Play@YSDC

The Zero Room is a room in the TARDIS that is cut off from the rest of the universe, where you can come to relax and chat. All Out of Character discussion, whether game-related or not, can take place here.

There are ten new playable pregenerated characters in the Character Sheets thread. They are available on a first come, first served basis. If you'd like to play one of them, please let me know which one by posting in this thread.

Here's to another great game!

Private Sofia reporting for duty.

Captain Juliette Desjardins is my character of choice . This seems like fun, it will be interresting to test this type of gaming as I have mostly been playing table top.

Well... Lucius was enjoying his few fleeting moments free from fear of technology. Now a step into the future ought to really shake him up. Yipee!

I'm wondering what Elizabeth will make of a far-future sci-fi setting!

If you don't mind, may I swap from Dok to 1st Lt. Hu Xiang, Ph.D.? Dok doesn't seem like he'd be apt to step into that contraption.

Thanks, everyone! I think we'll all enjoy this game if The Terror Out of Time is any indication.

BenTheRat wrote:Private Sofia reporting for duty.

You've got her!

Lynx wrote:Captain Juliette Desjardins is my character of choice . This seems like fun, it will be interresting to test this type of gaming as I have mostly been playing table top.

She's all yours!

ImpInTraining wrote:Well... Lucius was enjoying his few fleeting moments free from fear of technology. Now a step into the future ought to really shake him up. Yipee!

It's actually magic that he's afraid of, but with sufficiently advanced technology it's hard for him to tell the difference. His fears are suppressed for a while, though he may still be leery of his surroundings.

yockenthwaite wrote:I'm wondering what Elizabeth will make of a far-future sci-fi setting!

Elizabeth comes from the golden age of science fiction, so she may get a kick out of it. Of course, the future will likely be very different from how it was imagined in the 1950s.

SSior.27 wrote:If you don't mind, may I swap from Dok to 1st Lt. Hu Xiang, Ph.D.? Dok doesn't seem like he'd be apt to step into that contraption.

That's fine, and Dok will still be around if any future adventures take place in his era. You'll be playing Doctor Hu.

I'll mark all three selected characters as reserved by their players. I'll eventually be sending their secrets out via PM. I have them written down on paper, but it'll take some time to type them up and I don't have much during the week.

Wow, I didn't even notice the Dr. Hu reference... *shakes head* The nerd in me is ashamed...

I'll play Sgt. Kohl.

Welcome! You've got him.

I've moved The Terror Out of Time to the Hall of Fame. The links to the individual episodes were showing up on the home page, and the only way I could find to avoid showing them there was to not show them in the game's legend when viewed in the Hall of Fame as well, so you'll first have to navigate to The Terror Out of Time and then click on the link to access each episode.

Yay! I'm finally in the Hall of Fame!

Private George Bond seems interesting. Might I have him?

I'm interested in playing 2nd Lt. Edward Barrett.

Welcome, both of you! I'll reserve your characters.

Much obliged

I've sent out character secrets to everyone who has reserved a character so far. It will be a few more weeks before the game itself starts. During that time I'll put up more background material for the new characters only, including a brief history of the last century and information on Styx Base (with a map). I won't have time tonight or during the week, but I should be able to get started with that next weekend.

I'd like to play Private Robert MacCrimmon (Bobby?), assuming there is still time since you haven't started yet.

He's not the most interesting character, but the only male left, and I'm not sure I feel up to playing a beautiful lady, rather stick to my own gender for my first online game. Can I request some interesting secret as well please? Besides his obviously illustrious ancient Scottish ancestry.

The lad is yours, and welcome aboard! You can have him go by Bobby if you like, and the game doesn't start for another two to three weeks (early September is my goal).

The characters' secrets were already all written months ago, so what I've written is what you get. You may find them interesting, but I'm sure there's a character with more interesting secrets out there. It's not really a secret that he's a descendant of Jamie MacCrimmon, more of a reference that those familiar with classic Doctor Who might get. I'll send you your secrets just as soon as I type them up.

Awesome. Honestly, that secret and the eager Scottishness traditional to his family are enough to go on. I really do look forward to playing him, given a night to sleep on it. I guess my reason for that comment was mainly that his skills seemed so focused on punching things that he had little room for other interesting skills. But on sleeping on it, I think the lack of skill variety is itself something to work with, and the secret is nice to have, just as something extra.

Anyway, looking forward to the game, it seems fun.

Thanks! I hope it's as fun as all of us expect.

Robert does have some interesting noncombat skills that could prove useful: Fast Talk (albeit not very high), First Aid, Law (again, not so good), Psychology, Spot Hidden, and Track. Granted, he is quite good at combat, and no doubt there will be opportunities for that in this adventure at one point or another. I don't think he'll be bored even when there isn't any, though.

I was expecting 1920's but Futuristic is very fine too; I'm old-school Spacemaster-raised. I think I can come up with something for Captain Karin Bauer if I may. Please let me know if I need to add anything to the character creation as this is my first post-to-play.

Welcome aboard! Karin Bauer is already complete and ready to go, and she's all yours. Her character sheet is the fifth one listed in the Cast of Characters thread. She does have secrets, which I'll send you in a PM shortly. Other than that, you're free to play her however you like as long as it's consistent with her personal background and the information about her in her secrets.

I plan to start the game itself next weekend. Starting this weekend you should see more threads popping up in this forum with additional background information and eventually a map of Styx Base.

I'll put Laraqua down for 2nd Lt. Colleen Rose, the only playable character remaining. I'll send her character's secrets by PM as well. I think she'll like her, as I made the character with her in mind.

Can't wait for the game to start! It is rather amusing how this will be a mashup between Cthulhu, Dr Who (which I still have only ever seen most of one episode of...), and, in this setting, practically something from the Firefly 'verse. Gottan dust off the ol' Pinyinary!

Handy, please do shout something in here so I realize we've started. I probably won't know unless you do.

<Teal'c voice>I too eagerly await the launch of this adventure.</Teal'c voice>

Indeed.

As do I.

Don't worry, I'll post something here when we're starting. I have a three-day weekend coming up, so I'm planning to get it going then.

