Out of character thread

Well, I've added a couple of you already with a couple more hopefully on the way in the next day or two. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves while I get everything started! :D

Howdy Folks

Howdy!

Hey guys, the question was brought up to me as to how historically accurate this world is and if there are any steampunk elements to it. So I thought it might clear up some confusion if I posted what I wrote. It was a really good question. I also may find myself loosening up a bit on the steampunk down the line, but for now it's pretty minimal:

"It's pretty dang historically accurate. I may allow for a tiny bit of steampunk elements, but they will not be widespread, as the general population will not have access to such things. For instance, if your character is very smart and is an inventor of sorts, that would be allowable to have more advanced technology to an extent. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same assets you would have in historical Victorian times. The men of letters and hunters pretty much keep themselves out of the spotlight, so the general population doesn't have a lot of knowledge about what's really going on.

Later though, I may add some magic items that are fitting to the setting. Also, if you choose to be a man of letters, there will be definite bonuses to that, such as minor spells, extra knowledge ranks, etc. If you were a hunter though, you would get extra bonuses to your physical abilities. So it really depends on what is more important to your character."

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Penny Dreadful — a humorous pseudonym, obviously, to protect my family name from scandal and my enemies, but it suffices to say you may address me as "Lady", if you wish. I am a private and consulting detective specialising in cases possessing certain unique, even grotesque, features and supernatural elements, and have earned some small repute in this field. You may have heard of the Ripper case? I was formerly based in London, but have been invited by the Men of Letters to visit 'the colonies'. I look forward to making your acquaintance."

:)

Penny is a detective of the Sherlock Holmes school, applying the art of deduction to the world of the supernatural. She's also a bit of a Lovecraftian investigator, and a huntress of Victorian Britain. Penny should be a Smart/Dedicated/Investigator, and a skilled type.

I'm not sure if she's a hunter, since she's not likely to be much of a fighter, or if she's a woman of letters, as she doesn't know any spells, though both may change with a few levels. I guess "hunter" would be more accurate given what she does, but she'd generally need the aid of some able-bodied gentlemen to dispatch the monsters when things get physical.

I mentioned a dash of steampunk in my application, for novelty value and because it seemed to suit the era and a lady detective in a suit. I've never really played with steampunkishness before. I thought to give Penny some small gadgets: funky magnifying glasses or an old-fashioned EMF meter or maybe a modified crossbow or pistol for firing different substances at different creatures. But I'm not sure how well I can squeeze in the skills or afford them. I'm not really married to the concept, and will give it up if someone else wants to be an inventor or if it doesn't suit.

That would actually be acceptable Penny. I'm a pretty generous GM and I'll make sure everyone gets goodies from time to time. It's part of the fun!

Looks like we're getting pretty full on characters already. I just need people to message me their back stories, or post them on the character thread if they so desire, so I can get a feel for people's characters. It seems that a lot of people are likely to be hunters starting out anyway, which is awesome. IF you plan to be a man of letters, please specify so to me so I can treat you as such. Otherwise I will assume you are a hunter. Naturally as the game progresses you can dabble in it should you desire.

I am going to be working on some actual bonuses and minor spells too that will be available to you. For instance, if you are a man of letters, you will have a set of spells you can choose to learn. If you are a hunter, I will have other bonuses as well, just to keep things interesting. I'm hoping to have it all fleshed out rather soon, so keep your eyes out for it.

All that said, I'm really looking forward to playing with you all. I've only had one game on here for a while, so I'm pretty excited for a fresh story and a new setting. I'm a pretty enthusiastic gamer and the game I do have besides this one has been going on for almost three years now. So needless to say, I'm here for the long haul. Hopefully you all are too, as it's not very fun when people drop out after the first two weeks, etc. Keep that in mind before we start please, and let me know if things don't allow you to post consistently.

Howdy

I believe Father Simon will be a man of letters. I hope the GM will allow him some spells based on faith.

Btw/ my guy is from the Boston area. Anyone want to make a common backstory?

Sure I can work with you on that one -- I can see perhaps in my low times I came to you for guidance perhaps.

That sounds perfect. Simon has a high knowledge in human behavior, theology, and has a natural ability with people. Would you like to play something out in PMs?

Sounds good -- I am somewhat around so if I dont reply right away it will be later ; )

Well I will let you start. You are the one who seeks out guidance, and so I would be more comfortable replying to you rather than trying to create a reason on your behalf. Fair?

Jacques may have returned to Fitzwilliam for a visit with family. A quick train ride to Salem MA after that to begin his hunting in the States would not be out of the question.

Its only 16 miles from Boston to Salem. Simon could easily have been investigating the same thing Jacques was into. Is this something you would like to play out in a pm?

I'm still trying to finish up my sheet. If you want to start a pm thread about a hunt in Salem, I'd be happy to contribute.

Let's say I start out with a visit to St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Salem to meet a Priest who was in the seminary with my friend from St. Petersburg.

I always prefer the other person start the thread if possible.

So the three of you will have known each other? Let me know in general the basics of how well you know each other before we start. I will probably be posting tomorrow to begin everything. It will start with a summons to New York. Are you guys coming straight from Boston together, or will it have taken place more in the past and you just reunite when I start the storyline?

I would say I know at least Simon 2+ years -- Not sure if I know the crazy Frenchmen yet unless I met him while traveling with Simon.

Updated my description to maintain the "Crazy Frenchman" image.

He sounds like fun

Thanks, I think he will be.

I'm fine without too much of a back story. Let's say we met once or twice, but my only involvement was helping them out with some specialized cartridges and some other things that went boom with good affect. I never really joined them in the hunts. I'm back in New York, making ends meet by working for shooting clubs, and investigating strange murders or disappearances as they come up. Somehow we meet up again through a mutual contact.

Good morning, gentlemen. A pleasure to meet you.

I think Penny is beginning as a hunter, but I'm thinking of cross-classing to one of the magic-related advanced classes, like Occultist or Mage, later, so she could develop as a woman of letters. Her background suggests a possibility for that.

I think now I know you better, I can know where to focus Penny's build. In classic D&D terms, we have a Priest and two Fighters, so Penny will be the Rogue. :)

Penny is from England, so she isn't likely to have any prior association. She may have been in New York a short time, learning the lie of the land, so to speak.

When I revise my backstory, I'll post it.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:16, Thu 10 Oct 2013.

Jacob would be better linked to a Monk --

Well a monk using Brass Knuckles

Jacques build is more of a techie than a fighter as his age has started to impact his physical abilities.

Huh. Jacques is smarter than me. :( How did you get 18 Intelligence? The max would be 17, from a base of 16 and the 4th-level bonus.

I'm an old fart. The age modifiers add 1 to INT, WIS, and CHA and take 1 from STR, DEX, CON.

In reply to Jacques DeBay (msg # 27):


I will post my char sheet up tomorrow,  glad others took the thinking skills.  Looks like I will be the tank.

Ah. That explains it.

Well, I get to cut back on my tech skills, and won't be trying to get all steampunk, though I may try to buy some gadgets. I'll have Disable Device for lockpicking duties.

We could have some fun making gadgets if you can give me some ideas of what you'd be looking for. Some overlap or complimentary skills could lead to great collaboration.

There's my revised background and personality, and my description is now up. Rather long, but hopefully entertaining. :)

I'll dip Craft (electronic) for something different, but I've spread my skills too widely to string specialise in much. Some interesting things we could build might be magnifying glasses and lens, perhaps treated to reveal hellhounds and hidden, magical signs. An EMF meter would be useful for finding signs of spirits. Maybe crossbows or pistols/bullets modified for different substances. That would depend on what we learn, know, and can find or afford, I suppose.

Very nice Penny. Actually so nice I felt mine lacking. =-(

Posted my sheet. My guy would be considered as much a ranger as a cleric in classic D&D standards, since he gets tracking and favored enemy type abilities.

GM:

I am anxious to find out if my guy can actually perform an exorcism. =-)

I am actually going through the spell list from D&D and taking out specific spells that would apply to the setting. I am tweaking a few of them and I will add specific spell components as well so you know what you need to pack so to speak. When this is done, Men of Letters will have access to these spells. Certain spells are available depending on which level you are, etc. Exorcism will be one of them eventually. For hunters, there will be multiple bonuses of their own which I shall post soon. One of the options for hunters is to decide whether or not to take hunters spells such as learning how to make devil's traps, perform exorcisms, etc. They are more limited, but still handy.The more your levels increase the more things you get to learn. I'm hoping to keep fairly true to the series, so it's taking a bit of research mixed with what I think would be plausible.

Also, if you didn't see my post in the character creation, please take max hit die on your characters if you haven't already. And be sure to post your ages on the character sheets, once again if you haven't already.

I think exorcism should be a long ritual. Catholics teach that you need two participants, usually two priests, but a priest and a lay person of high faith can participate. It takes days and sometimes weeks depending on the strength of the spirit and relative faith of the priest(s).

Exorcist 3 has a super awesome scene where the priest just enters the building where the possessed man is held as an insane person and all the demons powers beyond his cell are simply turned off. The power of Faith on display. =-)

If hunters can access exorcism I may go that way. It will just depend on what makes most sense given his backstory.

Well, it depends on the situation. In Supernatural when they get good enough they can exorcise pretty quickly, but it depends on the strength of the demon and how much practice they have. In the first season it took them a bit longer. I think I'll have the rules reflect that for sure. Since you guys are just starting out it will not be an easy process.

One thing to keep in mind as far as hunter versus man of letters, is the men of letters will have a lot of spells I think that your character will find particularly useful, such as creating holy water, magical circle against evil, bless, atonement, etc. So it may be worth looking into before you make the final decision. You can also cross class if you like.

My homebrew additions will be a work in progress. If I find something is unbalanced or needs tweaking, I may be making changes down the road. I just thought it would be fun to play with.

Well I am looking forward to your updates Artemis.

Thanks! I'm almost done for now. Just a couple more spells for the time being and I should have this all posted very soon. It's actually really hard work, trying to tweak the spells to fit with the Supernatural setting. I made the exorcist spell pretty hard to start out with. In theory, it should not be easy to do at all. As you gain levels though, you'll find the difficulty goes down, so it should be in good keeping with the show. Sorry it's taking me so long guys. I'm ridiculously close to being ready though.

Also, I didn't see it off hand as I was browsing the D20 modern (I probably just missed it), but I am going to play by the rules of adding an ability point every four levels. So if you haven't already done this on your character sheet, feel free to add a point. I apologize for not having mentioned it sooner.

I see we have a Stefan Von Frankenstein --- That could be interesting.

