by Inkwan

aramis wrote:

Transition from one to another? No. Not averse to it, just never have seen it.
Inclusion of a second? many. Too many to list.

This - although within fantasy we have often drifted from sword and sorcery to YA fantasy to mild horror

I'd LOVE to have a TPK in 5e turn into Shadow of the Demon Lord. OR, TinyD6 bouncing through settings and genres via time travel starting in a sci fantasy setting so history is also fantastical

by KingChrysanthos

In 32%, you wake up on a strange planet amidst a wreckage of a recent spaceship crash. You have no memory of why are you there or what happened before. All you know, with a concerned beep of your spacesuit, is that you have 32% of life support left and declining … enough to last you about 7 days. Knowing that, and with a possible but slim chance of rescue, what do you do?

Where are you?
As you wake up and look around you, what is the planet like? The first step in the game is rolling a d6 to get a prompt for what features you notice about the planet. It could be a planet shrouded in darkness apart from distant lights and nearer glowing creatures, or always bright under some form of light. It could be raucously loud and abundant with life, or extremely colorful but only with shades of one color, or constantly shifting beneath your feet. Each of the prompts is quite creative and gives you some direction about something that is distinctive about the planet, while leaving room for your observation and exploration to find out more about what these things mean and other planetary features. The pictures in the booklet are also very cute and give the vibe of eerie and unfamiliar space.

You wake up on a strange planet ...


The one thing that all planets lack is the chance for other human habitation or contact. All alone, you must decide what you are doing on these strange planet and how you feel about your time slipping down.

What will you do?
Each day is divided into exploring and gathering. Drawing a card gives you a prompt of what you have observed, which could be nearby (black) or in the distance (red). This could be geographic features, animals passing by, or even signs of old human activity. After describing what you have observed, rolling a d6 indicates what you have gathered or found, such as food, natural or man-made materials, or something that triggered a memory or emotional experience. You could decide to chart your path across the planet or make camp and stay nearby.

The booklet also has a quaint list of activities or items that you could do, such as going for a swim, or making a raft, or making a visor to protect from the sun, or a torch to explore a nearby cave. Some of the activities give the feeling of having a camping weekend away, with the planet almost being a respite from the busy and social world from whence you came. There are also some activities related to your essential needs and survival, perhaps depending also on what type of planet you are on or what you have observed. The prompts about what you see and find are helpful to guide your experience, but you also have a lot of freedom and autonomy to decide what matters and what you seek to do.

Do you want to stay … or be rescued?
My solo roleplaying game was another design by Ella Lim, A Lonely Road, which involves creating a story around travelling along a road (potentially even in space). There is much that can be seen and felt on a journey, but 32% quite starkly sets a unique path for itself with the emotional tone that it sets. There is a heavy and melancholic feel, confronting deep themes about your own mortality and even the fact of knowing that is coming up ... including with how you choose to spend your last days. It is not a game about being a space Robinson-Crusoe or a No Man's Sky about gathering a bunch of materials to survive and build a base or eventually escape on your own industriousness. 32% (and the smaller number that you may be staring at with each passing day and hour) brings the simple reality that you are on an unfamiliar and dangerous planet that you are not suited for. While you can gather some food and deal with your immediate needs, it is not a game about physical survivals. Rather, 32% is shaped by the psychological, or even spiritual, experience of living your (potential) last few days in a dire situation.

There is a hope, though slim and uncertain, that you could manage to be rescued. When gathering, there is a chance (by rolling a 6) to recover or find spare parts of communication equipment. If enough of these are gathered (as in, two different days) you have a chance to call for help and await rescue. Do you have hope that this plan would work? Do you try to be rescued, or do you accept (or even prefer) to be spending your last time on this planet? Even when seeking to be rescued, there is a greater chance that the plan would not come about ... not in time for you, anyway.

These motivations can chance as you go. If you have found and put the communication equipment together, you decide if you want to be rescued and send out a distress message. There was quite the philosophical moment where I realised that choosing to stay on the planet was not about wanting to live there, but being willing to die there ... and soon. It is perhaps more expected to want to be rescued, but one could think of in the narrative or their backstory that would caution someone against leaving or perhaps things that have drawn them to stay on the planet.

