SCP: The TRPG brings the supernatural mysteries that inspired video game Control to the tabletop
From maker of CreepyPasta RPG.
A new tabletop RPG based on SCP - the collaborative online writing project best known as one of the key inspirations behind video game Control - is breaking free of containment with a release next week.
SCP - which stands for Secure, Contain, Protect - started life as a series of stories about the supernatural posted to forums such as Reddit, before spawning a dedicated wiki of community-created fiction. Over a decade since its creation, there are now thousands of individual stories by a number of authors surrounding the fictional SCP Foundation and its investigations into various phenomena.
While stories can be standalone tales, they share a number of aspects - outlined in the wiki’s extensive writing guidelines - that ensure they fit into the connected universe. These include references to Special Containment Procedures - objects, locations and other things that may be affected by mysterious anomalies - as well as differing levels of security access and competing groups and agencies in the world.
SCP particularly came to prominence with the release of video game Control in 2019. Heavily inspired by SCP, as well as supernatural pop-culture touchstones such as The X-Files and Twin Peaks, Control saw protagonist Jesse Faden venture into the depths of the Federal Bureau of Control and encounter a number of Objects of Power with otherworldly attributes. Control inspired a separate indie RPG, In Case of Emergency, released last summer by Boy Problems creator Colin Cummings.
Designer Jason Keech’s upcoming SCP: The Tabletop RPG turns the expansive lore of SCP itself into a roleplaying game, with players taking on the role of staff at the SCP Foundation.
SCP: The TRPG is powered by a refined version of the gameplay system previously used in the designer’s RPG CreepyPasta - named after the genre of online horror stories designed to frighten and unsettle.
The system sees players able to draw drama cards during sessions to temporarily alter the game’s rules and story outside of the GM’s control.
Each character is granted a security level that determines their ability to access locations within the Foundation, as well as restricting which parts of the rulebook their controlling player can read - locking off more powerful weapons and data until they are granted the necessary clearance.
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign last year to fund a physical edition of the core rulebook, SCP: The Tabletop RPG will be released digitally on DriveThruRPG by publisher 26 Letter Publishing this coming Monday, June 21st.