RPG Evolution: Filling Dead Space

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Meet Dead Space​

The Dead Space franchise is a renowned series of survival horror video games that take players on a terrifying journey through deep space. The protagonist Isaac Clarke confronts a nightmarish threat known as the Necromorphs. These grotesque creatures are reanimated corpses controlled by an alien artifact called the Marker. The Marker's influence brings about madness and transformation, turning human corpses into deadly monstrosities.

Dead Space features an atmospheric setting, with scenes taking place in abandoned spaceships, mining colonies, and derelict space stations. The game explores the psychological toll on the protagonists as they confront their fears, unravel mysteries, and uncover the truth behind the Marker and the Necromorphs.

Dead Space's roots go deep, back to two major movie inspirations: Alien and The Thing. The themes of isolation, madness, and an industrial aesthetic are pervasive throughout both movies and key to what makes Deep Space so much fun. For sci-fi role-playing games, it's instructive on how it borrows from these movies.

Industrial Environments​

Dead Space takes place in gritty and industrial settings, such as spaceships and mining colonies. These locations are characterized by malfunctioning machinery, cramped corridors, and a general sense of dilapidation. The environments are often dimly lit, claustrophobic, and filled with decaying structures. In Alien, the ship Nostromo tows a massive automated refinery between Thedus and Earth, processing the cargo of mineral ore on its long journey through deep space. In The Thing, the crew is sequestered at a research station in Antarctica. Neither groups are soldiers or action heroes (those would come later).

In a RPG campaign, incorporating industrial environments can provide opportunities for unique challenges and encounters, including navigating malfunctioning traps, facing off against hostile constructs, or exploring abandoned factories overrun by monsters.

Working Class Folks​

The protagonists in Dead Space are often portrayed as ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. They are engineers, soldiers, or medical personnel with practical skills. In Alien, the crew are pilots and engineers. Ripley, the main character, is a warrant officer. In The Thing, the crew are researchers. Macready, the main protagonist, is a helicopter pilot.

This emphasis on working-class characters facing overwhelming odds can be reflected in a RPG campaign by allowing players to embody scrappy characters from humble backgrounds, showcasing their resilience in the face of otherworldly threats.

Who's the Monster?​

Dead Space embeds the necromorphs in everything. Knowing any corpse can serve as the body of a future enemy heightens the tension and transforms the dead into raw materials for future enemies. A torso, a head, or a pair of legs can all spring to life with flailing tentacles and attack at any moment. In Alien, the question of who is infected with the xenomorph is a key moment in the films. The Thing takes this a step further, with the Thing infecting multiple characters and impersonating them, such that it's not clear if even the Things know they are infected.

RPGs all like to emulate the idea of chestbursters and shapeshifters but in practice the concept is difficult to pull off with players who are vigilant. In Dungeons & Dragons, slaad and doppelgangers fill these roles respectively.

Hostile Environments​

The Dead Space franchise is known for its hostile environments, whether it's the vast emptiness of space or inhospitable locations like icy planets. As the movie for the Alien trailer famously quipped, "In space, no one can hear you scream." In The Thing, the freezing temperatures of the Antarctic ensure there is nowhere to run. In short, characters are trapped with the monster.

These environments pose additional challenges beyond the creatures or enemies encountered, including extreme temperatures, lack of resources, or hazardous atmospheric conditions. In a RPG campaign, incorporating hostile environments (e.g., underwater, on an elemental or abyssal plane) can add an extra layer of danger, forcing players to carefully manage their resources, face harsh weather conditions, or find creative solutions to survive.

Get Ready to Scream!​

Dead Space has some amazing raw material to work with. By using the movies as inspiration, you can recreate some of the iconic scenes and hopefully ratchet up the tension for sci-fi and horror games.

Your Turn: What elements do you borrow from your favorite horror sci-fi movies?

 

[Vincent55]

many things said in this, can be done with the current D&D 5e, but the risk is not as great or the detail lesser still as they have cut so much from the system to"streamline it" for the masses. You would have a better chance doing it with older rule systems of D&D like 3rd or later as back then they had survival guides and went into more detail with survival in general. But with the current one you could use ultramodern 5e: redux to fill the gaps in 5e's system to do it, they even have some settings that are very similar to this. But i have a hard enough time in my area just finding players for the current flavore of RPG.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

many things said in this, can be done with the current D&D 5e, but the risk is not as great or the detail lesser still as they have cut so much from the system to"streamline it" for the masses. You would have a better chance doing it with older rule systems of D&D like 3rd or later as back then they had survival guides and went into more detail with survival in general. But with the current one you could use ultramodern 5e: redux to fill the gaps in 5e's system to do it, they even have some settings that are very similar to this. But i have a hard enough time in my area just finding players for the current flavore of RPG.

Before converting any version of D&D to do this, I would start with the existing and already well-liked Alien, Mothership, Death in Space or Hostile RPGs, all of which could easily have Dead Space flavor attached to them.

If you're having trouble finding people to play with, I'd look into online play. A number of VTT platforms have ways to connect players together, for instance.

 

[Vincent55]

Before converting any version of D&D to do this, I would start with the existing and already well-liked Alien, Mothership, Death in Space or Hostile RPGs, all of which could easily have Dead Space flavor attached to them.

If you're having trouble finding people to play with, I'd look into online play. A number of VTT platforms have ways to connect players together, for instance.

no conversion is needed as i stated, ultramodern 5e: redux has a setting like this already done, and no need to learn a whole other rule system.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Mothership and Death in Space are both decidedly "Dead Space" emulators (as well as SF horror genre emulators in general), but with the specific IP shaved off.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Mothership really is perfect for a Dead Space style game. That being said, one thing I would add that Dead Space does so well is to weaponize going against the player's expectations. In most shooter videogames, you aim for the head or center mass. In Dead Space, you have to aim for the limbs. I had my share of panicked shots in Dead Space - even though I knew that's what you have to do, when a terrifying monstrosity jump-scared me, I went back to my videogame conditioning.

In D&D terms, it'd be like having a type of lycanthrope that is immune to silver and magic weapons and throwing them at a party once they've all got magic and/or silver weapons. How many would think to try hitting it with a lowly dagger instead of their warhammer+1?