C A S S 1 N 1 by Joey Barranco is a role playing game published by Gnomedic.
The supplement is available as a nine page Pay What You Want PDF from itch.io. One page is the front cover. The PDF comes in two versions, the second being a printer friendly version without the backgrounds.
The first page explains that the goal is to build a solar system, develop a spacecraft, send it on a one-way mission to a planet, analyse the data then end the mission. The game requires 2-4 players, a spacecraft template, a writing tool, one d6, one d10, a fireproof bowl and a match or a lighter. A warning explains that the game is a fire hazard.
Built It. Develop It. Analyze It. End It. explains that the players are a team of scientists working to see if humanity is alone in the universe and this is done by building a solar system, a spacecraft to probe one planet, analysing the data then ending the mission by terminating the craft.
Phae One: Building is to build the solar system. This has 1d6 plus the number of players planets – so each player can create a planet – in addition to the homeworld of four types and 1d10 is rolled to determine a unique feature. There are also questions to answer about each planet and a map of the system should be drawn.
Phase Two: Develop has the destination planet chosen, the spacecraft built with 1d6 instruments with that number being the number of Discoveries to analyse. Each player creates Discoveries in secret, which are written down and added to the bowl. Each player creates four Discoveries on separate pieces of paper. Discoveries are the data to questions that the spacecraft will answer. The spacecraft is then deployed, and it may fail on launch or arrival. Failure means the Discoveries are discarded and Phase Two is done again until it’s successful.
Phase Three: Analyze has each player draw one Discover and then explain it and the impact it has on knowledge of the system. There may well be players with no Discoveries.
Phase Four: End of Mission has the spacecraft design placed in the fireproof bowl with unused Discoveries, then set on fire. Or, alternatively, recycled.
Following this is a thank you page then a spacecraft template.
C A S S 1 N 1 in Review
The PDF has bookmarks, but not useful ones. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There is a single illustration. Presentation is okay.
This is a very simple game with little replayability; it will probably work best as a one-shot to kill half an hour or so. The chances of the spacecraft not reaching the planet wasting some of the work done is a negative, and overall the game seems to have little in the way of interest. It cannot be really classed as a role playing game either, more a combination of journalling game and boardgame. C A S S 1 N 1 can be found by clicking here.
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