Play@YSDC

So, how knowledgable are you guys about the British Home Front or the generalities of World War 2? Or London, in general? I'll do my best to get things right but I'm always happy to learn more and might well make a few mistakes along the way (especially about where things are, precisely, in London). The current plan is to run this short adventure and then try a few other ones out in an episodic format so people can join and leave as they will between games. Each one should take about 4 - 6 hours in a single session of tabletop, which likely means they'll take around 3 months in play-by-post, depending on post frequency. How frequently do you guys plan to post so I can keep to around that level?

I'm pretty knowledgable about all of the above. You probably know more than I do about the Home Front, but I know a decent amount. I also know a good deal about World War Two; it's something of a minor obsession with me. I'm also familiar with London. I've been there four times since 2000, each time for around a week or two, and I'll be going back again in November. I've seen a number of places in London that are relevant to the war, including Churchill's War Rooms (and the attached Churchill Museum), the Imperial War Museum, HMS Belfast, and the Britain at War Experience. I know my way around the city pretty well, as I've played (and written) a number of games set there. I was already familiar with it before I ever went there thanks to that, and navigating around London came naturally for me. That's fitting, as my character is good at that too.

I can post at most once per day. I'll try to post every day, but if I'm extremely busy I might not be able to on occasion.

I'm an ugly American that reads quite a bit. I like to get into the period mindset of anything that I play and have been a graduate student, so research is a forte. I've watched the Foyle's War series, have read quite a bit of pulp and had a minor in Western history during my B.A. Anything I don't know, but want to, I can find out.

I can post up to twice daily, although I am in the middle of a degree in forensics at the moment, so that may go down to once daily.

I'm American too, but I've always been an Anglophile. I've been watching Foyle's War as well, which I'm enjoying. I watch a lot of British TV and am familiar with the culture in general.

Well, back here in the Mid-east we had the British mandate during WWII.
As for me - I've been to London two times and I'm going to be again on September. I am familiar with the generalities of WWII from high school and personal interest. I can post once a day, even more if I have the time.

I think I will take Mr. Handy's suggest and visit Churchill's War Rooms in my upcoming visit.

William would probably also carry his discharge papers around with him so folks don't think he's a deserter.

Also, wow, Doug is a big lad for a 14-year-old at size 18! That's fine, just be aware that folks are going to confuse you for someone older. Judging by the strength, I'm guessing that's mostly mustle. You've got another 70 percentiles to spend on Education-based skills unless I'm missing something. Hobby skills are fine.

Aye-aye, Bosslady. Adding some discharge papers now.

Laraqua wrote:Also, wow, Doug is a big lad for a 14-year-old at size 18! That's fine, just be aware that folks are going to confuse you for someone older. Judging by the strength, I'm guessing that's mostly mustle. You've got another 70 percentiles to spend on Education-based skills unless I'm missing something. Hobby skills are fine.

He is 17, not 14. He was 14 when he was arrested for the first time.
Think of someone like "Kubiac" from the TV series Parker Lewis.
I recalculated the education based skill - I'm even, no need for 70% more.

I'm British but I didn't study World War 2 at school at all - we did World War 1. So anything I do know I've learned from watching TV. Like Dad's Army (ha!), and also some episodes of Time Team where they excavated World War 2 remains. And like the others I've seen Foyle's War and related dramas.

Forgot to say I can post every 2 days reliably. Usually daily, but every 2 days is sustainable. I've still got a couple of chemotherapy treatments to get through in August (infusions in hospital) which are really nasty and knock me out badly. But I still expect to be able to post every 2 days if need be.

And as a Scot I don't know London at all. Happily clueless

I lived in London for 16 years and travelled all of it for my job at the time so I know it very well, although it must have changed a lot since the 1940's. I'm the same as Yockenthwaite about WW2; good old Dad's Army, Dennis Wheatley, films and unfortunately WW1 at school for me too. I can post nearly every day, sometimes twice a day.

Feel free to add visual and auditory descriptions if you like. I'm happy for a shared roleplay experience.

Nice touch with the picture, Dormire!

Thanks, I'm an internet photo hound. I'm loving this character, so far. I hope he stops being such a miserable drunk.

Anyone who survives this adventure is more than welcome to play in the next one and so on and so forth. They're meant to be quite short but that doesn't mean they can't chain together.

And I like your character, too! All of them, in fact, are really cool and interesting people that I'd like to see further expanded.

Yeah, I know the bus isn't as likely to head on out as the other vehicles (if at all) but I just want to ensure that everyone gets into the game good and proper and the ambulance drivers might be needed to motivate everyone else.

