The age of space exploration. A violent and uncertain time for the crew of this generic spaceship. Valued crew members are replaced by new recruits, more incompetent than ever. Feels like a low budget sci-fi TV show? Maybe it is.
Your ship is (under attack / crash-landing / falling apart in hyperspace / stuck in customs / rat-infested / drifting powerless), your mission is to (find the mole / deliver aid / escort diplomats / make first contact / mutiny / find out why cameramen follow you).
Recruits
Choose a field of specialty.
For skill checks roll a d6. Add +2 if specialty is relevant.
On a natural 1 you fail spectacularly and another crewman dies horribly.
He is replaced by an incompetent new recruit, who subtracts -1 from each roll.
Once per session a recruit can choose to automatically succeed at a task, but another recruit will have to die with a -2 penalty to her rolls.
Death penalty is cumulative. The last person to roll a 6 is the one to die.
Only one recruit can aid another if possible. Add +1 to result.
Task resolution
Difficulty ranges from 5 (everyday responsibilities) to 11 (impossible). If the recruit rolls:
Difficulty-1: yes, but…
Difficulty: yes.
Difficulty+1: yes, and...
When someone rolls a 1 or chooses to use the automatic success, everybody, except the initiator, rolls their dice. The last person to roll a 6 has his or her character die and creates a new one, suffering the accumulated penalties on their rolls. The only way to succeed at a task with a difficulty of 11 is to use the automatic success option.