Yes, he has quite an interesting background. I'll let him tell you about it though ;)

Good Evening all

It is a pleasure ta meet you all. I look forvard ta 'elping you in dhis.

You choose Vincent Price, the king of all thing horrible!

Did you know that early in his career he was a heart throb. No kidding, he was Leo DeCaprio of that time. Then he did The Wax Museum and the rest is history...

Frankenstein! And I thought I was pushing it for having Penny be an associate of Sherlock Holmes! Hello!

Now, is Stefan a relative or the monster?

I don't know about other d20 systems or third-party works, but D&D's Fiendish Codex I has some rules for possession and exorcism, Knowledge checks and saves, and various options for the possessing demon. The demon leaves its body behind and becomes an incorporeal presence, like the big smoke monster. The demon can be forced out with banishment, dismissal, dispel chaos, and dispel evil, plus the new exorcism spell in that book. That's a 1st-level Cleric spell, so it should be easily available to a divine-casting undead-turning advanced class in d20 Modern, like Acolyte or Spiritualist. It's all very close to what we see in Supernatural.

New series next week! :D

In reply to Father Simon Cole (msg # 41):

Yes Fadher I did kno dhat.

Dear Miss Penny, I am not my like my fadher, if dhat 'elps you.

Yeah, this Frankenstein monster is going to be closer to the book rather than the hollywood version. In this case he was basically a reanimated corpse thanks to a bit of science mingled with the occult. I'm going to make it to have been pretty dark actually. I will have more on that in the story.

Also, Stefan's character is only related to the original doctor so it's not like he was the actual Dr. Frankenstein. So that should help somewhat. Basically, it sounded like an intriguing idea and I do want you guys to have fun so I figured what the hey.

Yeah, this is kind of turning into League of Extraordinary Gentlemen mixed with Supernatural isn't it? As long as everyone is ok with this very minor mixture, I think it could add a nice element of fun. I do want it to be pretty minor though, so don't make it the focal point of the story please.

Oooooh, yeah.....important thing to note.....about Supernatural.....

I have this weird thing with my husband where we don't watch it all year and then when it comes on DVD we have a huge marathon and watch it within a week. So, basically I'll be going a year without watching the new season. SO NO SPOILERS!!!! I'm not allowed to look ahead on anything, so if you guys want to talk about the new season amongst yourselves you can just make a private message thread and call it Spoilers so I don't accidentally read it.

Yeah, I know it's pretty weird. We just don't really have access to it because our television reception sucks so bad and it's really frustrating to have it cut out all the time so it's easier to wait for things to come out. It's really really really hard not to figure out a way to watch them sooner, but it's been our tradition for about five years now, and for some reason it's kind of stuck. Go ahead, judge me. I can feel you doing it already ;P

Actually I did NOT know that! Interesting. I did know that about Bela Lugosi though. Women offered to leave their husbands for him. I did a whole English paper in College about vampires and how they've become known for their sex appeal. Keep in mind this was before Twilight came out, thank goodness. Sorry, I'm not a fan.

That is actually cool Artemis.

Well, we're not exactly the fictional characters, and Penny is only inspired by Holmes. I figured it would be fun to name-drop him directly; the Great Game supposes that Holmes and Watson were real and Doyle their literary agent. And Penny solved all the paranormal cases that Holmes failed, so...

Okay, no spoilers... Dang, I was going to complain about all the stupid at the end of last season. :( Wait, is that okay?

BTW, the Mature tag dropped off.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:39, Fri 11 Oct 2013.

I want to take issue with this. I was actually a Lit major in undergrad, my specialty was...yup Frankenstein - The Modern Day Prometheus. I argued, quit convincingly I might add, that Adam (Frankenstein's Monster choose the Name Adam for himself; he was "The first man created by man outside of the method proscribed by God") was not a reanimated corpse.

The book actually refers to corpses as part of Dr. Frankenstein's research. When his research is done he professes that he now has "The keys to life and death." This is an obvious reference to 1 Thessalonians 4:14-19 where Christ has the keys to "Death, hell, and the grave." The Dr. is putting himself as an equal to God, BIG MISTAKE!

Now my interpretation. I believe that these two references from the book can be taken to mean that the Dr. cloned himself. The monster is not stitched together corpses, that is from Hollywood, but instead a genetically enhanced clone. If you want to put this into game terms, Adam is a Flesh Golem with an extremely high intellect.

Ok I'll take my book nerd hat off. =-)

Thanks very much! Yeah, I had a lot of fun with it. I took it pretty in depth, discussing how original vampire creatures (called revenants) were thought to be sexually voracious beings who would come back to ravish their still living spouses. This was actually due to the-shall we say male response....to the decomposition process. So when people dug up the corpses to check and see if there was a vampire causing whatever problems they were blaming on them, lo and behold they would see some pretty messed up stuff that actually made it look like they were alive, hence the connection in the first place. I got a lot of material from a book called "Vampires, Burial and Death", and it details (quite graphically) how the decaying process actually started a lot of the legends due to people misunderstanding the science behind it. It's a really excellent book. Sorry, vampires have long been my passion. Shouldn't have gotten me started ;)

Penny, you can feel free to mention the Great Mr. Holmes. It's only fair and it should make it quite fun! And as for last season, don't worry I already watched the whole thing in like 5 days. I bought it the day it came out and whipped through it, so last season is very much ok to discuss! I personally think they'll make Crowley a goodish guy and hopefully more of a regular because he's pretty hilarious and that would be awesome. I guess you'll find out before I do.... :(

Simon- I only read Frankenstein once a long time ago and really enjoyed it, but I didn't even think to read so deep like that. You may have something there! I figured in the game I would make him the result of science mixed with the occult so he is a bit of a mixture of a highly intelligent golem/zombie/reanimated corpse. I'm still kind of playing around with it actually. I may have to lean a bit closer to flesh golem now....And don't worry, book nerdy-ness is a very fine trait! I'm going to have to read it again when I get the time. Some of the classic horror stories were ridiculously good. I loved Dracula, as you can imagine, and HP Lovecraft had some stories that were downright disturbing!


Oh crap- on an unrelated side note there is nothing worse than seeing a spider, running to get something to gish him, and then having him mysteriously disappear when you return. I suddenly want to vacate this room....

I know we have a few things to iron out as far as spells for men of letters and such, but I think for now we can at least get the story started. Please remember to wait for each other to respond, don't get too far ahead of the slower posters. Also, no metagaming or taking liberties. I will tell you if you see someone you know, I will tell you how NPC's react, etc. You only control yourself, nothing and no one else. I know it's common sense and very obvious, but I've had other games I've done where it has been an issue. So, I will get this started! Good luck everyone! :D

can you open our Char Sheets please so we can list our stuff there

Also the Hunter Bonus thread -- that apply to everyone ?

Sorry for the silly question just not sure

I think it applies if your a hunter. You cannot be both hunter and man of letters.

Stupid Question 2.0

I sure the hell am not a Man of Letters so the bonus does apply to me ?

Is there just two types here Hunter or Man of Letter

I think its an additional set of bonuses besides normal character bonuses. Yes I believe you are a hunter sir.

I thank you -- That is a nice little list of adds to put on my guy.

Whew. I was always go big on my first posts, to really get in character. Time consuming though, and it's midnight now. (I'm in Australia.)

Eww. A lot of legends must arise from people misunderstanding decomposing corpses. Well, it's not surprising people generally don't pay attention to them. Cattle mutilations and chupacabras are likely really just naturally decomposing corpses.

I've not read Frankenstein and Dracula, but I really ought to. I have read all of Lovecraft though. I wish Supernatural had done a lot more with the Mythos.

Here, we get huntsman spiders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider
My mum once saw one in her bedroom, then it hid and there was a lot places for it to hide. She spent the night on the couch.

I love the Hunter benefits. I can put a bit more combat ability and toughness on Penny.

I've nearly finished my sheet, I promise. I just need to finalise my feats and equipment. I'm stuck on whether to wield a cane (club) and stay a generalist, or blow a feat on Archaic and get a way-cooler sword-cane. :)

Ok good , you were making me nervous I was going to have to really think for each post ; )

Where is Australia are you ? I have a number of Friends that live in Sydney ( I am in Vancouver -- Canada )

I actually have a Whip with me even though i am not that good with it. Just has a cool feel to it heh
This message was last edited by the player at 16:13, Fri 11 Oct 2013.

Jacob, I don't want you to get in trouble with our GM. She specifically said we must wait for everyone to post before we move on. Stefan has to get a turn before you, I, or Penny can post again.

I clearly fail at reading -- My bad folks

Sorry about that.

When I read the opening I actually thought it was only the three of us for that part. I was not aware that Stefan was with us.

I am not sure either. Maybe the GM could clear that up for us. I would enjoy getting to put another up before heading home this afternoon.

Where are you Located ?

Looks like we have

Penny  = Australia
Me     = West Coast ( Vancouver )

South Eastern US

Sorry, I'm a bit confused about "opening your character sheet." It's been awhile since I messed with that feature on here. Are you referring to the one under your profile? I messed with it a bit, but I don't know if that is what you intended. Let me know and I'll try to accommodate you!

Yes, there are two paths on top of your classes. You can either be a hunter or a man of letters. I don't mind you delving into both at some point either, as long as it fits your character. I am eventually going to have the ability for hunters to have the option of learning a spell or two from the man of letters list, but it will be with minor penalties. That will come soon down the road.

Penny- that is RIDICULOUSLY freaky! Holy crap remind me never to go to Australia! I live in the Pacific Northwest, and all we get here are brown recluse spiders, but they are poisonous. I think we get garden and wolf spiders too which can be pretty big, but not like that. Fortunately I found my fellow and gished him, after much shrieking when he started to get away again. Not my bravest moment....

Thanks Simon and Jacob. I know it's pretty hard not to get carried away, so I appreciate your waiting. And no worries, I'm quite nice so even when mistakes happen I'm still very sweet :)

If you want and if everyone is comfortable with it, you can make me a co-gm. I can handle technical issues like the one with our sheets.

You know what's funny Jacob? I actually live in Vancouver Washington. EVERYONE always assumes I live in Vancouver Canada, then I say "No, Washington." And then they think I live in D.C." It's a running gag around here. Ridiculously  beautiful and green here though. That's how I like it, in spite of 9 months of rain. We're about 15 minutes away from Portland Oregon and about 30 minutes away from stupid Forks Washington which became so famous from Twilight....*rolls eyes* Like I said. Not a fan.

Artemis, we cross posted. look at mine just above your last.

