The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Please post here if you're trying to gauge interest in a NEW game, which you'd like to run on Play@YSDC
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Fyshb0ne
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The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

Australiais, in my opinion, the single most underused settings for CoC. To the South lie the Mountains of Madness. To the East, the single largest coral reef on the planet. To the North lurk the cannibals of Southeast Asia. Past the outskirts of the cities, there are vast, almost unexplored wildernesses inhabited by mysterious native tribes with unique mystic traditions and a mythology based around dreams. Within the boundaries of the cities, more than a quarter of the population are the descendants of British criminals. Chaosium scraped the surface with Terror Australis, but there's still plenty of untapped potential for the world's smallest continent. The players will be the citizens of Pruitt, a fictional town a la Arkham or Dunwhich on the coast of of Queensland, slightly north of Brisbane, which will soon be menaced by some of the most powerful forces in the universe. The plan is to make everything homebrewed, so this could be an opportunity for long time players looking for a game that's not from a sourcebook.

The 'experiment' part refers to the mechanics rather than the game itself. This game will follow a statless system which emphasises writing ability over stat building. It wad designed by myself for use with play-by-post RPGs, designed by myself. It was originally tested in a D&Desque setting and was a great sucess, so I'm trying to see how well it'll hold up in CoC. Here's how it works.

- Character creation is entirely free-form. There are no classes, prewritten abilities, or stats, placing the importance on the characters' history and personality. A character's skills and equipment will be unrestricted by anything but what seems realistic.

- Play works on what I a call/response system. The player posts their action, and the GM (in this case, Keeper, and in this case, me) posts the result of that action. It gets smoother as things go on. Player to player interaction occurs unrestricted.

- Combat is slightly different. The player post their intention to attack in the OOC thread, and the GM calculates whether it's successful or not based on the player's weapons, the type of enemy, and the players current situation. The GM informs them of the result in the OOC, and the player writes the IC post which contains their action and the monsters reaction. By keeping the weapon stats secret, munchkinly behavior is eliminated since you can't min/max without seeing the weapon stats, and by having the player post the events of combat it eliminates the usual problems of PbP combat (namely too many posts, turning a minute of swordplay into a month of roleplay).

If this interests you in any capacity, please post below. I'm looking for between 4 and 9 players, and possibly a co-GM, since I'm expecting this to take a considerable amount of GM involvement. I have one adventure planned now, and a plan to expand it into a full campaign if things work out. If you'd like more information, you can PM me or post below (although I'd prefer posts, since it keeps the thread high priority).
Last edited by Fyshb0ne on Fri Nov 09, 2012 2:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Sound like a good concept. I´ve got a busy schedule myself but I´ll do some lurking when it´s up and running.
Good luck!
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

Renard: As of yet there's nothing you need to know to play. Knowledge of Australia, the 20's, and of course the Mythos would help, but aren't necessary per se. The sourcebook Terror Australis has a lot of good information on all three, but it's somewhat difficult to find. However, Australian history is freely available online, as is Mythos material.

Hope that answers your question.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

Oh, I see. Well, initial knowledge of the Mythos should be low to nonexistant. I'd prefer a fairly even mix of investigator types. However, since you would be the first person, you would have free license to choose whatever type you would prefer.

If you're looking for ideas, maybe this will help; the first investigation centers around a local man who, while in the employ of a rich American businessman, suffered an unprovoked assault under strange and mysterious circumstances (these aren't really spoilers, I would have told you before anything else happened anyway). The city of Pruitt, the American, and the man himself are all eager to know why this occurred, and all would be willing to ask favors of or employ various people to figure it out. So, that alone gives you the options of a civil servant, a friend of the American (who could easily be fairly affluent) another employee of the American (what exactly his business is isn't established as of yet, so there are a lot of potential backgrounds here), a friend/relative of the local (probably someone working class, like him) or someone he might employ (someone of less-than-legal methods, maybe). Then, you have any number of people who might be interested for reasons entirely their own (cub reporter, occultist with a hunch, etc.). Or, if you'd like to play someone who doesn't fit into any of these reasons, I'd be more than willing to do any necessary shoehorning if it'll snag me an additional player. Treat these as ideas rather than restrictions.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

Lovely. If we can get two more people involved, I'm ready to start.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

You mean the Existing Games thread? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a no-no since technically the game doesn't exist yet (isn't an official game thread). I'll be sure to pounce on any new players who post, though. :D
Last edited by Fyshb0ne on Mon Nov 05, 2012 3:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Garrett »

I'm in too if it's still on, I'm thinking either a private investigator, native to australia, who specializes in finding people missing in the outback. He would have a lot of outdoorsman skills, know how to use a rifle, be very tough and fit, and have a little contact with some of the tribes.

