our new adventure for liminal horror has been released!

the signalwave series part two: Top "Signalwave" Albums to "Liminal Horror" to (2024)

 

My best guess is that the album cover is a YouTube screenshot.

tracking by antenna decay (released February 21, 2024)

Is there a constant beeping in the background, or is it tinnitus? I take my left air pod out, and the beeping stops, but now track two is playing, and I still hear the beeping. I checked my surroundings and removed the air pod again, and I realized it was the album’s heart monitor.

The first two songs are piano and nice and short, but track 3, “found,” is where the album begins to shine. It sounds like a slowed-down oldie with a full band (strings, winds, drums, etc).

Track 4, “slow,” has big Weather Channel vibes (a staple of the genre) with its piano tones, electric guitar riffs, and jazz flute! It also begins what I’m going to call The Trilogy, which, if you put all the single-word song titles together, makes “Slow Days Fading.” The album is also tagged as “Sentimental Transmission.” I recommend that fans of the soft rock bands Chicago and Bread start here, as well as anyone limited to time. The album sounds like a tragic love affair, good times and bad. It felt like the pace of the beeping varied at times.

Track 7, “worn,” is a melody I know from somewhere, and research is still ongoing.

Track 8, “gone,” I recommend to fans of dunegon synth and cottagecore.

The whole time, I was waiting for the beeping to cease or remain in the steady drone of death you see in the movies, but it never came. Which is fine; you live another day.

The album description is like the gray text box from an adventure:

viewing the memories of a soon-to-be-gone tape.

---

you walk into the attic.

the dust dances in the air around you.

there it sits, in the exact spot where you once stood, sun-bleached.

you feel a sense of familiarity.

you walk into your bedroom.

the smell of your past greets you.

there it lies, as if it were waiting for you, wishing for your return.

you choose to face yourself.

you walk into the living room.

the carpet feels softer than usual.

there it lies, gone in a moment, never to be seen again.

you watch as it all passes.

Many artists will write some micro-fiction, or poetry.

I love that the artist is Floridian and works for a government space agency.

***

I’ve battling a bit of scope creep with finishing the next draft of my submission to the Liminal Horror Twisted Classics Jam.

Writing and sketching the writing and sketching writing.

I drew this after writing, “Her Bible is white, and she holds it in both hands, like a big sandwich.” When I need a break from the writing and frustrations and it's too hot to skateboard, I’ll draw the writing.

i ran the chair by zach hazard vaupen ask me anything!

Play reports are so exhausting to write. This will be brief.

Two friends and I met up and played Liminal Horror the last two days for about an hour each session. It was my first time running Liminal Horror, and it was their first time playing. I didn't prep anything and hadn't even read all of the rooms prior, but I invited Bolt Neck Possum to play, who joined the call but just as a listener while working and answering a few questions I had on rules. 

They both rolled the same result on the "What Brought You to the House" table: "Greed made you into a fugitive, and you needed a place to lay low." 

At one point, Jason went into the air duct, which led to a heated room. He sat in the chair and teleported between the bathroom walls. He lost all control and became an NPC that started to break through the walls. 

Peyton heard the thuds and went to investigate and help their friend, but after using the rock hammer to break the drywall, they saw their friend's eyes were solid black and abandoned them.

In the end, Peyton drove off, but curiosity took over, and he turned around to dig up that grave he saw in the garden. 

The Chair is easy to run and incorporate into your ongoing campaign or a great start to a new one. I think it took us 2.5 hours to complete the scenario. If I were to run this again, I would change the NPCs into something else—another type of creature, perhaps, or at least reskinned. The creep factor in this one is easy to achieve, and it has a few things players who like puzzles or problem-solving will enjoy. 

If I run Liminal Horror for the same group again, I hope we can continue where we left off. 

Thorn: I didn't realize the fallout card for this game wasn't included in the pamphlet pdf, even though I downloaded and read the card a few days before the game and had the card open in a window during the game. So we didn't roll on the new fallouts in The Chair, which is kind of a bummer. I just totally spaced. 

Rose:  I pulled a few things from Gonin that I used in the sessions. Like starting the players off sitting in a car in the rain. Turning the whole fugitive hook into a heist gone wrong, as well as using the film to add more to the recent grave in the garden in the adventure.

