100 Reasons You Can’t Leave the Ship - a Sci-FI Horror RPG supplement
On Quisicosas since 20 March 2026
Featured in the newsletter of
20 March 2026 (on Substack)
What it is about
100 Reasons You Can't Leave the Ship
For Space Horror RPGs (Alien RPG, Mothership, and similar games)
Your Players Shouldn't Just Walk to the Escape Pods
The station is compromised. The creature is hunting. Your crew heads to the escape bay.
And then what? They just... leave?
That's not horror. That's an exit sign.
Real dread comes from knowing escape exists but being unable to reach it:
The escape pods work perfectly—but something outside is tracking and hunting every pod that launches
Civilians are sealed in another section. You have time to save them OR reach the pods yourself. Not both.
The bio-organic ship requires eight crew members to enter metabolic suspension as living batteries. Who volunteers to power everyone else's escape?
This book gives you 100 obstacles that transform evacuation from "walk to the door" into impossible choices.
Each entry presents a barrier where:
✓ Escape remains theoretically possible but practically agonizing
✓ Players must sacrifice something valuable (people, morals, safety, time)
✓ Multiple obstacles can combine into cascading nightmares
✓ There is no "correct" solution—only terrible trade-offs
No prep needed. Roll or choose. Trap your players in beautiful agony.
Examples from the Book
Beacon Predators - Recovery teams discovered wreckage from seventeen escape modules within a five kilometer radius. Each pod's emergency beacon drew something massive from the nebula. Sensor logs show identical heat signatures converging on every distress signal. The beacons cannot be disabled once launched. Whatever hunts out there is patient and thorough.
Metabolic Battery Array - Life support during the three-week journey to sanctuary requires eight crew members placed in metabolic suspension pods. Their bodies become biological batteries, sustaining oxygen generation and temperature regulation for remaining passengers. Survival rate for suspended individuals hovers around sixty percent. The mathematics are simple: sacrifice eight to save twenty, or everyone suffocates together. Drawing lots begins in ten minutes.
Compatible with any space horror RPG. No setting-specific content. Public domain scenarios.
Turn escape into the hardest decision your players ever make.
If you liked this volume, you might be interested in the other books:
In the space opera series
