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Gameplay

The Field

The Stuff

Players will need a sheet of paper to write their game state on, and recognizable markers (anything will do, really) to place their Upgoers on the board.

Dice are required for rolls. For a fast paced game, a single D20 can be used. For more serious games that assume there is a large player time investment for each launch, a bell curve should be introduced: roll 4D6, and subtract four. Other options are 2D10, 3D8-3, or anything similar - in general the more dice per roll, the more of a bell curve you will get.

This started as a way to stimulate cooperative writing, so coming up with names for Upgoers, brief backstories for the spacederps, and short narratives based on the dice rolls during flights is strongly encouraged!

The Rules

GAMEPLAY SEQUENCE

• Players get resource points according to their budget dots, do their R&D, and write their fluff about it. Upgoers are assembled. This can be done concurrently without interaction.
• Players get together and swap fluff.
• Flights are launched (depending on how long a R&D turn lasts in fluff, one to three takeoffs per player per turn).
• Flights and trading/diplomacy happen. Cooperative fluff may be written. Suborbital flights and reentries are resolved.
• Duration steps happen. Rations are used by derps still in orbit.
• Resource dots are awarded/removed from budgets according to flight results.
• Luck is awarded for fluff written and/or derps returning safely.
• Players part ways, and write their fluff about flights.

STRATEGIC RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:

• At the start of each R&D turn, a player gets as many resource points as they have dots.
• Dots are assigned based on how the last turn went.
  • If it's the start of the game, everyone starts with 40.
  • If they just finished a mission, they get the bonuses for that mission.
  • If they have just visited mission steps they never visited before, they get one dot per new step.
  • If they have just visited mission steps NOBODY visited before, they get two extra dots per new step (So three total).
  • If they lost derps in space or in landing, they lose five dots per derp.
  • If there are no Upgoers in space at the end of a turn, they lose one dot.
  • The budget cannot be higher than 60 or lower than 20 dots.
• Points can be spent to research, develop, build and train, as follows.
  • 3 points per mass: Invent a new thing with a name, type, and mass. It will start at 1/5.
    • Technology transfer: If a similar thing with half the mass or more had already been invented -and- successfully flown, the new thing will start at the older thing's rating, or 5/10, whichever is worse.
  • 1 point per mass: Move the Reliability of a thing by one (Boom to Fail, or Fail to OK). Max 10 (5 and 5) reliability improvement per thing per turn. A thing can never get better than 19/20.
  • 1 point per mass: Build a thing that has already been invented, at its current reliability ratings. Research makes ALL things of that type get better, regardless of when you bought it.
  • 1 point: Hire a derp. Derps start at 0 piloting, 0 engineering, 2 stamina. A derp in boot camp CAN go to space today!
  • 1 point per derp: Train the derp in Piloting, Engineering or Stamina. A derp cannot have more than 9 points total, and only one skill type can be trained per turn. A derp in training cannot go to space today.
  • 1 point per derp: Heal an injured derp, who is then back at 2 stamina and must retrain it. A derp in traction cannot go to space today.

UPGOER COMPONENT TYPES

• A Lower Stage is only used for Liftoff and Orbital Insertion. It is OK to cluster lower stages together in pairs (This allows launching an Upgoer with three lower stages of the same type), but if this is done, the combined lower stage then uses the average of the rolls, rounded up. Clustering more than 2 stages together is exponentially more dangerous: instead of the average, use the highest of the rolls.
• A Thruster can be used for any burns except for liftoff and orbital insertion. If a burn fails, it can be reattempted immediately as long as you have any fuel and working thrusters.
• A Capsule is used for Reentry, Landing, and Duration steps. The capsule is assumed to contain the actual maneuvering engines, etc. in addition to landing equipment such as legs, and parachutes, ballonets etc. If an Upgoer has no working capsule, it can still be lived in, but it cannot be steered even though the thrusters are in good shape.
• A Habitat is used only for Duration steps and CANNOT control an Upgoer, but lets derps recover 1 stamina between turns and has more failure tolerance.

or reentry.