Haha -- Yeah I am always clear to say Canada --

Yeah the sheets are still not fully open for Edit. You need to make sure you check off User Editable

There. Try that.

Simon, for now I think I'm good as long as you're clear like Jacob was, but there may come a time when I take you up on that. Especially as I get busier and so long as everyone is comfortable. Thanks for the offer!

That worked

In reply to Artemis (msg # 70):

I'm good.

Question: how many times per day can a MoL use his/her spells?

The bump in Base Attack gives me two attacks now : )

Nice!

Well, I was trying to think about that and I think I will allow a spell per caster level a day. However, keep in mind that some of them are a bit time consuming so they aren't always that great during fights, it depends on the spell. Also, you cannot do the same spell more than once per day. I may tweak this one way or another depending on if it seems OP or under powered.

Makes sense, one spell per level per day would mean 6 to start, but you cannot cast the same one more than once. I think I have it.

Yup! We'll see how it goes and then tweak if necessary.

Hey, no promises how soon I'll get this done but I was thinking over the next few months I may draw your characters if you'd like. I used to do that for my games years ago and players enjoyed it. Plus, it makes me stretch myself a bit more artistically. I'm not great, but I have fun with it. So if you are interested, you can private message me or post on your sheet, a very detailed description of your character. We're talking long nose, short nose, freckles, hair style, type of clothes, etc. I don't have a scanner yet, but I may have one I can borrow so I'll post them at some point when I'm done. Like I said though, it may take me a bit, but it's nice to have the information for days like today when I actually have time to draw. Thanks!

Oh -- that sounds pretty cool. ( Drawings ! )

Just a heads up BTW -- On the weekends I don't post a lot. Kids and Wife tend to keep me busy.

Fadher Simon 'ow vell rekognived are you in da Okkult kommunity? I am dhinking dhis is vhy I 'ave kome ta da state. I am still trying ta figure out vhy I am 'ere.

Woah, lots of posts. Catching up...

Hunter bonuses: Can I add these to my build now?

Location: I'm in Perth, Western Australia. The most isolated city in the world.

Sheet: I can open and and edit mine, thanks.

Spiders: Huntsmans seem to enjoy living in and around our houses. They might keep away the much worse spiders. But catching them with a cup and a card and flicking them down the toilet is quite the survival skill around here. If you can find a cup big enough to get the legs inside...

Posting: Can I post again? So eager!

Sorry for being da 'old up. :(

Stefan, you would have received the same letter we all did, which would be the main reason for coming here.

If you came from Europe, then maybe Stefan and Penny came across on the same boat, perhaps leaving from England or France. Of course, they might not have had much contact, since Penny would have spent much of her time reading, and now tends to avoid weird gentlemen in top hats. :p

Dhat vould vork even da avoidance, if you so deemed it.  England vould be vhere 'e vould be leaving from.

You know, you don't have to keep up the accent OOC. :p

I'm thinking a long boat-trip would be a good opportunity to defeat a sea monster of some kind. Maybe a mermaid or a kraken. :D

Yes, like that. :)

Well, I've finally finished my sheet. I'm rather pleased with some of my novelties. I wonder if Penny can cross-stitch a devil's trap or something. ;)

Fairly familiar at least in the US and Italy. If you are connected to the Church in any way then I am sure we would have at least met. Simon deals with things from a Church point of view - demons should be cast back to hell, souls saved, etc. He is not a zealot, though he is a Jesuit which many people take as one in the same. He would not be averse to modern science, many of the most influential astronomers and mathematicians have come from Jesuit ranks.

Really I see Simon as the model of Christianity, someone who has this wonderful thing and wants to share it with you, not cram it down your throat. He has an inner light, a kind of warmth that comes from truly knowing God. He has an unshakable faith and a penchant for charity. He will encourage everyone to give to the poor and needy and will be more than willing to plunge his hands into filth if it means saving a soul. I hope that gives you all a good idea of the person your dealing with. Physically I don't see him as anything special or memorable, save for the collar. He is just average.

I hope we have healing potions or can heal somehow -- It looks like my sorry ass is going to be in the front soaking up lots of damage  ; )

Well we do have a doctor and someone who can act as his assistant/nurse in a pinch so I think you'll be fine.

I can take care of your boo boos in many different ways. I need to see if the good dm will allow me to make my own healing potions or if it can be done thru magic. I am very unfamiliar with this system, so I have no clue.

Should we proceed inside or do you want to spring something on us outside, Artemis?

I have posted, so go for it folks! I'll go back through the ooc later today and make sure I answer questions if I missed any. I just have to go get my day going. For now though, feel free to proceed.

Simon, did you dab holy water on Ian too?

I forgot to ask earlier: are we doing skill synergies? Some people have them on their sheets, and it's a formal thing in D&D 3.5, but the d20 Modern book says they're by GM fiat.

If anyone's curious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudonym#Noms_de_guerre

No, just the group. Sorry I should have been more clear.

Yes we can do synergies, no problem, and yes I will be allowing healing potions of a sort soon. I just have to flesh out the rules for it. You'll have them ready by your first fight.

I am giving Jacques and Jacob a chance to post before continuing you guys on, but I am going to do a post for a new player, so you guys can ignore that until it affects you. I just don't want you thinking I'm moving you along when you see it. Should be pretty obvious though.

Welcome Kate! Are you a time traveller? It's a pity The Time Machine won't be published for five years, else Penny would have some idea what happened.

I hope my post is not jumping too far ahead of the others. I wanted to suggest Simon bless Ian too, and give some hint of Penny's observations before Ian starts giving out information that would negate the need. My first Sherlock Scan!

Looking forward to playing with you guys! I've been catching up and it looks like we have some really amazing characters here! Yes Penny I'm a time traveler. Thought it might be fun to try :)

greetings Kate

Book nerd hat again:

The Time Machine is not the first instance of time travel in literature. The Clock That Went Backward by Edward Page Mitchell (1881) holds that distinction.
Mark Twain got in on the act in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). However if you broaden your view of the concept, A Christmas Carol (1843) contains lots of time rambling. It does not appear that Kate used a Machine, so there are at least 3 literary references for you Penny - only one of which is obscure.

As to posting, I will again obey our GM and await the other players.

Kate: Should be fun, and Penny will have lots of questions. ;)

Simon: Ah, great, thanks. I went and made Penny a reader of Wells, Verne, and Doyle, since I'd read a fair bit of them (though mostly many years ago now, bar Sherlock Holmes; I should start rereading), then later checked to find out Wells isn't writing novels yet. Though I might still claim Penny read his 1888 short story "The Chronic Argonauts".

And yes, Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm going with the literary agent hypothesis that Doyle was publishing Watson's writings for him, with the names changed, which is pretty much Holmes canon. Sherlock Holmes was famous from the stories even in the stories. Except we're too early for most of Doyle and the Holmes stories to be printed. Fortunately, chronologically, there's ten years for Penny to have worked with Holmes in.

So, Kate would still have heard of Sherlock Holmes. That ought to mess her around a bit. :p


Penny will try to apply the old Sherlock Scan (just Investige, Sense Motive, and Spot) to each of you to determine any interesting facts or recent activities, mainly to show off. Though she may get rather stuck on Kate. :)

OOC : Holiday up here today folks .. Feel free to drag Jacob along for the story today

Okie dokie. I will be posting later today then. Thanks for the head's up!

Wow you guys are a bunch of book nerds! I feel like I should study now if I want to keep up with you! Looking forward to meeting in the game :)

I think a game set in 1890 would attract a certain sort of person. :)

Right - book nerds. =-}

Sorry about the lapse. We had a busy long weekend with friends and family. I'm still tweaking my character sheet, hopefully I'll be finished before we get into too much trouble.

I'll get caught up and post today.

Thanks

@ Penny - I have been tossing some things out so that Penny can read them. If you'd like to speak more about it, pm me.

Thanks, but my shelves are double-stacked with things I need to read, and I keep adding more to them. :) Last night, I pulled out The Hound of the Baskervilles and added it to the stack to decide if it could do with the addition of a hellhound. :)

Well, that was a quiet day here.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:19, Thu 17 Oct 2013.

Oh ok. well it was just a thought.

I have to say, I am ridiculously excited about this game. I have some great encyclopedias on angels and demons and monsters that I'm going to be using heavily throughout this. I've had them for years and years. The coolest thing is one time I was watching the making of feature on Supernatural and they had an interview with an author who is an expert on all this stuff and she helped them out in the show a lot. Lo and behold, it was the same author of these books! So, I feel like I am really prepared for this thanks to my sources. I was just glancing over them this morning and there's all the info on Metatron and Abaddon and all the stuff you see in the show. It's really cool to me it's by the same woman. It should make it pretty accurate to the show I'm thinking. I bought them long before supernatural just because I thought they were cool. Who knew they'd be so handy?

Yes this almost has a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or HellBoy Vibe going on.

Just going off what I know of Baal from Theology classes. If there are changes needed please let me know.

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/b/baal.html

Also The Frankensteins were from Switzerland. Adam wandered into France where he stayed hidden in the home of a blind man and his family. They read from the Bible daily. Adam came to hate God and Dr. Frankenstein.

Very true, but I am playing him with a few twists and not totally true to the character.

I'm also really eager. It's a very different setting from what I normally play, and the research is educational. I've been reading about Victorian Britain and the plight of women for Penny. Some of its horrifying, like Taliban-level treatment. Other things are just bizarre. I think I'm going to have fun shocking and confusing folk, especially our girl from the future.

All Penny's lore on Baal is taken from history and old grimoires, minus Penny's suppositions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_%28demon%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/bael/

Just fyi, I'm going to wait a day or so to post to let Jacques have a chance to catch up. Thanks for being so quick at posting guys! :D

Well, I shall post tomorrow when I have more time. That way you won't get jipped just because I'm in a rush. Expect a post early tomorrow morning. Thanks for your patience!

I have hit a mini busy patch at work and I may need to be dragged along a few days folks ..

No worries! Thanks for the heads up!

Hello all, I am happy to make your acquaintance!

Will get caught up soon.

Afternoon Kimi. Glad to have you aboard. What kind of character are you playing?

She is an assistant to one of the NPC's and a Martial Artist.

Awesome. Another front line fighter, something we sorely need.

I am a priest, and my advanced class is shadow hunter, kind of like a ranger.

Hello Sir!

Welcome aboard!

Greetings Kimi

Thank you most gracious ones. *Bow slightly*

Just giving folks a chance to post. I'll move us along either tonight or tomorrow. Don't want you thinking I'm not here.


