[Free RPG Day 2025] The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition Quickstart

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition Quickstart is the introduction to, and quick-start for The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition, which is an update and expansion to The Expanse Roleplaying Game. Both roleplaying games are published by Green Ronin Publishing, and both are based upon The Expanse series of Science Fiction novels by James S.A. Corey, and the television series of the same name. However, where The Expanse Roleplaying Game is set during the events of Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, and Abaddon's Gate, the first three novels, The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition moves the action on to the Transport Union era, the thirty-year period between Babylon’s Ashes and Persepolis Rising, the sixth and seventh books in the series. The events of the series to date have taken place across a settled Solar System with tensions between the United Nations of Earth, the Martian Congressional Republic, and the Belters of the outer planets, which would lead to the establishment of the Outer Planets Alliance to protect their interests. The discovery of a strange molecular technology on Phoebe, a moon of Saturn, would lead to radical changes across the Solar System. The Protogen Corporation, the corporation assigned by the Martian Congressional Republic to study it, branded it the Protomolecule and conducted experiments which would kill millions and ultimately threaten the Earth. Fortunately, there were some who could direct the threat away from the Earth and towards Venus, where it would radically transform the planet beyond all understanding. Further conflict would arise with the discovery of the first ring gate, but the establishment of the Transport Union has placed the Belters on an equal footing with the United Nations of Earth and the Martian Congressional Republic, and given them access to over a thousand worlds beyond the Solar System.

The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition uses what has become known as the ‘AGE’ or ‘Adventure Game Engine’ was first seen 2010 in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, the adaptation of Dragon Age: Origins, the computer game from Bioware. It has since been developed into the Dragon Age Roleplaying Game as well as the more generic Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook and a more contemporary and futuristic setting with Modern AGE Basic Rulebook.

A Player Character in The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition is defined by his Abilities, Focuses, and Talents. There are nine Abilities—Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Each attribute is rated between -2 and 4, with 1 being the average, and each can have a Focus, an area of expertise such as Accuracy (Gunnery), Communication (Leadership), Intelligence (Technology), or Willpower (Courage). A Focus provides a bonus to associated skill rolls and, in some cases, access to a particular area of knowledge. A Talent represents an area of natural aptitude or special training. A Player Character also has a Background, Social Class, and Profession, plus a Drive, Resources and Equipment, Health, Defence, Toughness, and Speed, and Goals, Ties, and Relationships. Instead of Hit Points, a Player Character has Fortune Points, which can be used to alter the result on the Drama Die or withstand damage, reflecting the Player Character’s luck being used up or running out.

Mechanically, the AGE System and thus The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition, is simple enough. If a Player Character wants to undertake an action, his player rolls three six-sided dice and totals the result to beat the difficulty of the test, ranging from eleven or Average to twenty-one or Nigh Impossible. To this total, the player can add an appropriate Ability, and if it applies, an appropriate Focus, which adds two to the roll. Where the AGE System gets fun and where the Player Characters have a chance to shine, is in the rolling of the Drama die and the generation of Stunt Points. When a player rolls the three six-sided dice for an action, one of the dice is of a different colour. This is the Drama die. Whenever doubles are rolled on any of the dice—including the Drama die—and the result of the test is successful, the roll generates Stunt Points. The number of Stunt Points is determined by the result of the Drama die. For example, if a player rolls five, six, and five on the Drama die, then five Stunt Points are generated on the Drama die. What a player gets to spend these Stunt Points on depends on the action being undertaken. In the original 2010 Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, the only options were for combat actions and the casting of spells, but subsequent releases for the roleplaying game and then Modern AGE and The Expanse Roleplaying Game, have expanded the options. Now they include not just combat options, including firearm-related actions of all kinds, but also movement, exploration, and social situations, plus, of course spaceship operation and combat.

