Psavrosth Diary 5: Solo Playtest Journal

Howdy,

I figured I'd share the write-up I made for one of the solo playtest sessions I played not too long ago. It is focused predominantly on the fiction of the session, rather than the mechanics. I'll try to put together another post in the future to break down the mechanics and "behind the scenes" decision-making of the session.

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I rolled up a random character using the Tourist character creation rules, NPC Generation Tables from Diary 4, and a random name generator. The result was Jovita Prichard, a woman with a slight build, forgettable appearance, and an intelligence operative background. She has a basic understanding of the alien Tetri language, and connections with a particular bandit group on Psavrosth. 

Her skills are mediocre or bad across the board, other than Observation which is pretty good at 48 and Marksmanship which is decent at 45. I increased her Observation and Resolve due to her background. Her starting equipment is decent: a Kara-Shirai M40 Rifle seems solid, Improvised Armor is better than nothing, and the Breather Mask, Filters, and Chemlights will be useful.

I rolled up a starting zone using the Zone Generation tables, and ended up with a former Military area which is scarred but largely intact after the war, is sparsely populated, and is plagued by nanobot swarms and bandits. Sounds like a nice place. Perhaps she’s associated with a bandit group operating in the area?

Using Inflatable Studios' One Page Solo Engine, I generated a plot hook, set the scene, and started playing. 

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Jovita is exploring a previously undisturbed military bunker underneath the zone and finds a heavily encrypted data disk, no doubt containing valuable wartime information, and definitely worth a lot of credits to the right buyer. She slips the disk into a pocket and continues exploring, hoping to find a few more valuables before returning to the surface and heading for the nearest tourist community to pawn off her haul. 

The next door is unlocked, and she slides it open with ease, revealing a partially-collapsed comms room with rubble and support beams piled and twisted amongst the broken consoles. Using a chemlight for illumination, she spends several minutes carefully moving through the rubble and searching the room. She finds and pockets an old access card before making her way to the next door, which is similarly unlocked and unpowered. 

This door leads into a dark hallway, splitting into a T-intersection. She pauses for a moment, listening for any sign of movement or danger ahead. Satisfied there is none, she steps forward into the hall-

Immediately, a beam of red light flashes along the passage and over her. A moment later, there is an insectile buzzing sound as nanobots swarm into the area through hidden vents. Evidently, the facility’s security system (or decontamination system?) still works just fine. Jovita runs, scrambling back through the rubble-filled comms room. In her haste, she missteps on the uneven floor and rolls her ankle, but manages to get through before the swarm overtakes her. 

She flees as fast as she can back to the facility’s surface access lift, but limping on her sprained ankle, is unable to outpace the nanobots. Her armor begins to disintegrate as it is broken down into its constituent atoms. She frantically strips off what remains of her armor and tosses it aside as she runs. The nanobots swarm over it like a cloud of ravenous locusts, devouring the metal plates and ballistic fabric in moments and buying Vi just enough time.

The lift door slams shut behind her and she slumps to the floor, breathing a sigh of relief as it begins the long journey upward.

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Jovita emerges into the dull light of Psavrosth’s perpetually gray sky and begins her journey, intending to head towards a tourist settlement in the region to find a buyer for her newfound salvage. Unfortunately, this zone is hemmed in by an old military cordon, and the only ways in or out (at least, the only widely known ways), are through the checkpoints which are common ambush sites for the local bandits. She heads towards the South-west checkpoint, one near her associates’ territory. If she is lucky, it will be unmanned, or manned by bandits known to her. 

The journey is slow on account of her painful new limp, but it’s quiet, and in less than an hour, the checkpoint comes into view. As she approaches, a pair of gunshots ring out from one of the pock-marked and laser-scored cement buildings flanking it. They clearly weren’t intended for her, but she quickly ducks into cover behind one of the dozens of long abandoned groundcars lining the road. Another pair of shots echo through the area. She readies her own rifle and scans the buildings for any sign of the shooter, but sees none.

(At this point, the wise decision would be to leave and find a less perilous route, but I want to test some combat mechanics, so…)

A minute of silence passes, then a pair of figures emerge from the shadows of the building’s open doorway. Before she can get a good look at them, there is movement in one of the second-story windows, then a muzzle-flash. The round skips off the hood of the groundcar, narrowly missing Jovita’s head. She snaps her rifle up and fires back. She doesn't miss. The shooter falls back from the window, disappearing from view. The two bandits in the open quickly scramble back through the doorway and into the cover of the building again. 

Jovita chambers another cartridge, waits and watches, weapon leveled and ready to drop the first one that makes the grave mistake of revealing themselves again. Several tense moments pass, and she considers cutting her losses and finding a different route past the cordon, then a head and rifle snap into view from the window. 

She fires, sending dust and chunks of concrete spraying into the room beyond. A return round snaps past her ear. Her second round sails clear through the window and impacts somewhere inside. She doesn’t see where her third round hits; the rifle kicks against her shoulder and suddenly she’s sprawled on her back, looking up at a formless gray sky. 

She tries to haul herself up but pain stabs through her and sends her crumpling back down with a cry. Straining, she looks to her left and freezes when she sees what remains of her arm and the growing pool of blood. 

Then her training kicks in, pushing aside the growing panic and shock. She frantically unfastens her belt and wraps it around her bicep in a makeshift tourniquet. She pins it beneath her body and pulls until she nearly blacks out from the pain. It takes time, several minutes, but she manages to staunch the flow of blood. Fortunately, the bandits seem too hesitant or busy with their own concerns to emerge from their hide and finish the job.

She manages to haul herself into a sitting position behind the groundcar and retrieve her fallen rifle. The world spins lazily around her. Any thought of her salvage or credits are gone. The fight is over; her only chance now is escape.  There’s an alleyway not far away, out of view from the building. If she can make it, she’s free. She might be able to get to a doctor; she might be able to live. 

She rises into a low crouch, takes a deep breath, and breaks from cover.

A shot rings out and pain flashes through her right arm, but she keeps going. Half-running, half-staggering the last few paces, she disappears into the safety of the alleyway.

At least for the moment, she’s alive.

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Overall, it was a fun experience, and made me realize just how brutal the combat mechanics can be. I picked a fight I shouldn't have, and it played out about how it should have. It was also my first opportunity to test the random encounter procedure introduced in V0.3.  I was fairly happy with how it worked to setup the engagement with the bandits, though I'll need to use it a lot more before I'll know I am 100% happy with it. 

I think the game will work best with a relatively small group, a GM and 2 or 3 PCs, and that is what I am working towards. But, the more I play solo games with Tourist, the more I want to focus on making it more solo-play compatible. We shall see.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.