City of Mist (Inactive)

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December 26th Update

For all your discussing needs.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I did dot-and-delete in gameplay. Wasn't sure whether you wanted us to leave it there.

... So, if we are in a crew, I am assuming we go by our code names? Or do we all know each other's dual identity? Is it supposed to work one way or the other, or is that something we decide?


Status:

I'll get to work on tags.

I think we know about each other's dual identities - we are after all investigating the strange stuff happening in the City.


Luke Read reporting in!

Still need to do tags and weaknesses, but the powers are there and I have a decent idea of what I want.

I think unless we're trying to be real secret between each other, we shouldn't really need codenames to go by one another. Really, I would use them if we're engaged with someone we don't want to know our real names.


December 26th Update

Yes, as a crew, each of you know details about the other's personal lives and legendary powers that you would be comfortable sharing with people you either like or respect to some extent.

Codenames are usually used in the field to protect civilian identities to some extent. Also, I'm a fan.

Who has access to the rulebook? I'll be sending out messages to help flesh out the characters either tonight or tomorrow, depending on how hard this coding assignment is....

It looks rough...


Status:

I have the book. Will do the tags when come home.

Shadow Lodge

I have the rulebook. I've been flipping through interesting bits almost all the time.

I think codenames are rad. I think our individual themes might help decide who knows what, but I think for the most part, crew members are likely to know each other's dual identities.

I'm thinking about what our crew dynamic should look like. I don't have time tonight because I'm selling flowers in the morning, but we should try to come up with crew themes right?


Reporting in. I do not have the book, but I think I should be fine just using the quickstart.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I only have the starter set, which I am fine with, but if you need me to know something that isn't in there, you'll have to tell me.


Status:

Updated the alias with themes and tags.

As for the crew, personally, I'm leaning towards some king of strange detective agency. Or the group of vigilantes. How does that sound?


I do not possess the actual rulebook, but I have downloaded the Starter Kit.


I have the rulebook, used it to help with the tags(which I am finished with!).

For the Crew Theme, I like the idea of a detective agency. Luke isn't really up the vigilante alley, though.

Speaking of Crew Themes, we should also do the Help and Hurt for each crew member, which I'll do when I'm at a computer.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

Detective Agency sounds cool.


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December 26th Update

OMG PROGRAMMING IS HARD.

Sorry for the wait folks. Updating everything tonight so should get those messages sent out sometime tonight.


Kubular's character here. Question for everyone, does anyone else feel like this would be better with an accompanying discord? If not everyone wants to do it, maybe we shouldn't, but I constantly want to workshop stuff with people, but I feel awkward making a whole post for asking for peoples' opinions on things one at a time.


Status:

I'm fine with discord.


Never used Discord for PBP, but I can understand it makes it a bit easier for more instantaneous responses. Seems fine to me, unless anyone has an objection to it.


Me neither. I actually don't even use discord that much, but I am feeling like it would help. Of course if there's anyone who can't or doesn't want to (especially if it's the GM), I don't think we should do it just so everyone can stay on the same page.


December 26th Update

I have a discord, but yeah, would only go for that option if everyone had access.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I don't use discord, but I'm sure I could get an account easily.

I guess I don't really see the point, since the idea of play by post is that we can play whenever we have time, and a chat seems like it pulls away from that, hoping other people will be on at the same time you are. It also seems like it would be an extra distraction at work, so I am not sure if I could get on more than the once a day when I would be posting here anyway. Totally willing to do it if it helps other people though.

You shouldn't base the decision on me. I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with my character, so not sure I could contribute to a higher level discussion anyway.


That makes sense, I kind of agree. I think I just got overzealous, discord is a bit too much. It changes the expectations, because we already came into this expecting pbp and it could end up being too much of a distraction to us. It's important to keep the group together more than anything.

