Topic "Hors Personnage"/OOC Thread

Ce topic sert aux discussion dites "hors personnages".

This thread is for Out of character discussions.

Due to a family emergency, I won't be available until probably Monday night.

Hope things get better and/or are not too bad.

Thanks, Kalajel. I'm back now.

I have some bad news. Seems we lost Phil for a while. Not sure when and if he'll be able to get back. We'll have to continue without him for now.

Sorry bout the absence, back surgery and Christmas kept me occupied. I’ll try to do a post soon!

No problem. I purposefully slowed down the game because I assume people would be busy during the holidays period.

Come back to us healthy and full of energy! :D

Hi, what is happening with the game?

Oops. Désolé, il semble que je n'ai pas vus le post de Grouse.

Fixé.

Hello, how should I go about rejoining this game?

Is your character done? Have all your debts been attributed?

I had thought so previously, but honestly its been a couple months and I don't recall. Would you be willing to take a quick look and see if it was where it needs to be, and if not we can finish it up? Otherwise, if the game is too far advanced, I can sit this out. Your call. My leaving was the inconvenient part.

Looking at the debts and the Debt Tracking thread, you only seem to be missing "someone told you their secret and you haven't told anyone".

You can assign it to an NPC and you'd be good to go, I'll try and enter you in the storm.

Edit: Oh, seems like I was wrong... I guess Édouard just forgot to note it in the Debt Tracking thread...

I've noticed that some players are taking initiative when it comes to rolling their moves. Normally, in a PbtA type game, the players state what they wish to accomplish, and then the MC tells them which move to roll for. But I don't mind this initiative you guys are taking, it might help speed gameplay up a little bit.

However, please note that I will still reserve myself the right to ignore the result of a move you rolled if I felt the move in question did not fit the situation, and suggest you reroll with a different, more appropriate move.

I'm sure everyone will find such a solution reasonable. Without further ado, we can continue play as normal.

I didn't really see anything in the US rules that implies it's the MCs job to point out when moves have been triggered, simply that moves happen after they are triggered in the narrative. Although it is certainly within the MC's right to say that a move hasn't been triggered.

Hmm, true. But the exemples in the book do seem to imply that. Perhaps I misinterpreted things.

I think the way we are doing it works well for PbP with us calling out when we think we have triggered a move and then you working with it from there, as I don’t think it makes sense to slow the game down with extra posts to resolve actions.

I agree that for PbP, it will help speed things along if we go ahead and roll if we feel it makes sense to, and I also agree that since US is so narrative-driven and making rolls are so up to interpretation, it is totally fair for the MC to say that the roll was unnecessary or disregard it for some other reason.

In my most recent post, I considered asking if I needed to make a roll, but I knew that could possibly slow things up and for telling a lie, the rules seemed pretty clear. I opted to explain what I was rolling and why, though, just so it was really clear on the post. I'll probably keep doing it like that, if I feel like I need to make a roll.

Am I good to go then? Just let me know when it would be a good time to jump in. Also, if it is at all disruptive to the game at this point for me to come back in, please tell me. I'm not offended at all. This is for the players and MC.

I've already took care of it Phil.

Between his wardrobe change and his appointment with Martin, Edouard want to text Jake to plan their next sortie. Should I put that on the main channel or do we open a "smartphone and email" channel?

Main channel. It's part of the adventure.

Since this looks like it could be a long and/or interesting discussion, I fell it might be a good idea to move this discussion here instead to avoid taking up posts in the Storm thread...

So to summarize...
Yeah, storytelling games can be a bit difficult to grasp at first. So far, my experience with PbtA has been much better than Phil's. Guess I was lucky and got good GMs in those games (even if then ended prematurely). I'd like to think they gave me a good idea on how to frame PbtA games. Players certainly have a lot of liberties in their narrative (especially since the lore can be established as we play the game), but the GM must also be able to set his boundaries and step in if he feels a player has overstepped their boundaries.
Basically, I have a good idea which direction this Storm should take, and I can try and steer the game towards that end, but at the same time, the actions of the players could influence that, and there is always the chance that a player might come up with a much better idea for something than I have.
So give the players the freedom to explore and do as they please, but remain close so you can intervene if a player does something you feel would not work for the game. That is my philosophy and I hope it will work well.

Dropping in to say that I read this information! This is my first time participating in a PbtA game, though I have listened to podcasts of playing. It does seem like it can be tricky since things are by nature narrative-driven and somewhat open. At any rate, I'm still around, observing the action going on with other players until it makes sense for me to be involved.

I think my problem is that, there seems to be no way of resolving debts without meta-gaming. The narrative doesn't flow smoothly because we have obligations to each other, but not the kind that evolve over time. We start out owing each other, and it skews the game. My experience, and granted it is small, would be that the game should stipulate thet characters should have developed a bond, or more as the game evolves. The debt system really messes with the flow of the game. I've also seen people grumble with a lack of group actions for PbtA games. Can't really comment on that one yet, but I've seen it come up.

I kinda like owing debts as the Vamp, it gets my character involved and gets others to start the habit of asking help from him.
I see the bonding simply as mutually beneficial debts and it allows the possibility of reluctant teamwork that always happens in those kinds of "dark story"

I have to agreewith grouse, further though I feel it makes total sense for debts to be a thing in a game with vampires and fey, it doesn’t matter how well they get to know you interactions with them are going to be transactional.

Given the mechanics they gave to debts in this game, they make complete sense. It's what makes the game move and it's part of your "experience" to "level up".
The way you cash in debt is a great roleplay opportunity which requires the player to mention the event which cause the debt to be owed in the first place, enforcing the bond each players have toward each other. The fact that there is a move to attempt to weasel out of a debt owed enforces this IMHO.

Hey, all, I've had a death in the family. I am going to be out of town/out of pocket for several days getting things sorted.

My condolences for your loss. Please, take the time you need.

Man, that sucks. My condolences.

I'm bowing out of this game. I'm sorry if that causes any problems. I'm just not enjoying it, like a book you just can't get into. Thank you for letting me join up.

