Oscar Hallward's page

Bad news, all. DM messaged me earlier today to make sure I was still around. I said yes, but I was way behind on all the reading about relationships in this thread, lore in this thread and the PDF, and finally two days' worth of Gameplay posts. I was still chugging along, but it's a bit overwhelming for me.

Shortly after I replied, I got a new project dropped on my plate at work. In fact, I have to go out of town this weekend, so I need to get ready for that and get my family squared away. I think, all things considered, I'm just going to cut myself loose and drop out of this game before Oscar gets anything started I won't be able to finish.

If this were a system I was more familiar with (like PF), I wouldn't have the issue of not being able to keep up. In fact, this game seems far more involved than the other two PbtA games I've played on these forums. I'm not sure if it's the game or the group, but I was looking forward to it and hope you all have fun.

DM, I dotted and deleted in the Gameplay thread yesterday. Oscar appears in the Characters tab. If you could move him to inactive, I'd appreciate it.

So I'm still playing catch up, here. I've read all of our posts in Recruitment and Discussion, but there's been so much tweaking that I don't really have a handle on everyone's backstories, yet. Apologies. I also need to finish reading most of the lore in the rulebook.

Here's a few more bits to round out Oscar:

- He's the de facto senior editor of a loose conglomeration of surviving journalists and like-minded people who publish articles on the fleet's civilian intranet. It's moderately popular since it gives people a sense of connection with the rest of the fleet, and for many, it's a source of entertainment, which can be hard to find. I need to come up with a good name for it, but for now, let's say that many refer to it as "the News Feed." It posts things like births, obituaries, ship malfunctions and repairs, military and civilian appointments and promotions, and anything newsworthy that people should know about (unrest on any of the ships, work stoppages, riots, unexplained events, etc.) Editorials and Corax speculation are also popular parts of the News Feed.

- Oscar's main journalistic concerns involve the aftermath of Corax attacks (or the beforemath if he's in the right place at the right time)), questioning leadership regarding the fleet's next moves, and anything that the leadership is particularly close-lipped about.

- Oscar is also the mentor of another journalist named Olivia Marriott. She has the same interest that Oscar does, and Oscar sees in her the same drive that gets results, but that comes at a cost to those she cares about. He's trying to temper her single-mindedness by honing her skills so that she doesn't need give so much of herself to get what she needs. This is important to Oscar, because...

- Oscar used to be married, but his wife divorced him because of this single-minded focus on getting the story, even if it meant neglecting his family. They had a daughter named Joann who would be an adult now. Oscar hasn't tried to discover if his ex-wife survived to be a part of the fleet, because he doesn't know what he wants the answer to be. He also doesn't know what last name Joann might be using, but he has checked and has not found a person using that name with either his last name or his ex-wife's last name.

- Finally, Oscar has a drug habit! He also drinks, but not so much that he considers his wits dulled. The drug that he is most likely to use is called "whiteout," and it provides a sustained period of manic clarity with a healthy side effect of psychedelic hallucinations. Oscar tried the drug a few times when he felt like he needed an edge in his job, but he didn't anticipate how addictive it could become. They are little unassuming white pills, and they're not that hard to manufacture.

Oscar Hallward wrote:

Well, I'm not sure how that would work, then. If you have classified information, what is Oscar doing to antagonize you? I don't see Oscar wasting time pestering a source that isn't going to say anything. We could twist it to say that Oscar has enough evidence to feel fairly certain about things, and Deigon knows that Oscar knows, but he doesn't understand why Oscar isn't acting on the information. Or we could drop the connection if that's too convoluted.

It kind of works. Deigon has become an extreme alcoholic since the mission. This is in response to the public's brow bashing, guilt from watching his squad die, and being exposed to the harbinger's gravity wave weapon. In short, after a few drinks, he talks about things he shouldn't. I'm guessing you stick around, providing a few drinks,...

