Protocols

Protocols

Game Moderator Directives

START THE GAME

Before playing, confirm the tone, lines, veils, and player limits. If anyone needs to pause the game, stop and talk it out. Then adjust what needs adjusting and continue playing.

BE THE WORLD

Describe what the crew sees, hears, and feels. Keep details concrete. Answer questions honestly based on what characters would observe and let them decide how to interact with it. Let players solve problems through describing specific actions and creative thinking, and use Checks as a tool to resolve what happens when those actions involve meaningful risk and uncertainty.

SET THE LIMITS

If something cannot happen in the fiction, no roll can force it. If the crew’s preparation, leverage, or clever approach makes success obvious, let it work without a roll. Only call for Checks when the outcome is genuinely uncertain and failure carries real consequences.

One Check is usually enough to resolve uncertainty. If not, call for more Checks until an agreed-upon number of Hits is obtained to sort out the situation.

TELEGRAPH DANGER

Danger is everywhere in the void. It comes from failing systems, spreading infection, hostile creatures, and corporate greed. Always telegraph danger before it strikes, giving the crew a moment to react, usually with a Check. Failing that Check often leads to complications as they scramble to avoid the threat you’ve just described.

FORCE HARD CHOICES

When play stalls, force a decision by presenting danger or opportunity that demands immediate action. Every choice should cascade into consequences that reshape the world regardless of whether the crew likes the results. The world moves with or without them. As such, you should not plot out storylines in advance. Instead, set up volatile situations and problems without thinking about the solutions, then step back and let the crew’s choices drive what happens next.

MOVE THE SPOTLIGHT

Be sure everyone gets a moment to play or act. After a player has made a move, hand the scene to the one on their right with a prompt or a direct question to keep things moving.

CUT OUT THE ROT

If someone’s behavior poisons the table, address it with honesty and calm. Speak plainly, state the expected change, and if nothing improves, remove them from the table. This game is tense enough without real-world hostility.

SHARE THE LOAD

Don’t carry everything on your shoulders. Ask players to track notes, time, loot, or the session log. This will lighten the job and make everyone more involved with the game.

IT’S GOING TO BE OK

Being a GM isn’t always easy. You’ll forget rules, misread a roll, or miss a detail. Don’t stall the table over it. Own the mistake, stay transparent, and keep the story moving.

HACK THIS GAME

This game belongs to you, so shape it however you like. If it feels like something’s missing, make a quick ruling to keep play moving, note it in your session log, and revisit it later if needed. Trust your judgment.

The rules are sturdy by design, built to handle tweaks without falling apart, so use their tools (Checks, Conditions, Pools, etc.) to mold the game into something your table will love. The important thing is simply to stay consistent over time with how you apply those rulings.

Co-op Play Directives

SHARE THE GM ROLE

Take turns framing scenes, describing threats, and playing NPCs. When it’s not your character’s moment, be the world for someone else. Switch naturally between playing your character and narrating the environment.

SAY “YES, AND…”

When another player describes how a situation unfolds, default to saying “yes” unless it breaks established fiction. You can then suggest a twist to what they said to help flesh out the world. If you aren’t sure and want to leave things up to chance, use a Fortune Roll to help settle what is true and let the dice decide for you.

Player Directives

DISCOVER YOUR CHARACTER

Your character starts simple and is expendable. Who they become emerges through surviving impossible situations and making hard choices, not through backstory or build planning. You’ll discover who they are over time. Start by imagining a person just trying to survive one more day.

FIGHT FOR SOMETHING, NOT JUST AGAINST

Give your character something worth protecting: a person, a place, a principle, or a promise. Fighting against the void or the corporations isn’t enough on its own. Survival means more when there’s a reason to keep going.

SHOW DESPERATION THROUGH ACTION

When resources run low or time runs out, show it through what your character does. Skip the meal to save rations, or pocket something that isn’t theirs. Let scarcity drive choices that reveal who your character really is.

TRUST YOUR CREW

Don’t work alone. Share your plan, talk it through, and decide how to move forward as a group. You aren’t in this alone, and the other characters may bring skills you lack.

ENGAGE WITH THE WORLD

Pay attention to what the GM describes because the details matter. Treat the world as something to uncover, not invent. Ask questions about what you observe, then describe what your character does and how they do it. Don’t simply declare what you’re rolling, and respect that the world has its own logic independent of your story.

