๐๐ช๐ป๐ด๐ท๐ฎ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ผ ๐ช๐ฌ๐ป๐ธ๐ผ๐ผ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ญ
๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ท๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ธ๐พ๐ป ๐ฒ๐ผ ๐ฌ๐ต๐ธ๐ผ๐ฎ ๐ช๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ช๐ท๐ญ
๐๐ป๐ฎ๐ช๐ฝ๐พ๐ป๐ฎ๐ผ ๐ฌ๐ป๐ช๐๐ต ๐ฒ๐ท ๐ผ๐ฎ๐ช๐ป๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ฏ ๐ซ๐ต๐ธ๐ธ๐ญ
๐ฃ๐ธ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ป๐ธ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ฎ ๐โ๐ช๐ต๐ตโ๐ผ ๐ท๐ฎ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ซ๐ธ๐ป๐ฑ๐ธ๐ธ๐ญ
Can you see me? Can you read these words? Don't react. They might see you. Just keep reading.
The year is 1983. Ronald Reagan is President of the United States of America, The Return of The Jedi has dominated movie screens for over half a year, and the Orioles have recently defeated the Phillies to win the World Series. In the face of a recession and a war on drugs, America has marched onward through the Cold War. It is a time of scientific innovation and academic progress. It is a time of technological wonder and social justice, bravely taking bold steps towards the future while abandoning a discolored, dysfunctional past. With the rise of toys like Atari, SNES, and The Cabbage Patch Kids, it is a good time to be an American, but an even better time to be an American child. Fortunately for you, you happen to be both.
You live in the sleepy mountain suburb of Wiscasset, Colorado. It isn't as fancy as the city folk have in Denver -- Old Man McRobert resets the pins instead of a high-tech robot at the bowling alley, there are two radio stations able to penetrate the Rocky Mountains, and the nearest shopping mall is a town over -- but it is far safer than the streets of Denver. In fact, Wiscasset is statistically the safest town in Colorado, a feature pointed out on its highway entrance sign. It's the kind of town you would move to after a difficult city upbringing to raise children to settle down in, and equally the type of quiet, sheltered town those children would grow up despising. It generally sees tourists twice a year, when its forested summerhouses are reopened, and once more when there are pumpkins to be picked and cider to be sold. As it just so happens, it is the middle of October, the prime time for both.
Our story begins with the Emerson Middle School's Book Club. They are a small group of Coloradans between the ages of eleven and thirteen, who belong to the club either out of a fondness for literature, a desire to be in extra yearbook pictures, or a need for English credit offered by spending every Wednesday afternoon with a roomful of bookworms. Your character's motivations will be left up to you, but where they are is on a field trip to the Colorado State Library. It is here they find, like groups of plucky protagonists often do, an unspeakable power not meant for them. Not meant for anyone. Whether they attempt to harness this power for their own gain or try to return their world to normalcy is in your hands.
Welcome to The Book Club. I hope you've read this far because you're interested, so let me drop the GM mask and explain what I've got in mind with less cagey wording. The Book Club is strongly inspired by Stranger Things, and is meant to fill the coming-of-age-horror shaped void left in my heart by completing the second season. Thematic sources also include Gravity Falls, Welcome to Night Vale, and Hocus Pocus. I've always been fascinated with the occult, conspiracy theories, and modern fantasy settings, so naturally, this RP will heavily feature all three. Following that theme, I should point out that this RP will encourage investigation, reading between the lines, and puzzle-solving. If you can find the character sheet, you may apply, but please know that this is the most ambitious RP project I've undertaken, and thereby the most competitive in terms of how harshly I'm judging your sheet. The main group of kids will be no more than five, and ideally, I'm aiming for four. There will still be less-harshly-judged available openings for side characters -- bumbling cops, investigative teachers, parents and classmates -- but they will not take the center stage, or only briefly become aware that there is a stage before a horrorterror eats their face. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or threats, now would be the time to voice them.
