It is the first decade of the 22nd century. After a complete ecological collapse, Earth is close to becoming uninhabitable. Wars and hunger are all most know, and only those with ungodly amounts of money can hope to escape to the only place where a sliver of hope remains: space. A few hundred live in the obscene luxury of the nascent Mars colony, while the rest of the solar system is being slowly taken over by the megacorporations, eager to extract the last drop of usable resources.

That is, until Drake Industries bought the exploitation rights of yet another rock in the Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Little did they know they had just bought the rights to humanity’s future… Within the lifeless rock, hundreds of alien ships remained dormant, a treasure trove of technology. Unfortunately, after decades of study the technology proved to be way above what we can comprehend, and all that the Drake Industries scientists managed to achieve was to turn them on. It was quickly discovered that each ship contained the coordinates of hundreds of sites, and an expedition was promptly organized. According to Drake Industries, what was found was enough to justify building a proper station within and without the asteroid: Karum Station, and shortly after the Karum Station Authority was established. 

Regardless of how you paid the exorbitantly expensive ticket to Karum Station, or why you decided to risk your life, you are now working for the KSA. As a Deep Diver, your job is to board one of the Àrsaidh ships, grab anything of value, and come back. The only problem is, nobody knows if those damn ships will arrive at a place with any technology left behind, or return to normal space from Tayy al-Arḍ within the range of a star that has gone supernova, killing you instantly. And if you are one of the lucky ones and you make it to an Àrsaidh facility, maybe you’ll encounter one of those Guardians they left behind, or something even worse… 

Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is a horror space exploration Role-Playing Game for 1 to 5 players (Game Master optional). In it, you will:

• Create your Deep Diver, using a free-form character creation system that allows you to design your character the way you want to play it. Level up, increasing your character’s power by obtaining powerful gear and equipping the combination of Talents (chosen from a pool of dozens) that adapts best to your playstyle. What to play a support character or a melee specialist? Everything is possible. 

• Discover a flexible ruleset that allows you to solve any action with a single D20 roll. The powerful and brutal combat rules will satisfy anyone itching for a fight. With grid-based tactical combat, the action in Across a Thousand Dead Worlds is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.

• Want to know how it feels like to be inside a tin can crossing space with a bunch of strangers, not knowing if you’ll have enough oxygen or food for everyone to get there, or even to return? How will your teammates react when you start breaking down due to stress? Will they help you and tolerate your incessant, maddening foot-tapping, or will things end even before you’ve reached your destination?

• Travel across the galaxy, discovering and exploring ancient refineries, scientific outposts, abandoned research facilities, and more, in search for ancient alien technology. Whether orbiting a dead star or on the surface of an ice planet, what gear you decided to bring with you and who your crewmates are will greatly influence your chances to survive.

• Live the life of a Deep Diver aboard Karum Station, your home between missions (as long as you pay your fees, of course). Get drunk, get into fights, flirt with the tourists, and buy the best gear you can for the next mission!

And all this can be done as a single player, with the help of the many GM-less tools available in the book, or with a group of friends, with or without a Game Master. With dozens of tables to randomly generate exploration sites, planets, and even opponents (ensuring you never fight the same creature twice), a GM or player can prepare a mission in a matter of seconds.