Play@YSDC

Once the game gets going, here's the OOC thread.

I'm PMing people as completed characters get posted with some info on what's going on and your connections to the adventure.

Alright, we have all four characters. Awesome. We can begin.

I'm aiming to make this campaign a sort of indirect sequel to one I ran a few years ago, which took place in 1898: not as much following on with the central threat of that campaign, but using a few of the same characters. Some PCs and NPCs from that game will show up in various capacities in this game. The Golden Dawn was a major facet of that game: it's around in this game, though whether it'll be as major is another matter entirely. If you're familiar with the history of that group, the main difference is that William Wynn Westcott, one of London's coroners, is still in the organization (in reality, he was forced out), although there is still the conflict between two factions as occurred in reality in 1899-1900. But all that might not really matter too much.

I'm also going to try a little experiment with multiple threads, like is going on in the Dr. Who game, but not to that degree: basically, one of the characters will be in a different thread and will come at things from a different angle then the others, but then of course they'll eventually merge.

Richard Maurice isn't quite old enough to have an age penalty to his stats. That only applies for each full 10 years above age 40, so the first one doesn't kick in until age 50. Since he's 49, he doesn't have to worry about that yet. Also, his +3 EDU also gives him an increase of +15 to his Know score, which becomes 80.

Are we allowed to read the thread we're not in, or only our own?

Mr. Handy wrote:Richard Maurice isn't quite old enough to have an age penalty to his stats. That only applies for each full 10 years above age 40, so the first one doesn't kick in until age 50. Since he's 49, he doesn't have to worry about that yet. Also, his +3 EDU also gives him an increase of +15 to his Know score, which becomes 80.

Are we allowed to read the thread we're not in, or only our own?

Right, thanks!

You're welcome! You also get an extra Hit Point as a result, since fractions round up when calculating it.

Is it too late to jump in?

Are we allowed to read the other IC thread, or only our own?

BenTheRat wrote:Is it too late to jump in?

Oh shoot, I forgot you had wanted in too... no, go ahead and make a guy, I'll work you in somehow.

Mr. Handy wrote:Are we allowed to read the other IC thread, or only our own?

I suppose it wouldn't hurt too much, as long as you don't do anything foolish like try to act on what transpires in that thread, or let it direct your questioning towards Lord Godfrey, or anything like that.

I suppose I should let you all know what my posting schedule will be like... I'm on night work, and we're currently working a pretty insane schedule, so the majority of the time I'll be posting in the early afternoon. Usually, I keep up on the threads at night, but I can't reply to any of them. Just so you're not wondering why I'm not posting at night... That said, I do have vacation next week, so should be able to post a bit more often then.

I have finished editing my character Gary Cupp. I went a little wild with him, so feel free to do whatever you want with him. Especially his workshop. I think I overdid it. I haven't read any threads yet, so no idea whats going on. Throw me in whenever you get a chance.

Slowing things up a little in the "Meeting" thread as I catch the "Eye" thread up to it. Shouldn't be too long, though.

Was wondering if you can create a thread for timeline. Then we can edit it as we discover stuff and not have it buried in some older locked thread.

Just a thought.

Added - that is a good idea.

Just have to post this somewhere, to get it out. Just posted my second dice roll, again in the 90s. Just for once, please, can I have a decent roll?

I can make the Timeline thread (and any others) Sticky if you like.

yockenthwaite wrote:Just have to post this somewhere, to get it out. Just posted my second dice roll, again in the 90s. Just for once, please, can I have a decent roll?

I feel your pain, I think invis castle is horribly broken.

yockenthwaite wrote:Just have to post this somewhere, to get it out. Just posted my second dice roll, again in the 90s. Just for once, please, can I have a decent roll?

I was going to comment on that. Being Call of Cthulhu, Alicia won't be long for the world if she keeps rolling like this. That novel might never get completed.

Although narratively, it does at least make sense. As an East Ender, Alicia probably doesn't recognize high society folks, after all.

Mr. Handy wrote:I can make the Timeline thread (and any others) Sticky if you like.

No need as of yet, but later as we start getting some more threads, I may ask you to do that.

Dr. Bloodworth wrote:I was going to comment on that. Being Call of Cthulhu, Alicia won't be long for the world if she keeps rolling like this. That novel might never get completed.

Quite!

