Bookhounds?

[Grafster]

Very glad to have bookman on board. And thank you Andrew for adding the extra character's info.

Just to jump on this.

My one little irritation would be the credit rating. The way I see the character he should be a three - able to rough it (deal with 2s) or to scrub up (talk to 4s) but still not quite fitting in with rich or poor (1 or 5+) however to get that extra point I would have to drop something else (curse occultist being a starting 1).

Totally Misunderstood The Point,Left the text in but I was not properly reading what was being written. Caste intractability is one of the major themes of the game/setting. By limiting people to bands you create situations where more characters have the ability to "be social" -- instead of just having a "face" character. (Obviously pools get depleted so it's not the same thing as having talk 80%). I am not sure that I want any character to have the ability to span all (or most) social groups. My feeling is that people by "their" character's credit rating based on the social class they inhabit and if you want to know people outside of that in an area then those are contacts. But I would like to get people's input. So what do people thing?

[andyw666]

OK, here's my first take on Jory, hopefully no mistakes!

Capt Jory Penhalligon

Book Scout

Drive: Curiosity

Investigative Abilities

Bargain 4* (2)
Bureaucracy 1 (1)
Credit Rating 3 (3)
Evidence Collection 5* (2.5)
Language 1 (1) (Hindi)
Outdoorsman 1 (1)
Reassurance 1 (1)
Streetwise 4* (2)
The Knowledge 3* (1.5)
Photography 1 (1)

General Abilities

Athletics 8 (8)
Driving 1 (1)
Firearms 6 (6)
First Aid 2 (2)
Health 12 (12)
Mech Repair 4 (4)
Piloting 1 (1) (Bi-Plane)
Preparedness 8 (8)
Sanity 10 (6)
Scuffling 2 (2)
Sense Trouble 8* (4)
Stability 12 (11)

[Taavi]

Couple of comments: a Book scout with no bibliography isn't really a book scout - that's how he makes his living. At the moment I'm the only one who knows what a book is actually worth on the market, which is a bit odd.
Bookman, you get 65 general points not 55.

[Bookman]

Caste intractability is one of the major themes of the game/setting. By limiting people to bands you create situations where more characters have the ability to "be social" -- instead of just having a "face" character.
(Obviously pools get depleted so it's not the same thing as having talk 80%).

I am not sure that I want any character to have the ability to span all (or most) social groups.
My feeling is that people by "their" character's credit rating based on the social class they inhabit and if you want to know people outside of that in an area then those are contacts.

Completely agree. I see the tension in my character stemming from the hurt caused by exactly that lack movement between bands. I was thinking about the suggestion in the rules about credit rating that you can get on with the numbers either side of yours. It is less that I see the character being able to bond with anyone across bands, more that he is caught between what he wants to be and what he is. I kind of see 3 working better than 2 simply because 1-2 would seem to be working class, 3-4 middle and the everything else up upper class. He would be an uncomfortable middle class, able to dabble in the lower class whilst still cosy up to people with more money than him. However the real rich would look down on him and the real lower class would see him as a poseur. Having said which I am quite happy to stick with 2. I suppose the real question is which points are more useful for the group as a whole. He doubles a few other skills at the moment (which is not neccessarily a bad thing for back up and for moments of splitting the group) and I can happily shift a few points about if neccessary.

Taavi: Cheers, I thought I read that we were going with 55. I shall have a think about where to put the other 10. Filch and shadow might work for the slightly dodgy background I envisaged.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

"The name is a compound of two Old British names; Lugus (evolving into Welsh as Lleu) and Belenus, the names of two individual Celtic gods. The compounded name of Lugubelinos evolved into Llywelyn; Lu(gu)-(b)elyn"

Lugus aka Lugh, Lud, Nud, Nodens; Belenus aka Beli, Bran, Byatis...

Oh wow, that's really awesome. AQnd somewhat creepy... what arcane forces led me to choose that family name?

