New Players Information
Thank you for your interest in the New Orleans: Under the Mask play by post game. Below you will find information about the game, myself and the kind of player that I am looking for. This should let you know if this is the right kind of game for you.
The Player's Handbook section has more detailed information about the types of character that are available to play, and how to create a character. The World Encyclopedia will have information on People, Places, organization and other resources about the city and the supernatural community. While this information is openly accessible (And doesn't contain any secrets) it is up to you as a player to decide what would be appropriate for your character to know and keep that separate from out of character knowledge.
You can find more about Cortex Prime on the website linked here, but there will be a crash course further down that will give you everything you need to know in order to play the game.
You will be playing a character that lives in or very near New Orleans and should have some connection to the supernatural community. Several types of character options are available including Vampires, Lycanthropes, Witches, even vanilla mortals. While there are some overarching plots and even some smaller situations that I plan on introducing that your character can get involved in, the narrative of the game will be based on the actions of you, the players. You can get involved in some of the things that are already happening in the city, or you can go your own way, and take the game in a completely new direction.
The game is mostly free form and will only require rolling when to resolve conflicts, or when you are trying to do something that your character has a decent chance of failing. For the most part, you will be in control of when you think you should make a die role. In the system information below will be guidelines on how your character's stats are recorded and what the numbers mean. This should give you a good idea of what your character can do without needing a roll. If you are trying to do something that is outside of that, then I expect you to use the RPoL dice roller, and include it in your post, and write the post taking your success or failure into account. This will keep the game moving along without having to stop for every roll. The exception is when you are in a contest with another player or NPC, you will have to wait until both of you have made your rolls to determine the outcome. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the winner of the contest to describe the results.
Before picking what you want to play, please check out Types of Characters. This will tell you about the types of characters that are available in the game and may be a bit different from what you are used to. This list is not a complete list of all types of available characters. If you have an idea that is not included here, run it by me, but please be aware, that it will take a lot of work to introduce a new character type and the community they are a party of. I will expect you to do a lot of that work, if you really want to play that character.
The setting is strongly influenced by Vampire: The Masquerade, The Dresden Files, and other urban fantasy novels, shows and comics. The vampire bloodlines will be familiar to anyone who has played a VtM game and the witch profession should be familiar to anyone who has read Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. There is plenty of politicking to get involved in if that is your style, but there are also opportunities for classic stories focused on smaller situations, such as disappearances, murder, strange discoveries, etc. The game can take any direction you want, and the setting is varied enough that there can be multiple things happening all at the same time.
My last PbP game was also set in New Orleans, but was a VtM game, and all the players were vampires. It was a fun game but as I read more stories set in the city and learned some more about it, I realized that there is so much more that can be done with the setting and decided to rewrite it a bit to allow more than just vampire characters. It has been very satisfying, detailing elements that were only hinted at in my first go around, as they were the stories of NPC, etc. Now that I have opened that up and had to get further into the lore of other supernatural creatures it has opened up a world of possibilities to explore.
In character conflict can sometimes but there can be a point where it can go too far and can disrupt a good game. I expect any players to keep an eye for that and resolve it before it gets to that point or worst-case scenario to change their character.
Out of character conflict is a non-starter. It is not usually a problem with a PbP game, but it can be and any player causing an issue will be removed.
This game may have some adult situations. It is rated mature to cover things that might come and that means all players have to be over 18 years of age.
There are a lot of resources available on the Website. I expect all players to become familiar with it. I don't expect anyone to go through every page, but if you are playing a specific character type you should be familiar with all of the information available on it. You should also be familiar with places in the cite that our outlined on the site. Feel free to bring me idea, articles, etc to help add ot the setting if you have them. There is plenty of room in the city to put your creations as well, as long as they fit the general theme.
Last, please don't hesitate to give me feedback. If you aren;t having fun, let me know why. Maybe there are things we could do differently, especially if it is affecting more than one player. Also let me know if there are things you like so I know what to do more of.
Cortex is a system based on dice pools. Your character will basically have three or four sections. Attributes, skills, and abilities and some will have signature assets. Each stat is assigned a dice value from 1d4 to 1d12. When making a roll you simply add a die from each section and then keep two for your total. That total is then compared to a difficulty number to determine if you succeed or pass. Sometimes you may be rolling more than three dice but regardless of how many you roll, you may only keep 2. If one of the dice comes up a "1" this is known as a mishap and usually means something unexpected happens and it is usually not to your benefit. If you beat your difficulty number by more than 5, then that is a super success and usually something good will come from it. In either case the benefit or mishap rarely affects you right away and will probably come into play later.
