Welcome to Folio, an actual play podcast about
solo and epistolary TTRPGs. I'm your host, Seda,
and I'm showcasing multiple possible experiences
of self -paced games by inviting guests to play
them alongside me so I can compile our stories
together. You can support the show financially
at patreon .com slash foliopod or with a one
-off donation at ko -fi .com slash foliopod.
This is episode one of our games of Farsickness
Landing, a one -page map -making game about rediscovering
an ancient, derelict ship by lonely cryptid media.
The other explorers of crash sites and history
joining me today are Dora Rogers and Mark Major.
I'll tell you a little bit more about them at
the break. I played Farsickness Landing for a
Folio solo game livestream last year, which makes
this the first official double dip of a game.
That is how much I like it. I really love the
story I told in that stream, facilitated by this
very lightweight system. You can find the VOD
of that on YouTube at youtube .com slash atfoliopodcast,
or you can hear an edited audio -only version
on the bonus feed by signing up to the Patreon
as a free or paid member. I'm also very fond
of the story that I told in this session, this
playthrough of this game, as well as those that
my guests did. I feel like a very meandering
sentence, but I feel like I expressed all of
the things in it that I wanted to. So let's just
hop into learning a little bit about where our
explorations are starting from and a little bit
of the history of each of our worlds. Hello.
Hello. It's Farsickness Landing time. My name
is Mark Major, he and them, and I will be playing
Farsickness Landing today. So I am here. I'm
so excited. To play Farsickness Landing. I played
this game for a Folio livestream last year, I
think in November. and I had such a good time
with it, and I loved the story I told. So I was
actually thinking like, ooh, maybe I'll just
use the audio from the stream and get a couple
guests on and put that on the main feed, completely
forgetting that I'd made a fatal backup recording
error where the stream music is still audible,
not just my voice. I didn't just capture my voice.
I don't really want to have that quality of audio
on the main feed because it's a little weird
and distracting, even if it is totally listenable,
in my opinion. I did do an edited version of
the live stream that is audio only that's on
the bonus feed, which you can access as a free
member on Patreon if you're interested. It really
is a great story. I think I loved, I just loved
my experience with it and I loved the weird stuff
that I got up to. So I'm going to play it again,
which... I'm really excited to do because it's
a good time and it's a one -page game. So it's
straightforward and it has a lot of great stuff.
Considering how long it is, considering that
it is a one -page game, I think that it brings
so much to the table. This is very exciting.
Farsickness Landing is a one -page map -making
game about rediscovering an ancient derelict
ship. Your ancestors came to this world across
an ocean of stars. 10 ,000 years after they abandoned
their ship. It has been rediscovered. By me,
I assume. Uncover the rich history of your ancestors'
voyage. And perhaps even learn how to follow
in their footsteps as you explore the secrets
of space travel. And perhaps even learn how to
follow in their footsteps as you explore the
secrets of space travel. And perhaps even learn
how to follow in their footsteps as I explore
the secrets of space travel. I think I said travel,
not travel. That's fine. This game can be played
solo or as a group and with or without a game
master. I'm going to be playing solo. I have
a die roller here. I've got a d6. I'm going to
be using dungeon scrawl to be doing a little
map as we go along. I have got a pencil and graph
paper, also a little pencil sharpener. I also
have the squeakiest chair in the world, so I'm
just really gonna try to minimize that experience
for listeners. We'll see how I do. The first
thing you do is choose a starting point. Knowing
myself, I probably rolled for this in the stream.
I am going to choose it this time so that I'm
doing something different. I am going to start
from the starting point of not all made it down.
I find a room quiet and peaceful as bed chambers
filled with those ancestors that did not make
it to the surface. Do I let them sleep or do
I awaken them? Great, great question. I did Not
All Was Lost. Sita has asked me to go for Not
All Was Lost. Eons of history are stored in digital
libraries. You quickly learn that your ancestors
abandoned the ship so you might avoid repeating
their mistakes. Do you embrace this history or
cast it aside? Which, by the way, is a prompt
that I absolutely love. I'm looking forward to
diving into all the weird shit that my ancestors
did and wrote down and how excited I am to learn
about them. I think what I'm going to do is not
all are like you. There are living creatures
here that do not breathe with limbs of metal
and blood of oil, eyes hollow and knowing. Do
you treat them as family or as enemies? On your
paper, draw the outline of the crashed ship.
Make it whatever shape you want. It's okay if
some pieces connect and others don't. On my paper,
I'm going to draw the outline of the crashed
ship. I can make it whatever shape I want. The
game asks you to draw an outline of the crashed
ship to sort of like fill in as you're playing.
I'm personally not going to be doing that for
this playthrough. I'm going to keep it audio
only. It also asks you to roll dice to determine
how big your ship is, like roll 2d6 or up to
5d6 for how many rooms there are. But just to
keep things standard, I'm going to ask everybody
to do 13 rooms. I'm not going to roll dice to
determine the number of rooms because we're going
to do 13 rooms. Lucky 13. I'm going to have to
say the word room a lot on this podcast. And
I had a friend in high school who was sort of
obsessed with the way people said room. Like,
well, I think their deal was... They hate it
when people said rum, which is sort of a regional
thing that like in the Northeast, people tend
to be like, yeah, go to your rum. And we don't
even hear it. So I don't know. I don't know how
I'll say it. Listeners can judge. That'll be
really fun for me. OK, so as soon as I knew I
was going to be making a ship that like I started
thinking about what are the ships I love and
I got it. OK, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry to be
so cringe. But Firefly is a little formative
for me. I do think that the Serenity is like.
Great, interesting ship layout. So maybe I'll
have that in mind. One thing I was thinking about
too, it's especially because I have 13 rooms.
Rooms, Jesus. Since I have 13 rooms, that's not
a huge ship, presumably, right? Like unless those
are really big spaces. And we came here, we came
here, right? And I think that we must have had
more people than this ship could take. And the
way that I want to interpret that is I'm thinking
of the Nostromo from Aliens from Alien. Excuse
me, because the Nostromo is sort of a it's effectively
kind of it's almost like a tugboat, like it hooks
up to this huge payload and carries it a long
distance across space. But it in itself is kind
of dwarfed by the thing that it's moving. So
I think that we probably like this was sort of
like the functional ship. that dragged this big
payload that had a ton of colonists on it across
the galaxy. I'm really going through a phase
right now where I'm super into Star Trek, so
I'm going to let myself kind of be influenced
by some of the smaller Star Trek ships. The Reliant
is one that I always go back to. It's the ship
in Star Trek II. I'm going to Google it really
quick so I have a visual of it in front of me.
