Our heores.... on Library

Gary Harper

February 11, 2019 9:27 PM

A new game by Gary Harper

Gary hauled his books, binders and various other gaming paraphernalia the the gaming group's usual table in the library. This summer he had an idea, and wanted to try something a little different. There was always a chance his players wouldn't want to, in which case, they'd just continue on from last years adventurers. In any case, he'd pitch them the idea and see what they thought. As he unloaded his things, there were some different books than usually accompanied him.

He greeted his friends as they arrived, and once the customary socializing had died down, he began his pitch. "I was thinking about trying something a little different this year. We've been playing D&D for a little while now, and I thought it might be fun to try something that will stretch our imaginations a little farther... at least for some of us, maybe." He paused a moment, that hadn't quite come out like he had wanted. Hopefully no one was going to take any kind of offense to that with regards to the next bit.

"We can continue the game from last year, but I had a thought over the summer and it sounded amusing. Instead of all this commonplace wizards and magic and such, how would you all like to play a game about muggles?" He held up a a book titled 'd20 Modern Roleplaying Game'. "I dug this out of my Dad's pile of books. It's about playing 'ordinary' people in the modern age. Now, that's not to say that nothing interesting or fantastic happens to them..." Gary gives his players a grin. "Here's the game idea I have, let me know what you think."

"Dr. Henry Jones, renowned archeologist, has has come out of retirement at the age of 88. Or rather, a very wealthy patron has incentivized him to come out of retirement after making a remarkable discovery of some strange ruins from a previously unknown, long-lost civilization on a recent expedition into the wilds of Australia. Dr. Jones is well aware that he is way to old for this sort of thing, and has put together a team to do the legwork and heavy lifting for him. That team is you. You are all exceptionally skilled in one area or another that Dr. Jones thought would be useful."

Gary glanced around, trying to gauge reactions, before continuing. "The majority of the adventures would focus on exploring these ruins, solving puzzles, dodging traps and dealing with whatever creatures you may run into along the way. You'll also need to manage supplies and help plan your expeditions. There may be some competition for whatever secrets the ruins hold, so you may not be alone in there..." He smiled and sat back to hear what people thought.

Subthreads:

Muggle born wizard playing muggles? Color me intrigued by Parker with Gary, Kir (and Ness), Zevalyn, Jozua Sparks, Lily Spencer

Our heores.... by Gary with Zevalyn, Kir, Jozua Sparks, Ness McLeod

2 Gary Harper A new game 1404 Gary Harper 1 5

Parker

February 12, 2019 9:17 AM

Muggle born wizard playing muggles? Color me intrigued by Parker

Parker found himself relax into his seat.

It felt comfortable being in the library, preparing to be his healing crazy alter-ego. He smiled at Gary as he sat down and began a general conversation with the person next to him. He'd missed this in summer too, like most things from school. Though his sister had said she'd play with him, he thought it better to leave D&D at school incase JJ was provoked.

Parker got out his well used papers and a notebook that he'd started using to make notes about what happened. Usually peoples names, because he'd found, he rarely remembered peoples names and how the team had met them, and it seemed important.

As Gary began to talk Parker's eyes went wide. Playing muggles?? Like normal people who don't do magic? Parker was yelling in his head, but on the outside merely smiled large while nodding his head in an exaggerated manor.

Parker felt like a nerd. In an odd way, he was ok with that. This activity could help him bring a bit of the outside world in with him. Electronics, cell phones, computers, televisions.

Parker raised his hand.
"Gary, quick question. Would Dr. " Parker looked down at his notes, " Jones..." Parker looked up and raised his left eyebrow. He saw what Gary was doing now.
"Would The good Dr. have access to modern technology. Or at least would others have access to it?" He also looked around. Some of the students were older, he didn't know if any of them were taking a muggle studies class.

"Also, would we want to open this game up to people who might want to learn about the muggle world?"

If Gary were open to adding people. Parker would ask Dorian if he wanted to play as Dorian seemed to have a lot of questions about the non-magical world and this might be a fun way to learn about it for him. Dorian could also turn it down if he didn't want to.

41 Parker Muggle born wizard playing muggles? Color me intrigued 1402 Parker 0 5

Gary

February 12, 2019 6:57 PM

It's a good color on you by Gary

"Absolutely," Gary grinned as he responded to Parker's questions. He had noticed the boy's raised eyebrow. Good, someone had caught on, he's got some kind of idea of what they may be in for. "The book was published fifteen to twenty years ago, so that's the default setting and technology level. I may update that a little though. Everyone has access to computers, cellphones, and such."

"I'm game for adding anyone who is interested. It's fun to play..." his voice drifted off a bit. "The game usually works best with three to six players though. To many more and things start to get unwieldy. If there are enough people, we could have two groups going. If some people want to continue with D&D, that could be a different group, maybe someone else even wants to try their hand at running a game. Otherwise I could..." Gary stopped mid sentence as a thought struck him. A devilish grin spread across his face, then vanished. "Anyway, there are options out there."

