Play@YSDC

Welcome to the Chapochaug Tunnel Haunting! It's pronounced cha-po-chog in case you're wondering. This should be a relatively short adventure (by our standards) but still one in which the companions will need to take care. It will form part of what I hope is three adventures which are loosely-connected to Miskatonic University, so the action will return to the Arkham area and its surroundings.

I am thinking that Alice will have resumed her employment at Miskatonic and is asked by one of the deans to look into the disappearance of the student. He will approach her and then she can assemble the investigators to help. Norman will be staying at his old rooming house and Isadora will look him up

I will begin two threads to run simultaneously - one for Alice (and Henry, otherwise poor innsmouth will be idle), and one for Isadora and Norman to get reacquainted. Then we can merge them once the investigation starts. Try to post everyday and feel free to dialogue as much as you like. I'll start the threads as soon as I can. How does that sound?

Yep, looking forward to starting!

Sounds great!

How much time has passed since the events of Dead Man Stomp? I think Isadora underwent deep sleep therapy, to deal with the horror she experienced and hopefully to regain some SAN.

I think that would include the use of barbiturates, which we know Isadora is partial to. I would give you a roll of 1d2 SAN gain, 'cause she has to be at risk of developing an addiction or withdrawal. Hopefully, solving this mystery without too much horror will set her right.

I'll start a thread for Alice and Henry tonight. Alice is back at Miskatonic, working as secretary for Dr. Conrad Miller, Chair of the Biology Department. I'm taking dramatic license here, but I'm thinking that Henry is also living and writing in Arkham, and he and Alice have a thing again. He's using the university library for research, and has popped in to see Alice when she gets a summons about the missing student.

Hope that's okay with you.

Yes, that's good for me.

Henry would be back staying with his Irish landlady in Arkham

Once Alice has accepted the request she'll call Isadora to ask for help, and so there'll be a message waiting when she gets home.

Yes, I was trying to do some foreshadowing there

The beginnings and endings of these scenarios are really hard. It's so much easier when the characters know each other and have a reason to work together, but even then I have to think of a good setup. I'm always left wondering when I read these things; if I was a character, why the hell would I want to get involved? The Gaslight scenario I want to run is absolutely dreadful in that regard.

Your Sukakpak game is much tighter evil, and better for it I think. The characters have no choice but to work together.

HoneyDog wrote:The beginnings and endings of these scenarios are really hard. It's so much easier when the characters know each other and have a reason to work together, but even then I have to think of a good setup. I'm always left wondering when I read these things; if I was a character, why the hell would I want to get involved? The Gaslight scenario I want to run is absolutely dreadful in that regard.

Your Sukakpak game is much tighter evil, and better for it I think. The characters have no choice but to work together.

I agree, hooks and motivation are the biggest problems in CoC! Most published scenarios start off with "your "friend" is in trouble and asks for your help" or "you inherit something"...

Sukakpak is a one-shot, with a fixed setting and characters. But there is a trade-off in that: it is harder to use the same characters in following adventures, unless they form a bond and decide to "investigate Mythos-related activity". But overall I still prefer to impose certain limitations on characters, so that I don't have to deal with illogical story hooks.

In this format you have to, otherwise you'll spend months contriving some kind of situation whereby the characters get to know each other.

Indeed.

The next scenario I'm planning (also a one-shot) will require characters to be "wired" into the hook from the beginning.

Ooh! Any previews? Is it Classic?

Sorry, another Modern game, set in the late 1970s... A scenario about cult deprogrammers. I'm still working on it, but hopefully will be good to go in December.

Intriguing! I'm enjoying the Sukakpak scenario. Perhaps an elderly Isadora can feature in it. Come to think of it, Norman would be well suited to the Alaskan wilderness.

An 80-year old Isadora going to a new age health retreat at Mt. Sukakpak...

I have plans for Isadora... She'll need every last ounce / gram of sanity.

Playing with the elderly! Now that could be interesting.

In game time, Alice and Henry are about an hour ahead, so we can say that Isadora is able to receive the call from Henry when she arrives home.

HoneyDog wrote:In game time, Alice and Henry are about an hour ahead, so we can say that Isadora is able to receive the call from Henry when she arrives home.

Sounds good!

(Isadora's chiropractor comes to her house, so she will be going home now)

Where you all meet will depend on whether Alice and Henry do more research at the library. If Isadora picks up Norman, it will take about 2 - 3 hours to get to Arkham by car if they leave immediately.

Tabs and evil_scientist, please feel free to read the other thread if you haven't already, to get updated on the story.

Where would you all like to meet in Arkham? I can start the new thread from there once you're all ready. Let me know when you're done with your existing threads.

Perhaps a Cafe to get acquainted

That sounds good to me too.

Let's bring the characters together then. I'll create a new thread shortly.

innsmouth wrote:Henry Glynn

As they rise from the table Henry gives Owens a friendly nudge and whispers:

"It's Auden by the way - the husband - not Carmichael."