Reliant. Okay. First of all, dash AI. Always
remember to add dash AI to all of your Google
searches, friends. So I've got a crashed ship.
I'm going to draw the outline here. I'm going
to give it like a big round. Ooh, that's a hexagon.
I'm going to give it a big hexagonal section
up front here. You know, maybe a bunch of hexagonal
bits connected by these square pieces here. So
I'm looking at the Reliant. Sort of like thinking
about Serenity, I'm going to go with a kind of
a circular top. And it is like a saucer. It's
like a Star Trek saucer. So we're not we're not
talking about a sphere here. It is like a, you
know, sort of a disc. I think there's going to
be two decks. And then there's like this big
sort of solid block hanging off the end of it
that's a little bit bigger than it is. And then
there's two like very long. that are the engines
that are doing some sort of faster than light
technology. So, and I think that they are, they're
like a very significant size of the overall craft.
They're like twice or three times as long as
the squat section for whatever magic physics
are going on in there. So the living section
looks like almost ramshackle. It looks like almost
an afterthought to the drive system. And I think
that the nacelles are probably, ooh, I'm going
to hold off on this. I'm having the thought in
my head that they are ruined, that they're like,
these did not survive impact, right? Like they're
like, like one of them is like snapped off and
one of them is just like shattered. But the PDF
does say this interesting thing about. Maybe
you'll follow in their footsteps and as you explore
the secrets of space travel. So I'm going to
leave that a little vague. Make it kind of symmetrical,
but not entirely symmetrical since there's a
crashed ship. Make it a little bit disconnected,
I guess. And yeah, that's cool. Okay, so there's
like a stairwell on the ground floor right in
the center. Kind of build out some more over
there. Some cool wrecked parts. I think that
there is an airlock in the sort of rear, this
like heavy structural section as I'm starting
to think of it. And then there's a passageway
leading into the main living structure, the sort
of semicircular area. I'll decide if there's
anything else back there or if it's just like
really thick steel to keep the whole thing together.
You open up on a corridor. This will probably
be my first room. So the corridor I'm drawing
as taking up sort of like a narrow central space
in the center of the ship. And it leads... I'll
get a big hexagon at the back pointing the other
way. The hallway is going to lead up to the cockpit,
which is right at the front of the saucer on
the lower deck. The thing about the cockpit,
I was saying cockpit and not bridge. So like
in Star Trek, there's always this very spacious
bridge. This is a little cramped space and they
actually have to talk to sort of like the commander
in another room because that's two different
jobs, right? Let me get some more spaces here.
Maybe another bit off of this because the ship
is probably pretty big, right? Maybe I'm supposed
to be determining a lot of these details in play,
but what can I say? I love thinking about...
What maps mean? I'm probably spending way too
long on this part, but maps are fun. Here's the
line I'm going to draw for myself. I'm saying
these things because it's how I'm thinking about
it, but I'm not going to write anything down
because that will leave me room to discover and
play. Good. Smart. Smart Dora. I draw a lot of
maps because it's fun. And I almost always...
draw first and then worry about what they're
going to be later because i find it a lot easier
to kind of make up what the rooms or area means
after i see what it looks like so i think this
game is gonna be right up my alley i think the
crew of our you know our little so what i'm sort
of envisioning is that the ship basically like
tugged out a very large craft a very large construction
object whatever that had a lot of people in cryosleep.
So it's not a generation ship. They did it in,
you know, a number of years. And there was a
human crew on this ship that I'm drawing a map
of the whole time. And this human crew, they
were together on this pretty small vessel for
five years, ten years, something like that, as
they moved across space at FTL speeds with all
of these people who were in cryosleep for that
whole journey. Yeah, I'm just going to kind of
go crazy here, I think. I'm going to make a bunch
of slightly irregular rooms. I think that this
is going to be our crew district, our crew wing.
Because if you're going to be on this ship for
so long, you need some degree of privacy, right?
Like nobody's out here just like in a barracks
or with three roommates for 10 years. Or at least
these people didn't have to be. So I'm just going
to give each of these people like two squares
of graph paper, basically. Okay, enough, enough
with the hexagons. Not enough with hexagons,
never, never enough. I'm going to put two rooms
and ooh, yeah. So it's actually kind of one room,
but there is a division because this is hydroponics.
So it's principally about food, but it's also
sort of like. an enrichment area so there's a
part that's kind of blocked off which is like
this is actually pretty boring there's just a
bunch of lights and plants growing and like a
bunch of like moisture hydration systems and
then there's a wider area which still has a lot
of practical plant life like things that are
growing that are useful in the ship or that contribute
to the oxygenation but it's also like they aren't
densely packed so that people can come in here
and be in sort of a light area with a different
kind of atmosphere surrounded by life and there's
you know there's like paths paved with stone
even right um and like little benches so it's
it's an enrichment area right it's so people
can feel a little less crazy as they're on this
10 -year voyage and maybe some other pointy bits
over here okay so at this point i have the whole
what I've been thinking of as the first, as the
bottom deck. Let's see how many rooms I have.
I already numbered one, which is the entryway,
the central corridor, two, which is the cockpit,
three is what I called the infirmary before,
four is the kitchen, five is the dining area,
six is what I called the rec room before. I am
going to make a decision and label the whole,
all of the crew quarters seven. Like I'll have
one experience of exploring what I'm thinking
of now is the crew quarters. It's not one for
every room, right? And then eight is that big
storage area that takes up like a quarter of
this deck. Nine is the recreational agricultural
area. And 10 is the densely packed agricultural
area. Yeah, that looks kind of like a ship. Not
really at all, but let's go. The loft or deck
two. I think they informally call it the loft.
The loft is, it's not as big as deck one. Off
to the port side is CIC. And that's going to
take up the whole port side. And sorry, when
I say CIC, I mean like the bridge, right? It's
like where people sit around and look at sensors
and make command decisions and stuff. And then
they have to communicate like via comms with
the guy who's sitting right at the very front,
like actually steering the ship. So I'll be coming
in from the north, I guess. And yeah, so I've
got the outline of my ship here. And I'll add
some numbers to each of those rooms. Ooh. This
is fun. The starboard side is all the captain's
quarters. So it's like the captain has much more
space. So there is an element of inequality that
we're sort of building in here. And I need one
more room. And there's one thing that I have
been thinking about which is missing here, which
is that everything we've talked about is kind
of either living area or it is stuff where kind
of... white collar work almost happens. I mean,
piloting is more of a gray area, but it's, you
know, like it's all sort of people who are working
with like electronics and screens or controlling
a vehicle. So, you know, where are our engineers?
