A few days ago I got myself an exciting package. It was the second printing of Deep Space D-6, a single player dice assignment game. A game of sending people scurring around in your ship to man stations, as enemy ships bombard you. Something that feels very much like the digital game FTL. Mechanically it is quite approachable, each turn you roll your crew dice having them turn into one of six different roles, and then assign them to combat your current threats. Then new threats show up, and you roll for their actions. Of course sometimes you have no-brainer turns, like yeah I assign the tacticians to my guns, the engineers to fix up my engine and the scientists to re-power my shields. However this is after a mere two games with the suggested starting ship. You see all the ships have different interiors and components that makes them use dice facings in different ways.
The ship I played was the Halcyon an old exploratory vessel, versatile but simple. It had an amplifiable laser turret, effective shields, a stasis beam to lock down enemies and the option to reallocate crew members to other jobs. Some crew members did have higher and lower priority at times, like Officers was really only needed if everyone else weren't in proper positions, and engineers barely saw work since a fast recharging shield and stasis beam meant my hull took little damage.
Luckily the game does feature things to shake the formula up. Some internal threats might need specific people to handle. Having engineers sure was handy when I had my AI go rogue or my workstations were malfunctioning. And a way they really expanded upon the difficulty of making choices was with the Endless expansion that was included.
And I was really happy to see an expansion in such a tight package. It merely contained a small rulebook, some cards and a sticker sheet - all of which fits within the original box with space to spare, which is a must for a neat freak like me, who'd rather have all the relevant things in one place. There were stickers to update the first printing rulebook, a new separate encounter deck with its own boss, and a research mechanic with accompanying deck.
And to return to my point, the research deck adds a lot when it comes to prioritizing dice assignments. The research cards each have a new sweet module for your ship, like a cloaking device or the ability to deploy shatter mines to halt pursuers. But to use them you'll have to assign crew to research them over several turns first, its usually engineers and scientists that'll be on that job, but each upgrade has its own specific sequence like the Biotic Medlab that needs a lot of medics researching it, and then an engineer to prototype it in the end. Or the Gravity Nuke that alters between scientists making theories and Engineers making adjustments to the design until its done.
Then you have to start worrying about not only survival and prioritizing between your current threats, but also how many resources you can allocate into getting stronger in the long run. And looking at the two more advanced ships I am somewhat excited to try out their weird mechanics. As the AG-8 has less actual rooms but instead locks in dice as drones that perform their assigned task every turn until you recall and program them. Or the experimental Mononoaware whose main weapon changes function depending on which additional crew members you assign to it.
And to top it all off it has a very neat retro feel to its design, and there is a free expansion called The Long Way Home which adds some light-RPG and CYOA elements, which I for one am stoked to try out, they also made some 3d files of the four different ships which are also freely available, so there is a lot of sweetness in a portable box the size of a book.
The ship I played was the Halcyon an old exploratory vessel, versatile but simple. It had an amplifiable laser turret, effective shields, a stasis beam to lock down enemies and the option to reallocate crew members to other jobs. Some crew members did have higher and lower priority at times, like Officers was really only needed if everyone else weren't in proper positions, and engineers barely saw work since a fast recharging shield and stasis beam meant my hull took little damage.
Luckily the game does feature things to shake the formula up. Some internal threats might need specific people to handle. Having engineers sure was handy when I had my AI go rogue or my workstations were malfunctioning. And a way they really expanded upon the difficulty of making choices was with the Endless expansion that was included.
And I was really happy to see an expansion in such a tight package. It merely contained a small rulebook, some cards and a sticker sheet - all of which fits within the original box with space to spare, which is a must for a neat freak like me, who'd rather have all the relevant things in one place. There were stickers to update the first printing rulebook, a new separate encounter deck with its own boss, and a research mechanic with accompanying deck.
And to return to my point, the research deck adds a lot when it comes to prioritizing dice assignments. The research cards each have a new sweet module for your ship, like a cloaking device or the ability to deploy shatter mines to halt pursuers. But to use them you'll have to assign crew to research them over several turns first, its usually engineers and scientists that'll be on that job, but each upgrade has its own specific sequence like the Biotic Medlab that needs a lot of medics researching it, and then an engineer to prototype it in the end. Or the Gravity Nuke that alters between scientists making theories and Engineers making adjustments to the design until its done.
Then you have to start worrying about not only survival and prioritizing between your current threats, but also how many resources you can allocate into getting stronger in the long run. And looking at the two more advanced ships I am somewhat excited to try out their weird mechanics. As the AG-8 has less actual rooms but instead locks in dice as drones that perform their assigned task every turn until you recall and program them. Or the experimental Mononoaware whose main weapon changes function depending on which additional crew members you assign to it.
And to top it all off it has a very neat retro feel to its design, and there is a free expansion called The Long Way Home which adds some light-RPG and CYOA elements, which I for one am stoked to try out, they also made some 3d files of the four different ships which are also freely available, so there is a lot of sweetness in a portable box the size of a book.
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