• A Payload is used to perform a specific task. Payloads all have a mass of 1, and must be researched like normal. They are all reusable if you can get them back.
• A Consumable is used by another component; for example, Rations are used by spacederps for sustainance and Fuel is used by thrusters to operate.
• A RCS can be used for any TWO docking attempts. It can also be used to give two +3 Piloting bonuses to a roll or two diferent rolls. Finally, it can be used to deorbit. It works like payload in some ways.

MASS FORMULA:

• A capsule can carry up to its own mass (payload, RCS, rations, and crew), minus 1 - so it must mass at least 2 to be useful. It will need to be researched to operate well.
  • A habitat works like a capsule as far as mass and research are concerned and benefits from technology transfer from capsules.
  • If you have more than one capsule (for example, a station may have a habitat and a capsule), sum their masses up.
  • A capsule or habitat can be sent up partially or completely empty; this is decided at launch and allows using smaller rockets for big empty capsules.
  • A capsule (not a habitat) can be made reusable, but will mass a fifth extra and will have to pass Reentry and Landing checks in order to actually be reused.
• A thruster is what uses your fuel in order to change the spacecraft's movements. It must mass at least a tenth of the capsule it carries.
  • If the spacecraft has to be able to make a lunar landing, it must mass half a much as the capsule(s) it carries there. This is assumed to include landing legs, etc.
  • If it has to be able to make a planetary landing (everything carried by it it becomes reusable), it must mass as much as the capsule(s) it carries home. This is assumed to include shuttle wings, etc.
• A lower stage must mass as much as EVERYTHING it carries. This means that the the orbital insertion stage will be as big as the rest of the Upgoer so far, and the launch stage will be twice as big as that!
  • A lower stage can be made reusable, but will mass a fifth extra and will have to pass Reentry and Landing checks in order to actually be reused.
• A spacederp with basic life support for the current turn always masses 1.
• A ration container always masses 1. It sustains one derp for two turns or two derps for one turn, so, rations mass 0.5 and are loaded in twos.
• A fuel container always masses 1.
• A payload item always masses 1.
• A RCS always masses 1.

FUEL FORMULA:

• Every time a burn is made (successfully or not), look at the mass of the spacecraft. This includes the capsule(s), the contents thereof, the thruster(s), and all fuel. Spacecrafts will lose mass during operation, as they use up rations and fuel.
• Divide by ten and round up: this means remove the rightmost digit, then add 1 to what's left. For example, if your spacecraft mass is 24 (of which 18 is fuel) keep the 2 and then add 1 to it. Your burn costs 3.
• Subtract the fuel you burned from your fuel reserves. In this case, you would have 18-3=15 fuel left. Note that as the mission continues and the less fuel you have on board, the more efficient your burning is.
• You may find it necessary to dump fuel, rations or payload to survive!
• Hint: Calculate burns backwards, from doing the last one at your "dry" mass and add fuel from there. Then give yourself some safety factor (Or not!)
• There are a few example Upgoers here.

RELIABILITY FORMULA:

• Components generally have three stats: Fail, Boom, and Mass. Mass is how much they cost, both in resources and in fuel to move them. Fail and Boom represent the chances of not working or exploding, and are the numbers that must be beaten on a die roll according to the Reliability Formula.
• The 1st number is the Boom safety. If the die was rolled higher or equal to this, the part goes Boom.
• The 2nd number is the Fail safety. If the die was rolled higher or equal to this, the part Fails, assuming it hasn't gone Boom.
• If the D20 was rolled lower than the Fail rating, the part works as intended. Yay!
• Under no circumstances the Fail safety can be higher than the Boom safety. At best, after all modifiers are applied, the Fail safety is 1 lower than the Boom safety.
• A shoddily built part is 1/2. An excellently built part is 19/20. These are hard limits: nothing can get better or worse than that.
• Some factors, notably spacederp skills, can temporarily increase the rating of a part. The Engineering skill increases the boom safety, the Piloting skill increases the fail safety. Temporary safety increases can be used to negate a bad roll on a "perfect" part, as well.

