Failed Ethos

TDP firstly posits itself as a narrative and roleplaying forward game, but I think it fails to be that when the margin for error is so broad and the margin for success so thin. The way stats work inherently mean that some players will simply not be able to accomplish certain tasks whatsoever, sometimes to the extent of not making particular sense, and create a sort of ambient lethality that does not necessitate the kind of investment in character a rules-lite, narrative-forward system inherently encourages. I initially planned on doing a one-off, but my players like their characters enough to carry them into another module, and the manner of "frequency" in which things happen invalidates the setting and genre immensely. TDP is passing okay in bite-sized vignettes, if you're okay with a game in which you will inherently always fail (not something I want to tell my players); the foundation of it crumbles apart in long-term prospects. I'm disappointed! I think the concept is incredibly cool, but perhaps wasn't playtested enough.

Combat Blues

I thought I could orient some interesting encounters in this, and when I tried to focus on combat, I found the rug swept out from underneath my feet. Dice generally aren't kind, but TDP stat allocations mean, again, that some characters statistically cannot land shots or effect combat in any way. I thought about allowing complimentary checks, but as it works strictly, it astounds me that it bothered with an initiative mechanic in the first place. Better, in my experience, to discourage combat entirely and accept that it won't function in the system. Lethal sitautions cannot be taken head on and an initiative tracker simply encourages players to do so. The best encounters I have had were ignoring this entirely; stray bullets start fires in server rooms or puncture the hull; players without combat capacity can instead rush to deal with new problems as they crop up; TDP really doesn't seem to have this in mind. Spoilers Ahead: The core book has an encounter that throws a wrench into the works: approximately 45+ enemies concentrated into one climatic situation. With the way things work, it simply didn't click in my head as to how that makes sense, and I had to discard it entirely. I'd considered simply saying that the crew's shotgun will splinter and excess damage will take down more, but it didn't necessarily click for me. If TDP ever becomes more, I think it would need some focus here. The D6 really betrays potential here.

Coyness in Text

I sort of felt bad showing my players the section that explains all the rules to them. A lot of this could be condensed to only a few pages, but unfortunately the text has a sort of sarcastic and coy voice that, while cute at first glance, sort of has a bad vibe to it. It also implicitly states that none of what the players are experiencing is real, which I think kneecaps things slightly. I ended up running with this to justify the constant horrors the crew was facing to springboard the story into something else, but taking it as presented really betrays character and player agency in a way that, again, undercuts the potential of TDP being a more narratively focused game. I wish it were more clinical and presented more straight-forwardly; players, and myself, got sort of lost in the mood the text was trying to present, which led to some mechanical misinterpretations.

Ultimately, I think TDP's core concept comes from a very heartfelt place, and it's a great stab at trying for something rules-lite in a horror scenario, but I think it's core ethos is simply betrayed by how it, generally, works and feels to play. With major homebrew changes - something I did with every consecutive session - it can start to feel a bit better to navigate. If that's not the kind of undertaking you want, you may be better off searching for other options. It's 1 roll or you're done, by TDP's standards, and I don't think that aligns with roleplay oriented players and GMs. It failed for my purposes, but it might work for yours if you're looking for bite-sized stories without too much investment, where wiping the crew is your ultimate goal.

TDP is great for short-term, low-investment emulations of your favorite horror films where you inevitably have your "final girl" (or guy), but I can't help but wonder how fun that must be to play in.

Not Hard-Sci-Fi

I'm searching for a Sci-Fi-RPG "our time plus 50-150 years and only believable technical progress" and was pointed in the direction of this book. However we have FTL, some debateable changes to Earth (regarding a hard sci-fi setting) and artificial gravity. Since all official texts never state that it is Hard-Sci-Fi, I don't blame the book, the authors, or the publisher.

Gritty stories in space

I still love the book, the setting, the easy rules and the ideas put into text. Games like Eclipse Phase make a lot of effort to get even things like the economy right, but I never was able to build a thriller-like tension, and I think that's because the players get the big picture why they have to suffer through the horros of the setting. Those Dark Places delibrately puts the big picture to the higher-ups and doesn't even try to explain it. FTL works like "you set course, point the ship into the right direction and push the button. Then you go to sleep". You are months away from Earth and nobody on the ship would be able to repair or modify anything on the FTL drive, instant tension, even if everything goes well (also I found no FTL communication, so any distress call takes some years).

Conclusion

In the end I'm still looking for a written hard-sci-fi setting (because I'm lazy and don't want to research for one on my own), but if you are not picky this game easily allows you to just ignore FTL and artificial gravity, because that's something your characters wouldn't understand or work with anyway.

The game does what it itself promises very well, I don't regret buying it.

The CASE sytem for character creation is wonderful for quick pickup and play. The rules take all of five minutes to learn and pressure is a great method to add tension to a game. I have run it a few times and hope to run it at some conventions in 2021-2022.

I am wish there was some more content out there.

I picked this up on a recomendation from a friend. I really liked the core mechanics and the setting felt true to the source material. While I found some elements slightly odd (how fast everyone turns into a useless ball of comotose nothing) overall I found th egame fun to play and worth people's efforts to try it out.