Where are people with sexy grease stains on their
faces and cool overalls and stuff? So I think
that on deck one, I'm going to split apart the
galley where we do our cooking. The infirmary.
I'm going to put another hallway in. And that
hallway leads to engineering. So engineering
is in what I had previously described as this
sort of structural bar that kind of holds the
ship to the engines. It's a big room. There's
a lot of machinery in here. There's just like
a big square thing built into this very thick
steel or more advanced materials at the back
of the ship. And I think that, like, you sort
of have to access the engines by little tubes,
right? Like, in Star Trek, they always talk about
the Jeffrey's tubes. It's like that. And there's
also, like, a big airlock here for, like, EVAs,
right? Because they have to, very often, the
people working back there are going to have to
go to, like, out onto the surface of the ship
or to, like, interact with the nacelles directly.
And that is room 13, is engineering. I do want
to think about where the ship is. So what we
know is 10 ,000 years ago, some people arrived
to this planet. 10 ,000 years is a very long
time. We have not gone to space, I believe is
the implication. You know, it's where we're looking
into the voyage of these people and we're exploring
the secrets of space travel, which to me says
that we have not gone into space. I'm trying
to decide what more I need to know to get started.
I know that my starting point, is the thing about
there being robots, living creatures that do
not breathe, limbs of metal and blood of oil,
eyes hollow and knowing. I'm trying to decide
if that is new. Like, did we know that we came
from space? Did we have robots? You know what?
I think that the ship crashed relatively recently.
I think it crashed within the last hundred years,
let's say. So actually... I kind of want to think
of this as like, it's like discovering the source
of the Nile, right? This thing happened, like
we knew where the ship was. By the way, I'm sure
that there's a huge amount of racist baggage
around the idea of discovering the root of the
Nile, right? I know that a European supposedly
did that at some point. I don't know very much
about it. And obviously there were people who
were already living there. So it's not like they,
whatever, you get what I'm saying. But in this
case, nobody knew where the ship landed. I think
that we knew about it. I think it was something
that was in the sky, right? That like people
would look at through telescopes and be like,
yeah, that's, you know, that's the, here's the
story of that ship. Our ancestors came here from
another planet and brought us all here, brought
all of our ancestors here. That's why we're here
on this beautiful planet. And I think it is a
beautiful planet. I think it's very lush. And
yeah, we used to look up at the ship. And about
100 years ago, it crashed. You know, it just
like it had a an orbit that was close to perfect,
but not quite perfect. So it entered the atmosphere
and it crashed. We knew about where it crashed,
but I think that we haven't. This planet is not
it is not like Earth in 2025 in the sense that
we still haven't after 10 ,000 years spread across
this entire planet. And I wonder why that is.
It might actually. I kind of wonder if it's by
choice to some degree. I'm going to come back
to that later, but I'm going to plant that seed.
So this ship didn't land in a settled area, but
of course we wanted to see it, right? Everybody
wanted to see it. And I think that it's sort
of become, like people assume it will happen
one day, but nobody expects to read in the paper
that somebody's actually found it. And just trying
to determine sort of like the vibe of the group
that I'm inhabiting. Because I think that I'm
not like one person. I'm going to be a little
like a small crew of explorers. I think that
I am a solo explorer. And like I must live in
sort of the outskirts of this society. And so
I live kind of nearby. Right. And I think that
it's a newer settlement. We're very cautious
about how we expand. So this is like, it's kind
of like, we're kind of the people with wanderlust
in the society a little bit. And that's not saying
much because we're, you know, we still have a
lot of emphasis on security and making sure that
we're living in balance with our environment
and not wanting to intrude on the order of this
planet. But, you know, among people who have
those as deeply held values, we are the more
adventurous. We're the ones who think that there's,
more value in going new places and changing things
up a little bit. And to be clear, I'm much younger
than this crash, right? Like it did not happen
in living memory for me. Maybe there's like a
few elders, some like in the world who remember
when the ship fell, but I've probably never met
one. I do know that we've rediscovered this ship.
I think the visual of like just a bunch of robots.
Or I think that they just appeared at first to
be essentially metal sculptures appearing on
the skyline, maybe on some mountains, maybe just
like on the horizon from wherever our sort of
expedition is heading out from. They just appeared
overnight. They were just still and led the way
to the ship, maybe. That does have intentionality
to it. Is it more fun if we just find it? Or
if there was like an earthquake or something
that revealed it? Yeah, so it's essentially an
expedition, right? I think I'm a serious hiker
and kind of an explorer. I've probably made a
few expeditions like this, and I have set up
my pack, and I've got rations for a long time,
and this is the time. I'm lucky. And I think
we probably have a little bit of like a technological
melange. Like there's probably some stuff that
we were very careful to hold on to. So there's
some stuff that we have that's relatively high
tech. And then there's things that are much less
high tech. So I think I have, you know, like
very advanced photography equipment, for instance,
and I'm taking images and documenting everything
as I go. But I'm also just wearing like plant
-based fibers. Like there's not a huge variety
of styles on this planet. Like I think we wear
bright colors and, you know, it's not that we
don't like to look good, but we haven't built
up the kind of industrial infrastructure that
we would need for like fast fashion. Again, by
choice, right? Like demand for textiles has led
to all sorts of evils in our world. you know,
over the last several hundred years. So we've
just chosen not to do that as a society. So a
lot of my tools are kind of simple. My clothes
are very simple. My pack is probably very simple,
but I do have this sort of advanced photography
equipment and I'm like taking voice notes as
I go. And I found the ship and I'm going to document
it as much as I can and then head back. I think
there was, oh, I'm going to combine it. It's
going to be accident. Then that image of all
of the robot sculptures appearing. I think it's
the kind of thing where like someone was digging.
Maybe it's even meant to be an archaeological
dig. And then they just uncovered what looked
like a bunch of sculptures. And they were like,
oh shit, we have to stop immediately. This is
not what we were expecting to find at this level.
