the evening newspaper.

Active guy (Johnny) makes his test (sneak), if he fails the passive guy (the watchman) gets to make a test (listen). If the passive guy succeeds, then he becomes 'active' for any future tests. In this case the watchman thinks he might have heard something, but he's not putting his newspaper away just yet.

If Johnny had rolled a glitch/critical failure (or whatever it's called in CoC/BRP), then if the watchman passes his roll, it's as if he'd been actively listening, and he'll investigate or raise the alarm or whatever he's supposed to do.

Eg(2): Elizabeth talks to Edward Gavigan at the Penhew Foundation, in order to get information about the foundation and Sir Aubrey, without seeming too interested.

Active 'guy' (Elizabeth) makes her test (fast talk / persuade), if she fails the passive guy (Edward Gavigan) gets to make a test (psychology). If the passive guy succeeds, then he becomes 'active' for any future tests. In this case Edward is surprised Elizabeth is so interested in Sir Aubrey, but isn't sure.

If Elizabeth had rolled a glitch, then if the Edward passes his roll, he'll be very suspicious as he'll realise that this is the real reason that Elizabeth is here.

1 Active vs. 1 Active.

In these cases, 1 participant is the 'attacker,' the other is the defender.

Eg: Johhny was breaking into the Penhew Foundation, while the night watchman sat reading the evening newspaper. Johnny rolled a glitch, the watchman passed his listen check, so now he's walking round with his flashlight looking for the intruder. Hearing the watchman approaching Johnny tries to hide behind a desk.

As the watchman is actively searching, he is classed as the 'attacker.' Both characters (Johnny and the Watchman) roll their respective skill checks (Hide and Spot Hidden). If both succeed then the margins of success compared to see who wins, but if the 'attacker' fails then they aways 'miss.' Eg. Johnny fails his hide check by 5%, but luckily the watchman fails his spot roll, so he walks on by without seeing Johnny - eventually he'll probably return to his newspaper.

Eg(2): Elizabeth was talking to Edward Gavigan at the Penhew Foundation, when she asked too many questions about Sir Aubrey, Edward became a little suspicious. (Elizabeth failed, Edward passed). Now Edward is paying closer attention to what Elizabeth is asking.

Edward is designated the 'attacker' as he is trying to see through Elizabeth's 'lies.' Both characters (Elizabeth and Edward) roll their respective skill checks (Fast Talk (not persuade in this case) and Psychology). Elizabeth passes her fast talk check by 40%, but the Edward also passes his Psychology roll by 42%, so he now knows that Elizabeth is snooping.

Eg(3): Timour shoots at the night watchman with his BAR, the watchman notices Timour taking aim so he's allowed to dodge.

Obviously in this case Timour is the attacker. Timour passes his machinegun test by 59%, the watchman only has 26% dodge so he doesn't even get to roll after all.

************************

I'm much happier using this system as it seems to get around the extremely low default skill levels in some things fairly realistically. For example, an average person can now hide from another average person most of the time, because the low default hide (10%) is opposed by an almost equally bad default spot hidden (25%).

Needing two successes (or a glitch by the sneaky guy) in order to go from passive to a full success is based on one of the better features of 'dice pool' type games (Shadowrun, World of Darkness, etc), where a single net success on a perception test usually just means that you 'might have heard something.'

************************

Grafster wrote:The problem with teams and sneaking is that, because of the way roleplaying games work adding an additional person decreases your chance of success drastically.

Look at it like this: Johnny's around 66% Sneak right now. If Timour or Maksim come along and try to follow somebody with Johnny? the odds of success drop to 6.6%.

In the case of three or four people breaking into the Penhew Foundation, although all of them would have to make separate sneak tests, in the Active vs Passive situation the lazy watchman would still only get to make one listen check. If that fails then the results of the sneak checks don't matter.

This is much more realistic, I think. Most 'night watchmen' aren't going to have a very high listen skill, and even if he passes once, he'll still probably not investigate immediately.

And four people are much less stealthy than one person in real life too. As you can see from the examples, if Johnny decided to break into the Penhew Foundation alone he'd almost certainly be successful, unless they're expecting him and lying in wait. But even if you broke in as a team, your chances are still probably high. You'd by less stealthy, but would have access to a wider range of skills and greater numbers if you ended up in combat.

