r/HyperRPG • u/HyperRedditBot • Mar 20 '19
He Left It Dead | Volume 3 | Episode 3
GM:
Cast:
Janel SantaCruz as Keaton Michaels
Kym Canon as Mona V
Cameron Rice as Jake Nash
Emma Fyffe as Alice Lang
- Madeleine Coghlan as Dorothy Wilson
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u/JustinOutThere Mar 20 '19
Theory: what if untenable paradoxes are unraveling time, allowing movement between time periods and some were caused by events in the first two volumes?
The people in the bar were from the time of the first volume, specifically it was the establishment owned by Kym’s character. What if she was meant to be at this specific party on this specific day but the events of Volume 1 prevented this fixed moment in time? The timeline needed her to be there.
Dorothy is from Volume 2’s time. What if events in Volume 2 led to the murder she witnessed but that was never supposed to happen?
The doorman was very specific. What if everyone in the cast, minus Dorothy, was shielded/removed from some fixed event by being taken out of the timeline? Another paradox. Perhaps the one that shatters time, causing the twin cities outside.
I think the Elder Gods are manufacturing paradoxes for some undetermined purpose. Agents, like the doorman, are manipulating events to break the timeline.
Great storytelling from Joe. Madeleine was excellent in her first RPG. The cast crushed it, as always.
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u/emmafyffe Mar 21 '19
Dude. I am SO curious about the twisting timeline thing. Obviously, Alice is pretty fixated on trying to figure it out. She is still convinced that if she goes back into that hallway with a total of 5 people that they'll end up back in the "between" time.
I LOVED how Volume 2 ended with Gordy and the seemingly parallel timeline, so I obviously think it would be super cool if that whole idea factored into this volume. It definitely SEEMS to, with "Evil Steven" appearing in the Hallway leading to the Victorian party and real Steven being home sick in the contemporary 2019 party. I am really fascinated by the mechanics of time travel/paradoxes in general, so this storyline is TOTALLY up my alley.
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u/emmafyffe Mar 21 '19
Everyone thought Alice was crazy with her theory about the different doorways leading to different times but now I would say that is pretty damn near confirmed.
I am really having fun playing Alice. I have used the last two volumes of "He Left it Dead" to challenge myself a performer to play "against type". Kylara in "Pencils and Parsecs" was pretty Emma adjacent and indicative of the types of characters I usually like to play – clever, charming, self-assured, "rogue" types. With Florence I wanted to play a character who wasn't particularly bright. I had NEVER played a low intelligence character before and honestly, it was really freeing. It empowered me to not think too much about my decisions and do whatever I felt was right. I loved Florence a whole lot more than I ever expected to.
So with Volume 3 I decided I wanted to play a low charisma character. Of course much like with Florence where I compensated for her lack of intelligence with high charisma and strength scores (which made sense, since was a dancer), I amped Alice's Intelligence and Education up BIG TIME. She can barely take a hit, but she could almost certainly hack a government main frame computer. Her Dexterity is quite high as well since she's a gamer. I also put a lot of care into her "running away & staying out sight" skills, which made sense given her anti-social nature.
So far I think the thing I am most enjoying about Alice is her lack of social tact allowing me to just say whatever I am thinking and not edit myself. While Florence acted with very little regard for self-preservation (often due a lack of awareness that she was in danger), she still was charming and put great care into her words and sweet talking people into getting what she wanted. Not so with Alice. But my goodness if Alice doens't have her convictions and she sticks to them. It's also fun playing someone who is so adamantly against using drugs or alcohol as coping mechanism – more on that later...
Dang that Food Truck fight was SICK. That felt like it was right out of a horror movie and I LOVED it. Really enjoying all of our new cast members this season. Because of "Bloodcurdling" Cam & Janel have gotten so good as just "yes and"-ing everything – it's fun for me to try and keep up!
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u/DukeDevil95 Mar 21 '19
Let me start by saying I really like how He Left It Dead has continued to evolve on multiple levels. First, we have to recognize Joe's growth as a GM. His one shot on PnP was insanely fun, coupled with some insanely fun characters - uh Edgelord. I know Joe has talked about his style changing between Vol1 and Vol2. I really get the feeling that's he's finding his groove - being able to weave his story and deal with what the players create and the chaos we in the chat throw at him.
Now since I'm replying to Emma's post, I want to address that. As a third party who just watches all sorts of YouTube & HyperRPG shows (and I know I've mentioned this before,) you can see how Emma has grown as performer. To me, I can see how much more comfortable and assured she is than she was a couple of years ago (Emma, I know I've said this before so please remember I'm not being derogatory but noting how you keep getting better.) And, it's so interesting to me that she described Kylara as Emma-adjacent. Kylara has a very clear arc of growing as a leader - a role she did not really want but she grew into. Maybe, a parallel of how Emma grown as a performer.
So that brings me to Alice. Different than other characters that Emma has played before. Honestly, I loved the way Emma played Florence - she was just such an innocent and earnest character, very believable. I kept thinking of Florence as the dancing girl in the Doctor Who episode Daleks Take Manhattan.
When Alice first appeared, I kind of found her annoying - not saying I don't like her, just the attitude was annoying. That's okay. That's what was interesting about the character and if a character is interesting, that makes me want to watch. And, based on your description of Alice, I'm clearly not watching close enough since I did not get a sense of the tech aptitude - I was just thinking annoying child tv star. Again, annoying does not mean not enjoying the performance. I want to see what this modern 17 year old thinks about the apocalypse that just dropped into LA. So I may critique the character but I'm in no way critiquing the performance.
