Endless Play: Sunless Sea
Sunless Sea (2015)
I first encountered games in which Alexis Kennedy and Lottie Bevan had contributed when I played Cultist Simulator, a Lovecraftian card game managing multiple ticking clocks that drive play in a very emergent and systems driven way. It was their first game as the small studio out of their flat in , Weather Factory, consisting of pretty much just the two of them. I then went on to read Alexis' collection of columns and essays, Against Worldbuilding, and Other Provocations, which led me down the rabbit hole of his work. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, when playing Fallen London and Sunless Sea, this was kind of their modus operandi. Alexis and Lottie worked on these games at Failbetter, the studio co-founded by Alexis in 2009 before founding Weather Factory in 2017. They also have a wonderful podcast, Skeleton Songs, where they converse about literature, mythology, folklore and game design, simply lovely stuff.
Sunless Sea has no pre-written narrative. It has small self-contained stories and events peppered throughout the map, but it is all randomized, including the placement of the locations. The real narrative unfolds by interacting with the game's systems. You decide your captain's name, background and motivation, and take on jobs as a subterranean zailor of the Unterzee, always returning to Fallen London, trying to realize your ambition, be that retirement, founding an island community or pledging yourself to the gods of the zee.
Here is an account of my captain's story:
I begin the game by making a deal with a cartel to deliver unlabeled crates of souls to Port Palmerston, a refinery selling cheap fuel in the north next to an active volcano. I make the delivery with no issue and return to London, where I make contact with the admiralty, who pays meagerly for port reports throughout the Unterzee but has no strings attached.
I receive my payment from the cartel and unknowingly enter indentured servitude when they eventually will ask me for another job that I can't refuse. The money is good and provides additional fuel and supplies for the new gig, so I take my chances.
I must deliver a payment for contraband at the Chelonate, a port built on the shell of an enormous dead turtle to the east. It's a considerable sum and I could just take the money and run... I'm stuck between making good money and clearing my debt with the cartel, but I decide to sail to the Chelonate with the payment and gather port reports on the way.
On my home voyage I encounter a white zeebat, a sign from Salt, one of the gods of the zee. I shoot the zeebat to stop my crew from panicking at its presence. Immediately I encounter a pirate ship that unprovoked starts firing at me and attracts an aggressive flock of zeebats that dogpile my ship. I can't keep up repairs with the damage I'm taking before reaching a port, as my ship sinks into the dark below. I sat there at the screen thinking: "This was because I shot the zeebat, wasn't it?"
Further evidence of the theory...
It wasn't because of my interaction with the zeebat, I could have played things differently, but the emergent nature of the systems slowly set up a narrative expectation in my head that felt satisfying, even as my scrawny ship was being torn apart and sunk seemingly out of nowhere. My captain's hubris got him and his crew killed.
Alexis and Lottie have a new CRPG coming, Traveling at Night, touting the influences of Planescape: Torment, Shadowrun and Disco Elysium, as if I wasn't already intrigued...