By The Intrepid in TTRPG — 22 Oct 2026

Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)

A setting for use with The Black Hack (v1.2)

The Brief

Independent crews haul cargo between mining stations, colonies, and depots in a lightly settled system. Ships are old and loans are large; a late delivery can cost a crew its ship. Law obliges any vessel to answer a distress beacon, and salvage goes to whoever arrives first. There is no magic and no psychic power. Technology is mundane, expensive, and breaks. Play is jobs: hauling, answering beacons, and boarding ships and stations that have gone quiet.

House conventions: A level is an arc (usually one job), and arcs lengthen as the crew advances. At level 10 a character retires from play and becomes an NPC. No stress, panic, or sanity mechanics; fear is played, not tracked. No new resource pools or currencies beyond what the rules already have.

Table answers (from Phase 0): Violence is rare and irreversible; hazards and negotiation come first, and any climactic fight should be avoidable by other means. Space is always monitored — registries and signal capture mean someone eventually connects the dots. The ship stays narrative, with no statistics; its components need a character's hands when circumstances demand.

The Setting

Where play begins. On an established run between a [HOME DEPOT] and its regular stops: [NEAR STATIONS], a colony or two, and a local [BELT], all within a day's burn. Past the familiar boundary, traffic thins and there are old wrecks and unclaimed signals. [ASSUMED] What lies out there is deferred (see Open Questions).

Dangerous and scarce. Dangerous: vacuum, mechanical failure, rival crews, and whatever is aboard a quiet ship. Scarce: air, power, parts, time, and credit against the loan.

Why adventure. The loan must be serviced, and beacons are a legal duty that pays in salvage if you arrive first. The two pull against each other: answering a beacon makes you late on a paid delivery, and arriving first makes you a target. That choice is the setting's central decision, and most jobs put it in front of the crew.

Magic. None. Both spell lists, the spell slot tables, and Banishing Undead are cut. The two former casting classes are rebuilt with growth engines made from existing mechanics (see Characters).

Who the characters are. A crew of four roles: the Enforcer keeps order and survives the fight when it comes; the Roughneck handles hazards, locks, and hands-on repair; the Scientist diagnoses what is wrong before it kills someone; the Colonist keeps people and places alive. No fifth role is missing.

Ordinary people. Know basic void safety, run standard tools, and own a suit and a toolkit. Anything past that — forcing a sealed hatch, reading a failing reactor, keeping a dying habitat running — is a class's work. [ASSUMED]

Lethality. Violence is rare and irreversible. Death is permanent; nothing brings anyone back. The Out of Action table stands, and its Dead result carries full weight.

Tone. Grounded and working-class, matter-of-fact about danger. Hard-edged, not horror for shock. [ASSUMED]

Deeper Truths

Death. Out of Action as written. Dead is permanent, and a body that cannot be recovered is lost. A dead crewmate is also one less signer on the loan and one less pair of hands to work it off.

"Evil." Not used. Every effect that named it was cut with the spell lists.

Threats. People, machines, and the void. Whether anything else is out there is deferred.

Power. Nobody polices the void live, but records catch up: registries and signal capture mean consequences arrive after the fact. Whoever holds the crew's loan can seize the ship — who that is stays open.

How people treat the crew. Useful cargo and useful first responders, but strangers passing through: trusted enough to hire, not enough to vouch for. [ASSUMED]

What happened, what is changing. The system was settled for extraction, and its ships and debts have aged together ever since. Nothing has been settled for good. [ASSUMED]

The Situation

[GM's to fill]

A beacon is broadcasting from off the crew's route, and their delivery window is already tight. Answering is the law and may pay; not answering will be on the record eventually. Someone else may be listening too. What is aboard, and why it called, is not given.

Characters

Four roles on the four class chassis. The Enforcer and Roughneck keep their base classes' growth; the Scientist and Colonist replace spell slots with features that scale by level, built only from existing mechanics. Every difference from the base class is in the Change Log.

Enforcer (Warrior)

Keeps order on a job and survives the fight when one comes.

HP: d10+4; 1d10 per level.
Weapons and armor: any — sidearms, long guns, breaching tools; any suit or cover.
Attack damage: 1d8 / 1d6 unarmed or improvised.
Special features: Once per hour in a fight, regain d8 HP. One attack per level as part of an action. Wreck a piece of cover they carry to ignore one hit.
Leveling up: roll twice for STR and DEX.
Constraint: any force they use leaves a record, and records catch up with the crew.
Standing: other crews keep their distance; anyone tied to a registry takes notice.

Roughneck (Thief)

Goes outside when something needs fixing by hand; opens what is sealed.

