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A jam submission

THICK is the BLOODView project page

A gnostic horror.
Submitted by squinch — 4 seconds before the deadline

Play trifold adventure.

THICK is the BLOOD's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
THEME — How well is the jam theme used?#213.5913.591
ART — How good is the art/graphic design?#243.6823.682
WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...?#383.2273.227
FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission?#402.9092.909
Overall#413.0063.006
GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in?#462.6822.682
UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"?#472.4552.455
LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information?#472.5002.500

Ranked from 22 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

Oozes with style. Good job!

HostSubmitted (1 edit) (+1)

You have got a bunch of great feedback so far, my small addition is that I think that you did well with your first draft using the tri-fold “Shape” to boil things down and recognize what is important, now that that is done i think this clearly should be expanded a bit… i think you could hit a 16 page zine with very little effort on this idea. Don’t get me wrong you still want to constrain the idea down, hit the most important things certainly! but now that you have the knowledge it will guide a tailored and refined Zine.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do! and know the discord community will be here to give feedback along the way!

Submitted(+1)

Love the story and art, I did however find the writing a little dense. I would have liked a third major NPC from Bio-Syn if some space could be stolen from the other text blocks. The Gods-Blood stuff seems a little superfluous to me.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

The third major NPC for Bio-Syn was going to be the monster, with the company staff itself being a mostly faceless shadowy force, and the corporate board being off planet. We didn’t get around to making the stats and mechanics for the monster before the deadline, and it’s the weakest part of the story, so we may cut it– the main purpose of Bio-Syn in this setting is

-A.) to apply more pressure to reuben -B.) to serve as a foil to and antagonistic force towards the church -C.) to provide a semi-plausible reason to build a giant pit that can be collapsed in the climax, and a more horror focused area.

However, all three of those things can be solved either without Bi-Syn, or more gracefully with a more fleshed out (by dum tsss) manuscript. I initially wanted to have a major NPC other than the monster– a lawyer, a corporate rep, the head of security, or a researcher– but we’d already cut an entire faction and plotline for time and space.

The main reason I feel the Godsblood stuff is necessary is because making ichor overexposure lead to the effects of the godsblood synthetic recreation would undercut some of the religious and mythological cues/themes. Part of the purpose is that the company, in attempting to recreate and commodify or even weaponize this substance, is fundamentally incapable of ever grasping the divinity that makes it what it is… they try to make godhood, and create cancer.

I could probably come up with a way to communicate those themes without it, but I think at that point we’d just cut the entire plotline and develop Reuben’s (unnamed lol) settlement and hospital more– that’s a part of the setting that personally compels me and feels underdeveloped.

Maybe we could take some cues from PLT and other political intrigue modules– and look further into some of the sources from which we’ve already pulled inspiration– and communicate something as compelling. Sacrifice some breadth in exchange for depth. It’s just… I kinda like the monster lol.

At first I was thinking this maybe just doesn’t work well as a trifold, but after rating some of the more high concept, dense submissions… I totally think we can make it work! We need to revisit some stuff, streamline some stuff (like, as much as I like spoken word, we really don’t need and can’t afford that much in this medium), and I need to do some deliberate layout work.

I definitely consider this a rough first draft, and I’m excited to work on it after receiving so much constructive feedback– that’s why I’m here!

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Very excited to read this one! Have you listened to Old Gods of Appalachia? Seems like it would be up your alley. 
First off, while I love the title page, you are sacrificing a lot of space and the other pages  are very text heavy. I had to zoom in to 150% to read it comfortably.
I really like the typewriter font but I found the white on red very difficult to read. 
I'm a little unclear who Reuben is in the context of this community/setting besides the person who found the Ichor. A recently arrived mining company owner? I think a clarification when he is first mentioned "REUBEN MOSS, owner of Miners Inc who recently arrived to look for Ichor, has hired". Obviously, that's a clunky example, I'm sure there's a better wording. 
Same with Father Joseph. "Those gripped by REVELATION IIÍ-- most have been ripped from the guidance FATHER JOSEPH. " should this be "the guidance of Father Joseph" or "by Father Joseph".  On first pass I assumed Father Joseph was intentionally having people go made with divine revelation but as I get further in I think maybe it's the opposite. 
The first mention of the ABOMINATION caught me off guard as I thought I had missed something.  "If the ABOMINATION is released, he faces it and is killed." This makes it sound like it's a monster but the later description makes it sound like an illness. Also, unless I'm missing something, the Abomination Stats section doesn't have stats in it?

Love the art of the gang at the bottom of page two.  I'm unclear what the building is supposed to be in the Reuben Moss section. 

