Play@YSDC

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.

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.

Error

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

I imagine about a week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No older than 13. After that they can get a job and move elsewhere, generally.

My idea was to play a young maintenance man. He was an orphan himself when he came to this orphanage and he was raised over there. He worked with an old handyman (Mr. Bill) that passed away a year ago at the age of 74. Now this grown up orphan (Age of 18 - 19) lives in a small shed outside the orphanage and works for the four woman that operate the place. Fixing broken shelves and beds, attend the mechanical and electrical equipment of the place.
What do you say ?

For preference, I think a mix of ages would work better so orphans and others gets my vote over orphans alone.

Hey I actually have a suggestion to for Laraqua, I've made a few role play tweakings myself and I remember you said you needed to figure out how you were going to do children character sheets. I was thinking you could give an automatic penalty like, -5 to -9 to strength and size. Then give a bonus to dexterity, cause kids are harder to grab onto and such, and appearance because kids generally get better reactions when they need something. If you also wanted to penalize Education you could give a bonus to sanity, which reflects that a kid is still piecing together how the world works so the dark truth of the Mythos wouldn't screw their mind up quite as bad.

Just my two cents, its your game.

Also I have my characters Appearance/personality and Background done if you want it.

The young maintenance man works for me. If anyone else wants to play an adult you'll need to find out why you're often snooping about and how you can keep yourself involved. A local woman who's recently become a W.V.S. billeting officer might be that snoopy as might a Catholic priest wanting to know why the children aren't ever allowed to church nor are priests allowed in to see them.

I still prefer to play an orphan, though I'll do either. By the way I was gonna make my guy a lot younger then I said above, I'm thinking six or seven. Also since I was making my character a genius I was wondering if I could say in my story that I do book keeping for the headmasters(like pay their taxes and stuff), that would put me in a favorable position with them so I understand if I can't.

Even as a math genius you wouldn't be able to muddle through tax files at the age of 6 or 7 as tax law can be quite complex and the forms weren't as easy as they are today - especially for businesses. Having said that, you could double check their math and keep inventory and do stock takes. Rather simple checking things off sort of things and adding up numbers.

I'll agree to that, I just wanted a job cushy enough to breed ill will from other orphans. It's not important or anything, just fits the story I made.

hey phil, since Laraqua was thinking of pairing our child characters in the same room I would like to know if your character would be a nark, also how old were you thinking?

Hi Garrett,

I suspect that the rooms would be shared dorms, so chances are they could end up sharing, unless the orphanage has age restrictions (my character is likely to be thirteen)

Cheers, Phil.

Could you answer the question I asked, where I asked if you were a kid who would tell on others when they broke the rules. I assume not but I just want to be sure, I'd have to change a few character things if you were, I need to know this from everyone who plays a kid but your the only one I know for sure is at the moment.

Hi Garrett,

How would your character know if mine were a snitch? Has your character done anything that you think one of the other kids might grass him up for? My backstory will say that he's only arrived in the last few days so probably too early to tell...

Cheers, Phil.

Okay fair enough, and its not so much something he's done so much as something he actively does that someone might grass him for; he's not causing any harm though. If you don't want to tell me that's cool.

Yeah, if he's new he wouldn't have had a chance to snitch yet. He may not even have noticed snitch-able behaviours yet. If anyone's playing a character who's been there awhile then rumors might abound, even if they're not true.

I'll get this one started on Monday (Australia time). Looks like we're going with kids so feel free to make your own sheets. I'm going to go with point buy as dice rolling might be tricky. Adults (the repairman) can use the normal system.

Remember that your EDU can be no higher than your age.
SIZ must be somewhere between 4 (little kids) to 12 (pre-teens)
INT, APP, DEX, POW, and CON can be up to 18.
STR, well, let's make STR cap out at your SIZ as well for a nice rule of thumb as even pre-teens aren't going to be packing a lot of muscle.

You have 80 points with which to build your characters.

The eight educated skills are Spot Hidden, Listen, Sneak, Hide, Climb and three of these: Persuade, Fast Talk, Psychology, Track, Throw, Dodge, Conceal, Fist/Punch or Swim. Anything else can be taken as Intelligence based skills.

I'm a little confused, are the 80 points to be spent on skills or attributes? If attributes do you still get points from Edu?

I think the 80 points are for our attributes. Our occupational skills are based on EDU and our hobby skills are based on INT as normal.

