The Unseen Servant forums

Hey everyone!

Welcome aboard!

Let's use this thread for any questions or comments you might have regarding the game before we start out.

I will add everyone in and get a Character Creation thread set up for specific questions about your investigators as I get time.

I am looking forward to seeing how this one plays out.

Ok, everyone who expressed interest in the recruitment thread has been added to the game. Please sound off here when you see this so we know you are still with us.

Thanks!

(Character Creation thread coming up next.)

Hi and thanks Ogre Mage.

Reading through https://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu-quickstart/. Pointer to useful player material welcome.

Two quick questions for character concept: I am assuming that we are in 1925 and somewhere in New England. Is this correct?

Wow, I never had to approve a post before. I almost feel like a mod now. (you better not be a bot)

Anyway, hi Ash. (I guess I should say that your first 2 posts have been approved and that you can post freely now, but you probably already figured that out.)

Welcome to The Unseen Servant!

Yes! You can use the Quick Start rules for character creation. If anyone else has links to useful material, please post them. Unless someone has a decent template for character sheets already, I will make one up, since the US sheets are set up for mostly D&D style games.

This game will begin in Harlem New York, (1925) but you don't necessarily need to be from there.

Like I said, I will start a thread for all this character info shortly.

And that is now up.

viewtopic.php?f=1101&t=11039

Let's try to keep all that information in one place so it is easier to track in the future.

We can continue to use this thread for any non PC related questions or banter.

Thanks!

Watching a DVD of 'The Cotton Club' to get me in the mood. I do own a pair of b&w spatz shoes as well but the wife prefers 'lindy hop' to ballroom.

OGRE MAGE wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 5:56 pm Wow, I never had to approve a post before. I almost feel like a mod now. (you better not be a bot)

Damn I was planning to make a bot investigator

OGRE MAGE wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 5:56 pm Yes! You can use the Quick Start rules for character creation. If anyone else has links to useful material, please post them. Unless someone has a decent template for character sheets already, I will make one up, since the US sheets are set up for mostly D&D style games.

DriveTruRPG has free pdf character sheets if it's any use:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/23 ... th-Edition

I am still here!

I’m still here too. Looking to getting started on my character.

I dig the enthusiasm for this game so far.

Private threads have now been created, so you should see yours at the top of the game thread page.

Check it out to make sure I didn't screw yours up.

Mine is good. Still thinking about what I am going to run. I had a retired soldier in the last CoC game I was in.

If it helps with players decisions, feel free to discuss who wants to play what.

It looks like we have one mystical stage magician so far.

If you want to tie in the Jazz theme somehow, all the better, but that isn't actually necessary either.

I usually regret saying this but.... create whatever you feel like playing, and we can figure out how to tie things together as we go.

Ash...

A striking gentleman, impeccably dressed, was sitting at the back of the room during Thurston show. He was intensely interested in the happenings on the stage. He appeared known in the areas and throughout the show, several people came to talk to him. He was always welcoming and friendly to them while keeping an eye on the fascinating magician. After the show, he approach Thurston, introduced himself and propose that he should come to Montreal to the Commodore théâtre de variétés where he would become a star.

”I would be delighted to, good sir!” said Howard Thurston. “I have heard the Commodore is a wonderful theater. Who may you be?” The magician held out his hand to shake with the new acquaintance. “Despite living not far from your borders, I don’t visit Canada as often as I would like.”

Grognardsw wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 10:10 pm
”I would be delighted to, good sir!” said Howard Thurston. “I have heard the Commodore is a wonderful theater. Who may you be?” The magician held out his hand to shake with the new acquaintance. “Despite living not far from your borders, I don’t visit Canada as often as I would like.”

”René Vézina, owner of the Montreal Commodore theatre, impresario. and businessman, at your service ” he said while shaking Thurston hand cordially,"I must say that this is a very impressive show and I am sure that if you came make the trip North, you will be a great success."

OOC: As far as I understand, this meeting as well as Calvin writing about Thurston happened in the past before the start of the investigation

An introduction to Calvin Beauregard.

The art of photography had been in his ancestral lineage for some time. His grandfather Cecil had used the newly developed Daguerreotypes to take 'Still Life' portraits and exploratory landscapes across the still virgin west after the civil war. Chronicling the passage of many pilgrims of the Oregon trails and capturing the essence of life in the frontier. Though the savage redskins took umbrage believing each photo of a Sioux warrior took part of his soul and allowed the spirits of the Happy Hunting Grounds to afflict the brave. Cecil Beauregard's last 'beautiful gaze' was more a rictus grimace as his scalp came off under the edge of a bone tomahawk.

Still, the passion to capture life's imagery lived on in the family veins.

Calvin is one of life's cynics. Whilst a picture can tell a thousand words, it doesn't necessarily tell the truth. Bayard's faked suicide pictures becoming sensationalised as the first piece of artistic propaganda. More recently a stir was caused over the ocean with celebrated novelist and spiritualist Conan Doyle, hitting front page news with the Cottingley Fairies. He had kept a copy in his file, intrigued that at last the fey realms were being proven and recorded for posterity. At least that is what mainstream media pushed and journalism is all theatre of the mind.

The 'are they real' or 'are they fake' fairy story had provoked him for a number of years and had provided him with a sideline in lauding the expository crafts of arcanists, illusionists and hypnotherapists. Their sleight of hand skills in make believe were worth all the plaudits from the vaudeville stages.

While entertainment among the masses was a night time pleasure, that and several favoured drinking dens, his day job was as a journeyman freelancer, getting the word from informants of the next police bust so as he could claim the exclusives with action from the scene. He even got first dibs on photographing the deceased. He chased the ambulances, staked out the courts, hung on the back rungs of the fire engines.

He put people in the news, making or breaking reputations, exposing the sordide underbelly of the city's life, marketing the vogue fads of the day and more recently chronicling the Haarlem renaissance among the Afro-American culture scene.

Very nice!!!

Yes, as I said, any connections between your PC's, as well as any of this brilliant foreshadowing, can be considered to have already happened before the start of this investigation.

Since things appear to be coming along nicely, I will start to sprinkle in a bit of introduction as I get time.

Ok, I have been adding investigator hooks and backgrounds in your private threads, but I havent seen any responses yet.

I hope we can get the last couple of sheets posted soon so we can set this thing in motion.

I appreciate the patience of the players who are ready to go.

Sorry everyone!

I am waiting to hear back from AndyS on a couple of things.

I see he is still checking in on the site periodically, but hasn’t returned any of my private thread questions all week.

I have a wait list player who seemed interested, but I am now waiting to hear back from them as well.

I apologize for the delay, but please know that I intend to kick this game off on Monday with the four of you who are ready to go.

As promised, first post is up. I hope everyone enjoys the scenario.

viewtopic.php?p=549305#p549305

OGRE MAGE wrote: ↑Sun May 23, 2021 11:26 am I am waiting to hear back from AndyS on a couple of things.

I see he is still checking in on the site periodically, but hasn’t returned any of my private thread questions all week.

I have a wait list player who seemed interested, but I am now waiting to hear back from them as well.

First mystery for our investigators then: what happened to AndyS, Zeromancer, jemmus and Urson...