Speaker 1: The following podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener
discretion is advised. Hey, folks, if you listened past the
credits in the last episode, you'll know that I recently
suffered a hard drive failure and lost a giant forest
trolls weight in produced audio. I do keep a buffer
of my episodes, and I also back up my work
fairly regularly, but my buffer was stored on a hard drive,
and my backup only managed to rescue my scripts and music.
To be honest, if I lost those, I'd be dead
in the water. But since I do still have them,
there's an opportunity to rebuild, and that's what I'm going
to do. That said, rebuilding takes time, so for this month,
I need to adjust my usual release schedule. Instead of
three regular episodes, there'll just be one with the bonus episode.
This episode put out is something to tide you over
until I can work my way back into shape. Thanks
in advance for your patience and understand So what is
this bonus episode anyway? Actually something I made just for fun?
A response to the twenty minute solo challenge issued by
PJ of the Solo role Players podcast last December pj's
challenge was to pick up any game you've been wanted
to try but haven't play it for twenty minutes and report.
I chose The Wretched by Chris Bissett, a solo sci
fi horror journaling game, and ended up playing it all
the way through in one sitting. The game took about
forty five minutes to finish. I tried to distrill it
to twenty for PJ, but I couldn't get it down
to less than twenty five. I figured that was close
enough for Rock and Roll and sent it over anyway.
When this hard drive problem occurred, I emailed PJ and
very cheekily asked him if I could you know, have
it back so I could release something while I rebuilt. PJ,
wonderful human being that he is, said, no problem, and
so that's what you were about to hear. I had
a lot of fun making this, and I help you
enjoy the Listen. The game I'm playing is called The
Wretched by Chris Bissett. Okay, I'm just going to read
to you the what is it about? Section? The Wretched
is a game about human resilience in the face of
overwhelming odds and almost certain death. So it's right on
my alley. It's a game about isolation, fear, and perseverance.
I love isolation, fear, and perseverance in that order, So
I think I am going to enjoy this game a lot.
You play the lone survivor of a horrific attack. You
are sure you won't survive this, but all you know
to do is to keep fighting. I guess I should
mention at this point if it's not obvious that this
is a sci fi game. The Wretched is inspired by
the music and films of John Carpenter, the music of
Nine Inch Nails, and a few other games that are
listed here. How to play, you need a single six
sided die, Okay, a tumbling block tower. I have that here.
Sounds like this only the finest and ten tokens of
some kind, preferably a collection of nuts, bolts and screws,
but anything will work. Okay, I've got my tokens. They
are mostly coins. You need some way to record your game, yeah, okay,
begin set up the tumbling block tower. I've done that.
Roll your die and complete that many pulls from the tower.
The tower represents the state of your ship. Okay, rolling
the die one, that's lucky. All right, I got one
out and it didn't fall, so I'm kind of killing it.
Shuffle the dick of playing cards and place them face
down with an easy reach. Okay, record your first audio logue,
reading from the script that follows.
Speaker 2: Day one. Salvage ship the Wretched, flight Engineered John Mantekor
reporting the other members of the crew are dead and
the engines remain non operational. Well ship integrity remains good,
and life support systems are still active. I successfully jettison
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 John Mantekor, the last survivor of
the Wretched, signing off.
Speaker 1: Now you're ready to begin. The game is divided into days.
Each day has two phases, the tasks and the log.
Roll your die and draw that number of cards from
the deck, keeping them face down. Turn over the first
card you drew, and consult the operation's manual. If the
operation's manual ask you to do a specific thing, do it.
Continue turning over cards and consulting the operations manual until
your tasks are complete. Phase two the log. Take a
moment to consider the events of the day, keeping in
mind what you've learned about the state of your ship,
the actions of the creature, and how you're feeling. Record
your audio log for the day. Okay, so I guess
I mean I will record all of it. But the
actual log itself is the only sort of official recording.
Roll the diet draw the number of cards one king
of hearts, it says, consult the operations manual. You hear
a skittering, scraping sound in the air vents, and you
fear the creature or something else may have got aboard
the ship. How will you make sure you don't attract
its attention. I think I'm going to close off a
certain part of the ship, like the stern. Yeah, I'm
going to close off the stern of the ship. Hopefully
it won't be able to get further if it is
actually in the ship. Record your audio log for the day.
Speaker 2: Day two, Salvage Ship the Wretched Flight Engineer John Mantique
or reporting, I have reason to believe that the creature
or creatures have managed to get aboard. Sensor's have picked
up movement in the stern of the ship, and I
have decided to close all doors and engage all locks.
