Play game
STRAGES - A Mothership RPG One-Shot Trifold Module's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| UTILITY — Does complexity inspire game prep? Or Is it very "Pick-up-n-Play"? | #16 | 3.629 | 3.714 |
| THEME — How well is the jam theme used? | #18 | 3.629 | 3.714 |
| GAME DESIGN — How good is the game balance or concepts there in? | #21 | 3.489 | 3.571 |
| LAYOUT — How well does the module get across information? | #33 | 3.396 | 3.476 |
| Overall | #34 | 3.250 | 3.327 |
| FAVORABILITY — how much do you personally like the submission? | #41 | 2.791 | 2.857 |
| WRITING — How does this read? does it emanate with horror, humor, drama...? | #42 | 3.117 | 3.190 |
| ART — How good is the art/graphic design? | #43 | 2.698 | 2.762 |
Ranked from 21 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Leave a comment
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.




Comments
Art: The cover photo is nice. Use of color's not bad, and everything is at least not distracting. Map is a bit too basic.
Writing: I like the central twist, that the supposed Death God is actually a protector that's going to punish the worshippers and then maybe everyone else if they accidentally came armed and committed any violence in trying to prevent the sacrifice. But there's no real story... no setup that justifies the players being here, or suggestion for wrapping things up. The premise is made a little unbelievable by the deadliness of the temple... the Temple of Peace has vats of acid to dissolve intruders, and a guardian that has no non-lethal weapons, just two massive death lasers? I guess it could make sense if the original religion was overtly hypocritical in a 1984-like "war is peace" way.
Game Design: I like the idea of just giving three adjectives for each area... that's an efficient way to nudge the Warden to come up with their own descriptions. I also like that the endgame can go different ways depending on when security is triggered and what the players have done. I'm not in love with the temple layout but I'm glad that you've made it nonlinear by adding secondary routes to the Ritual Chamber and e.g. that hole blasted in the wall of the Atrium, giving players some meaningful navigational choices instead of just funneling them from entrance to hallway to atrium to ritual chamber. Aside from that, there's a lot that I'm not crazy about, that feels kind of thrown-together and maybe more appropriate to a different system than Mothership.
Theme: I think the idea of an ancient mythology and then a modern one that gets it exactly backwards has merit, but could have been explored in a more nuanced and gradually-unfolding way than just some cultists accidentally triggering a guardian mech and getting themselves killed.
Layout: Everything is in a place that's usable and makes sense. Putting everything in boxes isn't the most interesting or visually appealing solution, but it's not terrible and keeps things from becoming a mess.
Utility: You've left it up to the Warden to figure out a setup that gets the players into the temple and makes everything make sense, but from the temple exterior to the mech battle, I can't see having too much trouble running this.
Favorability: As I said a couple of times, I like the central idea of modern cultists misunderstanding an ancient myth and getting burned by it. Everything else is not really my thing, as someone big on interesting characters, player-driven plots, and a more low-key, believable game world.
This is decent, but could be improved in a number of ways. It's got good bones, but the combat overshadows the human element.
My biggest complaint is that this is basically D&D in space (but actually still in a dungeon) using Mothership rules. There's only really one way this is intended to end, and it's pretty combat-heavy throughout. It's a decent little dungeon-crawl scenario, it just doesn't really fit the Mothership vibe in my opinion.
The layout and art are serviceable, and the plot is fine, but there isn't really anything to solve, and there aren't really many meaningful player choices that resonate. Sure, there are mechanical tradeoffs to be decided on, but there are no real stakes aside from picking your flavor of danger.
I am not really that fond of map exploration modules. In my opinion you need a gimmick that actually makes the map relevant to spend this much real estate on it. Also the cult+security mech themes don't really gel with me. I am however not sure how this feedback could help you improve anything for this module.
this was a lot of fun to read through, easy to look at, and well-conceived. great work!
This is a fun adventure with great fundamentals: strong hooks, varied and interesting enemies, puzzles, multiple entrances, jacquaysing, and a ticking clock. I like the twist too; awakening the mech by violently saving the kid is a great climax, and the option of seeing the villain get his comeuppance from the mech is a solid alternate.