Okay, no problems.

Hey, everyone, I'm really sorry to have to do this, but I am dropping out of this game. Things are complicated for me right now and I am not sure when they will clear up. Thanks for letting me be part of it and best of luck to all of you.

Hey Vagrant and Genisisect, there seems to be a sudden interest in my game. If you are still around and I managed to find new players, might you be interested in a do over (yeah, I know Vagrant, that would be the third time for you...)?

I’m still about

Well, 3 new players seem to be interested in my game. So the questions to my current players are as follows:

1) Do you want to continue playing your former characters (Édouard the Vamp and Victoria the Wizard)?

2) And do you want to continue this storm or do you want to start over with a new storm?

I'm a bit torn on that one. I did enjoy Edouard, however, I believe this kind of game is better when the characters are build together with ties and connections.

Unless there is a very engaging idea of how to introduce new characters in this storm, id vote for a new cast of characters (i dont have any issues if you recycle your storm element though, its not like we saw any spoiler yet :P)

I do have a few new character idea, ive been looking at the Oracle since the beginning and i also have a concept for a hallowed archetype from Dark street.

We could start over and redo the whole debt things while keeping your characters, sort of like what we did when Khoning left the first time around. But if you want to try a new archetype, it's cool too.

Introducing new players in the middle of an existing storm is not that complicated, I could introduce them as some contact you'd need to see for whatever reason, or I could simply use the Love Letter mechanic like when I introduced Pavel... the only real problem I can foresee by continuing with the current storm is that you'd have valuable debts tied to retired characters.

I’m keen to keep playing Victoria, but do think we should at least reform the debts and restart the storm. It may not need to be a ‘new’ storm per we, but I think it would be better for the new players to be involved in the start of it. If that ind of makes sense.

Let me start by saying hi to everyone, and thanks for letting me join in. Will accommodate whether you are going to restart, or have me come in right in the middle. So I'll take the cue from you in deciding which character and archetype to roll up.

Hello from me as well! I’m also pretty flexible as to what archetype I play. I had an idea for a Vamp if TheVagrant decides they no longer want to play Edouard but I also really like the Fae and the Tainted… Honestly, the only archetype I don’t like is the Veteran so I’m up for most anything :P

Anyway, thanks for letting me join!

Definitely, the Debts will have to be reformed no matter what we do.

I guess it really depends on Vagrant now. If he insists on trying a new archetype, it would be difficult to continue to current storm that way. If instead he chooses to continue playing Édouard, we could continue the current storm, modifying it somewhat according to what the new players would come up with.

Basically, all solutions are possible.

Well then, lets continue with Edouard and this current storm. Lets get this started as quickly and simply as possible :)

Third time's the charm ;)

Alright.

The new players can move to the character creation thread and start working on their characters. If Édouard and Victoria have any Debts tied to Jake or Pavel, those can be reassigned to the new players. And we'll continue on with the current storm.

Does that sound fair to everyone?

Yup

I have two suggestions for my character for everyone's consideration, before I jump over to the character creation thread and flesh them out in full detail.

One is a Tainted character who arrives in Montreal to take over from where Jake left off. The background would be that the demon has sent someone else to finish his jobs, continue his debts, etc. I'm considering this if all of you feel it's necessary to provide continuity of plot for your current storm.

The other is an Immortal, newly arriving, to start a new phase of his life. He is drawn here because of the rumour that the reincarnation of a former lover from long ago has surfaced in the city. Working out the debts to the other characters wouldn't be too difficult, since he'll need help finding her, or protecting her from some yet-undefined danger. If I pick this, I can start creating straightaway.

What do you think?

Both could be interesting. Though I do not know the Debts owed by a Tainted by heart and as such if it would make sense to pick up Jake's Debts. Though, we could always do the old "let's pretend Jake was your Tainted all along" cheat and run with that instead.

Your idea for the Immortal is also interesting, even if the reincarnated loved one is more of the Dragon's schtick... but it could also work. I mean nowhere in the rulebook does it states that the Dragon must be the only one with reincarnated loved ones...

Well, I was also tossing up between an Immortal and a Tainted, so I guess I’ll take whichever archetype Bedzone doesn’t (and if they go for dragon like Kalajel suggested, I’ll take Immortal).

I'm liking what I'm seeing in the Dragon archetype, it's got great potential. I'll go for it! @oopsylon go ahead and pick whichever you prefer, no concern from me! :)

Great! I'll make up a character sheet ASAP. Kalajel, did you say you had the Immortal Playbook?

Yes, I do own the Immortal playbook. Okay, let's see...

Plots and Schemes
Your immortal life is governed by your schemes. Choose two projects on which you have been working for some time. Tell everyone the schemes you've chosen, and the MC will ask you questions about them accordingly.
You may never have more than two schemes at a time, but you may halt a scheme and begin a new one at the beginning of any session. When you complete a scheme, claim the benefits associated with it. the MC will ensure that the benefit comes to pass: you may choose another scheme.
[ ] Alias: Declare a new identity. Your true name and identity are masked to any who knew them and cannot be uncovered without your permission. Set aside any Debts held against you: they are void until you reveal yourself.
[ ] Alliance: Name a group within a Faction: you have earned their allegiance. Add +1 to their Faction and take +1 ongoing against their members.
[ ] Leverage: Name an NPC: they owe you a Debt that can never be repaid. You always have a Debt on them until they die, and maybe even after they slip this mortal coil. Mark corruption whenever you cash in that Debt.
[ ] Revenge: Choose someone who has-in your opinion-wronged you. You have them alone and exposed, no matter their holdings or allies. If you show them mercy despite their sins, erase a corruption advance.
[ ] Stewardship: Declare an NPC or a thing you protect: it is safe and can never again be endangered, even by you. Erase a corruption advance.

