Death in Space Review

Death in Space is a sci fi rpg with a unique setting and a highly streamlined rules set. It is a combination of mork borg (another rpg from the same people) and free league’s Year Zero engine.

I have not played in a group yet, however I have played some solo sessions and have read and re read the book several times.

Overview

At its core, this is a sci fi game with some horror elements. I would not call it a pure horror game like call of cthulu. The base setting of the game is something that I think could be called “Nasa Punk”.

High tec, with ships that can jump through time and space as well as FTL travel and cryo pods that allow for people to sleep for thousands of years. However, the means of creating new tec have been destroyed due to a universe spanning war that occurred in the recent past. All the ships and high tec gadgets that are used are second hand or kept together with duck tap and force of will. This element of the setting is reinforced with mechanics for tracking item condition and rules for repairing items.

Low life, the aftermath of the universe spanning “Gem War” have left people isolated and aimless. There was no clear winner in the war. Instead, all sides stopped fighting after they ground each other to dust and doomed humanity to stagnation and hopelessness. In addition to the sad state humanity has been left in, the universe has also stopped expanding. In fact it is contracting. While this is not an immediate threat like in other Borg games where the end of the world is due in a few years to even a few days, this fact still hangs in the atmosphere of setting. There is also a strange dark force that has started to affect people. Called the Void this dark magical force grants people special abilities but also drives them mad with dark knowledge about the inevitable end of the universe.

The rules are light but full featured. You have everything you need to create a character, equip them with gear, create a spaceship for exploration campaigns or a hub for games that focus more on political plots. Rules for fighting in space with your spaceship and how to upgrade and equip your spacecraft with new parts to make it more capable. It also has a system for tracking the condition of the gear you have as well as how to salvage gear you find for parts and use these parts to repair damage your gear might have taken.

Core Rules

Combat is fast and deadly as is to be expected from a Borg game. Its not uncommon for characters to start with very little hp. Meaning that a single hit will take them out of the fight and even potentially kill them. This is also true for none player characters to be just as squishy. Additionally, NPCs tend to have moral ratings. Meaning that most enemies will not fight to the death. Speeding up combat even more.

The core mechanic of the game is to roll a d20 and add modifiers you get from attributes and items. Unlike other Borg games, the GM does roll dice in this one. Combat is a more traditional affair with players trying to meet or beat the target’s AC in order to get a hit in. On the enemies’ turn they do the same.

For none combat actions, players are looking to beat a DC 12 adding modifiers from their attributes. Unlike other Borg games, there is no other DCs everything is DC 12 when going against none active opposition. When facing active opposition, like a NPC, the DC might be modified by the NPCs attributes. A npc with a low Savvy (this game’s version of charisma and wisdom) will be easier to convince than one with a high Savvy.

One twist on this mechanic is that when a player fails any d20 roll (including attack rolls) they gain something called a void point. Void points are used to activate magical abilities but they can also be used to gain advantage on a roll. Players can have a max of 4 at a time and you are encouraged to spend them since hording void points can put your character at risk of gaining void corruption. These usually negative mutations don’t have direct mechanical impacts on the characters but do introduce unique narrative problems for the character.

Advancement is done in a way that will be familiar to those that have played Year Zero engine games. Players have a series of questions that they are asked after the session. They earn an XP for each question that they are able to answer with a yes. This is a great improvement over other Borg games that have no set advancement system. Leaving advancement purely in the hands of GM fiat.

Players can spend XP to increase their max hp, improve an attribute score or gain a new special void ability.

The Good

I really like the system. I feel it honestly hits a great sweet spot being easy enough to learn in 5 mins while still having enough there for a GM and player to adjudicate just about any situation. Combat is extremely fast. Fights rarely go over the 3rd round and each round only takes about 5 minuets max. Moral checks also help shake up combat resolution with the chance for enemies to run away and look for help or surrender and enter parlay with the players.

I really like the setting. It feels like a slightly darker version of Eve Online. Players are put in the wreckage of a universe that has been ravaged by war. They must eek out their fortunes by taking on contracts from patrons and exploring long forgotten space stations left abandoned after the war. The setting also has the potential for campaigns based more on intrigue and politics since most humans live on large space stations that are falling apart and are ruled by interesting individuals that only begrudgingly work together for the sake of their own survival.

The book is full of tables. Tables to help the GM generate everything from adventures to NPCs to locations. The bestiary is a little small, with only 8 entries. However, most of the adversaries that the Players are meant to face are human in nature. Generating stats for them is extremely fast and equipping them with some gear is equally easy.

Simple evocative art in the book helps to set the mood and build a picture of the setting in your head while still presenting mechanics in a readable manner. This is something that other Borg games tend to struggle with. I am happy to say that this game has pretty pictures while still being very readable.

The Neutral

The concept of Void Points was extremely interesting to me when I first read it. I liked the idea of past failures helping to fuel future successes. For the most part, it does work out like this. However, and this could just be due to me running 2 characters alone, in game it was a little hard to remember to track them. Especially in combat where attack rolls are flying all over the place. Despite this, I believe that void points are still a nice addition to the system. It just might take a few sessions for people to get used to tracking them.

Rules as written, characters have no starting weapons. Instead, characters can choose to gain a weapon as a bonus if their attributes total to a negative number. This is … an interesting choice. I think I know why it was done as well. At its core, this game is more about relationships and exploration. Combat is very risky. Especially for starting characters that might have less than 4 max HP. The designers might have wanted to try to encourage players to interact with the world or come up with plans that could allow them to bypass obstacles without having to engage in direct violence. Characters are also meant to start out as mundane people. Even so, the lack of starting weapons is sure to make a few groups scratch their heads. In practice, the lack of starting weapons is thankfully, not felt to bad. There are rules for improvised melee weapons and the fact that characters are in dilapidated space stations most of the time means that its not a stretch for a character to be able to pick up a loose metal pipe or other heavy metal implement.

The Bad

The bestiary for this game is none existent. Its easy enough for a GM to make a monster, however the fact that the book only has 8 of them feels a little bad.

Other than that… I honestly cant think of anything else that felt bad about the game! Its a small package but extremely solid. I really think its very neat.

Conclusion

Death in Space kinda lives in the shadow of its much more popular dark fantasy brother Mork Borg however, I believe that this game deserves some time in the light.

The unique and evocative setting is flexible enough that you can run anything from Star Trek to Starwars to any other Sci fi exploration game you can think of.

The sleek rules make it extremely approachable for any first time gamer. The book also comes with an adventure for a first time GM to be able to start a campaign with out having to look elsewhere.

I really like this book and I hope that it gets some more official support soon. I encourage anyone that thinks the things I also encourage anyone that thinks what I have said sounds cool to pick up the book and give it a shot.