A Small Creatures Sneak Peek (Patreon)

For Small Creatures Such As We is all about your crew and your ship and so, as you explore the galaxy, you'll be given many unique prompts to flesh out each character and the relationships between them.

From planetary events like this one on Luck, the casino station:

One of your crewmates shows you a game from their home planet. How is it played? What is the goal? Do you play? If so, follow the rules for the Alien Game Service (page XX).

To this one on the monastic settlement on Windsong:

One of your crewmates gets into a philosophical argument with one of the monks. What is the main point of the argument? Do you stop it or let it play out? How do the monks react? Is there a winner?

To this unfortunate event on the spa planet Wavecrest:

One of your crewmates has been stung by a native animal. How does their species deal with poison? What happens to them? What were they doing when they got stung? Mark off a Cycle while they recover in a hospital-spa.

These events let you explore their Culture, their unique Personalities, and even their Biology in ways that unfold naturally over the course of the game.

and while I don't have any fancy layout versions to show off yet, beyond the simple Introduction page mockup where I've been testing page borders, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of the sort of events and prompts you'll be getting and get your valuable feedback.

These 13 Events are from the Travel Events section and happen whenever you draw a ♥ while traversing the Galaxy Map.

There is a slight change to be made in that one of these results will be changed to "random System event" to link in the new System Prompts.

HEARTS – Shared Moments

A – A crewmember has found some old human sci-fi media and is sharing them around with the crew. What do they think of the depictions? Does it amuse or upset them? Why? Do they share any sci-fi from their own culture? How does their media depict aliens?

2 – New and interesting smells flow from the kitchen as one of your crew mates prepares a traditional dish from their home planet. What are they making? What ingredients do they use? Is there anything that has to be removed or added to make it edible for other crew mates? And most importantly, how does it taste?

3 – Alien music fills the hallways of the ship. Is it a recording, a live performance by a crew mate, or something else? What does it sound like? How does it differ from human music?

4 – One of your crewmates comes to you with a personal problem. What is the problem? How do you help?

5 – Two of your crewmates are in the midst of a heated argument about something. What are they arguing about? Do you get involved? What is the aftermath like?

6 – One of your crewmates gets great news from home. What is the news and how do they react to it? Does it call for a celebration? If so, decrease Food by 1 but increase Happiness for all crewmates by 1.

7 – You and a crewmate get into a deep and meaningful discussion about some aspect of your pasts. What do you discuss? What do you learn about them? Are there any similarities between your pasts?

8 – One of your crewmates asks you all to join them in celebrating a holiday from their homeworld. What is it called? What is it in celebration or remembrance of? What do they do to mark the occasion?

9 – You overhear a crew member practicing your own language with the help of another crewmate or the ship’s computer. How are they faring? What effect does their biology have on how they speak your language?

10 – Spending so much time on a ship lets you really get to know a person and unfortunately that extends to the smells they make. Who is to blame? How does the crew deal with it? What causes the smell and what does it smell like?

J – A couple of your crewmates are playing an alien game, they invite you to join and explain the rules. What is it called? What is the aim? What is uniquely alien about it? Draw a card for them and a card for you, the highest card wins. What is the reward for victory?

Q – One of your crewmates shares their perspective on an event you both faced earlier in your journey. What event are they referring to? What new information comes to light? Does this change anything?

K – You and your crew spend some time together just in each other’s company talking about whatever you like. Where on the ship are you? What do you talk about together? What do you do together? Increase Happiness for any crewmate involved by 1.

So far, not including expansions or the System Prompts which are yet to be done and which flesh out each Ship System with unique repeatable prompts, For Small Creatures has 242 prompts.

With each expansion having 30 Travel Events, 42 Planet Events, and a bunch of System Prompts and expansion specific prompts, we could be looking at 500+ prompts over all. Which is pretty f-ing sweet if you ask me.

So what do you think of these prompts? Do they spark anything for you?