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OUT NOW! DEEP SPACE SUPPLEMENT #4 - THE EXPLORER'S COMPANION

OUT NOW!

DEEP SPACE SUPPLEMENT #4 - THE EXPLORER'S COMPANION

A 2-page supplement for the Deep Space roleplaying game.

It’s a big galaxy and there’s a lot going on, so you’ll need every advantage you can get when travelling the deep dark of space, trading laser fire with enemies and blasting starships between asteroids. Or something. This supplement gives the players a few options for their Explorers, including a new way to create characters as well as an option for expanded character improvement.

Note that all of these are optional and best serve the game if implemented before the campaign begins and not during.

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME'

OUT NOW - DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #11 - THE TWELFTH BELL

DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #11 - THE TWELFTH BELL

Whichever faction hires the PCs to obtain the list, they give them a promise of a huge payout that will set them up for life as well as take care of generations of their family following them. It's an offer they can't refuse, surely?

The Explorers are hired by one of three factions to recover a list of the names of cyberspies and return it to their employers so that they can us the information to uncover and neutralise potential security threats.

The information was gathered by agents of the independent Free World of Horizon, incredibly important ship builders for many nations, for their own ends.

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME' 

OUT NOW! DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #10 - MOON OF MYSTERY

DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #10 - MOON OF MYSTERY

MISSION REPORT: Thanks to the new remote survey probes developed and launched by Wayfarer Inc, we have been receiving dozens of reports regarding new worlds and places of interest in stars systems not yet explored.

A priority report has arrived from probe WI-X8311 ‘Destiny’ regarding the Alpha-Beta-Hotel System, specifically the second of three moons of the gas giant, named Billiard’s Moon.

This frozen world houses what appears to be the city ruins of a long-dead civilisation. The moon is ice covered and dangerous, but the gravity of 1.02G and the thin atmosphere means a team should be able to safely explore and return an initial survey report. The coordinates have been transmitted and we await your return.

ECHOES Central out.

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME'

OUT NOW: DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #9 - RETURN TO GOLF ALPHA TANGO

DEEP SPACE ADVENTURE #9 - RETURN TO GOLF ALPHA TANGO

Golf Alpha Tango was recently discovered by the ship Coriolis and then initially surveyed by brave teams of Explorers who mapped and catalogued a lot of the world over the last year.

However, due to the promising early data the Nation has decided to bring their colonisation plans forward by a whole year and have begun to move habitation pods and several hundred settlers to the new world, which they have called Sherwood. The Explorer’s mission is to build a colony from scratch and make sure that the claim to this planet is staked without question; rumour has it that other nations are moving into this region of space and Sherwood’s proximity to the border of the Conglomerate is creating a lot of tension.

Also, why is the Nation eager to settle this world so quickly? Can the PCs settle this world and discover the truth in this 2-page adventure?

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME' 

A Q&A about Pressure and TTRPGs

I put out a general call to see if anyone had any questions for me about Pressure and TTRPGs in general, and here are the first four.

From Joseph Wolf

Are Pressure and Dark Places in the same setting?

They are – Those Dark Places was more of a concept with a focus on crewmembers and a vague background to give the setting a bit of depth, but Pressure is much more filled out, has a complete campaign setting and even a history up to the year 2345. This will hopefully spark ideas and adventure seeds for GMs to take advantage of, and really sets the mood.

What's the game content focus in Pressure vs. Dark Places?

Those Dark Places was focused on the small ships with small crews out in the middle of nowhere, blue-collar workers just trying to get by and deal with the problems and terrors they faced. I was trying to capture that sense of helplessness in the far reaches of the cosmos to help heighten the tension, so the players would have to rely on their own wits to survive.