Interruptions
Despite your maneuverings, the city has a tendency to disrupt even the best of your careful plans. At the start of play, choose three interruptions from the list below, and tell the MC which scheme each of them has affected and why they require you to directly intervene in the events to come.
[ ] An ancient foe resurfaces
[ ] An old friend or lover returns
[ ] An arcane asset vanishes
[ ] A clever feint explodes
[ ] A new enemy interferes
[ ] A new ally stumbles
You can apply all three interruptions to one scheme or spread them among the schemes in which you are engaged. Either way, these intrusions will not resolve on their own; you must directly engage to protect your investments.

Start of Session: Machnations
When you make the start of session move, use this move instead:
- Select one of your active schemes and a Faction. tell the MC why your machinations ensnare members of that Faction and roll with it. On a 10+, your plotting pays off: take a Debt on someone in that Faction or a useful piece of information, your choice. On a 7-9, your efforts yield an obvious-and short lived- opportunity; the MC will tell you what you need to do to seize it before it expires. On a miss, your scheme is derailed or interrupted; the MC will tell you who is to blame.

Drama Moves
Corruption Move
When you make us of someone as an unwitting or unwilling pawn in your schemes, mark corruption.
Intimacy Move
When you share a moment of intimacy-physical or emotional-with another person, you imbue them with immortality. When they die, you can mark a Scar to bring them back to life. Their End Move takes effect before they return.
End Move
When you die, roll with Spirit. On a hit, you come back whenever you choose. On a 10+, choose 1, on a 7-9, choose 2:
- Someone troubling sees you return: their silence costs you a Debt.
- You're disoriented and exposed: your enemies seize the opportunity.
- You witnessed a dark vision on the other side: mark corruption.
- you came back changed: tell the MC how death marks you.
On a miss, the MC picks 2 and tells you how and when you come back. You can truly die. Decide how and tell the MC in secret. If you willingly reveal it to another character, it counts as sharing a moment of intimacy.

Demeanor (pick one)
Conniving, Detached, Reserved, Self-Satisfied

Immortals start with the following stats (add 1 to one of the following)
Blood 0, Heart 2, Mind 1, Spirit -2.

It starts with the following factions (add 1 to one of those)
Mortality 0, Hight 0, Power 1, Wild 0

His intro questions:
- Who were you? Who are you now?
- How long have you lived in this city?
- Which mortal do you trust with your secrets?
- What do you loathe about your immortal existence?
- What still entices you about an ordinary mortal life?

Your gear:
- A palatial penthouse, a luxury car and driver, a smart phone
- An elegant weapon (choose one)
[ ] Silenced 9mm Glock (2-harm close)
[ ] Sword Cane (2-harm hand)
[ ] Throwing Daggers (2-harm intimate/close)
[ ] Katana (3-harm hand messy)
- A small black book of notes and records, written in a dead language.

Your Debts:
- You have been watching someone's lineage closely, keeping them safe from harm. They owe you two Debts.
- Someone has seen you die and come back to life. They haven't told anyone your secrets. You owe them a Debt.
- Someone usually accompanies you when you head straight into danger. Tell them why you trust them. You owe them two Debts.

Immortal Moves
You get these two:
[x] Chameleon: When you perform an important ritual of another Faction in their presence, roll with Heart. On a hit, all the members of that Faction must treat you as if you were one of their own for the rest of the scene. On a 10+, hold3. On a 7-9, hold 2. spend that hold 1 for 1 to roll with Heart instead of their Faction to Put a face to a name, Investigate a place of power, or Drop someone's name. On a miss, your observance opens up an opportunity for your enemies within the targeted Faction to strike openly at you or your interests.
[x] Dauntless: When you Keep your cool in the face of violent threats or intimidation, treat a 7-9 as a 10+ result. On a miss, you can stand your ground as if you had rolled a 7-9, but your resilience tips your hand, yoru oppositon learns something valuable about your schemes.
And choose one more:
[ ] Neck Deep: You've been in the city for a long time. Add +1 to any Faction that's not your own and name an NPC from that Faction with whom you have extended history. Take +1 ongoing when you Hit the streets to cisit your old friend. On a miss, something from your past has coma back to haunt you both.
[ ] Mortal Lover: You once had an intimate and lengthy relationship with a mortal; you learned something of value from their short life. Tell the MC what token you carry with you to sustain their memory and take a move from a Mortality archetype.
[ ] Duelist: When you Unleash an attack with an elegant weapon, roll with Heart instead of Blood. On a miss, you are disarmed, outgunned, or overwhelmed (MC's choice).
[ ] Objets d'art: You have acquired a number of objects, relics, and artifacts over your many lifetimes. You have enough space to house them at your penthouse and one or two staff (Min-jun and Orlando, maybe) to care for the most priceless items. Once per session, you may obtain an item from your collection that will serve as a perfect gift to an NPC of your choice; tell the MC where you got it from originally. If you bring an arcane item home to add to your holdings, you can research it as if you were a Scholar consulting his private collection.

I just figured an explanation as to why the new players would only just now start entering the adventure. Bai Suzhen would now only be getting over her month-long depression, and the Immortal could have been busy finishing his previous 2 schemes which required all of his attention...

@ oopsylon: When I tried working out your permission so as to keep my MC section secret, your 4 clones still appeared on my list. I edited teh permission, but I'm not sure if your clones will potentially fuck those up... Can you just do a quick favor for me and see if you're able to view this?

I can’t see it

Okay, cool.

Btw, my grasp of French is when I last studied it in high school, but it's been decades and I'm rusty. I can read, make casual conversation when on holiday, but can't write in it. So I'll be sticking to English, if that's ok.

No problems.

A lot of the players in this game have very little French, but it certainly helps with that unique Quebec feel to have both.

Holy shit Toby just died! Good thing he's immortal! :D :D

Yea, just how how long did I sleep? :P You guys had a big night!

Just giving my other players a chance to catch up to you mister "I already have 3 advances"... :P

Hahaha, i dont mind at all. I'm just confused as hell as to what is happening (or has happened) :P

P.S. The trick for advancment is to try to burn as many debts as you can while you can :P (seems to works for Edouard anyway)

Wow 3 advances already! You are having a busy first session...

lol, yeah. I remember my first game of US and Genisisect got 1 advance during the whole darn storm and she was way ahead of everyone else... XD

I caught up next storm with 1 advance and 1 corruption advance though...