HP: d8+4; 1d8 per level.
Weapons and armor: cutting and breaching tools, sidearms, one-handed tool-weapons; work suit, hardsuit, small deployable cover.
Attack damage: 1d6 / 1d4 unarmed or improvised.
Special features: Advantage on DEX to avoid harm from traps, breaches, and rigged systems. Advantage when striking an unaware target, for 2d6 / 2d4 + level damage. Advantage on delicate work, climbing (including EVA), hearing through a hull, moving quietly, reading unfamiliar systems and markings, and opening locks and airlocks.
Leveling up: roll twice for DEX or WIS.
Constraint: expected to suit up for EVA, breaching, and manual override; refusing costs standing and pay.
Standing: depended on for dirty, dangerous work; not trusted with the paperwork.

Scientist (Conjurer)

Works out what is wrong before it kills someone.

HP: d4+4; 1d4 per level.
Weapons and armor: a one-handed tool-weapon or a sidearm; no armor; a pressure suit only.
Attack damage: 1d4 / 1 unarmed or improvised.
Special features:
- Advantage on INT to avoid harm from malfunctioning technology, contamination, and hostile systems.
- Diagnose. As an action, identify any hazard, malfunction, or contamination Nearby without a test; Far-Away from level 3.
- Workaround. Once per day, plus once more at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9: give a crewmate Advantage on a test to repair, bypass, or shut down a system; step a piece of kit's usage die up one size; or shut down a hazard with HD no higher than the Scientist's level, without a test. Against a hazard of higher HD, test INT (Powerful Opponents applies); failure spends the use.
Leveling up: roll twice for INT or WIS.
Constraint: needs working instruments; if their kit's usage die runs out, Diagnose and Workaround stop until it is resupplied.
Standing: worth a seat on any crew; creditors and outsiders are slow to trust them.

Colonist (Cleric)

Keeps people and places alive somewhere that does not want them. At high level, a frontier legend.

HP: d8+4; 1d8 per level.
Weapons and armor: blunt and improvised tools; work suit, hardsuit, light void armor, any cover.
Attack damage: 1d6 / 1d4 unarmed or improvised.
Special features:
- Advantage on CON against poison, disease, paralysis, and exhaustion.
- Tend. Once per day, plus once more at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9, as an action for a Nearby person: restore 1d8 HP (2d8 from level 5; 3d8+3 from level 7), or, from level 3, cure a disease or neutralise a poison.
- Make Do. Once per day, step up one of the crew's food, water, or air usage dice by one size; twice per day from level 5.
- Hold Fast. From level 3, as an action: everyone Nearby has Advantage on CON tests against cold, heat, bad air, and decompression for an hour.
- Keeping. From level 9: anyone who rests for an hour in a place the Colonist keeps regains the full maximum of their Hit Die instead of rolling it, and Make Do steps up that usage die for everyone Nearby at once.
Leveling up: roll twice for STR or WIS.
Constraint: cannot use Tend on themself; the competence is for others.
Standing: trusted on sight by settlers; raiders and creditors read that trust as leverage.

Equipment

Start with 3d6 × 10 credit, a pressure suit (counts as clothes: seals, no AP), and one allowed one-handed weapon. Prices and usage dice are the rules' own; only names change unless noted.

Item	Cost	Usage Die	Notes
Work suit	50	—	AP 2 (Gambeson)
Hardsuit	100	—	AP 4 (Leather)
Light void armor	350	—	AP 6 (Chain Mail)
Heavy void armor	600	—	AP 8 (Plate & Mail)
Deployable cover, small / large	50 / 100	—	AP 2 / 4 (Shields)
Air bottle	15	d8	New item; a suit's reserve
Power cells (6)	1	d6	Each cell has its own die (Torches)
Sealant canister	2	d6	Patches a breach (Flask of Oil)
Magazine	10	d10	(Quiver)
Long gun	50	—	Two-handed rule
Bypass kit	25	—	(Thieves' Tools)
Tool roll	2	—	(Work Tools)
Mag-clamps	1	—	(Iron Spikes)
Tether, 50'	1	—	(Rope)
Work light	10	—	(Lantern)
Inspection camera	5	—	(Mirror)
Probe pole	1	—	(10' Pole)
Common meds	10	d8	(Herbs)
Preserved / fresh rations	15 / 5	d8 / d4	As the rules
Water bladder	1	d6	(Wineskin)

Cut: Holy Symbol, Holy Water, Wine.

Mil-spec and prototype gear replaces magic items, with the same numbers: +1 to tests and damage for a weapon; doubled Armor Points for armor. Found in salvage, rarely sold.

Threats

Damage follows the rules' HD table unless noted. For people and institutions, HD is reach.