2 Gary It's a good color on you 1404 Gary 0 5

Parker

February 12, 2019 7:22 PM

Thanks. You're the stylist by Parker

Parker liked where this game was going. He hoped it was more Raiders than Crystal Skull, but either way he was definitely game for it. Though probably not as the old Dr, nor as a Nazis. Parkers mind started to wander off into thoughts on whether there were wizarding Nazis, and thinking there must be, but then again there were no history classes for him to take to learn these things. Nor were there any literature classes. Suddenly Parker realized, he didn’t really have a way to actively learn about wizarding culture. He’d been at the school for three years, going on four, and he’d never really thought about how to learn about the wider wizarding culture. He felt like an idiot.

"I'm game either way," Parker said looking around at the other players.
"Maybe someone could use this as extra credit for Muggle Studies classes this year," Parker paused realizing he didn't know if there was even a teacher to teach Muggles studies.

"Wait, is there a Muggles studies class this year?" Parker looked at Gary. Parker felt as a muggle born he should know these things, and yet he had no idea. Then again, usually students weren't able to get into the classes until later years. Still. Parker could see the use this game would have for anyone taking the class. Plus it would allow them to learn about an important cultural icon in the process.

41 Parker Thanks. You're the stylist 1402 Parker 0 5

Kir (and Ness)

February 16, 2019 9:44 PM

For science! by Kir (and Ness)

Kir was excited for another term of D&Ding. He really felt like he’d got the hang of it now, and was much more confident in just acting and making decisions, or picking out a skill to use without Gary having to walk him through every single step. And it was super fun to make up stories with other people. He wasn’t sure why making up stories was seen as something that was just for kids, or serious professional authors who were going to publish. Given how long storytelling had existed in human culture, it seemed much more like an innate part of what humankind wanted to do. One which modern Western culture had all but squeezed out.

He was a little surprised when Gary’s first suggestion was to change up the game. A part of him was reluctant to let go. Erevan and Amber had been such symbols of his and Zev’s relationship - it was how she had addressed him in the card in which she’d asked him out to the ball, and they’d given each other all kinds of themed cards and presents around those identities. Of course, they still could. And maybe they could make new identities and new jokes. Amber and Erevan had become less important as they’d grown better and just being Kir and Zev together. And as it had become apparent through the game that their alter egos were more likely to trade snarky comments than anything affectionate. Still, that in itself had become fun. He would definitely miss it, but the new game did sound cool too.

“I could go either way - as with most things,” he grinned, “I like our old game but the new one sounds cool too. So, like… we’re out digging, and get attacked by bears and so we defeat them using science and then escape on our bicycles? That kind of thing?” he smiled, warming more and more to the idea. It sounded like fun.

“I don’t think there are bears in Australia,” piped up a voice from the end of the table, “And you’re terrible at riding a bicycle - you should see him, it’s totally hilarious,” this was predominantly addressed to Zevalyn.

Kir merely shrugged, knowing that his actual bicycle riding skill would be irrelevant because it would come down to dice rolls, but deciding he could leave this sort of thing to Gary to explain. He was the GM after all, and the one who had invited Ness.

13 Kir (and Ness) For science! 1419 Kir (and Ness) 0 5

Gary

February 17, 2019 6:47 AM

Indeed, science! by Gary

"Umm... I haven't heard anything about a muggle studies class." Gary responded to Parker. That would probably be a ridiculously easy class, for a muggle-born like him anyway. He imagined it was probably designed for the wizards that didn't interact with muggles much, but may need to at some point. As for the extra-credit part, "I'd assume we'd need some kind of teacher sign-off on any potential extra credit aspect. They would probably want to monitor the content at some level." He shrugged, "It's not outside the realm of possibilities, but we'd have to figure out what kind of channels to go through."

Gary then gave an inward sigh of relief after Kir had said he'd be ok with trying out the new game. Gary would never tell Kir, but trying to design D&D adventures around the potential minefield of Kir's level of cultural sensitivity was getting quite difficult. D&D was based off the muggle's myths and legends that was the wizard's real world. It was designed that 'go kill the evil goblins' was the baseline, and Gary had found out very early that wasn't going to work.

He was hoping that he could turn the tables with this one and give the wizards the same type of detachment from the world that muggles had to D&D. This would be a mythical playground for them to not have to worry about such socio-political type concerns, it was just a fun game to play.

"Something along those lines," he replied to Kir, "but you'll probably have cars or trucks." He gave Ness a grin, "Fortunately for Kir, he won't need to ride the bike, his character will." Then to the group as a whole, "In this system, there aren't really classes like 'fighter', 'cleric', and 'wizard'. Instead you'll pick one of your six attributes to be your primary focus. Are you a Strong character, or a Smart character, ect. Then you pick a profession, choose your skills that you want to be good at, and some other fiddly bits that always comes with character generation."

