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Heroic Knight
 
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"Fit the Ninth"
Set - on a beach, with nearby temporary shelter (Safari tent, field operations tent.)
Premise - Set directly after the events in final fit of "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll, the text of which can be found here -
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=CarSnar.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=all
Style - Victorian Horror, Call of Cthulu meets Lewis Carroll, American McGee's Snark, Tense horror one moment, farcical comedy the next.
Game - A game for 6-12 players, 6-8 Creature crew, 6-8 NPC crew, 2-3 Refs.
Following the tradgedy of the Baker's Vanishing, the unhappy Snark Hunters return to their ship, only to find it has been dismantled and laid out piece by piece on the beach. Now it becomes, not about hunting, but about survival. The awaken the handful of other travellers, who, up until now, have been stored asleep in the hold, and attempt to figure their predicament, while, in the dark, the Jub-Jub bird and the frumious Bandersnatch lurk. Further up the cliffs, that most Fearsome of creatures, the Jabberwocky, waits to snatch unwarey souls.
Players are :
Victorian archetypes, including one or two of the lesser described of the poem's original team.
(The Boots, the Billiard Marker, the Barrister) Other characters from the poem are either missing, mad, or played by NPC's.
Combat -
Characters are given three states - Unhurt, Injured, Crippled, Dying, which they can shift between, whether through poison or physical damage, although out and out fights are heavily discouraged - a highly stylised form of duelling, however, MAY be availiable - a la Tweedledum and Tweedledee, bound with pillows and makeshift armour, and given items like wooden spatulas, and similar. The characters are not, generally, combat orientated though. They are all based on similar archetypes to the original hunters of the poem, who set out from the dock previously, some of whom have been stored in wooden boxes for the duration of the poem.
Sanity -
Of much MORE importance is Sanity rating - some of which characters can give up at creation, in exchange for obscure skills and strange quirks - Cryptozoology, or resistance to Fear effects, or other Carrollian style abilities, drawn from Hunting of the Snark, Jabberwocky and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Characters lose sanity from using arcane items and meeting Snark Island's inhabitants.
Time in / Out
Best suited to a weekend, with one 24 hour time-in? Debateable.
Location - Not known.
Well, actually, this isn't true. I've seen a great location in Pembrokshire, in the far end of Wales, by a tiny little village called Broad Haven. Some great coves, with nearby accomadation, and pub, for the Friday Night.
Also, considering Littlehampton Scout centre, which is by Climping beach, although I've only seen the venue on the map.
Also, areas by lakes large enough to work as the sea.
Date -
Don't have a laugh. All this is embryonic - there's no system, a heavy handful of a lot of ideas, no location, no players, no crew, two or three people interested in writing / running it, but no money to do it with. At best it'll be at least a year before it happens. At worst it will fade in to the pit of lost ideas, which is one of the reasons I'm writing it here.
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PD: Formerly: "Gentleman" Jig, of the Wayward Scholars. Briefly: Jingo, of New Bantustan. Soon: TBA.
Serenity: Ben Su Tiao.
White City : Orpheus DuValle / Elias Vincenzi.
RL: Dom Carroll, Firecat Masquerade.
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Heroic Knight
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It's a cracking idea. You might also want to include references to some of the other surrealist writers of the period, such as Edward Lear, Hillare Belloc etc. There are also other period entertainments, games and puzzles you could include, such as Magic Lanterns etc.
I'd be up for this (either as player, crew or ref!) and could probably find a few more interested souls too.
Ascendancy: Major Hoyght, Marine officer, Archipelago
Dr Flay, Horologist and Alchemist - www.AscendancyLRP.co.uk -
Maelstrom: '?' -All round enigma
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Prodigal
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Cool idea- it would be very interesting to see if it works out.
How would the sanity points mechanic work? Is there a ref present constantly to tell the players how many points they lose if something happens to them? What sort of guidelines would you give as to how someone should behave when they've lost a certain number of points?
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Heroic Knight
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Last Login: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 9:45 AM
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I was thinking that there would need be a ref present for any sanity checks - I was thinking of them making calls during certain creature attacks ("Everybody lose two sanity!") and more personal, situational calls (certain criteria for players when they lose sanity - perhaps every time they enter combat, or every time they use a certain item.)
As to guidelines, I was considering giving everybody a delusion, or disorder to work towards, which they grow further along the scale. To be honest, I hadn't had much of that worked out. Certainly, as the hours go on, the characters should grow more and more twitchy, as the effects of the island and the Hunt take their toll.
______________
PD: Formerly: "Gentleman" Jig, of the Wayward Scholars. Briefly: Jingo, of New Bantustan. Soon: TBA.
Serenity: Ben Su Tiao.
White City : Orpheus DuValle / Elias Vincenzi.
RL: Dom Carroll, Firecat Masquerade.
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Prodigal
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Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
I was thinking that there would need be a ref present for any sanity checks - I was thinking of them making calls during certain creature attacks ("Everybody lose two sanity!") and more personal, situational calls (certain criteria for players when they lose sanity - perhaps every time they enter combat, or every time they use a certain item.)