Threat	HD	Actions and Specials
Hard vacuum / blowout	3	No attack: CON test or Out of Action. Avoidable entirely by sealing up or suiting before it triggers.
Failing reactor or system	2	HD-table damage each Moment it is ignored. A Scientist's Workaround can shut it down without a fight.
Rival salvage crew	2–6	Leader's HD is reach. Wants the same job or wreck. Most reactions favour trade, avoidance, or a stand-off.
Stranded, desperate boarders	1	Knife or improvised weapon (1d4). Most reactions favour surrender, trade, or flight.
Registry notice	4	Not a combatant: the attention an incident draws. Compels answers, fines, or impounding.
Unknown presence	—	`[DEFERRED — depends on: whether anything alien exists]` See Open Questions.

Random encounters keep the rules' clock and reaction table. Results read as another vessel or party converging on the same signal, wreck, or registry hit.

New rule: none. The one-subsystem allowance is unused.

Glossary

Arc: one job, from taking it to getting paid (or not); the unit of advancement.
Beacon: a distress signal; answering is a legal duty.
Belt: the local field of mining rocks within a day's burn of home.
Burn: a stretch of powered travel between two places; measured in hours or days.
Credit: money; also what the crew owes on the loan.
Deployable cover: portable plating a character carries and sets up; the rules' shields.
EVA: working outside the ship in a suit.
First-lock salvage: the law that whoever reaches a wreck first owns what is inside.
Registry: the records of ships, cargo, and signals that let someone eventually connect the dots.
Void armor: protective suits rated for fighting as well as vacuum.

Change Log

Differences from the uploaded rules only.

Setting-wide

Both spell lists, the spell slot tables, spellbooks, Banishing Undead, and every Evil-named effect cut — the premise has no magic.
Converting Saves: the INT row now covers hostile software, sensor intrusion, and sensory overload — there is no magic to resist. Other rows unchanged.
Coins become credit; the loan is serviced in the fiction, not tracked — the house rule forbids new pools.
Equipment renamed item for item with the same prices, AP, and usage dice; Air Bottle (15, d8) added as the suit reserve; Holy Symbol, Holy Water, and Wine cut.
Magic items become mil-spec and prototype gear with the same numbers.
Monster list replaced by the threat table; the HD damage table is unchanged.
Random encounters keep the clock and reaction table; results are read as people and ships, not creatures.
Advancement per arc rather than per session, with arcs lengthening as the crew advances (the rules advise a constant unit); characters retire at level 10 — house conventions.
Travel between stations uses Time & Turns' substitution of Hours or Days for Minutes; distance bands are for close quarters only.

Enforcer (Warrior) — renamed only; no mechanical change.

Roughneck (Thief)

Hit Die d6 → d8, for starting HP and per level — hull work is punishing and the role takes the hazards.
Attack from behind → attack on an unaware target — there is no reliable "behind" in zero-g.
Swords, bows, and daggers read as tools, sidearms, and one-handed tool-weapons; traps and magical devices read as traps, breaches, and rigged systems; written languages read as unfamiliar systems and markings.

Scientist (Conjurer)

Sidearm added to the weapon list (Conjurer: one-handed sword and staff) — a ranged option without armor.
Advantage vs spells and magical devices → vs malfunctioning technology, contamination, and hostile systems.
Spellcasting and spellbook removed; Diagnose and Workaround added as the growth engine, scaling at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9.

Colonist (Cleric)

CON Advantage extended from poison and paralysis to disease and exhaustion.
Banishing Undead and spellcasting removed; Tend, Make Do, Hold Fast, and Keeping added as the growth engine, scaling at levels 3, 5, 7, and 9. Tend's healing tracks Cure Light and Cure Serious Wounds.

Open Questions

Deferred — needs your answer before it matters

Whether anything alien exists. Options: (a) nothing — every derelict and signal is human-made, and the Unknown Presence row is cut; (b) something — it gets its own HD and Specials, and the space past the familiar boundary changes character; (c) ambiguous — decided per derelict, with the row filled in only when one is used. Changes the threat table and what lies past the boundary.
Who holds the crew's loan. Options: a company, a bank or co-op, a single lender, or several creditors. Changes who can seize the ship and what a Registry Notice costs.

Kept open by you

All proper names — shown as placeholders.
What is aboard any derelict, and why it went quiet.

Assumed — overrule freely

Starting run: a home depot, near stations, a colony or two, and a belt within a day's burn.
Ordinary people know void safety and own a suit and a toolkit.
Tone: grounded and working-class, not horror.
Crews are hired and tolerated, not vouched for.
The system was settled for extraction, and nothing has been settled for good.

For playtest

Whether the Scientist's and Colonist's growth engines keep pace with the Enforcer's attacks per level.
Whether Hard Vacuum's CON-or-Out-of-Action is fair when players had a chance to seal up.

Discover in play

What would look strange to an outsider.
Who can still read an old registry.
What the last crew to answer this beacon found.