[Recruitment] Beneath The Busy Streets

The flashlight in your hand casts a circle of light against the tunnel, you shine it at the rounded ceiling to marvel at the massive crack that has formed in the concrete. Not watching where you’re going, you suddenly feel a yank at the collar of your jacket: "Watch out!" says your best friend, the one who grabbed your clothes, as she points his own flashlight down at an exposed piece of rebar sticking out the very same spot you were just about to step into: "Damn, thanks.", you reply with a chuckle. From the back you hear another friend: "Ugh I’m not liking this, can we please go back outside?". But you don’t want to, there’s a whole other city down here, ready to be explored…



Some of my games were put on hold and are generally more relaxed than expected, so I have now have some free PbP capacities. A while ago, sunnyVoid proposed roleplaying the exploration of a tunnel system and I liked the idea, though the intended vibe was a bit too dark and gritty for my tastes. So for those who thought the same, I want to propose playing a slightly unruly group of early teenage youths who got bored in the summer break and went to explore the abandoned and nearly forgotten tunnel network (subway, caverns, maintenance, sewers, mining, secret rooms) under a small to medium sized city, including some faux- and actually fantastical/sci-fi elements and some mysteries that connect the street level to the world beneath the busy streets.

I want to evoke the feeling of a group of friends (or frenemies?) sneaking off to do something that’s not allowed, having a legendary time and if they tell these stories at the start of the next school year, their peers’ reaction is "Sure, that happened…".



Game Length: ??? I imagine that it would be more sandbox-y with a couple of smaller story arcs that allow for the possibility to retire old or introduce new characters

Post Frequency: 4/week. I like to post every second day and would like every player to post at least once in between.

System: Bubblegumshoe. I have no experience with this ruleset (I also don’t expect you to have any), but it sounds good. It was between that, Kids on Bikes, and Tales from the Loop/Things from the Flood. But removing the ingrained setting from the latter seems like stripping it of an important component and the dice rolling system of Kids on Bikes didn’t appeal to me as much on first read-through. I am, however, open to hearing arguments for those two if potential players prefer these systems.

There will be no extra required software or resources beside this website.

Content Warnings: Youth and Urban Exploration are the themes so expect anything that comes with that territory (Love how Adam does these so I'm just going to go ahead and copy him - badly)Apply by posting a general character concept below and also include one thing your character is either hoping to or afraid to find in the tunnels. I’m looking for around 5 players, members of marginalized groups welcome.

I will leave applications open for a week.

I like this idea. I've played in a bubbblegumshoe game on here before, but it didn't last very long. I also played in gumshoe game.
Can't say I understood the system super well but it's something I'd love to give another shot.

As for a character concept, I'm thinking a tough tomboy with survival training who thinks going down into the sewers is a stupid idea but if someone's gotta do it, she better be part of that crew to make sure nobody gets hurt.

Took you a good twelve minutes Bowl. You getting rusty.

To be perfectly honest, I was expecting bowl to be the first person to urge me to use Things from the Flood LOL

Sweet! I like the concept, you might have missed the second part of the application question "and also include one thing your character is either hoping to or afraid to find in the tunnels"

I liked the idea. Though I have no experience in the system you already don’t expect any. As a concept, I can play that rather coward yet curious young boy who is constantly like "Uhmm, guys, should we go back?" but also continues exploring whether it be because he wants to make sure his friends are okay, because he doesn’t want them to see him as a coward or pure curiosity. He would not be a very valuable participant but he would make intelligent suggestions every now and then.

For the second question, he has heard of some rumors or read some urban myths about the tunnels. He wants to find out if those are really true (I’m leaving it consciously open because I want to fill in later).

I might have missed that 😄

My character is expecting to find rats, lizards and all kinds of animals. Maybe even an alligator. There's those urban legends about alligators in the sewers after all.

As for what she's afraid to find... a dead body

This sounds fun. I also have no experience with the system but have heard good things. Kids on Bikes could be fun too.

As for character concept...Little brother to the town's Next Big Thing. His older brother is the Quarterback or something. The town's golden child. It was his idea to get everyone to go into the tunnels because he is tired of being in his brother's shadow. He plays football (or whatever thing the older brother does) and will take over when Bro finally goes to college, but he wants to find something to set him apart now, and finding something legendary down here could be his claim to fame.

Edit: I had a second thought on the "hoping/afraid to find"...if it isn't too dark...he had a sister. She was the middle child. She disappeared recently, along with her delinquent significant other...within the year. Cops and parents think they ran away together. This character heard them talking about the tunnels before they vanished. He's afraid they met an untimely end. So it's sort of a afraid but would like to get closure.

