(GMB) OOC

[AndrewTBP]

Four point Stability test for everyone!

I confess that this phrasing confuses me in the rules and published adventures. Is it Difficulty 4? Is it risking 4 points lost from Stability?

I end up re-formatting all published adventures using my own standard phrasing for tests and clues so I don't miss them while I'm Keeping. The latest adventures, where Stability tests are just the points risked inside a graphic element are worse for me, because it's more work re-formatting.

My face-to-face game is slightly pulp, so I tell my players "Make a Stability test, Difficulty 4, please." and because they never remember the rules, walk them through it.

[Taavi]

Four point Stability test for everyone!

I confess that this phrasing confuses me in the rules and published adventures. Is it Difficulty 4? Is it risking 4 points lost from Stability?

I agree, it took me a few rereads of the rules to get it clear in my head.

A "four point Stability test" means you lose four points if you fail. The standard difficulty is 4, that is you have a 50% chance of passing (without spends).
In especially horrific circumstances, usually involving direct encounters with the Mythos, difficulty goes up to 5, and for direct confrontations with Great Old Ones and the like it can go to 6 or above. But the default difficulty is 4 - if it's different, I will say so.

[Taavi]

Further note: As I lay out here on yog-sothoth.com, I've come to the conclusion that the Stability system is broken, from a mathematical point of view. Do people want to keep using it anyway, or shall I home-brew something, probably based on Cthulhu Dark?

[AndrewTBP]

I'd prefer to keep using it.

[andyw666]

I love the mood music! This is getting impressively audio-vis.

[Taavi]

I love the mood music! This is getting impressively audio-vis.

Thank you!
I have a scan of the actual 1885 Burton in question, so I intend to print out the relevant pages, annotate them, and then put them up as a handout for you all

[Bookman]

Nice.

I like Burton, he features strongly in the ?4th of the John Dunning Bookman series (and if you haven't read any of them, how dare you call yourself Bookhounds? They are brilliant. Ahem.). I think I agree with Dunning's point. Burton should have been born in Elizabeth's time. He would have been duelling with Raleigh, swopping translation points with Bacon, having races with Drake and piling the treasure of Africa at Virginia's feet. Instead of which he got the slightly more (publicly) strait-laced Victorians, got into trouble for criticising colonial policy, told scurrilous stories about himself which everyone believed, and his wife tried to burn his erotic work. Sad situation for one of the finest explorers, writers, adventurers, fighters, polymaths, linguists and observers of life this Sceptered Isle has ever produced.

[Taavi]

Yog-Sothoth is advertising an Occult Walking Tour of London by Paula Dempsey (who wrote Darcy's The Book of The Smoke).
http://www.yog-sothoth.com/threads/2340 ... Occultists

[Taavi]

For the second time I am forced to conclude that Llewellyn is playerless as the player has ceased communicating. The role must be jinxed.
I will keep him on the books as an NPC for those times when you need a high-society contact.

[andyw666]

Bugger about Ll, but we seem to have a fairly stable central cast now (not that I should boast too loud).

On an unrelated note, I wonder if it would be useful to have a page where we update skill points each PC has spent during the course of the adventure? I haven't been maintaining a physical, written record of Jory and am already finding my limited memory cells straining to recall what he has spent. Obviously, I can go back through the logs as it were, but a quick look up might be easier?

Andy

[Taavi]

Hiya,
Sorry I haven't updated for the last day or two. I've been preparing for a job interview which is this afternoon. So I should be able to post something this evening.

[Taavi]

On an unrelated note, I wonder if it would be useful to have a page where we update skill points each PC has spent during the course of the adventure? I haven't been maintaining a physical, written record of Jory and am already finding my limited memory cells straining to recall what he has spent. Obviously, I can go back through the logs as it were, but a quick look up might be easier?

Andy

This is a good idea. I think I will set up an additional google spreadsheet which is used for ongoing spends, separate from the one which records your ratings. I or you can then record spends on this as required.

[andyw666]

As a matter of interest, how do you insert pictures into these posts? Seems like a picture has to be on a website already?

Andy

[Taavi]

As a matter of interest, how do you insert pictures into these posts? Seems like a picture has to be on a website already?

Andy

Yes - you use the "Img" button. You can always put your own pictures up on facebook/flickr/etc.

[andyw666]

*LAUGH* Ah, I love the parrot. Gold.

And I finally managed to get the picture insert to work, Luddite that I am, and posted a piccie of the sturdy old Enfield .38 snubnose into my first Berm Square post - just a touch more period flavour.

[andyw666]

Taavi, do you have any objection to my reading the adventure at the back of the Bookhounds Rules? I have been holding off looking at it just in case...

Apologies if this question has been asked / answered before, I had a quick squizz but couldn't see the issue raised before here in the OOC discussion (I suspect that was a simple Library Use check but at -1 as I am currently sleep deprived).

Cheers,

Andy

[Taavi]

Taavi, do you have any objection to my reading the adventure at the back of the Bookhounds Rules? I have been holding off looking at it just in case...

Apologies if this question has been asked / answered before, I had a quick squizz but couldn't see the issue raised before here in the OOC discussion (I suspect that was a simple Library Use check but at -1 as I am currently sleep deprived).

Cheers,

Andy

Nope, go ahead. I think this came up in the original "Bookhounds?" thread - Grafster asked, and most of us had read it already. I may end up reusing the odd bit or piece of it, but not in ways that would give those who'd read it much of an advantage...

[Taavi]

I suspect people are waiting for Jory's phone call. Keep in mind that Jory has gone from the shop, to his house, to Bermo dsey in South London, to the pubs around Bermondsey, had a long chat with Long John Copper, then found a phone booth. Meanwhile, in the bookshop, you are still in the middle of the conversation you had when Jory left. In the Bookshop timeframe, Jory is still en route to Bermondsey I suspect.

[andyw666]

Aha! I thought the topic of reading that adventure in the back of the book had come up, just couldn't remember where. Excellent...

[AndrewTBP]

I suspect people are waiting for Jory's phone call. Keep in mind that Jory has gone from the shop, to his house, to Bermo dsey in South London, to the pubs around Bermondsey, had a long chat with Long John Copper, then found a phone booth. Meanwhile, in the bookshop, you are still in the middle of the conversation you had when Jory left. In the Bookshop timeframe, Jory is still en route to Bermondsey I suspect.

Yes, that was my understanding too. The telephone call may even happen off camera in the bookshop scenes.