The most important thing for me is to have Tales from Channel 13 be its own "thing," with is own unique flavor. I don't just want this to be a reskin of Cult of the Drive-in, which itself was a partial hack of Ken Lowery's VOID 1680 AM. It's going to use a similar cards-and-dice mechanic, but I want it to have its own identity.

While Cult of the Drive-in required curating multiple feature films, maybe asking a bit of movie knowledge from the player (genre, cast, crew, etc), Tales from Channel 13 is going to ask you to "lock in" on a single film.

You'll need to know more than just the basic "nuts and bolts" of a movie. You'll need to know the major story beats, memorable quotes, behind-the-scenes trivia, and more. You'll need to look up information on the internet, DVD special features, books, documentaries, or anywhere else you can get that information. You should be able to point to a cast member and say what else they've done, and where they are now. If you're showing someone's only feature film, lead with that.

Tales from Channel 13 is not meant to be a game played in a single sitting. Instead, think of it as a helpful guide, putting you into the shoes, boots, or toe-tag of a horror host. At the very least, you'll be able to impress people with your movie knowledge.

But what about art?

Very much like Cult of the Drive-in, I'm operating on a micro-budget here. I'm going to commission full-color cover art, and maybe a few black-and-white pieces for inside the book. But once again, stock photos from sites like Unsplash and Pixabay will be the main source of art.

I'll be aiming for photos and illustrations that sell "B-movie" or "cult film," but don't directly show anyone's likeness.

And I might even take a few photos of my own.

How about riffing over the movie?

There's a wonderful show about a human and two robots who riff during the film. They're not the first ones to do it, and they won't be the last. A certain horror hostess even has live riffing as part of her own feature film.

Tales from Channel 13 will not involve such rapid-fire quips. Instead it's going to involve host segments before and after the film, and at strategically timed points throughout the movie's runtime.

If you want to write up an entire feature film worth of riffs, neither the rules nor myself will stop you. But that's not really something that's easily condensed into a solo TTRPG. That's a skill you must master yourself, and I wish you the best of luck at it. (A passage similar to this my even end up in the finished book)

Photo credit: Photo by Sabina Music Rich on Unsplash.