Play@YSDC

The prologue deals with events prior to September 1933.

I'll be PM'ing each player a letter or telegram from James Starkweather over the next few days, please do not post in the IC thread until you have received your letter.

These letters will also all be posted on the forum, but I'll only do this once they're all written.

As there are so many players, this part of the game is likely to run quite slowly as it is the only time that I will need to deal individually with each and every player. For this reason, and because it's an optional part of the adventure anyway, I intend to run through the prologue quite quickly.

I hope to start Chapter 1 itself within a week or two.

Here is a recap of the character list (I'll start a "Cast of Characters" thread a little later):

Dr. Clark Michaels : Medical Doctor Played by GaryTheNerd

Kitt Knight : Pilot & Mountain Guide Played by Shadow

Callum McDonald : Mountaineer & Explorer Played by Ghost_1971

James Seymour : Dilettante, Racing Driver & Gentleman Adventurer Played by OrionUK

Prof. Charles Graves : Anthopologist Played by Charles Graves

Jack Wilson : Journalist Played by Decrepit

Prof. Joseph Eidowsky : Glaciologist & Geologist Played by Maxim

William McRaven : Pilot & Flight Engineer Played by Steerpike

Grey Wolf : Hunter & Polar Guide Played by Mister Juan

Olof Eriksson : Mining Engineer Played by Henrik

William Turner : Author & Photographer Played by Gloomy

Awesome Rakio, can't wait to get my PM!

Same here

Cant wait to get started now. Just hope I dont die or go insane in the first 5 minutes

I've put two "newspaper cuttings" up in the IC thread, these are the first two player handouts from the campaign, and they pre-date any player involvement with the expedition.

I'm not sure why they decided to include an article that continued from a non-existant page 1 though.

Similar articles appear in newspapers around the world at the same time, the Starkweather-Moore expedition is well known, and keenly followed worldwide. You're all going to be famous!

I've put up a website http://www.cthulhu1933.co.uk, to support this campaign, it has a weblog (a blog in 1933, must be the world's first )which will contain press releases about the expedition, and possibly a summary of IC events. The blog currently contains copies of the two IC press-cuttings.

The site will also contain copies of all your character sheets, as it's an easier way to navigate to the correct sheet than a "character list thread" on here. There are only a couple of the characters on there at the moment, but they'll all be up (with any pictures) by Monday.

Well, I'm excited!

Raiko wrote: I'm not sure why they decided to include an article that continued from a non-existant page 1 though.

I think it's because most journalism is written in inverted-pyramid style, so if they'd given you page 1, you'd just be seeing mostly the same material as in the other article.

Wow, those were really cool. Did you get the pic of my character? I am not sure if I sent her.

Yes I've got Kitt's picture, I'll be adding all the pictures that I've got to Image Shack over the weekend.

Sounds exciting guys, hope my characters not to...useless. Though i'm sure my libary use will come in handy when we stumble on that elusive borders they built in the antartic.

Unfotunately my web host has decided to have "server issues" at just the wrong time, hense the reason http://www.cthulhu1933.co.uk isn't working at the moment.

Hopefully they'll be back up soon.

I'll hopefully get all the letters & telegrams done tonight (I'm trying to send them all at the same time).

Unfotunately my web host has decided to have "server issues" at just the wrong time, hense the reason http://www.cthulhu1933.co.uk isn't working at the moment.

There's something strange going on with the web lately. You're the 12th person I know (in the last 2 days) who's gotten something like that happen.

Creepy.

Maybe it's the Big Crash coming?

Sorry for the delay. I've just found out that my account with my web host has been deleted, due to an admin error they made back in April.

I've been busy today searching though emails, and sending the relevent evidence to them in the hope that they'll restore my websites.

I'm a little depressed at the moment, as I had another small pbp campaign running on one of my websites , but regardless of the outcome of my web hosting issues, I'll get the letters, etc. sent out in the next day or two and the game will start properly then.

Again, sorry for the delay.

BTW: This also means that my email isn't working at the moment, so if you need to contact me please use a PM.

My site is now back up, unfortunately the backup was too old for any of the new cthulhu1933 stuff to be restored.

Please give me 24-48 hours to get everything back in order and we'll get started.

& we thought we would be holding everyhting up with being away at the weekend!!

Hope you dont have too much work to do getting everything back together & we will wait to hear from you. Hope they get their fingers out & stop messing you about after this....