Normal rules limit EDU to age-6. Does this mean that we can have it as high as our age instead?

I should have time to create my character this weekend.

Yes, as your total age.

I've got my character background sorted and I'll get stats done this weekend.

Garrett - I'm not trying to be deliberately evasive. My PC will be in a strange environment, having just entered the orphanage. What's normal and/or permissable there is all new to him. If your PC is one of the younger kids, my PC probably wouldn't take an interest in what you do, unless it impacts upon him directly.

Cheers, Phil.

STR, APP, DEX, POW, and CON (4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6,4d6=[4, 3, 2, 3], [1, 2, 1, 4], [1, 2, 3, 3], [1, 6, 4, 1], [6, 3, 3, 3])
SIZ, INT, EDU (3d6+6,3d6+6, 4d6+3=[4, 4, 1, 6], [1, 1, 1, 6], [2, 4, 4, 6, 3])

Mike Taylor, Handyman
Age: 18

STR: 13
APP: 7
DEX: 8
POW: 12
CON: 11
SIZ: 14
INT: 8
EDU: 17

SAN: 60 ; Idea: 40 ; Know: 85 ; Luck: 60
Magic Points: 12
Hit Points: 13
Damage Bonus: +1d4

Skills: dot-bold skills are occupation / italic skill are hobby
Accounting (10%):
Anthropology (01%):
Archaeology (01%):
Art (05%):
Astronomy (01%):
Bargain (05%):
Biology (01%):
.Chemistry (01%): 51%
.Climb (40%): 60%
Conceal (15%):
.Craft Toys(05%): 30%
Credit Rating (15%):
Cthulhu Mythos (00%):
Disguise (01%):
Dodge (DEX×2):
Drive Auto (20%):
.Electrical Repair (10%): 66%
Fast Talk (05%):
First Aid (30%):
Geology (01%):
Hide (10%):
History (20%):
Jump (25%):
Law (05%):
Library Use (25%):
Listen (25%):
Locksmith [01%): 61%
Martial Arts (01%):
.Mechanical Repair (20%): 68%
Medicine (05%):
Natural History (10%):
Navigate (10%):
Occult (05%):
.Operate Heavy Machine (01%): 15%
Own Language: English (EDU×5%): 85%
Persuade (15%):
Pharmacy (01%):
Photography (10%):
Physics (01%): 21%
Pilot (01%):
Psychoanalysis (01%):
Psychology (05%):
Ride (05%):
Sneak (10%):
.Spot Hidden (25%): 65%
Swim (25%):
Throw (25%):
Track (10%):

This is to the players as much as Laraqua, I'm making my character as a book smart guy so I'm dropping most of my points on academic skills. I was wondering do you think it would be better to have 5 or 6 skills at around 30-40% each. Or have two or three skills and have them really high? My decision will probably depend on how long this roleplay is going to go on and if there will be chances to improve my skills.
Here are the two skill lists I'm split between.

Biology (01%): 36%
Chemistry (01%): 36%
Mythos (00%):
Dodge (DEX x 2%): 75%
First Aid (30%): 50%
History (20%): 50%
Library Use (25%): 50%
Listen (25%): 75%
Occult (05%): 40%
Own Language: English (EDU x 5%):
Psychology (05%): 72%

Mythos (00%):
Dodge (DEX x 2%): 75%
First Aid (30%): 70%
History (20%): 70%
Library Use (25%): 70%
Listen (25%): 75%
Occult (05%): 50%
Own Language: English (EDU x 5%): 40%
Psychology (05%): 72%

If your PC's been a swot then there's a chance he'd been good in the three R's - reading, writing and arithmetic - and possibly history (kings and queens, major battles, etc. learned by rote) and geography. There would be physical education and possibly woodwork as well, although it sounds like your PC is unlikely to excelled in the latter two

Do we have a list of skills? I had a look at those used for Byakhee for 1920 but they're more for adults than children - not many kids will have had a chance to try their hand at Drive Auto or Operate Heavy Machinery

lol, I just posted my list as you typed that response.

You can use the 1920s list but don't put any ranks into skills that are obviously silly (like Drive Auto or Operate Heavy Machinery) though if you're a pre-teen a small bit of Mechanical Repair is possible. Anywho, just use your common sense and go from there.

As for skills and ranks, you're better off having a spread of skills as most people do and it gives you more of a chance to get involved in multiple circumstances.

alright, I'll go with the shorter list then.
Finished my character, feel free to change anything you need to.

