my group just started playing our own version of this. I drew up a very basic moon base and found someplace to put it on the moon and we created a ‘Work Order’ system in a discord chat so when ever anyone is on they can grab an order and start working and text chat back and forth with whoever is available. We also set up a voice chat for more difficult repairs that we can talk over in a live environment. Great game 100/10
My jaw literally dropped as I read that. So incredibly good.
And part of the reason I like it is that it hints at the card driven delivery activities that model train enthusiasts used to create for themselves 'back in the day.' They'd draw a card and see that they needed to get x train with y cars to the z location and pick thingsup to take to the za place.
Work orders. That is good. Can you share examples?
So we all have or have had some sort of help desk job in some way and I thought it would be a good prompt to start the dialogue. After the work order is claimed, we start the ‘action’ where anyone that’s available chimes in and adds their flavor to the repair. This was our first work order:
APOLLO 47 PHOENIX BASE WORK ORDER #: 17
Objective: Swap out existing ‘1:15 Tungsten Bore Gear’ with machined’ 1:15 Tungsten Bore Gear’
Notes: All tools must be checked out of Engineering Bay (6) and logged with Maintenance Coordinator Team
I included an ‘exploded view’ diagram of a simple turbine that I edited the text for to make it more absurd. Thank you again for creating this game. It’s such a random imagination spark that keeps me going.
These are reasonable things to ask! There is definitely a 'deep end' of RPGs which assume a lot of 'scaffolding' to already be in place.
I might guess this is best with 2-4 players. Play time is 5 minutes to days of intermittent play. I'm guessing a dedicated play session would last 20 minutes per player.
This is a fantastic work of absurdist art. I just received the hardback and man it is ever a bloated masterpiece. I love Apollo everything, and this spoke to me on a visceral level.
One question: What is an elevator pitch I can use when I encounter puzzled looks from people who are not the Apollo nut I am?
I have had people ask me, "What's the point?" They can't seem to wrap their heads around not getting XP, a character sheet, or a wild adventure. They hear the words "mundane" or "absurdist," and their eyes glass over.
The rules reference the Spotlight Player drawing a moonscape card, but there doesn't seem to be any indication of what moonscape cards are. Am I missing something?
I would LOVE to see a version of this game where you're investigating Cthulhu Mythos mysteries! One Primary Investigator, others are consultants/compatriots on the telephone or wireless or what have you. Like when Harley Warren goes down into the ghoul caves in the HPL story 'The Statement of Randolph Carter,' carrying a microphone and trailing a wire back to his friend Carter on the surface.
This game had its start, believe it or not, in recreating two things: The film trope where someone in a headset is guided through a heist by others AND 1970s astral spirit research where a researcher asks someone in a state what they see and where they are going.
The fit is there, sort of. I qualify this because in those stories things happen, and usually with economy and speed. Apollo 47 is Harley Warren saying "Okay, I see more steps. Corkscrew to the left. The walls are damper now. AHH, oh it's a root. A root touched me. <three minutes of silence> Hang on, the cable is tangled <two minutes of silence> The walls are pure dirt now..."
I'm making all sorts of negative noises but, dang, I'd love to listen to a half hour of people picking their way through cyclopean masonry and reminding each other ever five minutes to take a pull on the bottled oxygen and have you been marking the path properly?
Okay, hear me out: Apollo 47 but instead the spotlight is on the ground team of soldiers engaging the monster(s) in a monster movie and the Voices are the scientific advisors, military commanders, and (scenario permitting) other ground teams getting taken out. Instead of dry absurdist technobabble, the goal is to produce hammy monster movie dialogue.