We need to bring in a bunch of experts to figure
out what's going on here so that we can like
continue safely. And that's when a bunch of the
sculptures started appearing. Like as soon as
they were revealed, we saw these sculptures appearing.
And so I'm in the group. I'm the group that was
sort of hurried over to this dig site to investigate.
And it's a little more urgent than you generally
expect with an archaeological dig site because
something weird is happening. These same sculptures
seem to be appearing and just, I think, just
watching. I think they're just looking. at like
the cities that we live in i'm sorry i'm just
laughing because uh in the last game i played
live love die remember uh it was really notable
that i i just had the longest intro and i bet
that that is going to be true again uh which
seems to just be my style And that's fine. That's
great, actually. So the game's finished when
the map is complete and the purpose of every
room has been discovered. I'm going to discover
each area of the ship one by one and craft the
story of its journey here. Basically, we're just
going to go room by room. Cool, cool, cool, cool.
I hope I didn't overdetermine at the beginning,
but actually it'll be really interesting. I suppose,
you know, listeners, this is kind of the premise
of the podcast, actually. We get to see how different
people play the same game. Isn't that interesting?
For each room I discover, encounter, or experience,
I'm going to ask one of these questions, and
I have a list of lovely questions here. There
is a list of questions to ask. Rooms are going
to be made by making up my own thing or rolling
on these tables, and I love rolling on tables,
so that's what we're going to do. And there are
also these four spectacular... Tables. Let's
see. So I've got room tables. Type. There's a
room type, like cavernous, destroyed, labyrinthian.
Modifier. Which is stuff like powerful, scientific,
occupied. Item. Books, weapons, relics. Vibe.
Melancholy, unsettling, mysterious. The combination
of those four D6 tables brought me... so much
joy and determined the direction of my story
in such a fantastic way that I just they're so
well done. And I'm really excited to get into
them here and also see what other people do with
them. I'm going to roll all four of these for
every room. And I'm going to Allow myself, if
I want to, to throw away, especially I think
the type, if it doesn't match with something
that I've already determined. This is what I
usually do with random tables, right? I'll roll,
but then I'll give myself a little bit of wiggle
room if I want to. Great. And that's the entire
text of the game. And that is plenty. And I think
that's enough to get started. So I'm going to
discover the first room. Let's go. I'm going
to take a short break here, and then I will start
in with my first room. Thank you for the segue,
Mark. Coincidentally, both of these guests are
people I played with at BreakoutCon in March,
which I did not realize until I sat down to write
the details for the interstitials, and that made
me so excited. Dee and I played Drink My Sweat,
Dee's game about Dikey Fight Club. We played
as high -strung administrators slowly ripping
through their expensive athleisure gear as they
got more invested in their industrial park stress
relief than they were in their loungewear. You
can find that game and more, like Sapphic Slumber
Party, at deecity .itch .io, that's d -e -e -city
.itch .io, and find games she makes with her
wife, like Alchemistresses, at galpalgames .itch
.io. Speaking of her wife! That is Allison K.
Cole, the designer of the upcoming Hocus Pocus
Hyper Focus, the ADHD Oracle game. You can go
and follow the Kickstarter page for that so you
get notified when it launches on October 6th.
I know that Dee has been doing a bunch of playtesting
and consulting for this game. And quite frankly,
everything that Allison has ever been involved
with that I have seen has been like unbelievably
gorgeous. So you should very much keep an eye
on that. Mark and I played a session of Plasmodics
run by the designer, the inimitable Will Yopst,
and that game was an absolute treat. You can
find a huge selection of Mark's games, supplements,
and tools for designers at major .itch .io. They
also make a solo TTRPG -related podcast, which
I believe makes us some strange form of distant
internet kin. And you can find him everywhere
online at major .com. Finally, my name's Seda,
and you're currently listening to my show, thank
you! You can find my work in TTRPGs and music
and stuff at gaygothvibes .online, and follow
me on Boosky at posetachips .gaygothvibes .online.
Now, let's take our first steps into those crashed
ships from so long ago. Alright. Alrighty. Room
number one. First room. So I think the general
setup, like in the moment, we get to the dig
site and somebody greets us and is like, there's
been an update in the situation. And we're like,
no, we know we've seen the statues. And they're
like, no, there's something you don't know about.
And like at an intersection, maybe at a place
that the statues are all gesturing towards. a
hole has opened in the ground and there's a moment
of like you were definitely ordered to stop digging
what is this and they're like we didn't do it
no one has touched it a crack just like opened
in the ground here and there was like a vibration
it almost was like a very localized earthquake
and shook some of the dirt off and now there
is this hole and in the hole a little ways down
is obviously metal And it is like a, not a door,
not a porthole. I guess a door in the way that
like a submarine has the door on top. What are
those called? Those have a specific name. Submarine
top door is what I'm searching. The internet
sucks now. Hatch. It's the hatch. There's a hatch
down there. And I think that like... Working
very quickly, we get clearance to go down into
the hatch. All of the statues are gesturing right
towards it. Maybe some of them have even shifted.
I don't want to go like full weeping angels,
but if they've shifted, it's been well unobserved.
Much like they sort of appeared on the horizon
to stare at the cities unobserved. They're all
just gesturing towards this hatch. And so we
go down into it and we find room one. I drew
a little kind of entrance area. So it kind of
looks like, I don't know, maybe there was a cave
in, maybe there was some earth shifted, maybe
there was some excavation, but there's a little
entry area here. So I'm going to go ahead and
roll for the first room that I enter. I'm going
to be using, which dice, the little online roller.
Rolling for D6. Fantastic. So if I want to roll
some D6, one, two, three, four. Boom. Great.
The type is destroyed. Organic. Technical. The
modifier is alive. Knowing. Powerful. The item
is seed and the vibe is melancholy. The item
is seed and the vibe is uplifting. Okay. Relic.
Peaceful. That's a really interesting combination.
Destroyed with alive and destroyed with uplifting.
Seed makes me think... plants, obviously. I'm
trying to decide if I want to abstract it a bit
because we're dealing with like these robots,
limbs of metal, blood of oil. I'm trying to decide
if we want to like have them have organic stuff.
I guess we know that our ancestors came here
on this ship and we are organic beings. For the
sake of reference, we are like vaguely human.
