Deep Core Industries
Deep Core Industries is a science-fiction tabletop role-playing game, set in the 24th century and extending into the 38th century. By the 24th century, humanity had expanded throughout the Solar System by terraforming worlds, establishing orbital habitats, and engaging in extensive mining. To endure extreme environments and isolated deep-space conditions, humanity developed advanced cybernetics, robotics, genetic engineering, and artificial intelligence. These advancements led to the creation of various specialized populations: engineered Canids and Felari, broad populations of Geneborn descendants, autonomous Androids, heavily augmented Cyborgs, and Holograms whose personalities are sustained via expensive Holographic Cores.
Centuries of relentless expansion eventually drained the Solar System's viable natural resources, sparking a critical energy and material crisis. In response, major governments and private corporations united under Deep Core Industries (DCI) to construct the Dark Nebula—a massive, five-mile-long mining and exploration vessel housing over 1,700 crew members. Operating in opposition to DCI's monopoly, corporate rivals like the Atlas Resource Consortium (ARC) engaged in espionage, tech theft, and sabotage against DCI operations. Built in the Kuiper Belt, the Dark Nebula launched in the year 3779 on an FTL journey to the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Arriving in 3784, the diverse crew of biological, cybernetic, and digital specialists is awakened from stasis to secure humanity's survival by establishing mining operations, recovering resources, and scanning for terraformable planets.
The core mechanics of the game rely on a roll-under 2d6 system. Characters calculate a Target Number by combining a specific Attribute score with a Skill score.
To succeed, players must roll equal to or lower than their Target Number on 2d6. The dice rolled are categorized as a Boon die and a Bane die. Rolling low leads to success, while generating Boon tokens for the players or Bane tokens for the Game Master (referred to as the AI) depending on which die shows the higher result.
Players can spend Boon tokens to adjust Target Numbers or advance their stats between game sessions. The AI uses accumulated Bane tokens to introduce sudden environmental hazards, plot complications, and narrative obstacles.
