LEDDlabs

This page describes a story I'm actually trying to write. Any information past the first section counts as spoilers. Read at your own risk.

LEDDlabs
First created:	November 2018
Genre:	Light horror, Sci-Fi, Mystery

LEDDlabs is a story following an "omniscient AI" named LEDD and the subjects he monitors within his lab. The setting and format is heavily inspired by the Portal series^↗. Content relating to its current iteration can be found on the official tumblr^↗.

Story Iterations

D&D campaign

LEDD and the lab setting were originally created for a portal-inspired D&D campiagn I wrote and ran for a group of friends. At this point, the lab was actually named the "Federal Union of Retrieving and Restraining strange Individuals’ Experimentation Site" or F.U.R.R.I.E.S. for short. This name was scrapped during the minecraft iteration as it was too long to fit on a sign. This was a campaign focused on puzzles with very little combat, and was thus very difficult to run within the 5e system. The players were each allowed to create as weird of a character as they wanted to be a test subject, with the only limitations being "must be between 7 and 2 feet tall" and "must know what a TV is." Some of the NPCs that got their start here include Ihop (no Dr., he was an intern at this point), Astaroth, and Memsaur and her group.

Minecraft roleplay

After the conclusion of the D&D campaign, myself and some of the players enjoyed the world so much we constructed it in minecraft. This is where much of the aesthetics of the lab were solidified, with many stylistic choices (like switching LEDD's tvs to flatscreens) made due to the restrictions of the game's building materials. The rp was advertised as a "lab rp" with unique features not seen in other builds of the genre. Mainly, LEDD himself functioning as an overseeing AI, played by myself. This was achieved with a system of tunnels, mostly along the ceilings, connecting to various "TVs" (sections with glass windows), as well as all doors being iron and controlled by redstone that could be switched on and off from the tunnels, allowing LEDD to physically manage subjects even from the TVs.

Visitors to the rp mainly played as subjects. In place of a "rating system" or "type system" typical of lab rps, LEDDlabs allowed for custom subject roles to encourage creativity. LEDDlabs also stood out as a rp that allowed visitors to rp as non-original characters (one of the most memorable subjects we had was Brook from One Piece). For most runs, the scientists would be played only by friends, so that we could coordinate over voice chat to manage the rp, but this role was opened up later on. Other non-subject roles that visitors would play included medics, guards, and various types of robots.

Due to a worldedit mistake, the first iteration of the minecraft map was lost. The second iteration was started July 2020, and is a much larger scale build. It hasn't been run as an actual rp for multiple years, but I still maintain it. The map is hosted on play.creativefun.net^↗ (java only) at /home LEDDlabs. Feel free to contact me if you want a full tour.

Comic/Askblog

This version has its own tumblr^↗, created May of 2022, and has yet to officially start. The comic will focus on a single test group, the Lab Rats, which includes Moe, Ollie, and Rat.

Setting

LEDD Labratories is a non-Euclidean structure primarily made up of testing rooms. Rooms have pristine white walls, tiled floors, and ceiling lights, with blue strips on the top and bottom edges to break break up the solid white. Each full room in the lab has a TV for LEDD to monitor from, typically on the wall opposite the room's entrance. There are side paths and other rooms off of the course for employees and behind-the-scenes work. The other large section of the lab is The Dark, a shifing, pitch-black area directly under the testing course.

LEDD Labratories is viewed almost exclusively from the inside and has no windows, so the outside structure and where it is situated in physical space is unclear. The company is known to be operated out of the United States, and thus supposedly follows OSHA^↗ regulations.

The exact time period or year is also unclear. The lab has a strict rule against timepieces being used within the building, including calenders. Electronic devices provided by the company for employees are specially developed to obfuscate this information as well.

Characters

LEDD and The Dark are the only characters that fall outside of the subject/employee dichotomy. They're very important.

Subjects

Test subjects, typically tested in groups of 3-4. These are unusual beings abducted from their worlds and brought into the lab with their memories wiped of how they got there. The requirements for a subject were left purposefully vague, to allow for player creativity. In theory, just about any character can be thrown into this setting as a subject. Great for a roleplay.

Employees