The Lure of the Nile, BRP, 1920's

[Saladin]

Would there be any interest in a Call of Cthulhu game taking place in Egypt during the 1920's? I have several ideas, for plots involving PC archaeologists, or those supporting some type of expedition into Egypt.

The 20's are an exciting time in the history of Egypt. Archeology is at an all time high, taking off with the discovery of Tutankhamen's Tomb by Howard Carter in 1922. Few people in America and Britain are unaffected by the glamour and romance of the ancient pharoahs and their civilization . Political unrest and turmoil are abundant as well, with Egypt in transistion from British rule and self government. Cairo is a powder keg of political intrigue with members of rival factions sometimes rioting and fighting on the streets, making it unsafe for foreigners at times.

I plan on trying to post once a day, though I know between work and family there will be times when I post less regularly than I'd like. Still, I intend to keep the plot and action moving along so that the game won't wither on the vine.

I plan on having you work the characters so that they have a past history of dealings with each other, as I find that tends to work better than having them meet for the first time in game play.

We will start them off in Cairo, so as to give a wide range of possibilities, but the expedition/dig or whatnot will probably be somewhere farther up the Nile, perhaps Luxor or Aswan.

I have recruited one character from another website who has yet to register, he'll be playing an Egyptian guide/outfitter/foreman, so that role is pretty much taken.

Quote
Ok, my character is up at <http://www.paxdraconis.com/Rahim.html>

Quick summary of his background: His name is Rahim al'Salaam and he's a native of Cairo, born to a prostitue who often serviced the British military officers overseeing the colony. (He'll tell you she was a nurse if he thinks you won't know better. He'll also tell you that his father was Brig. General Thomas Brighton, who died in the Great War.) As a child, he went to school during the hours his mother slept and was left to his own devices in the evenings. He spent a lot of time hanging out the in the markets and as he became a teen, started skipping out on school to be there. This worked fine until he was repeatedly caught stealing from the shops. He spent a couple of years in a prison/school for juvenile offenders. Fortunately, his mother pulled a few strings over pillow talk and got him into the colonial military, where his connections in the marketplace and the local people made him an invaluable logistics officers (at least, once the military had completed enough of his education to qualify him). He left the military as soon as he could (he's fond of saying "Discipline is a disease") but was perfectly positioned as a general fixer for archaeological and safari-type expeditions from Europe, being capable of handling maps, negotiations and local laborers with as much ease as snobbish aristocrats. Meanwhile, his mother, having grown too old for prostitution, has become a fortune teller. Also, he's got a decent credit rating, which should represent the fact that merchants, etc. know that he's good for any supplies he should need, since he usually buys on behalf of wealthy patrons. He himself has little money and doesn't manage his own finances nearly as well as he does other people's. Also, I think I have a good excuse for familiarity with the area, from Wikipedia's entry on the Aswan Dam: "The British began construction of the first dam in 1899 and it was completed in 1902. ... The initial design was soon found to be inadequate and the height of the dam was raised in two phases, 1907–1912 and 1929–1933."

I'm not sure exactly what our starting date is, but I see Rahim as being in his 30's and out of the military for quite a few years, which would make it plausible that he was part of a military detachment to protect/assist the second phase of construction in 1907-1912. Let's say he was born in 1891, so that he joined the military at 18 in 1909, spent a year in training and at an initial post with the Cairo garrison, then transferred to Aswan from 1910-12 to finish construction. In 1912, he returned to Cairo and spent a year or two with a detachment conducting a military map survey of the Nile (to be sure that the dam hadn't significantly changed the river's course or depth). He would then leave the service in 1913 at the end of his four-year term of service, at the age of 22.

Given two years spent acquiring goods for the military, plus his natural inclination to just hang out as far from authority as possible, that should be sufficient time to make some good contacts, a few friends and an irate girlfriend who really believed he was going to come back and marry her after he got out of the service.
End quote

Of course I don't expect that much background from a potential player, but it's nice if your up to it. I'm realy looking for some scientific type to lead/head up the dig, archeologists, anthropologists, history professors and perhaps even some graduate students assisting them. All types of characters will be looked at though.