So, did anyone see the new trailer for I Frankenstein? Interesting stuff.....I couldn't help but think of our previous conversations :D

Uh yes

I am not sure how I feel about it. It looks like a neat action movie. It looks like they have some intriguing themes in the Good v. Evil w/ Adam in the middle representing humanity. Aaron Eckhart is a good actor for this sort of role, he was good as the Punisher as well.

I actually liked Dean Koontz' treatment of Adam, even though it did not follow my own theory. It does not seem this movie will either. I wonder if my theory will ever be "en vogue" for Adam.

I will probably wait for it to come out on video.

Yeah same here. It has potential to be entertaining but I don't know if it will be epically awesome....but few things are these days.  There are very few movies worth going to the theatre for anymore. Or maybe I'm just getting pickier as I get older.

I still have that odd taste in my mouth from the Deniro Frank flick

I've not even heard of I, Frankenstein. But I don't tend to follow the news of upcoming movies.

TBH, my only real experience of Frankenstein is that movie, Jacob. I thought it was pretty good, but I can't compare it to the original.

There's a new name in the list. Hello Colin!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:43, Wed 23 Oct 2013.

Yeah, we will soon have another player too. I figured we could use a couple more just to even things out. I'm thinking we may have lost Jacques since it's been 9 days since he last posted, but we'll see. I'd be most happy to be wrong, but I'm used to losing players in the beginning. Usually after a month or two you have a pretty good idea of who's going to stick around. Meh, that's life! :D

Thats a shame -- No crazy Frenchy

We'll see. I could be wrong....

At the request to avoid confusion, I'm starting the new folks in the thread 1.2 for now. Eventually we will combine down the road, but in order to keep things straight for the time being, look for your posts there.

Thanks for letting me in the game! I am looking forward to it. My sheet and description will be ready soon.

Welcome to the game

Howdy

Your avatar reminds me of the munchkins from The Wizard of Oz. =-)

It was the most Irish looking pic I could find that wasn't red headed. I'm certainly not going to use a pic of Mark Sheppard who I am basing his look after.

Howdy fellow players!

Welcome to the game

Hello everyone!!! I'm so excited to play!

Wuvs you DM for taking time to work with me!

And once again welcome to the game

In reply to Jacob Anderson (msg # 131):

You might want to brush their teeth then. blech.

Good morning, everyone!

Wow, nine players, that'll get crowded. Will you be running two groups or having us divide our investigations? Maybe Hunters and Men/Women of Letters, or more mixed and balanced groups? We could always merge later if there's been some attrition.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:26, Fri 25 Oct 2013.

Wow I missed a lot! Had a sick kiddo so I fell a bit behind. Welcome everyone!!

Anytime! :D

And yes Penny, we will be dividing. When things get epic though I will put you together, and I will also mix and match the groups from time to time.

Wow Simon. I actually laughed out loud when I read your reaction. Perfect!

*bows*

Thank you muchly. May I expect a "good RP bonus"? ;-)

I can already tell that this is going to be a great and fun game.

I hope so. Our GM is excellent and the other players here are remarkable. I know you guys can carry me. =-)

Well, I'm having fun, and trying to analyse Kate was interesting.

I hope Penny's use of the N-word isn't too much. It was just for historical shock value. I consider Penny to be forward-thinking and advanced, even if her language and experiences aren't.

Wow Simon and Penny. You guys are crazy good at getting into your characters! I love this game and hope I can keep up with you!

Thanks, I try. :)

Just an fyi, weekends I tend to slow down a bit due to real life. Plus I gotta give people a chance to post.  Just so no one thinks I'm MIA. I did get to go on a victorian ghost tour last night though, so I got some good ideas...... ;)

Alrighty, I've updated one of the NPC's thoughts on the main thread, but for now let's let Kate and Jacob have a chance to catch up before anyone else posts on that. Thanks!

I wish I could find a bearded cowboy pic that fit. Still not satisfied.

Stick around long enough and I'll draw you one :)

Still waiting to hear what Nickolaus has to say.

I'm gonnanl guess words.

Sorry for the delay guys. I will post tomorrow first thing if I don't get a chance to before! Thanks!

Hey

I think there may be some confusion OOC, but I'm not sure. I figured the better part of valor IC, but OOC I think it merits scrutiny.



This verse isn't about how a woman looks, but rather how she acts. Is mollifies speech specifically. In context it is about how an adulterous woman (a married woman who sleeps with men other than her husband) lures men to bed with her. It is not by looks but by words.



This one also is more about how someone acts rather than looks. Beauty is fleeting means that your not always pretty, I know as I get older I loose some of mine. Charm is deceitful, again is an admonishing against words. A woman who fears the lord shall be praised is pretty self explanatory.

I have not related this in this OOC because I did not want my character treated differently, but it seems a good time. I am a woman. I play Boys in Non-Adult games simply because it makes things easier. As a general rule I am the only woman at the table, especially here on RPOL. In adult games that can be fun *blushes* but in non-adult it can get tricky so I generally don't play women in those circumstances.

Simon was not being misogynistic, at least in my view. He was actually trying to say, "Kate may look odd, even 'loose' but she isn't acting that part. Unless she says things that would make me uncomfortable I am OK with her being here." I should have explained that better IC. I apologize for my oversight. I will endeavor to explain my scriptural quotations better in the future, ok?

Lol No worries! It made for some fun interactions at least! Sorry about the confusion.

I find it very good for roleplay.

From my perspective as a reader, I see:

So Simon's inwardly mocked Penny talking too much, then (after whispering something behind our backs), made statements critical of a woman's speech. I read that as mostly referring to Penny, not Kate. The implication of her as a charming, deceitful adulteress was rather odd, given what a prim and proper Victorian she is.

Those lines still sound off to me, coming off, out of context and speaking in general, as how a pretty/charming/sexual woman is dangerous and deceitful. Ideas like that tend to form the core of misogynistic views and poor treatment of women over the ages.

I'm not sure how difficult you want Simon to come across in-game, for his occupation and the era, but I fear you might be succeeding too well. Thank you for the clarification of your intent. I do hope you can make it clearer in future. RPing the argument is fun, anyway.

Since we're sharing, I'm a G.I.R.L., that is, a guy in a real life, but I consider myself a feminist. I play a lot of female characters online, because I consider them more interesting and because I like playing against stereotypes (and I'm also lonely, but enough about that). I made Penny because I liked the name, she's a female Sherlock Holmes not quite in the genre, and I thought a female perspective on sexist Victorian values and the often-blokey Supernatural setting would be interesting. She hunts predators, of all kinds. It's a pity we're 15 years too early for the militant feminism of the suffragettes, else Penny would be right into that (those women were so brave and tough with what they faced).
This message was last edited by the player at 03:48, Tue 29 Oct 2013.

Sorry for the misunderstanding on my part too :) I read and re-read it and all that scripture stuff sounded to me like he was insinuating she was some evil doer. I'll be sure to PM people from now on if their posts don't quite make sense to me so we don't have any unneeded arguments. Though it is fun ;)

I'm a girl playing a girl by the way so if my character acts crazy and hormonal you'll know why. I chose a time traveler because while I love the time frame I'm not an expert. I figured why not get the best of both worlds and our GM was kind enough to humor me.

I'm really having a lot of fun seeing how these characters are developing and I applaud you guys and your RPG skills! This is one of the most quality games I have played on here and I love it!

Yup Girl playing a girl here too.

I am a female too. Yay girl power right ;)? I will also be MIA today as I've been asked to cover at my old job cuz I'm awesome that way. Things will normalize tomorrow. ;p

What Simon said to Jacob was "She is enamored with the sound of her own voice, isn't she?"

It was meant to be a totally separate thought, but now that you point it out I see how the two can be linked. I apologize for that. I should have made the top a separate post.

Penny does like to hear herself, though. ;-)

It's not much more than anyone else, is it? I do like posting and playing, obviously, but I guess I get that a lot. Maybe it's because I have difficulties speaking IRL.

Penny's a detective and investigator, so that means asking questions, and with her observations and knowledge, she has a lot of information to share as well. Part of it is showing off her skills: Artemis has worked out a way for Penny to make a classic "Sherlock Scan" of someone, so explaining and demonstrating the findings is fun. Penny's Charisma, or lack thereof, may make her given to excessive verbiage (or maybe it's just me).

Finally, from her perspective, she's a private detective hired to conduct an investigation in her own way. The rest of you are just tagging along. :p

Oh I understand completely...I have no issue in fact I like Penny. She is totally ahead of her time.

However there in lies the issue. She does a lot of Sherlock Holmsian monologuing and in a time when women and children are suppose to be seen and not heard, she talks a lot. ;-)

Simon is similar in that he is an investigator of the Church, an Occultist, an exorcist, etc. I think they compliment each other well since she is very rational and he very willing to accept the supernatural. You need both in this sort of game. They are just each going to have to figure out that they need the other. Simon perhaps less so than Penny since he admires her and wants her to take the lead (I have expressed as much in inner monologue) but at the same time she talks a lot. He will get used to her, perhaps faster than she to he in that respect.

I think at some point we should all go out and have a drink IC. We can share some of our personal histories and that might be a bonding kind of exercise. Except that Simon's history is steeped personal relationship with God which might just turn Penny off. It may take her coming face to face with an actual possessed person and needing Simon for her to realize that she actually does need him.

In any event I just wanted to clear up what I saw as a misconception on scriptural analysis. I have studied the Bible as closely as any other book. I am a "lapsed" Catholic, I dislike the whole Mass in Latin thing. I want to know what the guy in the pulpit is saying. So a lot of what is precieved as anti female about the Bible is because:
a) It is written in a different time period
b) It is written from the prespective of salvation of the soul not the body
c) God is male in perspective (which is the meaning behind Adam was made in His image). God is male by choice not gender. He is a being of pure spirit and thus a lot of what we consider to be male is wound up in sexuality and God does not have a sexuality. I suppose that might be difficult to grasp. Anyhow thanks for listening/reading. =-)

Oh and YEAY! 3 girls in one game that is not an Adult sex romp - I am totally impressed!

Just a FYI folks -- I am hit and miss this week for Posting -- Currently swamped at work

You just try and tell her to mind her tongue. :p

Necessarily, Penny and every character has to be ahead of their time, as being fully of their time will be very difficult to pull off and entail too many prejudices and weird old views. We might not find our characters likeable. But Simon's making quite a brave effort at it.