FLIGHTS AND INTERACTION

• Flights happen in real time when the players get together to share any fluff they've written and present their R&D results.
• Whoever has the first stage that is most likely to work OK launches first. Any player can launch immediately after if they want to; if more than one wants to, launches are in order of reliability.
• Interceptions/interactions are only possible in stable orbits; two Upgoers catching up as they circularize, deorbit or transfer would just too hard to do.
• Collisions are very unlikely unless a docking attempt is being made, so don't worry about it.
• The first things to do are Launch and Orbital Injection. It is OK to cluster lower stages together; in that case, roll a die per lower stage and then use the AVERAGE of the rolls, rounded down (This skews away from OK and Boom, and towards Fail)
• A flight step consists of:
  • The Upgoer tries to move into the new position following the clockwise or counterclockwise path as indicated, and rolls the appropriate reliability on the appropriate part.
    • If the roll is for a burn, the roll is done for the thruster. A failed burn means the Upgoer don't move from its current orbit.
    • If the roll is for using a payload, the roll is done for that payload. Payloads can only be used in duration steps. Using a payload requires 1 point of stamina regardless, but the spacederp can use the same point of stamina to add a skill to the safety rating.
    • If that player has never attempted this step before, their Fail rating moves up by two to represent unfamiliarity.
    • A luck point can be spent to reroll. The player can pick either result (usually the lowest).
    • Any derp in the cockpit can spend one point of stamina to move the roll from Boom to Fail by their engineering skill, and/or from Fail to OK by their piloting skill.
  • The Upgoer moves into the new position, and/or deals with any consequences of Fail or Boom.
  • The Upgoer may discard spent components to lighten its load for future burns.
  • If there is another Upgoer in that position, and it's a stable orbit, the two vessels can interact by docking, exchanging crews or supplies, and so on.
    • If the roll is for a duration step, the roll is done for the currently inhabited capsule. Unless anything else is going on in that position (payload use, docking, EVA...), the turn for this Upgoer is over.
• If the order in which players run their step matters (to see who grabs a prestige first, for example), whichever Upgoer is most likely to work OK (whichever has the highest Fail safety) goes first. The Pilot skill can be used to improve odds, but it costs a point of stamina! If everything else is equal, whoever has the lowest budget goes first.
• A flight ends when the Upgoer is destroyed or when it lands.
• For sanity check, Upgoers should always end their turn landed somewhere, or on a duration (transit or stable orbit) step. If any have been forgotten, finish resolving their burns or lack thereof.

BONUSES / MISSIONS / MILESTONES

• Prestige First - Docking: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Extra Vehicular Activity: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Multiturn Mission: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Multiderp Mission: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Rations Delivery: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Reusable Capsule: 2 dot bonus (Awarded on the 2nd reentry of the capsule).
• Prestige First - Reusable Upgoer: 2 dot bonus (Awarded on the 2nd reentry of the vessel).
• Prestige First - Escaped Probe: 2 dot bonus.
• Prestige First - Rock Landing and Return: 5 dot bonus (if the rock is present).
• Prestige First - Moon Landing and Return: 10 dot bonus (if it doesn't end the game).
• Space Station: Whoever has had a working Upgoer in space the longest has a 3 dot bonus. This bonus will be moved around.
• Positioning System: Your derps can use artificial stars to help navigate. As long as a Waylight under your control is active in polar, synchronous or any lunar orbit, all derps on your team get +1 to Piloting. This can add up to +3. Having two Waylights in synchronous orbit only gives +1.
• Lucky 13: 2 dot bonus for the first time a stranded crew is rescued via jury-rigging.
• Rescue Mission: Any player rescuing another player's stranded crew receives 1 dot per derp from the rescuee. Can be cumulative with above.
• Bring It On Home: Any empty/stranded Upgoer or part thereof that belongs to another team can be returned home for reverse engineering. That design is added to the manifest.
• No More Asking For Directions: A working Upgoer in polar orbit with a Mapping payload maps 5% of the world it's orbiting every turn; whoever has the most mapping done, or 100%, gets a 2 dot bonus.
• All According To Plan: A multi-turn mission that returns having experienced no Fail or Boom results (after spacederp bonuses) gives a 1 dot bonus.
• Cooperation: The players are allowed to trade dots (but not points, so think carefully) for equipment, blueprints, derps, or immediate benefits such as a rations delivery. Note that trading a piece of equipment does NOT automatically mean sharing the blueprint: reverse engineering will have to be done.
• Reverse Engineering: If foreign technology is acquired, its prototyping cost (mass multiplied by 3) is added to the next R&D budget. This can be repeated, but only if the new thing has more mass than the older.

