I originally backed this on Kickstarter and have had a game running this system for nearly a year, and just received my physical rewards and they are perfect! The system is great, it perfectly matches the concept I had for a campaign, and we've enjyoed it tremendously. Huge huge thanks to Matt who helped with a lost package, cannot possibly express how much I appreciate all he had to do to get me things to me!!

Oozes style, packs a wallop of flavor, and punches your pretty mouth silly! One of the finest, most well laid out books I own, with "easy-enough" mechanics that highlight the backbone of this genre. Not only is the spin fresh, but it encapsulates and, respectfully, amplifies everything a fan might know & love about such inspirational works as Firefly & Cowboy Bebop. The execution is clean, precise, and provides all the tools for one to work with without all the excess to trim. No inch of the page is spared, with every ample illustration striking the spark to feed that fire you might need to get this ship off the ground. In short, I can't compliment it enough; simply, one of the coolest RPGs I own. Proud backer! Get that hardback in your hand and you won't regret it.

First and foremost I want to say that in the state this is currently in it is not worth the $14 they are charging. No where on this page is it made clear that as of now this is a first round proofing version of this product and it doesn’t take long to realize it. It is rife with typos, errors, and artifacts from earlier versions. So much so that SoulMuppet has opened a room on their Discord to try and remedy it. I really hope the fixes they’ve gotten in the Discord are implemented into the print version. If they’re not, that is going to be a great disappointment. All in all this book comes off as an alpha as rusty and unpolished as the aesthetic they’re selling. Once this is remedied in a few weeks then I will revisit my two star rating.

The writing of Orbital Blues comes off as very tell, don’t show. Instead of giving examples of how the “gig economy” or “late stage capitalism” has really affected this setting they’d rather just hit you over the head with those terms again and again. The reason for that is there is no setting here. Instead of fleshing out a universe or building a world based off of all the inspiration Orbital Blues pulls from; what you get is a skeletal framework with an OSR foundation. That in and of itself isn’t bad; but when you were expecting much more, it leaves a lot to be desired.

There is also the fact that this rule book is rife with quotes from movies, television, and music, but absent are any citations or attributions. Now I am not a legal expert and this might be 100% legal. In fact, there is a post on the Discord saying that all of this has been taken care of. But I still feel a bit off seeing all these quotes and blatant references in here without any form of reference back to where they came from.

All in all Orbital Blues is a passable game that can be used to run a great Cowboy Bebop game. The Troubles and Gambits mechanics look to be interesting and at least add something interesting to this book. And the art is really good. But outside of a skeleton for a space western it feels like it really doesn’t have much of its own to say. I do not regret supporting it, but I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t say I expected a bit more.

***Edit Upped to 3 stars: Errata has been added. There are still some typos present but it's at an acceptable level.

EDIT 8/12/21 Errata fixes and rule clarifications are now in the latest version!

Orbital Blues is a narrative focused OSR Space Western with a rock ‘n roll / retro kitsch aesthetic. It’s a game of “sad space cowboys” drawing inspiration from the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Firefly/Serenity. You play as a motely crew of outlaws aboard an independent space ship looking for whatever work that can keep the debt collectors at bay. Each player character is haunted by something from their past or present that forms the primary focus of their development as the game progresses. If you have players who love to make tragic backstories, this game mechanically rewards those kinds of characters.

Game mechanics are based on Soul Muppet’s OSR horror fantasy RPG Best Left Buried, which itself owes much to Questing Beast’s Maze Rats. Most rolls use 2d6 + Stat to hit an 8+ while individual rolls can gain advantage or disadvantage (roll 3d6, take highest or lowest two rolls respectively). Characters gain experience by acquiring Blues points, gained by enduring traumatic events and roleplaying their character’s hinderances (known as Troubles). Credit and Debt loom large over the crew, as they scramble to stay in business in a system designed to keep them broke and desperate.

Despite the narrative focus of this game, it is still very much an OSR RPG. Combat, both personal and vehicular, can turn deadly in short order. Combat feels tense, and space combat has plenty for the non-pilot crew to do without bogging things down too much. I especially like the “Swansong” mechanic for PCs certain to die: this is their last scene of the game, crank up the music, roll with advantage and ignore injury until a suitably epic moment when they breathe their last.

Art and layout are gorgeous. Route 66 Americana, rock and roll, 70s magazine ads, retrofuture rocket ships all come together beautifully. Text remains legible throughout, which is more than I can say about some other art focused OSR RPGs that have come out lately.

There’s an excellent GM section with advice on running the game, as well as a star system full of intrigue and adventure for the players to explore out of the box. There’s a specific melancholy vibe the authors are going for here: they want to tell tales of hungry desperados struggling to make ends meat while trying to keep their souls intact. The “sad space cowboy” theme suffuses the whole book. These are your character’s Orbital Blues.

If I was to use a single word to describe Orbital Blues it would be 'evocative'. With a superb art direction and design, Orbtial Blues really shines and manages to quickly set the mood and transport your mind to a low sci-fi galaxy that has seen better days, with space cowboys and bounty hunters minding their business amidst americana rusting under the suns.

The rules are simple, easy to learn, easy to teach but that perfectly convey the mood and the spirit of the game. The setting is implied, rather than fully explained and detailed, so it will give you plenty of ideas and certainly transmit a certain flavour while, at the same time, giving you full control to imagine and define the specifics to your group's liking. This may not work for everyone; if you prefer something with a rich setting, pages and pages of history, long detailed descriptions, then this is not the game for you. Also, the rules are so lite yet so flexible, that you will probably need to house rule a lot of things, depening on your group playstyle.

Perhaps you want something that reminds you of Cowboy Bebop? Perhaps Firefly is more to your liking? Maybe you want to recreate something similar to Outland? The game has you covered.

If you would like to roleplay a group of misfits living their lives job by job, jumping from system to system in search of the next hit or the next bounty while running from their own demons and their own pasts, Orbital Blues is the game for you. So gather your crew, board your spaceship and look for the nearest bounty board.

Orbital Blues is, quite possibly, the most stylish, most gorgeous RPG corebook you'll ever read. Following a recent trend in RPG books of presenting eminently readable rulesbooks, it's one of the few books I've read cover to cover a couple of times and never once did I feel bored or zoned out. Forget having beautiful artwork, every two-page spread is beautiful artwork; the entire book just drips with evocative art that not only sells you on the intended tone/genre of the game, but also helps to effortlessly transport you into the game's world itself. Each piece of art is genuine, and offers so much authenticity to the game itself that you'll inadvertently imagine scenarios, story beats, and entire campaigns just from their viewing.

Beyond the presentation lies a game that is simple in its execution. This is not a crunchy game, and eschews massive skills list and endless math for a clean and simple 2d6-based system. The stats lend themselves to proper character development; your numbers and bars won't just go up, your character will grow and change as a consequence of the events happening around them. It's also got the coolest death mechanic I've ever seen in a game. And just as easy as it is for players to get into playing this game, the book's section for GMs - or "Storyteller" as the game calls the game runner - is superb. It not only walks you through what being a GM means for the game, it immediately points out some common pitfalls your typical new GM might fall into, and then goes on to describe in simple terms what sorts of stories might work well in the system. There is never a feeling of hand-holding though, just good advice.

In all, I cannot wait to run this game for my friends. You'd do yourself a favour picking it up. It's a smart game wrapped in absolutely gorgeous artwork, with an amazing layout, and it's sure to please anyone with even a passing interest in the media that inspired Orbital Blues, such as Firefly and Cowboy Bebop.

Come for the art, stay for the game.