This is a post about the ongoing One Page Adventure Jam 2023: Life in the Black.
Living in space, whether on a ship or station, comes with a constant risk of death. Traversing the expanse in a tin can may be comparable to 15th century explorers, boarding wooden ships using wind striking canvas for propulsion, braving the merciless oceans of earth. The similarities are significant, the need to bring sufficient food and water, tools and parts for maintenance and repairs, are key features to enable the crew of a ship to finish their mission (whether in space or on the sea), to do the job they set out to do. Whether it is transport, exploration, smuggling, or patrolling for enemies and pirates. Besides the obvious technological differences, living in space adds another desparate need: air. The ocean explorers of the earth did not need to bring with them air, it was all around them.
The above frames the limitations of life in space quite clearly, in a way that we can relate to in our imagination as well as our everyday (except the need to carry around canisters of air – at least not yet…). All you need to survive in space, are all the things you need to survive, that is provided on earth, where life as we currently know it began. And you need to have it all on your ship. Once you do, you need to earn money, as you need to refuel the air, water, food, parts, and so on to avoid dehydration, asphyxiation, starvation, and the ship falling apart – and that stuff ain’t cheap. How do you do that?
This is where the social reality of the characters enters the mix, risking to kill them as fast the exposure to vacuum, sometimes faster.
Regardless of where your character hails from, choosing a life in space is not something everyone would do, but for those that have made the choice, it is both meaningful and often a calling. For belters, this is not a choice that they can go back on. They are destined to make do because of a choice made by their ancestors. How do you deal with and make use of circumstances not of your own making, to survive and hopefully thrive?
As society spreads to the expanse, its proclivities comes with. Power and money are tightly wound together, incentivising a dance of manipulation, exploitation, and extortion. Some manage to eek out an respectable living, by providing much needed services in a reasonable manner. But the social order of power and money quickly and easily leads to corruption of both state and corporate agents, the criminal elements flourishing in their wake, preying on the poor and vulnerable, persuaded or intimidated by richer and powerful agents to act on their behalf. There are numerous examples referencing these struggles in the Expanse novels and TV show. How do your players fare?
Whatever agendas the characters may have, they must navigate and deal with the intersecting agendas of others, to buy and sell goods and services: to survive.
The One Page Adventure Jam 2023 calls on members of the Expanse RPG fan community to make adventures about what characters that live in space must do and deal with. From the mundane tasks of maintenance and repairs due to meteorite showers and aging ships falling apart, to do this during a pirate raid, avoid corrupt and bigoted navy inspectors, to dangerous salvage and heists under the nose of corporations and governments, to the more extraordinary tasks of exploring new systems through the ring gates, where help is even more distant… what do the characters do, when faced with hazards that more than likely will end their lives, if not rely on the uncertain sufficiency of their ingenuity and skill…
The Expanse RPG Fan Community 