Penny is a lapsed Christian — an Anglican (Church of England), because Catholics shouldn't have a monopoly on demon slaying and vampire hunting. ;) She could be an atheist, and it might not even be too unusual for the time, but in Supernatural where all myths are true, it would reach comical levels of denial. (In a D&D game, I played a priestess of similar personality and beliefs whose own goddess called her atheist.) So Penny would rather accept they're all true and attempt to balance them out, God and Zeus and physics. Penny was raised Christian and will default to that, but isn't focused on it.

Of course, after finding God has left the building and that angels are generally evil, and everything else is evil too, anti-theism may be the best response in Supernatural.

So Penny will accept Simon as a man of God, but not as a man who might, say, tell her to be quiet or tell Kate to dress properly. She will call on him when needed.

Playing on and letting our characters get to know each other better is the best course, of course. As I get to know your characters better, I'm planning things to RP with Penny. Like a confession with Simon (for murder and high treason, what?), or a ladies' day with Kate and Kimi. Penny will have to buy Kate a whole new wardrobe, and wants to ask lots of questions about the future. Plus, there's a certain strange old practice for ladies... ;)

It's funny you pegged Penny for some kind of leadership role, since it wasn't something I'd intended or desired, but that has kind of nudged her into it.


Supernatural: Poor Castiel. :(

Jacob is a Atheist who is trying to go back down the path with help from Simon to save his soul.

I like that people have put as much thought as possible into their characters. I feel very lax now about my character. Colin came out of a binge of Supernatural with copious amounts of Mark Sheppard and watching Guy Ritchie films. More specifically, I wanted to create a character that was as if Brad Pitt's Pikey character was a Hunter. He is a mild stereotype that doesn't realize it and doesn't care.

That seems super simple compared to wha I have seen so far between the rest of the characters. I feel very inadiquate.

I develop as I play, I never go in with a character already fully developed.  Situations may alter my idea, so I only go in with the basics and work from there.

Yeah, I have a lot of really good players in this game. Very creative stuff! And don't worry Colin. Simple is sometimes best. It's also pretty realistic. Besides, your guy has an interesting past and I think I can do a lot with him. You also do a fabulous job detailing your posts just right and creating a good mental picture for me, so no worries, you're doing great! :D

Yeah Colin I am simple as well ㋡ , partial due to my current time restraints at work and part because he is more suited to slapping people around than doing all this thinking  ; )

Thanks for the compliment Artemis. I try to describe what I see in my head when you post about the detail of the scene. It's like a movie playing in my head and I have to transcribe it. It does help immensely when you give me a great scene. I just can't wait till the Father or Penny meet Colin. That is going to be a hell if a scene.

I usually shove a fair bit of detail into my characters, some of it just for potential plothooks, but I don't really think about it on a point-by-point basis. As I play, aspects may alter or I get new ideas, or I think of new facets as needed. I didn't decide Penny's faith until it came up. My characters tend to evolve in play in ways I don't intend or expect. I once had a character discover she was gay; that was a surprise, but explained so much about her.

I think you're all doing great, everyone's characters' personalities are distinct and clear.

I suspect Penny and Colin could get along well, being the two Brits here, and he feels like a detective. Maybe Colin can join Penny in going Cockney upon some demon's arse. :)

Is Colin an Irish Traveller like Brad Pitt's character in Snatch?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers
'Pikey' is actually a bit of a derogatory term for them.

I have played both complicated and simple characters and they are both super fun. I think we have a good mix of people here and I'm really having fun seeing how they develop. You guys in the 1.2 thread are doing a good job of keeping me entertained! I'm excited to meet in the game.

Since today is my favorite holiday of all time and I also have a crapload of errands to do, I am pretty dang busy today. I will try to post though. Happy Halloween everyone! I'm going as steampunk this year. Anyone doing anything fun? I am a huge fan of this holiday. Candy, costumes, and Halloween episodes of all my favorite shows! Plus, no pesky family functions to go to like with most holidays!

I am not dressing up. Being a pregnant girl limits the options too much. The girls are going out in vampire attire, the boy and his dad are superheroes. I will be on the couch with my Michael Myers movie marathon. YEAY for AMC!

Halloween is barely practised here in Australia. Sometimes there's a horror movie or a Simpsons Halloween Special marathon on TV, but not tonight. There's the occasional dress-up party. Rarely (like tonight, actually), some children get it into their heads to go trick-or-treating, and likely realise they're the only ones and no-one's got lollies or chocolates for them. It must be pretty disappointing.

More important, it's my sister's birthday. The one time I've done a a Halloween thing was a costume birthday party, and even that was a weird Heaven/Hell thing, not regular Halloween or general dress-up. I was a demon, with an old umbrella for bat-wings and the Greek letter Ψ on my head.

Costume ideas for a pregnant belly: alien chestburster, giant hungry mouth... Congratulations, belatedly!

Simon, two queries about your post: How do you know Penny was trained by Sherlock Holmes? She hasn't said it out loud. And how do you know he's dead? The Final Problem came out in 1893, and was set in 1891, so it's a tad late if we don't fiddle time-lines . A dead mentor would be interesting though.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:03, Thu 31 Oct 2013.

I edited my post. Let me know if its ok of or if you'd like me to just leave the Holms stuff out. If you'd rather not connect her to Holms yet, I understand, but I mean she is British and she talks like Holms so...

=-)

I have my Zombie eyes in already for work -- and will wear the rest tonight.

In reply to Penny Dreadful (msg # 185):

Well if that were not a reoccurring nightmare I have anyway it would be fun.

Whoa! No Halloween?! Wow I used to think Australia was cool... Hehe just kidding. Those poor kids though. I'm taking my son out tonight. He is an owl and I am wearing my usual Harry Potter Quidditch robe. We have already eaten half the candy we bought for the trick or treaters.

So, since I know that chatting at breakfast will take a long time to actually play out, I thought we could come up with a workaround. I want to make sure you guys stay in the action and in the same general timeline as the second group. So, we can either gloss over that part and everyone can give a synopsis of what is revealed about themselves, OR I can make a separate thread just to play out the conversation and at the same time continue on with our story in the regular thread. Should I do this option, I will need you to declare ahead of time the subjects you decide to discuss and at that point you CANNOT deviate from those subjects!! Otherwise it borders on metagaming, gets confusing, and could potentially change how your character would react in the regular posting if something is brought up at breakfast that hadn't been discussed before, etc. Make sense?

Since I don't want any conflicts, you guys will have to decide if you want to do the separate thread thing, or if you just want to give a synopsis. I know not all the players are the chatty type in character, and it wouldn't be very fair to make them wait around while the conversation goes on. Unfortunately it is the nature of the beast in online role playing to take a long time to get through things and I can definitely see this going for a while should you play it post by post. So there are your two options, please let me know what you think and we'll figure it out so that the action will continue! Thanks!

Well at least her first impression of him will only be when he is mildly buzzed and not flat out drunk.

Who's drunk? Who will have that impression?

There was brandy in the room, I'm a cowboy, noodle it a while.

Ah, I don't read stuff I'm not involved with, so Kimi has no idea, until you approach her.

I'd prefer a separate thread. I am the chatty type. ;-)

Father Cole I do hope the nod to Victor was a slip or you meant it for Victoria.

Simon: That's fine.

Jacob: Aaah! :o

Halloween might get more attention in other neighbourhoods, but not in mine.

We can probably get through introductions fairly quickly, name and skills being the most important. "Hi, my name is Penny and I'm a detective." Maybe we should have done this during the meeting. I imagine if anyone has a dark tale of tragedy that set them on the path to being a hunter, then it wouldn't come out immediately. We've got to keep some secrets. ;)

We'd need to talk about our investigation and plans anyway, which means we need to gather and RP it out.

I'm fine with a synopsis or a separate thread. We might also limit ourselves to a single introduction post and a few questions each, before moving onto work.

A separate RP thread could be fun. It's something I've tried to get going in my own games, though I haven't had much luck getting PCs to keep going with it.

Hello friends, I am wondering if anyone out there would be willing to help me put a character sheet together.  I'm lost!

I thought I would just work off of one that someone else had created but their are so different, I don't know which one is the right one.

Does anyone have any time to give me a hand?

Kimi

How familiar are you with D20 systems?"

In reply to Stefan Von Frankenstein (msg # 197):

Where? I will edit it.

In reply to Kimi-Yuka Noriko (msg # 199):

I can.

First go to Pathguy.com on the right hand side about mid way down is a column of character generators. That's where I got mine.

You may have to tinker with it, though. It tends to put the lowest skill value class first, giving you fewer skill points than you should have.

Let me know if you need more.

Simon: Post #90 in the game thread.

Thanks for that link. It's perfect for Penny's spoon collection. ;) Now, can I nick a souvenir spoon from the Men of Letters?

I had gone looking for old hotels of New York, but didn't find much for this period. The New York Hotel appeared to have been a big thing earlier in the century, but I don't know its status in 1980. Certainly, Penny's Affluent Wealth score means she'll be somewhere swanky.

Kimi: Do you need a character builder, or just a character sheet template? I made mine from a D&D character sheet.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:10, Sat 02 Nov 2013.

Thanks. Stephen, edit made.

Thanks folks, I am NOT familiar with d20 system AT ALL.  So I'm a little lost.

Why don't you PM me with some backstory. I will put together a basic sheet for you, discuss what is there, and then we can make changes as appropriate. Sound good?

Thanks for helping Kimi guys! I appreciate it! No worries Kimi, we will get you where you need to be. Take a look at the SRD link for D20 modern on the character creation thread. It should have a lot of info you can browse over.

So, as usual weekends are a bit busy for me. For some reason my husband prefers me to pay attention to him *shrugs* ;P So I'm going to start the chatting thread and that should keep you occupied until my return. I will post here and there for Ian as I do like my NPC's to be part of the story as well.

I would like everyone involved in this to please post asap the topics of conversation they will cover now so we can avoid accidental metagaming in the future. Keep in mind it should be realistic to the situation, after all you wouldn't tell your darkest secrets to people you just met. Also, the game time will be approximately and hour because after all, you do have things to do that day. So the chatting won't take forever, but you guys have a good chunk of time to work with. You can also post at a faster rate if people are available (as long as you don't leave someone who was talking to you in the dust) because I will be doing very little posting on it save for a bit from the NPC's. If you leave the restaurant you leave the thread and you are done there. This whole thread takes place just in the restaurant and just for that breakfast. It is literally just for conversation, nothing else. Let me know if you have questions!

