Play@YSDC

I want to thank everyone for joining. I hope you have a good time during our game.

Warning: If you search around, it is easy to find this module online as it is an older module and easily available. Please do not be tempted. For one, it will ruin some of the surprises and 2nd I think I have changed just enough it will probably get you killed.

Expectations: I am going to try and run this as a quick module and would like to see everyone post at least every other day. If you know you are going out of town or something, just let me know and I'll deal with it. If you go more than a few days without posting, I will probably NPC you. If you go more than 2 weeks without a post, and you didn't let me know you wouldn't be posting, I reserve the right to replace the character's owner with someone else.

If there is a button like this:

Dr. Dale Owens,You're not playing Dale Owens! You shouldn't be reading this!

Only Dr. Owens should be pushing this.

What I Promise: I will keep this game moving as long as you are involved. I also will not "change" the module from any plans you make. The module is set in how it works. Though I may have to do things on the fly if you do things that are unexpected.

This thread gives you a lot of good info on using the spoiler buttons and invisible castle.
viewtopic.php?p=68577#p68577

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here. Also post and introduce yourself if you don't mind.

I will probably get the first scene kicked off and players can start posting on it, and role playing even if we don't have all the skills and stats finalized.

I hate games that bog down and no one posts for a week or 2. So I'm going to try and avoid that pitfall.

I'm really excited about this. A little info on me.

While this is my first game of CoC to GM I have played in many, and have been a GM/DM in many other game systems different and similar to this one for over 30 years.
My 2 main game systems to run are 1E/2E AD&D and Paranoia. I have been asked and even begged to run games at the local con which has no shortage of GM's. I've published 4 D&D modules and am about to release my first ever Paranoia module.

I've been hooked on Cthulhu and Lovecraft for a few years now, and get in on every CoC game I can get into. There aren't many, so I'm going to running it on a regular bases at the local RPG con next year. This will be a trial run to help me get ready for next year. In this forum, I can make sure I have all the rules right and can gauge actions before I react easier than in a live setting.

Now enough about me. About the game, remember while there is a bit of combat in this module, its more abut thinking, investigating and a bit of research, rather than charging in with guns blazing. So remember that when you are coming up with your character concepts.

But the way I'm getting you together, anyone can be in it. So from the rich to the poor, from professors, to young street punks. So don't worry about that. You will see as soon as I post the first IC thread.

Remember we are in Boston, 1921.

Shall we get this mother kicked off.

I have heard some people are having trouble registering with InvisCastle. What you might have to do is roll as a guest.

If anyone managed to register, please let me know, and what if anything you did different?

I noticed the blank character sheet I posted does not have any hand to hand weapons listed. You are free to pick those.

Fighting Knife (25%)
Small Club / Nightclub (25%)
Rapier (10%)
etc...

Updated the Blank character sheet to include knife and small club.

As a note, I can post around at least once a day, but probably not more than that. I don't want to slow the game down any, but just wanted to let you all know.

Not a problem. The game will keep moving. I usually give people a bit of time to interact, and if they don't I assume they don't and just move with the crowd unless its critical. Then I'll wait. Right now nothing critical is going on, so I'm keeping it moving.

If you see something coming, and you want to make sure you don't miss out interacting, send me a note or put it in an OOC button and I'll act for you, or wait for you.

Well for now I officially hate BBCode. If someone knows how to put in white space like indents or an empty line, feel free to toss it out there. Geez, HTML is so much more useful.

So for now to break up my monlogues, I'm going to use a single '.' to break up the paragraphs like this.
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So at least there is an almost empty line and keeps things from running all together. Feel free to do the same.

So, sadly, I was planning on bringing my computer with me on a road trip I am going on starting later today, but now it looks like I'll have to leave it behind. I'm going to gone from this afternoon until Monday, August 26th. Ben, you have my permission to treat Harrison as an NPC and simulate his behavior within reason. He's a hard-drinking, cynical writer, so I figure you can probably RP as him without too much trouble.

Understand, sorry you can't take your computer. Log in and post when you can, and we will look forward to hearing from you when you get back. Have fun.

I'm off on my holiday for a fortnight.

I will have my laptop with me and should have internet access. I'll try and check in once or twice a day but my posting rate may well slow down.

Cheers
PG

Ok, I have a feeling things will slow down a bit, though I'd like to keep it going at a quick pace. Really enjoying this pace, hope you guys are also.

fortnight? What the hell are we still in the middle ages? Enjoy your holiday, and don't go in any haunted houses.

