Solitaire: Bloody and Alone in Appalachia

Maybe it went wrong when you drove off the highway and into that small town? Needed some gas or a place to stay for the night or simply a rest room. Took a wrong turn on the trail and found yourself outside a house in the woods? For whatever reason, you have found yourself in the small town of Bludworth Hollow in the Appalachian Hills of Eastern Kentucky. And them Appalachians take against strangers and to them there is no one stranger than city folk. And you are definitely city folk. The store owner took one look at you and with a curl of his lip, he knew you were not from around here. And then that was when everything went black… When you woke up, there was a bruise on the back of your head, you were in a barn, your wallet gone, and you had no idea where you were. There was a radio nearby that you might be able to call for help and if all else fails, you have been left with a video recorder on which you might have time to record what happens to you. Or maybe that is what they want, to record your last hours. To record your terror as the situation closes around you. As you scramble to switch the recorder on and point at it your face, your hands trembling, you think you hear movement. Is someone coming? Are they coming to help? Are they coming to hound you…?

This is the set-up for Bloody and Alone in Appalachia, published by Beyond Cataclysm Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign and based on SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody Appalachia, the Old School Renaissance roleplaying game published by Bloat Games. Where SURVIVE THIS!! Bloody Appalachia is a typical roleplaying game, Bloody and Alone in Appalachia is a solo journalling game, and is thus best played when all but the last Player Character has been hunted down and butchered! Further, instead of using rules derived from Dungeons & Dragons, for its mechanics Bloody and Alone in Appalachia uses the rules and format of The Wretched, the Science Fiction journalling game published by Loot the Room. Thus, the game requires two ordinary decks of playing cards without the Jokers, a six-sided die, a Jenga or similar tower block game, and a set of tokens. In addition, the player will require a means of recording the results of the game. It is suggested that audio or video logs work best, but a traditional journal will also work too. The roleplaying game is inspired by films such as The Blair Witch Project, Cabin in the Woods, Deliverance, and just about any backwoods horror film you care to name. Lastly, one major difference between Bloody and Alone in Appalachia and The Wretched is the number of antagonists that it offers. Typically, a solo journalling game like The Wretched presents a difficult situation and one threat. In Bloody and Alone in Appalachia there are not one threat, but thirteen! The Butcher. Bigfoot. Children of the Corn. Dirty Hoof. Fairies. Iris Lynch. Jack the Scarecrow. Piggy Lee. Reggie ‘The Mad Miner’. The Sheriff. Las Bandisas. The Ruby Mind Cooperative. The Wild Wrestler. The player will only face one of these at a time, and what that means is the player can return to play Bloody and Alone in Appalachia over and over in an attempt to escape and defeat a different foe each time. This gives it a replayability factor that is rare amongst solo journalling games.

Set-up is simple. The Jenga tower is set up with a random number of blocks pulled to represent the battering the player has already suffered and the stress he is currently suffering. Every time the player is instructed to pull a block, it represents another wound suffered, and if the Jenga tower collapses, it means that the player has died, whether from this one last wound or stress as his heart gives out. Each deck of playing cards is shuffled. One becomes the Event deck, the other the wound deck. Each day of the player’s travails is divided into two phases. Phase One is ‘The Tasks’, whilst Phase Two is ‘The Log’. There are four steps in Phase One and two in Phase Two. In ‘The Tasks’, the player draws a random number of cards from the Event Deck and works through them one by one, consulting ‘The Tourist Guide’ for each one. ‘The Tourist Guide’ is broken into four card types corresponding to the four suits in an ordinary deck of playing cards.

Hearts represents an encounter of a ‘Personal’ nature. For example, the nine of hearts entry reads, “A rusty hook bounces off the chain-link fence as someone—or something—tries to entangle you. You vault the fence in a single burst of adrenaline, but the razor blades at the top cause you to stumble. Pull from the tower.” Diamonds are the ‘Physical’ world about the player, representing places in and around Bludworth Hollow. For example, the seven of Diamonds entry reads, “The Bokenheel Bridge tricked you—it’s desperately dangerous and can’t leave the town here. How did you learn that miserable lesson? Pull from the tower.” The clubs are ‘People’, individuals that the player can meet in and about Bludworth Hollow.  For example, the eight of club reads, “When Mayor Hooper asked you to follow him, you hoped it would be the first favour in a chain that would lead you to freedom. What you saw at the Town Hall instead taught you that hope comes to Bludworth Hollow to die. What did you see?” Lastly, spades represent the monster stalking the player in and around Bludworth Hollow. Each one of the thirteen monsters has its own set of entries. This enhances the replay value of Bloody and Alone in Appalachia simply in terms of variety, but with thirteen entries per monster, the player could actually replay Bloody and Alone in Appalachia with the same monster and it still be different. Further, each monster not only has thirteen entries, it also has some background, but also two locations which can visited if the right diamonds card are drawn.

