SWT: Entity - Chapter One

Jettison

Hello, and welcome to Solum’s Weird Tales - Entity. Entity is a journaling game that uses a mechanic similar to the Ironsworn/Starforged games. Roll 2d10s against your Statistic Skill value to resolve hits, and follow the narrative as a result. You want to roll euql to or under the value, earning a Strong Hit, Weak Hit or a miss. Entity follows an Artificial Pioneer made by NASA to explore planets with a human crew in an exploration vessel, none of which matters because in the opening, as you will see, you are stranded upon an alien world with only your space suit, miniature 3d printer and artificial body for comfort. You’re goal is to explore the alien world you have landed on and build structures. You do this by collecting Aspects, which are like progress points for building structures. It’s a fun gameplay loop, with journaling at it’s core but with enough mechanics, chance and strategic thinking to scratch that gaming itch. I will not be publishing a full run through, as I think the story and discoveries are a big part of the narrative aspect, and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who wants to play it.

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Let’s start with out character. Here are their Statistics. There are 3 Statistics, each with a further 3 skills assigned. We get our target number for skill checks by adding the Statistic value (Between 3-5) and adding the relevant ‘edge’ (Valued between 1-3). This gives you Target Numbers ranging from 4 to 8, and these values can be boosted by installing upgrades into your suit or building structures. The story progresses by building structures, and the gameplay loop revolves around collecting ‘Aspects’ to build them. Upgrades can be installed using a side activity slot during expeditions, once you have 10 resources and an open slot. Here is my Pioneer’s starting Values.

IAP Arden (They/Them)

ADAPTIVITY - 5 ANALYTICS - 4 TECHNOLOGY - 3

Survival - 3 Physics - 2 Robotics - 1

Communication - 1 Biology - 1 Information Technology - 2

Navigation - 2 Chemistry - 3 Engineering - 3

I imagine Arden as a fast thinking little robot, rather than a scholar, designed more for solo missions planet-side instead of in a lab or workshop. We will see how that works out planetwide haha. Arden also has a few Values to start off with in regards to Energy (Spent to use installed upgrades) Resources (Gained through events and spent on Upgrades to suit) and Data (Spent to modify certain rolls)

Energy 10/10 Resources 0/10 Data 0/10

Lastly, there is the suit. The suit comes preinstalled with 3 upgrades, a mini 3d printer, which allows a reroll of a challenge dice for 2 energy, a deflector shield which allows you to ignore a ‘Strain’ for 3 energy and a Energy Recycler, which allows you to spend 2 resources or data to gain 1 energy at no extra cost. There are 20 slots total for upgrades, but each time you roll or a weak hit or a miss, you will take a strain or an injury. Strains fill an upgrade slot until the end of an expedition, or if a side activity is taken to recuperate. If you get a strain and you have to apply it to an area with an upgrade installed, you lose that upgrade and if you fill all 20 slots, your Pioneer will perish. You keep your structures, and so the next Pioneer to land face first in the planet will have something to build upon, but it is best to be avoided!

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The core gameplay loop of entity is as follows;

Pick a Mission (Selecting a Structure to build)

Begin an Expedition (Roll on tables to discover a location, travel events and a final roll to indicate what you find at the sight.)

Do a Side Activity (Refresh Energy, Collect Data or Resources, Repair Suit or install an upgrade

Return to base and start from step 2 until all ‘Aspects’ have been completed

Aspects are found by rolling a 10+ on your Location Event table on a d10, but the roll can be modified with data at a 1-1 ratio. Spending 5 data before you roll will add that to your total, meaning you will find an Aspect on a 5+ on a d10. You can also spend data on the Travel Event roll, but I don’t know why you would. I think that is enough detail to get started, let’s pick up the story.

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Pioneer Pod, USS Phaeston

I usually spend the first few seconds upon being activated wondering what the human crew of the USS Phaeston have woken me up for this time. The crew are not comfortable with me, which does not surprise me. While I am 100% synthetic and artificial, my creators spared no expense in making me seem human. I have short silky hair, slightly pudgy, buoyant synth flesh and all of the matching anatomical parts. But humans take one look at me, and immediately see what’s missing. The notice the stillness, the lack of movement and placid expression screaming something other. I have tried my best to fit in. I installed a simple subroutine that mimic’s breathing, I stretched and fidgeted at random intervals, or at least, as random as I could program myself to. None of it worked. As such, they usually left me switched off unless they needed something. I didn’t take offense, although I would have preferred that they left me online to peruse the extensive onboard digital library but if there’s one thing that makes the human crew more uncomfortable than my stillness, it’s my curiosity. Still, I knew immediately that this wake up was different. Lights flashed all around me and there was no one present when I awoke, an unwelcome first experience. While my crew was uncomfortable with me, I was very fond of them, although I would be the first to admit that I was unsure how much of that fondness was genuine or simply dictated by my programming. I released the hydraulic lever locking me in place and moved over to the thick, state of the art spacesuit in the airlock. This was mostly out of habit as the sirens and flashing lights overhead were the only instructions available to me, and I wasn’t privy to the security protocols. I was usually activated for a Space Walk as a priority, either for ship repairs or for my main duty as a Pioneer - to check if the landing zone was safe for human habitation. As I sealed myself into the suit, I felt the ship quake beneath me and I tried to dial into the main line in the ship.

