Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It

[Jig]

The Jig Pile

[Jig]

Game 1: Wink Murder (Unrun)

---

Murder

A dilapidated theatre in downtown New York, 1923. A man lies on the stage; a bullet has punched a hole right through his head. From your seat, you meet the eyes of the other five in the auditorium. They're all alive, staring at you, staring back. You don't need to be able to read minds to know that most of them are thinking "Who killed Mr. Jig?". But if you could read minds, you'd know one of them is thinking
"It was me."

---

Premise

• Murder Mystery
• 1920's New York
• One of you did it
• Interaction-driven
• Secrecy, shenanigans, and slaughter

Welcome to Wink Murder. You have been blackmailed by Mr. Jig, whom you have never met, and have been summoned by him to a theatre in New York for reasons unknown. At least one of you has come with the intention of killing him to keep your secret, whatever it is, safe. You find yourselves locked in a theatre with strangers, one of whom you know must be a murderer.

You the players will be completely in the dark throughout this. You don't know who the murderer is. Character sheets won't be published. Everything you and your characters know will be events and details you will experience and discover for yourselves. If you're lucky, you may survive - but everything is down to you.

How It Works

I'll accept a limited number of players onto this; probably six in total. Each of you will PM me a character sheet, including the reason your character is being blackmailed and a damning piece of evidence, and whether or not you would like to be the murderer. Among the candidates for murderer, I will choose one at random.

Your goal is to work out who the murderer is; that way, you can guarantee, maybe, getting out alive without being arrested. The murderer's goal is for themselves to decide. If you wish to do something in secret, PM me. Since I am non-partisan, I can give other players the relevant information without revealing that you are behind it. Although I won't write much in the IC, I'll be giving you secret information and clues that you may spot for your own use in the IC, mostly by PM.

Ultimately, I won't interfere. I will help guide you to create characters that will work for the setting, but, from there, my intervention will strictly be to keep the plot ticking over and to give you information only I know. I won't ever tell you what to do; that is for you and your character to decide. Every so often, there might be a 'Game Event' that will shake things up a little bit and influence the plot, but, otherwise, you have absolute freedom. Or, in other words, you're totally on your own.

The Players

• High casual writing. I expect accurate usage of spelling, punctuation, and grammar as a minimum.
• Open-minded. This may be a new type of game for you and you may die before the end and I really encourage the use of collaborative posts.
• Secretive. If it's not established in the IC, it's a secret.
• Reliable. RL comes first, but I expect to be kept in the loop if you're going to experience downtime.
• Commitment. There is a limited cast and setting to this, so if you drop out, you could quite easily ruin the game for everybody.

Character Applications

I should stress that this game is not first-come first-served. Because I put a lot of hard work into my games, and do ask a lot from my players, I will only consider going forward with the right cast; in short, people who ‘get’ the game and won’t just drop out. Anything less is unfair to me and unfair to everybody else. Therefore, please do consider seriously whether you’re in this game for the long-haul. It simply isn’t possible to replace players that drop out and a sudden disappearance could kill this off entirely and keep in mind that if you get a spot, the next person might not. The worst thing you can do is half-heartedly send in an application on a whim, deny somebody else a spot, decide you don’t want to/can’t take part after all, and kill the game off by dropping out. This will make me very grumpy.

Just below, you will find three hiders; one shows you what the character sheet looks like; one has the coding so you don’t need to write it all out yourself; and one has some guidance about how to fill it in. If you're a newbie to these boards and I haven't seen you around, you might want to send me a sample passage of text (perhaps whatever it was that your character did that's now their secret?) with your sheet so I can get a feel for you.

Note that I have one specific role that I need one player to fill. I can't describe it without spoiling, so if you're prepared to play any kind of character, please PM me. There's still plenty of wiggle-room in the character, so you'll still be able to be creative.

