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Death in Space RPG: A Dark, Sci-Fi Space Adventure by Stockholm Kartell

Death in Space RPG: A Dark, Sci-Fi Space Adventure by Stockholm Kartell

By Alex Balaniuc

Death in Space RPG is a brand new project born from the minds of Christian Plogfors and Carl Niblaeus, game designers and artists at the Swedish studio Stockholm Kartell, the same studio that created the highly acclaimed Mörk Borg. As for the previous game, Death in Space is a tribute to pen and paper RPGs, and it looks just as marvelous as its predecessor.

Today, we’re going to find out more about Death in Space RPG, a game that will blow you away with its jaw-droppingly amazing art and immersive story!

Death in Space RPG: an overview

Released on April 26, 2022, Death in Space RPG is a sci-fi adventure game with a dark and apocalyptic tone. It has been described as a fairly simple and easy to understand game, two traits that can be associated with old-school tabletop RPGs. In fact, Death in Space is an example of an OSR (Old School Renaissance) project, in that its purpose is to bring back to life the typical RPG style of the ’70s and ’80s.

Throughout your journey, you’ll find yourself floating in the vast and mysterious space on board of a spaceship (or space station), while your body is being consumed by an unknown and dangerous entity, the Void. Along with your crewmates, your ultimate purpose is to survive in this grim universe, although your future seems uncertain and marked by desperation.

There’s a reason as to why your life is in peril: the universe is gradually coming to an end due to the Big Crunch, an occurence that stops the universe from expanding and causes it to shrink instead, in a sort of reverse Big Bang. To complicate things further, the chilling presence of the Void, which seems to have been put in motion by the catastrophic Big Crunch, is always lurking around and threatening your livelihood.

You and your crew are in the Tenebris star system, where countless planets, moons, abandoned space stations and vehicles can be found. Each character will need to work hard in order to survive, and the various missions will help you repair your ship or station, find food and improve your reputation among the inhabitants of Tenebris. You’re quite a disorganized bunch, but your will to survive might be enough to guide you towards a better life.

Each character has four attributes, Body, Dexterity, Savvy and Tech, and a background that describes their origin and capabilities: Carbon, Chrome, Punk, Solpod, Velocity Cursed and Void. Choose your favorite character type, or roll the dice to get a random result, and see where it takes you.

These are the items and the information you’ll get with the Death in Space RPG manual:

  • Easy-to-understand rules
  • A system for quickly generating the characters and their Hub (spaceship or space station)
  • More than 60 different modules for customizing your Hub
  • An introduction to Tenebris and its story
  • A reparation system, through which you’ll get the replacement parts for fixing stuff
  • 20 cosmic mutations representing physical manifestations of the void
  • A system for comparing and boarding space vehicles
  • An introductive scenario to kickstart your campaign
  • More than 40 tables and generators rich in sets

Does Death in Space RPG pique your interest? If your answer is yes, then you can order it right here!