DOCKING

• Docking is hard. A spacederp has to use stamina to dock like for other payloads, and also must have at least 2 points of Piloting to attempt a docking at all.
• Upgoers can only dock if they are on the same step of the same orbit. If they are not, it costs a burn to catch up (any number of steps) and docking can happen next turn.
• Each attempt rolls a reliability check for the RCS:
  • OK means docking succeeded, and half of the maneuvering fuel for that cluster has been used.
  • Fail means docking failed, and half of the maneuvering fuel for that cluster has been used.
  • Boom means docking failed, the cluster has been damaged, and all its maneuvering fuel has been used.
• Assisted docking - If A cannot dock with B, B can try docking with A in the same flight phase.
• Stubborn docking - Docking attempts can be made as long a there is fuel and stamina.
• Resource Transfer - Once docking has happened, you can transfer payload, RCSs, fuel, crew and rations. If both vessels are docked capsule-to-capsule, this is free. Otherwise, each transfer requires an EVA.
• Undocking - It's free. In fact, it's so free that you can launch docked craft and undock them later! For example, if you have a big first and second stage, they can carry up two capsules-plus-third-stage that then go their separate ways.

SPACEDERPS AND EVA

• Unless you are using underped rules, a spacederp is required to launch an Upgoer that covers any steps BUT launch, reentry and landing. Suborbital launches to test a lower stage can be done without crew.
• Derps have three stats: Piloting, Engineering and Stamina. Derps start at 0/0/2 which is enough to perform basic flight operations and use a payload twice.
• Most anything a derp does other than basic flight maneuvers costs a point of stamina. This includes operating a payload, using skills, etc.
• A stranded capsule can be jury-rigged to work again if a derp in it rolls under their Engineering skill; a jury rigged capsule still suffers from the penalty it acquired when it went boom. Derps cannot sum their Engineering skills for this, but having more than one allows for extra attempts. Each costs a point of stamina like normal.
• A disabled thruster can be jury-rigged to work again if a derp is willing to go on EVA (which needs its own safety check) and attempt a repair by rolling under their Engineering skill; a jury rigged thruster still suffers from the penalty it acquired when it went boom. This costs only one point of stamina for the EVA.
• For any roll, a derp can spend a point of Stamina to move a Boom roll towards Fail by how many Engineering points the derp has. This can be done as often as needed, including multiple times on the same roll.
• For any roll, a derp can spend a point of Stamina to move a Failed roll towards OK by how many Piloting points the derp has. This can be done as often as needed, including multiple times on the same roll.
• Multiderp crews can work together in unison to solve a crisis. Likewise, a lone genius spacederp can use both Engineering and Piloting skills sequentially to do everything.
• A derp that runs out of rations is injured - rations include air, and there's only so much that can be stretched out. This represents the derp doing as little as possible to conserve air.
• A derp recovers all Stamina in a turn at home, and one Stamina per turn in a habitat.
• A derp with 0 Stamina left from operating payloads or solving problems is tired and should probably go home, but can fly an Upgoer without problems, as long as all goes well.
• A derp who is injured counts as having -1 Stamina and cannot fly an Upgoer. If there are no healthy derps the Upgoer is stranded, same as for a capsule boom.
• An injured derp can be retrained for Stamina at the normal rate while at home, but will not get better on their own in a habitat. Will not get worse either, fortunately.
• An injured derp can be transferred to another Upgoer using an EVA suit, if there is at least one healthy derp nearby. The healthy derp may roll for Pilot and Engineer on behalf of the injured comrade.
• An injured derp who gets injured again dies. Death is usually permanent unless there is an overriding story reason.
• Spacederps can go on EVA by using their EVA packs as payload, as normal. EVA packs are tethered and will injure the derp on a boom, but will not cause them to be lost in space. EVA is performed to:
  • Transfer to another nearby Upgoer without docking. They may carry one unit of rations with them; they can also deliver the rations and return to their Upgoer in the same move (Don't forget to tip!)
  • Dock two Upgoers using a winch instead of RCSs (this will require one point of stamina for the EVA pack and one for the winch!)
  • Activate, tag, or deactivate a waylight or probe that is floating by itself.
  • Attempt to jury-rig a stranded capsule with exhausted or injured spacederps inside, a disabled thruster, or any otherwise damaged external component.
  • Break into song.
  • Use a cart.
  • Any other thing that makes sense, such as collecting samples or participating in orbital construction.
• There are a few example spacederps here.

