Roleplaying games from unexpected places begin with the fast-food restaurant Wendy’s Feast of Legends (check it out here).  The next RPG from an unexpected place?  That would be NASA’s first-ever tabletop RPG, The Lost Universe, available now here at the NASA Hubble Space Telescope website.  It’s a D&D-based pure fantasy game that imagines a parallel universe without Hubble, but it’s also a springboard to learn more about the Hubble project, the scientific improvements learned because of it, and players could incorporate their own knowledge of science to expand the game further into science fiction with a little science fact.  You can just see a room of NASA engineer gamers pondering this idea after finishing a campaign of D&D’s Spelljammer: Adventures in Space.

Heed the call directly from NASA: Calling all adventurers!  It’s time to gather your party and your favorite tabletop role-playing game system.  A dark mystery has settled over the city of Aldastron on the rogue planet of Exlaris.  Researchers dedicated to studying the cosmos have disappeared, and the Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth’s timeline.  Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost. Are you up to the challenge? 

Scientists, elves, orcs, and black holes?  Why not?

The Lost Universe is designed for a party of 4-7 level 7-10 characters and is easily adaptable for your preferred RPG system.  NASA invites players to choose a classic villain (while also using and learning science skills) to overcome challenges and embark on an exciting quest to unlock more knowledge about our universe.

Download your game documents below and get ready to explore Exlaris.  Find the 44-page game module/rule book here: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb… (or here) with the module preserved here in case it ever gets removed. 

We’ve seen RPGs that were smaller with less rules than The Lost Universe and also Micro-RPGs that were larger.  The game will be a good pick for anyone looking for a single-session change-up from their current campaign, and it would also be great for science classes to incorporate into junior high or high school curricula, or science centers tying it into their local planetarium events.  The visuals included would look great projected along with starfields in any planetarium.

Here is a very D&D inspired trailer for the game:

Want to share how your adventure unfolds?  Share it with #NASATTRPG on social media.  For more information, visit https://nasa.gov/hubble.  The adventure was designed by Christina Mitchell with graphic design by Michelle Belleville.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg