>>30796508
Hey, OP, are you a fan of Night Vale Radio? Might help inspire somethings for this. You might even try to thow in a reference or two if it really catches you. Look it up on soundcloud.

It's been one of those shifts.

No, not one of the crazy ones.

Sure, the mirror in the women's bathroom is on the fritz again, but that mirror's never really worked quite right and throwing your hair into a ponytail is easy enough even with a reversed reflection. And of course, the Grey Man came in for his nightly Choco-Delite Bar, but the Grey Man's always been a polite and grateful customer as long as you're prompt and professional about sating his candy fix. No, tonight hasn't been one of your crazier shifts, and while you know that you should be thankful for not having to deal with a fruitbat infestation or another legion of shadow people out to overthrow the "tyranny of the corporeal," right now you don't feel thankful.

You feel...

Sleepy...

You feel so very sleepy...

In fact, you feel so sleepy that you just want to lay your head down on the counter and take a nap. That jerk Carlos already claimed the couch in the breakroom an hour ago when he finished restocking the Soyl-Os and you haven't seen or heard from him since. Which is strange, come to think of it, because Carlos usually snores like a buzz saw. Looking blearily out one of the large plate glass windows in the front of the Station, you catch a glimpse of yourself reflected in the glass.

Yikes. You look like shit. Tired and strung out.

Pale too.

So sleepy...

Looking past your reflection, you can see Mark out under the fluorescent lights, leaning against one of the pumps, arms folded against his chest, headphones of his Walkman covering his ears, baseball cap tugged down low, covering his eyes. You've kind of got a thing for Mark, but you know better than to fool around with co-workers. You've seen what happens to kids that screw in horror movies, and besides, you don't get to be Employee of the Month for a year and a half straight at this Station by being brainless.

>>30796702
No, you're good. You've got a handle on this little crush. You'll keep things professional. It looks like Mark is tired as Hell too though. Yeah, his head just drooped there, like he's nodding off. He caught himself doing it.

Once, twice, three times...

He's gone. He's gone. He just disappeared. Mark just nodded off or fell asleep or something and he just disappeared. Just like that, in front of your eyes.

Shit!

When was the last time you saw Carlos again? An hour? More? What time is it even anyway? And why are you this fucking tired? This is not good. Al was supposed to be sweeping the store when... Did you just nod off yourself just now? You feel like you've lost a couple minutes there. This really isn't good at all.

Shit!

You can still hear Al sweeping, which is good, but you can hear him yawning too, which isn't good. You call out to him across the aisles, your normally shrill voice you kind of hate thick and sleepy.

"Al... hey, Al...! I need you to inventory all the coffee and sugary drinks we've got in stock right now while I go check on Carlos. Mark just disappeared and I think we've got a problem..."

>>30796600
OP of the current thread here and Welcome to Night Vale listener here. There might definitely be some content to mine from that radio show, as it has a very similar theme of juxtaposing the mundane and the supernatural that Night Shift does.

>>30796834
Cool. I keep reading this thread in Cecil's voice, and it makes me feel a little sane that I'm not the only fan.

>A cat suddenly appears
>It politely asks you to feed it some beef jerky.
>If fed, will tell you his name is Tybalt.
>Starts having some casual conversations about hunting, tom-catting around, etc..
>If you're a cool bro with him, he thanks you, and gives you a major tip about a threat that will be dealt with later in the evening.
>If you're a jerk to Tybalt, he sabotages tasks around the store, and generally inconveniences and stresses out the party.

How's that?

>>30796941

Stealing that for Night Shift World, probably without the talking part. Have a stray cat which surreptitiously helps or hinders depending on how you treat it, with vague intimations that its sentient. No confirmation, though.

>>30796941
Seems kinda corny in all honesty and not in a good way. Plus we already have the crow which plays a similar role and does it much better in my opinion.

>>30796968
Works for me. My ideas are free for taking, discarding, or mangling into something new.
>>30796990
Sorry, I'll try better with the next one.

>New guy shows up with security equipment.
>Shows a legit looking note from management about the need for heightened security.
>Will attempt to install all new cameras and audio-recording equipment.
>Guy seems plain. No features stand out. Hard to recall.
>Secretly a member of some sort of government agency, cult, conspiracy group (Illuminati, et. al.).
>They know weird shit is up, and is trying to figure stuff out.
>Or they are the cause of some of the weird shit, and want higher quality video and audio for their shits and giggles.
>Or, you know, whatever else you come up with.

>>30796941

>A lumpy, misshapen man wanders into the store
>His skin is pink like someone just scrubbed him with a wire brush, and damp to the touch
>He asks around about fertilizer and/or mulch
>If anyone says anything about tubes or worms, he shrieks
>His skin rips apart to reveal masses of clumped together earthworms
>What's left of him falls forward and splats onto the floor
>now you have to get rid of all these worms an mop their slime off the floor

>>30797041
Fantastically disgusting.

>>30796941
>>30796968
>>30796990
Part of the beauty of this setting is that the GM can tailor it to all tastes. It can be a serious, dire horror experience to one group and to another it can be a more lighthearted paranormal work comedy.

>>30797041
There's a similar one on the list about cats buying tuna and it had just that sliver of humor and fun strangeness that I feel edges out your version.

In the Manager's office is an old computer running an atrociously out of date operating system. Left open on the screen is a bare-bones looking program that:

1. Shows a blocky, top-down representation of the service station and everything inside it. Crude menus on all sides give the user long lists of stock items, equipment and furnishings that can be added to or subtracted from the station diagram, where it then can be moved and manipulated.

2. Shows the portrait and name of each and every one of the station's current Night Shift employees. Beneath the portraits are two simple input fields labeled "Text to Speech" and "Command Prompt" which can be used to control an attendant's speech and actions, though not their thoughts.

>>30797231

Hey man, not everything in the thread needs to go on the list.

I invented that one on a whim, go ahead and leave it out.

>>30797358
We're trying to be careful with the anomalous items we include in this as a factor in the setting is that during the Day Shift (those assholes) the gas station is completely ordinary with nothing unusual happening. So things should either be mostly mundane like weapons or holy water or completely unprovable to anyone outside of the night shifters like the translator or the janitors mop.

>There is a stairwell in one corner of the convenience store leading down to the store rooms located in the basement of the Station. At 11:30 on the dot, the whole building starts to shake, and the sound of a subway train pulling into the station can be heard coming up from below. Shortly thereafter, a train's worth of commuters pour out of the stairwell, and into the store, some of whom start browsing the aisles and purchasing merchandise before wandering out the front doors and into the night, where they may or may not get picked up or have cars waiting in the parking lot.

>>30797505
I understand what you mean! I was really just thinking about players finding this computer as a one-time event, and the programs' misuse as having disastrous or hilarious repercussions.

>>30796941
Ever seen that anime Ghost Stories? Its on youtube (Its actualy funny, they dubbed it without a script so its just people fucking around), but theres a cat possessed by a powerful demon in it who follows the main characters and helps them out. The cat is possessed because the main characters locked the demon in it's body, and its only way out is for the main characters to break the seal or w/e, it should be something like that

Also I already have saturday night set up with me and two friends to play this, i'll let everyone know how it goes.

> A strange tree breaks through the pavement and begins growing between the pump stations. It grows very quickly; after an hour it is about six feet high. Inspecting the tank reveals that the tree is drinking your gasoline. Any harm caused to the tree is met with distant sobbing.

>>30797575
I like this. I'm trying to separate ideas into Patrons, Events, Threats, and Structural Anomalies. The SA table is a little bare-bones right now.

>>30797931

>Someone asks to go to the bathroom, you point them to your only one.
>Several minutes later, someone else comes out of your second bathroom.
>A patron gets confused as to which of the three bathrooms they should use.
>The fourth bathroom has sprung a leak, and while you're fixing it a patron complains that the toilet in the fifth bathroom won't flush.
>You reach into the freezer to get yourself a soda, but the person occupying that sixth bathroom calls out 'occupied'.
>Dejectedly, you return to the register in the seventh bathroom.

