From Player to Master

Manhattan was fun, sure the pigs were a pain about the giggle water, but there’s always a way if you’ve got jack!  I was certain it wouldn’t be long before I’d be back down by Tin Pan Alley, just a quick trip to get some real rubes.

Jimmy, oh Jimmy!  He’d told me of a bell-bottom trying to shift some black opals onto him, he took some but the sailor was taking the rest with him to England…  from what I was told they’d keep me going for a while, so I book 1st class on the Maurtania, to see if I could get me some opals!

We’ve been at sea one day and I’ve got the Heebie-Jeebies good and proper.  There was a dapper gent that I thought might be worth a go, A wealthy Pole, but he’s gone all cold on me.  Besides, I’m not sure I want to get to close to someone thats murderred a man!  Did I say I saw anything?  Of course I didn’t, I had my peepers turned the other way, honest!

The opals aren’t opals at all!  They are some monsterous gloop, that eats people, not with a mouth, but by dissolving them!  So far, 3 are dead, I may check out one of their cabin’s, as he had some lolly, the others were nobodies.  I sure hope Jimmy shifted them opals quick, or I’m afraid he might be a goner.

I need to see how I can work this to my advantage, otherwise I’ll be lucky if I’ll get out of this with a clam!

Was expected by her family to help out with her younger siblings, but never got anything back in return. Father was killed in The Great War, which lead to even more pressure. Learnt to pickpocket so that she could get what she wanted. Was thrown out of home at 14, when she couldn’t explain how she had managed to buy herself a broach.

She learnt quickly that she could rely on man’s stupidity to gain wealth instead of only resorting to picking their pockets. Over time her taste in men matured and she began actively seeking out those that were known to hold wealth.

She began to study locks, safes, and other security devices as she pushed herself onto greater gains.

Using the name Betsy Day, she modelled herself on the Hollywood actresses of the time, such as Louise Brooks. With wealth came travel and parties! She embraced the 20’s with a passion, always out in the clubs and bars, always out having fun, always on the lookout for a fool.

Real name is Doris King, but that and her past are hidden as she is ashamed of her past.

Her strategy is to seek out wealthy married men, and tempt them away from their wives. This means that when she gets away with money/jewels, they are less likely to let authorities know what has happened.

- steals hearts and wallets away!

Betsy is my new character for Call of Cthulhu that we are about to play.  Andy is reffing and will be mixing two adventures that we haven’t played yet, one of them being Horror on the Orient Express.  Last time we destroyed Earth (and Cthulhu in the process!!!), in Beyond the Mountains of Madness, which we consider to be a party success!  We are pretending that never happened and also playing it with a bit more of a pulp feel, using D6 Adventure rules and possibly some Torg influences.

I’m really looking forward to this as I really enjoy Cthulhu, the mood of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, which the game is based on, is really dark and nightmarish.  With people having their realities turned upside-down, often causing them to go insane with what they experience.  The timeline is also good, being set in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Anyway, Betsy is from the East-End slums who has dragged herself out of poverty by fluttering her eyelids and flirting her way off with men’s wallets and their wives jewels!  She started out a pick-pocket, as a child, but learnt as she grew how much easier and fun it was to manipulate men instead, often leading to greater rewards.

A dying planet, where the population were barely able to survive. Their technology was strictly controlled and only used to mine distant planets as it was stripped of all its own natural resources.  To earn a food quota meant working for the country, be that farming, policing or working off planet.  Justice was brutal, people punished by death for even small crimes. It kept the peace and controlled the population, it was accepted out of necessity.

It must have been like waking from a nightmare. An alien race of saviours providing them with the means to live, allowing them to be human again!

The aliens, brought a Utopia to Earth. People had everything they needed, and were let to live their lives as they wished.   Trouble makers were no longer butchered in the streets, they were quietly removed.

The aliens controlled many planets this way, preying on the needy, sometimes even making their situations worse, so that when they made official contact they would be greeted with arms wide open.  The aliens had a continual supply of labour to fulfill their needs and to work the mines that sustained not only their home world, but the slave breeding planets also.

Scientists playing around with their own DNA, created a single-celled organism. When put in close-proximity to others it reacted. Although the cells were entities unto themselves, they acted together as a collective organism.

This led to experimentation with larger containers of the organism…

The scientists noticed that they felt pleasure from being close to the organism and a longing when they were away.