Okay, that makes sense. I don't see Oscar as underhanded, though. It makes sense that Gunny doesn't like him, but Oscar isn't always appearing out of nowhere asking if Gunny wants to get a drink with a big lascivious smile on his face. Maybe they drank together one or two times, and it was enough to make the impression that it did on Gunny, but Oscar thinks he left it with a, "If you ever want to talk more, I'm always willing to listen."

Oscar Hallward wrote:

Hey Gunny, can you add your Playbook and Moves to your alias?

Yes, I will add in what I can. I'm absolutely new to this game's mechanics and kind of learning as we go. That said, I have read through what info the basic rule book offers and think I have an understanding of what we are doing. After I update the profile, if I need to add something else, please let me know.

No worries, it looks good. I can tell you put some effort into it. I may swipe some of that formatting for my alias.

Oh jeez, we keep bumping this to the top of the Recruitment forum, but DM_DM isn't recruiting any more. I think we should move discussion to the Discussion forum.

Oscar Hallward wrote:

All, I made this spreadsheet to help me visualize each other's relationships and a few other things.

Thank you thank you! I was about to ask someone to do this.

The only thing I would add here are Moves, since they are likely to come up...

Sure, added a Moves column. Everyone should be able to edit, now.

Hey Gunny, can you add your Playbook and Moves to your alias?

I encourage everyone to check the spreadsheet in my quoted post. I've skimmed this thread at best, and some things have changed as discussions happened. One thing I know is missing is that I haven't been tracking NPC relationships that weren't part of Playbook Relationship Questions. I feel like that would be a good resource to track.

Oscar Hallward wrote:

2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?

-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.

As it stands, Deigon is decommissioned and forcibly retired do to the incident revolving around his last mission. He doesn't see himself as any form of contender for command. He was a CAG before the incident but since has become disgruntled with command. That said, he does share in humanities struggle. To that extent, he would consider piloting again if approached. As far as command, probably not. He currently distrusts the fleet's leadership and for good reason.

Looking at your question, I would say Deigon fits well here. He has a personal history with the mission that failed humanity and the cover up that followed it. You're considered a thorn in his side because he isn't allowed to talk about it, its classified.

Well, I'm not sure how that would work, then. If you have classified information, what is Oscar doing to antagonize you? I don't see Oscar wasting time pestering a source that isn't going to say anything. We could twist it to say that Oscar has enough evidence to feel fairly certain about things, and Deigon knows that Oscar knows, but he doesn't understand why Oscar isn't acting on the information. Or we could drop the connection if that's too convoluted.

@Oscar: I was thinking I could answer your third relationship question. Thea met you following the disaster of the initial Corax attack as she was searching for any sign of her family or Rowan. Although generally reserved and proper, she did show you Rowan's garbled last transmission to help identify him if you ran across any recent images or vids. It was a comm signal that originated from the bridge of the Damocles minutes before it exploded. As far as you know, all transmissions from that ill-fated ship have been redacted by the military and any effort to dig into what happened has been summarily shut down. So far you've kept the existence of her dead husband's final transmission a secret, because you can't help but wonder it there is something more hidden in it besides apologies, last words of love and worried doom? Could it contain some damning evidence as to what happened in the battleships final hours or minutes? Was it an inside job? Or a new Corax threat that the military is trying to cover up?

That works for me!

All, I made this spreadsheet to help me visualize each other's relationships and a few other things. It's probably not complete as there's been a lot of changes and such to people's backgrounds (and it's kind of hard for me to keep up). Feel free to update it if you want, or feel free to ignore it. It's just a tool for me to see if anyone is getting left out of the web of relationships that's being made.

Speaking of which, here are Oscar's relationship questions:

1) Who is feeding me information on the quiet? What secret or rumour are
they about to tell me?
-- I think Sasha fits the bill, here. See my above reply to her.

2) Who sees me as a thorn in their side? How have I recently got in their way?
-- Deigon, seeing as how you see yourself as a contender for command, I can see you feeling like Oscar isn't someone who's helping the fleet, but actively hindering it. Oscar's frequent reporting of things that command would rather keep secret is a regular hurdle to keeping up the support of the civilians in the fleet.

