Long Haul 1983, a short debrief

What a trip!

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For the month of October, I’m taking a break from my Blade Runner RPG campaign, “Shadow of the Waxwing Slain” to play some spooky games. Today, I’m looking back at my play-through, part 1 and part 2, of Long Haul 1983 by SCP.

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Photo by Josiah Farrow on Unsplash

My lonely trucker didn’t make it to his destination. The black cloud caught up to him. I really felt like things were going well, I had all my dice and the ability to reroll any failed Mind, Body or Rig roll. I was riding high! But the Threat became too much. Too many Kings and the Threat got me. It was a very fun ride, though. I decided writing in first-person present-tense would be the most engaging and including the phone calls as messages after each day would be interesting. You could compare what I do during the day with what I talk about on the phone message. I tried to improv those as best I could, not writing a script but thinking about what had happened during that day. I also almost always went with the first take and didn’t try to over-analyze or redo phone calls. Except for the last one which I had to try a couple times to make it sound more frantic. This was the first time I’ve recorded myself. I used the free program Audacity which worked well enough and had a filter for “phone call” which I think made my voice sound like a phone message. I also used my webcam mic instead of my headset mic because, after trying both, the webcam mic had more of a sound like an old phone message, in my opinion.

As for the game system itself, Long Haul 1983 is fantastic. It’s simple, using four Fate dice and a deck of cards to tell a strange, harrowing trip, with evocative prompts and a unique journaling method (recording your voice) that really shapes your character and journey. The system really works to push you toward your destination while also throwing up road blocks and threats (dice failures and the actual Threat) that might take you down before you reach the end. It’s really elegant and simple. If you enjoy spooky journaling games, this is a great one. Also, whatever Threat you choose can really change the style of the game. You could be chased by post-apocalyptic Mad Max-style psychos. Or a plague. Or zombies! It really works for whatever kind of horror setting you want to go with. I had to be creative with my ‘black cloud’ for some prompts but I wanted something unsettling and weird.

Work has been really overwhelming and stressful lately, so this will be my last post for October. In November, I look forward to getting back into Shadow of the Waxwing Slain. The third (and possibly final) case. I enjoy the world, characters and story but it’s also quite taxing and involved. After this case, I might be looking to try something new.

I’m open to suggestions!