Existential Horror in Space
The year is 2268, and mankind has moved beyond Earth to explore and exploit the solar system.
An anomaly has been discovered in orbit around Titan's largest moon, a region of 'static' space whose behavior defies conventional physics. A space station has been constructed there to study and try to understand this phenomena.
Players in The Anomaly will play the specialists dedicated to studying The Anomaly, as well as the personnel who administer and run the facility.
This is an existential horror campaign, where the terror comes from not so much physical danger as an assault upon the mind and conceptions of what reality is. Ideal players will be willing to roleplay this without too much prompting.
Gameplay will involve action, social interaction, exploration, and science. So much science.
The system is a homebrew and behind the scenes. Attempt things, and the GM determines (somehow) whether or not you're successful, and to what degree
This is a subtle form of terror; everyone recognizes that violence exists. Violence is an attack against your idea of safety. Existential horror attacks your idea of how the world works.
This is the horror of that which should not be, and this game requires players who can understand and roleplay what that trauma can be like, possibly to the point of coming out the other side.
This is the kind of horror where the detective realizes he was the killer all along.
This is the kind of horror where you realize your life is just a television show.
This is the kind of horror where you realize the zombies you've been fighting are just normal kindergarteners.
As a result, uncertainty is integral to the game's mood. You may not be able to trust your memory. You may not be able to trust your senses. You may not be able to trust the other PCs. You may not be able to trust yourself.
This is about misleading and fooling the players almost as much as it is misleading and fooling the characters they play.
As a result, control over the flow of information is vital. The aim is to get the difference between "what the players know" and "what their characters know" as narrow as possible; this is one reason why only the telepath character should see the other players' thoughts. Everyone else should have to guess at what others mean.