Thanks

Saladin

[Rayston]

I already signed up for this game under the same name over at rpg.net

My concept is a Treasure Hunter/Con Man

My character sheet is

http://www.sleeplessempire.com/maximillian.html

the Picture of my character is at

http://www.sleeplessempire.com/maximillian.jpg

I plan on working on my background over the weekend and should have something to you by monday.

Thanx

Rayston

[Saladin]

Hi Rayston!

I was hoping you'd find your way over. So now we have the guide and a treasure hunting conman type, somewhat like the Brother from the movie, The Mummy, but less bumbling.

Still seeking those archeologist types!!!

Will take four more players, possibly more if the concepts are good.

[Smuz]

I'm MonkeyMagic over at rpg.net, and you didn't PM me. I feel left out

I'll get the charsheet done soonish.

[Saladin]

Your welcome here, I only Pm'ed the people who had already gone to the trouble of submitting a character concept and sheet. I believe you had decided to play a Graduate student from India attending Cambridge and studying archeology under one of their prestigious (or not so prestigious) Professors. Now if only an archeologist from Cambridge would appear with a good connection to Rayston's conman/treasure hunter...?

Perhaps I should do this advertising the other way, and seek out people directly from the players looking for a game thread?

[PrBatblind]

I'd be delighted to play a French character. I thought of an archaeologist/leader type, and began to imagine a papyrologist, graduated from the prestigious Ecole des Chartes, and curator of the Department of Epigraphy and Papyri of the Musée égyptien. He'd be in his 50's, and would obviously master at least half a dozen languages, among them Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hieroglyphs, and of course French and English. Depending on the amount of points to buy them, he could even have notions in Hebrew, Demotic, et cetera, et cetera !!!

If you need specifically an Oxbridge guy, I'm trying to persuade Mongoose to play it. The two specialists could already be friends, and I could already have used the peculiar skills of the conman character to find rare papyri for the museum (considering Maxamillian Rich speaks a few words of French)...

Should I pursue on this way ?

[Saladin]

I would love to have you as a player in this game.

The character you have described looks great. Please do pursue with him and create a background and his character sheet. Once that is done, we can discuss some additional skill points for languages.

Do not worry about the Cambridge/English connection. Better for you to go with what you know and make him quite French!

Looking forward to seeing your character and gaming with you very soon

Saladin

[jdagna]

Hey all. I just got myself registered, and it looks like Saladin has got my character (Rahim) already posted here.

Just a thought on connections between characters - Rayston's character could have met up with people in more ways than just Cambridge. For example, he probably spends a fair bit of time hanging around academic circles in order to get good information about where to hunt for treasure. As I understand the period many academics maintained contacts by mail, even if they lived far apart. There were also a lot of disaffected Americans who fought in WWI and then stayed in Europe (especially in Paris) which could provide a connection to the French archaeologist.

Also, my character is the sort who would sit around the docks or the markets when he's not busy, so that he can keep up on rumors and news of travellers and expeditions. That way, he can be fairly pro-active about finding the people who might hire him (in addition to word of mouth references, of course).

[moonglum]

Saladin -

I would be interested in applying to this game concept. My character is Percival Brook, an Art Historian at Rhode Island School of Design. Born in Providence, the Ph.D. makes his home on the East Side of the city and makes frequent journeys abroad in quest of relics and antiquities for the college’s museum art collection. Recent discoveries in the regions of the Mideast have drawn the historian to the sands and tombs of Egypt.

I have a character sketched out with characteristics/rolls, Investigator’s skills, and personal data. Will character sheets be developed using the resource on this site or submitted in a particular format?

Looks to be an ambitious game and I hope to be a part!

