THEME: Space And Stars

THEME: Space and Stars

This week's themes are all loosely categorized under space, from space-westerns, to space-fantasy, to some games entirely within their own genre.

Boar Beasts on A Barbarous Planet, by Z.W. Garth.

Boar Beasts on a Barbarous Planet is a 2-page Push Powered roleplaying game of boarfolk warriors surviving on a planet of swords-and-lasers, covered in hostile biomes and littered with the sci-fi tech of planetary invaders who couldn't cut it in this harsh world. 

Players take on the role of warriors dedicated to protecting their sounder from the many threats that plague them, in this harsh, psychedelic world. 

Push games use an interesting 'push-your-luck' mechanic, in which your can choose to re-roll and add to your roll in order to make a "weak" success stronger - but roll too high, and you meet disaster. In my opinion, it's an SRD that feels a little over-looked in the indie scene.

This game is meant to be brutal and violent, on a world that is difficult to survive. Your characters enter the story battle-scarred, and will leave the story worse, possibly even dead. This looks to be a game that’s full of prompts and roll-tables, so if you like random generation, I recommend checking this one out.

From Out of the Boundless Deep, by Scyllaycs. 

From Out the Boundless Deep is a two-player game about a mech pilot and an engineer working on the starship the Boundless. The game follows the pilot’s dangerous missions off the ship, the engineer’s meaningful repairs onboard the ship, and the brief moments the two meet between missions.

This game has two players, and no set GM. If you want to be a character who’s interacting with a dynamic set of stats and risky endeavours, you can pick up the Pilot. If you like building and modding things to set up the two of you for future challenges, then the Engineer might be more your style. The Game itself is split into two phases: Ship Phase and Mission Phase, with each phase giving the player a chance to shine. A Tarot Deck will be used to provide benefits and drawbacks throughout the course of play.

This is a game where you can really explore the conflict and community between two characters, in a situation where they can’t always communicate in a way they’d like. It doesn't demand an epic storyline but definitely has the space for it. This is also a great game for two people who have different and complimentary styles of play. 

Dead Belt, by A Couple of Drakes. 

Dead Belt is played by building a Belter and taking them out into the Belt to scavenge randomly-generated starships, using things you already have laying around: a six-sided die, a deck of common playing cards, and a few tokens of whatever sort happen to be close at hand.

With a dozen unique ship deck plans, over 100 flavorful prompts, and plenty of character stats to help you avert certain death, no two ships will ever feel the same. You’ll board these derelict starships, navigate barriers, dodge threats, monitor your air-supply, and salvage as you go.

You’ll deal with all the dangers lurking onboard these starships, push your luck, and finally return to spend your hard-won booty to secure better equipment, improve your skills, pay down your crippling debt, and hopefully, maybe, eventually set yourself up to live out your dreams far from the Belt.

There are three ways to play this game: Solo, Co-Op and Rivalry. This means that in a two-player game, you can choose to either work together or attempt to sabotage each-other in a race for pay. This game is an homage to Cowboy Bebop and similar Space Westerns, with a lot of tantalizing options designed for duet play.

Vaults of Vaarn, by graculusdroog.

Vaults of Vaarn is a 48-page, black and white tabletop RPG zine, which presents setting information, a full game system, and character creation procedure for adventures in Vaarn, a vast blue desert that lies at the very end of time. The game is built on the chassis of Knaveby Ben Milton, with lightweight rules, speedy character generation, and gameplay that emphasizes creativity and problem-solving on the part of players and referee. 

This game setting feels like a space opera smashed together with acid fantasy, with bright colourful descriptions of strange monsters, NPC’s and locations. It is a dangerous setting that is designed to work with OSR games, primarily Knave but I have a feeling it would be pretty easy to steal ideas from this for other OSR systems as well. If you’re a fan of big space epics like Dune or weird futures like Numenera or Gamma World, this game is probably worth checking out.

If you want to see what the community has created for this setting, I recommend checking out the submissions to the Vaarn Summer Jam of 2022!

Nibiru, by Araukana Media.

Nibiru is a science fiction tabletop roleplaying game, set in a massive space station in a neighbouring solar system. Players take on the role of Vagabonds; people who woke up in the space station with no memories of their past.

Nibiru tackles themes of memory, nature and artificiality through simple mechanics, evocative art and immersive worldbuilding.

This is a game in which you create your character’s backstory as you play, filling in pieces of memory as you explore a space station filled with strange inhabitants and abandoned or deteriorating locations. The way you write about yourself will also fuel your character progression, with rewards for creativity and turning some of your memories into tools that you can use as you play. The setting is unique, evocative, and has a lot of potential to tell a compelling and heart-wrenching story. 

If you want to see a bit of the game in action before buying it, there is a Quickstart Guide available on DriveThruRPG!

Other Space Recommendation Posts

Star Trek (and its sequel)

Space Adventures

Space Westerns

Space Fantasy

Filibusterfrog Worldbuilding etc. Masterpost

some links for you folks, easy access

General worldbuilding

Half elves’ Home Made Families

The Orc Smear Campaign

Chameleon Dragonborn

Elf Hair

Albinism pt 1/ pt 2

Halflings and Adoption

Prosthesis

Hybrids

Tieflings

Dragonborn 

Orcs                                  

Wood Elves

Drow

Dwarves

Tabaxi

Aasimar

Living Islands

Eggs

Islands pt 1

Desert Biome

Islands part 2

Bestiary

Packs

Explorers Pack

Priests Pack

Burglars Pack

Entertainers Pack

Dungeoneers Pack

Diplomats Pack

Monster hunters pack

Spell Scars

Cantrips

1st level

2nd level

3rd level

4th level

5th level

6th level

7th level

8th level

9th level

commissioned

Catalogues for toe-in-the-water furries and monsterfuckers

Cats

Metallic Dragons

Chromatic Dragons

Harpies

Cervitaurs (deer-centaur)

½ Minotaur/ quarter bulls

Seasonal Fae

Dream fae

Dryads

tiefling horns (1) (2) (3)

100 Instant NPC Agendas

When running campaign encounters, especially in a town or city environment, count on players to surprise you by seeking out encounters with walk-on NPCs you haven’t detailed. 

Whether their characters want to speak to merchants, burghers, servants, or criminals, this list of instant personalities and agendas is perfect for surprise NPCs.

Don’t bother to create an interesting character for every single encounter. 

Many scenes are best left short and sweet, allowing you to move on to an entertaining scene that relates to the main adventure. 

Every so often, you should throw in a memorable character whose agenda has nothing to do with the main plot. 

This creates the illusion that your world is a living, complex place, not a mere backdrop for the adventurers’ activities. 

Often, players remember these improvised characters and come back to them, weaving them into the ongoing story of your campaign.

Keep reading

Learning ASL

So you want to learn ASL? Congratulations on taking the first step!

Many people want to learn ASL to communicate with Deaf people, being nonspeaking, their hearing is going away, hearing fatigue, they consider ASL a "beautiful" language, or just for fun!

ASL is a language separate from english, and it's primarily used in the US and some parts of Canada. ASL, American sign language is the second biggest sign language, with the first being CSL, Chinese sign language.

Here are my recommendations for you to help you learn ASL!

In addition to learning basic verbs, etc, try to learn one random word per day!

Download ASL apps if you haven't already, they'll help you to learn basic verbs easier. Some good ASL apps are Lingvano, ASL Sign Language Pocket Sign, and Hands On ASL.

Watch Youtubers who sign ASL without the sound on. My personal favorite is L1z Harris.

If it's possible watch movies or shows with people signing in them, such as CODA.

I hope your learning goes well!