Absolutely 110% inspired by the radio chatter in Earth Defense Force. "They came back?! After all this time?! Don't worry, our technology has advanced these past seven years! The giant bugs should be no problem for our fully-equipped EDF soldiers!" "THIS IS GROUND TEAM TWO! THEY'RE STRONGER THAN THE OLD REPORTS SAID! WE CAN BARELY SCRATCH THEM! WE'RE GETTING SLAUGHTERED OUT HERE!" "They must have EVOLVED over these past SEVEN YEARS. Can it be? Progress faster than HUMAN WISDOM?? We still have one advantage: GIANT INSECTS CAN'T FLY!" etc
Is there a way to get the NASA manuals in digital form? Can't quite afford the full asking price and shipping - so I'll go for the PDF, BUT I reaaaaally want to see these manuals - even though I'm not missing much allegedly :D
I... I... It just doesn't feel right to include the manuals in the PDF. The game isn't about the manuals, it doesn't need the manuals. The book isn't about the game because it has the manuals. The book is about bloat and comedy.
They are two separate things.
The good news is that the NASA manuals for the entire Apollo series are on the NASA website, free for the downloading: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-LMdocs.html is just a sample. There's lots of pages like this.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
my group just started playing our own version of this. I drew up a very basic moon base and found someplace to put it on the moon and we created a ‘Work Order’ system in a discord chat so when ever anyone is on they can grab an order and start working and text chat back and forth with whoever is available. We also set up a voice chat for more difficult repairs that we can talk over in a live environment. Great game 100/10
My jaw literally dropped as I read that. So incredibly good.
And part of the reason I like it is that it hints at the card driven delivery activities that model train enthusiasts used to create for themselves 'back in the day.' They'd draw a card and see that they needed to get x train with y cars to the z location and pick thingsup to take to the za place.
Work orders. That is good. Can you share examples?
So we all have or have had some sort of help desk job in some way and I thought it would be a good prompt to start the dialogue. After the work order is claimed, we start the ‘action’ where anyone that’s available chimes in and adds their flavor to the repair. This was our first work order:
APOLLO 47 PHOENIX BASE WORK ORDER #: 17
Objective: Swap out existing ‘1:15 Tungsten Bore Gear’ with machined’ 1:15 Tungsten Bore Gear’
Location: (9 Left side) Waste Processing Pump Turbine #22/Filtration Channel #5/Section #3
Inventory/Equipment: Philips #15, Hex #4, Li-Ion Battery pack (x2), Brushless/Cordless Handheld Drill, Rubber Mallet, Disposal Bags (x3), 3mm Titanium Philips Screw (x6), 4mm Titanium Hex Screw (x9), WD-40, LocTite thread glue (1x tube)
Approx. Fix Time: 30 Min.
Notes: All tools must be checked out of Engineering Bay (6) and logged with Maintenance Coordinator Team
I included an ‘exploded view’ diagram of a simple turbine that I edited the text for to make it more absurd. Thank you again for creating this game. It’s such a random imagination spark that keeps me going.
Thank you for making the game better!
😃😃🙌
I want to hear more about this after you've played for a bit.
Please keep me posted on how repairs progress.
Is there a way I can send you screenshots of our discord channel?
I am new to TTRPG. It seems this information is not included on a lot of descriptions on itch.io. Maybe it’s obvious to most people, but not to me!
These are reasonable things to ask! There is definitely a 'deep end' of RPGs which assume a lot of 'scaffolding' to already be in place.
I might guess this is best with 2-4 players. Play time is 5 minutes to days of intermittent play. I'm guessing a dedicated play session would last 20 minutes per player.
You didn’t clarify whether 2-4 includes a GM or not, but I’m going to assume it does not. So when you say 2-4 players, I assume you mean 3-5 people.
No GM!
This is a fantastic work of absurdist art. I just received the hardback and man it is ever a bloated masterpiece. I love Apollo everything, and this spoke to me on a visceral level.
One question: What is an elevator pitch I can use when I encounter puzzled looks from people who are not the Apollo nut I am?
I have had people ask me, "What's the point?" They can't seem to wrap their heads around not getting XP, a character sheet, or a wild adventure. They hear the words "mundane" or "absurdist," and their eyes glass over.