He focused slightly back to Ness, "So if you wanted to make a character that was, for example, the best bike rider we could make, we'd see was skill and attribute was used for riding bikes and make those numbers as big as possible when making the character."

2 Gary Indeed, science! 1404 Gary 0 5

Zevalyn

February 17, 2019 9:42 AM

Whoo, Science! by Zevalyn

Zevalyn was intrigued by the idea of a new campaign. She loved Amber, but . . . Amber did not have a lot of range. She did one thing very well. She murdered people (usually bad ones). She murdered dangerous wildlife. She murdered demons. She murdered elementals. She murdered aberrations. But if murder was not the plan of the day, she did not have much to contribute.

She supposed, to shake things up, she could murder things from 120 feet away, using her longbow instead of her sword, so she had literal range, but not so much in the way of . . . character versatility. Or intelligence. Whenever Gary posed puzzles, Zevalyn had to sit on her ideas because Amber just wasn't able to put those kinds of thoughts together.

Plus, it might be fun to have a character with a better relationship with Kir's character. Not that Amber and Eravan weren't fun together - they really were - but a fresh (and less confrontational) take would be good, too.

She covered her mouth to keep from laughing at their lead archeologist's name, though it took her a little too long to realize Gary was probably actually referencing the Dr. Jones of titular fame and not his father. In his eighties with modern tech . . . this was Henry Junior, not Senior. It was the dog who was named Indiana. Right. Awesome.

Just so long as no crystalline skulls showed up.

But she trusted Gary to put on a good game more than she trusted Hollywood to do sequels, so it would probably be fine.

She let the others talk their way through questions and concerns and muggle studies and some basic game mechanics, then she nodded, adding her input. "Sounds neat. I'm game. I think I'm ready to play someone a little smarter than Amber for a while, especially if we're going to have some puzzles to solve. Anyone want to lay dibs on their profession? I'm kind of thinking a Smart character who works as a structural engineer or something - someone who's there to make sure ancient buildings aren't about to fall down on top of us or who can get us through blocked passageways - or maybe a linguist to talk to aboriginals or try to make sense of ancient scripts."

1 Zevalyn Whoo, Science! 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Jozua Sparks

February 17, 2019 10:00 AM

Adventure! by Jozua Sparks

Jozua had joined the D&D group slowly. At first he was just an occasional visiting character who filled in when others couldn't make it due to illness, Quidditch practice, or other obligations. As he got more comfortable with the format and what was expected and his character got more powerful and interesting, though, he started coming more regularly and became a regular party member.

He liked his Dragonborn druid. He could heal, he could cast spells, he wasn't even awful at fighting, and once a day he could even breath fire. How cool was that?

Unfortunately, it didn't sound like he was going to get to play his dragonborn this year. On the other hand . . . what Gary was describing sounded almost exactly like what he wanted to do for his real life career. The tricky thing was that his planned future involved magic, and this game did not. And Jozua knew basically zero things about what it was muggles could and couldn't do compared to wizards, other than no casting spells.

"Do muggles have curse breakers?" he asked, because he wasn't sure exactly how many cursed objects muggles had to deal with, especially when exploring unknown ruins. It seemed to him they might have some other way of dealing with such curses other than magic. It was possible anyway.

1 Jozua Sparks Adventure! 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Gary

February 17, 2019 7:01 PM

Science! + Adventure! = Fantasticness!! by Gary

Gary nodded at Zevalyn, once again he was glad to have another gaming veteran around to smooth thing along. "That was kinda what I wanted to accomplish with this meeting. Firstly, see if everyone is up for the change in game. Secondly, if everyone is, work out a very general group make-up. I'll meet up with each of you individually, or in pairs" he added glancing toward Kir and Zev, "depending on what types of characters you all want to play and what their relationships are between each other. Now, since you will be making a character that is rather outstanding in one field or another, you'll be aware of each other's professional reputation at a bare minimum. Dr. Jones isn't going to bring someone along that can't pull their own weight." He paused for a moment before continuing, thinking for the best way to respond to Jozua's question, and decided to use it to bring up the next point he was going to make.

"No." He answered flatly. "Nearly every single muggle thinks magic is nonsense, especially the highly educated scientific community." His tone, posture and facial expression changed. He sat up straight, folded his hands on his notes and looked down his nose at his players, with a slightly deeper than normal tone he 'harrumphed' and continued speaking which included a very slight British accent. "The idea of magic is purely absurd, there is no scientific evidence for it at all. It's preposterous." He looked around the table, collecting everyone's focus. "There are strange stories however," he started off quietly, "Things people have claimed, that they cannot explain." His eyes darted around the room as if looking for eavesdroppers, then leaned in a little closer to the group. "More than a few of those stories seem to circulate around old Dr. Jones himself. They say he has seen some very, very strange things in his expeditions into Egypt, India, Hatay and more." Gary resumed his previous posture in his seat and harrumphed again, "They're just rumors and stories though, nothing real to them. Probably overwork and stress fatigue, there were some serious things going on back in those days let me tell you. That man came literally face-to-face with the closest thing this world has known to evil incarnate. Be sure to show him due respect when you meet him."

