What is ...in Spaaace!?

…in Spaaace! is the next iteration of roleplaying evolution! It radically reinvents pleasure as we know it! It’s a blasted-open universe waiting for your characters to seize it by the reins and leave every other science-fiction setting gasping in your dust! It’s all things to all fanboys! It’s got ninjas! Monkeys! Robots! Robot ninjas! Monkey robots! Monkey robot ninjas!

It’s in your face! It’s in your funny bone! It’s in the bedroom with your significant other while you’re running out to the video store to return that overdue copy of Plan 9 From Outer Space!

Um… okay.

What, didn’t that make you want it? C’mon, it’s great!

Could you try explaining it without the usual new-game hype?

…in Spaaace! is a short roleplaying game by Greg Stolze. It’s loose, fast, short, improvisational and hopefully very funny. The rules encourage outrageous absurdity and the sketchy setting is mostly a backdrop for pratfalls and free-form examination of those themes central to so much of Mr. Stolze’s ouvre.

What themes are those?

Pyrokinesis; the repercussions of avoiding personal responsibility; buttocks.

What’s an ‘ouvre’?

It’s a French economy sub-compact with a surprising amount of legroom and incredible gas mileage.

Back to the game. Could you describe it in the fashion of a Hollywood movie pitch?

It’s like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones meets Sir Mix-a-Lot’s video, Baby Got Back.

Now can you describe it in Forge jargon?

It’s a bifurcated system that transposes narrativist and gamist elements in an oppositional framework – indeed, the game has manifold oppositional components – to achieve an overall substitutionalist stance. It’s diceless. It may also be postmodern, but the mouth-swab got lost at the lab so we need to wait another two weeks for them to grow a replacement culture.

That was gibberish.

Please rephrase that in the form of a question.

That was gibberish – wasn’t it?

Yes. It’s just a placeholder until Ron Edwards can tell me what I think.

Where can I buy this game?

If you want the basic, stripped down version, you can’t buy it, but you can get it for free. …in Spaaace! was crowd-funded by my friendly and well-groomed fans. Just click here to download the file.

For the truly determined consumer, however, the next phase of the game’s development is complete. Dinosaurs…in Spaaace! takes the base game and adds a Fonzie-friendly 1950s setting complete with rocket ships, laser blasters, time travel, displaced Aztecs and aliens with odious grooming habits. If you ever wanted to invade a secret asteroid dinosaur ranch, this is an opportunity you cannot afford to miss. Fortunately, you don’t have to. You can buy it as a PDF at RPGNOW this very instant, or get the same file bundled with a handsome softback print copy at Indie Press Revolution.

(If you’re still not persuaded by my honeyed but clearly self-interested blather, permit me to direct you to a completely disinterested review.)