Although narratively, it does at least make sense. As an East Ender, Alicia probably doesn't recognize high society folks, after all.

No, she's not an East Ender. She just lives there, and is a middle-class incomer from Scotland. I'm sure she can recognise class, but maybe not so familiar as might like with some of the faces in London society, despite living there and working as a journalist for 5 years.

Re posting schedules, I'll try to post most days, but I'm very knocked out by the neurological disease, so when I'm more confused there will be no posting I'm asleep for most of the night and throughout the day, and generally only up and about in the evening UK time. So I'm most likely to post around 8/9/10pm GMT.

I work Monday-Friday, and during the week I can only post briefly every night. I have no time to post in the morning before leaving for work, and I am not allowed to post while at work. When I get home, I need to eat dinner right away, and then there are other things I need to get done, and then I need to catch up before I can post. I usually don't get a chance to post on a workday until 9-11 PM Eastern U.S. time (GMT-5), and I want to be done by midnight or not long after. I can usually post every day, though there will be occasional exceptions (November 4-6 and November 18-20 among them, as I'll be going to conventions those weekends). During most weekends I have a lot more time to post, as well as on days when I don't have work (November 11 and November 24-25 are the ones coming up, plus I'll probably get out early on November 23).

It's times like this I love Streetview on Google Earth. Here's a house in Vincent Terrace; not sure if it's No. 14 but they're all really quite similar. I'm sure this place was quite similar in thie Victorian era.

It seems Arthur is dealing with occult stuff.
I found letters and some books written in French, I'm taking them for later inspection.

I wonder if we shouldn't have a place to just jot down ideas so we don't forget them.

I don't think he was taken here, or if he was it was by people he knew, because the gun by his bed wasn't disturbed.
Which also means he feared for his life. He got a brand new gun, and kept it by his bed.
Whatever the intruders that messed up the living room were after they got because the back rooms were not searched.
Whoever searched his room, either was let in by Arthur, they took him and searched the room and locked the door on the way out.
Or they grabbed him somewhere else, took his key, came here found what they wanted, and locked the door on the way out.
(both of those sound silly. Why would anyone ransacking the place like this take the time to lock the door?)

You are right. We should have a place to write the things we gather.
Bloodworth - when I was a keeper I opened a thread called “Clues, books and notes”
Over there I placed a list of the things we found.

Clues:
Poems mentioning a "dark queen of Eastern splendor."
Letters to and from a man named John Bidwell (Unknown man) which seem to be about ghosts and spiritualism.
À Rebours by J.K. Huysmans
Poetry of Baudelaire,
Occultism Unveiled by Eliphas Lévi.
The Golden Bough - second volume
The Book of Dzyan

A letter from S. – if you can post the letter, I will show it to the others.

I think I'll create such a thread after you join back up with Reg and Maud, who are up talking to Mr. Borelli - they'll have some other things to add as well. The letter likewise I'm for now sending to Gary as a PM.

Maybe whoever ransacked the place locked it back up to allay suspicion and keep the crime from being discovered for a while. If the door had been unlocked, anyone looking for Arthur to check on him could have gone inside after he failed to answer and seen that something was wrong.

Mr. Handy wrote:Maybe whoever ransacked the place locked it back up to allay suspicion and keep the crime from being discovered for a while. If the door had been unlocked, anyone looking for Arthur to check on him could have gone inside after he failed to answer and seen that something was wrong.

Unless there was another entrance ... the roof ? or the land owner itself ? maybe the two nice persons that speak to Reg and Maud are cultists and Arthur is chained in the basement.

sorry I haven't posted lately. Been really busy, try to get into it tomorrow or this weekend.

Since this is the first PbP I've run in a number of years, I was just wondering how everyone thinks I'm doing so far? I'm ad-libbing to some extent, and I'm thinking of throwing some elements from another adventure into the game. On another note, with some experience running the scenario now, I see how quickly it can really be completed if the Keeper doesn't change things.

I'm having fun. keep up the good work

thumbs up here.

I'm enjoying it too.

Improvisation is a must for any Keeper, and I do it all the time. You're doing a good job of it when your players can't tell whether something is part of the scenario or made up on the spot.

I'm enjoying it so far, though somewhat exasperated at being cut off from the other investigators and the rest of the investigation. Though that is totally in character with them. But still exasperating for me as a player guys!

Just had a week out of commission, so thanks to Dr Bloodworth for looking after my character in the meantime.