You know, we're human type aliens, I think. Or
maybe we are humans and this is like a post -earth
type thing. 10 ,000 years is just such an unfathomable
scale of time. Classic sci -fi games. Okay, so
I was thinking, yes, seed is referring to like
an organic plant. I don't think it's a farm in
that, like, I don't think it's food, but we,
we, we come down into this hatch and first, you
know, I wrote destroyed and, and yeah, this,
this room is, is a disaster. I think there are
not like, you know, clay plant pots or anything,
but, but something similar, uh, but, but a little
more like futuristic, like clearly things were
grown here and everything is thrown the fuck
around. Most of them are broken. dirt and soil
and whatever past futuristic growing material
that was used just everywhere. And there's a
lot of just, it's beyond rot, right? Like it's
10 ,000 years, though maybe it was preserved
very well. But there's just dust, like all of
the plants that were growing here died. And that's
what we think for the first while, for quite
a while, as we are going forward and then i think
we find one we find one plant that is alive i
have the image of like kind of like a huge tulip
with really thick petals and much larger i'm
cupping my hands together and i think it is the
size like the flower of it is the size of of
cupped hands and much like that they're open
Like if you put your hands in front of you together
and press your fingertips together and the heels
of your hands and then let your fingertips drift
apart and just have the heels of your hands together,
like you're presenting something or doing a little
bit of a kamehameha sort of energy beam, I'm
realizing. But it isn't a beam. It's a seed.
And it's like this luscious purpley pink and
green. And then it's just holding this, like,
jet black seed inside. It's large, I think. It
takes up almost the entire inside, or looks like
it would take up the entire inside of the flower
if it were closed. And beside it, I think, is
one of the robots, maybe? Not doing anything.
Gesturing. Just with one arm. I think that these
are humanoid, very similar in build to us. gesturing
towards this plant that is opened with this seed
and so you found this one alive plant in this
destroyed room and that could be many things
this is one of the things i love about this the
way that this game constructs its tables because
the vibe i got was uplifting and so it's good
that we found this seed or it it feels good it
feels hopeful if we had for instance gotten the
vibe unsettling or melancholy or dangerous, we
could have the exact same setup, but feel very
differently about it. And I just think it's really
well done. I think it's really well done. I really
like these tables. They are so simple and so
effective. Okay. The listed questions are great.
Like, what do you feel here? What connections
are you making? What piece of history have you
discovered? They're really good questions. I
genuinely just think that the tables are so good
and so evocative that I don't need them. I often
feel like I'm led to a question and answer. So
I think I'll just reference the questions when
I need a little bit more information. I think
for now, this is what we found in room one. Big
weird seed. We don't know what it means yet.
We don't know why it's growing. When everything
else has died, we don't know what destroyed this
room. Did it break in the crash? Many mysteries
still. I think since we got technical, I think
it was an excavation that we, whatever my society
is now, ran into it. So let me look. How many
questions are there? 10 questions. How convenient.
Let me roll a d10. I'll roll 3D tens and ask
three questions. How does this relate to past,
present, or future? I mean, clearly, it relates
to the past in that it is clearly a ship that
our ancestors came on, which we may or may not
know a lot about. We know that they came here,
but it connects us to this past in a very concrete
way. I think that bodes well for the future of
our society. Learning from the past is always
going to push us forward. And it's an interesting
feeling because, you know, if these ships were
lost or abandoned, or this ship, singular, you
know, there's a feeling of wonder and discovery.
But there's also a sense of, I don't know, a
little bit of, not sadness, wistfulness maybe,
knowing that... some people didn't make it out
here. And what would it have been like if they
did? And so like, if we're approaching the, as
we're going down this excavation, kind of approaching
the hull of the ship, the seed, this is the seed
for our civilization that when it, I don't know,
it's not clear if it crashed. It probably didn't
crash, right? Because we got a lot of people
out, but the seed was kind of buried underground
however long ago, 10 ,000 years ago. And it's
just coming up now. And I think also kind of
approaching the outer shell of the ship, just
wondering what there is to learn, right? What
is safe here? I think particularly in this area,
since this is an excavation, I think the entryway
is, what do you call it? Buttressed? Supported?
No, it's a mining excavation, so standard. Safety
protocols are in place. This entrance part is
stable, even though we came across something
that we did not expect to be there. The ship
is unusual, but the situation is less unusual.
And the last question is, what other questions
do I have here? So many questions. Is there a
name on the ship or is there a legendary name
on the ship? Yeah, I mean, there's a designation
number. We'll call it. 3263, because that's what
we rolled. This is a survey ship Cerulean. Yeah,
there we go. Cerulean exploration ship 3263.
And I imagine that means like it was one of kind
of many seed ships that went out. And this is
just the one that landed here. Great. And it's
safe to enter the hull, clearly, because we did
our job checking it out. As I come in, the shape
of the ship is overall very intact. So I can
see the outlines, like the nacelles are probably
visibly damaged. I'm going to leave myself a
little bit of room there, like I said before.
But I come in, I think I can just walk through
the airlock. It was damaged, so I sort of have
to crawl through it, but there's a gap there.
Maybe I have to crawl through and then pull my
pack after me. And then I come into this central
corridor. And I think it's organic because there's
a rent in the ceiling, which is very high. Something
sort of wrecked the ceiling of the ship, the
top of it. I mean, it doesn't sound like it had
to fall bottom first, right? It's a spaceship.
Orientation doesn't matter so much up there.
So maybe as it fell, it hit a mountain and there's
this long gash. I don't know. I just know that
the ceiling is open. Maybe the elements did it.
And that means that local flora has moved into
the space. It's thriving. And these are plants
that are familiar to me. I'm picturing sort of
that it's mostly sort of an ivy. It's something
that is clinging to the walls. But it's not a
specific species that botanists would recognize
from Earth. And of course, there's animals here.
There's like little animals. I hear... I hear
little creatures scurrying. I think we found
a lot of local flora and fauna here. And there
is earth flora and fauna. But again, like we
were pretty cautious, right? So I think that
there are a few earth species that have escaped
into the wilds. And those are still talked about
as like these are failures, right? Like this
is something we did wrong. You know, and they're
treated as invasive species even to this day.