Very, very impressive.

I am pumped for this.

I have sent out the first three letters, of these two are letters of acceptance, the other is a rejection.

Fear not, this is a rejection from the pompous James Starkweather not me, everybody listed above has a place on the expedition.

Anyone who receives a rejection will also receive instructions on how best to gain their place on the expedition.

I’ll try to get the other eight letters written tonight.

I’ve also restored some of the lost data to my webpage. The character sheets will reappear shortly.

When you receive your letter of acceptance/rejection I need one IC post describing your character’s “normal activities” immediately prior to receiving the letter, and their reaction having read it.

Once you have been accepted I also need a quick OOC or PM summary of your character’s plans for the period between receiving the letter and attending the formal dinner in New York.

For those characters based outside North America, I have identified suitable ocean –liners for your journey to the States.

Ok,

Everybody should have their letter from Captain Starkweather now.

So I guess we're ready to start.

Once everybody has posted in the IC thread, and let me know of their travel & research plans OOC, we'll be ready to get you all together at the expedition's Formal Dinner in New York.

Great posts so far, I need to really step up to keep up. Good job.

I am not sure how much real world history plays into the game, but you guys might be interested in this,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933#January

It might add a little flavor to the game for you to know what happened in 1933.

Very cool!

Thanks for the link, I'll be making extensive use of Wikipedia I think.
I've also got a very thick "Chronicle of the Twentieth Century" Book that tells the story of the last century almost day-by-day in the style of newspaper reports.

Great Posts so far everyone.

I would like everybody who hasn't already done so to make their first post in the IC thread within the next 24 hours.

I'm planning on having all the characters together in New-York by monday, at the latest.

Raiko wrote: Thanks for the link, I'll be making extensive use of Wikipedia I think.
I've also got a very thick "Chronicle of the Twentieth Century" Book that tells the story of the last century almost day-by-day in the style of newspaper reports.

I got that one to (the Swedish version) a very useful book.

Nice prologue, but wasn't the United Kingdom ruled by a king in 1933? I'm refering to the introduction of our Inuit tracker...

Henrik wrote: Nice prologue, but wasn't the United Kingdom ruled by a king in 1933? I'm refering to the introduction of our Inuit tracker...

You might actually be 100% right about that. It's just that since in Canada, we've had the god damn queen for so long (like.... 60 years or so) it was pure reflex.

I'd forgotten that this is going to be a holiday weekend in the US, so I won't force things along too much until the 5th.

Have a good time, and remember - you only won 'cus the French helped you.

Having said that I won't push things, I will be posting everybody's arrival in New-York by Monday, and making the first post about the Formal Dinner then. I need an introductory IC post from Gloomy and Maxim before then, or they'll have to miss the dinner and join the others on the 1st September.

For the players who only posted their character's response to the letter, rather than about their "normal routine" before, I don't have a problem with that, but remember that none of the other players (or our other readers) know your character like you do, and that was your best chance to introduce them to everyone.

If you have the time I'd appreciate it if you could edit your first posts. If you don't want to do this, then please make sure that your next few posts give the other players a good insight into your character's personality.

I'll be recreating the character sheets on http://www.cthulhu1933.co.uk over the weekend, I'll also be sorting out the press coverage of Starkweather building the team. Some of you have provided a photo of your character. If possible please could the rest of you try to find one, if you're struggling let me know and I'll help out.

Thanks to Christian Lehmann's excellent campaign resources website (please don't look it has minor spoilers) I have a photo (mostly hollywood actors) of every major NPC in the campaign, so it would be a shame not to have a photos of some of the PCs.

Raiko, I am going to slap you silly. "The french helped us" I suppose England didn't have any alies? You only one WWII Becasue the Americans helped you

All joking aside, I can still post. I am doomed.. er live in Alaska so there really isn't anywhere for me to go.

Raiko wrote: Have a good time, and remember - you only won 'cus the French helped you.

That and we didn't wear bright red jackets and stand in straight lines. Also, we had George Washington! CAUTION: Don't watch if you're at work or you're a narc.

I have a couple more posts planned for the good doctor. They'll probably go up Saturday and Sunday.

I've just put a set of "general information" outlining my attitude / philosophy for this campaign. I meant to do this during the recruitment phase, but never quite got around to it, I've put it in it's own thread so that it's always easy to find.