Excuse the interruption...

I live about 12 miles from Norbury and coincidently travelled through there by train* on my way to and from from Brighton the other day. If you need and local specifics I might be able to supply the info.

My grandparents house still had an Anderson Shelter, although re-sited to make a garage at the side of the house and I fondly remember playing with the odd assortment of items that my granddad had hoarded - gas masks and old safe door (purportedly from a British Destroyer) an artillery timepiece (a kind of stopwatch for measuring shell-fire) and other fascinating items.

Loving the action as well!


[*Had to travel up into London Victora then catch a train out to Brighton and vice versa coming back. Still you get to see different views of Battersea Dogs Home on each leg.]

That's awesome! Feel free to feed in as much information as you know. Most of what we'll be doing will be below ground but having those background details would be great.

I’m out for a vacation. I will resume full posting in a week from now.

Roy

Laraqua wrote:That's awesome! Feel free to feed in as much information as you know. Most of what we'll be doing will be below ground but having those background details would be great.

Well, Crystal Palace is nearby (the remains - it burned down in 1936) and during WW2 the grounds were used as a base to make aircraft radar screens - though this wasn't known till after the war. After the building burned down all that remained were 2 towers (water towers) one was demolished shortly after the fire but the other wasn't removed until 1941, by explosive demolition. No reason was given, some reports speculated that it was to remove a landmark for German bombers - however the Thames was used to navigate to central London. It was in the South Tower that John Logie Baird used to test his television equipment, most of which was destroyed in the fire. Another weird piece of info about the Crystal Palace Park is the Crystal Palace pneumatic railway and the 'legend' that somewhere in the sealed tunnel is a train carriage full of skeletons.

Norbury itself sits on the 'London to Brighton Way' a Roman road.

That's pretty neat. Adelaide's so boring. No cool little tales here or superstitions that I know about at least.

Anything else?

Sorry for the delay in posting. There's been a new member added to our family recently and it's taking some adjustment.

Aww, I can understand that.

Congratulations!

I'm going to be away for a conference in the UK. My internet access will be limited till the 23 September.

Roy

I've been visiting the Imperial War Museum in London today and took a pictre of this bomb shelter that was used during WWII.

That's cool. Looks like an Anderson Shelter. Got any more piccies from it?

By the way, I've finally got my hands on London Under so I can really get into the London Underground spirit of things. Its a book about all of what was built underground - or rather, built over.

Yeah, I think that is an Anderson Shelter. The Imperial War Museum is always worth a visit. I went there when I was in London three years ago, and I plan to see it again when I go back in November. I also saw an Anderson Shelter in the Britain at War Experience - and got to sit in it during a simulated air raid. I have plenty of pictures from both places on my camera.

I took only one shot of this shelter but I have these two pics of air planes.
You can see behind the german plane the immpresive tip of the V2 rocket. I uploaded more to my Facebook profile and I have more on my camera.

Simulated air raid? Oh wow! What an experience?

Closest thing we have to that is our Nautical Museum which has a section that's like one of the ships that took us to Australia way back when and you can hear it creaking and this overlaid voice reading out a doctor's diary and you slowly see how cold he gets about people dying.

If you ever come to Adelaide, see the Nautical Museum. Its waaaaay better than the regular Museum here although the regular one would probably be of reasonable interest to foreigners as it has a pretty good Indigenous Australian and Papua New Guinea exhibit. The Antarctica exhibit is good as well but the museum doesn't have any 'simulated lived experience' things to sit inside.

I've just spotted that my character's successful skill rolls don't seem to have been noted (checked) on my character sheet. Should we players be updating our characters there, or is the Keeper taking care of this? Florence has had successful rolls so far on Listen, Spot Hidden and First Aid. Thanks.

I succeeded at Listen, Handgun, Psychology, and Track.

The simulated air raid at the Britain at War Experience was limited to audio. There was another one at the Imperial War Museum called The Blitz Experience in a larger "shelter" that was better; that one may have included vibration. The Britain At War Experience also had a segment at the end where you are guided through bombed out-streets. There was a lot of other stuff there too.

The Imperial War Museum had a temporary exhibit when I was there three years ago called The Children's War, which described the various ways that the war affected children. There was a lot in there about evacuation.

I also visited Churchill's War Rooms and the attached Churchill Museum during a trip to London, and those were great too.

To be honest, I was just going to re-read the thread at the end and accumulate the check marks but it would make it simpler for me if you'd like to mark the checks yourself.

