[IRC Event Series] - No Stats Theatre - planning/interest

[Steerpike]

Would anyone be interested in playing a no-stats theatre game in my new pseudo-setting Age of Madness?  My CE game goes on hiatus soon but I'm still itching to play something!

Age of Madness is basically a historical horror game, set in the 18th century during the Enlightenment/Age of Reason and pitting members of a secret, occult society against mind-bursting Abominations from Beyond.  Expect insanity, mayhem, and terror to ensue.

Characters and setting information can be found via the link in my sig.

Here's a list of potential scenarios; if you would like to participate, rank which ones you'd most like to play, and post your preferred character as well.  Then we'll figure out a time that works for everyone.

[ic=Disappearances at Dún Cruach]Several Society members are visiting the small, weather-beaten island of Nodens' Rock in the middle of the Irish Sea, hoping to acquire a rubbing from an ancient Celtic monolith somewhere in the region.  While staying at the misty, secluded fishing village of Dún Cruach, however, the group hear stories of children disappearing '" and of the malignant faerie folk some claim live beneath a nearby hill.  When an uncannily thick fog rolls in making sailing impossible, the visitors find themselves trapped on Nodens' Rock, and repair to Dún Cruach's only inn, a ramshackle establishment called The Silver Hand...[/ic]
[ic=Beyond the Wall of Sanity]A former colleague of Ambrose Morgan, Francis Marais, has written a cryptic letter to the physician urgently requesting his presence at his recently established lunatic asylum Château de Saint-Sæthryth, a converted castle in the gloomy Pyrenees of French Basque Country, on the southern border of Averoigne.  While the director was strangely vague as to the exact reason for his request, his letter speaks of a 'transcendent breakthrough,' and of experiments which 'collapse the boundaries betwixt mind and body, betwixt the Visible and the Invisible world!'  He also hints at trouble with the locals, the ill-favoured villagers of an isolated mountain settlement not far from the castle.[/ic]
[ic=Whom He May Devour]The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I has forcibly expelled the Jews of the Im Werd community in Vienna, renaming the area Leopoldstat in his own honour.  But all is not well in the Emperor's newly 'purified' district.  The new, gentile residents of Leopold's Town are dying mysteriously, found weirdly pulverized in their homes, behind locked doors, limbs twisted and contorted into disturbing, impossible poses.  Sometimes, at night, the Danube seems to glisten like blood, and a fell darkness has descended on the city.  People in the street whisper of the Golem of Prague, of a mysterious carriage come from Bohemia, of the seven plagues of Egypt.  These mutterings have only increased incidences of anti-Semitic violence, and Rabbi Tzvi Zebi '" a kabbalist and member of the secret Society of the Black Rose '" has requested assistance to put a stop to the mounting atrocities.[/ic]
[ic=Algol]William Fitzroy has tracked down an Arabian alchemist, Ifrahim Alhazred, claiming to be a direct descendent of Abdul Alhazred, the famed mystic and poet of the eighth century said to have visited the Lost City Iram of the Pillars and authored a certain forbidden text ruthlessly suppressed by Christian ecclesiastical authorities of all sects.  Believing that Ifrahim possesses a cure to his secret affliction, William has arranged to journey into the Ottoman Empire to the province of Algeria in order to meet the alchemist and, with any luck, obtain the cure for his sickness.  When he and several colleagues of the Society of the Black Rose arrive in the dusty town of T'Sbaar, however, they find more than the alchemist waiting for them.[/ic]
[ic=Slaughter on the Seine]One of Edwin Lazarus' old associates, the lieutenant-general of the Parisian police Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy, has contacted the witch-hunter in hopes of a consultation.  Horrifically mutilated bodies have been appearing with increasing regularity in the Seine, and the city is in a state of near-panic.  The Préfecture de Police have few leads, but the citizenry are spreading rumours of supernatural agencies at work.  Bringing with him several trusted allies from the Society of the Black Rose, Lazarus hopes to put a stop to the gruesome killings and restore order to Paris.[/ic]

EDIT: I might be interested in playing Asura, sparkletwist.  Would we be making our own characters, or would you provide them?  I'm available on weekends and on mondays and wednesdays, and at certain times on other days.

[TheMeanestGuest]

I'll play any of those, of course!

Edit: Although I don't know who I want to play. You don't have anyone from Eastern Europe it seems, I might consider the Berzerker. I am not sure.

[Steerpike]

Working on some Slavic and German characters to add to the roster.  I'll have to rustle up some more portraits...

[Ghostman]

Could you also make some Portuguese and/or Dutch characters? Both nations possessed global colonial empires during the 18th century, which would make for an interesting seafarer/explorer type background.

BTW 'Ibn' is not a personal name but the initial part of a patronymic, meaning 'son of' (but can refer to distant ancestor rather than one's direct father), and as such shouldn't be used independently. Not that 'Alhazred' is a proper Arabic name to begin with...

[TheMeanestGuest]

Well, even if it shouldn't be used independently, doesn't mean it isn't... Although I can only ever think of it being applied by itself to scholars. I'm sure there's other examples. I mean, I just assumed the guy had a real name and that's just what people called him. I wouldn't worry about it.