Despite that, right? Despite the fact that this
is all indigenous to this planet. I still recognize
it. It's very familiar to me because I'm from
this planet, as far as I'm concerned. And I am
from this wilderness area, so this feels very
homey, almost. I think that this is powerful
in that this is a big space. Even though this
is not a huge ship, walking in and seeing all
of this lush greenery and seeing the rent in
the ceiling... it's kind of grand you know like
i don't think we go in for grand buildings very
much in my society and so it it has even though
this is not really a huge space by our standards
um on in 2025 earth it's not notre dame or anything
but looking up across the multiple stories and
seeing this like the metal that's been sort of
ripped open i just have a real sense of like
like wow like This was a really amazing craft.
I haven't really seen a lot of big spaces like
this. The vibe is peaceful, right? And I think
the peace does come from the fact that everything
is familiar to me in this space. And, you know,
the sun is shining. I can hear, gosh, let me
come up with some weird detail. Like there's
no, there's no, there's no, oh, this is awful.
There's no, there's no birds here. Like there's
just. not birds, you know, that's not a, um,
not a direction that evolution took on this planet.
And we have not, we didn't bring birds with us,
but there are, there are insects, um, and some
of them sing like, like, like birds, right? Like,
not like crickets. Um, Although probably like
crickets too, but there are like insect calls
that I think of as bird song, right? They are,
some of them are melodic. Some of them are less
so, but they are familiar to me. There's just
what I, what I know. So yeah, just picture those
big bird sized insects, everybody. I'm sure you'll
love that. And the relic that I find here is,
is, is a digital library. This is the first of
the digital libraries that I will find in this
ship. And I think that. This is something that
is going to, like, this derails my exploration
a little bit, right? Because I think I'm very
surprised to find this. You know what? I think
that the ship is very damaged, but there are
things here that have power because there are
intact solar panels. You know, like, this was
not sort of plan A for powering the ship. But
it was it had a lot of solar panels built all
over it for periods where it was in a planetary
system. And like they're they're keeping it powered,
you know, like at minimal levels. And not all
systems have power because, you know, it crashed
like a lot of stuff is wrecked. But there is
some power and this digital library is powered.
And I think I never expected this. Right. Like
I was absolutely sure. that I was going to find
a derelict, which would still be incredible,
like the most amazing find, the most amazing
connection to our history that anybody has ever
had. But it's not just that. This digital library
is intact. And I don't think that I speak the
language of our ancestors. Or I don't read it,
I don't write it. It's, you know, my language
is very different. I do think that we only have
one language in this whole planet because we're
so small, right? Because we have intentionally
not expanded. There's probably like, you know,
there's sort of another settled area that's like
on another continent and is also sort of circumscribed.
And we think they kind of talk funny. Like they
have accents to us and we have accents to them.
But we all speak the same language, you know,
especially because we're all like, I think we
do have telecommunications. We can talk to each
other fairly easily. Yeah, so I don't know this
language, but we have this sort of uneven level
of technology. And one thing that I have is just
like a computer that can translate this, right?
So picture me, I'm sort of like... Like, no way,
right? And I am clicking around, and I don't
know what I'm doing because I can't read the
menus. But when I determine, like, yeah, this
actually works, I have my own computer that I
set up. And I think I just reach into my pack,
and I take out, like, a little battery pack that's
the size of, like, a lunchbox. And I take out
essentially a little laptop, which is plugged
into the battery pack. And, like, when I turn
on the laptop, all of these, like, holographic
displays appear around it. And I point some of
the displays at the computer and I'm able just
by like looking at my laptop to like the laptop
is basically using this computer on my behalf
and reading it to me. So it's as though I'm just
like using an interface that I'm connected to.
And this is only possible because like we do
fundamentally know this technology, right? Like
none of these records, none of these records
in particular were lost. I think also like this
is not, immediate it's not like um like press
a button and this all worked right like i take
like a few hours to set this up and i i start
i start reading right um you learn quickly that
your ancestors abandoned the ship so you might
avoid repeating their mistakes do you embrace
this history or cast it aside so now the question
i have to ask myself is what were the technologies
exactly that our ancestors left behind? What
mistakes didn't they want us to repeat? And some
of this is obvious, right? Like from what I've
said already, we clearly did not want to repeat
the mistakes of Earth of not being in harmony
with this planet. I think that it is very important
based on everything that I've said so far to
us that we live in harmony with this planet.
Which comes down to the level of... The central
issue is reproduction, right? We sort of accept
that we don't want our population to grow, which
of course requires a lot of people to affirm
that with personal choices. And we have generally
done that. We settled on, socially speaking,
about where we wanted our population to be. And
we have maintained it. I'm not going to try to
figure out exactly how that is done, like what
the mechanism is. But I do want to hold forth
that I think it is like it is that this is not
a they're not sort of strict population controls.
Like everybody has the right to their body and
what it can do. And and we as a society have
decided that we want to prioritize. making sure
that our population doesn't grow out of control
and that's a decision we have continued to make
consistently over time okay so that said i think
that i mean this is what it is right like i think
it's i think it's this simple i think that the
i quickly realized looking through this database
i gosh you know i think i find like a log that
says this right like i think i find the deliberations
that the crew had that they decided when they
went down to the surface that there was only
certain information certain like technical information
they were going to bring with them so like for
instance uh oh gosh i don't know like um i don't
think that we know how to build a combustion
engine because they thought that that would be
too tempting for their ancestors right like they
thought that uh internal combustion based off
of fossil fuels would potentially be a huge temptation.
So they just didn't bring it. All sorts of basic
technological things like that were just left
up here. I think the same is true of weapons
technology, definitely. Nuclear technology, definitely.
I think that this ship was principally powered
by fusion. And that reactor's long dead, right?
That reactor does not work. I it's not it's not
that it's powered on and I'm suddenly like the
only person on this planet with with a fusion
reactor. But they very intentionally left all
that all that technology behind, but included
all of the stuff about wind and solar and tidal
power and hydroelectric, all of those things.
So that to guide our path, right, like to shape
the direction that we would go in. And these
are sort of like I think that this is my. my
discovery, right? Like I discovered that all
of this technical information is here. I don't
know what I'm going to do with it yet. That is
something that I'm going to have to think about
more. But for now, I'm here in this completely
unique space. So I'm going to move on to room
two. We're going to go into room two. And I'm
going to keep exploring. As we're looking around,
I think... some members of our specialty team
who i think i think we've been called on the
scene uh there's a lot of like art science dorks
on our squad you know they're they're they're
they're here to mostly investigate the statues
but i think that we're just like sort of a little
array of uh people with very specific expertises
that were assembled one last job style You got
like the rogue statue expert who lost tenure
at a university for their controversial opinions
on, I don't know, like statue, what specific,
there was like an ancient culture that was being
studied and they had a very different opinion
on like what certain statues meant. And it was
such a big deal that they like lost tenure. And
then they were proven right. But they didn't
go to academia. They didn't go back to academia.