That said, I'm still awaiting a PM from our lovely DM, but do people want to take a look at crew relationships and whatnot? I don't have any ideas yet, but I thought I'd lump as many thoughts as I could in one post to avoid the sin of double posting.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I'm not sure how my character fits into the whole crew relationship thing what with trying to forget her adventures in the mist... we could either go the route of they include her but mask it as a ... writing group or something so they can talk openly about things but with the pretense (for her) that it isn't real, or I could just drop that part of my background and come up with something that makes more sense in a group setting (any ideas in that regard?)

I'm open to separate connections in real life and mist life as well, if that works better.


Maybe just tweak that part of the backstory? Hendricks can still be a famous writer who uses her very real experiences to draw inspiration. Maybe she tries to push away or rationalize away the experiences because they're scary and too fantastic, but her Mythos keeps pushing her into danger which is why she can't avoid it? She writes because she wants the best of both worlds, because like real people she's compartmentalizes.

"If you wanted to forget why don't you just stop writing about it?"

"I can't work a conventional job, I need to create."

"Why don't you stop heroing?"

"I need inspiration. And its not always voluntary."

I could see her reticence being a bit of a sore spot with other members of the group, especially since she profits from it. Which is a good thing, conflict breeds good story.

So to clarify maybe she doesn't forget, but she tries to pretend it isn't real while she's out of costume or otherwise away from other members of the crew. Makes every effort to keep it separate from her normal life and all that. Just a suggestion, don't let me write your character for you.
______

In the handbook, settling on a group and setting concept actually comes first. The first question is "Who are you as a crew?"

There are a bunch of series concepts listed in the book. I think the two that stick out to me most obviously are "The Event" in which everyone in the crew are together because of a shared trauma and "'Masked Vigilante' Investigations" in which the crew decided to band together to fight rampant crime and corruption. "Casual Detectives" could work too but it feels more small-timey than Walton and Wise who are both professionals. Some of us might want to edit our themes to better mesh with each other.

The second question is "What is our City of Mist like?" Something to think about. There's an easy cop-out "Tapestry of Realities" which I feel like keeps things open-ended enough that we can decide on setting information as we go. Otherwise I'd be partial to "The Dreary Present" or pretty much anything else.

I guess we should come up with this stuff first. Its important that we all agree on where the game is going. Also DM did you have a particular vision in mind?


Wade and Leighton are both part of the police - it would make sense that they would investigate strange occurrences around the City. I don't think it would be unlikely for them to run into the rest of us along the way. For instance, part of Luke's backstory is performing petty thefts: Wade could have investigated it and found out it was Luke. But considering none of us are necessarily bad people, it would be difficult to perform an arrest (especially considering the supernatural nature of our abilities, leaving not much evidence).

Perhaps Wade or Leighton are trying to expand on how much ground they can cover, and thus recruit other Rifts to assist them in defending the town. We wouldn't exactly be a professional team of detectives, but would have some authority, pushing us out of the casual detective territory.


That seems like a decent framework. Especially if we go the "masked vigilante" route. It makes things even more difficult for Wade and Leighton as cops in a corrupt system, and gives Leighton more of reason to want to change things at the top. Alternatively, we could go for more occult-y weird stuff in terms of investigation.

Maybe our group came together investigating some dark stuff (supernatural or otherwise), that the police couldn't or wouldn't do on record. No ideas yet on what that could be, but fighting crime seems like a fun direction to take this.


One of you two could have been the policeman assigned to the shooting I was involved in.


December 26th Update

Like what I'm seeing. Just helping a couple more folks with their characters and then I'll be making the first post.


Status:

It was mentioned in the recruitment that the City is more of a modern kind, than anything else.

The masked vigilante sounds intriguing, considering we have two policemen in our ranks. And The Event could be some kind of crime that touched everyone - Wade and Leighton were the detectives on the case, Zenna snooped around for an inspiration, Luke was stealing something, Fredrick - I'm not sure here and Vrog's character (Donovan, right?) was the main suspect. That's when everyone clicked.


Donovan is my character's name, yes.


December 26th Update

Drake and Azrael haven't completed their characters yet, and I'm almost done with Myriad.

