Otherspace (1989) opens with the players on their way to assume control of a Rebel prison ship (which contains some NPCs from previous adventures, including one of the bounty hunters from Tatooine Manhunt). The prisoners riot, though, and, in a confusing battle, both the players and the prison ship fall through a hole in hyperspace where things are…weird. The players need to repair their ship and happen upon another…thing that is sort of like a ship, where other ships (including that fleeing prison ship) seem captured. At least there should be plenty of spare parts?
Of course, once they land and start exploring, the “ship” turns about to be sort of alarmingly organic, and populated by horrible spider-alien things called the Charon that worship a black obelisk. From here, things get very Dead Space-ish, an impressive two decades before Dead Space. All that remains at that point is an escape to Realspace.
This is a weird one, for sure. There are a couple gaps in logic that I have trouble with, foremost being why the Charon don’t attack the intruders en masse. The aliens are both creepy and silly, too, which, I dunno, that was a drawback when I was a kid, but kind of endearing now, even if I can’t shake the idea that these dorks somehow inspired the Yuuzhan Vong, which, ugh. The ship is exceedingly gross, though, and I love that. There’s a lot of original art, too, by none other than Jeff Dee. Stephen Crane made some sweet maps for the adventure as well.
