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games-franco · 2 years ago

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Abducted - Solo TTRPG Playthrough

Example Playthrough

Hi guys, I’ve decided to include an example story created through the use of my system. It’s my first time giving it a whirl too, so fingers crossed it all works out! I’d love to see what stories you all conjure, so feel free to find me on:

Twitter - @games_franc0

Instagram - @games_franc0

Email – [email protected]

Game can be found for FREE through: https://games-franco.itch.io/abducted

Human Set-up

My name is Bron Marlo – I’m a 6’0”, 30-year-old outdoorsman in between jobs at the moment, and as of beginning this journal, I am of sound mind to the best of my knowledge.

I was hesitant to include flaws or insecurities, but I figured I’d start with some for this example to add more backstory to Bron. I see Bron as being a strong male figure with very high walls in his life. He doesn’t mean to keep everyone else at bay, but he’s overtly cautious and has a hard time trusting people.

Alien Set-up

What is the alien’s appearance and disposition? Descriptions in parenthesis going forward will reflect the card I randomly drew as I progressed:

(K♠ – psychic and curious beings)

The alien(s) is a being with a tendency to exhibit advanced psychic or telekinetic abilities. The alien is curious in nature, with a disposition characterized by a desire to learn and explore new things. It is especially curious in learning about human culture and society to see how it compares to their own culture.

What is the alien’s home planet?

(4 - Maelstrom)

The alien is from Maelstrom, a distant planet with a vast ocean and no land masses. Due to the nature of its upbringing, the alien is tall and thin with a semi-humanoid build and smooth rubbery gray skin. Tiny sharp teeth and a bottled face might suggest similarities between their evolutionary process, and the evolutionary process of dolphins on Earth. [FL1] [FL2]

Phase 1 – Abduction (Human)

Journal 2/13/2023:

Where were you abducted from, and when?

(3 - a park; 2 - early in the morning)[FL3]

In my departure from the typical 9-5 job, I’ve taken a liking to strolling through the mountainous forests just outside of town early in the morning. It’s the most I can do while waitlisted to join the park ranger program. The air is always damp from the nearby streams, and nothing is awake yet. The critters never bother me, and they’ve learned that I won’t bother them. I never go out without an axe though, just in case. This isn’t even because of the mountain lions or bears, but because you never know who else is mad enough to be out here this early in the morning with dark ideas (and because of the recent disappearances).

The morning was going like any other, except that usually, around dawn, I’ll hear a symphony of birds or come across a person packing up a tent and getting ready to return into the normal world, but not this time. It was as if nature hit the mute button. I could see the nearby stream, but it made no noise. I could see no birds, no humans. I could’ve sworn I muttered the word “strange” in the midst of it all, but I heard nothing come out of my mouth. The orange tinge of dusk shifted to a muted blue like a camera filter, and a burst of all sounds, as if they had been compiled all morning for a short and compressed sonic blast, erupted above me. I covered my ears and fell to my knees, but felt no dirt or weight. That’s how I knew I’d been taken.

How are you feeling?

(2 - Confusion)

I wasn’t afraid at all throughout the morning, rather, I was confused at the uncharacteristic silence. The confusion continued to build up until the wave of blue light pierced my body and abducted me, which is where I thought I’d get some answers, but it just…continued to make less and less sense.

Phase 2 – Action (Human + Alien)

What room is the human held in?

(K – A room with a series of advanced, high-tech machines or devices you cannot identify)

I came to my senses in a chrome room with what appeared to be a series of advanced, high-tech machines that I’d never seen before. The more I perused, the less sense it all made. I don’t think they were machines at all. Maybe they were gems, or other beings? I tried talking to some of them, but the lack of response is what made me believe that they were probably inanimate objects.

Aside from the strange items laying around the cold, metallic room, I noticed that I was fitted with a skin tight suit of some material that was continuously moving on my skin. It looked like ants at first, thick enough to mask my flesh, which is what prompted my initial reaction to try and swat them away, but they did not interact with my exposed fingers, and continued to move as if nothing had swatted them. For a time, I continued to poke them, slower and slower, and realized that there was always space left between them and my skin. Even if it was to a microscopic degree, I was in fact, not even coming into full contact with them in any of my attempts. Strange

Supplement for room K: What item(s) do you find inside of the room?

