Thank you Deadnought! I take usability (how well concepts come across as well as general readability, pick-up and play) seriously. We play-tested the game twice and incorporated general feedback as well. I am happy it worked out even though I packed it with concepts. I will also look to make your feedback more clear in the pamphlet after the jam.
Regarding your question about the pilgrims, then it is also something that unfortunately got cut. Damn tiny pamphlet word count! But the idea is that the bloodletting and spinal tap is quite invasive and would lead to bodily decay regardless. The reason why the priest do it is because of their religious beliefs being exacerbated by the fungal growth in their body from genetically modifying themselves with the bioluminescent fungus from the planet. The fungus craves decaying material to "feed on" (decompose) and uses the priests as a kind of religious Angler fish light to lure in devoted but gullible pilgrims.
Regarding your question of OSE, then Mothership is actually my (almost) first experience in playing role-playing games. It's at least what got me hooked. And I do lean more towards the narrative end of the role-playing spectrum, which may be why I favored some more "theatrical" parts in the module, like the rite of passage. When running it, it was fun to ask the players what their sun-name was and have them whisper it in my ear, then putting a gene-gun to their foreheads. "MY CHILD. DO YOU ACCEPT TO LET THE LIGHT SHINE UPON YOU AND THROUGH YOU?!"... fear save.
Hi there. As a person who also worked with day/night as a motif I was very excited about this module. And you really have some interesting ideas. I wish there was a category for originality, because the time loop and jumping between the Dayscape and the Nightscape is a neat mechanic. I was thinking about a similar mechanic for another idea I had, inspired by a game dev friend of mine's mobile game The Silent Age. You should check out that game, it's really nice. There are also, by now, quite a few time-loop games, so I would check out those for how they manage the inner workings of that.
Now regarding your module, I found it quite hard to wrap my head around it. Like take the introduction for example. It seems like it perhaps comes out of a discussion in discord about Regent is the Prince etc (correct me if I am wrong), but for someone who didn't follow that, it felt a bit technical and verbose. It at least could get to the meat of the module faster.
Then take the warden notes of "The dayscape is caught in a loop, the nightscape exists after the loop, as well as during the loop". This seems needlessly confusing. Is it after, or during, or maybe the nightscape just exists? I am not sure what is meant, so I cannot give a suggestion how to improve this.
Then there are a lot of descriptions of mechanics that don't feel like they integrate with mothership. Like in Rifts "there's a 30% chance of disappearing with a pop...". When and how? and shouldn't it just be a d100 roll?
Layout-wise I would also work with the usability of the map. It seems like flipping would be happening a bit during a play session. It would be nice if the areas that are the same would align when flipped so there is less cognition used on finding the corresponding area.
Again, Theme, ideas and art are great. I would personally look at improving the writing, layout and utility of the module, and a bit of Mothership game design streamlining.
Yes. My co-designer did mention that this is what comes through the least. The module is already so packed that this is one of the things that is not fleshed out and left a bit between the lines.
Let me explain the ancient myth inspiration:
Certain Nahua cultures and Aztec peoples had the creation myth of the five suns. They believe that the world has gone through five distinct cycles of creation and destruction. This is also what I think the mainline solarians believe as they are called The Church of the Fifth Sun. The Sol Incarnate (this Solarian Schism) on the other hand is the Church of the Sixth Sun believing that the previous world has ended and this is the new world. A world which will also end either through destruction (sunslayer) or through the natural course of the binary sun where one sun is consuming the other, and out of this they will be born anew.
That is what the cryptic Solarian prayer in the module is about:
When the Unconquered Sun is consumed by its twin, and the sky forgets its name, the faithful shall be the only light. They shall carry the sun in their flesh. And when the consummation ends, they alone shall remain — and from them the world shall be seeded anew.
Yes. I did jam pack this module. I was just so inspired. There's a virtue in being concise and cutting the fat. As the writer I believe all of it is necessary to be there, but that's not always true!
Regarding the Sol-mates, though, I would be hard pressed to remove that as it underlines a big motif in the game about codependency being an unhealthy relationship. The pilgrims physically and emotionally yearn for their sol-mates while the sol-mates feed of off their literal life essence. That's why you are "assigned" a sol-mate and mechanically get the "bonded" condition where you have do a sanity save to resist them calling out for help during the Long Night.
The enlightened is what this religion calls their priests and is the false promise for the pilgrims' transcendence that ultimately brings them to their demise. So both terms are needed in this case.
But I do take it seriously that the module can be dense and hard to quickly pick up, read, and play. I will look into ways to cut some fat after the Jam!