[andyw666]

*SHRUG*

There's nothing that actually suggests a minimum Biblio score is compulsory for a Book Scout, maybe he just relies on seedy contacts and/or advice from the book seller? However, for the sake of good roleplaying, I shall amend Jory to give him Biblio 1...

Capt Jory Penhalligon (2.0)

Book Scout

Drive: Curiosity

Investigative Abilities

Bargain 4* (2)
Bibliography 1* (0.5)
Bureaucracy 1 (1)
Credit Rating 3 (3)
Evidence Collection 5* (2.5)
Language 1 (1) (Hindi)
Outdoorsman 1 (1)
Reassurance 1 (1)
Streetwise 3* (1.5)
The Knowledge 3* (1.5)
Photography 1 (1)

General Abilities

Athletics 8 (8)
Driving 1 (1)
Firearms 6 (6)
First Aid 2 (2)
Health 12 (12)
Mech Repair 4 (4)
Piloting 1 (1) (Bi-Plane)
Preparedness 8 (8)
Sanity 10 (6)
Scuffling 2 (2)
Sense Trouble 8* (4)
Stability 12 (11)

[Seon]

Laura

Drive. Thirst for Knowledge

Hobo


Investigative Abilities:
*Bargain: 2 (1)
*Filch 4 (2) (Yoink)
*Outdoorsman 4 (2) (...Nice doggy?)
*Streetwise 6 (3) (Tell Don Cunnio my regards!)
Credit Rating: 0
Reassurance: 2 (2) (Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Everything's alright, sir. No, sir, there absolutely has been no trouble in the shop, sir. I have not misspelled bibiliography again, sir. )
Oral History: 1 (1) (You see that man over there? Yeah, killed his wife and three children and stuffed'em into the attic. The police don't know cuz he hid them within the boards)
Assess Honesty: 1 (1) (Stop lying to me, damn it.)
Library Use: 1 (1)
Flattery: 2 (2) (Obviously a man of your intellect deserves a book on blah jargon strange words instead of that tiny little book on fishing that you have there)
Locksmith: 1(1) (...Just....Gotta...get....this...hairpin into the lock...)

General Abilities:

*Athletics: 8 (4) (Can't touch this)
*Sense Trouble: 10 (5) (Excuse me sirs, but I can't help but notice that we are completely surrounded with no way to escape)
*Stealth: 8 (4) (Luckily for me, sirs, I have managed to find myself an air duct to escape through. Of course, I am tiny and you all are big burly man so.... see yah!)
Health: 10
Stability: 12 (11)
Scuffling: 5 (5) (*Kick in the groin*)
Sanity: 10 (6)
Preparedness: 8 (8) (Now why am I carrying around this glass shard again?)
Knife: 6 (6) (Right. *stab*)
Disguise: 6 (6) (Er-hem)

[Grafster]

I totally misread Bookman's post. I have credit ratings on the brain. I was thinking you "wanted multiple credit ratings" not "I am agonizing over spending that last point".

I think we are progressing nicely. Want to hit a couple of more topics before we start (Friday seems like a reasonable time frame to start posting IC, but if people respond more quickly we can go faster).

Involvement in Grant's Bookstore
How is your character involved? Grant/Oliver Harwood are exempted if they don't have anything to add.

We can role-play it, or fill it in, or sketch it out and leave it vague but why is Grant's your character's primary haunt?

Alternatively we can try to run an adventure that "links" people into Grant's somehow, but I worry that it could get a bit heavy handed.

Contacts
I would like at least two from people, as weird or developed or simplistic as you like.

Everyone contribute to the Description of the store
It can be just a line about a smell, or a sensation, or a specific item or a nearby shop that impacts the store somehow. It may get "filtered" (i.e. if it's really wacky I might shift the emphasis a bit) but I want the store to have a bit of all the players in it.