In Phase Two, or ‘The Log’, the player takes the time to consider what has happened to him that day. What he learned about the town and its inhabitants? Did he encounter the monster? How is he feeling? He then records his diary for the day.

The Wound deck simply gives fifty-two options for injuries the player might suffer. They are simply described, leaving it up to the player describe them as graphically as wants. The player is further supported with advice and a decent example of play—a nice addition for a solo journalling game—plus tables for NPC motivations and things to be found in and about the town. There is also a map of Bludworth Hollow which the player can use or create his own during play.

Like all of journalling games based on The Wretched, the subject matters of Bloody and Alone in Appalachia are dark and distressing. The player is going to be chased and cut, stalked and stabbed, pursued and punched, and more. In other words, the horror is not going to let up. However, it does lean into the clichés of rural, back woods, redneck horror, but ultimately, it is up to the player to decide how he handles these elements of his playthrough.

Physically, Bloody and Alone in Appalachia is cleanly and tidily presented. There is no art bar that on the front and back cover. There is more artwork than is typical for a solo journalling game based on The Wretched, primarily illustrating the thirteen monsters in Bloody and Alone in Appalachia.

Bloody and Alone in Appalachia is easy to play, but challenging to win. And win not once, but thirteen times! It all depends upon the draw of the cards, but every card is potentially interesting prompting the player to be creative in telling his own story. This is in line with The Wretched format, but Bloody and Alone in Appalachia goes bigger and bloodier than most solo journalling games. With thirteen monsters, Bloody and Alone in Appalachia dishes up more hillbilly horror than you ever imagine you wanted and will bring the player back to the back woods again and again to see if he can survive another monster.

Solitaire: CHVLR

The war is unending, against an enemy that threatens us all and seemingly cannot be stopped. The only things which can stand up to them are the colossal bipedal robots known the CHVLR—or ‘Chevalier’ units. Developed as part of experimental military programme, it was discovered that the pilots were the young pilots, the adolescents who could combine their brains with their reflexes. Now you have been selected as the newest recruit. You may have been a willing candidate and volunteered for the programme or you may have been drafted unwillingly even though your test scores proved you were capable. Your surgery is complete and you have been fitted with the SCS—or ‘Seiygo Control System’—implant which will keep you connected to your CHVLR and you are ready for basic training. Yet there will be no time for your training, basic or otherwise. You are needed on the battlefield and your only training will be real battles that you learn from or die. Perhaps you will. Perhaps you will survive to become the veteran of many fights. Perhaps you will die, your life cut short. What you have to rely on is hope. Is it powerful enough that you will survive or is its absence so powerful that you fear failure, let alone death?

In CHVLR you are that young pilot, cast onto that battlefield years too early, augmented and unready—perhaps unwilling, but without another choice. CHVLR is a solo journalling game published Black Cats Gaming, best known for The Spy Game: A Roleplaying Game of Action & Espionage. As its set-up suggests, it is inspired by mecha anima such as Neon Genesis Envangelion, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Robotech. For its mechanics it uses the rules and format of The Wretched, the Science Fiction journalling game published by Loot the Room. Thus, the game requires an ordinary deck of playing cards without the Jokers, a six-sided die, a Jenga or similar tower block game, and a set of tokens. In addition, the player will require a means of recording the results of the game. It is suggested that audio or video longs work best, but a traditional journal will also work too. In terms of background, CHVLR offers very little—and intentionally so. Beyond the fact that the pilot of the CHVLR is young and inexperienced, and that there is desperate war being fought, nothing else is known and everything else is up to the player to define as he records his experiences and responses in his journal. Where the battle is fought? Up to the player to decide. Who is the enemy? Up to the player to decide. How will the pilot and his CHVLR react to the stresses of war? Up to the player to decide. What will the pilot and his CHVLR encounter? Up to the game to decide.

