Keeping it PG-13 is good with me! I don't mind violent/gory descriptions, cursing, and whatever. As long as it's not blood and gore every single post I'm fine with it. I also love, if we're doing a murder mystery, that it's a connected gang member and that they want to solve the crime to keep police away from their area.
The obstacles with running out of money to pay the police off, and having to keep the police away, are great. Maybe there's some scuffles and fights that happen within the gangs, too, because the person who was murdered was so connected.
Also, I was thinking of making my character around 25, so they would be 18 at the least in 1921, but I don't know if we should have older characters? Or do you guys think having young-ish characters is fine?
I think the ages thing can honestly be up to us; also if you are set on an age that wouldn't necessarily work with the timeline, we don't have to have all the characters know each other/be childhood friends. They could have slowly started frequenting the speakeasy at different times.
Also, are we going to do a one character limit? I foresee having some important characters that wouldn't necessarily be part of the main group (i. e. gangsters, police, witnesses) so do we want to have certain people write for them, or just have them be jointly written by all of us? We can also cross this bridge when we get to it; I know we don't even have our main characters yet.
Wouldn't we have to move outside the speakeasy somehow in case of a murder? Because if the police were to find out, they would close the place down (and then we wouldn't be able to go back there so easily)? So maybe let the murder happen in the street during one of the nightly visits? And while the shop is still running, we try everything to make sure that the police don't get the idea of snooping around here anymore? And wouldn't we have to use something like another shop as a cover, like a pharmacy or a grocery shop?
The age rating is fine.
I also like the idea of the murdered man's possible connections to different parties. Maybe we could even go so far as to have the murdered man be an undercover police officer and thereby have the focus not only on organised crime but also on the police? So we never really know who to trust when we get information.
But when we are a bit younger and don't directly know all of us through childhood, we still need some connection to the speakeasy. Maybe someone's family member is connected to it? (Maybe I´m thinking to much into detail here...)
@Elinor I did a little search on the internet for women in organised crime and there were quite a few, but most of them were active after the 20s.
I agree that we should have one character each and we can all jointly control NPCs.
I like the idea of not being able to discuss the murder or go to the police - However, I do remember reading that a lot of cops would have been in on things/corrupt (I know Al Capone had most of the Chicago PD bought out) so that could be interesting to play with as well.
I like the idea of my character maybe starting off as innocent and naive and eventually becoming involved with things as well.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
It would be really interesting to be caught between the corrupt police and the mafia and not know who to trust. I think that could definitely be really thrilling in some situations.
One question that is going through my mind a bit now: should we include real people who appear as NPCs or should they all remain fictional? (We can always take inspiration from real people).
I also have a little idea on the part of my character that they were sent as a child from Europe to the US to live with their uncle because of World War I.
In terms of connections to the speakeasy, that's probably something to consider when we're creating the characters. It could maybe be an item on the character sheets, perhaps?
I was thinking that maybe the murder happened in the general area around the speakeasy (i. e. in an alleyway, or in front of the cover business) which makes business bad, and while most of the cops were paid off, maybe the one leading the investigation actually has morals and wants to solve the case (could be a potential ally or a competitor, depending on the way the story goes.) And I definitely think tensions between police and gangs and the whole atmosphere of distrust and mystery are good to have.
I feel like real people could be mentioned in passing but maybe not used as NPCs. I'm not sure I know enough about famous people in the twenties to be comfortable writing them as a character. Unless someone really wants to do it or it would make a really cool detail in the story, I'd steer clear of using real people. But taking inspiration is totally fine!
Should we answer some questions before creating our character sheet, like
What is the cover business of the speakeasy? (Since I think this will be the main setting of the story, maybe more details there?) Do we need a bit more general location in Chicago or is the city enough? Should our ages be all around the same (like 18 - 22?) Do we create the NPCs during the writing and the one who present them first, makes a short character sheet? so that we have a bit of an overview for the creation of the characters and backgrounds (relationships, etc)?
Or should we start already with our characters and then finalise a plot and answer the questions?
I´ve found this website some minutes ago. It has some interesting details and goes also deeper into the prohibition and gangsters, and US history in general.
I agree we can reference real people, but I'd rather not have them as NPCs.
Cover business - What if it was a drugstore/pharmacy? I thought ice cream parlor at first, but back in those days most drugstores had "soda fountains" that were like how we think of diners or ice cream parlors today.
@MailicedeNamedy Thanks for sending that link, I'll have to check it out!