They moved into the field. Their story is very
dramatic. And it will not be told on screen here.
But that is the backstory of their deal. We saw
that in a montage when we picked them up. And
then I think there's like, you know, materials
experts. Because they... were gently brushed
off some of the statue and saw that they were
metal. So they brought in a couple experts on
space metals. I think there are a couple of historians.
There were, of course, historians and people
with general historical knowledge on site already.
But I think that this team has brought in somebody
who has a different view of history. Maybe somebody
with slightly fringe beliefs. Maybe somebody
who is like... We have a history of space travel.
I always do this. I always do the, there was
a legend and we all said it wasn't true, but
then it turned out to be true. Is that the direction
I want to go? Possibly still, yes. I think the
thing that's most interesting to me, if that
specific person is correct about space, but not
correct about what is happening here. Like they're
a little bit of a conspiracy theorist with some
weird beliefs on... aliens and i think that they're
not ultimately correct but they are going to
be proven this is going to just kind of bolster
them because they're going to be like well stuff
did come here from space so i was right about
that part so who knows what else i'm right about
basically just a weird rogue squadron there's
there's some just standard experts and then we've
got some weirdos because some weird shit is happening
i got really distracted what was i doing and
roll some more dice Right. I was because I was
going to say some members of our team and some
members of the people who are already here on
this dig site are very efficiently working to
like bring lights down here and get set up. And
we are granted permission to push forward into
room two. So this is the the next room here and
it is two is the big. what I assume would be
the front of the ship maybe. And it's this big
open hexagonal area, hundreds of feet across.
Organic again. I got cramped. My rolls gave me
cramped. Alive. There's a communicator and it's
peaceful. Spiritual. Weapon. Melancholy. occupied
seed again and mysterious ooh do i want to switch
the six and four there to instead of having seed
and mysterious have communicator and uplifting
no let's let's say let's let's keep seed and
mysterious okay so so yeah even though i have
this big um huge area that um you know is the
front of the ship whether it's a command deck
or kind of a common area like an observation
dome or something i think the i mean since it's
been buried so long that kind of makes me feel
like if this is cramped that the yeah like an
observation dome or something maybe that's collapsed
in so this area that would have otherwise been
this sort of vast cavernous uh entrance space
is just full of full of rubble the ceiling like
the glass however i'm sure it was thick glass
um whatever the material is that the observation
dome was made of is crunched in and instead of
having this huge dome it's just boulders and
columns of rock All sorts of things just scattered
around everywhere and alive. Yeah, since there's
been collapse into it, maybe this is kind of
a cave -like environment with the stone underneath
kind of intruding in to this high -tech spectacle
that is buried underneath. And there's pools
of water, probably bats. cave salamanders, all
sorts of little critters who have made their
home here. And, you know, it is dark, but I can
hear water dripping. You know, I can hear something
splashing or flapping as I move into it and kind
of navigate around. I think it makes me feel
like there's a, this is sort of a, I don't know,
not a navigation station, but there's some sort
of, oh, yeah, yeah. Maybe there's still some.
auxiliary power or something here. And when we
come around a corner to an area that would have
been a leisure area there, maybe a little automated
message comes up. After 10 ,000 years, language
has probably shifted a little bit, but it's probably
easy to understand that it is some sort of welcoming
message or some sort of banal greeting. It's
just like a little soothing, peaceful, This is
a good place to hang out message, even though
now it's kind of ruined and not ruined, but it's
caved in and everything. Yeah, let me ask some
questions. Let me roll some D10s. What do I feel
here? I think it's a feeling of, you know, as
it's not as safe as the entrance is, right? Because
this is both new area and it's clearly been collapsed.
And although probably a collapsed area is safer
than semi -stable. There's still an uncertainty.
I don't know what is in here. So there's a little
bit of trepidation, but also excitement because
this is our first step into a world that hasn't
been touched in 10 ,000 years. And, I mean, just
this little message alone is going to give our
linguists a lot to work with and anthropologists
a taste of what culture was like. And this is
just the first. drop in this giant well of knowledge
that we're going to uncover. What's dangerous
here, I think, is, like I said, the unknown.
You know, maybe the collapsed rocks are unstable.
Maybe if there is a little bit of power here,
you know, that could be dangerous. Who knows
what is powering whatever's left of the ship,
an energy source that's lasted this long. Who
knows what that could be, right? So any sort
of... technological investigation is going to
have to be done with extreme caution as well.
And this relates to a previous room. I mean,
this was the, you know, the entrance cave was,
the entrance mine shaft was constructed and we
went up to the hull. And I don't imagine that,
you know, it was an airlock or an opening or
a cargo bay door or whatever. I imagine we did
have to breach it somehow, cut it open. And so
I think the relation is there's this weird sort
of, you know, it's an opening where an opening
shouldn't be. And so there's a kind of like as
you look around, the walls are inside spaceship
walls until there's like there's this hole there.
It's another cavern. OK, I know where I'm going
to go. It's that word spiritual that tells me
where I go next, which is I'm going to go to
what I have numbered nine on my chart. walk through
this space, and I end up going down the starboard
corridor. And I take a right as I go down to
that corridor. And that leads me to what was
once the hydroponic garden. After 10 ,000 years,
the hydroponics, you know, this is not like a
vibrant garden of earth plants, right? That would
be a problem in itself, based on what I've already
said. Over the course of that 10 ,000 years,
you know, they just ran out of water. They ran
out of air. The plants that were here all died.
Probably a lot of valuable things that were needed
for food in those early days had been harvested
already. But I think I can tell what this is.
You know, like I live in a wilderness community.
I know what a garden looks like. I know what
crops look like. And hydroponics were absolutely
among the technologies that we kept, right? So
I think I... I know exactly what this is. And
I can also see that it's aesthetic, right? And
I think that's the spiritual aspect, both that
this was a spiritual place for my ancestors so
long ago, and that that is deeply spiritual for
me, right? Like, I'm picturing that there's sort
of flat stones in this soil, which is starting
to sprout. with local plants because it's not
been exposed to the oxygen for a while but actually
not that much because this this soil had become
sterile and dead after so long just sitting lifeless
in space and there is these big flat there's
a pathway of big flat stones through the middle
of it and walking that path and hearing my practical
boots clutter on the stones and and echo through
this this space I feel so intensely connected
to them and to this awareness that they were
real people. I think that's a good feeling, but
it's also a sad feeling, hence the melancholy.
