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Having now played both, I think Death in Space is a very different beast from Mothership despite superficial similarities (both are truckers in space, both have the retrofuturistic vibe) and similar-ish rule sets. Death in Space I find is more tongue in cheek and focuses more on weirdness and surviving and getting by while Mothership focuses much more on horror and site exploration. Both have been excellent experiences though.
I feel like it’s selling the system a bit short to call it a “horror RPG”. It’s better fitting as a survival RPG with some horror elements. It’s a different niche than Mothership or Alien.
I briefly looked at this in my FLGS, but passed because of the horror moniker. I like horror, but have more than enough with Alien and Mothership. Horror-flavoured, survival SF resells the whole idea for me. I'll give it another look. Thanks Josh! The review seems to back up this idea too.
There really is no horror at all, if you don't consider the ever present weird white noise and static scary, or a mutilation of a character by the void corruption - which is kind of flavor really. With that being said, I still love it after our first session, but will take it more like Firefly with a little dark-ish twists, or maybe Event Horizon, rather than Alien.
It doesn't give you the same freedom as Mothership but you can actually run a campaign with it without killing too many players (I played a 4 months long Mothership campaign so I know what I'm talking about), the setting is also pretty fascinating and not limited to horror, it has a more mission driven design but I think it actually work best this way.
I recently picked up Desth in Space. I adore the physical presentation of the book with its colored text on black page as well as the art and random tables. It reminds me of a game called Starforged. Death in Space has a more crunchy OSR system where Starforged is more narrative. I'd combine both if I ran either. All said, would love to play this game.
I like how using void points still has a risk in using it and isn't just a free resource or if somebody decides to try and grind for void points they still have to be cautious.
If it's that far into the future I would assume most of humanity lives and dies on orbital habitats like O'Neil cylinders. So, just as we have a preference for living on planets, they may prefer to live on hab's, and see planets as a waste of resources. It takes an awful lot of wasted mass to create Earth like gravity that you could be using to make things, like more habitats for people to live in. It's a theory anyway
My biggest issue with the Alien RPG is well, the Alien part. Don’t get me wrong, I like the biomechanical sex monsters as much as the next guy, but when all you’re ever facing is the xenomorphs, it tends to get old after a while.
@@tasty_wind4294 I can see that, however the books really flesh out a geo-political universe where you can basically think of the xenos as plutonium at the beginning of the cold war. Not to mention all the commentary on economics of the universe and how things evolved. The key, I believe, is to almost ignore that there's xenos and make them super rare to encounter and even then, in cinematic adventures where it doesn't tie to your campaign, but serves as a reminder to the players that 'something' IS out there.
Alien is great for one shots but campaigns tend to be lackluster in my opinion, you obviously can't throw the aliens too much in that because they would lose the scare factor by being too present (and also kill a good deal of the party every encounter, those fucking things are hard to introduce without killing someone) so you are stuck with a fairly generic hard space opera, the system is also not great (I've seen a whole table just drop the game out of frustration), death in space is by comparison, much better designed in my opinion.
I love Mothership and how much is covered in so few pages. Some people prefer minimalist and others prefer something a bit more crunchy. Mothership also seems to have a ton of fan support and modules. DiS will need more of that to compete.
Literally just got this in the mail on Sunday but haven't given it an in depth look yet. Mörk Borg is easily one of my top 5 RPGs, so this was a necessity
(And people live where they're from -- it takes a certain type of fortitude to uproot yourself from your environment and try and root in another. If you can do this with equanimity, you are a special bunny.)
(And let me be clear -- as a designer, I understand that white-on-black keeps the reader in the condition of being in the void. But it's bad for reading. I am contemplating.)
@@cravensean Personally, I don't mind white on black when it's on good paper stock - and the graphic design of the book looks brilliant (not too shiny either). Screen reading, however, can be a pain. Is the PDF just white on black? Or is there a "flipped" version, which would make some of the spaceship art easier to print for handouts?