>>30797931
Did you see the Sub-Tables page? There's already 16 structural anomalies on it.

>You begin to hear a dull hum, as if something is vibrating
>As the minutes go by the vibrations become louder and more obvious
>Soon enough the whole station is shaking and items are beginning to fall off the shelves
>As the windows violently rattle, the shelves start collapsing and the noise is becoming unbearable the vibrations come to a sudden halt

GM can explain it in any way they want, or of course just leave it unexplained. Perhaps an alien spacecraft has settled above the station or maybe it was just a regular earthquake, either way the players are gonna have a hell of a mess to deal with.

>>30798490

> It turns out the Day Shift set the Slurpee machine to "Shake," not "Stir"
> Dicks.

>>30798528

Now I'm imagining a game where literally EVERYTHING that happens is a result of the Day Shift (assholes).

>Malevolent demon infests the gas pump, trying to ignite patrons by spraying them with gas.
Day Shift (assholes) were playing around with a ouija board this morning.
>Space-time rift in the basement is threatening to tear reality apart
Day Shift (assholes) were using the station's speaker system to listen to ABBA on loop.
>Wendigo has been prowling the edges of the gas station, waiting for an opportunity to strike and snatching patrons as they leave.
Day Shift (assholes) shortchanged a gypsy woman, who then cursed the station.

Seriously. Fuck those guys.

The pumps occasionally dispense a liquid that is not gasoline. Mercury, hydrofluoric acid, vitreous humour, and orange soda have been observed so far.

So here's an odd event idea, but meant to be more of a positive thing than anything else.

>Time shenanigans.
>All players get a bonus to tasks around the station.
>Minor random things happen; a product falls off the shelf as a character passes by, but they were able to grab it and set it back on the shelf without breaking their stride.
>Cleaning up a mess on the floor, right before an oblivious customer would have traveled through it, resulting in pain and misery (and possibly a lawsuit).
>Just everything seems to be happening perfectly. Too perfectly.
It could just happen once, no prelude or epilogue. Maybe some sort of strange entity comes by, and starts talking about "the first hit's free". Angry sorcerous patron who wants to know who the fuck used up all his good luck. Note from management about how that good karma stuff was meant for a different shift, and consequently, everyone's Pay gets cut a bit.

>>30798844

>Have tremendous luck. Like really everything is going right today,
>Man comes in, inspects the bowl of assorted keychain nick-nacks near the register.
>Murmurs in surprise when he pulls out a rabbit's foot.
>Buys rabbit's foot, muttering under his breath about 'the real deal'.
>After he leaves nothing seems to go right.
>Fuck.

There's a short story about a guy who takes a job at an all-night diner and begins to notice that a lot of customers don't pay with earth money. Anyone know what the title is?

>>30799007
You could have a look through the archived threads because I think someone may have brought that up before.

>>30796941
I fed a cat jerky once, and it promptly threw up.

>>30796600
1. The announcer on the local community radio station with the deep, soothing voice begins narrating your Night Shift, in exacting detail, moment by moment.

2. You don't remember having to cross a luxurious grand ballroom to get to the breakroom before.

3. There seem to be... Things... Living in all the garbage cans. Sure they eat the trash and there's no immediate danger, but what happens when you run out if trash to feed them?

>>30799113

These are all good. I like these.

The first one in particular can go from curio to creepfest really quickly.

It's bad enough that he's simply explaining what you're doing. It's when he starts adding commentary - vague, threatening commentary - that it starts getting worrisome.

1. One of the Day Shift (assholes) gave his buddy at the radio station a feed of the gas station to prank you.

2. Days Shift (assholes) simply redecorated.

3. Ever since Day Shift (assholes) stopped laying out traps for the racoons they started nesting there. Its a whole family. Gross.

>>30797038
>>Or they are the cause of some of the weird shit, and want higher quality video and audio for their shits and giggles
Just like Cabin in the Woods. There's also a betting board at the Head Office what will kill their unlucky employees.

>>30797358
Occurence: You see Jerrycans/bottles of Holy water stocked at the Gas Station. A note from your colleague shows that some customers asked for it.

The guy delivering the bottles and Jerycans acts like it's the most normal thing in the world.

Occurence 2: One of the pumps has blood, not oil in it. Occasionally, some strange customers refill their cars with it. It's even on your station's price board. (Blood: 2.00 per liter)

>>30799007
I think I know the one you mean, it was on escape-pod a while back.

http://escapepod.org/2013/09/14/ep413-why-i-left-harrys-all-night-hamburgers/

>>30796941
I personally thought this was a Shakespeare reference.
Y'know, Tybalt, Prince of Cats.
Think it would be better and different if he spoke Shakespearian English.

>>30799215
I like the second one, but the pthers are too mundane. The spirit is that it's still supernatural but it's Day Shift's fault.
Also, I feel like making everything Day Shift's fault will get old.

>>30799113
>>30799215
I like it.
I think I have an idea for a radio announcer voice. If you want me to give it a shot, give me a line or two and I'll vocaroo it.

>>30799832
>>30799838
Well, they're both on the doc. There's two pages and plenty of room, no need to get picky. We need to get people to throw shit up there.

>>30799838

"The stock clerk places a bag of Chief Crunch's Original Flavor Potato Chips on the snack rack. He places the bags without hurry, because there is no one to bother him while he completes his chore. He places the bags without hurry because he has nothing to worry about. He simply doesn't know yet. He thinks he has all the time in the world to place those Chief Crunch's Original Flavor Potato Chips on the snack rack because -he doesn't know yet-. Is that shadow from his arm?"

If there's some sort of gurps like system, we should make skill related to the upkeep of the place.
Like a Lifting skill corralating to strength, and Registry to IQ.
It would make things seem more reasonable, so that way you have a designated Janitor and someone on Register.

>>30800100
Not sure I'm totally happy with it, but here it is.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0SvDn4EHCAJ
Any suggestions/criticism?

>>30800210
I'm on my phone m8. Sorry.

>>30800044
Literally 3 spaces up there's one that's way too similar minus the pointless reference. And there isn't plenty of room, that's why we made the various sub-tables to make more room. And we DO need to get picky, we need to go through and purge some of the weaker or redundant events. /tg/ is always bragging that it "gets shit done" but all we're doing is sitting around a pitching cliched creepypasta and nightvale fanfics. It sounds harsh but it's true, what we need to start doing is refining, editing and finalizing the core stuff and actually you know, get shit done.

>>30800210
>http://vocaroo.com/i/s0SvDn4EHCAJ

Bretty gud, brah. Only a stumble near the end, probably because of my faggoty em-dashes.

>>30800297

To be perfectly honest, this is one of the reasons I haven't let anyone touch my Night Shift World doc. I like collaborative stuff for the gathering, not execution, of ideas.

>>30800312
The one right before "because"? I tried doing that on purpose, but I agree it that doesn't sound great.

>>30800364

The beginning parts good though.

>>30800357
Execution is understandable. The other doc, on the other hand, has a separate page (Further Adventures) where we could put good or interesting encounters not on the main table. Also, sub tables need to be filled out.

>>30800386
Thank you, friend! I'm gonna try a different reading. I think it's a little less radio-announcer than the last one.
Better or worse?
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0GZcAaQZiJP

>It's REALLY been one of those shifts. The kind where things go from weird to wrong to worse so fast it leaves you little time to think and no time to relax. But now the sun's nearly up, the remains of the blood beasts have nearly all evaporated, and the night shift's nearly over when you collectively realize that between the sanguine siege and Chad getting his tie caught in the hot dog roller, you've forgotten to mop the floors and stock the shelves.

Now, Management has already warned you that Day Shift has been complaining about sticky floors for weeks, the lying assholes, and you're pretty sure that your necks are on the figurative chopping block for sure this time, when you dawning light of day floods in through the Station windows and you discover that the not only have the floors been mopped and fresh stock put on the shelves, but that the cash in the register and the credit card accounts have been balanced as well.