The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition Quickstart explains all this in twelve pages and provides everything needed for the accompany scenario, ‘Lost, But Not Alone’. The Player Characters are the crew of the Miriam Makeba, bound for Castila, when they pick up a faint distress call coming from a moon orbiting one of the outer planets. Following the signal to its source reveals the Ratel, a cargo hauler that appears to have crash-landed after being attacked. Further investigation locates the crew in a nearby series of tunnels. Unfortunately, only one has survived, the others having been attacked by something in the tunnels. The lone survivor will be able to tell the Player Characters what happened, but now they find themselves also at the mercy of what killed the surviving crew. ‘Lost, But Not Alone’ is a survival horror scenario, which takes place in a complex built by the same species which built the rings that give access to so many extra-solar system planets. It is a classic Science Fiction survival horror scenario, so not too demanding for either the Game Master or her players.

The scenario does include options for adding it to a campaign or beginning one if the Player Characters have no spaceship. There are ways—legal and illegal—included to make some money as well. Six pre-generated Player Characters are also included with the quick-start. These consist of Cho Ha-Neul, an engineer with a zest for life who’s good at fixing things and making friends; Koa Garcia, a former MCRN engineer seeking adventure and opportunity; Marcus Toussard, an ex-UN soldier who survived the devastation of Earth during the Free Navy Conflict; Olivia Anand, a former combat medic who has seen their fair share of pain and suffering; Phoenix Wu, a hotshot pilot who is still haunted by their involvement in the Free Navy Conflict; Titiana Osun, a natural leader and activist from the Belt who seeks to help those still suffering from the depredations of war and disparity.

Physically, The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition Quickstart is cleanly presented, illustrated throughout in full colour, the artwork nicely depicting the future of The Expanse, as well as its various characters. In places, it is perhaps slightly too busy in terms of its layout, sometimes making it less than an easy read. However, it is well written and an engaging read, especially the background and the advice for the Game Master on running a game.

The Expanse RPG Transport Union Edition Quickstart is a serviceable introduction to what is the second edition of The Expanse Roleplaying Game. The accompanying scenario is well presented and easy to slip into a campaign, but just feels a bit too familiar.

A Science Fiction Map Kit

One of the fascinations with Traveller is with its starships. Ranging in size from one hundred tons up to hundreds of thousands of tons, the players are exposed to them in the rules fairly on—during the process of character creation. Careers such as Scouts, Merchants, and Nobles all have the possibility of giving the characters starships of a small, but capable size. Of course, a starship will take the Player Characters from star system to star system, from adventure to adventure, but the starship also becomes a home too. As a home, the players doubtless want to know what their starship looks like and if they have a role aboard her, as no doubt they do, where their normal station is and where their stateroom is. Then of course, starship deck plans are just like maps. They provide locations to visit, to adventure in, to explore, to attack and defend, and so on. Which can of course be for the theatre of the mind or with miniatures. Starships in Traveller are also highly technical, designed to be realistic within their setting of the Third Imperium, with much their displacement and tonnage given over to fuel, power plant, and jump and manoeuvre drives. There are plenty of supplements dedicated to starships in the Third Imperium—official and unofficial, but of these few, barely a handful are dedicated to the really large starships, space stations, and other big installations and locations. This is where Starship Geomorphs comes in handy.

Starship Geomorphs is a vast collection of geomorphs—or map sections—which can be slotted together to form larger locations in a wide variety of layouts. This includes starships, space stations, buildings, and massive structures. They are all designed using the architecture and map iconography of Traveller, so there is a high of familiarity for long-time fans of the venerable roleplaying game. However, none of the geomorphs are official Traveller content despite their compatibility. Further, their use lends itself to form and function rather than technical design, with the geomorphs here being slotted together to create their locations and ships rather than the Game Master designing a ship using the rules for naval architecture and adhere to the rules for realisation as a set of deck plans. Consequently, Starship Geomorphs possesses a greater utility than a set of deck plans for a single starship or location might.

