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A jam submission

MINERVA-IIView project page

a setting guide for the TTRPG MOTHERSHIP made for triptec 2 game jam.
Submitted by akumata — 8 days, 8 hours before the deadline

Play zine

MINERVA-II's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Overall#43.9823.982
WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...?#44.0424.042
FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission?#44.0004.000
LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information?#64.2924.292
GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in?#73.8333.833
ART — How good is the art/graphic design?#84.4584.458
THEME — How well is the jam theme used?#103.6253.625
UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"?#153.6253.625

Ranked from 24 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)

I'm a sucker for having multiple competing factions in my games that players can influence, and I think this delivers on that with elegance and enough room to get really inspired for subplots.

-Idea corner-

Seeing the white dots after each objective, it would be really cool to use them as fill boxes and add a one-liner consequence if they are all filled. 

Like each time Les Enfants Terribles manage to "Gather More Members" fill a box. On three filled: 

[Organized Resistance] - Faction members secured a contraband line, and there are now weapons onboard Minerva-II !

DeveloperSubmitted

thank you for your feedback, this is a great idea ! Having stuff happening after a certain amount of dots are filled is something il be sure to expand on.

Submitted(+1)

(+) Super pleasing aesthetic and art that is still easy to read and gives plenty of breathing room

(+) Great options of factions to side with and what goals and secrets they possess

(+) Great layout to deliver generous amounts of information to detail the history, map design, rules to follow, etc

Submitted(+1)

This achieves what is perhaps the highest compliment I could pay a short module: it inspires entire storylines. Would be so easy to propel a campaign into entirely new territory by having a battle=weary crew arrive at a space station, only to get caught up in any number of plots the various faction groups have kicked off. Wonderful.

Submitted(+1)

Having this ship dock during Over/Under would have been really cool. I could see a lot of people going crazy over it. :D

Submitted(+1)

A module describing a strange colony ship docking with Prospero’s Dream, and how its society interfaces with the Dream as they make ready to move on. It provides a really nice setup for faction play, as the ship’s AI, the Dream’s corporations, and hidden rebels on board all vie for control.

Each goal is presented with a tracker, and I would have loved some guidance and suggestions on how to fill these, either through PC action, or just the passage of time, as the factions each work towards their goals.

The layout and presentation are great, with a lovely retro pixel-art style.

DeveloperSubmitted(+1)

thank you for your feedback :)
I also think that more explanations on how the tracker work would have bean useful, but because of the lack of space i had to do some sacrifices. But people seem interested in a zine for MINERVE-II so i could potentially expand the idea there :)

Submitted(+1)

The arrival of Minerva-II to Prospero's Dream provides a dangerous and unique new  location to explore as well as a disruptive event to build a campaign around. I see the clone population as recently docking on The Dream and being on the verge of leaving their ship at any moment. It is a little hard to believe this revolution took hundreds of years to develop, for my purposes I may rework the timeline a little.  A very cool addition to the setting!

DeveloperSubmitted(+1)

thank you for your feedback !

i would say it took so long because on one part you have all the clones (outside the small group of rebels) following the codex religiously making them shun those who don't follow it and mother who is authoritarian with big brother smothering there ideas and keeping them in check. Also the fact that clones who are "loyal" to mother get a early reunion with her and are switched  for other clones making for a combo that can keep control for very long. So the docking with Prosperos dream was the best moment for the opposition to act.

i hope that made it a bit more clear :)

Submitted(+1)

This is such a stellar piece of work! I love faction play and this is just writhe with so much personality.


I do have a couple of questions/nitpicks that I wish I noticed when I first read the module during the jam development.


1) A J-9 drive is crazy! Shipbreaker's toolkit lists J-4 as "experimental technology" so J-9 is almos inconceivable. Is this intended? 


2) The timeline is so long that it's hard for me to rationalize why it took 2000 years to start building a second J-9. Is the implication that space is so vast, that's just what it took coasting on thrusters/drifting through space?


3) This seems to only be an issue in print (not on PDF as much) but the purple text on black background is very hard to read.


I would totally insert this into a Prospero's Dream sandbox. It's got Campaign material written all over it!

DeveloperSubmitted(+1)

thank you for your feedback :) to answer your questions:
1. on page 31 of the ship breakers toolkit you see the mention of a J9 drive in the section "dilatation of time" since its something for generation ships and something experimental i feel it fits well as it mentions they will never be seen again and MOTHER should have the plans of one in her memory somewhere and clearly want to keep control of her clones by going far far away.

2. well space is incredibly vast yes haha and with cryopods and the incredible large distances in space 3000 years doesn't sound that much to be honest. MOTHER  primary goal given to her was to first find a suitable planet, start the cloning process and colonize that planet. but with the failure of the jump-drive and only on basic propulsion she had no choice but to take the very slow route. MOTHER needed new material too be able to make a J9 drive so she took the risk to find a place where she could get credits, buy the material and build this thing before leaving as fast as possible.

3. yes you are right, its the same with some spots in APoF where its cyan on black, il do a alternative version to make it more readable and also printer friendly !

Submitted(+1)

Omg you are SO right! J-9 is explicitly called out for colony ships. This makes so much sense!

That totally makes sense for the time periods then. I'm guessing it's a "Minerva is heading back towards civilization" vibe.

A printer friendly version would be awesome!

Submitted(+1)

First, I love the design and the layout! They’re going really well with the content and the whole clones/AI situations. The actual story and factions are quite fun to integrate in a bigger campaign as a subplot and I know exactly where I would put them in one of my table.

DeveloperSubmitted

thank you ! i hope you will have fun using the factions for your bigger campaign ;)

Submitted(+1)

"Hey, did you hear - that ship full of crazy clones docked with the Dream yesterday?"

Incredibly impressed with how much fits into a small space here and how ready-to-run it feels. 

DeveloperSubmitted(+1)

thank you ! i am glad you think so !

Submitted

The pixelated 80s style art takes me right back to my youth and is very evocative! The choice of purple text on black makes it hard for my eyes to read though - I need more contrast! But that could just be my sad old eyes. The writing is clear and to the point, with a few typos - "He strives" is repeated under heading 4 years ago in the timeline. It isn't at all clear to me why the clones don't just leave the ship once it has docked with the Dream! I'm just not sold on this module being fun for my gaming group. I can't really see a strong horror element, nor is there much of a mystery. There are two sides on the Minerva engaged in a phoney war, and the players are supposed to align with one or the other (or at least will come under pressure to), but why should they care?  It is hard to see what would motivate the players to get involved. I think some further thought on player motivation could make this more engaging for wardens as an adventure background.

DeveloperSubmitted

thank you for your feedback, for why they don't leave mother stated in the timeline in the 800 years ago that letting them leave would leave MOTHER without purpose thus she has made BIG BROTHER to smother there ideas of the outside and keep them inside even after the docking :) the horror is indeed not as present as in other modules i agree, and don't forget about the corpos also wanting a piece of the cake !