# Space: 1999 tags: #game/rpg/space-1999 ![[Space 1999 (cover).jpg]] In what can only be described as the universe's most dramatic overreaction, a massive explosion of nuclear waste stored on the Moon's far side blasts our beloved satellite clear out of Earth's orbit. The 300-odd souls aboard Moonbase Alpha are thus unwillingly subscribed to a one-way tour of the cosmos, lurching from one existential crisis to the next. **Space: 1999**, the roleplaying game by Modiphius, invites you to be one of these lucky few. You'll portray a dedicated, likely terrified, member of the Alpha crew—a pilot, scientist, or security guard—desperately trying to survive long enough to find a new home, all while grappling with cosmic horrors, inscrutable aliens, and the sheer, unending bleakness of deep space. It's a cheerful romp, provided your idea of fun is constant peril and questionable 1970s sci-fi metaphysics. The game is powered by the 2d20 system, which is Modiphius's go-to engine for this sort of thing. When your character, probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown, attempts a meaningful action, you roll two twenty-sided dice. The goal is to roll at or under a target number, which is calculated by adding one of your character's Attitudes (rated 4-8) to one of their Skills (also rated 4-8). Each die that succeeds is, shockingly, a success. The Gamemaster determines the task's Difficulty (usually a number from 1 to 5), which is the number of successes you need to not fail spectacularly. Rolling a 1 is a critical success, counting as two successes because you're just that good. Rolling a 20, however, introduces a Complication, which is a fancy way of saying the GM gets to make your life more miserable. If you generate more successes than the Difficulty requires, the surplus becomes Momentum, a communal pool of points the players can spend to do cool things like buy extra dice for a future roll. This is, naturally, balanced by the GM's own pool of points, called Threat, which they accumulate and spend to introduce all sorts of new and exciting problems for you to deal with. ## References - [Product Page - Modiphius Entertainment](https://modiphius.net/pages/space-1999) - [Product Page - The Gerry Anderson Store](https://gerryanderson.com/en-us/pages/rpg) - [Review - Armchair Dragoons](https://armchairdragoons.com/space1999/) - [Quickstart Guide Review - Reviews from R'lyeh](http://rlyehreviews.blogspot.com/2024/10/quick-start-saturday-space-1999.html) - [Quickstart Guide - DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/516732/space-1999-quickstart-guide-pdf)