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Series / Kids On Bikes Playtest

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The Kids On Bikes Playtest is the second series in The Phobos Saga. After the completion of Ten Candles, it was decided a spin off of Ten Candles: The Town would be made a series. Originally a oneshot to learn how to play the Kids on Bikes tabletop system, the receptiveness of the audience convinced Zac to continue the series for ten episodes while learning the new system. The KoB Playtest originally aired on Twitch from November 19th 2018 to February 18th 2019, and the entire series can be found on YouTube here.

Tropes found in this show:

  • Another Dimension: The group gets shunted "sideways" after escaping the research facility.
    • They also find a dimensional hallway leading from the video store to Milynn's house.
  • Alternate Timeline: The main characters are pulled into one by Isaac's experiment. They discover several differences from their own:
    • Milynn is an outcast in remedial classes and her father is dead, leaving her in foster care. This was Jessica's life before she was abducted.
    • Malika is working with the previous park ranger, Justin.
    • Bert is a drug dealer and a popular, bullying jock.
    • Children who went missing in their world are alive and well, including Scott. This world was created by one of those missing children and the timeline is different because they don't know of changes in town after they were abducted.
  • And the Adventure Continues: In the epilogue, an amnesiac Lucas wakes up to two people calling him Billy.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Bert and Lucas are most offended not by Dr. Inman stalking them, paying people to watch them, and experimenting on innocents, but by him stealing a Capri Sun.
  • As Himself: Each of the cast used their real first names.
  • Apathetic Citizens: Milynn being robbed and Bert being beat up only gets laughs and stares. Lucas' sisters go missing at the petting zoo, and the only worker there didn't care in the slightest.
  • Audience Participation: Possible plot threads (Rumors and Evidence) that the players could explore, along with created NPCs.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Lucas and Tanya squabble but admit they missed each other.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The Traveler takes Milynn's body, trapping Scott in the interdimensional tunnels, and Synchroneity captures Lucas after killing Lucy.
  • Beast Man: There is legend of a lobster man that roams the town killing animals. Tammy confirms he exists and the group encounters him at the diner.
  • Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Rumored to live in the woods. Bert runs into it.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Lucy is shot in the head by Dr. Inman when she criticizes his lack of morals.
  • Closed Circle: No one can leave the town after the blue light incident. It's because the "town" is a pocket dimension created by Jessica.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: The group is captured and tortured by the mayor's agents.
  • The Conspiracy: Bert is convinced the town is run by a secret government group. It's actually a company.
  • Crappy Carnival: One of the carnies decide to rob Mylinn after seeing how much money she has on her.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Bert accidentally teleports into the lake and his overworked healing factor turns him into stone, weighing him down until he fully drowns and becomes a statue.
  • Designer Babies: Most, if not all the people with powers. Including the main characters.
  • Don't Go in the Woods: The woods are supposedly home to a monster or a boy raised by wolves.
  • Doom as Test Prize: Amira, Lucas's "girlfriend", challenges him to beat her high score on arcade games but implies that beating her would not be pleasant for him.
  • Door of Doom: Manifest when people teleport using the dimensional veins.
  • Downer Ending: Lucy is killed, Lucas is captured, and the Traveler takes over Milynn's body.
  • Easy Amnesia: The group pretends to have this when they return to town.
  • Evil, Inc.: Synchroneity, the company that seems to be behind the conspiracy and Milynn's dad works for.
  • Fantastic Drug: Fairy dust, a white powder in the alternate timeline that supposedly grants supernatural abilities. Bert is dosed with it and temporarily gains several powers.
  • Ghost Town: Most of the town's residents vanish in a mysterious incident while the main characters are hiding in the ranger cabin. It turns out they're the ones who vanished.
  • I Can't Sense Their Presence: The rest of the group feels an emptiness and emotional loss when Bert dies.
  • It Will Never Catch On: Taking place in the late 80s, a friend of Bert's balks at Michael Keaton playing Batman.
  • Laser-Guided Broadcast: In the alternate timeline, a radio broadcast cheerfully warns the group that the universe will collapse soon.
