The town of Arcadia has a unique boogeyman, the Signal. Since 1947, a weird voice can be heard only at a certain house, currently owned by Winslow. The voice claims to be an alien and seems almost omniscient. It is written off as a trick, a type of stage magic. A few months ago, one teenager killed two of his friends then himself in Arcadia. It was officially blamed on drugs. However, the teens had recently visited the House and listened to the Signal. This attracted the attention of the Paranormal Exploration Society, a group of amateur ghost hunters. What is the truth behind the signal? Find out in the Arcadia Signal!
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wow nice work on hacking FACEBOOK
I too wish it was a video podcast. BTW whats this numbers station ross and cody (anything that makes a god tremble in fear must be heard by his cultist.) talk about?
http://www.archive.org/details/ird059
REALLY enjoyed your venture into NWOD. To be honest, I was surprised at how easily this story could serve as an introduction to a Changeling or Mage game. For example, the town name of Arcadia is also the name of the home to True fae and the Acanthus tower.
Factor in both antagonists’ treatment of humans(very fae-like) and your decription of the PCs’ run from the house (similar to a Changling abuduction)and you’ve got an intro to a whole campaign.
One suggestion though, if you’re looking for sanity-type rolls, you might consider having the pcs roll humanity. I know that such rolls are usually reserved for ‘sinful’ acts but the effect of failing the roll is more of what you are looking for.
“Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn, Cthulhu fhtagn”
Love it! Fun episode, I will say as much as I love the New World Game, not having to sit through an hour+ of combat is nice. I agree with Cody’s post mortum. Changing the towns folk view of it to being a of mix of thinking itss good, bad or a haux would be a lot better.
Make the Signal less sinister seeming and record a second run with Aaron and Tom. Because we all just can’t get enough of the dynamic duo.
Yet another great AP. Very entertaining, and a great scenario as well. Sorry, Ross, but I’ll have to steal it (and run it in my Gumshoe campaign). I love the D&D New World games, but I do think that you and Tom both really shine when doing horror/ investigation.
The biggest surprise for me on this one was how involved Jason was in the system. I don’t recall him every being system pro-active before. Cody was enjoyable as usual. It was nice to see a new combo of RPPR “staff” bouncing off each other.
My first listen through I wasn’t paying close attention at the beginning when Cody said his character was divorced and then it kept coming up in little snips during play. I kind of thought that Cody, the player, had gotten a divorce and it confused me.
Excellent tension in the last hour. I’m surprised that Cody didn’t try to get Larry to go outside by telling him there was a UFO on the front lawn.
Do you guys ever have female players?
We do have female players – a lot of the convention games have them like http://actualplay.roleplayingpublicradio.com/2010/01/systems/maoct/monsters-and-other-childish-things-candlewick-manor-as-run-by-ben-baugh/ and many one shots have them like http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2009/01/actual-play/rppr-actual-play-the-life-and-adventures-of-santa-claus/
Yeah, I was a big WoD nerd when I was when high school. In fact, it’s one of the few systems I feel comfortable enough running. Hopefully sometime in the future I’ll try to come up with a one-shot and earn my wings as an RPPR DM. Ross and Tom would be sooo proud of me. 😉
“Dude! Spot me!”
That AP was both hilarious and intense!
I would like to thank the players for allowing the NPC to tag along. That was very enjoyable.
The great thing about that adventure was how the threats kept coming to the players once they spoke to the signal: a possessed NPC with a rifle, a pissed-off NPC with a shotgun, a brainwashed NPC trying to break the seal of a probably malevolent space monster, and the aliens themselves. There was always something for the PCs to deal with. With only 2 players, the adventure moved at a great pace, too.
Any plans to publish the adventure? It was really well done.
Please do more investigative/mystery adventures in the future!
Really enjoyed this podcast,as I enjoyed the majority of actual plays and all of the “normal” rppr podcasts. Quick question- what was the video Cody mentioned about the “Guy with .45 shooting a flying saucer”? Love your stuff!
An enjoyable listen =)
Though I do have to wonder, why is the “news” that life is a chemical “accident”, the result of meaningless odds on a speck of dust floating through the black cosmos of infinity mind-shattering? I thought it was the best thing about life? We have no inherent meaning or purpose, save that which we ourselves craft. We create our own destinies. It’s the best of the possible options in my opinion XD
The human mind likes to imagine this is the case sometimes, but the human psyche needs there to be a possibility the mind is wrong. 🙂
JaceMorley: READ MORE LOVECRAFT
This is one of those concepts that I may steal for my group in some form. I think my favorite aspect of this was the “small town tradition” nature of the signal – how most of the town had talked to the Signal or knew someone who had. No big thing.
When I was thinking about that, it was chilling to think, “What if the signal asked, say, one person in five to do something minor? Something seemingly inconsequential that furthers its plans?” But it’s been going on for 60+ years, slowly building what it needs.
In that time, the Signal could engineer relationships to create useful children. It could have set everything in motion for the initial murder by getting the victims’ parents together when they were high school seniors, having long ago predicted that the murders would bring paranormal investigators. Basically, the sense of horrifying predestination or “no free will” that also crops up in God’s Teeth.
The relationship of Malcolm the custodian/technician to this dispassionate consciousness that doesn’t care about him at all now that he’s served his purpose was also pretty creepy and nicely paralleled Beth’s sudden appearance.