According to an old saw, rich men are not crazy, they are eccentric. This isn’t a function of their wealth as much as their power: the difference is that if the subject is ignored, they are crazy, and if they are indulged, they are eccentric. If so, reflected Captain Josiah Burges, mysterious millionaire Eichorn von Ryuko was the most eccentric man in all of Europa. His stunts and wagers defied reason, but as long as you played by his rules—and played them to the hilt—you could find yourself very seriously rich and only partially disfigured.
Case in point: von Ryuko had decided that he bored of his modest oilfields in the south. An ordinary man would have sold the land, or distributed it to an heir, or handed its administration to an associate; von Ryuko’s plans were more grandiose.
One week ago, he declared that he would carve up the land and distribute it, freely, to anyone that attended a masquerade ball in his Island Manor out in the middle of the Atlantic. The only conditions were that applicants had to be of good breeding, had to arrive via his airship The Queen Courier, and—most importantly–were not allowed to remove their half-face mask at any time during the two-week voyage or one-day party.
Of course, no respectable blueblood would be caught dead subjecting themselves von Ryuko’s mad charity. Consequentially, all of the respondees–Captain Burges’ current passengers–were a who’s-who peerage of disgraced, distressed, and disenfranchised gentry from all over Europe. Put together, they had enough money, land, and influence to open a takeout stand, but they were all nobles nonetheless. Burges planned to avoid them, he hated nobles, which he didn’t anticipate would be difficult as long as he kept away from the open bar and hung around in areas where actual work took place.
They were six hours into the voyage when the first mate approached him, nervously, and told him the onboard radio was ringing off the hook. Burges didn’t hurry to answer it; when he finally did, the voice on the other end sounded hoarse from shouting.
“Is this the captain of The Queen Courier?”
“Yessir,” said Captain Burges. “What can I do you for?”
“This is the Chief Inspector. Listen to me, because I have reason to suspect that the passengers on your ship are in grave danger!”
“Really?”
“Agents of the Black Rose assassin’s organization were apprehended in Kingston. As best as we can extrapolate from documents on their person, and what little our interrogators have gleaned, it sounds as if they were planning to infiltrate an airship of some kind. Captain, your vessel is a very likely target!”
“Really, now?”
“We’re going to have to choose a landing site somewhere in Wales or Ireland. We’ll have investigators on the scene immediately to…”
Captain Burges switched off the radio. The he leaned back in his chair and took a quiet puff at his pipe.
“Are you going to land, Captain?” asked the first mate.
“In fifteen days, yes. On von Ryuko’s manor.”
“But the Inspector said…”
“Yes, but the Inspector isn’t paying our wages, is he? And von Ryuko said we were to let nothing interrupt our flight. I believe he meant it.”
“But…”
“Besides, this don’t seem like that much of an emergency to me. Everyone knows it’s easy to spot a member of the Black Rose.”
“It is?”
“Sure thing. They’ve got tattoos all around their eyes, climbing vines like roses, don’t they? Black and green, leading up to a big black rosebud on the forehead. So tell you what: go out there and tell the passengers that as long as they agree to all take their masks off and forfeit their shot at the land, we can deal with the whole thing right now.”
“Um…”
“Don’t you worry,” said Captain Burges, lowering his cap over his eyes. “The nobles have good breeding. I’m sure they can figure out this assassin business in a nice, civilized fashion."
Rules:
You are a passenger aboard The Queen Courier, an opulent luxury airship owned by the eccentric Eichorn von Ryuko.
Knowing that you are infiltrated with assassins, the fingers begin pointing. Each of you feels another should be killed for some reason. Every Day Cycle every character will make a public vote on who should be killed and exposed, as well as make impassioned pleas for themselves. Every Night Cycle the Assassins will vote for which player will be killed by assassins in the night. This will continue until the assassins outnumber the Aristocrats or the Assassins have been purged from the ship.
Most probably, your goals are to survive, get land, and die fat and wealthy surrounded by porcine grandchildren. If this is the case, then you are an Aristocrat.
Aristocrats are broken down into the following roles:
The University Chums: The three of you attended the same university. It was a co-ed knockoff of a more popular university, and made up for its uninspiring curriculum with a shot of half-cocked school spirit and raging elitism. Point is, having witnessed firsthand how thick the other two are, you are quite positive that they’re not the assassins.
University Chums start out knowing each others’ identities.
The Investigators: Detectives Kent and Lightman boarded the airship intending to investigate The Silver Fox, who they had heard was a passenger. Their fake documents are airtight and their identity secure, which should help when all this assassin business happens.