Hopefully whatever's in here won't be able to get any further.
Speaker 1: And so now I go back to drawing again. Roll
your dye, draw the number cards. All right, A lot
is going to happen on this day ten of arts.
You spend a day climbing around in the engines, doing
basic maintenance and trying to figure out what needs to
be done to get the ship moving again. You in
the day as clueless as you be. Pull from the tower. Okay,
I'm guessing the engines are in the stern of the ship. Actually,
why do they No, they don't have to be. The
engines will be midship, and I have blocked off cargo
and freight. Yeah, because we're a salvage ship, right yeah, okay,
so the stern is where the salvage goes. So engines
are in midship. All right. So I've wasted a day
trying to get the ship moving again, and I have
to do another block So here I go. Not a problem.
What else happened? You lose power throughout the ship, and
while you're trying to fix it, the backup generator fails.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: You manage to restore power, but you need to cannibalize
parts from the backup generator, which will never work again.
Pull from the tower. Done all right. Next up, in
its attempt to get back into the ship, the creature
detaches one of the habitat modules and sets it adrift
in space. You manage to steal off that area of
the ship before the creature can get real access. I've
already said that it did gain access. Maybe I'll just
rearrange how this happens in time. I gotta say the
Jenga tower is a lot of fun, because Jinger towers
are fun. Okay. Next, we've got a nine of diamonds.
The sewage silo springs a leak. It smells terrible, and
you fix it as quickly as is humanly possible. Pull
from the tower. Okay, don't have the most steady hands,
it turns out, but we're still good. That's done, And
there's one left and it is a spades, and the
spades is the creature. So this might be exciting. You
find yourself muttering a short phrase over and over and
over again, like a catechism. What is it? Pull from
the tower It's something that my teacher taught me. No
matter the problem, there's always a way. Okay, So now
take a moment to consider the events of the day
and record my audio logue, Day.
Speaker 2: Three, Salvage Ship the Wretched Fight near John Manticore. Reporting.
Today has been a busy day. I'm increasingly worried. But
like my instructor used to say, no matter the problem,
there is always a way. No matter the problem, there's
always a way. If I keep saying that enough, I
might actually believe it. A lot happened today. The sewer
system sprang a leak that smelled fantastic, let me tell you,
But I did fix it. I did waste a lot
of hours crawling around an engineering midship, but I couldn't
get anything working. I did manage to restore power to
the ship, but I had to cannibalize parts from the
backup generator to do that, and that will never work again.
Yesterday I managed to lock the creature or creatures in
the stern section of the ship, but when the creature
reached the hull, it detached one of the habitat modules
that is now gone, lost in space forever. But whatever
the problem, there's always a.
Speaker 1: Way, all right, So now I'm back into rolling to Die.
Two two cards, seven of clubs. You've been carrying a
rifle with you for a few days. Now you pried
it out of the cold grip of a dead crewmate's hands.
How did that make you feel? Do you think the
rifle will be effective if you need to use it? Okay,
Jack of diamonds. You spend a day taking the engine
a part, completely putting it back together an attempt to
fix it, but you're not sure exactly how to do that.
You suspect you may have caused more damage than you fixed.
Pull from the tower. Okay, like to do that? There
we go. Oops, looks like I forgot to do something.
At the end of the first day, I get to
roll to see if I take a token away before
it means I don't. At the end of the second day, no,
At the end of the third day I roll again
got a three, and day four a five. Well that's
not good.
Speaker 2: Day four salvage ship. The wretched flight engineer John Matthikore reporting,
I actually went back to the engineering day and wasted
another day trying to fix the engines. I thought I
thought I had an idea. Whenever there's a problem, there's
a way. But I think I actually caused more damage
than good. Things do not look good in there. I
can feel that the ship is starting to come apart now,
and I can hear things from the stern. I came
across the body of Andrews. Andrews is security, and I
took his rifle. I've been carrying it all day with me.
I've never fired a rifle, and I don't even know
what would happen if I did. I don't think it
would be a good idea. At least I still have
food and water.
Speaker 1: Signing off next day, rolling my die, I got a three. Okay,
let's see. Something happened to the lights when the creature
was near your hiding place? What was it? Pull from
the tower? Whoa, I guess the creature managed to get out.
I have pulled from the tower. Now, what did happen?
I think the light started blinking and they haven't stopped blinking.