Hey everybody! Thanks for letting me join late, I just finished catching up and just written my first post. Today, I'll be getting around to rolling my stats for my character but I'm busy this afternoon.

I've played, "The Haunting", a few times and GM'd the scenario myself as well. The introduction is original and refreshing pace to jump-start from, so it's nice, I like it.

I hope you guys don't mind my writing, I'm struggling to write with a Jazzy Noir voice as I've been playing Modern setting CoC scenarios.

Welcome aboard, glad you like the opening. I'm hoping to keep the pace going at a good pace.
Loved your opening. Good stuff.

Just don't spoil anything for the other players. And I have changed a few things, so don't be too surprised if what worked/happened before isn't the same here.

Glad you could join us to fill up the slots I wanted. Thanks Det.Socks.

FYI, if you want me to add anything to the important items post, please let me know exactly what you want me to post and I'll put it in there. Don't just say, add everything I found.

I have returned from my road trip. Yay!

Welcome back Yig, I wasn't sure if it was today or tomorrow. Feel free to jump right in and if you want to change your last action feel free. I think Sonny needs your help.

Sorry for not posting right away. I am back at school and Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be killers, but Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays should give me plenty of time to post.

Welcome back Things are moving along nicely.

Just in time for the exciting parts.

what a great 1st part. I just want to say congrats, you guys are tearing it up. You better hope your dice rolling stays hot.
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Some of you have a couple things to do, so lets get those wrapped up pretty fast and move onto a 1 pm meeting back at the library. I hope you find the other threads as good as yours. You will be able to read them once we hit the meeting unless someone says they aren't talking about something in particular.
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Just wanted to give the pat on the backs. Great job.

Thanks - I'm enjoying it and looking forwards to hearing and reading what everyone else got up to (you just answered my question about reading the other threads - spooky!).

Keep up the good work on your side of things

I appreciate that, keeps me motivated.

BTW, you don't know how lucky you were. I was trying to decide should I just kill you outright, or send you to the hospital for the rest of the game. Keep those lucky dice in your pocket Sonny. I'm really enjoying this, if you can't tell.

Stay motivated, you're doing a great job. I'm sure I must have done this scenario years ago when I first got CoC, but if I did so far I don't remember any of this. You've got me totaly confused

I noticed that a couple of you never posted a pic of your character. I'd love if you could do that. It helps me with the visualization.

Sorry if I haven't been posting lately, I'm just starting school this week and have been busy with work as well. I figured since everybody is just gathering together to make plans and discuss clues, I would just let everybody work together for the next step. I'll get back to the swing of things and catch up with you guys

I also apologize for being AWOL. School just started up for me as well, so I have been adjusting to my new schedule. I should be able to post on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with some frequency now.

Just giving you guys an update, I'll definitely try to make a post later this evening (Mountain Daylight Time), as I just woke up and getting ready for work. This week has been crazy, not only school and work has been taking up my time, but I went to a friend's birthday party last night and the night before. I was invited to go again tonight, but I think I'll take it easy tonight, haha

Everything will start to settle down by next week, so I'll definitely post regularly.

I'm kinda waiting on Mouchinator/Michael to move things forwards, he's the ex-copper with the contacts at the PD. Once we are talking to his contacts then I can get involved but I doubt the police would help an out of town black boy if I just start asking questions.

well I like to give people a week before I take over their characters as an NPC. Hopefully he will pop in soon.

This is when online play gets hard, Game progress is dependant on the rate of posting. Those who are able to post quickly are held back by those who can't, and on the flip side those who can't post quick are in danger of getting left behind and out.
If there's an answer to this, I haven't found it yet. And if anyone has the answer please let me know.

Yea its disheartening when we have players who just stop posting for no apparent reason.

I don't think I'm making the game particularly hard, and I'm trying to keep each thread exciting enough to keep the players coming back. They don't have to do 10 posts a day, but 1 a day or even every other day would allow me to keep them up. I just spend more time with those posting quickly to get more detail and more interaction. And I usually reward with more information.

I've tried to make myself available at almost any hour so we can post quickly. With the exception of about midnight to 5 am CST, when I'm sleeping, I try to reply to any post within an hour or 2. So I feel I've done about all I can without pm'ing them directly and bugging them.