Play proceeds from one mission to the next. Each mission the player will draw a random number of cards and then turn them over one by one, following the instructions of each and recording the outcome before moving on to the next. The four suites correspond to different aspects of the mission. Hearts represent the pilot’s ‘Personal Files’, his physical health and mental state of mind; Clubs are his ‘CHVLR’ and the bond he has with it; Diamonds represent the ‘Battlefield’, the ruins of cities ravaged by war and beyond; and Spades are ‘The Enemy’, each a direct interaction with them or the aftermath of their actions. The cards correspond to particular prompts in CHVLR and it is these that the player is responding to and recording the consequences and thoughts of his character. As play progresses, there will be prompts too to draw from the tumbling tower. Sometimes, the pulled brick is actually removed from the game, sometimes the player is instructed to track tokens which if they run out will indicate that this is his pilot’s last mission. If at any time, the tower collapses, the game is over as the CHVLR is too damaged to continue operating and the catastrophic failure results in the player’s death. At this point, the player reflects upon his pilot’s career and record, and considers who might be receiving it.

Like all of journalling games based on The Wretched, the subject matters of CHVLR are dark and distressing. Here those subject matters are child soldiers, physical injury and psychological stress, and more. The game advises that the player stop playing should he have issues with the prompts that game gives him.

Physically, CHVLR is cleanly and tidily presented. There is no art bar that on the front and back cover.

CHVLR is a bleak and foreboding journalling game. This is in fact the bleakest and darkest of The Wretched clones given the subject matter and it is almost a relief that the play should no last no longer than a session (or two at most).

Solitaire: The Wretched

The Wretched is lost. The crew of the intergalactic salvage ship is all dead, bar one. Adrift between stars with its engines having failed and a hostile alien lifeform having stalked and killed most of the crew, you made one last, brave stand. You drove the alien off the ship, flushing it out via an airlock. You hoped that this would kill it. It did not. Having seen it kill your friends and family aboard, it now scrabbles and skitters across the hull of the ship, searching for a way in, for a way to reach its last victim aboard ship—you. Unfortunately, you cannot truly escape it, but you can hold on and hold out for rescue. Someone out there has to find you. First, you have to keep life support going long enough to repair and activate the distress beacon, and then hope that someone will respond, all whilst fending off the predations of the alien lurking on the other side of the ship’s hull.

This is the set-up for The Wretched, a Science Fiction journalling game published by Loot the Room. Clearly and self-confessedly inspired by Alien and similar films, The Wretched is a game about isolation, fear, and perseverance and potentially, survival in the face of overwhelming odds. The game requires an ordinary deck of playing cards without the Jokers, a six-sided die, a Jenga or similar tower block game, and a set of tokens. In addition, the player will require a means of recording the results of the game. It is suggested that audio or video longs work best, and they are in keeping with the genre. A traditional journal will also work too. The Wretched is a played out as a series of days, the player, actually the flight engineer of The Wretched, undertaking a series of tasks each day and responding to prompts before ending the day by recording its events and his thoughts in his personal log. The odds are that the lone crewman is unlikely to survive, either due to catastrophic failure of the ship’s systems—which will happen if the tower block collapses or the alien finding him. There are multiple ways in which the crewman can fail and die, but only two ways to survive. Either repair and turn on the beacon and then survive long enough for a rescue vessel to come or to repair the ship’s engines and blast out of the situation he is in, leaving the alien behind.

The four suites correspond to different aspects of the ship and its environment. Hearts represents ship’s systems—life support, water purification, and the like; Diamonds are its physical structure—hull, opening and closing doors; Clubs are the crew—remnants of their presence such as their rent bodies and their tools and possessions; and Spades are the Creature—physically present or simply knowing that it is out there… Whilst the presence of the Creature veers between ominous and terrifying, the most horrifying of encounters are to be had with the crew, or rather with what they have left behind, both of themselves and their belongings, as well as memories of them. Here is where the sense of loss and perhaps the nature of sacrifices made in order for the player to survive, come to the fore. The player will have between one and six encounters like this each day, the player taking notes in readiness to record the details in his journal or log. Some end with the instruction to remove a block from the tower block game. Several have already been removed at start of play, so the structural integrity of the ship is imperilled from the outset. It is, however, unlikely that the player will go a turn without having to remove a single block.

Physically, The Wretched is cleanly and tidily presented. It is lightly illustrated, but the artwork is excellent.

The is a fantastic economy of emotion to The Wretched. Like every Journalling game, its tension builds and builds, exacerbated by the looming presence of both the alien and the possibility of the tower block game’s collapse—and thus the end of the game. Yet this is made better—or is that worse?—when the player’s reports and thoughts are recorded rather than simply noted down. Recording the daily logs as either audio or video adds intimacy and emotion to the play through, that is far more difficult to capture on paper. If there is an issue with The Wretched, it is that there are limited options to play more than once, but that experience is going to be fraught, frightening, and claustrophobically intimate.