Do we need a practice physical conflict?
IIRC it's recommended in ToC. I can generate a non-fatal physical conflict so people have a quick idea how things run. Of course given how the boards run it would probably take a few weeks to resolve and bit a bit "out of character" for a bookhounds game. Thoughts? Preferences?


Group is low on the technical side of skills
I don't know if I care. It's bookhounds, not CSI. Do people with more experience have an opinion?

[Bookman]

I think I'll stick with the 2. He has been a manual labourer and bookie and then a student. He is pulling himself upwards slowly and a short period at the shop (read xp into rating) will help make him more respectable but at the moment he is still somewhat shabby.

Thinking about the fact that we have few people that know books, and given that our resident toff has history very nicely represented (ah ancient families and their obsession with the past), I have shifted the point from history to bibliography. Harwood may know the history of the occult and theology but in general, not so much and he has obviously been at the shop a little longer than originally thought.

I've thought about the 10 points I didn't spend in General, if we do have 65, I have upped health to 9 (manual labour does wonders for a man's fitness) and put 5 into drive as we don't have a lot of drivers (he did delivery driving for a wine merchants for a bit, it is always so sad when a nice bottle of wine is damaged in transit, if only those packers had done a better job...). That leaves 3 over, any thoughts as to useful places? If not I may hold them for narrative moments (oh for heaven's sake give me the dynamite, I once sent myself on a demo course to get out of cookhouse duties).

It actually balances quite nicely across the 6 characters. The Captain and Luke as suppliers - one knows the city but not books the other knows the books but not the city. Mr Grant and Dr Harwood as booksellers - one knows bookselling but not the occult and the other the occult but not books. And the two drop-in patrons - The RIght Hon. Anthony Llewellyn (potentially) insanely rich and a criminal because he is bored and Laura bottom of the pile but very driven, a criminal because she has to be.

Re bookshop: 'Everytime I step into the back storage I'm sure something has moved. There are few windows and the light that filters through the smeared glass is coloured by the fumes from the alley behind us. The air smells of damp, dust and formaldehyde. In the half-light I find my way to my makeshift desk and today's pile of disintergrating leather and rubbed cloth and turn on the desk lamp. It doesn't make things any better. Now I can see the unpleasant diagrams in the books much more clearly; the shadows make the statues, prints and bottles around the room much more eerie. There is a very good reason this room is staff only, if any punter saw this they would call the police, or the Ministry of Health, or a Bishop. I flick my eyes nervously round the room, put my tea down and turn to the next book on the pile.'

I'll think about contacts, one will probably be a librarian at the Warburg whom I befriended during my doctorate. I don't mind about combat but am happy to practice.

[Taavi]

Involvement in Grant's Bookstore
Luke heaved a sigh as he swung off the tram in front of Grant's. The two suitcases full of Obelisk Press' finest from Paris were feeling as heavy as lead, and the customs officer had demanded twice the customary gratuity. Still, they'd be out of his hands soon - Grant's eccentric customers were always partial to a good book about flogging. With luck, Llewellyn would have a commission, or Harwood would have unearthed something that made another trip across the Atlantic worthwhile. Variant illuminated psalters, from ancient monasteries so far from Rome that they generated their own peculiar theologies without being really aware of it, had been trending up; someone in New York was building a collection.

Grant's looked just the same. The same light layer of dust settled over everything, including, Luke could swear, Mr Grant. "He's got to stop reading them and start selling them", Luke thought to himself. Sometimes it occurred to him that he could knock the whole shop over, walk out with all the good stuff and Grant would never notice - but there were limits. If you started knocking over other men from the Service you were heading down a road of no return. Besides, Mrs Grant would certainly spot it.

