Keep working on it during zine month! I think that'd work really well!
transcendingirl
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This is a very cute game with interesting ideas! I can see myself enjoying this a lot, although the exploration is a little unintuitive (I put the alien spy somewhere and check what objects the random marks on it point to, right?).
On the note of more formal elements: Have you considered condensing the rules to a foldable bookmark? Carrying around the rules + alien with ease?
Personally, I like the art right now. The rules only being player-facing sucks, but that's game-jam stuff for you.
There isn't a lot more to say. It's quite solid, I like the narrative being communicated through the rules and the overall efficiency of the writing. Rules-wise I like the "four strikes and you're out" of dying.
A little more information on the Club would be nice. Or, rather, the affect and thought it projects towards the characters. Newfound global connection creating feelings of hopelessness/inescapability toward the Club?
It's very tight, very nice! Looking forward to more!
I fuck with this.
Some notes:
- giving GMs some love and thought is awesome, but they don't have any fundamentlly different goals from the other players. nor do I think you should worry about GMs using positive traits to impose disadvantages. you have to assume good faith, else why make games at all?
- keep the d8+d12. not only is it an interesting dice combination, but losing your companion rat would be incredibly meaningful like this. special effects on a nat20 are very hit or miss, I'd try to at least keep in mind how this adds strain to the GM.
- drop a single line about the elf wars.
- I like the small scale, local-vibe-thingy going on and pricing the kid characters out of most things (making them dependent on grownups, older siblings, etc. making special events like birthdays meaningful as well as adding weight to stuff like the Loaded Parents).
- I like the non-importance of combat and the clock element. Loss probably sucks without losing items, though adding that as a potential additional outcome seems worthwhile. It could lead to many story developments if items aren't simply replacable via currency (my pokemon cards! D:) or need time (m-my glasses! I can't see anything w-without m-muh- my glasses!). But it shouldn't be too serious. Just something to give a little more urgency, not ruin anything, at least not permanently.
- I like the bike path/trail stuff and the implications of fucking around in the forests close to home.
I fuck with it, what can I say?
There is an interesting character-creation system with a soft amount of randomness and free choice, tying the character to a past that's no longer theirs. But the game doesn't feel suited towards combat. Monsters and their tools are far too vague to be useful which does not work well in combination with a rather robust dice system.
It reads as incomplete, which is a shame, but also potential for future improvement. Tom Bloom's CAIN is an easy point of comparison, one that is also worth tinkering with and breaking wide open. There is a very solid foundation here, which I'd love to see further developed - but maybe not as a combat-focused game.
As it stands, the binary character systems are a fun portrayal of a human inside the digital. I appreciate the tables at the end. But the combat/hunt needs a better spotlight, and the text another look (some parts feel difficult to read and especially in the beginning, I could spot writing errors).
So, all in all, a typical gamejam game with a lot of worthwhile ideas. :)



