Moonsailors

Moonsailors is subtitled “a journey amongst the stars for the lonelyhearted”, it is a storygame invoking isolation and melancoly. In terms of when it’s landing (coronavirus lockdown) it doesn’t feel like a game to match the moment.

It’s designed for tabletop play, at the start of the game 10 stars and 10 locations are scattered across the table to form an abstract map of the galaxy. During the game the inactive players are meant to look away from the table and face to face contact only happens if characters are at the same location and even then it has to be via mutual consent.

In short it is really trying to drive the knife in here on the lonliness thing here. Even in normal times I would find it a bit perverse to try to so utterly subvert a social gaming experience.

In each scene the active player describes their character exploring their location while the supporting players suggest issues or problems that might come up in whatever situation the character is in or in what they are trying to do.

The scene advice doesn’t really have strong framing criteria or structure for goals so it’s one of those games that tells the players to start with a premise. Use it to deliver around 12 to 16 scenes of good gaming material and finally create some satisfying conclusions to their character stories and the game as a whole.

So what is there here to like?

The scattered locations are a nice touch, adapting an OSR mechanism but adding a layer of character that can be missing in dice dropping strategies.

The overall theme and mood is touching and the idea of locations bearing the traces of previous visits is interesting to pursue.

It’s simple to grasp, zero prep and the physical publication is very attractive. Overall though this feels like the start of something rather than a full realisation of it.