My other idea was a freelance reporter, obsessed with finding and revealing the truth to the public. He would have a lot of people skills, like persuasion, and I was also thinking sneaking and lock picking on account of him often 'bending' the law to find info.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

It's still on, and I would love to have you. I would suggest you choose the reporter, if only because the "Crocodile Dundee" Australian has become something of a stock character in CoC. That's just my 2 cents, though, choose what you like.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Garrett »

I was leaning towards him anyway, so long as I can keep the rouge skills. Let me know when it starts.
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Laraqua »

If anyone wants to fact check their cultural details, I can give pointers! I'm South Australian. I can point out universities and public perspective of them, etc. I don't have room to play but I can certainly be supportive.
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Oh, also, check out my new blog on roleplaying and running games: http://stwildonroleplaying.blogspot.com/
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Garrett »

Should I go ahead and give you a detailed character here?
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Fyshb0ne »

If you'd like to, go ahead. It would certainly speed things up once the actual game thread gets posted. Your character sheet should include sections detailing your character's physical description, their personal history, any skills or traits not explained by the bio (although ideally, all of them should be) and any of their important personal possessions. You can make all of it as long or short as you choose.

EDIT: Almost forgot to thank Laraqua for her generous offer of assistance! Thank you, Laraqua, for your generous offer of assistance!
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Tabs »

Hi, I'm interested in a statless system and Australia as a setting--I enjoyed that Lovecraft story set in the Outback (whatever it was called).

Can you give hints--dark ones, of course!--as to what lies ahead for the hapless investigators?
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Re: The Australian Experiment (Queensland Cthulhu)

Post by Garrett »

Here's my character, I'll delete this if you want him somewhere else.

Name: Aiden
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Occupation: Vigilante/Investigator

Personality and Appearance
Aiden is a little less then a head shorter then an average man with short, shaggy black hair. He has a robust body and very large, blue eyes. Aiden is energetic, blunt, and fearless(Though I'm sure that'll change fast, :lol: ). He has a friendly aura but doesn't care much about upsetting others. Once he gets his mind and heart set on something nothing gets in his way. He doesn't have much respect for the law but he does have personal limits. He might blackmail or bribe for example, but he would never torture someone. He hates cowardice immensely, and is accustomed to danger.
Background
Aiden grew up in a 'wrong side of the rails neighborhood' with strong family ties to a fairly large crime cartel (lets say about 20 people) of which his uncle was the head. Aiden was a run of the mill thug for this family for most of his childhood, his real talent was getting past locks, but because he was a minor he was mostly used as a drug courier. This taught him urban navigation, sneaking, and how to run fast. He has given plenty of beat downs, had a few brawls, and been in one gunfight. (He isn't experienced with firearms but he does know how to handle a gun.) One day when he was 16 and transporting a massive haul of drugs a large gang that had been making trouble for his family for a while jumped him with they intent of stealing his cargo, they beat the piss out of him and probably would have killed him had the police not arrived and arrested everyone. Aiden later learned that his boss had planned this, and realized there wasn't as much love in his family as he thought.
In prison Aiden was relatively inactive, he didn't join any gangs but he did exercise rigorously every day. A habit that he kept after his release. The other method Aiden passed time with was reading. Most of what he read was in the mystery genre, though he read a few mythology and occult books that caught his eye. He grew to admire the bold investigators who threw all struggles finally brought the truth to light. When he was released three years later he knew what he wanted to do with his life.
Even before this incident Aiden hated the double speak and lies of the underworld. The romanticism of private investigators in the books he read led him to take up this title. Not finding much work, and not terribly excited about the work he did find. He decided to take his game up a notch. Using 'less then legal' methods he got much needed hard evidence on many of the crime families he knew about, though he never touched his own family, and illegally sold it to the authorities. This earned him a few friends, a lot of enemies, and a well respected reputation that led to him getting the exciting cases that he craved.
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