I've had a busy weekend, and so I've not got as much of the research stuff sorted, as I'd like. I have made sure that everybody has had an acceptance letter now though. All the characters will now be in New York arriving at the Formal Dinner by Tuesday.

Once the formal dinner part starts, all the characters will be together so I can hopefully run the game at a faster pace.

I'll also get all the character sheets up on my website over the next day or so. Eight of them were up before my web-host problems, but I'm having to start again from scratch.

Maxim: As you haven't posted anything at all during the first week of the game, despite me pointing out that I need regular posters in the recruitment thread. I'm sorry, but you're out unless you post within the next 24 hours.

I'm rather confused as to when I should post again, as most people have just posted there reactions i'm wondering if i should now just write that my character heads for new york now just to push things along.

Hi Gloomy hope things went well at the drama school (although the sad 'smilie' says maybe not).

I'd rather nobody tries to push things along at this stage. Things are moving along at the pace that I wanted, I've always expected the prologue to start at a slower pace. I probably should have made this more clear so here goes...

My plan for the prologue is as follows:
First Week: Introductory posts for all characters, get initially "rejected" characters accepted by Starkweather, travel plans to New York, initial research. (This is all done, although I've not PM'd the results of everybody's research to them yet).
Second Week: Formal Dinner at the Amherst hotel, let the characters meet each other, and a few of the NPCs. (This part starts today )
Third Week: Any additional research, prior to 1st September. This may take less than a week, but I'm not sure as it will be handled IC, rather than OOC.
Fourth Week: September 1st, start Chapter 1!


I'll be sending PMs to everybody today detailing anything that they found out prior to arriving at the formal dinner.

I'll also post IC & OOC detailing everybody's arrival in New-York.

I've got a lot of "research information" ready for you, I'll send it all by PM tonight.

I'll also add some pictures, and some New York information to the IC post.

I would like everybody to find their way into the Dinner/Presentation now.

As today is a holiday for some of us, I'll give you up to 48 hours from now to get there.

Once everyone has arrived at the dinner (or the 48 hours is over) I'll continue.

As there are so many players you will be spead across two tables at the dinner, with a couple of expedition npcs at each table.

I can either run the whole dinner in the normal IC thread, or create a separate thread for each table. What do you all think?

Hi Raiko,

If the 2 tables can overhear each others conversations then prob best to run the whole thing in the IC thread, if they are totally separate tables then may be more logical to do a separate thread for each??? whichever is easier for you. 8)

I think Orion makes a good case for either choice. But I think just one thread would be the best way to go, that way all the PCs can get to know each other and not just a select few.

I have posted a PM to everybody that contains details of what the public at large know about the 1930 Miskatonic University Expedition.

This information is well known even to school children, and has almost definitely been recycled by the press due to the current expedition.

For this reason I have sent the same message to each player regardless of their chosen research topics, or the success of their library use roll.

I will send out more specific information to individual players later tonight/tomorrow.

I've edited this post with a brief intro to 1933 New York. Maps & photos will follow tonight, as I said I can't access imageshack from work.

I'm impressed with the amount of work you must do on this campaign!

By the way why haven't anyone implemented a dice roller on this site? I have seen it been done on other sites using the same sort of forum.

Thanks

I'm happy enough with Invisible Castle, I don't think it will be a problem that I can't access it from work.

It's very good as it keeps permanent(?) record of all the dice throws.

I've edited this post with a brief intro to 1933 New York. Maps & photos will follow tonight, as I said I can't access imageshack from work.

I've added some pictures now.

Thanks for the pictures Raiko - makes it more imaginable.

That was a fabulous overhead shot of NYC! Thanks for sharing.

Sorry for the delay, I was very tired last night, and fell asleep half way through writing the IC post.

The PCs are seated at the following tables.

Table Two:
James
Callum
Grey Wolf
Kitt
William McRaven

Table Four:
Prof Graves
Clark
William Turner
Olof
Jack

I'm starting two separate threads, one for each table, there isn't any secrecy about it though so feel free to look at the other thread, it's more for me to keep track of the two separate conversations more easily.

I'll be putting a "Maps and Plans" thread up later today as well.

I'll make some more posts later today/tonight, including pictures of some of the NPCs.

I'll mostly be allowing you all to "chat" at your tables for a few days, getting to know each other, and the NPCs.

