Can’t Stop the Signal
The TTRPG Public Access is, without question, one of my favorite games.
It removes all the clunky parts of D&D (ENDLESS types of dice, tables, variations, loooooong combat) and replaces it with a storytelling medium that’s incredibly immersive…and doesn’t put all the weight on the person running the game to do so. PLAYERS are given constant opportunities to expand the world, to gather clues, to decide for THEMSELVES what direction the story will take.
So my bestie and I thought this would make a good podcast.
I have, admittedly, never put on a podcast before. But this feels like a good time to do so, considering how great the game is, how amazing the players are, and how it’s easier than ever to distribute media we create.
The Gauntlet, those who created the game, describe it this way:
Public Access is a tabletop roleplaying game about a group of people in 2004—the Deep Lake Latchkeys—who find themselves investigating strange mysteries in and around the town of Deep Lake, New Mexico. In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, Deep Lake was the home of a notorious public access television station called TV Odyssey, the history and fate of which—the station literally disappeared—is the source of much speculation in certain corners of the internet. As the Latchkeys conduct their investigations in Deep Lake, they will become increasingly aware of the central role TV Odyssey plays in everything that’s going on, and will have to face whatever terrible truth lies at the heart of the infamous station…
The game is fairly open-ended. You can flesh out certain characters, leave them behind, make your own…and what BECOMES of the Latchkeys, with rare exception, is also open to the players.
This game has a chokehold on me the same way The Magnus Archives does (what IS it with me and my infatuation with creepy old men? Jonah Magnus has ruined me, I swear…), with each tape hitting the same spots in my psyche that Sims did with his statements. It feels like it’s seeped into my marrow, and I don’t think I’ll ever be rid of it. I don’t think I WANT to be. If left to my own devices, I’ll be gathering Latchkeys and exploring Deep Lake for the rest of my life.
I’m told there’s about to be a Kickstarter for an updated version of the game (with new mysteries!), and when that happens I’ll update this post to include it.
In the meantime, I’ll keep gaming and working on this podcast with my players. It’s my plan to release it when we’ve wrapped up a season (adults and their schedules, am I right?), which gives me time to try to talk myself out of buying that spiffy Magnus Archives mic that I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT NEED but it’s SUCH a pretty shade of green…
