First Impressions - The Wretched Solo RPG [some spoilers]

The Wretched - a zine based solo journaling RPG

I picked up The Wretched on impulse when I saw it on a Kickstarter notification. It was inexpensive, seemed to have got good feedback and even came with a soundtrack. I was also intrigued at the idea of a solo RPG that I could play myself.

TL;DR: The Wretched is a small, simple, solo RPG in zine format with a feel very like the film Alien. It is a journaling game, with the journal taking the form of audio recordings. It works well, but has limited repeatability. I enjoyed it enough to make the audio recordings.

Physically, it's an attractive 28 page staple-bound zine, with a distinctive cover. The layout is very nice, simple single column done attractively.

The game set up is that you are the last survivor of a salvage ship, The Wretched. Your engines have failed and your ship has been attacked by a hostile alien life form. You went full Ellen Ripley and ejected it through the airlock, but somehow it survived. And it's trying to get in.

You (or your character) spend the game trying to fix the engines, nurse life support along, get the distress beacon going and boost the range of the transmitter. The zine starts with a trigger warning about the themes, recognising that the themes of isolation, fear and struggle may not land well with some readers. The game cites John Carpenter (music and films) and Nine Inch Nails as influences. The soundtrack shows this.

Survival can only be achieved in two ways; activating the distress beacon and then surviving long enough for someone to hear and rescue you. Alternatively, you could fix the engines and leave the creature behind. 

Set up and ready to go.

Mechanics of play are simple. You have a pack of cards with the jokers removed, a single six sided dice, a Jenga tower and ten tokens. The game recommends that you make a recording with a camera or microphone as you complete each day. I didn't. I recorded the cards and the outcome on Google Docs and then made a recording afterwards over a couple of days. I ended up with 31 minutes of recorded material and notes which you can find by using this filter.

Each day, you roll the dice and draw that many cards, and resolve their outcomes. These are clustered by suit - ship systems (hearts), ship structure (diamonds), crew (clubs) and creature (spades). Aces are good (they result in things like the distress beacon being fixed). Kings are bad, and drawing all four will end the game as the creature will find and kill you. Most other cards pose questions about situations, and result in blocks being drawn from the tower.

It's quite immersive, and as the cards draw down, you can feel your doom approaching. The creature is implacable. The ship is wounded. The engines damaged from the collision that brought the creature onboard. The signal from the beacon has a long way to go to get a response. 

I'm dropping a jump break in now as the next part of the review contains spoilers.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 16

Recovered Log - Day 16

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 16

Day 16 - 1 card

• KC - dreaming about the creature… and then it was there…

Day 16, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

It’s 4am in the morning, ship time. I’ve just been woken by the depressurisation alarm. It woke me through a nightmare of the creature getting in and hunting me through the ship. And now it seems to be true. It’s in here. I’ve got the rifle, and I’m suited up. Have had a tot for courage. I guess it’s time to find out if this rifle will harm it.

Mum and Dad, I did my best to get back to you.

If you don’t hear from me again, you know what’s happened.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 15

Recovered Log - Day 15

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Day 15 - Beacon activated, ship failing

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 15

Day 15 - 5 cards

• 3S - Describe the way the creature moves across the outside of the ship - 1 block
• 8S - you didn’t see it but you heard it, what was it like - 1 block
• AH - You activate the distress beacon - 1 block
• 7D - huge structure damage - spend a day repairing - pull from the tower
• 6C - one of the crew told you about a terrible dream they had a few days before the creature came. In hindsight it was a premonition - why did you ignore them?

Day 15, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

A good and a bad day. The good news is that I finally got the beacon working. With the antenna boosted there’s every chance someone will come and find me, even if I can’t get the engine fixed. It’s just a matter of time.

The bad news is that I’m not sure how much longer I’ve got. There are cracks appearing on the main hull bracing. It looks like it’s twisted and slowly failing. It was another day using most of what was left from the engineering spaces to patch and reinforce. I hope that the creature doesn’t damage it further. We could feel and hear it through the shuddering in the hull when it first arrived after the asteroid struck us. A vibration and then the sound of metal tearing and stressing. You wouldn’t realise the damage it can do from seeing it; outside, in Zero-G, it looks really graceful. It moves with purpose. In the ship, under the artificial gravity, it looks awkward, and its appendages scrape. I think I only got away because of the Chief and the fact it doesn’t move so well in the atmosphere of the ship. 