Grafster wrote:And that's if we only roll once.

If the first sneak check is successful (assuming it's an active vs passive roll) then I wouldn't check again during the burglary unless:
(a) You do something that's obviously noisy - moving something heavy, breaking a window, etc.
(b) The guards / watchmen actually walk the grounds rather than sitting reading. If they cross your path there would be a further sneak vs listen and/or hide vs spot hidden check. Again though, this would begin as active (you) vs passive (them), unless they've been forewarned that there will be a break in.

Grafster wrote:Is it possible to tail someone in a car? I, somewhat randomly, know that the standard CoC way to do this (from Delta Green) is for two skill rolls "driving" and "tradecraft". That seems a bit bothersome to me.
Of course, the fact that I don't have a tradecraft skill would make that an unappealing choice.

Following somebody in a car is a bit of a problem with CoC's skillset. I'd probably use the average of Drive Auto and Sneak. Again in most situations the trailing would start with an active vs passive check. So you're unlikely to be noticed unless the guy you're following is actually actively looking for a tail.

************************
If anyone really dislikes my way of handling these situations, then I'm happy to make changes, but I genuinely think it works better than the 'standard' system.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 12:46 pm**

I should probably add that the above example with Elizabeth and Edward Gavigan is just an example, and isn't necessarily what actually happened.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 1:12 pm**

Laraqua wrote:So you other lot better stay together. The other threads are locked now. If there are more, random, separate threads appearing, I'ma gonna scream.

If Maksim sticks with Andrei and his friends from now on, then I'll be splitting the whole thing into two main threads for now.

If he goes off on his own, then there will be three.

I'll be tidying up the locked threads as soon as I'm fairly sure what's happening. I'm never more than 'fairly sure' what Maks is going to do next.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 8:34 pm**

Laraqua wrote:So you other lot better stay together. The other threads are locked now. If there are more, random, separate threads appearing, I'ma gonna scream.

I wouldn't call them "random", since characters are intentionally splitting off, for whatever reason.

Regardless, I can see how Raiko would prefer to keep two threads, max, to save Keeper-ing time. But I'm happy some threads split off. It helped develop character, and also gives us a feeling that we can do whatever we want in the game.

Posted: **Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:19 pm**

You can each go your separate ways if you like, and I'll run eight separate threads. Don't worry about me.

And I'm sure Laraqua doesn't really mind all those threads. Not when you look how many there are in her games.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:26 am**

Raiko wrote: If anyone really dislikes my way of handling these situations, then I'm happy to make changes, but I genuinely think it works better than the 'standard' system.

I love this system! It addresses any technical concerns (which I didn't have regarding this game, 'cause it's been great so far) I may have had.

It also makes having higher skills far more meaningful/make sense in a game context.

I (somewhat seriously) think you should write a monograph or something for CoC.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:19 am**

Damn you, Timour! Maksim has to suffer Andrei's company rather than the sane people and it's ALL your fault.

*sighs*

There's nowhere else for Maksim to go currently so no more split threads for me. Though he could go for some more fish and chips. Maybe a glass of sherry or a pint of vodka. That's right, a pint. You heard me right.

As to the fear of split-threads, I've nothing against splitting threads, per se. It's just that we're all going to die so much faster in this. Games like Ash are scaled, somewhat, in difficulty so you can survive better, sometimes, alone. But this is Masks... There is no kindness in Masks.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 8:57 am**

If we were sitting around a table roleplaying, I'd mention this, so here goes...

I was just re-reading the Egyptian Murderer article, and I noticed something. It says he's been called the Egyptian Murderer cuz of the nationality of people he's been killing. However, it's suspected that the most recent victim was Asian. Not Egyptian. Maybe its not the same guy?

I dunno if that makes a difference. Just thought I'd comment. Andrei has other things on his mind, but hopefully everyone is okay with an OC contribution. For all I know you've all discussed this in the other thread already. It -is- something Andrei has read, though, so I figure I can comment. If it was something you've discovered without Andrei's knowledge, I wouldn't say anything.

Posted: **Tue Nov 20, 2007 4:53 pm**

Laraqua wrote:Damn you, Timour! Maksim has to suffer Andrei's company rather than the sane people and it's ALL your fault.