Hoping to start sometime this weekend, or at least get started.


Great to hear. I think Drake and Myriad look good to go now right?

How are we feeling about the Series Concept? Crime fighting vigilantes is the direction everyone wants to take?

I am personally interested in having one other PC be a university/college/high school/long-time friend of Leighton's. When they awaken, they realize that their friendship hasn't been nearly as long as they thought and is based on lies and false memories. It's just an idea I had, let me know if anyone wants to be that.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

Concept sounds good to me.

I don't think I can be your false-memory friend, just because my character already has so many problems with loss of self that finding out about implanted memories might cause a breakdown. :) I mean, unless we *want* to play out you having to talk her out of permanently shapeshifting into a rock or something. ;)


Mental breakdowns are half the fun of roleplaying. ;D I mean seriously, we're making a dramatic narrative, people are going to be messed up.

The theme of a loss of self seems to have a through line between our characters actually, are you sure you don't want to do it?

EDIT: Well. Now that I think about it, it's a major theme in this RPG. Chasing the mystery vs. holding your identity.

Also in line with the concept stuff, there's a crew theme template that seems like we could quickly adapt when we're ready to start.


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

If no one else wants to do it, I will... *if* we don't find out about it until in-game. That way maybe she's had time to adjust to her other problems and rely on you as her old friend before she finds out about the false memory thing. Would that work? Or maybe you already know, but you don't tell her until you think she can cope?


I didn't mean to pressure you into it, but that sounds like an interesting thread as well. Role-playing through it seems like a good plan if we decide to go that route. Someone else can still pick this up instead if they're inspired to, I'm just trying to get some conversation flowing.

EDIT: I'm also trying to work out the Donovan angle in my head, and I'm running into dead ends. So Donovan kills four dudes in the middle of the night, and homicide gets assigned to the case and then... Leighton just lets him go after finding him out? Maybe, but I think Det. Wise has a little more integrity to his job than that, even if the guys were bad dudes.

Maybe they crossed paths while Azrael was extraditially meddling in mob affairs? Murdering a mid/high level mob guy that was doing some bad things that the police just couldn’t pin him down for, and maybe the other police didn't care. Leighton might have figured out it was him, but similarly couldn’t prove it, much less figure out who he was. I’m thinking Leighton and Wade start getting fed up with the corruption within the police department and start reaching out to the vigilantes for help, and maybe to reign them in a bit in Azrael’s / Donovan’s case.


Unless GM Default has any more recommendations for me, or unless any of you other lovely players have questions or recommendations, I believe that I am good to go as far as my character is concerned.

As far as the Crew Theme is concerned, I think that the Masked Vigilantes option is interesting, as is the option of us investigating supernatural events around the City. The first option would be slightly more difficult to integrate my character in, as he has no direct connection that I can see. If we are taking Wade's suggestion from earlier:

Wade Walton / Huli Jing wrote:
The masked vigilante sounds intriguing, considering we have two policemen in our ranks. And The Event could be some kind of crime that touched everyone - Wade and Leighton were the detectives on the case, Zenna snooped around for an inspiration, Luke was stealing something, Fredrick - I'm not sure here and Vrog's character (Donovan, right?) was the main suspect. That's when everyone clicked.

Perhaps Fredrick could have been involved because the victim of the crime was a close friend/previous business associate/person he was going to make a purchase from. Any one of these could have connected Fredrick to the event, especially if it was the last one.


While I have no problem with that, I've just realized Wade might have misunderstood my intentions and the intentions of the core book. The "'Masked Vigilante' Investigations" concept and "The Event" concept are both different series concepts and I was asking if we would do one or the other. There is nothing stopping us from combining both, but it makes it a little different than it was going in my mind. I'm currently working under the understanding that we're doing 'Masked Vigilante' Investigations.