Pressure is the reverse of that – the game’s focus may be on SOS teams, special military squads sent out to deal with these problems, but the players can now create any kind of PC they want and play the game as they see fit. They can still play crew members in the middle of nowhere or play the Pressure’s default game which is the SOS squads, but they can also play any kind of person doing any kind of job in any part of the explored galaxy. Want to play a detective in a HyperCity on Earth, Blade Runner style? No problem. Want to add some cybernetics and get a bit Ghost in the Shell? There’s rules for that. Want to be the one good cop on a bad mining station? Go for it. Want to jump from space station to space station as a jobbing crewman, or an entertainer, or a reporter trying to uncover the latest corporate scandal? Absolutely. With the new skill system that enables character progression and longer campaigns, as well as the ability to create your own skills to suit your PC concept, the sky is no longer the limit.

From Jason Riffle

Are there any supplements planned for Pressure aside from Reports/Adventures?

There are – it’s my intention to create some follow-up material in 2024 that goes into more detail about certain factions and corporations in the setting, some focus on starships and stations (everyone likes a good deckplan, after all) and even some expansions and/or rules options that groups might want to take on board to suit their table. I’m already getting some great feedback on how some gamers are interpreting the rules and - as I’m a great believer in games not being played RAW but modified to suit individual tables – I’m hoping that these groups will share their preferences, house rules and modifications.

Will Those Dark Places continue to receive support? Since the rules appear largely interchangeable, this may be a distinction without a difference.

All future material will be using the rules introduced in Pressure, but as the basic rules are exactly the same they will all be compatible with Those Dark Places. If, for any reason, the differences don't allow that I will incluide seperate entries for both games.

This game seems like a great fit for convention play. Does your personal imprint or Osprey Games have convention support for GM's?

There’s nothing available that’s focused on convention play, but this is a great idea and may be worth visiting before the conventions begin next year.

What projects are you working on that you can tease?

I can’t tease much, but I’m continuing to support my successful Deep Space RPG, I’m in the process of completing an adventure for a huge license which you’ll find out about in the next few weeks, and I’m building a whole new game for a client which we’ll see by March next year. That’s all I can say!

James Everington

If you could write the official RPG for any existing IP what would it be?

Right now, there’s only one I’d write with a passion; Robin of Sherwood, the HTV show from the 1980s. I’ve already approached the license holders for it and they have decided not to proceed with a tabletop game as it’s not part of their plans for the IP, so we won’t see one any time soon. Which is a shame because I’ve pretty much written it!

If ‘Those Dark Places’ was your Alien and ‘Pressure’ your Aliens, what can we expect from your Alien 3? (Obviously there’s nothing after that, since they rightly stopped the Alien franchise after 3 films….)

I’ve been giving that some thought and, considering that the entire universe is now opened up as a setting in the Pressure rulebook, I’m not sure where else I can take the concept that you can’t already do with the options I’ve already given.

Saying that, there is a hint that players can reach something called ‘Elite status’ once they’ve maxed out all of their skills, and that this leads to a career in something beyond the realms of both Those Dark Places and Pressure. I think I know what I want to do with that concept, but it will probably require a whole new approach to the game and an entire new game system. We’ll see!

How can new players be best brought into the TTRPG hobby without it being by D&D?

Honestly, I think D&D is probably the only way that many new players get into the hobby, and while that’s a shame for many smaller games I don’t think it’s a terrible thing. We can’t get away from D&D being the juggernaut that it is so the best we can do is to make sure that new gamers see us jumping up and down behind the stack of D&D media, and that they see us waving our games for their attention. If we write it, they will come.

Would you have gone back for Jones?

God, no. I love my cat but let’s be honest…

From Jim Stryker

Why are Con and Ranged Specialist skills? It seems counter-intuitive.

Specialist skills require training or some kind of experience to use, and I felt that you would need training with a gun in this universe considering they’re coil weapons so need to be handled differently. To be honest, if you put any gun in my hand right now I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do with it other than what the movies have shown me, I’d need training.

If you were to try and intentionally con someone successfully then you must have had some experience or honed that skill to be effectively dishonest or misleading. Con artists spend a time perfecting that skill to be convincing and it’s not something that comes naturally to everyone.

Saying that, I played a game of Pressure recently in which I dropped the need for specialisations and everyone had access to the skills, rolling their basic attribute if they didn’t have any skill points spent. It was a great game and gave it a much more adventurous feel, as well as helping the PCs in situations they would have otherwise struggled. The rules as written, though, are meant to focus on individual strengths and weaknesses, which means that groups have be much more focused on a good spread of skills.