(10- The tesseract[FL4] )

I also noticed, possibly the strangest contraption in the room, a construct. It was small, and just there. Some of the items were hung on the wall, or placed on pedestals, but this item was just there, as if the void of nothingness around it was as solid as the remainder of the room[FL5] . Thinking back on it now, its shape is something I cannot imagine or describe now without looking at it, an amorphous tesseract that erased itself from my mind. I actually don’t think it ever had a spot in my mind if I’m being honest. It’s like my eyes couldn’t decipher its structure. I tried touching it, and all I could remember was my hand retracting from it. I don’t have a single memory of ever touching the contraption anchored in space. This is when the confusion morphed into fear a bit. The more I looked at the shape, the more I felt myself forgetting things, like my name, who I was, or even what I was. That initial shock of forgetfulness, like when you wake up and lose grasp of what you’d just dreamt of, made me sick to my stomach, and that’s when I knew I had to get the hell out of that room. [FL6]

I felt like I was being watched through all of this too. I’d heard stories, about being in the woods for too long. No one believed any of the “victims”, so now I’m not sure if they’ll believe me when I get back…if I even get back. [FL7]

Do you explore further? Where do you go?

(7 - room with organic structures)

Supplement for room 7: What organic structure(s) do you find within this room?

(J – a composting area – I have a different interpretation of this, we’ll circle back later)

It’s natural to flee when one is scared, which means it’s natural to run towards a door to flee from a room they’re locked in; however, how does one do this when there is no door or window[FL8] ? I began running towards the emptiest looking wall in this room and banged into it, to no avail. None of the trinkets triggered any door opening, and at this point I was too afraid to look back at the tesseract contraption. After what felt like hours, I felt like I needed to resort to using the tesseract. Looking directly at it again shot fear into my soul like I’d never felt before, and I’ve been face to face with a bear. The scariest things are truly the ones you can’t understand. [FL9]

Again, I cannot express how indescribable this object was. However, as I approached it, the room shifted in dimension like a kaleidoscope. It wasn’t a light effect emanating from tesseract, but the shape of the room would shift, expand, or retract based on my positioning in relationship to the tesseract. I ran towards it at one point, and the faster I ran, the farther it would spatially be from me. If I slowed down, it would get closer again, and if I ever tried to grab it, I’d find myself putting it back where it was with no recollection of how it felt in my hand.

I was beginning to get motion sick and nauseous, since the slightest tilt of my head would trigger a change in the dimensions of this room. The space would literally expand, the objects all around would increase and decrease in size the longer I experimented with the item. I wonder if I was also increasing or decreasing in size along with them?

Eventually, the configurations of the room revealed a long narrow hallway. I could not make out what was on the other side, but it was the first time the room appeared to lead elsewhere not confined to this crystalline prison. After another hour of counterintuitive movements, I progressed through to the hallway and realized I had reached to a point outside of the tesseract’s influence. I was not going to look back now and risk getting caught again. [FL10]

The new area opened up into a new enclosed room. The hallway behind me vanished, and if the items in the previous room were not organic, then these new things certainly were. There was something “alive” about this room. It’s like when you walk through an empty forest and know the trees are alive even though they don’t move or respond to your touch.

Phase 3 – Final Encounter

I did not roll on the phase 3 table, as I had enough of a story to continue without further guidance.

Immediately there was a shift in how the room smelled. There was something acrid, or rotting. Behind some of the machinery and contraptions was a human floating in the middle of the room. She appeared unconscious, so I hid behind some of the equipment strewn about. The room was significantly bigger than the last, and everything seemed to circle the naked woman suspended in the air. She’d be covered and uncovered in the “ants” of her suit – that’s when I realized we were outfitted with the same suit. There was another figure looming in the room opposite of me. It gestured in the air, and the woman rotated, as i[FL11] f it was controlling her movements. The microscopic particles appeared to be forming to her body and then expanding to expose her while drawing globs of a dark slime from her skin. It didn’t look like they were piercing her physically, but they were pulling something out of her, and she was just…floating in it. The cloud around her kept getting thicker and thicker, and I realized it was becoming harder to see her at all.