I never actually tried to read a physical book with white-on-black, but on the Kindle app in my phone that's the configuration I prefer. Is it significantly different?
Have you tried "A Lonely Deah in Space? It's the parts per million solo rules for the game. I havent tried it myself, but it doesn't seem to be much like Solitary Defilement. I did solo this game using those basic Soliary Defilement rules. It worked pretty well as a pretty straight forward transfer, incorporating a few additional sci fi tables, and taking a little artistic license with some of the more complex tables from other solo tools. Its dungeon crawl mechanics worked very well for sci fi... But then I have been using something similar for a game of my own as well. Maybe I'll write up a copy of everything I did and used, so you can give it a try and see what you think :)
I’m not a horror guy, but I actually would quite like to try this. I think it’d be really cool to play with some of my friends, see what crazy cosmic stuff we could get into. I wonder if they’ll come out with any expansions for it down the line? There’s definitely quite a bit of interesting stuff to expand on. It’s definitely got my attention, that’s for sure. Crazy to think that I’m here now just because I spotted it on Amazon once or twice and got curious.
Love this game. Ran a couple of adventures on stream. Go watch Outland before running the intro adventure if you haven't. I wish all RPGs put this much care into the visual design.
This is a stunning looking game for sure, and it is a great system. But for me at least... it's no mothership. As you kind of say, feels a lot less horror and a lot more... adventure, with some drama or danger thrown in with a mechanic to support that. Still a great game though, and visually stunning.
@QuestingBeast27 Really? Still... you clowns continue to try this nonsense? Ben must be doing pretty well if you lot have started showing up here. Needless to say I wont be DMing you... (although the irony of "DM me" on a channel like this does make me chuckle :D)
There's a really cool post on the OSR reddit at the moment entitled 'What is your favourite obscured OSR Game'? You could do a video where you review all / most of the games mentioned in little 2 to 3 minute segments. Would be cool as a lot of them are VERY obscure! ty
I've got this on order from Free League and I'm sure I'll own Mothership eventually as well. They both look like they'll scratch an itch, just not the same itch.
Honestly, death in space is way too much flavour and almost no game. Basically all the systems are just lists of interesting sounding words that the DM is supposed to run with. The actual gameplay elements are extremely limited.
So many hipster bro games out there. Flavor over substance., “Roll a d6 and then narrate how Nietzsche would stab his mother to death with a broken bottle, like your drunk.” I’ll pass.
Dude! You’re doing a most awesome vid on Death in Space, and you mention another great game in Mothership, and I’m sure that Alien rpg needs no mention because it lingers there in the back of everyone’s mind. Brrrah 😱. But you never mention The Most Excellent “HOSTILE” by Paul Elliot. You should check it out
Get 10% off of #intotheam apparel: intotheam.com/questingbeast
Get Death in Space in PDF: bit.ly/DeathinSpacePDF
Get Death in Space in Print: amzn.to/3TXa5wK
Online character creator: death-bbs.makedatanotlore.dev/
Having now played both, I think Death in Space is a very different beast from Mothership despite superficial similarities (both are truckers in space, both have the retrofuturistic vibe) and similar-ish rule sets. Death in Space I find is more tongue in cheek and focuses more on weirdness and surviving and getting by while Mothership focuses much more on horror and site exploration. Both have been excellent experiences though.
Great point of view, serves me a lot. 👍👍👍
I feel like it’s selling the system a bit short to call it a “horror RPG”. It’s better fitting as a survival RPG with some horror elements. It’s a different niche than Mothership or Alien.
The idea that calling someting horror is selling it short is a you problem not a QB problem
I briefly looked at this in my FLGS, but passed because of the horror moniker. I like horror, but have more than enough with Alien and Mothership.
Horror-flavoured, survival SF resells the whole idea for me. I'll give it another look. Thanks Josh!
The review seems to back up this idea too.
@@ThisIsYourGodNow Seeing problems is your problem not Josh problem.
