itch.io

Interresting take at writing a module in the "unconfirmed contact report" elliptical style.

It  leaves a lot of work for the warden to fill the gaps. But the story has the kind of atmosphere I was looking when going into Mothership.

It took me a while, but I like it. I'd love to read more modules in that style.

Now, I have to go listen to that song, and discover what is this ground control stuff about. I hope that I'll stay safe !

Some ideas for other creatures/traps :
- Stinky Wumpus : smells at 3 tiles
- Noisy bats / bottom less precipice : smells at 2 tiles
- Wandering bats/ wumpus : every x turns they move
- Worm : spans more than one node. Moves every two turn. You must shoot its head
- Mole : armless animal, but which changes the connections between the nodes.

And to alter the geometry :
- What is a node could be connected to more (or less) than 3 nodes ?
- One way links

I'd love to see more of that game. I don't know what though...
Some other creatures / traps / features ?

I like the tone. And the mission clock describing the  Montage orbit is neat (It makes me feel in space).

The haunting escalation looks great

I'd love to read feedback on people who played it

The illustrations are great ! I want to investigate that surface 😉

I love how it starts after the job is done !

I would run a first hour with a timer, where the crew has to do the cleaning. And pretend that they will be paid depending on how well they performed

Open ended paradox

I am not found of AI art...

Incroyable ! Bravo

GG ! 201 max pour moi

Interessant !
Mais il y a 2 numéro 7. Et je n'ai pas trouve le 54...

Et on sait que ce n'est pas facile !

I will probably run it in familly at christmas. Probably with some adaptations, in a way that quantum effects become a tool  for the players and NPC.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Hmm. After reading it, the quantum effects mostly rely on state superposition, and some weird time paradoxes.

If I were to use it, think that I'd try to add some other effects. Such as :

- heisenberg principle : you can't know both the speed and location of an object

- tunnel effect : (related to heisenberg p.) in some case object can randomly cross a wall (including the ship hull 😉)

- wave function collapse : once you interact with an object with which ever quantum effect, the effect suddenly dissapears 

- intrication : I don't really know yet how to play that in an interresting way. That's an important effect !

- Maybe some bose-einstein condensate effect ( such as superfluidity . What if it happened to your blood ?)

- particule-wave duality. I am mainly watching at self interference. Different copies of an object (or pc / npc) could interfere and thus disappear / reappear as they move 🤔

EDIT : My thoughts here is how to give tools to the players, so they can actively play with quantum mecanics.

Such an evocative name. I'll read it. 
(mention of the module found in this reddit post)

Ah... Too bad it is not anymore on the store... It would be nice if you could add the apk here

Translation (from french) :

Invalid Invitation

This invitation might have expired, or maybe you don't have the permission to join

EDIT : When copy-pasting in discord, it worked. Maybe the issue was on my side. 

Thank you  for your reply !
Ships : I have realised that they can. Maybe I was doing it wrong
Save :  I don't remember if it was stuck before. I'lll try again tonight and send the save tonight
Discord : Last time I have tried, the link on the steam page did not work. I'll try again.

Hello ! nice simple 4X

Some comments :
To avoid clog, maybe ships could fly over other friendly ships ?

A bug :

I have quit the game during AI's turn (I think). Now when I load the game, it is stuck on an AI, but does not progress. So I am stuck

hey, clever use of the collections for "Mentioned in this post"

Thank your for all that work

Well, the space elevator prologue is intense ! Just with minimal words. Great  job

If I play it on my table (or part of it), I'll pay the original price 👍

Yes seing the change was fun. We that it worked because the players new that after all this, it would be setting for another game (a revolution). So they cared of what happened. 

I have tried with another group, but without the promise to play the revolution afterward. It did not work that well. I think that my method could be improved.

But still it is great to do something out of that initial exploration. It gives some purpose.

Hello ! We had a fun game yesterday with a group of friends. They incarnated a group of credule gas creature (wearing membranes, to avoid constantly mixing with each other), which have been convinced by the dominent sentient specie from their home planet to move away (because it would be "such a nice trip").

As an extra game play mecanism, we used Andrien's idea (post below) to settle population (the blue cubes, on his shot). And after that, we used a mecanism similar to Lay Me Down to play the evolution of the colonies over a few centuries.

It has been pretty chaotic but fun.

Some more personnal thoughts (for me and maybe other DM) about paradoxes in this module :

• Apparent paradoxes (Sophothesis consistent)
  • Circular Bootstrap : player's decide now, how actions they'll do later  in the past change their present. (ex: they will place a gun in the room they are now)
  • Apparent Grandparent paradox : What they originaly thought was wrong. But their is a good explaination. (ex : they thought that they used a gun produced by a factory to destroy the factory before it produced it. But it actually had been made somewhere else
• Real paradoxes 
  • Spiral Boostrap : Nazhun's case, every loop he sends himself a bit of knowledge which progresses. For each "instance" of Nazhun it is as if this knowledge came from nowhere. (Noothesis consistent).
    • Posibility for players to enter a time loop (if they where in the situation of Nazhun, recieving new information from themselves at a point of the game. they should have lost all memory equipment)
  • Real Grandparent paradox : The past actually changed and made present situation impossible.
    • Reality repares itseld through frag
    • Posibility for players to enter a time loop (they restart when the change occur)

• Multiverse with travel between them (not really a paradox) (Require Noothesis)
  • Players / NPC can travel from one reality to an other with objects / souvenir which are not consistent with the new reality. But it is not a problem

Safe behaviour :

Their interior have their own timeline, which crosses the Bolero's when they are open. However, except for a failsafe, there is now way to be sure that the objet placed in it has not already been taken / replaced next time a player/NPC opens it

Yeah ! A new game by aznoqmous !

