You're LOST. Crash landed on a rogue planet with no ability to leave. Will you be able to guide the survivors to get... out of orbit?
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Timeline, Musings + Pre-Order
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Mar 17, 2025 at 03:55:07 PM
What an incredible Campaign
This campaign was incredible. I'm hard at work now getting everything squared away to get this game to you as soon as possible. I've got things estimated to get to your doorstep this fall but I'm cranking through stuff and hoping to deliver it as soon as possible.
What is next?
In short: - Playtesting - Artwork - Rules finalization - Editing with Will Jobst - Layout
I've had an incredible time getting to run and enjoy my own game, crazy right? The incredible people over at Tales of Initiative, people in the GateBreak server, and people from the One Shot's Tavern community have been huge in providing mechanical feedback and time to playtest and it's going super well.
The biggest stuff I'm learning about the game is, "feel" and finding ways to codify and encourage a specific type of play without forcing it. Similar to my inspiration from Microscope, it is a far more collaborative game than I even initially envisioned. I'm not prepping at all for the playtests, and relying on the creativity of the players and asking them questions.
Moments of Beauty, Horror, and Mystery
One of the earliest revelations I had about the game was that it was about facilitating moments of Beauty, Horror, and Mystery. Those words have become a tonal backbone. Let me explain using LOST as an example:
Moments of Beauty
Being stuck in a strange place, with little reprieve from the desperation of survival weighs heavy on you. In LOST, Hurley sensed this and made a golf course for survivors of Flight 815 to cut loose, relax, and enjoy the gorgeous island environment in which they were stuck.
I think finding the beauty in the human experience, in enjoying nature, and the purity of it all is important. A big part of this game is about creating an alien world together full of strange ecology. That can be beautiful and truly special. In the incredible show Scavengers Reign, of which Out of Orbit shares a lot of narrative DNA, we get genuinely beautiful, intimate, and human moments between Azi and Levi that come from being together.
Moments of Horror
Oh, the Smoke Monster... One of the first things that made LOST weird and special. The crashing of trees in the distance, is it a T-Rex? Nope... something far more strange and unknowable. Horror is a genre both foreign and near and dear to me. I've never been a huge horror buff... unless it was Scifi, then I was all in. But as an adult, I've come to learn so much of what Horror can provide on reflecting on the dark side of what it means to be human and what it means to live in community with other humans.
In Scavenger's Reign, they do this through the deeply interconnected ecosystem. This world cares not for the people that have crashed here and sees them as meat more than anything. The lifeforms that we see all exist somewhere on the spectrum of symbiosis and parasitism. Nothing exists without a deep relationship to the world around it. Creatures puppeteering other life forms, growing on their backs of them, stewarding and pastoring smaller lifeforms that provide for them somehow. It's all connected, but it is deeply horrifying when humans get in the mix.
Moments of Mystery
Mystery is the reason we keep looking. The unknown is a quantum question of, "will it reveal beauty or horror." Humans are deeply curious, often to their own detriment, but there is something deeply special in that pursuit, and sometimes the not-knowing. Mystery and the answers it implies is what I think keeps people coming back. Hundreds of questions, and a handful of half-answers.
Thanks for entertaining a bit of my musings on the game so far. I'm truly falling in love with it.
Pre-Order Store is Live!
If you or a friend missed the Kickstarter, fret not, this book is happening and I'm excited to start taking pre-orders.
The price is a little bit higher for those of you coming in late, but hopefully not prohibitively so. There's a lot of costs that go into making this game and that only continues to grow.
Campaign Ending Soon!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 07:06:44 AM
The end is nigh...
Today is the last day to pledge on Kickstarter. If you want to upgrade your pledge or share the campaign with people you think would be interested, this is your last chance.
The Fault by Quinn Blackwell
Out of Orbit is coming along so well, I've even gotten a few collaborations on the horizon. Quinn Blackwell (Wolves at the Lake, Blueberry Wine) is contributing a handful of unique locations for the planet and I'm excited to share one with you now. Quinn is an incredible game designer and writer, and you can check out his campaign Salt the Earth that ends at about the same time as this campaign. I'm going to be writing an adventure for his game if we can hit the stretch goal, and we're SO close.
Shipping
This is just a reminder about shipping: All shipping and dues will be charged later through the Backerkit platform. You'll receive emails instructing you to set up your account there, where I'll collect your shipping information. My goal is to keep shipping as cheap as possible.
Resistance is Required
My incredible co-host on our podcast One Shot's Tavern, DJ BeeZee just launched his campaign for, Resistance is Required, a game that uses the Entwine RPG system from both Battle School and Out of Orbit.
I'll be doing much of the layout and system consultation for the game. Character artwork is done by Jeff Baker of When Suddenly! Games.
Thank You.
Like last year's Zine Quest, this campaign has been one of the most creatively fulfilling things I've done. I've been on podcasts, in actual plays, and countless meetings with other creators, talking about my project and theirs. I truly love the community around it and cannot thank you all enough for welcoming me into it.
-Andrew
Home Stretch! + Check out Dirtbags!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Feb 24, 2025 at 08:21:43 AM
We're in the home stretch!
I'm so happy that y'all are as excited as I am about Out of Orbit. I'm deep in the throws of game-dev and illustration for the game. I'd love to share a bit today about things that I've been doing for the game between mechanics and artwork. Not to mention, I'd love to have you all check out another incredible project that I'm obsessed with, Dirtbags!
