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INFOHAZARD's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| THEME — How well is the jam theme used? | #13 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"? | #18 | 3.625 | 3.625 |
| WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...? | #20 | 3.750 | 3.750 |
| FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission? | #22 | 3.333 | 3.333 |
| GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in? | #24 | 3.417 | 3.417 |
| LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information? | #26 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
| Overall | #27 | 3.476 | 3.476 |
| ART — How good is the art/graphic design? | #39 | 2.958 | 2.958 |
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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Ah I always love a good Greek mythology reference, fantastic concept! There are also ample tools for ambience and environmental setting, and while they are expertly written and I love flavor text as much as the next person, I would suggest condensing them to a few keywords and leaving the rest to the wardens.
As Aeon so humorously put it, I would like to see a clear oh fuck moment, as well as a means of resistance. The players will know soon enough that something is afoot, but the true funsies is when they try their best to resist desperately. Aside from the somatic symptoms that clearly indicate malicious influences, I would also like to see hints that prompt the players to point fingers and draw hasty conclusions. For example, if we stick with the gorgon analogy, players might try to use mirrors or other means that help avoid "eye contact". The fun is in these struggles; now the module feels slightly one-sided.
Clean design. Maybe a bit barebones on the layout front, but I am a sucker for a clean printer-friendly black and white design. There is a bit too much text overall, but this could be fixed by stripping some of the purple prose and letting the Wardens do what they do best (for those Wardens reading this, SPOILERS: The thing you do best is describing things). This reminds me of a novel in the Laundry Files series (high praise for you in case you've never read it, because that book series is my jam, at least for the first few books). That being said, I actually really like the tongue-in-cheek humor and presentation of the flavortext. It's like you read my mind.
The only thing I think is missing is an "oh, fuck" moment for the players but maybe I'm missing it. The final encounter feels a little forced (I'm not a fan of psionics in my games, but that's just, like...my opinion, man).
So in summary: clean layout, good use of simple tables, fun scenario, tighten up the text and break up the wall of text with a few boxes or horizontal separation lines, and this is a solid scenario, but personally I'd replace the final encounter with something less predictable before running it for my group.
I totally agree with a bunch of this critique. I'll say, I read BLIT by David Langford at the beginning of this jam and thought it would be a good idea for an adventure. What I didn't consider is that it's really hard to set up a cool encounter with an...image? an inanimate object? In a scenario where players have agency and you can't just write the story, you have to set up it up such that you hope something interesting usually happens, and that was the hardest part. I really wanted it to be the case that if the players rushed in they may not gain enough information to know what they were dealing with, setting up a scenario where players accidentally fall to infohazard unknowingly, but that's also sort of random and punishing. And if they do know what it is, they should handle it easily. So it was a tough line to walk, and I think I did my best given the short duration of the jam, but absolutely I think if I had more time to chew on this I would try to figure out a way to pay this off better.
The setup and information psychosis mechanic are the standout elements for me. Most of my critiques come down to personal taste or are mentioned by other comments already. I look forward to your next Mothership pamphlet!
Thank you!
I really liked the front page art! Like the black and white layout.
I assume the logs are sprinkled in at warden's discretion.
I like the villain and the Gorgon. One thing I didn't fully gather on the first read through was that the gorgon in this case is appearing on a screen and isn't a physical object. My first thought, before reading, was whether players could use cameras or reflections to negate or mitigate the gorgon's effect. No one else has mentioned this, so maybe it's just me, haha, but I firmly had Clash of the Titans in my mind going into it.
I didn't see the mechanics for how the psychic inception works, is this established elsewhere in Mothership rules? I think it would be worth clarifying explicitly if not.
I love all the tables! Great job overall
Thank you! I think the log table is called out under the section about the scanner, but I could draw more attention to that. And agreed--especially since there are multiple other entries with actual, physical gorgons--that I should probably further clarify that it is an image. I didn't think about capturing it besides downloading but it would be very interesting to see if a party had some instinct to photograph it or reflect it! "Psychic inception" is just that bonus attack, and if you lose you initiate the psychosis procedure. It's meant to be self-contained but I can take a look at it again to make sure it's as clear as it can be. Thanks again for the very detailed notes!