I'm certainly happy to mark the checks. It will make it easier for you as Keeper too. Off to do that now.

I checked my skills.

Hello all, I've been kindly invited to join the game and may appear at some point soon!
I've posted my character on the Character Sheets topic, but best not to look if you'd prefer a surprise.

Welcome aboard

Soon ... my friends ... soon.

You have been so patient.

Now just step into the parlour....

Advance warning: I'm going to be away from early Friday until Sunday afternoon UK time. Going to a school reunion Really not sure what the mobile/3G network will be like back in my home town, so I may not have Internet. If Florence needs to do something urgently please NPC her. Thanks.

That's okay. I'm sure I can wait to do the terrible things until later.

I will be away from 2.11 - 8.11.

Roy

So hands up if you thought you'd be dealing with a ghoul adventure.

I had thought that at first.

Same. When I saw the webs, I thought "Ach, not Atlach-Nacha!" On a side note, many years ago I ran a short set of adventures with Atlach-Nacha as the main baddie. My friend, Kelly played in that one, but he had to keep his son by his side through a couple of him. At the time, Kelly's son hadn't mastered the art of English pronunciation, so every time someone uttered "Atlach-Nacha" he would echo "Outta Nachos!" I kept envisioning Atlach-Nacha covered in nacho cheese; it became very difficult to keep the correct mood.

A site called 'Bomb Sight' was recently launched.

The Bomb Sight project is mapping the London WW2 bomb census between 7/10/1940 and 06/06/1941. Previously available only by viewing in the Reading Room at The National Archives, Bomb Sight is making the maps available to citizen researchers, academics and students. They will be able to explore where the bombs fell and to discover memories and photographs from the period.


http://www.bombsight.org/#15/51.4170/-0.1222 <-- centred on Norbury.

That is great! I think I saw a link to this site on Real Time WWII. I see that there's also an option to see the first day of the Blitz. That will be very useful for my own planned Home Front game, which starts on the evening of September 7, 1940. There's nothing on the site showing where the bombs fell between then and October 7, so I'll just have to make educated guesses for subsequent days.

That's right; there's only data for the first night of the blitz and then data for the whole period of the blitz - not day by day (or night by night) - which I guess would be a huge undertaking. It's was very interesting to zoom into places I know and have worked to see what went on. There was quite a few bombs dropped out as far as where I live but as it's close to Biggin Hill that's not that unexpected.

I was referring to the month-long gap between September 7 and October 7, for which there are no data at all displayed, but it is difficult to precisely pinpoint anything that doesn't fall on the first day or the week of October 7-13. I've visited London a few times (most recently in November) and can see where bombs fell around places I've been. I was at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 2008, where there was a bomb casing displayed in the lobby from a bomb that dropped on October 15, 1940, but I can't find that one on the map. It must never have exploded, or the casing wouldn't remain, so I guess UXBs aren't displayed on the map.

Just checked out where I used to live in North London as there apparently was a bomb on our street; several doorways had slipped architraving in the house. And there were two! One just opposite, amazing the house is still standing. It's a shame the dates aren't more specific but I guess they had enough to do at the time.

Is Laraqua on holiday?

Last week I bought a DVD collection of Dad's Army episodes on sale, and I've started watching it in the last few days. It's about an incompetent Home Guard unit in 1940 on the coast of England, and it's hilarious! I can just imagine these guys trying to take on the forces of the Mythos...

"Permission to scream, sir?"

Oh Dad's Army is brilliant. It's been a staple of British TV ever since it was first made, and has been on repeats ever since. It's still shown on BBC2, on Saturday nights I think. So I grew up with it, and still see it sometimes today.

My favourite character is Private Frazer, who's always saying "We're doomed!".

Private Frazer should be a call of cthulhu character.

Yeah, Frazer is great! "We're doomed!" would certainly fit right in. My hands are too full to run a Dad's Army vs. the Mythos scenario, but if anyone ever does, "I volunteer to be Lance Corporal Jones, sir!"

I know I've heard the theme song before, so it was probably on PBS or something when I was little, though I can't remember the actual show from before. The collection I have contains 18 episodes, and I've seen about half of them so far. I know there are 80 episodes across 9 seasons, plus a few Christmas specials, but the 18 I have are the only ones available on Region 1 DVDs. Region 2 has all of them, except for the three missing episodes that fell victim to the BBC's infamous wiping policy.

Wierd, I was getting 404 Error page when I tried to upload the website for the past week.
Now everything is fine. resuming posting.

