Ten Candles RPG Solo Playthrough
Nov. 8th, 2021 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
radiantfractureThis game I didn't hear an actual play of -- I think Bryn Monroe mentioned it on Enthusigasm, Helen Gould's lovely new geek round table Pod on the Rusty Quill network. But I was intrigued.
I need things to occupy and delight me, so that I don't just work, or worry about work. I am having a lot of anxiety, and having a hard time each morning crawling over the broken glass of self-doubt to get to the room and tell people things. Today was hard. The class, of course, was fine. It's always fine. But I needed to think past it, so I promised myself that when I got home I could do a solo playthrough of Ten Candles. -- to test the mechanics.
Here, mostly for my own amusement, is the record of that playthrough. It's patchy, but then so am I.
Ten Candles
Content notes: Character death, discussion of eating disorders
I won't explain all the rules here: you can find out more about it on the website.
The guidebook (PDF $10) says this:
This is a story about what happens in the dark. This is a story about survivors trying to light up their little corner of the world and do something meaningful within it in the few hours they have left....Ten Candles is a tragic horror time-based cooperative storytelling game through which you will tell the story of a dark world and those who fall victim to it.
Though you know your characters will die, you must have hope that they will survive.
Ten days ago, the world went dark. Five days later, They came. They are after you. Their only weakness is light.
The Basics
You start the game with ten candles in a circle. The game is played in ten scenes, each one represented by a candle. When the scene ends, you blow out a candle. When you get to the last candle, that's the last scene.
In between scenes, there is a phase called Establishing Truths. This is how you add to the story-world or move the story along. Whatever you say in this phase becomes true. (Unless you try to contradict a previous statement or weaken Them.)
The first truth is always this:
The last truth is always this:
You tell one truth per candle still lit. (You can see how it works in the playthrough.)
Before you start, everyone records a message in character to be played back at the end.
Gameplay
In gameplay, you roll dice to see whether you succeeded in an action, or just what happens next. This is called a "crisis roll".
You start with 10d6, and if you roll any 6s you succeed.
In each scene, as you lose one candle, you lose one die.
If you roll a 1, that die is out of commission for the rest of the scene. (Your die pool still fills back up to the number of candles when the next scene starts.)
A scene continues until someone fails a roll. Then it ends.1
Low Prep
The game is mostly improvised -- you start with a setting, but there are no predetermined encounters -- the players and GM invent them as they go. I started this with just a geography based loosely on a neighborhood south of here.
Character Creation
Your character has four traits: a virtue, a vice, a moment that will give them hope, and a brink -- what they do in the moment of absolute crisis.
Normally these are traded among the players during character creation, but I was playing solo. To impose a little arbitrariness, I chose a virtue and a vice from Biblical lists: gluttony and faith. I decided that gluttony was the character's own self-lacerating judgement, and that what they actually had was an eating disorder. Story as therapy. You know.
Once per game, you can use each trait to re-roll your dice. When you do that you have to work the trait into the storytelling, and burn the trait. (The rules call for you to actually burn the card it's written on, but I just tore mine up.)
Them
Usually in the setup, one player gets to say something about Them, the mysterious adversary. I just typed "They are" into Google, and got:
-They are the same picture
-They are dying to save the world
So I went with those.
Character Name: Aether "Rusty" Rust2
Pronouns: They/them
Age: 60ish
What people see: a small unremarkable person with iron-grey hair and spectacles; would probably be described as "pudgy"
Job: Library clerk
Vice: Gluttony (binge eating)
Virtue: Faith
Moment: I will find hope when I speak my truth.
Brink: They have seen you cower when you could have fought and won.
Starting inventory: Bag of Hallowe'en candy; flashlight; dead cellphone; keys
Scene 1
Rusty lives in a big old turn-of-the-century house converted into flats. They like the other folks who live there and call some of them friends, but the other tenants have all vanished, along with everyone else.
At first there were some people, and then few, and then yesterday Rusty woke up and there were none, and They were flickering at the edges of Rusty's flashlight beam.
Rusty has seen no other lights anywhere -- no sun, no moon, no stars, no streetlights, not even other people with phones or flashlights. Well, almost none: there is the lighthouse. On a small island about a kilometer off shore, someone has lit the beacon. That means people and light and hope.
After days of fearful indecision, Rusty has finally resolved to set out for the lighthouse. They have no idea how they're going to get there, but it seems like the only hope.
