The Cluster

The Cluster is a TTRPG game Powered by the Apocalypse.

It is intended to tell the story of a rag-tag Crew who find themselves barely 'scraping by' on the cramped and reconditioned ship they use to make a living. They're just about keeping their heads above water as the economic tides of The Cluster threaten to swamp them. The eponymous Cluster is a group of seven star systems, each many light-years from the others, but connected by a Ring Gate network left behind by a civilisation known as The Ancients. This is a threadbare future in which people are still recoverning from the collapse of the Ring Gates at least a millenium before play begins. Even now, two centuries after the first of the Ring Gates was re-opened, life is difficult and often dangerous; gear is rarely shiny and new; and solutions are often jury-rigged or retro-fitted.

The deliberately limited scope of the setting means that the consequences of their actions are likely to follow the Crew as they try to keep their ship flying.

The most obvious touchstones for The Cluster are Firefly's found family and the 'real physics' of The Expanse. Neither Star Wars nor Star Trek fits this game's intent.

Players each choose: 

• One of the 10 Society Playbooks, which include Society Questions that shape the setting, explain why the Crew member left home, and which Entanglement with that time still haunts them. This choice also determines Modifiers that apply to Downtime, informs the allocation of their Home System during Cluster Creation, and the range of options available to players when they are describing those systems. Finally, it contributes to the items of Gear the character is able to use.
• Two of the 10 Career Playbooks which ask Career Questions, the answers to which scaffold the character's life between leaving home and joining the Crew. They also provide the compulsory Career Moves and the Improvement Moves Crew can access to as they gain XP. Finally, each Career Playbook includes a modifier applied to the Ship Design process and additional items of Gear the Crew member can use.

Then, the players work with the GM to:

• Create the Cluster, including a significant Faction from their home system. Each Crew member will have relationships with some of these Factions based on the Debts they owe or the Favours they have in hand.
  
• Create the Crew's Ship which, like the setting as a whole, is gritty and grubby. Ships are not sleek hi-tech wonders; they are cramped and uncomfortable. They use the Ship Design Modifiers their Careers contribute, updating the Ship Playbook as they go. 

Then, players and the GM play to find out ...

You can see the first of seven sessions over which the game went through final playtesting in the Youtube video, above.

NB: a Google Sheets Character Keeper will be available shortly to facilitate online play.