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Public Access

Digital Edition
Former latchkey kids investigate a vanished television station through strange VHS tapes in 2004 New Mexico
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horrormodern
InvestigationMysteryCollaborativePlayer-Only RollsFiction-FirstCharacter-DrivenAtmosphericCorruption
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Dice2d6
System FamilyPbtA
CostFree
LicenseProprietary
PublisherThe Gauntlet
Year2023
Complexity Medium
Accessibility Very High
Runnability Low

Core Mechanic

When a move is triggered, roll 2d6 plus one of five ability modifiers. A 6 or less is a miss, while many moves split hits into 7–9, 10–11, and 12+ tiers. After a result is narrated, a player can turn a Key to raise it one tier and replace that outcome with a different timeline.

Best For

Groups seeking a finite collaborative analog-horror campaign where player-built theories, personal histories, and found-footage prompts shape the truth behind a small-town conspiracy

Highlights

Clues have no fixed locations or canonical answers, so players assemble them into a theory and roll to establish whether it is true. Turning a Key raises a resolved roll by one tier and replaces the narrated failure with an alternate timeline. Odyssey tape prompts let players author uncanny broadcasts that become a campaign timer and feed connections back into Deep Lake.

Considerations

Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night must occur in order, which constrains free-form scene pacing. The Keeper must synthesize campaign discoveries into a custom final TV Odyssey mystery. The intended campaign engages childhood trauma, body horror, ritual sacrifice, and other dark material.