Each session of 32% is likely to generate some really deep and emotional reflections. There also some prompts to guide your thinking, such as "what motivates you to leave or makes you want to stay?" or "how do you feel about the possibility of never being rescued?" In my most recent session I started to use these more by rolling a d6 to pick a new question reflect on each night after the exploring/gathering activities. The journal you are writing could be found with your body as a record of your time and experience on the planet and how you were feeling. In one example of the artful writing in 32%, the booklet asks whether you would reflect on being your last day or whether "the empty pages after the last entry be enough to tell the story?"

Some minor critiques, because what you gather comes from a die roll, it can feel random whether you find communication parts or not. You may have a story where you are actively seeking to be rescued, but that has the same chance of finding an antenna in the ground as one where you just want to meditate and enjoy your last few days. It can also bring the story to a sudden end if you happen to find them both, but it is up to you when (or if) you send the distress call. Having a random check about whether the rescue comes each day could also have added to the feeling of waiting uncertainly or more reasons that being rescued could fail. That could also come from who finds you and how that might figure into your character's story. Still, there is room for players to come up with deeper stories in their reflection.

My experiences
My sessions with 32% have had some diverse experiences.
In my first, the character explored and scavenged materials to stay alive, but only found some parts of communication equipment on the last day. Too few, and too late, as they watched their life support system trickle down to 0% amongst a sparkle of fireflies. 🪦

In the second, they found the two communication parts and were rescued early by day 5. 🚀 My character remembered being a captured prisoner whose good fortune in surviving the crash was matched by getting a distress signal through to their compatriots.

In the third, their journey was ended even more prematurely by a fatal encounter with wild wolf creatures across a snowy mountain expanse. Having been attacked they were hounded them into a cave where they succumbed of their wounds. 🐺

Lastly, on a stormy planet of auroras and comets, with mountains of glowing caves and gemstone filled peaks, my character (hailing from a merchant family) also managed to be rescued. Indeed, their journey on the planet (originally coming to seek new discoveries and routes) proved quite fortuitous with what they had found -- and would intend to keep secret. 💎

Conclusion
Like an astronaut stranded on a strange planet, 32% knows how to do a lot with very little in quite an artful way. After determining the type of planet you are on, the explore and gather prompts provide a very clear and simple structure to follow. With whole planet before you, there is room for imagination and creativity, but it is also not creatively burdensome on the player. You could chart a course across the planet's surface and navigate astonishing features, or simply go for a swim in the river and reflect on how you feel. The "amnesia" plot device also relieves the player of needing to come up with a character or backstory, though you may think of little memories or details as you play. There are many questions, and many possibilities, but most likely few of these will be answered in the time you have … and that is okay. It has a very evocative premise of a crash landing and being stranded on a strange planet, but which brings a real emotional weight that one has to ponder and deal with. As a small booklet RPG it is easy to read through and could be played relatively quickly, appropriately keeping with the theme of scarce time. Overall, 32% is an accessible and really compelling RPG that makes me want to come back and delve deeper into the experience, both creatively and emotionally, and discover what the new world is like each time.

32% can be found (for free or name-your-own-price to support the designer) at Itch.Io here: 32%. You can also see where my RPG journey goes next at Benjamins "RPG" Review Corner .

by Anganatyr

<div>Art.</div>

by lgoldberg

Close enough

by fatandy

<div>back cover</div>

by fatandy

<div>From cover</div>

by KingChrysanthos

<div>You wake up on a strange planet ...</div>

by DracoMagister

<div>Final cover of the Minotauro spanish edition</div>

by DracoMagister

<div>Pre-release concept cover of the Minotauro spanish edition</div>

by DracoMagister

<div>Concept cover of the Minotauro spanish edition</div>

by DracoMagister

<div>Final cover of the Minotauro spanish edition</div>

by allismom3

jjz4gaming wrote:

Wow. Just got a break from Delta Green level treatment.

Trying to figure if I can join in.

Love you guys either way.

It would be great to have you join again this year,