I'm glad someone did something with nonlinear spaces, although I feel like the theme is weakly implemented. I guess you're entering through the surfaces of the cube, and the pocket dimension is "beneath the surface" of conventional spacetime or something, but if it wasn't an entry in this jam I'm not sure the words "beneath the surface" would come to mind.
The level of polish is decent for the most part. Everything looks nice and is readable. The main issue is information ordering. There are a few examples of that:
- Like a few other entries you seem to be expecting that people will read the middle front panel first after the cover, but I'm not sure that's how I'd read an accordion fold pamphlet, and it's definitely not how you'd read a roll fold. I'd swap the left and centre panels there.
- Assuming the middle panel is the first thing I read after the cover, I'm getting the Cube's stats before I've even got the scenario summary. I feel like most complex modules should start with a quick overview so the reader knows how the parts fit together before you start giving them the details.
- The division of the map spread into dark and light areas creates a visual break between the map and the area descriptions, which then causes the order of the descriptions not to make sense. I realized after a moment that every description is next to the corresponding cube... however, in the visual language of design, the separation of the spread into three columns with different background colours means those things aren't actually "next to" each other anymore. If you split the layout into three columns that way, then the sequence of the descriptions should just be A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, etc. from top to bottom in the left column then in the right. Or, if you want to put them next to the locations, then don't split up the background.
Usability is good overall, but what I feel is missing is some indication of what the cubes' motivations are (or who made them and what their motivations are). The setup feels like the Tesseract wants to force people to board, yet the cubes are presented as if they're defending it from intruders. So does it want them there or not? If it wants them to enter so it can kill or capture them, why?
There are other games (e.g. D&D) where there's an expectation that monsters might just "be there" because they're there, and attack you because they're monsters. But I think Mothership encourages players to think in terms of "What does this thing want? Why is it doing this to us?" and as a player I would be let down if there was no answer to that.
Overall, I think the environment is cool, you've got just enough detail in the rooms, etc. I could see myself running this, and would look forward to players' reactions when they realize that something's weird with the layout. However, I'd want to build it into a bigger scenario where I would add that missing "why" component through the events before and after.
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