Well I think I just gave you an in. I actually did that before reading your post. So it wasn't me just feeling sorry for you or anything. Just in game.

But when the guy who hired us wants to keep the whole thing hush, hush. Being a newspaper reporter is just a bad profession. Good luck, but I do try to play my characters as I think they would react.

In one of my other games, I just did something really stupid, probably pissed off the other players, but I figured thats what that character would do.

It's not just that Alicia is a reporter, it's that she was in the company of Travisham.

I'm not mad at you for what Clayton did in Watch the World Burn. Liz is a bit miffed, however.

Yea I figured she was. I actually typed the kicking, then deleted it and waited a couple hours to think about it on what else he would do. I came up with a lot of other solutions, I just couldn't see him coming up with those. He is sort of an impatient, I want it now idiot.

If I'd actually been able to get online and post between the time you started on the door and the time you kicked it in, Liz would have told you to stop and offered those alternative suggestions that she made after the fact.

BenTheRat: Back in world burn - I'm not mad at you.

yockenthwaite - Let Alicia try and speak to Richard, he got a weakness to young ladies

Thanks guys for the "in". Will see how things progress from here. I totally agree you've been acting in character, and if I was one of your characters I'd have a similar attitude to Alicia, for all the same reasons. And I wouldn't want you to play it any other way.

I have several new threads up - one for Maud at the theatre, one for Alicia at Blaylock's, and one for Gary and Reg at the Limehouse shop. Richard can keep posting on The Investigation thread. If anyone is doing anything else - here I'm particularly thinking of Maud, as IIRC she's investigating the theatre in the afternoon, I wasn't sure what she was doing in the morning - go ahead and post in the relevant thread and I'll work things out.

Letting everyone know I won't be around until Saturday.

Hey Dr. DM, do not forget Richard's reading.

Come'on guys move faster ... Richard found many clues in the writings of Arthur and is waiting for u for dinner.

And I'll use this opportunity to let you know that I didn't forget about Richard's combing through The Book of Dzyan... it's just that I'm taking some time to come up with some handouts of interesting passages to share with the others.

Dr. Bloodworth wrote:And I'll use this opportunity to let you know that I didn't forget about Richard's combing through The Book of Dzyan... it's just that I'm taking some time to come up with some handouts of interesting passages to share with the others.

Looking forward to lose some sanity and find some interesting stuff in this book

I'll be getting surgery tomorrow (pretty routine stuff, just getting my wisdom teeth out, which I haven't had done yet) but wanted to let everyone in all my games know that I may not be getting on as often as normal. Not sure how long I'll be out of commission for, but probably a day or two at least.

Ooh good luck with that! I've only had one wisdom tooth removed, some years ago by my local dentist. Hoping your extractions go smoothly

Wow guys, crazy month. If I haven't lost my character, I'll spend a day or 2 catching up and then jumping back in if thats ok?

BtR

Nope, you're character's still up. He's in The Investigation thread right now - you guys left the boarding house in the Jago and headed in to Richard's for dinner.

I'm going to be out of action 6th-15th March because of work. Please can you NPC me along in the story; Maud wants to tag along and help out when possible; Dr. Bloodworth you have free reign.

I will be offline in the upcoming weekend. NPC me as necessary.

Dr Bloodworth can you look after Alicia if necessary through to Sunday please? I've just started a 3 day heavy chemo treatment, and expect to be out of commission until next week. All going well the same thing will happen in a fortnight, and again after, but hopefully I'll be coping well by then. Am very puggled now after hours at hospital. Thanks.

Sure thing. Good luck to ya!

Many thanks. Back and posting for now.

Ping.

Maud finds a dusty door at the back of the shop. There is a faded sign nailed to it reading, "Bad Company." She pushes open the door, wondering if there is anyone inside.

I'm still here too. Have my current in-character thread on subscription, so I'll get an email when there are new posts. I'll be in like a flash

I'm still here as well.

So ... this one is dead ?

The Keeper hasn't logged in since early May. He's a player in one of my games too, and I've had to NPC his character. Unless he returns or someone else who has the scenario takes over, it looks like we're stuck.

Alica and Maud wander around the dusty old shop for all eternity.

So, this games died ?

Seems to have done Keeper hasn't visited since 7th May. And I think we'd got quite far through too. Such a shame.