Umm...I'd say our chars are staring at each other, wondering how they ended up with all these tight-lipped freaks, while figuring out how they are supposed to split 15 twenty pound notes between 8 greedy people without a major bloodbath...

From an OOC perspective it looks like we are waiting for

and

to happen.
Makes me wonder if Prae lives around the north pole or something...


On a related note:
DEBO, are you still around? Well, you know, you didn't have to take the whole 'burning stake' thing this literal.
Just consider yourself resurrected phoenix-style. Or, if that fails, I don't mind talking to a heap of slowly cooling ash neither...

Feel free to join anytime. I got enough firewood left. There's always a spot reserved for you in our group for mutual mental abuse.

Perhaps [darkkhaki][italics] should be labelled: Thoughts AND things you would say 'in character' around a gaming table in an attempt at humour that would be followed immediately by declaring OOC some variation of "I'm not actually saying that out loud".

[Frankenstein voice] IT IS ALIVE! *thunderclap* [/Frankenstein voice] ->


@DEBO:
[banter mode]

Rest assured, I am mocking IC and I will keep on doing this as long as you keep on providing me with quirks that Alexander would spot and contemplate.

Now if you were talking about "speaking" them out, I'm sure there will be more than enough opportunities in the future, considering his less-than-stable personality and 'unique' views on certain things (I more-than-just-hinted at that in his background and the part of his thoughts that didn't mock your char - you read those as well, right?).
You only have to get him to talk some more (I know several ways to do this, but that would be telling again...) and voilà, you can start with the IC bashing as well, be it in darkkhaki or cyan.

You sure could do that, but why destroy one of the obvious advantages of PbP gaming: being able to think at length in character, where the others can read it without reacting to it IC, while keeping the 'attempt at humour' in the OOC-Thread for everyone to laugh about/tear apart and do away with the pesky "I'm not actually saying that out loud" part?
[/banter mode]


@All:
Who's in for a ritual summoning of Prae?

Do we get to.... err... I mean... have to sacrifice anything?

*Taking notes of evilness for future reference as GM*

Then perhaps you should make sure what he's contemplating is actually something out of place? It's common etiquette for introductions to be made from youngest to oldest (thank you internet for your copius sites on all things victorian), and to have to be prompted to introduce yourself because you ignored this... you'd think a german aristocrat would know better.

What? It DOES ignore the 'pesky' not saying it out loud part, and the 'giant key' and 'carnival sideshow' remarks wouldn't be nearly as funny in the OOC thread. Not sure what your point is, mine was to change the description for darkkhaki+italics to more accurately reflect how it IS being used, not to change what it does.

YAY! my character's 20! Three cheers for accidental etiquette!

Heh, didn't expect this for sure (curse you, internet, for teaching DEBO in all things victorian behind my back ).
I still consider prompting others to introduce themselves before doing it yourself to be ruder than being 'late' with your own introduction, so I guess they either changed the rules since then or my etiquette skill is as low as Alexanders' (he might be from an aristocratic family, but spending most of your time alone in a lab doesn't really help refining your manners...).

*reads his own post again* *scratches head* Hmmm... not sure what my point was neither ...and you're to blame!

You gave me The Silent Treatment™, making me yearn for some banter, for ...for anything, any statement to twist around until it's become some hideous monstrosity of an idea that even its metaphorical mother couldn't love.
With each passing hour my craving for pointless wrangling grew, soon reaching critical levels at the strain-scale, and then, after 5 agonizing days without innocent victims to direct my stream of arbitrary senselessness at, I...
*begins sobbing*
...I was desperate enough to try to argue on points I actually agree to, ...you ...you monster!
*imagine some collapsing & bursting into tears at this point*

[Seriously: show some responsibility you inconsiderate oaf!]




