Working title:  SPACE PROBLEMS ARGH

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.  If your character survived the last mission, they can go on the next one.  

It should take about 10 minutes to prep a distress call and 30-90 minutes to play through it.

SHIP 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.

Every ship gets these rooms:  command, quarters, engineering, utility, storage, life support, fuel mass, brig.

Write each room on an index card.  Tape them together into the layout they are in on your ship.  

CREW CREATION

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

- Emergency medicine (stabilizing casualties).  Gear:  a medical kit, bio-stabilization gear and an emergency cryo-pod. 
- Tactical support (neutralizing active threats).  Gear:  an anti-personnel weapon, breach and entry tools.
- Risk analysis (identifying dangers and their causes).  Gear:  HUD network interface with emergency override access to (standard-compliant) local computer security & diagnostic systems.
- Data / tech recovery (extracting data and assessing material for salvage). Gear:  plasma data storage interface and a voltometer.
- Conflict mediation (restoring calm, finding solutions to conflicts). Gear:  HUD network interface with emergency override access to (standard-compliant) local crew files.
- Team leadership (making snap decisions, oversight).  Comlinks, brig access codes.
- Compliance & documentation (recording the decision-making process).  Gear:  audio, video, and ecommunications recorders.

Choose a token of some sort to represent you on the ship.  

Give yourself an eight-segment clock for your physical health.

HIDDEN LOYALTY

Each crew member also receives a card from the loyalty deck.  Create the loyalty deck by including a numbered heart card for each player and then adding a random face card from spades.  

Shuffle the cards, and deal one face down to each player.  Each player should secretly look at their card and then return it face down somewhere that it won’t be discovered.  Players with heart cards are loyal to the crew.  Players with a spade card are traitors.  After all players have looked at their loyalty card, the GM should read aloud the three traitor roles (see below).  No player can show their loyalty card to another player.  However, players may disclose or lie about their loyalty card.

Jack of Spades:  Cyborg threat.  Wins by killing everyone? Preserving tech.  
Queen of Spades:  Alien spy.  Wins if they bring back a human specimen?
King of Spades:  Raider turncoat.  Wins if the other characters are dead or left behind and returning to the raiders with the ship.  Ideally will bring back a payload of some sort.

The GM should not know the loyalty of a given player.  

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 pre-terraforming colony on Titan, population 40, including 6 minors.
4. A ship with design unlike any you’ve ever seen, with alien crew of 4.
5.  A merchant vessal with a huge payload and a crew of 65
6.  A slaver ship with a crew of 18 and 267 slaves in cryo

What went wrong?
1. A distortion core housing failure.
2. An assault by raiders / hijackers.
3. A control system hard shutdown.
4. An alien plague vector
5.  A crash landing 
6.  A local insurgency

After you decide on the problem, roll three times on that problem’s chart.

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.
5.  Malfunctioning space elevator
6.  Incipient ground tremors from core instability

An assault by raiders that involves:
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.
5.  Traitors amongst groundcrew
6.  A follow-up assault shortly after arrival

A control system hard shutdown:
1.  Hostile AI fragmentation
2.  Life support control fluctuation
3.  Diminishing oxygen
4.  Erratic propulsion failure
5.  Molecular transporter simulation errors
6.  Rogue mechanized policebots

An alien plague vector:
1. Unknown contagion source
2.  Children about to die
3.  Bursting egg-pods 
4.  Unstable mutations
5.  A settlement in danger of 
6.  Bodysnatchers

A crash landing involving:
1.  Atmosphere is unstabilized, soon breathing will be impossible
2.  A gas explosion is imminent
3.  The crash drew the attention of nearby raiders
4.  The crash by caused by an alien traitor who will be calling for aid
5.  The planet’s surface has local animal predators
6.  

A local insurgency involving:
1.  A peace treaty that has been broken
2.  Alien prisoners breaking free
3.  Imminently erupting civil war
4.  The emergency crew being sought as hostages
5.  The emergency crew’s ship has been sabotaged 
6.  Local zealotry acquiring subatomic weaponry

For each problem you roll, create a countdown clock.  For each clock, draw a circle on an index card.  One should have four segments, another should have six, and the last should have eight.  Label it, and fill in the first segment.  

