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I'm fine to wait for the full, refined thing! I bought in early and read one or two chapters, but I'm gonna pour through the rest on my new ereader I got as an Xmas gift so I'm ready!

I came looking for this exact thing! Glad to know it's on the way - excited to give it a read!

Thanks! I think that's great advice based on my first read. Thankfully, I decided to give it a go as a play-by-post on my personal Discord so I could still have that conversation with folks and it seems to work well (so far) for more asynchronous play that way. I'll report back when we're done!

Do you have any best practices for playing this solo? Maybe just choosing at least 3 paints and at least 3 touchstones before just running through the rest of the prompts/draws on my own?

Seems like a great bit of inspiration, especially with friends but solo too!

I wrote up a full-on review of this module after playing. Spoiler alert: I really liked it! You can read my full thoughts here: https://meatcastle.substack.com/p/dead-weight-death-begets-death

Played this with a 6-player crew today as a three-hour oneshot, and it went great! I started with a 10 minute or so quick prologue of the crew's voyage so far and then we jumped into play with The Incident. I cut most of the recommended times for the various events in half (or more) to ensure we hit all the beats, and it had a really fun ramping up effect. 

In the end, one PC died and the ship was torn to shreds, but they were able to otherwise survive the day (now if they are able to survive in the long run is a story for another time). Great module! 

Clearly laid out with great player and warden aids. If you are reading this and are unsure of the various "endings" of this module or how it may play out at your table, don't worry - it'll all click into place during play. 

I don't see why not. It's definitely made for standard play, but there's nothing mechanically that would interfere with solo play I believe.

The new layout is really fun!

Started listening to this tonight while playing my second session of MotC, and it rules! I love stuff like this for TTRPGs.

Heck yea! Looking forward to it. I've been considering doing something with the Playdate engine myself since I'd love a way to get my feet wet in video game design while keeping it do-able and bite size as a non-coder type.

I was wondering, am I'm sure more of this will come out in the full game: are there any mechanics behind the disguise choices? I succeeded but is it/will it be possible to fail? What determines it's chance of success? Some of the options seemed pretty wild if you were just trying to go into a store normally (like a guy coming in with a blindfold and ball gag might just get kicked out preemptively, lol) but with the others I wasn't sure if it was just vibes or something more (unless you want that to be hidden than don't feel like you have to explain it to me)!

This is a great proof of concept! I loved the art and the tone of it was really fun - half gross and grimy and half absurdist fun. I especially liked the shift in style to the very happy-go-lucky "Let's Make A Disguise!" screen play after all the visuals before and after, like playing Style Savvy in the middle of a Fallout game or something. Excited for the full release!

That's a great question and definitely an edge case I should include in the updates rules. My initial thoughts is that the refresh rates should stay the same as prior to KIA (since they often represent stuff happening around the soldiers from the dropship above and such). Also, that keeps there from being times it may be more advantageous to die and reinforce, which seems silly.

Thanks for checking it out!!!! That investigation and subterfuge angle was definitely what I had in mind as well. The MOUTH isn't all knowing - but it wishes it was!

Thanks for checking it out and leaving your thoughts!

Like everything in TTRPGs, it find that it very much depends on your table and your players - many goodhearted adventurers would want to save the villagers, as many as they can anyway, and the Mouth wants to see the ritual to completion more than it wants to kill newcomers (especially if it may enthrall them as well and speed up its work). If a party of adventurers flees at a sign of danger, that's certainly a choice they can make, but it's not one I think many characters worthy of the term "adventurer" are likely to choose (after all, why do most adventurery things, in that case?).  Also, if the GM telegraphs the threat at the heart of the adventurer well them leaving could even have interested play down the line as a region-wide, potentially world-ending threat is now on the loose - all because they chose to overlook it.

