Playtest draft 0.4 of Space Gerbils is up. I wasn't going to cut it here, but then I realised that I'd re-written the same page three times in as many days, which is usually a pretty good sign that I need to pump the brakes and talk to other people about it!
Nearly every part of every chapter has undergone substantial rewrites, so a complete changelog may take some time to prepare, but the highlights include:
Updated character creation, including nearly twice as many mech suit upgrades, and support for random space gerbil proficiencies; also, you now have to draw a picture of your space gerbil
Cleanup of protocol scopes and phase cycle workflow, including the removal of mandatory Threat Clocks and drastically simplified scene-ending triggers
Stress and conditions persisting across scenes deprecated in favour of new mechanics for handling long-term damage
Split downtime and away missions into two separate rules modules
Reorganised supplementary playsheets, and created form-fillable interactive versions where applicable (assuming your PDF reader software supports that kind of thing)
Additional print-and-play minifigs and interior illustrations by @artkaninchenbau (including the one up top!); minifigs now include lineart-only versions in case you want to colour them yourself
New mech suit schematics by @pencilbrony
Finally, by repeated popular request, there is now a Penguin King Games Discord server for submitting support inquiries and playtest feedback. I reserve the right to repost any interesting comments or feedback submitted there to other social media platforms for better visibility – don't say I didn't warn you!
As always, questions, criticisms, and bizarre flames are both welcome and encouraged.