I'd like to work in something with Devin, but I don't know anything about his background.

Working on an NPC relationship I have in mind, but it's late.

@Oscar - Maybe Sasha is feeding you information ont he quiet? The question would then be, what's in it for her?

I was thinking something remarkably similar, actually. Oscar knows that Sasha is a great source of information, and he's perfectly happy using her as an anonymous source, but Oscar is frustrated by the fact that he usually has to "pay" for the information, instead of Sasha offering the information because she believes in the principles of government transparency.

So, she probably knows more than she ever tells Oscar, but occasionally he'll be able to broker a deal with her such as an exchange of information, or Oscar keeping some other piece of news out of the press, because that's a favor that Sasha can offer to someone else. And just occasionally, Sasha telling Oscar some piece of information that results in an informative article works out well for both of them.

Yes, I can commit to a mostly once-per-day posting schedule.

So, I've done a terrible job with this commitment. Apologies. I've still been checking regularly, but finding motivation to contribute has been a struggle.

With apologies for how this will leave the game with only two players, I'm going to bow out. I gave it a go, but I don't want to continue this game. I hope there's no hard feelings.

Forgot to respond yesterday, but I still need to know which way y'all want to go with Rani's Convince before I can resolve the scene.

I feel like that's up to Rani. We didn't coordinate anything ahead of time.

FYI, there's some stuff going down at work taking up a lot of my time. I'm still here, but it may not be daily. Sorry.

"I hope you're enjoying your meal. It's getting late; perhaps you should get a to-go box?"

Let's try and convince the people who are not Hatters to leave, but I think only one of Oscar's tags apply, since most of the others that could apply are conditional to the NPC witnessing Oscar not being harmed.

Convince + Charming tag: 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (6, 6) + 1 = 13

"• on a 10+, to change their agenda to include yours, at least for the time being." So, who chooses that extra affect? The MC or the player?

Going slow to see if Ahmad will post. But Oscar is expecting this to escalate, so he's kind of working towards that.

Ignoring the leader, Oscar looks over at the people the next table over.

"I hope you're enjoying your meal. It's getting late; perhaps you should get a to-go box?"

"Firing your weapons seems awfully foolish considering the city's finest are right across the street. I wonder what they're investigating? Perhaps they'll wonder if any trouble right across the street is related? It's interesting to think about."

Oscar rests the cane that the ganger kicked at against his shoulder as he talks. He tries to focus on the situation in front of him, but he also wonders at the stray thought that's noticed how his speech pattern is wildly different than when he was back "home."

Oscar nods at Rani and moves to confirm that his gun is still in his holster in case for when things turn messy, only to remember that the version of Oscar Hallward he inhabits now, doesn't carry a gun. He picks up and examines the cane that he's been carrying around instead. He tugs at the knobbed end in his hand, and (as he expected) finds that he is holding the handle of a sword still mostly sheathed inside the rest of the cane.

"So eccentric," he mutters to Rani and Ahmad as if they heard his thoughts. He puts his domino mask and his top hat back on and moves to address the gangers, walking forward as he talks.

"Hello! It seems to me that if you are actual defenders of this pizzeria, you have a counter-productive way of going about it."

To make sure he has their attention, Oscar swiftly pulls the chair supporting the feet of the last Hatter to sit down away, sets it aside, and stands in its place.

Oscar's eyes narrow as he studies the newcomers. Do they have any unifying symbol or colors? And if so, does Oscar remember seeing these colors on Bryce's corpse?

Oscar finishes sitting down at the table with Rani and Ahmad. He takes a deep, steadying breath before speaking.

"I know that we're trying to lay low, but..."

"'Sleepers' and the 'Awakened,' eh? Thanks for that." Oscar pockets Shiro's card, and then looks over his shoulder to check the alley's entrance through the window and to see if Rani or Ahmad have any questions before Shiro disappears.

"That's not exactly what I meant." Oscar looks around to see who might be listening. When he thinks he can speak when only the rabbit can hear him, he leans forward and speaks in a quiet, intense voice.

