MESSAGEBEACON

EXPLORING OTHER SYSTEMS

A System can only be scanned from within its System
Star hex. You must make a hyperspace journey between
System Star hexes in order to discover new systems.
Travel between systems must always end in the System
Star hex. Hyperspace travel from one System Star hex
to another System Star hex depletes 1 fuel cell per
hex traversed.

Fuel can be replenished via harvesting from capable

stars or by refueling at human artifacts and
habitations (Diamonds).

To harvest a fuel star, roll 1D6. Increase your fuel

by the result. You can refuel an additional 1D4 fuel
cells if there are any human artifact/habitation
hexes in the System. A ship can hold a maximum of 10
fuel cells.

ENDING
The game ends when you've searched the entire sector,
when you've run out of fuel, when you’re run out of
cards to draw, or when you have your answers. But you
never will. There's always more signal in the noise.

INSPIRATION
This game has taken significant mechanical inspiration
from Alone Among the Stars, The Black Hack, and The
Wretched, with setting, style, and technology
inspiration from TTRPGs like Mothership and Stars
Without Number and video games like No Man's Sky and
Elite Dangerous.

A GAME BY RYAN LALIBERTY 2023


BEACON is a game about asking questions and parsing
answers from the noise that responds.
You are the one who stayed behind. All that can be
found of the ship you should have been on are the
message beacons — heavily encrypted excerpts of the
ship's log and data recorder flung out into the black at
intervals. The vessel itself can no longer be located.
You set out into the black with your ship, scanner,
and computer. You have to scan the sector and the
stellar systems within, locate the beacons, and
parse the signals encrypted in their noise.
Your goal is to construct a narrative of what
happened with whatever contextual clues and partial
messages you're able to pull from their garbled
datastreams.
MATERIALS
You will need a set of polyhedral dice, a deck of
playing cards with both jokers, pen/paper to keep a
ship's log, and a blank hex map.
PLAYING BEACON
Answer the following questions in your ship's log.
Random tables are provided for inspiration.
What is your name? What is your ship's name? What is
your background? What is the ship you’re looking for?
What was the expedition? Why weren't you there?
You start with 1D6 fuel cells. Fuel is expended
during hyperspace travel between star systems.
You'll begin in the center of your hex map — draw a
star. This is the System Star for the first System
you'll explore. Now, generate the rest of the sector
— For each of the 6 hex sides on the System Star
hex, roll 1D6. If you roll greater than or equal to
4, draw another System Star that many hexes away.
The hexes immediately surrounding a System Star have
the potential to be worlds where beacons can be
found and decrypted. These will be generated when
you enter the System Star hex of each System.
EXPLORING THE SYSTEM
You must "scan" a System in order to discover its
contents.
To scan a System, you must be in the System Star Hex.
First, roll 1D6 for the System Star. On a 5+, it can
be harvested for fuel. Next, for the 6 hexes
immediately surrounding the System Star, draw a card
to reveal what's there.
Label and describe the locations if you want to. They
probably already have names, but it's your logbook,
space is vast, and time is fleeting. Mark the
locations in some way on the map.
Spades and Clubs are nothing but the black vastness
of space and the quiet vibrations of your drive and
life support system.
Hearts are celestial bodies – terrestrial worlds of
rock and ice, water worlds with sprawling white and
blue oceans, swirling gas giants, or rare Earth-like
worlds with deep blue water and great land masses.
Diamonds are human artifacts and habitations -
research outposts of chrome and white plastic,
massive orbital stations, derelict mining rigs caked
with the dust of their catch, capital ships of the
great federation navy, or the remnants of wrecked
ships.
The card value dictates how many beacons are present
in the hex. Number cards have 1 beacon. Face cards
and aces have 2 beacons. For Spades and Clubs, roll
1D6. On a 4+, they have 1 beacon.
If you reveal the Joker card, draw another card. If
the next card is red, proceed onto the next hex — you
have avoided the danger. If the card is black...
Your ship shuts down and your vision stretches out as
the world is pulled apart, yanked towards an
invisible center. The game ends. What meaning can you
make as you approach black oblivion where not even a
star shines?
Do not reshuffle drawn cards back into the deck.
DECRYPTION
You use your Ship Computer to decrypt beacon
datastreams. You can only decrypt message beacons in
a System from the System Star hex of that System.
Decryption rolls alway start with 1D12 and reduce
down a die size for every failed roll (D12 > D10 >
D8 > D6).
To decrypt a message beacon, roll your decryption
die against a target number of 6. If you equal or
exceed the target, you have decrypted a portion of
the message. You can choose to expend any number of
fuel cells to increase your roll by 1.
You'll roll on the Message table for every success.
If you fail, reduce down a die and roll again.
Continue to roll, noting successes and reducing down
a die every time you fail. Roll until the target is
too high to be hit or when you fail on a D6 roll.
You can only attempt to decrypt a beacon once.
For every success, roll 1D20 and 1D8 on the
Message Table — D20 for the row and D8 for the
column. Write the word down.
When you've rolled for every word, assemble what
meaning you can. The words have no inherent order.
It is ok to add words or ignore words. Many times,
the meaning will not be clear or you might only have
a couple of words. Apply context — where the beacon
was found, other messages in the system, your
starting questions. It is up to you to parse meaning
from the noise.
If you’re scanning multiple message beacons in the
same hex, you can wait until all words have been
revealed before attempting to parse the meaning.
At the end of the game, bring all of the messages
together and try to weave a narrative between them.
Write as much or as little as you'd like.