Death in Space: Velocity Cursed - Session 1

Introduction

I felt like starting a short-ish game of something totally different to DCC and BFRPG, the two games I've been playing recently. About two years ago I was in Forbidden Planet (London's geek megastore) with my wife and found they had Death in Space. I wasn't expecting to see it in physical form in a shop that only has a tiny section of RPG books, most of them D&D, and I showed her how nice the graphic design and layout was.

Later that year I opened a surprise birthday present from her... Death in Space! I read through it but haven't play it yet. The rules are quite simple as characters have only a few attributes and for skill checks you just roll a D20 plus your appropriate attribute and aim for 12+ (sometimes you get advantage so can roll an extra die and take the best result).

I also want to make use of Mythic GME 2nd Edition which I have in PDF form, so I'll be using that with it.

Briefly then, Death in Space is set in the far future. The universe is in a crunch state, every atom moving closer and closer to some kind of inescapable end point. All electronics hum with a strange static noise that no one can filter out. The void encroaches on civilisation, corrupting minds and making tech fail. Strange void-dwelling entities are glimpsed by old space dogs, drunk on asteroid whiskey.

A ninety year war broke out over control of Tenebris, a system where mysterious gems were discovered and used to power advanced technology. That war ended ten years ago with the supply of gems completely disrupted, leaving all tech that depended on them slowly falling into disrepair, unable to be restored without more of the extremely scarce gems.

Chargen

Let's get to character creation. I'm going to roll this guy up following the procedure in the book, rolling randomly where that option is given. Abilities are generated by rolling 2D4 and subtracting the second one from the first.

Body (BDY): 2 | Dexterity (DEX): -2 | Savvy (SVY): 0 | Tech (TEC) 2

Origin: Velocity Cursed.

"Ill-fated ones that have started to lose their connection to reality. They shift and flicker in and out of spacetime with glitching faces.

Origin Benefit: Future memory.

"You have already been here. Once per session, ask the referee for directions."

Background: Tow Trucker

Trait: Rough

Looks: Weathered clothes

Drive: An event (See below)

Past Allegiance (During the Gem War): The contract.

"As an opportunist, you swore allegiance to those who paid best."

Hit Points (1D8): 2

Savings: 17 holos.

Starting Kit: Engineer. Electric multi-tool, duct tape, tablet computer (plug in for network access), fusion welder, workwear

Personal Trinket: Notebook with names of people who have treated you badly.

Gender: Male (I chose this)

Name: Mateo Rover

Nickname: None (I chose this)

Let's ask Mythic GME's oracle about the event that drives Mateo. Rolling on the Character Motivations table:

//Travel innocent

Interesting. Let's hear from the man himself.

"I always did prefer the solitary life. We all do. Velocity cursed is what the tech brains call us. They think it's on account of the way the 'verse is headin'. I don't know about that. I do know I ain't never been entirely what you would call present in the moment. Sometimes I feel like I've done all this a million times already. Void, a trillion times! It's like deja vu 'cept it comes from your future not your memory. Like a tube light flickers and suddenly somethin' weird happens. Like... I don't know, guy's walkin' across the room but you can see him smeared out in front of himself like one long trail, where he's goin'. Or you're lookin' for your hab key and wham - you see yourself findin' it under your sleepin' bag five seconds from now, so you look and there it is.

Turns out crewmates don't particularly appreciate you givin' em your sympathies for their sister, dead two years of void cancer, then rememberin' it ain't happened yet. That's why I avoid crewing up whenever I can. Anyway, you asked about the final job I did in my first ship? Oh, 'course, sorry. I meant to say you were gonna ask me, but now by sayin' that I've gone and made another one o' those funny old forks in the path.

Hmph. Where to begin? It was meant to be a simple towing contract, but the war... That void-damned war. I never had no problem doin' any kinda job for any kinda guy. Any kinda gal. Void, any kinda AI. So I took on a simple job for the Carcer Corp out on the edge of the Tenebris system. Tow a dead duck shuttle back to the nearest port and turn it in. Profit.

'Course back then, just like now, nothin' was that simple. Ten year old girl hidin' out in that creepy old tin can, surrounded by corpses. Name of Evie. Gravgen had failed, little marbles of blood floatin' through the ship. I got her onto my rig, started towin' the can back, then lo and behold some big black unmarked raider shows up and rakes both the can and my rig with chaingun fire, orbital shotgun blasts, the whole shebang. Luckily for us they fired from such a distance I had time to get us both into EV suits, knowin' there weren't no escapin' what was comin' to us. I grabbed a-hold of that poor little girl's gloved hand and held her close.

Next thing I know I'm wakin' up back at the port in some cheap-ass medbay, stitched and patched up. I ask the chrome doc if the girl made it and he says "What girl?". Thing is I know she made it. Don't ask me how. I just know, man."

Will Rover ever find out what happened to Evie? I don't know. Anyway, that's it for this session. Rover will begin the game having bought a replacement ship which he'll use as his player hub, so we need to build it. We'll do that next time.