Rules for the Last Express

August, 1939. With Europe on the brink of war, the luxurious Orient Express departs Paris for Constantinople, plunging a number of luckless individuals into a maelstrom of treachery, romance, and international intrigue. Join us as you attempt to meet your own goals or simply try to survive a storm you have unwittingly been drawn into. A self-driven game where you help mold the challenges, clues and dangers aboard the Orient Express as players take up a number of roles ranging from cultists, family members, tourists, spies, nobility, musicians, artists, rare book dealers, arms dealers to people desperate to get back home before the war begins.
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Laraqua
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Rules for the Last Express

Post by Laraqua »

This is a different sort of game then you may be used to. Based on the videogame by the same title, this game is a largely self-driven tale which will see you picking up a character who might be a simple traveler or who may be someone with their own hopes and goals. While I have attempted this game before (see the graveyard), I've had a bit of a tinker and I feel like I've got a better grasp on how to keep the game continuing fresh and interesting. Here are a few of the rules:

Each week I will progress the game by either 15 minutes or until the next stop - whichever is sooner. If a particular scene hasn't been resolved during those fifteen minutes, then we'll either assume that the conversation went longer than we thought (in which case the comments made were just the important ones), it occurred toward the end of the fifteen minutes and therefore is naturally going to follow through onto the next fifteen minutes, or even that those within the room spent a bit of time on their own beforehand. This ensures that all train cars are kept up to the same time without finding awkward and uncoordinated methods of bringing it all up to speed. I will insert a timestamp with the new time (though naturally your character would need to check their watch to know it).

You can freely move between most carriages though there's a man keeping an eye on the compartments at most times so you'll need to find some way to distract him if you want to get into someone else's compartments. You do need to pass in each carriage that you pass through, unfortunately, as there's a chance that something might be happening. Each carriage as its own sub-forum. Different compartments have separate threads but don't have their own carriage. This is to keep things simple so you don't have to wonder which compartment is tied to which carriage. If the carriage is somehow going through something really awful or is locked or hard to access than I may password protect it and require you to jump through some hoops before you get in.

When you enter a new carriage you can read any posts up to, and including, my timestamp to figure out who is there and get an idea of what you've just walked into. Your character, however, won't know anything spoken before you arrive but may judge from facial expressions or what-not that they were arguing or making romantic noises at each other.

Please don't read any threads you're not involved with. It'll spoil secrets.

If you speak another language, you can use spoiler buttons to hide it so that only those with that language could potentially overhear it. If you have less than 50% in a language and it's not your native tongue, please make a point of writing your sentences in dodgy grammar with unusual words thrown in.

If you have a language that is currently 'spoilered' in a thread you've been posting in than you can double click it if a) you have the language at less than 25% but make a successful language roll (per post you're reading), b) have the language at less than 50% but make a successful language roll (once per conversation), c) have the language at 50% or more and therefore don't need to make any roll though I appreciate it if you get metaphors confused and such. Unless you have the language at 75%, you need to roll to read any university grade texts in that language. All Mythos tomes need to have a roll to read no matter what you're doing.

You will also find certain tags in the TimeStamp that contain spoilers for Spot Hidden, Listen, etc. checks. If you see one of them, you can make a roll to read them. If someone interacts with such items then I will edit the Timestamp to reflect it so don't worry about something changing in it before you got there.

If your character does nothing at all between TimeStamps, I'll have them sit down or otherwise make themselves a bit more inconspicuous to reflect the fact they're inactive at present. If your character does nothing for thirty minutes (two weeks) then I'll have them return to their compartment unless you've already sat them down with a book or otherwise justified why they're doing nothing. This is to help in situations where people unexpectedly drop out, go on holiday, or just have the dreaded "Life Happens!" :D

Keep a copy of your own character sheet. All copies in this forum will be in a locked thread only I can access though I'm happy to email or PM you with it whenever you please.

If anyone has any further questions about these rules, please let me know.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

Oh, also, check out my new blog on roleplaying and running games: http://stwildonroleplaying.blogspot.com/
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Laraqua
Son of Yog-Sothoth
Son of Yog-Sothoth
Posts: 12656
Registered for: 18 years 1 month
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Location: Australia, Adelaide
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Re: Rules for the Last Express

Post by Laraqua »

There will be a number of NPCs running about who have their own goals and motivations. There will also be a number of events that will occur if no one upsets the timetable. The NPCs may not go from Paris to Istanbul. Some will get off at, or enter, on earlier stops. If you find the compartment you're in rather dull than feel free to move into another one. If you're not sure what to do next, or find your motivation dwindling, give me a friendly PM. I might not know the difference between your PC sitting in the lounge car and reading a book because you're on holiday or because you're eagerly awaiting *something* to happen. So give me an ahoy one way or the other. You're generally better off being proactive. A lot of people came onto The Orient Express so that they could talk to random strangers, especially those from other cultures, and experience the exotic so it's really not strange to try to hit it off.
Is it bad that I listen to this about ten times a day?

Oh, also, check out my new blog on roleplaying and running games: http://stwildonroleplaying.blogspot.com/
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