First, they want to search the other apartments for anything useful. Unfortunately, they have no idea how to break into an apartment, and the doors are thick. They're going to roll in an attempt to break into the building manager's apartment.
Crisis roll to break in (10d6): 1x6, 1x1
(Success!)
The apartment isn't locked; they just walk in. The place smells bad because of the spoiled food in the refrigerator. All the curtains are drawn as though to keep light out, though there is no light to keep out.
There's not much here, but they find some pretzels and beer. They put one beer in their pocket just in case. The water isn't running, so they may need something to drink. Rusty doesn't want any of the manager's clothes, but finds a pair of kitchen shears and a small dim book light.
They decide to try some other doors.
Crisis roll to open other doors (9d6): 1x6, 1x1
Success!
The apartment dwellers seem to have taken most of their useful stuff, but Rusty finds a warm black cardigan and a jaunty watch cap they always envied in their friend's apartment. They feel guilty taking these clothes, but reason that they will give the things back if -- when -- they find their friend. Rusty feels better in these clothes, as though they impart a vaguely nautical competency.
Rusty sets off for the lighthouse. The fastest way is through the graveyard. This shouldn't actually bother them, but it kind of does, although the street is just as dark. They go along the street for a while, trying to decide whether to cut through the graveyard or stick to what feels safer.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
Rusty sees a shadowy shape drift into the road and know it its one of Them. Its wavering form begins to shrink and coalesce, taking a shape like Rusty's. Rusty runs into the graveyard to hide.
Truths
[Nine truths for nine candles]
Scene 2
Rusty runs into the graveyard, fleeing Them. At first, Rusty startles this way and that, running senselessly, wearing themselves out.
Then they catch a glimpse of something -- a small mausoleum, somehow more prominent than the others in the dim light from the sea. By instinct, Rusty runs towards this, stumbling over the gravestones.
Inside the mausoleum, almost entirely contained among stone walls, is an eternal flame, a former athlete's Olympic torch, lit up by some internal fuel source. Its light is not bright, but sheds enough light to make Them avoid it.
The fire is beautiful, a dancer made of light. Rusty stands transfixed by the flames, feeling safer than they have in a long time. The light doesn't travel far -- it dimly illuminates perhaps twenty feet of the path, but Rusty feels safer beside it. They sit down in the shelter of the torch and take a moment. It's good to know about one safe place. They can tell other people about it, when they meet them.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
Rusty sees one of Them at the extreme of the flame's aura: an amorphous shadowy shape, slowly mutating into Rusty's own silhouette. Rusty wants to shrink into the shadow of the crypt, but that would be a trap.
Truths
(This is a bit of a retcon as I skipped this step by accident.)
[eight truths for eight candles]
Scene 3
Rusty needs to get past Them.
Rusty wants to pour out the beer (which is not high enough in alcohol content to be very flammable), soak their friend's sweater with burning fuel, stuff it in the bottle, and throw it at Them. This is, obviously, very dangerous and a good way to set yourself on fire.
Crisis roll (8d6) (1x6, 1x1)
Success!
The flame lands at Their feet and the glass shatters. There is no explosion, but the flame licks at the edge of Them as though at fabric. It climbs up Them, withering Them as it climbs, until with an arc of crackling sparks, there is nothing left but an empty space.
Rusty watches Them burn up, then gets up and, eyes still fixed on the empty space, gathers branches and dry flowers, fashioning a rough torch. They light this from the flame, and turn off the flashlight to save its battery.
Steeling themself, Rusty walks through the space where They were, staying in the eternal flame's light as long as possible. They aim for the far corner of the graveyard, where they think there is a gate.
Crisis roll 7d6: 1x6 2x1
Success!
(But since all the 1s are taken out until the end of the scene, rolls are getting more difficult and actions are getting more likely to fail.)
Rusty finds the gate and opens it, passing out into a narrow lane with a view of the sea at the end. The torch is not as bright as the flashlight, but it reflects back from the walls of the houses. Rusty reaches a small parapet with stairs leading down to the road and beyond that the sea.
The light from the beacon is a little brighter from here. It seems like it's just around the point to the southeast.
Rusty knows they need a boat, and they figure that the big houses along the water will have some. They want to climb down to the water, over the beach rocks and the logs, and walk along the shore, shining the torch up to see if there are any boats or boathouses.
