How do we come together during the most trouble times, and how do we find strength in the people we love? This is the question asked by Starscape, a new sci-fi TTRPG from Golden Lasso Games, launched on Kickstarter last week and fully funded in its first 27 hours. The game, inspired by classic sci-fi like Star Trek, Farscape, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Babylon 5, and A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, puts players in the roles of a starship crew journeying through space, bonding through adversity, and becoming a found-family. It was created by a team made up of marginalized individuals: women, BIPOC and non-binary creatives.
Starscape is a sci-fi tabletop roleplaying game where you are part of a starship crew journeying through space, bonding through adversity, and becoming a found-family. You and your fellow players will create your crew – the characters, a ship, some shared history, and play to find out if you come together when it matters most, or fracture when faced with the challenges of an unpredictable universe. Individual game sessions might focus on overcoming obstacles or facing threats, but long-term the stories are about the crew’s relationships and how their trust and feelings for each other change over the course of their travels.
Kimi Hughes, who owns and operates Golden Lasso Games, created the project during the COVID-19 pandemic and was inspired by her experiences during the lockdown:
In April of 2020, the world was in lockdown. The Covid pandemic had started a few weeks before and everyone was terrified of the deadly virus sweeping the globe. I was admitted to the hospital in mid-April, but I wasn’t headed for the hastily-assembled Covid quarantine wing. I was headed for Labor & Delivery. My daughter was born to a world of isolation, uncertainty, and fear. I’d look into those gray-blue newborn eyes and wonder what kind of world I’d brought her into.
After coming home, I had a baby in my arms and nowhere to go, so I decided to binge Star Trek: the Next Generation. At the time I thought it was just nostalgia, but looking back, it was much more than that. I wanted to see a brighter future for mankind, and very specifically, people who were isolated together on a starship conquering adversity as a found-family. During that binge, Starscape was born.
Starscape is built on a Powered by the Apocalypse (PBTA) foundation, with many additions that tailor it to found-family space stories. In Starscape, every player has a selection of moves that they can access to accomplish tasks. Most of those moves are resolved with a 2d6 die roll, which can be adjusted by adding stat modifiers. High results are the most likely to line up with the player’s intentions, but all roll outcomes are designed to move the story forward in engaging ways.
Additional System Features:
- An economy where characters spend, earn, and wager Trust
- Specialty skills that represent a character’s training and can be added to any roll
- A customizable ship that becomes a unique home for the crew
- Ten different playbooks, based on familiar sci-fi archetypes
- Background options for each playbook to allow for more customization
- A built-in, step-by-step session zero world creation process
- Quick, narrative, character-focused ship-to-ship combat mechanics
- An NPC Captain mechanic that keeps the decision making in the hands of the players
The core of Starscape is the home that the crew builds together aboard their ship. Stories will center themselves on the ship, and while crewmembers can leave to explore planets, infiltrate space stations, honeymoon on moons, and many other things, they will be drawn back to the home they created together. Customizable ship playbooks and a step-by-step worldbuilding process will guide you through creating a ship in an original universe or any of your favorite sci-fi properties.
The Starscape Kickstarter has raised $17,000 against a $12,000 goal and runs through August 8th, 2024.
Images via Golden Lasso Games
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