He paused and looked at his notes a moment, as if perusing them. "It's strange though, the types of people he's looking for. I've got a list here from him of skills that he's looking for in his team. Most of them are normal enough for an archeological expedition out in the wild; Deciphering Ancient script, Gathering Information, Driving, Equipment maintenance and repair, Investigation, Research, Earth and Life Science knowledge, Physical sciences knowledge, Theology and Philosophy knowledge, Treating Injuries, Navigation, Piloting, As many languages as possible, and survival skills. Some of them though, they seem a little... strange to me; Arcane Lore knowledge? Demolitions? Device Disabling?" Gary shook his head slowly as if mildly bewildered by the list. He slid the sheet of paper into the middle of the table upon it was written the list in a hasty script. At the top it was a short note, 'Useful skills for the Australia expedition'. Along with those Gary had read off there were a few more; Animal Handling had a single line through it, then a 'Maybe?' written afterwards. Business Knowledge was also there, but crossed off twice... by a different pen that wrote the rest of the note. Forgery was nearly scribbled out by that same, different pen. In the margins were random words interspersed with completely blacked out areas where things had been completely expunged from the page.

Gary gave them a wry smile, "It's almost as if he believes in those ridiculous stories that circulate around himself and is preparing to deal with some sort of strange occult occurrences. Preposterous. Ordinarily I would write those sorts of requirements as a jest. However, due to his position, he will get what he wants." He looked again at the paper in the middle of the table. Then he continued in the same voice, but now with just a hint of uncertainty, "If... and that is a gargantuan if mind you, there is something in Australia with some sort of unexplainable detrimental power, you had best learn all you can about it. How it works, what it does and why, if you need to get out from under it's influence. There is no magic to simply wish its effects away. You're not wizards after all."

His voice lost the uncertainty, and he smiled, mildly condescendingly at his players. "Now, how about you tell me about yourselves?"

2 Gary Science! + Adventure! = Fantasticness!! 1404 Gary 0 5

Lily Spencer

February 18, 2019 3:53 PM

I'm always open to more fantasticness. by Lily Spencer

The only reason why Lily usually came to the library was for her DnD group. She loved her character, Ronin, and it was fun playing make-believe with other friends. She sat down next to Jozua and listened as Gary explained a new game and everyone spoke their piece. She'd been much quieter this year, ever since she'd lost her dog during the summer. It was strange how much she discovered about people when she wasn't talking their ears off.

Lily had a love-hate relationship with Muggles ever since her friendship 'break-up' with those Muggle boys back three or so years ago. Everyone else seemed interested in pretending to be Muggles - though she couldn't understand the appeal, really - and science made things sound complicated. She already knew she would have to study a lot to catch on. "Sure, I'm in," she said.

Gary was a brilliant narrator, and she thought it was funny and slightly offensive to see him take on a condescending persona with a slight British accent. Though Lily didn't know any Muggle archaeologists, she wondered if British ones were known for being particularly snobbish here. Perhaps she could've been offended, being the only English witch at the table, but he also reminded her of her mum and it was rather spot on. She was more affronted by the preposterous lies coming out of his mouth about magic. That she personally knew, or had known, Muggles like this made it a bit too real for her. However, it was just a game. Nothing to get annoyed about.

As Gary informed them of the different skills, she tried to imagine a different form of Ronin. Most of the characters she'd made up even as a child had been male, but she thought it would be fun to play a fierce female character. She had no idea what the different sciences entailed, though from their names it sounded quite obvious, so she went with the one that sounded familiar to her.

"I can go first," she offered. "We only choose one skill that we excel at, then? I'm Captain Jacqueline Stuart, but I go by Jacque. I'm a skilled British pilot - those are the ones that fly those machines in the sky, right? - and I've got some knowledge of equipment maintenance and repair. It's called an aeroplane, isn't it?" She'd seen those things in the sky often, growing up in London. "I'm known for safely piloting scientists to many archeological sites and live for adventure."

Jacque wasn't extraordinarily interesting or an academic, but Lily could relate, being surrounded by intelligent people. She'd rather have the skills to survive than know loads about research. If it was an acceptable position to have according to this game.

She glanced at Jozua. If Kir and Zev were going to be a couple, should they? It didn't matter to her, really, and she decided she'd let Jozua decide. Lily had never been in a proper relationship before, so she didn't know what she was doing half the time. She looked down at the list. "Did I do it right? Shall I add anything else?"

