Goatwood- Interest thread

Hi! And Welcome to Goatwood! My name is William Drake, and I'm the town's mayor! It's a pleasant day when new people arrive, specially when so much people have suffered in the Great War, and the Depression.

Oh...you've heard something about the story of this town? Be careful, our benevolent Earl Melvin Philip Tolbert-Feller does not like the malicious slander of people! He's such a fine man, and he's got quite an impressive library! A man of wealth and taste like no other!

Well, um, yes. We lost half of the town during the Black Saturday a while ago... I tell you, those forest fires can char you to the bone! Witches coven? Nonsense! That was just slander! We had some old midwives that maaaybe they went too high on drugs on ages past, and maaaybe they had a run in with the Inquisition!

Oh, the massacre of the Druid forest? Yes, it happened in the woods over there, back in the Roman Era! The graves still remain to this day. Take a picture of them!

Well, I can't say this is the best place of the world, mind. But we're giving our estate for free to gather all those wandering lost souls, so you can't exactly complain can you? I look forward to see you contributing to the community.

Just a heads up, don't trust anything that drunk priest says. He's a good man, but sometimes he's... a little unnerving!

And so, this sums it up. Goatwood is a small countryside village of rural Britain, in the early 30's. The place is eerie and somewhat deppressing, but they don't ask people too much. It is the perfect place for a fresh start for all those who want to be forgotten by the world at large.

People will play as relatively new people to the town, having been extended an invitation by the Mayor or the Earl to come and live there, not many questions asked.

But, in turn they ask you to be discrete...

Sounds like a horror story, isn't it?

edited 10th Feb '15 4:27:14 AM by AtomicNut

Sounds awesome. Sign me up.

Are there goats?

Can I... be a goat?

Then Can I be wood?

I'll be a wooden goat.

But no seriously, this seems pretty cool.

Seems like it could be fun.

Yes, there are goats...

Probably not, since the lack of thumbs might not help in certain situations.

Not really, No. Fire hazard n' stuff.

And then you'll die by the hands of the fiery goatherder.

Speaking of which...

• Player characters: All of them must have a dark secret they want no one to find about, and said secret will be the reason for their arrival at Goatwood. This stays true for most NPC's i'll introduce as well (although there can be exceptions). Exceptions will be handled at my discretion among players if I deem those fit.

• About guns and combat ability: It's a postwar setting so guns aren't going to be that scarce... but Goatwood would have little in the way of reloading. So...if you are bringing a gun think well when to shoot, chances are you might not be able to reload anytime soon. And of course, some of the things that lurk in Goatwood will laugh at your Kung-Fu. Needless to say, while I won't disapprove combat focused characters, they have a tendence to go in blazes of glory and not survive...and I would prefer more down-to-earth people that struggle to survive in unlikely circumstances.

• About the esoteric, Witchcraft and Magic: I will examinate characters with these supernatural traits on a case to case basis. Magic is frowned upon even in Goatwood, and it's dark, nasty and full of dangers. We're not talking about kids with wands flying on brooms nor the lvl 5 Fireball spell... we're talking of nasty curses, eyes melting and chandelliers murdering people kind of magic. A notable exception is exorcists. I'll accept exorcists fine, but be sensible. It'd do little sense if the new batch of residents all turned to have a hand or two at exorcising.

• About Local people: I may allow to play people who were born in Goatwood, but it has a catch. See, Goatwood residents know a couple of terrible secrets (and a lot of the them have dark secrets on their own), and revealing these secrets to people who are just newcomers will have you killed on the spot. It means spoiling the players too, so it's a high risk kind of profile.

edited 11th Feb '15 1:28:31 AM by AtomicNut

I want to be a witch.

I'd be interested in playing a bitter and quiet Welsh grounds keeper, who is superstitious (and may know a few wards or charms about magic but also a lot of irrelevant folklore without 100% certainty on what is true. This would be determined via PM, I imagine) and maaaaybe has a blunderbus or some old hunting tool.

I wouldn't mind being a native resident (since I have 'secretive and slightly belligerent' already as a characterization in my head) or a newcomer.

Would that work as a character concept?

edited 11th Feb '15 4:35:42 PM by Fauxlosophe

I take it WW 2 is underway?

If we're leaning into WWII I want my character to be an OSS agent.

I'm thinking my character would be an Irish girl with ties to the IRA (Irish Republican Army; trying to retake Northern Ireland from Great Britain) that she'd rather not be public, since during WWII, the IRA tried (and failed) to ally with Germany. Will post a character sheet sometime tomorrow, if this concept is alright with Atomic Nut.

An awol German Soldier?

Um, Atomic Nut said early 30s. I don't think Europe is at war quite yet. Hell, Hitler may not have even gotten into power yet.

That's true, plus the opener blurb mentions the Depression and WWI, dunno why it would skip WW 2 unless it hasn't started yet

Considering that it's set in the Early Thirties, before the invasion of Poland and possibly even Hitler's rise to power? It likely hasn't. World War II only opened up in Europe in the Fall of 1939. Unless we're talking like Manchuria, we're likely not going to encounter World War Two unless the game drags on for at least 5 years (as I'd assume Early Nineteen Thirty would mean prior to 1936).

Can the secret be antisemitism? Because that was a very serious issue in Britain.

Also, are we allowed to be fascists? I'm not entirely sure Britain had those (especially with WW 2 in the background), but it would be interesting to play.

edited 11th Feb '15 11:50:50 PM by RenaTheArchmage

Yes, it's early 30's. So no WW 2 themes. Just that there was a great war and then an economic crisis (the 29) who plunged the world into suck. The few concessions i'm making about WW 2 is that some people believe there will be a war again soon and the encroachment of fascist movements.

Every side had fascists...but in some parts they won, in others they lost to communism, and in others never managed to be majority. Also, yeah, Antisemitism is fine. The Earl hates jews with passion too :P It's an open secret in Goat Wood.

@Wolf Among Gods: I'll think about it.

@Faux: It can work, yeah. Precisely it's close to an NPC i was already tailoring.

@Tojin: I know you might want to start ASAP but first let me sort the signup before you make any move. Plus like I said, this is earlier than WW 2. Earlier than the Spanish Civil War in fact.

edited 12th Feb '15 12:36:26 AM by AtomicNut

What about Spanish fascists fleeing the Republic? It would be an interesting tie-in to the civil war.

...no. Because by the 30's, they were still tolerated. It's when war broke when both sides started purges. Why would they flee if they could win the elections?

The Spanish Civil War took place entirely in the 30s though, right? I would imagine that, even by the early 30s, things would start getting somewhat hot for both sides involved, and some might read the writing on the wall.

Spanish civil war started in 1936. Up to that point, there were just some kind of miner riots and vandals setting churches ablaze... And 1936 is to be considered late thirties. So again. No.

Alright, alright, fair enough.

I'll try to think of something else.

Like I said already, it's best to lay down the war themes. This is a horror story, not Nazis vs Werewolves (hm, not a bad punchline for another RP). That being said, it can be fascist, it can be spanish... but his departure from the country needs to be justified otherwise. Running on the wrong side of law by commiting crimes (and not just because of political views) could be a justification.

Hmm, I think I have enough material to start a proper signup. One last thing. Will you guys be tasteful if I don't put age restrictions in the signup? I don't intend to make the horror children-safe, but I don't need the wrong kind of message to get through.