Xeno - Despair

In space, nobody can hear you scream

This is an ashcan version of Xeno:Despair. Digital Only. It is powered by the Desperation SRD issued by Bully Pulpit games, as used in their games Dead House and The Isabel.

This time the setting is blue collar spacers on a transport spaceship - deep in space and a long way from home. Normally they would have been in cryosleep all the way home, but before the game starts they had been woken up and sent to visit something mysterious. Now they are going to deal with the fallout of that.

As the game progresses through Act 1 - foreboding, through Act 2 - Hunting, to Act 3 - Hunted you will decide who falls out with whom. Who is killed by the Xeno. And perhaps who is prepared to betray others for their Corporate bosses!

How to play

Any number of players takes it in turns to draw cards from the deck, introducing the ship and then the crew.

Players collaboratively tell a terrible tale of flawed people living through dire circumstances by picking and choosing how they navigate their inevitable fate. Together players will build the ship, set the characters, and speak their truths. Games using the Desperation Engine ask you to engage in drawing conclusions and finding patterns among disparate elements to reveal the harsh realities we often face.

The Desperation engine follows a flexible pattern that results in lucid, terrible shared tales. It is especially approachable for people new to roleplaying, because it only asks you to read about sixty words at a time and make some obvious but horrifying choices along the way. While you can overlay lots of fun roleplaying atop this core, if all you do is draw, read, and interpret cards, Xeno Despair still works just fine.

When the last People card is played, Act 1 begins. Continue taking turns, drawing from the deck. On your turn, read the card to yourself and—importantly—decide which character is saying the words. Then tell your friends who you have chosen and read the card aloud from their point of view. Each card ends with some variation of the prompt “speak your truth.” This is your invitation to continue talking as the chosen person, or to describe events happening, or to embellish what is written on the card, or to invite another player to create a small dialog between two (or more!) characters.

What you get

• Print and Play cards on A4
• Print and Play cards on US Letter
• Instruction sheets
• PCIO card set

The PCIO card set can be imported into an empty room on playingcards.io and used to play the game remotely with friends. It has an automation button for correctly shuffling and setting up the deck, and another one for recalling all the cards when you have done, so you can play again.

• xeno despair