itch.io

There was a countdown to the start of the Jam. In the time of writing this post you still have 21 days to complete the entry of yours.

Hi, Mozai, thanks for questions, I'll gladly answer them.

• I'll reword the assignment rule to make it clear that player is assigning the dice themselves, not their values. I can see now that it's kinda unclear as its more common to work with dice values.
  
• "Then choose up to two aspect dice, whose sum of the sides approaches the rolled value from above as close as possible." - I am sorry, I really though that "whose sum of the sides approaches the rolled value" si clear enough. English is not my first language, if you find better wording for this, I'll update it as well.
  
• Age of the magus is kept on the d% die as well as aspects are determined by their dice. Saying that, if you cannot raise the d% die by 10 as you passed a hundred, you cannot play a Time flow action, as your magus may be dead by that time.
  
• Fulfillment of the aspect is declared with their dice being raised to the maximum value. I'll make that clear as well.

Thanks again for your questions, it will make the game more clear!

Hello,
may I ask you, is there some game in it?

There is surely a space for creative writing based on the prompts this paper contains, but, based on the illustration itself, I really cannot see any mechanic that would involve player's decision.

If the whole point of People, Places & Perils is to provide prompts that can be explored and expanded into short stories, that's okay, but what makes you think this is a game? Because of rolling a die? I am sorry, but if there is nothing more than random content generator, that is what it is - a nicely formatted random content generator, not a game.

Hey, I stumbled upon your jam entry and would like to share few thoughts with you, if you don't mind.

I used my personal AMUSE rating system for review process in which the game can get up to 2 points in each of 5 categories. Let's not waste any more time, the sea creature won't stay here forever.

Aesthetics 2/2

Although the cover image for the itch.io page is not the best available, the rulebook itself is one of the best formatted documents in the Jam. I like almost everything - font choice, alignment, text formatting, usage of colors. The only downside I personally find is the coral background in the colored version. The worn-out desaturated version available as the overview on the page is much, much better.

Edit: I found out that originally I read the Seaweed Edition as "Sweeden Edition", making me think the author is swedish. My apologies and even bigger thumbs up for actual seaweed edition, which is really charming! 

Mechanics 1/2

The game does not have lots of mechanics and choice of core interpretational mechanic of communication with the Creature is thrown to choose by reader. That's a big downside for me, as the only thing mechanically related to the rules is setup of the seaside and village, and creation of the villager, an alter-ego of the player. Those sections contain even some helpful lists to choose from, but still, it is not enough to carry whole gameplay.

And it would be a nice gameplay, as the initial theme is charming and game flow division into seven days carries some potential.

Universe 1/2

The universe in this game is left almost completely undescribed and the only thing reader is left with is semi-defined location of the village. However, that itself is quite enough for imagination itself to start doing its magic. Visuals of the rulebook help to setup the mood and few surroundings that players create before the gameplay itself can be enough to hold whole game. On the other side, I can imagine that players with creational block can be discouraged to create the village and its people with so little ideas offered.

Supplements 1/2

I already mentioned that above - the rulebook is airy and formatted with enough empty space so it is a joy to read, but, sadly, that also means it lacks more stuff to give to the reader to play with.

There are two lists of adjectives to create the village, one list of questions to answer each day and a random table to roll for the sea creature's kin. It's really not that much. I'd welcome at least some ideas for player character's struggles, or random unnatural details for the creature to have (glittering skin, extra pair of tentacles, rainbow aura...). As those lists would take only about 6 lines of text, I'd definitely try to implement them in there, just to provide some additional content to the game.

Experience 2/2

The initial experience of reading this rulebook was overly positive and despite mechanic flaws of the game, I still enjoy reading it. This is one of the examples of the form above content, as the game is a pleasure to read and sparks the imagination barely by the clean text formatting. On the other side, the lack of the core resolution/interpretation mechanic of the communication between the sea creature and player characters is a downside that lots of players won't forgive and put the game aside. For those who like just to sit down and meditate a bit though, it is a really nice little game written in a way even someone without extensive RPG history will be able to experience.

