[Other] Secret Histories: Forgotten Things

[Amarga]

Game Name Secret Histories: Forgotten Things

Game System Other Roleplaying Games

Theme Occultism, Libraries, Secret Places, Restoration of Old Glories, Forgotten Things

Flavour Early 1900s Occultism, Cultist Simulator, Book of Hours, Lovecraft, King in Yellow

Plot Summary In a world tangentially like our own, in a time just after the Great War (WW1), there is a small island to the north and west of Britain known as Gossburrey. On this island, a massive structure looms over the small town of Gossburg. Spoken of in whispers by the locals, it has been decades since anyone crossed the bridge to see the wonders said to lay within. It's foundations were laid before the Romans, and every people who has come to the island since then have continually built and renovated until now it looms as a confused mass of architecture that any archaeologist would give an arm or leg to study. It has been a sanctuary, a place of sacrifice, and smuggler’s den, a monastery, an armoury, a seat of power, a library, a storage facility, a prison, and finally it has been abandoned. Since it's great fire, the complex has sat unwatched. No baron has dined at its tables, no Archivist has sorted its catalogues, no priest has prayed in its choristers, no shaman has sacrificed upon its altars, and no warden has made their rounds. Truly, it is silent. Yet the Bureau of Occult Affairs, a shadowy organization known of by few in the public, has decided that this state of affairs can go on no longer. Their clerks have finally filed the last bits of paperwork, the Archive is to have caretakers once more! For whatever reason, you have been selected. Perhaps you're an agent for the Bureau, but they have few to spare for this relatively minor task. Maybe you're a scholar of particular skills, but the Bureau knows that more than what the mind knows will be necessary for the tasks ahead. Maybe you're a soldier or other person of physical prowess, but the Bureau knows strength alone will not defend you. Maybe you're an artist, or someone who sees what isn't there, but the Bureau knows seeing too much can hinder more than help at times. It hardly matters who you are or where you've come from. Truth be told at this point it feels like you could be anyone at all, such is how the confused bureaucracy of the Bureau forges its greatest accomplishments and mistakes. In any case you have been selected to throw open the many rooms and sections of this ancient place, to sort and organize the curiosities and tomes of knowledge, to discover what led to the Great Fire and finally, to host those who would use the knowledge in your care. The last question is, why? Whatever life you led in the past, what has brought you to this point? It is unlikely your past will be able to locate you on this most obscure island in this best kept secret. What have you turned from, what have you run from, or what do you hope to achieve within the halls of a most strange place? Only time will tell if all of your hopes bear fruit. For your first challenge is already prepared. You need to find the key to the front door.

Character Submission This is *Heavily* based off of the Weather Factory's games, Cultist Simulator and the Book of Hours. It's a world of where the occult lurks beneath the skin of our world, where things that never happened, that might have happened, and that still might happen, intrude into our own reality whenever reality forgets to check. Or maybe whenever it remembers to check. In any case, cults, secret societies, and shadowy governmental agencies operate in a world where the archetypes and legends that represent our world manifest in the waking world, causing all sorts of mysterious events that most of the public will never know the truth of. Knowing about this setting might help, but it is hardly necessary. General knowledge of the world in the specified time period (early 1900s) will do you fine. https://secret-histories.fandom.com/...Histories_Wiki But here's a link if you want to know more. I haven't read much of it, and in a way the mystery makes it all the sweeter. Don't worry about stats or that sort of thing, I'll be using a variation of the WoD system (d10s based on skills and attributes leading to varying levels of success) to run the game. I'm aiming for 3-4 characters, mostly a mix of RP and creative use of skills/specializations to solve problems. Name: Gender: Concept: A description of what sort of vision you have for this character. Short, sweet, and to the point. Try to keep it under three sentences. Elements of the Soul: Choose 2, excluding Health. Specialties: Select three general specialties your character has based on their backstory. A gravedigger might have "Corpses" as a specialty, a Soldier might have "Firearms", so on and so forth. Just about anything is game here. Weaknesses: You didn't come here because everything has gone right in your life, list three weaknesses your character has gained over the course of their life (Ex. Crowds, Drinking, Spiders, Family, etc.) Appearance: Picture not necessarily required, but it helps. A quick paragraph or two to give help us visualize what you've got going on Personality: Backstory: The Great War is over, and the world recovers from the scars and upsets that this event (called the Third Worm War by those who don't know anything) caused. The world is wide, but you've decided to come from Anywhere to what some would call Nowhere. Why? Who are you? What life led you to this point? And now that you're here, on this obscure British Isle, what do you hope to achieve? Do you even know? Player Character MoldyNolds Quintus Kaldera cottontailwind Madame Darling, Wilhelmina Kanly Phillip Howard Liebkunst DUE DATE: OCTOBER 1ST

