Author: M Van Vleet

The Signal: EP159

an animated image of a laser cassette tape on a moving laser grid background with the text The Signal: EP159

The Signal: EP159 – Exactly 45 minutes for your future shocked ears. We’ve got synthwave that’s more 80s than the 80s were, mirror-universe trip-hop, a rockin’ brothel visit, SE Asian funk-rock from the Netherlands, puffy sleeves and treasure. It’s weird and it works, so jack in yer deck and join us!

Download by clicking on the link (or image) above. The file is available only for a limited time. If you’re interested in the tracklist, it’s in the mp3 itself, in the id3 tags. Or, if you sign up to be a member of our mailing list, The Tuned In, you’ll be among the first on the planet to know when a new mix is posted, and you’ll get a permanent archive link and the entire playlist, delivered to your inbox.

what if we just got it over with

what if everyone in the wild west met at high noon and every revolver spat fire and every bullet hit every other bullet and the weathercocks spin, the rain barrels leak, the horses rear up, hats hit the dust, spurs jingle-jangle and then that’s it, the wild west is over and there’s still plenty of afternoon left

lost time incident 86 – embers drifting across highways unbidden

lost time incident 86

Fellow workers!

The air here smells of smoke from files to the north, but so far we have escaped all consequences. The wind has been howling and on a walk to get some coffee I had to step over a few downed branches. The climate doesn’t seem terribly friendly today, but for now we can still reach out to you online, and that’s something.

Let’s take advantage while we can.
 

New Security Questions for Q4 2019

  1. What vowels, primarily, does the dark shape in the corner whisper to you at 2:32 a.m. every day?
  2. What city were you in the first time you fell into the Inverse and had to free yourself from the Despair Trees?
  3. What’s your password? Just kidding, don’t type that in here, that was a test. What’s your favorite 401K service provider (whether you work with them or not) and how often do the ashes on your tongue make you think you never left the Inverse?


Are your children chatting about dying in outer space?
ROFL: Real Oxygen Failure Loop
STFU: Systemic Total Failure Underway
ILY: Irreparable Leak Yonder
YOLO: Your Oxygen Lost (Oops)
DGAF: Decompression: Gas/Atmosphere Failure
LMFAO: Let’s Maybe Forget Astronaut’s Odds



Least Popular Elves (as reported by Gygax’s Subscription Faxes, #3 v1 1978, delivered via fax)

  1. Income Tax Elves
  2. Pus Elves
  3. Divorce Lawyer Elves
  4. Misnumbered List Elves


ending theme song
Since the last time you heard from me, my writing efforts have been directed towards game-related projects. I’ve worked on some RPG stories for use in play, but I’ve also started learning some layout software and putting mini-RPG projects online at itch.io.

If you’re curious, I have a pamphlet/game concept about roadside attractions in the US (and failure) and just this weekend I posted a single-player game about taking a phone call during the Crucifixion, inspired by a weird ivory carving I saw in The Met’s online art gallery. (You can see the image on the cover of the mini-RPG.)

In the near term, a game I co-authored should be finalized soon and a contribution I sent to an online RPG scenario contest should leave its embargo, so I can talk about it.

I don’t know what my next big project is going to be, on the scale of WITCHES TOWN (still available for sale), but… I’ll be sure to let you all know!

Hope you’re doing well, and have opportunities to pet furry animals, or take nice naps, or enjoy some hobbies, etc. etc. We are on a spinning rock in the middle of cold, cold space and it’s a miracle any of this happened. Who knows if it’ll ever happen again. Enjoy what you can of it.

—Michael Van Vleet

Hey! Did you enjoy reading this? But did you find yourself thinking “Dang, if only this sort of thing were delivered directly into my inbox so I didn’t have to spend time on a website as if it were still the 90s or something!”?

You’re in luck! You can subscribe to the LOST TIME INCIDENT newsletter and finally class up your inbox. 

Your Parents Never Signed the Permission Slip [game idea]

Most of the class is at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, having fun. You and your fellow players never got your permissions slips signed, so you’re in a classroom, bored.

Find a way to bring the aquarium experience to yourselves. Flood the room. Paint scales on a school bus. Perform damp rites and transform into fish people.

Game ends when the school day ends or when the ocean reclaims you forever.

I DON’T KNOW WHICH ONE TO SHOOT

I DON’T KNOW WHICH ONE TO SHOOT: the game of clones, a gun, and asking questions only you would know the answer to

One player holds “the gun.” Everyone else plays identical people. The player with the gun asks every other player questions “only the original would know the answer to.”

Gameplay continues until the questioner decides they know who the original is. Game is lost if they actually shoot anyone, ’cause what the hell, that’s not a way to solve problems.

CLOSED FOREVER

CLOSED FOREVER - a mini RPG about roadside attractions and failure

CLOSED FOREVER is a mini-RPG in about roadside attractions and failure in convenient brochure form.

You are: the owner of a roadside attraction in late-20th century USA. (You know… like a fiberglass dinosaur or something.)

You are: in over your head. But you have a plan.

Pay-what-you-want here:
https://signalstation.itch.io/closed-forever

New Security Questions for Q4 2019

1) What vowels, primarily, does the dark shape in the corner whisper to you at 2:32 a.m. every day?

2) What city were you in the first time you fell into the Inverse and had to free yourself from the Despair Trees?

3) What’s your password? Just kidding, don’t type that in here, that was a test. What’s your favorite 401K service provider (whether you work with them or not) and how often do the ashes on your tongue make you think you never left the Inverse?

woodwose.org

Cernunnos, horned good of the woods

Try our new social network, it’s called COVERING YOURSELF IN MOSS AND LIVING IN THE DRIPPING WOODS.

There’s no cost to sign up, because we sell aggregate user data to advertisers you actually want to hear from, such as THE WHISPERING TREES and THE SOFT INTAKE OF BREATH WHEN A DEER SPOTS YOU and if you want the deluxe package you can arrange a personal sponsorship from THE LORD OF SLOW GROWTH (which allows custom emojis!)

Are your children chatting about dying in outer space?

ROFL: Real Oxygen Failure Loop
STFU: Systemic Total Failure Underway
ILY: Irreparable Leak Yonder
YOLO: Your Oxygen Lost (Oops)
SMH: Something Mauled Hull
WYD?: Why’d You Die?
DGAF: Decompression: Gas/Atmosphere Failure
LMFAO: Let’s Maybe Forget Astronaut’s Odds