Presented in landscape format, Starship Geomorphs opens with an introduction and an explanation of the geomorphs. These are organised into standard, edge, corner, and end sections. In addition, there are aerofins too, the aim being to reduce the starships being more aerodynamic and less boxy. There are suggestions too to flesh out a ship design, including its overall look, occupants, gear, age, level of wear, sounds heard aboard ship, and more. There are suggestions also, to add flavour and detail, including what might be found in the ship’s locker and down a ship’s corridor. Other uses of the geomorphs suggested include combining them to create space stations, like the small Dyson-Class modular Star port, corporate facilities, and so on. In the case of the sample starship and sample corporate facility, references are provided to the particular pages where the geomorphs can be found that make up the particular object or location.

The bulk of the book is understandably given over to the geomorphs themselves. They begin with a multipurpose geomorph, a research area geomorph, cargo bay—full and empty, engineering/sensor ops, flight hanger/crew area, brig/prison, arboretum—upper and lower, a drop capsule/troop deck, an auditorium, a sports complex, high passage (first class) passenger deck, promenade decks—food/retail and casino, cloning facility (or alternatively low berth facility), bride areas, gunnery and sandcaster decks, and much, much, more. Some are quite mundane, such as the battery deck, office space (or cubicle farm, proving that office design does not get better in the future), waste processing, and so on. Very quickly the Game Master can put together a troop or fighter carrier, an exploratory or laboratory vessel, a passenger liner, an imperial throne ship (yes, there really is a throne room geomorph!), a strike vessel complete with weapon turrets and barbettes, and more. Punctuating these are some delightful cross section three-dimensional illustrations of the various geomorphs, including a ‘Flight Hanger with Launch Tube’, a cargo bay with an armed crewman outside ready to shoot some scuttling creatures inside, a corridor with doors off and a window through which can be seen a poor, glowing man having suffered a strange mishap in the laboratory, a low berth area, a steerage compartment for passengers travelling on the cheap, and lots more. There is a sense of humour to a few of these, but in the main, they help bring their locations to life and add an extra dimension to the deck plans.

This is just the starships possible with Starship Geomorphs. Space stations and star ports are also possible, again using many of the same geomorphs. However, mix up the office space, auditorium, lobby, and so on, and what you have is a corporate building. The arboretum, promenade areas with and without casino, swimming pool, and passenger decks all combine to form a hotel, with the steerage decks becoming the equivalent of a coffin hotel. There are tram and train layouts, interstitial spaces for between floors and decks, connecting bridges between buildings and space station sections, and a lot more.

Starship Geomorphs is cleanly and clearly laid out. The writing is fairly light in tone and there are notes here and there throughout. The geomorphs are all well done and easy to use.

As a book, Starship Geomorphs is a superb catalogue of maps, plans, deck plans, and more. If there is an issue, it is that there is a high number of geomorphs labelled ‘Multipurpose’, in fact too many of them, to the point where their purpose is lost without the Game Master going through them one by one. Another issue is perhaps that whilst the print version is lovely, the PDF is actually of greater use because the user can separate the geomorphs and put them together onscreen. Further, Starship Geomorphs is not just of use for Traveller, but will work with any Science Fiction roleplaying. Thus, Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, The Expanse, Star Trek Adventures, Star Frontiers, and Cyberpunk Red—all of these would work with a lot of the geomorphs in Starship Geomorphs. If Starship Geomorphs is missing anything, it is a guide or suggestions to create particular ship’s deck plans or building floor plans, but there is plenty of inspiration to be found in the individual geomorphs. The geomorphs can of course be used to create locations for confrontations between miniatures in skirmish wargames.

Starship Geomorphs is delightfully, usefully utilitarian and inspirational in its design and purpose. This big book of map sections is a terrific addition to the toolkit of any Game Master running just about any Science Fiction roleplaying game or even wargame.