I can’t help but wonder if we should have all attacked it then; would it have been at a disadvantage? Would it have been quick? Would it have made no difference? Zee said that the ship was cursed; we assumed that he was talking about the fact that the Chief had it in for him, but he was yammering on about dreams of the ship being torn apart. I laughed it off as his typical bullshit, but perhaps there was truth in what he said.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 14

 

Recovered Log - Day 14

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 14

Day 14 - 1 card

• 3C - you had to use someone else’s ID to access an area of the ship normally forbidden to you - whose was it and what were you doing there?

Day 14, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

Two weeks. A fortnight. 336 hours. Alone, but still surviving. I used the Chief’s ID today to access the computer system, and pulled some of the spare comms circuits. I figure I need these to get the beacon working. Thanks for the help Chief, but I’m not doing the paperwork, it’d take a lifetime.

I may try a printed steak tonight to celebrate along with a few tots.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 13

Recovered Log - Day 13

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Day 13

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 13

Day 13 - 5 cards

• QH - the door lock system fails when you are in the bridge and you have to spend a few hours forcing them open so you can get out - 1 block 
• 5H - you’re finding it harder and harder to catch your breath and then you realise the oxygen system has shut off. You fixed it, but what caused it to break? 1 block
• KD - when you launched the creature out of the airlock you couldn’t seal it again. Every now and again the creature comes back, scratching and prying at the internal door that protects you from the cold black of space. How do you react to this?
• 4S - down one of the long straight corridors between rooms on the ship you follow gouges on the floor left by the creature. Describe them and the parts of the anatomy that you think left the markings behind - 1 block
• 8C - which member of the crew jumped into harm’s way to try to protect the others and how much time did they buy you all.

Day 13, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

I woke up this morning and found it hard to catch my breath. Felt a bit dizzy, and had the edge of a headache. It was only when I looked at the displays that I realised that the oxygen content of the air had dropped substantially. I headed up to the bridge to check the diagnostics out, and released that the system had shut down. I think it’s closing off those vents yesterday; they’ve changed the pressure balance in the system; spent a good hour trying to balance things. In the end, I had to cut some smaller holes in the vents I’d sealed to let some flow back. I went back to the bridge to add some code that would restart the system if it failed again, and then couldn’t get out when I was heading to get some food. 

The door lock had tripped out. It took me nearly two hours to get the door open again as I’d hardly any tools with me. I had to strip it back and I don’t know if I can trust it. I’m over-riding the door to keep it open now just in case. I feel like the ship is dying around me. Don’t give up on me now; we’re getting there!

After I had eaten, I went through the ship, down the main ventral corridor where Petersen, the chief, had gone for the creature with a fire extinguisher to give us time to escape. The corridor was covered in gouges, the metal torn and part melted, most likely from it’s claws as it tried to hold on when I blew the lock to throw it off the ship. They went all the way along to the airlock itself, perhaps 50 metres or so. Whatever did this damage has broken the outside door. It’s half closed. I’ve sealed the inner door and welded it, but I’ve seen the creature in there, scratching, trying to get in. That inner door is all that comes between me and it. There are times when I wonder if I should take another way out, but then I rally. I’m not giving up. It may be Day 13 since it attacked us, but I’m still here. And slowly, far too slowly, I’m finding a way home.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 12

Recovered Log - Day 12

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Day 12

 

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 12

Day 12 - 6 cards

• 4H - your comm system blinks into life - garbled chatter from a far off vessel. It falls off silent before you can respond. What were they saying?
• QD - You spend the day taking the engine apart completely and putting it back together in an attempt to fix it. You don’t think that it’s worked and you think that you may have damaged it. 1 block permanent Phase balancer prevents this.
• KH - skittering scratching in the air vents - you fear the creature or something else has got aboard the ship - how do you make sure that you don’t attract its attention?
• 7H - had to crawl into a narrow space between the hull to fix lighting - what was it like squeezed there between the hull and the cables - 1 block
• 3D - after you threw it out the airlock, it spent hours trying to get through the windows on the observatory deck. You fear its integrity has been compromised and spend an hour reinforcing them by welding sheets of metal inside - 1 block
• 9S - despite the thick hull of the ship you somehow know when it is near your section of the ship - how? 1 block

Day 12, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

I woke to voices. I thought I was dreaming at first, but then I realised it was the comms system. Sorting out the AE246 module seems to have worked, and I’d caught the back end of a transmission. Just a routine status report, but the first human voice I’ve heard in over a week. Numbers, trajectories, ship performance. She signed off as the Company Merchant Vessel Kip Thorne. Not a ship I know, but somehow a connection to people. A connection to hope. Somehow I need to get through this. I’ve been drifting. I need to focus. Yesterday was a wake up call. If I want to get home, I need to work this problem through.