Hi Royya,
Sorry about the 404 errors... I moved the board installation to a sub directory... didn't consider that bookmarked links wouldn't get processed properly. I've added some url re-write rules that should take care of that.... but it'd be a good idea to udate any bookmarks you have for the site. more details are here

I'll be away from Friday till Monday on a vacation.

Ping

I sent our keeper a PM the other day to ask what was happening. They haven't seemingly logged in since April 2nd. I'm really hoping this isn't another Play@YSDC game I play in that fails because we lose the keeper

Thanks, Yock. Been wondering, myself.

Laraqua is still active on her blog. She's disappeared from this site for months at a time before, but she's always come back. Some of her games have stalled out in the past as a result, often because players give up waiting, but I'll definitely be ready to keep playing whenever she returns. I'm hoping it'll be soon.

Mr. Handy wrote:Laraqua is still active on her blog. She's disappeared from this site for months at a time before, but she's always come back. Some of her games have stalled out in the past as a result, often because players give up waiting, but I'll definitely be ready to keep playing whenever she returns. I'm hoping it'll be soon.

I wish I could say the same, but I'm fighting a very aggressive progressive disease that could kill me at anytime. I don't know how long I've got, or even - at a better outcome - how long I can be productive for. So I'd like to get on with things now. And not wait months for a keeper to maybe come back

But we'll see what happens.

Jesus, Yock. So sorry to hear that. We don't need to lose any more role-players these days, or we'll become a society of PC and console gamers. That would be terrifying. My thoughts are with you and hope you enjoy the best in care.

Thanks. I may be around for years yet But things are incredibly uncertain. Currently waiting for the medics to decide on a new highly experimental treatment. Fingers crossed. So you ain't rid of me yet. But I'm getting on with things sooner rather than later.

I thought what I have is bad, but it's probably not going to kill me. I hope the experimental treatment helps you, if they decide to try it, and that your condition will improve.

I got a PM from Laraqua on Yog-Sothoth.com. She has been unable to log in, and she told me that the site is not recognizing her password or email. Hopefully we'll get this straightened out soon so she can return.

Yeah, I've had a wedding and then a honeymoon and then log-in troubles. This particular forum also wasn't letting me post for a few weeks beforehand. I could post in other threads, even this OOC thread, but not in the main thread. Time to see if that will remain the same....

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Yockenthwaite, fingers crossed. Science can achieve some miraculous things. I hope one of those miracles becomes standard practice and helps you out.

By the by, fellow players, for those of you who are interested in MMORPGs, I've been playing The Secret World, a modern-day MMO based on H.P. Lovecraft's writings, Japanese horror fiction and pulp fiction in general. It's a free-to-play, so you only need to purchase the software (downloadable, of course). The end-game content is a bit light, but I'd recommend it just for the writing and voice talent. Jeffrey Combs is in this! FunCom is planning another major update around September, I believe, but in the interim they are releasing "modules" that can be downloaded for a fee and usually consist of 4-6 missions following the overarching storyline. I'm on the RP server Arcadia, using the character nickname Saeuberung, so if you give it a try, look me up.

I've heard of The Secret World, but I don't really have time to play MMOs. I did recently play a couple of excellent games from FunCom (The Longest Journey and Dreamfall, from which I'm sure the name Arcadia is derived), so I'm sure it's really good.

It seems my issue has been attempting to post a string of dashes to break up a post between characters. Whenever I do that, I can't post.

I'm on the edge re continuing with the game I'm afraid. There are big gaps between keeper posting (it's been well over 2 weeks since my post, and no keeper response yet). And I have significant dementia like problems from brain damage causing huge memory problems. So the longer we wait between posts, the harder it is for me to keep up the momentum of the game.

Will there be posts soon? I have seen Laraqua's posts on the Yoggie board re keeper issues, and I am sympathetic. But we players are still being kept - again - in limbo. And I'm not sure how long I can keep doing that. I've never pulled out of a game, but this is becoming mighty tempting Please post to us here to let us know what is going on and what your plans are.

Thanks.

I haven't responded because I'm waiting for more information from Royya - a clarification, really - so that I know what'll happen next. All threads are frozen until I know what happens next, but I thought it best not to over emphasise that as it gives Royya's choice undue credence to what might have been a rather trivial situation. Didn't want to lead the player by the hand.

Quote: "Is he going to crouch down to tip it out? After all, if it does try to move he'll have to throw the knife if he's standing."