No one cares what these fan boys say, there's not enough horror in it such that I would even use the word in a sentence describing the system.
There really is no horror at all, if you don't consider the ever present weird white noise and static scary, or a mutilation of a character by the void corruption - which is kind of flavor really. With that being said, I still love it after our first session, but will take it more like Firefly with a little dark-ish twists, or maybe Event Horizon, rather than Alien.
I really enjoy sci-fi rpgs with cover art that look like science and maths textbooks.
It doesn't give you the same freedom as Mothership but you can actually run a campaign with it without killing too many players (I played a 4 months long Mothership campaign so I know what I'm talking about), the setting is also pretty fascinating and not limited to horror, it has a more mission driven design but I think it actually work best this way.
I recently picked up Desth in Space. I adore the physical presentation of the book with its colored text on black page as well as the art and random tables. It reminds me of a game called Starforged. Death in Space has a more crunchy OSR system where Starforged is more narrative.
I'd combine both if I ran either.
All said, would love to play this game.
Whats crunchy about it? I have read through it several times and im finding it difficult to identify the game
I like how using void points still has a risk in using it and isn't just a free resource or if somebody decides to try and grind for void points they still have to be cautious.
this is the first time in 4 years I had the game before you did a video. A first
If it's that far into the future I would assume most of humanity lives and dies on orbital habitats like O'Neil cylinders. So, just as we have a preference for living on planets, they may prefer to live on hab's, and see planets as a waste of resources. It takes an awful lot of wasted mass to create Earth like gravity that you could be using to make things, like more habitats for people to live in. It's a theory anyway
I struggle with this when the Alien RPG is on my self, but I love the book and I'm also loving Vast Grimm
My biggest issue with the Alien RPG is well, the Alien part. Don’t get me wrong, I like the biomechanical sex monsters as much as the next guy, but when all you’re ever facing is the xenomorphs, it tends to get old after a while.
@@tasty_wind4294 I can see that, however the books really flesh out a geo-political universe where you can basically think of the xenos as plutonium at the beginning of the cold war. Not to mention all the commentary on economics of the universe and how things evolved.
The key, I believe, is to almost ignore that there's xenos and make them super rare to encounter and even then, in cinematic adventures where it doesn't tie to your campaign, but serves as a reminder to the players that 'something' IS out there.
Alien is great for one shots but campaigns tend to be lackluster in my opinion, you obviously can't throw the aliens too much in that because they would lose the scare factor by being too present (and also kill a good deal of the party every encounter, those fucking things are hard to introduce without killing someone) so you are stuck with a fairly generic hard space opera, the system is also not great (I've seen a whole table just drop the game out of frustration), death in space is by comparison, much better designed in my opinion.
Imagine printing this out xD
We are definitely going to have to try this out! It looks so good, and the art is gorgeous
Love Titan AE. Flawed, but still really good.
I love Mothership and how much is covered in so few pages. Some people prefer minimalist and others prefer something a bit more crunchy. Mothership also seems to have a ton of fan support and modules. DiS will need more of that to compete.
Literally just got this in the mail on Sunday but haven't given it an in depth look yet. Mörk Borg is easily one of my top 5 RPGs, so this was a necessity
Lepidoptera is the generic name for butterflies, moths, skippers, and similar insects.
(And people live where they're from -- it takes a certain type of fortitude to uproot yourself from your environment and try and root in another. If you can do this with equanimity, you are a special bunny.)
(And let me be clear -- as a designer, I understand that white-on-black keeps the reader in the condition of being in the void. But it's bad for reading. I am contemplating.)
@@cravensean White text on black is pretty much enough to put me off any RPG book, no matter my initial interest.
@@cravensean Personally, I don't mind white on black when it's on good paper stock - and the graphic design of the book looks brilliant (not too shiny either). Screen reading, however, can be a pain. Is the PDF just white on black? Or is there a "flipped" version, which would make some of the spaceship art easier to print for handouts?