Note that Charles Graves has let me know that he won't be able to post either today, or over the weekend.

I'm also planning on getting the character sheets back up on the website tonight.

Sorry I've not posted IC yet for the NPCs, I've got almost all of the chatacter sheets back up on http://www.cthulhu1933.co.uk now, and I've put pictures of the NPCs up for each table.

I'll get the other two character sheets up, and post IC later today.

I'll let the conversations at the two tables continue until Tuesday, to give those who haven't posted yet the chance to join in.

Then I'll post about whats going on at the reception.

I'll be posting something IC in a couple of hours, so if anybody wants to post again in one of the table conversations you've got two more hours

Sweet website Raiko, I never thought to use a blog like that.

I've kind of assumed that nobody has brought any firearms to the dinner (it would be very uncouth). If anyone decides that they have, then fair enough, but non-US characters should remember that as well as any social consequences, they almost certainly don't have any legal right to bear arms here.

Shadow wrote: Sweet website Raiko, I never thought to use a blog like that.

Thanks, it's easily to do for Call of Cthulhu as all the posts happen in the past. Doing the same thing for Shadowrun (with Wordpress anyway) would need some fiddling in order to make "future" posts appear.

Grey Wolf isn't going to approach "Lawrence" head on... but he's going to try to get close enough to jump him (probably tackle him) if he does something "threatening".

@Raiko
I noticed that the "link" for Grey Wolf's rolls is wrong. I just wanted to know what name I should roll under... in case Wolf needs to "subdue" Lawrence.

Thanks, the link's fixed now, all the others appear to be correct.

If Grey Wolf is close enough, he's going to try to grab Lawrence gun wielding arm with one hand, while he punches him in the face with his other.

If he's still too far, he's simply going to run and try to tackle him hard to the floor.... and then beat the crap out of him

I just need to know what I should roll.

I'd like everyone who fancies joining the fight to post in this OOC thread, or by sending a PM if you prefer.

I'll sort out all the rolls at the same time on Invisible Castle, and put up an IC post then, unfortunately we have too many players to ask you to post IC in initiative order.

If anybody want to say or do anything dramatic, just mention it in your post/pm and I'll make sure it translates into the IC post.

Mcraven can see that both men rushing lawrence could alert the guy and start something nasty. After alerting Isugtag to the gun, he hangs back to see what the inuit does next. If grey wolf manages to rush him and sock him one on the jaw, then Mcraven will rush in and help wrestle the guy to the floor. if the indian has to rush the guy and then tackle him to the floor, mcRaven will rush in, and help subdue him.

I'll post in a 2 or 3 more hours, I'm a little busy at the moment, but I think most people have let me know their actions now.

Presumably everyone else would rather stay out of the way.

Raiko wrote: Presumably everyone else would rather stay out of the way.

Just to make this explicit for Jack, the answer is yes.

@Mister Juan: I rolled Isugtag’s fist damage as 1d3+1d4 accidently, it should have been 1d3+1d6, so I rolled the 1d6 separately (here), but as the result was less than the original 1d4 roll, I stuck with the original result ([2]+[4]=6)

Wow, that was great Raiko, I hope you resolve all the combat like that, cause it was AWESOME!

Shadow wrote: Wow, that was great Raiko, I hope you resolve all the combat like that, cause it was AWESOME!

I'm just going to have to second that.

Slightly disappointed that I didn't get to hurl furniture at anyone, but otherwise very well done.

Wow, that was great Raiko, I hope you resolve all the combat like that, cause it was AWESOME!

I'm just going to have to second that.

Thanks

Seeing that someone already used his idea

Slightly disappointed that I didn't get to hurl furniture at anyone, but otherwise very well done.

Depending on how things panned out poor Lawrence could have found himself buried under a storm of chairs, plates, vases and Inuit Guides.

Raiko wrote: Depending on how things panned out poor Lawrence could have found himself buried under a storm of chairs, plates, vases and Inuit Guides.

Classic.

Decrepit wrote:

Raiko wrote:Depending on how things panned out poor Lawrence could have found himself buried under a storm of chairs, plates, vases and Inuit Guides.

Classic.

hahahahhaha!
Now that just made my day.

Sorry to take a while replying, it was my little boy's birthday.

If anyone wants more answers from the leader's ask now, they'll be the first two people questioned by the cops (as well as Grey Wolf).