The assumption that City of Mist takes is that all the PCs have known each other for at least a little while and have since formed The Crew. Luke's idea was a bit more helpful in my mind because of how gradual it has the ability to be. We may have assembled our group piecemeal after Wade and Leighton decided to reach out to other Rifts to do the jobs that the police can't and we can figure it out from there.

I think my point is it doesn't matter too much how we got together, we're just all sort of on a secret superhero team.

Do you mind if I think out loud a little bit? So Frederick's Mythos is a dragon and he is a collector. I'm going to assume you did that on purpose because its a clever thematic tie-in. Maybe he's a benevolent sort of dragon, wanting to help the City that he's grown fond of, but he's jealous and proud of his hoard. The Drake manifesting as a mobility and an expression theme also suggests he's restless. He wants to escape the monotony of normal (retired?) life. He wants to make a difference in the world, maybe a difference he didn't make in his youth?

Luke Read springs to mind as being a potential thief for your hoard, but maybe he was just a red herring in your shared backstory and you nearly killed the Doctor before finding out that he was framed for the theft. Together you might have found the culprit, or maybe he/she/it got away.

Also, just a question about your tags, I'm struggling to see where the tag "held at home" would be useful, do you think you could elaborate? I get the feeling that its the answer to the question "What keeps your possessions safe?" But I wanted to ask.

EDIT: That was super long-winded. I'll try to keep things shorter from now on.


Ah, sorry for the misunderstanding. Looking at it again, I can tell that they are two separate things. Between the two, I think that the Masked Vigilante Investigations is the best overall choice.

Speaking of you thinking out loud, I don't mind at all. It allows me to see my chracter from a second perspective, which is very helpful. And yes, the tie-in was on purpose. I thought it particularly fitting for somebody who channels a Dragon to feel the need to collect a specific type of item. As for the rest of what you say, that was more or less what I had in mind. The connection between Fredrick and Luke could also work quite well.

As for the "Held at Home", yes, it is the answer to that question. To be honest, that is the main part of the character that I was having some difficulties with, as I was having issues coming up with anything else at the time. I am fairly sure that I will be changing it. Currently I am thinking of replacing with "Heavily Insured," or something similar.


I'm still finishing up the changes that Default sent me.

As far as what our group does, I am good with the whole Masked vigilante option.


Masked Vigilantes seems to be the general consensus, and it sounds good to me.

Seeing as Luke's power seems to home in on objects that are worth a lot or have monetary significance, it makes sense that Luke could have stolen some of Fredrick's "hoard." It's a great connection that has a bit of negativity to it, in which Fredrick would understandably be angry with Luke, but also the two would come out of the experience feeling better about the other, as Luke explained his intentions. Of course, Fredrick could have a negative view of Luke's Mythos, being a pretty large antithesis to Fredrick's ideals and Mythos.

Unsure how to connect to Donovan and Zenna: from a Mythos perspective, I suppose Luke could look at Donovan poorly. Lupin abhorred murder, usually preferring subtlety or guile. Zenna... I'm sorta at a loss. Any tips on that front?


December 26th Update

Sorry for the delay, love the conversation, finishing up a midterm and essay tonight. Expect a large update tomorrow that'll push us forward.


Status:

Huh. I did misunderstood. Masked Vigilantes it is! Let's bring some justice to this City.

As for Luke's connections to Zenna: how about going from mundane angle? Luke is a brain surgeon/neuroscientist and Zenna is a novelist. Maybe she needed a consultation about some brain things? And something went wrong/good/weird, and Luke figured her out?


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I like that idea of a connection for Luke and Zenna. Perhaps she consulted him about her memory problems, and he was who helped her to face her alter ego and come to terms with that.

(She has now come to terms with that, but still has other non-memory problems.)


Well, keep in mind Neurology and Psychology are quite different, and Luke wouldn't really be able to make judgement on the latter field. Of course, Zenna may be wanting unofficial help, to keep things off the record, in which case choosing anybody with even some experience would be helpful.

Would Zenna expose any part of her Mythos, or play under the terms of it being a mere disorder?


