I just figured all the ladies saw my character's relatively low CHA score, knew knew this wasn't gonna be their big chance to get Critically Hit ™, and went on to post elsewhere.

@Zen: I split the diff and gave you a bit of weirdness from the mouth of one very odd Cockney. I'll leave it up to your imaginantion to connect lesbian incest to the death of the monarchy

@all: Rejoice! My RL stuff is finito, and hopefully I won't need to do another big job till September.
so for those of you wondering my post sched looks like this

9:30 EST Wake up, bathe, eat
10:00 Do morning chores.
11:00 Finish chores and begin with first net check. All of my sundries go here, email, job hunting etc.
12:00 Usually my posts start going here, sometimes I start earlier.
1:00 PM EST Finish with first net check, start with afternoon chores
2:30 Start paper route
4:00 Second net check, all my fun and games go here. This is usually at a public comp so I don't have my notes
5:00 Come home eat supper
6:00-9:00 Depending on days I may or may not get the comp.
10:00 My brother goes to bed and I do my final net check
12:30 I go to bed

I went ahead and dropped a little larger than normal post, just to make up for schedules not meshing real well -- I, for instance, am about to go to bed (despite it being roughly 14:00 here). So I'll try to keep up when possible.

When in doubt (especially outside of combat ) don't hold up on my account. The Mysterious Easterner is never a big talker or large part of the group's decision making process, and my character is nothing if not stereotypical. So if it needs to happen to keep the game moving, feel free to just keep him as a dark, silent, dangerous type standing in the corner while other folks do most of the talking, etc, etc. I know my third shift schedule puts me at odds with most people's posting routines, and I don't mind.

@Zen: Yup a frog is a Frenchie. Believe it or not some of the Victorian slang is still around. Heck some Georgian slang is still around. EG: A British person is still refered to in some cases as a limey. And that my friends is from when there were still tall ships sailing the world. And now you know. Seriously thou you don't want to get me talking language. BTW Zen the correct expression is "I don't vokker"

Also are you using the link marghos found? Hint, first page of OOC

I'll *rejoice* too.

i'm not sure can I check messages during friday to sunday but at the last i'll be back on monday. Maybe sooner but not sure, holiday and all, and my own lovely wife has something to say too.

@marghos: NP, I'll be bring Brookes sometime on friday.

@Zen:

Mkay, why is that? I'm intrigued now...

Yep. That's what the part with being a 'coopered mouth(2)' was all about


Sure. I know Travis well enough. He'll just off a pimp or two and then all his anxiety will be gone ...for a week, maybe.



@All: Guess I'll have to bump my Leadership(Morale) a bit, otherwise I'll never inspire a proper meta-discussion here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Go tell him that to his face, bub. I'm just itching to try out my Elemental Strike.

Hey, I didn't make the rules, I just follow them. If there is no actual hot chick in the group, the elf IS the hot chick. Hawt with a capital "HAW".

And Arthur would never hit on Han anyway. 1) He's a gentleman and 2) Impotence is a great way to avoid sexual tension within a group (which tends to be VERY disturbing).

@Zen: How about Alexander Dorn, the german composer? His much more famous and renowned father was also named Heinrich.

That sounds good that we don't have any female characters with us, elf will do great...

But seriously, I was thinkin' about somekind of female char (catburglar/thief/negotiator type) but eventually I chose this person, Martin St.North. Reason to do so was the Victorian era and the way female was treated back then. I was thinkin' its too difficult to play female char in that era and especially because english isn't my native language. And plah, plah.... Thats it

But today I'm still with you and can check messages and maybe answer...

@Zen: I was born into a mutlilingual family. Both of my maternal grandparents speak German. Jahwhol! And my mom speaks French, English and German. In HS I was working on four languages. At my most fluent six. Currnetly I'm back to just one. The only problem with this is it leaves me with a bit of my brain that goes "What's that mean? Where's it from?" etc. Also okay on the coopered mouth. Still a little

@All: Don't worry on the hawt chick front. I've got an NPC or two who prolly fill that spot.

