A Death in Space by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 28 page Pay What You Want supplement from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three are the front matter and three the Open Game License.
A Mystery to be Solved explains that the characters have to solve a mystery in order to be paid. They are on the finest luxury liner in the sector, described as being a perk from a previous job, when someone is murdered and they are asked to find the killer.
The Location describes the various decks on the liner.
The Victim gives details on the dead man and details on the killing.
The Suspects is the list of people likely to want the victim dead – a lot of them, coincidentally on the same ship – with their details, alibi, if any, who can confirm it, if anyone, and what they saw. One of these is the killer.
Some Clues are ways of getting helpful information from the murder.
The Proof is the gun used.
Ship’s Crew Members has stats for the crew.
Random Passengers has stats for other passengers.
Time Line has a brief summary up to the murder.
Events Aboard the Ship are just celestial sights.
Why the Players are Needed to Solve the Crime is what it says.
Who is the Patron duplicates the captain’s details.
Witnesses – Who Saw What and When are stats for people and what they saw.
Available Expertise are ship’s crew with useful skills.
Solving the Crime is on how characters might do it.
Finally, there are four pages of colour maps for the ship.
A Death in Space in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been useful. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the cover illustrations and the maps, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
This is, as it sounds like, a murder mystery in space. The space element means that the number of suspects is limited and they can’t get away. In some respects, it feels like Murder on the Orient Express. Though it is technically in the Frontiers of Space setting, given that it’s all on a spaceship, moving the adventure is easy enough. The GM will need to come up with something in a previous adventure to get the characters onboard, or make it a less luxurious way that are travelling to another job. However, players that don’t enjoy mysteries and find them difficult to solve may have problems with this. Dice rolling could replace at least some of the investigation, but perhaps not all. A Death in Space can be found by clicking here.
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