Name: Moses AKA: Martian
Age: 8
sex: Male
Occupation: Book Keeper
Current Residence: Orphanage

Characteristics
STR: 5
CON: 6
SIZ: 5
DEX: 16
APP: 4
POW: 18
INT: 18
EDU: 8

Luck: 80%
Idea: 80%
Know: 40%

Hit Points: 6
Sanity: 90
Maximum Sanity: 99
Magic Points: 18
Damage Bonus: -1d6

Appearance and Personality
Martian is Indian (As in India, not Native american)
Martian is scrawny to the point he looks sickly despite the fact he eats healthily, and has a small head that makes his eyes appear very big. This, combined with the fact he talks about humans in third person,(For example saying "humans are so interesting.") has earned him his nickname. He speaks only when spoken to and almost always has his head burried in a book.
The exception to this is a secret only his roomate would know, Martian has a pet racoon that comes to his window every night for food. Martian named it Julius, every night he talks to it for hours, usually about whatever he read that day, and feeds it. Martian actaully loves talking but the abuse he suffered in his younger years made him very meek, he walks around with his head down and never looks at anyone. People don't realize it but he sleeps spasmadically throughout the day in the exact same position he reads in, combined with the sleeping he does at night he gets about six hours a day.

Background
Following orphan cliche Martian was abondoned on the orphanage door step in a wicker basket, however there was also a large sum of money in the basket and a note that said not to look for his family. (Lets say the equivelent of 10k) Nobody at the orphanage knows this but he was born to a family living several cities away(they did not want to be traced) to an unwed teenager of a wealthy family. Of course the womans father was ashamed and decided to keep everything a secret, keeping her daughter locked in the house until she gave birth, then ditching the baby. He didn't tell his daughter where the child is or even what he did with it.
At the orphanage a combination of his race and advanced intellect made Martian a target for abuse from other children. This went on until the wardens discovered he was a genius and had him start doing work for them, naturally this led to many privelages for him. Including complete use of the library, a cheap chemistry set( If this is too much I understand), and freedom from other chores. Recently at the orphanage some of the younger kids, and a few of the older ones, have taken to looking at Martian as a source of information. He doesn't show any emotion when responding, usually not even looking up from his book, and usually answers in as few words as possible. Nobody realizes it, in fact most think the opposite, but he is actually very happy about this and loves answering questions.

Skills
All edited skills are bold

Biology (01%): 36%
Chemistry (01%): 36%
Mythos (00%): 0%
Dodge (DEX x 2%): 75%
First Aid (30%): 50%
History (20%): 50%
Library Use (25%): 50%
Listen (25%): 75%
Occult (05%): 40%
Own Language: English (EDU x 5%): 40%
Psychology (05%): 72%

What will the in-game date be when we start?

Is it too late to join? I can sort out a character sheet tomorrow (Sunday) and am thinking about being a very little kid (age 4-5), cherubic, who sucks a blanket but has some unlikely hidden skills/talent for something-not sure what yet. Parents unknown probably. If you have enough players already Laraqua then I'll bow out and just enjoy reading the plot as it develops.

Player: Mr. Handy
Name: Clive Higgins
Age: 10
Sex: Male
Occupation: Orphan
Current Residence: Misery Orphanage
Birthplace: London, England

Characteristics:
STR: 8
CON: 10
SIZ: 9
DEX: 11
APP: 8
INT: 11 (Idea - 55)
POW: 13 (Luck - 65)
EDU: 10 (Know - 50)

Sanity: 65
Phobias/Mental Disorders: None
Maximum Sanity: 99
Hit Points: 10
Magic Points: 13
Damage Bonus: +0

Background: Clive Higgins is a precocious youngster who has a variety of interests. His father died at Dunkirk, and his mother was killed in the Blitz. He had been evacuated to the countryside prior to that, so he had survived, but he was placed in Misery Orphanage after his mother's death. He wants to join the RAF when he grows up, and he looks up to pilots as heroes. He enjoys planespotting, learning to identify various aircraft by their shapes and sounds. He also likes stargazing, and he insists that one day he's going to fly a rocket ship into outer space. He is obsessed with science fiction and weird tales, particularly Buck Rogers. He reads books, magazines, and comics in the genre every chance he gets. He also plays a lot of sports.