Every Night Cycle, the Investigators can follow another player to determine their role. Investigations are 50% Accurate the first night, and 75% accurate each night after; the Investigators can follow a target multiple times over multiple nights.
The Silver Fox: Throughout history there are tales of nobles sweeping out into the night to defend their people, protect their lands, and incidentally wear very stylish and flattering black clothing that attracts the ladies/lads like nobody’s business. For whatever reason, The Silver Fox ventures out every other night with a black cloak, a silver fox mask and a pair of fighting sticks to beat the piss out of common crooks and look good doing it. Unfortunately, your lands are beginning to suffer for it; hence your decision to embark on this trip in the first place. Once you learned that there were assassins aboard, you knew it was your moment to shine.
Every night, the Fox can pick one person to protect. No matter how many Assassins try to kill that target, they will be unsuccessful. Only the Fox and the Assassins will know that someone was successfully protected that night. The Fox may instead attempt to Investigate players, but due to being untrained in Investigation, The Fox's attempts take twice as long to be as accurate. (2 Nights for 50%, 4 Nights for 75%)
Of course, if you’re not one of the Aristocrats, you’re an Assassin, and your objective is to kill as many nobles as possible. Ideally, to kill all of them—each and every one of them have prices on their heads, and if you actually manage to wipe out the whole ship, it’ll be like getting a year’s worth of paydays all at once.
If the Assassins vote to kill a fellow Assassin they instead learn his identity and him theirs. Assassins in contact with each other are far more dangerous than assassins alone.
Assassins possess three special roles:
The Trapper: A master of poisons, tripwires, beartraps, and other nastiness, the Trapper is skilled at laying snares for the unawares.
Every night, he can pick a certain player to “trap.” If someone attempts to investigate or protect the trapped player, they are killed. This supersedes the standard nightkill, so if the Assassins vote to murder Player A and then snare-kill Player B, Player A survives the night and Player B is eliminated instead.
However, if the player that falls into the trap is currently being protected, the trap fails. For example: Aristocrat A, the Silver Fox, protects Aristocrat B, the Investigator. Aristocrat B attempts to investigate Aristocrat C, who has been trapped. The trap fails, Aristocrat B is given their investigation results normally, and whoever the Assassins voted to kill is eliminated as per usual.
The Subverter: Upon realizing their cover was in jeopardy, the Assassins sent one more of their number at the last minute. Hardly able to manage to murder and replace one of the nobles only an hour before the airship left, the Subverter's story is less than airtight and when Investigated, the accuracy of the Investigator or Silver Fox's results goes up by 25%. However, the Subverter is able to cancel two votes during the Day Cycle by spreading rumors that the nobles have changed their votes. This ability will grow less powerful as the nobles begin to thin, and the Subverter may find himself able to cancel less votes.
The Head Assassin: The job of Head Assassin on this mission has accidentally fallen into your lap. You are no better and worse than any other assassin and if you die the next Assassin will take your place, but until then your vote will count twice in order to determine tiebreakers when Assassins vote to kill different people.
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As I hope I got across here this will be a simple game of secrecy and treachery, using these boards and the new Personal Message feature to play a deadly game of murder. No player shall begin knowing another's role (except the University Chums). Each Cycle will last 72 hours (3 days) and those who do not make a vote in this time will count as Null votes. During the Cycle you may change your vote as often as you like, generally reacting to impassioned arguments or lies. If the Investigators or Silver Fox do not send a PM making their choices they will not be active that night. Same for the other special roles. Each of you should make a character to urge roleplaying. There is no official character system.
Additionally: when I write up the Day and Night reports, your characters will be represented within–especially if they die.
When creating your character, consider including the following details.
Name
Country
One or two lines about appearance.
Recent family history–why do they need to take handouts? Are they poor, or merely shameless?*
Why would an assassin want to kill them?*
*Obviously, if you are assigned certain roles, these will turn out to be fabrications.
-----------------
Recruitment opens now and closes in one week assuming we get enough people (roughly 30), otherwise will remain open two weeks.
Can you Survive Ryuko's Mystery Murder Tour?
Wow no one? That's... disheartening.
Well I would certainly attempt to avoid having a cycle start and end on a weekend. I am aware of the fact that many people do avoid the boards on the weekends and I'd avoid that by adding a day to a cycle when needed. I do admit this would need quite a few people, but since it's only really requiring one post and possibly one PM per 3 days it seemed easier than a typical game to me.