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

I was going under the assumption that when she first comes in, she assumes it is neurology, and it is Luke that discovers it is psychological instead, as she discusses her life and the content of her books and perhaps you recognize some of it as having actually happened in the mist...? Something like that? She wouldn't be able to face accepting her mythos as more than fantasy when she first walks in, but you help her realize that it's real... not fantasy or a memory problem.


December 26th Update

Okee doke folks!

Apologies for the wait again, but it is wonderful to see a good discussion happening before the game begins.

As for a crew concept, it does seem "masked vigilantes" is the prevailing choice, but remember this doesn't mean you have to run around in spandex and tights. As mentioned, a strong sense of personally addressing injustice is the core of this theme.

So to help you guys discuss your core as a crew, please think about the following questions:

WHAT IS OUR SHARED GOAL?
WHO OR WHAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER?
WHY DO WE WORK TOGETHER? WHAT DOES EACH MEMBER CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAUSE?
WHERE DO WE MEET? WHERE DO WE COLLECT OUR EVIDENCE OR PREPARE FOR ACTION?
WHAT SORT OF RESOURCES DO WE HAVE AT OUR DISPOSAL?

As for Power Tags, please discuss the following three questions:

WHERE DO YOU MEET, WORK, REST, OR PREPARE FOR ACTION?
HOW DO YOU HELP, ASSIST, OR SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER?
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED TO DO WELL TOGETHER?
(note: these should be able to be invoked by anyone in the group)

And finally, a weakness tag:
WHAT PLACES OR SITUATIONS DO YOU FIND TOUGH TO HANDLE?

While you all are discussing those, I'm putting the final touches on the first case you'll be tackling. And that involves reading. Lots of reading. I'm sure it won't be too long before we start in gameplay, and we may do so before your crew theme is finalized.


Alright, time for some thinking!

WHAT IS OUR SHARED GOAL: Keeping the city safe, investigating crimes?

WHO OR WHAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER: I was thinking Wade or Leighton, maybe both as part of the police.

WHY DO WE WORK TOGETHER, WHAT DOES EACH MEMBER CONTRIBUTE TO THE CAUSE: We probably recognize the safety in numbers, and realize our singular mythos cannot take on the mysteries of the city?

WHERE DO WE MEET, WHERE DO WE COLLECT OUR EVIDENCE OR PREPARE FOR ACTION: A police office may be too conspicuous, but it could be effective. One of the crew's home could also work?

WHAT SORT OF RESOURCES DO WE HAVE AT OUR DISPOSAL: A lot, actually. We have access to the police resources, some ability to use a hospital, and Donovan works at a social security firm.

Unsure of tags yet, so I'm going to put some thought into those and post later.

Thoughts and suggestions?


Female Human: Transcended Inactive

Zenna is wealthy, so she would have a place with plenty of room to meet, if you want to say that is our meeting place... but I am probably not the only one, so open if someone else wants to host the batcave. :)

And money and the social following of a bestselling novelist might also be good resources for the group as a whole.


Quite a few of our characters are wealthy actually, at least to one degree or another. With that in mind, any of their homes could likely work, as there is likely space enough. There could even be a rotating shift of whose place to do stuff at, so that no single individual has to take the brunt of the effort, or give up too much of their personal space.

That said, Fredrick would likely be the first to volunteer to house the "batcave," for one main reason, in that it keeps him that much closer to his collection/hoard.

Alternatively, we could have pooled some money to buy/rent/etc... some form of apartment/small house/etc... to use as a base of operations. This way it would be a neutral location, and potentially that much easier to keep secret.


December 26th Update

And remember, it doesn't have to be a residence. Perhaps there's an old bookstore that also serves coffee run by a Rift of Morgan Le Fay. Or, maybe the group prefers a diner that's centrally located to meet and discuss business, and while its not the cleanest the Monte Christo's are to die for.

I'm not sure if a constantly changing environment is best. It could work, but I don't have enough experience to know if it'll be an issue later.

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