Quick Playtest Anyone?

[Lord Z]

The After Midnight 2 project is advancing more slowly than I had thought. I might as well take advantage of the situation by running a playtest of one or another of the proposed adventures which will end up in the final .pdf product. There is no chance of getting my face-to-face group to try this as they are all loopy over D&D 4th edition right now to the extent that I can't even wrap up the three dangling campaigns that they had me start over the last year.

Is anyone interested in a short Beyond the Supernatural game? We will probably run it as a play by post or play by e-mail format, but a single session of chat room gaming is possible if the players would prefer that.

[sasha]

I'm always interested in BtS.

My scheduling doesn't always mesh well with North America for live chats (but sometimes it does).

[mrloucifer]

Ive never done online gaming before, perhaps its time to learn

Bring it on padre!

[Xar]

My schedule is way wonky, but I'd be interested in it, if it were play by post or email.

[Lord Z]

Thank you for the interest, playas. The preference seems to be through play-by-post, and that medium would suit an investigation heavy-combat light game anyway. I was thinking about using Yahoo Groups this time because it's quick, easy, and no one will need to set up new forum accounts. How does that sound?

[mrloucifer]

As ive never played by post I have no idea what to expect, so I'll trust your judgement on this one Z.

[sasha]

I'm still game.

[Xar]

works for me

[Xar]

What kind of characters are you looking for?

Should we mirror the After Midnight organization from Boxed Nightmares, or another concept?

[Lord Z]

Here is some information on the game.

The game is set in the rural Ozark hills of southern Missouri. It involves investigation of a series of cattle mutilations which the tabloid newspaper, After Midnight, is covering. The adventure is heavy on investigation in the beginning but heavy on combat in the likely climax scene.

The adventure was built to be scalable to different sized groups with different average experience levels, but it's primarily designed as an introduction adventure for 1st level characters. There is no limit on which BtS classes the PCs can use, but at least one player should have sensitive psychic powers or the investigation will be tougher and take longer. Someone working as a journalist for After Midnight to do a follow-up story would make sense. Established characters from other campaigns are fine so long as they have standard BtS P.C.C.s or something appropriate. An Ordinary Person with no paranormal powers is also an option – use the Ordinary Person class in BtS-2 or any Psychic class from another game and cut the psychic powers. Other characters might be locals like sheriff deputies, victimized cattle ranchers, or Lazlo affiliates (Society members or Agency contacts preferably). I think I'll get my friend Doublenix to a Lazlo Agent sent to investigate. If you would like to play a magic class, run it by me first.

The schedule will be moving fairly fast for a play-by-post game. Expect scenes to last about a week. I will be looking for updates from the players once every two days. The entire adventure shouldn't take more than two or three months to resolve (I think).

Paws2sky, which books are you using? It's pretty easy to convert characters from other settings over to BtS-2.

[Lord Z]

Go ahead and post your ideas here. The other players might be inspired. I'm not particularly concerned about people abusing player knowledge during character creation, because I actually like it when players work together and build characters that compliment each other.

My battery will die soon, so I'll be quick. I set up a Yahoo Group: Link! If players will please PM me their e-mail addresses, I will send invites. Because this adventure may appear in an actual PB product, I've restricted the group to viewing by members only. You do NOT need a yahoo e-mail address to join a Yahoo Group.

[gaby]

ther good characters.

Hope to see more.

[mrloucifer]

If no one else desires to play the Sensitive role (arguably the Autistic and the sensitives are the hardest to play PC wise) you can count me in to play on Lord Z! I got your back... and I love a good challenge.

I'll even use an investigative carrer path to make sure the "investigator" angle is covered if needed.

[Lord Z]

Shady, the more the merrier. Does anyone need a pre-gen?

