itch.io

Much as I'd love to have a good automated system, we're purely on make-do and analog fixes to common problems. Just send us an email at the business email (acoupleofdrakes at outlook dot com) and we'll send you a proper PDF version as well. The character sheets and extra goodies don't include the PDF, but I'll get you sorted out with a digital key that'll get you everything.

Easy like Sunday Mornin'. 

Chariot, out.

Great minds think alike, right Belter?

Well, as with Dead Belt, there's gonna be plenty of opportunity to drop your own expansions, supplements, flavorsome procedures, and associated stuff if you end up likin' the way it turns out. And if your vision differs mightily, there's no reason we can't have two cyberdecking Born on the Belt games.

Sure 'nough, Belter. Send us a wave at our business email (acoupleofdrakes at outlook dot com) and we'll set you up with a pdf key to match it.

Y'all got the game, let's set you up with a digital copy just to be sure you're never hurtin' for one.

There y'are, hoss. Should be plenty of room to write down your needfuls with that Notes box.

Glad to hear it, Belter. Let me dig around in the old buffer and see if I can't scare up the old legacy edition of the sheet for y'all and post it in the demo area.

Bonus points for getting it!

Got you, hoss. Another 20 goin' on the pile.

We do try, Belter. Glad y'all had a good time with it!

Absolutely I can! 

Now go find that horizon, skydog!

Last page of the core book PDF has he game-flow cheatsheet, Belter. Bundled everything together so you didn't have to go hunting across PDFs.

Howdy Belter,

Got a YouTube video to steer you around the corners. If something seems a mite hinky, y’all circle on back and ping me again and I’ll see if I can’t sort you out.

https://youtu.be/sVfhDFgluU4?si=-QZkTBcqgjM2c5vQ

Thanks so much! Glad you're loving it! Got to let us know when you get it to the table.

Well, Belter...since y'all asked so nicely. Let's toss another 30 on the pile, how's about?

Been a bit, hoss. Hope you're keepin' alright.

Y'all shoot a message to the old inbox and I'll watch the spam filter like a hawk (it's a mite overzealous sometimes). ACoupleofDrakes at outlook dot com. We'll ping you back, no worries.

Aw, Belter. Y'all just went ahead and threw 20 more copies on the pile. Grab one!

Howdy Belter

We'd be happy to send along a complimentary key for the digital flight kit if y'all just send us a message at ACoupleOfDrakes at Outlook dot Com. We'll get you properly kitted out.

Ah don't go tellin' no one now. They'll start expecting things of me.

Glad to hear it's doin' the job, hoss. Best of luck out there!

Meant what I said, Belter.

Tier I Freighter's got a single line of cards that make up the center line and splitting it any other way felt arbitrary. The way we run it here at home, it breaks down the spine and we go floating. Makes Tier 1 Freighters feel like death-traps. Makes the extra guaranteed cred and relatively straightforward layout feel dangerous.

But if it feels like an error to you, rule it some other way. I'm not a cop.

Actually, here. Try this one on for size. Makes the aft-half of a Camel way more dangerous than the front...kind of like a real Camel.

See how that treats you.

Chariot, out.

Oh Belter, not only do we have community copies available, we got one with your name on it. Look, right here just under the Property of Terran Concordat: Not for Resale official seal that some unkindly soul gone and defaced. Says, property of moraess. Y'all better go ahead and hang onto this one for safe keeping.

And all the Belters what see this particular message after the fact know that the next 20 are thanks to this here Belter poppin' in to ask if Chariot's got any more gas in the tank to keep folks buddy breathin' while times is dark as SAG-A's eye.

Space is cold. Our hearts ain't. Ever. 

That does indeed clear it up a mite for me, Belter. Let's see if I can return the favor.

I've highlighted the overlapping short sides of the cards in the bottom diagram. That's an adjacent move. The B diagram shows a move between two cards where the corners are the only bits touching; no overlap on the short or long sides. That'd be a diagonal move. 

As for the spacewalk, I'm going to direct you to the flight manual and see if I can't clear up the murky language. "You can spacewalk between any two modules nearest one another, provided you can draw a straight or diagonal line between them and they're separated by empty space."

"Nearest one another" and the "separated by empty space" are your tricky bits on the red and blue arrow. You can spacewalk along a diagonal or a straight line as far as you want in a single go, so long as you're not intersecting another card. The idea is that it's a single leap through empty space across the vasty nothing. No turns, no crawling along the hull, no lucky spins. 

Howdy Belter. If the cards are only touching at the corners, that's a diagonal. If the cards are touching along one of the sides, that's a valid move. For instance, on the  Camel light cargo freighter, the aft nacelles can be accessed by the three interior modules on the ship diagram.  But if you look at the Scorpion on the next page of your Belter manual,  you can't hit the aft nacelles from the center empennage (that middle module that's right between all three cut lines) because that'd be diagonal movement.  I mean that's an ugly example because you COULD spacewalk... but I think you take my meaning. Without taking a swim,  you can't make a diagonal transit... but spacewalking's got its own rules. 