That could work. Does it have to be the refs who make the calls, though? If you give the NPCs the ability to make their own sanity calls then they can operate independently of refs. This gives you a bit more flexibility- for example, it means that a PC could wander off by themselves and get ambushed by an NPC who's been hiding in the treeline, without the need for either the PC or the NPC to have a ref trailing them the whole time.
Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
As to guidelines, I was considering giving everybody a delusion, or disorder to work towards
That sounds like a good idea.
Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
which they grow further along the scale.
Define 'along the scale'- would you just tell everyone that after losing x points they become slightly unstable, and after losing y they go completely insane, or would inidividuals have more precise instructions specific to their own disorder ("after losing x points you begin talking to yourself, after losing Y points you become convinced that everyone is plotting to murder you", or whatever)?
I guess what I mean is: how much attempt would there be to standardise exactly how insane a player is supposed to act after the loss of a given number of points?
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Heroic Knight
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Last Login: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 9:45 AM
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That could work. Does it have to be the refs who make the calls, though? If you give the NPCs the ability to make their own sanity calls then they can operate independently of refs. This gives you a bit more flexibility- for example, it means that a PC could wander off by themselves and get ambushed by an NPC who's been hiding in the treeline, without the need for either the PC or the NPC to have a ref trailing them the whole time.
Great!  I like it already.
Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
which they grow further along the scale.
Define 'along the scale'- would you just tell everyone that after losing x points they become slightly unstable, and after losing y they go completely insane, or would inidividuals have more precise instructions specific to their own disorder ("after losing x points you begin talking to yourself, after losing Y points you become convinced that everyone is plotting to murder you", or whatever)?
I would like ti to be much more personal- possibly presice instructions, but ones that they work out with the ref team beforehand? Or possibly standardising them, in fact, but at x and y points they get handed a note with precise instructions - as above? Or they make a random pick from a deck of instructions, meaning the suspense as to how their insanity progresses is more intense?
I like that, the more I think about it - using "Slightly unstable" at point W, with a randomly chosen "minor symptom" at point X, a randomly chosen "Major symptom" at point Y, and "Raving" at point Z...
Or possibly using it like Maelstrom's poison rules, with a "Major Symptom" in a smaller envelope inside the "Minor Symptom", to be opened after losing more points, so the symptoms are related?
Or maybe it would allow more room for creative interpretation if the two symptoms were both random, and as-yet unconnected?
I guess what I mean is: how much attempt would there be to standardise exactly how insane a player is supposed to act after the loss of a given number of points?[/quote]
I'd like to leave it up to players interpretation, with the caveat that Refs / NPC's can always throw more stuff at them through the game.
I also had in mind certain items, or certain ways of using tools - having a "Legalese" skill, that allows players to shpeel from long-winded documents, to use them as a weapon, or a map that can only be read under certain FOIP conditions.
______________
PD: Formerly: "Gentleman" Jig, of the Wayward Scholars. Briefly: Jingo, of New Bantustan. Soon: TBA.
Serenity: Ben Su Tiao.
White City : Orpheus DuValle / Elias Vincenzi.
RL: Dom Carroll, Firecat Masquerade.
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Prodigal
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Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
Or possibly using it like Maelstrom's poison rules, with a "Major Symptom" in a smaller envelope inside the "Minor Symptom", to be opened after losing more points, so the symptoms are related?
I like that idea- again, it sounds like it would reduce the need for refs to be onhand every time sanity points are lost. Perhaps you could give every player their own set of envelopes within envelopes right at the start of the game, and then rely on them to open them as and when they lose enough points. Tell them to be very careful not to lose the envelopes, but have duplicates around for when they do.
Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
Or maybe it would allow more room for creative interpretation if the two symptoms were both random, and as-yet unconnected?
You could always go for a mixed approach- some of the symptoms could be tailored to the individual character, others could be wild cards that you've shuffled and dealt out randomly.
Flannelcat (11/13/2006)
I also had in mind certain items, or certain ways of using tools - having a "Legalese" skill, that allows players to shpeel from long-winded documents, to use them as a weapon, or a map that can only be read under certain FOIP conditions.
Sounds fun
WARNING: the information above may have been subjected to dangerously high levels of ignorance.
OOC (and on Pagga): Carrie
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Heroic Knight
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Last Login: Tuesday, October 07, 2008 9:45 AM
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It's a cracking idea. You might also want to include references to some of the other surrealist writers of the period, such as Edward Lear, Hillare Belloc etc. There are also other period entertainments, games and puzzles you could include, such as Magic Lanterns etc.
I was going to avoid the other authors and try and build up Snark Island as a convincing setting - only seen through a dark glass. Magic Lanterns could be great, though - a magic lantern as a holy item - light in the dark.
I now have this vision of period chaps and chapesses trying to continue a politw dinner party, in a Safari tent on the beach of Snark Island, with the ever-present gibbering hordes outside...
______________
PD: Formerly: "Gentleman" Jig, of the Wayward Scholars. Briefly: Jingo, of New Bantustan. Soon: TBA.
Serenity: Ben Su Tiao.
White City : Orpheus DuValle / Elias Vincenzi.
RL: Dom Carroll, Firecat Masquerade.
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