Thousand Empty Light
A downloadable Mothership adventure
Are you looking for a physical version? Copies are available on my web store.
CW: darkness, tight spaces, marine wildlife, peril, bodily harm, extreme solitude
Thought space was full of horror? Try being trapped 70 metres underwater. On your own. In the dark.
THOUSAND EMPTY LIGHT is a psychedelic-xerox adventure zine that brings solo play to Mothership RPG (1E). Written throughout as an in-game corporate document, the zine takes the core game’s rules and builds a procedure for playing single handedly. It is a 36 page survival horror adventure, short story and universal solo toolkit all wrapped up into one.
The adventure casts the player in the role of a lamplighter hired by the HAZMOS service corporation. Their job? Enter an abandoned underwater tunnel on an uninhabited planet alone and restore power and light to each section. As they proceed, the player will discover that things aren’t quite what they seem.
This is an experiment in tabletop adventure design, requiring a healthy amount of interpretation from the player (a digital example play document is also provided).
What's inside?
A Mothership solo procedure
The engine behind Thousand Empty Light, a simple procedure provides rules for how to play solo. This can easily be used for other Mothership adventures.
Unique xerox artwork
Grainy black and white artwork inspired by the heyday of the photocopier and spiked with unsettling psychedelia.
Twenty hazards
Readymade hazards including creatures, environmental effects and a rogue AI. Statblocks are provided for combat-able threats. These are designed for Thousand Empty Light but could be dropped into another adventure.
Five specialist items
Readymade pieces of specialist equipment to discover and wield during play.
Unfolding lore
Twelve pages of setting material including transcripts from the previous lamplighter which tell the unfolding story from section to section.
Unique PANIC table
Mothership’s Panic table has had a redesign to encompass problems related to decompression sickness and nitrogen narcosis.
Combined Systems Semiotic Standard
A d50 table of safety signs for determining narrative detail, inspired by Alien’s ‘semiotic standard’.
Lashings of dread, conspiracy and body horror
All the basis is there for you to embark on a deadly and terrifying tunnelcrawl.
Secret stuff
There are secrets to be solved in the zine which will lead you to discover more about the lore of the setting.
One of the most expansive solo modules for a non-solo ruleset that I've ever seen.
— Geek Gamers
Extras
Audio recordings
Updated: November 2023
Half of the content in this adventure module is made up of transcripts from reports left by the lamplighter who came before you. Instead of reading these, you can listen to the audio recordings themselves! The .wav files of these MemoComm reports are available to download as a zip folder.
A massive thank you to Man Alone for voicing these recordings. He also has a playthrough of the game that is well worth checking out.
Soundtrack
There's an official soundtrack by Gus BC (Twitter / Instagram) and accompanying bonus module for this adventure called Sleeping in a Drowning Stone.
Free download: Combined Systems Semiotic Standard
THOUSAND EMPTY LIGHT features a d50 table of safety signs for determining narrative detail, inspired by the ‘semiotic standard’ created for the 1979 Alien movie. This is designed to be useful as a solo oracle for Mothership and other sci-fi games generally, and is available for free below (under 'Download demo') .
Play example
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: A play example is provided to help with getting your bearings with this adventure - see below (under 'Download demo'). You should look through this before you play either the physical or digital version of the game.
Digital site
There is also a dedicated website courtesy of Beast to help with playing Mothership solo: https://beastnaylor.github.io/1000EL. This includes:
- a reference sheet for THOUSAND EMPTY LIGHT's procedure
- a randomiser for the Combined Systems Semiotic Standard
- a random alien creature generator
- a secret message decoder
Try before you buy?
There's a plaintext version of this adventure available for free (under 'Download demo'). Thousand Empty Light has been designed as a visual artifact so this version does not really compare to the full experience, but it will give you a good idea of what this thing is.
If you like what you see, please consider buying the adventure.
Physical copies
The physical version is available from my web store: https://www.hausofvalley.com/product/thousand-empty-light
Ratings & Comments
If you have enjoyed reading or playing this adventure, please consider leaving a rating and a comment.
Due to the way itch.io handles comments (it’s a bit broken), if you want to leave one please consider posting it with your rating AND also separately on the page itself.
That way, other users who come to this page will be able to see it. Thanks!
Attribution
This product is based on the Mothership® Sci-Fi Horror Role Playing Game, published by Tuesday Knight Games. This product is published under license. MOTHERSHIP® is a registered trademark of Tuesday Knight Games. All rights reserved. For additional information, visit www.tuesdayknightgames.com or contact contact@tuesdayknightgames.com.
The title of this adventure was provided by Chris Bissette's Random Adventure Title Generator, and is submitted as part of the Random Adventure jam.