40 Lily Spencer I'm always open to more fantasticness. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Gary

February 23, 2019 11:18 AM

Our heores.... by Gary

Gary smiled as Lilly talked about Captain Jacqueline Stuart, he also scribbled some notes. "Excellent, Captain Stuart," he responded in character, "Your track record has been exemplary. I was particularly impressed with your performance in Kuwait last month. Dr. Smith is still singing your praises."He gave Lily a grin and a wink as he made up some random details for fun.

He dropped the character, "That's great Lily. We'll flesh out the details later. He turned to Zev, "you were thinking about a smart character, would you like to go next, or..." he looked around a the group, "someone else? First come, first serve on character concepts. Get 'em before they're taken!" He gave a smile to the group and waved his hand as an invitation for someone to take the floor. "Also, don't be afraid on doubling up on some of the skills. It never hurts to have someone to fall back upon if your dice decide to betray you for a session."

OOC: I thought the thread would benefit from a new tier.

2 Gary Our heores.... 1404 Gary 0 5

Zevalyn

February 24, 2019 2:20 PM

Yeah, that's me by Zevalyn

Zevalyn covered a smile, and tried to look suitably academic and muggle scientist as Gary talked. He really wasn't wrong about how the scientific community saw magic. She and her parents had both subscribed to that theory well past when they had begun to experience 'things they could not explain' as Gary so aptly put it, though they had certainly tried their utmost to explain them without resorting to magic, right up until the moment that Zevalyn traveled about three miles in the blink of an eye, and they were force to accept one of the two equally unpalatable explanations of 'magic' or 'micro wormhole'. And even then she probably would have gone with the wormhole idea if it had followed any sort of theoretical physics. Or even television physics.

Complete and total refusal to accept even the possibility of magic was the one single reason why she'd had two years of work to make up when she'd started at Sonora.

"Sure, I'll go next," Zevalyn agreed when Gary offered the floor to her. "I think I'm going to stick with some kind of science instead of languages." She had a better idea of how the scientific community worked than most anyone else here did, after all.

She took a deep breath, more to give herself time to think of a character concept and name, than because she need to pause dramatically or get extra oxygen into her blood. "Good to meet you, Captain Stuart," she said to Lily, with an incline of her head, ostensibly role-playing but in truth she was still stalling. "I'm pleased to know a talented pilot will be at the controls when we travel. My name is, um, Natalia Ivanova," - it was totally and completely coincidental that her gaze happened to drift past Gary and lock onto a shelved book with this name displayed as its author when she said this. Total coincidence. Zev had absolutely been planning to be a Russian. Of course, Zevalyn's knowledge of the Russian language and Russia as a country were both fairly limited, so Natalia had studied in America - or maybe Australia, since the story was taking place there. Yes, Australia sounded good. And had lived there ever since, so her English was flawless.

If a bit Australian-influenced. Though she couldn't fake an Australian accent any better than she could do a Russian one. Dang it.

Maybe Natalia was a Russian-American who studied and lived in Australia. She'd work out backstory later.

"I am a top researcher," her accent adjusted almost against her will to mimic some kind of Hollywood Russian accent that was undoubtedly wildly inaccurate, but at least she didn't drop words or do anything to break the good command of the English language she had already decided Natalia would have, "in the field of biological science, especially as it relates to biological anthropology. And though I do not have a license to practice medicine, I have a working knowledge of first aid, and a good understanding of medicinal plants and reagents, should anything happen and that sort of thing become necessary."

She had been leaning towards physical sciences until she started talking, but biology was a bit more removed from her mom who was also a physicist, and it let her pick up first aid as a related skill, which would probably come in handy in an adventure.

1 Zevalyn Yeah, that's me 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Kir

March 05, 2019 8:15 AM

Into every generation.... by Kir

There was an in joke going on. Kir was almost certain of it. There had been subtle little looks between Parker, Gary and Zevelyn. Suppressed little smiles. There was a joke here that the rest of them did not get. He was curious, but for now left them to their secret. There would be plenty of time for that later.

His mind started whirling with ideas. He could possibly be the fighty one, for a change. Except knowing languages or mythology might be fun too. Could he be a fighter who knew mythology? Or a mythologist who knew fighting? Could he be Buffy?! He wanted to be Buffy. His aunt had decided a couple of years back that he was old enough to be introduced to her favourite series. And, ok, the lead was not exactly the character who resonated with him the most but she seemed like she would be good for this. Especially if he could smarten her up a bit. Later life Buffy, who has started taking all the Watcher info a bit more seriously. Except, was that keeping too much of a foot in the magical world? To be someone who knew about The Occult? Except the Buffy version was mostly demons, which was nothing like what he knew, but he would Believe, and should he embrace this chance to be like... a cold, rational computer expert or something? But being Buffy sounded better. Also he was pretty sure there were only so many times he could repeat ‘I do the computery thing’ before it started sounding really boring and everyone realised he didn’t actually know what it meant. He suspected computers were very, very fun if you could actually operate one, but if all you could do was state ‘I operate the computer’ then punching occult stuff in the face might be more interesting.