Yep, I appreciate that, I'm trying post at least once a day - though I've been hellish busy this last couple of days.

Hey - work and life are bit busy and stressed atm. I'll try and get at least one post in a day - or at least review threads I'm involved in.

Things should ease up a bit by the end of the week.

A little Priestly voice hinted you might be interested in attracting some more active players, Ben.

I'm keen if you'd have me!

Excellent, if you are interested, you would be taking over a character Harrison Hawke. You can find his character in the character creation thread pinned at the top of the forums.

Harrison is in with this group here: viewtopic.php?f=283&t=4578

To catch up you should read all the chapter 1,2 and 3. But the only chapter 4 thread you should read is this one.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Currently there are 7 in the group, 2 are not with you, Warren and Richard. The 5 of you just finished dinner, and are in the parking lot of the museum. Time is about 8:45 pm.

Welcome aboard. Feel free to post when you are ready.

Excellent, I'll start reading right away!

Welcome aboard DrP.

Thanks, MrP.


I have to help a friend move house, but I expect to start posting in the late afternoon.

Everyone welcome DrP aboard. He will be taking over the Harrison Character from Yegcredible.

Glad to see you here Dr.Peterson from our Shadow Over Dunwich scenario! Welcome aboard!

I was hoping to meet you here, Detective, there are few sights more soothing than that of a pipe-smoking corgi.

Hahaha, gave me a good laugh in front of my computer. Well now, let's get this ball rolling!

Hi Everyone. BenTheRat was kind enough to offer me the role of Micheal for the time being. I've been reading his threads and it seems like a great story. Glad to have a small part in it.

I see you already have a member of the clergy among you. Hopefully I do not cause over representation.

Welcome aboard Silver.

And with all the demons hanging around this group, I think a bit more clergy is in order.

Welcome to the family Silver Priest

You are obviously a higher category of Priest as you are silver and I'm just ordinary
Welcome to the game Silver Priest.

Detectives, Doctors, Clergymen and Rodents, quite a merry gathering we have here.

Welcome aboard SP!

Hi DrP, glad to have you aboard!

Hey PapaG, cheers!

I just put up my post, but haven't made the decision on my first combat turn as I want to weigh the decisions. I'll be busy today as I'm in school, but I'll see if I can post in the late afternoon or evening.

FYI, all, will be leaving for vacation this Saturday, but will try to keep up a decent rhythm of posting. On the plus side, I should be in a time zone closer to everyone else's now.

Enjoy your vacation. I may roll for you to keep things moving if needed.

Since this is my first game as keeper, I'd like a bit of feedback. Are you guys enjoying the game? Is it too hard, too easy? Etc. is the pace too fast, about right? Not sure I can go any faster.

I'm enjoying it very much, and think that the speed it fine. But I'm pretty new at this...!

It's great fun, and you don't have to worry about going too slow. The speed is tremendous for a pbp.

Yep I'm really enjoying it. This is my first PBP and I think the pace is fine. In fact, over the weekend it was too quick!

I'm a rare-breed pig and organic arable farmer living in rural south west France and I spent the weekend from dawn til dusk working my fields in my 30 year old tractor - which is why I was afk all weekend.

Oh wow, you just don't think the 2 go together. Anyway, I hope you didn't mind me acting for you there.

Papa Gateau wrote:
I'm a rare-breed pig and organic arable farmer living in rural south west France

That is the coolest thing I've heard all day!

I happen to like porc and I like it a lot, especially if it's sustainable!

Good job! Under what name could we find your produce?

BenTheRat wrote:Oh wow, you just don't think the 2 go together. Anyway, I hope you didn't mind me acting for you there.

Not at all - I'd hate to the one that slowed it all up, particularly as it was all heating up.

DrPeterson wrote: I happen to like porc and I like it a lot, especially if it's sustainable!

Good job! Under what name could we find your produce?

We currently only sell locally - fresh meat, charcuterie (effectively dry cured cuts - saucisson, jambon, coppa, ventreche), pate and boudin noir (black pudding). We're trying to work-out how to send our produce at an economic price, so that it stays fresh and doesn't break and customs/excise laws.

I'm just putting the finishing touch to our website (I worked in IT for 20+ years before becoming a farmer) - I'll put up a link when it's done.

We brand everything under our farm name Enjouanisson.

Sounds awesome. I have a saying, "Money can't buy hapiness, but it can buy bacon, and bacon makes me very happy."