Clive has taken a liking to Martian and looks after him, standing up to the bigger kids when they try to bully him. In return, Martian gets him the science fiction books he craves from the library. Clive sometimes wonders if Martian really is a Martian. He hopes so, because that would be swell!

Skills: (Non-default skills BOLD, Professional Skills ITALICS, Hobbies preceded by a DOT. Checked skills followed by a *
Accounting (10%):
Anthropology (01%):
Archaeology (01%):
Art (05%):
.Astronomy (01%): 36%
Bargain (05%):
Biology (01%):
Chemistry (01%):
Climb (40%): 55%
Conceal (15%):
Craft (05%):
Credit Rating (15%):
Cthulhu Mythos (00%):
Disguise (01%):
Dodge (DEX x 2%): 52%
Drive Auto (20%):
Electrical Repair (10%):
Fast Talk (05%): 35%
First Aid (30%):
Geology (01%):
Hide (10%): 35%
History (20%):
Jump (25%):
Law (05%):
.Library Use (25%): 40%
Listen (25%): 45%
Locksmith (01%):
Martial Arts (01%):
.Mechanical Repair (20%): 30%
Medicine (05%):
Natural History (10%):
.Navigate (10%): 45%
.Occult (05%): 20%
Operate Heavy Machinery (01%):
Other Language (01%):
Own Language: English (EDU x 5%): 50%
Persuade (15%):
Pharmacy (01%):
Photography (10%):
Physics (01%):
Pilot (01%):
Psychotherapy (01%):
Psychology (05%):
Ride (05%):
Sneak (10%): 40%
Spot Hidden (25%): 55%
Swim (25%):
Throw (25%): 45%
Track (10%):
War Prestige (01%):

Hand-to-Hand:
Fist/Punch (50%):
Grapple (25%):
Head Butt (10%):
Kick (25%):

Sweet, Martian has a guardian.

If there is more room, I would like to join.

I have written a sheet up just in case.

Background: Peregrine Fairweather is a small, beautiful child with cherubic blonde curls. Aged four, he has not much to say for himself but drinks in, through his big blue eyes, everything that the world throws at him. His angelic appearance belies a strong constitution and a strong, perceptive mind. Peregrine is insightful and perceptive for such a young child.

He was recently deposited at the Misery Orphanage by a prim and severely thin nurse, dressed all in black. The woman had a short meeting with the Orphanage staff, leaving relevant particulars (to come) about the boy, and then left. Peregrine just stood there, holding an old tatty bit of blue blanket. He started to suck the corner of it as he gazed slowly around the foyer.

Not statted up yet, but here's my character background.

Jimmy Walker
Age: 13

An East End lad, Jimmy is thin and wiry with a shock of dark hair. He's of average height for his age. Not one for sitting still, Jimmy is happiest when he is out and about, exploring the bombed-out buildings or spending time down by the local canal. When his dad was around, he would spend time down his at shed, helping the old man to tinker with his AJS, keeping the old motorbike ticking over.

Jimmy's an indifferent scholar and is just passing time at school until he can leave, when he'll start work as a telegraph lad at the local post office.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Investigator Name: Jimmy Walker
Birthplace: Stepney, London
Mental Disorders: None

Sex: M Age: 13

STR: 10 DEX: 11 INT: 10 Idea: 50
CON: 12 APP: 9 POW: 8 Luck: 40
SIZ: 11 SAN: 40 EDU: 9 Know: 45

99-Cthulhu Mythos: 99 Damage Bonus: none

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Accounting 10%
Anthropology 1%
Archaeology 1%
Astronomy 1%
Bargain 30%
Biology 1%
Chemistry 1%
Climb 55%
Conceal 45%
Credit Rating 15%
Cthulhu Mythos 0%
Dodge 50%
Drive Auto 20%
Electrical Repair 10%
Fast Talk 5%
First Aid 30%
Geology 1%
Handgun 20%
Hide 30%
History 20%
Jump 45%
Law 5%
Library Use 25%
Listen 45%
Locksmith 1%
Machine Gun 15%
Martial Arts 1%
Mechanical Repair 35%
Medicine 5%
Natural History 10%
Navigate 35%
Occult 5%
Operate Hvy. Machine 1%
Own Language: English 45%
Persuade 15%
Pharmacy 1%
Photography 10%
Physics 1%
Psychoanalysis 1%
Psychology 5%
Ride 5%
Rifle 25%
Shotgun 30%
Sneak 40%
Spot Hidden 47%
Submachine Gun 15%
Swim 25%
Throw 25%
Track 10%
Fist/Punch 65%
Head Butt 10%
Kick 35%
Grapple 25%
Small Knife* 30%

Uprated skills in bold.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The light shadowed unevenly across the paper, struggling to make its way through the dirty windows of orphanage dormatory. Jimmy sat with a pencil in hand, staring at the blank paper in front him, trying to think how to begin. He frowned and began to write.