I hadn't consciously been thinking of Firefly when I came up with the idea last year, but I can see the similarities. Kaiser's government is a lot like the Alliance, and the war that gave him absolute power is even called the Unification War.

You can't stop the signal.

I'm looking forward to the new game starting too. Keeping an eye on this thread ready for the off.

I've posted the background information and the introduction. Keep in mind that only the players with characters from Styx Base should read the threads with information about the base. You may all read the introduction, but keep in mind that your character isn't aware of the events there.

Starting tonight I will be posting the In Character threads for all of the players. When you see the thread with your character's name, you may read it and begin posting in it when ready. I expect players to post at least a couple of times per week, though you may post more frequently. I'll try to update as often as players post. If you can't match the pace or if you're going to have an extended absence, please let me know. Anyone who doesn't post for a long time and doesn't inform me of this will have their character put up for grabs to be taken over.

Remember that you may only read IC threads in which your character is present (except for the Introduction, which is free for all to read). After the adventure is over, you'll be free to go back and read all of the threads, but for now this information will need to remain secret.

Have fun!

All initial IC threads have been posted, so you may start when ready. The game is afoot!

And then of course the first question arises from one used to tabletob playing.
To make a dieroll, does one use an online dieroller, or do I roll my real life dice and post the result?
And where do i post it?

Hep! I stumble in and promote the all-encompassing dieroller at Invisible Castle
Guess Mr. Handy has a short brief on how to use it?
Just get a pass and roll away. Or just roll as is... (Without the option to set specifics and notes)

Welcome to the game board a la virtuality

/Dave

Edit: About posting it: we usually use an tag to show these. With a text in between.

And so it begins...

Thanks, Dave! I'm sorry, Lynx, I completely forgot to post instructions for using Invisible Castle and a link last night. In The Terror Out of Time, I had included them in the character creation threads, but they were completely unnecessary in this adventure since all of the characters are either returning or pregenerated. Here is what I had put there:

You can use Invisible Castle to make your rolls, both for character creation and in the game. You'll need to register and log in there in order to make entries in the Note section describing what you're rolling, but it's free. Be sure to use the same spelling for your character's name consistently to make it easier to look up old rolls.

Zombie Apocalypse has more detailed instructions on using Invisible Castle here. However, you won't need to put the campaign initials in brackets before your character's name. Last year they added a Campaign Name field for your rolls, so you can put The Ninth Planet there and just put your character's name in the Character Name field. You do need to log in in order to use the Campaign Name field, but you need to do so for the Note field as well.

Handy, was looking at the base layout, where do we eat and relax (besides the sim.) Is their a lounge or a place to get a drink in off hours?

Do we just eat at our desks?

There is no eating in the future.... humans have evolved beyond the need. They now feast off of sunlight with extra Chlorophyll in their skin. They also have a strangely green complexion and crave fertilizer....

LOL....

Maybe someone has a still hidden under their bunk, since the rooms are private...

D'oh! I was bound to forget something. I'll say there's a cafeteria in the Conference Center where anyone can go and eat. With a crew this size, you won't need more than two conference rooms at the same time anyway.

Whenever you see a spoiler button that says OOC, you should read it - this is for all players. When you see a spoiler button with a character's name, you may only click it if you are playing that character. Sometimes more than one character's name will be listed, in which case you may only read it if you are playing one of the listed characters. If your character's name is not on the spoiler button, you are not allowed to read it. This is one way of conveying information to players privately without using PMs, and it still allows people who are just reading along to see everything. If you want to tell me something private in that manner, you may use a similar spoiler button with your own character's name. Instructions for using spoiler buttons can be found here.

I can't see Lt. Rose's thread. Whereabouts is she?

She's in Mission Control

You know, apropos of nothing (sorta), a good laugh can be had from the fact that as much of a sci-fi buff and Anglophile as I am, it still took me 34 years (i.e. the beginning of this campaign) to see any Dr. Who, although obviously I was passingly familiar with it. I'm a bad geek.

Watched Dr. Who last night (recorded from last Saturday) where Dr. Who shows up at the Mars base and the whole base is destroyed. Hope we don't suffer the same fate. Whole base was destroyed.

Ah, yes, The Waters of Mars. There are a few similartiies there, but moreso because The Waters of Mars is influenced by some of the same classic Doctor Who stories that influence The Ninth Planet rather than any direct influence. I believe The Waters of Mars did also have the base composed of round modules, though.

Of course, this time you don't have a funny robot to help you out.

Mr. Handy wrote: Of course, this time you don't have a funny robot to help you out.

Well doesn't that suck. Sofia builds one real fast.

Yea it was the round modules that made me really had me doing a double take last night. Good stuff.

I need to update pretty much every thread, but I don't have time tonight and I need to get some sleep. Tomorrow night doesn't look good either, but I hope to have time Wednesday night (or, failing that, Thursday during the day).

I like it so far. However, I don't know how I'd feel running (or attempting to run) a game where I had to juggle this many individual threads. Better you than me.

Thumbs up so far Handy. Good job.

Who can take a forum, turn it to a game, keep the players split up so they only know their own? The Handy-man!

...yeah, that was terrible, but oh well...

The Handy-Man can... the Handy Man can...

Thanks, everyone! Glad you're enjoying it. I like the ability that play-by-post gives you to keep threads separate so that players can be split up and not know what's going on with the other groups. It really adds to the suspense.

I have the feeling that this game is going really fast. At least compared to all my previous ones. I'm having a bit of a hard time with posting recently as I'm having my home renovated and work doesn't offer much time to post. Sorry if I lag a bit.

That's all right, and thanks for telling me. This game is moving pretty fast, at least initially. The first game, The Terror Out of Time, was like that too. The pace did slow somewhat in Episode 2, but it was still faster than my other games. I'll just have you go with the flow when you're unable to post.

I'm terribly disappointed by this game...

How do you expect me to save the world if you've locked me in a cell?

(just kidding)

Woah woah woah! I can't know what your character is doing! Spoiler Alert! SPOILER ALERT!!!! =P

Hey, just wanted to post to apologize for not posting much this past week or so. I just had a close relative die, and my life will be chaotic and I'll probably be out of it for a bit. I will probably start posting again like crazy late at night at some unknown point in the future, so don't count me out, but I just want to let you know I'll be inconsistent for another week or so.

