The OFFICIAL pre "Story Themed" train deck trade IV is ON.

[Scion]

Originally Posted by Netzach

Oh, I always think that the waiting is part of the pleasure . . . rather like going to the theatre and waiting for the curtain to go up, you know . . .

Tell me, Major . . . I'm sorry . . . Mr. Farrington, do you go to the theatre much these days?

Exactly Netzach, it's the foreplay of Art. Do you agree Mr. Farrington?

I think several of our passengers are away from their berths this weekend, so we can't go anywhere til they return... Plus it's always so difficult to get the engine team to work on a Sunday.

Does everyone have their deck offers sorted?

[Sophie]

Fudge has been snoring, and wakes up startled

"What's that, what's that, we orf? Not yet? Where's the theatre? Never could abide the theatre, all that shouting about onstage. Isobel loved it, but I slept my way through Hamlet. Except a good comedy, give me a good comedy, what? Philip King, that's the man! See How They Run, best play ever written. Can't stand the modern stuff, though, too clever to be funny, what?

Turns to the conductor. Who are you making passes at, young man? I'm way past that kind of thing."

[.traveller.]

Hmm, I'm still listed in the "mystery" list even though I'm not playing anymore, just trading.

[Guiding Cauldron]

Originally Posted by The crowned one

*knocks politely on door* "ahem, the conductor has told me of your concern. Your request is a easy one as our widest car is the dinning car and that is 7'7". Your car is just over 6' wide. If you need a circumference of 9 ft we will have a diameter of just under 3' or a radius of just under 1.5' so if I move that chair over there and this table just so..there you can easily draw your circle! c/d=pi. As far as the exrtra locks go, shall we bill it to your running tab..or...?" says the engineer with his shiniest smile.

oui, timidly answeres the door.....oui whos there you say? oh TCO thank heavens its you sir! Oh your an angel ty monsieur, i must say i appreciate this!! about the extra locks...what are you suggesting as a form of payment? well anyway placing the fee on my tab is purley accceptable.

plz tell me when the locks are installed and i will awiat the delivry of teh key to my myself as well, then u can get started with my practice er ytraining.

also many returna of teh day to those birthday bunnies pleezzz accept my good tidings xx

closes cabin door again firmly and pours a large crystal glass of cherry brandy to help calme teh nerves while waiting for my xtra key................

[Scion]

No passes, Mr. Farrington. I was merely making an observation about the pleasurable necessity of waiting., but I meant nothing untoward.

.Traveller. sorry for the oversight; it's taken care of. Very glad you'll still be riding with us...

Guiding Cauldron, the key is being cut for you and should be delivered to your cabin first thing tomorrow...

[Aziah]

*a middle-aged man man enters and takes a seat at the bar. He is wearing a seemingly wrinkled, white linen suit and matching felt fedora. Sweat seems to glisten on his somewhat dirt-speckeled forehead. It appears as if he forgot to shave today*

"Scotch on the rocks"

[Scion]

Good evening, Doctor... I'm glad to see you made it in comfortable time. Was your cabin prepared to your satisfaction?

(Murphy!)

Did the boys load all of your luggage for you? I always feel better having a medical professional on board these holiday trains. People do tend to get... enthusiastic in the celebration.

[Aziah]

My cabin will work just fine...the red velvet decor is very comfortable and I must say, the antique phonograph is perfect for playing my record collection. I can't imagine going anywhere without the Andrew Sisters.

...and, by the way, I appreciate you allowing me to sub as the staff physician aboard this train while your regular doctor is off on...leave. I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of ordering your men to move the exam table to the room adjacent mine so I can see any patients that need attending to while on board. Of course, I will hang those accrediations on the wall as soon as I find them amidst my luggage. I believe the men will be delivering my bags shortly.

*downs second scotch*

[Satori]

Excuse me Mr. Conductor, I am from a land called AT....

Satori raises hand...Excuse Me....Hello there....I have a Question!!

Sorry to interrupt the festivities...but I was thinking that some of us might have a few questions before this ol' train is filled up and people start to get comfy in their berths....or drinking in the bar...or playing monkey shines and the like.

