Yeah, if you've got a copy, it might be helpful, but I'm hoping to keep things simple enough that it won't be necessary for my players to purchase it.  If issues come up where we need more specific definitions/ routines for our mechanics/ arbitrations, then I'll be drawing from my 7e books for inspiration.

Of course, if you're looking for a good reason to splurge and fill out your gamer RPG library, then by all means, yes!  It's a decent system and has a plethora of 1920's period setting and Mythos information.

Full disclosure:  I'm building the story directly from the Arkham Horror Card Game released by Fantasy Flight Games in chapter and character packs.  But the card game mechanics don't lend themselves well to narrative-driven play-by-post games, so I'm supplementing that with the rules systems from 7e as needed.

Sounds good to me. Full disclosure myself. I did watch the Tabletop episode they did for the arkham horror card game so I know a bit of what's going to happen. But I don't remember how far they got into it.

I suppose the house could have been willed to Jack or it could belong to one of his clients, with the request being something strange is going on in my house and I'd like it gone, thank you.

I am blissfully unaware of anything planned and will act accordingly with the new rule :)

@Paul:

No worries.  This first chapter is quick, mostly to establish characters and test out my mash-up of mechanics, so a little foreknowledge shouldn't hurt anything.  After this chapter, I'll weave your characters' backstories into the plot, which should change things up from the source material, story-wise.

@Jack:

Thank you!  Let's say the house has been willed to you after a relative's body was discovered dead; one of the first unfortunate victims of a disturbing pattern of animal attacks in the woods.  You've been living here for the past two months or so.

@both players:

If either of you would like to make any adjustments to your Strength or Weakness in light of the rules I added concerning them, just let me know about it.

Quick recap to make sure we're all happily on the same page before I open the first IC scene/ thread:

James Hankerson could be a friend or acquaintance of Paul's, who referred Paul to Jack, knowing you've both been investigating these disappearances and deaths for your own reasons.  You've been working together for a week or so at this point and have met at Jack's house tonight to try to make sense of all the information you've gathered.

Sound good?
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:41, Thu 03 Mar 2022.

Having James be an acquaintance of Paul's sounds fine to me. So Jack and I know each other already, that's helpful.

I'm fine with my strength and weakness as they are now.

I'm good with my strength and weakness too unless the Strength is too broad for you?

@Jack

Nah, your Strength is fine for now.  Vague enough that I can really play around with it if I want to.  And it might naturally get more specific through roleplay.

@both players

Okay, this chapter's scenes are largely specific to which room of the house you're in, so I'll open the first room/ scene and let you guys have at it.  Then, whenever you feel ready to move on, just post your move to the next room.  Some rooms/ halls connect to more than one room.  I've tried to include hints at what lies beyond the doors, but you can always try to get more information before opening a new door, and you can always go back to a previous room.  You can even split up if you want to.

   ...

And on that note, Here we go!

You should be able to see the "Study (Aberrant Gateway)" thread, now.  This is an "in-character" thread.

I'm not quite sure how well this format will translate, so if you need more to go on, or if this is spoon-feeding/ railroading you too much, let me know.

I thought we had established it was Jack's house, not Paul's.

Are we using dice and such to do skill checks? And if so what skills do we have?

Yeah, the house was bequeathed by Roger. Dear old uncle Roger.

Aren't the skills broadly under one of the four categories we invested in, Agility, Intellect, Combat and Willpower. Do we call out which skill category we think it'll use and make a check?

Right, Jack's house.  My mistake.

I set up the dice roller to roll percentile dice.

Just describe your action and, yeah, pick one of the 4 main Skills to relate it to. They're broad enough that it should be easy to pick one that covers whatever action you're attempting.

I've been sick recently but I will post today. Just need to feel a little better.

I've made another mistake.

When I was simplifying the dice rolling system, I unintentionally set you guys up for failure by giving you too few points for skills.  This should be a game of Gothic Horror, not dice-rolling horror.  Sometimes I need to see something in action before I realize the foregone conclusion.

So, with that in mind, please adjust your characters' Skills points to be equal to 200 (the original 120 + 80 more), with 75 being the highest Skill value you can start with.

I'll change this in the Character Creation rules, too.  My apologies for that brief horror of eternal failure on every roll.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:17, Sun 06 Mar 2022.

Praise Nyarlothotep. I thought this would become Mr. Bean :p

By the way, I *love* the IC posts you've both made.  Wonderfully written.  I'll do my best to keep up those high standards.  :)

Thank you! That's so nice! I'm sure you will :)

Yesterday got a way from me (sorry about that), but my goal is to post something that moves the plot forward at least once per day.

Question for my players:  Would you prefer to get your investigator's clues and hints publicly (like I did with msg #8 in the study thread) or privately to each of you?  Publicly gives everyone a taste of the drama as it unfolds, but privately gives each of you a chance to roleplay sharing (or not) the information more organically in-character.

Do either of you have a strong preference either way?

I think I prefer privately, so the sharing of info can be up to us. Cause hey, there may be times we don't to share everything with each other.

Noted.

... Are you guys waiting for another post from me?  Or just busy with RL?

Yes.

Seriously though I've been running ragged with spring cleaning and some legal stuff with a former roommate. Ya know? It's a mess but it seems to be calming down now.

Sorry. I've been caught up in school work. I'll try to post today.

We all get caught up in stuff.  Sorry for the radio silence these past days.

Reading your posts, you guys have weapons prepped, but I'm not sure what your intentions are.
 Are you staying in the Study waiting for...whatever might come?  Or are you planning to step through the portal to investigate further?  Either way is fine, I just wasn't sure what your intentions were from the posts.

I invited Paul to decide whether we step through or do one more look for information.

Ah, okay.  I'll wait for his response before I throw anything at you, then.