The System The game will be run using an approximation of the WoD (World of Darkness) system. In essence, a challenge will be presented with a difficulty from 2-10. Once difficulty is declared by the GM, the player will roll a d10 and attempt to overcome the difficulty (example: a difficulty 4 challenge requires a roll of 4 or higher on a d10). Each point you have in the related attribute grants you another dice to use for the challenge. More successes means a greater result! Generally, challenges are differentiated by their PRINCIPLE.   Principles are the aspects that represent our world. A series of archetypes, ideas, or influences, everything we deal with is bound to some combination of these principles. A dangerous foe might be dispatched with Edge, or dissuaded with Knock. A freezing cold might be endured with Forge, or ignored with Winter. An angry mob might be persuaded with Heart, or sated with Grail. The bereaved could be consoled with Rose, or given perspective with Sky. So don't fret too much about having one particular principle as the strongest, there are many ways to approach every situation. Principle Description Edge All conquest occurs at the Edge. One who dwells there is blind, and cannot be wounded. Another is strong, and grows stronger. [Edge is the principle of battle and of struggle.] Forge 'Fire', I once read, 'is the winter that warms and the spring that consumes.' [The principle of the Forge transforms and destroys.] Grail Hunger, lust, the drowning waters. [The principle of the Grail honours both the birth and the feast.] Heart The Heart Relentless beats to protect the skin of the world we understand. [The Heart is the principle that continues and preserves.] Knock The Knock permits no seal and no isolation. It thrusts us gleefully out of the safety of ignorance. [The Knock is the principle that opens doors and unseams barriers.] Lantern 'Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible Sun within us.' - Thomas Browne. [Lantern is the principle of the secret place sometimes called the House of the Sun, and of the light above it.] Moon Secrets are soft; night is softer still; the sea speaks. It is not always wise to listen. [The nocturnal, the forgotten.] Moth I knew a man who captured moths in a bell-jar. On nights like this, he would release them one by one to die in the candle. [Moth is the wild and perilous principle of chaos and yearning.] Nectar The green wealth in the world's veins; the pulse of the seasons. [Long ago, some called this principle Blood.] Rose 'The rose which encompasseth all'. Nine directions to new horizons. [Exploration? Enlightenment? Hope?] Scale Hard without, hard within, hard to rouse, harder to subdue. [What is left of the crude powers of the deep earth.] Sky Wind, storm, echo, song; the intricacies of mathematics and the principles of flight. Law's touch is lighter than we sometimes think. [Matters of balance, harmony and necessity.] Winter ... [Winter is the principle of silence, of endings, and of those things that are not quite dead.] When determining your character's strength and weaknesses, you refer to your character's ELEMENTS OF THE SOUL   Elements of the Soul Elements of the Soul (or Soul Cards) are the mechanic through which characters display their unique physical, mental, and spiritual attributes. Each Soul Card is tied to “Principles” and will give their character advantages when dealing with situations based on those principles. For example, a blocked doorway may be a situation strong in the principles “Forge” or “Knock”. Characters with the Soul Cards “Shapt” or “Mettle” would get a bonus for overcoming this challenge in whichever way they feel is narratively