Hope that clears it up for yall. If not, give me another holler.

Chariot, out.

Let me tell you now, Belter, that all sounds like music to my ears. Absolutely grinnin' ear to ear to hear that you're finding your footing out on the Gasping Frontier. Tell y'all what, when you're wealthy and they're stenciling your name up on the wall of the Last Call, you spare a passing thought for old Chariot who knew you when.

Be safe out there,  Cowboy. Don't let that wild soul of yours shout down your good sense when the going gets hairy, y'hear?

Chariot, out.

Howdy, Belter. When you roll a failure on the Payday move, the payday is junked and unsalvageable...unless you spend a Grit. Like any other roll, you can spend a Grit to take the 4/5 result. Means you can choose 2 of the bullet-pointed bits of good news to be true. From there, handle it as normal.

If you don't spend a Grit when you fail a payday roll, you don't have to pick any negatives--because you're looking at a big useless chunk of slag where you were hoping a payday was.

Hope that's clear as mud for y'all. Let me know if y'all got follow-up questions.

Chariot, out.

Howdy Belter,

All of the oracles that were in separate zines for the Kickstarter release are printed in the Amazon softcover. Logistical restraint of the format, I'm afraid. A little less convenient for sharin' with your pard, but a darn sight easier for keepin' your whole kit together without wondering where Oracle B went every five minutes.  

Howdy Bambi,

Let me knock all this out with a singular answer, because it all comes down to one thing with the Egress Kit. Spend your Egress Kit at any time to appear safely in your Airlock without any Load. Gotta empty your hands, but otherwise, no matter how bad it may be getting, you arrive in your airlock, safe as can be.

Hope that helps.

Chariot, out.

1. Judgement call here, I'm afraid. There's a part of me that says that the only place you're going to be safe reloading your personal track is your airlock. But if it's in your Carryall, it's at your disposal. Also it's taking up valuable loot-space, so I'm willing to say that it's a sufficient mechanical disincentive that it doesn't constitute a "weasel out." Now just narratively, I'd say that that GRIT ain't available to pay during the navigation of a module's prompt...just because havin' a root around in your duffel ain't commensurate with the quick thinking sort of concerted action GRIT typically calls for. 

2. I'd say, once again, that I can't stop you hanging on to what you've justly pried from the last bird. If you take it with you and find yourself wanting to hang on to it, you can carry it until you got a spot to slot it. 

Always a pleasure, Bamb. Chariot, out.

Chariot's onstation, no worries. Let's break some barriers.

1. If you can't get back the way you came and the place you're in says you can't go forward, that's a fail state. You're trapped Belter. Ain't no way forward or backward. Now I've heard some folk like to play it where you go back before the one-way door and keep on keepin' on with those cards showing blocked. I call that "Belter Psychic" mode. Your choice how you want to roll with it.

2. If you fail the roll, you're trying to make entry into a module that you can't Transit from. Bulkheads won't open, so you gotta go for another swim. You can always spacewalk from any module adjacent to empty space to any module adjacent to empty space, but it's never a safe option. Say a little prayer and keep your nerves steely.

Yall know how we operate, Belter.  Faster'n Light. 

Yepper. One maintenance cycle of increased cost is all that is intended for the Airlock malus. But if you buy upgrades like the Broadpass Scanner or the Egress Kit, you'll see that they come with an upkeep cost. Those raise your base upkeep and unless you deactivate them before you go on a run, you'll have to pay those costs every maintenence cycle. Because the shiniest toys will always cost a little extra to maintain, y'understand.

Howdy Belter, 

Yeah I got a solid copy on those Q's and I've got the A's. Let's see if we can't shine a little light on the pinch points, how's about? 

1. "Navigating" is the part where you deal with the oracle's mechanical bit. "Transiting" is where you go from module to module and make a Gas check. Fictional grounding for that 4 of Spades prompt, Lights Out (which is the one I'm thinking you're meaning here), is that the standard illumination banks on your bird have gone out and if you don't have some juice in your Omniflash, you're going to find it just a little harder to do your job in the dark. Think of it like being at a Disadvantage to start. You can, of course, spend Gear to cancel that out and roll standard, or Grit to take the mixed success option automatically as normal. But it is indeed one of the more punishing twists of Bad News.

2. That nothin' part is going to take some cred and time to replace is the basic idea. Your upkeep goes up by one this time around, but it doesn't stay there like getting a whole mess of upgrades. Basically, you're spending that extra cred--whether it's coming out of your day's take or your savings doesn't make much nevermind to the knuckledraggers back homestation who gotta replace your pneumatic pressure bearing or recalibrate your thermal regulator gasket housing. It's going to cost you a credit, period, dot, end transmission. The mention of Upkeep was just there to make sure you remember how many times you had to take that option on a single outing. Mark the upkeep and clean it up when you get back to station. No one's there to take your money on the Bird...unless you got Pirates. 

