Little Spaces: From the Moon...

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind..." said Neil Armstrong when he first stepped onto the moon on July 20, 1969. Definitely a giant leap - and one that until that moment had only been done in the annals of science fiction!

At the game table, we're constantly exploring new worlds in a Star Trek-frame of mind, boldly going where no one has gone before. And sometimes we need a little help coming up with ways to describe those new worlds. The Little Spaces product line from Moebius Adventures aims to help you come up with writing prompts to aid your imagination along its way to the moon, stars, and beyond.

Little Spaces: From the Moon... takes the new formula we used in Little Spaces: Pirate Ships - mixing a bit of the older Little Spaces approach (sense/element/descriptor) with the Insta-NPCs approach (a collection of directed tables) to offer two different ways to use this product in your game prep. You can roll a few dice and use one set of tables generate a location for an encounter, then turn around and use a different set of tables to help create some encounters to fill in the gaps.

For example, let's say your PCs have landed on a new moon and are exploring. What might they find?

A few die rolls give me Touch (Sense), Shape (Descriptive Element), Positive (Flavor), and Ringed (Sense Descriptor). That leads me to write...

"Even as you approach the third moon of this strange planet, you are struck by the odd shape of the orbiting rock. It appears to have been struck by something in the recent past, dislodging a small ring of debris slowly orbiting along one axis. With some of the debris off the surface, you catch the glint of some artificial metal building beneath the remaining rock and dust. This must have been what your sensors picked up when you were nearing your own orbit. Your shuttle bumps into a few of the floating chunks, knocking them out of the way upon your descent but causing no damage to your craft..."

I can then turn around and use the encounters portion of the product and roll a few more dice. I get Crater (Place), Discovering alien remains (Event), Neutral (Flavor) and Clear (Sense Descriptor), which inspires...

"Hiking in on foot, you see a scratched, yet transparent metal before you revealing a portion of a suit or alien physiology. With some careful excavation you are able to uncover the rest of the strange alien pod and its inhabitant. Your sensors pick up faint life signs, as though the being is in some form of suspended animation."

This already has some interesting possibilities for a first contact situation. Will the alien be friendly? Hostile? In his or her right mind? Let's open the pod and find out!

Thousands of possible combinations will inspire an insane number of adventurous encounters and hidden dangers. Use your imagination to come up with your own strange new worlds for your characters to discover!

Should the moon include some crashed or intact spacecraft, be sure to check out Little Spaces: Spacecraft for even more ideas to explore!

This is the next in a series of short, system- and genre-neutral supplements from Moebius Adventures designed to encourage more creative descriptions in your games. Let us know how you use them at your game table!