No one forced you to go running after your lover Maksim. I know, I know, the fear of marriage....especially to a woman....considering your closet relationship with Andrei....

I mean I think it's great that you're being straight with yourself....but I guess 'straight' is a poor word choice there.....

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:02 am**

Actually we have information from Mickey that's similar. But it's not race related. It has to do with something he heard from inspector barrington about the method of killings.
I'm still deep in school work but I'll see if I can get the wiki updated.

PS Johnny is ready to go follow people, can I just post that he does that?

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:45 am**

Yes, Johnny can leave now, if you're ready.

The rest of you at The Ritz can continue your conversation over the meal, or skip that and leave the hotel if you plan to visit the painter.

Sorry, I've not been able to be online much today. I'll be back online all day tomorrow.

I'll try to reorganise the threads a little better tomorrow as well.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:32 am**

Ok, that should have occured to me that we may not play out dinner. Timour is going to the painter's house with or without help. If no one decides to go with him, he might try to find Maks, and if still to no avail, go alone.

It's clear he's the only one that really wants to go so far....but everyone keeps telling me our peeps shouldn't be alone.....why?

hahahha!

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 3:08 am**

So what other character are you thinking of playing?

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 8:46 am**

I think you could easily convince people to go poking about meet a painter with a few well placed words.

If it is a red herring, which it could well be, it could still be a really fun red herring. Some of the best stuff in CoC adventures is "sidequest" type digressions.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 10:52 am**

trixie wrote:Ok, that should have occured to me that we may not play out dinner.

I don't mind if you play out the dinner, just don't feel that you have to.

trixie wrote:...but everyone keeps telling me our peeps shouldn't be alone.....why? hahahha!

You're perfectly safe on your own.

Oh yes, everyone's safe alone.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:11 pm**

I've tidied the threads up a little now.

There are now two main IC threads, one is the original main thread which now includes Elizabeth, Caroline, Timour and Johnny.

The other started when Andrei left the main group and now includes Andrei, Maksim and Nethaniel.

Both of the other IC threads from this chapter are now in the 'Private Threads(Ch 2)' sub-forum. If anyone goes off alone, then their new private thread will be created in there, rather than in the main forum.

I'm sticking with just one OOC thread, if I've anything to say that I don't want the other group(s) to know, then I'll either post it in the IC thread, or PM it.

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:07 pm**

Echoing what Decrepit already said, Elizabeth is not excited to go see crazy paintings, but since Timour seems bent on going, she will go as well so that he's not on his own. (And I agree with Grafster, I'm looking forward to the paintings.)

Posted: **Wed Nov 21, 2007 6:24 pm**

Ok, I'll move the game along.

Timour, Elizabeth & Caroline visit the painter after dinner (see Maks! Timour gets all the girls).

Johnny leaves before dinner to stake out the Penhew Foundation.

If anyone wants to make a final IC post at the Hotel you've got a few hours. I'll try to have a post up tonight (about midnight GMT).

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:16 am**

imme wrote:Echoing what Decrepit already said, Elizabeth is not excited to go see crazy paintings, but since Timour seems bent on going, she will go as well so that he's not on his own. (And I agree with Grafster, I'm looking forward to the paintings.)

Caroline can get talked into it too. She's interested in psychology, after all, just not quite sure whether this isn't just a distraction.

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:36 am**

I know it probably doesn't need to be said, but don't take offence at Andrei's rudeness, Laraqua. Only trying to keep him in character. I'm sure you realise this by now....

Posted: **Thu Nov 22, 2007 2:41 pm**

I've updated the London map to include some of the current locations.

Note: I've had to move the painter Miles Shipley's house back to 6 Holbein Mews (a fictitious location, where it appears in the printed adventure).

I had moved it to a real street in the Chelsea district, but unfortunately that's off the map (even the inset map that shows more of London).

I decided that it's better to keep things on the one map where possible.

Posted: **Fri Nov 23, 2007 7:09 am**

Timour would ensure he's armed before entering the painter's place. (Not that he'd make it overly obvious to the ladies, as he wouldn't want to worry them.)

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:27 am**

Would people feel less anxious about character death if we talked about secondary character ideas?