The ur-Duke pointed lavishly at his opponent. "I have seen the way that Lord Fattykins has been eating lately, and Master Redshirt died last night after speaking out against him. Only a peasant would eat in such a porcine fashion." His dark eyes looked impassionedly out at his fellow nobles. "I urge you, my lords and ladies, to help me unmask this dark and large enemy of our people before he kills again!"
Of course the names are ridiculous and fictitious, but the point gets across. I am going for a dark comedy angle, though perhaps a bit less than that post is. This really is based on the old card game Mafia, in which one character is a hitman and everyone else is trying to vote to kill him before he wipes them out, but with a bit more flair and entertainment. Assuming Lord Fattykins was voted to die...
As the argument continues the crowd surrounds the angry and frightened Lord Fattykins. Finally, in a rage, he threw up his arms to his mask. "Here... If this is what I must do!" He said, throwing off the mask to show his face clear and unmarked by tattoos. Unfortunately the airship made a sharp turn at that exact moment, throwing the unfortunate Lord over the side as his larger than average body shrank to a dot. In fact, those watching could see there were two dots dropping. Had there been another victim? Upon a quick headcount it seemed there had. Duke Fancypants was missing, and no one could recall who had been standing beside him on the railing as every eye was on Fattykins. It seemed the Assassins have claimed another life.
That is absolutely acceptable. The spice must flow.
I'm interested... let's see if we can get enough people to make this happen.
Yes, it sounds great. I was thinking of a ex-Officer in Heavy Brigade from the Crimean War, recently returned to his home. A upper class toff, who enjoys a few cigars and his life at the Gentlemans' Club.
Well to be clear, this type of game requires at least 15-20 people to make it viable, with around 30-40 being optimum. I've played a lot of these over at Giant In The Playground, though each one is themed differently (the last one I did was werewolves in a village). I actually intend for this to become a relatively regular thing, with each game finishing and then starting with (hopefully) more players than the last, and different characters and themes. So that's 4 interested (A personal friend told me he'd be in) and 11 more to make a respectable first game.
EDIT: Also, I've decided to change the cycles to being two per week. First between Tuesday and Thursday, and then between Friday and Monday, thus alleviating the weekend issue.
I would like to join in!
Name: Sir Robert McTavish "The Red Robert"
Apperance: Robert McTavish is a tall man, standing at a height of 6ft 4. He has long, curly red hair and a thick curly beard to match. His eyes are a shade of the deepest blue and often described as mad and unsettling.
Family History:
Robert McTavish, of the Highland McTavish's, is a very eccentric man. Eccentric being code for mad as a bag of ferrets. Robert comes from a very wealthy family. His father, Robert McTavish and his mother Roberta McTavish, were both exremly well liked in the proper circles.
The McTavish fortune was made in Cabers. They had been the number one Caber Suppliers, to the Highland Games, for over 200 years. Robert, upon gaining control of the family buisness made a radical change to the company, a change some claimed was "Absolutely mental!"
After the "Triangluar Caber", flopped and the buisness lost its commision with the Highland games, the family suffered a severe financial upset.
Having wasted thousands of pounds on the development of the "Triangular Caber", Robert proceeded to waste thousands more on Dodo eggs, a delicacy he would use to drown his sorrows.
Having heard of von Ryuko's mad ploy, and with a serious need for more Dodo eggs and money to design a "Flat Caber", the mad Scot intends to win this bet and earn himself some new land.
Colour me interested. Always love a good Werewolf/Mafia game. Dotting.
What ratio of assassin to aristocrat do you plan on using, out of curiosity?
Say will we be generating these characters
point buy
feats
traits
etc?
No you will not. The character is a pure roleplaying concept. The only mechanics of the game aree those presented within the thread. As I said before it's really only a forum game with roleplaying to give it framework. Robert McTavish is an excellent example of a character and is already finished.
And I plan to use a roughly 1 to 5 assassin ratio. This makes for 5 assassins in a 30 player game or 2 assassins in a 15 player game. If the game is smaller than about 20 players we will have no Subverter that round.
Name: Sir James Durham-Fairfax
Country: Good old England.
Appearance: With immaculately coiffed blonde hair, side-burns that frame his face - he obviously takes careful note of his appearance. A glint in his eye tells of indiscretions all over the world, bringing his homeland into disrepute. His clothes are stylish and of the latest fashions, costing his purse a pretty penny or from the wardrobes of cuckolded husbands.