And then I find the weapon. It is interesting
that there's a weapon here, right? Of all places.
It makes me wonder, and I'm not going to answer
this question now. I think that my character
wonders this. I think I know what this is, or
I guess what it is. I think we have, you know,
like artistic renditions of these things. Like
this is, it's an energy weapon of some kind.
It's a, it's a laser pistol, basically. I'm sure
it had a much more scientifically grounded explanation
for exactly what it did, but it's some sort of
energy weapon. I don't want it to look like a
ray gun, like, and you know, I want it to look
more like, God, I just love. phasers in star
trek the next generation those like dorky little
things that don't look like guns i think it's
like that um at least kind of right it looks
more like a um i'm like looking around my room
for it for inspiration right now you know what
it looks kind of like i'm gonna i am gonna go
star trek but i'm gonna go for something a little
little different it looks like a tricorder right
um it's something you would hold in your open
palm And the thing is that we, like, these are
in our fiction, right? Like, we know, I've heard
stories about the muggy warriors of ages past
who had these incredible weapons. But this is
absolutely not technology that they sent down
with us. So I think I'm kind of like, is that,
is it really? No. Like, is it really? And I think
like looking closely at it and sort of referencing,
actually, yeah, I go back to the digital library
and I reference like, you know, I try to look
it up and I'm like, yeah, that's what it is.
It's not working. Whatever power source it had
is gone a long time ago. And I think that I'm
terrified of it, right? Like, I mean, wouldn't
you be if you found a magical weapon that you
didn't understand? So I... I think I don't touch
it, right? I think I leave it exactly where it
is. But I get down on my knees. I look at it
from all angles. I very carefully turn it over,
and I'm sure I'm going to die just so I can look
at the back. And I think that this is very disturbing
to me, right? Like, I don't fully understand
it yet, but it raises questions. What do you
feel here? I have been talking about that. What
do your senses tell you? What connections are
you making? Yeah, I've been answering these.
What is missing, broken, or damaged? What piece
of history have you discovered? Perfect. Yeah,
I'm nailing it. Sita, I'm the best at this. I'm
definitely not just riffing wildly. Occupied
is interesting when I've already talked about
these robots being around. I think what that
means is we are about to encounter the first
one who moves and talks. At least moves. Let
me see how I feel about talks. After how huge
the initial room that we came into was, it's
a big surprise that this one is so small. And
I think I'm immediately going back on my plan
to not draw because I think I have a visual of
how some of this ship is laid out. And I am just
going to keep a note of that and try to describe
it as best I can. We came down into like a big
central circular room. And we go into this next
room and it's very small. And I think like, I'm
wondering if at least the part that we're in
right now has sort of your classic UFO shape,
because that's really fun to me, like a big dome.
And then the, I don't know how to describe the
shape of a UFO. You know how it's got, it's bigger,
it's bigger at the bottom, but like a bigger
circle. It's like a saucer. What's that called?
That's probably got a thing. It's like a, you
know, sort of a disc. That's fine. We're going
out into the thing at the bottom. The brim. Like
if the UFO were a hat, this would be the brim.
You get it. You and I, we're on the same page
here. I'm not even worried about it. That room
was big. This room was small. And one of these
robots. Ooh, it's definitely the first one that
we've seen sitting down. They've all been like
standing. This one is sitting. We walk in and
I think we see this figure sitting and looking
down. at its clasped hands i'm doing the same
gesture that i was doing with to describe the
tulip and we walk in and it opens its hands and
looks up at us and in its cupped hands does it
have a seed or is it asking us to put a seed
in the hand in its hands uh like a video game
that happens in metroid right Is Samus? Am I
Samusing right now? I might be doing some Samus
stuff. We probably haven't plucked the seed.
We're leaving things intact as much as possible.
But it opens its hands and looks up at us. And
I wonder, I think that there's some evidence,
like the chrome of its palms is slightly stained
with that same color of the seed. gesturing towards
the idea that a seed would be placed here. And
given that the vibe is mysterious, I wonder if
I might leave it at that. It's this, we walk
in and it's, I think there's just boxes everywhere.
It's a small room. I'm picturing it sitting on
a crate. And so there's just these crates everywhere,
metal crates. It looks up at us. It opens its
hands. There's sort of an expectant air. We haven't
plucked the seed. We have nothing to offer it.
I think somebody daring tries putting something
in its hands to see what happens. And I think
that its fingers flex slightly and then it goes
still again, just still looking up at us as if
sort of like rejecting the offer. It doesn't
crush it or anything. It just is like, is this
what I'm looking for? No. Take it back. Do that
with a couple other things. It doesn't accept
any of them. It seems to want this seed that
we found in the other room. but we don't know
why or what for, and we can't really authorize
that right away. I think the question that I
answered here from the list is, how does this
relate to a previous room or discovery? Yeah.
Yeah, that's a pretty good one. So we're just
going to head back into the main room and then
go into room three. See if we can learn a little
more. Yeah, let's move on here. This has been
Folio, an actual play podcast about solo and
epistolary TTRPGs. You can find transcripts,
game statistics, and more at foliopod .site.
Yes, it's a new website. It's very much a work
in progress, but it is extant. You can help pay
for hosting costs, game purchases, and maybe
eventually a little bit of my production labor
at patreon .com slash foliopod or ko -fi .com
slash foliopod. You can find Dora on Blue Sky
at Queen Regnant. She has games at dcity .itch
.io and games she makes with her wife at galpalgames
.itch .io. Make sure you go follow Hocus Pocus
Hyperfocus on Kickstarter so you don't miss when
it launches on October 6th. You can find Mark
at major .com and major .itch .io. You can find
Seda, that's me, on BlueSky at pesedachips .gaygoth5
.online and my work generally at gaygoth5 .online.
Next week, Dora and Mark and I will continue
our games of Farsickness Landing by Lonely Cryptid
Media. Everything I mentioned here is linked
in the show notes. Thanks so much for listening,
and take care out there. There we go. Let's get
started with the squeaks.