Space Aces: Wreck Runners feedback requested

[P0rthos]

Hey Dungeon Divers! I make the Space Aces series of games, and my latest game is Space Aces: Wreck Runners.

It is a fun-filled dungeon crawler game all about exploring derelict spaceships while live-streaming stupid shenanigans to your fans. Oh and it has cool, custom-illustrated, starship geomorph tiles too.

For the Pocket Quest event, I was limited to 25 pages. But now that the event is over, I can expand the game to any size I want. I want to fill it out with more useful material and guidance and get it printed into a box set. I need your help!

Would anybody be interested in taking a look at the game (I’ll send you a free copy) and sharing some feedbacks (good, bad, ugly)?

As a group of professional dungeon crawlers, with far more experience than me, I’d love to hear your thoughts! =)

[P0rthos]

I guess you can’t direct message on these forums.

So, in that case, here is a link for a free download, good for 10 free downloads.

If you grab a copy, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

And here’s a pic of all the starship geomorph tiles (so far):

[modius]

@P0rthos

I guess you can’t direct message on these forums.

You can but need to be a slightly higher trust level — you are there now

[Steelheartx]

I spoke with you in Discord DM’s, but it’s coming in as a PNG file. So here’s my feedback for the Core rules.

Core Rules

• It’s unclear on whether the team moves together into modules. There are other parts that mention specific character actions and rolling, so I’m confused on this part. If the team moves as a unit, then does the team just choose a character for the action for the module? or can they all split up to get to more modules? If 2 or more teammates are in the same module and an area failure such as an explosion happens, does it affect them all or just the person whose turn it is?

Wrecking the Starship

• It’s unclear on whether GM does the Wrecking the Starship or if it’s a player/team activity.

• For solo it makes sense to only number the spots, then generate the airlock to maintain surprise. That depends on the answer to the prior question though.

• Step 4, Starwreck Worksheet is page 25.

• Doom Stack, I assume that you aren’t required to stack like in the picture?

• Unclear on Doom Stack and The Epilogue, I’m assuming that this means you only count the remaining Doom Stack that didn’t fall over? Or just that no more can be added and your score doesn’t go up?

• Doom Stack calculation for Rivals, do they only get the points from the dice that tipped over or do you tip the whole thing?

• Overall Feedback
  ○ Looks fun!
  ○ For those who need ideas and/or like simulationist play:
  - More tables with ideas for Aliases, Saves, and Arch-Rivals.
  - More tables with ideas for Threats, Obstacles and Other.
  - Table(s) with Red Alert Disasters or to create them from keywords similar to the Mythic Solo tool.
  ○ More guidance for solo, preferably a separate section that either shows the altered process or a rundown of what’s different. If preferred to incorporate with the main rules, then adding visual callouts or visual separation for solo would be helpful.

[Steelheartx]

Bingo Card Supplement

• Only includes 5 bingo cards, but supplement is 6 pages. Since the max for the game is 4 players, it seems like you only need 4 cards? Or is one for the GM to run for a rival?
• Page 1
• ○ Subtext uses the term “spacenet points”, but later uses the term from the main rules “space cred”. I’m guessing that spacenet points was your original name.
• ○ Space Cred differences between modes:
• § Who gets the +5 SC in SCRAM mode? Everyone but the SCRAMMED person? Is it divided, or does everyone get 5?
• § Coop mode, the way SCRAM mode and coop mode are worded make it seem like you get +5 in SCRAM/row versus only +1 in coop.
• ○ Competitive mode first line should read:
• ○ “You each get your own card and become your own a chaotic content creator.”
• ○ The square with the phrase “Get captured, on purpose” likely doesn’t need the comma.

[P0rthos]

Core Rules

It’s unclear on whether the team moves together into modules. There are other parts that mention specific character actions and rolling, so I’m confused on this part. If the team moves as a unit, then does the team just choose a character for the action for the module? or can they all split up to get to more modules? If 2 or more teammates are in the same module and an area failure such as an explosion happens, does it affect them all or just the person whose turn it is?

Players can move together as a team or individually if they want to face challenges on their own. If players are in the same module when an explosion happens, you’d use common sense for how to apply consequences. Probably both would be affected.

Wrecking the Starship

It’s unclear on whether GM does the Wrecking the Starship or if it’s a player/team activity.

GM does the Wrecking The Starship part, the players explore it. Just as a GM builds a dungeon and the players explore it.

For solo it makes sense to only number the spots, then generate the airlock to maintain surprise. That depends on the answer to the prior question though.

Yes, you could absolutely roll to see where the airlock entry point is randomly for solo.

Doom Stack, I assume that you aren’t required to stack like in the picture?

The number facing up on the dice in the Doom Stack doesn’t matter. Just make it random.

Unclear on Doom Stack and The Epilogue, I’m assuming that this means you only count the remaining Doom Stack that didn’t fall over? Or just that no more can be added and your score doesn’t go up?

Once the Doom Stack tips over, you don’t add any further dice to it. The Red Alert triggers, and it’s time to run. Once you escape, you perform the actions in The Epilogue. The Epilogue mentions tipping over the Doom Stack if it hasn’t already collapsed (under the How Did Your Rivals Do section) and then totaling the results to see how your Rivals did.

Doom Stack calculation for Rivals, do they only get the points from the dice that tipped over or do you tip the whole thing?