You find something left behind by the creature, blood or
a body part, or something you can't quite explain, describe it.
Pull from the tower. It's a body part. I have
found a severed hand and it looks like it's being
cut off by a guillotine, like the cut is so clean. Yeah,
that's cool, I mean horrible. Pull from the tower. Did
it one more? The past few nights, you've been dreaming
about the creature. What happens in your dreams? In my dreams,
the creature is like a beetle with mandibles slicing mandibles,
and I am paralyzed with fear and I can't run.
I had a nightmare like that recently, where some creature
was approaching me. It was not a space beetle, and
I couldn't move. I was paralyzed. Like there's no question fight,
flight or freeze. I unfortunately am freeze. Okay, that is it,
and we are going back to Oh. I get to
roll the die to see if I can take a
token away. I can. I got a sex Hey, now
I roll for cards. You managed to gain access to
one of the lander modules and the hopes that you
can use it to escape the ship. The asteroid that
struck the ship before your engines failed damaged it beyond repair.
I cast it a drift into the black in hope
that it would distract the creature. Pulled from the tower,
all right, well, pulling for the tower. Oh okay, that
time I felt the tower actually wobble. Okay. Next up
is the five of Clubs. Where did you hide while
the rest of the crew were dying? Right, I've already
said that Private Andrews was dead. Where did I hide?
I hid in. I hid in a kitchen. That's why
I've been able to feed myself, and that's why I
have access to water. I hid in a kitchen. It's
the coldness. It somehow made me harder to detect. I
doesn't say I need to draw a Djenga block, so
I won't I do. Notice. I have a gaping hole
in my Jenga tower already tended diamonds. With the climate
control on the fritz, mold springs up in some of
your food stores. You can't fix it, so you just
seal that locker up and hope that nothing affects the
rest of your supplies. Pull from the tower. Okay, once again,
this Jenga tower is starting. Ooh, it is starting to wobble. Gosh,
my memory is bad because I already am like what
happened first. Maybe I won't have to memorize these events
much longer. Finally, nine of Clubs, one of the crew
told you all about a terrible dream they had a
few days before the creature came in hindsight. Were they
having a premonition of what was about to happen? Why
did you ignore them all? Yeah. One of the assistant pilots,
Alison Macy, she had a recurring nightmare about something that
she couldn't see that made a chittering sound, and we
called her bug brain for a little while. Mostly it
was a source of entertainment. Okay, here we go. I'm
trying to remember all these things.
Speaker 2: Here we go, Day five, Salvage Ship. The Wretched. Flight
engineer John Manticore reporting, I'm not sleeping well because I'm
starting to have dreams, which is funny because assistant pilot
Alison Macy was having dreams and we all laughed at her.
And now I'm having dreams. I'm having dreams of being
paralyzed by fear as some giant beetle approaches me and
I wanna run, but my legs won't move. Anyway, those
are just dreams. I'm living it. Hopefully when the time comes,
If the time comes, God forbid, I will at least
be able to run if I can't fire this rifle.
I might be the last person alive on this ship.
I'm not sure. I think I made the right decision
when I decided to hide in food storage. Because the
temperature in there is low, and although it has been uncomfortable,
very uncomfortable, very cold, I think it has somehow masked
my presence to the creature. I hear it, but I
don't think it senses me yet. I hope not. Between
the food storage and the engines, I did manage to
access one of the lander modules, but uh, it's damage
to the asteroid struck it. This wasn't the creature. I
cast it adrift, and I thought maybe the creature or
creatures would notice this thing and pursue.
Speaker 1: I don't think that happened.
Speaker 2: I went back to the food storage and I noticed
that one of the temperature controls has failed. Is a
lack of power generally in the ship. It's causing problems,
gonna cause more problems, and the food is going off
very soon. There's gonna be mold in there, food won't
be edible. I decided to seal that locker up so
they wouldn't contaminate the rest of the supplies. I hope
that was the right decision.
Speaker 1: And that's it. I get to try and fix my
with the roll of the diet. The three means no,
and I'm roll anxiety. See how many cards two two
is manageable? Before the creature came, you were in the
very early stages of pursuing a relationship with another member
of the crew. What was the last thing you said
to them? And why do you regret it? Well, that
has to be Alison Macy. And the last thing I
said to them was Alison Macy, Do you worry too much?
What else we have here? Make a list of the
five best hiding places on the ship in the event
that you need to use them. Five? Maybe three? I
need to do three, okay. One of them is food storage.