3. If you spend your last Grit, if your personal track empties, if you find yourself on a Bird and marking off your last pip, you generate a Threat. If you got Grit back on your Bird that's great. You'll probably need it to deal with that Threat what's just generated.  

Hope that's clarifying the kludge there, Belter. Sounds like you've had a hard run of luck of late, and I'm hoping that you fight your way clear of it. I'll spot you your next bulb of Valor Black down at the Last Call when you come on home again.

Chariot, out.

Hey there, Belter! 

Short answer, yes.  We don't discriminate no matter where you buy your soft copy. And if you buy a hard copy,  we'll spot you a soft copy with all the requisite goodies at no additional cost.  Because that's only fair, and while the cosmos don't run on fair, it's up to us to be the change y'all wanna see, right? 

See y'all on the Gasping Frontier soon. 

Chariot, out.

As a matter of fact, always. Y'all can find the SRD yonder: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zYUQviXgq0lAMoE0Wa8e5pX6UyLlWLgH/view?pli=1

This is awesome to see. I've had a blast running A Fistful of Darkness and I'm never going to be upset to see more of my favorite weird west game barreling down the track at me.

This looks real good, hoss.

Absolutely, Belter. That's about 70% of what I do here.

Fire away.

ALL STATIONS, CHARIOT. 

BE ADVISED THAT A GENEROUS BELTER HAS HEAPED 10 COMMUNITY COPIES ON THE BOARD.

Break, Break.

You're helpin' your buddies breathe, hoss. That's the exclusive content. You got every bit of what we got for this game, and kicking in a little extra means you're making available some extra copies for those who ain't got the cred to take a chance on Dead Belt otherwise.

Thank you.

Howdy Belters,

Glad to hear that the gift of folksome space misery went over well at y'all's homestead. Y'know, it's not just any family where that kind of Christmas gift don't initiate a fist-fight. Happy to have you both out on the Belt with us.

Now, we dickered long and hard over whether the bones of Dead Belt could withstand a couple of extra heads around the table, but came to the conclusion that, yes cred/debt and Threats started to act a little hinky when three or more were involved. But the thing that did us in but good was how small even the largest Birds started to feel with three or four Belters splitting up to strip bolts and salvage fittings. The time-pressure started to feel arbitrary rather than tense. For that reason, we kept it to two and have spent some time throwing brain-bytes at building a game in the same universe more suited to a traditional table. 

So that's in the offing later on down the line. But Dead Belt for 3+ Belters at a time? Well, I ain't your dad, so I ain't gonna say you can't. Just that we didn't write it in proper like because it didn't look/work/feel right.

Thanks for dropping a wave, Belter. Y'all be good.

Chariot, out.

Howdy Belter,

Send a wave to acoupleofdrakes at outlook dot com and we'll send along a key to match your purchase. Hard copy flight documentation without a digital backup ain't our way out here, hoss. Let's get you suited and booted with a proper electronic flight bag before you go and get wealthy picking the bones of birds, how's about?

We'll keep an eye out for you.

Chariot, out.

Intentional, Belter. Slicers tend to feel that 2 Grit early and often, and one of their playbook powers is highly situational. Playtesting made them feel a little anemic with 8 stat points, so we gave them a little boost to smooth the early runs. Good question, though!

Good question, Belter. You're going to be dealing with the Black Contract specific threat if you cash in your last point of Grit. Can you imagine dealing with the Haint on the Lucky Star, jumping at shadows and feeling it curling around your brainstem with every step and then having to run from an Alien as well? 

Now that I'm reading through that, it does in fact sound like a thing the 'verse would throw at a Belter on the job, don't it? As intended, it's just one big problem at a time. Do the job that's in front of you. Then when you're good and wealthy, got all of the Black Contract goodies unlocked, then you worry about layering on extra problems.

Best of luck out there, Belter.

Chariot, out.

Howdy Belter,

Yeah I reckon in quiet moments that I'll probably be moved to pass along another couple of Black Contracts. Probably a small anthology, to be honest. It's one of those things that I like to tinker with when the shifts drag on. 

As to reworking barriers, that's a harder sell for me. Development, testing, and balancing for 26 additional mechanical impacts is outside the scope of what we intended for barriers to add to the play experience. But that don't mean you don't have my blessing to fuss and noodle on it to your hearts content. Additional oracles and Contracts are always welcome. Post em and get paid,  Belter. 

Chariot, out. 

Howdy Belter,

We absolutely honor purchases through all of the various ways and means to get your hands on a copy of Dead Belt with a complementary PDF and all the trimmings. Y'all just shoot a wave to our acoupleofdrakes inbox and we'll suit you out. And both of those oracle booklets are included, one after another, in the consumer-grade (non-zine) edition of Dead Belt.

Y'all let us know if there's anything else. We'll be on-station.

Chariot, out.