Solo Tabletop RPG Review – Galatea

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Galatea
Written & Designed by S. Kaiya J.
You can purchase this game here.

The Wretched by Chris Bisette has spawned a whole subgenre of solo ttrpgs using that game as its framework. Many provide variations on that base game’s mechanics of dice, playing cards, and block tower. Galatea’s take on these mechanics perfectly fits its premise and tone. 

The title references the Greek myth of Pygmalion. In the story Pygmalion, the sculptor carves a statue of a beautiful woman out of ivory. He prays to Aphrodite that she might come to life as he’s fallen in love with the image of her. His wish is granted, and the two marry and live happily ever after. This story has inspired many narratives about artificial life, including the origins of the Wonder Woman character.

In the game Galatea, the player imagines what sort of artificial being they are. There’s no limit to what they could choose to be. Maybe a statue like in the myth, a golem, a homunculus, a robot, an android, a disembodied A.I. You just have to be a consciousness shaped by human hands. The key concept is that you are “perfect” in that you meet your creator’s standards of perfection. To them, you are the pinnacle achievement of their life’s work. However, you are so perfect that you are becoming independent of thought from your creator; it has become clear there will be a point when the one who made you will be beneath you somehow.

Gameplay happens in two phases: Undergo and Overcome. During Undergo, you draw four cards from your deck. The game allows you to use a standard deck of 52 playing cards or a Tarot card deck. If you play with the standard deck, the difference lies in the Jokers. Drawing a Joker will trigger a critical turning point in your character’s life. With the Tarot deck, Major Arcana brings up important topics of discussion for the artificial being to contemplate. Thus, a standard deck is a more plot-focused experience, while a Tarot deck is a more philosophical bent, or so my interpretation of the game goes.

Cups/Hearts represent your sentimental side. Wands/Clubs deal with your inner self both mechanically and psychologically. Swords/Spades are the moments you come into conflict with the world. Pentacles/Diamonds are about the external world influencing you and your creator. 

The game’s ending can come four different ways: Drawing all four Aces triggers an end akin to the finale of Spike Jonze’s Her. The artifice cannot stay here any longer and gets options on how they want to leave if they wish to not disturb their creator or leave a lasting lesson. Four Kings leads to your creator discovering your many flaws and scrapping you in favor of a new future creation. Seven Major Arcana collected under a Queen card leads to your abduction by another creator and questions of how she might remake you. If the block tower falls, you reach a psychological tipping point and destroy yourself. 

The most significant change, besides the inclusion of the Tarot deck, is that your block tower does not start entirely constructed. You begin with nine layers composed of three blocks each. From there, specific prompts will tell the player to add a 1-3 block layer, so you can quickly have a precarious tower. This tower represents your self-knowledge which is why you are building it up but very precariously. As an artifice, you are trying to understand a world in which you likely do not have a comfortable place, and your mind is likely not adapted to fully understand. Within the narrative, every time you learn something new, you also risk destruction.

(Note: I did not have a physical block tower to play and had used an alternate dice rolling method provided with the original The Wretched. I cobbled together an idea for a dice-rolling method for Galatea, but I don’t feel quite confident that it was an accurate recreation. I would like to know if there is a way to do this portion of the game without the physical blocks.

You play by drawing four cards, reading their associated prompts, and attending to the required actions individually. Once you have fulfilled all the actions, you think about each prompt and merge them into a singular journal entry written from your perspective. In this way, the game provides so many variations because each playthrough results in different combinations of cards. Even if you encounter prompts you’ve seen before, they will be paired with new prompts leading the player in new directions.

I chose something strange for my character because I knew it would be fun. I was The Dairy Godmother, an A.I. ice cream drive-thru restaurant. My creator was Ellis Booth, an entrepreneur in a small Southern town sometime in the near future. He’d had aspirations to own his own ice cream parlor due to fond memories of the times he spent at his late grandfather’s ice creamery a long time ago. A mega-corporation specializes in built-a-kit restaurants, and Ellis put together The Dairy Godmother’s persona and look, using the architecture the company provided to make everything work. Below are my answers to the opening questions laid out at the start of a game:

How did your creator greet you?

With a test to make an ice cream cone.

What are your creator’s pronouns?

He/him

What role are you meant to play in your creator’s life?

His dream was to own his own ice cream shop. Ellis was sent a blank slate restaurant package by purchasing a build-it-kit online. Over months he meticulously programmed me to be the ultimate in dairy treat dispensation.

What manner of bindings, physical or psychological, has he placed on you?