PRESSURE from Osprey Games released

PRESSURE

After six months of deciding what I wanted to do with a sequel, a year testing and writing it and a few months of tweaking and polishing, 'Pressure' is finally released on PDF worldwide, with the hardback in the UK on Nov 30th and in the US Jan 6th.

It's been a long journey from my initial concept of 'Those Dark Places' to now. So, here's a recap as to how this all came about...

I initially came up with the name in a short story collection I wrote literally titled 'Those Dark Places', and I self published the collection to gauge reaction to my work. It sold okay but it was the title that stuck out and I was determined to do something with it.

In 2009 I wrote a first draft of the game using a completely different system and I write it as a straight-forward horror sci-fi RPG (mainly inspired by 'Dead Space' on the PS3, which had just come out) with lots of nasty creatures and weird stuff. I put it out for playtest and got a luke-warm reaction to it; the system wasn't great and the game lacked focus.

I then started to write for fun, giving away my free SKETCH system and focusing on RPG essays, reviews and interviews. About six years ago I wrote 'To The Stars, Space Cadets!', a tongue-in-cheek pulp sci-fi action game using a single D6, a system I called ODDS (One Die Determines Success) and the genesis of what would become the CASE System of Those Dark Places.

The response to 'To The Stars, Space Cadets!' was pretty good and I decided to try and make something of it. I revisited 'Those Dark Places' and realised that while the premise was solid, the game needed a bit of trimming down and the players needed something to actually *do*.

So I defaulted to what I love about science fiction movies and the kind of things I like to see. 'Alien', 'Outland', 'Silent Running', all these movies about being stuck out in the middle of nowhere with the odds against you, just surviving. That's what I wanted and, after deciding on the seven roles for players as crew members of a starship (yes, I did that to reflect the seven crewmembers of the 'Nostromo', sans cat) I had my setup. I then started writing, and twenty thousand words later I felt I had a game.

It was then that I discovered that Osprey Games were looking to break out into the tabletop roleplaying market so I figured I'd try my luck. At this point I'd already dipped into the TTRPG designer pool with work for the Advanced Fighting Fantasy RPG - with some success - so I took the plunge. Osprey Games read my pitch, met up with me at the UK Games Expo for a coffee, and after a few days of back and forth, 'Those Dark Places' was given the green light.

It was released November 2020 and it was well recieved - it was turning up a lot on game streams, players were enjoying both the premise and the simple rules which were perfect for online play, and the amazing artwork by Nathan J Anderson really sold the idea and the game. The response to the quirky interview-style of the writing was really good and I felt I'd really managed to capture the kind of game I wanted to play and, thankfully, other people wanted to play it, too.

Over the next two years I'd write four adventures which I published myself through my Farsight Games label, and I'd take part in a few online games myself. The game didn't just fade away after a few months but stuck around, so quite soon after I started to wonder what else I could do with the game, how I could expand on it. I had kept the setting vague so that groups could interpret it how they wanted, and the system design was designed for short campaigns or one-shots. So, of course, I wanted to expand on both the setting and rules.

'Pressure' was conceived as a full rulebook and campaign setting, and I took a bit of everything that I love about dark 1970s/1980s science fiction everything in between, even a bit of cyberpunk. I wanted the game to have a different focus, something that put the players a little more in control of the situations they found themselves in so there's a little more of an adventure feel to it with a military theme, but I also wanted to retain the dark, grim feel of the original game so kept that in for groups who wanted more options but also wanted to hang on to the darkness. In short, I opened the game up to be played however people wanted to play it, across a huge setting covering Earth, the Solar System and the explored stars.

So, there's no longer seven crew positions to choose from; a skill system enables PCs to be more focused and gives them a chance to improve over time so the game can be played as a campaign, players can create literally any kind of character they wish, and the universe is open to explore as the players see fit.

But the darkness is still there. The danger and the shadows and the unexpected is still prevalent. 'Pressure' has taken it's predecessor and opened it up to allow gaming groups to go nuts.