"You are a rabbit the size of a man, and nobody thinks that's out of place. I have two companions back there with some unusual qualities that nobody seems to notice, and I think that your situation and our situation are related. But since we are not from around here, we don't know what's going on. Are you able to explain this to us?"

"Something similar happened to me, also. I chose the option that didn't have to do with my reflection, but it was a decision made out of fear. Maybe it wasn't the right option.

"But I can't see this life. I have no idea who I've "replaced" right now. But I think I have a painting of myself somewhere out there, and I think the painting has to do with the option I took when we came through Rani's portal."

Something catches Oscar's attention out of the corner of his eye. He turns to look at someone sitting at a table in the far corner, but then:

“Oscar, you’ll turn around in six seconds, see a giant bunny and wonder whether you should talk to him. I think you should. Don’t mention Alice, he’ll get offended.”

Oscar pauses for a second to find the words that he wants to use.

"I absolutely hate that you can do that. I'll be right back."

Oscar walks over to the table where the rabbit sits.

"Hello. May I bother you for a moment? My friends and I are from out of town, and we'd like to talk to someone who knows what this town is really like."

I don't know if you mean the pizza place or the bar when you mention the hairdresser, but if it has a backdoor, then that's what I have in mind.

Removing his top hat and domino mask, Oscar crosses the street and goes into the indicated door. He'll order a martini/slice of pizza and whatever Ahmad and Rani want. He'll remove the cash from Bryce's wallet where the cashier can't see and pay for the order with that. Then he'll grab a table where he can see the alleyway through a window.

"I don't want to stay here long. We are too close to the alley, I know. But I don't want us to be running around an unfamiliar city and get spotted by any police cars heading this way. If we see any police coming here, we can dash out the back.

"Now. Do either of you have any theories about what in the Hell is going on?"

"Elmohtar. You can see things now, correct? Do the pizza place or the bar have a back door?"

Oscar turns to Rani. "Can you pass through walls?"

All that makes sense. I'm not necessarily thinking in terms of triggering a Move, though. More that I'm thinking of the general actions to take, and if they obviously trigger a Move (or if you determine that one is needed and ask for one), so be it.

Regarding searching Bryce's corpse, mainly Oscar just wants to find and take any ID Bryce has so that the police don't find it and have that tool to potentially link him to our PCs. Oscar has no idea what sort of relationship they had with Bryce in this world. If he finds anything else useful, great.

As for seeing what's at the end of the alleyway, it's literally just that. They are (at least Oscar is) trying to flee the scene, so any dark alleys or crowds of people or waiting taxicabs is something worth knowing about.

Oscar suddenly turns back, checks Bryce's pockets for any ID or anything else interesting, and then heads back to the alley entrance.

As someone who has also GMed a PbP game, I get where you're coming from, and I wish I'd handled my delays better. Speaking only for myself, this was only the 2nd MotW game I'd played in, and the GMing style was different, so I often had to consider whether I didn't understand the rules or if it something unexpected was just a GMing-style difference. I'm not interested in hashing all that out, but on top of a general mental exhaustion living in a pandemic, whenever I had an issue like that, I chose to take a pause to think about it, and then I didn't come back to it in a timely manner. Like I said, I wish I'd handled it better.

*********

I wanted to add that I'm glad you added a comment about modern technology. When I think of the noir genre, I think of 1940s/1950s inner cities, so I would not have thought about security camera being ubiquitous. I wonder if we'll be able to use "the Myst" as something to counter that.

"Elmohtar, stop talking. If we've been set up, then we need to move. We need to find a place to hole-up and figure things out. If you discover anything new about yourselves as we flee -- such as being a ghost or being blind -- call it out.

"This way."

Oscar heads to the end of the alley opposite of where the sirens seem loudest. At the end of the alleyway, he scans the street for threats, observers, or a likely place to flee.

"Well, you're intangible, certainly, although more amicable than any ghost I've ever heard of.

"And who is that?" Oscar moves to inspect the motionless body that he doesn't recognize.