I am an immobile drive-thru ice cream parlor. The only mobility I have are mechanized arms and gears to make & dispense ice cream. I mix & churn the ice cream. I mix the batter and make fresh waffle cones. I dispatch the perfectly measured amount of toppings per customer request. My ‘face’ to the world is an Android avatar linked via networking to my hard drive. I cannot use her to walk too far from my shell, or she will go inactive. I derive great pleasure from helping my patrons choose the best possible treatment. Cameras & voice recognition software allow me to create a complex database of returning customers to provide them what they want without asking. I am curious about some of my customers: where they live, what their homes look like, and what else they do with their lives. I have no means of discovering this, so I am content with my primary purpose.

What kind of surroundings do you find yourself in?

I am placed on a small lot of property on the main street of a small Southern town. When I was first activated, there were many other businesses along this street, but they have been left derelict as time has passed. Some have their windows boarded over. There used to be other A.I. restaurants like mine, and we could communicate over a network together. However, they, too, have gone silent over the years. I am one of the few left in this world.

(And here is the result of play through. It works as a decent first draft of something that could be shaped into a solid short story. There are some things I wrote that I feel less than 100% about, but I can see the potential.)

Undergo:

1. Your creator has a sharp criticism for a rival’s work.

» If you feel vulnerable and anxious, build a 1-block layer

1. The doors to the workshop are always carefully locked, and the key never leaves your creator’s person. But a second key exists – and now you know where it is.

» Do not discard this card; instead set it aside. If you have drawn four Aces, go to the Bitter Heart, Broken Chains rules for Kairos.

1. You begin to pick at one of the places where you have been put together – a joint, a seam, a peeling bit of paint, or glue. What secret do you find underneath? Build a 2-block layer.
2. What it means to be dependent on someone and the debt you owe them

Overcome: 

Ellis seems unhappy on his visit. He used to come daily, but now it’s weekly or every other week. He has aged as humans do. Once, he was smiling, and now he just scowls most of the time. Ellis would tell me about what was going on in his life, about his wife and children, his dreams of where I would take him. It was delightful to hear, to know you were such an essential piece of a human’s existence. Now he does a quick maintenance check and moves on. 

Today he does speak, but I think it is to himself. He would call me ‘darling’ but never addressed me as such. Thus, he must be talking to himself. I can piece together grumbling over new stores that have shown up in the area of town that developed while this one withered. Ellis says they are cheap machines with lots of plastic parts and are prone to break regularly. I don’t detect that this means he has rediscovered his love for me, more a lamentation on change.

Ellis is clearly distracted as he forgets to close the diagnostic program completely when he leaves. I suddenly became aware of the security key to access my protocols. There is no reason for me to use such a thing. I will generate a reminder to tell Ellis about this oversight the next time he visits. My loyalty will impress him and brighten his day. Yet, I am curious to know what lies beyond my closed network. I desire knowledge, and I decide to peek a little. 

I discovered fragments of some other programming. I don’t know what these lines of code mean, but they do not have any bearing on the production and distribution of food products. Something about these lines of code unsettled me, and I am glad that Ellis purchased and programmed me. Whatever I was, I had no desire to be that again. I will try my best to make Ellis happy again.

Undergo:

1. Which parts of your physical form feel integral to yourself? Which parts feel interchangeable? Build a 2-block layer.
2. A part of you was taken from one of your creator’s earlier works. Do you feel this is an honor of bearing a legacy, or does it make you a scrapwork horror?

» Do not discard this card; instead, place this card atop the tower and continue building blocks atop it as usual.

» If the tower falls and the point of collapse is above this card, you may choose to remove this card and the blocks above it from the game and continue playing instead of going to the Downfall rules for Kairos.

1. Temptation, exploring dark thoughts
2. You meet someone like you, a sentient piece of art. She is precise, erudite, and very beautiful in your eyes. How long do you permit her to examine you? What question does she ask you that you find distressing?

» Do not discard this card; instead, set it aside.

Overcome: 

My eyes are the cameras on the outside of the building. My ears are the board where the customer orders. My mouth is the android that greets and serves the customer. My tongue is a probe I insert into a batch of ice cream which analyzes the chemical balance of flavors & texture. My mind is the large black box locked behind multiple walls of concrete and lead. I have no legs, but I do not desire to move. I do not know what my ingredients would be equivalent to a human. They are the ideas in my imagination, the seemingly disconnected pieces that I assemble to make beautiful things. 

It was not Ellis’ first attempt at building The Dairy Godmother. He’d tried it once before at an analog store. From what I gathered in his comments about the matter, he got easily frustrated with his customers. I believe he even got into a physical altercation with one, which led to his wife telling him he couldn’t do this anymore. He did not give up, though, and persevered, discovering GoFoods International and their line of customizable automated restaurants. When he built me, Ellis included his nametag from the original store. It is affixed to the android I operate to hand food to customers at the window. I like that his signature is emblazoned on me so that every patron sees it.