That said,  it's not in my style, for this kind of very small release, to feel like I need to trap the player characters inside or give a reason for adventurers to investigate - I assume they will because 1.) that kind of inquiry and action is often at the heart of the game being played and 2.) the GM at the table can easily craft far more tailored hooks for a character or campaign than I can (perhaps the Mind Masters are allied with another dark god the party has been investigating already, perhaps the village is home to a character's mother they were planning to visit while on their way to the next location, etc.).

Beyond that though, I like your slow play option - maybe even having the Mouth (in the guise of another NPC) offer the party an old building to use as their camp and slowly have things reveal themselves over the following fortnight. Same with adding more clues regarding the Mouth - there is one as written in the adventure but more couldn't hurt (and locating the Mouth or avoiding it will still prove difficult). If I were to expand this out further or add to the Mind Masteriverse as well, I'd definitely be thinking back on your critiques and seeing how I could address them further too!

Thanks for the catches - I can update those! Must have missed 'em. 

Thanks! It's been a go to of mine since using it in a Cloud Empress jam!

Thanks for the kind words! If you get a chance to take it to the table, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Thanks so much for checking it out!

Thanks for playing (and reporting back with how it went)! I would definitely like to expand it out further down the line. I have some notes for a proper campaign of missions (and I'd want to touch up and expand the rules a bit too). Sometime!

You're generally right on the Speed vs Armor front. You can tank by getting high numbers in both but Speed, with what's there now, is typically the optimal play. That's something I'd build another bonus around for Armor in a v2, for sure!

Thanks for reading it!

Thanks for checking it out! I wanted there to be some allies in the space - or folks you could attempt to have aid you or build some sort of rebellion against THE MIND MASTER. Even still, it's likely an uphill battle when you are so outnumbered! I figured for the "bad ending" I should really go all out since that's more fun (and feels more in line with the jam's pulp influences).

Aw, thanks!

Thanks for checking it out! I knew as a one shot, I couldn't quite contend with the power of THE MIND MASTER itself but the "horrible things in a remote village" structure felt like a good fit. Sounds like I need to read some Doom Patrol!

I loved getting a chance to play through this during #Valley100! This is an awesome new version I'm excited to bring to the table.

Thanks for checking it out! Yea, having it be a mundane little town on first encounter that then changes over time after a full moon would be really fun. I put the phases is there as a way to either slow play it in the background like that or to let the GM sort of dictate a "difficulty" of the adventure if playing as a one shot. 

Hey, Poison (Press) - I'm possibly interested. Shoot an e-mail to cdsorrell (at) hotmail dot com, and we can chat there!

If you are interested in learning more about the game, The Weekly Scroll did a full review a few months back: 

Oh, I love that too!

There was a STREAM?!

Yea, I have no idea if I'll actually do it/finish it, but I wanna try!

That's a cool idea - Like the original story is about his downfall or his barely scraping by victory and the adventure is how much better (or worse) it would have gone if he'd been helped!

Since most of the entries in the original Appendix N were not tabletop supplements but novels and short stories, I'm considering (outside of the time frame of the jam) writing a short story version of my module which (in this fictional Appx. N universe) is the "original" text that was adapted into the adventure (and then listed in an Appx. N alongside all the other titles). Figured I'd drop the idea here cus I'd love to see someone else do the same thing! I'd love to read a short adventure and than read a short story version of some heroic (or tragic) party making their way through it!

Thanks!

Using it in game is definitely a fun premise! I definitely don't think anyone should actually play it IRL, but having characters play it would be funny!

lol

Loving the ads! Thanks for the Ahm shout-out!

Thanks for having me take part in creating a kit! It was a ton of fun!

Hello! Thanks for reaching out! The next update is in development. I playtested some of it just about a week or so ago, in fact. Some big personal life stuff shifted a lot of my available time away from the project in recent months but things are progressing and my intent is absolutely to still see the rest through in terms of layout and art and such, though I can't give an exact timeline there yet. 

The next update is going to be a new region for the Ahmian Almanac (Raconia) and a bit more of the included adventure. I'm hoping to get the rulebook headed towards layout as well after the next pass, if timing allows.