I don't like card based mechanics. It lacks a feeling of consistency for me. I'm not too keen on journaling. Going forward, bear those first couple sentences in mind as you read this review. For Small Creatures Such As We uses all of these things and it's concept was still enticing enough for me to want to play the game. That means a lot, considering how many role playing games there for people to invest their time in.
I went into FSCSAW looking for a game that gave me ways to interact with NPCs more dynamically than I was getting with tools such as UNE and Tricube Tales Solo Rules. That was the big pull. The science fiction future environment was the second pull.
I got really bogged down in my initial game setup. Creating my character was quick. Creating my ship was a little longer, but still smooth. Creating my NPC crew slowed way, way down. This was the first sign of something lacking in FSCSAW. You pick or randomly generate a Skill, Role/Occupation, and a couple Alien-Race Traits. That's all the help you get. You don't know what they look like. What their personality is. What their aesthetic is. What kind of culture they come from. That is all left on the player to figure out ... and it is a lot. Creating my crew alone took 2-3 sessions. That was almost half the time I wound up playing FSCSAW. This, for me, was not a good thing. It could have gone a lot quicker if the game had some more tables to help with the generation of NPCs.
This is a problem that persisted for me throughout my experience with FSCSAW. Missions were left too ambiguous and didn't give you tools for quickly fleshing them out. NPCs introduced through events and missions are a very, very basic concept. For example, in one mission I was tasked with transporting pilgrims to a world. This could be neat to interact with. However, there is no follow up. No racial, cultural, religious, or any other detail about these people, or tools to help you create that. You're left with all that to cover. The same extends to missions, races, cultures, planets, factions, and so forth throughout the game. You're left not just fleshing them out, but actually coming up with everything outside that small kernel of an idea. For me this is less helpful than most oracles used in solo roleplaying. Also, what I was really looking forward to in the game wasn't there. It didn't have tools that supported the dynamic NPC interactions I was hoping for. You can have random events with your crew and passengers, but they're very basic prompts that didn't give me much to work with.
FSCSAW has a map, which gets expanded with Lust and Love. There are some named plants with reestablished flavor. It doesn't go deep, but they give you enough of an idea what the world is like that you can work out stories there. The map looks nice for what it is and each of the named worlds has some inspirational art, and events, to go with them.
FSCSAW mainly uses a deck of playing cards for it's mechanics. It's straight forward: draw cards, add up the total to overcome a difficulty number, which is usually set by drawing a set number of cards based on an event description of antagonist's abilities. Your character and crew skills or traits may enable you to draw more when relevant, or enable you to perform tasks you wouldn't otherwise be able to. Like an Engineer being able to repair a ship. Quick to learn. What took most of my time learning was the various procedures around mission types. There are a diverse range of missions, from theatrical performances as a entertainer troupe, to mining, or even scientific exploration.
The most mechanical depths that comes to mind is the bounty hunting system. It walks you through generating a target, their crimes, whether they lure you into a trap, if they have allies, and combat itself. That was one of my favorite elements of the game, even though I only had one bounty during my seven or so sessions of play. This, coming from someone that doesn't have any special fondness for playing bounty hunter characters or stories about bounty hunting.
As much as the premise called to me, FSCSAW isn't for me. If you are someone that likes smooth, steady, or quick game play with tools that help you ease the mental work load of acting as both player and game master, then FSCSAW isn't likely going to be for you. On the other hand, if you are someone that is alright stopping the flow of play, be given a prompt like "you encounter an exotic flower" with no further detail, and that is enough for you to run with and enjoy building an entire story around, then FSCSAW may be a good game for you. My personal enjoyment of the experience was low, but I can see that a healthy amount of work went into the game and the right kind of person could really enjoy this.