From the publisher blurb:
Load the Simulation is a tabletop role-playing game set aboard a massive spaceship on a centuries-long mission to discover and prepare exoplanets for colonization. Players take on the roles of crew members selected not for their prestige but as the essential yet overlooked backbone of the mission—explorers, frontierspeople, and problem solvers who are also expected to clean up any messes (literal or figurative) they encounter along the way.
Waking from cryogenic sleep, these characters find themselves thrust into rigorous and unpredictable training simulations orchestrated by the ship’s AI, DAX. Each day, they are dropped into a different simulated environment—wildly alien, utterly unpredictable, and filled with potential threats—to prepare them for the unknown dangers that await when the ship finally reaches its destination. Think of the high-octane training sequences from The Matrix, the Danger Room in X-Men , or the holodecks in Star Trek.
Outside the simulations, players navigate the interpersonal challenges and emotional tensions of life aboard a confined spaceship. Bonds are formed and frayed as crewmates work together to overcome challenges, while personal goals and differences create moments of connection and conflict. Between these dynamics, players spend time recovering in the medical bay, repairing and upgrading their gear, and working on personal projects to keep their minds sharp. All the while, they grapple with the emotional strain of an extreme voyage into the unknown, unraveling hints of a deeper mystery about the mission’s true purpose.
Highlights
Play solo or together (1-4 Players) – With clear procedures and robust random tables, the game provides everything you need to control your character, supporting cast, and the unpredictable alien horrors that await in training, without the need of a Game Master.
Roll first think later – A peculiar approach to dice resolution. At the start of your turn, you roll three six-sided dice — one for yourself, one for the opposition, and one for the environment. The results dictate who’s in control of the scene. Then, with that information in hand, you decide how your character, the world, and its threats act and react.
Craft and break modules – Your modules are your lifeline—custom attachments that give you abilities to survive the brutal training sessions. But when things go south, you might break them to save yourself. During downtime, you can salvage, repair, or craft new ones, assuming you have the time and energy left.
Downtime compels you to face the crew – No sweeping conflicts under the rug. If you want to clear conditions and prepare for the next training, you’ll have to address the tensions built up during the day. That means patching up wounds, fixing broken gear, and dealing with the emotional fallout of your choices — mending friendships, making amends, or getting into a heated argument.
Insomnia maps the path to the truth – Rest doesn’t always come easy. When you fail to sleep, you navigate an Insomnia Map, a branching diagram that takes you deeper into the ship’s strange and unsettling mysteries. The more you see, the more you wonder:
Will you survive long enough to uncover one of the six possible truths?
Will your crewmates believe you?
Are these hallucinations, or is something truly wrong?