Look at the "GAME: Playing a xxx" section for information about what kind of powers your character would have. It can be found under the different character types.
Why would anyone not want a Signature Asset? It does come with a price. If your character loses their Signature Asset, this can be devastating and will add 1d4 to all roll that normally would have included the Asset.
If there is a danger to both sides, than it is an opposed check for a minor npc. A combat with another player or a major NPC can take a series of opposed checks. The winner gets to inflict a D6 penalty. That can be increased for every five the winner's check succeeds by a Character that already has a penalty that loses a second opposed check increases that penalty by one step foreach five he loses by. If the penalty exceeds a d12, the character is taken out. If a character has a penalty from a wound, if gets added to the opponent dice pool.
Example: Alice the witch uses her spirit magic to assault Lester a vampire. Her total is 12 and lester's is 4. She succeeded by 8 which it 5 more that she needed. She explains the spirit has claws and slashes the vampire leaving him bloody at a d8 (d6 upgraded once). The next round tha Lester gets a 11 to Alice's 10 (Whose check included an extra d8 from Lestor's wound. and he punches her and states she is bruised at a d6. Both are hurt but still up. The next round Alice does really goo and get a 16, rolling an 8 with the d8 she got from Lestor's wound and a D8 on her power die., Lestor only got a 5, even with the extra d6 from Alice's wound. Alice beats Lestor by ten, so adds three steps to Lestor's Bloody penalty. (1 step for winning, and 2 more for beating him by more then 10, which is 5X2). That take Lestor from a D8 to a over a d12, taking him out.
The Player's Handbook section has more detailed information about the types of character that are available to play, and how to create a character. The World Encyclopedia will have information on People, Places, organization and other resources about the city and the supernatural community. While this information is openly accessible (And doesn't contain any secrets) it is up to you as a player to decide what would be appropriate for your character to know and keep that separate from out of character knowledge.
About the Game
New Orleans: Under the Mask is an urban fantasy/horror theme play by post game that is housed on RPOL. While it is not completely freeform, I will do my best to try to keep the gaming elements as unintrusive as possible. To help with this, we will be using a Cortex Prime Hack that I specifically creating for this PbP game.You can find more about Cortex Prime on the website linked here, but there will be a crash course further down that will give you everything you need to know in order to play the game.
You will be playing a character that lives in or very near New Orleans and should have some connection to the supernatural community. Several types of character options are available including Vampires, Lycanthropes, Witches, even vanilla mortals. While there are some overarching plots and even some smaller situations that I plan on introducing that your character can get involved in, the narrative of the game will be based on the actions of you, the players. You can get involved in some of the things that are already happening in the city, or you can go your own way, and take the game in a completely new direction.
The game is mostly free form and will only require rolling when to resolve conflicts, or when you are trying to do something that your character has a decent chance of failing. For the most part, you will be in control of when you think you should make a die role. In the system information below will be guidelines on how your character's stats are recorded and what the numbers mean. This should give you a good idea of what your character can do without needing a roll. If you are trying to do something that is outside of that, then I expect you to use the RPoL dice roller, and include it in your post, and write the post taking your success or failure into account. This will keep the game moving along without having to stop for every roll. The exception is when you are in a contest with another player or NPC, you will have to wait until both of you have made your rolls to determine the outcome. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the winner of the contest to describe the results.
Before picking what you want to play, please check out Types of Characters. This will tell you about the types of characters that are available in the game and may be a bit different from what you are used to. This list is not a complete list of all types of available characters. If you have an idea that is not included here, run it by me, but please be aware, that it will take a lot of work to introduce a new character type and the community they are a party of. I will expect you to do a lot of that work, if you really want to play that character.
The setting is strongly influenced by Vampire: The Masquerade, The Dresden Files, and other urban fantasy novels, shows and comics. The vampire bloodlines will be familiar to anyone who has played a VtM game and the witch profession should be familiar to anyone who has read Anne Rice's The Witching Hour. There is plenty of politicking to get involved in if that is your style, but there are also opportunities for classic stories focused on smaller situations, such as disappearances, murder, strange discoveries, etc. The game can take any direction you want, and the setting is varied enough that there can be multiple things happening all at the same time.