Crisis roll 5d6: 3x6 2x1
Success!
[I'd really like to get all those 1s back, but the first card in my stack is my vice, and I can't see how to use gluttony right now.]
[At this point I dropped into first person and stayed there.]
I walk along the shore, holding my torch up and flashing my light up into the yards of the big houses along the water. I find a small rowboat just sitting out in the back yard of one house. There are no oars, though, so I decide to break into their boat house and see if I can find some.
Crisis roll (3d6) 1x6
Success!
I manage to kick open the wooden door. Inside I find something better than a rowboat -- a very fancy kayak and two paddles. A spare! There's even a helmet, though it's a little big. I drag all this down to the water and decide to try to paddle along the dark shore. It's going to be hard to bring my torch, so I decide to light a beach fire as a beacon. Also I have some chocolate-covered ghost candy I'd like to melt.
[To re-roll all the dice taken out because they showed 1s, I burn my gluttony trait. Now I can roll all of my dice again.]
Lighting a fire
Crisis roll: Success!
Comfort eating is a powerful motivating force. Something needs to feel good in this nightmare. I make a roaring bonfire and find a good stick to cook my marshmallow ghosts on. They are delicious. I eat every one, plus most of the miniature candy bars. I get covered in chocolate and sticky burnt sugar. I decide to wash off in the ocean.
Crisis roll to wash in the ocean: fail [Scene ends]
I trip on the sharp rocks and fall into the water, cracking my knee against a stone. I drop most of what I am holding. I splash around looking for my tools in the dark, then finally give up. I sit back down miserably by my fire to dry off.
Truths
(Seven truths for seven candles)
Scene 4
I sit by the fire trying to dry off my clothes. I feel wretched and foolish. The fire is bright, but I can't stay here. I need to get to the lighthouse. It will be much faster to take the kayak than to walk along the shore, but I want to bring fire now that I've lost my flashlight.
I try to build some kind of rough lantern using driftwood, the remnants of my friend's sweater, and the watch cap.
Crisis roll: make a lantern
Success!
I do it! I build a janky little driftwood lantern. I'll apologize to my friend later. I use the hat as the base. I tie the lantern to one paddle and set it upright between my knees. I use the other paddle to push off in the kayak.
Crisis roll: launch the kayak
Fail
[I burn my trait faith in order to re-roll all the 1s.]
Success!
[Now I have to narrate my success as dependent on faith.]
The kayak gets loose from me and starts to wash out to sea. I run after it and, as I splash out into the waves, I can see the lighthouse clearly for the first time. The light is so bright that tears come to my eyes. I have faith in that light, in the beauty of human invention and community. All the lighthouses, down all the centuries, leading us home.
I believe in the people who have lit it. They lit the beacon to call me, and I will reach them. I have faith.
I lunge after the kayak, and catch it. Soaked again, I leap back in. I shove my sore knee into the kayak hatch. I almost lose the lantern, but I make it.
I begin to paddle along the shore, looking for the closest point to the lighthouse. When I think I've found it, I turn the kayak out to sea, hoping that the tides and currents are with me.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
The tides and currents are not with me. They wash me northwest, away from the lighthouse.
Truths
Scene 5
I'm in a kayak, washing in the wrong direction on a dark sea. I begin to use all my strength to paddle against the waves.
Crisis roll: fail
The waves push me further from the lighthouse.
Truths
Scene Six
I am even farther from the lighthouse now. I need to come ashore and walk up above the point, then try to let the current drag me down towards the island. The journey will be exhausting, but it's the only way. I paddle towards shore.
Crisis roll: fail
I am pulled further out to sea. My little craft rocks on the dark shining waves. The beacon is slipping away behind me.
Truths
I am a few hundred meters from shore, but I still believe. I will try to aim for the marker, pull up on the rock, and wait out the tide.
Crisis roll to hit the marker: fail
Truths
I scoop with my oar at whatever is floating in the water near me and try to bring it closer.
Crisis roll (3d6) 1x6 1x1
I succeed!
It's a body. No, it's a man. He's alive! He must have been washed out to sea or fallen out of a boat. He seizes the end of my paddle. "Let me on board! Give me the boat!" he howls, and begins to try to pull me out of the boat.
I fight the man. I invoke my moment.
