The Bureau

THE BUREAU - NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT!

The safeguards have failed. Red emergency lights flash as you stand in the lobby of the Bureau.

The Monolith crumbles at the hands of a catastrophic incursion.

Reality itself is at stake. 

There for different reasons, your group is now the only hope of stopping the encroachment of the Shadow.

WHAT IS THE BUREAU?

The Bureau is a dungeon crawl for Liminal Horror. Journey into the bowels of the Monolith, the labyrinthine headquarters of a government organization charged with controlling the paranatural. A corrupting Shadow has made its way into the halls of the Bureau, compromising the organization and threatening the existence of life on Earth.

Players (3-5) will change as they gain fallouts and Resonant Artifacts in the hope that they become strong enough to stop what is coming. The text is presented as an operation manual put out by The Bureau, with governmental redactions and notes. It itself is a meta-in-universe artifact.

“The office as modern dungeon in this love letter to Control and Gradient Descent.”

MODULE FEATURES

• Modern dungeon/information design employed to make navigating the text easy for the Facilitator.
• Multiple formats for play (starting fresh, integrating into a campaign, one-shots, and funnel formats).
• One page rules summary for Liminal Horror system (written specifically for this module).
• Custom Character Creation (Personally Identifiable Information Policy) designed to be used specifically with this adventure.
• 24 custom Operational Experiences (backgrounds) including equipment and story strings.
• Four Key Personnel with secret knowledge, drives, and goals.
• Confirmed Contact Report (monsters/challenges for the party to face).
• Four Main Levels (Administration, Maintenance, Research, Containment) with 66 keyed rooms. Each floor has its own optional “Boss”
• Multiple routes to navigate the structure, meaning no play-through with be the same (we were sure to Jaquays the dungeon/Monolith)
• A condensed depth crawl on the final level leading to The Director (main boss).
• Appendix A: CONSEQUENCES - a means to present some of the different factions in play and a non-comprehensive list of possible outcomes.
• Appendix B: OPERATIONAL GUIDE - Options for converting this module to be used with Agents of the O.D.D., The Company, or Mothership 1E.
• Appendix C: AGENTS AND FALLOUT - a 4d10 table to create Bureau agents (department, apparel, distinct feature, demeanor) as well as d12 custom Fallouts for this module.
• Appendix D: RANDOM SEARCH - 32 unique items that can be found when searching rooms/bodies.
• Appendix E: ARTIFACTS - 32 Resonant Artifacts (objects imbued with powers from other dimensions) that are both powerful and extremely dangerous.

TOUCHSTONES

• Control (2019) - Remedy Entertainment
• Gradient Descent (2020) - Tuesday Knight Games
• Uzumaki (1998) - Junji Ito
• Magnetic Rose (1995) - Katsuhiro Otomo
• Legion (2017) - Noah Hawley/FX
• House of Leaves (2000) - Mark Z. Danielewski
• Death Stranding (2019) - Kojima Production
• BioShock (2007) - Irrational Games
• Severance (2022) - Dan Erickson
• The works of Carl Jung

TEAM MEMBERS

• PREPARED BY: JOSH DOMANSKI & GOBLIN ARCHIVES
• LAYOUT & DESIGN: JOSH DOMANSKI
• EDITING: JAMES HANNA
• PROOFREADING: GABRIEL REICH
• ILLUSTRATIONS: ZACH HAZARD VAUPEN
• PUBLISHING: EXALTED FUNERAL PRESS

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

• You can find Josh Domanski (@Unenthuser) at Twitter, itch. 
• You can find Goblin Archives (@goblin_archives) Twitter, itch, blog, newsletter.
• You can find Zach Hazard Vaupen (@zachhazard) Twitter, Patreon, website. 
• You can find James Hanna (@BullFrogJam) Twitter, website.

LIMINAL HORROR LINKS

• Core Rules:  Print   /    itch   /   drivethrurpg   /   web-based (free)
• The Mall (module):  Print   /    itch   /   drivethrurpg   

CONTENT WARNING:

This module explicitly engages with oppressive governmental systems. The Bureau, as an organization, exploits and harms, and,as a structure, it and its employees often work against the well being of humanity.

Along with elements of body horror, gore, and helplessness, the module deals heavily with themes of corruption, which play into Liminal Horror’s Fallout mechanic. The horrors encountered through the course of play leave their mark on the Investigators, with those lost becoming pawns of the Shadow. As this deals directly with player agency, we highly recommend talking to your players ahead of time to ensure they are comfortable with exploring these themes. Removing Fallout or substituting with the standard entries in Liminal Horror will not change the content of the module in a substantial way.