Void Demon

The Federation has received a distress call from the Independent Survey Vessel Faraway, which suffered some manner of catastrophe while transiting the mysterious hyperspace used for long distance travel, known to some as the void. A rescue mission is quickly scraped together from available local assets to save the beleaguered crew; or at least recover the ship (crew members are cheap; survey vessels aren’t). Nineteen individuals have volunteered for this mission (even if only to escape something worse); however the boarding shuttle only has room for eight rescuers. The volunteers include a wide variety of soldiers and civilian consultants. Will you take the detective, whose experience will help determine what happened on the ship? The convict, a wily survivor forced onto the team by a vindictive warden? Or maybe Spanky, an experienced soldier, whose gatling gun can be expected to address any threat the team encounters? Void Demon is a low-to-medium complexity, solitaire/cooperative sci-fi horror experience (with an option for head-to-head play). There are tactical overtones (let’s face it, the Void Demon wants to kill you), but the game is not simply won by wanton destruction (don’t try to tell that to Spanky, though). The specific victory conditions are unknown at the beginning of play; players accumulate investigation by exploring the Faraway. When enough investigation is accumulated, it can be expended to reveal the specific tasks that must be accomplished to win the game. However, the AI on the Faraway is completing the calculations for a final void jump: one that will spread the infestation to an unsuspecting Earth. When the countdown timer reaches zero, the Void Demon wins. Ten distinct scenarios maintain the mystery for repeated play. Choose your team, board the Faraway, and learn her secrets. Battle the horror unleashed from the void and save the Earth…or die trying. And if your mission aboard the Faraway doesn’t go your way, remember: in space, no one can hear you cheat…