About the GM
I have been GMing RPG for over 30 years and have run many different systems. Most of these have been live games, but I have GMed a play-by-post game once before that was very well received by the players. I am a storyteller GM and an ok writer (I like to believe). While I try to blend a lot of storytelling into my real-life games, a lot of players just like to get to the action and roll the dice, so PbP is the perfect opportunity to really focus on the storytelling with people that feel the same way.My last PbP game was also set in New Orleans, but was a VtM game, and all the players were vampires. It was a fun game but as I read more stories set in the city and learned some more about it, I realized that there is so much more that can be done with the setting and decided to rewrite it a bit to allow more than just vampire characters. It has been very satisfying, detailing elements that were only hinted at in my first go around, as they were the stories of NPC, etc. Now that I have opened that up and had to get further into the lore of other supernatural creatures it has opened up a world of possibilities to explore.
What I am looking for in a player
One thing I learned from my last PbP game is that not everyone is suited for this type of game. While there will be some plots available to get involved with, this type of format is not like playing a real-time game, where you can just react to the things that are happening. You need to be actively involved in crafting the story for you. That means interacting with the scenes, the NPC, other characters. If you are playing a recluse type of character that doesn't really go out, you aren't going to get much from this game. While there will be elements happening that you can react to, it is your responsibility to get involved. To seek out interactions. An umbral Vampire who spends the night on the rooftops is going to be bored compared to a one who is actively moving around the city, visiting haunts, making allies, etc.In character conflict can sometimes but there can be a point where it can go too far and can disrupt a good game. I expect any players to keep an eye for that and resolve it before it gets to that point or worst-case scenario to change their character.
Out of character conflict is a non-starter. It is not usually a problem with a PbP game, but it can be and any player causing an issue will be removed.
This game may have some adult situations. It is rated mature to cover things that might come and that means all players have to be over 18 years of age.
There are a lot of resources available on the Website. I expect all players to become familiar with it. I don't expect anyone to go through every page, but if you are playing a specific character type you should be familiar with all of the information available on it. You should also be familiar with places in the cite that our outlined on the site. Feel free to bring me idea, articles, etc to help add ot the setting if you have them. There is plenty of room in the city to put your creations as well, as long as they fit the general theme.
Last, please don't hesitate to give me feedback. If you aren;t having fun, let me know why. Maybe there are things we could do differently, especially if it is affecting more than one player. Also let me know if there are things you like so I know what to do more of.
Posting requirements
Life gets in the way. I get it. It happens for me too. I plan on posting several times a week, but expect players to post at least once a week. If you cant commit to that, please don't join. If you have to take a temp break (Like a going on a vacation or something comes up) please let me know and we can work out a way for your character to either be played as an NPC or to have something happen that takes them out of the picture until you get back.The System
Cortex is a system based on dice pools. Your character will basically have three or four sections. Attributes, skills, and abilities and some will have signature assets. Each stat is assigned a dice value from 1d4 to 1d12. When making a roll you simply add a die from each section and then keep two for your total. That total is then compared to a difficulty number to determine if you succeed or pass. Sometimes you may be rolling more than three dice but regardless of how many you roll, you may only keep 2. If one of the dice comes up a "1" this is known as a mishap and usually means something unexpected happens and it is usually not to your benefit. If you beat your difficulty number by more than 5, then that is a super success and usually something good will come from it. In either case the benefit or mishap rarely affects you right away and will probably come into play later.
Attributes
There are your innate character's stats. They range from 1d6 to 1d10. In rare cases an attribute may be lower or higher, Attributes are:Physical
- a character overall physical rating, this includes strength and agility. A d4 is someone with some type of physical ailment. A d6 is average for a regular person. A d8 is someone who has the physicality of an athlete. A d10 is beyond the normal limits of a human. A d12 is far beyond what a normal human could do and is usually only seen on very powerful beings.Mental
- A character's overall intelligence and wisdom. A d4 is supremely naive or has some type of mental impairment. A d6 is average for a normal person. A d8 is someone who is highly intelligent, suitable for work in advanced fields or extremely world wise. A d10 is top genius level intellect and is rarely achievable by anyone that lives a normal lifespan. Ad12 is only available to beings that have the ability to gain knowledge from sources that are not of this world.Conviction
- A character's Conviction measures their force of personality, faith, and confidence. A D4 is someone who is very insecure or has issues like crippling depression. A D6 is average. A D8 is someone who has a strong sense of self-worth, a strong belief like a religious person. A D10 shows powerful faith or belief, like that of a priest, or have the type of personality that people like to follow, like a cult leader. A D12 is an example of supernatural conviction, like that of a narcissist who can control others with just the force of their personality.Skills
Skills are a measure of your character learning and experience in certain subjects. [A list of skills can be found on the character sheet.]- Any skill with no rank is considered a D4. This rank means the character has no experience with the skill. When making a skill check for most skills, you would not add the d4 into the roll, even if you have no rank. However, if the skill check is something that would normally only be successful for someone who has some type of training or experience, then you must add the D4 to the dice pool to represent the greater chance of something going wrong (Rolling a 1).