Character Sheet

Murderer/Innocent

Image

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Ethnicity:

Profession:

Personality:

Background:

Secret:

Objective:

Possessions:

• Thing #1
• Thing #2
• Etc

Character Sheet Code

[b]Murderer/Innocent[/b]

Image

[b]Name:[/b]

[b]Age:[/b]

[b]Gender:[/b]

[b]Ethnicity:[/b]

[b]Profession:[/b]

[b]Personality:[/b]

[b]Background:[/b]

[b]Secret:[/b]

[b]Objective:[/b]

[b]Possessions:[/b]
[list][*]
[*]
[*][/list]

Guidance

• Do not post these in public or discuss them with other players! Instead PM them to me.
• Please use the coding provided. It really does make my life easier, sifting through the knowledge.
• Be aware of the time-period for all of these details.
• “Murderer/Innocent” – delete as appropriate. If your character will come with the intention, or is prepared, to kill Mr. Jig, indicate that they are a potential murderer. If not, then they are innocent.
• "Image" - please upload an image of your character. Since these will be made public (by me), the more accurate it is to the time-period and your character's clothes, the better. The less explanation that has to be done in the OoC, the better (though I'll be flexible if you're struggling). Photos or photorealistic artwork only, please, and please also avoid well-known celebrities.
• “Gender” & “Ethnicity” – remember the time period. Opportunities available and attitudes to people differed according to gender and race. If you wish to play a woman or a person of colour, it may be worth bearing this in mind. Equally, it may be worth remembering this when playing white males; what attitude might you have to others?
• “Background” – notes on your character’s history, including relevant details from birth to the present day. This will probably encompass “Secret” as well. Don’t be scared of repeating information. This isn’t ‘write a passage that is a section from the character’s life’.
• “Secret” – your character has done something wrong, and Mr. Jig is blackmailing you. What did you do? What are the consequences of him leaking?
• “Objective” – your character has agreed to meet Mr. Jig, but why? Are they going to give into his demands? Negotiate? Murder him? Something else?
• “Possessions” – your character will have few opportunities to gain new items throughout the game, and so a clear list of what they take with them, including possible murder/self-defence weapons, will be useful.
• Since you are building characters for a mystery game, I may have to suggest that certain elements be tweaked so that your character works. Please don’t be offended if I do.
• If you’re stuck or have questions, talk to me! While I probably will not provide ideas for you, I’m quite happy to work with you to develop your character.
• Once the IC begins and you post your first post, these details may not be changed. You are limited to who you are, what you’ve brought, and the setting I provide.

Over to You

If you have any questions that aren’t related to character-details, ask away! If not, I think I’ve probably given you all the information you might need. As will always be the case in this, if you're uncertain, please let me know, and I'll do my best to help.

The eagle-eyed among you may have seen this game around before, either in the Casual Section recently (where it seemed only to get passing interest) or a couple of months ago where I just didn't do a good job of it. This time round, I've planned it properly, and hopefully it'll fare a little better in Advanced than it did in Casual!

Thanks,

Jig

x

[Jig]

Game 2: Wolf Manor (In Progress)

---

The Past Is In the Past

(or so you thought)

Wolf Manor

---

Arrival

It could have been any other day. It should have been any other day. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The date was the 25th of May, 2015, and it was so mundane you should have known your life was going to explode around you. You woke up. You did whatever you did; you dropped the kids off at school; you pushed numbers around a computer screen at work; you sat on your sofa looking for jobs in the paper. It didn’t matter. Normalcy was the word of the day. Even the weather was bland, gently cloudy but, apart from that, beyond note.

And then, the briefcase. Quite how it got inside your house you’ll never know, but it’s lying there on its side precisely one foot away from the door obviously so that you would find it. There’s no evidence of your door being tampered. Who could have left it there?

You’re going to tell someone. You have to. You’re living in the modern world with terrorists and psychopaths running loose. It’s the only responsible thing to do.

... but you’re just going to take a quick peek inside first. Obviously.