I had to step up and do something, but I knew I had to arm myself with something before entering the creature’s space, especially since it appeared to be equipped with unknown equipment. The cloudier her space became, the stranger and more pungent the smells within the room would get. In looking through the debris of items hiding me from the alien, I did not find any weapons; however, I realized that the particles of my suit had formed into a rod in my right hand, that materialized into a solid black spear. It’s as if the particles of my suit were in sync with what I was trying to do.

The unknown figure circled closer to me as it paced the room, still facing the woman. Its back towards me, I realized this was not even close to human in appearance. Its skin was glossy and gray, and the proportions of its extremities were lanky. It had a few too many joints compared to those of men.

Before I could scare myself any more, I jumped over the crates in front of me with the black rod I’d acquired raised over my head, ready to drop it on the alien’s head. Just before I collided, I froze mid-air. Something was holding me in place. I was hovering, but nothing was touching me. Had the suit betrayed me? Unlikely, since the rod I was wielding was now in the shape of a dark great axe.

The cloud surrounding the woman loosened, and she descended from stasis slowly as she fell to the ground, still unconscious. The alien’s hand was raised, and it turned around to face me. Human sized black eyes were set far apart on its large, cylindrical gray face and oversized forehead. It opened its mouth, revealing an unsettling number of tiny sharp teeth, and it gestured into the air again, forcing me to lower my battle stance. It looked at my axe, examined it thoroughly without touching it, and appeared to have logged it into a machine that was floating nearby.

I fully expected the creature to respond with fear, or an equal amount of aggression to defend itself, but it seemed unfazed. Its calmness was almost contagious. I say almost, because as soon as I began to let my guard down to relax, my eyes glanced over to see the woman, laying on the ground, unresponsive and now covered in the same suit as me. The globs of darkness still hovered above her.

“Hey! What did you do to her?!” I exclaimed.

The alien lowered its hand, placing me on the ground, and raised its other hand to resume the process with the woman.

“Put her down!” I yelled, as I grabbed my axe, which was already shifting into a functioning black chainsaw.

Both of its arms were now raised, and I could sense a tinge of impatience in its eyes. It leaned its head towards mine, and I could make out a faint voice inside of my head struggling to construct a word:

“Cleansing”, it said. The being was trying to respond, and the only way it could was through the use of its words inside of my mind. Her suit continued to expand and retract.

I felt my axe dissipate, and the being lowered its hand in my direction. I was no longer bound by its psychic abilities…

It continued to circle the woman, and her space became clouded again, obscuring her from view.

“What exactly are you cleansing her of?” I asked. The smell was repugnant now as we both stood around her.

“Clouding”, it said again within my mind. Nothing was making sense. Nothing had made sense since I entered its space.

The alien waves in the air, and collects all of the black globs around the woman. They spiral into one singular, floating liquid ball that shapes itself into an axe, similar to the one I was holding, and it wields it, facing me.

In response, I conjure mine again, and square up against the creature. In its demeanor, I can tell I’ve misunderstood its intentions. It begins to wave with its other hand, while still gripping the axe, and the world begins to warp again, similar to what the tesseract was doing in the previous room. Space converges in the palm of its hand, and I can feel an unnaturally strong pull towards it. Structures and the angles of the room meet in the center of this convergence, and the pull ends as soon as it places the axe within the pull. Everything falls back into place as if nothing happened, and the axe it had drawn from her body is gone.

The alien beckons me towards it, and grabs my axe gently as soon as I approach. It repeats the process with my axe. It was gone.

The creature towers over me, but it crouches down slightly to meet its forehead to mine before speaking in my mind again:

“Understand…” it says, placing its hand in front of me. I couldn’t help but to be compelled into placing my own hand in its place.

