Hunter: A Chronicles of Darkness Game of Thumbs

[Smart Jason]

Sundays at 12PM - 4PM PDT (7PM - 11PM GMT, 9PM - 1AM CET)

 

The game map can be viewed here. The players' screen with quick reference information is here. The game is streamed live here. Watch old episodes

.

 

Storyteller: Jason

Dr. Frank Baldwin: Twig

Debra Dary: SuperBiasedMan

Maureen Kruze: Lansbury

Hank Parris: Fingus

 

New players are always welcome! Hit me up in PMs or (preferably) in the Slack chat!

[Reyturner]

I'm ploughing through the first 3 chapters. I forgot how much lore was in these books.

 

I find (W/C)oD games thrive on what basically amounts to court intrigue; players leveraging contacts and investigating weird happenings in an effort to advance their way through the social hierarchy of their given secret society. Lots of Crusader Kings, Game of Thrones stuff.

 

Something that touches on this is Sandboxes and the Roguish Work Ethic, where the players pursue their own goals and interests more than react to plot points (but then plot points happen as a result of their work ethic that requires reacting too). 

[Smart Jason]

Great article. Please link anything else like that you think could help the campaign (read: me).

[Reyturner]

honestly, just roam around Playing D&D with Porn Stars. It's full of really good stuff. 

 

Just... maybe don't do it at work. 

[Vulpes Absurda]

I'm doing my best to get thorough this book but man I was not expecting i to be such a slog. I'm about through chapter one, and two seems a bit more readable, so I think I should be about done with those. But I'm thinking I'll just skim chapter three if that's alright.

 

As for what I want out of the game I'm done for just about anything but I'd rather this not be an erotic adventure if possible. Not that the game seems wholly focused on that, and I don't mind it being an adult game, but I'd rather it be a soft R then a hard X. (Ba Dum Tish)

[Smart Jason]

There go my Valentine's Day plans.

[Vulpes Absurda]

Hey I figured bringing it up now was less awkward hen having to fake an injury midway through a game. ;P

[Smart Jason]

All right, mages playing today, I know that book is crazy. Mage is probably the worst game line in the whole franchise when it comes to density. But, hey, for the most part, y'all chose mage (although some had mageness thrust upon you) and mages are also the most powerful beings in the world.

 

Just please make sure that by our session tonight, if nothing else, you've read over every order (The Adamantine Arrow through The Silver Ladder, PDF pages 39 through 51) and every Path (Acanthus through Thyrsus, PDF pages 93 through 105). You will need to know those in order to make informed decisions during character creation and they're too hefty to read as we go like you can with Merits and things.

 

Also, going by yesterday's session with the Hunters, be ready to be asked questions about your character that don't directly relate to the verbs with which they play. You should have a name. You should have a family. You should have a lifetime's worth of years behind you. We went like twice as long as we'd planned to yesterday and obviously that's on me, but we could save a lot of time if you're ready when I ask you where you live, when you were born, and so on. I know you may not have reason to expect those questions - and I certainly don't hold it against my players yesterday - but I'm warning you all now to start thinking so that we can Sonic the Hedgehog this thing tonight.

 

Speaking of which, I know this time's been set in stone for a while, but is there any way we could renegotiate it again? I think it's Reyturner who can't do any earlier than 8PM PST? Does that go for every day? Talk to me.

 

P.S. Latecomers start speaking up.

[Vulpes Absurda]

I could go up to two hours earlier.

[Smart Jason]

What if we played on Fridays?

[Vulpes Absurda]

I work odd hours at night so that's a no go for me.

[Smart Jason]

Saturdays?

[Vulpes Absurda]

Any time after 7MST should work on Saturdays. Something might come now and then but as a rule that's an okay time. Might be able to do earlier on Saturday's and Sundays as well but I have a long term house cleaning project that I don't decide the time on so I can't make guarantees before 7:PM.

[Smart Jason]

OK, then I have to pose the question to my Hunters, Twig and Fingus: could we move our sessions to Sundays instead of Saturdays?