Well conceived, well-written overall. Minor points:
- The one place you could tighten up the writing is the logs: there's a lot of "them", "it", "we", and it didn't quite read as in-world enough for me.
- Mechanically the two saves a round thing didn't quite strike me as the right numerical balance, but I'd have to test that out.
- I had to look up "anomaly" to find it was the "solar anomaly", you might as well include "solar" each time just to make that clear.
- "may attempt" -> under what circumstances? You could make his behaviors more fixed and based on specific triggers.
- random encounters: I wanted more!
thanks for the specific feedback. One save a round seemed too brutal so I went to two, but someone else pointed out it's just one save with advantage which seems more elegant so I'll probably switch it to that.
I'm going to give the writing a once-over after judging so I'll look at a lot of what you've mentioned here. Thanks! I also would like more random encounters but unfortunately I don't know how to fit any more text in this thing :')
I shared the same quibbles as Joshua, so it doesn’t bear repeating. Very solid submission, and another that could find its way into my physical collection should it go to print.
I can appreciate the minimal almost spartan design choices because you leaned so heavily into your content descriptions. The tables are quite helpful. Lots of room for a table to tell their own story with what you’ve provided.
Thank you!
I like the minimalist design and layout. Classic look. I think it's easy to read and is a solid adventure. I'm always a fan of memetic hazards/infohazards. I think the psychosis may be too strong though. Losing eyeballs in level 2 is a lot. And if blood and bile are pouring out your ears, that seems immediately terminal.
I like the tables and diagetic hinting. Also I love that you also used the word "organometallic" in your module.
Having alcohol delay the effects is fun. This could almost be a drinking game.
What do you mean by "Give them a juicy clue from this one," exactly?
Great job!
Thanks! The "juicy clue" bit is meant to suggest that the GM should feel comfortable throwing the PCs a bone if they feel it will imrpove the experience. I think with random tables there is always a chance that a party will circle around something useful but never get the confirmation they need, so I want to put the idea in the watden's head that they can simply dispense info if it will really improve the experience of all involved.
I know this ties into a really embattled discussion about railroading so I won't take a stronger stance than that, just a thought that I had.
As a long-time Eclipse Phase player & GM, me and infohazards go way back. Art & Layout - 3 - get the job done.
Not familiar with Eclipse Phase, I'll check it out. Thanks!
I think there's lots of sauce that could still be added to the layout, but I am a sucker for a clean B/W aesthetic and it makes the excellent writing very tangible and useable! Love love the information psychosis table and the random logs, generally all-round great flow on information.
My quibbles: a couple mechanical terms don't super jive for me in a Mothership context. The double saves on Psychosis could just be one check at advantage, the dinos deal 2d4 damage instead of something like 2d5, and one NPC references a bonus action which works fine but threw me off for 5e reasons. Very small things! Overall huge favorite here. Love a freaky "peep the horror" moment!
I think when I realized I don't have the layout sauce my personal quest is to make a clean adventure that's packed with as much text and GM utility as I can possibly fit in one page haha
I appreciate your feedback! a) Definitely could rewrite this to a save with advantage, I don't know why I didn't think of that. b) Is there any reason that 2d5s is better than 2d4? I could also just use 1d10 but I prefer the center-heavy distributions two dice gives you. c) yea, I went with "bonus action" because I figured the already widely understood meaning might give me better verbal economy, but I understand how that's a double-edged sword since it's evoking rules from a different system. If this continues to be a nitpick for people I'll just take it out.
Thanks again for your kind words and constructive critique!
Since the MoSh box set only comes with 2d10 and 1d20, the general style suggested by TKG is to stick to rolls that can be made with those where possible!
Ah okay, that's good to know, thanks! Maybe I'll just switch it to 1d10 and shrug it off if my players get one-shot lmao
Your tables and the description of Information Psychosis are particular highlights. Your Logs table is especially evocative!
Thank you!