DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL - PLOT POST 1

[goneawaymod]

DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL

There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call...The Twilight Zone.

LINKS

OOC FAMILY INFO/WORKSHIPPING: Info on family setup
NETWORK POST

PLOT SYNOPSIS
The New Hires won't remember how they got there - was it because of a mission? A Stuff storm hitting the rig? Remembering how it all started seems as much of an impossible task as escaping.

Trapped in a black and white world that follows the rules of a sitcom, the group will have to navigate the sitcom situations they're forced into, all while snooping around and uncovering the mystery of what's Nick-at-Nighted the world around them.

But escaping won't be easy. There is a Presence here that doesn't want them to leave, and the townspeople - and slightly less human minions - will do everything they can to force them to stay. If trapped for too long, the New Hires might find themselves being made into main cast members, all past traces of their original personality disappearing forever.

SETTING
On the surface, the town of Darlington looks as darling as its name. Nuclear families greet their neighbors and go through life with a gee whillickers attitude. Husbands go to work and come back with a "honey, I'm home," teens go to pep rallies every other day, and wives do their wifely duties and make sure a 4 course meal is on the table every night, gelatin mold desserts - and sometimes main courses - set perfectly every time.

It's a perfect place - but only by a very narrow definition of "perfect."

This "perfection" is enforced by the npcs in the town. Whenever a character acts out of line with the nature of the town, nearby townspeople will turn and stare menacingly, pointing and screaming if they don't correct the behavior or recant what they've said. This screaming will start to get deafening before long, and risk bursting ear drums - and other organs - if the PCs don't change their actions.

All while the town's laugh track cackles away.

Their arrival to Darlington comes with little fanfare, but they do hear a voice in their heads, with the booming clarity of an announcer, saying:

It's time for Jorgmund Knows Best, starring the New Hires, with the people of Darlington, brought to you by FOX, the unreality repellant that gives you something extra!

LOCATIONS

Click for larger map

Darlington High School: The town's high school, home to various cliques of teenagers, and containing secrets that can only be discovered after dark.

Sheriff's Station: The sheriff seems like a typical sitcom sheriff, neighborly and helpful, but the sheriff's station has carefully guarded files that might be of interest to the New Hires.

Abandoned Factory: In such a sunshiney town, why is there an abandoned building?

Library: Information about the town can be found here, including a section with town records.

TV Studio: The possible source of strange broadcasts that can be found on TVs in Darlington.

???: A completely unassuming house.

Abandoned Mall: Another abandoned building, and one that's outside of time. This shopping mall is a decade or two early for the time period in the sitcom. Perhaps something useful can be found inside.

Murnjgod Appliances: The TV's in the window of Murnjgod Appliances sometimes display cryptic messages that might offer clues or puzzles to be deciphered.

DETAILS

• All non-human New Hires will be humanized.


• All New Hires will temporarily lose their powers.


• Characters cannot leave town. Every time they try they'll find themselves re-entering again.


• New Hires will near-constantly hear a laugh track during "sitcom" situations but it will sometimes go away for private conversations.


• During "sitcom" scenarios there is a strong sense that New Hires are being watched, but it sometimes goes away in private.


• New Hires will wake up in their "character's" clothes and be missing whatever gear they would've had on a mission. They'll possibly be able to recover their mission gear later.


• The only exception is their comms. They'll find these in their houses.

SITCOM SCENARIOS
The characters will be forced into a variety of sitcom scenarios, hampering their progress in investigating and escaping the town. They will be teleported to the location of the scenario (such as their home) and every time they try to leave, they'll just magically come back through the same door. The scenario has to be acted out for characters to escape it.

Players will be allowed to invent their own scenarios and almost anything that would fit a 50s or 60s sitcom is fair game. The boss comes to dinner, the characters accidentally break grandma's urn at the neighbors' dinner party and have to hide it, the wife or husband has to manage holidays at the in-laws, the sitcom wife gets a new job at a chocolate factory to have extra money for shoes and the conveyer belt moves too fast, etc.

SITCOM SCENARIO EXAMPLES

• A new job has your character and a buddy in over their head, always an inch away from being fired, with their new boss adding to the chaos by asking for completely unrealistic standards.


• Through a set of comical misunderstandings the gang winds up arrested, but fortunately gets exonerated by the end of the episode.


• The boss is coming over for dinner and his exacting standards mean there might be a firing by the end of the night.


• You're having dinner with the neighbors as a way of burying the hatchet from a long feud, and accidentally knock over the urn with great-gamgam's ashes. You have to hide what happened and somehow replace them.


• The in-laws are in town and are impressive in every way. You're feeling competitive, so good thing there's a ridiculous obstacle course at a town event to compete against the bro or sis-in-law in. Time to take it too seriously.

SITCOM NPCS
Players will handle their own sitcom scenarios and are allowed to god general npcs in the plot themselves. Every scenario should involve at least one npc. If the New Hire doesn't act along with the scenario the npc(s) will slowly turn to face them. The laugh track will roar into a rising crescendo. If they keep fighting the scenario, the npcs will then point and start screaming, their voices a deafening screech mixed with TV static. The screaming can start to cause damage the longer it goes on, like a crushing head ache, and bleeding from the eyes and ears. If kept up too long, it becomes fatal.

The character will have to stop fighting the scenario and start acting along to make the npc stop screaming. The npc(s) will then segue smoothly back into acting it out.

BLACKOUTS
New Hires will each remember the basics of who their "character" is supposed to be, but this implanted knowledge will feel more like they've read a writeup of their personality and personal history rather than having the actual memories. Over time, they may find themselves blacking out and in those moments, they'll act like the actual character, their personality temporarily subsumed.

Over time the blackouts will get more frequent and the character may start getting absorbed by the sitcom world.

The blackouts can be paced by the player. A player can opt out of these moments by handwaving that the plot will end before their character started having their blackouts.

PLOT PART 1
The characters will find themselves scattered through the town of Darlington, wearing the clothes of their "characters" and will start facing their first sitcom scenarios while trying to regroup.

Future plot parts will allow characters to decide where to investigate and players will be able to sign up for npced threads.

OPT-OUTS
Players may opt out of plot by playing in the alternate plot during this one or engaging in normal threading on the rig.