Yes, I can commit to a mostly once-per-day posting schedule. I realize that I had a period where my posting dropped off, but I'm checking in regularly, now.

In this most recent instance, I didn't want to get too far ahead before Taryn got a chance to introduce her new PC. Not blaming; just stating what my reasoning was.

Oscar nods and steps over to Rani's outstretched arm. He tries to gently hold her wrist, using his thumb to search for a pulse.

I'm still interested in the game, I've just been wrung-out by non-game-related events. Life.

I've updated Oscar and I've posted in the Gameplay thread.

Oscar rolls to the left to avoid any incoming rat urine, and smoothly finishes the roll on his hands and knees. He finds himself staring at his face reflected in a puddle of (hopefully) water, his image lit up by a neon sign at the end of the alley. He right away notices his fancy and outlandish clothes (is that a top hat and cape? A domino mask, really?), but what really strikes him is his skin. It's... flawless. There are no scars or marks, and while he appears to be the same age, he somehow looks incredibly youthful.

"Thank yo--" he starts to say to Ahmad, but stops. When he repeats himself, it's to listen to how rich his voice has become.

"Thank you." It's the voice of someone used to talking, and used to being listened to. It's hard to voice his usual monotone with this practiced articulation.

"I'm as solid as I can be," he continues, proving as much by picking up a silver-handled cane as he gets to his feet. "I don't think we're ghosts. Or, at least, not all of us."

Sorry for the silence. Things were very busy this weekend, and I'm still catching up. I know what I need to do based on our PMs, but I need to make the time to do that, still. I expect to have him finished by Friday or Saturday, but feel free to start.

Sorry that I'm still not caught up. I've been busy and exhausted and I haven't gotten around to finalizing my character. My kids just started school for the year, the latest COVID surge is affecting both my job and especially my wife's, and work has been really busy the past week, which has slowed down my posting.

I'll try and re-focus and get back on course by Wednesday or Thursday.

Sorry for the silence. Things were very busy this weekend, and I'm still catching up. I know what I need to do based on our PMs, but I need to make the time to do that, still. I expect to have him finished by Friday or Saturday, but feel free to start.

A CoM PC is taking me a bit longer than I expected to get to. I'm catching up at work from being on vacation, where my coworkers resolved minor emergencies by stop-gapping them until I got back.

I read the Starter Set pdf a while back, and I agree with what was said above about how it is not the best organized and it contains a lot of discussion not helpful to "start" anything, but one thing I picked up on is that there's some sort of balancing act between our PCs' mythos and logos? Is that something that's going to come heavily into play, or are they really just there to define powers and backgrounds, only changing if a player deviates too far from them?

The themes you pick don't need to exactly match your current character; you are, in fact, creating the past of an alternate universe version of yourself. You have the skills of your alternate universe/CoM version of your character but the memories of you MotW universe version of your character.

Just looking for clarification: Will we also have any of the memories of the past CoM version of our PCs?

Done. I'm back from my trip, but sorry for the delay.

1) Did you conclude the current mystery (the current mystery being around the wolf man, not around the missing little girl)? - I understand the mystery around the wolf man being "where did it come from and how do we stop it," and I don't feel like we know very much about either of those questions. (We did learn that Bryce let himself be turned into a wolf man, but he's only one of many, so I don't think that's what you mean.) I've been playing Oscar so that rescuing the girl is a higher priority than solving the mystery, however. But short answer: no.

2) Did you save someone from certain death (or worse)? - I'm 99% sure that's a yes. Oscar tried his very best to save the deputy that he accidentally shot from dying at the fight at the police station. We potentially saved a number of civilians by defeating the hunters there, also.

3) Did you learn something new and important about the world? - I feel like we've encountered and fought/defeated a new type of creature (disguised as wolf men). If that counts, then yes.

4) Did you learn something new and important about one of the hunters? - No. Possibly a by-product of Oscar's standoffishness.

Oscar stares at the spot where Taryn and then Rani walked into nothingness. He swallows once, twice, and then looks over at Ahmad, but he looks away before he can meet the man's eyes.