I think I hit 1 advancement and 1 corruption in the first storm and then 1 advancement in the second.

Ah, totally possible. It was a while ago, so the details are a bit blurry in my mind...

lol, thanks. Doing what I can :P

Wow, just discovered the access to the character sheets in the bottom. However I could only access Edouard's and Suzhen's, not the others. Is that normal?

You can view any publicly available sheet (there’s an option to make sheets public on the character screen), but I often write notes on my sheets that I don’t really want to share with anyone but the MC so my sheet isn’t public.

Yep! That's because Suzhen's character sheet is public but Victoria, Edouard, and Toby's character sheets are not.

Edit: Oops. You beat me to it.

Cool thanks, its good to know :)

Heh yep, made mine public. In all my games real life or otherwise, I'm ok with showing it to everyone - I figure we can differentiate between player knowledge and character knowledge.

However, if it's the kind of game where part of the fun is in making sure even other players don't know what I'm up to, then it makes sense to keep it private.

If this was an irl game I’d agree with there being no point to not sharing sheets as everyone knows everything happening but on pbp with notes that isn’t always the case. Like with what kalajel has happening to Victoria right now. It’ll be way more dramatic if it can be revealed to everyone all of a sudden.

True that. I treat that as the equivalent of 'private notes between player and DM'. Totally necessary to create suspense and reveals!

@Oopsylon How's it going? I think Toby is getting quite popular after his death, hopefully he ll come back soon to enjoy it :p

Oh, you know. Could be better, could be worse. Still on fire. :P

In all seriousness, I had three mid-semester tests at uni this week so the timing of Toby's demise couldn't be better

Yea, still too "hot" for your own good lol

Hahaha, glad to hear that!

I’ve found myself musing; the last time I played US, I played a horrible self serving monster and it was fun... but play a concienscious character who just Ernesto wants to help people really ups the tension in the game!

I was curious about the fast advance comments for Edouard so I tracked all the faction marking and added the list to the caracter sheet :P

MC, would you say that Suzhen's dialogue so far, telling Vincent she wants to ally with him, wanting to share plans, is considered a Mislead Distract Trick? After all, she is trying to get him to reveal his plans in order to put a stop to them, (and also more immediately trying to protect Edouard and Toby)

Ah yeah, the rulebook tells that it could be used to convince of a lie. For some reason, I thought the move was used slightly differently...

A bit of confusion about "sessions"...

A while ago, TheVagrant and I had a discussion about sessions and what they meant. On my part, since the start of session move involves creating the storm, a "session" was the name they used to refer to a whole adventure. And as such, you begin withe the start of session move, you create a storm, you play through the storm and (hopefully) resolve it, and then the session ends and you go through the end of session move at that point. Basically, I felt that "session" in US was the equivalent of "adventure".

On his part, TheVagrant seemed to be wondering if the word "session" was not instead used in it's traditional form, i.e. getting together with a bunch of friends to play 2-4 hours. Therefore, every once in a while, we'd be generating new storms while dealing with the one(s) already in play, and invoking the end of session move more often, accruing more Debts that way...

Both point of views do seem to have their merit and drawbacks, and I was wondering what the other players thought of this. Now for this particular storm, I feel it would be better to continue it using my own vision of what a "session" in US means, but I was wondering what was the rest of the group's point of view on this is, and if you were willing to give a try with more traditional "sessions" (perhaps one per in-game day or so?) where we'd use start of session and end of session moves more often (basically creating more storms to interact with while still dealing with previous ones).

I'm also in two minds about this. As usual PbP gives rises to rather unique circumstances, as one session can last for months. Also, it is interesting to see more frequent session start and session end moves. On the other hand, I do like some milestone resolution of a current storm before starting on a new one, so for me if a session isn't defined merely by a storm, it should at least be defined by a milestone.

Perhaps this question is also becoming a bit more relevant now that we've reached the last one-third of the current storm (ie. discovered the initial problems, met and had conflict with the major players, now heading towards some sort of resolution soon), so it may be good to begin to seed some newer threads.

I'm definitely prepared to give the one per in-game day session a try.

Yeah, I’d definitely be willing to give the more traditional "sessions" method a go :D
It seems like it could add some extra chaos and urgency if things keep piling up every in-game day...

We can always be flexible between the two also.

I both like the feeling that thing are very interactive and fluid between the factions and think that its important to have moment of 'normal life" to skip some time and make us remember what we fight for in the chaotic parts.

Yeah, both have their merits and downsides, like I mentioned.

Right off the top of my head...

"Session" = "adventure"
Pros
• Rather straightforward and simple, keeps things easier for everyone.
• Allows for character "downtime" to take care of their mundane obligations (work, family, hobbies, etc.), especially in between "sessions" (which would help in keeping the game more or less up to date with real life).
Cons
• Archetypes with special start of session moves and/or end of session moves get to use them less often (for better or worse).
• Factions stats remain more static.
• Debts are accrued slightly less often.

More traditional "sessions"
Pros
• Archetypes with special start of session moves and/or end of session moves get to use them more often (for better or worse).
• Faction stats become more dynamic.
• Debts are accrued slightly more often.
Cons
• Slows down the game somewhat as new threats and storms need to be made from time to time.
• Possibility of making keeping track of threats and storms harder and possibly cause some confusion.
• Leaves less time for character "downtime".
• Possibility of making characters feel "swarmed" by the sheer number of plots going on.
• Players with slower posting schedules might feel left behind.
• Due to the nature of pbp, needs to find a good rhythm for "sessions".

Plus anything else I might have not thought of...

The trick would be to find the right balance. Perhaps instead of having a new "session" once per in-game day, maybe have them oncer per two or three in-game day, depending on how the previous threats and storms are going along, and with the occasional period of "downtime" to help character take care of their mundane obligations and keep the game more or less up to date with real life?

