Breathless Jam 2 Upgrade - Complete
Well, we certainly made a lot more changes than planned to this one over the course of the game jam! First of all, for the easy bullet points to cover the goals from the last devlog:
- Doubled the number of example missions.
- Added some more text about mission design, and a few tips for FLEETCOM when it comes to modifying missions, dealing with players who have lost their ship and haven't gotten a replacement yet, and so on.
In talking with folks on the Fari RPGs Discord during the jam, a couple other ideas started percolating around Enemy Presence, mission failure, and bringing things to a close.
Enemy Presence now functions off a die rating system like everything else, instead of flat numbers. It goes from none (d0), to d4 all the way up to d20. Reaching d20 still serves an automatic game over state, but before then things are a bit more interesting, At the start of every session, FLEETCOM rolls the Enemy Presence die. There's an increasingly small chance that the die size will shrink or stay the same, but as things get worse it gets more likely that the die size will increase, and once Enemy Presence is a d10 there's a chance for the roll to trigger the game over. This makes things a bit more dynamic, and lets the Fleet make choices about risk for longer.
Gambits now have a risk - yes you're getting to roll a d12, maybe even two of them, but if you still fail the test than Enemy Presence increases by one Step.
The Enemy catching up, though, isn't an automatic cessation of play. If they so choose the Fleet can choose to surrender to their fate, but they can also choose to make The Last Stand. The Fleet and FLEETCOM agree on one final objective (that can't be keeping the Fleet intact, it's too late for that), and play out the final conflict between the Fleet and the Enemy to see if they can pull it off.
Finally, there are some prompts for both the Fleet and for FLEETCOM for how to wrap up the Epilogue, whether the Fleet was Ran to Ground (with some alterations for a successful Last Stand) or made it to Journey's End.
I often find myself longing to collaborate on projects, but as a solo designer I don't have an abundance of experience doing so, and also don't often feel comfortable, like, bothering people about it? But bouncing ideas around in the Fari discord scratched that itch, was a lot of fun, and I think genuinely made the game better.
A Stern Chase Is A Long Chase could probably use a bit more fancy polish, maybe even a few small edits, but I'm pleased with the level that it has finally reached. I feel pretty good about moving on to other projects for now, and slow-burning a full campaign setting/path as a supplement.
Thanks for reading/playing, and may your Fleet reach a satisfying end (even if it doesn't complete the journey)!
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Get A Stern Chase Is A Long Chase
A Stern Chase Is A Long Chase
A Breathless Game Of A Fleet On The Run
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Author | Seamus Conneely |
Genre | Role Playing |
Tags | breathless, No AI, Sci-fi, Space, Tabletop |
More posts
- A Stern Design Effort Is A Long Design Effort40 days ago
- Stern ThoughtsMay 10, 2023
- Missions and Pressure CracksNov 09, 2022
- Bundle Funding and Mission DesignOct 31, 2022
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