appropriate. Generally, every Element of the Soul has a Principle as its primary and secondary. At the start, this means that the Element of soul grants +2 dice to checks related to the primary Principle, and +1 dice to the secondary Principle. Element of Soul Principle: Primary, Secondary Description Examples Chor Heart, Grail Exuberance, enthusiasm, rhythm, instinct all rise from that part of the soul we call chor. Musicians, Dancers, athletes. Those with strong chor aren't necessarily physically strong, but have a strong connection with the body and the beating of their heart. Oh drum, what beat have you heard now? Ereb Grail, Edge Pride, passion, compassion; hatred and fear. Ereb is called the shadow of the Soul, but is all the more potent for it. Outlaws, Gourmands, drunkards, sensationalists, the desperate. Anyone with strong desires and a willingness to slake their thirst. Tell me, thirsty one, how much blood will your cup require today? Fet Rose, Moth That part of us which walks in dreams. Fet is there when the consciousness fades and dreams of day or night begin. Dreamers, artists, writers, seers. Those who often feel somewhat disconnected from the waking world and who take their turn in the garden of dreams. What lies behind those eyes, sleepyhead? Mettle Forge, Edge Will; self-discipline; that part of us which makes the right choice. Mettle steels the mind and galvanizes the body. Craftsfolk, soldiers, athletes. Individuals who know what must be destroyed so that raw stone might become new statues.What needs to be struck today, hammer? Phost Lantern, Sky Sight, perception, inspiration, all the Glory's gifts. Phost is what we call that flash of brilliance, as sharp as glass and as bright as the sun. Priests, prophets, geniuses, visionaries. People who find within themselves sudden flashes of inspiration and clarity that blazes a new path through old woods. Where is your path leading you, flickering candle? Shapt Knock, Forge Eloquence and understanding. The door opens both ways. Shapt knows how to open those doors that others dismiss as impassable. Diplomats, con artists, burglars, priests. Whether physical or mental, these individuals know how to open all the doors opportunity offers. Who's scar has opened for you today, key? Trist Moth, Moon The change and the longing. Trist is hardly described any other way. Change doesn't like to stay still and the longing is always moving forwards. Dreamers, barbers, artists, athletes, prophets, outlaws. Everyone changes, but not everyone who changes walks with Trist. How strong is your yearning, little Moth? Wist Winter, Lantern Name, memory, that part which remains. Most librarians know that books have souls; most librarians hope for books with simple souls of wist and nothing else. Librarians, clerks, record keepers, antiquitarians, gravediggers, priests. Those who ponder, those who remember. The past is a powerful thing, someone needs to keep an eye on it. What bones do you catalog today, inkpot? Health* Heart, Nectar, Scale (Health has no primary, and all three of its Principles are considered secondary.) The dwelling place of the Soul. Your flesh, your blood, your bones. Every nail and scale, and tooth and fleshy truth. (For the purposes of our game you'll start with three of these, maybe more, maybe less. Sometimes, you might find an opportunity to make Health more powerful, though there is always a price to be paid for this sort of transaction.) Everyone has this. Those who don't, aren't. Those who aren't… can be difficult to deal with. Best keep some around just in case, a bit extra always comes in handy when push comes to love. The question remains, can you have too much?

