Chest bursting aliens, oh my!
About the Game:
Screams Amongst the Stars is a minimalist, classically-inspired RPG about weird space horror in the frontier of known space, where organizations with conflicting interest are colonizing and exploring alien worlds. These worlds, however, are not exactly empty.
Characters in this game are spacers, people who work in colonies, space stations or on spaceships doing all sorts of jobs. They can be explorers, freighters, scientists, miners, technicians or any other occupation that would put them in space. And in space, they will find disturbing things.
These things can be flesh eating, chest busting aliens, for sure, but they can also be much weirder and terrifying things. Aliens that are always just in the horizon observing, but never truly revealing themselves. Astronomic phenomena that distort space and time. Ruins that change those that get inside forever. Can your rational mind resist these mind bending experiences?
On top of that, the game presents many different organizations, each with their own agenda and themes. And on top of all that, a complete toolkit to generate planets, ruins, weird phenomena, impending dooms and much more.
The System:
The rules that power Screams Amongst The Stars were developed based on the amazing system created for Into the Odd and perfected with Electric Bastionland by Chris McDowall. They came into being during the Game Jam he hosted called Eclectic Bastionjam. The rules themselves fit in a A5 sheet of paper, but they are incredible flexible and encourages a type of game focusing on exploration, dialogue and creativity few games can match.
Most of the actions are resolved simply by role-play and the dice are only called for when there are serious risk and important consequences at play. When that happen you don't make a test like other games, you make a save. You're trying to avoid a serious consequence here.
Combat is also taken very seriously in a very simple way. All attacks hit and deal damage. You just roll for damage, and so does the Referee with your enemies. So think carefully if you really want to draw your weapons.
All of this and more makes the game system ideal for new and veteran players who want to focus on the story being created together without being bogged down by the rules. Upping the consequences and impact of player choices and actions make every moment counts on these games.
The Team:
Written by Diogo Nogueira
Art by Grandedu, Tithi Luadthong, Christof Grobelski, Grzegorz Pedrycz
64 pages, 5.5" x 8.5", saddle stitched zine, color cover & interiors.
