As with all my games (not sure if I actually posted it in here), I'm fine with people making changes to characters through the first "adventure," which I'll comment on when we reach that point. So yeah, if anybody wants to swap things out, especially in light of new stuff being available, go ahead.
Also, Just dropping this in Discussion for all the games I'm running: Much as I'd love to break my horrible pacing and post in here, finals are taking up a ton of my time between writing essays, putting together portfolios, and studying for exams. I sincerely hope to have time to post on Wednesday, but it's not very likely; Thursday is probably the best bet, since I'll be done by then and heading home for winter break. Hopefully you can all hang in until that point!
Hunter asked in Gameplay about Ricky's family, and I realized that most of you would know at least the basics about them, so I figured I'd put it here. I'll probably be moving clues and info for various stuff into the Campaign Info tab as well, at some point, but for now...
Brenda Thompson: The mother. Brenda was a guidance counselor at Romney Central High School; she grew up out of state and moved here for the job a few years before marrying Ned. Ricky's loss was particularly hard on her, and what started as a leave of absence turned into quitting her job due to continued trouble with the world. She started very vocal, wanting to get Ricky's case as much media attention as she could in hopes it would lead to success in finding him, but since things went cold she's become more and more reserved. The Rag implied she was the one pushing to have Ricky declared dead so the family could move on.
Elizabeth Thompson: The sister. Elizabeth--often called Liz or Lizzie by the mainstream papers, but consistently referred to as Beth by the Rag--was a sophomore in high school when Ricky disappeared, and although clearly upset by the event, she's seemed to cope with it better than her parents. Although not as widely recognized as Ricky was, she's still a community figure, particularly for her skill as an outfielder and batter for the Romney Central softball team.
There are, of course, other living relatives, but these are Ricky's direct family members and the main ones that people know about and connect to the situation.
Many of you may know more about some or all of these individuals; if you think that may be the case (hell, even if you just want it to be the case), shoot me a PM and we'll discuss it.
Hey, I'm just letting you know I'm switching some stuff with my character. I'm gonna shift some points into Drive from some other stuff, and also I'm gonna mess around with his backstory some to make the things that he saw that were terrible and the things that he forgot are possibly more easy to integrate into whatever story you're planning. I'm thinking he was tracking a serial killer that may have secretly been a vampire or something similar. He stumbled upon a den of "victims" that were actually ghouls and they were forced to kill them all, but they all remember them as all being dead. Something like that, and he never caught the guy. Sound good?
Switching stuff is fine, we're still well within the period where I'm okay with that. If you want to alter the backstory that's good too, although you don't need to; I'm happy to integrate whatever people have into the larger storyline, and your old backstory works fine for that. It's your character, though, so make them the person you want to play--that includes both past and present, and goes for everybody.
Alright, cool. I ended up shifting some points around for Drive, and also put another dot back into Academics; I've decided Aaron holds a dual Masters degree, so that makes sense to me.
On another note, aren't Michelle and Diana going to different schools? If I remember correctly, there are two colleges in Romney, which are Romney State and HIT. I thought you two were going to different schools, or do we want to simplify things and say one of those schools no longer exists and everyone attends one of them? I'm just a little confused, I think. I also thought Derek went to Romney State as opposed to HIT, so I'm not sure
Alright, cool. I ended up shifting some points around for Drive, and also put another dot back into Academics; I've decided Aaron holds a dual Masters degree, so that makes sense to me.
On another note, aren't Michelle and Diana going to different schools? If I remember correctly, there are two colleges in Romney, which are Romney State and HIT. I thought you two were going to different schools, or do we want to simplify things and say one of those schools no longer exists and everyone attends one of them? I'm just a little confused, I think. I also thought Derek went to Romney State as opposed to HIT, so I'm not sure how both he and Diana had Russel for a professor.
I could have easily been mistaken about that. So I may not have seen Diana around campus, but perhaps I've seen her around the dorms then.
Either me as a player is mistaken, or actually Michelle herself has been mistaken where she has seen Diana before. Both options work for me though. Michelle doesn't have an Eidetic Memory.
Wait no I'm confused, was Russel a professor at Romney state or HIT?
Wait no I'm confused, was Russel a professor at Romney state or HIT?
I am an adjunct so I could teach at both! Russel has child support to pay after all!!!
That's true on the professor thing, I was just making sure we all knew what was going on.
sorry that's why I assumed Derek knew of Diana, my bad.
There are multiple colleges in Romney, yes. It's kind of intended to be that way; it's a New England college town through and through, with several schools there. Off the top of my head, I'd imagine there being Romney State University (liberal arts and sciences with a business program, probably your typical state school in a lot of ways), Hampshire Institute of Technology (sciences, math, computer stuff), Romney Community College (two-year programs for technical degrees and certifications, along with some four-year bachelor's programs), and probably at least one or two others based either in the city or nearby. And that's just undergrad programs; HIT almost certainly goes all the way to doctorates, but some of the others may not.