I'm away from home and don't have my books so there won't be an update until tomorrow night. Apologies everyone!

You've found Albert, well done. We just have to finish things off. I hope you have enjoyed it, although I feel I made it too easy with the monster. The dice were on your side in this one though. I was making constitution rolls against you all throughout due to the presence of the spores, and you stood up pretty well to it.

There are some questions though that have arisen, namely who Albert was working with regarding the nature of the properties of the fungus, and what it could be used for. If you're interested in exploring it further, we can continue in the next scenario, which will be A Little Knowledge from the Miskatonic University sourcebook, and which is set on the campus of that esteemed institution. Let me know if you'd like to try it.

I'd definitely be up for it!

I don't think the final encounter was too easy, we were just very lucky. Had the dice not gone our way, or had Isadora not been carrying an alien weapon, we'd have been in big trouble. Most of us had good CON scores, except for Isadora, who had good luck, so we were well equipped to resist the spores and the gas (and even then, I only barely made that last roll). We also got two critical hits in the fight with the creature, which helped considerably.

Yes, please, I'd love to continue playing with this cast of characters!

Oh yes, we got really lucky this time. With our SAN rolls too. And Isadora proved to be quite the steampunk action girl

Isadora,[img]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/b8/30/75/b830752b0ca34468f338ac01f01fcf5d.jpg[/img]

That's a cool pic!

I've had a fun time but I want out. Board games are my thing now, much more so than rpgs.

I’m sorry to hear that Tabs, but thanks for playing. If we have another adventure in the future, you’re welcome to join.

I should have had the creature attack with more tendrils. He went too easy on you, and suffered the consequences. It won’t happen again…

andyw666 will join us for the new scenario to reprise his Balzac character.

HoneyDog wrote:andyw666 will join us for the new scenario to reprise his Balzac character.

Great news!

HoneyDog wrote:I should have had the creature attack with more tendrils. He went too easy on you, and suffered the consequences. It won’t happen again…

Bad news!

So I think we’re finished then, thanks for playing everyone.

You can roll for skill improvements. Each character gets 1d2 SAN for saving Albert, and 1d6+1 for killing the beast.

The characters’ reputations have increased, so you can roll 1d4 for increasing Credit Rating.

I’ll announce the new scenario once innsmouth has decided his plans.

Library Use (55% skill) XP check:
[dice]0[/dice]
Library Use increase:
[dice]7[/dice]
Spot Hidden (55% skill) XP check:
[dice]1[/dice]
Spot Hidden increase:
[dice]8[/dice]
Listen (60% skill) XP check:
[dice]2[/dice]
Listen increase:
[dice]9[/dice]
Shotgun (34% skill) XP check:
[dice]3[/dice]
Shotgun increase:
[dice]10[/dice]
Sanity increase (current level 61):
[dice]4[/dice]+[dice]5[/dice]
Credit Rating (55% skill) increase:
[dice]6[/dice]

Wow! What a set of rolls!

You should take a trip to Atlantic City this weekend.

Isadora
SAN improvement
[dice]0[/dice]
[dice]1[/dice]

Mr. Handy took all the luck out of the roller

Credit Rating increase
[dice]0[/dice]


Improvements:
Mist Weapon 35%
[dice]1[/dice]
Increase
[dice]8[/dice]

Spot Hidden 40%
[dice]2[/dice]
Increase
[dice]9[/dice]

Natural History 10%
[dice]3[/dice]
Increase
[dice]10[/dice]

Library Use 33%
[dice]4[/dice]

(I accidentally rolled 1d4's for increases, these are those rolls)
[dice]5[/dice]
[dice]6[/dice]
[dice]7[/dice]

Henry Glynn

SAN
[dice]0[/dice]
[dice]1[/dice]

Credit
[dice]2[/dice]

Spot Hidden 25
[dice]3[/dice]
Increase [dice]5[/dice]

Library Use 40
[dice]4[/dice]

Henry would like to continue.

Great! Mr. Handy, if we have enough players, is it possible just to set up the forum without advertising it on the board? Another player contacted me directly about joining, so if he/she wants to play, there is no need to advertise - that would be 5 in total.

Sure, I can do that. All you need to do is post the name and the text blurb describing it here, and I'll set it up for us. Also, when you're ready for me to move this game to the Hall of Fame, you can let me know by posting here.

Looks like I didn't use all the luck. Isadora's non-Sanity improvement rolls were quite good.

Thanks. Starspawn338 would like to join the new game.

Here is the blurb:

A Little Knowledge

The strange death of a student on the Miskatonic University campus involves the investigators again in a chain of horrific events. What the link with the bizarre experiments conducted by the notorious Herbert West?

I think we're finished with this game now, so please remove it.

Done! The new forum is here, and this one is now in the Hall of Fame.