So sorry for your loss. Peace be with you.

ImpInTraining wrote:I'm terribly disappointed by this game...

How do you expect me to save the world if you've locked me in a cell?

(just kidding)

It wasn't me. It was a PC who locked you up. The fact that he ordered to do so by an NPC is completely irrelevant.

Umbrageofsnow wrote:Hey, just wanted to post to apologize for not posting much this past week or so. I just had a close relative die, and my life will be chaotic and I'll probably be out of it for a bit. I will probably start posting again like crazy late at night at some unknown point in the future, so don't count me out, but I just want to let you know I'll be inconsistent for another week or so.

You have my condolences as well. Your character will still be waiting for you when you're ready to return. In the meantime, he'll follow Sergeant Kohl's orders.

I have a major update coming, with threads splitting off and merging, but I don't have time tonight and my brain is too fried. Tomorrow night looks good.

My condolences, Umbrageofsnow.

Just FYI, I'm out of town for the weekend. Might be back by Sunday night, but probably Monday. Have a great weekend.

Thanks for letting me know. Have a great weekend too!

Welcome to Collector, who will playing Lt. Edward Barrett!

Welcome

Hi all, looking forward to getting into this campaign. Thanks for the welcome.

Episode 1 is now complete! I've started threads for everyone for Episode 2, and you can find a link to your new thread at the end of your old Episode 1 thread, which is now locked. I'll wait until everyone has had a chance to find and post in the new threads before moving the old ones to the Episode 1 subforum.

Handy, just curious how you know when it's time to transition between episodes. Is it simply a "time played" thing, are there "trigger events" which let you know when it's time to move over? Or is it simply when you think it's a good time? I was wondering that with the last one as well.

Good question! There are usually certain events that trigger a shift to the next episode. I end each episode on a "cliffhanger" much like in classic Doctor Who. Naturally, a certain amount of time and progress in the plot does need to happen during each episode. In The Terror Out of Time, I had set pieces planned for the cliffhangers in advance before I started the scenarios, though they were subject to change based on what happened. The first two episodes ended exactly as I had planned. The third episode ended differently thanks to player actions, but the ending turned out much more awesome than my original plan for that cliffhanger. There's a cliffhanger at the end of Episode 1 in this scenario too, though your character didn't witness the events that set it off. This was not planned in before the scenario started, but I saw it coming a couple of weeks in advance. Since all but a few of the human characters are PCs, this scenario is more player-driven. While the NPCs are the ones in command, it is usually up to the PCs to actually do what needs doing.

In The Terror Out of Time, the first episode lasted about a month, the second and third episodes lasted about three months each, and the fourth and final episode lasted about four months. Each episode typically has from 300-600 posts. In The Ninth Planet, the first episode took about a month and a half. I'm hoping this one doesn't slow down after the first episode as the last adventure did. The number of episodes in The Ninth Planet is variable and might not be four. At this point even I don't know how many episodes it will take to complete.

I haven't had much time or sleep the past two nights, but I should be able to update on Wednesday night.

Howdy. I'm having a wonderful time at this game. Good work Mr. Handy.

BUT, I will probably be away more or less of the grid for a week or two . I'm moving and knowing the cableguys around here, I will be without internet at least one week. If not more. They have already detected one problem with the cables, and as we are moving into an old house in the middle of nowhere there will be more problems.

I will try to log on sporadically, but if someone waits for me, please mr. Handy, let the show go on.

Thanks, Lynx! You're a great player too, and you've made Juliette even more awesome than I had envisioned her. Thank you for letting me know. Juliette may not have much to do in the short term anyway while she waits to find out whether or not she gets permission, but if needed I'll NPC her temporarily until you're back.

Hello!

I'm all caught up on George, so I'd like to start playing him if possible. Can't wait to join in, things certainly seem interesting.

Welcome, William! I've sent you a PM with George's secrets, so he's all yours now. You may post in the IC thread when ready. I had George on his way back to the geology lab, but you're free to have him go elsewhere if you wish. Enjoy!

I'm going away to a convention this weekend, so I probably won't be able to post before Sunday night, possibly not until Monday night. The following weekend is a three-day weekend, so I'll have more time then. The weekend after that, I have another convention. The following week is Thanksgiving, and I'll only work the first half of that week. After that I should have plenty more time.

I'm sorry for the delay, but I'm still catching up on everything I missed during last weekend and I had little time during the week. I'm finishing up, and now I have a three-day weekend. I plan to make a major update that will move things forward on Friday.

Hello! I've volunteered to take the role of Alison Silver. I'm all caught up and ready to post.

Welcome . And please let us out.

Heinrich's working on it, don't worry.

Welcome, Baronofbeefdip! You may post for Alison when you are ready.

I'm going to be moving the threads forward now. I hope to finish them all tonight. Failing that, I'll have to finish up on Saturday.

All threads have been updated!

Mr Handy can you NPC Elizabeth if need be through to Wednesday 16th? I'm very knocked out by the neurological disease, and need to rest solidly for a good few days. Should be back and functional by Thursday though. Thanks.

No problem. I'll be going away again next weekend, but I should be able to update on Thursday night before I leave.

Back, but on jobnet. The cablecompany work very slowly in the Rural districts of Norway...

Look what I found... too cool...

www.crispian.net/DoctorWho/DrWhoTubeMap.html

awesomeness...

That is amazing - especially those little boxes that pop up when you hover the mouse over certain "stops." The text that goes with the pictures is sometimes hilarious!

I'm going to start getting things moving again tonight and tomorrow. My next convention isn't for almost three months, so I expect I'll be able to keep it moving now.

Since some of us have played together for a while now because of the previous adventure I just wanted to drop my facebook link... for those interested in connected outside of the game.

https://www.facebook.com/jason.hess

Furthermore the link in my signature is for my blog... feel free to look around if you wish.

Any of you guys have blogs / websites you wish to share?

