Player Characters Team

  • Roman Law (Ben)
  • Jett Kassidy (Ian)
  • Bobby Law (Alex)
  • Yuto Watanabe (NPC)
  • Yumi Sato (NPC)

Plot Points

Island One

Everyone wakes up groggy and confused on a black sand beach surrounded by a heavy mist 1 and we introduce the characters as the camera pans around. 2 Jett feels in his pocket for his phone, but it’s glitched out and displaying random numbers. Bobby feels a familiar switchblade in his pocket but keeps it there.

  • Roman recognizes his estranged nephew Bobby but there are no other ties between Jett, Yuto, and Yumi, who woke up in the same situation. They’re all wearing matching sea green polo and shorts, with a name and number for a badge.
  • Roman yells for the person in charge and an old TV flickers to life from the porch of a rundown cabin on the edge of the sand. There is a tape in a VHS player beneath it. The players push it and press play.
  • None of them knew what to think. But Bobby did, he’s heard about an urban legend like in copypastas and greentext stories on the internet. They’re in a liminal space, a game with few survivors3.
  • They investigate the rundown cabin and find “plAy tO WiN” written in a punched-in mirror in the bathroom. They discover little else among aged furniture and broken glass. “Did a fight take place here?”
  • Yuto, spots a Lighthouse in the distance and they hike towards it.

Lighthouse (Area 10)

Whitewashed concrete is cracked and dirty while a loose wooden gate creaks in the wind, then bangs shut. Echoing footsteps can be heard from somewhere inside.

  • An American bursts from the lighthouse door panicked and hyperventilating. He’s wearing the same polo and shorts they are. Jett tries to make friends, but he’s freaking out having seen the same tape reel informing them of their assumed fate.
  • Inside they find another four “participants” all in similar outfits. They woke up near the Lighthouse itself and found a similar VHS recording. Rusty servers with tape reels, a trashed console, and a table with a yellowed and faded island map can be found inside.
  • There is a tenuous greeting before a high-pitched sine emits in their heads.4 Everyone flees the building except Bobby who holds on long enough to see space fold on itself and a collection of items materialize (see: Acquisitions) among the items is a map of the assumed island they’re on.
  • They follow a rough trail northeast along the coast to an area called “Playground.”

Playground

There is indeed a playground in the middle of a marsh made of thick wood, tires, pipes, chain links, and bolts. Nearby a shelter stands with a tube TV on a park table and another team waits (because the TV told them to), which tunes into a channel the second they meet each other on friendly terms.

The following subtitles are displayed: Free-for-all to knock the other team off. Touch the ground, you’re out. The last competitor still on the playground wins it for their team.

  • Challenge Beast (Floor is Lava): The tube TV cuts out and a moment later the ground quakes and the mist rises.
  • Roman scrambles up the park shelter making him safe from the contest’s rules (support: Bobby), all while the other participants flee to the playground. Grab the bars and climb to the top.
  • Jett tries to help a participant up from the other Team but they slip from his hands and they fall to the ground; which opens a hell fissure. Fiery arms grab the contestant and they’re dragged down screaming. 5
  • The horror of the situation sets in and the playground begins to sink into the marsh. It’s fight or die now.
  • Roman eggs on Bobby on the whole time with encouragement with the situation out of his control—this is his nephew after all, and he’s going to win.
  • Roman throws his safari hat at the last opposing challenger saving Bobby. The mist recedes and reality turns to normal. Until they see an arm being pulled into the marsh. Shudder.
  • Bobby wins the challenge for this team, while everyone else takes fatigue.
  • Reality hits Jett that they survived a fucked up horror game of hot lava and has a hard character shift from kindly barrister to cold-blooded realization of “IT’S US-VS-THEM. WE NEED GUNS!”.

Apartment Blocks

This area is a series of Soviet-styled apartments; brutalist architecture right from Chernobyl. They spot a dead body in a fountain, wearing a seafood green polo outfit like themselves.

  • The body suddenly twitches violently, it looks like something is putting him on like a sleeve. He stands like a puppet. Looks around. Then walks out of sight.
  • “OH MY GOD, IT GOT KENJI!” You hear from the city.
  • There is another space-folding event like the Lighthouse and more items materialize and dump into the fountain. “It’s trying to coax us out!” is yelled from the apartment blocks by an unseen team.
  • The players maneuver (Snake Challenge) to try and steal the gear that dropped while the other teams is unaware.
  • Roman tries to draw their attention by feigning a fall and letting his team outflank the opposition.
  • Jett grabs Yumi (spending trust) for Plan B: Social deception and a cinder block (failure). And Jett throws her under the bus, she runs away from the party.
  • Bobby is jump-scared by one of the puppet monsters (failure) an animated compact cassette tape that crawls around on its tape, and he hides

The White Honda

They find a White Honda on the side of the road and Bobby pulls out the key fob he found at the Lighthouse. It bleeps and unlocks. He tries the key and the car coughs to life. They’ve got wheels now!

Compound

There is nobody here, there is a military compound that looks glitched STALKER-like abnormalities. Somebody has written “play to win” with a bloody palm smeared through it. Next to that written in the window dust: “We’ve been trapped here for days, beware the klaxons they come at night.” The players try to break in, avoiding a fence with razor wire and abnormalities in space-time. And they have a car as an advantage.

  • Bobby launches the car through the fence. Lands hard and swerves around the abnormalities (success). He bails as the Honda starts on fire.
  • Roman tries parkour lessons he never showed up for and clips his leg through an anomaly and his leg starts on fire (taking fatigue).
  • Jett follows the safe path that Bobby made with the car.
  • Inside they find a military office, wood paneling with boring white stone brick. They smell cigarette ash and disinfectant inside. They hear traffic above them like they’re underground.
  • They explore and find stoggy leather furniture and an office with orange military cases on a desk. A lit cigarette is found smoldering in an ashtray. In these cases, they find a map, a smoke grenade, and a collapsible stun baton.

Acquisitions

  • Mangled Amazon package containing 50’ of rope
  • Key fob inside an orange plastic folder
  • Round plastic case with a map of Island One inside.
  • White Honda
  • Map of Island Two
  • Smoke Grenade
  • Collapsible Stun Baton

Character Development Moments

  • Roman living vicariously through Bobby.
  • Jett’s betrayal of Yumi.
  • Jett freaking out over everyone dying at the Playground.
  • Bobby finds a vehicle and explodes it in the next scene.

Unresolved Plot Threads

  • What happened to Yumi after she left?
  • Who left the cigarette?

Next Session Setup

  • The players are heading to the stadium.
  • The Klaxons sound in six hours.
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2024-08-02 DM I
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  1. This is a deviation from waking up on a small mortar boat piloted by one of the players. ↩︎
  2. We skipped the trust-building exercises out of convenience, everyone took 2 trust. ↩︎
  3. This type of conspiracy-building is a part of the game, I chose a slenderman-styled horror setting. ↩︎
  4. Redacted Challenge: I wanted the players to have a low shot at attempting this (d4) as it’s assumed they’re trapped in a liminal zone of urban legend, but the rules state they need to open it during play or New Game +. Alex pointed out it opens at a d6 when you get it and he’s right, but I wanted a lower stat to reflect the unique state of the place with the risk opportunity to explore it. ↩︎
  5. Drag me to Hell ↩︎