[jdagna]

Just a quick question: How are we going to do dice-rolling for this game?

[PrBatblind]

Saladin, thanks for your very nice reply.

I finalized the first sketch of my character, his sheet is here.

I changed a few things compared with my first ideas, and, much important, clarified my thoughts about Egyptian languages!
Pr. André Louchon, despite his archaeological training, became more a philologist than a man of action.
So there is still place, I think, for a second Archaeologist character.
Besides, he specialized in a recent era (especially in the period running from the 4th century BC to 7th century AC), so, here again, a palaeographer of the oldest eras of Egypt could be useful without being redundant.

I worked from a Professor template, changing Bargain for two Other Languages.

Of course, considering his background, another amount of points to buy ranks in Egyptian language (Hieroglyph), Egyptian language (Hieratic), and Egyptian language (Demotic), and, because of the religious consequences of his discoveries, Other language (Hebrew), could be useful, but they are obviously highly specialised. It all depends on your intentions.

Well, I wait feverishly for your remarks and corrections.

[YogYog]

I am Amaury de Beaufort, a French professor teaching at Cambridge. I speak with ze French accent and I have a silly moustache. I love to eat frog legs and snails, and most of all cheese. I also love to fumble with my moustache while I speak to the other players with a superior-sounding tone. I'm in my 50s but I still have tremendous good looks (some say I sold my soul to the devil to keep my good looks... others say I have an aging portrait of myself locked in a cupboard in my attic). I'm married but I love to have relationships with ze students at Cambridge (only the girls, that is). One of those relationships led to a pregnancy, which led to an illegitimate child after a botched abortion, which led to me having to flee Cambridge for a while. I thought, "Heck, might as well try and explore ancient tombs in Egypt" and this is how I found myself in Cairo with the expedition.

I hope you like this character, I really want to play in your campaign, it sounds really interesting.

Thanks for any feedback.

[Saladin]

Apologies for the double post. Please ignore this one.

[Saladin]

I'll try to get us organized here at the same time I've been hammering out the specifics of the Investigation/adventure. Looks like we have six or seven so far and that may be enough, but I'll still take really good applications. To answer a couple of questions first;

I thought I'd do all of the dice rolling myself, in order to speed up the agonizingly slow pace of play by post games and to make the mechanics transparent to the players, so as to enjoy the immersion in the story more. I've found in past games this makes the pace a bit faster.

As far as the character sheet format, use any format you like.

PrBatblind, Your character is accepted!!! Wow what a background. By the way, your English is just fine

So far we have as our cast of characters that have been submitted;

Rayson as Maxamillian Rich, a treasure hunter and conman of either English or American origen? He Has the fast talk/bargaining angle covered, a real smooth talker who drives and repairs mechanical stuff too. A bit of the stealthy criminal stuff as well. speaks English, bit of Arabic and bit of French.

jdagna as Rahim al'Salaam Egyptian guide/outfitter/foreman, with skills in all the areas you'd expect a guy like him to have, jack of all trades in his given fields. He also has you covered with Arabic, Nubian and area knowledge of where you'll eventualy end up.

PRBatBlind as André Louchon, with a Ph.D. in Archeology from the Sorbonne specializing in the field of language he knows Greek, Latin, Arabic,English and of course French. Additionally he specializes in Egyptian language (the original, pre-Arabic tongue spoken by the pharaohs, first written in hieroglyphs, then inhieratic, demotic, at last in Coptic.) He is in his late fifties and not very physical, but wil cover the role of learned archeologist and scholar of languages quite nicely.

Moonglum will be playing (as soon as I get his character, yes you are most welcome, Moonglum) Percival Brook, an Art Historian at Rhode Island School of Design. Moonglum, I would like you to be the Money man for this expedition. Best way I can think to fit you in. Basically, your college is fronting the money, with you along to make sure it's well spent, for the expedition. One of the others, a freind or aquaintance and probably Rayston's Max Rich with his silver tongue will have talked you into this. Is that acceptable with you? If so please submit the character.