Give me some good pig any day.

Sounds excellent, Papa! Remind me to come pick up a few saucissons when I pass by your way.

For the record, I AM still here, just taking advantage of the fact that my character is curled up in fetal position to lighten the posting load during my vacation. But as soon as we're back in gear, I'll post again!

I wanted to let everyone know I am going camping and will have no internet for the next 2 days. I'll be back Sunday about noon CST to pick back up where we started.
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See everyone then. Feel free to continue to roleplay as you haul everyone out of the hole.

Ben The Rat

Enjoy the trip, mate!

I shall be away from my computer from Monday to Friday next week. However I shall have my tablet so will, if the gods favour me, stay in contact although in a limited form.

I'll be gone till Monday.
Feel free to npc my character should the need arise.

Hurrah I'm home once more. Tablet was a waste of time, sorry chaps. Will catch up and update later today.

Glad to have you back. Hope you had a good trip.

Wanted to let you guys know I'm going camping this weekend. Leaving this afternoon back on Sunday afternoon. So I won't be able to post anything. Continue to role-play though.

Have a good trip, mate!

Happy camping!

Back now, had an awesome weekend.

Apologies for disappearing, had a personal emergency, all is well now. Sorry.

NP, glad all is well.

Dr. P, I see you copied your character. Did you change anything besides sanity? Or just copy it so you can modify your hit points/sanity points?

I couldn't modify it, so I made my own copy.
I adjusted sanity and mythos score and added the MAPS slingbag to my inventory and that's it.

sounds good, I'll delete the original.

OOC:   An ooc test

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[dice]0[/dice]
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test2:
[dice]1[/dice]
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Ok, the dice roller seems to be working. Just press the 'dice' button, not the 'dice=' button.

Then between the brackets put in your dice so [dic e]1d100[/dic e] (without the spaces) and hit submit.
Then you can edit your post afterwards on if you pass or not. Or post a new post.

I'll trust people to be honest.

This forum dice roll is really messing me up! I remember earlier today I made my dice roll but didn't work. I thought my problem was writing the dice code inside my spoiler-button code, but I see Priest did the same thing and worked for him! And then I looked back at the roll I made this morning, and it worked :/

I hate this dice...

well if you don't like it I can make them for you.

No thanks I'm good. It just feels like it only works after when all the planets have perfectly aligned together or something. I just feel stumped looking at two rolls I just made, even though I failed on both of them.

It worked for me DS but don't ask me how I'm new to this myself

[dice=string]1[/dice]
[dice=total]2[/dice]
[dice=string,total]0[/dice]
[dice]3[/dice]

There's no D100 images so best to use 'total' on D100 rolls: [dice=total]4[/dice]

Thanks CL.

Also:
[dice]0[/dice]
[dice=total]1[/dice]
[dice=string,total]2[/dice]

Thanks carnage_lee! Much appreciated!

Me testing the new dice

test,[dice=string]1[/dice] [dice]0[/dice]

Since most of my Keepers visit this place, I'm posting it here. I'll be out of town for the next three days and won't be able to catch up actively till Thursday at best and Monday at worst. Feel free to NPC my characters.

Invisible Castle is back up.

I'm on hunting trip for Santa in Lapland with my kids tomorrow (Thu) - I'll be back Wednesday (11th). I'll have my ipad with me but I'm not sure what connectivity I'll have.

NPC my character as necessary.

I'm back!

Welcome back, things have slowed down, I'd love to see them pick back up again.

Sorry, was on the 32 hour plane trip from hell. Suffice to say that I find it impressive that United Airlines (and their loathsome partner airlines) do not show up more often as villains in COC games...

failed your sanity check did you?

The plane, it spoke to me. I heard its grisly song.

Going to be away for the next day or so. Feel free to npc Michael if needed to move things along.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas or whatever holiday you support. I'd like to get this rolling again, can everyone chime in so we know we are all here?
Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiXjbI3kRus[/youtube]


I'm here!

FYI, I'll be running this same module live Monday night. This has been a warm up for me. I hope you don't mind, I'm going to use your characters as well. I made another half dozen so they get their pick when they sit down. So your characters may not be used at all.
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Should be 4-5 guys and 3 woman. I'm hoping for a great time, and I want to thank you for putting me through this to really help me flesh this module out and force me to really learn the rules enough to GM with.
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I'm going to point them here after Monday so they can see how you guys did things, should be fun. After we are done, and we will finish, I'll give a quick synopsis on how they did as well.

