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HOTSHOTS's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Mechanics | #9 | 3.545 | 3.545 |
| Setting (or Location) | #32 | 3.273 | 3.273 |
| Use of Theme | #46 | 3.182 | 3.182 |
| Overall | #47 | 3.114 | 3.114 |
| Story (or Starting Scenario) | #80 | 2.455 | 2.455 |
Ranked from 11 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Mechanic vice I like the fact that your skill level determinate what you can re-roll. This is quite clever solution and players that enjoy rolling lot of dice will enjoy it. It also keeps up the tension when you can always hope for success or at least poor enough roll for re-roll. Idea that each obstacle has only one solution fights against my personal rpg ideology.
Setting is your out-of-the-mill low sci-fi setting. There is nothing wrong with it but there is nothing excitingly new either. Scenario is also little dull where space heroes haul good through lawless wilderness without bigger motivation than wealth and fame. These are both fine but they have been used so many times before.
Overall the best part is mechanics and other parts are fine.
Very good comments, although part of the bare bones background includes hints that there is more to the setting (what alien device extinguished the sun and why? why are there still bases on Canada, Mongolia, and Deimos?) The goal when expanding this out wouldn't be to lean away from tropes, but to lean away from heavily prescriptive settings and into a more evocative Moorcockian style where things are labeled but seldom described. This to me isn't an often enough explored area of game design, where a lot of words get spilt on prescriptive settings that have less interest than the designer might expect to the players. I'd be curious to see what you think of Version 2, which is shaping up to be about 50 words longer in the main text and have several "Obstacle Tables" that are used to bring out some tone in the flesh of the universe.
I like the setting, and how the player characters are called hotshots.
Thanks and the word "HOTSHOTS" really did a lot of work in my entry! I'm not sure if it's common parlance, but in logistics a HOTSHOT is a very expensive (generally unplanned) movement of freight. HOTSHOT couriers in the real world can be pretty colorful characters.
I think I like this mechanical framework (though it could entail a long stretch of eye-glazing dice rerolling if probability isn't being cooperative). Character creation seems quite workable. The GM actually has some tools to use, which a lot of entries had trouble squeezing in.
Overall, damn solid. Will try to test this one with my group.
Thanks very much. I have a file started for version 2, and some ideas for single-page expansions to give the GM and players more options. (and squad rules!) I would love to get feedback to incorporate if anyone is generous enough to run a playthrough.
5 stars for setting because it can take place in Canada specifically.
Honestly though, I like these mechanics, and the title makes me imagine a kind of Top Gun in space game.
Thanks that's pretty much what I was going for and also Canada needs more RPG love. I picture the Canada base being a descendant of SNOLAB.
I like the skill setup, and I like the idea that a HOTSHOT would "run out of luck", but killing a space-dude who's out of luck doesn't seem a fair shake. Is space really soooo deadly? Failing to use a terminal correctly means I get electrocuted and lose a luck? Ouch! Take care, Space Cowboy.
Thanks! I think if you mishandle a terminal you might Retire after almost costing your crew their lives, versus Perishing which might be more suitable for a failed roll against a carnivorous rock or such. :) I think if I went further with this I'd probably let a squad develop based on characters being "out of commission" for X missions so that the people who lost their nerve on mission 1 could come back on mission 3.