@All except DEBO (I'm mad at you now! *sulk*)

While this sounds like a plausible option considering the always famished RL, informed circles suspect a workplace accident instead:
We all know that Prae has been handling these horribly sharp and pointy lightsabers at work and, well, the obvious had to happen (reference case: Skywalker vs. Skywalker).
Standard procedure would of course be to wait until 2019 to fit him with a health-insurance covered cyber replacement hand (ASIST interface requires additional investment from the patient). Barring that, we can only wait until the force is strong enough in him to target the buttons of his keyboard seperately, because the summoning ritual will be quite difficult to accomplish.
Though if you're still up to it, Critias and fistandantilus3.0b, we need capable multigrade initiate mages who all learned 'Slay (Slacker)' (that's a widely used spell every middle management corporate wagemage should know) and are capable of summoning and binding spirits of the dead (petro houngan or necromancers would be ideal).
*looks around for any signs of Redjack* Oh, and bring some ...assistants, to ...uh, help with the ritual as ...donors, if you know what I mean. And no ...urban outdoorsmen with pharmaceutical/electronic addiction issues, they don't ...show enough dedication for to matter. Small children are much better (and easier to carry).
[edit: Just realized that in SR4 rules, essence rating doesn't matter for sacrificing any more. Hooray for junkie slaughtering! Makes the job much easier. ]

Hm, that's an option as well, but don't forget to consider the usual gm-moves-absent-pc-off-stage options:

-'quick and messy': spontaneous, unannounced death *cough*

*cough*
-'feeling generous today': pc falls into a deep coma
-'need another plot hook': pc gets captured by [insert antagonist here] with only [deadline] until the sacrifice/experiment/torture/execution/etc. begins
-'evil twist': gm plays pc who betrays team in a dramatic fashion after a while

Fear the short ones! (you know at which height their punches land...)

Same question but this time its Martin who is askin' this....

So what is appropriate knowledge skill in this case?
Is it London underground?
*Navigation maybe some bonus from here, but thats not knowledge skill! And Martin doesn't have it (In the army now and doesn't know how to move place a to place b... hmmm)
*Is there any way to use Memory to gain some bonus? If character has visited the area of neighbourhood or even the same building?

Indeed, though I don't think it would have mattered. It's all part of an order of importance type thing, age was just the one element that was easiest to be sure of IC, being that a 35yo man in Victorian London would be noticeably older than a 25yo. Introducing yourself early would be a display of humility, which is never a bad thing. Technically the foriegners probably should have gone first, speaking of which...

@ZenZen

Bull, Horns, etc.

I was initially just annoyed I made yet another mistake my character shouldn't have (after being provoked into action by some unscrupulous individual OOC who then pointed out the error IC), but then realised there might be some official etiquette of the time that would overrule the 'common courtesy' we use today, that I could use in my favour. It was a few tense moments where I had to check everyone else did the standard 20something runner, if not that I was going to have to fall back on the whole order of status thing, which wouldn't have been as convincing I don't think. As for prompting an intro, the way I see it is in a rigid society like this there is no 'ruder'. There is an etiquette to things and you either follow it or you don't.

I don't like to use netisms like 'LOL' (heck, I think I've used more smilies in this thread than I have in the entire time I been using the world wide webiverse) but is there one for "giggling like a school girl with pure, unadulterated glee at the torment I've wrought"?
I gladly accept responsibilty, credit where credit's due and all.

That'll learn him for not just telling me the origin of his character's name and pointing out my poor math skills! BWA HAHAHAHA!

@Meriss: I have no appropriate skill (if the campaign should ever venture into Oxford...), but is it possibly that I could roll something like Arthur's Londons Theatre Scene knowledge skill to see if say, the Johansenns are a patron of the arts?

I have to say that I now feel thoroughly bad for being a sterotype. With this char, I was specifically going for a noob "runner", just kicked out of his family ,etc.

Now , I know it's a bit hard to judge tone properly on the net, but is it just me, or does this OOC seem a bit tense?

Heh, in the mental picture I originally designed Lex after he was older as well, but then I decided that I wanted him to be a little dwarfling during The Great Exhibition and that limited my age options considerably, so he had no choice but to be a 'standard' 20something as well...

Aussie schoolgirls are scary.

[evil genius voice] Yes, yes ...YESSS!! My corruptive influence spreads further and further in him, mercilessly consuming what's left of his essence, sucking the marrow of purity from his bones, tainting the feeble leftovers of his spirit until his twisted, empty shell either collapses or surrenders! *guttural aussie schoolgirl giggle* [/evil genius voice]



@All

Nah, all's fair on my side (and that's the only side that matters, after all), relax.
Oh, wait...no...nooo....

*breathes heavily* You're making me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. *roars as everything except The Incredible Spandex Pants tears apart*
"Hulk Smash!"



@Meriss:

He's actually more of a gramophone person (I kinda assumed them to be already invented in your timeline...).