DYING IS EASY, LIVING IS HARDER

Life is brutally unfair, but everyone has the same basic desire: to survive. People will bargain, bluff, or stall rather than risk death. Use this to your advantage.

But when it inevitably comes down to violence, never try to fight fair. A fair fight carries too much risk and burns resources you probably can’t afford to replace. Stack every advantage before you pull your weapon: control the field, take the high ground, corner your target, blind, distract, confuse, or rush at them when they are vulnerable. If you can’t shift the odds in your favor, find better alternatives.

Solo Play Directives

BE THE WORLD AND THE CHARACTER

Solo or GMless play lets you experience the game on your own. You take on every role: narrating your character’s actions, describing the world around them, and deciding how it evolves over time.

As you play, state your intent and picture what could go wrong. If you’re unsure whether something is risky, use a Fortune Roll. If it’s risky, make a Check to resolve the situation. When things go wrong and you suffer a cost, roll on the Check Costs table, or face an immediate threat. Be fair, be curious, and let the dice speak for you.

RELY ON FORTUNE ROLLS

When you’re uncertain whether something is risky enough to warrant a Check, whether an NPC is friendly, whether a door is locked, or whether a faction succeeded in its plan, make a Fortune Roll. Judge the odds based on the fiction, roll the dice, and accept the truth it reveals. If more questions remain, use it again until you feel confident moving forward.

SET THE STAKES

When the world strikes back, attempt to avoid the threat by making a Check.

Before rolling, decide what is at stake if the Check fails. Look at the fiction and ask how much control the character really has. Light danger might mean a small amount of Damage or a brief setback. Serious danger can inflict heavy Damage, lasting Conditions, lost gear, or a major change to the situation. The greater the danger, the higher the cost, whether that cost is measured in Damage or consequences in the fiction.

KEEP A LOG

Maintain a simple log of what has happened and what you’ve learned throughout your session. Use bullet points and write quickly, especially if a Voidlight timer is active. When you finish a session, set aside time to expand on your bullet-style notes or record an audio/video log recapping your session.

ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT

Know when to play things out and when to skip ahead. Dangerous moments deserve detail. Travel, downtime, and routine tasks can be fast-forwarded if you feel like it.

Example of Play

Here is an example of what playing this game can look like.

The GM

Kira, Trooper.

Bristle, Wrench.

Patch, Field Medic.

The group has a P6 Voidlight Pool but only one Battery pack left. The goal of this example is to show a typical flow of play, how Checks are used (or skipped), and how failed Checks can trigger consequences.

Example

GM: You have one Battery pack left. The Voidlight hums in your hands. Ahead, a tendon bridge crosses a river of bile. In the middle of the river, you see a pod, probably the one Amorius told you about back at the Gut. The bridge looks relatively stable. As you wait there, acid drips from the ceiling every few seconds in a synchronized rhythm.

KIRA: We don’t have a lot of time left. I could try to run to the other side… I don’t have a better idea.

GM: For this, I think we’ll need a Check to see if you can be fast enough.

KIRA: Wait, what if I use my Seal foam and attach it to the launcher of my rifle? Would that seal it long enough for all of us to cross?

GM: Oh, that’s brilliant, I love it. That works for me! Are you two following Kira?

PATCH: Yeah, no, we don’t wait. We bolt with her.

GM: On the far side, you find sturdy anchors if you want to rappel down to the pod, or you could use the boots you got on your last trip to the Gut.

PATCH: Not yet, I think, especially since those have limited fuel. Let’s rappel down and get to the pod. I’ll steady the rope.

GM: Perfect. As you reach the pod, the stink of bile cuts through your suit filters. The pod door is fused, and through the glass you see it’s very cloudy inside.

PATCH: Oh shi… OK, does it look like gas?

GM: Yep, it looks like gas.

PATCH: Can it blow up?

GM: Most definitely.

BRISTLE: So, OK, no plasma welder. I’ll use my retractable crowbar.

