(OOC) San Francisco by Night II: A Requiem in Fog

[Erulasto]

While mechanically, option two is a lot better, I think....my own preference runs along the same lines as the others so far. I like option one. Dynamic, story-driven, and personal. Makes it feel more impactful.

So, yeah. Option 1.

[Bennosuke]

Hey all, sorry for being MIA, the rest of this week kicked my butt. For what it's worth, I will barely be working next week and can promise a much improved post rate for the next couple of weeks.

In regards to the discussion, all players who have responded have made it clear they are for option 1. Daishain did raise a good point in the WtF thread:

Option one does seem to be the better choice in terms of moving the story. I do have one point of concern. This will encourage players to spend more time role playing apart from each other, and Beyond a certain point, it could call into question whether we are a bunch of individuals playing different games or...

which can be discussed in multiple locations if we feel like it. However, it seems the decision is pretty unanimous here, so I am going to "temporarily" make the House Rule official, with the understanding we can nix it if after further discussion people want to change it.

EDIT: I am therefore giving Karl one extra WP for his encounter.


@TC: Sorry if I was still not clear enough. The Ordo is not (at least as far as D'Agostino was implying) involved in studying the mental institution. All D'Agostino was saying was that he heard word that there were occult happenings at the Psychiatric Hospital. He simply mentioned the Ordo, because they usually like to investigate and claim haunted territories:

Turning back to Anna, Nicholas says, "However, I recommend you first go survey the hospital. My understanding is that not all is as it seems. I am surprised your Covenant has not actually sought it for one of their... Dragon's Dens; if that is what you call them."

[Daishain]

I just realized, it would make no sense at all to hire Bert anyways. Fred was sent off to London, meaning he will be dealing with the UK courts. Carl would need to be looking for lawyers familiar with the intricacies of their system

[Bennosuke]

Seems problematic. How do you want to handle it? Retcon the conversation, or would it be worth it to instead assume that for whatever reason Bert Schumaker is familiar enough with the legal systems in the U.K. to go to? I will hold off on replying IC till I know what you want to do Daishain.

[Daishain]

Yeah, on review, from the looks of it, unless Bert's gone out of his way to get himself approved in the UK, he wouldn't be allowed to practice law over there even if he was familiar enough with the differences to get by. It shouldn't be incredibly difficult for someone in good standing with the ABA to get approved by the bar over in UK, but its not automatic.

I think it would be easiest for Bert to flatly refuse the request, and then Karl metaphorically beats himself up for forgetting that Bert probably wouldn't be able to help regardless. From there, Karl would need to hunt through law firm reviews for highly accredited defense lawyers in the UK.

[Bennosuke]

Sure. Though as a thought, it feels like Karl will have to tie up his resources getting a proper lawyer and waiting for the courts to adjudicate everything without Fred becoming a target again.

Karl is a member of the freaking Invictus, with Status to boot and a Major Boon owed him by The Prince no less. I'm not saying Karl has to go so far as to give up his Major Boon. But I feel like he can throw some weight around to get Fred out of trouble and flown back ASAP...

[Daishain]

I had considered that, but my impression was that this influence was rather compartmentalized, with Karl's and even the prince's immediately practical influence not extending much further than the US west coast.

Karl could throw his weight around, even more so if he gets the new Prince to help. But my understanding is getting the UK invictus to intercede would be a matter of negotiating with something close to a foreign government, is likely to incur a cost, and it would of course alert anyone not already aware of Fred's relationship to Karl.

In the meantime, a good lawyer has a decent chance of making sure Fred doesn't stay on the UK police's suspect list for any real length of time, especially if Fred's alibi is good and there isn't some "smoking gun" evidence left to frame him. The UK also typically doesn't have much trouble extraditing people from the US if it comes to that. So there's at least a chance of getting Fred home within a day or two without getting other kindred to intercede.

I actually had considered making a request for protection for Fred a part of his boon from D'Agostino, I just didn't think that request would help in this immediate moment. Was I wrong on my expectations in that regard?

[Erulasto]

Merry Christmas folks!

[Thundercracker]

Merry Christmas folks!

Merry Christmas

[Bennosuke]

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!

I had considered that, but my impression was that this influence was rather compartmentalized, with Karl's and even the prince's immediately practical influence not extending much further than the US west coast.

Karl could throw his weight around, even more so if he gets the new Prince to help. But my understanding is getting the UK invictus to intercede would be a matter of negotiating with something close to a foreign government, is likely to incur a cost, and it would of course alert anyone not already aware of Fred's relationship to Karl.

In the meantime, a good lawyer has a decent chance of making sure Fred doesn't stay on the UK police's suspect list for any real length of time, especially if Fred's alibi is good and there isn't some "smoking gun" evidence left to frame him. The UK also typically doesn't have much trouble extraditing people from the US if it comes to that. So there's at least a chance of getting Fred home within a day or two without getting other kindred to intercede.

I actually had considered making a request for protection for Fred a part of his boon from D'Agostino, I just didn't think that request would help in this immediate moment. Was I wrong on my expectations in that regard?