FYI - due to needs of my company, I'll be working my behind off for the next 2-3 weeks and will be lucky to find time to post. If I'm holding anything up, feel free to NPC Lucius as necessary.

Thanks for letting me know. That won't be a problem. There's often a slowdown in December anyway, though I do hope I'll be able to keep things moving. I'm updating all of the IC threads tonight, which involves merging and splitting into new ones. I hope to be able to update more frequently than once per week from now on.

jaysun81 wrote:Since some of us have played together for a while now because of the previous adventure I just wanted to drop my facebook link... for those interested in connected outside of the game.

https://www.facebook.com/jason.hess

Furthermore the link in my signature is for my blog... feel free to look around if you wish.

Any of you guys have blogs / websites you wish to share?

I'm not on Facebook, and I'm not keen on joining - time constraints make that a problem. I don't have a blog of my own, but yours looks great!

I did put a couple of short works of interactive fiction online for a couple of writing contests back in 2008:
You, Robot (written for children)
The End of It all

Mr. Handy wrote:I don't have a blog of my own, but yours looks great!

Thanks Mr. Handy. I actually had someone do the work to make the site look that way... now I just do the upkeep on it.

Mr. Handy wrote:You, Robot (written for children)

That's pretty cool.

friend request sent...

jaysun81 wrote:

Mr. Handy wrote:I don't have a blog of my own, but yours looks great!

Thanks Mr. Handy. I actually had someone do the work to make the site look that way... now I just do the upkeep on it.

Mr. Handy wrote:You, Robot (written for children)

That's pretty cool.

You're welcome, and thank you. I was inspired when I wrote You, Robot. There was a 1500 word (and 10 section) hard limit, and I needed every last one of them and still had to compress things more than I would have liked. I think I managed to accomplish a lot regardless, and the story works on a deeper level that an adult can appreciate.

Malapropos.. If there are any frenchspeaking people in this game, I wish to appologize for possible abuse of the french language. I know a little french, but not enough to be sure that Juliette'e french is not totally jumbled by google-translate.

And oh.. I might be out of the room for a long long time. I am leaving for Tenerife for a long week of christmas sun. I'm not sure wether internet will be availible or not at the hotel...

If I'm not back, Have a merry Xmas

jaysun81 wrote:Since some of us have played together for a while now because of the previous adventure I just wanted to drop my facebook link... for those interested in connected outside of the game.

https://www.facebook.com/jason.hess

Just sent a friend request

I have various blogs, including some genealogy ones that are a bit too niche to share here. But my main general-purpose one now is my Google+ one. See here. Oh and my Google+ profile has links to all my online/social networking places, like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

yockenthwaite wrote:Just sent a friend request

I have various blogs, including some genealogy ones that are a bit too niche to share here. But my main general-purpose one now is my Google+ one. See here. Oh and my Google+ profile has links to all my online/social networking places, like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Accepted.

I've been meaning to check out Google+ just haven't done it yet.

jaysun81 wrote:Accepted.

Thanks

I've been meaning to check out Google+ just haven't done it yet.

I quite like it. It doesn't replace Facebook for me - which I don't really like, but quite a lot of my family are on there, as well as people with my 1 in a million neurological disease. But I like the public (or can be more restricted) nature of Google+. I blog on there quite a lot now. I have quite a lot of local friends on there, as well as genealogy friends, and some Yog-Sothoth Call of Cthulhu pals.

After tomorrow morning I will be away until Monday evening.

So until then (whichever applies to you)...

Merry Christmas!

Happy Chanukah!

Joyous Kwanzaa!

Merry Yule!

And for those who celebrate multiple or something I missed...

Happy Holidays!

And in the spirit of Doctor Who remember what Mr. Copper said...

...human beings worship the great god 'Santa', a creature with fearsome claws and his wife Mary. Every year, the people of UK go to war with the country of Turkey. They then eat the turkey people for Christmas Dinner, like savages!

I'm on both ... wish Google+ would pick up in interest, but so many people fear change... I don't like the way FB holds on to every single thing you do or say on there for decades even if you've 'deleted' it. Forget about keeping your personal information private ... that's a pipe dream on FB anymore. They sell that crap to the highest bidder and there's pretty much nothing you can do about it. That's why I prefer Google+.

And happy winter's solstice to you all too.

And the same to all of you! I'm about to update the IC threads now (though I do need to wait on Reverse Engineering for a decision from a player who hasn't posted), and I'll have more free time for the next week or so, which means I should be able to keep things moving.

I also dislike Facebook for those reasons and wouldn't want to use it even if I did have time. I have heard good things about Google+, but lack of time is still a problem.

Yup, Christmas to you all! Regarding social stuff: I use keep facebook for family but don´t use it. G+ I have for game related friends and publishers.

I´ll head out and add some requests for you guys on here.
Edit: My G+ is here

Merry Cheers

/Dave

Why I prefer G+ Cheers.

And a Merry X-mas to You all.

Now I'm back from the boringness of down south with the inlaws.. Ready to kill.. I mean ... talk with more aliens.

Cheers..

Merry Christmas and stuff ...

one more reason to hate FB... they're going to target advertise the crap out of you in the near future. Saw it on the news. I would bail in a heart beat if the rest of my friends and family did the same.

BTW, going camping for three days. So no posting for me for a bit.

Lynx wrote:And a Merry X-mas to You all.

Now I'm back from the boringness of down south with the inlaws.. Ready to kill.. I mean ... talk with more aliens.

Cheers..

Welcome back! Once you let me know where Juliette is heading, I can set up a new thread for her.

BenTheRat wrote:BTW, going camping for three days. So no posting for me for a bit.

Have fun!

Oh, frabjous day! Calloo, callay! Invisible Castle is back up and running! And I simply love the batch of numbers it gave me. It took what I expected to be a routine Sanity check and turned it into a game changer.

Oh, frabjous day! Calloo, callay! Invisible Castle is back up and running! And I simply love the batch of numbers it gave me. It took what I expected to be a routine Sanity check and turned it into a game changer.

You're not kidding!

This is my first combat round ever on a forum so I don't know how it works exactly. Do I look at everyone else's DEX and rank myself accordingly, waiting until those with higher DEX have posted before I go, or do I just post once each round and then Mr. Handy sorts out the order?

