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

[Raiko]

I'm definitely ok to post as normal during the week though.

It seems that every time I write the word definitely I jinx myself!

I had a very long and busy first day back at work, but I got a lot done, so hopefully my schedule will be ok again now.

[Raiko]

I seem to be fully up to speed again now.
I've managed to get posts into all of the IC threads and can post at least once per day per thread again! Happy days!

It doesn't look like Trixie will be rejoining us yet, so I've offered Helen in the recruitment thread. I'm not bothered if no one wants to use her though.

Yalesha will remain an NPC, Imme preferred to wait for Elizabeth to have something to do, and that thread is active again now.

[Raiko]

Rbiddle will be joining us playing the librarian/archaeologist Helen, from the Penhew Foundation thread. I'll be PMing character details, etc to rbiddle tonight.

Welcome to the game (and thanks giving me one less NPC to look after).

[rbiddle]

Hi everyone.

I'm excited about taking over Helen. I'm fairly new to CoC, and even newer to Play by Post. I'm reading the current IC thread and hope to get caught up shortly to jump in the action.

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome, Rbiddle!

[Raiko]

Ok, slight delay, but I've now PMed Helen's character sheet to rbiddle. Hopefully we can sort out all the necessary details by the start of next week, but there just about enough on the character sheet and in the IC thread to let rbiddle join in immediately.

[SuAside]

Hi everyone.

I'm excited about taking over Helen. I'm fairly new to CoC, and even newer to Play by Post. I'm reading the current IC thread and hope to get caught up shortly to jump in the action.

I'm sorry for bloodying up your character, rbiddle, but I fear the alternative might have been worse.

Welcome!

[rbiddle]

Agreed... It's a good thing I didn't really like this dress anyways; I get the impression I'm REALLY a mess right now.

[coffee demon]

I like your first post, rbiddle! Definitely adding realism to the drama. Also really enjoying your posts, SuAside.

Jay

[Decrepit]

I can pick up again if y'all want me. If you've moved on, I understand. I was heavily preoccupied with dissertation work, which is, I hope, mostly done now.

[SuAside]

I can pick up again if y'all want me. If you've moved on, I understand. I was heavily preoccupied with dissertation work, which is, I hope, mostly done now.

Jump back in! Whatcha waiting for!?!

[Raiko]

I can pick up again if y'all want me. If you've moved on, I understand. I was heavily preoccupied with dissertation work, which is, I hope, mostly done now.

Jump back in! Whatcha waiting for!?!

Absolutely, welcome back!

Sorry for completely botching an important roll for Caroline in your absence.

[SuAside]

OC,I was travelling, then got really sick. Sorry I missed out. It's really too bad, because I was looking forward to roleplaying all that. Kinda sucks to be bumped forward in time, but I understand. I do feel a little displaced from the narrative now though. It's like Andrei was getting all violent, then suddenly he ceased to exist and people started talking about "what next". I'lll try to find a way to work out the logic in my brain, I guess. Just assume Andrei is dopey and despondent for now, then, and carry on.

I agree it's a bit sad we missed the opportunity to play it out, but keeping pace is vital to having this story play out, especially with a new player aboard. With no interaction in almost a week, we needed to press on. If people start to see no posts coming, they'll slowly get out of the habit of checking in daily and soon enough the RP slowly dies. (case in point: Check my post count, now guess how many of the games I've participated in came to an conclusion: none in story, one by death of character. )

Maybe we can do a "Timour and Andrei" outtake / extended edition / GameMaster's cut?

[Mr. Handy]

Zombie Apocalypse is the game you left after your last character died, back in Chapter 3, and the game is actually still going after almost six years, now in Chapter 7. I've been struggling to keep it moving at a decent pace, however. The slowdown started late in Chapter 6, but it got worse in Chapter 7 due to a combination of me not having enough time to update it as frequently and some long-time players dropping out after Chapter 6. It's never been in much danger of actually dying to the large number of players, but that number has dwindled significantly. I've been in a lot of games too that died out, but I'm not about to let that happen to my own games. Space Oddity has survived despite being down to one player at one point (we now have two). I successfully completed my first Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu adventure, The Terror Out of Time, in record time - less than a year. The second adventure, The Ninth Planet is going strong despite players dropping out, and looks likely to finish this summer.

[Laraqua]

Yeah, I totally agree with you SuAside. My games have a really bad habit of that happening to them (sorry SuAside, I'm responsible for at least two of those....).

I'm doing really well in Welcome to Silent Hill! I think because I've managed to finally figure out how to keep the game progressing. Unlike in other games that bog down easy, being an exploratory game with a lot of psychological inter-play, there's always another step and always a conflict to resolve. It also helps that it's quite small, personal plot lines rather than trying to remember the deeply complex details of Ash or trying to figure out how to keep players interested and with goals like in 465's slower start.

One of the Silent Hill's stories has even ended, with a PC's suicide, which leaves her daughter to try to find her way out. The shorter character-arc focus makes it a lot simpler to run because while the plotlines interweave, they're still distinct. If I get bored, I could find a decent resolution to all of the plot lines within a chapter that would take between 1 - 2 months to play out (depending on posting frequency). Basically, it's a good game for me to run.

[Raiko]

One of the Silent Hill's stories has even ended, with a PC's suicide, which leaves her daughter to try to find her way out.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Mommy!!!!!!"

I stopped reading Cecilia's story, because I couldn't keep up, and it felt better to be in the dark.

@Coffee demon: I'm really sorry. I was also looking forward to seeing how it played out,but I also needed to get things moving again at the Penhew Foundation though, especially with rbiddle starting playing Helen. And also with Decrepit hopefully taking Caroline back over. Unfortunately if I'd waited for you to make another post first, then I'd be waiting again to see if Decrepit posts, and worrying about rbiddle & SuAside loosing interest.

I promised SuAside that I'm going to try and make sure I play this game to its conclusion, but I've not been making a good job of that recently.

In my mind Andrei slipped back into his catatonic state, either because Timour basically ignored him, or when Caroline tried to calm him. The insanity (whether it be the catatonic state or the rage) only lasts ten minutes from the time of the attack, so Andrei has now recovered from it, and can resume his quest to protect Elizabeth from Gavigan.

[Raiko]

I've updated two of the threads, I'll do the other one as soon as I get back to my laptop at home.

I've also upgraded my mobile contract slightly, to allow me to tether my laptop, so hopefully from tomorrow I'll be able to write posts easily at lunchtime from work again, for the first time since 2008! Yay!

[SuAside]

@Mr Handy, Laraqua & Raiko:
My comment was not a stab at game masters of any of the games I played in or play in now, it was merely an observation. While most of my games never ended, I had a very good time playing them, so I don't mind as much. But this game here had a good rhythm going, and didn't want to risk allowing people to lose interest.

PS: Also, I made a mistake, one did finish (and without player death!). Sorry for that.

[Laraqua]

Ah, don't worry. I knew it was an observation, just felt like a good place to assuage my guilt and make a few observations of my own. Trust me, after the slow, dragging deaths of the other two games, I'm quite surprised by how well this one is going and how easily it works. And heck, it's great because if one player drops off the planet for a couple weeks, I can always make rocks fall (or whatever) to split the two up into their own threads until that player returns because its a personal journey, that doesn't actually ruin anything.

[Mr. Handy]

I was also just making a similar observation about the games I run, and I didn't think any of that was aimed at me.

Silent Hill does move very fast, and I've found it hard to keep up with reading everyone else's threads. I often fall behind, but I can usually catch up on weekends.