 

You might be able to infer what I'm getting at: get the late night stream (8PM - 12AM) off of Sunday, which is essentially a work night. It was short-sighted of me to schedule each of these on the days that I did.

 

So...

 

Mages: Saturdays at 8PM - 12AM PST (5AM - 9AM CET)

 

Hunters: Sundays at 12PM - 4PM PST (9PM - 1AM CET)

 

How does this make us feel?

[Reyturner]

Works for me

[Twig]

I'm fine with that.

[Vulpes Absurda]

Well that was fun! Sorry I didn't come more prepared but I think I turned it around fairly well. And apologies if I said something rude without realizing it. I have been known to do so, and if I did feel free to let me know. I think I was okay but for any and all future events I thought I would put that out there.

[Smart Jason]

I think you were fine as well. If you have a headset (I think you were trying to get one to work originally?) please switch to that next week, as it would definitely improve your audio. And get a PDF reader, please! The one Jeff recommended, or PDF X-Change, which I use.

 

So, to anyone in either group, speak up between now and session one if I'm missing anything you consider crucial about your character's backstory. Expect to have your gaps filled ( ) between now and then if not - homes, families, friends, neighbors, acquaintances. The places you work. The places you drink. Your first hunt. Your Awakening. For simplicity's sake, I will be taking charge of all of this so that we can have engaging, compact sessions on Twitch.

 

I would once, and academically still do, consider this anathema. Ideally, all of this should come from you, so that it has maximum emotional resonance with you - as both character and player. But we didn't make it in time. The story can't wait on the details of the prelude.

 

Those of you who want to endear yourselves to me know exactly how to do so: adopt these backstories as your own. Love them as you would NPCs you birthed yourself. Ultimately, players who come to my games to actually play roles will find themselves very richly rewarded. This is about storytelling.

 

I'm excited for Saturday.

[Reyturner]

how much of my thrilling back story will survive the process? 

[Smart Jason]

Of course I won't contradict anything you gave me.

 

But please, now more than ever that your characters are solidified, drop some posts in here about what you actually want to do in the game. This goes double, triple, for you academic types. From day one aspirations to year ten ones. Character motivations as well as the sorts of things you enjoy doing in games, tabletop and otherwise.

[Reyturner]

you want that here or in PMs? Does it matter if other players see / don't see this? 

[Smart Jason]

Whichever you'd prefer. I doubt there's anything which constitutes intrigue at this point, but if you're planning something secretive then certainly keep that to PMs.

[Fingus]

I'll work on drafting up a brief blurb about Hank to fill in details I didn't have a chance to bring up during the first session. But I feel that a lot of the core stuff has been covered, so maybe I just wanna have him grow more organically.

 

Also Jason, can I check out the Mage session VoD on Twitch, or should that stuff be kept secret? (I started checking it out, and it seems like Corey is in the chat during that session? Still, I wanna check if it's cool.)

 

Changing the hunter sessions to Sundays is perfect for me. Because that way I won't have to bail on sudden social events, or vice versa, since the sessions start at 9PM in my timezone. Sundays I very rarely have commitments in the evening. 

 

EDIT: Also, looking at the VoD from our session I can tell my audio quality is abysmal. I'll make sure to get a proper microphone for next time.

[Reyturner]

oh yeah. 

 

are the Hunter and Mage sessions linked? I hadn't considered we might be in the other groups crosshairs  

[Smart Jason]

You guys can watch the other group's streams, since even if I said you couldn't I don't have a way to actually stop you. Just keep that in mind while playing vis-a-vis information you might want to relegate to the Roll20 chat.

 

I should note, of course, it'll be a long time before you guys actually come into contact with one another.

 

So, anyone who hasn't given me Aspirations of a sort (Reyturner, Vulpes Absurda) please read PDF 29 - 30 of the Chronicles of Darkness book and give me two short term Aspirations for your character and one long term. Remember, these aren't necessarily from your character's point of view, they're what you as a player want to see happen to him.