You scurry into a room where you can investigate properly and you don’t know why, but your heartrate jumps up to the point where you can hear the blood rushing past the veins in your ears. Of all the things you were expecting to find, a letter, your own passport, and roughly five thousand dollars’ worth of your native currency hadn’t really scored highly. The party popper was a complete curveball, however.

Regardless of what you investigate first, inevitably your trembling hands prise open the letter from its envelope. It actually takes your eyes a moment to adjust to the cursive writing, but the penmanship is exquisite. It reads:

Dear ______

Congratulations! You have been chosen as the choice receiver of an all-expenses paid trip to the Wolf Manor! Located in Bavaria, Germany, this estate has been passed down from generation to generation. As part of the Wolf family's tradition, a lucky few has been selected to stay at the luxury home for ten days, from the 11th of June to the 21st, to celebrate the Summer Solstice.

Enclosed you will find your passport and some money that we hope will cover your expenses: in particular, be advised that there will be many events hosted at Wolf Manor over your stay and, as such, we recommend purchasing primarily formal wear. You should also find attached flight details: a private jet will be issued, and therefore a ticket is unnecessary. ID, such as the passport which will already be present, is all that will be required.

We hope you will accept our offer, as we very much look forward to meeting with you.

Sincerely,
Michael Aust

[Jig]

Character 1: Stain

---

Stain

"Let’s get messy"

The Basics

Name
Leon Smythe

Codename
Stain

Age
24

Gender
Male

Sexuality
Anything that moves

Nationality
British

In The Mirror

Height
Five foot eight

Weight
Fifteen stone

Hair Color
Dark brown

Eye Color
Hazel

Appearance
Leon is a short man, but one that visibly makes up for his height with buckets of personality, and teeming with energy at all times. His face is usually locked somewhere between stupid grin and mocking laugh, and he can rarely contain himself, and is usually to be seen bouncing on the tips of his toes.

When not ‘on the job’, Leon favours cool and casual clothes; sleeveless tops, combats, and boots – stuff that’s easily shrugged off. Because he’s quite a sweaty boy, he exclusively goes for clothes that have moisture-wicking properties and as little material as possible.

When on the job, it’s another story; while it’s not quite catwoman, he goes for a bulky sort of morph-suit, with armoured padding across the shoulders and breast, with an inbuilt mask that is a spray paint respirator from the nose down and creepy-ass gas mask lenses in front of his eyes. The centre of the mask has a small but surprisingly powerful speaker on it, so that he can speak clearly from behind the mask – although, of course, he uses a voice modulator for the sake of the secrecy of his identity. Thin, see-through pipes of bright liquids emerge from ‘tanks’ on the backs of his shoulders and are imbedded into the material of the suit, such that they run along his body like veins. These pipes connect to, among other things, small cannons on his wrists and a short honest-to-god hose that he keeps strapped to a holster on his back.

Beneath The Surface

Personality

Leon is madder than a bag of spaniels. He is hyper, possibly because of all the sugar he consumes, but possibly not. He jumps from idea to idea, and while he is not so impulsive as to do whatever he wants, he is impulsive enough to work out what he wants to do, how to do it, and then does it with little, but not no, thought for the consequences. In day-to-day life, this manifests as heavy drinking, junk food, drug use, and as much sex as he can get his slimy hands on.

Unlike some supervillains, he is not a complete psychopath. He does not derive great joy from causing people pain, but he is somewhat disaffected. Every action is balanced against how fun it was. It might be a shame that some innocent woman got completely trampled, but he was reaching such crazy speeds it wasn’t his fault and he’d probably do it again. He’s an excuse-maker, and nothing is ever his fault.

Crucially, Leon has daddy issues, big-time. He doesn’t like men very much and is naturally distrustful of them, especially if they are older than him, taller than him, or wearing a suit. In fact, he will specifically target men, especially if they fulfil any of those criteria.

Broadly speaking, he's not the brightest button in the box. He does not have a mind for strategy or tactics, but rather one that pursues an easy life and fun.