Contacts
Jack Kahane, owner of Obelisk Press in Paris, publishers of avante-garde literature and fine smut for the gentry. Something of a role model for Luke (real historical character).
Mr Baginelli; seemingly a not-very-prosperous soliciter in a shabby office a fair distance from the Temple, Baginelli is actually a London "agent" of the Commission of Five Families of New York, and a very useful man to know if you want to get something into or out of America without any undue hassles or unexpected accidents occurring to it. Occassionally passes on commissions when someone in NYC suddenly wants to look cultured.
Alfred O'Dwyer-Douglas, 14th Earl of Cirinchester on the Severn; Your classic eccentric (not to say dangerous) English aristocrat, "O'Doggy" (as he is called behind his back is active in J.F.C. Fuller's right-wing political circles, and also building a large collection of Germanic and Old English witchcraft-related literature. Luke secretly despises him, but has played up their shared connection to the West country to become one of his preferred agents for sourcing those hard-to-find pieces.

Everyone contribute to the Description of the store
When Old Man Grant built the store, he bought two adjacent Victorian terraces and knocked out the intervening walls, then panelled the whole thing in oak, now somewhat woodwormed. Some of that panelling now covers otherwise unmarked doors and cupboards, preventing overly-curious-but-underly-paying customers or nosy parkers from accessing certain rooms and storage spaces, or even realising their existence. Despite its small size, the odd half-steps between the two former houses, the gloom of the aging oak, and the unnerving way staff pop through doors you thought were walls, give the place a somewhat mazelike feel.

Do we need a practice physical conflict?
To be frank (sorry Frank), sounds like a horribly boring and time wasting idea; round by round combat on pbp goes at the pace of an arthritic snail, and this wouldn't even be advancing the story. I'd like to take a leaf from Chris Kubasik's excellent critique of combat in RPGs (here: http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/itoolkit1.html and http://www.rpg.net/oracle/essays/itoolkit4.html) and suggest that we come up with some serious streamlining that makes conflict have much simpler resolution, like picking a lock or winning an argument.

How bout this: The combatants both toss in all the points and modifiers they wish to spend / have available and do a simple opposed test (roll a die each, add all the bits, etc). The difference between the two totals is the difference in their remaining Health scores at the end of the combat. The winner gets to pick the final level of the loser (did I just give him a good thump and then he lost his nerve and ran, leaving myself unscathed? Did we mercilessly grapple until I strangled him to death, leaving myself dazed and bleeding, but still alive? etc) GM adds bonuses and penalties for clever/dramatic descriptions of tactics.

Group is low on the technical side of skills:
I think lots of farcical bumbling, a la a British incompetent criminal heist movies (Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, etc) is called for, making a nice contrast to the grim mystery of occult shenanigans. CF the "Bookhounds Fiasco" playset: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=5960. The point is, we're not the ones investigating the crimes - usually, we're the ones committing them...

PS: Remember everyone has to put an investigative point into Bookshop Stock
PPS Seon remember Laura gets "The Knowledge" as an occupational ability.

[Dr. Bloodworth]

Involvement in Grant's Bookstore
My thinking is that Anthony is involved in helping fund the shop and its purchasing of books, and possibly with procuring a few isolated volumes. Perhaps he can use his contacts to provide the shop with some fake antiquities that can be sold at a tidy profit and is in the shop quite often to drop off new "antiques" and browse the historical sections in particular.

Contacts
- Charles Tully Llewellyn-Phelps, one of my relatives (he was a PC of mine in an abortive Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign that never made it out of New York); veteran of WWI and kind of a Severn Valley/west England version of Charles Fort. Books of his include The Goatswood Tower and Other Man-Made Marvels, The Devil's Steps and Other Enigmas of Nature, The Berkeley Toad and Other Tales of the Spectral Severn Valley, The Pale Worm and Other Dragons of Mercia, and The Horns of Pan (a bizarre study of Victorian and Edwardian occult orders).*
- Phil Simpson, a notary (do they have those in Britain?) who tends towards the criminal; forges the academic degrees Anthony uses. Can also forge other documents the group may need.
- Prof. Gordon Welleston, an unscrupulous Celtic historian at the British Museum who forges most of the Celtic antiquities the expeditions "find".
- And of course the servants in my townhouse.

