Mini Review - Edge of Space (SciFi RPG Mini Game)

Matt Jackson was kind enough to offer me a copy of his latest release: Edge of Space, a rules light SciFi RPG.

It certainly is light. The whole package comes in at 8 pages, including the cover (so 7 pages for the rules themselves. It even comes in one of those single sheet, fold me into a booklet option, so you can truly take it with you. Not bad at all for a buck.

Character gen and task resolution vague remind me of traveller. Take that with a grain of salt, as I haven't played Traveller in about 20 years ;)  Choose a profession, roll for skills and you are good to go. You really will be up and running in no time. Task resolution is 2d6 plus skill level against a difficulty level, or against another roll if it's an opposed task. As I said, simple and to the point.

Combat is resolved as above using opposed rolls and success (one side or the other will be the attacker in each round, determined by a roll off of 2d6). Each successful hit inflicts a wound, which steps your through levels of damage from Health to Dead and the steps in between.

There are no weapon tables, no armor tables, no tables or lists to buy anything. There are no definitions of skills, which would be most useful, especially for the optional Psychic Troop Profession's psychic skills.

There is no setting or background material with the exception of the introductory paragraph and no sample adventure or sample character.

To me, it feels like the skeleton of a game. There is a solid system here, but without the flesh and muscles, the bones are going to have a hard time standing on their own. Could the reader / prospective GM flesh this out on their own? Certainly, but there are other systems out there that have done that for you.

If you want to play a quick session or two of scifi and your trust your GM implicitly, as he/she will have to make up many decisions and skill definitions on the fly, you have in your hands the bones of a solid system that will let you do so.

Matt, add some flesh to your creation and we'll get a chance to see what it's able to accomplish.

From the blurb:

This rules lite game allows you to put on your power suit, grab your pulse rifle and assume to role of space marines at the edge of known space. 

The Edge of Space Rulebook is designed to allow GMs to easily get an exciting science fiction game up and running in no time. Character generation takes only minutes while still providing players with wide ranging character types to flesh out their space marine squad and get ready to squash bugs in the deep blackness of space. 

So what are you waiting for? Grab your friends and get ready to kick some alien butt! 

This purchase includes both a PDF version suitable for reading on your computer or mobile device and a 'PocketMod' PDF version for printing. The PocketMod version lets you print your own 4.25" x 2.75" sized game books from a sheet of paper. Small enough you can take a copy wherever you go so you are ready for immediate gaming!