Reviewing the security camera footage before Day Shift throw you out, you can see that while you all were running around the outside of the Station like lunatics trying to fend off the ferrous fluid fiends, that pale, gangly chick in the 80s uniform with all the Employee of the Month photos had come out of the break room, cleaned the floors, refreshed the stock, balanced the books and had gone back into the break room moments before your crew's exhausted return.

>>30800488
>http://vocaroo.com/i/s0GZcAaQZiJP

That'll do it, ayup. I liked it a lot better.

>>30800634
This is good. I like this. Have some writefaggotry from the last thread.
http://pastebin.com/uBLFR8Ph

So headcount, how many people are actually in this thread? How many have been here since the first thread?

>>30800431
The only reason that was made was because people kept deleting events to post their own retarded shit without asking and the only reason that happened was because people quickly filled the list whatever came to mind without discussing it with the thread, it was a band-aid for a problem not a permanent fix. There's a reason the event table has 100 events because it's a nice round number could easily be rolled on.

>>30800839
Been here since the beginning, contributed a few things in the threads but I've not touched the docs

>>30800839
I was in the first thread from the beginning, enjoyed it thoroughly. Did the voicefaggotry a few posts up. Willing to do more or whatever is asked of me.

>>30800839
I posted in the first, but not the second.

I've been here since the first thread. The 1980s Assistant Manager's ghost caught my imagination and I wrote the two pieces about her I the last thread, plus that blurb a few posts up and a bunch of ideas.

How about a Ghost falls in love with one of the employees? I think I remember reading a greentext like that on /x/

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>>30800994

I'm writing something similar, albeit with the figure across the road. ETA: soon (tm)

>>30800839

Since first thread. I'm the Night Shift World faggot.

>>30800994
While certainly possible, I've just been writing and imagining her as a real "bro-tier" specter, to use the colloquialism, essentially remaining the same dependable, kickass co-worker she was when she was alive.

Idea: The Narrator is an on and off again thing. Every week or so.
Also he does an ominous weather forecast
>Today's Weather: Sunny, but the Cold Front will bring a great, terrifying change.
>Cloudy with a high chance of doom on Tuesday.

>>30800994
Ghost has to fall in love with the stoner, who's constantly baked and has no idea she's a ghost.

>>30801047
We should give her a name.
I vote we make it Gertrude and make her get angry when people make fun of it.

>>30800839
Been here since thread 1.

>>30801133
The Stoner also has to have a Dog.

>>30800839
I just got here. Looks good.

Anyone working on a usable layout?

>>30800839
Been here. Came up with the management. What's been going on?

>>30801177
In a previous piece of writing I'd called her Sarah Miller, just because it was as boring and normal a name as I could think of at the time. I can repost the story in this thread if desired.

>>30801131

I really really really like this. I'm imaging the radio voice as the lady from The Warriors.

>Listen up all you hep cats out there in the dusty Nowhere. Tonight's weather forecast is sunny with the possibility of great, terrifying change.
>In recent news, some of the jive mothers from the Other Side have been beating feet in the area. Stay safe out there, boppers.

>>30801216
A Scooby-Doo scenario would be pretty rad.

>these aren't going to become a regular thing
>4 threads so far

>>30801216
We should make the Mystery Machine be an encounter.

>>30801278
It's already on the Joke List.

>>30801258
I imagine a guy. Particularly Cecil from Welcome to Nightvale

>>30801278

I've never particularly liked reference humor.

>Look at this thing.
>Do you know this thing?
>I know this thing, that's why I wrote it.
>We both know this thing together.
>How whacky

Big Bang Theory is chockfull of that shit and look how it turned out.

And here come the speshul OC NPC and lelsofunny guys who almost ruined this last time.

>>30801131
>>30801315
>>30801258
Someone already did a voice for something similar. See
>>30800488

Look, all of this is nice, but is someone going to compile all of this (System and stuff) into a workable .pdf? Something pretty, something to show that it hasn't all been in vain.

>>30801315

It can be both. Two voices on the radio, one male and one female. One vaguely ominous, the other vaguely supportive. Both weird.

captcha: the Dirrman
Fuck yeah, let's use that.

>>30801363
Look, let em come. At the very least, we weed out the shitty events, or put em on additional adventures. And who the hell keeps deleting stuff?

>>30801378

Night Shift World guy, here. When I get the system somewhere I feel I can hand it out for playtesting, yes. Until then you'll have to deal with my ugly-ass notes on my faggot-ass Googledoc.

Alright guys, let's start trimming fat, let's go down the list starting with the first 10 post opinions on them, suggestions on how to improve, ect.

>1
I like it, 50s style aliens are classic pulp horror and them wanting something in the station is a good plot hook
>2
It's alright, not terribly into zombies but it's almost obligatory. I do enjoy the "monsters running from something else" angle. That could be made into it's own event
>3
A bit too close to #1, I do like the evacuees idea, maybe change the threat from aliens to something else.
>4
Another solid idea having to team up with some bikers to fend off beasts could be really fun. Making the creatures invisible seems a bit unnecessary.
>5
I dig it, it's very Carrie which is appropriate given some of the inspirations.
>6
Nothing to talk about here.
>7
A bit too masturbatory and there are already a slew of similar ones. I say cut it.
>8
Another one I really like, it's odd and unnerving but basically harmless which is perfectly fine.
>9
It's strange and funny but not as outlandish as some of the ones on the joke list and it gives the main list a nice edge of humor which is good in moderation.
>10
I think this could be cut, it doesn't really add anything especially interesting.

>>30801496
I thinking we're trimming to close to the fat already here. Not that anything can't be changed, but people seem to be running dry, and we're not getting anything new that isn't deleted.

>>30801496

>3

How about an invading army, rather than aliens?

>>30801544
Why not red dawn style russians

>>30799706
The Shakespeare Tybalt references an even older story about Tybalt, king of cats.

>>30801580
Exactly what I was thinking.

>>30801544
Not bizarre enough, maybe like mole-men or something equally strange.

>>30800839
Been here since the start, though because my computer a shit, I've not touched the docs. I'm the guy who bitches about people fucking around and making magic shit as well as the guy who first proposed the named 'Graveyard Shift'.

TBH, Night Shift is a better name

>>30801614
Well, whatever. And if you've been bitching about content, MAKE CONTENT. This is one of the few times where bitching will make something better.
I happen to like both names.

The walls will start ozzing slime.

>>30801698
Got to get those walls clean before GM shows up.

>You find a finger-sized baby doll between your sandwich.

I've been following from near the beginning, have made a few suggestions, and have even really enjoying our couple of Writefriends' efforts. I've been hoping a couple more writers or artists would jump in and type out or draw up a few more of these scenarios.

All customers communicate using lines from Oliver Twist

>>30801698
They always do that.

A cane shows up in the breakroom. None of your co-workers remember bringing a cane into the station, let alone owning one, and neither do you. If someone holds onto it long enough, they become drawn towards collecting "mad bling" and slowly begin to look more and more similar to a street pimp before finally being possessed by the original owner of the cane.

A spirit pimp.

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>Reading google doc
>Suddenly, a cursor appears and text is changed

2spooky

>>30801907
>Suddenly the station is full of cockney speaking orphans from 18th century

So I'm thinking of re-working how Backgrounds work for this Night Shift World system. Currently, they're all made of two to three elements; Effort/Threshold, passive bonuses, and possibly a Move.

The problem is it is more difficult than anticipated to balance them against one another. To simplify, I think I'm going to implement some standardization.

- Effort 2/Threshold 5 is standard starting point. More Effort is good, less Threshold is good.
- All Backgrounds give a +1 to rolls which would reasonably fall within their purview. An ex-Con could claim his +1 to improvise a shank out of something at the gas station. The Stoner could claim +1 to recognize the smell of a REAL peace pipe rather than just incense.

