Welcome to the Hotel California
Other versions
A few weeks ago, I joined a TTRPG Actual Play project by Madelancholy: playing You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave as a campaign. I've already played with them in a Trophy Gold playtest, and the game appealed to me when I read it, years ago. As the schedule was OK and I liked the tone and mood last time, I jumped in!
In this GM-less TTRPG, we played characters living in a strange hotel from where nobody can leave. We can play travelers who get there by accident. Staff members, or even Anomalies, strange beings tethered to the Hotel.
The game is a Firebrands one. It has a bunch of mini-games to explore different scenes: playing pool, having a breakfast, dancing, fighting, meddling, exploring... Each game has its own prompts, ideas to frame and play the scene.
So we played a half-dozen sessions. With a special touch: Madelancholy ran the game for different groups, in the same shared universe, through a Miro board. In the game universe, a board allowed our characters to share informations, to ask questions and stuff. A nice touch!
Those games have been recorded and are available on Madelancholy's channel. Here's the first one where I'm featured:
I'm playing Remi Fonteneaux. A character haunted by his past, with blood on his hands. A film noir character. He'll meet Sirano, a prince from outer-space, Lyterdansing, a shape-shifting Anomaly, and Elias, a Staff membeer. We'll explore that hotel together, learning to know each other, having adventures, meeting strange characters, laughing, dansing...
Thanks to Madelancholy, Sabine and Joao for journeying with me in this adventure. The overall story arc was sometimes a bit lost, we also immerged ourselves in strange and absurd scenes, but our characters evolved, revealed themselves, and the conclusion was really pleasing. A really strong and powerful experience.