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TimeWatch RPG Playtest Story Hour (Updated 9-2-14)
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<blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 6252479" data-attributes="member: 10689"><p><strong>Episode 1, Chapter 5. The Price of Doing Business</strong></p><p></p><p>First: greetings to everyone who's joined this thread via the Kickstarter! Thank you for supporting TimeWatch. (and thank you to [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION] for the shout-out!)</p><p></p><p>Second: if you have not yet checked out the Kickstarter, here is the link: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinkulp/timewatch-gumshoe-investigative-time-travel-rpg" target="_blank">TimeWatch Kickstarter</a>. It has already been amazingly successful, but the more supporters, the better! If we get to the last stretch goal, we all get pet dinosaurs! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>And now, on with the show!</p><p></p><p>--</p><p>The shouts of the Klansmen die away behind us as we flee to safety.</p><p></p><p>"What was <em>that</em>?" Kat asks</p><p></p><p>"Shouldn't we go back and interrogate them?" Edward asks.</p><p></p><p>Yves shrugs. "They are no longer any harm to us. Why, as you English say, borrow trouble?"</p><p></p><p>"They probably won't have any information, anyway," Elizabeth agrees. "They usually don't. I - we - have tried talking to them before. They're just Forrest's goons, brought in from the 23rd century. They don't know anything about the plan."</p><p></p><p>"So Forrest is the one we're after?" Mace asks eagerly. A big villain counts as big game to hunt, and Mace thinks he's found a good target.</p><p></p><p>"Nathan Forrest," Elizabeth says the name with distaste. "He's the one I've been chasing. You too, even though you don't remember it."</p><p></p><p>That name rings a bell with Hypatia, even though the events we're dealing with are far out of her time period. She's an expert in all eras of history, even the history that hadn't happened yet when she was alive. "The founder of the Ku Klux Klan?" she asks.</p><p></p><p>"Not the same person, but part of the same family." Elizabeth explains. "And with the same ideas. He's from the 23rd century."</p><p></p><p>"It is beginning to be clear why he would wish to remake history in the way that he has," Michel says. </p><p></p><p>We decide to just leave the Klansmen where they are - they won't have any useful information, and they probably won't be coming after us. Instead, we go back to our main mission: see what Eli Whitney is doing here.</p><p></p><p>We head up to the main plantation house of Mulberry Grove and knock on the door. It's opened by a black man in a suit - clearly the butler, and undoubtedly a slave, which makes all of us feel uncomfortable. </p><p></p><p>Edward, having been nominated as the one who is most aristocratic and diplomatic, takes the lead. "Good morning. We're here to see Mr. Whitney."</p><p></p><p>"Mr. Whitney isn't here right now," the butler says, "but if you'll all come in to the parlor, I'll fetch Mr. Miller."</p><p></p><p>The cover story that we've decided on is that we're a group of British and French investors who are interested in the factory's work in general and the cotton gin in particular. This has the advantage of all being true except the investor part - we're even almost all British and French; even Elizabeth, if you use a pretty broad definition of British. (Hypatia isn't, but we can't really explain that to Miller.)</p><p></p><p>Rules Sidebar:</p><p>[sblock] Yes, Elizabeth, a black woman, is sitting in the parlor of a plantation house in 18th-century Georgia, and nobody is really paying attention. This is another effect of the Impersonator Mesh: everyone notices that TimeWatch agents are there, but the mesh makes the locals assume that the agents are people who belong in whatever context they're in.</p><p></p><p>Racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry are awful enough in the present day, and in the past they were even more common. This aspect of the rules lets you get around that: you can play any kind of agent you want without having to worry about encountering historical bigotry on your missions. TimeWatch is about having fun, and discrimination is never fun.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>When Miller arrives, he's got a friend with him: a tall well-dressed white man with a face that seems to be settled into a permanent superior smirk. Elizabeth flinches, and we don't even need the introductions to know that this is Nathan Forrest. It isn't just the way that Forrest looks at Elizabeth with amused contempt; it's that timetravelers can almost always tell when someone else is out of their own time. Which means that he can tell that we're out of our own time, too. </p><p></p><p>Kat edges subtly in front of Elizabeth, getting between her and Forrest. Forrest notices, and smirks even more. </p><p></p><p>'New plan,' Kat texts over the tether. (They can work as communication links between agents as well as information links to the TimeWatch mainframe. Very convenient.) 'We need to get Forrest out of here. And get Forrest alone so that we can talk to him.'</p><p></p><p>'And also get Miller alone so that we can ask him about Forrest,' Yves texts back.