The close call in the airlock convinced me that I needed to reinforce the weaker parts of the ship as a priority. I took the portable welder and some hull plate from what remains of the workshop and closed off the Observatory Deck’s windows. I focussed on the light of the weld, ignoring the creature which was drawn towards the blue flicker as the metal melted and sealed. Soon, the view of the stars and the outer hull was obscured. As I stood back to check the job, the lights flickered and then went out. Normally they come back again, so I realised that something was wrong. I took the electrical kit, and went into the access conduits; tight, quiet and yet somehow secure. I reached the main light panel, and replaced the burned out circuits.

That’s when I heard it. I froze, nearly dropping the tool-kit. Something was in the air-shaft. I could hear skittering & scratching, and it looked like the panel was distorting. I shut off my torch and tried to make no noise. I was conscious of the sound of my breathing, of the slight condensation on the visor. I’d left the rifle in the Observation Deck as it was too big. I waited for what seemed an age and then more. Carefully, I made my way back through the shafts and conduits, and when I got out I checked where every exit was from that air-system and welded plates over all of its vents and extraction points. I’ll just have to accept the fact that the may get stale in some areas.

I worked into the evening on the drives, pulling apart the control system and trying to set it back up again from the back-ups. For a few minutes, I thought I may have broken it, and I may have permanently damaged the core, but the phase balancer seemed to bring it back into balance. It still won’t engage though. I’m going to have to try this again another day, after some rest.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 11

Recovered Log - Day 11

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game. 

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 11

Day 11 - 3 cards

• AD - a short but terrifying EVA you manage to boost the range of the ship's antenna. How did you ensure the creature would not attack you?
• 10D - with the climate control on the fritz, mould springs up in some of the food stores; you seal the locker up and hope nothing else affects your supplies 1 block
• 2S - you can’t summon any energy and give up for the day - 1 block

Day 11, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

I got on with checking out the hiding spaces this morning. The only one that didn’t work out was the food store; sometime in the last two weeks one of the two cold stores has failed and gone warmer. It’s full of mouldy, rotting food. I can’t face clearing it fully and can only hope that the rest survives. Checked the systems on the other one, and it seems to be okay.

It did give me an idea though. When I went to the antenna control I realised that a simple fix would bring it back on line and maximise the signal from the comms and the beacon. The AE246 array had tripped. I just need to get out from the airlock, and across 10m of empty space, open the panel and flip the breakers. The problem is the creature; I need something to distract it. I’m going to use some of the spoiled foodstuffs and the bodies in the airlock, and also the thrusters. Hopefully they’ll draw it away and I can get this done. I just need 15 minutes, tops. I’ve programmed it now, and I’m ready to try it. I’m recording this in case I don’t make it. If there are no more entries then it got me. I love you mum and dad. Tell everyone I miss them and I did my best.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

...

Day 11, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Dom Mooney reporting. Recording number two.

I did it. God knows it was close, but I did it. I vented the lock, and the bodies blew out along with meat I’d salvaged from the failed store. I gave it a minute and then, while it was distracted, headed to the antenna array. Once I was secure, I triggered the thrusters to tumble the ship and put a wall of venting gas between me and it. Had to use some brute force on the panel to open it, but I reset the AE246 and got back. It was coming and I only just got the airlock shut when it caught up, bouncing and scratching against the outside. I cycled through and locked it. And now I’m going to have a drink. 

That’s enough for today.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 9

  

Recovered Log - Day 9

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 9

Day 9 - 2 cards

• 6S - You find yourself muttering a phrase again and again like a catechism. What is it? 1 block
• AC - While rummaging around the crew quarters, you find a tool you’ve been in need of. What was it? The next time you need to pull from the tower you can choose not to.

Day 9, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

I found the phase balancer today, in the 2nd Mate’s quarters. This should help with the engines if I have another go. It can simulate and adjust the quantum balance for the light drive, something I don’t have a clue about. However, I can read a manual and I know how to use this.

