Thank you! I do hope that the setting at least can hold up for a few scrappy space adventures.
timbot1789
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Thank you for the kind words! And yeah, I did rip the initial situation from an anime movie, Lost In Starlight, so maybe that's why the plot feels that way. It's pretty good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_in_Starlight.
If I write a version 2 of the game, I'll definitely consider structuring this as a solo TTRPG. If I keep the Location descriptions separate, I think it could work well. Although I wonder how hidden information would work in a solo RPG...
Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate the keen critiques, they're all things I should think about more. For the factory owners, my thinking for the info on the handout is that this is a mostly "in-universe" document that would be handed to the PCs by whoever sent them on the mission, and the "greedy factory owners" is supposed to be a kind of "look out for bears" warning. But you're right moving it to the GM section would give the GM more freedom in how they want to present those characters, and maybe make events a bit more surprising.
Placing the destination I did because I didn't want to put a coordinate system on the map itself (and then write the coordinates of the secret tile in the GM section). That looked very noisy to me only to be used once. But maybe the result was more confusing. Not sure.
I hadn't heard of LUMENDARK before, but this makes me want to read it! I really like the monster designs. They feel both alien and threatening. And the encounters progress quite smoothly, a simple encounter followed by a veteran followed by an epic boss fight. This scenario looks easy to pick up and run.
A few critiques:
I'd like a little more detail on the planet itself. It's clearly capable of supporting life, which creates an odd tension with the damaged life support and its associated penalties. I assume the air isn't breathable and the water isn't safe to drink? If so this could be made explicit.
I also think it would be easy for the adventure to go off the rails. I can imagine players trying to repair the life support and propulsion systems before going scavenging. Some players may not think they'd be able to find repair parts for the ship out in the brush unless explicitly told, and may stay put trying to repair the ship with what they already have (especially given how hostile the fauna are).
Overall, great work!
This is a really clever concept that I've never seen before. I really liked it! I especially liked the parts that were damaged. It makes the document feel a lot more real.
My only complaint is that I feel like I can only play it once. I don't think the challenge is quite the same if I already know what's in the document.
Also since I'd never played a game in this style before, I didn't really grok how it was supposed to be run until I read the scoring section. This meant I accidentally spoiled it for myself without realizing it! I'm not as good at following directions as your distressed astronaut hopefully is.
Thanks for the thoughtful response! In another version I'd love to add more visuals. And yes, hopefully the major events -> minor events fallthrough simulate the feeling of getting further from civilization (partly to explain why no one else has completed the adventure before them) and make later events faster to resolve, without leaving hexes totally barren. Major events usually obligate action despite containing no plot information (plot info shouldn't be distributed randomly), so they can take more time away from the mystery. Minor events can just be skipped. It can probably be tuned better with more playtesting, though.
Thanks for the review! Really great feedback. I agree with everything you said. With another draft, I'd definitely want to expand on what the AIs relationship looked like before the "breakup." And be a bit clearer on how to handle combat encounters. My intent is for combat to be optional. If the players want to be totally peaceful, they can. But if they want to pick a fight, there are people around who can fight back.
