Let's Die In Space
Ready to play a Death in Space game with your StartPlaying GM? In Death in Space from Stockholm Kartel and Free League Games you are not the hero. There is no saving the universe. The universe is collapsing and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. But if you’re brave enough, very clever, and extraordinarily lucky, you might make enough money to not just survive, but impose your will on your small corner of space. Either that or… well… let’s not think about the alternative right now. You can refer back to this guide when that happens.
How To Get Your Stats:
In Death in Space, your character has 4 stats: Body, Dexterity, Savvy, and Tech. To generate your ability values, roll 2d4, one at a time for each of your stats. Your ability value is equal to the first roll minus the second. So if you roll a 4 and a 2 for Body, you have a Body value of +2. Your modifier will be very low, but most of the time you’re only trying to beat a 12 on a d20 roll.
How To Get Your Everything Else:
After determining your ability scores, you’ll either roll for your origin or pick, and choose one of the two listed benefits. Maybe you’ll be an ancient AI placed in a vessel of organic material who can communicate with computers as if they were people or maybe you’ll end as one of the Velocity Cursed, people who started to lose their connection to reality and might have future memory of a place they’ve never been. Next, you’ll fill out some of your character details. Roll, pick, or write your own background, trait, your character’s look, and their past allegiance. Try to keep these descriptions short and snappy. If you leave yourself a little space during character creation, you may end up discovering something about your character during play.
To determine your starting maximum hit points, roll 1d8. Your starting unarmored defense rating is 12 and determines how well you can avoid damage. Things are brutal in space. Hopefully you get some armor.
I Hear You Want Some Gear
Speaking of armor, let’s get you some gear. You have 12 + your Body score in item slots. Most items take up one slot, small items typically don’t take up a slot and especially large items take up two or more slots. If you try to carry more items than you can safely carry, you’ll start to experience some difficulties. You start the game with 3d10 holos, which is the most common currency in space. You also get some starting gear, either roll for your starting kit or pick from the list of kits. You’ll also roll for a personal trinket, which has no mechanical benefit, but can say something interesting about your character. If your ability scores have a negative sum, roll a d6 for a starting bonus and hope that it helps.
To Wrap Things Up
And that’s it! You have your character ready for Death in Space, although hopefully they don’t die in space. Good luck and have fun, you’re going to need all the luck you can get, but you’ll definitely have fun.
To find a game of Death in Space you can join, click HERE. For other games, click HERE.
- This guide was written by Jordan Hunt for StartPlaying. You can find him in most places as GM_ Jordan or sometimes in the wild buying a cortado and a muffin, he loves playing, running, and thinking about ttrpgs.
- Photo taken by me. Features a picture of the book (opened to display relevant art), a pencil, the dice required to play, and a computer on a dining room table.
