[as yet untitled]

Inhabited space. The Sol system is fully populated. We have colonies in other systems, and contact with other spacefaring societies in the galaxy, but the game is set in Sol.

Post-capitalist utopian sf. No war, no economic injustice, law enforcement prioritizes problem-solving over obedience and doesn't rely on violence. Post-scarcity, but only in the most trivial ways; spacefaring remains difficult and dangerous. Think in those terms: difficult and dangerous, not "expensive."

You play a dedicated emergency response crew. Your mission: to respond to distress signals, to save lives, and to secure and recover data and material.

There's no campaign-long mystery or plot. Each session, the GM prepares a rescue and salvage mission and you do your best to complete it, given the resources of your crew and ship.

It should take about 10 minutes to prep a distress call and 30-90 minutes to play through it, or else this game is bogus.





SHIP & CREW CREATION

As a group, choose a class and a layout for your ship. The ships' classes are: Harpy, Siren, Wyvern, Gorgon, Phoenix, etc. Your ship can be Pegasus class, Griffin class, or Centaur class.

Ships' layouts include: command, quarters, engineering, utility, storage, life support, fuel mass, and quirks.

Your crew needs to include all of these skills:
- Emergency medicine (stabilizing casualties)
- Tactical support (neutralizing active threats)
- Risk analysis (identifying dangers and their causes)
- Data / tech recovery (extracting data and assessing material for salvage)
- Conflict mediation (restoring calm, finding solutions to conflicts)
- Team leadership (making snap decisions, oversight)
- Compliance & documentation (recording the decision-making process)

For your own character, choose a name, a few personal details, and three of the above skills. Work with the rest of the players to make sure that between you, you have all seven skills covered.

Each of the skills comes with a selection of gear. 

Emergency medicine: a medical kit, including...
Tactical support: an anti-personnel weapon, breach and entry tools.
Risk analysis: HUD network interface with emergency override access to (standard-compliant) local computer security & diagnostic systems.
Data / tech recovery: I dunno, like a USB drive and a voltometer.
Conflict mediation: HUD network interface with emergency override access to (standard-compliant) local crew files.
Team leadership: Comlinks.
Compliance & documentation: audio, video, and ecommunications recorders.





DISTRESS CALL CREATION

This is the GM's prep.

Who's in distress?
1. An asteroid-hopping mining mission with a crew of 7.
2. A research space station with a crew of 4.
3. A preterraforming colony on Titan, population 40, including 6 minors.
4. ...
etc.

What went wrong?
1. A distortion core housing failure.
2. An assault by raiders / hijackers.
3. A control system hard shutdown.
4. ...
etc.

Now each of these causes 3-6 problems, with overlap between them, and the problems are the meat of the distress call.

For example:

A distortion core housing failure might cause:
1. Dangerous spikes in proximate distortion, meaning that people's body parts tear off and physical things rupture and rend.
2. Hull breaches.
3. Emergency shielding lockdowns to contain the problem.
4. Part of the crew in lifeboats, either still moored or in space nearby, and part of the crew caught still aboard.
...and more.

Whereas:
An assault by raiders / hijackers might cause:
1. Injury and destruction as a direct result of human violence.
2. A forced entry point, improperly sealed.
3. Emergency shielding lockdowns to contain the problem.
4. Active threats still present when the crew arrives.
...and more.

And then each problem has a timeframe or countdown of consequences.

My inclination would be to create many 20-entry random tables for this stuff, to keep prep to 10 minutes or less, but maybe some very clever rules for the GM to follow could do it too. 





PLAY

Play in turns.

The GM is in charge of turn transitions, making sure that play follows the turn structure and everybody knows what their options are at every moment.

Before the first turn, the GM introduces the mission with the distress call.

In each turn, in order:
1. SITUATION
The GM says what's going on right now. In the first turn, this is the rescue crew's immediate approach.

2. URGENCY
The GM says how long the turn will be, in in-game time:
- A split second
- A few seconds
- A few minutes
- At your leisure

The GM should decide this by the urgency of the problems in the immediate situation.

3. Q&A
The players find out from the GM what they can see, hear, feel, and/or know. They find out from the GM what information is available to them given their resources in the turn's timeframe. 

4. ACTION
The players roll dice. Each player rolls their own.
- A split second: 2 dice.
- A few seconds: 3 dice.
- A few minutes: 4 dice.
- At your leisure: 5 dice.

For each die, 1-3 is a failure and 4-6 is a success.

Spend your successes. For each success on the dice you get to choose one of the following. Choose a standard success or a success from one of your skills. Choose one that makes sense.

STANDARD SUCCESSES
- I execute the correct procedure.
- I cover the necessary distance.
- I identify the salient feature.
- I communicate the necessary information.
- I protect myself from harm.
- I protect someone else from harm.

EMERGENCY MEDICINE
- I stabilize someone for transport.
- I get someone back on their feet.

TACTICAL SUPPORT
- I keep an active threat down or occupied.
- I cover an ally's safe retreat.

RISK ANALYSIS
- I identify a potential problem or opportunity.

DATA / TECH RECOVERY
- I extract the data into storage for transport.
- I troubleshoot the malfunctioning tech.
- I assess the likely utility of the data or tech present.

CONFLICT MEDIATION
- I keep someone from rash action.
- I get someone talking.

TEAM LEADERSHIP
- I tell someone what to do? Or something?

COMPLIANCE & DOCUMENTATION
- I create a blind spot in the record.
- I make certain to capture every nuance.

5. CONSEQUENCES
The GM gets everyone's successes from them and synthesizes an outline of the consequences.

This'll have to include things like injuring and impairing the players' characters and others, destroying things, and developing the problems in effect. It rolls straight over into step 1 of the next turn.





Play until the PCs have rescued everyone and everything that they can.

No character development. This is straight here's a problem, can you deal with it?