Everyone contribute to the Description of the store
A cluttered atmosphere. Stacks of loose papers and stray books on top of bookshelves. Bits of statuary around (many of which are probably actually forgeries, courtesy of Anthony, but they fool the casual viewer).

Do we need a practice physical conflict?
Don't know. Personally, I think I'd be alright, but if others would like to do one, I'd be fine with that, too.

* You get a big, umm, well nothing really if you can tell which stories and books are referred to in the names of his first four books.

[Seon]

Involvement in Grant's Bookstore

She did some odd job for Grant's Bookstore, keeping watch of the store or cleaning house at night.

Contacts
- Luciano "Fat Fingers" - A mafia made man who owes Laura a few favors after she warned him of an incoming police raid on his house. She is also sometimes hired by the mafia to be a distraction or to be a spy and generally remains in good terms with the organized crime community.
- Mr. Richardson - A quite insane and eccentric old man who sometimes hires Laura to do some errands around his house. He is a friend of all animals and a flock of birds are always around his house, much to the chagrin of everyone else who lives around him.
-And of course, the faceless mob of other hobos.

[Taavi]

Charles Tully Llewellyn-Phelps, one of my relatives (he was a PC of mine in an abortive Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign that never made it out of New York); veteran of WWI and kind of a Severn Valley/west England version of Charles Fort. Books of his include The Goatswood Tower and Other Man-Made Marvels, The Devil's Steps and Other Enigmas of Nature, The Berkeley Toad and Other Tales of the Spectral Severn Valley, The Pale Worm and Other Dragons of Mercia, and The Horns of Pan (a bizarre study of Victorian and Edwardian occult orders).*

I'm seeing the potential for a whole series of adventures here. "The Hound of the Llewellyns". "The Mystery of the Llewellyns' Curse". "The Llewellyns That Time Forgot".

[andyw666]

On the topic of a practice combat, I'd quite like to give it a go, am still definitely new to the ToC rules.

Also, if we are happy that we generally all can post daily, I'd rather stick to the combat rules than abbreviate them. Combat could well be the end of a PC and is important, if somewhat rarer in Cthulhoid settings. And really, who doesn't enjoy firing off a few rounds from their old service revolver at some eldritch monstrosity?

[Grafster]

Brilliant stuff. Very excited about what everyone is coming up with.

How bout this: The combatants both toss in all the points and modifiers they wish to spend / have available and do a simple opposed test (roll a die each, add all the bits, etc). The difference between the two totals is the difference in their remaining Health scores at the end of the combat. The winner gets to pick the final level of the loser (did I just give him a good thump and then he lost his nerve and ran, leaving myself unscathed? Did we mercilessly grapple until I strangled him to death, leaving myself dazed and bleeding, but still alive? etc) GM adds bonuses and penalties for clever/dramatic descriptions of tactics.

I think the system is a good idea in principle, but I'm not willing to "hack" ToC yet. And there are some issues with multiple combatants and so forth.
Lets keep this proposed system in the back pocket for mundane physical confrontations with two persons (or two opposed groups) but expect that we will collectively suffer through the slow grind that is PbP combat in the rare cases when it is necessary.

[Bookman]

Aargh, customers, all these people trying to buy books are making it difficult for me to post about selling books...

Anyhoo, in no particular order:

Jack Kahane is fascinating, until recently I did not know that Neil 'Drop the Dead Donkey/Between the Lines' Pearson has written the definitive bibliography of the Press. Apparently the man knows his books, particularly the 600 or so . Kahane kind of reminds me of Reginald Caton at the Fortune Press, a similarly shady seeming publisher.

"the unnerving way staff pop through doors you thought were walls" – Heh, 1 point bookshop stock spend to give a permanent bonus to fleeing and surprise rolls for anyone who knows the shop intimately perhaps...?

