"๐๐๐ซ๐ค๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐
๐๐ก๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐๐ง๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ ๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐ก๐๐ง๐
๐๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ง ๐ฌ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ก ๐จ๐ ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐
๐๐จ ๐ญ๐๐ซ๐ซ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ณ๐ ๐ฒโ๐๐ฅ๐ฅโ๐ฌ ๐ง๐๐ข๐ ๐ก๐๐จ๐ซ๐ก๐จ๐จ๐"
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 real-world puzzle-solving.
If you can find the page where I've hidden a secret message, 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. I'm playing one, so there are three to four slots, and as of writing this, six people have managed to find the sheet. There will still be less-harshly-judged available openings for side characters after the main cast is filled -- bumbling cops, investigative teachers, parents, siblings, and local teenagers -- 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.
If you can find the page where I've hidden a secret message, 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. I'm playing one, so there are three to four slots, and as of writing this, six people have managed to find the sheet. There will still be less-harshly-judged available openings for side characters after the main cast is filled -- bumbling cops, investigative teachers, parents, siblings, and local teenagers -- 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.
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