Thanks for reviewing all the pros and cons in detail. Yes it does seem like we can shift things a bit until we find a good balance. Like when the current plots in the storm seem to already be ongoing, some newer ones could be hatched.

Case in point, in our current game, in the first in-game day, there were a lot of faction moves, as new contacts were made, new plots were discovered. In the second in-game day, there was much less of that, because the bulk of the time revolved around making progress on each of these plots, so faction stats were largely static.

I'm all in favour of your proposal boss!

Sorry guys, I'M a bit busy with some IRL stuff, I'll get back to you as soon as I can...

All good!

Suddenly busy over here myself, no hurry!

I'm about to hop on a plane for my end-of-year vacation, part of which will still be relaxing through PbP. I'll be regular, but erratic.

Have fun on your vacation! :D

Have fun and relax.

Edit: seems I'm going to be relatively occupied in the coming days and weeks, so my posting frequency will probably drop as well...

Happy Holidays everyone! Special thanks to kalajel for running this game. No way to send you a Christmas present, so a big thank you here is all I can manage!

You have been busy in my absence... I have 46 pages to get through... glad to be back though!

Glad to have you back! :)

Are we ready to continue?

Sure

Sure am!

Ok!

Hey everyone, CESN has recently joined us. So we'll end this storm (most threats have been taken care of, and even if the Dragon is still out there, his reason for wanting to do the ritual has pretty much been taken care of) once this night is over. We'll then proceed to the End of Session move, do a bit of a time skip (but not to present day as RPing in the COVID social distancing situation would probably suck), and introduce CESN's character for next's storm Start of Session Move. then we'll try doing "new session" roughly every 3 or so game days as were discussing earlier.

Hey guys! That's me :) I'm leaning towards an oracle from elsewhere where french isn't a thing :D

Oui, on dis "salut les gars". Ton Français est bien.

I have some bad news in that Genisisect's health makes it difficult for her to keep up with the game at the moment. So far, since no one seems to want to play a Wizard, I'll simply NPC her, so if players wants to use her as a contact, or if I need to have her call in a Debt in order to forward some plot, at least her character will still be there waiting for her once she feels better.

Welcome CESN! Looking forward to having you join us!

I never got to hear how the Vincent plot was resolved though, since it was entirely @thevagrant's private thread.

yea, i wanted to tell you but you never answered my text ;)

Welcome CESN! Oracle is a fun choice. I look forward to playing with you :D
Agreed :P
In that case, how long a time skip are you thinking?

Probably a couple of months. So we'd go from late 2018 (December) to early 2019 (February or March). This would also allow those of you who have loose ends (Like Édouard finding Thomas' paintings) to not waste too much time not taking care of those...

I finally did! The last time I answered a text in game our MC made me go on a wild chase! :D

Yeah, we'll assume managed to make some forays in whatever plans your character had.

Replying to the main thread, I'm ok with bringing this storm to a close here, at that end of the night. We can bring CESN in then.

We can pick up the search for the scroll in the new storm. Plus gathering allies for for / against the Council. These are the agenda items on my list. Vagrant and oopsylon will have more to add.

I don’t mind finishing the storm here. I would feel bad making CESN wait much longer anyway…

In terms of the Council stuff, my concern is that it doesn’t make much sense for Toby to stop recruiting people for the new council during the break so I was thinking of making that part of his special start-of-session move (if that’s okay with the MC). I get to describe how Toby’s machinations ensnare members of a particular faction so maybe something along the lines of ‘Over the past few months, Toby has been gathering support for his newly-formed 'New Council', causing a great deal of trouble for the current Council as knowledge of their corruption spreads throughout the factions.’

Other than that, Toby’s biggest concern is Dylan’s situation which I’m fine with saying he hasn’t made any progress on in the break. He wasn’t having much success during the storm either, after all :P

ahah, don't worry guys, I was far too busy last week and I'm still catching up :D

Suzhen might help with this to find out what needs to be done, research is one of the things she can do with a sanctum.

Also, almost forgot, Suzhen will also be trying to seek her remaining broodmates, it's part of the larger plan to keep track of the dragons in Montreal.

Hey MC, now that we started the second storm and have committed to it I don't mind asking something about the storm we closed, about the plot incident where Toby and Suzhen were overheard. I was wondering what led to that. I thought the Suzhen having a chance to work with Poitevin and Greenfield was a potentially interesting direction to go, whether or not she was really going to start a new Council, or whether she might switch allegiances and work with them instead (thus justifying her teammates' distrust of her).

Unless you were simply thinking of penalising Toby and Suzhen for not thinking to have a conversation in a secure space, like in her sanctum. Most of the private conversations between the PCs have happened without needing for us to say 'in a secure sanctum', which seems like an meta-gaming move if we resort to saying that everytime.

I'm not complaining, just rueing the missed plot opportunity I suppose, because that seems to close down two whole threads for Suzhen. Or was that the intention? In which case I shouldn't try to re-awaken or re-attempt the Poitevin / Greenfield plots? (Which I may have mistakenly tried to do earlier when you asked me to pick something about the Power faction and I picked the Poitevin information).

Haha totally Vagrant, no worries, I like the in-game tension. It helps Suzhen characterise herself, that because she's a dragon she's see as more dangerous, especially because she's sympathetic to the other dragons!

Edouard is experiencing similar tension with almost all the supernatural faction he meet or helps being extremely self centered and dismissive of others.

Looking forward to seeing how that plays out as well. Hopefully Edouard has enough new suits now, because Suzhen is too poor again to lend him any more money!

This had more to do with Toby poking the hornet's nest rather than you having a conversation with him. It wasn't meant to penalize the player, but simply because it would be obvious that Poitevin would seek a way to get back at Toby for what he did to him, and having Toby followed and spied on was probably the best thing Poitevin could think of on such short notice. I realized later after having made that post that I probably should have given Toby an opportunity to notice he was being followed earlier, and I simply forgot. My bad. I'll see if I can't think of a way to fix my mistake, perhaps there is still a way for Suzhen to salvage the situation...

