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CommunistCoke191 days ago

thanks so much for the comment! I’m happy you liked it, I’m going to rework the performance review part so I give the wardens a more definitive version to pass/fail. The Doppel cards and taking players to a room one on one are just some random ideas I had late in the process that I thought could dial up the paranoia as everything is trying to make the players as distrustful as possible. 

I’m not really sure what the outcome is if a Doppel escapes with humans. I’m thinking something like the ending of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and the Doppel tries to convert humans in the rest of the Galaxy. It could lead to a bigger narrative arc of the nearby system being infected and turning. Or you could take it in a blade runner way and have the company develop some test that can distinguish doppels and want some bounty hunters to find them and bring them in for experiments. 

I am planning on further developing the mining events to make them more cohesive to the narrative threads and turn up the tension. 

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CIKRO191 days ago (1 edit)

i might be in the minority here, but i wouldn't  add a definitive pass/fail, personally! i like the idea that there's no way to tell what to do. imagine one player "passing," telling the others how they passed, another trying the same thing and failing... or imagine giving what feels like perfect answers only to fail because it didn't pass the android's vibe check. i think leaving it open-ended encourages wardens to lean into the vibe of paranoia you're creating.

that said i may very well be in the minority--and if you WERE to add pass/fails, freaks like me could ignore them and go full paranoia demon anyway :D

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CommunistCoke191 days ago(+1)

when I wrote it I intended it as a vibes check basically and the warden could deduce who’d to sedate. Ad Astra was a big influence on the performance review and you see Brad Pitt mentally break while giving a psych evaluation but the robot is like you passed. When Brad gives a concise, well worded responses they ground him. In the movie it’s all about control and I thought the warden could pick the players who most defied the company that day regardless of the answers. 

My pillar of design is to provide as many fun toys for wardens to play with and to break and ignore whatever doesn’t fit their flavor. Plus I feel Mothership is more fun when it’s narratively rich as opposed to mechanically rich. That’s why I added the mod section as it’s loose ideas I thought could be implemented but didn’t necessarily think it needed to be a core feature and if a warden thought it sounded fun or not they could run with it. 

I have not actually play tested this and I do hope I get the chance this month as I work on a polished version. I think a playtest to see how the performance reviews play at the table will help me find the right balance but I really appreciate your input. I think I might end up splitting the difference but I do agree if I ran it I would just go off vibes and sedate players that I think would make the most paranoia. I just want players to point fingers and trust no one, they can’t trust the company, the crew, the mines, and most of all each other :) 

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