In this case, the order that people act in really matters, so you will need to wait your turn before you go. I'll let you know when that is. It does go in descending DEX order, but those with ready guns get to go in the first part of the round, before anyone else. In the second part of the round, there's another DEX cycle. Those with ready guns that can fire multiple times in a round will also get to fire again in the second part of the round.

This battle may be over before it's your turn. We'll see.

I'll be getting surgery tomorrow (pretty routine stuff, just getting my wisdom teeth out, which I haven't had done yet) but wanted to let everyone in all my games know that I may not be getting on as often as normal. Not sure how long I'll be out of commission for, but probably a day or two at least.

Good luck!

Hope everything goes well!

Episode 2 just wrapped up, but I don't have time tonight to start Episode 3, so it'll be a real cliffhanger. I hope to do that Tuesday night, but it'll take some time to assemble everything that happened at the end there into something coherent to start things off. Those of you in the thread that's still open may continue to post - and to wonder what on Pluto is going on in the other thread.

I didn't have time tonight, but maybe Wednesday night.

I made a slight edit to my last post, changing the word "angrily" to "loudly." I'd thought of it last night but hadn't had time to change it until tonight. Mi-Go aren't exactly known for getting emotional.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get Episode 3 started, but it's underway now. It took hours to reconstruct that combat round in the proper order. Everyone, please post when ready.

hello is it possible to pick up the george bond character?

Absolutely, he's yours! You'll need to catch up on what he's done in the first two episodes. Please read his IC threads (and none of the other IC threads except for the Introduction in Episode 1, which everyone may read). In Episode 1, he starts in Pluto Rocks and moves to Heavy Metal. In Episode 2, you'll need to read The Mystery Deepens and then Reverse Engineering. In Episode 3, you'll need to read Pyrrhic Victory. When you've caught up and you've read George's secrets, which I'll be sending you soon in a PM, you may post in Pyrrhic Victory when ready. Have fun, and welcome aboard!

thanks ill get right on that!

Welcome, Scorch

by the way.. without internet until friday, been without for the last 4 days. To busy at work to play.

Dont wait for my response for the time beeing..

lynx

Thanks for telling me. I won't be able to update tonight anyway. I had very little time, and much of it was lost because my PS3 died tonight. I bought a replacement and it should arrive Friday, but I still need to get the old one to cough up the DVD I'd put in just minutes before it happened. Luckily I won't lose any essential data. I can redownload Silent Hill 1 and Resident Evil 1 from the PSN, and I'm not in the middle of any games (except for one I started and stopped years ago and would have played from the beginning anyhow if I ever have time to get back to it). Other than that, I just lose a handful of trophies from Watchmen: The End is Nigh. When I do update, I have a bunch of new threads to create that will mix and match the characters, depending on where everyone is going.

I won't have enough time tonight to create the new threads and update, but hopefully I'll be able to do so on Thursday night. If any of you haven't posted where your character is going (or if you're staying put), please do so when you get a chance.

Hey I'm back and ready to take over Sofia again, if I haven't lost her. Sorry for being gone so long. Things just got crazy.

I'll catch up in a day or 2 and then start posting.

Welcome back! You can post whenever you're ready.

Welcome to MGN001, who will be playing Private Robert MacCrimmon!

I've been sick for nearly a week now, and I haven't had much sleep. I'm doubt I'll be able to update tonight, but I'll try to do so tomorrow.

Well, I'm all caught up. I think I'll need some time to work out how Robert will act - he, justifiably, hasn't played a very big part. I have some ideas, but I'll need to sleep on it.

Sure, take your time. He may have a more important part to play now. His player has been absent, so I've mostly had him remain in the background and do whatever Sergeant Kohl told him to do.

I'll be away at a convention between Thursday afternoon and Sunday night, so there probably won't be any posts from me during that time. I might not be able to post Sunday night either, so it may need to wait until next Monday night. I have taken the entire week off from work, however, so I will be able to post during the day until then.

I'm going to be away from 6th-15th March, which looks like bad timing as far as the story's going. Pants. Mr. Handy could you keep Karin Bauer in the action when possible please.

No problem, and thanks for the advance notice. I'll have more time to post on March 2-4, so I might be able to get things moving while you're still here and get to a point where your presence won't be required for a little while.

Going on vacation from March 24th through March 31st. Maybe with Lucius hiding like a little girl it won't be that much of an issue. But if something happens which brings Lucius out of his nice little hiding spot, please feel free to NPC him accordingly. Thanks!

Thursday, March 22th through Saturday the 24th I will be away at a retreat with no internet access.

Will do, and thanks for the heads up from both of you.

Nobody has posted in Evacuation in four days (and longer still in a couple of the other IC threads). Please post, even if you're doing nothing. I intend to update regardless on Friday night or Saturday, so if there's something you want to do before events move forward, you should do it while you have the chance.

See ya! I'll be back online by Sunday. Until then... Mr. Handy do what you must with Story if something needs to occur before then. Just whatever you do... don't kill him.

Hey boss-man... you'll have to be the hysterical Lucius ... I'm going on vacation, remember? If it were possible, I think Lucius would try to dart out the open door to the planet's surface.

Not possible. There are...things blocking your path. Yes, I did remember that you're going on vacation, but I thought you might still want to post tonight while you're still here. I'll have no problem playing crazy Lucius while you're away. Have fun!

Thanks. If he gets freeze dried and dissected, I won't hold it against you.

Welcome to CrackheadC., who will be taking over the character of Alison Silver.

I'll be away this weekend. Just a heads up

Hello everyone. I'm looking forward to playing with you all.

Horde-hi CrackheadC.

I will be out of town starting tomorrow morning through Monday.

Sorry for the delay. Been a bit busy. Going to try to get my reading done today!

That's okay, I understand. I've been busy too. Take your time, and jump in when you're ready.

Sorry about any delay guys, I just got back from a business trip.

Mr Handy can you look after Elizabeth if necessary through to Sunday please? I've just started a 3 day heavy chemo treatment, and expect to be out of commission until next week. All going well the same thing will happen in a fortnight, and again after, but hopefully I'll be coping well by then. Am very puggled now after hours at hospital. Thanks.

get well soon!