Nah no problem. If you can spin your plot in a more interesting way through this, go ahead, I'd jump in whichever way you spin it. I do think Suzhen should continue to try to get her hands dirty with the Greenfield blackmail, and then the Poitevin secrets, in that order. Thanks, good stuff so far boss, I realise I don't say thank you enough for running this game, and sustaining a massive plot line and world setting. Kudos!

Just checking my moves and noticed that foretelling needs to be used at the beginning of the session.
Is that specifically the preparation step or are we still "at the beginning"?

Not sure if this means the Start of Session move, but go ahead and roll it anyways.

oh right, start of session move!

Not exactly about the start of session moves but, before the end of the last session, Toby and Suzhen were intending to talk to a whole big list of people about the new Council thing. How much progress are we assuming they made on that during the break between sessions?

Fell free to discuss your progress here. I kept things a bit brief at teh start fo the game, but in three months, you could have discussed things for a while...

Well, I think Toby was planning to talk to Fabien Beliveau, Victoria Clarke, Michel Bouchard, Marcel Dubois and maybe Maurice Gauthier (Maurice wasn’t fond of the Council, right?). Suzhen was supposed to talk to the fae queens and Fei Lung. Would it be okay to say they’ve done so over the past few months? Would any of these people object to the formation of a new Council?

Right, that just gives me "holds" for later so can be done at any time :D

Yep, I don't mind if we consider the conversations oopsylon mentioned as having played out already. That can also be a starting point for the actions we now embark on.

Well, now that I think about it, while we're at it we can discuss what you've been up to those past three months here to avoid cluttering the Storm thread. Some of you had personal "side quests" to fulfil...

For Suzhen, the quests are: speak to some of the leaders regarding the idea of a new council, search for the scroll, continue to watch out for Ordo, pursue Poitevin's secrets, sort out the Greenfield mess, find her brood. Which ones, if any, shall we say are side quests that happened in the past three months?

Right, so this is for a quick +1 when needed them? I read it as an overall +1 for something plot related (mostly due to the ongoing part), but "about to happen" is indeed very relative :D

+1 Ongoing, so for all checks you make to get our of a specific situation.

Could I just confirm that by debt You are helping someone realise their true potential through your visions. They owe you a Debt has not been taken up by anyone yet? Probably need to get an NPC for that one

Edouard would love to work with an oracle actually. He discovered tons of potential power in the last storm and probably lost the feeling of it when the normal life and consequences caught up, he'd find help versus a debt a great deal.

Great! I think that sorts the all the stating debts (though I really need to finish up reading that first storm :D )

Don't kill the new guy!

Great start btw CESN! :D

You have to start it with style ;)

When you say tell us what that looks like, you mean searching for a witch or should I assume I already know one? I guess you're not referring to the problem though

We can skip the whole searching and assume you find one. What you need to describe is the cost for having rolled a soft hit: either the witch is dealing with her own problems, or her services will cost you.

I noticed that the PCs are a bit on their own in this game and I have too admit I've made little progress with the first storm (just a few "pages" in). I guess there is no concept of a "party" in US, but how does it work for PCs to call on each other and work together?

Elijah doesn't know many people, so calling on the other PCs would be a logical step :D

The character just texted or called each other on the phone regularly in the first storm.

We "grouped up" a few times for the most dangerous stuff but most of the time the character have different strengths and goals to prioritize

That's how I assumed it was working. thanks. Elijah is basically texting you now :D

Yup CESN, I do think we spent as much as working together as a party as we did on our individual threads. Sometimes it wasn't all three, but only two. So feel free to weave in and out of everyone's threads. Usually we call on each other because the other character clearly knows something we don't, or has skills we don't. Eg, Suzhen's has a sanctum, she can help with magical research and rare artifacts etc.

Kalajel, I wanted to check back on the final few posts of the previous storm, because it mentions where the Ordo had retreated to and also mentions where Suzhen's scroll was likely to be, and I didn't save the info. That's where Suzhen is heading next, to pick up the trail.

The last Storm has been moved to the Archives here.

Thanks, both Vagrant and our MC. You're probably right that they may have moved, so I'm hoping that in the last 3 months Suzhen has tried to keep tabs on their trail, but haven't gone after them yet because she's trying to get a fix on them. And maybe at the start of this second storm she finally has enough info to make her first moves.

I'm going to continue this discussion here to avoid clogging up the main game thread.
Well, when speaking to Victoria Clarke, it did felt like you where actually speaking to a businesswoman rather than a bloodthirsty psychopath with visions of grandeur... even if the business she's in sort of made your skin crawl at times...

As for Bouchard, while he seemed a lot more stable than Fabien, he's still the alpha of a Wolf pack, and as such must act like an alpha from time to time to keep his pack or a challenger in line, and while not as out of control as Fabien is, he can still act unpredictably because of that, especially if he feels his leadership is being questioned...

So far, all three of those members of the Night Faction made you believed that they would not be above using their seat in this new council to help their own personal interest, something which could cause problems, but if you really had to rank them from most problematic to least problematic, your own personal ranking would probably be something along the line of Fabien at worst, Bouchard somewhere in between, and Clarke the less likely to cause trouble.

Well, Toby’s goal with this New Council thing is basically just to replace the people who don’t like him (the current Council) with people who do (Suzhen, Fabien, maybe Dubois idk). He's talked a lot about democracy and corruption, but he really just wants the people in charge to like him personally… which is why he wants Fabien on the Council despite how obviously unstable Fabien is. He’s also already promised Fabien a spot on the Council so, given that Fabien is ‘locked in’, as it were, Bouchard seems like the most logical choice for the second Night representative to ensure that both the vampires and the wolves are on Toby (and Suzhen)’s side…

Perhaps Toby should speak to Clarke and Bouchard again to sort this out properly… :/

It's inevitable that the new Council members will definitely have their own agendas, and may argue and fight each other. But hopefully the chance to actually have a say and make decisions might spur them to form one, rather than let the old Council continue with status quo. Maybe we can propose a third faction member, to be rotated? So the first version starts with 3x Night.