An Expansive AGE

Several hundred years from now, mankind has spread far out into the Solar System. Tensions between the Martian Congressional Republic, based on the greatly terraformed planet of Mars, and the United Nations of an Earth restored through the use of the same terraforming technology, have almost driven the Solar System to war. Ultimately what prevented conflict was the Martian government sharing details of the Epstein Drive, a new technology which would open up the frontier in the asteroid belt and the outer planets beyond. Like every frontier before it, prospectors raced out in search of new resources—metals to support industries across the Solar System and water to support the new and growing habitats and settlements—with colonists behind them. A growing sense of resentment at their exploitation would see the Belters set up the Outer Planets Alliance protect their interests, though the Earth-Mars Coalition would brand them terrorists. The discovery of a strange molecular technology on Phoebe, a moon of Saturn, would lead to radical changes across the Solar System. The Protogen Corporation, the corporation assigned by the Martian Congressional Republic to study it, branded it the Protomolecule and conducted experiments which would kill millions and ultimately threaten the Earth. Fortunately, there were some who could direct the threat away from the Earth and towards Venus, where it would radically transform the planet beyond all understanding.

This is the setting for The Expanse, the series of Science Fiction novels by James S.A. Corey, and the television series of the same name. It is also the setting for The Expanse Roleplaying Game, published by Green Ronin Publishing. The novels and the television series run to nine books and six seasons respectively, so The Expanse Roleplaying Game is set between the events of Leviathan Wakes and Caliban’s War, the first and second novels. The Player Characters can explore the setting of The Expanse, perhaps with their own spaceship, get involved with the conspiracies and politics of the setting between governments and corporations, and more.

The Expanse Roleplaying Game uses what has become known as the ‘AGE’ or ‘Adventure Game Engine’ was first seen 2010 in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, the adaptation of Dragon Age: Origins, the computer game from Bioware. It has since been developed into the Dragon Age Roleplaying Game as well as the more generic Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook and a more contemporary and futuristic setting with Modern AGE Basic Rulebook. This is the basis for The Expanse Roleplaying Game. It comes with rules for creating Player Characters, including enough focuses, talents, and specialisations to take the Player Characters from First to Twentieth Level, handling fast-paced action built around action, combat, exploration, and social stunts, spaceships and spaceship combat, background setting, advice for the Game Master, plus more... That more includes a new short story, ‘The Last Flight of the Cassandra’, by James S. A. Corey, stats for the cast of the novels, a beginning scenario, and advice when to set a campaign.

A Player Character in The Expanse Roleplaying Game is defined by his Abilities, Focuses, and Talents. There are nine Abilities—Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, and Willpower. Each attribute is rated between -2 and 4, with 1 being the average, and each can have a Focus, an area of expertise such as Accuracy (Gunnery), Communication (Leadership), Intelligence (Technology), or Willpower (Courage). A Focus provides a bonus to associated skill rolls and, in some cases, access to a particular area of knowledge. A Talent represents an area of natural aptitude or special training, and is rated either Novice, Expert, or Master. For example, at Novice level, the Pilot Talent, the Player Character is quick to start a vehicle and make appropriate tests as minor actions; at Expert level, he gains a bonus to all rolls involving speed; and at Master level, the character’s player can reroll failed rolls, bit must keep the second roll, plus as long as the vehicle is moving, it receives a bonus to its defence. As a Player Character goes up in Level, he can acquire Specialisations, such as Ace or Executive, which grant further bonuses and benefits. A character also has a Background, Social Class, and Profession, plus a Drive, Resources and Equipment, Health, Defence, Toughness, and Speed, and Goals, Ties, and Relationships.

To create a character, a player rolls three six-sided dice for each Ability—assigning them in order, but can swap two. He then rolls his origins and native gravity, which is either a Belter, an Earther, or a Martian. After that, he rolls for Social Class and an associated Background and Profession. A Background provides an Ability bonus, a choice of a Focus, and a choice of a Talent, plus randomly determined Focus or Talent, whilst a Profession provides a pair of Focuses and a pair Talents to choose from, plus a resources score and starting Fortune. The player selects a Drive, such as Achiever or Networker, which grants another pair of Talents to choose from as well as an improvement to a Relationship, a Reputation, or Resources. The process itself is fairly quick and results in a reasonably detailed character. Alternatively, and with the permission of the Game Master, a player can pick these options rather than roll for them. This is a good choice if the players need to decide what their characters are and what they do as a team or a crew, for example, that of a spaceship as in the novels.