So. He was secretly Buffy. He just had to okay that with Gary. Except everyone else seemed to have a solid idea and was now introducing themselves in character. What had happened to meeting in private to talk it through? He summoned the list Gary had prepared over so he could have a look at it, trying to work out a career angle for Basically Buffy.

He scanned the list. None of these people looked like they would be inherently strong. Unless... pilots were? He thought Ronin - now Jacque - was going down the ‘fixing things’ route with that though. He glanced down the list again and wondering whether there was a link between any of these jobs and something really physical that he was just missing. It didn’t seem that way. So, he could probably fight and know stuff. At least, a bit.

"So..." he stalled. He had... like, a million questions. And he wanted to have deep, mysterious secrets. But everyone else was being in character. Well Jacque - had done half and half but then Gary and Zev were going full on. He decided to plunge in and see what came out of his mouth. He’d learnt over the last couple of years that it was much more fun that way, and that Gary would stop him if was way off. “I’m the muscle on the team,” he added, semi in, semi out of character, because he thought it was a good idea to establish his Type first.

"Okay. So-" he cut himself off because that was so not how Buffy began conversations.

"My name is Elizabeth... Something." He had come across another Buffy in a novel, in which it had been a shortening for Elizabeth. He knew it wasn't the case in the show but calling himself Buffy was a bit obvious. If they had their in jokes, so could he. He could not for the life of him remember Buffy's surname in that moment though, much less decide if he wanted to use it or pun on it.

"I was pretty popular in high school but got kicked out after being involved in fights. There were rumours that I was mixed up with some pretty messed up groups. I turned my back on my prom queen ways and started hanging out more in libraries, though also…” he could not say ‘graveyards’. “Still fighting. I’m a pretty adept fighter. You may be wondering what I've done to get the attention of Doctor Jones," he said, his tone attempting casual but he suspected betraying the fact that he himself was definitely wondering that, having realised he had just painted himself into something of a corner. "Museum security. I work... doing that. So, Doctor Jones brought back some weird artefacts and guards kept quitting, saying they were cursed and creepy things were happening. It settled down after I arrived.

"Guess he thinks what we're going to be uncovering is valuable or... unique,” he mused, giving pointedly raised eyebrows on the last word, “so the dig needs security?” he added, it coming out as a question. He had kept eyes on Gary for any signals that he was rapidly making up things in entirely the wrong direction but he hadn’t noticed any issues.

"Also, I am debating how much I would say to proper scientists about cursed things, so you may all not know that," he added, in his own voice, as an afterthought.

13 Kir Into every generation.... 366 Kir 0 5

Jozua Sparks

March 05, 2019 11:07 PM

... comes a Rogue trying to go straight? by Jozua Sparks

Jozua wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do for his character. He knew basically nothing about muggles and their careers, and it sounded like curse breaking wasn’t a thing, even if Kir got his job by the other guards being scared of the curses. Which, thinking about it, made sense if there were no curse breakers to protect the employees from that sort of thing.

So Zev was smart. Kir was strong. And they were probably going to be lesbians, though neither of them said that yet. But if Amber and Erevan flirted in game, he couldn’t imagine that Elizabeth and Natalia wouldn’t as well.

Lily was a pilot/mechanic. He kind of toyed with the idea of being Lily’s - excuse him, Jacques’ - co-pilot but he wasn’t sure that would work; there might be too much overlap of abilities, and he didn’t want to accidentally steal her thunder by mistake. And besides, he knew even less about aeroplanes than Lily did.

After a quick check to make sure Demolitions meant what he thought it meant, he decided he did have an idea he could enjoy playing.

“I’m Phil,” he said casually, raising his hand informally. “Jacque kin get you across the long distances, but I’ll get you inside wherever you’re gettin’ to, once you’re on foot. I’m a decent trail blazer, but I’ll be the one gettin’ ya through your on-site barriers, be they a locked door or an inconvenient wall.” He nodded at Gary, with a faint grin on his face. “I’m the fella they found kin do the demolitions and device disablin’.” Which, he knew from D&D, basically meant disarming traps (which was almost curse breaking right there) and opening locks without a key the muggle way. “And, well, I’m a big fan of survival. The alternative just don’t sound real appealin’.”

“And, well,” he tapped a finger on the crossed out skill of ‘forgery’, almost as if it were coincidence, “I might have some other talents, too, from a former line of work that has very little bearing of what brings us all together today.” He realized he forgot to use the poor grammar drawl then decided that it didn’t matter anyway because Phil probably came and went on his dialect as the whim took him, never quite letting anyone figure out which one was the affection and which was his natural way of speaking.

