Thanks so much for this. I love those cherry-bright shrimp. Playing as an assemblage of ship and crew definitely sounds like a lot of fun. Some of the writing and worldbuilding is absolutely gorgeous.
I’ve only read it, not played it! -- but fwiw here’s a little feedback.
It was a little crunchier and more mechanically intricate than I expected, given the theme and the “rules-light” description. I think I expected something like Carta SRD or The Quiet Year.
Some aspects of this moderate complexity feel more cohesive with the tone and feel than others. Grinding for resources and investing them in improvements, and unlocking skills on the skill trees, feel like they might be cozy and satisfying.
On the other hand, I think sometimes I hankered either for greater simplicity, and/or for more clarity (especially signposting and organisational clarity). I wonder if you’ve had the chance to check out a playtest from behind a veil of silence, without giving the players guidance yourself?
For example, consider subheadings. I also wonder if it could benefit from a one-page “Getting Started” section that players could follow like a checklist on their first session, which clearly identifies the core mechanic from which the fiction will arise? If I hunt around I can see that there are moves, and tasks for experience, and campaign ideas, and a method for generating random resource drops, and a random event oracle, and a map that players / GM draw on, but I’m struggling a little to understand how it all flows together. I’m also not sure I figured out what counts as a crewmember move … (some example play might be another option to consider, especially since you write so wonderfully).
For me, the ‘Basics of Gameplay’ section gets a little tangled up by considering the with-GM and without-GM options simultaneously. Consider splitting it into two sections, even if there’s a bit of redundancy across them?
The art, the mood, the setting, the vibes, are all utterly beautiful. This game includes is some of the most mesmerizing writing I have read across all the submissions to the jam.
Fwiw, this was absolutely one of my favorite games. Thank you again for sharing!
Typos:
Any player able to tell a joke that makes a GM or other play genuinely laugh > play / player