One of our fellow gamers had an unexpected job situation which forced us to suspend multiple game campaigns he was either running or was a PC. We agreed to put them all on indefinite hiatus until he can return.

As a backfill I convinced the other gamers to give Deep Space a try. The simplicity of the rules light d12 system allows for easy game flow along with a lot of space (no pun intended) for creativity. I ran the first session using the Golf Alpha Tango supplement. They all had a blast, and convinced a couple others to join for next session. I've added a Will mechanic (adapted from Adam Hensley's Monolith) to enable vices for characters along with potential low-grade psionics & astromancy.

For less than the price of a coffee, Deep Space and the supplements are big winners. Well done to Jonathan Hicks & Farsight Games.

This is an excellent "pick up and play" rules light game! The adventures are adventurous, the gear covers your Sci-fi tropes, and the starships are easy to build. I highly recommend.

Purchase Deep Space, Gear, and Starships and you will have all the tools you need for endless fun. Don't skip the adventures, they are well written if concise and give the flavor as well as the potential of the game.

This excellent ruleset--which, with all of its supplements, will fit in your pocket!--manages to cover pretty much everything you need for a proper traditional space game with an absolute minimum of wasted space. Kudos! If I were to offer any feedback, maybe some slight guidance to doing settings other than the game's default one would be nice; though whats here is minimalist enough that that's easy to do on your own.

Easy, flexible, quick to learn. Perfect for a one shot, or short campaign. Simple enough to be easily customized. D12s are used for task resolution, but d4s and d6s are also used. The setting is left vague.

I'm looking forward to giving this game a try

Disclaimer: my copy of "The Death of Elliot Jones" was provided as a complimentary copy in exchange for a review. That said, I have purchased everything else in the line at the time of this writing with my own funds. Not that the whole library of titles will set you back much. He's called this line of games "Quid Games" for a reason. As of this writing, the entire collection costs 7.62 USD.
I've been a fan of Jonathan Hick's work now for a couple of years. I'm not sure how we connected initially, but I became aware that I had a Facebook friend who a new book coming out called Those Dark Places. Then I saw it in my local game store, and I picked it up and I was hooked. I've run TDP several times, in my local store, in my home group, and at a convention. Jonathan is very approachable online, responsive to fan comments, and is one of the fastest content creators I've encountered in the industry. This doesn't mean that I'm an unabashed fan-boy, and this work has both positive and negative qualities. Deep Space is another vehicle to let let you run a Sci-fi game without doing a lot of work. I appreciate that a great deal. I dig that the character sheet is 1/4 of a page. And I give it bonus points for being built around a d12. Character creation is slightly harder than counting to 10. Task completion is roll under your skill value, or add your skill value to an opposed roll of d12. So far, we're up to a total of one column of content. Strength in brevity. There's a nice little table of weapon damage types, erring on the side of simplicity over simulation. I like how armor is structured to provide a variable type of damage reduction.
There is a short blurb on how to create three tiers of antagonists. I think the balance in this section could be tweaked a bit. As a rough example, the standard NPC is just slightly weaker than a PC, and the Trained NPC has many more skill points than a PC, albeit physically weaker. There is a nice section, almost one column devoted to Starship creation, which is expanded upon in Supplement #2. Good, good, we've covered two whole pages now. Strength in brevity. Page three is all about where you go and what you do, with rules on creating star systems and adventures. As a test, I generated a little five planet system in about 10 minutes. It immediately spawns ideas and possibilities for adventure hooks, just from the random rolling on the tables. The last page rounds out with a blurb on player experience after adventures. Not much on advancement, really mostly adaptation. I'd like to see this fleshed out in further supplements. The last page includes optional rules/suggestions for making Aliens (very "Planet of Hats") a brief list of equipment, a brief setting, and a few other bits. Strength in brevity. It's not a magnum opus of a Sci-Fi RPG, but I'd say it's pretty darn good for a Pound. I'm really looking forward to giving it a play test.

Edit: Since this writing, the author has modified the skill mechanic. One now adds a D12 to their skill score vs a target number of 13. This is an improvement and testament to the author listening to fan feedback.

"Blast across the stars and explore the universe in this simple, rules light roleplaying game" So says the introduction to Deep Space by Jonathan Hicks just released by Farsight games and available on drivethru rpg now. Deep Space certainly is light, coming in at four A4/Letter sized pages but it isn't lacking in the basics any competent referee would need to play a fun Travelleresque rpg.

It's a d12 based game (although the d12 is used to create other ranges from d2 to d6) with a very straightforward and sensible character generation system in which all characters have the same skill set, but the players get to balance these at different levels of skill to match their vision for their space hero. There's a unified resolution mechanic so that players can be off and running without recourse to looking at the rules pretty quickly. Weapons, armour and general equipment is kept very limited and general but the referee and players can very easily add to this as the examples given act as archetypes.

I like the way the author deals with NPCs. These too are archetypes and given ranks to describe their abilities from Standard to Elite: need a Red Shirt? He's a Standard, need his Lieutenant? He's Trained. Simple and effective. Another innovative concept designed to get things done quickly is the idea that creatures, vehicles and spaceships all get meaner as they get bigger. In this universe, the bigger it is, the more respect you give it! Spaceship combat is dealth with in a similar way to personal combat... just make sure you have someone in your party who has chosen to have a high rating in Pilot Starship skill!

There's even room on these packed pages for a set of star stytem/planet generation tables and then notes on adventures and the general game background. It's a neat little package and there are several adventures published already (which have amazing cover art to them by the way... Check them out). My only quibble... and this is very personal, my eyes don't get on well with white text on a black background, which is how Deep Space is presented. I don't know how easy it would be to produce a version on a white page but this would suit me better and also would be easier on my printer when I run off copies for players. I'm looking forward to getting some of the adventures. I recommend this game, take a look.

I've been looking of a good minimalist space rpg for a while now. With space a lot of authors get overcomplicated and minimalist can be a too bare bones to handle complicated tech.

In four pages, Deep Space covers a lot of ground. As wrote there is more than enough there to have space adventures; a lengthy space exploration campaign even. For what it is this four page version is estonishingly complete.

The glaring omission for me is the lack of a extra-solar communication system, but with the low(er)-tech campaign setting established bad communication would be a feature and not a bug.

Johnathan Hicks has a lot to be proud of in this work. Solid mechanics and bare bones settign gives enough for enterprising GM's to flesh out a campaign. Good work. Looking forward for to reading more.