In a stage whisper, he leaned forward and held a hand beside his mouth as if sharing a deep secret with the group, “Some of you might be picking up that Phil’s kinda shady.”

1 Jozua Sparks ... comes a Rogue trying to go straight? 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Gary

March 06, 2019 10:12 PM

And fantasticalness ensues by Gary

Gary was scribbling as fast as he could in his notebook as his players talked. This was going far better than he had imagined it could. Some of them seemed a litle uncertain, but they were diving in nonetheless, and the characters sounded great already. They had a British pilot/mechanic, a 'Russian' anthropologist/medic, an American? guard/fighter, and a... something... demolitionist/criminal? They already had names and some personality, this was great. It would be a good game.

He cleared his throat, "Yes, very good Dr. Ivanova. It is a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance. I was quite taken in by your publication last month, I hadn't seen the connection between..." Gary let the sentence fade out because he had no idea what sort of revelation a biological anthropologist would have made. So instead of continuing that thought he coughed and looked at the other people at the table. "Perhaps that is a conversation for another time. Regardless, I'm sure Dr. Jones will be glad to have you joining the expedition. I hope your medical knowledge will not be needed," he put on a bit of a pompous, self-amused smile, "It's better to have and not need, than need and not have. Correct?" He chuckled to himself before moving on.

Gary eyed up Kir a little uncertainly, "Ms..." Gary looked at his notes quick, nope he hadn't missed it, Kir's last name was 'something'. Eh, good enough for now. "Something." Hopefully Kir figured out that he was just continuing the use of the placeholder. After all, there were rules of etiquette and decorum to follow. "Dr. Jones has specifically requested you based on your..." He glanced down at his paper again as if reading something written by the good doctor, "'exceptional competence in previous situations'. I have only had a brief time to review your file myself, and honestly I am a little wary of your qualifications. The expedition will certainly need security, but I am at a loss as to why Dr. Jones was so insistent." He gave Kir a bit of an inquiring look, there was something about Elizabeth's story that seemed familiar... was he a Joss Whedon fan? That seemed highly unlikely, but otherwise that character seemed... He coughed again, "Any number of security firms were available to him, but still he was insistent, so my hands are tied." He nodded curtly, "Welcome aboard."

If he looked at Kir with uncertainty, Jozua got a look of downright disgust. "Mr..." He looked down again, dangit... not even a 'something' this time. "Phil." He stated slowly and flatly. "I dare say, I don't know where to begin. Your file has more holes in it than a slice of swiss cheese, and the parts that are present border on criminal. I trust you understand that archeology is a delicate process, one that takes discipline and patience." He gave Jozua a hard stare, definitely looking down his nose. "Your skills, as documented," he paused giving a suspicious look before continuing, "are impressive. I trust you will be able to follow directions precisely and submit yourself to rightful authority."

Looking over the notes again he smiled at the group and broke character, "This looks like it'll definitely be a fun adventure. I'm looking forward to fleshing these people out in more detail in our individual sessions. We'll crunch the numbers, work on some backstories and sort all that out." Huh, so far he had three girls and one guy character. He briefly wondered what sort of party Dr. Jones had in mind down in Australia. Also, Kir had made a girl, which was fine but he thought Kir and Zev might want to make characters that would... replicate their real life relationship and get along better than Amber and Erevan did. Oh well. "Who's next?" He said with a grin.

2 Gary And fantasticalness ensues 1404 Gary 0 5

Ness McLeod

March 09, 2019 5:15 AM

Going straight doesn't sound appealing by Ness McLeod

This was cool. They were going to do science. Science was even better than fighting monsters, and Ness got to hang out with with Lily and Zevelyn and Gary, all of whom were really, really cool.

The character thing moved pretty fast. It felt a little bit unfair, and like Ness was getting left out just because of not playing the last game and not being that sure of how everything worked. Ness didn’t want to get last choice just because of knowing less about the game than the others. It would have helped if someone had explained the rules before they all started playing…

“I’m a scientist too,” Ness chipped in as confidently as possible when Gary asked who was next. “My name is Dr. Blake.” Blake had been the first idea of a gender-neutral name that had sprung to mind and then Ness had realised that being ‘Dr.’ and just giving a surname was a convenient way around identifying one. “I do a different type of science to Dr. Ivanova.” That sounded lame and Ness knew it, but wasn’t sure what types of science would actually be useful here. Science had physics, biology and chemistry. Physics was about space and tiny things. Biology was what Zevalyn was doing. Chemistry was plausible, maybe, but the Aladren wasn’t totally convinced of which ones would be needed on a dig. Kir swooshed the list over but scanning it wasn’t particularly helpful as the science types weren’t that meaningful.

“What types of science would be useful?” the first year asked Gary. Lily had had broken character a bit, and Gary was switching between being Gary and this…. Person with a stick up their butt. So it was presumably allowed.