Any advice besides getting new friends?
I have no idea! Absolutely none. Maybe just do it?
Stan: I don't want to play this. There's no character sheet.
Kcnieman: There's no charsheet anywhere in the worksite? Mission Control says to check your auxiliary R-A-2 pouch.
Stan: What? No.
Kcnieman: Look on your right leg, bright orange stripe. Pull it and it velcros off.
Stan: No, I want to do D&D.
Kcnieman: The pouch has a clabber tie to untwist, then the packet unrolls. Charsheet is a pull out in the third case slot.
Stan: Stop.
Kcnieman: Okay.
OMG, that was priceless. That may be the inspirarion I needed. Thanks, Tim.
The rules reference the Spotlight Player drawing a moonscape card, but there doesn't seem to be any indication of what moonscape cards are. Am I missing something?
Ah, I thought I removed that! The cards are no longer used! Totally unneeded. I'll try to update it.
That's what I figured, but I wanted to be sure. Thanks!
I would LOVE to see a version of this game where you're investigating Cthulhu Mythos mysteries! One Primary Investigator, others are consultants/compatriots on the telephone or wireless or what have you. Like when Harley Warren goes down into the ghoul caves in the HPL story 'The Statement of Randolph Carter,' carrying a microphone and trailing a wire back to his friend Carter on the surface.
"He's dead, you fool" was such a great line!
This game had its start, believe it or not, in recreating two things: The film trope where someone in a headset is guided through a heist by others AND 1970s astral spirit research where a researcher asks someone in a state what they see and where they are going.
The fit is there, sort of. I qualify this because in those stories things happen, and usually with economy and speed. Apollo 47 is Harley Warren saying "Okay, I see more steps. Corkscrew to the left. The walls are damper now. AHH, oh it's a root. A root touched me. <three minutes of silence> Hang on, the cable is tangled <two minutes of silence> The walls are pure dirt now..."
I'm making all sorts of negative noises but, dang, I'd love to listen to a half hour of people picking their way through cyclopean masonry and reminding each other ever five minutes to take a pull on the bottled oxygen and have you been marking the path properly?
You've actually gotten me re-excited about work I put down some time ago.
Okay, hear me out: Apollo 47 but instead the spotlight is on the ground team of soldiers engaging the monster(s) in a monster movie and the Voices are the scientific advisors, military commanders, and (scenario permitting) other ground teams getting taken out. Instead of dry absurdist technobabble, the goal is to produce hammy monster movie dialogue.
Absolutely 110% inspired by the radio chatter in Earth Defense Force. "They came back?! After all this time?! Don't worry, our technology has advanced these past seven years! The giant bugs should be no problem for our fully-equipped EDF soldiers!" "THIS IS GROUND TEAM TWO! THEY'RE STRONGER THAN THE OLD REPORTS SAID! WE CAN BARELY SCRATCH THEM! WE'RE GETTING SLAUGHTERED OUT HERE!" "They must have EVOLVED over these past SEVEN YEARS. Can it be? Progress faster than HUMAN WISDOM?? We still have one advantage: GIANT INSECTS CAN'T FLY!" etc
Believe it or not, the kernel of Apollo 47 came out of 'headset communication' game experiments I was making!
Make that game you just described!
Is there a way to get the NASA manuals in digital form? Can't quite afford the full asking price and shipping - so I'll go for the PDF, BUT I reaaaaally want to see these manuals - even though I'm not missing much allegedly :D
I... I... It just doesn't feel right to include the manuals in the PDF. The game isn't about the manuals, it doesn't need the manuals. The book isn't about the game because it has the manuals. The book is about bloat and comedy.
They are two separate things.
The good news is that the NASA manuals for the entire Apollo series are on the NASA website, free for the downloading: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-LMdocs.html is just a sample. There's lots of pages like this.
Holy shit, they've ADDED SO MUCH since last time I looked!
There are thousand+ page mission transcripts! https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/alsj-rawtrans.html