What I've been up to:
Lots of Illustration. I took the month of February off of deep mechanical development to focus on the campaign, promotion, and visuals. When I started this project, I began exploring Mike Mignola's work and the method of "shape-carving." It involves blocking out shapes and silhouettes and then coming back in with white to pull details out of the shadow while leaving many details up to abstraction in shadow. I've fallen in love with this method of illustration and have learned a ton through studying Mignola's work.
Camp Phase Mechanics. I had a sense of how the camp phase should feel and using the resource dice but getting into playtesting I've really locked in how it is supposed to play. This is becoming one of my favorite parts of the game and through playtesting and talking a lot to both Conlin and Matt from the Tales of Initiative team, I've really begun to dial in the Camp phase and help it thematically mirror the feelings and mechanics of the Mission Phase.
Flashbacks. These tend to be the most difficult part of the game to explain to people less familiar with improv and the game that inspires the mechanics of them, Microscope by Ben Robbins. I'm constantly refining the language and advice for how to run them as well as developing more brief and narration-focused versions of them, but I can confidently say that this is one of those "when it clicks" kind of mechanics that once you jump into it it all starts to make a lot of sense.
A project you've gotta check out - Dirtbags!
Tired of breaking your back plowing the fields of New-Terra, or sweating out your remaining days in the Energizer™ fume huts dirtside for little to no creds? You deserve a second chance!
Dirtbags! is a sci-fi shooter RPG designed from the ground up to be flexible, cinematic, and fast-paced. It's rules-lite and combat-heavy, directly putting character agency and tactics into players' hands.
Three core ability scores.
Two D6 dice pools, one for taking actions and the other for ammunition.
Five unique roles.
Fast-paced, dynamic combat.
In Dirtbags!, you play the role of a convict in a corporate-run dystopian world, coerced into the Military Foundation’s Rehabilitation Incentive Program (R.I.P.) with the promise of freedom and reintegration. Take on distant alien bug infestations, scab pirates, go on suicidal salvage missions, and anything else the Corporate Echelon demands.
I got the chance to hang out with Jean Luc, creator of Dirtbags! on the One Shot's Tavern Podcast. Check out the interview to learn more about the game.
New Reward Tier + Projects you should check out
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Feb 18, 2025 at 11:38:54 AM
Over $5,000!
After all the incredible support for this game and crossing the $5k milestone, I'm looking to do more for this gang out to collaborators to help with locations, roll tables, mission scenarios, and more. You all made that possible and I'm stoked to be able to continue to improve and expand what this book will be.
For those of you passionate about this project who want to show your love and support in a greater way, I've added a brand new tier, Cosen. If that interests you you can upgrade your pledge today at a higher level to get all the goodies.
It is similar to the Wayfinder tier but with a little extra tacked on. The Chosen tier includes:
Signed copy of the printed book
6 physical copies of the workbook
PDFs and all digital assets
A custom-written Mission: The mission prompt + 3 locations each with unique flora/fauna, items, and anomalies.
Watch it played
A HUGE thank you to the Tales of Initiative crew for having me on for 3 incredible sessions of running Out of Orbit. You can check out the VOD on their YouTube channel to see the game live and in action.
For fans of Soulsborne games, Mad Max, and Regency-era media. This game is wildly cool. You get to play with yatzee-like dice mechanics answering questions about preparation and knowing your enemy before you engage while pulling from your Flesh, Blood, and Salt. Yes, Salt. There's some really cool dark poetic goreyness to this game and I'm infinitely intrigued by it... so much so that I might even be contributing a Pamphlet adventure to the game... Please go check it out. It is SO CLOSE to funding.
This game is so cool. A Perfect Rock is a GMless TTRPG for 1-4 players about searching the cosmos for a new home... by collecting REAL rocks for inspiration. The art and design of this game are incredible and Nick and I got to chat about it over on One Shot's Tavern earlier this month. Please check out the campaign and consider backing this killer project.
Talking Out of Orbit (Projects you should check out!)
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 11:51:19 AM
What's going on with the campaign?
So. much... February is becoming my favorite month of the year but it feels like drinking from a firehose or a marathon. I'd love for you to go check out some of the places where I've been sharing about the game below! Also, there are incredible projects I'm following that I want to see more people throw their support at the end of this update.
Actual Play!
I'm guest GMing over at Tales of Initiative. Tomorrow, Wednesday night at 6pm EST, will be the third and final episode of our 3-part series. You can check out Episode 1 and Episode 2 right now.
Characters Without Stories
I had the pleasure of appearing on Star's Characters Without Stories Podcast. In the episode, I discussed some characters I created for an Out of Orbit campaign, and we even created a character together. Star is an incredible interviewer, and it was so fun to collaborate with her on Harmony. Please check it out to learn more about the game and character creation.
Whatcha Doing?
I got to appear on Matt Caulder's podcast, Whatcha Doing? we talked a lot about LOST, storytelling, and the game's features. Thank you to Matt for having me on. It was a blast.
Check out other incredible Zine Month projects!
Three Raccoons In A Trench Coat Saving The World... What more could you want?
Mission: ImPAWsible is a critically acclaimed improvisational roleplaying game of high stakes and hilarious capers where three raccoons in a trench coat pose as the globe’s greatest super spy to enter the perilous world of international espionage.
The art is incredible and the Deluxe box really lands right in the board-gamey-ttrpg category that I LOVE.
Adam is an incredibly talent game designer, multi-faceted artist, and all-around freak of nature. Adam is crowdfunding Midnight Marathon over on Backerkit for 5 HORROR ZINES! Yep, you heard me right five whole zines. Go check them out and throw some support their way.
