A downloadable roleplaying game.
A sci-fi survival TTRPG in which you must explore ruined spaceships to seek parts, both to sacrifice to the planet's AI overlord and to eventually fuel your escape - if you're lucky.
Close Encounters does a great job of setting the tone - it's bleak, but not devoid of hope, which makes the uncertainty of survival all the more stressful.
The core dungeon-delving, loot-gathering gameplay seems well-thought-out and the mechanics for basic stats and moves are easy to pick up. I personally found the three-level harm system a bit much upon reading it over, but perhaps it would feel more intuitive during play.
I really like the conceit of stress recovery being tied to social scenes through using memories of better times as a coping mechanism - it fits the tone extremely well, though a little more in the way of prompts for scene ideas could have been helpful.
The default PDF has a few unusual formatting choices that may throw off some readers, mostly in the form of diagonally shifting line starts. Also, at 22 pages of content, it would have been more user-friendly to have a bookmarked PDF for greater ease of navigation.
EDITED: Fortunately, there is a plaintext option available - and the dev is very receptive to constructive criticism regarding accessibility, so if you have feedback then it's well worth reaching out to see if an issue can be resolved.
Overall, Close Encounters is well worth checking out if the premise appeals to you. The plaintext version does its job well, but if you request any adjustments to it then the dev will likely oblige, which is awesome. 4/5 stars - excellent.