Still waiting on the Grad student from Smuz

Mongoose may be creating a character as well

Yog, Yog, as we have a Frenchman already, played by Prbatblind, an actual Frenchman, I think it might be best if you shelved your Hercule Poirot character and came up with something else. There are already now two and perhaps three archeologists with the possible addition of MonkeyMagic's Grad student, so I think there is enough overlap of skills there.

I have a few suggestions; A medical Doctor, perhaps with some psychiatric skills will probably come in quite handy on an expedition into the unkown and far from any other help. An artist or author, along to document what is found, through words or sketches/paintings or both, perhaps with some photographic equipment too. An English Military Officer and friend of one of the others, on sick leave for some minor wound sustained during the frequent rioting with an interest in archeology and bored with sitting about the hospital. (who wouldn't want to be the tough guy with a sling on his arm or something )

I'd like to set a posting rate of at least once every three days, although if you can check in here and get a post off more often(once a day! 8) ), the better to keep the pace of the game up.

I have the basic outline of the adventure completed and am starting to get into the details, now trying to craft some of it to your individual skills and tastes. (Thats a hint for those of you still holding off on making characters makes it harder on your poor keeper to design a fun Investigation for you)

Once I have all characters in, I'll get the Admin to put up our game board and we can post all the characters in there.

Then I'll set up the first post, in which I get very creative drawing you all together for this endeaver. I may end up creating some relationships and past freindships / aquaintances to get things rolling. There may also be parts of the puzzle your character already knows when he comes aboard the expedition.

I'm looking forward to this and hope I can deliver an enjoyable gaming experience for all.

Saladin

[Saladin]

Mongoose,

I'm not sure if my PM's are getting through. I responded to your request to join affirmatively. Did you get the private message reply I made? I have a problem with the "sent box" VS the "out box" that I can't seem to resolve

Let me know and if need be I'll just post what I posted in PM here

Saladin

[YogYog]

How can you imply Hercule Poirot is French when he says himself several times that he is Belgian? Anyway, here is my new character:


My name is Dr Harvey Love, although everyone calls me "Doctor" or "Doctor Love". Few people even know about my given name. I am an English Doctor and I studied at Harvard. I'm 50, I have a wife both in America and in England, who don't know about each other, and several illegitimate children all around the world. I haven't met any of them.

I speak in a very affected manner and I regularly smoke marijuana through a cigarette holder (keep in mind it wasn't a forbidden drug at the time), which gives my skin a pale greenish texture and keeps my eyes filled with blood.

I have heard tales of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Egypt (something I have never tried but would nearly die for), and even though I don't believe it, the tales were too interesting to not check it out and make sure there wasn't any truth behind it, so when I heard an Egyptian expedition needed a doctor, I thought it was the chance of a lifetime and I signed up.

[YithianAbduction]

I would love to get in on this, as a British officer, nursing a wound, mentally and physically.

I'll post details on my character later, as I am at work right now.

[moonglum]

I've PMed my character sheet in a draft form for review!

[Saladin]

Now we are eight, if everyone decides to actually become active and post regularly. My thanks to those of you steadily working away at your characters or who have completed the task and are patiently waiting in the wings.

Here is the updated list of who is on board and what they still have left to get done to finalize their characters;

Rayston as Maxamillian Rich, a treasure hunter and conman. He Has the fast talk/bargaining angle covered, a real smooth talker who drives and repairs mechanical stuff too. A bit of the stealthy criminal stuff as well. speaks English, bit of Arabic and bit of French.

To do: Rayston, is he English or American in origen? Did you want to submit a background, or leave his roots sort of mysterious? I plan on you being the one who finds the information that will set the plot in motion, with connections to both Andre, for translating, and to get him excited / involved and to Percival, as you know he's looking to use his Universities funds to back an expedition to find artifacts and increase the prestige of his college.

jdagna as Rahim al'Salaam Egyptian guide/outfitter/foreman, with skills in all the areas you'd expect a guy like him to have, jack of all trades in his given fields. He also has you covered with Arabic, Nubian and area knowledge of where you'll eventualy end up.