Other news: I've been reading a lot of manga this summer (I recommend Hideout [short and more traditional horror and psychological] by Masasumi Kakizaki, and Paranoia Street [a more twisted slice of life and the first story was my favorite in this collection] by Shintarō Kago). 

 

The night before the game, I watched Gonin. It's a yakuza film from 1995 directed by Takashi Ishii, who began his career making outlaw comics. Beat Takashi is awesome in the movie, as he always is. 

Top "Signalwave" Albums to "Liminal Horror" to (2024)

 Warning: reading this post may result in spending money on cassettes, vinyl, CDs, and MINIDISCS.

“Signalwave” and “Broken Transmission” are subgenres of “Slushwave,” which has been one of the best musical discoveries I’ve made this year.

They’re the soundtrack to decay.

I think of them as concept albums portraying memories of good days long gone.

It’s what Liches listen to when playing Second Life online to feel human again.

These artists have their entire catalogs hugely discounted on Bandcamp.

On the other hand, the Liminal Horror Twisted Classics Jam has begun.

So what’s so great about “Signalwave?”

Look at CT57’s discography.

Their album art is a ready-to-go d10 table you can insert into whatever “Twisted Classic” you’re working on. You even got an NPC in the top right corner.

All of their albums are amazing.

My favorite release is “Distant Sounds of Desolation.” Released March 22, 2024, It sounds like what I picture corpse dance lessons to be. May the track list be your spark table. You can purchase any of their albums for $1 or their entire discography for $6.

The songs aren't too short but aren't too long, and the pace is great. The tracks blend smoothly into each other to give you enough time to "meditate." I like that there are no commercial ads. The melodic vocals in "Weeping Willow" are haunting. I feel like this album has a lot of up-and-down movement, like the lovely pipes in "Memories of Good Days Long Gone." Maybe it's not even pipes; it's got chimes or wood blocks. 

Let’s look at another release from this year. Dead Hues by Localdecay. Released April 3, 2024, are you starting to see a pattern of the genre yet?

The first song is a fucking banger. It just rips you right into the rhythm. Pulsating piano with saxophone and fucking railroading drums. Just all drenched with reverb. You could work out to this one. Then it ends with a raven-sounding synth that caws, and I fall into the track "Analog Decay." I feel like this is what it sounds like to be in a hot spring in Iceland. With the mud. If you see foggy power lines on a cover, it's a banger.

街灯 by ビリヤード場 (Street light by Billiard Hall) Released February 2, 2024, this one is great because not only does it introduce UFOs (or whatever the government refers to them as now) to our countdown, but we finally get some vocals sampled. Sampling is mostly all “Signalwave” is.

The track titles are listed in Japanese, so I’d like to translate them here to use as a spark table after you purchase their album.

1. i'm still wearing the shirt you gave me

2. a midnight walk in the middle of nowhere

3. the streetlights shine a subtle blue

4. don't look at me

5. i shouldn’t

6. bird

7. starlight / city of light bulbs

8. it’s getting late…

I recommend viewing your “Twisted Classic” through multiple lenses, like a copy of All Dogs Go to Heaven on VHS. However, the VCR is connected to a projector, and there’s no screen. It’s playing on a garage door, being filmed by a Sony Nex 6 camera that’s had its sensor converted to infrared and streaming to the internet.

Next week, we’ll sink our brain fangs deeper into “Signalwave” and “Liminal Horror.” I promise to challenge your tastes.

Until Next Time, Consider the following inspiration:

Outlaw Comics:
Battalion: The Return of the Living Dead, or more recently, Junji Ito’s adaption of the Lighthouse, among many other “Twisted Classics.” Battalion is a bootleg manga released in a Japanese magazine at the time of the American Film’s Japan release. This blog takes a deep dive into it. Manga has filled my summer reading.

Vacuum Decay. All five issues of this horror comic by various artists are free to read online or can be purchased via their website. It’s worth reading each issue for the overarching “Twisted Classic” take on The Simpsons, “Shadows Over Springfield,” which is also available to purchase standalone.

