About The Game – It’s really long:
Before the game starts and everybody gets too invested in it, I think that it's best to give fair warning of just how big an undertaking it is! As you mostly (all?) know I've attempted to run The Masks of Nyarlathotep (called Masks from now on) on these forums before, it was great, the best game that I've ever been involved with anywhere, but it failed, several times in fact. I'd already failed to finish Masks once before (as a tabletop game), so I really want this game to be both successful and to have an ending - good or bad.
Last time I naively thought that I could finish all of Masks in about two years, the actual game ran on and off for about six years with first me, then Laraqua, as Keepers. Chapter One took almost exactly one year, and there are at least six chapters. So assuming that everyone can post regularly - preferably daily if you're needed to reply to other posts - then I should hopefully be able to run one chapter per year
and we might be able to play out the entire campaign in five to six years!
As this is a pretty huge commitment, I'm going to double check with each of you as we approach the end of each chapter whether you'd like to press on. If at least one player wants to then I'll run the next chapter, otherwise we'll try to make the end of the chapter as climatic as possible, and if necessary we'll run a short epilogue thread and wrap up the game there.
It's actually entirely possible to conclude the campaign at the end of any chapter, and it's also really easy to introduce fresh
victims investigators at the start of each chapter, so one way or another this game's going into the Hall of Fame rather than the Graveyard.
Posting Rate:
In order to make sure that the game moves forward at a reasonable pace, I'd like everybody to be able to commit to posting almost daily most of the time. Weekends always seem less busy in play-by-post games, so let’s say that you should be able to manage at least 4-5 posts per week, and you should be able to commit to that for the next year at least (to get through chapter one).
Absence:
I'd also like you to post in the absences thread in the lounge, or in this thread if you know that you're going to be offline for more than a day or two, and please make a quick post if you're ill - even if you just post "I'm ill, sorry!"
Most of the players are forum regulars, who've been here for ages - indeed Mr Handy and Job have been at it for longer than me as they arrived on these forums with long running games from other sites - so hopefully we'll be good for at least the first chapter, but I understand that real-life gets in the way sometimes and it's inevitable in a long game.
Carnage Lee has PMed me and said that he'll be reading along with the game, and he kindly volunteered to take over the characters of any missing players, this is great because it's thing that I've struggled with the most in past. So please try to post within 24 hours if someone is waiting for you too reply. If you haven't replied within 24 hours then I'll give you a nudge via email/PM. After 48 hours we'll have to try and continue without you, and Carnage Lee will temporarily take over within a week.
Anyone who CL is running will be considered Byakhee Fodder until their original player returns and will be likely first to die. Any abandoned investigators will be written out at the end of the chapter if you haven't returned. I tried recruiting fresh players to take over last time, but it doesn't work well enough and requires too much work on my part to bring them up to speed, it's easier to kill characters off and recruit a new player with an entirely unknowing character.
During Combat or Other Times of Danger:
Most importantly if the game is in a life and death situation such as combat or opening the wrong book in a library, then please let me know if you’re going to be missing for a few days. If you leave everyone hanging when you should be rolling dice, then I’ll assume that all of your rolls fail in order to keep the game moving. Sorry, but that’s how it’ll be – I used the same system in BtMoM and it worked out great, except for the player who went missing for two weeks after volunteering for something dangerous. Unfortunately his character fell overboard in a storm halfway across the Southern Ocean.
I’ll try to handle anything turn/initiative based via the OOC thread and/or PMs – you can make IC style posts there during combat if you prefer an IC description. Then we don’t need to wait for multiple passes though the World’s time zones. I’ll cut and paste the IC parts of your combat stuff into the IC thread. This worked okay last time for Masks, and also when I ran a play-by-post DnD game once.
Splitting Up:
If you separate during a dangerous situation, then I’ll create side-threads, but I’m planning to merge these posts back into the main IC threads afterwards. It got a bit too unwieldy last time. I’ll also merge IC private messages back into the main threads later on if it’s not stuff that needs to remain secret.
The Rules:
If you’re a rules lawyer then please drop out now, I hate receiving PMs telling me that I’m handling the rules wrong, I don’t care! The rules are great because
almost everything that you need is on your character sheet. If I ask you to make a skill roll, then we’ll be abiding by the result of the roll, but if I don’t then please trust me to run a good game and tell a good story, don’t try and put the rules in the way.
I also hate being told that the combat rules are unrealistic, I am quite aware of that. If you’re a gun nut, or a martial arts expert, then please describe your awesome knowledge with your IC combat declaration and I’ll do my best to handle it with dice rolls. I’d prefer for combat "realism" to be roughly at the level of a Michael Mann film or Game of Thrones (the books), but as the protagonists you’ll be a bit better protected than the NPCs, via luck or whatever.
Going Insane:
I’d prefer for you to choose a suitable temporary / indefinite insanity that you’re comfortable to play and that fits the situation, I’ll decide myself or roll randomly if you’ve no ideas of your own. This worked well last time. If your character goes permanently insane, then it’s up to you whether you want to continue with them or retire them. It’s probably best not to carry totally bonkers investigators over to a new chapter though unless it’s the only option to avoid a "technical TPK".
Dice Rolls:
What do you prefer? I can’t access invisible castle from work and it wasn’t always there for us last time. If I write a post on my works PC then you’ll have to trust my macro driven dice roller in MS Word. At home I’ll use whatever method you all prefer, we can go off trust (in which case you’ll be victims of my Horror on the Orient Express dice set), or I’ll use an online dice roller like invisible castle.
