[Mul/Extreme?] Welcome to The Hotel California...

[Stattick]

Ever get a niggling little idea stuck in your head that just doesn't want to go away? That's me, right now. I cannot run this. I don't have the time. Hell, I can't even be certain that I would be able to play... if so, I don't think I could manage to post more then twice a week. The idea is that one or more people enter, and that players should state what they'd be looking for within The Hotel. Some will want to play victims, others may want to play victimizers. Some will be looking for long term play, while others would be looking for something short term, or single scene. The option is open for nearly any kind of character concept, so long as the GM approves of it.

The GM's role would be more for facilitating the game then anything else I think. Keeping things organized, and just being helpful. Perhaps filling some NPC roles and the like. I suppose that with the right twisted mind at the helm, overriding story arcs of intrigues and struggles for power could be possible though. I put the Extreme tag on this, only because I'd imagine that some of the stories that can be told in a game such as this could and will go to the extreme end of the spectrum, but I really don't think that all games would or even should go to the extreme end of the spectrum.

Here's the idea:


Out somewhere along some lonely stretch of highway, far off of the beaten path, is a beacon of light sometimes seen in the lonely night. Some say it's The Hotel California, some say it's El Dorado the legendary lost city of gold, and others say that it is some half remembered pocket dimension nestled between the planes of existence. Some say that it can be found along Highway 50 in Nevada, the so-called Loneliest Road in America. Others say that it is found along The Devil's Highway, US 666 that shoots North from Gallup NM to Monticello, UT near the Eastern border of the biggest Indian reservation in the US. Other say that it's concealed in the mountains North of Vegas near Area 51, near the mysteriously abandoned cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde, or just outside of the craggy entrance of the Zion national park. Others have found it near the old ranch that the Manson Family lived in during their time in Death Valley... And some have found it in stranger places besides. It doesn't really matter.

The truth is, it can be found nearly any natural place of power where the reality of our world runs thin and the realities of another can start to bleed over. It's not a matter of where the place is, but rather a matter of those that knowingly or unknowing seek it out. It takes a powerful and unfettered mind to find it. Some have stumbled upon it after loosing their minds, and others found it while vision questing with a mind full of peyote, mushrooms, LSD, or any number of other psychotropic drugs. Most simply find it while travel weary and half asleep, seeing only a lit up and comforting looking hotel ahead.

Travellers can be from anywhere and from any time. Something of the magic of the place is that all languages are the same in the hotel. The building itself is gold and marble, and outfitted in opulent style. Each room is unique. Somehow, the desk clerk always manages to assign an appropriate room to each guest. The rates always seem reasonable, and guests are rarely turned away, regardless of their ability to pay. If a guest cannot pay, then room can always be made available on the staff. The staff's duties are many, but due to attrition due to accidents, deaths, and retirement, there is always room for extra hands to keep the Hotel running. There are beautiful tarraced gardens surrounding the buildings, pools, sculptures, a world class restaurant, and all of the amenities one would be able to expect of a world class hotel from any era, including of course, those staff members who give carnal pleasures to guests for a fee.

* The sorts of amenities expected at the sleaziest of hotels are also available as well, and probably more besides. Toys, restraints, drugs, alcohol, gambling, porn, and worse can be found on the premises if one knows where to look. The front desk may be of help, but like any good hotel, it's always the doorman that knows the best place to send a guest for something that would raise eyebrows, while the concierge deals with the less controversial items. *

The lonely halls and walkways of the hotel always seem half empty, and most of the guest rooms remain unoccupied. It is a simple matter to get a room or cottage in some secluded area where there are no neighbors to hear the cries of passion or torment coming from within. There are some guests whose sole occupation seems to be finding new guests to seduce or prey upon. Some of the destitute that find their way to the hotel are snapped up by these predators before they can even find out that joining the staff in exchange for room and board was an option. Other staff members are cruel and hardened ex-guests that exhausted their fortunes and have now been reduced to serving others. There is an unverified rumor that one of the night clerks used to be Duchess during the Hundred Year War when England occupied Northern France.

There are supernatural elements active in the hotel as well. Ghosts are sometimes seen, visions had, and rumors of vampires, werewolves, and worse are heard being whispered in the lonely halls by the staff. The Hotel is a dangerous place, but a beautiful one where many secrets can be had. The library is rumored to contain texts that have been lost to history. Lost works by great philosophers, prophets, sacred texts, and mind destroying great truths can all be found in the library - but the staff there too charges for their services... the price need not be monetary. Time sometimes moves oddly for some guests, and it is said that those that live at The Hotel neither age, nor grow ill from their habits. More then one late stage cancer victim has somehow found The Hotel... or perhaps The Hotel found them? No one's quite sure how that works.