One stats missing from a Player Character is that of health or Hit Points. Instead he has Fortune Points. These serve two primary functions. First, they can be expended to alter the value of a die (which costs more for the Drama die), and second, they work as the equivalent of Hit Points. In effect, their use sort of reflects the Player Character’s luck being used up or running out.

Our sample Player Character is Jadamantha Holland, who grew up in a klade of indentured labourers and crafters out in the belt. Renowned for her outspoken attitude she was elected its negotiator after she complained at the poor deals being bargained for their labour with the corporation they were indentured to. She stuck to her guns and got a better deal, year on year, and then for other klades as she fomented a drive for them to unionise. She was successful, but the corporations would ultimately rig the elections and ensure she did not win. Consequently she hates the corporations and supports the Outer Planets Alliance, often moving from location to location, negotiating workers’ rights. When that does not work out she is an invertebrate gambler and often she can turn her hand to most things. Her often obstinate views on authority get her into trouble. 

Jadamantha Holland
Background: Belter
Social Class: Lower Class (Labourer)
Occupation: Negotiator
Level: 1

Accuracy 0
Communication 3 (Bargaining, Gambling)
Constitution 1
Dexterity 2 (Crafting, Free-fall)
Fighting 0
Intelligence 2
Perception 2
Strength 1
Willpower 3

Defence 12 Toughness 11 Speed 12 Fortune 15
Talents: Carousing (Novice) Improvisation (Novice), Oratory (Novice)

Drive: Rebel
Resources: 2

Mechanically, the AGE System and thus The Expanse Roleplaying Game, is simple enough. If a Player Character wants to undertake an action, his player rolls three six-sided dice and totals the result to beat the difficulty of the test, ranging from eleven or Average to twenty-one or Nigh Impossible. To this total, the player can add an appropriate Ability, and if it applies, an appropriate Focus, which adds two to the roll. For example, a group of Outer Planets Alliance terrorists have been tracked to a belter station in the belt and the Earth-Mars Coalition is preparing a Marine Corps strike team. The Player Characters could sneak onto the station to find out what is happening there or they could negotiate with the Marine Corps strike team commander to wait before she sends her team in. The former would involve a player rolling the three six-sided dice, applying the Player Character’s Dexterity Ability, and if the Player Character has it, the Stealth Focus. The other option would be to roll the three six-sided dice, apply the Player Character’s Communication Ability, and if the Player Character has it, the Bargaining Focus.

However, where the AGE System gets fun and where the Player Characters have a chance to shine, is in the rolling of the Drama die and the generation of Stunt Points. When a player rolls the three six-sided dice for an action, one of the dice is of a different colour. This is the Drama die. Whenever doubles are rolled on any of the dice—including the Drama die—and the result of the test is successful, the roll generates Stunt Points. The number of Stunt Points is determined by the result of the Drama die. For example, if a player rolls five, six, and five on the Drama die, then five Stunt Points are generated on the Drama die. What a player gets to spend these Stunt Points on depends on the action being undertaken. In 2010, with the release of Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, the only options were for combat actions and the casting of spells, but subsequent releases for Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying expanded the range of options on which Stunt Points can be spent to include movement, exploration, and social situations. This has been carried over into Modern AGE and The Expanse Roleplaying Game and expanded and expanded.

So, what can stunts do? For example, for one Stunt Point, a player might select ‘Whatever’s Handy’ and grab the nearest improvised weapon, which though clumsy and possibly fragile, it will do; for five Stunt Points, select ‘Spray and Pray’, which applies an attack to everyone in a five metre radius, though they all get a Defence bonus; and for each three Stunt Points spent, ‘Hull Breach’ reduces the target vehicle’s Hull rating by a point. In an Investigation, ‘Flashback’ costs a single Stunt Point and reminds the Player Character of something he forgot, whilst in a social situation, ‘From the Heart’ costs four Stunt Points and enables the Player Character to express wholeheartedly a belief such that it temporarily grants a Willpower Focus and a bonus to the roll to use it.