Re Llewellyn's books – Goatswood is Campbell, as to the Pale Worm – Lair of the White Worm? Conqueror Worm? The Worm Oroborous? The Lambton Worm? The Laidly Worm of Spindlestone-Heugh? I can see our antics getting into the series, although possibly more in the 'What Ho, Llewellyns' kind of style perhaps...

Sidenote: The UK does indeed have notary publics.

Re Laura's contacts – Mr Richardson is a very cool concept, I like that a lot.

Contacts:

Dr Crofton Black – librarian at the Warburg and fellow occultist with whom he co-authored a couple of papers and who can get him access to the Warburg's...interesting collection. (Dr Black was in fact my actual supervisor for Magic, Science and Religion in the Renaissance, I have to admit I am jealous. There is something very cool about being able to put Dr Black, Cabbalist on your business cards, but I digress).

'Black-Hand' Jake – semi-official leader of a group of itinerant workers who particularly work as grave diggers and cemetery keepers (Harwood worked with them for a little while) and well, I suppose they know where the bodies are buried. Ahem. Cemetery keepers always know which graves are unquiet and which tombs are open when they should not be, and someone he knows can direct you to strange inscriptions, famous people and odd happenings.

Father Terence Arbuthnot – youngest son of the Earl of Harpenden. He studied Theology with Harwood and they shared certain esoteric interests. Father Terence should have been on one of those neat fast track paths to Bishop except for his strange thoughts. Instead of a nice rural parish, a sweet natured wife and a sideline in eccentric antiquarian studies of local megalithic barrows he has ended up in a small parish – St Radegund's, Shoreditch – and a position as the Diocesan Advisor on the Sacrament of Deliverance.

[Taavi]

In order to widen our technical expertise a bit, I've decided that Luke is something of a fan of Black Mask Magazine, police procedurals, "true crime" books, books on forensic science, etc. Reads the Illustrated Police News. Probably daydreams about being Sam Spade. Keeps an eye on Ripperology. Collects early pamphlets of highwayman tales, assizes, etc. So all that, in combination with the legal education and the number of bodies he saw killed and decayed in various inventive ways during the War, adds up to a point of Forensics and one of Cop Talk, which will hopefully assist if we stumble across any murders or similar (I'd love to take The Knowledge too, but I'm trying to cover our bases).
I've put all the changes in the Character Matrix, here.

[AndrewTBP]

Do we need a practice physical conflict?
Group is low on the technical side of skills

Perhaps a practice combat could be played out in PM as a flash back? Those involved could start the game with contusions.

Bookshop Regulars can make up for technical abilites that Bookhounds don't have. The only ability I thought we were missing was Cop Talk and Taavi has fixed that.

[andyw666]

Capt Jory Penhalligon

Connection to the Bookstore

Jory was introduced to the bookstore by fellow Army officers while on leave and back in Blighty during the War. Initially interested in its military collection, Jory became more interested in its esoterica. After the War, once he was posted to India, Jory would mail order interesting books from Grants and in return send the bookstore interesting books he found in Bombay. Then, when Jory had to resign his commission or risk disgrace, he found himself with few pennies back in London during the Depression. The obvious choice was to make a part time interest a full time occupation.

Contacts

1. Col Digby Lamington-Smythe DSO DFC (Bureaucracy and/or Credit Rating)

The Colonel was Jory's CO in the Royal Flying Corps during the War, but is now in Army Intelligence. Regards Jory dubiously but with resigned tollerance.

2. Rajesh Ranganatham (Streetwise)

Originally a friend of Jory's from Bombay, now living in London's Indian community and working in a laundry. Is well connected throughout London's underbelly, but not ostentatiously.

The Bookshop

In a backroom, books are stacked from the floor to the ceiling in precarious columns that must be treated with respect. Behind the labyrinth of columns lies the kitchen, with an ancient Aga to warm hands and boil the kettle. (Chai for Jory.)

[AndrewTBP]

I've been trying to place the bookshop using everyone's descriptions. How does Southampton Row in Bloomsbury sound?