If you're finding the delays too problematic than it might be worth dropping out of the game. I don't want to lose you but I can't promise that there won't be further delays - either due to myself or other players. In truth I haven't been in a forum game that hasn't had a couple weeks between posts - sometimes months - so I don't notice it as much. If you've had better luck then I'm glad for you and sorry I trashed your winning streak. All I can say is that my Silent Hill game threads run much quicker due to the one-player-per-thread-action (had a few threads that received posts from me and the player thrice per day for awhile there) but solo games aren't for everyone.

I've played in half a dozen games so far, and haven't had long delays in them. So I've maybe been a bit spoiled

Thanks for the advice. I think I'd be best dropping out. I am struggling a lot to keep up with the gaps, and always have to reread (which is also hard cos of the brain damage) lots of past posts to remember where I was and what had happened recently that was relevant. So I think the best thing for us all would be for me to sign out. Never done that before. Erm.

Anyway thanks for the quick reply, and best wishes for the future. And thanks for the game. If you want feedback from me on how it went from my perspective (not the timing issues, but the scenario content) PM me and I'll be happy to answer any questions. I seem to remember it was a scenario planned for inclusion in a monograph.

I'm going to unsubscribe from all the relevant threads, so won't see followups.

Wishing everyone all the best

Sorry, I did not realize that you are waiting for me.
I think I was quite clear when Doug intended to see what's inside the jar.
I thought we are waiting since Florence turned around to see what Doug was doing

All the best Yockenthwaite and good luck on your streak. I think I've generally been unlucky with a lot of stop-starting campaigns, many of which were quite good but eventually ground to a halt.

As for Doug, if he's standing he'd have to throw his knife or maybe kick so I thought I'd give you the chance to crouch down so that you're closer to the thing in case it moved in case you just wanted to use the Knife skill itself.

Place the knife in the belt, then open the lid, pouring the thing quickly to the ground and then take the knife again. That was the idea.

Okay, so remaining standing. Cool, I'll go with that.

Just like to say I'm getting really creeped out down here with these oddballs. Signed, John

Which is good I guess. Signed, Aine

I'll be away on vacation through the 29th, and again from the afternoon of July 3rd through the 7th, so I probably won't be able to post during those times.

Welcome to Act III.

John is still in the upstairs room all alone, does he stay in the trapdoor thread?

John can hear a gunshot coming from below.

I am currently in the process of moving so I'll be a bit sketchy with the posting. I'll aim to do a proper one tomorrow at least and keep to a weekly schedule at worst before I move in.

By the way, the most logical conclusion to this adventure would be the group of you leaving the area and reporting to the police before returning to your lives none the wiser but hopeful that the government managed to settle the situation.

We could then:
* Consider the adventure finished. Sometimes you don't get to learn more. It was an experience but there's no closure.
* Find some way to justify your continued involvement. Probably not going to be the most satisfying since your characters' lack the skills for an in-depth analysis and you have managed to successfully learn about and survive the situation which was more the point of this adventure.
* Move to a Part 2 and consider this to be a bit of a prologue for ... something else. New characters. New location.

If Hewitt comes to his senses, he might be able to keep us involved. But if that won't work, then moving on to Part 2 sounds good.

I'm rolling with anything you decide.

It's a great scenario so 'Part 2' would be my favourite choice but I'll go with anything.

Okay, so we'll go with Part 2. Finish up what you're doing and walk yourselves out the door then we'll go to the Aftermath. No rush.

Part 2 will be set in a fortified German hospital in the French countryside which has been turned into a convalescent home for soldiers whose minds have been shattered by the war. I am open to suggestions as to who you people are but you must be a) unaware of the Mythos and b) arriving for the first (or second) time. I also want you to be arriving together so you might be all nurses or all soldiers or all ... whatever. It will be set six months later.

I'm thinking of playing a member of the German Abwehr (military intelligence). The Abwehr has a rivalry with the Gestapo, and the two agencies are sometimes at loggerheads. Some in the Abwehr actually worked with the Allies to try to bring an early end of the war, including its head, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (who is quite an interesting person).

Can I play a french nurse that is unwillingly assigned to work in the place?
I know it's just a game but I'm finding myself having mental issue playing a German Nazi soldier.

Can I be a top class doctor/psychiatrist with suitable specialties for this hospital. Probably German, possibly not a very nice chap.

You could play a french nurse or even a sympathetic German conscript soldier, nurse, or doctor who's just trying to keep his head down and survive without being arrested by the Gestapo. There were plenty of Germans who didn't agree with Nazi Germany. Some hid Jews or tried to smuggle them out. Or found their own ways to assist the resistance.

New game thread: viewtopic.php?f=287&t=4639