No problem! I hope you're feeling better soon too.

Thanks folks. Back and posting for now.

Depending on local weather, I won't be posting from Thursday 10th- Monday 14th. Mr Handy could you NPC me please.

No problem. I'll avoid making any pivotal decisions for your character during that time, however, unless you give me direction in advance.

Welcome back, Yockenthwaite!

By the way, I'm still here. I'm watching the thread, I just haven't seen the need to respond yet.

Heya...

I hadn't seen anything in this game on the thread I was posting in for quite some time. I knew Handy was having some issues in RL for a while so I didn't think much about it... until today, when I see there are other threads that have been moving along. Is Lucius supposed to be posting somewhere else? Oh I see, I'm supposed to be on the Iron Fist. Hrm... wonder how I missed that?

I was beginning to wonder what happened to you.

Yeah dude... if I do that again, just poke me in the ribs in the OOC chat. I only really check the threads that I've posted in. So when a new thread opens up that demands my attention, sometimes I miss it - like in this case. I read it when it first opened up, but didn't know what to do right away so I thought I'd let someone else post first. Then completely forgot about it.

Sorry about that, Folks.

That's okay. I was wondering why you hadn't posted, but I thought you were probably busy. Whenever I create a new thread, I always post in the old thread with a link to the new one directing the players where to go next, but if you miss the post in the old thread, you might not see it. An update is coming soon.

And the update is done. Just so you know, I did create a new thread.

I had forgotten to put the title sequence in when I started Episode 4, so I did it now. When I did, I discovered that the video was gone from YouTube, so I found another one and replaced it in all of the episode openings in both this game and The Terror Out of Time. I have a major update planned that will involve moving people into new threads, but I have no time to do it tonight. I'm hoping for tomorrow night.

Juliette, Xiang, and Sofia won't actually get out of the ship until after Story and the others have left. They're already in the airlock, which is open to the docking bay, as they had never gotten out of it.

Hello all,

2nd Lt. Edward Barrett, reporting for duty. Let's find some interesting geological features! Yay!

Aaron

Welcome aboard! Actually, you already found one back in Episode 1. Well, Juliette found it, but you helped analyze images of it. Right now you might have more important things to do.

I've sent you your secrets, so once you've caught up on your IC threads, you may post when ready in Last Dance, your current thread. You may read Introduction in Episode 1, and then your first IC thread is Pluto Rocks. At the end of each thread is a hyperlink directing you to the next one.

Mr Handy can you NPC Elizabeth through to Sunday please? I've indicated what she will do if need be in our thread. I hope it won't be needed though! I'm going through another round of chemo treatment (delivered today, Thursday) on top of an existing infection, so a bit double floored. Thanks.

Sure thing! I hope you feel better.

Feel better soon yockenthwaite.

MrHandy, I'll be unable to post tomorrow. However, I'll be back Sunday.

Feel better, Yockenthwaite!

Thanks all. It always hits me for a few days quite hard, but I'm just about functional again now, so back posting

You're welcome, and welcome back!

Out of curiosity, would the lead-slingers being used by some of the personal be as effective in Pluto's atmosphere? I mean, it's combustion which causes it to force the bullet out, but would the lack of oxygen have any effect on it, adverse or otherwise? Not saying they should or shouldn't be, just pondering.

That's a good point. No combustion without oxygen. It'd just fizzle I think. But thank god for the magic of television. Anything is possible.

Dunno. Rockets are propulsed by combustion of sorts, aren't they? My guess is the bullet would have decreased velocity after a weakened explosion. But, as you say, the magic of television! =)

Haha, I'm now remembering an episode of Firefly where one character says "She needs oxygen around her to fire, and we ain't got a case." so they use a space suit to surround it with oxygen, haha.

Good question, and I hadn't thought of it. Given that this is a hundred years in the future and that technology would have advanced significantly, and that space travel is now commonplace and the characters were specifically sent out into space, I'll say that the weapons they were issued are designed to function without oxygen or even in a vacuum. Maybe the shell casings in the ammo actually contain a small amount of oxygen, enough to enable combustion. If the characters from the last game had brought guns from 1930, those would not have had the same benefit.

Well I'm definitely not trying to halt the game or anything. Just random musings. Oxygenated casings, or even the powder itself, is perfectly logical!

Once rockets are out of the atmosphere, they use compressed gas to push them about.

Yes, that could work too.

Heading out to California for some work - not sure how it will effect my gaming. But feel free to NPC me if necessary.

I will be in Ireland for a week from Sunday 24th June. I'm not sure how good my internet connectivity will be, so probably best if Elizabeth is NPC'd for that week. Thanks.

No problem.

I'll be away myself at a convention from July 4-8. There's a chance the game may be done by then, but I can't guarantee anything. If all goes as planned, I hope to start the third scenario, The Shadow Over Dunwich, in August. I still need to do a good deal more preparation before I'm ready to start it, though.

Will be leaving early tomorrow, so signing out prior to my trip now. Will be back late Sunday 1st July. I may have Internet before then (there is supposed to be some from hotel, plus Trinity College where I'm going to the academic conference) but I'm not assuming it! Good luck to the players in the meantime, and thanks Mr Handy for looking after Elizabeth. She will use that "fire extinguisher" if necessary

Everyone enjoy your trips. I finally got a chance to read through Terror in Time - really amazing game there. I was sure you guys were toast during that last encounter. Hopefully nothing more happens here, otherwise I don't think Alison will mentally or physically be making it through this.

Have a good time in Ireland, Yockenthwaite!

Thanks, CrackheadC! The Terror Out of Time was great, and the way the final encounter worked out was especially awesome.

I will be out of touch (sitting on a wet hillside in rainy Wales) until Saturday. Mr. Handy could you npc Karin please? If we get to meet the others in that time she will be keen to administer to any wounded and catch up with Elizabeth and Thorn if they meet again. She will be keeping a close eye on Bruce when he wakes.

