GATE CRASHERS

1. The Pitch

2. The Premise: Welcome to the Broadcast

You have been abducted from your home dimension and trapped in The Atrium, a massive, multi-tiered arcology pocket dimension. You are now a Contender, an unwilling participant in a multiversal reality broadcast watched by trillions.

The Atrium is your home, your prison, and your staging ground. The higher your Broadcast Rank, the higher up in the Atrium you get to live—enjoying sunlight, luxury, and premium rations. The lower tiers? Gray sludge and artificial lighting.

From the Atrium's central hub, Gateways open to scheduled Scenarios: self-contained pocket realities designed to test you for the amusement of the audience. Your goal is simple: complete the Scenarios, entertain the viewers, climb the tiers of the Atrium, and maybe, just maybe, win your freedom.

3. The Scenarios: What the Network Demands

Do not expect a simple dungeon crawl; the network demands variety, and combat is just one way to entertain. Each Gateway presents a unique Scenario with a specific win-condition:

• The Slayers: Straightforward combat, horde survival, and boss battles.
• The Heists: Stealth, puzzle-solving, and trap-evasion to secure VIP artifacts.
• The Socials: High-stakes negotiations, murder mysteries, and political brokering where drawing a weapon drops your rating.

4. How We Play: The West Marches Format

We operate on a flexible, player-driven structure with no set weekly schedule.

• The Manifest: Your Directors will post open Scenarios on the Network Schedule, detailing the type, difficulty (easy, moderate, hard), and a brief description.
• Player Initiative: If you want to play, step up! Pick a Scenario, post in the Green Room, and recruit a team of Contenders.
• One-Shot Episodes: Every Gateway is a single-session commitment. You enter the Scenario, achieve the objective (or fail), and return to the Atrium by the end of the night.
• Director's PC: When a Director is running the game, their personal PC is off working with an NPC group to complete a Scenario. If the player party succeeds, the Director’s PC gains the same rewards (VP and Showmanship roll). If the party fails, the Director’s PC gains nothing.

5. The Showmanship Roll & The Hype Meter

Surviving isn't enough; you must entertain. At the end of every Episode, each Contender rolls 2d10 + Hype to determine their Showmanship Tier. You do not add your core attributes to this roll; your success depends entirely on how entertaining you were.

The Director tracks a Hype Meter for each Contender during the session, which modifies your final roll:

• +1 to +2 (Viral Moments): You played to the cameras. You earn positive Hype for trash-talking a boss, executing a wildly cinematic (but sub-optimal) maneuver, leaning into juicy interpersonal drama, or fulfilling a Sponsor Bounty.
• 0 (Standard Broadcast): You survived and did your job, but played it relatively safe.
• -1 to -2 (Dead Air): You were lame. The audience changes the channel if you spend twenty minutes hyper-cautiously checking a single hallway for traps, run away from a winnable fight, or metagame the fun out of a dramatic moment.

Showmanship Results & Popularity Points (PP)

Your final modified roll determines how many Popularity Points you earn:

• Tier 1 (Failure): 0 PP. The audience was bored. You might even lose a Sponsor or face a minor consequence in your next Scenario.
• Tier 2 (Standard Success): +1 PP. A solid episode. The viewers tuned in, and your brand is growing.
• Tier 3 (High Success): +2 PP. A viral moment! The audience is obsessed.
• Heroic Push: Spend 1 Hero Token during the session to guarantee a spectacular broadcast moment, immediately granting you +1 PP without needing to roll for it.

6. Network Stats: Popularity, Rating, and Wealth

The broadcast metrics directly tie into your character's Renown and Wealth.

Rating (Renown)

Your Rating represents your permanent popularity and infamy.

• Progression: Hitting 10 Popularity Points (PP) automatically increases your Rating by 1 (resetting your PP to 0). This tracks up to a maximum of 120 PP / 12 Rating.
• Perks: A high Rating dictates your Atrium floor access, determines the caliber of Sponsor Bounties you can accept, and gives you leverage during negotiations with Network Executives.

The Production Crew (Followers)

Your Rating dictates how much dedicated DBN staff you can employ at your Stronghold (your shared Atrium base).

• Crew Size: You unlock 1 Follower at Rating 3, 2 at Rating 6, 3 at Rating 9, and a maximum of 4 at Rating 12.
• Crew Types:
  • The Techs (Artisans): Crafting experts who contribute to downtime projects.
  • The Analysts (Sages): Research experts who help decode multiversal lore.
  • Stunt Doubles (Retainers): Disposable heroic NPCs who can adventure alongside you in Scenarios.

Sponsor Tier (Wealth)

Instead of tracking individual gold pieces, your purchasing power is dictated by your Sponsor Tier.

• Progression: You earn Tier increases by securing massive audience donations or Network performance bonuses (roughly 1 Tier every two levels).
• Purchasing Power: Tier 1 affords mundane gear and a bunk in the lower Atrium. Higher Tiers allow you to afford private suites, luxury amenities, and expensive services.
• Note: Rare treasures and magic weapons cannot be bought; they must be looted from Gateways or granted by elite Sponsors.

7. The Cost of Inaction

The broadcast demands a constant stream of content. If you are not in a Gateway, you are losing the audience's attention.

• Taking a Respite: The viewers hate dead air. If a Contender takes a Respite, they automatically lose 1 Popularity Point (or 2 if the network is particularly demanding that week).
• Entertain the Audience (Downtime Project): To negate this penalty, a Contender can spend their Respite actively working the cameras (interviews, streaming, brand deals) to maintain their current Popularity.
• Freezes: If a player cannot attend a session but doesn't want to take an official Respite, their Contender is "Frozen" in time. They gain nothing, but they are protected from losing any Popularity Points.
• The Ultimate Penalty: If the overall network quota drops because too many Scenarios are ignored, the Directors will enforce Relegation Matches (sudden-death arenas) or allow Real-World Collateral (letting a Scenario's disaster spill over to Earth).