Literature:
The Sword-wielding Statue of Liberty in Franz Kafka’s novel Amerika. Kafka never visited America, but he saw many pictures and wrote his own twisted version. The ebook is free to read, and it’s hilarious.

i review 'liminal high school' and interview the author evlyn moreau

I bought this new zine from Evlyn Moreau (I recommend following or subscribing to her patreon, she posts free use art in high frequency) called Liminal High School. According to the author, it's as if The Breakfast Club took place in Silent Hill.

I read and then reread this zine while lying in different positions on my bed and then sent the link to purchase it to ~6 friends.

I feel that would make a good blurb. 

I will write more blurbs for it now.

'I felt myself strongly relating to the character I created.'

'I absolutely love this release. It's simple but has depth like homemade vegan lasagna.'

'It's very well executed in a sweet way that makes me think of the creator a lot.'

'While reading this zine I felt calm and detached from reality almost like a robot that has reprogrammed itself with what it wants and can effortlessly and automatically do whatever it wants with complete control over all impulses.'

The zine provides tables and alternate rules for creating Liminal Horror (a modern horror hack of Cairn [a hack of Into the Odd and Knave]) characters in high school that feel genuine but aren't simple caricatures or anything like that.

Let me partially introduce you to the first character I rolled up. (the bold text being the generating tables)

Student Archetype: You are the... Bookworm (bury yourself in a book)

What's cool about this table is that characters can recover d6 HP when they do the activity listed in parentheses. 

Reputation: You are known for... A flaw (often something that adults disapprove of)

I'm going to say it's vandalization, or just being destructive in general.

How are your grades: You are barely keeping up but you are doing ok.

Personal Connections: Significant person... Ghost of your best friend. Contact... a teacher.

The ghost of your best friend is already a great hook for starting an adventure and I'm not even finished with character creation. 

When you confide in your significant person you recover d6 HP. Contacts generally trust your character and you are instructed to give them an area of expertise

There are NPC portraits on this page.

Cell Phone: Last year's model but with a badly cracked screen.

Here the zine has an optional rule to use cell phones as a way to reduce a player's stress or inflict additional stress. I really like this but you'll have to get the zine and see it for yourself. 

Players then get 2 rolls to 'spend' on 4 different tables for starting gear. 

The last bit of character creation is to roll on the 'what bounded you all together' and 'personal bonds between students'. 

There is a subtle artistic social commentary throughout this release that surprised me. There are layers to the text like homemade vegan lasagna. This is good. These I will leave for you to find for yourself. 

Liminal High School is something I would like to play and write adventures and content for. I hope to see others releases made specifically for it soon. 

It's a submission from The Tales of the Void: Liminal Horror Jam going on right now at itch. 

An interview with the author

When do you enjoy making art the most?

When I go drawing at the coffee shop, early in the morning or late at night. I like when there are a few people around and a quiet vibe, it helps me focus.

What are your favorite materials you use to make art, and any other material you would be interested in learning?

I simply draw on normal sheets of paper with a pen or pencil. My favorite pens right now are Uni Pin. Oh, I would love to get better with watercolors but I rarely give myself occasions to practice.

What's the coolest thing you've ever drawn and why?

For now, I would say that my favorite work is still what I drew for 'Where the Wheat Grow Tall'.

What do you do on the internet if you're bored?

I often watch videos about astronomy or space exploration. But when I get bored I often try to do off-screen activities like painting minis, crafts or going on a walk.

If you could leave yourself a present in the future what would it be?

An immortal pet that I can sneak in my handbag and who communicates with me telepathically. Well, I guess that I am describing a familiar. 

(if you'd like to support this website there are links on the right to purchase my zines)

edit:

Evlyn tweeted that she is planning to add the following to Liminal High School to make it a ~20 page physical release:
-student character sheet
-stress fallouts table for teens
-weird teachers and weird students table
-optional character advancement focusing on the student's life (grades, relations, etc)
-a short adventure

This entry from the Tales from the Void Jam called Mary's Stall would pair nicely with Liminal High School. It's about a haunted bathroom stall. 

This is a photo of my favorite teacher from high school. I plan to use them as an NPC in my first session of Liminal High School.

Here is a recipe for a vegan lasagna from the singer of the Cro-Mags that my friend said was 'good'.