Review - The Lost Room
I had heard about this when it released, it was all over the Unknown Armies mailing list, but only recently saw it (thank you Netflix). Amazingly, The Lost Room is a SciFi original production and one of the best high weirdness pieces I have even seen.
It all hinges on the Event which happened at Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel in New Mexico at 1:20:44 p.m. on 4 May 1961. The Event tore the room and all of its contents out of reality with the result that every item in the room (collectively the Objects) is charged with something that:
1) makes them indestructible
2) gives them some sort of ability. This abilities range from the near useless (placing an egg in side the watchband boils it) to the near god-like (the glass eye allows for total manipulation of flesh). But the key allows access to the room, place in in any door lock and open it, and it lets you into the room (where it is always 1:20:44 pm, 4 May 1961) and you can step out through any door.
There are over a hundred objects and some of them do different things when combined with each other . . . You begin to see the possibilities, yes?
Naturally, there are groups out there that want to control the objects. Now, our main character knows none of this at the series begins and he soon ends up with the key and a reason to try and understand how it works. I do not wish to spoil the plot, so I will not apart from mentioning that I found the ending a little weak but still acceptable. But well worth seeing if you like high weirdness or modern occult genre. My Grade: A-
The whole thing screamed Unknown Armies to me. So many wonderful and weird ideas for a game. Might be a bit harder to translate into a pure fantasy or SF game, but amazing ideas for modern occult settings.
It all hinges on the Event which happened at Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel in New Mexico at 1:20:44 p.m. on 4 May 1961. The Event tore the room and all of its contents out of reality with the result that every item in the room (collectively the Objects) is charged with something that:
1) makes them indestructible
2) gives them some sort of ability. This abilities range from the near useless (placing an egg in side the watchband boils it) to the near god-like (the glass eye allows for total manipulation of flesh). But the key allows access to the room, place in in any door lock and open it, and it lets you into the room (where it is always 1:20:44 pm, 4 May 1961) and you can step out through any door.
There are over a hundred objects and some of them do different things when combined with each other . . . You begin to see the possibilities, yes?
Naturally, there are groups out there that want to control the objects. Now, our main character knows none of this at the series begins and he soon ends up with the key and a reason to try and understand how it works. I do not wish to spoil the plot, so I will not apart from mentioning that I found the ending a little weak but still acceptable. But well worth seeing if you like high weirdness or modern occult genre. My Grade: A-
The whole thing screamed Unknown Armies to me. So many wonderful and weird ideas for a game. Might be a bit harder to translate into a pure fantasy or SF game, but amazing ideas for modern occult settings.