Our group played this today, and it was very satisfying. We made four species in all.
I enjoyed trying to come up with nonhuman facts and twists, and building on each others' contributions. Though because our species were so different, first contact was characterised by an inability to communicate, that we partly leaned into and partly skimmed over.
A great experience, and thank you for making the game!
They were all great, but the first ones we made were fire based lifeforms living on the hot side of a tidally locked planet with no other traces of life. They aren't individuals as we'd understand them, but can detach and exchange the components that make up their selves. This is done to transfer information or even fuse together several beings when a task requires it.
When advanced humans made first contact by landing in heat resistant suits, the fire beings thought these lifeforms must be like them, and suggested in their language of colours to exchange personality parts with the new arrivals. The humans recorded and played back the same colour signals, not understanding the language, and the fire beings took that as agreement and crowded in, overloading their suits and killing the landing party.
This is a great concept, and the writing is really strong. I love how the game gently guides the players away from human SF tropes. Creating anything truly alien is really hard and this iterative, cooperative approach is a neat solution.
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Our group played this today, and it was very satisfying. We made four species in all.
I enjoyed trying to come up with nonhuman facts and twists, and building on each others' contributions. Though because our species were so different, first contact was characterised by an inability to communicate, that we partly leaned into and partly skimmed over.
A great experience, and thank you for making the game!
So happy that you enjoyed it! ❤️ And thanks for the feedback.
What was the weirdest alien you came up with? Always so curious how it plays out in other groups.
They were all great, but the first ones we made were fire based lifeforms living on the hot side of a tidally locked planet with no other traces of life. They aren't individuals as we'd understand them, but can detach and exchange the components that make up their selves. This is done to transfer information or even fuse together several beings when a task requires it.
When advanced humans made first contact by landing in heat resistant suits, the fire beings thought these lifeforms must be like them, and suggested in their language of colours to exchange personality parts with the new arrivals. The humans recorded and played back the same colour signals, not understanding the language, and the fire beings took that as agreement and crowded in, overloading their suits and killing the landing party.
This sounds epic! Such a great alien race. ❤️
And I love the tried communication and that misunderstanding so much.
This is a great concept, and the writing is really strong. I love how the game gently guides the players away from human SF tropes. Creating anything truly alien is really hard and this iterative, cooperative approach is a neat solution.
Thank you! Really appreciate that feedback.
I agree, truly alien is super difficult. I think roll tables can help here, since they force a random spawn for an idea. And practice of course.
I love both space diplomacy and world building! This game is a delight, I look forward to playing it!
Thanks for the kind words. ❤️
If you do, let me know how First Contact went.