Some examples of things you may chat about:
How you became a hunter (depending on how horrible the situation was and your character's willingness to discuss)
Your family background
Some of the cases you've worked on
Your character's views on certain topics (be sure to be specific)
Plans for the future (be specific)
Thoughts about other characters, etc

Please keep religious discussion to a minimum. Not only is it a sensitive subject in real life, it also takes friggin FOREVER to get through. Simon, I do understand though if your character feels the need to clarify some things about himself. I just ask that we keep that brief and not dwell on theology any more than necessary.
Alright! I'm going to get started on that. After the weekend I will move the main story line along so we can get to kicking some supernatural butt! :D

How you became a hunter (depending on how horrible the situation was and your character's willingness to discuss)
Simon was born David Cole. As a young man he heard the story of Nimrod, Genesis 10:9 "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord." He was granted a vision of this man, and it was not what he expected. When he heard the story he thought of a big tough outdoorsy type fellow with thick flowing hair and a chest like the front end of a locomotive. What he saw shocked him: a small, almost meek man with a thin ring of hair around his skull. The small man was given a power that the man he had envisioned could never have even guessed at. He watched this man tear apart a demon with his bare hands!

 As his vision ended, God's voice was clear and distinct - I will make you my new hunter and your name will be Simon. From that day on David trained, not his body, but his mind and his faith. His parents, though of modest means, still gave what they could toward his goal. They were in fact proud that their son was so dedicated to God at such an early age. They sent him to Catholic School in Boston through High School, and then he went Boston College on a Church Scholarship. He was academically ahead of most of his classmates, but what most of his teachers and mentors often notice was his faith. He has an unshakable faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

 His faith was what drew the attention of the Church in the Vatican. He was tapped to be taken into a very small group, the Church Exorcists, called simply the Order. He spent a year training with one of the most proficient exorcists in the church and once her successfully performed an exorcism he was sent back to the US, ordained and given a position as an itinerate priest in a large parish, but in reality he investigates and exorcises demons. Simon will gladly share all of this since he believes it is inspired by God.

 Your family background
Simon's family is Irish Catholic by descent. He can trace it back to the founding of Boston. They were abolitionists before it was in vogue, his mother's family was among the Mass. delegation to the Constitutional Convention that argued vehemently against slavery. Even further back he has ancestors who fought in every war American has been involved in, especially the Civil War. His father lost 6 brothers and two sisters to that war, and survived with a missing leg and the loss of his vision. Simon has four older brothers, Three of whom have attended West Point Military Academy and the other is a cobbler (shoe maker/repairer) after a lengthy apprenticeship. He has a sister who has "married well" and has three children of her own. She is far younger than Simon, being the result of a late blooming romance between his mother and father. Simon is his Mother's pride and joy, and she dodes on him even now with small gifts, especially baked goods. She runs his Father's bakery now by necessity as he can do little more than greet customers. Again Simon will share this if asked.

 Some of the cases you've worked on
Simon has been involved in a dozen exorcisms and many more cases that he has found to be the result of brain disease. Simon is heavily trained in diagnosing brain disease, but like most of his contemporaries his suggestions for treatment are brutal, often involving evasive surgery. He keeps up on modern advances, and will be very excited when Freud releases his findings on psychoanalysis in 1896. If the game reaches that year, Simon will become a very loud and outspoken proponent of this method and will begin crusading for this and other less evasive forms of treatment and rights for the mentally diseased. This Simon will share, but he will be a bit more guarded about it simply because it may be too gruesome for "mixed company" as he will politely put it.

 Your character's views on certain topics (be sure to be specific)
Simon is ardent about his beliefs that Blacks are the equal of whites.

He is ambivalent about Women's Suffrage, mainly because he sees the women involved as being excessive. I believe that Penny especially can change his mind on this. Simon may surprise the group with his general leanings on political subjects in general. He believes in equality.

Simon is ardent about his faith. He will tell about it more from his personal relationship with Christ than theology which he sees as the crux of the earlier unpleasantness and such will avoid it except in discussion about demonic possession and general equality of all humankind.

Simon believes in Charity. He does not simply give it lip service as many others do. He will give until it hurts and then continue to give. He is the kind of man who will starve so that others can eat. He is the kind of man who while starving so others can eat will thank God for the opportunity to serve others.

Simon believes that his first and most crucial task in life is to serve others and lead them to Christ by example.

 Plans for the future (be specific)
I think I've covered this above. Simon wants to bring about social change, social justice in the form of charity and eventually equality for women and the mentally diseased. He is also working closely with Jacob, as he views Jacob as his personal challenge and is determined to win him back to God.

 Thoughts about other characters, etc
Simon admires Penny greatly. She can easily influence his old fashioned ideas about women. He will love to hear her talk about Holms whom he admires as well. Simon will endeavor to keep her at arm's length, mainly because she represents a real threat to his vow of celibacy.

Doctor Frankenstein will be someone he knows well, as we have discussed prior to this thread. He will keep Stephen's secrets as he would anyone who uses him as a confessor. Simon views Stephen as a friend and will go out of his way to aid and protect the man.

Ian is a mystery. His shyness seems to be out of place. Simon will gently nudge him to find out why.

Kate is an enigma, one Simon will enjoy unraveling, but at an arm's length relationship. Simon will enjoy hearing her stories about the future, but will point out that her stories are only a possible future, and that the future depends on the choices that they make today. He believe that is the reason for her being here.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:53, Fri 01 Nov 2013.

Perfect! Feel free to be detailed in your conversations and have fun. Just try to stick to related topics and that should be great. That way the future posts will match up with the posts in the conversation thread.

I hurried through Penny and Kate's evening for Kate's benefit, to give her some tastes of the past. There's a lot more we can talk about in-character as the game goes on. And we should let her make a few mistakes. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hansom_cab
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothpaste#History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toothbrush#History

I'll tackle the conversation thread and questions later.

Whew! That was a lot, I hope not it's too much detail. I can cut some of the fluff if you like.



Goodness me, what on Earth has Penny done to Simon?

She is attractive on many levels.

Thank you, but I wouldn't worry. Simon is quite safe from Penny's clutches. :p

I believe that. Simon may not. I do.

How you became a hunter: Stefan became a hunter due to what his father had created and was. He wanted to do whatever he could to clear the family name and show that the name was not connected completely to evil. He was approached by Father Mikal soon after he graduated from medical school, with an offer to help clear his family name.

Your family background: Stefan does not remember much of his life, before the age of 13. He vaugely knows of his father. He spent most of his time with his mother and her clan.

Some of the cases you've worked on: The first case Stefan was on he had to deal with a ghoul. He was asked to decipher some writings they found near the remains of a body. It was simply the gibberish of a ghoul, but not a mindless one. This one had some intelligence left. The beast set a trap, which in turn caused an inexperienced Stefan to fall into it. He was captured and when he had woke up the ghoul had feasted upon some of the meat from his leg. He did not see the ghoul and quickly fashioned a tourniquet. The damage was extensive, but he was a survivor and would. He found a bone and sharpened the splintered end. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes waiting for the ghoul. When it finally came back for more of him he was ready and drove the makeshift weapon into the things back killing it. He had taken a year off to recover and used some of his fathers work to help himself. The rest of his cases were spent mostly dealing with occult researching and deciphering.

Your character's views on certain topics: Stefan tries not to judge, for he is judged more than often.
He does not care what the person looks like, as long as that person can be useful and treats him as a person he will do the same.
He does not totally agree with his fathers work, but admits that some of it has merit and can be used.
He will help heal anyone that is in need of it.

Plans for the future: Stefan wishes to clear his family name and show that old and new ways can exist together, as well as not all of his fathers work is evil.

Thoughts about other characters: Father Cole is man he finds very interesting and would even consider the man a friend. He enjoys the conversation and the knowledge he possesses, as well as intelligence.

Lady Dreadful is a woman he is uncertain of, for her deeds seem much more than a normal woman should be making. He will give her the benefit of the doubt, but they are there.

Ian Shaw is a man he does not know much about at all and only time will tell what this man is about.

Lady Piper intrigues him, for the knowledge of the future is hers and he wishes to see what could be.

Jacob Anderson is a man he knows only by what he has heard of him. He heard rumors that the man is a bit reckless.

Jacques DeBay is a man he knows nothing about.

I just had some questions:

How much do we know about Victor von Frankenstein? Does the novel exist in this world, or has Frankenstein being in the news? Should I roll a check of some kind?

Penny wasn't going to dig too much into her fellow hunters, not unless she gets a reason to. It would be impolite, and I'd prefer to let you reveal your characters in your own time.

Stefan, can you please tone the accent down a bit? I found that post difficult to read in places. For one, changing a hard 'c' or 'ck' into 'k' doesn't change the sound, but does make it hard to read. Thanks.

Are Kimi, Colin, and John joining us for breakfast?

I hope that is better for you

That's much clearer, thanks.

What facts have we learned about Richard Bently the tailor from his file? Any particular clues or problems we should follow up on?

Does he do men's clothes and/or women's clothes? I'm not if women's clothes would be proper for the time. Going to have clothes made/repaired would be a good ruse to visit him. If he sells women's clothes, well, Kate needs some period-appropriate clothing.

How does Ian demand amiably? :p
This message was last edited by the player at 00:07, Wed 06 Nov 2013.

The other players are not going to join you yet, but it will happen in the not too distant future, don't worry.

As for Frankenstein, there are exaggerated rumors that have stemmed from Europe about him being a monster made up of different remnants of bodies, etc and that he is a murderous creature, etc. How this was done is not widely known and the Men of Letters consider it to be a closed file. It is extremely difficult to get any information on the specifics of how this was done and why, etc. Even Stefan does not know all the particulars.....yet..... ;P We'll have fun down the road with it for sure.

And as for Ian demanding amiably- don't you worry. He somehow finds a way ;P

What about Richard Bently, as I asked above? What were the contents of the letter? Is he married, or wealthy enough to employ servants?

I believe I can use Investigate to analyse the letter as a clue:
Investigate 13 (rolled a 1)

I'll use my Obscure Knowledge feat to think of some useful trivia about Richard Bently, if it applies: 29 (rolled a 20), for some Uncommon knowledge pushing on Obscure.
08:18, Today: Penny Dreadful rolled 29 using 1d20+9. Obscure knowledge.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:37, Tue 05 Nov 2013.

Oh my apologies. I knew I missed something!

So: The dossier on Bently shows that he is indeed married, but not wealthy. He makes a modest living and lives in a small house on the outskirts of the city. He is middle aged and not particularly noteworthy in the city. He's not a fantastic tailor, but not a bad one either. He has two grown children who live elsewhere and he puts in long hours alone at his shop save for an assistant named Michael Rodds. Not much else is known save that a letter from him was found amongst the possessions of one of the members of the Hand of Baal. The letter seemed fairly innocent to the layperson, but it spoke of having finished a large order for this person, and having it ready to be picked up. It also spoke of appreciating the steady business being sent his way by this person. It was enough to make you wonder if there weren't some double meaning to all of this, or if it just happened to be a coincidence. However, looking upon his picture Penny, you do notice he wears a pin with a symbol in old Norse. This could likewise be unconnected to the cult, but it is worth noting. As far as you know, Norse traditions are not thus far connected with Baal.