You tip the whole thing and add it all up.

Overall Feedback ○ Looks fun! ○ For those who need ideas and/or like simulationist play: - More tables with ideas for Aliases, Saves, and Arch-Rivals. - More tables with ideas for Threats, Obstacles and Other. - Table(s) with Red Alert Disasters or to create them from keywords similar to the Mythic Solo tool. ○ More guidance for solo, preferably a separate section that either shows the altered process or a rundown of what’s different. If preferred to incorporate with the main rules, then adding visual callouts or visual separation for solo would be helpful.

Yes! Those are great ideas. I agree completely that more tables are needed. Thanks for those ideas.

[P0rthos]

Bingo Card Supplement:

I just put in 5 bingo cards so there was variety. Just one per player is needed.

Spacenet points was just a joke. I see how it isn’t clear tho.

You get Space Cred as a team, it’s not individual, it is your team’s “ranking” so to speak. So yeah, everybody gets the +5 SC in SCRAM mode.

Yes, in Coop mode you get +1 per line you complete as a team. The idea being you mark those off from the get-go and are more likely to complete lines as a team.

As opposed to SCRAM mode that kicks off only once things have gone very wrong, and a team member has been lost, and your Space Cred has been reduced by half already. The idea was that it might work as a “catch-up” feature to help salvage a bad run.

Good catches on the typos! Sheesh.

[Steelheartx]

Ah good, that makes sense if SCRAM is “catch-up” mode. I’d recommend stating that to address the discrepency, otherwise it looks like you’re getting a bad deal for the Coop mode. Otherwise you’d be better off having one team member getting SCRAMed.

[Steelheartx]

I guess I’m unclear on the advantage of facing challenges together. Does that mean that multiple players can use their saves but it’s the same roll? Or the team decides who is rolling and you can just use your save for a teammate if needed?

I’d state that the Wrecking the Starship is for the GM (or solo player).

Haha, on the Doom Stack-ing question, I meant do you need to stack them offset or just on top of each other fully to be most stable? I guess this one is open to interpretation for the group.

On Doom Stack counting for the situation that it tipped over, do the rivals only get the points that tipped? Do you then roll the untipped for your team? Or do you just count the number of dice total?

[P0rthos]

Yeah, team could decide who is rolling, and then could use any appropriate save for those in the module if needed. Or each player could take their own action if it’s a multi-layer problem. And having backup nearby is always a nice thing when one player ends up getting their head stuck in the mouth of a Neptunian Gargle Beast.

Players can attempt to stack the Doom Stack as stable as they can, but they can only use one hand and can’t touch the stack other than putting a die on top… so it would take surgeon’s hands to stack perfectly.

So, the Doom Stack only counts towards Rival Space Cred, add up the total and then consult “Rival Results” on page 20. Nothing about the Doom Stack gives your own team any Space Cred. You just want as many dice as possible there, because higher totals mean lower Space Cred for your Rivals.

[Steelheartx]

Ok, when I read those sections on the Doom Stack again with your explanation it makes more sense. I thought since you put a die on the stack for each module attained that it functioned as a count of your team’s space cred. From that perspective it made sense that whatever tipped over became lost to your team. I see now that you just record space cred as you go and want the most dice to hopefully roll higher for the Rivals chart.

[Genghis-Pawn]

I’m probably not the best person to try to give feedback on such a thing because I have a very hard time getting past rules and into a game. But as I try to do that, here are a couple initial thoughts. Click to expand so that casual passers by don’t have to see it all.

''Wait, How do I move?''

• It might help some players/GMs to se a document with an example turn or two. Doesn’t need to go into the rulebook per se, but I read through the rulebook and found myself not knowing how movement works and/or whether the grid-pattern on the map tiles means something for gameplay.
  • Re-reading p.7, I gather that players are more or less compelled to always follow the loop of: (a) Move into a new Module, (b) Roll on p.7 for an Encounter, and then (c) resolve the encounter by ‘Interpreting the Dice’ and potentially using Saves (pp.3-4).
  • I gather that each Module is essentially one unified location and the ‘grid’ on Tiles is not functional.

''We're gonna need a bigger table...''

• The Tiles are optional flavor so these are nitpicks, but I do think the tiles could be made more usable, and I should very much like to use them:
  • I found after printing that the names of many tiles are difficult to read. A black outline around the text might help – and/or, assigning a d10icon+number on the corner of each Tile that matches its location’s description on pp.17-19.
  • Since each Tile seems to be 1 location with no further “resolution” or granularity offered by the grid, I found myself wishing that I scaled them down to about 1/2 their current L/W. On the one hand the art is great and I want to see it, so yes, larger = better. But on the other hand the tiles are large enough that if I lay them out they sprawl, and many of them are far enough away that I can’t see the art very well without craning my neck, and so smaller=better. This may vary by playercount.

[P0rthos]

Amazing, thanks for this. =)

I agree totally that it needs play examples, I want to put a series of examples of play in the back of the book, like Mythic Bastionland does. And also I am thinking about including an expected game loop graphic is a good idea too, to help further clarify how it works.

Interesting idea about making the tiles smaller. I’ll take it into consideration for sure! The goal was to make the tiles big enough so they are useful if people ever want to play a tactical game and utilize the grid with minis and stuff.