C4: A Psychedelic Espionage RPG
“Reality is a rumor. Trust no one. Not even yourself.”
Overview:
C4: A Psychedelic Espionage RPG is a narrative-driven, character-focused roleplaying game set in a fractured, dreamlike version of the Cold War-era world—where reality is fluid, governments are illusions, and the human mind is the most dangerous weapon of all. Players take on the roles of C4 Operatives—elite agents recruited from the fringes of society: exiled artists, former cultists, neuro-psychedelic hackers, and dissociative dreamers—trained to infiltrate, manipulate, and reshape perception itself.
Blending the paranoia of Tarkov, the surrealism of Inception, and the psychological depth of The Manchurian Candidate, C4 is a game about identity, control, and the cost of seeing too much.
🌌 Setting: The Fractured Continuum
The world is not what it seems. The 1970s were not a decade—they were a lie. A global psychic event known as The Rupture fractured time, space, and consciousness in 1973. Since then, reality has bled into dreamscapes, governments are controlled by psychic echo-entities, and truth is a currency traded by secret cabals.
The C4 Directorate: A shadow agency that recruits individuals with unstable minds—those who’ve experienced "dream trauma"—to become reality architects.
The Echoes: Psychic entities that manifest from collective subconscious fears. They wear disguises, speak in fragmented memories, and rewrite history on the fly.
The Glimmer: A hallucinogenic compound derived from quantum pollen, used to access alternate timelines. Prolonged use causes "memory bleed"—where past and future memories mix.
🎮 Core Mechanics: Reality as a Weapon
1. The Three Minds
Each character has three mental states, shifting based on stress, drugs, and trauma:
Clear: Rational, analytical. Can process standard missions and information.
Unraveled: Perception warps. The world flickers. Dialogue becomes surreal. Some abilities unlock, but reality becomes unreliable.
Echoed: The player is temporarily possessed by an Echo. Their body moves on its own. They may speak in foreign tongues, recall events they never lived, or fight allies they don’t recognize.
“When you’re Echoed, you’re not you. And you might not want to be.”
2. Reality Dice System (RDS)
Use d6 dice, but the result is not just a number—it’s a memory fragment. Roll 3d6.
The sum is your Action Value, but the *individual dice determine the nature of your success**:
1s = Truth (you perceive a hidden lie, see through a disguise, or hear a secret)
2s = Paranoia (you suspect betrayal, but it might be real… or not)
3s = Memory (you recall a fragment of a past mission—possibly from another timeline)
4s = Perception (you see a detail others miss—like a face in a mirror that isn’t yours)
5s = Delusion (you believe something false, but it becomes true in your reality)
6s = Revelation (a truth from the dreamworld emerges—can alter the mission)
Example: Rolling 1-6-6 means you perceive a hidden truth (1), and two Revelations burst through—perhaps a dead ally speaks, or the mission brief is written in a language only you understand.
3. The Glimmer Protocol
Players can inject Glimmer to "jump" into alternate timelines. Each jump has a cost:
1 Glimmer: See a possible future (but it might not happen).
2 Glimmer: Step into a past version of the mission (can change choices, but consequences bleed into your timeline).
3 Glimmer: Enter a dream-layer (a shared hallucination) where all players experience a distorted version of reality. The GM controls the dream, but player choices shape its rules.
Warning: Overuse of Glimmer causes "Neural Collapse"—permanent loss of identity. At that point, the player must roleplay as a new person, or become a new Echo.
🎭 Character Creation: Who Are You?
Players choose from Archetypes, each with a unique psychological wound and a talent tied to perception:
The Mirror – A former actor who lost their face in a fire. Can perfectly mimic anyone’s voice, mannerisms, and memories—even if they’re not real.
The Dream-Writer – A poet who writes stories that become true. Their journal entries manifest in reality when read aloud.
The Static – A radio technician who hears voices from dead transmission lines. Can "tune" into people’s subconscious and replay their worst fears.
The Hollow – A trauma survivor with no childhood memory. Their mind is a blank slate—perfect for implanting ideas, but they might not remember planting them.
The Ghost-Hand – A surgeon who can touch someone and temporarily experience their life. Each touch risks losing their own.
🔥 Sample Mission: "Operation Lullaby"
Brief: The C4 Directorate has received a distress call from a research station in the Andes, where an Echo is broadcasting a lullaby that causes mass hallucinations—people believe they’re children again, and begin to self-destruct.
The Twist: The lullaby is not music. It’s a memory. The station was once a secret child experiment facility. The Echo is not an enemy—it’s a child who never grew up.
Players must infiltrate the station, locate the Echo, and decide:
Kill it to stop the madness?
Let it play, and let everyone relive their happiest moment… before they die?
Or become it?
🎨 Tone & Aesthetic
Visuals: Think Dune meets David Lynch meets 1970s Soviet propaganda posters drawn by a sleep-deprived artist.
Soundtrack: Haunting synthwave, warping vinyl crackle, voices layered beneath lullabies, reversed dialogue.
Themes: Identity erosion, the illusion of free will, the war between dream and reality, and whether truth is worth saving—if it destroys you.
🧠 Why Play C4?
No two games are alike—each session shifts based on player choices, Glimmer use, and mental state.
Emotional weight: You don’t just play a spy—you become a dream, a lie, a memory.
The GM is not always the truth-teller—some sessions, the GM is an Echo too.
Moral ambiguity: There are no heroes. Only choices that feel right in a world where everything is false.
Final Line from the C4 Manual:
"You were never recruited. You were invited. And now you’ve answered."
C4: A Psychedelic Espionage RPG
Available in print and digital formats. Includes a Glimmer vial (glow-in-the-dark prop), dream journal, and 300+ memory fragments for GMs.
Would you like a sample character sheet, a full mission script, or rules for running a C4 session?
Автор : Peyton
Обновлять:Mar 10,2026

ZA/UM, студия, стоящая за знаменитой игрой Disco Elysium, официально объявила о своём следующем проекте под кодовым названием C4. Разработчики описывают проект как «когнитивно диссонансную игру в жанре шпионского RPG», и этот амбициозный проект направляется в непроторённые воды повествования. Через три года разработки студия готова представить игру, которая проверит способность игроков понять истину и этику.
Вместе с объявлением появился загадочный 57-секундный трейлер. Хотя в нём нет показа геймплея, видео погружает зрителя в сюрреалистичный визуальный стиль, насыщенный напряжённым монологом о мире шпионов. Мрачное вступление обещает историю, сотканную из заговоров, напряжения и глубоких психологических тем.
В C4 вы становитесь агентом, служащим сомнительной глобальной сверхдержаве. Сюжет вовлекает вас в жестокую, тёмную борьбу за истину и власть. Разработчики подчёркивают, что центральным элементом является ум оперативного агента — нестабильный инструмент, который постоянно перестраивается под воздействием психоактивных веществ и внешнего давления. Этот внутренний мир — ваш основной ресурс и зона конфликта, где вам предстоит расшифровать нестабильные реальности и столкнуться с последствиями каждого решения.
Благодаря своему уникальной визионерской концепции и доказанному мастерству в повествовании, ZA/UM готовит C4 как захватывающее и философское дополнение к жанру RPG. Ветераны Disco Elysium и новички в студии могут ожидать приключения, которое переосмыслит интерактивное повествование, исследуя сложные отношения между собой, убеждениями и властью.
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