Hi there! I'm trying to write some more in-depth reviews for the submissions I rate and had some thoughts regarding Tsuburaya. First off, the overall concept of an underground kaiju being the site of a fuel extraction operation is awesome. It's a very evocative idea that doesn't fall in line with the usual expectations for horror content in Mothership imo and I can see a strong outline of what you'd intend a one-shot/campaign to be like in the small amount of space you had. Layout and formatting was also great, simple, but great color choices and textures. As far as more specific criticism goes, here's my disorganized thoughts and what I rated for each section. I'll use half points, but when I rate for the jam I round down since you can't rate half a star.
Polish - 4.5/5
Like I said before, great layout. Simple and visually appealing. I liked the taped together and coffee-stained pamphlet look. The brown/pastel/orange color scheme is easy on the eyes and fits with the overall vibes of the supplement. Only minor nit-pick is that the red highlight text feels like it clashes a bit with the other colors present.
Favorability - 3/5
Admittedly I'm a bit picky when it comes to setting pamphlets as they can often feel like a short summary of a potential campaign versus something that's immediately game-able. This would admittedly take a fair bit of leg-work to get a session off the ground I think, especially if you want to tie everything into the general apocalypse outline laid out in the spread. Otherwise I'm a big fan of the core concept, particularly the relation of the AKAAD corporation to Tsuburaya for fuel extraction, and the idea of Bottleneck being a settlement directly stabbed into the stomach of the creature during the colonization process. It honestly does a lot of the heavy lifting here!
Usability - 3/5
Okay, the longest section since this is the most important to me. First off, setting supplements can be really difficult to make work in a trifold format! I look for immediate usability above all else. Can I quickly take the ideas present for this world and have something game-able in a short amount of time? Or is it high concept and would require me to basically write out my own scenario? This module leans more towards the latter, which isn't necessarily a bad thing honestly, it just makes me personally less likely to run something set in it versus a more generalized scenario I can put into any context I want.
- Regardless, I still rated it a 3 because there's a good variety of content here in a small space. I'm a sucker for setting books that tell a story through the monster descriptions, special gear, and NPCs present in it versus just paragraphs of lore dumps.
- d10 table inclusion is great! My party is always digging through the pockets of corpses they come across so having tables present to roll on for random junk is always nice.
- Faction/NPC list is solid and I can imagine the interplay between the three easily enough. I just feel like with the major NPCs present there isn't really a "bad guy" (Tsuburaya feels more like an inevitable environmental threat) present save for the faceless AKAAD corporation. Kind of feels like the easiest way forward is convincing all three NPCs to work together to escape inevitable catastrophe. Where's the wrench in that plan?
- Best item is the self-replicating stomach-acid fuel source. I feel like it's not terribly overpowered, as most games won't have shore-leave happening that often but when it does 1 free fuel would be a huge boon. I could see tempting my players with trying to grab as much of it as they could before the planet is destroyed. Grit mite gloves are weird but interesting. I struggle to see how they could be used outside of just swarming an unsuspecting target with mites, but maybe my more creative players would figure something out. Water seems overpriced but I suppose that's the point? Rich people water and a luxury item to sell.
- Monsters err on the side of being tough due to armor/health count imo. They're all very weird/exotic in a good way, I feel like I could surprise my players with these things pretty easily from the way their described. I feel like some of it again is slightly hard to game-ify and might just be a, "oh well that looks weird, anyways", kind of reaction from players, but that's not bad either tbh.
- K-Cells are an okay condition, I just feel like more information about the mutations would have been nice. Otherwise it just comes across as a condition that'll likely get a player killed fast and not in an entirely terrifying way. Just more prone to pick a fight and piss someone off. Maybe breaking it down into phases similar to the carc infection in Another Bug Hunt could let players ease into the full negative downsides and offer mutations as they advance?
I talked about it in prior sections, but again the core concept is very memorable. A good twist on the "beneath the surface" concept that takes a kaiju creature that influences the entire planet it's present on and inevitably turns it into an apocalypse-tier event for players to escape from.
Overall this is a trifold packed with a lot cool ideas and a decent variety of content, even if I personally might struggle to easily make it game-able compared to other setting modules. Biggest thing I thought was missing from the module was a map or more information regarding Bottleneck! I feel like most of the game would take place there so a foundation to build my own scenarios off of would have been nice, it's a fun idea for a friendly settlement. Otherwise great job! I'm saving this to drop down as a planet on my campaign map somewhere in the event my players ever take interest in the rare fuel source it's rumored to have!