[When you invoke your moment, you roll a crisis roll, and if you succeed, you get an extra hope die.]
[My moment is this: "I will find hope when I speak my truth."]
NO! I cry out in the darkness. I WANT TO LIVE!
I hit him with my paddle.
Crisis roll to hit the man (2d6) 1x6 1x1
I succeed!
I do it! I smack him on the head and he sinks under the water.
[I earn a hope die, an extra die to roll for all actions.]
I begin to paddle furiously away from him, further out to sea, towards the shadowy form, hoping it is a boat. I squint at it. my lamplight doesn't stretch very far and I'm still being pushed downshore.
I paddle nearer and try to perceive what it is.
Crisis roll to figure out what the shape is, with hope die: fail [Scene ends]
Truths
I paddle closer, praying that it is a place I can land.
Crisis roll: Is it?
It is.
I reach the dark shape. It is a big log boom attached to a tug boat. the tug boat is just floating in the water. No one is in it. Perhaps the man I -- found -- was the captain.
I climb awkwardly into the tug and examine the controls. I try to figure out how to start the engine. Behind me the logs bump and groan.
Crisis roll: all 1s
Fail
[Scene ends] [Except! I have one trait left to burn. My brink.]
I can't figure out how to start the tug boat. I'm floating in the middle of the infinite dark sea. I hear creaking and sighing from the log boom.
I climb out onto the back of the tug, holding my flaming lamp. At the edge of the light, I see Them gathering over the water. Waiting. Each of them has my face. They are waiting to cancel me out, erase me from the earth.
When every human person is extinguished, the earth will be free.
[Burn: brink]
[I use my brink to re-roll my attempt to start the boat. Otherwise this scene ends and I move to the final scene.]
Crisis roll: fail.
I fail to rise to this last crisis. With a scream, unable even to look at Them, I hurl my lamp in Their general direction and cower, covering my face. I hear the lamp splash into the ocean.
Truths
I peer up over my arms. The torch is gone, but there is still a faint glow from the lighthouse.
I sit back against the wall of the tug boat cabin. I pull the little book light from my pocket and turn it on. A tiny blue star lights up in my hand. I pull a miniature Snickers bar from my pocket, unwrap it, and put it into my mouth. It tastes delicious.
I see the figures with my own face drift closer and closer as we drift further and further from the lighthouse. I don't move. They twist like scraps of gauze in the wind, unhurried, almost random, always closer.
A little while later, the glow of the lighthouse dims for a moment. Then it shines out bright again.
Then the lighthouse goes out.
Then the book light goes out.
Then I go out.
Play Recording
(transcript)
{rf}
1. There are some other rules about who gets to narrate which events, but they didn't really apply here because I am both player and GM.
2. I meant to type "Arthur" and then I liked the typo.
I need things to occupy and delight me, so that I don't just work, or worry about work. I am having a lot of anxiety, and having a hard time each morning crawling over the broken glass of self-doubt to get to the room and tell people things. Today was hard. The class, of course, was fine. It's always fine. But I needed to think past it, so I promised myself that when I got home I could do a solo playthrough of Ten Candles. -- to test the mechanics.
Here, mostly for my own amusement, is the record of that playthrough. It's patchy, but then so am I.
Ten Candles
Content notes: Character death, discussion of eating disorders
I won't explain all the rules here: you can find out more about it on the website.
The guidebook (PDF $10) says this:
This is a story about what happens in the dark. This is a story about survivors trying to light up their little corner of the world and do something meaningful within it in the few hours they have left....Ten Candles is a tragic horror time-based cooperative storytelling game through which you will tell the story of a dark world and those who fall victim to it.
Though you know your characters will die, you must have hope that they will survive.
Ten days ago, the world went dark. Five days later, They came. They are after you. Their only weakness is light.
The Basics
You start the game with ten candles in a circle. The game is played in ten scenes, each one represented by a candle. When the scene ends, you blow out a candle. When you get to the last candle, that's the last scene.
In between scenes, there is a phase called Establishing Truths. This is how you add to the story-world or move the story along. Whatever you say in this phase becomes true. (Unless you try to contradict a previous statement or weaken Them.)
The first truth is always this:
These things are true. The world is dark.
The last truth is always this:
And we are alive.
You tell one truth per candle still lit. (You can see how it works in the playthrough.)
Before you start, everyone records a message in character to be played back at the end.
