Void Technicians

Submission to Eternal TTRPG Jam - May 2025 - Void Rituals

FIX THE UNFIXABLE. VOID THE WARRANTY. JAILBREAK A SPACE TRACTOR.

VOID TECHNICIANS (a working title) is a game built on the Firebrands Framework established by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker's Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands. It follows the crew of a ship as they do illegal repair work on industrial heavy machinery.

Eclipse Corp has a stranglehold on the market, and while  their machines are top-of-the-line, they also get away with all sorts of chicanery like proprietary screws, parts pairing, and high costs for licensed repairs.

Outlaws like yourselves get around all that, but be careful: Eclipse throws around their lobbying weight to allow them to deploy the Eclipse Corps, heavily-armed repair technicians who have free reign to bounty-hunt outlaws like yourselves.

Minigames

As per the Firebrands Framework, you'll choose from a list of minigames. These cover activities like:

• Do illegal repair work on industrial machinery for planet-scale farming, logging, and storage operations
• Work together on jobs or spend time talking it through with customers
• Reminisce about lives you left behind to do this dangerous job
• Float in space for a while and try not to get on each others' nerves
• Running low on parts? Go dig around in a dangerous junkyard!
• In fact, f*** it, go steal some parts from a new prototype
• When things get too hot, jet out of here to another system
• Or, face your fate when the Eclipse Corps finally catches up to you

Eternal TTRPG Jam Notes

I had fun interpreting "void" as laterally as possible; the central concept here was "voiding warranties", and the rest was just kind of just naturally slipped into a kind of Cowboy Bebop feel.

I never found a good way to incorporate "ritual play", but a couple minigames have some ritual undertones, and the Firebrands Framework in general plays in some ritual-esque ways, especially when exchanging prompts with other players.

Resources

I've included a PlayingCards.io template that can be imported if you choose to try this out online. It should make things a lot easier.