OOC: Chapter 1 - NEW YORK, Starts 12th Jan 1925

[thewhatchamacallit]

He has to go to work to find time to play

[coffee demon]

Guess I should stay up late and wait for the post then

Otherwise I'll wake up in the morning, and we'll all be in Tahiti or something.

[imme]

So I guess Erica Carlyle's a psycho. Sorry about that, guys. Maybe her brother died cuz she cast some crazy voodoo on him for stealing a toy from her when they were kids. Or, maybe she's actually sane, and knows what killed her brother, and is trying to protect herself from it. (It, of course, being the horrific madness inducing thing that we'll get to meet later.)

Otherwise I'll wake up in the morning, and we'll all be in Tahiti or something.

Sorry, I can't help myself: "Ooooh, Tahiti!"

[Raiko]

He has to go to work to find time to play

Unfortunately they wanted me to work straight away today

Never mind, I'm back now.

Guess I should stay up late and wait for the post then

Otherwise I'll wake up in the morning, and we'll all be in Tahiti or something.

I hope you didn't stay up too late waiting for me to post

I'll try to keep you out of Tahiti for now though.

[Raiko]

The armed gatekeeper seems to take an instant dislike to the good looking Russian adventurer (he’s obviously either jealous, or an insane cultist).

“Look buddy, I don’t know who your talking about, stop wasting my time trying to hustle your way in here.”

“Get out of here now, or I’m callin’ the cops.”

This was the first proper dice roll that I made of the campaign, at it was a “fumble,” I hope that’s not an omen!

You can still use your “backup story” and tell the gatekeepers that you are researching the book, but you’ve got off to a bad start, so you’ll need a very good roll (luckily Maksim’s persuadion skills are normally excellent)

[thewhatchamacallit]

ID Name Rolls Dice Results Note Date
698764 [MON]- Timour 1 1d100 [78] = 78 chapter one, smooth talking the guards outside Carlyle House to let us see Miss Carlyle- Persuasion skill 40% 2006-10-27 06:17:21

Timour looks the guard in the eye and in Russian screams, "Blah-blo-blah-blah!"

[imme]

Well, there go the first three characters.

[warhammer]

Trying to make a distinction between "fast talk" and "persuade":

"Look my friend," he said turning on the charm, "there is no need for all that. We were sent here at the personal request of Elizabeth Downing. So please, just inform your employer that we are here and we'll be able to clear up this whole misunderstanding."

To me this seems more like a "fast talk" attempt, rather than "persuade". "fast talk" involves making up excuses on the spot in "need something to say, quick!" moments, whereas "persuade" involves lengthily reasoning your victim (whether your reasoning has merit or not).

[thewhatchamacallit]

Same result either way My understanding was the word 'Please.'

If you say 'please' its persuasion, if you don't its fast talk

[Raiko]

What: Since I’m still at work please could you make a Luck Roll for Timour and post the result for me.

This is actually a Credit Rating Roll for Elizabeth, but as she’s not here it’s limited by Timour’s luck which is slightly lower.

You persuade roll failed, but the guard may still recognise Elizabeth’s name, which may help.

Ps: It probably should have been a fast talk roll, but since it failed anyway it doesn’t really matter.

[thewhatchamacallit]

698833 [MON]Timour rolls 1 1d100 [77] = 77 to avoid having head blown off outside Carlyle House- Chap 1. Unfortunately Timour's Luck skill= 70%

Note to self- take POW at 18 from now on...

[Decrepit]

Note to self- take POW at 18 from now on...

*Next* character.

[Raiko]

698833 [MON]Timour rolls 1 1d100 [77] = 77 to avoid having head blown off outside Carlyle House- Chap 1. Unfortunately Timour's Luck skill= 70%

Note to self- take POW at 18 from now on...

Better to get the bad rolls out of the way now.

[thewhatchamacallit]

Better to get the bad rolls out of the way now.

Amen, brother

[thewhatchamacallit]

I made mention in a previous post that Maksim would be driving from now on so that I can better concentrate on our surroundings, assume I parked the car on the street and Maksim and Timour switched places. We'll be driving away at this point while I try to cheer up my broham.

Here's the post;

Timour looked from the driver’s seat at the yard and the house, searching for anything out of place or possibly dangerous beyond the gun toting goons and their leashed-razorblades.

Instinctively he slid his pistol from under his armpit and concealed it on his lap while quietly chambering the first round and making sure the safety was on before returning the .45 automatic to its holster.

“Maksim, from now on you drive,” he said in Russian, “I need to concentrate on our environment as much as possible."

I'll wait for the keeper's judgement as to whether or not we need to roll the cheering up portion.

[coffee demon]

Nice post about the "slipping towards the criminal element" there with Maksim, Laraqua! Its cool to have a character on the on edge of doing bad things.

[Laraqua]

Well, Maksim needs one vice. Talking pleasantly to strangers, showing a genuine interest in women and helping out homeless people ain't one. I also need something to bring the whole Timour as protector angle... I talk the husbands out of killing him. He protects me as I run from crooks for the car with a bag full of their stuf...

Poor Maksim. I'm so fond of him and he's just going to die and die hard. I think next time I play table-top, I'll bring him back in a new game. Coz Masks isn't a good one to hold faith in keeping your hands on favoured characters, now, is it?

[thewhatchamacallit]

After this campaign we'll all have to form a support group just to get by, we'll call it the PDC(Players of Deceased Characters).

We'll sit around in circles and struggle with our pain together.

"I remember Timour, so young and full of life. He just couldn't make that throw check with the stick of dynamite. It's not fair, it's just not fair..."

<group gives sympathetic looks as hugs and tissues are passed around>

[Raiko]

Sorry I've been quite busy over the last couple of days, I'll be catching up with all my games over the weekend.

So I'll try to post a few times, provided players posting.

PS: Don't be too downbeat about your chances, I'm rather hoping that there won't be any TPK's, and as I like all of your characters I hope that some or all of them will survive (with sanity more or less intact) right to the end.

[coffee demon]

If we care about our characters, maybe we'll be that much more careful..

I personally think deaths/insanity is that much better when characters are well-fleshed out with interesting relationships around them. I can't wait for things to get hairy. But thats just me