I'm not planning on roleplaying the taking of statements, if anyone fancies telling less than the whole truth to the cops (for whatever reason), then please PM me.

Leaving the Washington Room (or the Hotel) without giving a statment to the cops will require either a Credit Rating, or a Persuade roll.

In either case it will still be necessary to make a statement, but it can be made at the police headquarters the following day.

After Moore's speech, Jack's going to try to persuade the cops to let him call his editor. I'm presuming there's not a phone in the room and that he'll have to leave the Washington Room temporarily.

Sorry for the sort delay, I've been very busy - I'll make a big post tonight to catch up. This post should finish the Formal Dinner section off, so start thinking what you plan on doing straight after, and also in the few days before September 1st (Chapter 1).

BTW: I've had a quick MSN chat with Gloomy, and they will still be playing later, so I'll be keeping William in.

Olof will have no trouble with giving his statement to the police.

A day or so after the dinner is wrapped up, Jack will attempt to talk his editor into funding a quick one- or two-day trip to Miskatonic University to visit with Professor Pabodie. Jack will try to telephone Pabodie first and set up an interview, but if he can't, or if Pabodie seems reluctant or outright unwilling to talk, Jack will still head to Miskatonic, try to pin down Pabodie in person, and, at the very least, try to dig up some more information about the 1930 expedition. He'll also pick up a copy of Dyer's report on the expedition at the university bookstore.

Jack's not really looking for dirt or expecting to find anything truly scandalous (much less supernatural), but Lawrence's behavior has only strengthened his curiosity and his instinct for self-preservation. Prior to departing, Jack will try to learn a bit more about the drill (no pun intended) from the expedition members so that he can talk slightly more intelligently about it with Pabodie. And why isn't Pabodie coming on this trip, anyway?

Moving day starts today. I won't have internett access most of the day. I should tonight though and I should be able to get caught up on most of my threads tonight. If I am holding up the game feel free to make a GM call and have my character act without me.

I'm still quite busy, but hopefully I can stay on track now.

If anybody hangs around the Washington Room I'll introduce a few more NPCs, or you have a chance to chat with Moore if you like.

Or if anyone else wants to join the posse heading for Lawrence's room there still might be time. Alternatively it may still be possible to tag along with Charles Graves and visit Lawrence at the police HQ.

My IC post made use of Invisible Castle rolls, but I've not added the hyperlinks yet as I made the rolls at home, but made the post from work.

I'll link in all the dice throws from home later.

I'll post some picture tonight from home.

Hopefully I won't be quite so busy this week, so I should be able to post every day.

@Shadow: Hope the move goes well, if you don't get to post I'll assume that Kitt agrees to accompany Moore, and meet some other expedition members.

thats cool, shes not really an investigator or anything. She would do her best to meet the people she is going to be flying around.

Hey folks,

I may manage another post today, but after that I will be gone until tuesday. I am heading down to continuum on friday morning 8)

@Steerpike: That’s cool, there shouldn’t be anything too life threatening happens to McRaven before Tuesday anyway.

@Ghost: I’ve sent you a PM regarding Lawrence’s diary.

******************************************************************

As things seem to be going smoothly with this big group, and as Maxim dropped out, and Gloomy may or may not start posting later: I’ve allowed Lanesracra to join us, I’ve also said that Azazel can join if he/she wants. They will be joining the game at the start of Chapter 1.

The game is running slightly slower than I’d anticipated, but then again I thought the Prologue would take longer, and my own posting rate has been slower than normal. Hopefully I can get going faster now.

I’ve seen an idea of another GM (Blitz on Dumpshock) of allowing the players to take as long as they like to role-play their conversations, etc during the week, but then posting a “plot push” every weekend (if necessary). I’m thinking of using the same system here so that I can keep the game roughly on schedule without you all worrying when I’ll push things along next.

What do you all think? Obviously I would postpone the plot push if necessary, but it would at least allow you to anticipate when it was coming.

BTW: I’m glad you all decided to split into smaller groups, it seems more real that way, and also I think it will make my life easier if you keep doing it. I think that playing this way will also make it easier for characters to build realistic relationships with the various NPCs.

I’d been concerned that I was going to end up with 10 characters all trying to sneak into Lawrence’s room at the same time.

I'll be posting again IC later today.

