My first time in TLD

[Overlord87]

The trees extend as far as the eye can see. It's cold. I reach for higher ground, I need to see what's around. I need options. I don't know what to expect and that unsettles me.

I reach the top of the nearest hill, look around, just more trees. No, wait... a hut – there's a hut there! I immediately make my way towards my newfound safe harbour. Inside there's all kind of goodness – food, drinks, even a stove, although I'm currently lacking tinder and it's just a piece of metal. Still, a reassuring piece of metal. There's hope for me. I eat an energy bar to replenish some calories, then pick up a rabbit trap and go outside to place it.

I head again towards the trees, realizing that I've never placed a rabbit snare in my life, I don't even know where to place it to have maximum chance of success, but well, I'll just have to hope for some luck.

It's so cold I'm shivering by the time I make it back to the hut. I still can't lit up a fire, but it's warmer inside the hut anyway, so I set the bedrool and get some hours of sleep. I plan to go and check the rabbit trap when I wake up, but I slept too long, it's dark outside. I don't fancy the idea of going outside at night, even if it's close. I set the bedroll again and sleep until morning.

I wake up incredibly thirsty. Luckily I have a couple of cans of soda I found earlier in the hut, and that will do for now.

I am beginning to realize that my safe harbour is really not so safe. Sure, I'll probably not die of cold, but I'm running out of supplies, and thirst and hunger will kill me as surely as the cold – probably even more surely, in fact. My safe harbour, after all, starts looking like my tomb, and I don't like it one bit. I pack up and head out.

No rabbit in my snare. Not a surprise, really, but somewhere inside I was hoping fot it, and having your hopes crushed is never a good thing. Especially when you're lost in the woods, shivering and hungry.

Can't go back to the hut. I need to find another place, more supplies maybe. I need a fire.

I walk. I don't know for how long. At least a couple of hours, maybe more. I'm freezing, and I'm dehydrated. I sprained my ankle jumping down from a rock. Fuck, I thought landing in the snow was safe. Naive idiot. I should have realized by now that nothing is safe. I need first aid, and rest, but I'm in the snow and sure as hell if I stop here to sleep... well, it's not bloody likely I'm gonna wake up.

I think things are going badly, but I jus't don't know how badly until I find myself looking to the exact same hut from where I started. I had been running in circles. Like the dumb characters in the movie I used to laugh at, I'm lost and I've been running in circles.

A dooming sensation starts to creep up, but I can't give up yet. I head back to the hut. Maybe I overlooked something in my previous exploration. Plus, I don't really have any other choice.

And it turns out I did overlook something. More than something, actually. I don't know how I could have possibly been so blind. Too overjoyed to have found a repair, too inexperienced. Whatever the reason, there was tinder inside the hut. And a rifle, too. What the hell, how could I possibly miss a rifle.

I dart outside. There were deers around the hut, this morning, and there still are. I take my aim and bam! I miss. Fuck. Bam! This time a clean hit. The deer falls to the side and like an hungry wolf I run to the carcasse. It's bloody business, getting meat out of the dead body with no tool, but I'm hungry and I don't care. By the time I'm finished I look like someone out of a splatter movie, but now I have fresh meat and that's all that matters now.

I go back in and light up the fire. I melt snow to make water and cook the deer. I drink and eat. The water is unsafe, but right now it's about survival. I'll think about the consequences later. I bandage my ankle and go to sleep. The future looks a little brighter.

I wake up at dawn, hungry and thirsty again. What seemed like a feast yesterday night only managed to fill my stomach for a few meager hours. But I know what to do now. I go outside and aim at the deer. I'm not getting better, it seems, because I still need two shots to kill my prey. But it's good enough for now. I reach the carcasse and begin my dirty job.

I know I need more meat this time, so I keep working longer. I get so caught in what I'm doing that I don't realize it's still freezing cold. When I come to my sense, I can't feel my hands and feet anymore. I can't think straight, but two words seems to emerge from the fog in my mind like beacons. The first is “idiot”. The second is “fire”.

I stagger back to the hut. It takes an eternity, but I'm finally inside. Yesterday I found an old newspaper, I put it inside the stove with some wood and kerosene and pray to God. But I'm clumsy, my hands do not respond well. No fire, no hope. And I'm so cold, and tired. I fall on the bed, finally giving in to empty promises of happiness and rest. I close my eyes to the long dark, never to reopen them again.

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And that was my first game of TLD (well, technically the second, but the first time I died after like 2 minutes - in real life - to wolves, so I don't think that counts ). Survived for 34 hours. I made too many beginner mistakes - I still don't know how I could possibly miss a rifle, and I'm still angry at myself for freezing almost to death while taking the meat from the dead deer - but it was an amazing experience. This game is unbelievably fun for something in alpha. I have the feeling that any single game can become a story to tell, and that's possibly one of the best things to look for in a game. I'm sure as hell gonna be back in for more

[Dobian]

A great tale, and shows what makes this game great. You can do many things right, but that one thing you do wrong can be your undoing. My decision to leave the comfort and safety of the coast to head back over to Mystery Lake in search of a rifle set off a chain of events that led to my demise two days later.