Dark Seeker Alone Against the Flames OOC

[zingbobco000]

Greetings Dark Seeker, and welcome to the world of Call of Cthulhu, a world of horror, mystery, and wonder. Here you shall take on the role of an intrepid Investigator of the Unknown (or Investigator for short), while I shall be the Keeper of Arcane Lore (or the Keeper).

Now, you are an ordinary person in this world, and just like ordinary people, you may become heavily injured (HP isn't just something that magically returns with a quick nap), suffer sanity-shattering experiences, or even die! However, someone has to make a stand against the horrors of the mythos, and the death or insanity of a single human matters little if it means postponing the eventual enslavement of humanity.

However, you may be one of the lucky ones who survive your encounters with unearthly beings, gaining knowledge of the horrors outside of our reality, power from volumes of arcane lore, and advancement in your skills as you become more experienced. You will (most likely) never reach the point of superhuman abilities akin to D&D or Pathfinder, but you can achieve something greater than the average of your kind.

Now that you understand the basic themeatic aspects of the game, prepare to journey onto your first adventure -- Alone Against the Flames! This is a horror story set in the 1920s where you are the main character. For the purposes of walking you through the story I will offer prompts and suggestions below each of my In-Character posts, but if you're feeling foolish confident feel free to forge your own path! Again, the suggestions are mostly for novice/newbs, but I'll offer them to you anyway just for funzies.

Anyway, without further ado, tuck yourself in, grab a bowl of popcorn, set up a nice fire, and join the In-Character! Actually, on second thought, don't get too close to the fire.

[zingbobco000]

(Posting here because your PM box is full)

Ok! Sounds good! Albeit, I would probably have you skip those scenarios. If possible I'd rather provide you with the opportunity to enjoy an adventure that you've have never played before rather than one that you've already completed. Nevertheless, if you're adamant that you'd like to play in them and you won't metagame, I'm fine with that too.

[Dark Seeker]

Yeah, sorry about that-- Forgot how full my mailbox was.

Well, we'll see how things play out, seems I have a bit of time to get there. I fully respect whatever decision you make on this front. Let me see how attached I get to this character and if I think they can add anything to those adventures without detracting from others enjoyment.

[zingbobco000]

Of course! In the end, I'd probably go with whatever you think would be the most fun. If you personally could derive a great amount of enjoyment from repeating a scenario then that's fine with me, but otherwise, it might be best to simply move on past them (assuming there'd be a group ready to move on past them).

[Dark Seeker]

As a side note, I'm a fairly active poster; if you need me to slow down do let me know, I'm not sure how close you want all the players to be to one another. :)

[zingbobco000]

Oh, don't worry. I'm quite active myself I generally enjoy fast-paced games (albeit I do sometimes need to sleep and whatnot ).

Also in terms of the players' positions, they're all over anyway, so you're all good.

[Dark Seeker]

In real life I'd have been out of this town long ago, but Paul does not know he's in a horror rpg, so he makes dumb decisions.

[zingbobco000]

Well, yes, of course. I would figure as much. The smartest decision in any CoC RPG is just to stay home and never do anything.

[Dark Seeker]

Shame, because I do quite like this character so I kinda want to have him run screaming into the night... but getting attached to a COC character was my first mistake.

[zingbobco000]

Well... again, this is designed as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, and at this point, you're going off the beaten path, so... just keep that in mind.

[Dark Seeker]

Understood. If you'd rather me stick to the path just let me know. I know how tough it can be when players color outside the lines,and I don't want to be too difficult a player for you. That aside, I'm really enjoying this one.

[zingbobco000]

Nope! It's more just to keep that in mind when you're making your decisions, as the adventure may be more lenient in certain situations than what actually makes sense given that the character is not exactly making the most intelligent of decisions (and if you make sense by going off on your own then it only makes sense to respond in kind).

Also, not that the action would be vengeful in any way, this is not a game where it should be DM vs. Player. More just upping the stakes to ensure the same amount of challenge across any scenario.

[Dark Seeker]

I'm going to need to head off, but this was a lot of fun. Shall have a post up for you tomorrow!

[zingbobco000]

I'm glad that you've been enjoying all of this so far

I will note that this is a bit high-intensity when compared to a lot of the other stuff which I had planned, but I hope it's still Call-y enough for you.

[Dark Seeker]

I should note that while he's broken IC, I'm not writing Paul off just yet. I just don't like his chances of running away from an entire town while he's utterly exhausted. I assume if they catch him they'll club him, so hopefully going with them willingly will keep them from using violence and let him keep his wits about him.

[zingbobco000]

Oh don’t worry, I understand. I just hope you’re having a decent time with all of this.

[Dark Seeker]

Quite so! Greatly enjoying this scenario. I'm partial to the town with a dark secret sort of scenarios; there's a great one called Roots for modern day Cthulhu that touches on a lot of the same themes.

[zingbobco000]

No, yeah, that book is full of interesting and weird scenarios.

[zingbobco000]

Congratulations! You've done it! You've managed to beat Alone Against the Flames. Your character has forever been changed by what they've experienced in Emberhead, and they might not ever be the same. Nevertheless, they will most likely improve!

You succeeded in the following skill rolls: Charm, Persuade, Psychology, and Stealth. For each skill please give me a roll, however, your goal is to fail instead of succeed. If you fail, it's representative of you understanding that there's some way that you could have improved and you may add a d10 to that skill's rating.

Once that happens, if you had fun (I hope so ) we can continue into the next adventure: Paper Chase (which is freeform instead of being more on a railroad like this one was). You may also read all of the other forums relating to Alone Against the Flames here at the Society for the Exploration of the Unexplained (basically my repository for all of your links so I don't have to keep looking them up online [also don't read the future ones]).

[Dark Seeker]

Thanks! Oh, Silas is definitely scarred by this. I think he's sharp enough to understand that him surviving meant the ritual somehow failed and led to the destruction of the entire town, among them young Ruth who he swore to protect. It also made him far more curious about occult matters he used to dismiss as fiction, which is never a good idea in COC.

I greatly enjoyed you running it and how you adapted it to my choices, specifically giving me the bonus die there at the end for trying to befriend May. Thanks so much for running it and putting up with me going slightly off the rails, and I'd love to play in the next scenario. And I admit I was already looking up to see how some of the other runthroughs went.

Here are my rolls

Charm (1d100)[74] (1d10)[1] if fail

Persuade (1d100)[15] (1d10)[9]

Psychology (1d100)[35] (1d10)[10]

Stealth (1d100)[81] (1d10)[9]

[zingbobco000]

That sounds great! I've already set it up, but I should note that I may be a bit slower with this one (just because of its nature), but I'll still do my best to respond as promptly as I can.

And thus we have the beginnings of your character, which can be found here!

Along with the OOC, which can be found here!