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.
- I plan for the future (allows you to roll an additional die in the next round)

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 advise someone on the best way to accomplish their goal (essentially gives the success to another character better positioned to be helpful; the other character ultimately chooses what to spend that success on)

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.  Any problem that has not been improved should have an additional clock segment filled in.  Full clocks will catastrophically fail.

THE PINCH
After the third turn, no matter if the players have resolved the trouble or not, the GM should introduce a new threat with a clock of four segments.  Roll on the following chart to determine the Pinch.  Keep the pinch secret from the players until they realize what’s happening.  

1. Imperial betrayal -- the Empire has decided that it is more convenient that the emergency crew die than return successful.  Likely because of some political intrigue.  Agents arrive intent on the emergency crew’s death.  Flip a coin.  Heads, they are an Imperial Enders, the finest elite soldiers in the system.  On tails, they’ve hired a raider death squad, notorious killers.
2.  Hijacking -- one of your crew has taken this moment to begin attempts to hijack your vessel.  Flip a coin.  On heads, they are an alien spy.  On tails, they act for the raiders.
3.  It’s a trap! -- This entire mess has been arranged to distract you from the spy intent on leeching imperial data from your vessel.  Flip a coin.  On heads, it’s a cyborg agent intent on stealing key data on a particular crewmember and then stealing their identity.  On tails, the cyborg agent is intent on stealing both fuel and the flight codes for the vessel and will be an additional threat for the characters to deal with on their next mission.
4.  Bounty hunters.  One of the characters has an identical clone who has a price on their head.  Flip a coin.  On heads, the bounty hunters are well-equipped but themselves on the run from Imperial agents.  On tails, they are poorly equipped but all the more desperate to bring in the bounty -- not to mention, the character’s clone is present in the area as well.  
5.  A second disaster -- the crew receives another distress call.  Create this one the same as you would an initial problem, but only roll twice on the list of problems.  Don’t be as stingy with information on this one.
6.  No additional trouble -- instead, the crew receives some unexpected aid.  Flip a coin.  On heads, a passing merchant vessel passes nearby and offers either supplies or the use of their cargo hold to take away survivors.  On tails, an imperial patrol is nearby and offers their firepower to you aid.  

ADVANCEMENT

At the end of the game, take an advancement if you were loyal and your character survived.  

Well-rounded.  You get an additional skillset with gear.
Specialized.  Pick an additional specialized room on the ship from this list:  droid command, science laboratory, weapons command, interrogation facility, stealth systems operation.
Quick-witted.  You roll an additional die whenever you roll.
Lucky.  You can reroll up to two dice every turn.
Strong-willed.  You can swap your loyalty card at the beginning of a session.  
Expert.  Whenever you roll, one die can be a d8.  4-6 are successes as usual.  7s and 8s count as two successes.
Foresight. Once during a game, you may announce some sort of pre-planning you did previously for just this sort of occasion; change the GM’s urgency level by one step so that all players get an additional die this round.
Diplomat.  You act with the imperial mandate.  Once per game, you may make threats or promises with the backing of the Empire.

If you were the disloyal and survived, roll 1d6 and take the appropriate advancement.  Each gives you an additional skill for future games.  Skills marked with an asterisk are active at all times and do not require a successful action die.

RAIDER.  
1.  I can use a communicator to request raider backup.  
2. I can interpret raider call-signs and supply proof of raider status and avert a conflict. 
3.  I have hidden weaponry that cannot be detected by scans.*
4.  I locate the coordinates of the raider supply cache in this sector.  
5.  I utilize unorthodox fighting techniques and get a free success die for combat each round.  
6.  I exploit criminal connections to acquire goods or services.  

CYBORG. 
1.  I hack any computer system to override an existing task or perform another function.  
2. I emit a local EMP charge, temporarily halting all local tech.  
3.  I have no need for oxygen and can survive in the void. *
4.  I have implanted weaponry, both ranged and melee.  
5.  I have optical implants that allow me to see in other visual ranges and get a free success die for observational actions each round.  
6.  I can self-destruct, causing massive damage to the nearby area.  

ALIEN.  
1.  I can read another’s mind.  
2.  I can use biological tissue from another to initiate parasitic regeneration.  
3.  I can phase-shift through solid objects.  
4.  I can initiate a distress call, requesting backup.  
5.  I can shapeshift so that I resemble another person.  
6.  My body can abruptly adapt to atmospheric conditions.  

If you were disloyal and accomplished your alternate goal, also take a regular advancement.