Yeah let me know if we want to play out the Clarke and Bouchard convos, or even play out the queens convo (granting that kalajel granted that we had a chance to moot the idea with them during the downtime).

I think we'll assume that Toby's already mentioned the idea to Clarke and Bouchard but has yet to make any definite decisions as to who gets to actually be on the Council. Toby would like to meet with them again to discuss this further after he finishes work. Would you like Suzhen to be part of these conversations too?

I guess it depends on the program/site you used to translate the word. Using Reverso here, I managed to get the following results using "Haunt" and some if its variants...

I like apparition actually :) though I didn't come across that one strangely...
though the only suggested noun for haunt there is ... repaire?

Yes, repaire as in "The haunt of a terrible dragon". -> Le repaire d'un terrible dragon.

Right, and this is when english not being my first language as well gets in the way... I totally never saw haunt being used that way :D

I "reverse proof translate" my french draft with google and then top it with reverso's grammar spelling before reviewing. So that's a lot of alternatives in one writing 😅

You drove her back to her shop so she could close it and make sure nothing was stolen, so both you and Elijah fulfilled your condition to get a Debt from her. You can go ahead and note it in the relevant section.

As for Maurice wife's you would have certainly had some time to at least try in the 3 months period... so I'll leave it up to you. Whatever you feel makes a better narative.

Hmm, this is interesting. Would certainly explain some of the developments with the firm... Yeah, you can mark Corruption.

It could also serve as an explanation for Edouard lack of focus in the last 3 months. He had plans on building a relationship with the police but, as he lost his high ranking contact, he found himself at a loss on how to proceed and fell back to old habits instead.

Bedzone II hasn't posted in a while. I'll wait a few more days before sending him a PM...

Sorry everyone for dropping the ball, crazy week here, lockdown reopening blah blah blah. Thanks for the patience, I'm good and ready to resume. Was all in suspense thanks to the big bomb kalajel dropped about the fake ritual!

Ah, crap, I completely missed that... Well, it will make things even more harder for Suzhen then...

Argh, that changes Suzhen's plans. She's gotta come clean then. :(

The song playing in Édouard's mind as he watches Toby running away from the gang members...

Hahaha! XD

You guys made me LOL at work!

I can see it being "chashed" OOC, more like Toby asking for help and Elijah feeling like he has to because of his guilt. But that would lead to explaining his vision so it's just a matter of postponing when Toby finds out he will die :D

I'm not sure they have actually met now... after re-reading my notes :D

Yeah, I think that’s what we decided originally but it’s probably a little late for that now since we’ve already kinda implied that Elijah and Toby know one another :P

If Édouard was the threat, then would that mean you would have need to promisse Manu that you wouldn't let Édouard hurt him if he told you what you needed to hear? That's how playing good cop, bap cop works... But anyways, a roll of 6 is a roll of 6...

Also, the Oracle's corruption move is something I perceive as telling something you know for a fact to be wrong (either because you did not had that vision at all, or because you are changing the details of your vision), probably usually done to manipulate someone into or out of a given course of action...

ex:
"Wait, no, you can't go talk to Boris' men!"

"Well, why not? Seems like the best course of action to figure out who kidnapped Stephen..."

"Well, you can't... because... I had a vision that something bad would happen to you if you did..."

If you mean something specific I have no recollection.

No, no dead dragon (well aside from Fei Lung's brother who was killed 20 years ago), but the Ordo Draconis' logo is a hang wielding a sword which pieces a coiled dragon wrapped around it. The other players noticed it quite a few times last storm (and a bit during this storm as well I think...).

Edit: Hmm, might as wall start working on an OD logo tomorrow at work...

Suzhen would know that accursed symbol anywhere! ;)

Perhaps tomorrow. It is past midnight now and some of you have work in the morning...

Oh, is it? I was thinking it was like 9pm XD

Remember, the meeting in the park was for midnight.

Yeah, I forgot about that :P

Yup, I'm thinking it's end of day for us. Don't think there are any other actions to take.

(Still re-reading our earlier posts in case I missed something).

Pretty much, I'm wiling to end this day and move on the the next whenever you guys are ready.

sounds good to me :D

Also, BedzoneII has the right idea. Given the slow pace of pbp, it is easy to forget important details. You might want to rerad some posts to make sure you forget nothing...Sorry, had something in my throat...

I'll be away for the weekend.

If anyone as a suggestion for Edouard i'm all ears. I've been struggling with the new story arc and time skip and now I'm at a lost as to how to deal with his current predicament.

Hmm… perhaps you could try to persuade the crowd that what happened was some kind of magic trick or movie stunt?

Well given the slow pace of pbp, it's easy to forget about important details. So I guess we can assume Elijah told you about a spirit telling him the stolen bow lies towards where the sun sets and the details of Antoinette's vision.

Thanks for the prompt, I swear I've been rereading our posts, and not connecting the dots as much as I had hoped.

That was a dramatically bad run Vagrant! XD

Lol yea. Depending how the video thing turns out I'm considering retiring Edouard. He would probably run away from the kind of pressure bad supernatural press would give him. Moreover as it would burn all of the credibility he tried to build.

ahah, same here. I should have taken proper notes...

Let's not forget that in US (and probably PbyA in general) moves are very open to interpretation. The way I play, if you can make a good case for a move to be used, I'll probably allow it.

Ah, t'as raison. Je sais pas pourquoi, j'ai toujours en tête qu'un Lend a Hand donne un +2... Oui, je vais te laisser Cold Blooded, surtout parce que tu es encore un peut sous l'effet de l'émotion intense de l'esprit que tu as absorbé...

alors ca fait un 8 pour keep your cool pour pas que la scene devienne une preuve de supernatural

Okay, cool, on va faire un petit retcon et dire que les témoins étaient sur le point d'appeler les ambulanciers, alors je vais te donner un choix à faire (pour le soft hit) sur le topic de la deuxième tempête...

hope you're feeling better Vagrant!