That's my top. Second is I think the captain's quarters
if I could get there. And the third place is
I found a disused engine that is hollowed out, and
I think I could climb in there. There would be
no supplies, but it would be fairly safe because it's thick,
heavy metal and it's small crawling into a metal cop
but it might keep me safe. That's that.
Speaker 2: Day six Salvage Ship. The Wretched Flight Engineer John mancikor reporting.
I'm feeling very bad about the way I left things
with Allison. I think there could have been something there.
I think there was something there. But what did I
tell her? I told her, you worry too much. I mean,
everybody was laughing at her. But I could have been
the one person that took her seriously, and I wasn't.
I'm not sure what to do now. I'm spending too
much of my time thinking about these things. That's not productive.
So I've made a list of hiding places in the
order as I need them. First, up right here. It's
smaller now, but this is still the safest place. I
think the cold temperature is hiding me, is cloaking me.
If I went here long enough, maybe someone will come
and save me. I don't know. For summer, I have
to leave here. There are two other places I could
think of. There's the Captain's quarters, which I know have
some extra security, and then I think the last resort
would be the holiday engine in the engineering bay. Once
I got in there, I'm not sure there'd be any
coming out, but it would be safe. God forbid.
Speaker 1: It comes to that. Rolling for my beacon A one. Nope,
that's a fail rolling to see how many cards for
day eight, I got a six. I'm telling you, I'm
going to reroll that. I can't handle more than four. Four, fine,
even four. My brain is just not smart enough. Three clubs.
You had to use someone else's ida to access an
area of the ship normally forbidden to you. Whose idea
was it? And what were you doing there? That was
Private Andrews, and I was trying to get into the
armory with his pass card, so I was looking for weapons.
Doesn't ask me if I found any, but for I'm
gonna say I found a grenade. Next up, well, rummaging
through the cruise quarters, you found a tool that you've
been in need of. What was it? The next time
you're told to pull from the tower, you may choose
not to. Okay, it is a multimeter. Sure, it's a multimeter,
so that now I can take accurate readings of voltages
and not have to guess based on the parts that
I'm looking at. Does that make sense? I hope. So
while you've slept, the fire suppression system was activated. What
caused the fire? And how will you make sure it
doesn't happen again? Pull from the tower. I am going
to pull from the tower for this one, because I
don't see how having a multimeter would help that or
a grenade. But I'm going to say that I don't know.
I don't know what happened, but it could be a
sign that someone else is alive on board, right, I think? So?
Last one is down one of the long straight corridors
between rooms on the ship. You follow gouges in the
walls and flora left by the creature described them, and
which part of its anatomy you think left those tracks behind.
I think it's a slime trail, and I think it
is just basically excreting the remains of my erstwhile crewmates.
That's disgusting.
Speaker 2: Day seven Salvage Ship The Wretched, Flight engineer John Manticore
reporting there was another busy day. I couldn't stay put
in that food storage any longer. It's freezing. I decided
to go and do something. So I went back to
where I found Private Andrews, and I took his pass
card and I went to the armory. There's a lot
of stuff in there that I don't know how to use,
and a lot of it's under code lock. However, I
didn't manage to find of all things, a grenade. I'm
not sure if it's a fragment grenade or if it's
a smoke grenade. I don't know, but somebody had left
it out and it was available, and I took it.
And it's a good thing too, because I'm starting to
see trails from the creature line, trails that I think
are excrement. It stinks and it's disgusting, and thinking about
how big this creature must be to leave that much
behind is disturbing. At least I can kind of see
where it went, so of course I went the other
way and I found something. I found a multi meter tool.
It was in an open locker and I took it,
and I think it's gonna help me with repairs down
the line, at least it very likely could. Just as
I was heading back to the food storage, the fire
suppression systems were engaged, and I have no idea what
could have caused a fire, But my hope is that
somebody else is.
