Star Intern, Aboard the S.S. D-Za-Star!

You groggily awaken in a cryopod, “Well first day of work. Can’t believe I scored an internship on the SS D-Za-Star!” Your shift log flashes, “WARNING MULTI-SYSTEM FAILURE, LIFE SUPPORT CRITICAL, CONTAINMENT BREACH, SHIP MIND CORRUPTION…” then glitches out. Ship Mind 3R15 blares over the speakers, “Hello, human intern. Remain calm. Everything is fine. Stay in your pod. Your components will be recycled… sorry, I mean rescued.”

Star Intern is a short one page roleplaying game, in the FlipQuest game series, designed to be played while hanging out at parties or game conventions. I like to call it a lobby game, as it's great to play in the lobby, seeing old friends and meeting new people!

Players create a simple character and then find someone to be their narrator as they work there way through to the SS D-Za-Star to the command bridge. Once there they hope to seize control of the ship from Ship Mind 3R15. Each level of the ship only takes a few minutes to play and after every level you seek a new person to be your narrator. 

While it's possible to just play this yourself, press-ganging your friends as narrators, it's more fun to take turns narrating and playing. You can print up several copies, handing them out so everyone can play their own version of the story. Even though the starting scenario is the same, everyone's story will turn out different due to the details of their character and the mixture of narrators.

The game requires a minimum of 5 people as each player will require 4 different narrators to get through the 4 levels of the ship. You can play it quickly switching narrators or casually over time as you hang out and socialize. For larger groups and conventions, it can be played virally by handing out copies and narrating the story for everyone who narrates for you!

Play Requirements

• 5 or more people
• Enough printed copies of the game to go around
• A pen or pencil
• A coin to flip (or other win/lose mechanics like Roshambo can be used)

Two Player Variant

Each player makes a character and trade off being narrators for each other. In some ways this is not as satisfying as finding new people to narrate. However, the game is totally able to be played this way.

Other FlipQuest games

• Covidor the Corrupt's Terrible Tower of Thaumaturgy

Credit where it's due

This game's mechanic of pulling in friend's as narrators was inspired by Vincent Baker's The Wizard's Grimore.