Interesting premise, but didn't hold me long. Maybe introduce more customer made situations and some story to make it more engaging.
Celo_SK
Recent community posts
TLDR:
Very vague rules for an RPG micro game, we had fun, but I was expecting much more. Go into it only with a well-setted party that knows how to improvise with story creation and (or at least) act.
If players are willing to act (f.e make sounds or gestures), it will be an adorably funny experience.
LONG:
I got this game in a bundle (list) and honestly, I would never think about buying a physical RPG before. We pick it (out of 350+ other games) for two reasons: This was relatively at the top of the list of all the RPGs bought in that bundle, and the title is indeed a very original "selling point", for us, who have soft spot for dogs.
What I didn't like:
The instructions are very vague. There are some examples of scenarios, which helped, but they heavily refer to movies players may not know. There is also vagueness in description of the tone. Alibistically set to "players freedom". Author could at least mention some intended tone of his/her. F.e. In RPG where we pretend we are DOGS at the end of the world, it will be majority easier to go on wacky adventure with tragi-comedic tone than trying to pretend this is serious. And for those edge-case players, who wants depressing narative there could be a caveat that it is not forbidden ofc.
We actually had this problem. Going in, we prepared the name tags on bowls, and put in some chocolate cereals to eat them dry as snack. Ready for this to be light hearted fun. But after that, we were instructed by the manual and left confused if this should be some psychologic probe into our in-game owners or story focused on dogs that are figuring out some final countdown.
This aspect was not clear from the instructions either. Are we, as dogs 100% sure and aware that world is ending? If the answer is alibistical "up to you", then I dont see a game manual, just some broad guidelines for inspiration. There are hints that we can stop the END, but at the manuals final page, this is contradicted.
There are two playable days before the end and on final day only narration should happen. On first day we clearly didn't have fun. Players managed to set up some background, but it was almoust like a heist-planing with no bank to rob, and clarity to what actually should we do.
Second day was much more entertaining. We just didnt follow the game manual at all and just started to move the dogs in the world ( before, it was just talk, because thats what insturctions told us). When action was introduced, our whole adventure suddenly had its flow and we squeezed the situational humor dry. Luckily I was playing this with the right type of players that wanted to play out dog's quirks and funny situations.
My verdict is at the top in TLDR. Personally I will be seeking new experience out of those others RPG from the bundle, then giving this one second chance.
P.s.
I Have just little experience with physical RPGs, and this may have been my first truly GM-less one. If you feel that my criticism sound "newbie" it could be the reason for my bias.
Hi. I really enjoyed it.
I got the same problems mentioned here with ports and pylons. Couldn't make them work unless reloaded, also, some things like water pump cleaning on the edges etc didn't worked until reload. Overall great experience.
I would like it to have a small story - you as a player are playing as AI sent to various planets to terraform them before humans will arrive. The first building should be special one - landing place of the rocket. And the various islands should be changed to different planets.