YOU ARE HAVING A BAD PROBLEM AND WILL NOT GO TO SPACE TODAY

• ANY boom means that the part is just not as good as it was thought to be: all instances of that part loses 6 reliability point (3 each). This includes the same part currently on another flight!
• Lower stage fail: You will not go to space today. Everything can be reused so far, but the launch or orbital insertion does not happen. If this was an orbital insertion, proceed to Reentry.
• Lower stage boom: Everything blows up! Unless you have an escape tower (Probe payload), assume a failed capsule reentry (derps injured) and immediately roll for capsule landing to determine what happens to the crew. If an escape tower is present, roll for reentry as normal. If the reentry and/or landing work OK, they count as successful steps for all purposes.
• Thruster fail: The burn does not happen, but the fuel for that burn is used up.
• Thruster boom: The burn does not happen and the thruster is disabled. Your spacecraft is not necessarily doomed, but the nearest capsule is also damaged, and loses 2 reliability (1 each) for this flight.
• RCS fail: The burn or docking does not happen but the relevant amount of fuel is used up.
• RCS boom: The burn does not happen but ALL the fuel for that cluster is used up.
• Capsule fail: Choose whether to lose a payload, a unit of rations per derp, or 2 reliability (1 each) for ALL parts the rest of the mission.
• Capsule boom: The Upgoer is stranded and can no longer be controlled (no more burns). Lose a unit of rations per derp.
• Other payload fail: The payload cannot be used this turn. If it's a RCS, half the fuel is used.
• Other payload boom: The payload is destroyed. If it is an EVA suit, the derp using it is injured.
• Habitat fail: Stamina cannot be recovered by spacederps in the habitat as they are busy doing maintenance and dealing with glitches.
• Habitat boom: Derps on board LOSE a point of stamina doing major maintenance. Any derps at 0 stamina are injured (coolant leak, etc).
• Landing/Reentry fail (all parts): The part cannot be reused if it was supposed to be reusable. If it's a capsule, derps are injured.
• Landing/Reentry boom (all parts): The part is destroyed. If it's a capsule, derps burn in the atmosphere or die in the crash.

LUCK

• A luck point can be used to reroll any die at any point. Use either result according to your preference. If you are using 4D6, reroll all four dice.
• Luck is awarded if a sufficient quantity of fluff has been written at the other players' discretion.
• If this is not a cooperative writing exercise, a player gains a luck point per derp coming back in good health from a mission in which they went to a new step, nd a luck point per stranded competing derp that they rescue.

THE PAPERWORK

• Every Upgoer that does more than a simple suborbital or low orbit mission should have a blueprint - write the name of the Upgoer and the names and stats of components and crew. It will make life easier.
• Every space program should have a manifest indicating dots, saved points, research status, and available crew.
• All fluff that gets written should be filed in triplicate at the Alpha Centauri basement office. Beware of the leopard.
• COPYLEFT www.robots-everywhere.com Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Sharealike

Possible victory conditions

Optional space combat rules

Optional colonization rules

Optional underped (robotic) vessel rules

Solitaire or Cooperative game option - Stop The Rock!

Using this as a module in a larger RPG campaign