Recent family history–why do they need to take handouts? Are they poor, or merely shameless?: After his father a proper gentleman found out about his bawdiness, he sent him straight into the Army. As a young officer in the colonies, James, showed what it means to be a hedonist. Somehow surviving any military actions, despite what his superiors would have wanted. Of course those near to him were not so lucky. A stray bullet bound for him, somehow ended up in a junior who happens to be passing by. He carouses and spends all the money he can find, borrow, swindle on drink, women and any pleasure.
Why would an assassin want to kill them? It might be better to ask why wouldn't one. Husbands and fathers across the globe curse the name - Fairfax. His colleagues from the Armed forces hate and admire him, for his blatant good luck and charisma.
I like the concept.
Werewolf/mafia influence possibly?
With spoilers werewolf PbP would be interesting.
School chums sounds like Mason faction in werewolf.
I like the concept.
Werewolf/mafia influence possibly?
With spoilers werewolf PbP would be interesting.
School chums sounds like Mason faction in werewolf.
Absolutely that influence. In fact, that RIPPED OFF COMPLETELY! But hey, game is fun. The Chums are indeed the Masons, just as the Silver Fox is the Baner and the Investigators are the Seers. Though we likely won't use spoilers since those can be viewed and instead work through the PM service on the site.
Aye! 7 so far of at least 15 to play. We're halfway there.
Might I make a recommendation?
Having your assassins write out a short assassination (simple creative writing pieces detailing the death in whatever manner they desire) and submitting them via PM adds a layer or writing analysis to the game over time once the game regulars get to know each other.
It makes for a spicier game and gives the aristocrats something fun to read, analyze, and bicker over as well as something creatively morbid and fun for the assassins to write.
It might make for a more flavourful game with a little less reliance on blind guesswork.
That's a brilliant idea and it allows for some creative evil writing.
Oh, Ryuko posted in his other threads that his internet will be out for the week. Thus he won't be able to post. But we can still get this game going....
So, *bump*, come on join us everyone for an interesting mystery game. A role-playing parlor game, can the nobles catch the assassins before they are all picked off.
This has me interested, but I'm a little fuzzy on a few things?
1. Do we choose weather or not we want to be an Aristocrat or an Assasin? Are we automatically Aristocrats? or is the role handed out to us? I have one role in particular that I'd like to try. Do I have to claim it?
2. Should I make an Alias or just post under my regular Alias?
3. Do we only only post through PM or do we post on a messageboard?
-Thanks
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This has me interested, but I'm a little fuzzy on a few things?
1. Do we choose weather or not we want to be an Aristocrat or an Assasin? Are we automatically Aristocrats? or is the role handed out to us? I have one role in particular that I'd like to try. Do I have to claim it?
2. Should I make an Alias or just post under my regular Alias?
3. Do we only only post through PM or do we post on a messageboard?
From the types of games I've played that follow a similar fashion the GM assigns roles based at random and sends them out via PM everyone keeps them secret/or not depending on rules.
Speculation and/or roleplay revolves around the game thread usually. Depending on the GM, votes for who to kill/expose/lynch/hang is sometimes or usually handled in the game-play thread while the assassins/werewolves/mafia usually conspires among themselves via PM and try to act innocent in the gameplay thread.
Not sure if we need an alias, but I'm certain it wouldn't hurt.
Pretty sure it's partly PM partly thread posts depending on role/activity.
The game mostly devolves into wild speculation, bandwagon lynch mobs, deception, guesswork, secret pacts, cliche formations, betrayal, and impassioned pleads of innocence or fiery claims of others guilt.
Also.....*Bumpity bump*
Edit: I remember seeing another thread where thoughts of this game sprung up when the PM function came out.... Here. I'll send a PM to those that expressed interest there an attempt to draw others into the fold. Since it couldn't hurt to try. :p
This is DougFungus, I went ahead and created a new Alias for this. Thanks Waltz for answering my questions.
Name: Hamish Cunningham
Country: Scotland
One or two lines about appearance:
Hamish is quite possibly the youngest person on board The Queen Courier. Red haired and freckled Hamish packs quite an attitude for a so-called Aristocrat.
Recent family history–why do they need to take handouts? Are they poor, or merely shameless?
At the age of 19, Hamish is frequently mistaken among The Queen Courier's blueblood's as being one of the Aristocrats sons merely tagging along for the ride. Following the recent and suspicious death of Hamish's mother and father, what should have been an impressive inheritance was instead the discovery of how bad off the Cunningham family actually was. In order to pay off the massive debts, the family estate was auctioned off and Hamish was left penniless. With the prospect of starting over and regaining his fortunes, Hamish has eagerly accepted Eichorn von Ryuko's handout.