I never actually tried to read a physical book with white-on-black, but on the Kindle app in my phone that's the configuration I prefer. Is it significantly different?
Love this book - gorgeous and the rules are excellent as well
You need to review the Hostile RPG using Cepheus Engine.
I'm looking forward to a good solo tools overlay for this, similar to Solitary Defilement for Mork Borg.
Have you tried "A Lonely Deah in Space? It's the parts per million solo rules for the game. I havent tried it myself, but it doesn't seem to be much like Solitary Defilement. I did solo this game using those basic Soliary Defilement rules. It worked pretty well as a pretty straight forward transfer, incorporating a few additional sci fi tables, and taking a little artistic license with some of the more complex tables from other solo tools.
Its dungeon crawl mechanics worked very well for sci fi... But then I have been using something similar for a game of my own as well.
Maybe I'll write up a copy of everything I did and used, so you can give it a try and see what you think :)
I'm definitely interested!!!!
I’m not a horror guy, but I actually would quite like to try this. I think it’d be really cool to play with some of my friends, see what crazy cosmic stuff we could get into. I wonder if they’ll come out with any expansions for it down the line? There’s definitely quite a bit of interesting stuff to expand on. It’s definitely got my attention, that’s for sure. Crazy to think that I’m here now just because I spotted it on Amazon once or twice and got curious.
What is that GM screen in the background? It's gorgeous
Love this game. Ran a couple of adventures on stream. Go watch Outland before running the intro adventure if you haven't.
I wish all RPGs put this much care into the visual design.
What's Outland?
@@gordonfreeman6305 a sci Fi movie from the 80s
Just curious, do you think it’d be difficult to play it solo?
Did you try it? Solo space horror always sounds fun
Excellent presentation of this book and game. It seems to me that DIS and Mothership may very well complement each other.
is there any compatibility with this and Mothership?
Not just this and Mothership out there for Outerspace Horror. Take a look at Alien RPG from Free League, It's a great system...
This is a stunning looking game for sure, and it is a great system. But for me at least... it's no mothership. As you kind of say, feels a lot less horror and a lot more... adventure, with some drama or danger thrown in with a mechanic to support that.
Still a great game though, and visually stunning.
@QuestingBeast27 Really? Still... you clowns continue to try this nonsense?
Ben must be doing pretty well if you lot have started showing up here.
Needless to say I wont be DMing you...
(although the irony of "DM me" on a channel like this does make me chuckle :D)
yo man check out dark and darker - i think it will interest you
Pls review the book 'Vermis' by plastiboo
There's a really cool post on the OSR reddit at the moment entitled 'What is your favourite obscured OSR Game'?
You could do a video where you review all / most of the games mentioned in little 2 to 3 minute segments. Would be cool as a lot of them are VERY obscure!
ty
If the OSR game was obscured, I probably would not notice it.
Awesome
I've got this on order from Free League and I'm sure I'll own Mothership eventually as well. They both look like they'll scratch an itch, just not the same itch.
Honestly, death in space is way too much flavour and almost no game. Basically all the systems are just lists of interesting sounding words that the DM is supposed to run with. The actual gameplay elements are extremely limited.
I actually think quite the opposite. You basically described Mörk Borg, not DiS.
@@struckyCZ that just makes two of them.
So many hipster bro games out there. Flavor over substance., “Roll a d6 and then narrate how Nietzsche would stab his mother to death with a broken bottle, like your drunk.” I’ll pass.
How do you DM?? I'm on utube.
Dude! You’re doing a most awesome vid on Death in Space, and you mention another great game in Mothership, and I’m sure that Alien rpg needs no mention because it lingers there in the back of everyone’s mind. Brrrah 😱.
But you never mention The Most Excellent “HOSTILE” by Paul Elliot. You should check it out
Chargen mathhack! If you're finding it tricky to work out positive-dice-negative-dice, rolling 2D4-5 gives the *exact* same spread