For example, Jadamantha Holland gets herself captured by the Marine Corps strike team readying itself to attack the belter station where the commander suspects there are some Outer Planets Alliance terrorists. Her loud mouth easily persuades the sergeant to take her before the commander by claiming that she has information about what is on the station. Jadamantha wants to persuade the commander to wait and let her colleagues find out what is happening on the station before the marines go in all guns blazing. Brought before the commander, Jadmantha tells her that she should not go in yet and that if she does, she sill have another Fred Johnson situation on her hands and there’s her career gone. 

The Game Master sets the base Test Difficulty at Hard or fifteen because the marine commander is determined to send her team in. Jadamantha’s Reputation as an Outer Planets Alliance sympathiser counts against her and so increases the Test Difficulty to seventeen or Formidable. Her player will roll the dice, add Jadmantha’s Communication Ability and +2 for the Bargaining Focus. In addition, Jadamantha’s player gives an impassioned speech warning about the danger of another Fred Johnson affair. This grants another +2 bonus. So altogether, the player is adding a total of seven to the roll. 

Jadmantha’s player rolls five, three, and then five on the Drama die. This means that she has succeeded and her player has five Stunt points to spend. Her player first chooses ‘Let’s make deal’, which enables Jadmantha’s words to benefit another person present, who now owes her a favour, if only begrudgingly. This is the marine sergeant, who is now concerned that his commander is going in hot. This costs three Stunt points and Jadmantha has successfully persuaded the commander to stay her hand.

Another use for the Drama die is to determine how well a Player Character does, so the higher the roll on the Drama die in a test, the less time a task takes or the better the quality of the task achieved. The main use though, is as a means of generating Stunt Points, and whilst Stunt Points and Stunts are the heart of the action in The Expanse Roleplaying Game, there are a lot of them to choose from. Now they are broken down into categories, and that does limit what a player can choose from. However, upon initial play, a player is not only going to be faced with an abundance of choice, but in making that choice can slow play down. In combat that is a real problem because it is meant to be exciting and dynamic. Ultimately, this should lessen as players get used to the system and find out what Stunts work best with their characters, and as they get used to these choices, which is when they will find that the array of Stunts available do reflect aspects of the setting and story of The Expanse.

In addition to covering action, combat, exploration, and social scenes, The Expanse Roleplaying Game covers rules for handling resources (money), reputation, technology and equipment, and more. There is a solid guide to the latter and what is clear is that beyond the Epstein Drive for spaceships, technology is not overly advanced. Beyond that, the highest piece of technology listed is power armour, which is rarely to be found in possession of the Player Characters. In covering lifestyle, communications, food, and more, The Expanse Roleplaying Game begins to impart a feel of the future it depicts. Some players may be disappointed by the treatment of the technology in terms of weaponry, the differences of which are determined by various Qualities and Flaws. Mechanically this is effective, but it does feel flavourless in terms of the setting.

In comparison, The Expanse Roleplaying Game goes into some details about how space travel and spaceships work in its future. This includes a discussion of motion, mass, spin, and velocity, all of it surprisingly technical. This is not built into the rules though, which means that a calculator and an understanding of mathematics is not required to play the roleplaying game or handle a spaceship. Instead, it supports the roleplaying game and setting as a hard Science Fiction setting, rather one of just pushing the button and the ship goes., and should instead be used to flavour and inform the narrative in play. Various types of spaceships are detailed from a lowly shuttle all the way up to large freighters and battleships. These are all relatively simply defined with Hull points, crew size and competence, sensors, weapons, and Qualities and Flaws, if any. They are illustrated, but no deck plans, at least for the types of spaceships the Player Characters would have access to, which again is disappointing as that again would have imparted a stronger feel for the setting. (That said, Ships of the Expanse does include those deck plans as well as other information.) In general, whether or not the Player Characters own or have a spaceship will be down to the type of campaign being played or the narrative.