Cpl. D J Walker
12th Lancers

Daer Father,

I am riting to you from the orphanage were I have been living since last week. The matron siad it wuld be nice for me to rite to you to let you know were I was.

I am sharing a room with some other boys – most of them are younger than me but it is all rite and we get fed. There is plenty to do with school and chores and that so I dunt get into much mischief. We're out in the countryside so theres lots of animals. Its like that holiday we had on the farm when I was little.

Whats it like being a prisoner of war? Borin I suppose, but you can rite and tell me all about it.

Yor loving son,

Jimmy Walker

Jimmy looked again at the letter in front of him and his eyes welled up. He glanced around surreptitiously but no one was watching. There was only one other boy in the dormitory, a younger lad called Arthur who lay on his bed, staring catatonically at the ceiling.

They said that Arthur had seen the explosion that killed his mother and his two younger sisters. Jimmy had been spared that, he’d been at school when the bombers went over but he’d heard the explosions and somehow known that they came from the direction of home. He’d run all the way as soon as the all-clear sounded but there was nothing left – the house had taken a direct hit. The ARP Warden said that his mum wouldn’t have known a thing about it but that was scant consolation to Jimmy.

He wiped his nose on his sleeve, and then quickly rubbed his eyes before his tears fell and marked the paper. He looked at the letter again. His father was in a POW camp in Germany; injured in the retreat to Dunkirk and left behind for the Jerries to look after. He wanted to tell his father how much he missed his mum, how much even he missed him, even though he was quick to anger, particularly after he’d had a drink, but the matron said it wouldn’t do to worry him. His father had enough to think about, being a prisoner and everything. ‘Stiff upper lip,’ the matron had said. Jimmy hadn’t trusted himself to reply.

Jimmy took up his pencil again and carefully marked two x’s under his name, hoping his father wouldn’t think he was going soft. He folded the paper in two and slotted into the envelope given to him by the matron. Her neat copperplate writing said ‘Cpl. D J Walker, 12th Lancers’ followed by the battalion HQ address – Jimmy had lost his father’s POW address in the bombing.

He sighed and stood up, stuffing the letter into the pocket of his shorts. He walked past the dormitory bed and paused by Arthur’s bed. “Stiff upper lip,” he said, tapping Arthur’s foot but the younger boy didn’t reply, just continuing to stare at the ceiling. Jimmy shook his head and headed for the door and off in search of matron to post his letter.

Hmm, we'll have it be nice and spring time. May 13th, 1941. Shortly before 'Home Guard Sunday' which the local Father has been pushing for the orphans to be able to attend. (I may need to double check the dates but I believe it's May 15th, don't have it in front of me but it'll do for now).

I'm figuring on putting the orphanage in Gloucestershire somewhere. I'll do a bit of research to double check that the area is suitable. Basically, small country town that's big enough to have most of the amenities (some rural areas hadn't changed much over the past couple hundred years) but it small enough to be mostly wide open farmland and an almost idyllic Miss Marple style.

Aine and CrackheadC. are both most welcome to join but then we shall have enough.

Obviously there is an R Rating that will apply here as children will be in danger and there will be plenty of physical child abuse, potential serious neglect, and possibly the murder of children (your characters are kids and will risk death, after all). I'll try to sensitively handle it as this game is intended to be creep under your skin rather than shock you senseless. It isn't Kult, after all, so you don't have to worry about lovingly detailed torture scenery or sexual abuse and if there is any more particularly nasty physical abuse (i.e. torture) it'll likely occur off-screen. Still, if you think you'll have difficulties dealing with concepts of children getting badly hurt or killed then you should back out now. As I said, you're child protagonists in Call of Cthulhu. Bad things are likely to happen unless you're really lucky with the dice and quite clever.

In other news, I will be introducing modifiers. If you're particularly clever, you'll get a bonus to applicable rolls. If your character isn't so clever in their choices, they'll take penalties. Even bad choices can sometimes be pulled off.