Undertown RPG ~ San Francisco: Shaking the Foundations

[Mij]

Heya folks:

It looks like we've still got interest in this adventure, so I thought I should provide some ground rules and such.

I'm looking for a maximum of 6-8 players.  I don't think a chat room based adventure can really handle any more than that.  If we get more interest than that, maybe we can split off a group for a separate session.

The folks who were interested before all expressed a desire to use San Francisco as the setting.  You were also developing characters around that setting.  I think we shouldn't waste all the creativity that has already been put into the idea, and keep the setting and characters.

I'm going to be looking over the setting and such this week, so I'll wait until the weekend for interest responses.  After that, we'll start setting days and times for gaming sessions.  Feel free to post here or PM me if you have suggestions, etc.

Thanks
Mij

[BookLover♥]

I'm in, as long as the play times are something I can manage schedule-wise.

I guess that means I need to finish my character... 

[luminos]

So, it looks like the weekend is here.  Any news on whats happening?

[Mij]

Heya folks:

I've received replies from the following folks, and it looks like we've got a workable group:

- Luminos
- Mystic (soulless, of course)
- Bloo
- Tordon
- Enjorous
- Booklover
- Fyrchick

I think that's probably the right number of folks, so that's our group to start with.

The next thing I'm going to need is to look at your characters.  I know some of you have posted yours in the thread already, but if they have changed since, please re-post them.  Or if you want, send them to me in a PM.  I want to be sure we have a balanced team for gaming.

We also need to start thinking about a game schedule.  Feel free to suggest times when you'll be available.

Otherwise, thanks for your vote of confidence!

Mij

[tordon]

I'm in the Eastern time zone, and evenings work best for me.  I can do pretty much any day of the week, though on the weekends, I wouldn't be available until after 10pm.

[luminos]

I've got an open schedule.  Anything after 7 P.M. central time.

[Mij]

Heya Folks:

Another update.  As I posted earlier, I talked with the management here, and they're fine with us using the chat room to play.  It has the advantage of having a dice rolling app, but it has two problems:

1) There isn't any way to generate a transcript of the sessions, which I think will be important for all of us between sessions.
2) You can only be in one room at a time.  This is problematic because I was going to suggest we have two windows open -- one for in-game, and one for out-of-game.

I had a long chat with Aine this afternoon.  She has graciously agreed (with almost no humiliating actions on my part) to keep the chat room open.  The advantage here is that chat room allows you to save transcripts, which solves the first problem.  And, we can use both chat rooms to play.  My plan is to use Undertown for in-game conversations and play, and use the DFRPG room for dice rolling.  I'll need to manually copy over the actual rolls, but that's a much better solution in my mind.

More news as it becomes available.  Don't forget to get your characters into the characters thread!

Mij

[Ripley]

I'm available pretty much anytime during the evenings. 

[Enjorous]

I'm on the West Coast, and I'm free most of the day Monday-Sunday, gotta love summer vacation!

[Mij]

First off, thanks to the folks who responded with times.  I'm still trying to figure out when I can be available to play (and finish the manuals -- 700 pages for cryin' out loud) and I appreciate the input.

OK, so I've finished the sections on city creation, and I looked over San Francisco again.  I have to say, I was VERY impressed with the work that's gone into the place so far.  I've been doing some research on my own as well, and the more I find about SF, the more I like it as a setting for our campaigns.

That said, I would like to suggest a change.  Right now, according to Ahrrie's post (page 2 of this thread), y'all had three major themes/threats for SF:

1. High Homeless population presents problems and opportunities (theme)
2. White Court is trying to expand their power base into local politics (threat)
3. Asian Mafia is taking a new approach to old conflicts (threat)

I propose to drop #2 -- as a threat.  I would like instead to postulate that White Court dominance of local politics is an established fact, and make it part of the status quo instead.  I would then like to introduce a new theme to take the now empty slot.  I'm currently using a working title of "Bright Face, Black Heart".  The idea is that San Francisco's "bright face" (low crime, love, peace, and happiness, etc) masks a darker underworld of hidden motives -- something that can apply to both the White Court and the Asian Mafia factions.  It even has ties to the Homeless theme.

As I said, it's still a work in progress, and I welcome your feedback.

Also, I've looked over the locations that everyone provided, and so far they look really good.  I would like you to continue working on those locations if they still need work.  As a reminder, I'm listing the current group members and their locations below:

Aine:  El Camino Real, City Lights Books (love this one, by the way)
Mystic: Lombard Street, Mission Dolores (another awesome pick)
Fyrchick:  Japantown, and a garden whose name escapes me at the moment (but you know, don't you Fyr?)
BookLover:  Transamerica Pyramid
Tordon: Chinatown, and something in the north.
Markkus: Muir Woods
Luminos: The Presidio, and a possible Native American group
Enjorous: Currently untasked

If I'm wrong on the above, please let me know.  Also, we have lost several folks from the original group who were doing locations.  I have their writeups, and if anyone wants to take over one of those, please let me know.  I'm looking to have 12-14 locations to start with; I'll probably add others as we go.

Also, I'd like to get everyone together (or as many as we can) to discuss locations as soon as possible.  I can be found in the Undertown chat room most evenings.  Let me know when you can be available.

Thanks, and I'm really looking forward to gaming with you!

Mij

[Soulless Mystic5523]

The Camino Real and the Mission Dolores will prolly be best worked on together as they are tied together. Although it could also be kinda fun to split them to surprise the other. Just a thought.

[tordon]

I'm working on a location in Chinatown and something for the north side of bay in Marin County.

[Mij]

I'm working on a location in Chinatown and something for the north side of bay in Marin County.

Awesome Tordon.  I was really hoping someone would do Chinatown, since it's kinda central to one of our threats.  Thanks for taking it on.  I'll edit the above post to include your choices.

And I apologize for leaving you off the first time.

Mij

[Mij]

More news from the GM:

I've had a chance to do some research of my own (more on that later folks), and I've also had a chance to talk with some of you, and I've decided that the second theme/threat (Corrupt politicians as a threat) is probably OK.  I would still like to change it to a theme rather than a threat however.

Please let me know how you feel about that.

Mij

[Mij]

Evening Folks!

I'm currently putting all the writeups that I have from you, along with the results of my own research, into a single document ala the Baltimore writeup in the manuals.

I think it will help us all to have the information in a single place for brainstorming, and it'll serve as an introduction to the setting for games!

I'm hoping to have the initial version done this weekend.  If you have any additions, please post them as soon as you can.  But don't be too concerned if you don't make it into this first draft -- just post what you have in this thread.  I can always add it to the writeup later.

If you don't have a location assignment yet, let me know.  I have a few more locations I'd like to get written up.

Also, I'm currently looking for someplace to host the writeup so that I don't have to email it to everyone.  More news on this as it becomes available.

I'm planning to be in the Undertown chat room this weekend, and would love to get together to discuss the city -- whether or not I've gotten the writeup finished.  But hopefully with.  I'll post times later in the week when my plans firm up.

Also, be thinking about faces for the White Court vampires and the Asian Mafia.  We need some!

Thanks!