</p><p></p><p>Edward, Michel, and Hypatia keep up a reassuring stream of business talk, with Michel and Hypatia (as the ones with actual knowledge of science and engineering) filling in the technical details about the factory and Edward playing the role of The Money in our fictitious company.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Kat puts her acting skills into practice. Her years on the stage have made her very good at drawing and holding people's attention, and that's what she does now: she catches Forrest's eye with a look that starts out as a glare, but gradually shifts to something more enticing - almost flirtatious.</p><p></p><p>After a few minutes of silent encouraging glances, Forrest finally speaks up. "Ma'am," he says to Kat, with elaborate fake courtesy, "I believe I am in need of some air. Would you like to see more of the plantation grounds?" He offers his arm to Kat, and they stroll off.</p><p></p><p>Under any other circumstances, Elizabeth would finally be able to relax now that Forrest has left the room, but now that Kat is with him, she's almost more anxious than she was before. Still, all she can do is trust that Kat can take care of herself.</p><p></p><p>Mace Hunter casually watches out the window, using his knowledge of archaeology and landforms to take careful note of the plantation's terrain, so that if anything goes wrong, he can get there in a hurry. </p><p></p><p>Michel takes more direct action: he sneaks off to follow them. When he wants to be, Michel can be very very stealthy. "I'm worried about her being alone with him," Michel explains over the tether.</p><p></p><p>"I think <em>he</em> should be a little worried about being alone with <em>me</em>," Kat replies. She doesn't turn down the offer of backup, though.</p><p></p><p>So while Kat, Michel, and Forrest split off, the rest of us go to the factory. There, we finally meet Eli Whitney! He engages in an enthusiastic discussion of gears and mechanics: how all of the machines work, how he has this wonderful idea for interchangeable parts, and how he wants to move on to manufacturing muskets. Hypatia understands most of the technical stuff, and Edward is always interested in military things, but we're really just drawing him out so that we can ask him the real questions - the ones about Forrest. </p><p></p><p>Forrest joined the company as an investor three years ago, just when Whitney and Miller were getting started, and he's been remarkably helpful. "He's got such good business sense!" Whitney gushes. "It's like he knows what's going to happen in the market before it happens!"</p><p></p><p>"Really?" Hypatia asks.</p><p></p><p>"Fancy that," says Edward.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, the dripping sarcasm does not gum up any of the machines.</p><p></p><p>Whitney explains that it was also Forrest's idea to start up a cotton-gin manufactory in Georgia - it was closer to the market, and it wasn't that hard to bring the expert artisans down from New England.</p><p></p><p>So now we know exactly when Forrest first intervened with Eli Whitney: 1793, when he started offering advice on investments and technology. But if Kat succeeds in her plan, we're about to find out a lot more.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ladybird, post: 6252479, member: 10689"] [b]Episode 1, Chapter 5. The Price of Doing Business[/b] First: greetings to everyone who's joined this thread via the Kickstarter! Thank you for supporting TimeWatch. (and thank you to [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION] for the shout-out!) Second: if you have not yet checked out the Kickstarter, here is the link: [URL="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kevinkulp/timewatch-gumshoe-investigative-time-travel-rpg"]TimeWatch Kickstarter[/URL]. It has already been amazingly successful, but the more supporters, the better! If we get to the last stretch goal, we all get pet dinosaurs! :) And now, on with the show! -- The shouts of the Klansmen die away behind us as we flee to safety. "What was [i]that[/i]?" Kat asks "Shouldn't we go back and interrogate them?" Edward asks. Yves shrugs. "They are no longer any harm to us. Why, as you English say, borrow trouble?" "They probably won't have any information, anyway," Elizabeth agrees. "They usually don't. I - we - have tried talking to them before. They're just Forrest's goons, brought in from the 23rd century. They don't know anything about the plan." "So Forrest is the one we're after?" Mace asks eagerly. A big villain counts as big game to hunt, and Mace thinks he's found a good target. "Nathan Forrest," Elizabeth says the name with distaste. "He's the one I've been chasing. You too, even though you don't remember it." That name rings a bell with Hypatia, even though the events we're dealing with are far out of her time period. She's an expert in all eras of history, even the history that hadn't happened yet when she was alive. "The founder of the Ku Klux Klan?" she asks. "Not the same person, but part of the same family." Elizabeth explains. "And with the same ideas. He's from the 23rd century." "It is beginning to be clear why he would wish to remake history in the way that he has," Michel says. We decide to just leave the Klansmen where they are - they won't have any useful information, and they probably won't be coming after us. Instead, we go back to our main mission: see what Eli Whitney is doing here. We head up to the main plantation house of Mulberry Grove and knock on the door. It's opened by a black man in a suit - clearly the butler, and