This should make it easier for me to balance perks. For example, Drifter is 1 Effort and Threshold 5 to make up for the fact that it comes with a dog.

Just spitballin' and thinking outloud here.

Jeff Mangum shows up to serrinade the place with the song, "Ghost". It is up to your group to prevent Ghostbro from falling for him or moving on to heaven.

>>30802059
And each of the different "backgrounds" gets their own special abilities.

>>30802039
Little bastards.
No, we don't serve gruel.
A ha'penny is not viable currency in the United States.
You! Put that back!

>>30796508

How about a nice visit from Indrid Cold.

>>30802065
/mu/ plz

[/spoiler]I love it.

Customers address the cashier as if he was of opposite sex than he/she really is.
When the cashier moves away from the cash register, they address him/her normally.

>>30802059
I like your thinking and don't see how this hurts anything. It frees up some brainpower for over concerns like "moves" and passive abilities that are more fun.

>>30801580
Altered. Great idea anon.

I say we add another dimension to this.

>The Night Shift gang spend the their shift debating the existence of mysterious and trying to emancipate Henry from his ridiculous striped pants.

>>30802815

> Management calls you and tells you to add another dimension to this

>>30803057
>>It's a green phone. We don't have a green phone.

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> This guy comes in and orders a bunch of roses.
> He keeps petting an invisible doggy.
> He giggles manically every few words
> He doesn't leave until you tell him he's your favourite customer

>>30802088

That's actually what I'm avoiding. Special abilities are much harder to balance against each other. I'd rather give out perks- this Background comes with a car, a dog, a bag of drugs etc.

As another anon said, I want to free up my brainpower to focus on meatier aspects of gameplay.

>Customer comes in
>Nobody at the counter
>He stands behind the counter
>Cashier walks out of the toilet, picks up some groceries and puts them on the counter, then asks for cigarettes
>The customer hands out the cigarettes, checks everything in
>They switch sides, the customer pays and leaves the station

>>30803170
Meatier is good. Got anything worth looking at?

>>30803170
Just make it so the knowledge checks actually rely on the player's knowledge.

>>30800839
Here since number one, I added the first joke scenario and item tables.

>>30800839
Came in half way through the third.
I still like my zoo breakout idea.

>>30803564
Which one? Just put it under additional adventures.

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>>30800839

Mucking around, having fun, adding non-serious ideas every now and then.

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>>30798007
Brilliant.

>>30803690
Ah, you were the management letter guy! What's with the heart?

>>30803734

Management loves you. It is a tough love, but they believe in you. They want you to be a better man so that you could keep the station working properly.

Honestly, though, I didn't make this "paper". I just came across it while browsing the www.

>>30800839
Hi, I contributed a few ideas.

>>30798625
>Day Shifters burn all the stashes of the Grey Man's candy that the Night Shifters keep for him

The Night Shifters only find out when they're trying to fill his order.

>>30803770
That works too. However, there is the small issue of the unsatisfied customer you made leave last week...

>>30800839
Been here since Thread the First. I was the person who started the special NPC table, joke table, and The Rack.

As long as there's a Milton type character who gets paid even though he got fired 5 years ago...

>>30798007
this is bizarre enough to actually be creepy

On the wall behind the checkout counter is the sort of oversized calendar with a picture of the Hawaiian islands that uou often seenin gas stations. Below the photo of tropical paradise at the top of the calendar, the grid of dates is a mess of scribbles and scrawls in different colored inks showing the Day and Night Shift's work schedules as well as:

1. A 13th month of called "Octember."
2. The wrong number of days for months that do actually exist.
3. The pre-scheduled end of days several months ahead, wih the rest of the calendar blacked out with marker.
4. Employee birthdays, including the pale gangly chick's.
5. A crude rendition of the phases if the moon in glow in the dark ink.
6. "Opposite Day" demarcated in scary block letters.
7. The picture at the top sometimes animates or changes.
8. The dates are numbered in Roman Numerals.

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>>30803960

>>30803985
bonus points when said milton is dead.

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>>30800839
monitoring. i wish there was a easy way to consume all this thread and join in on the creation before it dies

like the deep marines- rip in peace

>>30804066
Hey. Lay off im. Better than having that cluttering up the main table.

>>30804066
Game can be played many different ways, better to have everything neat and tidy and seperate, etc.

>>30804057

God, I wonder what their employee moral days would be like. What is that place's equivalent of "Hawaiian Shirt Day"?

>>30804447
>What is that place's equivalent of "Hawaiian Shirt Day"?
Flannel day. Real flannel must be worn. Violators will be disciplined.

>>30800839
Been here since thread one. Made the first doc, bounced around a few ideas.

>>30804785
Violators will be violated by guys who wear real flannel.

>>30804835

Guys will be flanneled by Violators of Re'Al

Four spots on the main lists still need to be filled in.

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Thoughts?

>>30805298
Pretty good.

>>30805298

Looks great.

>>30805298

I like it. Is there a way to make the letters dirtier? Like a nice veneer of grit because no one has cleaned them for decades.

>>30805298
Background primary color needs to be different. Maybe a dark blue like a cloudless night sky.

>>30805298
Is it just me, or does it look like night shit?

>>30805272

How's this for one of them?

>A different fuel truck than usual has turned up replenish the station's gas. You don't recognize the logo, but the truck itself looks factory fresh, and the driver is usually tall, young and handsome. As the gas starts to pump in, you notice the smell seems off, like the scent of flowers in spring...

>>30805423

It does, kinda, yeah. Maybe have one of the OTHER letters be the burnt out one?

>>30805272
Just move some over from the additional adventures page. Those were probably spots left empty when the sub-tables were made.

>>30805482
Maybe the T? so it reads "nigh" makes it seem kinda ominous.

>>30805514

I like that idea.

>>30800839
Lurked on last thread on the phone during work, finally around to actually contribute.

Also, why do I think this theme could work fabulously as a Fiasco! playset? Characters would be more or less mundane while the connections would have all the freaky shit thrown into it.

>>30805298
>burnt out letter in the sign
Management gonna be pissed if you don't fix that

What is with /tg/ and its settings that occur within small spaces. First the train, and now this. Sure, anything can happen, but there's no room for exploration and you're essentially at the mercy of whatever plot the GM throws at you.

So, in this spirit, I present

Men's Room Stall, The RPG

This entire game takes place in a single stall of a men's bathroom... but one with a connection to otherworldly forces. Anything can happen to you in there. Anything. And that justifies any limitations imposed by the space being so small. Because anything can happen. Limitless potential.

>>30805620

I'd like to see that. In fact, I'd like to see more specific rulesets to play Night Shift in, beyond just Night Shift World.

>>30805777

They're essentially roleplaying 'bottle-episodes'. I think they work wonderful as one-shots and short-form. I'd never run an extended campaign of it.

Complaining that a single-setting RPG doesn't have room for exploration is like complaining that Lord of the Rings doesn't have guns- if that's what you're looking for, you came to the wrong place.

>>30805860

It's easy to fix, though. Open it up as, say, a small strip mall. Gas station, video store, laundromat, fast food joint. Sort of Horror Clerks. Make it be primarily focused on that strip mall, but be a thing present throughout town, and only at night.

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>>30805777

>There's no room for exploration
First off, what is the station additions table?

Second, why does every game ever have to have exploration? Why does it need to be a massive, open world experience where you can talk to the same reskinned NPCs across entire continents?

What if, god forbid, someone wants to try a game where instead of being the adventurer assaulting the keep, you're the people working there trying to keep your heads down and get by?

>You're essentially at the mercy of whatever plot the GM throws at you

And this is different from any game ever how?

If the GM wants to fuck you over, you're going to be fucked over. Doesn't matter how open or small the world is.

>Men's room stall, the strawman

>Coming into a thread you don't like to bitch instead of being the change you want to see

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>>30805419
>Background primary color needs to be different. Maybe a dark blue like a cloudless night sky.