Raiko wrote: What do you all think? Obviously I would postpone the plot push if necessary, but it would at least allow you to anticipate when it was coming.

This seems like a good idea to me.

BTW: I’m glad you all decided to split into smaller groups, it seems more real that way, and also I think it will make my life easier if you keep doing it. I think that playing this way will also make it easier for characters to build realistic relationships with the various NPCs.

If this were D&D, we'd say it was easier to kill off the PCs that way, too.

And welcome aboard, Lanesracra.

Decrepit wrote: If this were D&D, we'd say it was easier to kill off the PCs that way, too.

But since it's CoC I can kill you all off regardless of the size of the group, so splitting up makes sense.

Oh no Raiko you cant start talking about killing us off yet when we havn't even set off on the expedition yet!!

Sorry I've not posted yet, I've got a post almost done for the police headquarters, but I'm having to "work at work" at the moment.

I'll definitely post at least once later today, and also on Saturday. Then the first "plot-push" will be on Sunday, so that we're past the formal dinner events by the start of next week.

I'll be spending one or two more real-life weeks on the Prologue. Whether it's one week or two depends on your characters' plans for the time before Sept 1st, eg trips to Arkham, etc.

I'm also going post a map of "Call of Cthulhu New England" so that those players who aren't familliar with Lovecraft's setting know where Arkham, Kingsport, etc are located. Plus a game map of Manhattan.

Henrik wrote: OOC: Are these NPCs something the writers of the scenario cooked up? Snåbjorn does sound Norwegian, but I don't think it's a genuine Norwegian name! It reminds me of the fact that 90% of all Swedish girls seem to be named Inga if you are to believe Hollywood. That name has not been fashionable for at least 40 years or so...

Yes all the expedition team members’ names are made up by the scenario writers. A quick google search shows that Snåbjorn only seems to exist as a name in this scenario , and as a misspelling(?) of Snæbjörn, which is an Icelandic first name I think.

I normally check my NPC names on google first, indeed I usually pick names from “Name Sites” in the first place. That’s the good thing about forum games, I usually pick names for minor NPCs as they appear in the game which sometimes leads to embarrassing delays in a tabletop game as I desperately look around the room for inspiration. With a forum game a quick bit of google-fu is all it takes to get an instant authentic NPC name.

I’ll maybe do some checking and “tweak” the NPC names (because things like that bug me ).

Viewing the scene of Lawrence's death means the Charles Graves must make a sanity check, which he passes.

Clark's, Great-War experience and alcoholism mean that he's imune to such non-mythos sanity losses, but he'll be drinking tonight for sure.

"Now explain why you are carrying that flask into my headquarters!" Nice touch Keeper!

If anyone desperately wants to post something else on the 25th then do it (with a time stamp), but please try to avoid posting anything that forces a prolonged conversation.

Otherwise everybody can continue posting for the 27th

Sorry if the time jump screws anyone’s plans, if it does please PM me. I’m doing it to get onto the main adventure as quickly as possible.

If you are hoping to travel to Arkham with Jack then that’s fine with me, so either sort it out IC between your character and Jack, or PM Decrepit asking if he can invite you.

As far as I know both Shadow and Mr Juan are both still playing, but are unlikely to post for a few days, so continue without them for now (Jack can try to get his interview with Kitt once he’s got back from Arkham, unless Shadow returns before then).

I’ve PM’d both Shadow and Mr Juan, but they may not be able to reply for now.

Prof. Graves & Dr Michaels can start their medical & psychiatric examinations now if they like, or they can wait until Chapter 1, when all the expedition members are here, there will be enough time whichever way.

I'll wait until tomorrow before posting again myself in order to allow anyone else to tag along with one of the little groups.

@Decrepit: How are you travelling to Arkham? If you like, rather than answering here and then waiting for me again: you can make an IC post yourself saying that you're travelling there together with Clark and anyone else who posts that they'd like to join you before you post yourself.

Graves PMed me and said he wants to come along too.

GaryTheNerd wrote: Graves PMed me and said he wants to come along too.

In-character Private Messages between characters are fine , as are Private Messages detailing "secret liasons" with NPCs.

I'd even go as far as to say I'd encourage it, but if you send an IC PM to another character (including letters/telegrams/etc) please could you send a copy to me so that I know what your character is doing / writing.

Obviously you can send as many OOC PM's as you like, without me knowing, but for IC stuff I really need to know what your character is doing.