Side note: I like Flood and Loop mostly for their setting. The system works for me. It's simple enough to not get in the way. But it's also not amazing. So looking into other systems if using that setting isn't what you're aiming for is something I'd encourage.

Not that this s cet-upouldn't totally be used in the Flood setting

Oh this sounds fun. I haven't played bubblegumshoe but playing a Kids on Bikes game right now and really enjoying it. Also a big fan of Tales from the Loop. So if bubblegumshoe is anything like those, I'm game for giving it a try.

One thing I liked about Kids on Bikes was spending some time and thought on connections between the characters up front (name something that really inspires you about character X, something you are keeping a secret from character Y, etc) before playing. Maybe that is also standard in bubblegumshoe, but if not we might think about pulling that in. Gives the group some cohesiveness (i.e., we all know who each other is and why we would be exploring together to being with) and we already have some relationships/background established to build off of once the adventure starts.

I'm thinking a fairly typical goth teen, into (not Twilight) vampires, wears a lot of silver jewelry, probably shops at Hot Topic if one exists in this world, etc. She is actually from a upper-middle class family with a pretty loving pair of parents who do no resemble anything remotely goth. Also, secretly likes Twilight and listens to Taylor Swift (or something similarly fitting in the world/era)...you get the idea.

Hoping to find some occult conspiracy group that uses the tunnels to gather to hold secret rituals used to influence the city, grant powers, etc. that would basically confirm her identity.

Thanks also to ireneofunyes, Dreamblade and Dsquid for your interest, seeing some nice concepts there!
I, equally, liked the worldbuilding part of Kids on Bikes. Bubblegumshoe does have the creation of relationships as a part of character creation, but it doesn't go as into specifics as KoB. But we can certainly go through the bubblegumshoe creation and then add on some more relationship building of our own if we feel it's necessary

This sounds like such a fun concept, NABO! Reminds me of the old 80s film [i]Explorers[/I]. I'm not able to join, but I did want to chime in with a bit of insight into [i]Bubblegumshoe[/I]. If it's anything like the other Gumshoe games, it requires the GM to come up with a "mystery" that the PCs try to solve. It's a great system for that sort of thing. In this case, that mystery could be to get to the bottom of the sci-fi or fantasy elements you mention in your pitch.

My point, though, is that it's a traditional game in the sense that there is supposed to be a single solution the GM has come up with ahead of time. The "what happened" that the PCs are slowly unraveling. This is fun, and it makes for fun games. It works well for sandbox-style play, as well, since the GM can drop clues pretty liberally that point to multiple new scenes/encounters based on the PCs actions, questions, and uses of their investigative skills. One caveat, though, is that there's usually a strong social component to Gumshoe games, so if you're setting the action underground, you may want to figure out how the PCs will be able to use their social skills for clues in addition to their Evidence Collection, etc.

One other thought is that if you want a more free-form experience, where the solution is not set in stone, Gumshoe can do that. But there's also a wave of games based on or inspired by [i]Brindlewood Bay[/I], where the players actually propose the solution to the mystery at the end (and even the GM doesn't know what's going on until that moment). I haven't played BB or its "carved from the Brindlewood" derivatives, but I wanted to mention it in case that's more of what you had in mind when you mentioned sandbox play.

Tl;dr: Bubblegumshoe is great. It works best with a pre-determined solution from the GM, but that isn't absolutely necessary. Brindlewood Bay is another option if you want to make things more freeform.

Yes, it is geared towards mysteries, but with an additional focus on the interpersonal teen drama. I have heard of Brindlewood Bay too, but it didn't immediately strike me as the kind of system I want to use for this kind of game. Will definitely have to check it out at some point, though. Thanks for the suggestion!

Bumping this as there are still one or two free spots and you still can apply here until saturday

@NABO - The game's marked as "Closed for applications". If you switch that to open (until the spots are filled), you'll get a green tag instead of red.

I know, I just thought I'd rather have people write in here than just apply on the game details page. But I guess it is a little confusing, I'll change the setting

Sure, but as you've added a link from your game to the tavern, the system will encourage application in this thread or via PM rather than direct application.

(What I see on your game page)

Oh, neat. Didn't realize this was a thing, thanks!

Really digging the pitch.
Really like the setting and the Kids on Bikes/Loop ideas although I also have not played either.

I have listened to a bunch of Kids on Bikes APs though and a couple Loop ones.

Character concept:
Young girl, 3rd generation Army brat , who's been dragged about but finally landed here.
She a bit of adrenaline junkie and always pushes the envelope, whether with authority, heights, or her luck.

She's afraid to find out what's left of that scrapped Military project that used to be in this town...
Because it's not the first time her "family" has been in this town

Thanks for the interest, MattParody. I didn't plan on any military bases in the area but I'm sure I can figure something out!