Wish me luck. The Rat

Good luck, Ben!

I'm sure your gang will do things totally unlike what you've prepared for.

I'm sure they will do things different. You guys didn't do anything I thought you would, but I feel comfortable enough to play on the fly now. Really looking forward to it.

Hi, I'm back - sorry to go AWOL without announcing it - just got caught up with the rush of Christmas.

No problem, whenever someone goes awol for 2 weeks I get nervous.
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BTW, Priest is available to fill in for anyone who needs to be busy for a bit. Glad your back Sonny.

I hope your game will run great Ben! When I GM'd for The Haunting, it was a big success that even my friends applauded me at the end of the night. The Haunting is one of my favourite scenarios to run for newcomers of CoC

Hope to hear the good news soon!

The game did run great, but I think I've expanded The Haunting too much. It took 9 hours to do the whole run and we "sped" things up in the last hour just so we could finish up by 3 am.

Everyone had a great time, but I'm guessing I'm going to have to trim it "way" down before I can run it in the Con.
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So those of you who actually know the Haunting, what part should I trim out:
Phil
The Rev
Tom
something else???

I think the problem is that you put too much work into this, Ben. The story is great, I've no idea where we're going and what the story really is about.

You've written up a short campaign. And it's great!
If you want to run this as a con game, you'll have to trim it down to the basics, I'm afraid.

I have to agree with Dr.P. I'm sure I must have done this scenario way back when I firtst started playing CoC, but the campaign you've done so far rings no bells for me. The work you've put into this is brilliant, but goodness knows how you can trim it for a convention.

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I think I have figured out what I want to do with it, and I think we can get it finished in about 7 hours. I hope.

Anyway, enough down time, lets get this game rolling again. I'd like to finish it up this year.

Nobody has posted in a while. Was there anything you guys wanted to do today. You pretty much did nothing for a whole day. Took off late, met at 1 and then planned to meet back at the house the next morning.
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If you are ready I can move things onto the next day. I just wanted to give everyone a chance to do whatever first.

I sent you a pm related to the Book of Eibon.

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Haven't found the time to write as I'm studying for finals and working all the time. I only had plans to visit the Occult Shop and that's it. I only have time to keep up with new posts on my phone, as I'm on my feet for the most part. I'll try to write this evening.

Ready when you are.

Waiting on you guys to make the next move?

Just thinking of what I'm going to write, will get back to you soon :p

Apologies for my inconvenient timing, but I'll be gone till Wednesday night.

Feel free to npc Harrison through to the conclusion.

You guys keep assuming this is the conclusion...

Ben: House moving on Thursday 13th, so no computer for a few days. Please feel free to handle Scott as you feel fit until the conclusion. (the conclusion bit was a joke )

Going camping guys, so no posts till Sunday. You guys feel free to post. The dr wants you to tell everything.

Travelling in a few hours, may be a little more erratic posting. Feel free to take over if needed.

We are now heading into what I think should be the final showdown. I'd love to wrap this up in the next couple weeks.

I know things bogged down for a while but I think if we all redidicate ourselves to this game, we can finish it off with a flurry of activity that should be a lot of fun.

So please post as often as possible even if its just asking "what can I do?" I'd love to see full roleplaying, but I know people are busy. I'll try and stay on top of it and post everyday as well. I won't be able to post this Saturday but besides that, you should see something from me every day.

Let's finish this off with a bang, one way or the other.

I am going camping in about 2 hours, so I don't want to kick this off just now. Please role-play and make a plan between now and when I return Sunday afternoon. I'll kick off the final confrontation then.

I'll give Sonny and Jordie another day to respond, then we will move on and I'll NPC them.

Hi, sorry - I'm back.

Life (health, work etc.) got in the way.

Not a problem Papa, welcome back. I hope you have caught up and know where things stand. Feel free to jump right in and post. I did you action of running up and grabbing a shotgun off the ground. As no one seem to be casting spells at this point.

test

what were the criteria?

Did the test pass or fail?

Haha, I'm surprised that I get email notification still from this forum :p

I guess you have to unsubscribe.

Actually I was using this forum to roll some random dice for something I was doing, but you have to submit to see the results. Then when I did an edit to delete the rolls, it wouldn't let me leave the post blank, so I had to put something in it.

Glad you got a laugh out of it.