[MoldyNolds]

Holy cow! I've sunk so. Many. Hours. Into Book of Hours. A story set in this world is highly intriguing. I've been idly wondering if I have the time to commit to another game and this one is grabbing me by my old world occult lapels and dragging me in!

I don't see how I could avoid submitting an application. My first thought is an elderly PC (artist/historian???) running headlong into unknown mystery in order to hide from their own encroaching mortality.

[Amarga]

Sounds great, Moldy! I'm going to update character creation a bit and give some more information on the sort of system we're using.

[MoldyNolds]

Character Submission Name: Quintus Kaldera Gender: He/Him Concept: Nimble hands and nimble mind, tempered by time and intoxicants. Terrified of the end of his existence. Elements of the Soul: Chor; Wist Specialties: Tradecraft; Archivist; Physician Weaknesses: Elderly; Drink & Smoke; Being Forgotten Appearance: Quintus is old. And not just "gentleman of leisure" old, but legitimately geriatric. He's got a permanent, if slight, hunch to his spine. He carries a wooden walking stick, but only for those days when his hip is being uncooperative. Or if the road is long and he's become winded. Or if he's forced to climb more than a single flight of stairs. A bulbous nose is usually red from too much drink and his skin has turned craggy from decades of pipe smoke. Stringy white hair covers his ears and when it's not pulled back into a messy ponytail it hangs down to mingle with wiry, silvered beard hair. Both sets of lenses in Quintus' bifocals are thick; he can see little more than formless blobs of color without his glasses. His traveling clothes are well-made, if worn, and about two decades out of style. His back can handle little more than the two medium-sized cases strung across his shoulders. One of which contains everything he brought with him to Gossburrey save for the other; a second-hand violin. Personality: Quintus is simultaneously grateful for the simple, peaceful life the Hours have blessed him with while also sour that the greatness of those he's read about his whole life has not been visited upon him. There's more to this life... this reality. Much more, and Quintus isn't ready to leave it behind, not even close. Kindly and considerate, Quintus is happy to share his accumulated wisdom and experiences with whomever will listen. Often he will meander from the topic at hand into a tangential anecdote about his life or an interesting book he found in his library that one chill fall afternoon when he found himself alone, wandering the stacks. Still, there is an underlying impatience and vibrancy to Quintus. He seems to retain a hunger for 'more' that most of his age grow out of. He refuses to accept that he has reached the final stage of his life; unprepared to acquiesce to that which others of his generation have acquiesced. It is not uncommon, in fact, for Quintus to become quite ornery and lash out whenever his age is called into question. Backstory: The middling town of Osros had just enough amenities so most people never felt like they had to leave and ended up spending their entire lives there. Such was the case for Quintus. By the time the Great War had broken out Quintus was very nearly too old to enlist. Luckily his skills as a physician made him an asset to the war effort and he found an outlet for his growing wanderlust. Upon his return he once again settled into a quiet routine, spending the following decades in the company of his partner whom he loved dearly and who loved him back in equal measure. He was never quite able to 'settle down', however, always jumping from one hobby to the next. He found himself quickly becoming proficient in a number of tradecrafts including tailoring, bookbinding, The process of flaying whale blubber and processing it into oil, respectively.flensing and trying out. It was the bookbinding that drew Quintus to Osros' library. He found he had an insatiable craving for knowledge, and by the time his partner had passed from this realm Quintus had learned as much as most laypeople about Hours and Aspects, which is to say very little. Burdened with a newfound grief and loneliness, this old man began to develop an obsession with the myth of the Long. Refusing to bow to time, Quintus gathered up his essentials and pulled whatever strings he had to pull to become part of the Gossburrey Caretakers!

[cottontailwind]

I recently bought and started Book of Hours because of this post… and now I’m listening to its soundtrack at work

I think I finally landed on a character submission and will have it up this weekend. Are you thinking of having a PC too, Amarga?

[Amarga]

I was hoping to have 3-4 players and hadn't originally intended on having a PC, but depending on engagement I might make one to fill gaps.

[Mitsubachi]

OK, for your info; I'm monitoring... it sounds very interesting but a character concept is not coming to me. Moldy is inspiring me, though.

[MoldyNolds]

Originally Posted by Mitsubachi

OK, for your info; I'm monitoring... it sounds very interesting but a character concept is not coming to me. Moldy is inspiring me, though.

[cottontailwind]