Paws, I'm a little torn. A sheriff deputy would work quite well, but so would a reporter. I'd prefer to keep the sheriff as an NPC. A full sheriff would have more resources and manpower at his disposal than I want to give you guys out of the gate. Unless you have a preference, I'd like you to use one of the sheriff's department characters. Either downgrade Hoss to a srgt. or go with Chester. I like Hoss' personality and alignment, but he would be more useful to the game as a 3rd-4th level Latent than a Nega. If you aren't comfortable with changing him that much, go with Chester.

Mista Lou, it looks like you get to be the group's tracker.

First level characters are preferred due to a general lack of exposure to the supernatural, but older characters like Ross can be build as high as fourth level at start.

[mrloucifer]

Mista Lou, it looks like you get to be the group's tracker.

When you say tracker, would you prefer the Sensitive or the Diviner? I can do either.

[Lord Z]

P. Sky, I like your suggestion of the reporter and the cameraman being connected. Go forward with finishing the reporter, Silas. Make him either as a psychic sensitive or a latent psychic with one or two sensitive psi-powers. I expect him to use that anarchist alignment and bend a few laws to get his job done.

Mephisto, I would like you to round out your psi-mechanic character, Andrew. Have him working in or around the small city of Ava, Missouri. Silas is traveling to your neck of the woods to investigate some cattle mutilations, and Andrew is being hired to work with him. You and Paws please get together to figure out how well your characters know each other.

Mister Lou Cifer, that is what I meant. You decoded my ramblings correctly. I've never seen a person play a Diviner before, and I would be interested you do this. As a Diviner, the other investigators will be relying on you to do the majority of the bloodhound work, so keep the character's alignment unprincipled or better.

If you haven't rolled up attributes already, folks, go ahead. Roll 3D6 eight times and assign the totals where you like. If that set of eight totals doesn't suit you, roll another set of eight. Keep rolling until you find a set you like.

[mrloucifer]

Then your in for a treat Lord Z. One of my players is a Diviner... and while Its not flashy as far as psychics go, its wiggled its way into being one of my favorite classes.

I'll have an unprincipled (or better) aligned Diviner PC created by this time tomorrow!

[mrloucifer]

Update on my Tracker PC:

I'm on to something with this guy, I'm liking him so much that I think I'm gonna add him to my pregen characters at future con games and the Palladium Open House.

Name: Zain "Cardshark" Lomax
PCC: Diviner
Occupation: Manhunter
Alignment: Unprincipled, but leaning twords Scrupulous.

So here I have a a guy who basically lives for tracking, be it man or supernatural.

[Tearstone]

If you guys are looking for more people I would be game. even though I've been focused on some other stuff of late

[Lord Z]

We haven't started gameplay yet, Tearstone. Read the description above and post a character concept here.

[Xar]

Here's mine.

Joshua A. Eichler

Joshua (35) has lived in Ava, MO for most of his life, after moving from Poplar Bluff as a child. Unattached and single is just the way he likes it, which works out well for him, since he works an ever-changing schedule driving an ambulance. On any given day he can either be found pretty much anywhere in the county, at pretty much any time of day. In his downtime he enjoys fishing and hunting as much as any of the other fellows he grew up with.

OCC: Ordinary person

Occupation: Paramedic for St. John's Clinic, Douglas County MO.

Alignment: Scrupulous

...more to come...

[Tearstone]

I did read it, otherwise I wouldn't have asked.

[Lord Z]

Okay, I've received two ready-to-play characters and two character concepts being fleshed out. There is still time for anyone else to jump in. That includes you, Tearstone.

[Lord Z]

I'm still waiting for character sheets of two PCs and the name of a third. Silas and Zain are ready for play.

[Xar]

Just sent you my sheet.

[Lord Z]

Both are received and approved. Look for an introductory message tonight.

[mrloucifer]

ROCK ON!!

[gaby]

Caxrron and Associates,s Investingations

Will Caxrron
Alignment:unprincipled
Occuptaion:Professional Private investigator and Owner of C & A.

[Lord Z]

Gaby, who are the associates?