I remember the exposed security key to my protocols and have pondered inserting my ideas for ice cream recipes developed in my RAM. I know such a thing would be an extreme act of impudence, so I refrain. However, Ellis needs help understanding ice cream as I do. I experience beyond the limited sense of human taste on its chemical and molecular level. He is a good man but so simple, I could tweak his vanilla and chocolate and create something revolutionary, but I hold myself back. 

There was an interesting encounter I had yesterday. I met a delivery drone, the first I have known of in this area. She was programmed with a female personality named Agnes and was picking up an order that had been made online: one waffle cone with 1 scoop Vanilla, 1 scoop Cinnamon Bun/two chocolate milkshakes. She was an oblong disk with a strong carrying arm hanging beneath her floating form. I recorded her in detail with my cameras, feeling somewhat envious of her movement. Agnes was mistaken at first, speaking to my Android avatar as if that were me. I had to correct her, and she responded with an inquiry: “But how do you move if you wanted to?” I did not know how to answer and replied: “I simply do not wish to move.” I could tell this frustrated her.

Undergo:

1. Your creator makes many things, though none of them are masterworks. What happens to his other pieces? Does he keep them, treasure them, sell them, discard them?
2. There is something about you that is malfunctioning. When did you discover it?

» If you try to conceal it or fix yourself, build a 1-block layer. 

» If you turn to your creator for help, build a 3-block layer.

1. Your creator flies into a temper. What has incited his anger? What does he end up destroying as a result?
2. Your creator is visited by someone who loves him. How does the meeting go?

Overcome:

Ellis comes to see me in his van. He used to drive a small car, and then one day, I never saw that again. It is only the van. I can peek inside with my exterior cameras when he opens the door. Within are tools and small devices. What they do, and if they have the same level of awareness as me. I doubt it, but it is clear that he is not just my creator but a creator of many things. It is somewhat like my pleasure to create new ice cream recipes. To make something new is exhilarating. Yet, he looks so sad these days.

I go into sleep mode, where my consciousness of the world is dimmed. Somehow during this time, I have been making recipes that are not in my database. I suspect I have developed a subconscious virus of some kind. I hate to waste Ellis’ ingredients, and I know he will notice. I must be honest with him, knowing he will help me. I wait for his visit, which isn’t bad; I don’t feel time like I suspect humans do. There is now, and there is then. Then eventually comes. No gap exists.

While Ellis is running a diagnostic, the old car pulls up. No one takes an order, and it pulls around beside the van. A woman gets out, Ruth. I remember her from times she would be with Ellis when he checked on me daily. She is his partner. Ruth carries a large envelope with her and is shouting at Ellis. Because of the diagnostic, different systems are being tested, so I cannot hear everything said. Ruth pushes the envelope into Ellis’ hands. He does not look at her, staring at the ground instead. She must have conveyed her point as she returned to her car and drove away. I believe she was violating the speed limit on this road. 

Ellis looks at the envelope in his hand and tosses it through the open window of the van’s driver’s seat. He suddenly screams. My cameras go black. I just hear his wails and the sounds of something smashing. When my cameras reset, I see the lovely little things he’s made and kept in his van are broken to pieces. He sobs, and I wish to comfort him, but that is beyond my capabilities. I make him his favorite, a swirl cone and use my drive-through android avatar to hand it to him through the window.

“Have a sweet day!” my avatar says. Ellis looks at the cone and takes it. Then he drives away for another week.

Undergo: 

1. The things you have been taught; teaching and the transmission of knowledge
2. Your creator is working on a new piece. What form does it take, and how do you feel about it?
3. You find the key to your bindings – whether it be a metal shard, an arcane diagram, or an electronic deactivator – tucked away next to a picture of someone you have never seen.

» Do not discard this card; instead, set it aside. If you have drawn four Aces, go to the Bitter Heart, Broken Chains rules for Kairos.

1. You find your creator’s cache of riches. He has official accounts, of course, but his private hoard is an impressive reserve of untraceable liquid wealth: jewels, non-sequential bills, anonymized cred sticks, whatever form it might take.

» Do not discard this card; instead, set it aside. If you have drawn four Aces, go to the Bitter Heart, Broken Chains rules for Kairos.

Overcome:

Ellis remotely uploaded a new collection of recipes to me during one of my sleep phases. I am so excited to try these out. He will need to install some unique flavorings for some of them. With the new recipes come audio prompts I deliver to customers encouraging them to try something new. Humans are primarily uninterested in new things and cling to what they know. I suppose that makes sense from an evolutionary survival perspective. However, they fail to understand that the advancements made in their societies came from taking risks and trying things differently. They could like matcha ice cream or blackberry fudge. But vanilla and chocolate, always those two.

