The Safehouse (OOC)

Even if we can't think of anything else, there is always the hiking club. No need to go crazy to find a connection, they have at least been on that Cascades hike; they would have all bonded a little there, I would think.

@Prof C - Right, well it sounds like Jess and Padrick are in different spheres of the art world (although ... she works at a high-end gallery but is more indie herself, in terms of her own artistic output). Lets say they know each other through the club, and discovered that each other were artists, but haven't really hung out beyond that...? (Perhaps discovered cross-overs in mutual friends, or bumped into one another in the arts scene, but not really spent a lot of time together outside the club)

@KingG -
Re: Ellen and Jess rock climbing - Great! I don't think it counts out other climbing partners, and we ladies have to stick together. (And looking at your char sheet, she is approximately 100x better at it than Jess is, too...)

Re: Podcast - Well, Jess is not exactly a mover-and-shaker in the arts scene. Nor is she an up-and-coming star; so I'm not sure why she would be on the podcast (though she might listen to it after she found out that you had one).

Re: overdoing connections - Sure, but I feel like, if something makes sense & isn't over the top, why not suggest it? As long as we are open to falling back on the club as our only connection, it should be fine.

I suppose it's a question for our fearless leader, but does the club have more people than just the PCs?

In my mind, it would make sense that some of those who go together to the disaster zone might be friends above and beyond the club; others might be going purely out of a sense of social duty / right, and not as a collective endeavor. (Thinking of church groups doing Habitat for Humanity or other charity work - some would do it on their own in any case; some might feel the call to help, but in the end only do it because a group they're connected with is doing it.) Collective decision-making is a powerful force.

Also, perhaps I am misinterpreting the intro, but isn't the Cascades trip the beginning of the game? That would remove it from being a source of shared background...

I'm good with being the odd man out in the group and just knowing you guys through the club and maybe a bar I worked at or the food cart I work in presently.

RE: podcast- that's cool I just threw it out as an idea, I honestly think the podcast is more of a yelling at the Internet diary equivalent type of thing where he rants about conspiracies and reviews various nerd media. But I see him having guests On just for the sake of talking about random ideas.

RE: connections- as long as we're not forcing connections there's absolutely no reason not to build a tangential network of social connections between our characters.

If anyone's read the bit I threw down about Jack, why he's hiking/climbing has been taken care of. Why he'd associate with the lot of you likely has to do with the pair of Attractive 2's hanging from their chest the rock face. :3

Expect a few cheesy pickup lines at hilariously inappropriate times.

The intro says, "You hang on your wall at least one group excursion to the Cascades mountain range in neighboring Washington." I thought that meant it was in the past; but you could be right, too. I'm not sure where the Wenatchee National Forest in Chelan County is, or even where Chelan County is. And I'm a little hazy on the Cascades, to be honest.

The Cascades trip would've happened well before the quake. It's what would have brought you to the authorities' attention when they were scrambling for volunteers. Perhaps they found out on YouTube or Padrick's blog, or maybe something happened that made it to the papers. You rescued a fellow camper, the group got interviewed after surviving a freak snowstorm etc.

The whole of Chelan County (pop. ~75,000) is actually in the Wenatchee National Forest. It covers multiple counties up to the Canadian border including the part of the Cascades found in Washington. It's found right east of the most populated parts of the state (including King County and Seattle metro).

Some of the posted backgrounds are seeing revisions. If everyone says they're good to go before Friday, then I will have the first post up.

OK. Thanks for the correction! I was looking at the fact that the earthquake occurred in the North Cascades, and forgetting the previously discussed Cascades trip... Oops.

@Kakimasu - re: keramame's background: a competition?! I see pluto-bar sponsored equipment for the club! (OK, who wants to take a shopping trip to REI?!?!)

@Keramame - Bring the cheesy pick up lines on! After all, we all need something to regret. ;P

More to come on Bran (Brarn) but given he was a vocalist for a now defunct goth/rock bank that never got famous he could easily be know to any of the Art/Entertainment crowd characters. Still not finished my presentation for work but gonna take a quick break and update the app a bit.

Was looking into the Cascades, and how they seem to stretch from California, through our shared home in Oregon and on up through Washington, where the disaster occurred.

Found this site (US Geological Survey):

Map collection
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/pacnw/map.html

old Northern Cascades pamphlet
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/pacnw/nc/routes_rocks.html

And a the pdf (12+ meg) booklet referenced on that last page. Without large maps, which can also be downloaded from that page.
http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/pacnw/pdf...cks_nomaps.pdf

Having been there before, some of us might be passingly familiar with some of this information? (Though, at least for Jess, most of her knowledge would be about the ranges closer to home)

Morg

You'd certainly need familiarity to even consider climbing in the Cascades especially hazards from the weather. Out in the woods rain can cause multiple problems even in summer. And thanks for giving me another source of maps!

Just looking at the Chelan County news portals: very recently a man fell 300 feet down a cliff leaving his poor 9-year-old to walk out of the park alone looking for help.

In the past month multiple reports of people disappearing, drowning in rivers and getting injured rock climbing.

A teenager and her boyfriend were murdered by a militia group to protect their plot to kill the President and take over the government.

I thought I had a handle on making things up then real life tells me otherwise.