What Is Void Drifters?
Void Drifters is a tabletop roleplaying game set in a space opera universe where five rival empires control most of known space and small crews find their living in the gaps between them.
You play spacers: pilots and engineers, negotiators and medics, gunners and scouts. Together you crew a ship, take jobs no flag wants to admit exist, cross borders that shift depending on who is asking, and make decisions that matter even when you are small compared to the powers around you.
The universe is large, politically tangled, and unevenly technological. The Irnan Directorate controls teleportation. The Funtari Confederacy controls anti-gravity logistics. The Shoiyan Concord controls the technology that preserves a person's mind across death. The Jaziri Caliphate carries the only confirmed artificial general intelligence in known space. The Antaean League controls cloaking technology. None of them share, and none of them trust each other enough to stop competing.
That tension is where your crew lives.
What Is a Tabletop RPG?
If you have never played a tabletop roleplaying game before, here is how it works.
One person at the table is the Game Master, often called the GM. The GM's job is to describe the universe: what the crew sees when they dock at a station, who approaches them at the bar, what happens when the job goes sideways. The GM plays all the people the crew encounters, sets scenes, and responds to what the players decide to do.
Everyone else at the table plays a character: a specific person in the universe with a name, a history, a set of skills, and a place on the crew. When something uncertain happens, whether a character can bluff their way past a checkpoint, whether their shot hits, whether the ship's engine holds together under pressure, you roll dice to find out.
The dice do not decide everything. Most conversations, most decisions, most moments of drama happen without a roll. The dice come out when the outcome is genuinely uncertain and when failure would be interesting. The rest of the time, the GM and players talk, describe, and build the story together.
There is no winner. The goal is a good story.
What You Need to Play
- This book. Everything you need for this adventure is here.
- Dice. Void Drifters uses a custom set of dice, including d6s, d8s, and d12s in different colors representing different purposes. If you have a Void Drifters dice set, use it. If not, the Quickstart Rules chapter explains how to use standard dice.
- The pregenerated characters from Chapter Twelve. Pick one each. You do not need to build characters from scratch to play this adventure.
- Two to five people. One GM and one to four players. The adventure works best with two to four players plus the GM.
- A few hours. This adventure is designed to run in a single session of three to four hours.
What This Adventure Is
Dead Drop at Harrowspan is a self-contained introductory adventure for one GM and two to four players, set in the Meridian Verge, the neutral region where three of the five major powers meet and no single flag rules.
The crew has a simple job: transport a sealed container from Port Meridian to a medical clinic at Saint Orra's Rest. Straightforward cargo work. Decent pay. One resupply stop at Harrowspan Station along the way.
It does not stay simple.
You do not need to know anything about Void Drifters before sitting down to play. This adventure is designed as the first thing new players experience. The rules here are a quickstart version of the full system, enough to play this adventure and get a feel for how the game works. When you are ready for the full game, the Player's Guide and GM Guide have everything else.
What Is in This Book
| Chapter | Contents |
|---|---|
| Chapter One: Introduction | This chapter. What the game is, what you need, what to expect. |
| Chapter Two: Quickstart Rules | The rules you need to play this adventure. Read this before you play. |
| Chapter Three: The Crew and Starting Ship | The five pregenerated characters and their ship, the Ember Drift. |
| Chapter Four: GM Background | The full truth behind the adventure. GM reads this; players may not. |
| Chapters Five through Nine: The Adventure | Five scenes from arrival to resolution. GM reference material. |
| Chapter Ten: Between Jobs | What happens after the adventure ends and how to continue. |
| Chapter Eleven: The Meridian Verge | A brief overview of the region and the three locations used in this adventure. |
| Chapter Twelve: Crew Reference | Complete character sheets for all five pregenerated crew members. |
| Chapter Thirteen: Adversary Reference | Stat blocks for the NPCs and threats the GM will need. |
A Note on Scale
This book contains a simplified version of the Void Drifters rules. Some things have been streamlined to make the first session easier. When you finish the adventure and want to explore the full system, the Player's Guide covers complete character creation, the full skill list, every species package, career options, equipment, and the expanded mechanics. The GM Guide covers running longer campaigns, factions, sector play, and campaign tools.
You do not need those books today. Everything you need is here.
One Last Thing
The adventure starts with the crew already in transit. They have taken a job, loaded the cargo, and are two days out from Harrowspan. They do not know yet that their contact at Harrowspan is dead, or that an Irnan Directorate patrol cutter is already docked there, or that someone has been watching the shipping manifest.
When your group is ready, go to Chapter Three to meet the crew and the ship. Then hand the book to the GM, who will take over from Chapter Four onward.
The Ember Drift is running on time. That is about to change.