I’m on a study project to improve my understanding of roleplaying games. To this end, I already have two reading projects, A Game Per Year and An Adventure Per Year. This is the third, with the goal of reading or playing 52 games made in the last few years. Originally I considered making this “A New RPG Per Week” and that’s where the number 52 comes from, even though a weekly schedule is probably not within my abilities.
The Dying Ship is the first adventure published for the scifi roleplaying game Coriolis, release dby the Swedish company Fria ligan. Coriolis is one of the best scifi roleplaying games out right now, an Arabic-flavored take on space scifi with interstellar travel and starships.
In terms of concept and structure, The Dying Ship follows one of the most traditional models of the genre: The characters go into a derelict starship. What horrors await inside?
That said, The Dying Ship gives the cliché a good workout. The story context for the spaceship is interesting, playing on the way Coriolis combines hard science fiction with mythical and religious elements. The events onboard the ship are enlivened in many different ways, from the crew to the cargo and the hazards of space outside.
Like many Fria ligan releases, The Dying Ship deserves special mention for the exemplary way it uses graphics, diagrams and handouts. Instead of just a map of the ship there’s an illustration with key areas highlighted.