Will going through this portal be anything like when he passed through the mirror when he was a boy? Will it be worse? Will his reflection follow him? What will happen to it if it doesn't?

Putting his hands in his coat pockets so that they don't shake, he lowers his head and runs through the portal.

I'll be going on vacation from Wednesday until the end of the month. I don't expect to be without internet access for an extended period, but I probably won't be posting as frequently. This is just an FYI, but you guys have permission to assume my PC's actions if I'm slowing things down.

Oscar nods, accepting an invisible portal in the middle of the woods.

"Where does it lead?"

"This is where Alfie and I found Bryce Campbell's phone. I don't see a portal."

Oscar looks at Rani expectantly.

Unless Oscar and Rani want to work out their 90s teen-angst scene, we're all for working the story towards the portal.

"Ambulance," Oscar replies, applying pressure to an open wound.

So these hunters have dark ooze spreading from them when they've been defeated. Can our characters tell that this ooze-spread is different than the ooze's movement when they encountered them in the warehouse the previous night? If it's the same, can they tell that?

I ask because I'm getting the impression that we (collectively; not Oscar, though he's doing his best) are killing some of the hunters, and the ooze is leaving their bodies, but just sort of spreading out in a puddle because it's dead or inert. This seems different than the ooze that we trapped in a barrel in the warehouse and eventually set on fire, which seemed to move with more purpose.

With the two closest hunters trapped and (hopefully) distracted by his companions, Oscar puts all of his attention into first aid for the bleeding deputy in front of him.

Oscar starts cutting the deputy's shirt off and into strips with his knife and tying wads of cloth pressed to the wound.

If a roll is needed for this, feel free to make it on Oscar's behalf to keep things moving.

Oscar needs to devote attention to the dying man at his feet, but he can't just ignore the gun at the hunter's belt that he's trapped. He's had success convoking Voodoo spirits, but he doesn't want to ask too much of that one agreement.

He recalls learning of an ancient peacebonding ritual ancient Romans used in their holy sites. The god(s) that granted the ritual are probably long dad, but perhaps enough of their magic remains.

Use Magic: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (3, 6) + 2 = 11

If you'll allow it, I'm re-purposing the 'Trap a specific person, minion, or monster" effect to keep the gun at the hunter's hip. Not just keep it in the holster (because I don't want him to take the belt off and fire the gun through the holster), but to keep it locked at his hip.

If that works, Oscar starts cutting the deputy's shirt off and into strips with his knife and tying wads of cloth pressed to the wound.

Who's "the man behind the counter"?

The deputy that I presume is now dead. There was a hunter on top of him when we arrived, we heard some screaming, and the hunter got off of him once the screaming stopped.

Does Oscar have any mundane options to stabilize the deputy he accidentally shot? The best I can think of is for Oscar to try and stop the bleeding with a balled up shirt held in place by a make-shift bandage, but I don't know if a roll is required for that.

"I think they're goal is Sheriff Davis,"

"Their." Ugh.

Oscar shakes his head 'no' at Rani's question. He's more concerned with the dying man at his feet, and the still-armed wolf-thing he's trapped.

Is it correct to say that all of us in the bullpen can see everyone else in the bullpen, with the exception of the man behind the counter? If so, does that include Rani, who I believe is still at the police station's doorway?

It worked before, so maybe it will work again. Although it will probably hurt again, too.

Use Magic: 2d6 + 2 ⇒ (4, 4) + 2 = 10

Entreating the help of another voodoo spirit, two more spiritual hands rise up to grab onto the hunter woman who just arrived in the room. Oscar is relieved to see that the life force the last spirit took for him covers the payment for this spell, also.

Breathing hard from a mix of adrenaline and pain, Oscar's voice is still a distinctive monotone. "I think they're goal is Sheriff Davis," Oscar tells the other Hunters. "We are probably just in the way, but these deputies are probably targets on the way to get to the Sheriff."

Oscar steps widely around the hunter and checks on the man he accidentally shot.