Does Simon recognize the symbol?

13:20, Today: Father Simon Cole rolled 16 using 1d20+11. Theology.

13:20, Today: Father Simon Cole rolled 16 using 1d20+9. K: Arcane.

13:19, Today: Father Simon Cole rolled 9 using 1d20+4. K: History.

Simon- You do recognize it as a religious symbol from ancient Greece that was found in some of their temples, but that is all you know.

Penny, however, remembers a bit more. She sees that it is a symbol of Hecate, and it is often used in witchcraft, though there are genuinely some who still use it as a symbol of worship.

First you said it was a symbol in old Norse, but now it's Greek?

Curses! I thought I had changed that! Yup. We're going with greek. I even mean it this time and everything ;)

Wealth checks are a brilliant mechanic. No fiddling about with coins, and you can afford to make a character generous.

I know Kate is going to appreciate Penny's wealth :)

Generosity is a most endearing character trait. ;-)

Just a heads up -- I will be away from today Nov 8th and back on Nov 14th -- Surprising kids and heading to Disneyland. Please push/pull/drag my character along.

Hey Jacob

"Are you sure you want me to drag you along?" ;-)

Now you know who I am...right?

I'm into my last week of classes, so I'm a bit sparse folks, will post asap.

That is awesome actually -- Of your other two players I would never had pegged this one to your 3rd

I think that is about the best compliment I have gotten here. Thanks.

Yea Deacon has been in my head since I saw 29 Days Later. Every time he gets accepted the game folds. I am excited that I get 2 chances to play him. =-D

I had some questions about the new house rules.

How does the three rounds of actions thing work? Do the opponents get three rounds of actions slotted in between, or do they get a block of three rounds following? What if we want to attack in the first round, see how well that goes, then decide whether to fight or flee in the second round?

Those two 20s in a row, are they the attack and critical confirmation rolls, or two separate attacks (possibly in two separate rounds)?

How will you be handling initiative? There are several different house rules for matching post-rates to initiative in PbP.

I am loving everybody who has posted! It is so much fun to read. I feel very inadiquate now compared to some.

*blows raspberry* Your good. We luv ya.

The opponents do get three rounds as well and it will be following the player posts. Initiative is tricky on play by post games because ideally whoever has the higher initiative gets to roll first etc, however, if someone gets busy in real life and doesn't post then the rest of us have to wait and it can be problematic, at least in my other games. So I tend to gloss over initiative sometimes and just sum up the battle based on everyone's three rounds at a time. I will, however, try to post the order of events based upon everyone's initiative. Make sense? That way you know who attacked first, etc.

If you were concerned about doing three rounds at a time you could always private message me an alternative action. For instance, you will know some info about how things are going from your own rolls just because you can do the math and figure out if you are doing well or not. If you are down a lot of hit points and are concerned, you can say, "Ok, if things are going well I will do this, but if I take another round of wounds I am going to move away, etc." You can have a contingency plan if you are getting wailed on. Once we near the end of the battle I tend to go back to one post at a time anyway, it's just so that we can get the majority of it over with at a decent pace. It may go a lot faster with you guys because you post so much quicker than my other players in my other game. If it looks like it's not necessary to do three rounds I may change that, but for now we'll give it a shot.

As for the "quick kill" yes, you try to roll another 20 right away to confirm the kill.

ooc: Just fyi, I will post more later today. I haven't forgotten you guys ;P

Okay.

Initiative: Some house-rules I've seen are party initiative (each side goes by the average initiative of the group) and a mixed initiative-block system of my own devising (an unbroken sequence of characters on the same side get to go at the same time).

I'm right there with you Colin. I wish Rpol had a "like" button like facebook :D

Sounds interesting! I'll have to mull over the easiest fit. Sorry if my posting is a smidge delayed guys. I have new countertops coming in today and I will try to get to it after.

Awesome! Do you have pictures of the new counters?

Lol! I will soon. If I hadn't known you were a woman already that would have been a pretty big clue ;) Men just don't seem to get quite as excited as we women do about kitchen upgrades. Well, except my husband but he's a bit different ;p

Not the best view, but oh well. I'm still putting cabinet doors back together and tomorrow I will paint it anyway. You'll get a better pic when it's all done. I'll show a better pic later, but it's a black and dark green granite. I'm very happy with it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:23, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

Its beautiful! I love it.

Sorry for the delay guys. I was painting all day and then there was plumbing drama with the new sink. Not a good day. Still not all the way fixed either. Sadness.

On another note, for some reason stupid Rpol is making all of my text really small. I'm sure there's a stupidly easy solution for it, but in the meantime it's frustrating.

Me too. I think it might be due to the recent update. I hope it passes.

I am somewhat back -- I will try and come back out of the Shadows for next post

So lucky! I would kill for granite. Looks really nice!

Just feel free to post when you can Jacob, no worries.

Thanks Kate! I'm pretty happy with it. I'm really sick of painting though.

Looks great, BTW.

I feel I may have tried too much in one round with a tumbling weapon pickup plus an attack. Damn if that wasn't fun to write though.

*claims post 500*

Yeah.... No worries we'll just break it up a bit ;)
Just a heads up that I will be MIA today. That's usually the case on saturdays but I wanted you to know! I have Thai food and the conjuring awaiting me. Very much looking forward to it!

Just giving a couple of players a chance to catch up. If I don't post today I will post tomorrow. Thanks guys!

By the way, the conjuring was ridiculously freaky. I could just be a chicken, but I can't look at my closet anymore for fear that it will open by itself. I loved it! :D

I loved the girl on top of the wardrobe.....

Yeah. That pretty much messed me up too. As did the clapping thing. I'd better not ever hear that when I'm alone.......

Sorry everybody. Been gearing up to come back from an overseas tour. Should be back to normal in a couple of weeks.

No problem! Take however long you need :D

Well, Kate's going to have fun trying Coca-Cola. ;)

Ahahahahahahaha! I had forgotten about their special ingredient.... ;p So messed up!

I was reading about the drug habits of the 1800s today. Laudanum/opium and cocaine were common medicines for whatever ailed you. I figure Penny has almost certainly experienced both. Do you mind if we hint at it? (I doubt we'd play it out.) I just want to shock Kate. :p

The things you could go to the doctor for... ;)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:28, Sat 23 Nov 2013.

Pepsi had Pepsin, which was very like cocaine. RC Cola was named for Royal Crown, the whiskey company, so their secret ingredient was apparent. I have many fond memories of Moonpies and RC Colas.

No problem! It's historically accurate after all ;)

I am ready when the others are to return.

I'm ready to move on too.

On your recommendation I had my husband rent the haunting. I've only made it a 1/2 hour in and I am already CREEPED OUT! Awesome. Thank You.

Isn't it freaky stuff? You know what also scared me was The Woman in Black, the new one with Daniel Radcliff. The idea of being on a creepy island with a ghost all alone is a truly scary concept.

YES! it was spectacular! thanks.

Glad you liked it! I'm still freaked out being alone, but I've always had the worst kind of imagination for that type of thing. Happy thoughts right? ;P

I am away until Monday. Cio

I've got a buddy in from the Air Force this week so I will be here and there as I can. Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it! :D

You folks need to see:

Ghost Story
The Changeling (1980)
The Shining (With Jack Nicholson)
The Grudge
The Ring
Mirrors
Mama

I liked all of these.

I've seen the changeling, grudge, mama, and the ring. I thought tge changeling was surprisingly good. Especially considering how old it is.

I heard The Ring made no sense whatsoever.

Also my apologies for not posting, damn you writers block.

Hm... made sense to me.  You HAVE to see Ghost Story, it's also older but very good.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Same to you and all, Kate.

Sorry for the delay. Holiday + houseguest+ sinus infection = unhappy GM. I will try to post tomorrow, tuesday at the latest, and then my schedule goes back to normal. Thanks for your patience everyone!

I have returned from moving, I hate moving.

Will catch up and post.

Yikes! I hate moving too! My sympathies!

I'm back everyone! Thanks for waiting! :D

I used to love the newest of it, but I've done it so many times in the last 2 yrs the novelty has warn off.  Hopefully this will be it for a while.

Yay, we're playing again!

I wish I was moving out.

19:09, Today: Father Simon Cole rolled 22 using 1d20+5. Search.

19:09, Today: Father Simon Cole rolled 23 using 1d20+3. Spot

Speaking of moves, guess who's roommate got an eviction notice and didn't tell anyone because they had been running off with the rent checks?

This guy

Wow! That is horrible! I hope everything works out for you! That makes me mad just thinking about it.

Yea same here. Sounds like you may have a claim for staying though.

We have just recently had a mishap as well, so we left where we were.  This sucks Colin whatever thoughts you've been thinking....I hear ya.

Thanks everyone. It has been rough.

Damn, that's bad.

Good luck getting things sorted out.

I'm trying to decide whether to move into a windowless box or not.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:01, Fri 06 Dec 2013.

Sorry to hear about that Colin and good luck with everything.

Just giving the others a chance to post Stefan. I haven't forgotten you ;)

nbd it is cool

Sorry I skipped out on you guys. My sister had her baby 4 weeks early and I got recruited to take care of her other SEVEN children while she was in the hospital. I'm collecting my wits and will catch up tomorrow :)

WOW I thought I was doing well at 5. LOL

I will be back in soon ...

Glad to have ya back! :D

The priest got post 666.


Isn't that ironic?

Maybe RPoL is trying to tell us something? :o

Welcome back, Jacob!

I certainly hope it was mere coincidence.

Maybe you're related to Sam and Dean?

Who?

Sorry folks. My day went a couple of unexpected directions and now I have technology that is being friggin stupid and I want to hurl it under a large vehicle of some kind. I will post tomorrow when my pc is available again. Stupid  alternate devices!!!!! >:(

I don't watch much TV. I prefer to read and listen to music. Not cool music like my daughters, classical music.

You say Sam and Dean and I think Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin a la Rat Pack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Pack

So yea I am confused.

Sam and Dean Winchester are the main characters of Supernatural. You don't watch the show? I thought that was why we were all here. :)

Good luck, GM.

