Thanks so much for sharing this, and what you wrote with it! My design work comes from the world of jams, often with themes that one has to create based on. And the ability to so freely interpret those has led to the way I play and create a lot of times, too, like somehow forcing yourself to utilize a theme that might not naturally fit, etc.
And, for what it's worth, it's always valid to tell the game: "No, this doesn't fit, I'll do this other thing that barely sorta kinda applies to what I should be doing, but I'm not ruining what I'm doing for you!" LOL we do that as we playtest, too, and I try to write that into most of my work now (although it's harder with things that fit in a specific space like these 😅)
Finally, I'm excited to see how your future fanfic goes! I love sci-fi and pirates, and that combo of the two is always really epic! Plus, your writing is great, so whatever you write is likely to be great too :D
- ✨Beth