Hello there, I'm new to play by post but I'll be playing Sergent Kohl from now on. Haven't caught up to the storyline but I'm working on it. Hope to start playing/posting ASAP.

Welcome aboard! I won't be able to update or send you your secrets tonight, but I plan to do so tomorrow night.

I went ahead and sent you a PM with your secrets, so you can start posting any time once you catch up.

Do I need to use this invisible castle thing for rolls, or can i just use real dice?

Everyone uses invisiblecastle for their rolling. It takes a few seconds to register an account, but when you have one you can keep a record of you characters and campaigns. I believe it's a pretty good way to keep people honest and make things easy for the keeper because if you have to put your character name and the campaign into the fields when you roll - Mr. Handy can just search via Campaign name or specific character.

righto, i'll work it out then .

Welcome, smug_jaguar

Welcome, smug_jaguar!

Thanks, Crackhead, for the explanation. On occasion Invisible Castle goes down. If that happens, you can always use an alternative dice roller or real dice, but it's a lot easier if there's a searchable record on Invisible Castle.

The bad storms hitting the US east coast has left me without power and the electric company said it could be a few days. That said I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to jump back into the thick of things. Hopefully no later than mid-week.

Checking in for quick in character post before setting off for airport. Should be back to normal posting by tomorrow.

Back in action.

Welcome back!

I had forgotten to start Edward Barrett's new thread last night when I closed out Last Dance, but I've posted it now and edited in a link to it in the final post of Last Dance. It is called Awakening.

I woke up to sad news today: Mary Tamm has died. She played the first version of Romana, in the Key to Time series. That was the first time I saw Dr Who, as a young girl aged 5. And the character she portrayed was an incredibly strong role model for any girl watching. I've always thought she was one of the strongest companions. I was gutted when she regenerated into Lalla Ward. Such a sad loss, the latest in a long line. The 1970s stars are going more and more.

Yesterday, the guy who played George Jefferson died too. Now, I guess he's 'moving on up'.

yockenthwaite wrote:I woke up to sad news today: Mary Tamm has died. She played the first version of Romana, in the Key to Time series. That was the first time I saw Dr Who, as a young girl aged 5. And the character she portrayed was an incredibly strong role model for any girl watching. I've always thought she was one of the strongest companions. I was gutted when she regenerated into Lalla Ward. Such a sad loss, the latest in a long line. The 1970s stars are going more and more.

Though The Invisible Enemy was probably the first Doctor Who story I saw, her apperances in the Key to Time were part of my early experiences with the show too, when I was 7 years old in 1981.

"She was the noblest Romana of them all."

I just saw in comments on an article about Mary Tamm that Caroline John, who played Liz Shaw, also died recently. She was a favorite of mine too.

Such a shame to see the "saints" of the Whoniverse passing.

I hope a few more of the former companions get a chance to pop up in the show.

Guys I am on vacation until Sunday. Ill try to check in while I am gone but if I hold up the game for a day just npc me until i get back.

No problem. Have fun!

Hehe, cute!

I'm sorry the endgame is dragging so much, but I do hope to have it resolved within the next couple of weeks so I can start getting The Shadow Over Dunwich set up. Those of you who are still in Take the Long Way Home, please do post promptly.

This is an old one but it's one of my all time favorite cartoons.

Congratulations to everyone for finishing The Ninth Planet! I hope everyone had as much fun playing as I did running it. Though this adventure is over, the campaign will continue. I plan to create a forum for the third Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu adventure, The Shadow Over Dunwich, at some point this weekend and work on background and character creation instructions. The game itself won't start for a few more weeks.

First, I'll give out rewards. Everyone earns 1d6 Sanity for defeating some of the Mi-Go. That's all you get, as the Mi-Go managed to succeed in their plan. This may take your Sanity above its starting level, but under no circumstances will it go above 99 - Cthulhu Mythos (which I don't think will be an issue for anyone).

Also, look at your character sheets. Wherever you see a * next to a skill, that means that you've successfully used it during the adventure and have a chance to improve it. Roll 1d100 for each of these skills and post your results here. If you get higher than your current level in the skill, then roll 1d10 to see how much it increases. If you raise one or more of your skills to 90% or higher this way, you gain an additional 2d6 Sanity for each such skill. Again, this may raise your Sanity above its starting level. If you roll less than or equal to your current level in the skill, it does not increase. All of you should roll Sanity and skill increases, including the Styx Base crew. Those characters will not be proceeding to the next adventure, but time and space are vast, and anything might happen eventually. In the meantime, those of you who played those characters may create new characters for the next adventure. Edward Barrett should make these rolls as well, even though he ended up in a Mi-Go brain cylinder. Some of those skills won't be usable in his current condition, but he still gets a chance at increasing them. He'll need that 1d6 Sanity as well, since his Sanity will gradually degrade over time while he's in the cylinder.

Final rolls,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3679615/]Sanity points 1d6=6 now 59%[/url] [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3679616/]Biology 1d100=92, First aid 1d100=29, Listen 1d100=88, Medicine 1d100=65, Psychoanalysis 1d100=9, Psychology1d100=76, Spot hidden 1d100=100, Knife 1d100=71[/url] [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3679617/]Biology 1d10=7 now 58%, Listen 1d10=1 now 26%, Psychology 1d10=3 now 33%, Spot hidden 1d10=7 now 47%, Knife 1d10=8 now 73%[/url]

Agghhhh. Mi-Gos win- those tricky fungi fellas! When, and if, Karin gets out of prison she goes and joins the rebellion. Any rebellion. Thanks for a great game, please sign me up for the next installment.

Ooh I forgot to say how much I enjoyed the game. Thanks Mr Handy. Depressing that the Mi-Go won, but it was a bit of a downhill situation once the General went a bit mad and shot at them! I've not read any Mi-Go Lovecraft stories yet, so apart from seeing a few pictures this was pretty much my first encounter with them. Scary critters! And yes I'm looking forward to the next game.

I'll be on a road trip Tuesday through Saturday ... so NPC Lucius for me if you must. I'll try to post while on the road, but no guarantees.