I'll be posting again IC in a few hours (during my lunch-break), I had a busy night last night sorry.

Mr Juan is now back, but has decided that Isugtag would be more likely to stay at the hotel than join one of the 'little trips.' I'll try to find stuff for everyone else to do while the two groups carry out their investigation.

I'll probably be moving on to chapter one as soon as the 'Arkham Expedition' returns. So if anybody fancies doing any library research, shopping, sightseeing, etc. then now is the time, because Starkweather & Moore will be keeping you all busy once Chapter 1 begins.

There are currently quite a few players who can't post for various reason's, mostly because we're in the middle of the holiday season:

Decrepit may not be able to post between today and Tuesday.
Ghost1971 and OrionUK can't post between Sunday and next Saturday/Sunday.
Shadow is AFIAK still in the process of moving from Alaska to San-Diego.

I'd hoped to be able to play out the trip to Arkham while Ghost and Orion were unavailable, but Decrepit it may have to wait until Tuesday.

In the meantime I'll let Charles Graves and GaryTheNerd handle the train journey, I'll make a post in a little while that puts them at Grand Central. If the journey is complete before Decrepit returns on Tuesday, then there should be enough things to do in Arkham to keep things moving.

I'd have thought that the trip to Arkham will last about three days so I'm planning on starting chapter one when they return.

@Henrik: Is there anything Olof would like to find out before the end of the prologue? I'm metagaming here slightly, but he's already got as much as is useful out of studying the Padobie drilling machine, so he may as well find something else out.

@Mister Juan: Is there anything Isutag would like to know about, or anyone he'd like to meet?

@Gloomy: If you are still interested in playing then please post something for William before the end of the prologue.

BTW: I allowed Charles Graves to swap around his Psychology & Psychoanalysis skills (this wouldn't have had any effect on dice throws already made). If anybody else would like to "Tweak" anything about their character then it's ok to do so, but only until the end of prologue.

@Raiko
Well, even though he has a tendency to be somewhat of a loner, Isugtag will do his best to spend some time with the other polar guides. Once they are out on the ice, he's quite aware they'll have to work togheter to ensure the rest of the team's survival. Basically, he's going to be looking at who knows how to do what and how good they are about it.

I've had a busy weekend with my family (and a few pc problems ), so I didn't get chance to make any posts Saturday/Sunday.

I'll get back up to speed at lunchtime today. At least now Decrepit won't miss out on any of the Arkham stuff.

I'm still hopeful of finishing the prologue this week.

Thanks for your patience.

I'll try to catch back up tonight. We're creaking along now.

I'll post details about the Train journey later today. I meant to post last night, but the site went down for a while.

Mister Juan: I'll also post something for Isugtag.

@Raiko:
Thats quite fine mate If you don't have anything for me, it's not that big of a deal.

I'll be posting again a little later, I just need to get some details from the book.

Unfortunately I can't post from work anymore as the "E Policy" software blocks this forum now, it had always blocked the main Yog-Sothoth boards so it was only a matter of time.

This means that I'll be posting at this kind of time every weekday now, I should still be able to post every day so this shouldn't slow the game down.

Sorry I didn't get to post last night after all.

I'll send a "summary of the Summary Report" by PM if anyone takes the time to read it, it will require a full day for an investigator to read it.

As James is wealthy, and a frequent visitor to New York, I've assumed that he already has the relevant permit for a pistol.

So far this is very exciting. I'm beginning to suspect that Professor Moore perhaps not is what he seems.

@Charles Graves, Decrepit & GaryTheNerd: The Miskatonic University website, has most of the "Player's Eyes" information from the 1995 Chaosium sourcebook, including an interactive map of the university.

Some of the staff should be dead by 1933 (the sourcebook is for the early 20s), but we'll ignore that.

Between the map, and the department lists you should be able to decide where you'd like to go (just don't stick around at night ). If there's any conflict between the website and the actual sourebook, we'll say the website is correct.

Didn't know about that webpage. Have to look it up sometime.

Charles Graves wrote: Upon arriving at the University The Professor makes his way directly to the main library and asks one of the librarians if it would be possible to look at a list of the faculty. Scanning down the list, Grave's finger comes to rest first at the name Daniel Desmet and then the name Dr James Ortega. "Here Gentlemen, the Professors of Psychology and Cryptozoology. I think they may be particularly useful to us. What do you think?"