Spaceship combat builds on the core mechanics and has a fluid feel to it. Primarily, it adds another table of Command Stunts for the captain to choose from if he rolls well at the beginning of each round. This can flavour and influence the course of the action from round to round, so that ‘Guidance’, which costs one or more Stunt Points, gives bonus points to assign to combat tests throughout the round, or ‘Set-up’, which costs four Stunt Points and is used to maneuver an opposing ship into a hazard, whether that is into the range of a weapon with a shorter range, a debris field, or even an asteroid. Reflecting the harder feel of its Science Fiction, the spaceships do not have shields, damage being done directly to the hull, and weapons are all kinetic, whether that is Point Defence Cannons, rail guns, or torpedoes. The rules for spaceship combat are supported by a good example of play—the best in the book.

The guide to the future depicted by The Expanse, essentially the background to the setting, does not appear until over halfway through the book. This covers the history of setting all the way up to the first two novels, as well as background on Earth, Mars, the Belt, and the Outers beyond that. It also includes full details and stats of the main members of the cast—Chrisjen Avasarala, James Holden, and more. This would allow the players to take them as characters if they wanted to. Perhaps fans of the television series and the novels may be underwhelmed by the lack of background, but The Expanse Roleplaying Game is not intended to be the  definitive sourcebook for either. Overall, it is a good solid introduction to, and overview of, the setting.

The Game Master is really only given one more mechanic. To aid her handle and increase tension, she is given Churn. Reset at the beginning of each adventure, this ticks up and is tracked whenever a player rolls a six on the Drama die, spends more than four Stunt Points, a player spends Fortune, or the Player Characters overcome an encounter or hazard. When the thresholds are exceeded at ten, twenty, and then thirty points, the Game Master checks for a ‘Churn Over’ which can result in a minor, major, or epic setback or turn of events which in some way impedes the Player Characters. Other than this, the section for the Game Master is dedicated to solid, well written advice on running the game and adjudicating the rules, plus creating adventures, GM styles, and knowing your players—the latter particularly well done. It also includes adversaries, both mundane and outré, potential rewards for the Player Characters, and a discussion of the themes to be found in The Expanse and how to use them in the game. It suggests several campaign or series frameworks, including freelancers, military, political, rebellions, Protomolecule, and other series. It even discusses how to run Parallel series with two or more groups and a series exploring the setting of The Expanse beyond the story depicted in the fiction. All come with plot hooks and there are some concepts for taking beyond the canon too. It even plots out Leviathan Wakes, the first novel, as a plot arc.

Lastly, ‘To Sleep, Perchance To Dream’ is an introductory scenario which a Game Master can run as a one-shot or beginning of a campaign. In the Player Characters are hired by the Mormons on Tycho Station to investigate the disappearance of two scientists. The plot of the scenario is not connected to that of the novels, so it has the feel of there being other things going on other than the threat posed by the Protomolecule. The scenario will bring them into contact with one of the major characters of the setting, but only tangentially, which is a nice touch for fans of the series. Plus as written it should all end with a cinematic climax.

Physically, The Expanse Roleplaying Game is cleanly presented, illustrated throughout in full colour, the artwork nicely depicting the future of The Expanse, as well as its various characters. In places, it is perhaps slightly too busy in terms of its layout, sometimes making it less than an easy read. However, it is well written and an engaging read, especially the background and the advice for the Game Master on running a game and choosing a series framework.

From its inception in 2009 with Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5 to the publication of The Expanse Roleplaying Game in 2019, the AGE System has evolved from an elegant and easy way to handle cinematic fantasy into something which is both complex and comprehensive. It still retains its core elegance, but it is no longer as easy, having more choices and more crunch. This is unavoidable though, given the hard Science Fiction of The Expanse setting, and to be fair, The Expanse Roleplaying Game explains and handles it very well. The core elegance of the AGE System means that the Player Characters can get to do exciting, even cinematic action and interaction, in what is a hard Science Fiction setting, and so have a chance to shine. The Expanse Roleplaying Game is an impressive adaptation of the start of The Expanse setting, one which fans of hard Science Fiction roleplaying will enjoy as much as fans of The Expanse.