Speaker 1: Alive somewhere else in this ship. That would mean the
world to me. Signing off, well, I get to roll
for Beacon A six, Okay, I get to take away
one of my tokens and rolling for cards three of
art says, the consystem blinks into life, picking up garble
chatter from far off vessels. It falls silent before you
can signal to them. What were they saying? They were
hailing to see if we were in distress. Maybe they
somehow picked up that fire. Is that even possible? No,
they found the lander, That's what it was. The ejected
lander drew their attention, and they're coming to see it
fall as well. Right here we go, Day eight, Salvage
Ship the Wretched. Flight engineer John Mentigor reporting a glimmer
of hope today. That lander that was knocked free when
the creature boarded. I think it may have drawn somebody's attention,
because the calm suddenly blink to life, and there was
chatter some other vessel asking for our status. I mean,
of course I ran to respond, but the system died
before I got there. Still, that is hope. The creature,
by the way, has been silent, maybe left rolling for
my beacon, the one that's not good. Rolling for a
number of cards. Six. I just can't do six. I
can't do it. I'll do three. Okay, let's see, I'm
going to go hearts first. How does it feel to
look at the sensors and the monitors and see nothing.
How does it feel to know that you may never
see a land or light or have a conversation again. Yeah,
it feels bad immediately. Makes me think of the movie
Castaway with Tom Hanks when he sees that ship and
he tries to signal it, but he's got what a
flashlight and they're miles away, and then when they're gone,
it's like worse than if that ship had never even
been spotted. That's how I feel about that call, because
twenty four hours have passed, haven't heard anything, and I
think I probably should have, And now Hope is slipping away.
Next up, one of the crew died while holding a
teddy bear. His daughter gave him. What was the bear's name?
I guess that means that I've discovered some other body. Okay,
it looks like I'm I'm leaving food storage because it's
just too cold. I'm going to take what I can.
I'm going to the captain's quarters. And so it was
the captain whose daughter gave him a bear, and the
bear's name is Picard. And finally the creature today, you
feel like giving up. You couldn't summon any energy. Your
tasks weren't completed. Return any cards you haven't yet turned
over to the deck, and shuffle it pulled from the tower. Okay,
I guess I should have been drawing these in order
that I pulled them, not in order of the presentation
in the book Live and Learn. I won't be returning
anything from the deck because that was the last Ooh,
that feels very dangerous.
Speaker 2: Day nine, salve the ship the wretched. I've left food storage,
took what I could food water. I went to the
captain's quarters. Luckily I was able to get access. Horribly
was the corpse of a captain and he was clutching
a teddy bear to his chest. His daughter gave him
that bear, called it card. It was supposed to be
some kind joke, some joke. Starting to lose hope. There
haven't been any sign of the ship that sent that signal.
I think they may have given up. I think I
may have given up.
Speaker 1: Okay, here goes the beacon. I got a five close,
no cigar, how many cards? Five is a lot? I
can't remember five. I'll do four, and now I know
how to do them in order, So let's do them
in order. Let's see, I got a six of diamonds.
A fire starts in one of the engines while you're
attempting to get the ship going again, you're forced to
jettison it. Pull from the tower. Yeah, that's not something
a multimeter could help me with. Okay, I have pulled
it from the tower. Next up, clubs, you spend a
day clearing bodies out of a small room that you
tend to hole up in if the creature gets aboard again.
What was its purpose before this happened? And why were
there so many people here when the creature came. Pull
from the tower. I think I will skip the pull
from the tower. I'm going to use my get out
of jail free card, and I'm going to say that
I managed to use my multimeter to somehow hot wire
a security room, the captain's security room, and there were
a dozen people in it that the captain was trying
to keep safe. But because it's been so long ten days,
they have all died of thirst. So that's horrible. I
moved the bodies out, and I've decided to use that
space for myself because I can open and close the doors. Now, hooray,
you didn't see the creature properly because you were hiding.
But you heard it. What did it sound like pull
from the tower? Well, loud, chittering. It is big, it
is insectile. I think my game's over. How did I die?
I think when I opened that security room, the creature
was nearby, and the smell of death. Those six bodies
in there drew it because they would have been ripe. Yeah,
there was a stink, a terrible stink when I opened
that security room. It drew the creature and it cut
me to ribbons. And the game is over. And that's
about it. Well, that's it my little response to the
Solo role Players Podcast December challenge. Please forgive my clumsy
attempts at improvisation. It's never been my forte. My only
regret in this playthrough is that I really missed an
obvious and better ending. I should have concluded by detonating
that grenade and having my character go out in a
blaze of glory, taking the creature with him. Forget Chekhov's gun.
I had a Chekhov's grenade in my pocket. Oh well,
I had a great time playing it anyway, And I
think Chris Bisset has made a really great game here,
I will definitely play it again. As for Tale of
the Manicore, the next regular episode, episode forty nine, will
come out on March first, and I hope I can
resume the normal schedule from then on. I will try
my best until next time. This is John Manticore signing off.