Darkened Thresholds - Artifact

Game Master JonGarrett

Yes, yes it is.

...and when you fight a team of killer lacrosse zombies you'll all know why.

I'm just picturing this song but with lacrosse instead of football now.

So when exactly can you Investigate a Mystery?
Would the pictures be enough? Do we have to be at the scene?

Not really sure.

Yeah, I think you could investigate a mystery with that.

And it's not as clear as most games when and where you get to do things. It's what makes narrative sense.

You'd think that folks like us would have cover stories prepared in advance. But apparently not.

Also, are we really planning on doing all our planning in a public place where we could get interrupted at any time?

The Expert in me says no, but the TV Character in me says absolutely.

Maybe in the future we should pretend to be a group that specializes in the capture of wild animals, out to relocate a bear or something. Would explain the cage-van and mild armaments, and be a good cover for talking about beasts and stuff. Which of course means that next time we'll end up claiming we're a polo team or something similarly ridiculous.

That would be a solid cover...although it's funnier this way.

Indeed it is. :D

Hmmm... can Cheshire speak in cat form?

We have two cars in the other thread, but reading this one makes me glad I picked a Playbook that has a vehicle. I wasn't realizing that it would be a fairly rare thing in this campaign.

And I also like it from a design sense, as it's something mostly flavor-free that could be added to any starting Playbooks that need a bit extra.

In case you like deep (non Tabletop) RPGs in urban fantasy settings, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is on sale on Good Old Games.

Flawed but a great classic.

/shilling

Indeed it is. :D

Hmmm... can Cheshire speak in cat form?

I would assume so.

Excellent. :) I mean, half the point of this is to be a snarky cat, after all...

Excellent. :) I mean, half the point of this is to be a snarky cat, after all...

Tell them how much you hate Mondays.

Better not. I'd hate to have to hide another set of lawyers in my basement. It's getting full and basements are pretty unusual in the UK.

Would rolling Use Magic to do damage be capable of making it fire damage?

Yeah, you can cast Fireball.

It was my impression that we're not supposed to just roll all the time like this, because A) low rolls are supposed to cause something bad to happen and B) you get EXP from low rolls, so you're only supposed to roll when there's real consequence to the action rather than at every turn like with Pathfinder Perception rolls. Is that an incorrect impression?

That is somewhat my impression, which is why I'm only going to roll the once here. And who knows, maybe all the poor rolls will cause an ambush to spontaneously materialize even if there wasn't one here before!

Typically, you only get to roll something like Investigate a Mystery once per 'area'. So far that would have been the diner, the farm, the basement, the tunnels, the cellar and the bar.

That being said, you guys have missed a couple of extra scenes, and I am probably having you roll a little more than usual because I'm not as used to this system as I am Pathfinder and the like. I'll try blurring some of the areas into larger ones, so the 'bar' will become 'abandoned town part 1' to reduce the number of rolls you guys get to make.

I've been working late and been on mobile for days.
I'll get something up tonight, sorry about that

No worries, life is life and must come first. It's demanding that way.

Sorry I've been a touch slow the last few days. A cold has left me sleepy when I would usually be doing all the posting.

Now, are you guys going upstairs to confront the monsters or are you heading downstairs to see if there are people?

That would actually put me to 5/7 Harm, I've been counting up. What does that mean for me if I'm seriously injured (past 3 Harm)?

Basically, your wounds go unstable, which would mean roughly once an hour in game time you'll loose another wound.

I'll take my chances then, worst case if its unstable I can spend Luck down the road to stabilize (make it a 12). I can't roll lower than 4 forever... right?

Plus there is more DRAMA this way.

DRAMA is what feeds me, so sure.

Just as a reminder if you would like to rest up at Carlos place he has an infirmary, which I assume would act as a hospital.

Did we lose track of Sarah O'Callaghan?

She hasn't posted in a while.

Yeah, both this and the Gemstones table lost a person through these first stories which ended up kinda lost. Not uncommon, but rarely the nicest thing.

Once they're both done (Gemstones is nearing the end of their big boss-monster fight, a nasty beast used in a ritual that essentially brings the memory-ghosts-of-burning-light of child murderers back to haunt their now-shadow-ghost-victims and other kids who go into the forest -- because I'm the warm and fuzzy entirely normal GM), there is likely going to be a bit of a reshuffle with at least one person from each table switching before the second story for funs and so people can play with different character combinations.

I'm not sure about Jon, but the next Gemstones story is mostly outlined and will not have child murderers again. Probably. Definitely less angsty teenagers though maybe other reckless weird people to rescue since rescuing seems quite motivating. Particularly rescuing the living ones.

Artifact will feature an exploration of the Hudson Theatre, and why six people have gone missing on its grounds.

But yes, sadly, Sarah seems to have dropped out.

Everyone still here? We've been kind of on delay for a few days, so just checking. (though I also did a post to maybe stir up a little more discussion)

Still here!

I've been debating about a post, but I'm not sure where Jessica is going to go from here. I'm thinking she might wander into one of the towns of Mutton County.

I figure Cheshire's pretty much figured out at this point, though he'll speak up if someone else says something interesting.

Still here! I have a final post for this story, but wanted to leave things open while Gemstone finishes up.

OK, I'm writing the finale now - I'm afraid I got slowed down by a sprained bicep making work take a lot longer than I'd have liked.

A question - would anyone be interested in swapping over to the Gemstones table now that both have finished? D and I are a bit different in how we tell stories and run games, so some of you might be interested in doing stuff at her table - and a couple of folks are considering swinging over here.

I'm fairly indifferent. I'll do my best to fit in anywhere... or enjoy the consequences of failing to if not. So if you need someone to move over, I'd be fine, but I can also stay.

Then again, maybe Kavax should stay away from that flammable theater...

I'm happy with anything really.
I feel like other than a couple bouts of friction, Carlos is easy to get along with.

In fairness, the building being on fire was Cheshire botching a fireball, not Kavax.

Either one character or a pair will be switched. If people wanted to state a preference for a person to pair up with if we do the pair switch, that would more than be fine.

My game is going to have a soggy setting which might be useful for Kavax...

I'm happy to switch. I think I set up a couple connections to the other team members, too.

But I'm also happy to stay. Though I like the idea of switching team members around. I think it's a fairly novel concept, at least in application. I'm happy to be part of the experiment.

Cheshire is set up so he can easily switch, but I have no preference.

Sorry for the delay.

OK, I deliberately haven't put where you guys are - if you're starting as a group - and the like so you can decide. While the end goal here is to search the theatre and find the problem, you have choices about how to go about that. You can research it's history, meet the family members of the missing people, talk to the police and pretty much everything inbetween.

Or you can boot down the door and start exploring.

It's up to you guys.

So were any of us switching, or just staying as-is for this time?

I'm fine either way, frankly.

Jessica and Charly are swapping around.

Alright. Charly won't have any trouble fitting in with Kavax and Cheshire at least, right?

Also, do we recover some/all harm from the last 'session'? Some of us were rather beaten up...

Yeah, enough time has passed that you're all healed up.

And Charly is weird enough that she should fit in.

Hello! Sorry for being late, I didn't get off until after 10 last night.

And yeah, Charly's definitely odd. Her player is too, but we don't mention that in front of him. :P

Looking forward to playing with all of you. I've been keeping up and it looks like a fun group. I do wonder how Kavax is going to handle having a fledgling demigoddess of thunder and storms in the group. That could be fun.

Firebolts and Lightning, Supernatural Fighting!

Fun times.