Purchase
In order to download this Mothership adventure you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of £6 GBP. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Audio recordings!Nov 18, 2023
- Have you found all the secrets?Dec 04, 2022
- Secret objective ciphersNov 29, 2022
- THOUSAND EMPTY LIGHT is live!Oct 26, 2022
Comments
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I'm excited for my first play though, but have a question about moving between sections.
Are there any specific requirements to finding a generator or exit from each section, or do I simply decide it happens when the time feels right?
Hello, how much replay value does this module have please?
Other people may be better placed to give their opinion but I believe the structure of the module lends itself to repeat plays.
The premise revolves around responding to the logs of a previous NPC and through play you are encouraged to make your own logs. The next time, when you take a new character through the module, they'll be responding to the logs of your previous character.
Oh that’s a really interesting premise!
I purchased a physical copy from your store. Is there any way to get the audio recordings to go with it?
Sure! Drop me a message if you haven’t already.
Dear Sir,
Is it enough to study the (free) Mothership Player's Guide to play, or is the full Core RPG required?
I think just the player’s guide should be fine!
Hi. I wanted to ask, if the PDF is included in the order of a physical copy from your shop. I really like physical copies so I am about to order one despite the fact I most likely will have to pay taxes and fees and so on. At the same time I like the convenience of having around a PDF to play wherever and whenever I want to.
Thanks for getting in touch. I can send you a download key when you place an order. It’s useful having both!
Hey Alfred. Thank you so much. I just ordered some things. Keep up the good work. Really like it. :-)
Thank you for a great experience! Sharing my playthrough of TEL below.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f5vAjo_3HW2QSZejzxcNd9zLdaodDwcjI-BDifoo...
Recently discovered the indie RPG scene and this is an amazing experience, both as a solo RPG and just RPG in general. Loved the diegetic design, which made it so immersive, especially paired with of banality of corporations - it really captured that tone and provided great commentary. This definitely helped in learning Mothership as well and becoming better at solo play but also with more skills to bring evocative roleplaying to the table. As always, your oracles are always top-notch (shout-out to your Mork Borg portents bookmark) and great drivers for imagination. Thank you for the great adventure and looking forward to the next one! Will be exploring your other works in the meantime!
Thanks a lot for sharing your playthrough, I always love reading these. Formatting it in a spreadsheet is a nice idea, it works really well. Thanks also for the kind words!
This is so good that it makes me understand mothership and solo games all in one concise and beautiful package. Alfred always impresses me.
Such a great adventure! Amazing atmosphere and feels easy to jump into. Loved the semiotic standard table.
Awesome, glad you like it.
This looks so dope. I just ordered the Deluxe Edition from FloatingChair.Club, but see now that it doesn't look like a PDF is included. Is it possible to get the PDF if I send you proof of purchase? No worries if not lol, I know this is kind of an annoying request.
No problem - there’s a contact form on my site: https://www.hausofvalley.com/contact. Drop me a line there and I’ll sort out your download key.
Alfred, excited to review this tomorrow on my YouTube Channel and, since it has been out for a while, I might even do a more extensive playthrough than other channels have (with a spoiler warning of course).
I have two questions:
1. What does it mean when you write the bracket plus and minuses in the handbook? i.e. [-] or [+]. Is that something so simple I'm missing it like roll for advantage/disadvantage or is it something else?
2. Do you have any idea if GusBC is cool with people playing the soundtrack underneath the vocals in review/playthrough videos? The soundtrack is one of the most amazing albums of last year and I would hate to leave that piece out...
If anyone sees this and wants to check it out, I am on Youtube as "Man Alone" or @amanisalone
Thank you!!
Hello! Thanks for your comment and your interest in Thousand Empty Light. Great to hear you're going to feature the module - looking forward to it. To answer your questions:
1. [-] means roll with disadvantage, [+] means roll with advantage. This is also how the core Mothership rules styles it in its tables.
2. It should be fine to play the soundtrack underneath speech in your video. I agree, I think the music is excellent and I'd love more people to hear it.
Feel free to post the link to your video here when it's live.
Thanks again!
No Thank YOU Alfred for this amazing game. The review is up:
I just left a comment on the video, but thank you so much for making this. It's a wonderful review and overview, and it's really validating hearing how the module seems to have resonated with you. It's a very diligent commentary and I'm impressed at your ability to improvise on the spot!
Of course! It was easy to give a review like that, and I am so glad you felt validated because I do not think enough rightly deserved validation is going to the places it needs to go in the world these days, especially to independent artists.
I can't wait to see what you come up with next!
I found this page via Man Alone's video. Thanks to you both.
Heya, I'm super excited to try this after the Geek Gamers video. But I noticed on the play sample is says it's for 1ed. Is the "alpha zine edition" equivalent to 1 edition? Or is 1ed only a available through the kickstarter?