However, it's easy to believe that concentrated as they are, students from different schools might run into each other and know one another as college students. Even in my experience at a school where the nearest is another town or two over, a lot of students recognize each other at least as fellow undergrads, even if we don't necessarily know each other's names or even where we've met. I'm fine with retconning it to be that Diana/Michelle/Derek have just seen each other "around" in town and know that they're all college students.
Heck, it's very feasible that the schools in Romney would have something along the lines of a college consortium, where students at any school can take classes at any other for no extra cost. Let's say that's the case, and so these students very well may have seen each other in the same halls or even classes, depending.
I'm enjoying the conversations in the Gameplay thread, but I do want to note something that's incorrect: Romney State has not cancelled most of its classes. Absences are being excused by a number of professors as courtesy--at least, that's what some rumors are saying--and the art department is more or less excusing class for anyone who has it, but the majority of the university isn't changing its schedule for this.
Ah my bad I misinterpreted that
I'll do an update tomorrow I think, was on the road today to start the first, shorter family trip, but it seems our first in-game day is coming to a close: people are splitting off from the gallery, nothing really important to be done this evening. (No real spoilers to say that if Russel and Aaron return to the gallery after dinner, they find it locked up and nobody around, so no clues to pick up there tonight.) Does that seem right to everyone, or am I missing someone wanting to do something important here?
Re: John's question, I don't think that's anywhere in the actual rules for Chronicles of Darkness, although funnily enough it is an established option for dice tests in Shadowrun. It was likely a houserule, and one that I don't think I'll use for this game, since it would alter the balance of some things. (Plus, how would you account for 10/9/8-again with that? Exploding dice are too fun to pass up!)
Fair enough. I figured I should check before assuming that it was the way of things. I know it's a shadowrun rule, I wonder if our GM just stole it from there (would make sense since he played/ran both).
I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day, so unless Russel wants to continue our conversation for a while I'm ready to move on if you want to get to the next day.
I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day, so unless Russel wants to continue our conversation for a while I'm ready to move on if you want to get to the next day.
We're good, let's assume we discussed the other case you asked for assistance with.
Hey everyone, figured I'd give you all the heads up that I'm running another round of recruitment for my Kingmaker game here on the boards. I'm looking for a couple players and I wanted to give you all the heads up if you're interested. You don't get free spots or anything, but I tend to like playing with people I've played with before, so you get a "friends and family" discount, more or less. Both our GM and James are involved in the game, as well. Feel free to drop in and apply if you're interested, maybe drop the game you're from so I, you know, remember your username as opposed to your alias.
Except for you, Derek. You know what you did.
*poke*
I'm here. I've just gotten busy with school starting, and honestly I've been needing to work up the will to post here. It's just the slow pace we've had so far, I think, and that's entirely my fault; hopefully things will pick up now that everyone's together and we'll be kicking off some real action at the opening. I just need to have the will and time to get us moving, and I think I should have both tomorrow.
Sounds good. I know that homebrews can be daunting take your time and post when inspired. My Vampire game here on the boards has had some inactivity time when the ebb of my creativity was low but as long as you stick with it all will be well!
:-)
Alright, everybody, after a lot of debate, I think it's safe to say that I'm putting this on indefinite hold for right now. I came into this game a little faster than I should have, with a concept for a game but no real plan of how to get things moving or what to do in actual gameplay. Between grasping at straws in my own mind trying to decide how to move things forward, not being as familiar or comfortable with Chronicles as a system, and pacing problems exacerbated by stuff going on IRL, things kind of ground to a halt and the game really started dragging on me--pretty much entirely through my own fault.
At this point I just don't have the drive to try and push this one, and I've been staring at it over the past few weeks trying to no avail. As such, I think it's best if I just call it for now. I love the characters we have here, and I'd certainly be open to returning to this some day when I've spent more time prepping, thinking, and all-around getting a full game in position, but for now I think it's best to close this one down for a while. If/when I have things together and want to run this again, I will definitely let you all know. As I said, I like gaming with you guys, you've made some wonderful characters here and I hope to play with all of you again.
On that note, I may be opening a new game (foolish I know) before too much longer, because I think I do have enough time for it, and there are plenty of ideas I have rolling around and systems I'd like to play. Plus, it can be a birthday gift to myself (yeah, that's how we'll rationalize it). I can't say 100% but it will likely be something using the Savage Worlds system--I like that one quite a bit, but I'm not actually running anything using it on here at the moment.
Thanks for the heads up Loup!