Gameplay
In gameplay, you roll dice to see whether you succeeded in an action, or just what happens next. This is called a "crisis roll".
You start with 10d6, and if you roll any 6s you succeed.
In each scene, as you lose one candle, you lose one die.
If you roll a 1, that die is out of commission for the rest of the scene. (Your die pool still fills back up to the number of candles when the next scene starts.)
A scene continues until someone fails a roll. Then it ends.1
Low Prep
The game is mostly improvised -- you start with a setting, but there are no predetermined encounters -- the players and GM invent them as they go. I started this with just a geography based loosely on a neighborhood south of here.
Character Creation
Your character has four traits: a virtue, a vice, a moment that will give them hope, and a brink -- what they do in the moment of absolute crisis.
Normally these are traded among the players during character creation, but I was playing solo. To impose a little arbitrariness, I chose a virtue and a vice from Biblical lists: gluttony and faith. I decided that gluttony was the character's own self-lacerating judgement, and that what they actually had was an eating disorder. Story as therapy. You know.
Once per game, you can use each trait to re-roll your dice. When you do that you have to work the trait into the storytelling, and burn the trait. (The rules call for you to actually burn the card it's written on, but I just tore mine up.)
Them
Usually in the setup, one player gets to say something about Them, the mysterious adversary. I just typed "They are" into Google, and got:
-They are the same picture
-They are dying to save the world
So I went with those.
The Playthrough
Character Name: Aether "Rusty" Rust2
Pronouns: They/them
Age: 60ish
What people see: a small unremarkable person with iron-grey hair and spectacles; would probably be described as "pudgy"
Job: Library clerk
Vice: Gluttony (binge eating)
Virtue: Faith
Moment: I will find hope when I speak my truth.
Brink: They have seen you cower when you could have fought and won.
Starting inventory: Bag of Hallowe'en candy; flashlight; dead cellphone; keys
Scene 1
Rusty lives in a big old turn-of-the-century house converted into flats. They like the other folks who live there and call some of them friends, but the other tenants have all vanished, along with everyone else.
At first there were some people, and then few, and then yesterday Rusty woke up and there were none, and They were flickering at the edges of Rusty's flashlight beam.
Rusty has seen no other lights anywhere -- no sun, no moon, no stars, no streetlights, not even other people with phones or flashlights. Well, almost none: there is the lighthouse. On a small island about a kilometer off shore, someone has lit the beacon. That means people and light and hope.
After days of fearful indecision, Rusty has finally resolved to set out for the lighthouse. They have no idea how they're going to get there, but it seems like the only hope.
First, they want to search the other apartments for anything useful. Unfortunately, they have no idea how to break into an apartment, and the doors are thick. They're going to roll in an attempt to break into the building manager's apartment.
Crisis roll to break in (10d6): 1x6, 1x1
(Success!)
The apartment isn't locked; they just walk in. The place smells bad because of the spoiled food in the refrigerator. All the curtains are drawn as though to keep light out, though there is no light to keep out.
There's not much here, but they find some pretzels and beer. They put one beer in their pocket just in case. The water isn't running, so they may need something to drink. Rusty doesn't want any of the manager's clothes, but finds a pair of kitchen shears and a small dim book light.
They decide to try some other doors.
Crisis roll to open other doors (9d6): 1x6, 1x1
Success!
The apartment dwellers seem to have taken most of their useful stuff, but Rusty finds a warm black cardigan and a jaunty watch cap they always envied in their friend's apartment. They feel guilty taking these clothes, but reason that they will give the things back if -- when -- they find their friend. Rusty feels better in these clothes, as though they impart a vaguely nautical competency.
Rusty sets off for the lighthouse. The fastest way is through the graveyard. This shouldn't actually bother them, but it kind of does, although the street is just as dark. They go along the street for a while, trying to decide whether to cut through the graveyard or stick to what feels safer.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
Rusty sees a shadowy shape drift into the road and know it its one of Them. Its wavering form begins to shrink and coalesce, taking a shape like Rusty's. Rusty runs into the graveyard to hide.
Truths
[Nine truths for nine candles]
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- If They can't see me, They can't take my form.
- If They can't take my form, They can't kill me.
- If They see me, They will follow me.
- They move slowly.
- This one of Them has not seen me long enough to become me.
- There is respite in the graveyard.