Osprey Games had a hand in the focus of the game as we had to come up with a sequel that shone on it's own and was more than just an expanded version of the original book, but I knew I wanted to do something familiar yet different. I also knew that I wanted Nathan J Anderson back on board as artist, as his work had given life to my universe, so when it was confirmed he was in then I threw myself into the book.

And now, after a few months of editing, adjusting and pressure of my own, the book is here. It's out. It's landing in the hands of players and gamers without who I would never have got this far and to who I owe a huge debt of gratitude for playing, enjoying, and talking about the game, keeping it alive these last three years to enable me to write a sequel. For that I can't thank you enough, and I hope beyond hope that I've written a satisfactory follow-up.

And that's the story as to how I got here. This is why 'Pressure' exists, and this is how long I've had this vision in my head for this TTRPG. It's been 14 years since I first visualised the game and now here we are.

I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get years of fun out of it. But, mainly, I hope you realise how grateful I am to you for supporting the game and the setting all this time. I can never, ever thank you enough.

- Jon

OUT NOW - DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #3 - MOONBASE JERICHO

DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #3 - MOONBASE JERICHO

When the Stellar War broke out the Moon became a primary prize for all sides and they fought savagely over its resources and tactical advantage over Earth. The Moon-born citizens – Lunarites – either dug deeper or fled, and by the end of the war it was almost totally abandoned, and stayed that way for years.

With an uneasy truce between the nations of the settled stars, the Moon has once again become of huge interest. The Luna surface is dotted with settlements but underneath the surface... what treasures await the cunning explorer, the brave adventurer or the curious scholar?

This 2-page sourcebook gives some background of the Moon's struggles and introduces Luna Delving, exploring deep into the caverns and tunnels of the Moon using a random table. Delving started as a trend but now it is a full-fledged enterprise, with Delvers sponsored by parties of all nations. Regardless of the stories of rogue warbots, genetic monsters, rabid Lunarites and religious cults born from decades in the dark, thousands travel to the Moon for fame, glory and riches.

This business is facilitated by Moonbase Jericho, the first Luna settlement and the main port of call where many of the delves strike out from. This is where your adventure begins...

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME' 

OUT NOW - DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #2 - ECHOES

DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #2 - ECHOES

Working for ECHOES is about exploration. It’s about travelling the galaxy, from one end to the other, and seeing the sights. Oh, and trying to figure out why the human race is the only species left out of hundreds of long-dead alien civilisations.

This 4-page sourcebook is about the mysteries of space. The alien races that have died out and disappeared are not just confined to planets – drifting starships and generation vessels, space stations, colonised moons and asteroids. Vast spaceships hidden in nebulae, rotting undiscovered for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. Cities, over and underground, in various states of decay. Some places look like they fell into despair generations ago and are but dust, whereas others look as though they were built only yesterday. The dead races are vast and varied.

We can’t bring them back, but we can use what they left behind. The main problem is that there are differing ideas between governments, corporations and individuals of influence on how the tech should be utilised. ECHOES exists to try and divide the discoveries between everyone equally so that all humanity benefits from new discoveries.

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME' 

OUT NOW - DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #1 - THE CONGLOMERATE

DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #1 - THE CONGLOMERATE

With a total of 12 star systems in it’s regime, three of which have habitable worlds and are within three light years of each other, the Conglomerate is a large sector of space in which a grand experiment was conducted and inevitably failed.

Once a beacon of cultural and spiritual peace, the Conglomerate was created as a slice of the stars where people who tired of the constant struggle between the other nations could escape to, to live a life of enrichment in a utopia where each person would contribute their worth and their work so that all could benefit.

Within 10 years, a ruling class had emerged and took the reigns of power...

DEEP SPACE SOURCEBOOK #1 - THE CONGLOMERATE is a 2-page book providing information and stats for the totalitarian nation of the Conglomerate including key persons, military forces, starships, and the star systems to be explored... or conquered.

Requires 'DEEP SPACE - A SIMPLE SPACE ADVENTURE ROLEPLAYING GAME'