Overall, I love the setting, I see how this could be a ton of fun to play and it comes through you all had a great time creating this. A lot of the language around the religious stuff works really well and the unexplored revelations was very tantalizing.  I think taking a step back to establish what is the key pieces of information a Warden would need and making sure those are clearly communicated early on would go a long way. Maybe because this is like 30th module I've read, in the last two weeks, and many contained evil corp science experiments, but the Bio-syn stuff is less interesting and original to me than the religious and mining.  I think cutting the bio tech company,  expanding on the religious and mining elements would make this thematically stronger and more cohesive and simplify things to improve the utility. Alternatively, you could turn the secret lab into the mine and making Abomination into Ichor overexposure and I think it would streamline things.

Great job!

Developer

Thank you for rating! You’ve given me a lot to think about, and some fresh ideas. We obviously have a lot more work to do on this, so it’s never too late to cut stuff and develop other stuff.

And yeah, the layout was one of the things i was rushing to do in the final minutes before the deadline lol– it could use some work. I tried to at least make it make sense as a trifold and to have some decent typography. The white on red was a mistake however.

Submitted(+1)

Art: Well-illustrated and aside from the stat boxes, one of the more readable examples of typography I've seen this jam. Could use maybe a little more color or, if sticking to black and white, some larger swathes of black to create visual structure. That said, it is thoughtful even in its minimalism and avoids looking like a basic Word doc, which is usually the danger when people opt for black-on-white throughout. Wrapping the text around the headers was an effective choice although "REUBEN MOSS" is a bit too long for that and maybe could be just "REUBEN" there.

Writing: I get the strong impression that there was a time crunch. As someone who edits for a living, this looks to me like a talented writer who was rushing and didn't edit themselves. There are typos as others have mentioned, and some places where the information has some structure but others where it's a bit steam-of-consciousness. That said, I think there's an interesting story here and the style of writing is effective at establishing vibes. I think with some restructuring and careful editing it would end up a 5/5, but right now there are too many parts that read like preparatory notes, not a final draft.

Game Design: This is probably too ambitious for a trifold, mainly because the way the plot is designed, exploration of the facility is the central activity, but you envision five floors each with multiple locations. I do like the thought you gave to fleshing out the NPCs and potential plot arcs.

Theme: Full marks. Very mythology and very Mothership, and those two thematic axes are well-integrated throughout.

Layout: Mostly effective. I think some things could use a bit more padding and the sections of text that are in point form, like Joseph's story beats, should probably have bullets. As with the writing, I get the impression that you know how to do layout, but were probably operating under deadline panic, because there are some things that are done well and other things that aren't done at all. Finally, I know that people read pamphlets in different orders, but personally I go cover, flap, spread, back, so when the introductory overview is on the back, I end up confused and trying to piece things together as I go. I think the inner flap or left panel of the spread are the safest places for that stuff, because you're physically compelled to see them before fully opening and getting to the spread.

Utility: I have to give low marks here because of the combination of unfinished aspects and too sprawling a concept to fit effectively into a trifold. Unless the Warden is extremely good at environmental ad-libbing, you're asking them to sketch five level plans for themselves among other prep.

Favorability: Full marks here. I think it's thematically great and I appreciate ambition even if it didn't really come to fruition under space and deadline constraints.

Developer(+1)

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! Yes, deadline panic definitely played a role here– it’s my first jam, and I’m hoping that by participating in these I will improve as a creator and as someone who can meet deadlines lol. It’s an incredible filter for meeting just, unfathomably cool and talented folks with loads of great feedback.

We look forward to refining this prior to public release, as well as maybe expanding it into something more befitting the story we are trying to tell.

Submitted(+1)
  • Art 4 - Very good overall, but the white text on the red panels is a bit hard for me to read. The non-selectable text is also a small issue for on-screen accessibility. 
  • Writing 3 - some typos like 'Revalation' and 'eanxiety' should have been caught with spellcheck. 
  • Game design 3 - I feel like I need more clarity and detail on what each stage of the Revelations consist of and what thresholds players need to cross to get to them. through exposure to the Ichor. 
  • Utility 3 - I feel like if the players are investigating/stealthing into a location like the Bio-Syn lab, I would want a lot more information on how many people are present, the layout, etc.
Submitted(+1)

The style in this submission is beyond reproach. From the title logo to the character art all the way to the background texturing, the color contrasts do a ton of work.
The writing sparks in me a desire to read more, and I wish this had 12 pages to flesh out the power dynamics, how the PCs can tilt them, and knock-on effects of the ichor exposure from a mechanics standpoint (GIMME THE REVELATIONS). A couple of possible misspellings and the understanding this made it 4 seconds under the deadline does not in any way diminish the rich narrative soil presented in this trifold.

(+1)

4 seconds before the deadline, lets go!!!