No I don't. I think I saw an episode a few years ago. I don't watch much TV as I said above. I came here because it was a d20 modern game set in the 1800s. I figured Supernatural was just a catchy name for the game. =-(

I guess I have sounded pretty stupid then, huh?

A little. :p We've talked a little up-thread about the show, its setting, and spoilers for the new series, and it's mentioned in the character creation thread. But skimming back, I see its not come up a lot or very explicitly.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:48, Thu 12 Dec 2013.

Yea that happens a lot. People at partys or whatever stand around talking about some TV show and I just shut up so I don't seem stupid. =-(

No worries! I will go back and edit the game introduction so it's clearer in the future. We all make mistakes so don't fret about it ;) I sent you some info and I'll post the link in the character creation thread so that others can utilize it too. I know there's a player or two who haven't seen all the episodes so it may  be helpful for them too.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:26, Thu 12 Dec 2013.

Thanks it was most helpful indeed.

Bahaha! I love you! Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin. Hehehe!! Don't worry about not seeing any of the show. I would never have guessed by reading your posts.

Thank you so much for this link! I run a SN game in RL and have never seen this site!  Awesome!

So glad you find it useful! I love how easy it is to plug in topics and get a refresher on it. There are an awful lot of episodes to remember after all.

Do we hear them coming?

Not quite yet but soon. If they decide to rush on the scene then you will.

I find it also depends on the geography of where you are, as to what you will find.  So this is a good tool.

I wrote rather a lot of analysis and conclusions there based on a little information. I hope it remains correct and does not assume too much about the situation, nor gets too metagamey. I can change anything that's wrong, or accept being wrong. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 02:57, Sat 14 Dec 2013.

Thanks for being patient while we muck through  boring details. We'll be moving onto  the banquet soon, and consequently you'll be seeing some action, I promise!

So looks like they are making a tv series called Penny Dreadful that is about creepy things in Victorian times with famous literary characters like Frankenstein and Dracula. Meh, seems like they are copying the concept but you never know.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:51, Wed 18 Dec 2013.

I will be on less until the 3rd of Jan. Fewer posts.

No worries. Looks like you're not the only one with slower posting. Hopefully it's from the holidays. In the meantime we have sadly lost Jacob to the stresses of real life. It was nice while it lasted :(

Sorry, I didn't post yesterday as I had work and other games to deal with, and was writer's-blocked for Penny.

Penny Dreadful: I noticed that when I did my research for making Penny here. It could be interesting and I like the period. Iit sounds like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (whether comic or movie remains to be seen).

Though I'm surprised it doesn't have a character named Penny Dreadful. :) I pinched the name from an early draft of "The Dreadful" webcomic, before it was renamed and the main character was named Kit, and suggested it for a friend's tiefling (demon-descended) character in a D&D game. She didn't last long, and I eventually recycled it for Penny here.

No worries! Real life does take priority. I'm always MIA during the weekends as I'm sure you've noticed.

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a Penny character. It seemed like a waste. It is a very catchy name after all. I know what you mean about recycling characters/names. My husband tends to do that. No matter if it's Wheel of Time, Star Wars or straight D&D he is always the same character with the same name and everything. Guess he found what he likes.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:23, Fri 20 Dec 2013.

Should we all break for Xmas?

Um.....I didn't show anyone the scroll, Kimi was going to take it Westbrook herself....I'm a bit miffed that actions for my character that I didn't do were posted.

I think she was trying to move things along. Also if you have an issue with the GM you should probably send it in a PM instead of the ooc. It's just good etiquette :)

I'm sorry you're miffed, but Kate is right. I'm trying to get the story to a point where everyone can contribute more and we can move the story along as I know there are players who are kind of waiting for things to happen. I had no idea that you would be so secretive about the scroll and your findings and naturally had I known you were going to go that route I would have waited. I apologize for assuming things and I will avoid doing it again in the future, but I really do expect issues with me to be sent via private message rather than in the ooc. It's just a nice sign of respect and it's a polite action I would appreciate in the future. In the meantime we'll muddle through my erroneous assumptions and I thank you for your patience with me. I'll try to improve as a GM and not jump to any more conclusions :)

Hey guys, I want to delve a little deeper into your characters so it would be helpful if you could private message me your goals and aspirations for your character so that I may better provide you with these experiences. For instance, do you want to face your demons? Find romance? Gain power, knowledge, prestige? Would you like to shake up their moral center and give them something to struggle with? Make friends and alliances? If you could pm me a new thread in the private messages and label it "goals" that would be great, so I don't have to dig through and try to find it to refer to later. Thanks!

Also, due to this being Christmas week and along with the fact that I have to take care of an aunt who broke her arm, I may or may not be available as often this week. I'm going to try to be, but don't hate me if I can't for some reason. I also have a butt load of cooking to do unfortunately and I'm already stressed about it. But hey, I will try to be on and available so we'll see! :D

Oh my GOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stupid RPOL is having a glitch or something so it looks like I have a new private message to read but there's nothing! It's driving me CRAZY!!! I just need those letters not to be red anymore! The OCD is killing me!! GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!   >:(

I hate it when that happens.

On another note, guess who got an Irish slang book at the used book store?

Understood. It's usually quiet around here over Christmas anyway. Have a good one! :)

Merry christmas eve/happy holidays!

In reply to Artemis (msg # 331):

Happy Holidays and be safe

Merry Christmas!

merry Christmas!!!

Merry Xmas to all, and to all a good night!

Hope everyone had a great holiday. As usual on Christmas eve I got in my new pajamas and watched the Supernatural Christmas episode with my husband. Good times. My posting should normalize now, though as always I am not as available on the weekends but you should be used to that by now. Thanks for your patience everyone!

Want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope it treats you all well

Thanks! Right back at ya!

WHAT a Supernatural Xmas episode!!  We didn't have any thing like that, but they did do a marathon yesterday.

Yeah, it's a really good episode actually. I love how simple their Christmas is at the end of the episode. It's just kind of sweet and cozy and it makes me feel happy as opposed to all the stress and crap I usually have to deal with at Christmas. It was much more fun as a kid....

I remember that one actually.  Yeah we didn't do Xmas at all, we moved on Dec 1st, I have a bunch of medical things going on, but we did go to a friends for dinner and games.  So wasn't all bad.  Just no prezzies to deal with.

I hope you all have a good year.

I don't remember the Christmas episode. :(

I forget what they fight but at the end they sit with a coupla beers and really don't say much they just sit and be with each other.  It's like there's not much to be said.  There's also flashbacks to a Xmas where Dean tries to give Sam a Xmas cuz their Dad doesn't show up.

Been a hell of a year to start. Sorry for the delay.

No worries! Glad to have you back!

Just fyi, I'm going to give the main thread a chance for a couple of characters to post before I get too far ahead of them. If they haven't posted by tomorrow though I'll move things along.

Crazy day. Possibly called in to temp at work. Heads up

No spoilers for Artemis's sake, this is how the episode starts... The flashbacks to the Men of Letters in 1935 in 9.04 has a female hunter complain that women in the Men of Letters are relegated to the role of secretaries and making coffee. So, things are a bit different in 1890. :)

And a familiar name in the Men of Letters, though 67 years later:
http://www.supernaturalwiki.co...p?title=Father_Simon

hmmmmmm

Interesting tie in there Penny. Maybe TIME TRAVEL is involved?

Yeah, I actually got a feel for that in the original men of letters episode too. I figure though that the New York chapter is much more progressive. Mwahahahahaha!! >:D

Oh, and I took the liberty of adding multiple chapters to the men of letters too. Not really sure if they are as widespread in Supernatural cannon, but since it takes place in the past I figure I have a bit more creative license. It makes it more fun for players and works well with gameplay. I'm sure when you travel to other chapters you'll run across more pig headed traditional attitudes and it would be interesting to see Kate and Penny react to that. After all, I very much plan on you leaving New York on various missions.

That Father Simon thing is creepily coincidental!

Very. I have never seen that episode for sure. I really was thinking of Simon of Cyrea when I created him. *twilight zone theme playing in the background*

Simon: It could be vampirism. :p Or a descendent?

I hope we get to travel. The Wild West! Penny in a cowboy hat! Lovecraft Country! Maybe even out of America?

I hope not



That would be difficult considering the abstinence thing. I suppose he could adopt though.



Here Here! The Far East would be fun too, but I like the west idea as well. Gunslingers are sexy!

Yes, the west is definitely in your future... So is New Orleans with all its hoodoo and swamps and the like. I have many plans... ;)

AAAAARGGG. Crazy stupid busy day. I may or may not get the chance to post >:(

You guys have been really great players and I know there hasn't been a lot of fights yet (that will change in the very near future...) so I appreciate your patience, especially those of you who prefer more action in their campaigns. I'm always more interested by character development and storyline, but I will be throwing more action in now that we've established a nice baseline. Consequently, because you all have been so good at being involved and delving into your characters, I think a level up is in order. You'll find that we level up when I think your characters have been through enough events to warrant it. I don't go off a point system, I just do it when it feels right. So there ya go, post your changes in your sheet and let me know if you have any questions!

Haven't the slightest idea how to level up with this system.  Help!

Sweet! Hope you aren't hinting that we may need an extra level to survive tonight's events!

I also am in that boat with you Kimi.

I did get some help from our Holiest of Men.......

Stephen, PM me and I can help you out if you want.

I just noticed we got level ups! Woohoo!



Simon, I didn't say that... out loud, that is.

I believe you did. ;-)

Oh wait I see what your saying, hold on.

OK updated.

Still slogging through the new year. Will post soon. I promise.

No problem! Thanks for keeping me posted :)

OK so its been really rainy here lately, like 4 times the normal amount over the last 18 months. We had a drought now its the opposite, every time it clouds up we get the "chance of flash flood" warning on TV. I say that so you understand why I am telling you about ducks. We have ducks now that hang out in our yard. Yesterday my son was in the yard and he shouts "Mom come out here, the ducks are HUMPING!" So I am curious and I walk out to have a look at duck sex.

 There were eight ducks surrounding one. By coloring I knew the one surrounded was a girl and the rest were boys. The one actually humping her finished and the next one took his place. I will admit I was jealous of her. EIGHT lovers! *swoons*

 My son says, "So now she is letting another one hump her? Wasn't the first one her husband?"

 Now I have a decision to make. Do I explain the sexual proclivity or females in general? Do I tell him its just a duck thing? Do I lie my @55 off and go "No she was just dating him, now she is dating this new one."? After a while I just said, "Honey, that's one your father will have to field." He chirps happily, "OK" and goes back in the house to play the Wii. I stayed out to watch and wonder what would it be like to have 8 lovers...