Total AMUSE score: 7/10

Hi,

I checked out your entry to the Jam and here are my thoughts. I used my personal AMUSE rating system; there are five categories, and the game can gain 0 to 2 points in each. Please, note that these my are initial thoughts after reading your game rules and even some of them may seem a bit harsh, I wrote those notes mainly to highlight the strong and weak spots of your design, hopefuly leaving some suggestions for you to adapt or ignore. Your choice.

Aesthetics 1/2

The game is provided in the pamphlet format, which I personally like. The game is both portable and well structured, uses both column and row distinction to visually divide various content. I'd prefer more illustrations in the style of the cover, as now it looks like you found only single image and used it to both, the cover and background of the rules.

Mechanics 1/2

The game does not spare any time explaining what is this all about, as it is asumed the reader knows what they downloaded. I am okay with that.

The rules are written in quite a board-gamy way - there are multipe steps to build the island, the play itself has defined structure. That's why some ambiguities pop-up. The island is built also with cards touching only by the corner. The movement is though limited to the adjacent card - some readers could interpret that the movement is possible only in orthogonal directions, making some diagonal cards unreachable.

Some rules could use a streamlining/rewording. Sentences like:

Characters traveling together are a Party; they share a token. Everyone moves at the same time.

are bit confusing and unclear, E.g., why is the Player Token explained only after its third mention, and not right at the beginning?

I really don't understand, how the Champion Challenges work. Even after two re-reads, I don't know, how the injuries are distributed during failed champion challenges, and what happens with stolen items.

Universe 0/2

The game feels undecided in this category as well. There are rather strict limitations of what each suit represents, yet the basic movitation and quest is left completely for the players to decide. The game itself is filled with speciffic names associated to various card suits and ranks, as well as the items characters may find during their journey. 

Supplements 2/2

I really appreciate the overwork done by providing the item cards. The mechanics do not limit the amount of each of those items in the world though, so I am affraid their presence may backfire. The chance to find each type of item is only 1 to 6, so duplicities may happen.

I also appreciate the presence of the card-like character sheets. They could be illustrated from both sides though, to provide some space for notes, or inventory itself, leaving more space for tiny injury/treasure/supply checkboxes. It's a nice touch to provide spare checkboxes that become available after certain actions, or obtaining speciffic item.

This is strongly personal opinion, but I really don't like using the cards from the standard deck and needing a pairing table for each suit and value, especially when the relation to the suit/rank is not tight and there are really loose assotiations (such as King-ranked cards). However, this is a pretty common mechanic for (solo) games and lots of people do not mind doing those inner translations, so I don't tear down any points for this.

Experience 1/2

I cannot get rid of the feeling that I am looking at card version of Talisman. Loose rules, highly speciffic items and locations, simple rules, both of those games provide space for role-playing. I really cannot find any mechanics that would actively support roleplaying aspect of the game except defining own quests, naming the city and island, and creating every enemy that players stumble upon. The game is really focused on a table presence, which helps it to differentiate from the lots of other game entries, but at the end it still leaves me with a feeling that the game is incomplete and cuts were made because of the rule-size limitation. The game is written in a way that I would expect to have monster tables or generators, as well as list of some random quests - only then I could take the sentence from the cover (_GMless Exploration Roleplaying Game_) seriously.

Total AMUSE score: 5/10

I just found my favorite system.

It's amazing how this jewel amongst role-playing games flew under my radar for so long. But it is so, the best things are often hidden deep-deep under the surface and you find them only by accident, or pure luck, while searching for something completely different. This amazing creation by Riverhouse Games contains everything we could possibly wish the modern RPGs had:

- simple and clear rules

- unique setting

- they do not require experienced game master

- each game is slightly different

I tried the game immediately after first read and although I was kinda nervous and, ahem, writhed on my chair a bit, after few minutes I found out that this game does not force their players into streamlined play style - whether you approach your alter-ego with all the seriousness or a humble smile on your lips, you all will be awarded equally - with an experience you all will strive to fell again. And again.

The only downside of this masterpiece is the title cover, thanks which I have constant urge to buy a pack of gummy worms.