Character Submission Name: Madame Darling, Wilhelmina Gender: she/her Concept: Underbelly confessor who only laughs at night. Former hostess of nightclubs and, ahem, evening tearooms, with a soft spot for dregs and scoundrels. Elements of the Soul: Shapt, Trist Specialties: entrepreneurship, music, fortune telling Weaknesses: drink & smoke, savior complex, law enforcement Appearance: She used to be indistinguishable from any respectable governess. Or headmistress on travel - that was an easy story to tell. Never had any stray hair unpinned. Never slouched. Never slurped one's tea. But creeping time and much smoke had begun to wrinkle her eyes and cheeks. Now she kept her face only somewhat painted. She'd allowed whimsical colors into her shawls. Perhaps most telling - more than preferring black currant - she lounged in her chair and, when sipping her tea, gazed over the teacup at company! So very uncouth. The propriety of implied station became less and less important the more she held onto those little idiosyncrasies of the people she'd lost along the way. Personality: During the day, she was so very... pleasant. Knowledgeable of every recent gossip. Clever enough to dispense advice in the guise of lyrics and philosophers. Educated enough to make coffeehouse scholars red in the face. Poised enough to carry on unfettered. For those who knew to see it, she studied each passerby with shrewdness and pulled her shawl tightly about her as they went. As the sun set, gone was the collective delusion of "goodly society", the pregnant setup to every punchline. For all the laughter and music of her dives, each of the lost souls who wandered in - whether giving or receiving pay - had a sadness about them. An emptiness. Some dark part of themselves locked away. Madame Darling found in each of them an opportunity for good. An opportunity to practice that kindness that the world so often made to be weakness. But if these poor folk were so easily helped, they wouldn't be in one of her tearooms past nine o' clock, would they? Her constitution for drink and smoke was infamous, and combined with the allure of seeing what was assumed to be an upstanding lady of society let her hair down and laugh at one's profane jokes (and sometimes, under the guise of reading tarot), Madame Darling was able to pull secrets from both patron and employee alike. And she used these secrets to steer them to something better. A bit of respite. Maybe salvation was too much to want for them. Sometimes there was only a lesser evil. She was an underbelly confessor and she only laughed at night. What they didn't know was that for those nights she ended in sobriety, she cried herself to sleep in silence, unsure if she'd been able to save them. Backstory: Father's hat shop went bankrupt. Mother died. Father remarried. Twice. Removed from kindergarten teaching due to licentious headmaster. Ejected from the nunnery due to an un-discussed public scandal. Got married to some faraway military something-or-other through a newspaper advertisement but found it... unsuitable... and decided to run away. Typical unsettled early life. She sang and played the guitar for a traveling circus with dreams to join an orchestra, but by the end of the Great War, only made it as far as a sometimes-hostess of dive bars and, ahem, evening tearooms. The soldiers and deserters and injured made for great stories and no shortage of desperation to quell. From across the addle-brained and moon-touched and those-in-permanent-reverie, Madame Darling gathered strange tales of pocket cults whispering about fragmented souls. Strange tales indeed, and over time, these tales overlapped one another. But with that time, she found her venues closed every few years, for over-extortion or land acquisitions or overzealous bobbies with political aspirations. It was difficult to tell how many goodbyes was too-many goodbyes, but eventually Madame Darling set out again, with a single luggage and a single guitar case in tow, and no particular destination. Osros seemed as nowhere as anywhere; certainly, she hadn't intended to land here. Perhaps the Bureau saw her in a roadside inn, casually drawing out the hidden truths of fellow travelers at supper. Perhaps the Bureau saw her smuggle guidance through strangers' doubts and defenses and egos. Perhaps they heard her give direction to the innkeep's practices that suggested she could organize and make sense of the unknowns of the Archive. Regardless of why, she likely already saw the bureau agents before they approached, and read on their faces an oddness in their desires.

[Amarga]

Looking good so far, people! Updated the main post a bit to list characters so far and the final due date. Roughly looking at October (when my schedule gets less crazy and everything is a bit less real) as a start time!

[kanly]

WIP Name: Philip Howard Liebkunst Gender: He/Him Concept: Children's author with imposter syndrome. Credits all talent to dreams of his vanished twin, H.P. Elements of the Soul: Fet, Phost Specialties: Eidetic Memory, Artist, Psychology (Specialized in childhood trauma) Weaknesses: Frail, Distractible, Curious Appearance: A tall thin man with pale skin that contrasts strongly with his keen brown eyes and short brown hair. The severe cut of his dark, somber suits likewise contrast with his bright, cheery smile and frequent, tittering laughter. Personality: WIP Backstory: WIP

[Amarga]

PH Smilecraft will in fact haunt my dreams for the next 3-5 days

[Sageheart]

Awesome concept for a game! If I can get myself caught up with studies and games I may throw something this way.

[Amarga]

Just a reminder, last 5 days to make a submission! The Hours march into days and the days are marching away!

[Amarga]

Last daaayyyy