Misery Orphanage, 1941 Britain

[Laraqua]

The world can be a cruel and terrible place. More so when you are an orphan shipped from place to place. Perhaps you were left to the state from a single mother desperate to avoid a scandal or trying to do the best she can during the Great Depression. Perhaps you were recently orphaned when your family died in the Blitz or overseas. Perhaps you are no orphan but the Billeting Officer couldn't find anyone in the country area to take you in and there were places left in the Orphanage. One way or another you are a new arrival in a strict and seemingly normal Orphanage. So why then do all the other orphans seem more terrified than usual? And what are those strange noises coming from the cellar?

When it comes to characters, you could all choose to play orphans in the location OR I'm open for you to play Billeting Officers, friendly neighbours, curious Air Raid Wardens, or friendly local police officers or priests. I'd rather if you all chose to play one or the other.

[Mr. Handy]

You know I'm up for this! I'm fine either with playing orphans or adults.

[royya]

I'm up for a forth game with u 2.
Maybe a grown up orphan that became a maintenance man after the recent passed away.

[Philulhu]

Count me in.

How about a streetwise young lad whose father is in a POW camp and whose mother and grandmother were killed in an air raid?

[Laraqua]

Hmm, seems there's a bit of a split here. The main options:

Mr. Handy plays someone who is billeting the young lad (perhaps even before he were an orphan, it happened) and the maintenance man is an ex-orphan from a nearby orphanage helping out at the all-girl's orphanage. The young lad could definitely be drawn to the all girls' orphanage, thus drawing in his billeted family and the maintenance man is obviously likely to notice something. It'd probably work out easier in this case if Mr. Handy's character was part-time Home Guard or A.R.P. to give greater credibility to further involvement. hehe, if you REALLY want to be nosy the W.V.S. would make A LOT of sense, though of course you'd have to play another woman with them as male volunteers with the W.V.S. were strictly drivers.

Alternatively:

It becomes an all boys' orphanage. The streetwise young lad is a recent arrival. Mr. Handy plays another one (perhaps someone who has been there only a little bit longer) and Royya could play a maintenance man who's not sure what he remembers OR plays that same character at a younger point.

Which way do you want to go?

[Garrett]

If there is still room in this I'd love to play, I would greatly prefer to play a young orphan (I always kind of liked playing kids) but I could do either. If I played an orphan my character idea is a heavily withdrawn child who is almost constantly reading. He is ten years old and almost never speaks. I figured I would drop all his character points on things like psycology, history, languages and things like that. If that sounds good I'll make a more detailed character sheet.

[Laraqua]

I'll need to post up character creation rules for kids so hold off on that for the time being.

By the way, if you play kids you could play children who became orphans and were with mean billetors who turfed them out once they knew that the technically fell under the orphanage system rather than the foster care one. You could also play refugee children. German Jews who made it out without their parents, stuff like that. Kids who might not 'technically' be orphans but no one knows for sure.

[Garrett]

Error

[Garrett]

I'm probably going to play a regular orphan who was left at the door in a wicker basket, I'm a sucker for cliches. By the way how poor is our orphanage? I'm only really asking because I have a character idea that involves rats, I want to know if there are plenty of those in the orphanage.

[Laraqua]

That's about as orphaned as you get. So probably the child of a single mother left for adoption rather than a 'true' orphan. Unfortunately, one is as good as the other for you. This orphanage has been in place since 1931 so you could have been born and raised there but you'll need to be very obedient to have been able to stick around. Naughty children don't last long.

Is everyone else happy to play orphans? Like I said I could probably work in a maintenance man who lives on the premises relatively well.

[Garrett]

How poor is the orphanage, do we have rats?
In answer to the above question, yes he is very well behaved. He rarely disobeys rules and is never openly defiant. Probably his biggest offense is reading after lights out. If it makes sense with you I'm thinking that he'll be harassed a lot by the other kids, its a work in progress though. One thing I do need to know though is if this child has access to a library, I understand if not. But if thats the case could you work something into the story he can absorb knowledge from, maybe just an old man who lives nearby and talks about history?

[Laraqua]

The orphanage is sort of like a miniature prison in the ways it's run. The four women who run it are relatively middle class (especially the lady director who is upper class, not sure of what job title I'll give her yet) and they get the children to basically run it for them. The boys work the scullery, cook the meals, clean the floors, make the beds, and tend to the gardens. The only thing they wouldn't do is the proper maintenance stuff. There'd likely be a book room. The four women are devout Catholics although there's no Sunday school for the kids. The women do teach the boys in a large school room. There's about 60 kids. The place is pretty workmanlike but there's no sign of rats or mice, which is a bit odd.

[Garrett]

How closely are the kids watched? Could a kid smuggle a live animal, sneak out of his room at night, or hide some food on him; like a biscuit or some crackers.

[Laraqua]

The kids sleep in rooms of varying sizes as this building was originally a set of offices attached to a warehousing section by the railroad with additional storage below the orphanage (where kids aren't meant to go). All of the kids share their rooms with others - ranging from a single ward room of 20 to a tiny room of 4. They are involved in farming chickens that covers their egg rations and raising crops which they eat so most of what is paid for them involves sacks of sugar, flour, etc. There's certainly opportunity to sneak in an animal in the barn or in someone's room. Some of the orphans do cooking duty so they could feasible steal food there as well. Sneaking out of one's room depends on how quiet you are (remember some of the floorboards squeak) and what your room mates are like. The main type of supervision comes from each other and there are benefits in the way of privileges for dobbing on the other children.

[Garrett]

Okay, thanks a lot I think that's all I need to make a character, do you have any idea how long until this gets started?

[Laraqua]

I imagine about a week.

[Garrett]

thanks, is it okay if I make up npc's in my characters background, like who his roommate is for example? I'll run them all by you when I post my character, probably before then in fact.

[Laraqua]

That's fine by me. Odds are you'll end up dorm buddies with the other PCs if we go the orphan route but I'm happy to have NPCs in there as well.

[Garrett]

Sorry, one more question. How old can kids in this orphanage be, I assume infant to 18 but let me know if that's wrong.

[Mr. Handy]

Either way is fine by me, as I said. If we use the first option, I can play an A.R.P. warden. If we play orphans, I can come up with a suitable character.