I of course will be playing Johnny's long lost twin brother, Jimmy Wong, who by strange coincidence, also happens to be a kung-fu knowing private detective. He's currently moonlighting as a bell boy at whatever-hotel-we're-staying-at-when-Johnny-bites-it. He's not lame though, he's just got a glass eye. I mean, it would be totally unreasonable for him to have the same sort of injury as Johnny.

(the second para aside the first question was serious)

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:43 am**

I've thought about possible second characters for myself, but I don't have more than vague ideas. If/when we do lose characters, we may well lose a few in one go. (Except of course for Johnny, who will sneak off some time and never be heard from again.) Hopefully new characters will fill gaps in expertise in our party and have a good reason for joining the group. Who will die, and when, are hard to predict (beyond the obvious Everybody and Now), so it's hard for me, at least, to think up specific ideas. The only thing I do know is that when Elizabeth dies, we'll be down one super-rich socialite, and I doubt I'll want to play her reincarnation.

But I do look forward to meeting Jimmy, hopefully no time soon.

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2007 8:17 am**

That is an interesting point. If certain skillsets are required to advance then replacement characters will have to, in some combination, cover the gaps left by the dead (i.e. the players old characters). People generally won't want to play similar characters. So to effectively create new characters we -need- to all die together....

That's the only solution!

Right guys?
Guys...?

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:52 pm**

Maksim has a daughter of sorts... Well, obviously. None legitimate, of course.

Also, watching Casanova with David Trennant. UP to the wedding scene. How sad is all that!

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 12:13 am**

grafster wrote:So to effectively create new characters we -need- to all die together....

That's the only solution!

Right guys?
Guys...?

Oh sure, you say this AFTER Johnny takes the weeny way out and runs for his life?

hahahha.....i assure you just kidding. But see, Timour would rather it this way anyhow. Two arms.....two ladies. It's ALL good.

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 2:52 am**

trixie wrote:Oh sure, you say this AFTER Johnny takes the weeny way out and runs for his life?

Of course! We've established that Johnny has access to some of the Downing's money, right?
Added into the money he gets from selling you all out and he'll be sipping boat drinks on some tropical island and watching the apocalypse roll in.

Random OOC posts aside I'm kinda busy this week. Next week or the week after I'll update the Wiki to reflect the clues we've picked up so far.

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 3:51 pm**

Grafster wrote:I of course will be playing Johnny's long lost twin brother, Jimmy Wong, who by strange coincidence, also happens to be a kung-fu knowing private detective. He's currently moonlighting as a bell boy at whatever-hotel-we're-staying-at-when-Johnny-bites-it. He's not lame though, he's just got a glass eye. I mean, it would be totally unreasonable for him to have the same sort of injury as Johnny.

See, in good high school-level RPGing style, he should've been called Johnny II or Johnny Jr.

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 5:27 pm**

This is very morbid.

I've even not killed any of you yet.

Although I killed characters in both BtMoM and my tabletop D&D game last week, so maybe it's your turn this week.

As for replacement characters, I've not worried at all about relevant skills so far. Everybody just created the characters that they wanted. As far as I remember I went to sleep one night and woke up to find about 200 posts in the recruitment thread where you guys had sorted out your backgrounds.

So if someone dies, just bring in whichever character seems right at the time. Don't worry too much about 'having the right skill' as there isn't any guarantee that anyone processes that special skill now anyway.

Remember though, a character that might be able to fit straight in in London, might seem really stupid in Egypt or Kenya or R'lyeh.

BTW: Sorry for the slow weekend.

Posted: **Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:57 pm**

I'm sure Caroline and Beth wouldn't make the society pages in R'lyeh, except under a headline such as "Fashionable Americans Have Brains Extracted, Souls Consumed."

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 1:59 am**

Sorry I've not had chance to post from home tonight, when I thought that I would.

I'll have time to make all the necessary posts at lunchtime tomorrow though.

One or two of you have PMs from me. If you could reply to them it will speed things along tomorrow.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:29 pm**

Crazy sauce! Isaac Mendez in my thread!

And a question.....why is the door lockable with key from the inside? hmmm

Also, it looks like Timour has sunk himself in a little further than he'd planned..

..uh...ya.....shirley! dorothy! RUUUUUUN!!!!!

