Hi Folks!
This time I play this solo rpg, “Log-Book of the Lighthouse Keeper” by Mark Paglia, it’s a PWYW PDF you can find it here.
In this game you play a lighthouse keeper who has to take care of his work and life on a daily basis but also of something supernatural that is hidden under the lighthouse. The rules are very simple and original, every turn/day some data is randomly extracted including the tides and the ships sighted and from these information other data are obtained which help to define what will happen. To enrich the narration I use Zathrum 3, you can find it here.
Material used:
1) Solo RPG: “Log-Book of the Lighthouse Keeper” pdf
2) Solo Engine: Zathrum 3 pdf
3) Dice: 1d6, 1d20
4) Random name generator: http://random-name-generator.info
Protagonist Creation:
DARRIN PERKINS
Darrin, 41 years old, is a former history teacher with a secret passion for poetry, his respectable appearance and good-natured attitude hides a sharp mind and a strong sense of justice, after years of disappointment in the big city he decides to change his life to write a book of poems, the right opportunity arrives and he becomes the new lighthouse keeper of Charmouth, CT. When he is nervous he constantly checks the time on his pocket watch, a precious french silver watch inherited from his father.
Mechanics:
I used Zathrum 3 to define him:
character: Trainer, personality: Cunning, motivation: Justice, descriptor: Precious
idea: cause/consequence + travel/place, I interpret it that the cause of his new life is due to living in a big city.
Prologue:
“I’m starting this journal today to record more accurately the small daily events but also the incredible happenings that periodically mark our stay on this windswept coast. My name is Darrin Perkins, I’ve been the lighthouse keeper for a few years now. I live here with my wife Arlene who also helps me in my work and my two children, Rosanne the eldest and that little pest of my son Berthram.
The family also includes our cat Toby who keeps me company on night shifts.
Before we got married Arlene and I passed by and fell in love with the place, I taught History at a Chicago high school for a few years, but that life wasn’t for us and at the birth of our second child we were ready to change our lives, get away from the chaos of the metropolis,
Arlene loves the sea, I would have had the peace and solitude to compose my poems, it was a crazy move but you only live once, I read about a lighthouse keeper vacancy, I applied without much hope but I was hired, after the preparation course we moved here. Our daughter Rosanne was the least enthusiastic but she seems to do well in the school in the village.”
Mechanics:
The game offers us to answer some questions to better clarify the situation our keeper is in, I answered with the oracle of Zathrum 3 and I added other questions to understand something more.
What era are we in? A: 1923, B: 1973, odds: 50/50 = A
Does Darrin have a wife? Yes
(character: transporter, personality: extroverted, motivation: health, descriptor: incomplete)
ARLENE PERKINS, 36 years old, adopted daughter of a station master, she has always dreamed of having a perfect family and living happily, always friendly and helpful with everyone, she suffers from asthma and the doctors have recommended her to live near the sea. The only memory of her natural parents is the note that was found in the basket with her, on the note there are only two letters, H.L. perhaps her mother’s initials.
Does Darrin have children? Yes, A: one B: two, Odds: 50/50 = B
Grown children? No
I create the two children with the same method before:
(character: student, personality: calm, motivation: destroy something, descriptor: metal)
ROSANNE PERKINS, 14 years old, a calm and studious girl who plays the transverse flute and shows a worrying passion for chemistry especially explosives
(character: healer, personality: pleasure seeker, motivation: glory, descriptor: incomplete)
BERTHRAM PERKINS, 6 years old, an adorable brat, greedy for chocolate, when he grows up he wants to become a doctor or a famous actor, careless, he seems to lose a few buttons from his clothes every day
Does Darrin have a pet? Yes
his name is Toby and it is an A: cat B: dog Odds:70/30 = A
Why does Darrin work here? Idea: beginning/end + external/internal
to start a new phase of one’s life more in tune with one’s intimate aspirations
Does Darrin need to go to town only to buy supplies? No
Does Darrin also buy some writing materials since he writes poems? Yes
He types the lyrics of her poems for future publication, he needs reams of paper and ribbons for her typewriter.
It’s time to figure out what lies under the lighthouse:
What lies beneath your lighthouse?
Among the alternatives proposed by the game, I choose the two that I like the most:
A: a semi-sentient relic, B: an abandoned laboratory full of robots, Odds:65/35 = A
OK it’s a mysterious relic. I want to know more about this relic: Idea: gift/memory + mystery/secret, Descriptor: size.
I guess it is some kind of spherical boulder that gives off a strong psychic field, the surface covered with incisions and spirals, its size changes over time for no plausible reason, it lies in an equally eerie cave, it seems to cause strange dreams of past lives and that establishes a particular bond with each lighthouse keeper.
Will the villagers risk being killed by the relic if Darrin doesn’t stop it? No (and)
Absolutely not, but there have been cases of people who have disappeared after seeing the relic or have never been the same.
Has Darrin seen the relic yet? Yes (but)
For now only in dreams, Darrin’s poetic inspiration has benefited greatly.
JOURNAL:
In each game turn the keeper must write down some official data in the logbook every day but he can
also better describe what happens in the pages of his personal journal. The game recommends
playing one turn at a time but I preferred to play multiple turns in each game session.
I also added a specific table to define what would be the daily topic to mark in the journal in case the game does not generate an unexpected event: (1d6) : 1) wife 2) daughter 3) son 4) cat 5) poems 6) lighthouse.
LOGBOOK:
Data: May/1/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:18, Notes: –
Journal: “This morning Ben Floyd, the store boy from the Wilkins General Store came here, he was very agitated and asked me to help him with the shop van, a tire had blown and the van had gone off the road near the lighthouse, Floyd was worried he had made damage to the vehicle and that his boss Herman Wilkins was angry with him. Luckily it was nothing serious, we changed the wheel and Floyd was very relieved.”
Mechanics: (A visitor from town shows up at the lighthouse to see you)
Who is the visitor? (character:servant, personality:impulsive, descriptor:fire, theme:rescue)
Female? No, Old? No (and), it’s Ben Floyd a shop boy alarmed by something. Idea: separation/union + travel/place.
Data: May/2/1923, Weather: Sunny with few clouds, Ships sighted:17, Notes: Provisions restocked.
Journal: “I went into town this morning to get supplies at Wilkins General Store, Floyd thanked me for yesterday’s help and insisted on helping me load the stuff into the back of my buggy.
I also took some other sheets for the typewriter.”
Data: May/3/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:1, Notes: –
Journal: “Today I had an incredible dream, it was in color and I was some kind of medieval earl in a stone castle, I was sitting on a strange throne also made of stone, on the walls hung silk tapestries embroidered with green spiral patterns. I was completely alone in the large hall then I found myself on top of a very high tower and the wind brought me a sweet song, the voice was Arlene’s, I called her several times in my dream but I had no voice, I couldn’t speak. then I woke up and for the rest of the day the melody of that song stuck in my mind. I’ve had similar dreams before but never so vivid. It could be the inspiration I seek for the next poem.”
Mechanics: I create an event with my table: poems
Data: May/4/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:6, Notes: –
Journal: “Our cat Toby has disappeared, he is a very habitual feline, after dinner he always comes with me to the top of the lighthouse to inspect the lamp. He had been with us for dinner as always then he vanished, Berthram was in tears and didn’t want to go to bed without seeing his beloved cat. Maybe Toby is in heat? I would have heard him meowing, well cats can get away with it, he’ll probably reappear in the morning with a little mouse as a present”
Mechanics: This time the event is cat, I use Zathrum 3 for a theme: escape/pursue
Data: May/5/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:14, Notes: –
Journal: “Toby has returned from his nocturnal adventure, he must have gotten into a fight with a rival in love, his back is full of scratches, Arlene has been trying to disinfect the scratches with tincture of iodine with mixed success. I started composing a new poem, it’s about the strange dream I had, I already have the title: “The Emerald Tears”, I wish I had more free time to complete it soon before the inspiration fades.”
Mechanics: new event: poems. I use the Zathrum 3 Oracle: Is toby back? Yes. Is he hurt? No (but) the cat has scratches on the body.
Data: May/6/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:8, Notes: Unusually high tide in the evening.
Journal: “The children found some beautiful shells on the beach, especially the one Rosanne found was really strange, it was similar to a snail but felt strange to the touch like it was ivory or bakelite, she showed me the place where the he gathered, it was a recess of the lighthouse cliff, there was dark seaweed everywhere, on the ground and even on the rocks that never get washed by the tide, then I distinctly heard a melody, it was the same song of my dream, it was in my mind , Rosanne didn’t hear anything but she headed right in the direction from which the singing came and she picked up a shell similar to the other, it was on a perfectly round boulder, wrapped in those strange algae but I could see some incisions, spirals like those of the dream tapestries. Rosanne distracted me from my thoughts: “Is it a fossil dad?”, I replied that it was probably just a rock eroded by the sea. We got out of there right away, I told the kids that part of the coast was dangerous for tides and they had to stay away. It had moved! I swear I saw that stone move, it was pulsing slightly like a heart in slow motion. Sean Carlson, the previous keeper, warned me of strange things going on here, but this!”
Mechanics: (The entity beneath the lighthouse is restless, and causes a disturbance)
I use Zathrum 3 for a theme: environment. I also used my event table: daughter
Data: May/7/1923, Weather: Sunny, Ships sighted:15, Notes:
Journal: “Rosanne gave me her seashells, said she’s changed her mind, finds fireworks very interesting, wants to prepare a July 4th research to present to her chemistry teacher. Great. I want to go back to the cliff to examine that spherical stone, part of me is terrified of the idea but I have to find out what it is, it could be a threat or I could make a discovery that would appear in all the newspapers: ‘lighthouse keeper discover a brain coral and mistakes it for a monster’.”
Mechanics: new event: daughter.
Names are randomly generated. Images created by me using AI from https://stablediffusionweb.com/
lostpangolin
The Travels of the Lost Pangolin 