While in my mind the various cities are rather cloistered from each other, The Invictus are known as The Conspiracy of Silence for a reason. Travel and communication may be limited between cities but when it comes to protecting the Masquerade and upholding favors and rivalries, very little can stop the most powerful members of the First Estate.

I leave it up to you, but I wouldn't let that be a barrier for Karl.

[Daishain]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from me as well.

In that case, that sounds like the option to take. That would open up new plot options as well for Karl in the slightly longer run to push for information concerning the killer and attempt to arrange some sort of justice if their identity can be verified.

How would this most likely work then? Get D'agostino's blessing to request a favor of appropriate Invictus in London?

[Bennosuke]

Yes. As it is, The Prince wants to speak with Karl anyways

I will respond IC to your last post now and we can wrap this up, then if you want we can move on to Karl's scene with the Prince. BTW, I tried to get the other players to respond to Karl's text, but it doesn't look like any converstaion has been had. I'll leave it up to you and the others to work that out.

This story arc is going to be much less structured and sandboxy, basically with me mostly asking, "what do you want your character to try to accomplish next", unless there is something reactive in game. So I will let the players coordinate group meet ups.

[Thundercracker]

Is in clan discipline 3 xp or 4? I forget.

[Bennosuke]

In clan is 3xp

[Thundercracker]

In clan is 3xp

Well poop. Anna has enough for obfuscate 2. Let me know when I can spend.

[Bennosuke]

Hey TC, I'm so sorry I didn't respond to this earlier. One of those senior moments when I saw it but couldn't reply, but somehow assumed I had.

Because we are basically running a series of short personal scenes, and just started, and because this would be a in-clan skill boosted at a low level, I'm fine with you spending the XP now if you want.

[Thundercracker]

Excellent let’s do that.

[Bennosuke]

Ok. I am updating your character box. Please update your character sheet.

[Erulasto]

Happy New Year, folks!

[Bennosuke]

Happy New Years everyone! I am distributing every PC a Beat to ring in the New Year. May everyone's upcoming be better than the last.

[Thundercracker]

Awesome, thanks. Anna is now going to be obfuscating her sword most of the time, and carrying it with her.

[Bennosuke]

My apologies everyone for the delay in posting. I hope everyone is so far having a good New Year.

[Bennosuke]

I am going through and updating the list of NPCs in all my games. Please take a look and tell me if there is anyone important that I am missing.

[Thundercracker]

Anna has things she wants to do but right now we’re waiting on Karl’s response to her text. If you want we can take care of it concurrently. In addition to meeting with Karl, Anna wants to check in on Celestine and arrange a meeting with her sire and mentor to find out what’s going on at the mental institution d’agnostino mentioned. A hunt might be in order too, depending on how much blood celestine takes.

[Daishain]

Busy, but if that's what you're waiting on, assume that Carl agrees to whatever works for everybody else

[Bennosuke]

We'll run things concurrently, and I will start the scene now to keep things moving.

Cheers!

EDIT: However, I am waiting for each player to respond to their own individual scene to keep that scene moving. If I missed something or you want things fast forwarded for your individual scenes please let me know.

[Bennosuke]

On Keeping Things Moving

Hey all, I just wanted to reach out and see what I/we can do to keep things moving in this game, and the others I am running. I notice that players are able to post in other games/threads but have not been posting as regularly here. I assume a small part is based on my recent post rate. I will admit that I have been very busy of late with family in town and my wife's Greencard hearing occurring recently. Happy to say that she got her Greencard and I expect to have a solid schedule the next few weeks that will allow me to post more regularly.

I also believe a component of this is that a few players have been MIA of late. I think I will ask for people's insight on Ladorak here, rather than in the other games he was playing in. Ladorak has not posted in about 1 month now, and has not logged on in almost 3 weeks. I have reached out to them via every means of communication available but have not been able to get a hold of them. As always, I can only hope that they are okay first and foremost. While I don't think it matters for this game, I do believe Ladorak's absence is contributing to slowing down some of the other games. While I'm in no rush to recruit a new player ect. I want to hear from everyone as to how they feel I/we should proceed, assuming Ladorak does not come back in the next week or two.

Is there anything else I/we can do to keep things moving forward? Please tell me I'm not losing everyone here.

[Thundercracker]

I’m still good to go and it seems there’s more for my character to do than I have time for, which isn’t a bad thing. The game is great and I’m back after holiday so posting should be ok

For Ladorak give the char something to do in the meantime and we’ll let them come back in if necessary down the line, or we can recruit later. Basically I’m saying let’s punt the decision until mid feb or March.

[Bennosuke]

Thank you for the feedback, and the compliment. I'm glad you are enjoying the game, and that you feel there is "too much to do", as that is one of my goals right now.

I'm happy to give Ladorak more time for sure. I just don't want the absence of their characters being RPed by the PC to slow things down.

[Erulasto]

I’m in agreement. I’m loathe to jump to looking for another player right away, just because my own unforeseen circumstances gave me a fair bit of empathy. I’m certainly hoping that Ladorak is okay.

I’d agree with TC to push any looking back to February/March.

In the meantime, you can handwave some plans for Lilith in the background?