Content Warning: isolation, death of a parent, PTSD-like flashback dealing with the death of a family member when the character was a child during wartime

Co-host Andi plays Sole, a solo interstellar RPG by James Mullen. In this game you’ve left the world behind on an almost-fulled automated one-person spacecraft with a mission to scout the galaxy. You’re there to give a human touch to the ship’s scientific logs. You can either go through the different prompts over the course of time or roll to see what you encounter then combine the prompt with randomly generated words. My dice gave me an incredible narrative arc.

I had a surprisingly emotional experience creating this character’s background and stories on the spot as they experience things no one else ever has. Because of that, I barely edited my audio. I wanted you to hear the emotions, the stutters, the pauses, the “ums” as Mercedes attempted to explain everything.

Prompts & Random Words

Day 8: An asteroid belt with notable features. Random words: blooper auction, filter.

Day 17: A rare event involving two or more bodies. Random words: nomad, controversial, berserker

Day 23: A unique anomaly in space-time. Random words: fright, curfew, graveyard.

Day 36: An interstellar but non-sentient life-form. Random words: artist, surgical, emergency

Day 42: A remarkable planet. Random words: lockbox, humid, brown.

Day 50: Remains of a mega-structure of unknown purpose, the last remnants of a vanished civilization. Random words: fermentation, poetic, operatic