Space Is Inspiring

On March 5th, 2024, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released a one-shot TTRPG adventure. It's... fine? I mean, it's pretty obviously written for D&D and games operating in the same space, with similar expectations for what a TTRPG adventure looks like (meet some fantasy people, go to a dungeon, dodge the traps, fight the enemies, beat up a boss, go home). While the Hubble Space Telescope plays a key role, the fantastic images Hubble has produced over the years don't really get much time in the spotlight.

And that's kind of a shame, isn't it?

NASA routinely releases the images it and its contractors take using space telescopes to the public domain. From the famous Pillars of Creation to the Hubble Deep Field, there are loads of gorgeous, freely available pictures of space thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope – and its not alone. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been collecting high-energy photographs since 1999. Since 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been producing similarly stunning images, often-times made clearer thanks to its imaging of infrared wavelengths. So, let's take this opportunity to celebrate, why don't we?

The Rules Are Simple: Make a TTRPG Adventure that Centers at Least One NASA* Image

This jam is an invitation to go through NASA's image archives* and get inspired to write an adventure of our own. Pick any system you like—or no system at all, though you may want to at least suggest compatible systems—and put your favorite images at the center of the story. What's your tragic romance in the city, represented by the transit of Io across Jupiter? What drives pilgrims to climb the Mystic Mountain? What interstellar battle is playing out in the heart of Cassiopeia A's Green Monster? Skim through NASA's image & video library, check out some historic Astronomy Pictures of the Day, scroll through the websites for the Hubble or Chandra, check out the JWST Flickr – you're sure to find something incredible.

For your submission, you should have a downloadable PDF containing everything someone might need to run your adventure, with your inspiring images integrated into the document. If you don't want to hassle with downloading a bunch of images and formatting them into a document, you might try producing something using Markdown to just render directly from images online (see this guide on Markdown by Luke Gearing for a good introduction to writing & rendering such a file). If your adventure is Friggin' Rancid (fash, aggressively racist, genocidal, etc) I reserve the right to say "get lost" and remove your submission. There is no minimum requirement or maximum length for your adventure – it could be a one-page sketch of a session's encounters or a veritable campaign for players to explore. Charge whatever you want for the final product.

Have fun!

SN 1006 as imaged by Chandra, operated by NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

* If you're outside the US and want to show off your own favorite space agency's public domain images, go right ahead! NASA is centered here primarily because 1) I'm a USian myself and 2) they were the ones that inspired the jam.

Jam cover image is the spiral galaxy NGC 628 as imaged by the JWST, operated by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute.