Free first chapter
Solo adventure
by Cole Mercer
A colony must be evacuated before an impact wipes it out, and there aren't enough places on the last ships. You stand at the airlock and decide who boards and who stays behind. Everyone in the line has a name, a story, a reason to want to live — and time is running out. How many can you save, and which choices will you be able to live with afterward?
tense and heartbreaking, a race against time
From a session
I stand at the last airlock, deciding who still gets aboard. A family of four reaches the front of the line, but there are only three places left. When a man shoves his way forward, I throw myself between them to hold him back and get the family through anyway. My roll comes up just short; my shoulder only grazes him, and he stays on his feet. The clock keeps counting, the line presses in, and I have to choose with less time than I need. Whoever I push aboard, someone else is left behind.
From the writer
This adventure grew out of a simple, ugly question: when there aren't enough places, who chooses, and what does that do to the one choosing? I wrote every name on those lists and every face in that line by hand, so that no choice would come cheap. It's the heaviest story I've made for Dobbelganger so far. You don't get to be right at the end; you get what you carried.
Cole Mercer, who wrote this adventure
12 written scenes · 4 characters with agendas of their own · 6 places to discover · secrets you have to find yourself
An AI game master brings the story to life and responds to everything you do.
The rolls come from a real rules engine, not the AI. A 20 is a 20.
Your choices, your gear and the people you meet are tracked for real.
The score shifts with the tension of the scene.
this is not a game, it's a moral stress test. 10/10 would lose sleep again
Phew. I work in healthcare myself and some of the choices here hit harder than I expected. Really well done, though I did need some fresh air afterwards. Not one to play if you are after a cheerful evening, by the way.
Strong concept, but some of the conversations in the line felt samey to me. The ending is genuinely good though.
brace yourself at the airlock. that's all i'm saying
Short but intense. Played it again right after to see if it could end differently. (it can) Two playthroughs that went genuinely different ways, so I more than got my money's worth.
I stared at my screen for twenty minutes over one decision. Twenty. Minutes. No game has ever done that to me.
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