@Fist: Sorry, yes it was, Shoulda put yer name in there. Editing.

Just wanted to state Arthur was activating the equivalent of a white noise generator (6) before everyone started talking business.

Sorry if I've been treading on anyones toes with posting so often, I'm not trying to steal the spotlight, I'm just enthusiastic.

@Zen: At my most fluent, I was learning and (sorta) speaking English, French, Spanish (Thank you American Sesame St.) German, Italian, (Once you know one Romance lang the rest are cake) and not very well Japanese and (some) Chinese. But you lose practice with any of them and they are gone. However, my internal translation matrix is still ticking. For the most part. Now I can barely speak English. *sigh*

@All: A few notes. Why does Brookes think the safe being a Chubb is so important. Well friends according to my sources. Chubb was in the late 1800's to safes what Ferrari is to cars now. The best of the best. They made custom built safes with multiple locks, hinges on the inside, fireproof linings, the whole nine yards friends. And considering the total lack of explosives until about 1910, (I've changed the timeline a bit to allow for Voorhees' char) A thief had three options.
1. Take the whole safe to break open later.
2. Use a peter-cutter, a sort of primitive drill to remove the lock face and manipulate the tumblers by hand.
3. Give up.
But once he had the key the whole game changes. You can google Chubb for more info or hit wikipedia.

Also: I see Aug is out. YAY! But someone < is broke. So any goodies that you want out of it are going to have to be explained to me and posted.

@marghos: What about consumption (tuberculosis{sp?}) for Angel's terminal illness? Till about 1930 it was a stone cold killer.

Our good detective might do for negotiations.

Charisma (5) + Influence (4) + Kinesics (5) + GM Mods (if any)

He'll have a go if no one else speaks up.

Yeah, I kind of did it as an in character thing, and THEN realised I really didn't have the skills or charisma to back it up. It does strike me as the kind of thing he would say regardless though, so I'd appreciate a hand getting out of this hole I'm digging.

He's a gentleman of reasonable means afterall, and therefore an arrogant toff.

Han only negotiates by punching people in the brain. So, uhh, yeah. Someone else should probably roll some dice.

@DEBO: Good catch on the explosives, apparently my references are off.

@All: Please consider DEBOs explosives post to be part of our official campaign timeline. Why doesn't Brookes do the boom bang routine.
1. He's old school
2. There's a logical GM based reasoning, that I'm not telling you.

@Alex: If you wish you may roll for negotiations with no GM mods as Brookes is in a good mood and not overly hostile toward you.

@All: You want to try and negotiate for a higher price per key or for the plans you're welcome to try. All Negotiations rolls are at 0 right now .

"Has one of the working class haul him out of problems", "inspires the common man to great deeds through example", semantics really.

OOC I know that taking on certain roles in the group is a bad idea, but IC he's too arrogant to think he may have done something particularly wrong, he's probably rather proud of himself at the moment.

Playing a characters faults is just as much fun as playing their strengths.

And since I may aswell, 3 Charisma + 1 Ettiquette?
Awww, crap.

@DEBO: Kay, thats fine, Brookes is used to dealing with worse chaps than some poncing toff. Take 2 csp for finding that link.

I love it when my dice are in character.

Our good detective might do for negotiations.

Charisma (5) + Influence (4) + Kinesics (5) + GM Mods (if any)

Above = 4 successes. I've been rolling my own dice. If you want me to use Invisible Castle, let me know.

RIght now Spence is to out of his element to really look for the deeper level of what's going on, or negotiate. Despite his skill, I'm pretty much looking a this as his first "professional " job of this type. Been a while since i've been able to do a total noob.

@Alex: You use whatever is most comfortable for you. I just use Invis cause I've gotten used to using it for online PbP. And somehow I manged to misplace all of my actual dice. (Don't ask me how, I don't know)

Also, Are you going to RP the negotiation? I'd apreciate it if you did.

Be more than happy to. Just keep in mind that I am relying on the character's skill not my own.

@Alex: What does that sound like?


