From publisher blurb:
Los Angeles. 1942. Penny Bruebaker is found dead under the infamous 4th Street Bridge. Decomposition suggests Penny’s body was there for four days before anyone noticed… or reported. Typically the LAPD would round file a case like this and move on. But Penny had one particularly powerful friend in Hollywood. Warner Sinclair. And if the police won’t do anything for Penny, he knows a few private dicks who will.
But Penny’s case is anything but simple. The body’s state of decay. The limited evidence — a cargo hook, four dollars in a concealed snap purse, an ivory comb, a length of rope, and a receipt for watch engraving — all paint an incomplete picture of Penny’s last moments. She was dressed well, indicating that the 4th Street bridge was not her destination. The truth eludes.
Protocol is a series of story roleplaying games that thrusts characters together into dramatic situations. Each game uses the same set of rules, with vastly different parameters, start points, characters, and finales. Players take on the roles of directors outside the action and characters inside the action, using the ebb and flow of four different scene-framing styles (vignettes, interrogations, interludes, and ensembles) to tell meaningful stories about characters in crisis.
Each game in the Protocol series is zero-prep for 3 or more players. The game length is exponentially long, so games with more players take more time to complete. The Protocol Series requires a deck of poker cards as well as tokens to track drama points.
The Protocol One-Sheet Series do not include rules, only charts. Each game requires players to own at least one game in the Protocol series, or Protocol Prime.