In terms of feedback, I did struggle a bit with the map. I didn't really understand how it extruded from the cliff wall, and I found the Roman numerals a little difficult to scan at a glance. They definitely give some great vibes, but (for me anyways) it felt hard to parse. In Temple Exterior, there's a reference to IV. Atrium rather than V. Atrium, and in III. Hallway and VII. Control Room there are cases of VII. Ritual Chamber that should be VIII. Ritual Chamber. I'm also not sure I understood the placement of C, but that's probably a me thing.
Congratulations on creating two pamphlets for the jam, that's awesome. This is a great entry, and I can tell lots of people will enjoy running it.
Thanks a ton for the feedback.
In particular - thank you so much for picking up those errors! The amount of times you can review and still get those little changes wrong is infuriating!
Hooks were quite effective for me, the general tone and flow of the adventure are great, and the threat is a compelling one! I read a pre-submission version a week or so ago and I think you've addressed just about all of the issues I had noted when reading there - body text spacing is great, the tone of bulleted text is consistent and useful! The rooms in this dungeon are some of my favorites in the jam so far - they're dense, full of stuff for PCs to do, and you've packed in a bunch of passive skill triggers which is a huge plus.
I am still left with some questions! One, the gem icon that appears throughout still confuses me. I can't quite figure out what it's meant to represent. Also unsure if there's more to Eclipse Glyphs since they're consistently bolded, but show up in generally different contexts room to room. if it's meant to be a reoccurring illustration/piece of art, getting that into the layout somewhere could be cool!
I'd also love some more info on the Warden side as to how the temple went from a sanctuary to being known as a temple to a god of death. That kind of cultural drift is fascinating - more fleshing out of how the cultists react to being wrong and potentially some learnable answers on the "Solve" pillar of "Survive/Solve/Save" would punch this up several levels for me!
Overall though, I'm quite stoked on this one from a game design and usability perspective. Great entry! Would have a lot of fun running this.
Thanks once again!
My aim was a very concise adventure, leaning into an introductory style for both Players and Wardens. Getting the rooms useful and interesting was my main goal so its really fulfilling to see that reflected.
Another of my aims was to be able to provide some direct hooks for passive skills. I try to follow the idea that skills are a wishlist, but that can be really hard to achieve in game. So I went for it here!
The Eclipse Icon is really a mix of "well this makes sense why the cult might be sacrificing someone now" and clues to both the icon is useful (getting down to the "reveal" of the computer room) and that the JEWELS do something (open the vault door). It probably comes off heavier than it needs to - though in play, it still took a little while before my players figured it out at the altar.
There's definitely more background that could be added here, but I aimed for the functionality of a punchy temple based adventure and leave the rest a little open to interpretation. I think it could go really nicely into a 3-4 session adventure where you start at the towns, discover things, travel and then deal with the temple and aftermaths. But for a trifold, I think I'd have to sacrified the useability/targetted audience factor.
My SOLVE alignment was actually for the players to realise that Peace is the option to be safe from the Mech. It's probably a hard ask for most groups based on the default option of fighting but that's what I was aiming for.
I think this would be particularly great as an intro one-shot! I appreciate giving the Warden multiple ways to dangle the quest in front of players (i.e., loot, bounty, heroism). I’d love to see the "one hour until the twin solar eclipse” bit come into play more. In addition to being the ticking clock for the sacrifice, maybe there could be a table of events at 10-minute increments, or something? Well done, and congrats!
Thank you Sara. It definitely fits more into an introductory style, and written to help newer wardens.
You’re 100% right, a ticking clock of escalation would also work really well in here. When I ran it I found the structure enough to push the players forward without too much delay. But it would be perfect to run a clock with a group you know tends to go a bit slow through things.
This is great! You get the highest possible marks for clarity; I really appreciate anything that I pick up and immediately know what the scenario is so I can contextualize further information in that framework. The scenario is very straightforward and classic, love a giant killer robot, would definitely run.
Thank you so much! Clarity is by far my first goal. I know I'm very time poor, so anything I can do to help others in the same boat is my aim!
Likewise, it's just so much more of a joy to read something that was designed with the intent of immediate understandability.