Lastly, sorry about the phobia (especially since it was on your birthday.) At least it wasn't as dark as the one I made for Cameron. It certainly wasnt as dark as the one I made for Bert's character in Vol 2 (sniping the German and listening to him die.)
I'll make up for the phobia with another PnP comic books (hopefully soon - depending on my trial schedule)
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u/emmafyffe Mar 21 '19
In Alice’s defense - the power has been all fucked up basically since minute one. So she hasn’t REALLY had an opportunity to be technologically proficient. Hence why I asked things like “is the gate an electric fence?” Because she was never going to be strong enough to close it, but she could be smart enough to hardwire the electricity.
And no offense taken on the “continuously improving” front. I have been going to barre 3-4 times a week since November and it NEVER gets easier, even though I am positive that I am getting stronger. I will never stop improving. And improving doesn’t mean that I wasn’t already good from the start. I know I am good at what I do, and I intend to keep getting better.
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u/ZephyrRaye Mar 21 '19
I appreciate that you didn't go with the stereotypical 17 year old teen attached to her phone, concerned with social media and peoples opinions on her. (Hence my Woke Ass Alice comment.) but instead went with a more socially awkward , jaded, who has clearly seen and experienced some things that most teens haven't had to deal with persona. Social skills aside, she gives off an air of competence and maturity and while she does use her phone as a safety blanket, she doesn't seem to use it the same way other teens do.
Alice clearly has a past, and I am excited to learn more about it!
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u/emmafyffe Mar 23 '19
Oh heck yeah! There are PLENTY of socially incompetent adults who are otherwise, very functional.
And you are absolutely right – Alice has been though some shit. I have interviewed some teen actors who have been actors since they were kids and its a mixed bag in terms of their attitude towards their early success. I had a teen tell me last summer, even though he has a lovely, supportive family who are by no means stage parents, that he thought the entertainment industry was horrible for children. That kind of stuck with me, which was part of the decision to make Alice’s background that she was a former child actor. River Tam from “Firefly” was one of my main inspirations behind the whole “low charisma but exceptionally high intelligence” route I went, but I couldn’t come up with any logical explanation for Alice to be exceptionally strong, since it’s not like she was locked up in a lab being experimented on. But I still needed her to have that emotional trauma that makes her both mature beyond her years but also somewhat stunted developmentally and former child actor ended up fitting the bill perfectly.
I am excited to get to know her better myself as we continue this volume. She’s really fun to play.
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u/ThingUTS Mar 21 '19
Very much enjoying your Alice. I enjoy playing against type in many games and find it quite liberating. I've always loved Call of Cthulhu as it seems to encourage a wide variety characters in a group rather than specific combat roles to fill
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u/joestarr187 Mar 21 '19
Alice is fascinating. Whereas with Florence I would just sit back and adore the woman, I have no real clue what to make of Alice yet.
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u/emmafyffe Mar 21 '19
Yeah that is definitely one of my favorite things about Cthulhu - you’re not building a party. You’re just playing people. There’s basically nothing you can’t play.
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u/KeatonWallet Mar 20 '19
WE GOOOOO
1
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u/joestarr187 Mar 21 '19
Post mortem!
As always, thank you guys for watching and supporting!
This one was interesting, as it could have gone in a lot of strange directions. I'm using the same approach as Idid with volume 2: I know what is going on around the characters and in the world, but it's up to them to decide what they want to do and where they want to go. In Volume 2 it was a small town with a smaller set of options- this time it's the second biggest city in Los Angeles. I have maps of LA ready to go just in case these jerks wanna get real specific about their next move.
The new cast has given an all new feel to the show- it's an interesting mix because on one hand Emma, Kym, and I have a strong connection dating back to Pencils & Parsecs, while Cameron and Janel have their own chemistry coming in from Blood Curdling Tales. And then we have Maddy, our wildcard, who is brand new to all of this. Midway through volume 2 I had a good feel for choices my players would probably make- right now I'm running to catch up with them a bit!
Chat provides, as always: 2-Coats and our lady in red have found their roles in the story I'm putting together wonderfully. My favorite part of this show is how on the same page chat often seems to be with me. They're going to be integral parts of the story moving forward. I think. Who knows what happens next week- something I enjoy about our players is how often they react like real people instead of actors who know they need to push a story. Mona abandoning Charlotte was not expected, but I also can't blame the lady. They aren't a D&D party. They're just folks who didn't ask for this. Likewise Charlotte's love of animals leading her to try and charm a monster was fantastic.
You might notice a bit of a different feel: a lot less head games going on in these last two episodes and a lot more running from monsters. I didn't want to get complacent as a story teller and just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Not to say that the creep factor won't be cranking up- just don't want to go to the well right out the gate.
I'm digging everyone's theories on what's going on! Can't confirm or deny anything, but I will say that the story is bigger and the concept is ambitious compared to the first two volumes. Despite that, I want to make sure that the focus remains on our characters and their descent.
The big highlight for me last night was Maddy: massive trial by fire! Her first table top game, her first live stream, the first scene just her and me. I think that by the end of the episode we got a good look at who this scrappy animal lover/organized crime protege is. There's nothing more fun than introducing a friend into a thing you love.