What Makes Me Special

Powers

Goop. Quite what its scientific properties are remain a mystery to Stain, but the boy sweats a lot, and it’s not normal sweat. Firstly, it’s typically bright acid green, and slightly luminous. Secondly, it’s not thin liquid, but more akin to slime or mucus. Among its other properties, it’s incredibly slippery, mildly corrosive, and also gives off noxious fumes. Just being in the room with it won’t exactly kill you, but it will probably give you a headache given too much exposure, while it will gently burn away at most substances that touch it directly, including skin. It probably won’t ever kill anybody through direct contact, but it’s highly toxic to ingest – a high enough concentration will kill you. Being extremely oily, this stuff actually floats, and so washing it away is an extremely poor idea; much better to dump a load of chalk or bicarbonate of soda to thicken it and generally make it easier to deal with. The goop is also reasonably flammable. It won’t blow up, but it is legit fuel, which burns slowly and slides around for extra fun.

Naturally, over the years, Leon has learned to control his ‘power’ somewhat, and generally manages not to leak in general public. This does tend to make him quite hot and, ultimately, ill, while keeping himself restrained – though saving it up means he has more for later. By the same token, he can overproduce goop at an astonishing rate, but at a similar cost and at the risk of dehydrating himself. Having such a high quantity of stuff in his system is, incidentally, what makes him surprisingly heavy for his short stature, and applies a natural internal ‘cushioning’, which means he’s slightly more resistant to impact damage than other humans. Needless to say, he and his suit are both adapted to the goop and neither can be harmed by it.

The first application of goop is having fun sliding around. His suit, but particularly its feet, is specifically designed to wick and absorb the sweat from his body, to be released at his convenience. All Stain needs to achieve massive speeds is a bit of a run-up and a flat surface, and suddenly he’s astonishingly fast, while also leaving something of an oil slick effect behind him.

The second application of goop is simply spreading it around. If in a bind, and without his suit, he can simply leak a load of goop from his body, though, obviously, he tries to make sure he has his suit.

Equipment

His only real equipment is his suit.


• Goop Tank (shoulders): see-through material housing excess goop connecting to his extremities via a pipe network. He’s always producing goop and it would be a shame to waste it.
• Goop Cannons (wrists): small nozzles on either wrist for medium-range, low-pressure goopy fun. Nowhere near as useful as the hose, and mostly just for cheap shots or shits and giggles. Not even particularly accurate, because
• Alternators (forearms and ankles): handy gadgets that alter the chemical makeup of the goop and release (to the suits’ palms, fingers, the soles of the feet, and goop cannons) goop that is sticky rather than slippery. Because it still burns things it’s useless for climbing, but is suitable for leaving traps with the goop cannons or grabbing onto things while travelling at high speeds to change direction. There’s also the possibility to hang onto walls or ceilings for short periods of time in order to hide or dodge. The ones on his feet are used for balance and changing direction/stopping while sliding.
• Hose (back): Ain’t nothing spreads goop around like a hose. It’s literally what it says on the tin; a high-pressure nozzle that pukes goop around like nothing else. This will exhaust his supplies pretty quickly, though. Using the hose while sliding has predictable effects on his momentum.

Extra:

• The Cannon: a totally untested prototype. Not connected to the suit, it's literally a cannon, about three times the size of a traditional pirate ship cannon, and basically the same in operation. Guess what it shoots? Yep. Goop. Specifically, robust spherical membranes filled with goop. Basically, it's the world's most horrendous water balloon launcher. Progress on The Cannon has stalled since he basically doesn't know what to do with it.

Strengths

• Highly impulsive. Doesn’t keep him safe, but it doesn’t keep you safe either.
• Decent with tech. He invented his own suit.
• Ridiculously upbeat. Can’t keep a good bad man down.