To do: Nothing. Completed background and character sheet! Rahim will be well known by both Maxamillian, Reginald and Andre as a reliable guide and foreman.

PRBatBlind as André Louchon, with a Ph.D. in Archeology from the Sorbonne specializing in the field of language he knows Greek, Latin, Arabic,English and of course French. Additionally he specializes in Egyptian language (the original, pre-Arabic tongue spoken by the pharaohs, first written in hieroglyphs, then inhieratic, demotic, at last in Coptic.) He is in his late fifties and not very physical, but wil cover the role of learned archeologist and scholar of languages quite nicely.

To do: Nothing. Completed background and character sheet! Andre will be well known by both Maxamillian and Rahim and for that matter, many in the archeological field. He is a famous and well respected ancient liguist. Reginald is a freind and trusted associate of his.

Moonglum as Percival Brook, an Art Historian at Rhode Island School of Design and the Money man for this expedition. Percival is the other archeologist/ historian/ anthropologist on the trip. He's also knowledgable about photography, geology, the occult and a smattering of other stuff.

To do: Need Completed background. Character sheet is completed!. Rayston's Max Rich with his silver tongue will have talked (Persuaded) Percival into this expedition as he is aquainted with you from past "dealings" in artifacts and knows you are in Egypt to aquire some Egyptian 'Artifacts of Note ' as your boss puts it, to add to the prestige of the Rhode Island School of Design . They are basically bank rolling your trip and the expenses of the expedition

Mongoose will be playing Reginald Thrace, in his late twenties, an Englishman more Egyptian than British working for the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale and a trusted associate of Andre Louchon. No skill set as of yet.

To do: Need Completed background and character sheet. In addition to being an employee / associate and freind of Andre, Reg will also know of and have a mutual respect for Rahim.

YogYog as Dr. Harvey Love M.D., English an a man of the world who studies at Harvard in his 50's. (Your absolutely right! Poirot IS Belgian. My bad.)

To do: Need Completed background and character sheet. I'll need to know what has brought him to Egypt? Perhaps to escape from his two wives? An assignment with the military hospital in Cairo? He could be the lead in for YithianAbduction's character, bringing him along to help him recover / aleviate his boredom. Dr. love is an old freind of Andre and will be along at his request to see to the medical needs of the team.

YithianAbduction as An English military officer and friend of one of the others, on sick leave for some minor wound sustained during the frequent rioting with an interest in archeology and bored with sitting about the hospital.

To do: Need a name, Completed background and character sheet. Nature of the wound both physical /and or mental. (Obviously this needs to be not too debilitating)

Smuz Graduate student of archeology, possibly in Egypt with Percival from the Rhode Island School of Design

To do: Need Completed background and character sheet. (Are you still with us? )

[YogYog]

YogYog as Dr. Harvey Love M.D., English an a man of the world in his 50s who studied at Harvard. (Your absolutely right! Poirot IS Belgian. My bad.)

To do: Need Completed background and character sheet. I'll need to know what has brought him to Egypt? Perhaps to escape from his two wives? An assignment with the military hospital in Cairo? He could be the lead in for YithianAbduction's character, bringing him along to help him recover / aleviate his boredom. Dr. love is an old freind of Andre and will be along at his request to see to the medical needs of the team.

Aside from the fact he is desperately looking for shrooms in Egypt, Dr Love also thought it would be a good opportunity to take YithianAbduction's character with him, since he has been assigned as his personal doctor for a while by the military. Of course, Dr Love mainly cares about shrooms and is using the military assigned job as an excuse to get his free trip to Egypt with all expenses paid, but YithianAbduction's character doesn't know that.

Character sheet following soon.