Murder in Upstate New York!I haven't seen anything exactly like this lately and I thought I would give this a try:
Story: The time is the near future, the place is a secluded mansion in upstate New York, USA. Georgie Kincaid, the porn mogul, is hosting an event. He has invited a number of guests to a weekend party and grand revealing of his latest project. The mansion was built to keep demonstrators away and is well designed to keep intruders out. Unfortunately, once someone is inside they have far more freedom. For those who are seers, you may guess that Georgie will not survive the weekend. Unlike the psychic network, you would be correct.
System: It is a home-brewed system based on several LARP games. It is a simple skill point system, much like Chthulu Live and we will be using the sanity scale from that game as well, but it will be adjusted from sanity to sexuality. The only deviation from Chthulu will be in the combat system (which may not ever get used) which will involve some dice as I will describe below.
Who: The players will be playing the guests. Once I have enough players, I will offer up roles and players will choose. One of the roles will, of course be the hidden killer. Each guest will have: A hidden secret; A piece of knowledge only they know; Some items; A hidden agenda. There will be winners and losers in this game. If you achieve your agenda and survive, you win. Otherwise, you lose. The killer has two agendas, since they will automatically achieve the first.
How to play: The game will played on three levels and I will be using a method in an attempt to stay chronologically logical.
Chronos: The game clock will tick one hour per day. This is a deliberate attempt to keep all players able to keep up. During each hour, the player will be able to do anything that is approximately one-hour or less in length. I am not going to be ultra-strict, but if something is obviously too long, I will talk to you about an edit, or just stretch it into the next hour. Things that can happen in an hour: A very long conversation; good sex; several quickies; dinner; power nap; the possibilities are endless.
Level 1: IC - The physical. This is the actual IC thread. Anything you do that is witnessed by other people must be played out here. This includes any conversation or action that you do not attempt to hide from people. If you do attempt to hide a conversation or action, it must be played out. In order to justify several things there will be a servant presence. They are not part of the plot, nor guilty of anything. If you need to kill someone in a room, I will assume (unless you say otherwise) that you wait until the servants leave. Servants will not catch you doing anything (they're kinda dumb that way) nor will they help you do most things. They will however, magically know where people are if asked, but strangely enough, not where they were. (silly aren't they) If you need to do something that is unwitnessed, or will leave no witnesses, do not post it here. See level 3.
Cheesy Example:
Paul strode into the living room, looking for Mary. He spotted her over by the bookcase and immediately headed over to her. "Ah, there you are my darling, I missed you." Paul looked around and saw that Jim was by the pool table and not wanting to be overheard drew Mary in close and began speaking softly to her.Level 2: OOC - This is used for two purposes, the general OOC chat with each other, and also if you need to ask something that is in game, but not in character.
Cheesy Example:
Hey Xantham, how's it hanging! Did you have a good weekend? Cool. Oh, by the way when Paul wandered into the living room last hour, was he still wearing his jacket?Level 3: PM - Any conversations between two characters masking their voices or actions will be done via PM. You do not have to cc: me on all of the conversation, but if something I need to know for the overall story is going on (i.e. plans made; promises made; etc)please include me. If you are doing an unwitnessed activity then it must be Pm'd to me. I will also sometimes give results to activities here that you can then play out in IC.
No Cheesy Example
Skills and combat: Your skills will be secret. You will have several skills. They are rated 1-5. 1 means you have very basic knowledge (0 means you are basically clueless); 3 means you could or do hold down a job using that skill; 5 means one of the top 5% in the world. Some of them may be combat skills. For example: brawl - 1. You have learned how to fight somewhere, perhaps neighborhood self defense classes for a few years. For combat the following occurs: I will assume that any combat is automatically opposed, unless you have told me otherwise; I will be the sole arbiter of surprise attacks; I will ask you for reactions, but if you do not respond quickly enough I will react for you based on what I have seen so far. Dex scores will be compared, higher Dex goes first. Unlike the LARP, all melee combat is opposed and includes a die roll. The attackers score (+mods) will have a d3 added to it. The defenders score (+mods) will have a d3-1 added to it. A tie or lower indicates no effect. This method highly favors the higher skill level, but allows for some randomness. All ranged combat is the same, except the defending skill is always luck. What are the mods? I'm not telling. No, really. I don't want any min/maxing going on, I would rather you describe what you are doing and I will apply any mods. Combat is rather deadly, especially if you are not a combat based character. I would suggest avoiding it.
Lastly, the sexuality scale: Each character is assigned a sexuality number from 1-5 (I know in Chthulu it's colors, but the effect is the same). They are also placed on a sexuality slider from 0-5. At various points in the game something sexual may happen and I will assign it a point value. If you are higher than that point value it has little effect. If you are that level or lower, you slip down the slider one level and are expected to role play the lower level.
Cheesy Example:
Georgie gives a signal and suddenly a film flashes onto the huge wall behind him. It is a scene from his latest porno, "Little Bo Peep Shears Her Sheep, Part 8" This is a sexuality check value 2. (Jim, the retired porno star has seen it all before and his number is 4, no effect. Keith, Georgie's accountant is sexually repressed with a number of 1, he slides down the scale to "Titillated.") Jim reaches for another helping of the excellent chocolate mousse the servants have been passing around while mocking the actors' techniques. On the other side of the room, Keith shifts in his seat, unsuccessfully trying to pull his gaze from the 10' vagina on the wall.Scale:
5: Normal
4: Titillated - mild body reactions and slight demeanor change
3: Horny - definite body reactions and slight emphasis on sexual needs
2: Wet/Steel - Instant readiness for sex and definite emphasis on sexual needs to the slight exclusion of other needs
1: Nympho - Extreme emphasis on sexual needs to the exclusion of other needs
0: Self-pleasure - For the next hour game time, you can do nothing but pleasure yourself, no outside help wanted. After one hour, you revert to level 3.
After any successful sexual encounter, if you are level 2 or below you revert to level 3. If you are 3 or above you go up one level.
If you have gotten this far, congratulations! It was a lot to read.
Last few important notes:
- I will not be playing a PC in this game, and will therefore be as impartial as possible. I will play any NPCs as necessary.
- It is possible to cheat in a way, just don't, please. This is for fun.
- It is possible to die. Accept it gracefully. Also, the first to die has a special function. If no one dies, I will handle it.
- Some things may not make sense or be explained yet. Don't worry, have fun. More details will be revealed when we get underway.
Please indicate below simply whether you would like to play. I will expect the following:
- Posting or PMing at least once a day, your character's hour will pass regardless. Some things you do will not be visible, so PM me.
- Role playing
- Following the rules
- Role playing
- Have fun
- Role playing
Also, if you can think of a prize for those who win that I can do, let me know.