- Something beautiful is in the graveyard.
- And I am alive.
Scene 2
Rusty runs into the graveyard, fleeing Them. At first, Rusty startles this way and that, running senselessly, wearing themselves out.
Then they catch a glimpse of something -- a small mausoleum, somehow more prominent than the others in the dim light from the sea. By instinct, Rusty runs towards this, stumbling over the gravestones.
Inside the mausoleum, almost entirely contained among stone walls, is an eternal flame, a former athlete's Olympic torch, lit up by some internal fuel source. Its light is not bright, but sheds enough light to make Them avoid it.
The fire is beautiful, a dancer made of light. Rusty stands transfixed by the flames, feeling safer than they have in a long time. The light doesn't travel far -- it dimly illuminates perhaps twenty feet of the path, but Rusty feels safer beside it. They sit down in the shelter of the torch and take a moment. It's good to know about one safe place. They can tell other people about it, when they meet them.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
Rusty sees one of Them at the extreme of the flame's aura: an amorphous shadowy shape, slowly mutating into Rusty's own silhouette. Rusty wants to shrink into the shadow of the crypt, but that would be a trap.
Truths
(This is a bit of a retcon as I skipped this step by accident.)
[eight truths for eight candles]
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- I need to get past Them to reach the gate.
- They can be destroyed by fire.
- There are trees with branches full of dead leaves nearby, and dead branches on the ground.
- There are wreaths of dried flowers scattered around the base of the eternal flame.
- The flame will burn for a long time.
- I am good with torches because a friend of mine used to be a busker who juggled fire.
- And I am alive.
Scene 3
Rusty needs to get past Them.
Rusty wants to pour out the beer (which is not high enough in alcohol content to be very flammable), soak their friend's sweater with burning fuel, stuff it in the bottle, and throw it at Them. This is, obviously, very dangerous and a good way to set yourself on fire.
Crisis roll (8d6) (1x6, 1x1)
Success!
The flame lands at Their feet and the glass shatters. There is no explosion, but the flame licks at the edge of Them as though at fabric. It climbs up Them, withering Them as it climbs, until with an arc of crackling sparks, there is nothing left but an empty space.
Rusty watches Them burn up, then gets up and, eyes still fixed on the empty space, gathers branches and dry flowers, fashioning a rough torch. They light this from the flame, and turn off the flashlight to save its battery.
Steeling themself, Rusty walks through the space where They were, staying in the eternal flame's light as long as possible. They aim for the far corner of the graveyard, where they think there is a gate.
Crisis roll 7d6: 1x6 2x1
Success!
(But since all the 1s are taken out until the end of the scene, rolls are getting more difficult and actions are getting more likely to fail.)
Rusty finds the gate and opens it, passing out into a narrow lane with a view of the sea at the end. The torch is not as bright as the flashlight, but it reflects back from the walls of the houses. Rusty reaches a small parapet with stairs leading down to the road and beyond that the sea.
The light from the beacon is a little brighter from here. It seems like it's just around the point to the southeast.
Rusty knows they need a boat, and they figure that the big houses along the water will have some. They want to climb down to the water, over the beach rocks and the logs, and walk along the shore, shining the torch up to see if there are any boats or boathouses.
Crisis roll 5d6: 3x6 2x1
Success!
[I'd really like to get all those 1s back, but the first card in my stack is my vice, and I can't see how to use gluttony right now.]
[At this point I dropped into first person and stayed there.]
I walk along the shore, holding my torch up and flashing my light up into the yards of the big houses along the water. I find a small rowboat just sitting out in the back yard of one house. There are no oars, though, so I decide to break into their boat house and see if I can find some.
Crisis roll (3d6) 1x6
Success!
I manage to kick open the wooden door. Inside I find something better than a rowboat -- a very fancy kayak and two paddles. A spare! There's even a helmet, though it's a little big. I drag all this down to the water and decide to try to paddle along the dark shore. It's going to be hard to bring my torch, so I decide to light a beach fire as a beacon. Also I have some chocolate-covered ghost candy I'd like to melt.
[To re-roll all the dice taken out because they showed 1s, I burn my gluttony trait. Now I can roll all of my dice again.]
Lighting a fire
Crisis roll: Success!