>>30805777
Okay, I'm gonna roll to write a dirty limerick on the stall wall with a sharpie.

>>30805777
no one uses stall number5,
no one talks about stall number5
you dared enter?
did you have a choice?
no, stalls number 1-4 and even two of the sinks where rendered useless when you came in this dusk
>filthy day-shifters

drop jeans
take a seat
wonder why is all the graffiti carvings are in Russian and Braille.

what happens next?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORPFRj1b6KU

>>30806067

The words begin chanting themselves in etheral tones. a small circle and a pattern of runes carve themselves above your limerick.

>>30805777
>Men's Room Stall, The RPG

A foot slides under the stall and bumps your foot. You down, but then you hear a scrap above you. Another one appears over the top of the stall, turning back and forth...almost like it's listening. You hear footsteps outside the door of your stall.

>>30806103
>Another one appears over the top of the stall, turning back and forth...almost like it's listening.

Honestly, a foot appearing over the TOP of the stall wall would make me flip out on the spot.

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>>30805777

Players: Alright, we observe our surroundings.

GM: You are in a sparsely furnished men's room stall. The walls give way to open air above and below you. A crusty toilet protrudes from the wall to the north. It is rivaled by a toilet paper dispenser that rises to meet its challenge from the east. One of those coathooks is on the door to the south. The lock mechanism is one of those slidey ones.

Players: "I don't like going in unprepared so let's take a peek over the stall walls."

DM: "Try as you might, each attempt to peek over the walls is met with failure, or oppressive darkness. You'd swear you could almost hear a janitor asking if anyone's there, but surely it's a trick of your imagination.

>SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKY

>>30805986

It's "reductio ad absurdum". a technique of argument using an absurd end-case to bring the point of the speaker into focus. In this case, that the limiting physical space does limit the playability. Opening up the town means that, while we can still have every game that you spoke of, we can also have long-term, open campaigns. Why limit the possibilities? Why say we can only have so much paint?

>>30806051
its better. a few points:
night shift is a pretty cheap joke
consider realigning the text, tilted letter feels very "fun house" and sort of over done

great work tho

>>30806147

But that's like saying all short stories should be novels, or all novels should be trilogies. Sometimes I have specific stories and scenarios I want players to explore.

>>30806175

And you can do that, still, if there's more to the world. You can always cut something big down. Playing a game in faerun can happen in a small town, or ranging across the continent. But does that mean, to play in that small town, the small town has to be the only thing on the map?

>>30806175
Yes, but you're writing an RPG system here. A toolbox for players and GMs to build what they want. Gearing it specifically so that it's only capable of one shots and short games without heavy modifications by the GM is artificially limiting and practically forces a GM who's interested in your setting to write his own based on it.

>>30806147
That takes away the mundane routine of a minimum wage job and feeling of isolation from the rest of the normal world, two key aspects of the setting.

The Night Shift: Fourth Shift archived:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/30796508/

>>30806234

Centering the action around things happening at the place your job is at, and having your job be just as important to do keeps the mundane routine in, and the isolation can be kept by simply making it impossible to communicate what's happening to anyone outside of the Night Shift. Nobody believes you, and you never have proof by the time the day shift rolls in.

>>30806147
The game isn't about long term open campaigns it's about getting through each night and the changing constantly changing variable in a familiar location. If you don't like the premise that's fine whatever but to suggest it's any less valid to what you prefer in your settings is ridiculous.

>>30806373

Okay. Listen.

That game you just described.

I can run that...

IN.

The game i am describing. I can also run my game. I can run the game of the guy who wants to run a long term campaign AND the guy who wants a single night of mad roleplaying fun. I can do more, and still be capable of running all the things you love. So why is more possibilities bad? Why cripple?

>>30806103
You're out of toilet paper. Your call for help echos into the distance, only the dripping of the sinks answering you. Suddenly a ceiling breaks off, smashing to the floor in front of you. A long arm appears out of the now open ceiling, snaking its way down towards you. The hand at the end carries a full roll of toilet paper. It swiftly replaces the old roll, pats you on the head, and leaves, picking up the tile on the way back up. In moments there is no sign it was ever there. Except the gloriously soft new roll of toilet paper.

Rolled 3

>>30806459
I say "thank you!" and commence with wiping.

>captcha: which staaan
What.

>>30806414

I'm making a *World hack, dude. Whatever rules I write will be pretty compatible with its parent system.

Sooo nothing is crippled, I'm just focused on a specific scenario and setting that I find interesting.

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Well this thread went to shit, quite literally. Thanks fagola.

>>30806414

The entire point of Night Shift is that you're running the night shift in a gas station in the middle of nowhere, where weird and dangerous shit goes down... and nowhere else. Everything else is normal.

Opening up the town means that weird shit... can also happen in the rest of the town. And then it become generic campy/survival/genericgeneric horror game #45.

By opening the rest of the town you destroy what makes Night Shift Night Shift.

By all means, go ahead and try. I would love to be proven wrong. But until then, the focus of Night Shift is on one anomalous Gas Station, a refuge of supernatural oddities in the world of the mundane.

>>30806550

Since people got on me about merely criticising, but not creating, fine.

Suggestions:

Night Shift can occur in a number of night-job settings. Hotels, gas stations, all-night video stores, diners. Sometimes, specific strip malls can serve as foci for it. Yours is one such place.

There's no sense trying to tell anyone. There's never any proof, other than some wrecked shelves. The video recorders never show anything other than static or what might as well be still footage of the place with no customers. They'll lock you away if you tell them what you're seeing. You'd agree. But everyone on the night shift knows. And you do your best to deal with it, and get the job done.

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>>30806661
I'm not him but no it doesn't. You can open up conspiracy and intrigue without dooming the world to a survial horror thing.

What is this slippery slope fallacy doing showing up in a conversation about building Pen and Paper worlds?

What's wrong with you?

Just don't suck at DMing that kind of plot and you're good to go.

>>30806459
It was probably your imagination, but you swear the toilet softly gurgled "feed me." You stare suspiciously at the toilet. Under the harsh glare of the fluorescents, its exoskeleton gleams normally. A clunk from the next stall over distracts you. Nothing is there, and you get back to dropping your pants. A scraping sound makes you look over again and this time you see a semi-circle of white porcelain under the stall's wall. It moves slightly. Then a growl from behind you sends a jolt down your spine.

"Clever girl," you whisper before your toilet leaps.

>>30806727

That's a fantastic idea. You've just contributed to my next project; once I get solid core rules, I'll expand Night Shift World into other arenas.

Friend of mine works conseirge at a motel. Should be plenty of material there.

Thank you, anon, you aren't a faggot. Well you are, but we're all faggots.

>>30806727

Your job requires your focus. It's the only job you managed to get in this economy, and it took you for fucking ever to get it. You dare not risk getting in enough trouble to get fired.

But it's hard to stock shelves when faceless horrors are assaulting customers and long-dead soldiers are demanding cigarettes at the counter. Your friends from the rest of the strip mall could help, but they've got their own problems. Some mundane, like the waiter dealing with a table full of goth kids pulling an all-nighter... and some less so.

Right then! Back to business. While this Men's Bathroom Stall: The RPG sounds fascinating, I'm sure there are other matters to attend to. Anyone for drafting up a new NPC?
>Dudebro with a backwards hat that always buys booze and energy drinks. Between the slang and general 'brah'-ing, he has proven himself invincible to nearly any form of harm. Useful as a human shield, but he doesn't like that.

>>30806790

This opens some fun possibilities. as the party might be needed to cooperate to deal with problems, but you also need to make sure your job is getting done. You can help with the demons once you get these shelves stocked. You'll help shoot down the aliens once that guy returns the restroom key, the last guy ran off with it.

>>30806787

All night diners. Radio host. Fast-food work. you can even have 24-hr video places and even a drive-through movie theatre, if you like. There's lots of mundane night jobs that work just as well as a gas station attendant.