  • The Little Detecto: The local geologist has a device he uses to find remains of the facility explosion that also detects eomthing off the main characters.
  • The Men in Black: Bert and Mylinn are accosted at the fair by mysterious men who warn them not to cause a ruckus.
  • Modified Clone: Milynn and Lucas are both clones of the same person, just different sexes.
  • Narnia Time: The group spends about a week in the alternate timeline but over a year has passed in reality.
  • Missing Child: Lucas's younger twin sisters went missing at the Fair. Grabbing Malika, Milynn, and Bert, the four go into the woods, kicking off the story. The main characters become this when they are trapped in the alternate dimension.
  • Mysterious Stranger: The Shoveler, a strange man who roams the woods with a shovel and seems to know something about the strange incidents in town.
  • Noodle Incident: A cop driving the group begs Malika to hold the baby in. note 
    Cop: I can't have another baby in the back of my fucking car!
  • Oblivious Adoption: Lucas, Milynn, and Malika were all lab creations adopted into their families.
  • Pent-Up Power Peril: Everyone with powers is at risk of dying from overload.
  • Pilot Movie: It was originally a one-shot to learn how to play with the Kids on Bikes tabletop system. First it was to last for one episode, then it was to last for two to three more episodes, and finally it became a ten episode series, with a good amount of lore and characters finding continued existence in Kollok 1991.
  • Power at a Price: The group finds that using their abilities can cause them physical strain and even harm. Joey dies from overexerting his powers.
  • Psychic Children: There are several who are held captive by the mayor.
  • The Reveal: Several.
    • Other children developed powers and were captured by the mayor.
    • The townspeople didn't go missing, the main characters did.
    • The lobster man was the mayor's illegitimate son and Synchroneity's first human experiment.
    • Jessica pulled everyone who "disappeared" into the side dimension to save them from the fallout of the research facility exploding. Everyone taken was a lab experiment, including Lucas's sister Tammy.
    • All the main characters were created in a lab by Synchroneity and they arranged for Malika's transfer to their town. One of the founders of Synchroneity is trapped in interdimensional tunnels beneath town and wants Milynn's body to escape.
  • Red Filter of Doom: The dimensional veins beneath town have a sinister red glow.
  • Retcon: There are a few due to the show originally being a one-shot before resuming and Zac losing his notes.
    • Isaac was introduced as being younger than Lucas but is later described as fourteen
    • Synchroneity was originally called H.O.L.E.
  • Running Gag: The gang repeatedly tell people they are part of a national park passport program as an excuse for being together, even when it makes absolutely no sense for the situation.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: The group meets Joey, a boy who went missing several years pre-series. Joey gives them information about the conspiracy before dying as they escape the mayor's goons.
  • "Shaggy Dog" Story: Lucas' little sisters went home when Lucas wasn't paying attention, and then lied saying he ran off. Subverted when it's revealed the girls did actually go into the woods and saw the creature there.
  • Shame If Something Happened: One of the Synchroneity men tells Lucas to cooperate or his mother and sisters will disappear.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Amira, a little blonde girl who follows Lucas around in the alternate dimension. She turns out to be very possessive and threatens him when he becomes suspicious of her.
  • Surprise Car Crash: Scott drunkenly kills the man helping the group look for Lucas's sisters.
  • They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Most of the antagonists are ordinary townspeople.
  • They Would Cut You Up: The main characters fear they would become test subjects if their abilities were discovered.
  • Thermal Dissonance: The group feels unnervingly cold in the alternate universe while other people are wearing short sleeves.
  • Town with a Dark Secret: Undecided.
  • Trapped in Another World: Several people are stuck in the side dimension by Jessica's rescue attempt.
  • Unwitting Test Subject: Several townspeople including the main characters.
  • Tunnel Network: The "veins" beneath the town, a series of interdimensional tunnels that connect different parts of town.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Milynn has no regrets about killing the lobster man because he threatened the group while Lucas sees it as defeating a monster. Malika and Scott are disturbed at the group's actions and Bert becomes conflicted when he learns the lobster man was the mayor's illegitimate son and a subject of human experimentation.
  • You All Meet in an Inn: The Fair, to be specific.

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