Comfort eating is a powerful motivating force. Something needs to feel good in this nightmare. I make a roaring bonfire and find a good stick to cook my marshmallow ghosts on. They are delicious. I eat every one, plus most of the miniature candy bars. I get covered in chocolate and sticky burnt sugar. I decide to wash off in the ocean.
Crisis roll to wash in the ocean: fail [Scene ends]
I trip on the sharp rocks and fall into the water, cracking my knee against a stone. I drop most of what I am holding. I splash around looking for my tools in the dark, then finally give up. I sit back down miserably by my fire to dry off.
Truths
(Seven truths for seven candles)
- These things are true: The world is dark.
- I have lost my keys.
- I have lost my phone.
- I have lost the flashlight.
- They can travel over water.
- They are between me and the lighthouse.
- And I am alive.
Scene 4
I sit by the fire trying to dry off my clothes. I feel wretched and foolish. The fire is bright, but I can't stay here. I need to get to the lighthouse. It will be much faster to take the kayak than to walk along the shore, but I want to bring fire now that I've lost my flashlight.
I try to build some kind of rough lantern using driftwood, the remnants of my friend's sweater, and the watch cap.
Crisis roll: make a lantern
Success!
I do it! I build a janky little driftwood lantern. I'll apologize to my friend later. I use the hat as the base. I tie the lantern to one paddle and set it upright between my knees. I use the other paddle to push off in the kayak.
Crisis roll: launch the kayak
Fail
[I burn my trait faith in order to re-roll all the 1s.]
Success!
[Now I have to narrate my success as dependent on faith.]
The kayak gets loose from me and starts to wash out to sea. I run after it and, as I splash out into the waves, I can see the lighthouse clearly for the first time. The light is so bright that tears come to my eyes. I have faith in that light, in the beauty of human invention and community. All the lighthouses, down all the centuries, leading us home.
I believe in the people who have lit it. They lit the beacon to call me, and I will reach them. I have faith.
I lunge after the kayak, and catch it. Soaked again, I leap back in. I shove my sore knee into the kayak hatch. I almost lose the lantern, but I make it.
I begin to paddle along the shore, looking for the closest point to the lighthouse. When I think I've found it, I turn the kayak out to sea, hoping that the tides and currents are with me.
Crisis roll: fail [Scene ends]
The tides and currents are not with me. They wash me northwest, away from the lighthouse.
Truths
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- The tide will turn.
- They know where I am.
- I will have the chance to speak my truth.
- My truth is not what I think it is.
- And I am alive.
Scene 5
I'm in a kayak, washing in the wrong direction on a dark sea. I begin to use all my strength to paddle against the waves.
Crisis roll: fail
The waves push me further from the lighthouse.
Truths
- These things are true: the world is dark
- I have more strength than I know.
- There is still a chance.
- There is movement at the lighthouse.
- And I am alive.
Scene Six
I am even farther from the lighthouse now. I need to come ashore and walk up above the point, then try to let the current drag me down towards the island. The journey will be exhausting, but it's the only way. I paddle towards shore.
Crisis roll: fail
I am pulled further out to sea. My little craft rocks on the dark shining waves. The beacon is slipping away behind me.
Truths
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- There is a marker ahead of me in the dark water.
- There is something floating in the water nearby.
- And I am alive.
I am a few hundred meters from shore, but I still believe. I will try to aim for the marker, pull up on the rock, and wait out the tide.
Crisis roll to hit the marker: fail
Truths
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- I see a large dark shape ahead of me on the waves but cannot tell what it is.
- And I am alive.
I scoop with my oar at whatever is floating in the water near me and try to bring it closer.
Crisis roll (3d6) 1x6 1x1
I succeed!
It's a body. No, it's a man. He's alive! He must have been washed out to sea or fallen out of a boat. He seizes the end of my paddle. "Let me on board! Give me the boat!" he howls, and begins to try to pull me out of the boat.
I fight the man. I invoke my moment.
[When you invoke your moment, you roll a crisis roll, and if you succeed, you get an extra hope die.]
[My moment is this: "I will find hope when I speak my truth."]
NO! I cry out in the darkness. I WANT TO LIVE!
I hit him with my paddle.
Crisis roll to hit the man (2d6) 1x6 1x1
I succeed!
I do it! I smack him on the head and he sinks under the water.
[I earn a hope die, an extra die to roll for all actions.]
I begin to paddle furiously away from him, further out to sea, towards the shadowy form, hoping it is a boat. I squint at it. my lamplight doesn't stretch very far and I'm still being pushed downshore.
