by NormandyWept

Hello everyone! I'm looking for 3-4 players for a play-by-forum game of The Between.

Please read the pitch below carefully and, if you'd like to play, apply by replying in this thread by Friday 12 June.

In your reply, please let me know your experience with play-by-forum RPGs, experience with this game (and/or the other games and media touchstones mentioned), and what interests you about the game. I'll select the players. Experience doesn't necessarily guarantee selection, in fact I'd love to give opportunities to a variety of players who are interested.

If there are more applicants than I can accommodate, I'll keep a reserve list which I'll use if anyone has to leave the game.

[heading]THE GAME[/heading]
Here's the CATS for The Between:

Concept
The Between is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of mysterious monster Hunters in Victorian-era London. These Hunters learn about various monstrous threats in the city and conduct investigations in order to neutralize them. Over time, they become aware of the plans of a criminal mastermind who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. The Hunters will eventually be forced to confront this criminal mastermind in order to save Queen and country.

The Between is directly inspired by the TV show Penny Dreadful but also takes inspiration from British horror classics, the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pulp-era media, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and From Hell.

The game’s mechanics are based on Apocalypse World and Brindlewood Bay.

Aim
The aim of the characters in the story is to keep London safe by investigating monstrous threats and learning how to stop them.

Our aim as players is to learn more about these characters’ mysterious pasts, as well as to paint a vivid picture of our version of Victorian-era London, a responsibility we all share.

Tone
The tone of The Between is dark, mysterious, and sensual. A little bit of levity or humor from time to time is OK, but we will always strive to return to that dark, brooding place the characters exist in.

Subject Matter
Murder, dead bodies, supernatural horror, witchcraft, and poverty are very common in the game and will be difficult to avoid.

The game can include specific subjects such as cannibalism, body horror, sexual themes, erotic sensuality, threats to animals and children, colonialism, foul language, blasphemy, and defiling graves and corpses. We will have a safety discussion before we begin to customise how we explore or avoid these subjects.

Although the game is set in a historical time period, we will not dwell on historical accuracy. We’ll do our best to represent the technology and culture of the era, but we’re going to get some things wrong every now and then, and that’s OK.

Also, during this time period, people with marginalized identities would likely have been treated very poorly in society. We’re going to ignore that part of history. In the world of The Between, things like race, nationality, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, ablebodiedness, and neurodivergence are not a social barrier.

There are some features of the game I'd like to highlight. These things are interesting and make the game different; they also mean the game is not for everyone.

Proactive, Player-driven Mysteries:
• The mysteries which the characters are investigating in this game do NOT have a set solution. Using the game mechanics, the players will collectively create the mystery solution, rather than the Keeper (GM) already knowing it
• As players, you need to be proactive and take action - whether that's hunting supernatural threats in Victorian London, or other objectives your character has. The rules for the Keeper (GM) in this game are literally made up of things called Reactions; the expectation is that player characters will be proactive and drive the story (I'll help with this, however if you would prefer a game with GM-presented situations/set pieces and the players doing the reacting, this is not that sort of game)

Cinematic Gameplay
• The game presents scenes very much like a TV show. We will use time skips, flashbacks, and similar techniques to focus on key dramatic moments
• There is a game rule which forbids that you discuss your character's backstory, except at points where the rules specifically allow it. The idea is that we have a slow reveal of backstory over time (including via flashback), as happens in many TV shows

Mix of Gameplay Types
• There's an overall repeating gameplay structure controlling play (which is easy to learn)
• Within that structure, some parts of gameplay are very open, and it is up to players to decide on what happens in the next scene (as I described above)
• Other parts of gameplay involve answering specific prompts describing a scene, sometimes including descriptions and NPC actions. An example prompt is: "Describe Act I of the play, in which the Baker’s son, a young man named Daniel, falls in love with a woman, Dahlia, whom he cannot have" These parts of the game can feel more like games like For the Queen and are improvisational (within constraints), building on other players' answers ("yes, and...")