I think my character will be 19, and probably new to the city. I was thinking about it more and I think she's from a rich family, she runs away to escape an arranged marriage to an older man she doesn't want, cuts her hair, and decides to reinvent herself in Chicago. I also had the idea that she was at one point romantically involved with a black man, and her parents found out about it and punished her in some way.
If anyone wants to take the initiative and make a character template, that would be appreciated. Unless there's anyone we can think of right away, I also am cool with "going with the flow" when it comes to NPCs. I think she met some friends and and was probably introduced to the speakeasy through them, I still want her to start off as a "good girl" who gets more involved.
I think she is someone who wants to do something with her life but has little talent or aptitude for anything, so that will be interesting to explore.
Do we need a bit more general location in Chicago or is the city enough?
I spent weekends in Chicago growing up because my dad lived there, and I live an hour and a half north of the city, so I'm probably most familiar with it. That being said, I'm not really aware of how the city would have been different 100 years ago. I do remember the area my dad lived (downtown, near Jackson Street and the river) being rather historic.
Should we create a WFP or a Pirate Pad to lay this all out? I also think we need to discuss who the person was that was murdered, and how that creates ripples for our characters to contend with.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
Yeah, I think a WFP would be a good thing to have. I've taken the liberty of making one here. I think another thing that would be good to draft is that little synopsis/premise thing that RPs have at the beginning, which I started doing a little of, as well as put some stuff down for a character sheet.
I like the idea of a drugstore for a speakeasy! Also, I think the general area of Chicago is fine. We can do a little more research if we want to reference specific streets/areas, but I think for the most part, it felt like a lot of other big industrial cities at the time.
The one NPC that we might want to have at the beginning is the speakeasy/ cover business owner, unless someone's actual character is going to be the owner of the speakeasy. I think that it would make the most sense for that character to maybe be a little older, so it'd break the range if we were having our characters be late teens to mid-twenties. I could make my character the speakeasy owner if no one else wanted to, if we think that it would make the most sense to have them as a character rather than an NPC.
We should also do some brainstorming on the dead person. I think it might be interesting if not all the characters knew the person who was murdered at the beginning and some did, to kind of mess with some motives for solving the murder (as in some might be doing it because they knew the person, some might be doing it to cover their own illegal stuff, some might be doing it to protect the speakeasy, etc.) I was originally thinking they could just be a speakeasy regular with some gang ties to give the characters a starting point to go off of, but then their original suspicions are dismantled when new info comes to light and so on and so forth. I did like the undercover policeman idea, too, from Mailice.
So right now what we have to do:
1a) Solidify starting details (most important: probably the murdered person, but also agreeing on speakeasy aspects)
1b) Use details to draft premise, then create actual RP thread and do logistical stuff for LSS.
2) Create characters (and possibly some NPCs if need be)
Feel free to add on to that list if I'm missing something! I just like having to do lists because they give me a concrete idea of how to plan things out.
Psst, @Plume, the WFP is private. Also, @Elinor, love your character so far!
I don't mind the idea of the speakeasy owner being an actual character, but I don't know if that would be easier than making them an NPC. If you guys think it'd be easier though, that's good with me.
I'll have to develop my character a little more, but right now I'm thinking of a 25-year-old guy who used to be the typical Joe College, but has now returned home to his parents and somehow he started hanging around the speakeasy. I don't know, he's still in development.
Also, @MailicedeNamedy said something in an early post about the characters friendships and neutrality towards the gangs falling apart. Are we still going to do the whole internal conflict among the friend group? Or are they going to be like the Scooby-Doo Mystery crew and be fine?
Oopsies!! That should be fixed now. Thanks for letting me know @looseleaf!
I think in terms of relationships between the characters, we can maybe wait and see how we feel after a couple rounds? I think it would also make more sense to determine that after we have a good idea of our characters, just to see if any potential conflicts between some jump out at us right away, but who knows? Maybe it really will be like the Mystery Crew. Maybe the speakeasy should have a communal dog...
I have now designed my character a little in the pad and made a connection with the speakeasy. I hope it fits like this. But I can still change it if we agree on the Famous Five Crew Scooby-Doo Mystery crew.
While looking for some context of the city, I found this map here on Wikipedia of the "L", the rapid transit. The map is from 1921 but I don´t think that there´s a lot of change until 1928. I think that can help us a bit while looking for a street for the speakeasy, where we live, etc...
Thanks for the map, Mailicede, it certainly will help!
About the name for the speakeasy, since they had fake store fronts and such to cover what's actually going on, would we just need to decide on the name for the cover store or would there be a separate name for the actual speakeasy?
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