RP Zine Issue 4 - The Drome

RPZine Issue 4 - The Drome

Inspired by an odd mixture of Orwell's 1984, Battle Royale, Squid Games and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (not really), Drome is a visually intense virtual tabletop one-shot described by one playtester as 'the epitome of gaslighting'. The zip file contains 28mb of graphical, audio and written content presented in a way the GM will find intuitive to run.

The tone is tongue-in-cheek, the puzzles are mind-boggling. At its heart, Drome is an escape room with a dark modern RPG flavour.

Life is a daily trial. You exist on the bare minimum, toiling in a labour mill by day and re-education factories by night, with only four hours allocated to sleep. Home is an unfurnished, windowless, 10x10 room. Breakfast and dinner is boiled rice and black beans. You sleep alone on a concrete slab and barely speak to another soul from one day to the next. Rest is for the innocent and, as nobody is innocent, nobody rests. Although, strangely, the higher echelons do seem to enjoy this luxury.

Drome is your only outlet from the exhausting tedium. This tri-monthly telly-viz event is broadcast straight into your domicile. You sit on the floor (you have no furniture) and wait eagerly as the screen starts to flicker and buzz. You enjoy the puzzles. You enjoy the comeradery of the contestants. Not so much the exploding heads.

Selection is a dream few will realise. Those who win don't just go free, they go into the higher echelons! Vacations, mattresses, food and, the ultimate reward - permission to engage in relationships, maybe even procreate! Failure means death, but death is no worse than labour. At least the dead get to rest.

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RPZine is a collection of RPG one-shots, systems and creative ideas from the archived vaults of indie games publisher Forever People.