undoubtedly a slave, which makes all of us feel uncomfortable. Edward, having been nominated as the one who is most aristocratic and diplomatic, takes the lead. "Good morning. We're here to see Mr. Whitney." "Mr. Whitney isn't here right now," the butler says, "but if you'll all come in to the parlor, I'll fetch Mr. Miller." The cover story that we've decided on is that we're a group of British and French investors who are interested in the factory's work in general and the cotton gin in particular. This has the advantage of all being true except the investor part - we're even almost all British and French; even Elizabeth, if you use a pretty broad definition of British. (Hypatia isn't, but we can't really explain that to Miller.) Rules Sidebar: [sblock] Yes, Elizabeth, a black woman, is sitting in the parlor of a plantation house in 18th-century Georgia, and nobody is really paying attention. This is another effect of the Impersonator Mesh: everyone notices that TimeWatch agents are there, but the mesh makes the locals assume that the agents are people who belong in whatever context they're in. Racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry are awful enough in the present day, and in the past they were even more common. This aspect of the rules lets you get around that: you can play any kind of agent you want without having to worry about encountering historical bigotry on your missions. TimeWatch is about having fun, and discrimination is never fun.[/sblock] When Miller arrives, he's got a friend with him: a tall well-dressed white man with a face that seems to be settled into a permanent superior smirk. Elizabeth flinches, and we don't even need the introductions to know that this is Nathan Forrest. It isn't just the way that Forrest looks at Elizabeth with amused contempt; it's that timetravelers can almost always tell when someone else is out of their own time. Which means that he can tell that we're out of our own time, too. Kat edges subtly in front of Elizabeth, getting between her and Forrest. Forrest notices, and smirks even more. 'New plan,' Kat texts over the tether. (They can work as communication links between agents as well as information links to the TimeWatch mainframe. Very convenient.) 'We need to get Forrest out of here. And get Forrest alone so that we can talk to him.' 'And also get Miller alone so that we can ask him about Forrest,' Yves texts back. Edward, Michel, and Hypatia keep up a reassuring stream of business talk, with Michel and Hypatia (as the ones with actual knowledge of science and engineering) filling in the technical details about the factory and Edward playing the role of The Money in our fictitious company. Meanwhile, Kat puts her acting skills into practice. Her years on the stage have made her very good at drawing and holding people's attention, and that's what she does now: she catches Forrest's eye with a look that starts out as a glare, but gradually shifts to something more enticing - almost flirtatious. After a few minutes of silent encouraging glances, Forrest finally speaks up. "Ma'am," he says to Kat, with elaborate fake courtesy, "I believe I am in need of some air. Would you like to see more of the plantation grounds?" He offers his arm to Kat, and they stroll off. Under any other circumstances, Elizabeth would finally be able to relax now that Forrest has left the room, but now that Kat is with him, she's almost more anxious than she was before. Still, all she can do is trust that Kat can take care of herself. Mace Hunter casually watches out the window, using his knowledge of archaeology and landforms to take careful note of the plantation's terrain, so that if anything goes wrong, he can get there in a hurry. Michel takes more direct action: he sneaks off to follow them. When he wants to be, Michel can be very very stealthy. "I'm worried about her being alone with him," Michel explains over the tether. "I think [i]he[/i] should be a little worried about being alone with [i]me[/i]," Kat replies. She doesn't turn down the offer of backup, though. So while Kat, Michel, and Forrest split off, the rest of us go to the factory. There, we finally meet Eli Whitney! He engages in an enthusiastic discussion of gears and mechanics: how all of the machines work, how he has this wonderful idea for interchangeable parts, and how he wants to move on to manufacturing muskets. Hypatia understands most of the technical stuff, and Edward is always interested in military things, but we're really just drawing him out so that we can ask him the real questions - the ones about Forrest. Forrest joined the company as an investor three years ago, just when Whitney and Miller were getting started, and he's been remarkably helpful. "He's got such good business sense!" Whitney gushes. "It's like he knows what's going to happen in the market before it happens!" "Really?" Hypatia asks. "Fancy that," says Edward. Fortunately, the dripping sarcasm does not gum up any of the machines. Whitney explains that it was also Forrest's idea to start up a cotton-gin manufactory in Georgia - it was closer to the market, and it wasn't that hard to bring the expert artisans down from New England. So now we know exactly when Forrest first intervened with Eli Whitney: 1793, when he started offering advice on investments and technology. But if Kat succeeds in her plan, we're about to find out a lot more. [/QUOTE]
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