Been listening to music a lot over the last fews days. Woke with an earworm…” Into the distance, a ribbon of black, Stretched to the point of no turning back” which just wouldn’t go. A comment on my situation? Perhaps.

It fills the silence in my head and keeps me from thinking about the creature. With the proxi alarms off, I can just about tune it out unless the light’s flicker as it moves around the hull, scritch-scritching as it tries to enter. There’s definitely no turning back; I need to get the beacon fixed and hopefully the drive.

”Into the distance, a ribbon of black, Stretched to the point of no turning back”

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 8

  

Recovered Log - Day 8

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 8

Day 8 - 4 cards

• 2C - you find the journal of one of your crewmates. What thing from home were they missing most?
• JC - you gather up the bodies of the crew you were closest to and seal them in the remaining airlock, saying a few words of remembrance over their bodies, but you can’t quite bring yourself to jettison them. What words do you say, and why is it so hard to send them out into space? 1 block
• 2H- the water purification system still works, but its noticeably less efficient. What does it feel like to taste water with a taste of ammonia?
• 10S - you find something left behind by the creature. Blood or a body part. Describe it. 1 block

Day 8, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

Awful hangover this morning, so I lost myself in work trying to forget the pounding in my head and the creature outside. The ship is noticeably starting to deteriorate in subtle ways. The water system still works - I’ve drunk a lot today - but it’s developing a tang of ammonia. Water with a hint of urine is never going to catch on, but it’s all I’ve got and it did the job. The tests say it’s drinkable so that’s what matters.

I moved all the remaining bodies to the airlock, but held off venting them. Just in case it drew the creature in. Plus these were my friends; the engineering crew in the main. I said a few words, more for me than them.

“I am standing upon a starship.
Below my feet, her engines catch the solar winds and start for the vastness of space.
An object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch until the blue dot we left behind starts to fade
Just where the stars and the nebulae come to mingle with each other.
Then someone says, “There she goes!”
Gone where?
Gone from our sight, that is all.
Memories may fade, but
Life remains, scattered through the universe,
All formed from the same stardust, all one.”


I found Janey’s journal when I moved her body; in it she talks about how she only needs to do a few more tours then she’ll have saved enough to settle down on the Delta-Pavonis colony with her sister and family. She can buy into one of the engineering businesses. I kind of felt like I was violating her privacy; I’d never have dreamed of doing this before, but now I’m just grasping for some touch of humanity. Anything to keep my mind off my situation. There was a broken claw lying there as I moved the bodies. It had scraped the hull plating. What good will a rifle be against that? How did it break?

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

___

Poem is a hack of

A Parable of Immortality
I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength.
I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
Just where the sea and the sky come to mingle with each other.
Then someone says, “There she goes!”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes”
There are other eyes watching her coming
And their voices ready to take up the glad shouts,
“Here she comes!”

By Henry Van Dyke

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 7

Recovered Log - Day 7

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 7

Day 7- 3 cards

• 9H- the proximity alarms keep sounding because the creature is on the outside of the ship. You have to disable them. 1 block
• JS - The creature can survive in the cold black of space, where nothing should be able to live. Is it coming to destroy me or is it just defending itself? 1 block
• 5S - Something happened to the lights when the creature was near your hiding place, what was it? 1 block

Day 7, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

Hope was misplaced. It’s back.

I was in the Officer’s Mess, when the lights flickered in a way I don’t recall having seen before. Darker, then brighter than they are normally. I knew it was back.

The proximity sensor alarms on the hull went off soon after, and I’m sure I caught movement on the cameras. Throughout the day they kept triggering, and in the end I turned them back off, like I did immediately after the attack. I can’t deal with being constantly in tension, can’t eat, can’t sleep. I’d rather it was a surprise if it got in.

What brought it back? If it can live in the depths of space why did it stay with the wreck? Is it me it wants? Is it just that this is more tenable than the lander? Is it still trying to defend against a threat or is it making a new home.

I think I’ll consider this over some of the Captain’s Single Malt collection.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 6

 

Recovered Log - Day 6

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 6

Day 6 - 3 Cards

• QS - what do you imagine the creature calls itself? 1 block
• 2D - Oxygen has been leaking slowly from the hull where the asteroid hit, but you spend a few hours fixing it. 1 block
• 9D - The gravity drive fails - it’s a slow process dragging yourself over to it in zero G and a long day fixing it, but you get it back up and running. 1 block

Day 6, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.
Another quiet day with no sign of the creature. I’m starting to hope, which could be dangerous.

