The game of Night Vale I ran was a one-shot, so it only took about three hours and left very few loose ends.
The Voice of Night Vale
Night Vale is best with some weird descriptions and elaborate prose, so I use a lot more detailed notes than most games I run. The story kicks off with the Night Vale theme playing behind an introduction to the mystery. It is important to remember that the Night Vale podcast narrator, Cecil, has the calm and lyrical voice of a public radio host. Night Vale is best when narrated in a similar tone. Speaking so clearly and at a steady pace allows the time to think up more details even as you speak. It also lets you draw out the imagery of each scene, as well as keeping the humor deadpan as it should be (Smirks or giggles would kill the jokes in this setting.)
Here is part of the script for the opening intro:
"The Nightvale Mall has seen a number of disappearances lately, after after opening its doors to early February christmas shoppers. Local residents are reporting that family members have insisted on continuing their bargain-hunting expedition well into the twilight years of their lives, as their bodies and minds wither away and the last bags of i-pods, fancy wristwatches and collectible ceramic figurines of kittens fall from their cold dead hands. Attempts to retrieve their loved ones have been unsuccessful, and resulted in the disappearance of the searchers themselves."
Assembling The Cast
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| Just your average accounting office employee |
All of my Night Vale games put players in the role of members of the Historical Society, which allows a pseudo-explanation for their investigation into the bizarre affairs of the community.
The players start in the shopping mall and can't leave. The revolving doors defy time and space and take them right back into the building. This kind of limitation is not something I usually do, but I had already worked it out with my players that this would be a one-shot inside a mall, not all over town.
My players get a chance to introduce their characters, but of course their characters are already acquainted with each other through the society. The team consists of:
- A baseball player who sees the ghosts of dead world leaders
- A park ranger who randomly appears where he shouldn't
- A scientist with mystic runes tattooed across his body (A poor choice he made in college)
- A library page who can speed read fast enough to break the time barrier, reading things in the past and future.
Telling The Story
The nearly abandoned shopping mall bears immediate clues about its true nature, signs relating to Strexcorp. This is a sinister corporation from a neighboring town that is known for its sanitized consumerism as much as Night Vale is for its sense of community values. I included Strex promotions all over the mall, which I stole shamelessly from Veridian Dynamics, the unscrupulous employers of the underrated sitcom Better Off Ted.
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| Photo by The Caldor Rainbow |
"Cheerful Female Voice: StrexCorp. Doing the right thing. It's important. What does it mean in business? We have no idea. We know what wrong is. Actually, no, we don't. Because we're a successful company, not some boring ethics professor. StrexCorp. Right and Wrong. It means something. We just don't know what."
The shopping mall holds a personal appeal to me, as I love the idea of eerily abandoned urban areas. It's also a bit of an homage to the Dead Rising video games. In this mall, songs like Frosty the Snowman and Deck The Halls play constantly, with haunting record skips and reversals. The story that will eventually unfold involves the sale of defective blood stones which cause the "politically non-threatening secular holiday music playlist" to become sentient and lock down the building. It brainwashes the customers into "bargain zombies" and fills the building with its music and mesmerizing static.
Speaking of music, that is another aspect to this setting that is important. As an ambient soundtrack, I recommend very low-key electronica playlist of artists like Disparition, the composer/performer of the series' theme. And when you reach a mid-point intermission in your game, be sure to present "The weather" and play a particularly relaxing song. (A little inside joke for Night Vale fans.)
I will post some final thoughts on this particular game soon. Happy Ventures!
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