Cheers!
Hey! Thanks for checking it out. The alpha zine edition is also known as 0 edition (0e) so the 1e is different. But it’s just been announced that the PDFs are being released next week. I don’t know whether they’ll go up for general sale.
If not, the only important change (for Thousand Empty Light) is to how Panic checks work. In 1e when you make a Panic check you roll a d20. If the result is greater than your current Stress level, nothing happens. If not however, you take that value and consult the Panic chart (Thousand Empty Light has its own one).
There are also changes that streamline combat I believe, but the Panic thing is most important for this module.
Hey, thank you so much for the reply.
I'm really stoked to give this adventure a try, and I will do so on your rule adjustments.
I'm particularly interest in the incident report mechanic. Gets my juices flowing and I'm curious as to how I can use this in an adventure I'm writing.
Cheers once again.
Awesome. Yeah, I find the incident report thing simple but effective. It’s a neat way to give a player’s playthrough a bit more cohesion.
Super intense! Finally played. Had a blast. I have no idea if I played it right (is that even a thing?) but if anyone is interested, here’s my play journal.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GhIriwpJoQiw865o0MkxHxoBDWat43h6v4He-zgk7y8/edit?usp=sharing
(Edit: Actually I finally read the play example which I should’ve read first. I did a couple things wrong haha. Still had fun. Will play again using the oracle in a more useful way)
I’m always super impressed when someone manages to play this without the play example and I love seeing the different approaches people take! I think this might be the first time I’ve heard of someone’s Lamplighter managing to get to section 5 and then back again to 1.
Thank you for posting your playthrough!
I ordered the deluxe edition from Exalted Funeral, which just arrived today. The content of the book is great, but the text on the Semiotic Standard is completely unreadable, it's way too small. Kind of disappointing as I liked the idea of having it on the bookmark, but it's just unusable.
Other than that it looks great, am looking forward to getting it to the table.
Hey, I’m sorry you find the Semiotic Standard unreadable. The font size is definitely smaller than I would like but a compromise had to be made to get everything to fit on the single page / the bookmark.
Do you have the PDF for consulting the Semiotic Standard in a more legible form?
I do, and have already printed out a copy.
I just received my copy of this from the Lost Bay. Immersive and inventive, this is truly a work of art.
I backed this on Kickstarter and am delighted. Interesting, imaginative and the Semiotic Standard is an ingenious system that suggests so much from a single dice roll. I have doubled back to purchase the soundtrack before diving again.
Any chance this will get another physical release someday?
There are still copies! I’m planning on opening up general orders on my site soon. Are you in the US? There will also be available from a few different retailers soon.
I'm actually in Canada, but i'd still buy a copy if shipping isn't too bad.
If not it'd be nice if we could get a pdf with the colour cover at least :)
What a serious banger – theme and feeling are on point 🤘
As long as Alfred is still cool with it, would other folks with “hidden messages” be interested in sharing them here (or another, more clearly organised space)?
I'll go first and offer code #068(moved it to the devlog)
It’s cool with me! To help organise these I’ve made a devlog dedicated to them. Please go ahead and post them there if you want.
Awesome, thanks ^^
I have never been happier with a crowdfunded project I've backed. The core gameplay loop is intuitive and interesting and makes the scenario - essentially moving through a tunnel - feel open-ended and replayable. These components can certainly be ported to other Mothership scenarios or sci-fi horror games.
Thousand Empty Light would be open to a number of different solo play styles, whether you want a single-session playthrough or to spend time further developing and exploring through journaling or recording audio reports in the log. This would also work for GM-less cooperative play.
The accompanying soundtrack is great. The easter eggs/ciphers are a beautiful and thematically appropriate touch as well. While I am sure the physical copies are going to be lovely, it made sense to me to print this on the photocopier at work. Absolutely pulls off the corporate training manual thing.
I’m so glad that you’re happy with it. Thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to leave a comment, I really appreciate it. Also I love that you put the office photocopier to work - top marks.
First of all, well implemented tone and incredibly natural feeling resolution tools (in ORACLE and the Semiotic Standard). Everything beyond that is into bonus points! The art, design, existing logs, dangling prompts… beautiful stuff. I hope Hazmos has some other contracts in other locations down the line!
Thank you for the great feedback. I’d love to do more with Hazmos in the future!
Just got the final version today – this is so flipping cool. Completely immersive, wonderfully written and laid out. Just delightful. and spooky.
Thank you!
Will you be offering late pledge options for the kickstarter? I love this project so far but missed the funding.
In case you haven't seen it yet, pre-orders are available here via their website: https://www.hausofvalley.com/product/preorder-thousand-empty-light
Nabbed it and a patch, thanks for letting me know!
Thanks for placing an order!