Why would an assassin want to kill them?
Good question! Why would an Assasin want to murder a penniless child?
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I tried to stay away and couldn't
Name: Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged
Country: You mean planet--Planet of origin unknown.
Appearance: Wowbagger has a pecuiliar alien tallness, a peculier alien flattened head, peculiar slitty little alien eyes, extravagantly draped golden robes with a peculiarly alien collar design, and a pale gray green alien skin that has that lustrous sheen about it that most gray green races can acquire only with plenty of exercise and very expensive soap.
Recent family history–Most of those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed, he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had his immortaility inadvertantly thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying.
To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody.
In the end, it was Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in at about 2:55 when you know you've taken all the baths you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the Long Dark Teatime of the Soul.
So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everybody in it in particular.
This was the point at which he conceived his purpose, the thing that would drive him on, and which, as far as he could see, would drive him on forever. It was this:
He would insult the Universe.
That is, he would insult everybody in it. Individually, personally, one by one, and (this was the thing he really decided to grit his teeth over) in Alphabetical Order.
When people protested to him, as they sometimes had done, that the plan was not merely misguided but actually impossible because of the number of people being born and dying all the time, he would merely fix them with a steely look and say, "A man can dream, can't he?"
And so he had started out. He equipped a spaceship that was built to last with a computer capable of handling all the data processing involved in keeping track of the entire population of the known Universe and working out the horrifically complicated routes involved.
Now that he is done with this, rather than die of boredom, he attends the murder mystery.
Why would an assassin want to kill him? Wowbagger insulted everyone in the universe once (enough said). He actually just insulted Arthur Dent twice.
Name
Dame-Professor Alessandra Devries
Country
Austria
One or two lines about appearance
Beautiful, and she knows it. Alessandra is a knockout-blonde in her late 30s who is widely known for her work to support the poor and disadvantged youth of the world. Her wardrobe is mostly self-designed and eccelctic, but she has the panache to pull off even the weirdest of fashions.
Recent family history
Quite simply, Baron Devries had entirely too many children and entirely too few holdings. Alessandra was able to trade on her family name for tutelage at the prestigious University of Paris, but her modest stipend didn't go far to cover her expenses. She got involved in the fashion industry, at first as a way to pay the bills but later found a genuine passion for it. Her latest round of socially-progressive fundraising crusades haven't raised as much money as she'd like for the poor, starving orphans of the world, so she's decided to make a play for von Ryuko's lands. She was already held at arms-length by the more respectable bluebloods- what was the worst that could happen?
Why would an assassin want to kill them?
For her atrocious influences on modern fashion
For bringing to light certain abuses of the downtrodden masses
For 'irregularities' in her fundraising proceeds (the new season's fashions don't come cheap...)
For snubbing her academic peers in various research papers (she's a historian)
I'm back everyone. And we have ten players (assuming Eragar is simply watching and not interested). Roughly five more to start the game. Waltz was mostly right on the questions earlier, though you are allowed to share your role if you choose. Doing so publicly is almost guaranteed to be a death sentence but you can if you choose. Doing so privately to someone you don't trust could also be a death sentence, and if you trust anyone then you really aren't getting into the spirit of things!
Anyhow, great characters so far everyone, really looking forward to seeing this play out.
*Derp*
Missed that lol. Was counting that as seperate people. In that case... still 10 since I counted you twice.
Come on people! Its not Pathfinder, but I know there is a demand for PBP on these boards. Make a character and sign up!
Crossposted to forum games, hopefully we can get those last few players...
Come one and all; even colonial types, join a rather exciting mystery tour. ;p
Crossposted to forum games, hopefully we can get those last few players...
Good idea Imprevisto!
@ Ryuko. Is it possible to go forward using only 10 players? I'd still be interested in playing regardless. How long do you plan on leaving recruitment open?
I think I shall go forward with ten. Hopefully we will gain more on our next outing. Look to me starting it later tonight or tomorrow.
"Like a fine wine some things especially the good things in life can not be rushed, relationships for example take considerable time and trust to establish, I hope that by the end of this sojourn I shall perhaps add one to that number."
"Sorry to rain on your parade old man"
"Like a fine wine some things especially the good things in life can not be rushed, relationships for example take considerable time and trust to establish, I hope that by the end of this sojourn I shall perhaps add one to that number."
"Only one old boy? When I have relations; I prefer at least one at a time. Or consequectively; at least on a cruise this length." the 'gent' says with a wink.
Roles have been assigned and the game of murder has begun!