@DEBO:
Damn! I knew I forgot to add a certain background knowledge...you got me there.

Just write it down and apply when you GM a game for me.


I take it then that you gave up on finding the primary and secondary (read: important) reasons for 'Alexander N.(athaniel) Dorn'?
Regarding the other stuff:
I wanted an (slightly) aristocratic background and I just happened to choose the title 'Graf' (sounds better than 'Herzog', 'Freiherr' etc.).
The first names all start with the same gender-specific letter Heinrich, Hieronymus, Hagen for the male line, Johanna and Josephine for the female. Seems to be an important aspect for the parents...[all the names are 'normal' for the era, most of them old-fashioned from our point of view (in time).]

Just be glad I didn't write that in cyan (was really considering it)...





@Meriss:
At least your victorian age gangster slang still works fine.


And now for something completely different:
Every time money comes up, the numbers seem to be way off the scale for victorian era pound sterling. I can accept that money value is different in your alternate universe, yet paying £5000 per month for a medium lifestyle feels just wrong (even considering the ridiculously high rents in 2007s London).


@Meriss:
[players: every time one of you opens this spoiler tag, a small puppy will cry on the inside - you don't want that, trust me]

@Zen: Yah I know the money is way off, I was simply too lazy to go and convert everything to more "Time appropriate" Prices. I guess London had a major patch of inflation when the mana cycle started. C'est la vie. *shrug*



@margos: Negotiations seem to be ending unless you want to fish for more money.

@All: Just so you know I will be giving you guys more than what Brookes is offering. Like he said there is plenty of oppurtunity for a bit of extra burglery on this run. In fact I included some paydata and such in all four locations as part of my plans. Now the question for you is can you find it?

Jacob is a detective. Of course he can.

@Players: Do you not believe in legwork? Honestly I'm trying very hard not to give every thing away. You are not making it any easier. As a way to encourage you lot to "move along now, nothing to see here" I'll state that as soon as I get Brookes "offstage" (If you ever let me) I'll start handing out Karma. I meant to figure out when I'd hand out Karma earlier, but never got around to detailing it in my head. So my new Karma policy is this.

Karma Policy
Karma will be handed out on a "chapter" basis. Each time I finish a major story point will be the end of a "chapter" and I will start doling out Karma.. So for our purposes we have technically completed two "Chapters" The opening and intro posts were the "Prologue" And the arrival of Brookes till he leaves is "Chapter One"

Make sense? Comments, criticisims?

Two comments;

To your first: I'm playing Spencer as new to the shadows, so he hasn't really caught on to the whole "question Mr Johnson mercilessly" bit. He's still trying to get it resolved in his head that he's sitting around a table with a bunch of hired killers (in his mind at least) when he was expecting some easy, solo, snatch job.

As to the karma, with the exception of things like Initiation, can we spend the karma right away? I know learning spells will obviosuly take time, but waht about raising skills or atributes?

Yah well I'm not used to the "Question Mr. J." Till blue in the face routine. Live and learn I guess. When I had jobs for my old Hack n slash group, some noble gave orders and the PCs went out and killed. [oldman]And they were happpy dag nabit, none of this who's in the dungeon, will there be treasure nonsense[/oldman]

Kama spending, hmmmm....
I'd like a bit of training time. But I'm not sure how to implement that. Post an IC saying something along the lines of "and Spence spent five days reaseaching the complicated spell formula" or "Jacob used a series of excersises designed to strengthen his mind and body." I'd say that'd work and no declaring a New or Improved skill in the middle of a run. Improving them must be done on down time. I'd say that any time your char is not "Onstage" is considered down time. Now if your char is present but not choosing to speak or something along those lines, that is not down time. I don't know, any helpful GM suggestions?

The reason I ask is because it takes forever to get anyhting done in a forum game generally, so I was wondering if we were going to have to consider in training time as well. Otherwise we'll never get to raise crap. in my experience at least. YMMV

Ask Alex, I do tend to whine at times. So take whatever I say, then take three steps in the other direction, and you should be good.