Outside of the front entrance is a great driveway where the staff can greet newly arriving guests and direct them toward the entrance foyer. Coach houses lay to one side where vehicles of all varieties, coaches, horses, or slaves can be housed until the guest decides to depart. There is even a rarely seen dock where ships great or small may tie up. Sometimes a small modern yacht can be seen tied near a Phoenician slave barge.

Beyond the pier and driveway, and beyond the walls of the campus, there is simply a swirling mist. The mist provides light in the day, and nearly none in the night. What lies beyond the mists is anyones guess. No one has ever walked out far enough into the mist to find the other side. Some do go into the mist to never return though. Others that have chosen to depart have gotten out into the mist, only to find it harder and harder to breath as they went, like the mist were some miasma rather then fog. Some have grown too fearful to keep going, and have turned back to return to The Hotel. Others have simply gone out into the mist to never be seen again. It is unknown whether they succumbed to the mist and died within it, or whether they were able to find their way back to where and whence they came from.


EDIT: Drop a line if you think you want to GM this, or if you'd be interested in playing.
EDIT II: I cleaned up a few small details that weren't quite right, and added in the paragraph between the asterisks about the sleazy stuff that can be found in The Hotel as well.

[Silent Wayfarer]

I'd be interested in playing...

[Stattick]

I'm hoping that someone will be willing to GM and get this going as a big group game sorta thing. I don't have time to do it myself.  :(

For the time being, those that are interested in playing probably outta let us know what kind of character they'd like to play. Although I'm sure that there would be no shortage of PREDATORS and VICTIMS, there out to be a way to to keep it open for those that aren't interested in that sort of play too.

Maybe tag your interest w/ what you're interested in playing similar to a thread? So only those that self-tag w/ NC would go for that sort of play, and keep the NC play only in the NC labelled threads or something? I dunno - I might be jumping the gun; not sure how many will actually be interested. I probably should have posted on Mon when there's more traffic on-site.

[Skye]

I'm digging the supernatural bearing on your story line, plus I effing love Vegas. Let me know when the games going to start and I'll be there!

*Rereads* Or I can see who's willing to start it too...*shrugs* Whatever helps.

[Elohim]

I may be able to run this with a co-gm,  though I might warp this into something a bit more cthonic then what people are hoping for.

[Happy an Nice]

This is very interesting. I'll play.

[Idej]

Interested, seems like a cool thing to do.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I could be on board for this...I might play an incubus...or the victim of an incubus...

[Happy an Nice]

Has any further planning been done?

[Stattick]

Has any further planning been done?

No, it hasn't. I'd be willing to help set up. But, as I said above, I don't have the stability of schedule to be able to guarantee that I'd be able to GM it. Between work and school, and finals approaching, there's no way to know when my schedule may suddenly allow me no time to post, and that's thoroughly unacceptable for running a game...

What we might be able to do though, is to put it together in such a way to where it can run mostly on "autopilot", with little input needed from a GM. Have a thread where people post what kind of story they'd be interested in telling in context to the idea, and where they can look for partner(s). A GM would mostly be necessary for when someone disappears for an extended period, or decides to drop the game, and the other partner(s) want to continue to play the same character(s)... A GM could help facilitate a transition until new partners appear. There's more that a GM could do, he or she could provide a number of NPC's for instance, and/or "greet" new players as they check-in to the hotel. A GM could also help to provide some direction if someone just "jumps in" to the game without a preset notion of what they want to do... Perhaps someone applying for the position should tell us what he or she thinks the role should entail? I can also see a GM deciding/defining exactly what supernatural elements would be allowable in The Hotel, and what supernatural elements would be allowable as PC's.

Also, there should be some discussion as to whether to make this an Extreme game... I'd prefer it to be such so there'd be fewer limitations on what kind of stories could be told.



Only Seraph has expressed any interest in perhaps helping to run the game, but she said that she'd only be interested in co-GMing. There's also been interest in playing from one other party that PM'd me, but unfortunately, she's also unable to GM.

Seraph, I'm curious as to what you mean when you said that you might warp the game in a more cthonic direction.


* Game mostly inspired by the fact that I work the usually boring Night Audit shift at a hotel where nothing interesting happens where I can see it. Sometimes I wonder what happens behind all of those locked doors, what it would be like if it were in some spooky nether region where far more interesting (and sometimes dangerous) people were the guests... what would it be like if there were no police to call when things get interesting... etc.