“Command, IAP Arden reporting.” I vocalized. There was no response. That was also an unpleasant first experience. The command bridge was always staffed by at least two officers. I moved to the edge of airlock and placed a hand on the bulkhead. There was nothing so convenient as a window in the ship, but the Phaeston trembled beneath my touch. With a fierce wrench, I was hurled from my feet as the bulkhead of the Phaeston groaned. I rolled to my feet and vocalized on the comms again, but there was nothing but static. I tried to leave the airlock, to explore the ship, to try to get to my crew but I was interrupted by the screech of tearing metal and the whoosh of cold vacuum. I glanced behind me, and saw the vastness of empty space, interrupted by a giant, blood red monolith. Air rushed around me as I was jettisoned into the void. I made no attempt to scramble for something to hold onto as I hurtled through the air, most of the airlock and my resting pod came with me. I saw small flecks marring the starry expanse, the blur of escape pods and I felt a deep well of sadness within me as each one was snuffed from existence, seemingly obliterated by the corona of energy that surrounded the monolith. I hurtled through space with nothing to latch onto, so I did the only thing I could. I observed. The Monolith was a blood red Pyramid, vast in size and thrumming with cosmic energy. I didn’t need my system analytics to project my trajectory, I could feel it’s gravitational pull like a dozen hooks in my synthetic flesh. Had I the capacity, I think I would have screamed. Fortunately, my processing power had reached it’s limit, and I shut off before I was obliterated like my crew mates.

Astronomy Picture of the Day - July 8 2025 - Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.)

Unknown Alien World - Day 1

I’m not often surprised. Perhaps it’s because I mostly interact with cold numbers and probability so things usually work out how I expect them to, the chaos of human emotions notwithstanding. The fact that I came online at all surprised me. Booting up with my body largely intact and my spacesuit integrity at 90% was so shocking that I almost shut down again. I was buried up to my helmet in sand, and it took me just over an hour to pivot the bulky suit in such a way that I was able to lurch out of the sand and get my feet underneath me. When I looked at the sky, I couldn’t parse my readings. The sky was alien to me. By this I don’t mean it was different form my home planet, I had strode across enough foreign celestial bodies that the various differences in the stars of the night sky were routine. This was different. None of the stars matched my maps, no section of the night sky was familiar, even accounting for drastic changes in my location. Comparing this night sky to every star field I had mapped since my creation was like comparing a lizard to a cow. Pointless and nonsensical. In the center of it all, orbiting the planet, was that same monolith, deep red and pulsing with some kind of strange, cosmic energy. I didn’t know where I was, but that was how I had got here, surely. Perhaps the corona of energy that had wiped my crewmates from existence had sent me here? And perhaps, my crew could be found? A slim chance, but anything above 0% was comforting in such strange circumstances. I scanned the horizon and found something I could use - the last remnants of my resting pod, imbedded in a craggy stone formation three kilometers west of my location. I did a final, routine check of my Space suit, and I set forth.

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I had my multi tool and conversion unit installed on my suit at all times, which meant I could recycle some of the energy from the weak star nearby that made a passable attempt at sunlight to jog at a decent pace. My pod had my shielding module, and after several hours of trekking the blank landscape, I was able to retrieve it. The pod had smashed through into a covered area that one of my crew mates might have described as ‘cozy’ if they were feeling charitable and lacked the gift of sight. Still, I didn’t know the climate of this biome, and the cave would give me a place to seek shelter from any extreme weather condition, as well as a place to run my replicator to begin construction. And I would need to construct. I didn’t know if my crew were alive or if there was anyway to leave this planet, but I needed to understand where I was if I was to begin to answer any of these questions. How I got here could wait. Where ‘here’ was was the more pertinent question. I glanced at my diagnostics. Integrity was down to 89%. The sun was weak, but likely still gave off enough power that I could survive, but if I wanted to thrive, I needed more knowledge of my surroundings, and preferably a way to keep track of my comings and goings. I needed a map.

Mission - Pathfinder: Create a Holographic Mapping Room to refine your Navigation precision.

Aspects - 0/4

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Quick side note, check out Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive 2015 if you are looking for amazing space photography. The pictures are awesome. Anyway, welcome to Entity! I love science fiction but I find it very hard to write, and often somewhat hard to read. My list of Fantasy books that I love is much longer than my Sci Fi list haha. Still, I love the simplicity of this gameplay loop and I’m looking forward to getting into the mechanics next chapter!