Sanity 1d6 - Gained 2. Sanity Increase (1d6=2)
Insight 62% - success. Insight >62% (1d100=97)
Insight increases by 1. Insight increase (1d10=1)
Listen 50% - fail. Listen >50% (1d100=13)
Spot Hidden 50% - success. Spot Hidden >50% (1d100=72)
Spot Hidden increases by 7. Spot Hidden increase (1d10=7)

FYI - since Lucius is not getting any help regaining his sanity despite his opinions on the matter, he's likely going to be taking more chances, willing to throw himself to the wolves. He'd rather go out with some sense of himself than lose himself completely.

Sanity Reward (1d6=6)
Astronomy - 90% (1d100=21), No Increase
History - 40% (1d100=92), History Increase (1d10=8)
Listen - 25% (1d100=96), Listen Increase (1d10=9)
Physics - 81% (1d100=64), No Increase
Psychology - 85% (1d100=90), Psychology Increase (1d10=5)
---Sanity Bonus for reaching 90% in Psychology (2d6=9)
Spot Hidden - 25% (1d100=62), Spot Hidden Increase (1d10=3)
Mace - 60% (1d100=92), Mace Increase (1d10=3)

Great game Mr. Handy! I look forward to the next.

Well played everyone.

Sorry I wasn't here for the end guys. My vacation went longer than expected, then I got swept up in the start of school again with work - a new principal has come so we had all sorts of meetings and dinners for the old one and plans for the new one etc.

I was quite literally contemplating having Alison try to kill the General and Lt. Colonel almost every time I posted when we were in the ship, but I was just not sure if the hunch and her own suspicions/fears would have been enough justification and since I couldn't convince myself I couldn't convince her. I think Alison will definitely be noticing the changes going on around her on Earth though.

Here are Alison's rolls for if she ever comes back:

Rolls,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681250/]Sanity for end of adventure (1d6=1)[/url] (Apparently, Alison doesn't see it as a victory either) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681252/]First Aid: 65 (1d100=44)[/url] (No improvement) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681256/]Psychology: 55 (1d100=70)[/url] (Improved) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681258/]# of Psych improvement (1d10=1)[/url] (ugh) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681259/]Mace (DEX x 5): 75% (1d100=85)[/url] (Improved) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681260/]Mace improvement number (1d10=8)[/url] (That will be good for the future) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681263/]Handgun: 45% (1d100=77)[/url] (Improved) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3681265/]Handgun Improvement: (1d10=5)[/url] (Killing people gets easier)

I had a great time with this game and now that things have been freed up I am able to play again. I'd be up for the next game as well - Handy I spoke to you earlier about my character idea, we can get back into that.

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed the game, and I think the next one will be even better. I'll post a recruitment thread for it soon, but I probably won't get a board set up with character creation instructions until next weekend. I'm hoping that The Shadow Over Dunwich will get started in late September. By the way, you are all now free to read all of the threads in this game, including secret information in spoiler buttons.

The Mi-Go are tricky little devils, and I've long thought that they'd make excellent Doctor Who antagonists, which I think this game demonstrates. Their plan was very devious, and there are still aspects of it that you never discovered. You figured out that they were up to something, but the specifics of their plan weren't revealed until the end. General Pryce was actually set up to be highly resistant to insanity and mind control (he had POW 17 and 85 Sanity to start), but the Mi-Go were extremely lucky. The odds were against him going insane for seeing the Mi-Go, and even then the odds were against him developing the particular insanity he did. The Mi-Go also could have been killed - it was down to only 1 HP when the shooting stopped. The situation gave it the perfect excuse to use its hypnotic effect (it had nothing to lose at that point anyway), which through sheer luck overcame the general's high POW. Once he failed, he fell under the Mi-Go's control, and at that point the first phase of their scheme was successful. All they had to do then was get him back to Earth to arrange the meeting, and again they had the perfect excuse for demanding that everyone leave and return to Earth.

There were still ways to thwart them at that point. Backing Colonel Patel fully could have worked, though it probably would have resulted in more bloodshed as the two sides squared off. She guessed what was going on by accident; in actual fact, she was jealous of General Pryce and was looking for a way to discredit and unseat him. The Mi-Go moved quickly to use their meat puppets to eliminate her. Even on the flight back to Earth, it was still not too late. The key was preventing General Pryce from reaching Earth safely, and you had access to him that would have been impossible once you got there. The surest way to do that would have been to kill General Pryce, which would have taken proper planning so that you did not end up like Colonel Patel. He wasn't a willing tool of the Mi-Go, so it would have in effect been murder, which gave everyone pause. He could have been freed from their control by killing the Mi-Go that was pulling his strings, but once it was released that became very difficult. Also, his prolonged and continuous mental contact with the Mi-Go drove him insane after some time, so even if he had been set free, he would have been completely mad after that point.

Imp, you're free to play Lucius how you like; he's your character. His insanity will still be suppressed when the third adventure starts, but it may make a return appearance if enough time passes. His Sanity score isn't as bad as it could be. He started with 40, so he is down 20%, but 32 is still enough to keep him going for a while. Taking risks might also endager his Sanity further. I played a character in one of your games who started with her Sanity in the teens when I took her over, and she managed not to go permanently insane (or even drop into single digits). Of course, the cautious way I played her also made it impossible for her to unravel the mystery.

CrackheadC, I remember our discussion about your character idea, and it is workable. I'll set up a special character creation thread for you when I create the new board.

Computer Use - 41% (1d100=46), Computer Use Increase (1d10=5)
Pilot Space Transport - 41% (1d100=76), Pilot Space Transport Increase (1d10=3)
Psychology - 35% (1d100=74), Psychology Increase (1d10=3)
Sanity Increase (1d6=3)

Not a whole lot of good I did, eh? *sigh* Ah well. Better luck next time to all. Thanks for running another great game, Handy!

You're welcome, and I'm glad you had fun!

The Mi-Go's secret domination of the Earth in the 22nd century won't be permanent. If Kaiser's regime is overthrown, which would take some doing, then the Mi-Go will lose their iron grip. It is possible that the survivors from Styx Base will one day play a part in this. Even if Kaiser holds on to power, the Daleks eventually invade Earth in the mid-22nd century, causing whatever government exists at that time to collapse.