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High-Security Summer Camp
A summer camp for troubled teens becomes a training ground for a heist, but who is behind it? And do they know about the monsters among them?
$15.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Saturday - 11:00 AM UTC
Oct 10 / Session 1
Session Duration / 3–4 hours
Campaign Length / 4+ Sessions
5 / 5 Seats Filled
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Schedule
Meet your party members
5/5
About the adventure
A group of delinquent children are sent to summer camp in an attempt to set them on the straight & narrow, but then a new group of 'Councillors' arrive one day and take over. Every day becomes a new test of the campers physical & mental capabilities, such as how quickly they can solve a puzzle, how long they can hold their breath underwater and how well they can evade being found in a game of Hide & Seek. Before too long, the campers start to suspect they are being trained for a heist, but what is it they need to steal and why have they been chosen for it? Why have they been warned not to leave the camp and where are their families? As they compete to prove themselves the best, they also untangle the mystery that has been woven around them; who will they be at the end of the summer? This game is a combination of a couple of inspirations: - First, young adult mystery anime, particularly Assassination Classroom and Shadows House. In both of these, a large group of teenagers are bound together by an unexplained situation, with adult figures in control of what goes on around them. The protagonists have to both survive the trials ahead and unravel the mystery laid before them. Second, Monsterhearts! The game of messy teenage romances between inhuman characters; all the player characters are other than human, possessing the gifts and burdens of a mosntrous archetype. This is a character-driven drama, touching upon themes of teenage romance, sexuality, adolescence, monstrous horror, mystery box storytelling and crime action. The first session will focus on creating characters as a group, to provide a strong, shared background and interconnecting hooks, which will then provide the framework for the story to come. This is a "play to find out" style game, where we start fropom the above pitch and then follow the story in a natural way to see what happens next, with some unexpected drama added by the MC.
Game style
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Theater of the Mind
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(4)
Less than a year on StartPlaying
17 games hosted
Highly rated for: Inclusive, Creativity, Storytelling
About me
Dedicated indie storygamer based in the UK, been playing and running TTRPGs since Black Box Traveler and Red Box D&D (yes, it's a long time.) I like short, character focused campaigns with emerging stories, paying attention to narrative arcs for all players. Favourite games are Monsterhearts, Dead of Night, My Life with Master, Best Friends and others, and I also enjoy play-out-of-the-box games like For The Queen, Women Are Werewolves, Rest in Pieces and many more. I've run multiple campaigns for friends and TTRPG groups since college, both face-to-face and online, along with multiple attendances at UK conventions and have recently been recruited into the Games on Demand stream at UK Games Expo, running games for a new group of players every 2 hours, all day.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Character creation will take place in the first session as a shared activity: everyone will choose one from all those available and build their character based on that selection. The main characters' backstories have many intersections, with opportunities for players to contribute to each other's character arcs right from the start of play. All characters will be recorded on a shared Google Sheet that you will be given editing access to, as well as access to the notes on the hack for this game.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You will need a Discord account in order to play; when you join the game, you will be sent an invitation to a small private Discord server on which the game will be played.
What James Mullen brings to the table
This is a story-driven game where the player characters are always the protagonists of the story, or sometimes the antagonists. Beyond the basic setting of a summer camp and the plot behind its takeover, everything will emerge organically from player choices, actions and their consequences: sometimes the story will turn against you in meaningful ways as a result of the above. The NPCs we create through play will become a toolbox for me to use as MC in order to exploit the characters' motivations and each NPC will have some agenda of their own that they are pursuing. Sitting back and doing nothing enables the NPCs to push towards their own goals, which may not be in accord with what the PCs want; this is a pro-active story in which you need to advocate for your character's desires or be overtaken by others.
Homebrew rules
This is a modified version of Monsterhearts that relocates the setting from a high-school to summer camp for delinquent teenagers, with an over-arcing plot that lies behind the events that unfold, but all else is as for the 2nd edition of the game.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How James Mullen creates a safe table
The following safety tools will be in effect throughout the campaign: Open Table: players are free to come and go as they need to and should not feel they are interrupting the game if they need to take a break or leave for any reason. No Hate Speech: no matter what regressive opinions characters in the game may have, we will exclude any use of the terms hate speech, including an examples of sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, body shaming and so on. Lines & Veils: we will have a discussion about the tone and content all players find acceptable for the game, including trigger issues, phobias and so on. Pause Button: everyone is empowered to pause the game at any time, with an explanation if they desire; this can be used to take a moment, skip unwanted content, rewind & redo a portrayal of their character they are unhappy with, discuss upcomingh scenes and their ton, etc, Decompression: after every game, time will be available to discuss the game's content with each other, dig a little deeper below the surface of character motivations and generally ground ourselves.
Content warnings
Safety tools used