[Steerpike]

I changed it... I'd come across it as a patronymic but I'd occasionally seen names written where people seemed to go by "Ibn," but I'm not sure what the reasons for that are.  Anyway, he's now Ifrahim.

I'll work on adding some more characters!  I've got one (a Slavic con artist) almost written up.

EDIT: Here's the guy I stole the name from... dunno why he's styled that way.

[sparkletwist]

Would we be making our own characters, or would you provide them?  I'm available on weekends and on mondays and wednesdays, and at certain times on other days.

I am pretty impressed by the way you (in your own offer) have presented some characters and scenes all ready to go, here and in your other thread. It would probably help both me and any potential players were I to do something similar or at least provided some templates, especially considering not all of the Asura material is on the Wiki yet. A sort of simple, no-stats version of their powers like you did for Tempter would probably help gameplay dramatically, so players aren't left constantly wondering just what they can and can't do.

Thanks for raising the bar for the rest of us... :P ;)

[TheMeanestGuest]

Now that I have seen the new characters, I think I will play Vladmir Albrecht.

[Steerpike]

Great!

If anyone would prefer to create their own character, that's fine too!  They don't even need to be a member of the Society of the Black Rose, though if not they should have a compelling reason for tagging along with Black Rose members and/or getting embroiled in occult hijinx.  Wikimedia commons has an enormous collection of (public domain) portraits from the period to provide visuals.

[Superfluous Crow]

I'd like to join :)

All of the scenarios sound pretty good but in ranked order of preference:
1. Beyond the wall of Sanity
2. Whom he may Devour
3. Algol
4. Disappearances at Dún Cruach
5. Slaughter on the Seine

Preferred characters would probably be someone in the metaphysical vein such as Ambrose or Wolfgang. Erasmus could likely be fun to play (and he has pretty much the same name as me!), but I'm not good at doing lewd jokes :p
Lazarus might be fun too, but he is a bit lacking in quirks.  

[LD]

Another possible character... but I probably won't play him; if Steerpike feels like tweaking him and adding him to the list, please feel free: (He just came to me and it seemed like he should be written up)

I also noted a lack in the character list of any african characters; Maybe a coptic christian from Egypt could be added? Just an idea if you want something different. Not sure how many of them were wandering around Europe at the time, but there were millions of them.


[ic=The Dark Gypsy]

Ivan Drago

Tattooed and branded by his mother's tribe of exiled Moldovan gypsies, the towering Ivan Drago was brought up to fear the dreykavic, to worship the dhampir, to love his mother, to befriend others with gypsy tumbles and gypsy songs, and to challenge the unknown. Drago learned the folklore, the Tarot, the stories of the fates and he can recite them by rote, and he knows their truth.

His vision blurred in one eye, from being struck violently in the head by a charcoal poker, the six foot three Drago lived by chopping wood and besting others in feats of strength. On his skin, he has tattooed remembrances of those defeated, which include men, boars, a black bear of the darkest Dnieper, and even a strange blurred thing about which he does not talk and of which he has attempted to efface.

His tribe traveled from Moldova to Rus to Germany and although many in the tribe engaged in thievery, Drago never did--at first because of his disability--he would always be caught because his lookout eye was poor. But Drago almost religiously opposes theft now after he had a vision of malevolent lights dancing and dull-eyed crows feasting on the charred corpse of a hollow-grey-eyed thief of his tribe; who he later discovered had truly died, burned by villagers.

After Drago's mother and youngest sibling succumbed to a wasting sickness; Drago left the tribe, carrying their cherished hearts wrapped in a backpack with preservatives; pursuing rumors of a holy dhampir who killed vampires. He seeks the man's knowledge of the black arts and everlasting life--hoping to bring his dead back to life. To that end, he feigns interest in destroying the dark, even when seeking to harness some secrets to overcome death itself.

Skills and Abilities: Commanding Presence, Cartomancy/Dowsing, Gypsy Acrobatics, Herbalism, Socially Shrewd

Languages: Roma (Fluent) Slovak (Fluent), Romanian (Fluent), German (Adequate), Rus (Adequate), Czech (Poor),  Hungarian (Adequate), Serb (Poor), Georgian (Poor) Turkish (Poor)

Religion: Pagan.

Possessions: Clothing, Knife, Big Knife, Skinning Knife, Bigger Knife, Gauntlets, Tarot Cards, 2 Shrunken Hearts (Preserved), Backpack, Axe, Waterskin[/ic]
--
(The english issue may be a problem.)

[Steerpike]

Cool character!  Roughly how one might imagine him??  Or would one eye be whitened and blinded?

[LD]

Thanks. The picture suits him, although as you note, one eye would have a bit of a scar and be forever squinting--he can see out of it, just not very well at all. I would say he has 20% of his vision in it, and it is sometimes painful.

I made 4 small edits to him after some reflection:

1.Made him more obviously friendly (to more easily integrate, maybe--and to further differentiate him from Trollson). (added "to befriend others with gypsy tumbles and gypsy songs")

2.Gave him an axe.

3.Modified his skills/abilities a little. (Added Gypsy Acrobatics and Socially Shrewd)

Feel free to nerf and change as needed.
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And once again, your characters are great.