I'm not sure how to contact Sir Edward Woodward (L2/C3) this company guy and old family friend. So lets forget it for now, maybe later Martin writes a letter to him.

But then this knowledge skill roll Knowledge skill: (Knowledge: High society 3 + Logic 2 + 1 (3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 4 = No hits)

I wasn't aware of any tension (admissions of sobbing and maniacal laughter tend to undermine such an atmoshpere) but if it's anything to do with my 'standard 20something' remark, I certainly didn't mean it to make anyone feel bad about stereotypes, there's a reason most runners (especially starting characters) tend to be that age. Any younger is too young and any older is someone who should probably be on a higher power level. And it's not like I decided I wanted an 'older character', the ONLY reason my own character wasn't in that same group is because I got the birthdate directly from what could be a significant event in this setting.

Alright, alright...I'll try harder next time to create some tense maniacal laughter...*sigh*

Behold! Don't let your minds be clouded with unrelated events like Halley's Comet reaching its closest point to the sun, the true reason for choosing the 16th of November 1835 as Prof. Arthur Pendington date of birth is of course 'Eugenio Beltrami', the italian mathematician who was not only born on the same day, no, his name is also an almost exact anagram of this scheming player: 'trini Eg Blue omea'!
A thinly veiled and way too easily solved mystery indeed...

No that was my own concerns for myself. The 'tense' was more in regards to etiquette debates. As I said though, that could well just be from the difficulties of getting 'tone' through text. *shrug* I just didn't want to see character issues spill to out of character. No worries then.

Actually, making sure of the tone was why I started off using so many smilies (usually I don't care if random internet people misinterpret, but this is obviously a different situation) so I can see how when I stopped using them it looked like the tone had changed for the worse. My bad.

If anything I think it's going the otherway... I don't think Lex would have been as eager to comment on Arthur's etiquette if it hadn't been implied OOC he was named after Axl Rose or a LOST character, which he TOTALLY is by the way.

Well that's what we have the dwarf for, they like it underground, right?
Now I just need to know how/where telephone cables are laid, I was guessing perhaps underground in the sewers. And you requested updated knowledge skills, does this mean we can spend the CSP we've earned since the game started?

@Critias: Well "Arthur" thinks that splitting up into 'teams' for any reason is ultimately a bad idea. There's no reason to go everywhere together, it makes sense for the 2 magic user to decide between them whos going to check out which locale and such, but if you divide into teams and say one group decides that the best way to get to a key is to bluff their way in but the character with the best social skills or most appropriate contacts has already been assigned to the other team who have decided stealth is the best option or if one teams hits their 2 targets days before the other team which alerts the company that someone is after the keys, and hence move the item or improve security which will screw over the other teams plans and so on. As said, the jobs are ultimately linked and if the 2 groups get too independant, it'll end up causing trouble one way or another.

And from a metagaming aspect Dr John is leaving, meaning one group would be short a mage anyway.

Yes, but one is likely to lead to the other and besides which there's no real reason for a 'team' to go do that. Why do the mages/tech guys need muscle around for them to just go and look at the house? If you want to look at it from a fluff point of view so no one's standing around doing nothing, that's EXACTLY what they'll be doing if they play escort, better they go meet with their own contacts in the meantime and see what other info they can dig up.

@ZenZen:

Yes it would, but that's not it. You're unlikely to ever actually discover the real reason for it, unless you happen to guess. Basically, I had just finished the questionnaire and background and realised I should atleast give him a name before submitting it, so I deleted where I'd written "Name Pending" and... you get the idea. And yes I originally called him Harry, again because I was just wanting a name to slap on before hitting submit, but I didn't like it, so when Meriss asked for my character name again, I took the oppurtunity to change it.

And let me see if I understand this correctly. Lex stands up (to aid projection and establish authority one would geuss), repeats the exact same opinion Arthur had, only in MORE detail, and this is somehow LESS arrogant and LESS patronising?

@All: And what's with the hate - I only glitched the etiquette test, not critically glitched.

Not hate exactly, but noone has even a neutral opinion of him, let alone a positive one. Unless Lex considers 'arrogant poser with poor arithmetic skills' neutral?

I would have sworn it said Lex stood up before speaking, but in anycase longer explanations with shorter words rarely comes across as less patronising, and thinking in his head that the 'professor' MIGHT have a point BUT, isn't an acknowlegdement, it's begrudging admittance.

Me too, no problemo Lets see in which group Martin is going to be...