- D6 ranks are average experience with a particular skill. It shows familiarity with the skill but not advanced training. Novices would have this level of skill.
- D8 ranks are advance knowledge of a skill and what a professional would have. This rating means some type of formal training or years of experience.
- D10 ranks means that you are an expert in the skill. The kind of person that has dedicated much of their life to a particular skill set. This level is reserved for people that are masters of their craft.
- D12 ranks are extremely rare and represent people who are known worldwide for their expertise in a specific skill.
Powers
In addition to Attributes and skill, most characters will have some type of supernatural power. Your power or powers will depend on the type of character you are playing. Almost all powers are ranked at a D8, but newer supernatural's might have a D6, and some of the truly powerful can have levels as high as a d12.Look at the "GAME: Playing a xxx" section for information about what kind of powers your character would have. It can be found under the different character types.
Signature Asset
For players familiar with the Cortex system, I have not included Assets or Complications. Due to the nature of Play by Post, it will be very rare for these temporary items to come into play. However, Characters may have a Signature Asset. These represent items that are an intrinsic part of a character's story or aesthetic can be included as a permanent trait with a rank of D6. If that item is relevant to a roll, it can be added to the dice pool. An example of this is a special necklace a witch has, that is used to focus spells, a wedding ring, that a character may play with whenever in a stressful situation to give them emotional strength, or guitar that was passed down to the character.Why would anyone not want a Signature Asset? It does come with a price. If your character loses their Signature Asset, this can be devastating and will add 1d4 to all roll that normally would have included the Asset.
Combat
Combats with minor npcs are handled with a check. If there is any chance of danger to both parties, than it is an opposed check, otherwise, it is a simple test. A vanilla mortal getting into a fight with a werewolf has no chance of taking out the werewolf, but they may be able to find a way to escape. That is why there is a check.If there is a danger to both sides, than it is an opposed check for a minor npc. A combat with another player or a major NPC can take a series of opposed checks. The winner gets to inflict a D6 penalty. That can be increased for every five the winner's check succeeds by a Character that already has a penalty that loses a second opposed check increases that penalty by one step foreach five he loses by. If the penalty exceeds a d12, the character is taken out. If a character has a penalty from a wound, if gets added to the opponent dice pool.
Example: Alice the witch uses her spirit magic to assault Lester a vampire. Her total is 12 and lester's is 4. She succeeded by 8 which it 5 more that she needed. She explains the spirit has claws and slashes the vampire leaving him bloody at a d8 (d6 upgraded once). The next round tha Lester gets a 11 to Alice's 10 (Whose check included an extra d8 from Lestor's wound. and he punches her and states she is bruised at a d6. Both are hurt but still up. The next round Alice does really goo and get a 16, rolling an 8 with the d8 she got from Lestor's wound and a D8 on her power die., Lestor only got a 5, even with the extra d6 from Alice's wound. Alice beats Lestor by ten, so adds three steps to Lestor's Bloody penalty. (1 step for winning, and 2 more for beating him by more then 10, which is 5X2). That take Lestor from a D8 to a over a d12, taking him out.
How to make a character.
- Step 1: Submit a WTJ post through RPoL. Before making a character sheet, we will discuss the character idea in detail.
- Step 2: Create a character here on World Anvil. When you create a character, there will be fields to fill in to create a complete character with personality, and background. You can add a picture of your character to this sheet.
- Step 3: Create your character sheet. After your WorldAnvil Character is created, I will send you a character sheet specific to your charater type. There are instructions on how to choose your ranks. Once complete, send the sheet back to me and I will go over it and work with you for any edits. Then I will create an introduction thread in RPoL for you, that you can use to describe your character and what any other players might know about you.
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