“Understand?” I repeat. This amuses the creature. It clarifies:

“Understand everyone. No clouding”

Phase 4 - Outcome

I could feel its frustration. Something, no, someone, so intelligent with a message so profound and with no method of communicating it. My mind is probably what’s limiting its ability to have a conversation with me. It moved me to tears.

For the remainder of my stay, the creature extracted more and more darkness through my suit, until I could vaguely remember our final words. What did it say? I can’t recall now. The dark globs around me made it hard for me to maintain eye contact, and before I knew it, I fell to my knees, in the middle of the forest as I clutched my ears in the morning sun.

I wrote everything down, so as to not let it slip like dreams that evade the mind in the morning – but I’m not so sure I believe it when I read it back to myself. Ever since that morning though, I can’t help but feel lighter and happier with the world around me. I rose from my knees then, dropped my axe, and continued forward. [FL12]

[FL1]This is my first time playing through the game I’d spent weeks creating! I quickly realized that there is no guidance on how to track some of the set-up items, so I just listed them up top as if it were a cast list. Feel free to run with this however it makes sense to you!

[FL2]My goal was always to provide prompts that were descriptive enough, yet vague, to knock over the stack of creative dominos in your mind. I feel like it worked right away for me here, and I was so excited!

The only description I got for the aliens was that they exhibit psychic or telekinetic powers – then I was given the fact that they’re from a planet covered entirely in water and BAM. Dolphin aliens.

[FL3]I swear I imagined a character resembling a lumberjack before drawing these cards, so being abducted in a PARK early in the MORNING was perfect for an unemployed woodsman. Poetic really.

I interpreted park as “nature reserve” or “camping ground” for this case for some reason, and I would like to emphasize that these personal interpretations are heavily encouraged throughout your journaling journey.

[FL4]We’re going to discover what this is, because I have no idea what it is right now.

[FL5]I want to go on record saying that I also encourage nonsensical rambling and no cohesive or grammatical correctness in any of these journals. Present tense, past tense, jumble that all up. Long sentences, short sentences, do it all! It’s a journal, not a novel.

[FL6]This spawned so naturally, I was very happy with this result. I was also worried about how moving from room to room would work, especially since you don’t have to explore more if you don’t want to, but this progressed so seamlessly. It’s just what Bron would do in this case, and I had to let him explore that.

[FL7]Unexpected lore ooh. Now it’s canon that this alien, or group of aliens (not even sure at this point since I haven’t written any more) have been coming to these woods for a while. Interesting…

[FL8]I realized how “human” the concept of doors and windows were. If there is an alien species out there that can traverse through walls, what use would they have for doors, walls, or any barriers at all really? I love exploring the world building that comes with creating a new intelligent species.

[FL9]An inherent weakness to the character that made its way into the journal.

[FL10]I had drawn a card for a new room 3 paragraphs ago, but realized that getting out of the first room and going into another could be an adventure of its own. I felt like I was sinking into quicksand there!

[FL11]I had intended to follow the game instructions in order to showcase all of the phases distinctly in this example, but instead, I’ve accidentally showcased how loose the guidelines can be once executed. It felt natural to introduce the alien here, so I merged the “Final Encounter” phase with the “Action Phase” in the second room I ventured into. The “Outcome Phase” should follow naturally shortly after 😊

My point is: Don’t let the game rules dictate the flow of your story! It should flow naturally without restrictions.

[FL12]I’m a fan of open ends, so this wraps up my story perfectly for my tastes. I was surprised at how the axe became an important aspect of the story. Maybe Bron had some things he was holding on to too tightly?

I created this game to explore fear, insecurity, and uncertainty. I included the potential for evil malicious aliens, as well as curious benevolent aliens. In this example, I explored the latter, which in my opinion is a bit harder to make “fun”. I’m glad this is where I started too, because I did have fun exploring this idea, and ended up expressing a message about mindfulness in a way I might not have been able to without the human character I created or the prompts I randomly drew.

I can’t wait to see what other worlds this game manages to open up! I hope it brings as much joy to all of you as it has for me 😊

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