>>30806876

I'd like to find what's interesting about each one. A gas station interests me because they are so necessarily impermanent. Most everyone is passing through a gas station. It's unlikely that the people exiting the station will ever come back in- and so there's something fascinating about being witness to that. The one permanent fixture at the waystation. Weirdness comes and goes but you stay. You have to stay.

And there goes the intimate and familiar nature of the original premise by adding unnecessary bullshit. Always abide by KISS.

>>30806876
I wonder could we be like a group of people permenantly on the night shift, like we're on a temp job group, so one week, its gas station, another week its diner. Its up to the General Manager to change the settigs so it doesn't get too stale. We can even use our regular customers as..regular customers.
Of course day shift will always be assholes

>>30807057

In your game? Sure! That's the cool thing about having openness in the setting. You can run lots of games.

>>30807052
I should hope not. I don't think anything's been compromised, per say. And besides, unnecessary b.s. is fun.

>>30807052
So

Creepy stuff happens in the backdrop of a mundane night job at a gas station

is simpler than

Creepy stuff happens in the backdrop of a mundane night job

>>30807057

It might work better using a 'cohort' style. Every player would have several characters; one works at the gas station, the other works at the diner, the other works at the motel. Same world, same sense of continuity but you could assuage any complaints of staleness by hopping to a different one of the Night Shift locations.

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>>30807052

Are you like some kind of Gas Station autist?

Do you stand up in your carseat every time you go by one and shout to your father "DA PUMPZ DA PUMPZ!"

Do you own Gas Station Simulator and all of its DLC?

Just narrow the campaign to a single place, and don't take the scope beyond it. It's that simple.

Seriously, what is with this single mindedness?

>>30807158

Just don't piss off the dishwashers

>>30806951
Actually a truck stop is pretty similar. One of greasy spoons on the side of the dusty highway, a dozen miles from one of those signs that tells you it'll be a hundred more miles til you find civilization. Truckers, nomads all, stop there for a bite, a little chatter, and maybe a go-round with one of the used-up old hookers that hangs around. When you're been awake for three days on energy drinks and meth, you see weird things, and all the truckers like to swap rumors and ghost stories, the highway equivalent of urban legends. The oldest sit around nodding sagely as some kid with a shiny new CDL stammers out a panicky story about a hitchhiker that disappeared in his cab. The waitress just smiles and nods and tells him not to pick her on the way back.

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>>30807182
>Are you like some kind of Gas Station autist?
John Romero's hobby is collecting gas station memorabilia...

FFS. We're derailing here. Can we get back to the worldbuilding?

>>30806103
>>30806459
>>30806773

This is some good shit right here.
I'ma put this in Night Shift.

>>30806951
I agree with you here. What appeals to me about a gas station setting is that they're ubitiquous across America, familiar and mundane and boring, but at the same time, they can be lonely, isolated, and depressingly bleak places at the same time. You can meet anyone from any walk of life in a gas station, and anyone from any walk of life can work there, at least for a while.

Also, there is a sense of the past in some of the older stations, the legacy if Route 66. of the freedom and the danger of the open highway, and of having to depend on strange people in strange places, whether you are gas ststion customer of gas station attendant.

>>30807158
The door squeaks shut as the customer leaves. You quickly pick up the phone, and dial. Your buddy on the night shift over at the store across town answers.

"Hey, Steve."

"Aaron! What's happening my man?"

"Giving you a heads up is what. Got a creepy guy in here a minute ago. Said he was looking for 'the black ichor from the eternal tree' or some shit like that. I told him all we have is Monster. He grabbed a can, and left some sort of small coin. The humming from it is annoying."

"Freaky bro."

"Yeah, but as he was leaving, he said something about continuing his search in this mortal domain. I swear man, I didn't even think when I said 'Maybe try Walmart. They have everything.' He just looked at me and nodded, then left."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Fuck you Aaron."

>>30806769
Not the guy you're responding to, but...
>middle of nowhere
Is the key phrase you're missing here.
Night Shift is about those completely out of the way places you don't even know how they still exist. The tiny joints off the side of the highway, with empty parking lots but still all the lights pop on, every night.
And as a player, it's about isolation. The constant niggling fear of the unexpected and the unknown, because all you see outside the twenty square foot store is inky black darkness stretching out to infinity, and the soul crushing boredom, and the combination of the two leaving you with a nervous anxiety - you want something to happen but you're absolutely terrified of /what/ might happen. And all you can do is just stand there, waiting.

You can't get that if you shift the setting to an entire town.

>>30807325

I think Night Shift World will work pretty much the same at any way-station. Diner in the middle of nowhere, truck stop, rest-area, gas station, motel. So long as there is a semi-permanent staff in a place that is a hub of transient life I think it would work.

I'm still gonna work on specific expansions for Night Shift World, though.

>>30807661
*clutches head*

a particular game can be run in your way. An entire world should allow both that game, and the game where you've got multiple stores, or whatever the fuck. and if it's like that... if you've got five players... why are five fucking people running an out-of-the-way gas station that maybe gets four customers a day, on the night shift?

>>30807671
That's cool with me, just wanting to point a similar setting that has a different flavor.

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>>30807726
>*action*
Haha, oh man and I almost took your opinion seriously.

You grunt and adjust the too-small uniform as you pull your chair into place in front of the stoves.

You drew the short straw to pull down the vent covers in the smoke hood, and now you have to make good on it.

"Hey, careful there Fred" cajoles one of the cooks as you get up on the chair and lean back inside the hood above the still-hot grills.

"Yeah yeah" you reply, the hot air rising up the untucked back of your shirt and making you sweat. A clanging nose gives you momentary pause. "Hey, do the vents usually make that noise?"

"Fuck if I know" responds Steve, shrugging. You shrug yourself, and pull your gloves on a little tighter. Just another one of the joys of being a dishwasher.

Taking the the carbon-caked handles gingerly, you pull them out away from the similarly blackened vent cover itself, little flakes of the stuff coming down all over your face. You spit the stuff off your lips and persist, the vent cover squeaking before finally coming up out of its bracket and down into your arms.

You blink.

There's some kind of red... lizard? In the vent, looking down at you with bright yellow eyes. It's about as big as the geckos you sometimes see running away when you open the back door to take the garbage out.

"What the fuck..."

You've just noticed the tiny pair of wings on its back when the lizard blinks at you, and then opens its mouth. A fair-sized jet of flame issues forth inches from your face, and you nearly drop the vent!

>>30807507

YES

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>>30807661

URBANITE DETECTED.

They make stupid shit in the middle of nowhere *all the time.* I know, I live like that.

>>30807726
The point has literally gone completely over your head.
It's in fucking Beijing or now, fuck.

>>30807671
>>30807325
>>30806951
Look guys, the point of this setting is that a bunch of unsuspecting minimum-wage earners working the night-shift of some lonely and isolated service establishment face increasingly strange disturbances as the night goes on, and the employees have to maintain their duties in spite of the strange otherworldly threat. Now, I do agree that this setting is flexible enough to be used in jobs other than a gas station, but the heart of it, which is
-Isolation from clusters of civilization
-Unknown freaky shit happening at night
-Workers trying to do their job despite the above
should always be present.

>>30807844

Because it's impossible to feel isolated there, right guys? Right? Am I right? It's not like that would make it even weirder or anything.

>>30807977
Not the same kind of isolation.
In a city if you feel isolated then it's something wrong, something that shouldn't be. Out in the middle of nowhere, that just is the way things are.

>>30807977
As a guy who has lived both way out in the boondocks and in the city, I agree with >>30808027. There is simply no sense of isolation even if your'e just a few km from the city, since no matter how scary shit is, you know the police, fire and hospital services can reach you in a matter of minutes. Now if you were a hundred miles away from the nearest town on a lonely stretch of highway, shit is going to be terrifying.

