Chat for sharing your character, asking questions to the posse, me, announcing you are unavailable, pretty much all the usual OOC things.

Welcome all, to the game!

Commences fan fare

Please share what would be known about your character, so what performances/skills they offer, any stage name or nickname that they have, and how long you have been here.
Some of you may work closely together, others you may know who they are but never worked with them.

If they are things you want kept secret from the other players, that is completely allowed, as no-one will always know everything about a person.

Also, whilst you have individually told me in your RTJ what direction you would like to go with the game, please also discuss that here, as I want you all to be an understanding and cohesive group.

Finally, would you all like to start with some gentle roleplaying around the circus, or get stuck into some action?

EDIT: Extra thought - If you want any help with character creation, or ever a need to nudge me if I go silent for any reason (hopefully not), you can get me on Discord on NuFenix#6922.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:34, Mon 29 Mar 2021.

Hello, resident animal trainer here. If any of the trick riders made it in the show, we might have some commonality.

Hello Hello, I will be your resident trick shot artist. Other than that, Larissa, Rissa to her friends and family, has poor social skills and a melancholy outlook on life. Like I suspect a few of us, she ran away from her home situation and joined the circus and now the circus has become her family.

Hi all.

Let's see:

Jade has no special nickname save for she might get referred to as "Blondie" sometimes.  I know the portrait doesn't have the bright platinum hair I imagine the character having, but the facial features were just so dead on to what I imagine the character looks like I had to use it.

Jade is an acrobat hired from the recently defunct De Vries Brothers Circus, which recently went bankrupt after Claus, the elder of the three De Vries brothers, had to be hospitalized for an extended period of time and his two younger siblings ran the business into the ground.  It's obvious to anyone who knows what to look for she grew up in the circus, just not this circus.

Jade's performances are primarily on the rings and trapeze, and though she's competent she'll admit she's not the very best (yet).  She aspires to be the first woman to do a triple flip mid-air transition off of a front release (the double is hard enough!).

However Jade's real niche in the circus is due to her experience and comfort doing weird and dangerous things and being a statuesque blonde who looks good in a tight leotard, she makes a good generic assistant.  They tend to put her anywhere a pretty girl makes the act more visually appealing.

Now they don't want Jade to show up the talent, they just want her to stand there and smile, maybe wave to the crowd, so Jade might be the girl that Aria makes lions jump over or the girl that balances a bottle on her head for Larissa to shoot, etc.  They also cart her out when they go hawk the act in town to get attention.

Jade is intended to be a warm, friendly character with a sweet disposition who tries to be nice to everyone in the circus even if they are a little sour or a little strange (or very strange), but she has a few odd little quirks herself.  She often changes into normal clothes and runs off into town and vanishes for a little while, but she claims it's because she doesn't sleep well, which is true, Jade often wakes up others in the middle of the night with a yell or a scream.  Jade's long experience with the circus gives her a kind of pack mentality.  If anyone gets into trouble in town, Jade seems to one of the first to show up.  She's also been known to aggressively confront people who sneak into the circus after hours, but that may have to do with the fact she can't always sleep well.

I'm imagining a lot of strange, supernatural shenanigans and mundane threats following the circus and making a hard life even more challenging for its performers and staff.  I said in the RTJ it's a common trope that circuses are used as something creepy, but I kind of want to see it the other way, the circus people are just trying to survive and everyone else is creepy!

I would think a little unstructured "day in the life" would be useful, a rehearsal/practice/big top setup before a show or something like that.

Question: What skill best represents dealing with animals? Would it just be Persuasion? Or is there a skill in the Deadlands book that addresses this?

It's the Marshal's call, but Riding is often used.  It's also possible it could be a Knowledge Skill like Knowledge (Animal Trainer).

Performance is a possibility too, though that's usually more something the character does directly, like I hope to give Jade some Performance skill, she "performs" as an assistant (knows how to pose, walk, wave step, smile, make the star look good, etc.).