"Polybius IS." - upcoming Tales From The Loop scenario

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thedungeondelver

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As I stated before, I'm running a lot of stuff at the Free RPG Day coming up on the 17th. The first 6-hour bloc I will run the tournament version of the upper floor of A1. It's quick, easy, easy to TPK in, etc.

However, after I do a panel on DMing, I'm going to run Tales From The Loop. If you're not familiar, it is an "Alternate 1980s" setting where the artwork of Simon Stålenhag is the natural backdrop: that reality, but populated with surreal gigantic high-tech structures, sometimes runaway AI/robots, maglev trains, and so on.

It's a heavily narrative based game. The characters (referred to in the rules as "the Kids") are adolescents who are...well, about the age I'd be back in 1980. The tone of the game is heavily influenced not just by Stålenhag's artwork but by "paranormal" TV shows and movies like E.T. and The X-Files with a large dollop of Stranger Things.

What I have in mind is a three-part game, where the Kids all live in Central Florida (where I grew up). At the time I'm setting the game (1982), the suburb of Orlando I lived in was a sleepy middle-middle-class area. Disney consisted of Walt Disney World and Disney Village (an out-parcel shopping center). Epcot was under construction. Sea World was the only other real theme park competition. There was one "skyscraper" downtown (the 20+ story CNA Insurance building). Where the "I4 Corridor" now stretches unbroken from Tampa to Daytona, back then it involved long drives through undeveloped parts of the middle of the state.

The first chapter of the game deals with introducing the Kids to one another and setting the tone. The big news in Pine Hills is that Game Street, USA (yes, it was a real place!) has gotten a Pac-Man machine! Centipede, Tempest, Battlezone, Asteroids and so on take a backseat, and the row of tokens stacked along the edge of the cabinet's CRT frame is long indeed. Another new game has come in, but nobody seems interested: everyone wants a piece of that dot-chomping maze machine. Older teenagers crowd the cabinet during most of the afternoon and evenings (Game Street is located right next to Evans' High School, but far, far from elementary and middle schools). So the Kids have to wait, or play something else.

One of the Kids (an NPC) contrives to find some way to play Pac-Man unfettered. While people other than the regulars do get the occasional shot, since nobody can really practice (except them), nobody can play for more than a few minutes before being gobbled up by Inky, Pinky, Blinky or Clyde. So, our NPC Kid realizes that if he could get in while the arcade was closed (with or without the help of the other Kids), he could play all night!

This is where things get Weird. This Kid then disappears. Whatever contrivance he uses to stay and play (hides in the bathroom 'til after closing, lifts a key from the manager, climbs in through the A/C duct on the roof), he doesn't come home. His bike is found behind the arcade. Of course, "missing children" is now a social hot-button, and "are video games something-something our kids" is too, so this attracts a lot of attention from the press. Being friends of the missing Kid, the players have to figure out what happened - and why a black van was seen at Game Street USA before the authorities arrived, and why is one of the new arcade games (Poly-something-or-the-other) gone as well?

What do you folks think? Does this idea have merit thus far?
 
I'm a mark for urban legends and stuff, so I totally approve of the use of Polybius.
 
Sounds like fun. And, clearly, Stranger Things inspired.
 
I saw this game on RPGNow and was curious how good it was.
 
If they find the Polybius machine and play it, at the end it has to go black showing 4 words in old school green text.
THE DOOR IS OPEN
 
I saw this game on RPGNow and was curious how good it was.

It uses a simplified version of the Year Zero rules. It plays really well and is a hoot for old guys to relive our 80s youth. Combat is not won with weapons and the kids don't die, but the threat feels real. It is like Scooby Doo in many ways. Heavy investigation followed by serious planning to take down the baddies. We also laughed a lot. The kid from the wrong side of the tracks got the nickname Pov, short for poverty. Not PC, just like kids in the 80s were in no way PC.
 
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