>>30797038

Do it one better:

>Security guy installs cameras and puts a square container in the wall. When he's finished installing, all you see is a metal square on the wall with a Big Red Light on top with the name SECURITRON in big red letters on the side. "This new system should help keep the shrink down" he laughs, as he exits the store, tipping his cap to a lady that just walked in.

>>30796508

>Someone has sorted all the inventory in the back and in the store by color.

Then

>Someone sorts the entire store by weight

Then

>Someone sorts the entire store by level of meat

Your work never ends.

>>30799007

There's a short story about a guy who works the night shift at a gas station where weird shit happens. Like being robbed by a man wearing a trenchcoat, who ends up being covered in bees.

His waifu works at the humane society and gives dogs who are to be put to sleep one last car ride. In the end, just as he resolves to tell her he loves her and leave the store with her and go traveling, he sees her speeding down the road with a whole bunch of dogs, having taken them with her, just not him.

>>30808612
"The day shift is fucking out there, man."

>>30808750

Funnily enough, when they rearranged the store by meat level, the coke ended up right next to the balogna...

>>30808801

But where'd the hotdogs end up?

>>30805620
And for something constructive. I am having more trouble than I thought with making a Fiasco! playset based on this idea. I'm finding that while I can make the Relationships decently enough to foster good enough character interaction, the Needs are sorely lacking. And now I'm running into a road block.

Any suggestions anons?

>>30808823
Someone meticously rebuild the Eiffel tower out of the entire stock of hotdog sausages and toothpicks.

"Touché..."

>>30808823

On the other side of the Coke.

>>30808107
Huh, that could be something; isolation in cities I mean. In some cities, some sections are pretty desolate come nightfall. So what if one of the possible locations for the night shift to be a nearly forgotten corner of the city?
Like, say, the only convenience store still open in Detroit.

>>30809264
The middle of nowhere is one thing.
The middle of an abandoned part of detroit is worse than the 7th level of hell man, no one would get out of there alive.

>>30809264
>Detroit
>Having anything BUT a billion convenience stores ever open

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>>30809264
I actually think a neat variant of this could be a diner in the city.
Nobody outside ever sees the freaky shit going down, emergency services never respond, and running away always ends badly.
Could always put the diner deep in the subway.

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>>30809375
Back in the 50's, someone built a strip-mall in the subway, at the time it was right next to a station.
The only place still open is the diner, the rest of the sub-mall is a decrepit ruin (mostly?), and as the decades trudge by, the sub-mall has just gotten deeper and deeper in the bowels of the transit system.

>>30800839

Was here, contributed extensively in the first thread, and part of the second, but had to work. I'm off work tomorrow and will likely be contributing more.

>>30809537

You realize you would be robbed by nignogs nightly, and have to fight a constant battle with the gangs, homeless people, and crack addicts that loiter there.

Brandon? I haven't seen him since he was told to restock the freezer.ever since that day we haven't had to worry about stock back there because its always filled no matter what rush we have, but still Brandon is no where to be found. I remember one particular night I was in the back mopping up the drippings of some customer when I noticed a glass bottle slide into view of the window onto the shelf, and the another behind it, in my curiosity I went to check out the back of the place yet no one was there though I did find Brandon's name tag that night held onto it so I can give it to him when I see him.

>>30809584

It could be a new take on this whole thing. Dogs of War from NWOD rules, where you, the lowly ex-military shop clerks, must defend the store nightly.

Like Assault on Precinct Thirteen, but everything happens in the canned goods aisle.

>>30809662
>Like Assault on Precinct Thirteen, but everything happens in the canned goods aisle.
"Shit... they got me! Eh? Wait this is... tomato juice?"

>>30809537
Abandoned subway stations and tunnels are hauntingly well preserved. So long as the pumps keep working the tunnels stay relatively dry and made from reinforced, water resistant cement, protected from the weather they can endure decades with little more then a faint accumulation of dust.

Fifty year old postures on the walls, unfaded by sunlight and just a bit oxidized and acid damaged from their own ink and paper. Benches with food and candy wrappers under them that nobody's made in two generations. Eerie shit.

>>30809738

As long as everyone is only two days from retirement.

>>30809662
>New take
>Setting is three days old.

Could be cool though. Just have to maintain that sweet soul crushing isolation.

>>30809786
>As long as everyone is only two days from retirement.
...or two nights before being placed in the day shift.

>>30806147

Horror is all about a feeling of helplessness. Limitations are a part of that.

>>30809306
>>30809312
Well that was a poor example, but surely there are parts of cities that are desolated at night? Suburban Tokyo maybe?

>>30807182

I'm not that guy, but we went over this in a previous thread. The gas station works better because everyone has to stop there, because nobody stays long, because gas stations are sometimes seen out on the middle of the highway with nothing around for miles. Nobody to help, nowhere to run to, and the cops won't arrive for 30 minutes or more. If something wrecks your car, you can't escape.

Most every other structure you can suggest will have other places surrounding it, with more people. It compromises the lost and lonely feeling.

>>30810055
Gas station default setting. If you want to do other locales, that's cool and fine, but it isn't the default.

>>30810093

Yeah, that's fine. I actually argued in the first thread for having a section for add-ons. Like a diner or motel or rest stop stuck on one side of the gas station/convenience store.
But focusing on the original OP's gas station idea is better than having only five ideas each for a dozen locations, IMO.

Feature creep is an enemy of getting shit done.
It's easy to say "this idea needs to be more ambitious!" but it's not so easy to do all the work that greater ambitions bring on.

>>30809998

LOL, in Japan it could be literally anywhere at any time. Their culture is naturally insular. If weird shit started going down, they'd ignore it.

Which is a problem. Because the characters themselves, if they are natives, would deal with it and quit the next day.

>>30810375

Yeah, that's another reason it works best out in the middle of nowhere. There aren't any other jobs locally, the players are desperate people from a nearby craphole of a small town. Why else would you drive/ride your bike 20 miles up the road every day for a minimum wage job where you might get eaten by a grue?

Quitting is only an option if you have other choices available.

>>30803802
now we knew they were assholes, but did we realize they were murderers?

>>30805929
Then it's just a slightly wider closed space. A small strip mall is barely anything to explore after 2 or 3 session.

>>30809584
The nignogs know better than to start shit at this particular diner.

>>30809739
Could have the memorabilia change every know and then...just little things, like the pose of the people on the poster.
Usually.

>>30807896
This guy fucking gets it.

>>30810690

>but I gotta exploooooore!

It's like you want to play a completely different game, with a completely different atmosphere. You're like that guy who wants to roll up a ninja when everyone else at the table is playing 1940s detectives.

>>30810484
Urge to watch Courage the Cowardly Dog rising.
The nearest town is literally called Nowhere.
Have goofy, bizarre, borderline cartoony shit happen.
Unf.

>>30810929

Yeah, we decided in the first thread that the closest town to the Stop 'n' Gas is a place called Nowhere. It's a little bit of a reference, but it also works FOR the setting, too.

>>30809998
Tokyo-fag here, you can't exist in this city without hearing the breathing or seeing the light on in some apartment. The population is dense.

It certainly has that "emotional isolation" feel, but the cops could literally walk to any convenience store in less than 5 minutes due to the connectivity of the urban landscape.

>>30810905
My bad, I thought you were arguing for the fact that it SHOULD be more open by default.

You just argued for a way to make the game more exploration friendly so I assumed you were the guy crying about how a gas station is boring.

>>30810905
I honestly can't figure out what this guy wants to explore for. Does he want to find loot? Backstory on the weirdness? Plus the whole "left the building and skipped out on actually working" thing never goes over well with management.

Couple things fall out from musing on the setting.

The town of Nowhere is economically depressed. We're talking 20% unemployment rate. Getting a reliable job is a miracle for many folks, and a lot of people are leaving the town.

