SPOILER WARNING: As with any review, this one includes minor setting & character creation system, & plot spoilers for the book/game.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: A free physical copy of this book was provided by Free League for the purpose of a free & fair review.

Review By Talia Heart

  Published under the Free League Workshop label, “Death in Space” is a journal-size TTRPG with a beautiful “holographic” cover (reflecting light into all the colors of the rainbow) & TWO silk ribbon bookmarks (one in black & one in red). “Death In Space” created by Christian Plogfors & Carl Niblaeus is not your typical giant TTRPG “splat-book”, but rather is black & white but with blue, red, yellow, and green spot color throughout it’s various sections. The artistic style is somewhat different to other TTRPG’s I’ve reviewed, with much more of a “person sketching with a pen” feeling, suggesting a raw edge to the setting. The book is also extremely well-organized with a table-of-contents, a list of all the tables and their page numbers.

The setting is a gritty future where the vast boundaries of space are not a safe wonder to explore, but collapsing in a “cosmic crunch” and filled with “the void”, a corrupting presence that can infect and corrupt. The discovery of a special type of gemstone allowed for the rapid-advancement of human technologies, including spacecraft that can rip through space-time. And as with any resource that could lead to so much power, wars are fought for control of systems, planets, and moons where the gems can be found, leaving some corporations financially ruined and many people dead. The war ended a decade ago, and left society too fragmented to produce advanced technology anymore and thus what survived the war is reused, recycled, and repurposed & breaking down over time. Further, your reputation is everything in this society as it allows you to get better contracts (work) & allowing you to get the best spare parts for your ship.

Player Character (PC) creation features a 6-step process including both random elements (like rolling d4’s for “abilities” which are like attributes) and chosen elements like your origin (background) which includes a benefit. You roll or choose other character details from lists, roll or choose a past allegiance, and roll for hit points (hp) & determine defense rating. Then you roll or chose your starting gear, money, a starting bonus & a trinket. You then go on to create a starting Hub (ship or space station) for the characters to crew. However, a big plus is that one setting including a Hub is already provided for you to use or base your own on. Further, despite it’s small size, “Death in Space” provides a rich & believable future with plenty of details for you to build on. The game also provides the opportunity for your spacecraft to do battle, not just your characters, sure to add to the fun for any science fiction fan.

Given “Death In Space” is available for just over $30.00 USD (as of 6-1-22 in the Free League Online Store, which, as always, gets you a PDF copy right away AS WELL AS your physical copy), it’s creative setting and vision of the future, which, while not totally unique, IS interesting and leaves much room for the players to affect events, rather unique art style, and creation & development by independent authors, Hillary and I give this book a “THUMBS UP”!