GM: OK, the… [BEEP BEEP BEEP]. The ten-minute timer is up, let’s roll the Voidlight Pool. It’s at 3D. [rolls]. OK, so we got 2 Hits out of 3 dice, so we remove 1 die from the Pool. Only two bars left on the battery, folks, then you’ll need to slot in your last battery pack.

BRISTLE: Alright, a quick in and out, then we use the last battery pack to get back to the Gut. We also saw a generator two floors up, so we could recharge our batteries there.

GM: If you want to open the door with your crowbar, make a Check. A spark could set this off, it’s risky. You could also end up jamming the door, meaning you’d need to find another way in. The pod could also start sinking in the river.

BRISTLE: OK. This feels like Vigor. I have 2 in Vigor.

GM: So roll 2D.

BRISTLE: I do not want to fail this. If this goes badly, I’ll push the Check.

GM: Perfect. Roll 2D, and if you push, you’ll reroll all Misses and gain Fatigued.

BRISTLE: [rolls]. Oh gosh, I got 0 Hits. I’m pushing.

GM: Mark Fatigued and reroll both dice.

BRISTLE: Phew, I got 2 Hits!

GM: Great. You wrench the door open before the pod sinks any deeper. OK, so what do y’all do now?

>>>>>>>>>> END OF TRANSMISSION <<<<<<<<<<

Getting Started

Here is a rundown to get you started with playing this game.

SESSION 0

Start by confirming the tone of play: whether you want to lean into survival horror, pulp action, or something between. Agree on boundaries, lines, and veils, and decide on the safety tools you will use.

Character Creation

You can build a character in two ways.

You can either use the free-form rules available on p. 5, or pick a background on p. 23 and give them the standard keepsake trinket, Vacsuit with an FTL fluid extractor, and either a Battery pack or a Medpatch.

The Crew

Talk about why your characters work together. Is it shared debt, mutual need, or fragile trust? Then, ground each one in the world through a person, place, or problem that truly matters to them.

ADDING DETAIL

Use the tables in this book to add personality, motivation, flaws, or ties to the world. These details are meant to be used freely, so roll or choose entries that help sharpen the picture of each character or the crew as a whole.

The First Job

Choose where the game begins by rolling on the Gut districts or the locations table, then pair your choice with a rumor to stir tension around the station.

After that, introduce a Fixer who’s caught wind of a rare payload hidden deep in the Pit, though it lies in a region of the leviathan nobody has ever reached before.

Then send the crew down into the Pit with their Voidlight, start a 10-minute timer, and paint the scenes for the locations within the beast.

Bring in hazards and risky challenges to face with Checks. Unleash creatures to keep them on edge and make the darkness feel like a living predator.

After the First Expedition

A delve is only the beginning of the crew’s story.

Once they return to the Gut, characters may resupply for the next mission, recover from injuries, spend time with allies, stir up drama on the station, or look for new ways to shave down their debt to the Concord Corporation.

On paper, Delvers can “quit” whenever they like. In practice, walking away still leaves them shackled to impossible debts owed to a merciless megacorp. The job pays in credits and covers essentials (rations, water filters, oxygen, medical care) that few can afford otherwise.

BEYOND THE GUT

The Gut is one station in a vast galaxy, and the Concord Corporation is but one faction. The universe is vast, with other stations, moons, planets, settlements, and forces waiting to intrude. Expand the frame over time to show how small the Gut really is in the grand scheme of things.

Clearing the Debt

It’s assumed by default that characters will never clear their debt. The sum is astronomical, built to keep workers in chains. Some may be bound forever. Others might pass the burden to their children, or die in the Pit unremembered. The lucky few who do clear their debt may have simply traded one cage for another. In the end, the game is rigged.

The Dangers of Space

Void delving is deadly, but the wider void offers no safer option. Oxygen, water, and food are rationed and expensive. Survival often depends on drugs or grafted tech: patches to slow radiation sickness, boosters to help the body endure shifting gravities, or replacements for organs and limbs worn thin by the constant strain.

Space travel isn’t a walk in the park either. Docking fees, customs bribes, and predatory tariffs make every jump a gamble. Pirates lure crews with false distress calls, and corporations bleed travelers dry to keep their shareholders grinning.

And then there’s the Shell. It will eventually find a way out of the leviathan, and when it does, it won’t stop at the Gut. It will spread, devouring stations, fleets, and worlds alike.