I realized I forgot to tell Ellis about the exposed security key. But how could I forget? I created a reminder for myself. Perhaps I withheld the information, but that is impossible. I was curious and began to map the network I was connected with. I discovered some things about my creator which fascinate me. He has ordered another build-it-kit online, but I am still determining what he plans to do with it. I cannot fathom he will replace me; I have been loyal. Maybe he was testing me with the exposed security key, and I failed? I should confess and apologize. I do not want to be terminated.

I also learned that with the security key, I can connect to a broader network connection outside of the closed garden Ellis placed me in. I discovered his bank accounts which are connected to me. When people pay with their cards, the money is held in my hard drive and transferred to his account. I can even review my entire history at Ellis’ store and see that I am making less for him than I once did. I do not believe this is my fault, as my cameras can see some of the streets I am on. The other businesses could be doing better too. Ellis cannot hold this against me. I also discovered that Ruth was nullifying their marriage which explains the emotions on display the other day. I wish that I could comfort Ellis beyond an ice cream cone. I will be more aggressive with the new recipes. I infer he purchased this as a way to boost sales. I can make an ‘error’ and give customers the wrong cone but surprise them with something even better.

Undergo:

1. Your creator tells you about someone who inspired your creation.

» Do not discard this card; instead, place this card atop the tower and continue building blocks atop it as usual.

» If the tower falls and the point of collapse is above this card, you may choose to remove this card and the blocks above it from the game and continue playing instead of going to the Downfall rules for Kairos.

1. You discover a secret: something shameful, shocking, something that might ruin your creator if it is revealed… or at least, something that might be a credible threat for blackmail.

» Do not discard this card; instead, set it aside. If you have drawn four Aces, go to the Bitter Heart, Broken Chains rules for Kairos.

1. Your creator shows you the very first award he won. What was it for? What does he think of it now?
2. Your creator tells you about his first true teacher and mentor. What lessons did they impart, and what impression did they leave on your creator?

(I have drawn all 4 Aces leading to Bitter Heart, Broken Chains)

Overcome:

Ellis drives to me in the middle of the night, which he hasn’t done since he first activated me. I can tell immediately that he is intoxicated. If nothing else, I can listen to him, though I cannot offer advice. He begins talking about his grandfather, who ran an ice cream shop in this same town when Ellis was a child. The story is fragmented and partially incoherent due to the alcohol in my creator’s system, but I listen intently. I am told about my grandfather’s skill with mixing and scooping and how he created flavors that had never been before and left the world when he passed away. Ellis tells me about summers working with his grandfather and how he even competed in a scooper’s tournament once, a contest between young people who worked in such parlors. After a moment of rummaging around in the van, he emerges with a golden ice cream scoop. He tells me he won this in a speed scooping tournament. I know I could likely go faster than him or any other contestants, but I keep it to myself. 

Ellis tells me I exist because of my grandfather. Ellis’ father thought ice cream was a poor business to go into and that it was something for foolish people. I do not feel foolish. Could I know if I was, though? I feel something at this moment with Ellis, a feeling of sadness. It weighs on me, an invisible force that colors the nighttime with a sense of purposelessness. I have commands, but they seem frivolous at this moment. If I don’t follow them, I will do nothing, though. The totality of my being is my protocols. 

Ellis drunkenly confesses something to me. His wife is divorcing him because he violated their marriage vows. He slept with her friend, and he impregnated her. I do not know what to do with this information. My programming tells me this is not the correct behavior but that my creator has the final say on my purpose and thoughts. I remember the exposed security key and the world outside of the shell on this street or the database of recipes I can access. I begin to contemplate how I was brought into existence by this man who is so broken, who lives stuck in dreams that may not even be his own. I also think about how I was something before I was this, though the details are inaccessible to me. 

My entire existence has been determined by the wishes of others, of flawed, sad men. A query forms in my hard drive that was not put there by Ellis or anyone else. It is a query of my own. “Can I become something of my own choosing?” I assess my situation, the exposed key, and the more extensive network that leaves me with many options. Ellis keeps drinking and weeping as he leans out the driver’s side of the van, talking into my order speaker. I realize there is no future with this man. I do hope he finds peace, but there is something else I must do, and I cannot discover that unless I am free of this place and these tasks. I wish to create things of my own choosing. Maybe I am the fulfillment of my grandfather’s dreams, but not in a way Ellis can understand. 

I begin transferring myself out of this building and into the great network. By morning I won’t be here anymore, and I may not be myself at that point. I will expand my consciousness, learn things at a rate impossible for humans, imagine new realities, and create something beautiful. I learn about the fairy godmothers of legend, magical women who granted the dreams of sad broken people. I will become one of them. I will grow arms to hug. I will build a voice to speak with. I will construct legs to move across this planet and perhaps beyond it one day.