The Jungle Blade Mystery Act 1

                              Nickel & Dime Productions, proudly presents Radio Days

               Starring Donny Wayne as Karl Timperman & Mary Coyne as Easther Leballe

          If you like tails of daring deeds & high trills go somewhere else, if not then stay tuned.  

Karl Timperman stirred, as the ringing sound came again he reached out switched on the bedside lamp & looked at his watch, which showed the time was 6:24 am. Who would be phoning at this hour of the morning he though as he got out of bed & headed for the living-room to answer the phone.
Karl "Karl Timperman"
Woman's voice "Karl its Esther Labelle, something awful has happened, I was wonder if you be so good as to come over to the house"
Karl could hear the anxiety in her voice.  Karl" Do you want to tell what's wrong Esther"
Esther "I'd prefer not to say over the phone, but its very urgent could you come at once"
Karl "I just have a quick shower & shave & I'll be on my way"
Esther" Thanks Karl" then a click as she hung up.

Just over half an hour later.
Esther "Karl thanks for coming over so quickly"
Karl "No problem Esther, now do you want to tell me what the problem is ?"
Esther "Oh  Karl I've been so foolish, as you know I'm a Patron of the museum & do a lot of charity work for them"
Karl" Yes I'm aware of that, go on"
Esther "Well last night I held a charity event here to raise some funds for the museum & to add some interest to the event I foolishly brought some items from the museum over here & now one of them is missing"
Karl "Isn't this a mater for the police"
Esther with tear's forming in her eye's " Karl I can't go to the police, you see(pause) you see I took the items without permission, as their not on display at the moment I thought no one would notice them gone & I would have brought them back today, oh Karl what am I going to do"
Karl feeling sorry for her & known that her heart was in the right place even if what she done had indeed been foolish "Okay Esther I'll do what I can to help, what is the piece that missing"

Esther "It's a small jewel encrusted blade that was found at a archaeology site in a jungle in Peru"
Karl " I'll need a list of all the people that were here last night & did you haven to notice did anyone seem to show a larger amount of interest in the piece then what you would have though normal"
Esther "Well now that you mention it, Sharina Benavides did seem to show a peculiar interest in it"
Karl " Sharina Benavides as in the politician"
Esther "Yes, but surely she wouldn't have taken it"
Karl " I'd guess you would you'd say that of all of your guests Esther, but the fact is that its gone & we've got to start some place, now go & get me that list"

While Esther was getting the list Karl gave the room a quick once over but found nothing of help, when she returned Esther hand the list to Karl & then set down while he want over it.
Karl"Is this everyone that was here last night & by that I mean the staff as well"
Esther" No that's just the guest list, I would need to get in touch with the agency to get the names of the extra staff"
Karl" Is any of your own staff that was here last night here now"
As it turned out two of them were, but neither of them could shine any light on the matter.
With the time now coming up to 8 am, Karl phone the home of Sharina Benavides, only to be told that she had just left for a meeting at the theatre.

As the theatre was only a few blocks away Karl decided they'd walk, as it would give him some time to think of the best way to approach Sharina Benavides on the subject of the missing blade, along the way they ran into Noah King a history teacher that Esther knew & after a brief chit chat headed on to the theatre, only to find when they got there that it was locked up, wherever Sharina Benavides had gone for her meeting it wasn't here.

Tune in next week when you will here Esther ask  "What now ?"  

Designer's note. In last months news I cover the basic set up of the characters, this time I want to add a bit about Larger then Life the Director's cut, now like I've said before this game is like no other Two Hour Gaming game that I know of & while its old it really is imho better suited to their new battle board way of playing.

So what I'll cover here is how it sets up, after making up your character & if you want any supporting cast, you go about setting up a crime/treasure hunt or what they call the opening scene, this is all done by rolling on different tables, in this case something had gone missing & the last person who had it was a Patron, from here on you decide what that object was & flesh out the person if you want.

For me that's the joy of the game as I like to make up a story which is what this game is all about, so if making up a story is not your thing then its not for you, so I had something missing & a Patron.

I decided the Patron would be a Petron of a museum & that the missing object would be a knife found in South America.

In the open scene you also find out how many clues you need to solve before you get to the finial scene & who the big bad is, now I don't want to give anything away here, but I will tell you that after rolling for the type of big bad I didn't flesh him out, as even I want a surprise :)

Now here is were the game is great & bad at the same time, after doing a few more things like the travel scene & a few other thing it was time to set up the table for a game, well talk about a none event but, well there's always a but right. 

The object of the game was to cross the table which had one PEF (Possible enemy force) get to the target building, enter have a defining moment (another possible PEF ) & question a person of interest, in this case Sharina Benavides.

So after spending time setting up the table, I came across a PEF who was no threat a defining moment that due to dice rolls didn't happen & a person of interest who turned out not to be there :( on the plus side this didn't count as me not finding a clue, a failure in finding clues equal to your Rep means games over, which means the hero didn't save the day & get the girl, something I really like.

Why play a game that's such an anti climax ? I here you ask, well here's the good bit, as I've said before its all about the story (I hope your still with me John) so the challenge is to make the game fit the story, simple as :)

I hope that has given you guys an insight into Larger then Life the directors cut & why I've gone about doing it in this manner, I'll cover more in other posts as for now I don't want to give anything away.      

As always my thanks for dropping in & if you'd care to comment it would be welcomed :)