What holds the genre together

In roleplay, space is first of all a closed box. On Earth, after a fight, you can slam the door and go for a walk. On a ship, behind that door is the same corridor, the same galley and the same person on shift with you in eight hours.

  • Close quarters beat scale. One cabin and two characters give you more drama than a galactic war.
  • Silence and comms lag are characters too. A message from Earth takes forty minutes, and in that time you can change your mind about everything.
  • Small breakdowns are scarier than disasters. A blinking sensor nobody fixes holds tension better than a reactor blowing up.

Six hooks

  1. Two people on a long haulMonth four of the trip. You're the engineer, she's the pilot, and she's stopped playing music on the night watch. It's a small thing, but there was always music before. "Did your headphones break, or did something happen?"
  2. The ship's AI and the last one awakeThe crew is in cryo, and only one person woke up. The ship's AI knows exactly how much oxygen is left and isn't sure it should say. "Captain, I have good news and a number. Which would you like first?"
  3. A station where someone livedA search team finds a station everyone thought was dead. Tomatoes are growing in the greenhouse, and at the airlock stands a woman who hasn't seen another person in eleven years. "You're late. But I suppose I'll put the kettle on."