I paddle nearer and try to perceive what it is.
Crisis roll to figure out what the shape is, with hope die: fail [Scene ends]
Truths
- These things are true. The world is dark.
- And I am alive.
I paddle closer, praying that it is a place I can land.
Crisis roll: Is it?
It is.
I reach the dark shape. It is a big log boom attached to a tug boat. the tug boat is just floating in the water. No one is in it. Perhaps the man I -- found -- was the captain.
I climb awkwardly into the tug and examine the controls. I try to figure out how to start the engine. Behind me the logs bump and groan.
Crisis roll: all 1s
Fail
[Scene ends] [Except! I have one trait left to burn. My brink.]
I can't figure out how to start the tug boat. I'm floating in the middle of the infinite dark sea. I hear creaking and sighing from the log boom.
I climb out onto the back of the tug, holding my flaming lamp. At the edge of the light, I see Them gathering over the water. Waiting. Each of them has my face. They are waiting to cancel me out, erase me from the earth.
When every human person is extinguished, the earth will be free.
[Burn: brink]
[I use my brink to re-roll my attempt to start the boat. Otherwise this scene ends and I move to the final scene.]
Crisis roll: fail.
I fail to rise to this last crisis. With a scream, unable even to look at Them, I hurl my lamp in Their general direction and cower, covering my face. I hear the lamp splash into the ocean.
Truths
- I am alive.
I peer up over my arms. The torch is gone, but there is still a faint glow from the lighthouse.
I sit back against the wall of the tug boat cabin. I pull the little book light from my pocket and turn it on. A tiny blue star lights up in my hand. I pull a miniature Snickers bar from my pocket, unwrap it, and put it into my mouth. It tastes delicious.
I see the figures with my own face drift closer and closer as we drift further and further from the lighthouse. I don't move. They twist like scraps of gauze in the wind, unhurried, almost random, always closer.
A little while later, the glow of the lighthouse dims for a moment. Then it shines out bright again.
Then the lighthouse goes out.
Then the book light goes out.
Then I go out.
Play Recording
(transcript)
"Hey, um, it's Rusty. Aether Rust. I used to work at the library before all this happened. I guess this is a message for, well, for anyone who finds it really. For my friends at the library, for my page, Malcolm. If you're there, Malcolm, I got all the discards sorted out before I left. So don’t worry about those.
I found this little voice recorder and I thought I should make a record in case anybody came by. It's battery powered, so I think someone could play it back.
Um, I'm going to set out for the lighthouse. It's the only source of light I've seen. I think it must mean people are there, and they must have access to a lot of light, and light is where we need to be. I'm not really sure how to get out there. I mean, I can swim, but not that far.
Malcolm, if you are hearing this, I think you're great. You should believe in yourself more.
Anyway, see you at the lighthouse, hopefully. Goodbye."
{rf}
1. There are some other rules about who gets to narrate which events, but they didn't really apply here because I am both player and GM.
2. I meant to type "Arthur" and then I liked the typo.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 05:58 am (UTC)I really thought I'd make it to the lighthouse! I had a whole death scene in mind, and instead I died in a tug boat in the middle of the ocean. I love this game.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-10 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-10 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 04:42 pm (UTC)I feel like you're right -- that maybe the reason the story trajectory feels satisfying instead of disappointing is because we know that under the vampires or ghouls or whatever, it's our story.
The process of the situation in the kayak getting worse and worse and the character continuing to struggle and seek for any sign of hope feels *right* to me in a way I haven't actually lived out in that detail (never having died at sea).
no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 09:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-10 11:36 am (UTC)I've never crashed my brother's spaceship, but I did damage my Mum's car, which would make it easier for me to write the first, but it's not mandatory. From there, you can extrapolate further: how about losing a family heirloom that was leant to you? This is all about [accidental] [damage] to [beloved] [property] of [someone who trusts and values you] and you can take it into any direction.
Sometimes, like death or pregnancy, we need to reach further from our lived experience. 'Write what you know' is a good starting point, but often what it tries to get writers to do is to write specific and authentic narratives, based more on empathy and personal truths than on cliches and 'what everybody knows'.
no subject
Date: 2021-11-10 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 02:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-11-09 04:48 pm (UTC)I definitely want to try it with a group.