Indie RPG Spotlight: ‘Lasers & Feelings’ are All You Need to Explore Space
This RPG brings you, your lasers, and your feelings to space for some adventure and exploration that isn’t not Star Trek inspired.
Often we play tabletop roleplaying games that look a lot like D&D- a big name with lots of options and lots of rules. Other times, our TTRPGs fall a bit closer to the Apocalypse system—universal, easy rules for both setup and gameplay. But sometimes our tabletop gaming experience is something entirely different and unique. And entirely different and unique describes Lasers & Feelings perfectly.
Lasers & Feelings
This is a game designed for quick play in a science fiction-like sort of setting. You, the players, are the crew of the interstellar ship, Raptor, on a mission to explore uncharted space, meet aliens, and fight off space dangers. Three to six players spend two-to-four hours flying through space as the captain recovers from some sort of psychic possession armed with nothing but lasers and their feelings. Also, the game is based on the songs of The Doubleclicks.
Sounds wacky? We know! And that’s part of what we like about it. The Star Trek meets nineties anime meets CW show vibe is one that doesn’t take itself very seriously and by extension invites you to just relax and have a lot of fun. And this something we’re very into.
Of course, you may be wondering what this very specific sci-fi-sort-of setting looks like. And that’s up to you! The rules say very little about the world of the game. So listen to some Doubleclicks and get inspired to design the weird space adventure of your dreams.
Character Creation & Gameplay
Making a character in Lasers & Feelings is pretty straightforward and fast. Pick a style, pick a role- this mainly consists of picking a skill you want your character to have and how that fits into spaceship life, figuring out whether your character is more lasers (science) minded or feelings (feelings) minded and the corresponding number between two and five, give your character a name and finally determine their goal. You’re not building a fully fleshed-out character as much as coming up with a playable concept that you can have fun with. You don’t need a backstory, just a few sentences jotted down in a notebook.
As a group or crew, the players decide on two strengths as well as two problems the ship possesses.
The gameplay itself is also very easy and involves between one and four d6. One is rolled whenever a player attempts something that includes risk. Another is added if they have expertise (as decided by the GM based on the character’s role and skill). Another is added if they are receiving help from another player. And another is added if their character took the time to prepare in some way. Do something that involves science (lasers), you want to roll under the number you decided on during character creation. To do something more related to feelings, the goal is to roll over the number. Depending on your roll, you can either succeed, fail, fail spectacularly, or sort of do neither. On the Raptor, anything can happen.
If you’d like to check out Lasers & Feelings for yourself, you can find more information here.
Have you played Lasers & Feelings? Are you more driven by your lasers or your feelings? What would your role on the starship be? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
