I love how the crew (or flying ship or kingdom or whatever) is arguably more important than the characters. Even if a player's character dies or goes insane or has to retire, the crew abides. There's a sense of progression there that softens the impact of character loss. Progress clocks are unbelievably fun and useful and dramatic and I've stolen them for pretty much every other game I run. I also have a lot of time for a game that focuses deeply on one specific thing, Rules tightly formed around a solid core. I think this produces interesting mechanics, settings, even characters. Creativity thrives within limitations, after all.