This is the rock and roll future of yesteryear that never was—and nobody wanted. It is an intergalactic age of cowboys, outlaws and bandits playing on an interstellar stage. It is a time of hyper-capitalism and a cut-throat gig economy. Unreliable trash-heaps carry scrappy underdogs to their next gig, and corporation freighters lumber across the horizon laden with an empire’s bounty. These are the music-fuelled, moon-age daydreams of a rebel space age. These are your ORBITAL BLUES.
ORBITAL BLUES is a lo-fi space western roleplaying game from SoulMuppet Publishing, written by Sam Sleney & Zachary Cox and illustrated by Josh Clark. A roleplaying love-letter to off-beat sci-fi, vintage music, and cooperative old-school styled roleplay, Orbital Blues allows you to play out rules-light tabletop adventures in the style of your favourite space westerns. Stepping into the shoes of Interstellar Outlaws, players band together to form Crews, and navigate a hard-going, gig-economy living on the fringes of a space-faring society. Developed on the critically acclaimed rules-lite system of Best Left Buried, Orbital Blues uses a simple D6 based system with 3 basic stats - MUSCLE, GRIT, and SAVVY - to handle rolls and uncertainty - putting the narrative and relationships of the player characters at the heart of play without the baggage of hefty mechanics, classes or roles. Art by Joshua Clark. Layout and Cartography by Lone Archivist.