[heading]THE KEEPER[/heading]
• I'll play the role of Keeper (GM).
• I'm an experienced play-by-forum player and GM (Gold Participant [microbadge=32266])
• I know the game system very well from being both player and Keeper in many plays (50+ sessions) of Carved from Brindlewood games like this one
• I'll teach players the game system as we play, and be your guide
• I will post very regularly in the Out of Character (OOC) thread, which I think is going to be important to make this unique game work well in play-by-forum
• I expect to make small in-character updates (e.g. responses to dialogue, quick updates in response to player actions) 4 times per week
• Longer In-character posts such as when we need to introduce a new mystery or major plot developments will be possible for me only roughly 1-2 times per week. I'll signpost OOC when I need more time, so that you know what to expect

[heading]THE PLAYERS[/heading]
I'm looking for players who are:
• Excited to play the game I've described above
• Good Out of Character (OOC) communicators: I think we'll need this to manage this game in PBF format
• Available for a long-term game: as this would be a multiple-session game at the table it will likely be a long-term PBF commitment (Of course real life will happen; I expect you to communicate when you'll be unavailable, and we will manage)
• Not going to use generative AI in this game (This is my personal preference as the Keeper; I want this story to be ours, not the output of a machine; there are plenty of other opportunities nowadays outside of this game to use these tools)

by Bahasa

Way to go Barry!

by Pentaclebreaker

Actually I got my first computer - a shiny C64 aka breadbox complete with floppy drive - earlier than contact with real RPGs. What a technolgy milestone 😉 . I swapped games with some people and broke some silly copy protections 🙂 . And ended with a lot of games, including a couple of early computer ported RPGs. This was sometimes 1980.

Then SPIEL started with LOTS of games, but no RPGs in 1983. It was fun to see all the stuff nevertheless.

I think sometime later a friend my brother got the first box of Das Schwarze Auge (DSA) (2nd Edition) complete with mask and all, maybe fall 1984. I gave it a try . . . but wasn't to convinced.

Later that year a guy at the game club at Adult Education Center Essen (yes, where SPIEL first took place) , asked for volunteers to play a round of Midgard (1st Edition), much better received than DSA.

Next years SPIEL - still in the limited space of Adult Education Center - came, but still no RPGs or I haven't found them 🙂.

1985 SPIEL was BIG, saw at least some RPGs and some material, like dice.

Got some material for various RPGs here and there. Still not heavy in RPGs but heavy in gaming.

Started university and still dubbling into various RPGs, with mixed success. Late 1990ties saw a group of dedicated AD&D 2nd fellow students (and me was working part time in a game shop at the university campus). All of us were HEAVY in gaming, played till dawn and got to lectures directly . . . nevertheless got my degree 😉

Since then I have been in RPGs - got some break for family reasons - but never lost contact.

Ciao

Martin

by BG05

An item RPG Item: The Slave Mines of Vindicus the Terrible has been added to the geeklist 2026 edition of What was the last RPG book you bought?

by BG05

An item RPG Item: Barbarians of the Ruined Earth has been added to the geeklist 2026 edition of What was the last RPG book you bought?

by Brass Jester

An item RPG Item: Ironsworn: Starforged has been added to the geeklist Solo RPGs On Your Table - June 2026

by Serpentine_C

I've never commissioned artwork. I've also never played in a long enough campaign with the same character that it felt like it would be worth it.

I do like representing PCs and NPCs with pictures, but usually Google, artstation, or deviantart have something I can use just for my home game. When they don't (as in the case of some weird unique alien) I have tried out the AI generators but they didn't give very good results. For one game where I played a mutant I photoshopped together three different sketches I found on Google.

by Peasly23

Saltone wrote:

Items currnetly need to stay. I will think about this for next year.

Fair

CABS_Librarian wrote:

I honestly think seeing the successes would encourage more use of the list.

I agree, if you define "Successes" as a user of the VFM and this WTB list get together. Anything outside of that I would not consider a success. ie: Someone changes their mind, or finds the game elsewhere.

by ROMagister

Related Item: Herald's Call

Further gossip from the gallery:

Game1: 2/double would have been definitely preferred to attempt in that position over 4/weapon. Several less-preferred cards seen: BOTH below-the-pile, 0/phase-1 and 0/exchange2. Maybe there could have been worse options at those specific choice points, I don't know the full history. Get more/earlier destroys!

Game2: Correct! 3/destroy clearly needed then much more than vanilla 2/weapon (2/weapon has a very short window of desirability, earlier and to counterbalance a too early 0/cards2; afterwards just go for others). Then just bad luck exposing how many Aging and 0/weak still remained... Also 0/phase-1 seen in recent past. Again, more/earlier destroys - at least Robinson died trying in this case.

May not take my word too seriously, this Friday I had 2 defeats at L5 too.

by Forbidding

by CABS_Librarian

I honestly think seeing the successes would encourage more use of the list.

by abastecki

AHemi520 wrote:

I also lowered prices. Too bad Yulgame isn’t updating for people to see that

It is working again now.