Murder Most Foul (SECOND WANDER PHASE OPEN)

Started by Mandle, Mon 10/09/2018 15:07:06

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Mandle

I'm creating a roleplaying-based forums game here as an alternative to the werewolves game format which concentrates more on some pretty hardcore psychological warfare and is not to everyone's tastes.

The game will still be competetive in nature, in that a winner (or winners) will be declared at the end.

But it will not involve any elimination of players.

The murdered person is an NPC.

The murderer is a player but cannot murder anyone else during the game. Their aim instead will be to try to cover their tracks as best as possible to confuse the other players and prevent themself being fingered as the guilty party at the end of the game.

Each player will choose or be assigned a character whose role they play. Each character will have a background story and possibly some information and/or skills that other characters do not possess.

The game will have an environment of several rooms, with player actions possible in each room such as "Search for clues" in the case of the good players or "Conceal evidence" in the case of the murderer.

But the possible actions will not be limited to the bare-bones mechanics of the game. In fact, some important steps in discovering more about the crime will involve "thinking outside the box" actions. So basically anything a player tries will receive feedback from the GM (me).

The players themselves can decide whether to team up with others to cover more ground or go it alone, or a bit of both.

I already have the story written out as I had developed it for a game I never (yet) got around to finishing.

And it's a pretty spicey one I feel.

For now I want to start with sign-ups.

This particular story needs 8 players to fill all the roles.

I will be giving the first player to sign up the first choice at the character list. The second player gets second choice, and so on.

The character list, including a brief description of the roles but not, of course, giving away secrets, will be made available after I have 8 sign-ups.

This should be fun without stress!

VampireWombat



tzachs


Riaise


dayowlron

Pro is the opposite of Con                       Kids of today are so much different
This fact can clearly be seen,                  Don't you know?
If progress means to move forward         Just ask them where they are from
Then what does congress mean?             And they tell you where you can go.  --Nipsey Russell

cat


Danvzare

I would love to join, but recently I've not been as active on the forums as I'd like to. So I'm afraid I would end up joining, but wouldn't end up participating. And I wouldn't want to ruin it.
But consider me a spectator. :-D


Mandle

#9
I've just received a message from Stupot saying that he will also sign up so:

SIGN UPS ARE NOW CLOSED!!!

PLEASE DO NOT POST IN THE THREAD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Mandle

#10
CHARACTER SELECTION OPEN!!!

Open the hidden section below to read the intial plot and see what is publicly known about the characters up for grabs.

Spoiler

MURDER MOST FOUL
EPISODE #1:   A GOOD VINTAGE GONE BAD

The Time:   Early evening, September 17th, 1921.
The Location:   Lancaster Manor, New England, USA.



The Situation:   As the first stars of the night creep into view, seven guests arrive for a dinner at Lancaster Manor, once the isolated retreat of a powerful family, but now all that is left of a broken empire.

Having been summoned to the event, from the nearby town of Applewick, by hand-delivered invitations, perhaps some of the guests wonder why, perhaps some of them suspect why, and perhaps some of them know why...


The Guest List:









Angelica Crosley is a local writer, based in Applewick, but of nationwide reknown. She writes mystery novels, or at least tries to while avoiding autograph hunters on her way to buy the groceries.

Angelica is amused that a hand-delivered invitation has arrived at her door and expects an evening of staged entertainment to rival such novels of hers as:

"And Then There Were Nine." and "The Murder Of Dan Ackroyd".

Angelica is really looking forward to this dinner at Lancaster Manor!

Let the entertainment commence!
Benny Green is an ex-cop from New York City who moved to Applewick four years ago after having been discharged from the force on charges of corruption.

He now runs a disreputable P.I. business out of a shady upstairs office where mostly those with doubts about their spouse's fidelity tread.

Why a low-life like Benny was even considered on the list of guests to such an upper-class event is a mystery in and of itself to the other attendants.

Or is it...?
Dr. Gerald Killmurray is the only doctor in Applewick with the full credentials of actually holding a license to practice medicine.

Gerald is getting a bit on in years and his memory isn't quite what it used to be...

Not by a long shot...

He still recalls all of his medical training from his younger years but has a spot of trouble remembering, at times, exactly who the patient he is currently seeing is, and also remembering to turn up at dinners he is invited to.

However, he has written this one down and shows up on the right date...
Madame Sky, as she is now known as after having legally changed her name, is a self-acclaimed psychic.