Their characters could also have relationships. Ness wondered whether Lily’s character would be interested in dating Dr. Blake, but that didn’t seem like something Ness could just assume. And maybe it would be better to work out a bit more about who Dr. Blake actually was first.

13 Ness McLeod Going straight doesn't sound appealing 1419 Ness McLeod 0 5

Gary

March 10, 2019 11:54 AM

Crooked can be fun by Gary

Gary grinned at Ness, he had been wondering how Kir's sibling would take to the group and gaming in general. He'd wanted this planning session to be partially role-playing as well, which was more akin to unexpectedly shoving the group off the dock and watching them flounder about until they started swimming. It was a little mean to those who didn't have any 'swimming' experience, but he wanted to try and set the tone for the game early, so they knew what they would be getting into, and this was the experiment to see if he could do it right out of the gate. Ness was floundering though, which was expected. That's why he was here to throw out a line and help out.

"Most could be useful in one way or another," he thought for a moment, "but I'm not sure a pure physicist, chemist or mathematician would be... interesting to play. Maybe, but you're going on an archeological expedition which means you'll be delving into ancient cultures. So tying one of the main branches of science to history is a good route to go. For example, Dr. Ivonava," he gestured at Zev, "Is not just a biologist, her field focuses on the evolution of biology and to some extent the cultural impacts of it." He hoped he got that right, biological anthropology wasn't something he had researched extensively. He'd have to look into it now.

"Other than the illustrious Dr. Jones himself, we don't actually have an archeologist yet. That would mix together some history, physics, and linguistics. A pure historian could possibly work, especially one focusing on ancient Australia. A geologist would have knowledge about the rocks, land and a fair amount of chemistry." He paused trying to think of other scientist types that would lend themselves towards this endeavor. His mind was coming up blank though, so he decided to turn the question back to Ness, "What kind of science do you think would be interesting to pursue?"

2 Gary Crooked can be fun 1404 Gary 0 5

Ness

March 10, 2019 8:20 PM

Not what I meant by Ness

Ness listened carefully to Gary's explanation. It seemed like the hunch that being a physicist was not going to fit had been accurate. They needed to be history-scientists, the most relevant of which would be a geologist or an archeologist. Skills-wise, the geologist sounded most sciency. But this was an archeological dig, so being an archeolohist was obviously a big, important job. Maybe even like being the main character.

Ness sort of wondered why no one else had jumped at it if that was the case. Was it a trap? Was it a bit like playing Seeker, where a lot rested on you, and the team was going to be disappointed if you let them down? But this seemed a lot more controlled than playing Quidditch. It was sort of like playing make-believe and it was hard to imagine failing at that, especially as Gary seemed on hand to talk them through things they didn't know. And Ness wanted to be noticed and be important to the older students.

"I can be an archeologist," the second year agreed happily, "You do still help us with knowing stuff once the game starts, right?" Ness checked with Gary, wondering suddenly why that was why everyone else was shying away from that role. "Or it's like... built into our skill things, like you said about bike riding?" Ness added, remembering what Gary had said about Kir not really needing to know how to do things.

13 Ness Not what I meant 1419 Ness 0 5

Gary

March 19, 2019 6:52 PM

Hmmm... then I'm confused by Gary

Gary grinned at Ness, "An archeologist it is. It'll be good to have at least one along on an archeological expedition I think." He paused then added, "It couldn't hurt to have more than one perhaps." He didn't want to shut down anyone's creative juices in case they were also thinking about going the archeologist route. Honestly, he though perhaps everyone might decide to make one, and it'd make for a real interesting adventure. Fortunately archeologist, especially in the pulpy fiction type he was going to run here, had a broad swath of types of folk that could claim the title. Anything from the daring do of a younger Dr. Jones to a bookish researcher that had never left their library before this adventure. So, there was plenty of room for everyone to find their character's niche.

He nodded and smiled at the new archeologist-to-be's follow up questions. "Yup, no worries. If you need actual 'real-world' knowledge, I'll make sure you have it. Your character's skills and the dice may determine what sort of information you have or can find. If, for instance, your character needed to know who the third ruler of the Byzantine Empire had been, you would use your character's History skill. For the sake of this example, I'd say that recalling that fact is a difficulty class or DC of 15. That is the target number that you need to match or beat for your character to remember the fact. So, again for example, say your archeologist has a +5 in their History skill, you would roll your twenty sided die and add your +5 to the die roll. If the total was 15 or higher, your character remembers who that ruler was, otherwise they just can't recall."

Gary waved his had slightly dismissively, "Don't worry about the numbers and such to much right now. We'll cover all that sort of thing in the individual meet-ups to actually make the characters." He looked around the table at everyone, "Also, we'll do a very short individual scenario so you can play with the mechanics a bit and make sure everything is working as expected before you hit Australia."

2 Gary Hmmm... then I'm confused 1404 Gary 0 5