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:35 pm**

trixie wrote:And a question.....why is the door lockable with key from the inside? hmmm

Maybe it's just a British thing, but my front door's lockable with a key from inside as well.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:00 pm**

Jtull: If you're reading this then we're ready for you to join in (I've PM'd you, but you've not been online).

You can post as soon as they enter Room 4.

If you haven't posted by my lunchtime tomorrow, then I'll have to keep things moving myself as you've not been logged in for a week now.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 7:53 am**

*shudders*

This thread gives me goose bumps!

Egads.....

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:43 am**

Don't give away what's going on in your thread, Trixie! I haven't read a single thing that the others have done since Andrei got off the train. I do know there's something about paintings.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:28 pm**

Sorry.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:36 pm**

Maybe I should have separate OOC threads after all.

And a Chat Thread as well.

I've got to admit that I dislike typing long OOC stuff in the IC threads, but I've been doing that quite often recently to avoid spoilers.

Posted: **Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:09 pm**

Oh its no biggy. I should've zipped it a long while back. I'm used to Ash. Anyways I was even wondering if I should pm you with questions, Raiko, and then I just got lazy and posted in here.

*zips mouth shut* I'm not offended btw....just for the record.

Posted: **Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:26 pm**

I haven't read anything other than my threads and the OOC either.
I've seen one person screaming CRAP and a few people being very anxious, but Johnny remains blissfully unaware of anything beyond the dull and ordinary.

For the record I think you can go overboard with too many threads. I understand the temptation but I think that OOCing in threads is really the only choice.

On the other hand a pure OOC thread has certain advantages. Like if it's purely for out of game stuff then you could put what your characters were thinking. Or declare combat actions and so forth. The problem is that you'd then want to read the threads side by side. Message boards aren't at the stage where you can have multiple threads that mix depending on settings or what have you.

Personally I am inclined to just say that when the groups get seperated we'll stick with OOC in the IC. But I am not the decision maker.

PS. Raiko, I'll be less spastically obessively busy, but still busy this week as well (another test on Saturday). I will have time to post, but if you need to roll Johnny back to handle more pressing matters that works for me as well. Just FYI.

I will update the wiki this week, I think. With the stuff I know only though.

Posted: **Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:16 pm**

Sorry for being so slow at the moment, I realise that all of your character's are in exciting situations at the moment, so it's a very bad time for my posts to dry up.

I don't expect to be too busy this week, so I should be able to keep things moving quickly again.

I absolutely promise at least one post per day for each group this week.

Grafster: That includes Johnny, don't worry he won't be left out!

And thanks very much for all your efforts on the wiki. Lets hope that everyone is eventually reunited, so that the wiki can tell the whole story.

Posted: **Wed Dec 05, 2007 8:03 pm**

...and I'm back! Almost. Quite a predicament Gwen has gotten herself into I must say. PS: Iraq has an internal Gov't oversight department. Who knew? *raises his demitasse of chai* Cheers!

Posted: **Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:56 pm**

Sorry to hold things up, I was very busy at work on Friday, so I didn't have time to post.

I'll try to post for everyone tonight.

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:26 pm**

Sorry for the hold up. I’ll try to get a move on, but this might keep happening until Christmas. BTW: Could you all let me know whether you plan to post over the holiday period or not? I should be able to post fairly regularly in the evenings, but I’ll try to work the plot around any absences - I’ll take a break if several of you will be unavailable.

****************************

I’ve decided to use spoiler tags for OOC posts within the IC threads; it’s neater, but there are a few problems with the spoiler tags on here:

1) If you try nesting tags inside the spoiler tags, then all of your spoiler text appears outside the spoiler.

2) If you put ‘straight single quotes’ (ie ') inside the spoilers then the text is hidden, but it can’t be viewed at all - luckily I normally write posts in MS Word then cut & paste, and Word includes the option to automatically convert to smart quotes - ie 'test' becomes ‘test’.