The Great War was followed by a boom in the public interest of occult and psychic phenomena and there are just as many in Applewick that feel the Madame is a fraud, riding the wave of that interest, as there are those who believe in her "abilities".

Her past is a mystery, having arrived in town and set up shop only about two years ago. "Madame Sky's Emporium Of Arcane Wisdom" also had the wisdom, it seems, to provide an extra, and convenient, back-door entrance for those who were too shy to enter through the front door.
Ret. Col. Maximus Burnes is a heavily decorated colonel and a hero of The Great War, now retired.

The entire nation knows of his descisive, but ultimately tragic, charge against the Hun, which casued enough disruption in its wake to open the way for the enemy front to break and the Battle Of Hummenberg Province to be won.

The same nation grieved over the news that Colonel Burnes was the only soldier recovered alive from the battle and that he was pulled out from amongst the bodies of fallen comrades-in-arms kicking, and screaming out to bring them all back with him... Even though this was impossible and their final battlefield remains their graves to this day.
UNKNOWN AND UNSELECTABLE

The Manor Occupants:





Penelope Lancaster, the sole offspring of James and April Lancaster, inherited the Lancaster fortune when her parents died in a yachting accident three years ago.

She also inherited the family debt.

Forced to sell off most of the Lancaster estates and business ventures, Penelope now lives at the family's old country retreat, albiet quite comfortably for a young unmarried woman.

She has kept on only two of the staff from the old days: Mary Dorsey, the maid who rose to Head Of Service, and Hank Fellows, the best of the groundsmen.
Mary Dorsey is the last remaining service staff of Lancaster Manor.

She has been employed at the manor for a little over a year, during which time her drive to provide the best possible cleaning and service both terrified the other staff and propelled her to the position of Head Of Service well ahead of male butlers and other maids who had been with the family for, in some cases, a decade or more longer than herself.

When the yachting disaster struck, killing Penelope's parents, and most of the Lancaster family empire collapsed, Mary was chosen to remain at the manor by Penelope, the Lancaster heir.
Hank Fellows, born a deaf-mute, is the remaining groundskeeper at the Lancaster Manor.

Despite no formal education, he has learned to lipread at an intuitive level and can understand what is being said, even during complex conversations.

He cannot, however, communicate except through gesturing and facial expressions.

Perhaps this is what grants Hank the greenest of thumbs in his gardening duties:

His immobile "friends" in the garden having similar limitations?
[close]

VampireWombat can choose any character, being the first to sign up.

CaptainD should provide a first and alternative choice in the event that VampireWombat has not already chosen before him.

tzachs should provide a 1st, 2nd, and/or 3rd choice in the event that VampriteWombat and/or CaptainD has not already posted choices...

and so on...

Basically, provide extra choices in the case that players who joined before you did have not posted yet.

VampireWombat

I hope I'm meant to post it here.
I will take the doctor who killed Murray. Err, Dr. Killmurray.

Mandle

Quote from: VampireWombat on Tue 11/09/2018 17:30:32
I hope I'm meant to post it here.
I will take the doctor who killed Murray. Err, Dr. Killmurray.

Yes, players please post in the thread.

VampireWombat locked in as Dr. Gerald Killmurray.

CaptainD

Think I'll go with dodgy PI Benny Green. No need for an alternative as VW has already chosen.
 

Mandle

VampireWombat locked in as Dr. Gerald Killmurray.

CaptainD locked in as Benny Green.



Mandle

#15
I think I'm going to continue with the [hidden] [/hidden] view for the main game because it has a nicer B&W background feel for the game and also doesn't explode everyone's browsers.

tzachs

I'll take Madame Sky, thanks (which appears twice in your list, btw).

Mandle

Quote from: tzachs on Tue 11/09/2018 18:00:34
I'll take Madame Sky, thanks (which appears twice in your list, btw).

Thanks for the heads-up on that mistake!

Corrected!

VampireWombat locked in as Dr. Gerald Killmurray.

CaptainD locked in as Benny Green.

tzachs locked in as Madame Sky.

Riaise

I'll be Mary Dorsey the maid, please.  ;-D

dayowlron

I think I would like to try Ret. Col. Maximus Burnes
Pro is the opposite of Con                       Kids of today are so much different
This fact can clearly be seen,                  Don't you know?
If progress means to move forward         Just ask them where they are from
Then what does congress mean?             And they tell you where you can go.  --Nipsey Russell

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