Decrepit wrote: "I suppose it's possible that these people know Pabodie--aren't they in the same school?--but I want to make sure that we try to find some people who know Pabodie fairly well," Jack says.

It is the same school, you were already there, so no need to travel.

You can split up if you like, if Jack and Graves' motivations are different.

BTW: I can get onto this site from work again now, I'm hoping that access was blocked because of url links on the "Spam Accounts" that keep appearing.

Hopefully the access will remain (it's a lot easier to run this if I can post during lunch as well as evenings).

I'm sorry for those who aren't at the gun shop or the university. I want to get on with chapter one, but I'm not going to rush this because the schedule once we're out of the prologue doesn't allow much time for investigations. I'm hoping Shadow will be able to post again in another week or so, then maybe Jack can get his interview. 8)

The those players with characters in Arkham, please decide what you are doing / where you are going by Sunday at the latest (even if it means splitting up), so we can get everyone back together eventually.

Almost forgot, one player asked me about equipment lists, this is what I PM'd back:

Raiko wrote: Most things that you need will be provided by the expedition, but there are a few items that are useful, but not included unless a player thinks to bring them along.

So you can send a detailed equipment list, or just leave it up to the leaders.

BTW I'm not too worried about the cost of equipment, as long as it seems reasonable that your character would possess the item.

One thing I do need to know is weapons, some players have listed their character guns, etc. Others haven't, if you plan on your character possessing a gun let me know before chapter one begins.

Not that you'd expect to need a gun in Antarctica.

Raiko wrote:

Decrepit wrote:"I suppose it's possible that these people know Pabodie--aren't they in the same school?--but I want to make sure that we try to find some people who know Pabodie fairly well," Jack says.

It is the same school, you were already there, so no need to travel.

You can split up if you like, if Jack and Graves' motivations are different.

By "school," I mean school within MU, in this case the School of Science (per the Web site). Jack's motivations aren't all that different, yet. He's just wanting to find someone who knows Pabodie.

Sorry I've still been having PC problems at home.

I'd hoped to post an update today that would allow us to move onto chapter 1 (I'll resolve the trip to Arkham & Kingsport).

I'll post the update tomorrow instead now. For those people in Arkham, I'll be detailing the meetings with NPC's at the university & with Arthur McTighe at Kingsport. You'll have the chance to ask them additional questions (I'll leave the prologue threads open), but I'll be moving on to chapter 1, as I'm worried the Arkham trip will take weeks to play out otherwise.

Spent last night sorting out my desktop, seems to be ok now, so I just need to put all the software back on.

Turned out to be a BIOS setting, had to reinstall XP about 6-7 times before I found what was wrong.

That’s the reason for the slow service from me. Now that my desktop is almost fixed I should be back up to speed tonight.

I’ve decided that I’m going to allow our intepid “Arkham Team” to play out their chat with Arthur McTighe, before proceeding with Chapter One. It doesn’t seem fair to skip over an interview with a survivor of the 1930 expedition. I’ll keep checking for posts and reply as quickly as possible in order to resolve this as quickly as possible.

Shadow has been in touch, he’ll be in San Diego in a few more days, so hopefully he’ll get the time to resume playing Kitt soon.

Madam Pyro will also be joining the game, she’ll be playing a second female character so she will be joining the expedition a day or two (in game time) into Chapter 1.

I’m going to put up a short profile of each Expedition NPC over the next day or two, I’ll also PM further details of one or two of them to each of the players who didn’t travel to Arkham, this will represent the chance that they’ve had to meet people at the hotel while the others are away.

If anybody has anything futher they’d like to research (including any “legwork”) before we get going with chapter one in earnest then I’ll handle it OOC, please detail what you’d like to know either in the “Travel Plans and Research” thread or via PM.

BTW: My home desktop is now fully functioning, so no more excuses from me!

If none of the characters interupt McTighe, I'll continue his story.

If any of the Arkham team have a final question for McTighe they can ask it now.

I'll be making the first "Chapter One" post later today, everyone should be back from Arkham/Kingsport in time (I'll retrospectively post in the Prologue IC thread once I know if anyone's asking McTighe anything).

Graves has no further questions. When they leave he thanks McTighe for his time.

Jack's done, too. Nothing more to be gained from McTighe.