As the scale the scientist realised that a telepathic link existed between them and the organism. It was communicating with them through feelings and dream-like day-visions, at which point they panicked, trying to destroy the being. The being fought back by inducing great pain.

Eventually the race that had created the being grew to be its slave. Having to keep it alive at all costs, utilising other planets for slave labour and resources.

Their heavy-handed use of slaves meant that slaves wouldn’t live long. This led to taking over planets by different means, through bribery.

I received Skyrealms of Jorune 2nd Ed box set on Saturday and skimmed through it with the purpose of getting a few ideas. I may also run a game of Jorune, as it is a really good background, shame about the shocking rules, I’ll have to use another system.

Besides Jorune, I started playing around with what-if’s, to see where it would lead my imagination…

Anyway I’ve created what could be a plausible oppressor and controlling mechanism for a society. Basically its all changed from a Fantasy setting to a Science Fiction one!

It also means that the adventurers have a reason for being away… interstellar travel takes a bloody long time so when they arrive back at Earth there has been a big change.

I’ll post more about the oppressors soon…

GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Theory. Its a scary thing when form is made out of what you thought was formless.

It’s quite a hard-going read, but explains a lot. I’m starting to get a feeling for what my group will need from game. It feels a daunting prospect.

_{Maybe a dungeon bash in the Underdark isn’t such a bad idea after all!!}

I’ve noticed that I’m getting regular hits to this blog, and was surprised that I received a comment the other day without any real advertising.  The statistics may not be reliable, but if there are people reading this and have comments to make, on topic, positive or negative, then I would like to hear them.

Don’t be embarrassed, I won’t cast you down in fire, I’m looking for any guidance.  Your time won’t be wasted.

Thank you.

I’ve been trying to use my time in lunch-breaks to try and progress my goal and so far it has been great. I’ve been able to try and pin done some ideas that have been flying around so I don’t forget them and can flesh them out later.

More and more I’ve been starting to worry about game systems for this. I dug out some RPG rule books and sifted through them and just got nowhere. At present I don’t know what to do. I was originally thinking D&D 3rd Ed, because it would allow dungeon bashing, but the more I think of it the more I want a lighter weight system. I think all the games I’ve played lately have made me appreciate rule systems that don’t get in the way of the game play.

As this is my first game, I don’t want to be floundering about looking up rules if I’m unsure. There is enough to do, being a GM, in playing NPC’s and scene setting. Yes there need to be rules, but what do I do!?!?

Anyway, an hour passed and I got disheartened. This evening I’ve spent longer looking on Wikipedia at Universal Role-Playing Games and that has given me a few ideas. I’m very wary of game balance however. It would be easiest to not bother and just build some adventures in Fearun, but I really want to make something of my own.

Also, this week I’ve had quite a lot of fun allowing my imagination wander. So I don’t want to give up yet. I keep thinking that I should run a pre-made adventure as a one-off to gauge myself before going too far. This may be a good idea, although I think I’ll carry on creation regardless.

Anyway, I’ve ended up at The Forge reading through the forums. I’m hoping I’m not biting off more than I can chew :/

It would be natural for the leaders to want to find out about lands close to them. It would have been long known that there was a mainland, and possibly visible, as Calais is from Dover (on a good day!). However, the mainland must be difficult to pass. I think that if it were mountainous then there would be a reason why other nations had not got in contact. A desert would be too hard to set up a trade route through.

A number of surveys of the mainland were made to test the mainland then try and find passages over time, possibly over 100 years or longer, could have led to discovery of routes and eventual contact with others. This would mean finding areas in the mountains that were suitable for colonisation, due to requirements of traveling (running out of rations).

Existing small villages could be an alternative, although they would also need reasons for not being interconnecting, unless there were a combination of both. In fact, there would likely be a thinning scattering of villages in the mountains from the direction of civilisation on the other side. It is likely that they will have strange beliefs due to the remoteness.

If a previous expeditions to map out possible passages on the mainland to other civilisations succeeded then the ruler may need to attend for diplomatic reasons. In fact this is likely in early stages of contact to determine whether hostile or likely trade allies. The find would have to be a major town or city, perhaps a member of an empire.

This is not far off how we think about space exploration today and is often used in science-fiction. Typically with colonies being used as spring boards to more and more remote places.