I don’t mind whether you guys use spoiler tags or not, in my opinion the second problem makes them unusable unless you’re using a decent word processor to write posts in (can’t believe that I’ve just said MS Word - aka the bane of my life™ - is decent

)

Examples:

This text works:

Code: Select all

[spoiler]I’m a test[/spoiler]

It produces this output (you should be able to click it):

Spoiler:

This text doesn’t work:

Code: Select all

[spoiler]I'm a test[/spoiler]

It produces this output (you shouldn’t be able to click it):

Spoiler:

This text works:

Code: Select all

[spoiler]I’m a [b]test[/b][/spoiler]

It produces this (broken) output:

Spoiler:

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 3:11 pm**

I should be able to post over the holidays.
(Btw, in our thread we've all decided to swear loyalty to Mr. N. I hope you other PCs don't mind. He seems like a really nice guy. But I don't think Raiko saw it coming, so you can blame his slow posting on our massive-confusion-inducing choice.)

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:01 pm**

Mr. N will take care of aaaall of us. He is our friend.

Btw Raiko, spoilers are finicky, so instead of using them, in another game we just use tiny font size to tell things other players wouldn't be able to hear (or understand if in another language) Seems to work. You just have to move it somewhere and increase the font size.

This is a test.

Although it's good to note that even with a finicky spoiler code, simply hitting quote will allow the reader to view them all, finicky or not.

I'll be posting after the 26th of Dec. I will likely take three days off between the 23rd and the 26th. Happy Holidays everyone!

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 8:39 pm**

Caroline is going to be the new high priestess. As long as we have that straight, we're golden.

I won't be gone over the holidays, so post away.

Posted: **Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:53 pm**

I'm goin nowhere. I'll be blasting carols over my Hummvee's loudspeaker on post. Maybe I'll wear a santa hat. See you on the boards.

Posted: **Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:43 am**

I loves me some spoiler blocks. I thought we couldn't do them here.

I haven't got holiday plans per say, but our first baby is due in a week or so. I remain optimistic (perhaps excessively optimistic) about my ability to continue to carve out a little bit of time for online roleplaying (read: having free time during working hours).

Posted: **Tue Dec 11, 2007 1:59 am**

You weren't kidding, that's one irritating bug.

Posted: **Tue Dec 11, 2007 4:57 am**

Congrats Grafster.....new babies are such a joy. Or....well.....um...ya a joy.

I have two myself....but a bit of a break is to be expected considering. I couldn't imagine anything less than a week personally. After that you'll have your life back, minus the sleep.

(sorry....)

Posted: **Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:41 pm**

Congratulatons, Grafster, and good luck with everything. I'll bet you can sneak a laconic post in on occasion, but kids do tend to change the old priorities around, which I'm sure you're tired of hearing people say.

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:57 am**

Absolutely nothing wrong with hearing it again!
Thanks for the good wishes.

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:03 am**

Congratulations Grafster, I hope everything goes well.

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:44 am**

Ditto.

Posted: **Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:14 pm**

Three cheers!

Posted: **Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:22 pm**

Sorry, I don’t think that I’ll be able to post at all today - I should be able to in another 24 hours.

Posted: **Thu Dec 13, 2007 10:37 pm**

Sorry guys, I've just moved (again) and started rehearsals for a project I'm working on. No internet at home, so I have to go to a coffeeshop, which is difficult when I have 12-14 hours of work to do every day. I'll do my best to post when I can. Will post in a bit.

Apologies for not giving notice sooner...

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:15 pm**

coffee demon wrote:Sorry guys, I've just moved (again) and started rehearsals for a project I'm working on. No internet at home, so I have to go to a coffeeshop, which is difficult when I have 12-14 hours of work to do every day. I'll do my best to post when I can. Will post in a bit.

Apologies for not giving notice sooner...

But I thought you were a coffee demon. Shouldn't you have some special powers?

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2007 5:12 am**

If you ever saw him consume coffee in r/l, you'd know that he does.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:25 am**

Hi everyone, sorry for the hold up - I’ve been a little busy (end of year rush), but hopefully I’m nearly finished now.

I should be able to post again either this evening, or tomorrow during my lunchtime. After that I don’t expect any more hold-ups from my end.

BTW: Coffee Demon - No worries if you’re struggling to post, as you can see I’m not doing very well myself. I’ll just let each thread run at the pace of it’s own players during the Christmas period.

Posted: **Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:32 pm**

Yeah... that's a good idea. Christmas is always brutal!

Posted: **Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:48 pm**

Cool, was kinda worried there. Been stuck in a communications blackout for 4 days or so, glad I haven't missed anything. Also, congrats grafster!