Weaknesses

• Distinct lack of power. Goop is great, but its only real dangers are being blasted by the hose or being slammed into by Stain at ridiculous speeds.
• Distinct lack of ambition. In the hands of a legit supervillain, goop would probably be a legitimate threat, except Stain mostly wants to dick around.
• Versatility: Stain is useless in compact areas or if he has to climb a hill. Instead, he excels in areas with ‘ramps’ and wide-open spaces.
• Short-lived utility: Stain only has so much goop. He can force himself to produce it, but it will tire him out more quickly and may even kill him.
• Lack of control: Inevitable when flying around at high speeds and launching pressurised blasts.
• Lack of confidence: Odd for a supervillain, but, if you can get Stain to sit down long enough to listen, he is fairly easily manipulated and intimidated into behaving like a good boy.
• Not bulletproof: While Stain’s natural composition makes him almost immune to impact damage, he’s not immune to being stabbed, shot, or blown up.

Skeletons In The Closet

History

Leon had a pretty crappy childhood, but, for a crappy childhood, it wasn't too bad. He was an unusual, and weird, child, with his unusual 'skin condition' appearing, in a small way, from the moment he was born. Among other unfortunate consequences of his unique mutation, his mother's reproductive organs were destroyed during his development, and, once born, neither mother nor father was particularly inclined to touch him.

His parents' union was an awkward one. It wasn't exactly a shotgun wedding, but he, an American pharmaceutical entrepreneur and she, a born-to-be housewife from a wealthy background, were mostly brought together over her accidental pregnancy. Inevitably, they broke up, when he was about nine; whether it was their own issues or Leon's acting-out and biological weirdness is anybody's guess. His father left with barely a word to him, and it was only a couple of years later that Leon found out that he had returned to America, to the successful launch of his tech company, which made him an extraordinarily wealthy man.

It was about this time that Leon started to go down the path of villainy, not helped by the full extent of his 'powers' emerging during puberty. He was a freak, and started to reject others' company. In his mind, he equated his father abandoning him with his own biological disposition, and, over time, his own isolation and 'poor life choices' (alcohol, glue, anything else he could get hold of) set him firmly down the path of 'disturbed weirdo'.

It was one of his many, many benders that caused him to begin his pursuit of his father. Quite what he was thinking at time, he doesn't know, but, long story short, he robbed his mother, got on a plane, got to the states, and found a map. To begin with, his pursuit was incredibly fruitless: money ran out quickly, and so he turned to petty crime just to fund an existence, using his corrosive sweat to break and enter properties and ransack them.

Because planning was not his strong point, he was pretty easily tracked - not just by the authorities, but by another outcast, who was interested in the odd residue he always left behind. Harrow, the latter, found him first. He was also a villain - a proper villain, old-school style. In fairness, he was tech-based, using jetpacks and lasers, you know, the works, but Leon was of great fascination to him.

Harrow took Leon under his wing, providing funds, shelter, and, eventually, a proposition. Stain is ultimately Harrow's invention, from the name to the suit. In return for facilitating Stain's pursuit and destruction of his father's tech empire, perhaps Stain could arrange for certain... collateral damage to be caused in his exploits.

Stain was active in cities for about three years, firstly destroying any store that stocked his father's stuff, and then, basically because it was fun to be disrespectin' the police, targeting mostly public institutions of authority - the fact that this was all Harrow's idea is lost on him. While definitely a public menace, he was never the most threatening villain out there, and was apprehended without too much difficulty when the authorities got their act together.

Needless to say, they interrogated him about Harrow, but any useful details he might have known turned out to be fabrications. Since being incarcerated, Stain is variably one of the most irritating prisoners and one of the most sedate. His jailers have a general policy of keeping a vigilant eye on him at all times, but ultimately giving him a certain degree of privilege. It was the easiest way; it's simply impossible to stop him sweating, and so any physical means of preventing him from escaping were, in the long-term, useless. He would burn through handcuffs, jumpsuits, bars - anything, given enough time. Since he's not the Machiavellian type to plan a grand escape, he is incarcerated almost at his leisure: making him content to stay, and less inclined to try to cause hassle. He is now supervised exclusively by female guards, because male ones tend to set off a tantrium.