Sorry, a bit confused with all the locations. I definitly need to keep track od the locations :D

the Pointe-À-Callière museum is not the same we've been before is it? The one where the arc was stone was not a fort, but the one where I met the old french colonist was right?

Well, you did saw the Pointe-À-Callière museum before, but it is not the one from which the bow was stolen (that was Ramzey Castle). Pointe-À-Callière is where Victoria Louise works and where you met Monseigneur Bourgais.

Hey Vagrant, are you doing okay? It's been a while since you've posted...

Yea, i'm taking advantage of the 2 lost time complication to reevaluate my direction with Edouard. I've been trying to follow up on the path I started in the first but it has felt off since the time jump.

From what I read, not that much time has passed in game. I'm still reading and will follow/responds to prompts, but i'm happy to let someone else take the lead at the moment.

Alright, well, I’m glad you’re okay 😊

Glad to hear that. I was kinda concerned too that you might still be under the weather. :)

Good to hear.

Oh, while I'm at it, there is a Kickstarter currently going on for Urban Shadows 2nd edition.

I've had a very quick cursory look at the quickstart guide, seems that Unleash an Attack has been renamed to Turn to Violence for some reason, and a new Faction move called Meddle in Someone's Business was added.

Updated my last post in the second storm thread.

Roger that, will post. Hope your computer woes are slowly sorting themselves out kalajel.

Not really, but with the second wave and the lockdown, not much I can do about building a new PC right now.

There are some incriminating texts here (then scroll down a few posts from there).

This small exchange could also be negatively interpreted...

Finally, I guess this little exchange might also sound suspicious given the content of the previous ones...

Of course this is not taking into account all the possible exchanges which might have happened during the 3 months jump...

Thanks boss, I know we're playing this storm more slowly than the previous, that's probably why I've been having to read and reread, just to remember the details.

Yeah, I try and wait to have more players post before I post a reply myself. This does slow down the game a bit, but also avoids having a ridiculously large thread (like we had for the last storm), and hopefully will make tracing back information easier...

Sorry if that's my fault. I'm a bit busy and trying to recover from my "GP addition" :(

Not at all CESN, I think we've all been playing it slower, and that's not a criticism so much as my doing some self-reflection. On my part I blame covid and 2020 in general for taking its toll on myself to do something as simple as keeping our plots in order in my head. Found myself reading and re-reading, and responding to posts more slowly, something I didn't experience in the first Storm.

So thanks kalajel, and the rest of you for the patience.

Okay, yeah. The way Keep Your Cool works, you have to tell me what you want to avoid, and then, depending on your result, I'll tell you if there's a cost to that. So this move is not a generic "I want to see how well I handle the situation", it's more specific than that.

For example, "I want to put him out, but want to avoid burning myself in the process" would work, or "I want to put him out quickly enough to make sure he won't die" would too.

right, I though it was for stressful situations in general:
"I want to put him out quickly enough to make sure he won't die" then :D

Okay. Well, with a solid hit, you will have managed to save the man. I'll think of something and then make a post.

If you guys are looking for more French-Canadian humor, here is Phylattère Cola's channel on YT.

So she did. I'll edit my las post...

I think we're back to 'handy' now XD

Indeed XD

"Better set up your contacts." Oh, so you did, never mind then, I'll edit my last post...

*Hobbit voice* "We've had one, yes. What about second breakfast lunch?"

Hey! How’s everyone doing? It’s been a while since anyone posted… :P

I'm fine. I was waiting for Vagrant and CESN to talk among themselves, but I haven't heard from Vagrant in a while. Not even in RL. Hope he's doing fine.

Work is pretty crazy as we get closer to Christmas so im pretty exhausted. Should calm down after the 24th.

I'll consider then that Elijah finish before Edouard was done with his Let it go, hopefully bank the success for later.

Glad to hear everyone is fine. It is the Xmas rush though, so I understand we all might be busy with stuff.

It's cool, I was fully expecting things to slow down during the holidays anyways, so we can slow the posting down a bit.

Merry Christmas everyone, for those who celebrate!

Merry Chrystler.

Alright, well there isn't really any reason to wait any longer, I think I have a bad news to announce.

Vagrant was already having trouble getting into this new Storm, and now it seems Bedzone II is having the same problem. We did talked in PMs on Discord.

So maybe all good things must come to an end after all. This game has been running for well over a year after all, and perhaps it was normal that some gaming fatigue would happen sooner or later. I know it's a bit unfair for CESN who recently joined, but at the same time I cannot force people to play if they're just not into it...

We could take a break of a few months, I suppose, but then you need to re-familiarize yourself with the plot by re-reading all those posts... Nah, it might be better to just end it.

Thank you all for playing, it was a great game while it lasted. You are all great players and fun to play with. Hope to see you all again on some of my other projects.

Well, thanks for the run. I enjoyed alot of the game and the system.

One of the thing I found I particularly enjoyed in the 1st storm was that we could invest in personal quest and project for our characters. That allowed me to feel more invested in reacting to the storm because it was also protecting something the character was building.

Thanks again and see you all around!

Hi everyone, it's been more of a challenge this time round, for whatever combination of factors, and most certainly the last few months have been particularly difficult for me.

I still love the fully fleshed out setting and the work that both the MC and my fellow players have put into this. That it's one of my longest running games on GP is testament to that. In my head canon, Toby finally kills Poitevin, and Edouard takes over his vamp corner of the city (and of course Suzhen brings her extended family together again safe and sound).

Thank you all for a great game, we'll meet again in others for sure! Sorry CESN that there was not much chance to fully interact with your character much.

Oh, what a shame :(

I suppose every game has to end eventually but, dang, that really sucks. Well, in any case, I had a great time while it lasted. You were all a joy to play with and, kalajel, you were a fantastic GM.

Thanks for the great game, everyone! I had a lot of fun playing with you all 😊

I guess it is difficult to keep playing the same PCs for a long time, particularly in PbP. Took me a little to get into the system, but it was a really cool game :D and I got to learn a couple of GMing tricks from kalajel which I hope I can use for my games :D

Play with you guys again soon :D