Posted: **Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:34 pm**

Sorry, I've been much busier than expected at work prior to the start of the holidays.

I've finished until the new year now though.

I'll catch up on things and get things moving along again over the weekend - this game will have priority, as my last post was in BtMoM.

Posted: **Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:44 pm**

Sorry again for the big hold up. I've posted in each thread now, and I'll be able to post every day again. I'll sending PMs to everyone so that you all know the game is up and running again.

I hope you are all having a nice Christmas.

Posted: **Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:36 pm**

I'm back at work again now, so I should be able to resume my regular lunchtime posts.

It's pretty sad being glad to get back to work

, but I felt really guilty being unable to post regularly during the break.

Posted: **Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:03 pm**

Well, I think you're feeling too guilty. The site was dead almost every day, and even if you had been posting, I doubt we would have. No worries in my books. I went for three or four days without even checking it over the holidays. Breaks are good. I needed it, as I'm sure did the rest of all of us.

Posted: **Fri Jan 04, 2008 3:21 am**

The interwebz demand sacrifices for your crimes!
Only giving PCs magic items will appease them!

-Graf
(Now with twice the caffeine and half the sleep!)

Posted: **Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:05 pm**

Ooh! Or superpowers! I demand telekinesis! ha ha ha

Grafster....boy or girl?

Posted: **Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:32 am**

A boy!
He's so cute when he's asleep.

Not that the tortured crying at 2am also isn't adorable.
It is.
Really.
I love it.

All told things went great though, so we're thrilled.

Posted: **Mon Jan 07, 2008 4:31 am**

Yay! Congrats! Babies are sooooo fun. Especially when they learn to smile. Around a month or so. Nothing's cuter than your baby smiling back at you. Awww!

Posted: **Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:17 am**

Congrafst!

Posted: **Tue Jan 08, 2008 8:14 am**

Timour's about to get a smack in the face...I can just feel it coming on

Posted: **Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:33 pm**

Timour's lucky:

Laraqua/Maksim wrote:OOC: If I lose enough hit points to die, can I have a few moments for one of them last words things?

Sure you can.

Anyone who dies gets to speak some last words / write some message in their own blood / whatever.

*********

Onto a happier subject:

Congratulations Grafster!

Don't worry the sleepless nights don't last forever.

Posted: **Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:43 am**

I think that everyone's responded now, I'll try to post in every thread later today.

Grafster, sorry I've not posted in your thread yet, I'm trying to get everyone back into sync.

Posted: **Sun Jan 13, 2008 6:42 pm**

trixie wrote:Timour's about to get a smack in the face...I can just feel it coming on

Elizabeth was always taught that one should never smack someone while they're driving. I hope you're not disappointed.

Posted: **Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:07 am**

No worries! I knew the "risks" when I went off on my own little solo jaunt.

And thank you, everyone, for the congratulations!
The grunting little defecation machine is a true joy.

Posted: **Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:14 pm**

Sorry, I had another long weekend, I promise that that was the last one for now, we’ve been having a big post-Christmas tidy out at home, but it’s all done now.

Back to the game - I’ve made quite brief posts in every thread of both my games, hopefully most / all of you should be able to post again.

I’ll post again tonight if there’s any need, if not then I’ll move things along in about 24 hours.

Posted: **Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:55 am**

In this time of slow posting I thought I would remind everyone that Dennis Detwiller (writer for Pagan Publishing and all around CoC ur-nerd) recently opined that Lovecraft was 'fundamentally a modernest' and that he preferred the 'modern era CoC' in a video interview.

And, after all that, he then went on to note that despite his bias he thought Masks was the best CoC campaign ever.

--from the man has lots of time to watch videos while rocking baby to sleep

Posted: **Mon Jan 21, 2008 7:47 am**

Aaaawww.....I want a baby to rock to sleep! I miss those times. Beam him over for a spell, so that you and hunny can go on a date. You'll get him back when he starts bawling at 1 am. Promise.

I'll just settle for the purring cat on my lap at the moment. *sigh*

Posted: **Thu Jan 24, 2008 10:19 pm**

Grafster wrote:In this time of slow posting I thought I would remind everyone that Dennis Detwiller (writer for Pagan Publishing and all around CoC ur-nerd) recently opined that Lovecraft was 'fundamentally a modernest' and that he preferred the 'modern era CoC' in a video interview.