It is ironical though, that getting that ending relies on multiverses : Nazhun telling us how many times her work still needs to be looped, and the rule book implying that she might die too early in any remaining loop.

Ah ok. It actually changes the rules of what we can do and not.
 

The odd case of Tyro :

**SPOILER**
"But where are all those Tyros ?"

I realise : if Tyro can be over 100 year old, and for exemple was 50 years old on his first loop, where was he when he aged ?
The must be some long periods (months) where there are more than 50 copies of him of all ages in the station... Thus Tyro would account for 1/6th of the station's population !
He should litteraly be everywhere (I imagine a hidden room filled with tyros) or even be able to take over the station. Unless he spent a huge part of his timeline in coffin safes, or has been attacked a lot but time-Leeches and the Kronophage. 

As a side note, on this discussion on the safe working, I would give an answer which is slightly different than yours. Here is my take :

"I would consider the safe as having a timeline which is orthogonal to the Bolero's one. Which means, it is totally independent. "Before" and "after" in the safe has no link with "before" and "after" in the Bolero.

The easiest way to play it would be : Next time a player opens the safe (player's time), it finds what has been placed last time (player's time) with no consideration of Bolero's timeline. 

A slightly more complex way to play it would be : the safe timeline does not have to be correlated with the player's timeline either... Maybe the object/character has been taken/replaced at another time. How to rule that ? You could let the player decide what they find, roll a dice, or if you (the warden) finds a nice gameplay opportunity decide yourself."

Hello. I have a question about the "Perfect Loop Ending" :
Would you force the players to travel in every remaining loops (100-D100) for Nazhun to finish her research ? Or use some other trickeries ?

Also, do you have any opinion on how "Time is no variable, but fixed" is consistent with her work going through 100 loops ? I understant it  as  "There is the illusion of parallel timelines, but it is actually the same. Although a bit more complexe that we can comprehend") 

However, how to play that ? Sometimes we want player's to solve paradoxes (Boostrap, Grandparent - as if the was only one Bolero's time line), sometimes we want to let go (Nazhun's work going through 100 loops as if there were 100 parallel Bolero's time line ; crossing out existing events...). 

I am not sure how to rule that... Any insight ?

Maybe with : "as long as player character's timeline is relatively untouched, it is okay" 🤔

I'll retain :

• Work as a team with your players how to play time travel / paradoxes. Debate and find your way together
• When players meet a npc, ask them whether he/she met them before and whether he/she befriended with the players. Eventually causing a sanity save.
• Keep track of the paradoxes caused by the players. And sometime review them together
• Use google agenda (or similar) to keep track of the events /paradoxes. Use colors to track what is solved or not
• He had "Early" run from sJan.01 to sMar.019, "Middle" from sMar.19 to sNov.11, and "Late" from sNov.11. Mixing the stages around these dates.

Edit :
This discussion has good ressources too. (Consolidated description per room + timeline, Maps, portraits)

The review from PrinceDabsALot is really helpfull ! It convinced me to buy the module ...

Lot of neat advice and feedbacks

"fix your game please"

Hey, @Omegaeclipse, that's a bit harsh as a comment. You can give helpfull feedbacks without giving orders...

Hey ! There is quick youtube review of the module. Starts at 4min40

Ok. I get it.
However, I'd feel the need to give more purpose on the relation between the "Egg" and  TSOA, and explain why the egg does not avoid collision. Here are my hacks :
- There is a crater on the Dense Crystal Protusion. It is broken, and thus the egg has lost its sensory of organ. However it discovered that humans (TSOA) could replace the array. And it now relies on them. Actually, they prove so usefull that  it started assimilating them as e new organ for "long term preservation" (ie  Thelonius Howard). However it did not realise that humans are imperfect (ie Clara's mistake),  hence its lack of reaction to avoid the collision. 
- Clara not only believes that the players are wrong, but that they actually want to crash the Asteroïd on Verden Prime

Hello ! Interresting situation !
There is one thing though that could be improved:  why do the conservationist and the "Egg" don't realise that they are on crash course with the planet ?

• Is it a manipulation of the egg who wants to crash ?
• Is it that the egg has no perception of what is ouside ?
• Is that it only has a perception of the exterior from the TSoA, and while Clara Imani is not convinced, it will not believe in the crash ?
• ...

I fell that there is something important to dig there, which would improve the storie.

I am impressed that you coded a kind of ninja rope in one hour AND had time to create multiple levels.
The game is tough though...

How did you settle the colonization outcome (ie Kate failure) ? Through narration / discussion only, or with a dice ?