I spent the morning watch tracking down a slow leak in the O2 system; one of the lines had a hairline fracture. Easy fix for this: Isolate the section, cut it out and replace. Should have taken me two or three hours. Would have too, if the gravity generating drive hadn’t tripped out. Had to make my way through the ship, and then do the repair in zero-G with the tick-tock in my head that the oxygen was out. Took me the rest of the day to fix that and then get the original repair done to make sure I have enough air to breathe.

I found myself wondering about the creature: Was it sentient, or was everything instinct? Was it really just reacting to circumstances? Did it have a name, relationships or a family? My gut says it’s all instinct, but how did it get into space? All I can do is to speculate; I doubt I’ll ever find the answers out.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 5

 

Recovered Log - Day 5

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 5

Day 5 - 2 cards

• JH - you spend a day climbing around the engines doing basic maintenance and trying to figure out what needs to be done to get the ship moving again, You end the day as clueless as you began. 1 block
• 4C - Where did you hide while the rest of the crew were dying?

Day 5, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting.

Clearly, the creature didn’t get me today. Perhaps it’s gone for good with the Lander? I can but hope.

I spent the day overhauling the remaining engines, running through basic maintenance and doing diagnostics. I can’t see the damage; the physical systems I can access look okay, but I still get a flood of error messages on the DCS display. Something’s failed, perhaps the underlying code; I’m no drive engineer. Quantum mathematics has me in two places at once.

I know the engine spaces like the back of my hand; when the creature started to attack, and the screaming started, I hid inside the drive panels themselves; plenty of space there and secure, but you’ve got to come out sometime.

I think I need to focus on getting the comm system back up to scratch now; if I can couple that to the distress beacon someone may be able to pick me up.

This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 4

 

Recovered Log - Day 4

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 4

Day 4 - 4 cards

• 7S - creature whispers to you through the ships comms - you don’t know how it does it . What do you hear before you kill the audio? 1 block
• 6H - your scanners keep showing a large object that periodically disappears from the screen only to show something out there a few hours later. Is it a glitch?
• 3H - while you slept the fire suppression activated - what caused the fire, and how can you make sure it doesn’t happen again - 1 block.
• 8D - a fire starts in one of the engines when you’re trying to get it started again - you’re forced to jettison it - 1 block

Day 4, salvage ship The Wretched. Dom Mooney reporting.

Sleep was hard to come by last night. The scanner kept on triggering an alert on the repeat screens in the mess. It was showing something large nearby, but it disappeared by the time I got to the bridge and the scan console. Nothing showing there. A ghost in the machine? I tried the comms system, but there was nothing there. Nothing human at least. I’m sure I heard something aping a human voice, repeating back what I said. Was it the creature? Am I imagining it? I shut the audio off as I didn’t want to face that right then. The scanners tripped again until I shut notifications down. Two days ago I was finding the sense of isolation oppressive, and now I just don't want to face what's out there.

Just as I got back to sleep, the fire alarm cut through the ship, waking me with a jolt. The engineering section was showing a fire and the suppression system activated in the main switch room. I vented the space to the kill the fire and then realised I could have let it in. I put my vacc suit on, took the rifle and tools and went to check it out. Nothing there. Looks like the sensor is faulty, so I isolated it off the system so it wouldn’t trip everything again. 

As I was up, decided to try the engine start sequence again and nurse it back up. Something clearly wasn’t right as alarms went off and there was an ignition. The automatics didn’t cut in because of the isolation on the alarm and by the time I manually activated the suppression, the damage was done. I dumped the engine, jettisoning it before the cryogenic fuel detonated. Not feeling hopeful about this; seem to be running out of options to get us under our own power again.

This is Flight Engineer Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 3

 

Recovered Log - Day 3

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 3

Day 3 - 6 cards (!)

• QC - Removing bodies from a small room you intend to hide. Why were so many people here, what did it do? 1 block
• AS - you find a way to distract the creature from its attempts to enter the ship? How?
• 10H - life support system keeps making an unhealthy grinding noise and you don’t know the problem - what will you do if it fails?
• 5C - carrying a rifle for the last few days - you pried it out of a cold grip of a dead crew mate’s hands. What did that make you feel, and do you think it will be effective if you can use it.
• 5D - you access one of the lander modules and hope you can use it to escape the ship, but the asteroid damage means that it is beyond repair. You jettison it hoping to distract the creature. 1 block.
• JD - you lose power throughout the ship and while you’re trying to fix it the back generators fail too. You restore power but you have to cannibalise the parts from the backup generator which will never run again - remove 1 block permanently.