Interesting. A modernist as in someone fond of modernity, or a literary modernist?

Posted: **Thu Jan 24, 2008 11:33 pm**

Apologies for not checking in daily - opening night for a play I'm working on is tommorrow. After that, I should be back to daily posts. Looking forward to it! Andrei is out for blood.

Posted: **Fri Jan 25, 2008 6:09 pm**

Break a leg coffee!

Decrepit wrote:
Grafster wrote:In this time of slow posting I thought I would remind everyone that Dennis Detwiller (writer for Pagan Publishing and all around CoC ur-nerd) recently opined that Lovecraft was 'fundamentally a modernest' and that he preferred the 'modern era CoC' in a video interview.
Interesting. A modernist as in someone fond of modernity, or a literary modernist?

As someone who set his stories in the modern age and aggressively incorporated the newest scientific developments into his stories (c.f. attack submarines blowing up fishmen, expeditions to Antartica, etc). At least that was my interpretation of his statements.

It's an argument that makes a lot of sense to me; obviously Lovecraft was an antiquarian too (if I'm using that word correctly) but as a horror writer who found modern stuff horrifying he mined that vein (Yuggoth/Pluto, Antartica, modern technology extending life unnaturally, aliens, submarines torpedoing underground kingdoms, time travel) extensively IMHO.
Obviously he did his Charles Dexter Wards, Things on the Doorsteps and (of course) Call of Cthulhus. But even then I think that he worked in modern elements (psychology, steamships).

The answer was in responce to the question: what is your favorite CoC era to play in... I don't think it was meant to be a final statement on HPL's writing so much as a general statement about CoC gaming.

Personally, I think your average CoC adventure writer, if they're really any good, will do better telling a modern story. The 1920s is getting on a hundred years ago. I'm honestly, really, pretty unclear on the era. I started with Johnny as a noir detective (which is what? 1950s?) and that was a (pleasant) stretch.

Of course, I brought it up because the answer to the next question (favorite game) was answered with an unequivicable:
Masks is the best!

Posted: **Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:22 pm**

Sorry everyone, I’ve had a few very busy RL days and I’ve also found that my Web Host has been down for a couple of days (which means that the BtMoM blog & character sheets and also the Masks Wiki are down).

I think I’ve got a way to get the web sites back up within 24 hours, and I should be able to make some IC posts later today as well.

I have had time to keep up to date with both games, I’ve just not had chance to post

Posted: **Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:20 pm**

Quick update:

My hosting company is gone.

So I’m going to quit bothering about that stuff for a day or two and concentrate on getting things moving again here.

I hope to be able to make some posts tonight, but I run my ‘real life’ D&D game on Friday nights, so I may not have time. If not then I will certainly be online here posting on Saturday (we’ve got a quiet weekend planned).

I hope to get my own websites back up and running in the next week or two, I’m not rushing, as I’m looking into getting more reliable web hosting this time.

I’ll be providing a blog for BtMoM again, and possibly for Masks as well. The Masks wiki will return, but I’m not planning on having a BtMoM wiki this time as nobody seemed interested in it (please correct me if I’m wrong).

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:49 pm**

Sounds good to me.
I've been a bit swamped but I did like the wiki.

Don't know if it should be a priority but is was very cool

Posted: **Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:28 pm**

I’ve pretty much decided on a new web host, hopefully I’ll start putting my websites back up later this week.

Raiko wrote:a quiet weekend

My wife had other plans for the ‘quiet’ weekend.

Posted: **Tue Feb 12, 2008 2:04 am**

Hehe.
Flexibility is where it's at.

The game? It waits.

Posted: **Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:56 pm**

I'm not very well today, I'll try to keep posting, but if I go quiet again you know why.

I've registered with a new web host, I'll be putting the blog and wiki back up as soon as possible, but getting the actual games back up to speed takes priority.

Posted: **Fri Feb 15, 2008 6:52 pm**

I know that usually not much happens over the weekend, but fyi, I'll be offline the next 3-4 days.

Play@YSDC

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Big tangent

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Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925

Re: OOC: Chapter 2 - LONDON, Starts 28th Jan 1925