I have recvd my packets of information, and I have sent along some stuff to the conductor, and I had a question, a clarification if you will.

So, the mystery that will be happening is it going to be a mystery outside of all of us...or could it be that we indeed discover that we really are guilty of something?

Also, just to be clear.
We are all on a Tarot Trade Train. Our characters are on the Tarot train...so we are all linked by at least this one thing, which is the motivation to be here to get a deck, right? LOL, we have been so immersed in the play acting and no one is mentioning the trade, except for Scion, when he mentions us having our deck list in order. Sorry if I sound obtuse, but when building our characters we should be thinking about our purpose for being on the train, right? I know this sounds obvious, but I don't hear anyone bringing up Tarot or trading....or perhaps people are saving that for the actual Train Trade thread.

Does this sound ridiculous?

[Scion]

Ahhh... Satori, several very good questions in there!

This is all going to be MUCH simpler than it seems; people have come up with fabulous ideas, and they all dovetail beautifully. The only complication here is that I wanted everyone oto have a chance to create and inhabit their own characters, rather than arbitrarily assigning them.

THE MYSTERY: Though each character has secrets which are shameful ror distressing, there IS a larger overall mystery which must be solved. Consistent with Golden Age mysteries, everyone on this Mystery train has skeletons in their closets. The clues that indicate various past misdeeds are going to be scattered throughout the train as they are discovered by passengers. As these clues appear, each of you will be able to discover telling details about each character's past, and also to try and HIDE your own murky history. The character's secrets will be interwoven with the main mystery, but by allowing for misleading clues and sinister suspects who will inadvertantly become red herrings, the CENTRAL mystery must be solved while trying to learn the truth about your shifty co-passengers.

Of course, since you're all racing to try and solve the main mystery, the more perplexing/distracting your character's past, the more chance you have of solving the MAIN mystery because you're drawing attention away from other clues. Any one of your fellow riders may be guilty of the "Main Crime" so everyone has to hunt for clues in everyone else's posts to solve the crime(s). And solving the smaller mysteries about each passenger's secret will give you extra points at the end, so that if more than one person solves the main case; we can actually determine the one "winner"... Does that make sense?

Before we start, I will mail each of you a list of several clues FROM OTHER PASSENGERS which you will be planting at certain intervals as your character "discovers" them in the course of the ride. Mixed into those clues will be clues related to the main crime. It will be up to the riders to pick the important/relevant clues out form the smaller submysteries. Right?

This is just the "setting up the dominos" phase, and prepping those clues for me is the hardest thing anyone will have to do. Again, in practice it's going to be much simpler and direct than all this complex preparation. The solving and playing of the mystery will be straightup mystery enjoyment with all of you trying to trick and mislead and outwit each other as you race to find clues in each other's posts and put them together...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE TRADING: This is the base activity! You're exactly right, of course, Satori. Each of the passengers will be trading a deck and picking a deck... but perhaps some of our Mystery passengers are shy about their use of Tarot. Depends on the character. And of course, we have some riders who are only along for the trading that won't be trying to solve the mystery, though (who knows?) they might help y'all by spotting a clue or two. Remember: the only difference between this train and the past trains is that this time the conversations will contain an elaborate, solveable mystery which will change the way the slower stations go. Based on my "model" of the flow of the train, the mystery will just play out against the background of the slow beginning, speedy middle, and slow finish that we've experienced each time.

Any new riders who are unclear about the actual trade portion, please feel free to post questions or to PM me directly. Reading over the rules at the top of the thread and old train threads will also clarify, but I'm happy to explain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REMEMBER: All of this Mystery planning is just setup for an incredibly fun, involving game that's gonna run like a dream. And far as I can tell, no one's ever tried anything like this. So if it seems overwhelming, it's only cause we're gaming pioneers (just as we were on the first Trade Train)! I know some folks have had creative anxiety about characters and clues etc, but the fierce creativity and imagination already shown indicates it's going to be the rockingest train ever. And that's saying something!

The main thing is that we're writing a gripping suspense story together and we're going to have a fabulous, low-stress, highly entertaining time doing so.

Does that answer some of your questions?

Scion