Day 3, salvage ship The Wretched. Dom Mooney reporting.

Not a pleasant day today as I spent it clearing bodies from the officer’s mess and then cleaning down the area. It’s hard to believe the ferocity and mess that the creature caused. In death, the command crew look startled, or fearful. Torn apart as they tried to plan their way home after the damage that the asteroid impact caused, unaware of the threat it carried. I never really had much contact with them except for the Chief Engineer but they always gave us direction, even if we didn’t like it. They took the decisions, we just got to implement them. And now there’s just me. I’m carrying Johansen’s snub rifle; I found it in his hands shortly after the attack. I couldn’t recognise him without his head if it hadn’t been for his name tag. Part of me wonders if there’s any point. If it gets in, will this really stop it?

I’m planning to use the mess to sleep in; it has mirrors of the displays on the bridge, and it can be secured with the bulkhead doors. There’s a ready bunk, food, water and a shower. Better than my own quarters. Safer, hopefully.

The power went down in the afternoon watch; we dropped to emergencies, and the backups only came on for a few minutes. I got the main generator back, but had to strip out the convertors from the back-up to restore it. The stores with the primary spares are gone, along with most of the workshop. If it goes again, it’ll be a slow, cold and dark death. Better than what that thing would do though.

I wasn’t sure what had caused it to fail at first, but then I realised. It was trying to get in through one of the power feeds. Had putting the bodies out of the last working airlock drawn it in? I don’t know. Anyway, I saw it moving on the hull, black against black, a glimpse of death. I distracted it by decoupling and dumping the lander module near it. I watched as it turned towards the movement; hopefully it’s jumped on it and gone with it. I’d thought about trying to modify the module to get me home, but it was damaged beyond my means to repair. If it’s carried the creature with it, then it’s done enough. Let’s hope it’s gone.

This is Flight Engineer Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 2

Recovered Log - Day 2

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 2

The end of Day 2

Day 2 - 3 cards

• KC - something near the officer’s mess, averted eyes from the bodies but you think something moved. A rat right? You hope it’s a rat. 
• 8H - what does it feel to look at the sensors and the monitors and see nothing, that you may never see land or light, or have a conversation again? 
• 6D - sewage silo springs a leak. It smells terrible - pull 1 block

Day 2, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Mooney reporting. 

The ship has suffered from the fight with the creature, but she’s holding together. The sewage systems failed today, leaking after they’d over pressured. It smelt awful, sweet sickly and rotten. I managed to fix it - the main recycling pump had blocked with what I think were parts of a body. I cleared them using an old trick my first apprentice master engineer taught me. Menthol rub under your nose. It masks it, mostly. I guess I’m going to have to clear the ship of bodies or it will all smell like this. I tried to work out how many are still here and how many went out of the ship when I forced the airlock. Walking through, I thought I saw the creature in the officer’s mess, but it wasn’t. Or if it was, it didn’t come for me. Perhaps it’s a rat, god knows, we’ve had enough of them aboard.

I’m recording this on the bridge. The sensors, comms and monitors show nothing. God knows where we are. That asteroid took the light drive down mid-transit and I’m no navigator. I can only hope to get the distress beacon running or maybe even the engines. But that’s a job for another day. I’ll do another of these logs tomorrow if it doesn’t get in. Tell my family I love them if you receive this and I’m gone when you find the ship. 

This is Flight Engineer Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.

The Wretched - Solo RPG - Recovered Log - Day 1

 

Recovered Log - Day 1

Audio recordings of a play-through of Chris Bissette's solo journalling roleplaying game.

Dom Mooney · The Wretched - Day 1

Set up and ready to play.

Day 1
Game start - 5 blocks removed from ship integrity (the Jenga tower)

Day 1, salvage ship ‘The Wretched’. Flight Engineer Dom Mooney reporting. The other members of the crew are dead and the engines remain non-operational, though ship integrity remains good and life support systems are still active. I successfully jettisoned the intruder from the airlock, but it remains alive and continues to try to access the ship. With a little luck I can repair the distress beacon and somebody will pick me up. This is Dom Mooney, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.