Working at the Stop 'n' Gas is quite a drive, but the little "mom and pop" (but not really) company has had a policy of reimbursing employees for gas to drive to and from work. (Some of the day shift assholes cheat by listing a friend or family member's address across town, so they can claim to drive farther than they do)

Few people want to work the night shift at the station, however, because of the high death rate. Nobody's really sat down and calculated it, but it's quite astonishingly high. The locals and police and the day shift put it down to armed robberies, as the poorer folk in Nowhere sometimes do rob the place.

Nobody believes the real reasons, or suspects just how many employees have bit the dust there. It's all part of the aura of the station that people just don't buy it.

>>30811199

Oh, I meant to add, they've had this "free gas for the commute" policy since the station was first built in the 50s, when gas was super cheap, but they've kept it on to the modern day because getting new employees is hard.

A friend of mine is planning on running this.

I told him that I was going to play an overweight self-described Guardian Of The Uncanny who seeks only to defend the world against the "Things" who seem to congregate around, and through The Station. There's Life goals, right? "What do you want once you leave the job?"
He has none. He's a lifer.

He laughed, and said he loved it, and couldn't wait for everyone else to show up with ex-marines with loads of combat skills.

Oh shit we need a number station/backwards music station event.

>>30811323

I would love to play some 17 year old dropout who goes to a Fencing class, watches a lot of horror movies and LARPS

Bonus points for setting it in a theater.

>>30808702

I remember that short story, wasn't it in a book that was a collection? I seem to recall thinking that the author had a lot of good ideas but seemed chronically afraid of being actually clear about literally anything.

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For the guy who wanted the letters "dirtier".

>>30812095
Can you change the light that is burnt out? I cannot see anything but Night Shit since it was pointed out...

>>30812147
I think that's the point.
"Ight Shift"?
"Nigh Shift"?

>>30812147
>>30812232

I think it'd be a "No fun allowed" move to take it out.

>>30812095

The font itself still bothers the hell out of me. Sure, it's not Comic Sans, but it just doesn't give you the right vibe as it is.

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>City of Nowhere
Hehe...

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You make me proud /tg/. Here's the opening theme of faux-supernatural drama series "Night Shift".
https://soundcloud.com/panstach/z-jae-c-i-f-e-el-y-ou

>>30812232
I kind of like nigh shift.

>>30805298
>Night Shit

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>>30810375
>quit the next day.

Bitch, have you never seen how enthusiastic Japanese gas jockeys are?

They ain't packing that shit in just because they might be inconvenienced by some eldritch abomination.

Nyaruratohotepu pulls in in his tricked-out Chevy Impala, you better believe he is going to get his windscreen cleaned with ALL the fucking smiles.

Newfig to /tv/ here, are you guys still brainstorming for scenarios or what?

>>30814688
we're mostly trying to sort the ones we already have into something more manageable or helping with *worldanon with his system, but new ideas are always welcome.

>>30813771

I do as well.

The breakroom has a row of old, battered lockers against one wall. There are enough lockers for everyone on both the night and day shifts, plus two or three extra.

1. Your locker is filled with seawater. Sealife optional.
2. You can see glowing eyes through the ventilation grills in every locker door. They seem to follow you as you move around the break room.
3. One of the unused lockers has had metal hasps bolted or welded onto the door to accommodate six additional combination locks and padlocks. No one has been able to crack it open.
4. Inside the 1980s Assistant Manager's old locker are artifacts, weapons or ledgers from that time that might prove useful.
5. The inside of an unused locker has been set up to look like a multistory apartment building for dolls. Dolls that do not like their privacy disturbed.
6. At the back of the locker is a door that is identical to the one you just opened. Opening that door reveals another locker space with another door. Repeat ad-infinitum.
7. The back of the locker is merely the back of another locker door that opens out onto another break room. When you open your locker, there is a chance that your doppelgänger will open his at the same time.

Night Shift World anon here, I'm going to start putting together what I have so far to pdf-able status.

What I'd like to include in the next draft, though, is stuff like player introductions and fluff. For that I need a bit of help- I want the player introduction to read like some Employee Training pamphlet you might get handed the first day. Any real life examples would be super useful for getting the tone right.

I also want to expand the Backgrounds section of chargen; feel free to contribute in one of two ways.
1) A Background with a short sentence or two describing its tone.
2) Mechanical suggestions for existing Backgrounds.
For number two, use the following guidelines that I'm hoping will keep things balanced
- Effort 1, Threshold 4 is standard. Adding Effort makes a Background better, adding Threshold makes it worse. If you want to include a perk beyond the standard '+1 to rolls relating to your Background' then be sure to dump Effort or bump Threshold

Backgrounds so far;
Stoner, Drifter, College Kid, Day Shift (asshole) Transfer, Paranoid, Skeptic, Dealer
Possible Backgrounds to be added;
Anime/Hentai Enthusiast (bonus to dealing with tentacles?), Military Wannabe, Former Trucker, Workaholic

captcha: vobarda number
I don't know what the Vobarda Number is, but it sounds spooky.

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I got an idea.
It might be a bit hardcore for some, but I think it could be fun with the right people.
Prepare to enter my magical realm.

The party is reassigned to the day shift. Cue a fuckload of mundane work, with maybe a smidge of the unnatural.
At the end of their first day shift, they're assigned back to the night shift, effective right now.
The day shift assholes, just arriving to work the night shift, call you all a bunch of assholes for stealing their night shift.

>routesh suffering
Yes.

Got an itch to leave the station for a while?
Management has decided that the station now makes and delivers pizza.
While half the employees try to deliver pizzas, the other half try to hold the station against the things in the pizza supplies.
(I recommend having the pizza supplies be alive.)

> banjo music begins playing outside the station
> all of the characters get in their cars and leave

>>30815681
I feel like the character sheer should resemble a gas station job application as close as possible, but inuse cryptic and esoteric metrics like this "Vobarda Number" and an estimate of how long you can hold your breath.

>>30815964

Perfect. I don't have access to GIMP until I get out of work, but its going on the to-do list for sure.

Or if another anon wants to do a better job than me, because I'm not great with GIMP or photoshop, by all means.

>>30815799

Now, now. The management are not assholes, that's the day shift's jobs. (Except for Randy, who I think is just pretending to be an asshole to fit in, man!)

>>30815681
>>30815964

The backgrounds could be presented on a job app style character sheet as a section prompting you to "pick the three words that best describe you" so that you could get a background like "paranoid loner drifter" or "skeptic workaholic former trucker." That is, if you were thinking of allowing multiple background selections. To that end, how about the following:

Loner
Lifer
Fallguy
Laid-Off Exec
Family Man
Disturbed
Movie Buff
Jack Of All Trades
Highschooler
Motorhead

>>30812063

Yes, I believe it was. His co-worker apparently lived in the gas station and had pajama pants that were magic.

>>30800839
Iv been lurking the threads

I feel like this thread is nearing the point of Autosage, and there's still a lot to get done, more strange ideas to brainstorm and crunch to bang out. Is another thread warranted?

>>30800839
I've gotten myself caught up with the previous threads and added the posts about the calendar and the lockers.

Some of my favorite stuff has been the things that focused in the station itself and its history

>>30808522
>he installed Hal 666

>>30815681
>Freak
>Effort 2, Threshold 8
> Bonus: +1 for dealings with neutral or friendly supernatural entities (they are put at ease by your strange nature and demeanor)
>Bonus: Hostile entities are more likely to ignore you, due to the weird vibes you give off providing a sort of camouflaging effect. However, if you draw their attention directly, they will still attempt to slap your shit.
>Penalty: -1 to all interactions with "normals", because you creep them out.

>>30816307
can you work at the nightshift as a vampire? some low -ranked undead without strong powers?

Attendants, a new thread has been started:

>>30817437

>>30817400

I feel like it goes against the grain of the game. As an undead, you would presumably know what makes some of this stuff tick, which would go a long ways towards removing the mystique and weirdness of the setting. The supernatural is natural for you.

If you don't have strong powers, what's the point of being a vampire?

As far as your coworkers know, management only hires humans. When it eventually comes out, what's to stop them from lynching you for being a gribbly?