The idea of this game is that we create a starship put together from materials obtained from different worlds (or even dimensions). Each player thinks up a quick description of a civilization (”When climate change made their seas drop, these fish-people became amphibians; they are masters of chemistry and growing structures out of organisms like coral”). Then, they are assigned a Component Type by the referee (”Life Support”) and figure out how their civilization would make that component (”Photosynthetic coral reefs exchange gases and absorb wastes; Membranes let the gases through while keeping the air in the rest of the ship from being too humid”). And then, everyone’s components get put together into one amazing ship!
Here are the rules in all their tedious detail!
One player should act as a referee, and that player probably shouldn’t contribute. (That player should be someone who isn’t really disappointed in not being able to play…refereeing for this game isn’t that hard. Heck, it could all be done by a computer program, now that I think about it…)
1. Each player secretly chooses a Technology Level. This level can range from 1 (you can build a castle) to 5 (you can colonize other star systems). (Obviously, this portion of the game needs to be expanded, and probably the numbers changed; for now, let’s go with this.)
2. Everyone tells the referee their Technology Level. (Again, secretly, so only the referee knows all the levels.)
3. The referee judges the suitability of the Technology Levels. If it’s invalid, the referee says so (”we need one more person of at least Technology 4″); then, go back to step 2. If the Levels are valid, continue to step 4.
4. Each player writes a description of a civilization that exists at their chosen Technology Level. When I say “Technology”, it could be something fantastic like magic.
4b. This is a step I’m not sure if I should include or not. For now, consider it an optional variant: Each player passes the civilization they’ve written to the player on their left. (Left is an arbitrary choice; as long as each player gets a new civilization, it’s fine.) Then the players have to inform the referee of the Technology Level of the civilization they currently have. From now on, for each player, the new civilization is considered to “their” civilization (with associated Technology Level).
5. The referee secretly assigns each player a Component Type, based on their civilization’s Technology Level. If there are less than five players, assign more than one Component Type to each player. Some Component Types are “optional”, to be assigned if there are more than five players. Or the referee can simply assign the same Component Type to more than one player. Consult the following list:
- Structure - Minimum TL 1
- Life Support - Minimum TL 2
- Wiring - Minimum TL 2 (optional)
- Engines - Minimum TL 3 (optional)
- Computer - Minimum TL 3
- Power Supply - Minimum TL 4
- Hyperdrive - Minimum TL 5
6. Each player writes a description of a component, of their assigned Component Type, that could be created by their civilization.
7. When everyone’s done, dimensional travelers assemble all the components into a starship and explore the galaxy!
This game just sort of popped into my head, so I thought I’d write it down. Obviously, the framework could be adapted to many other things besides starships. And the basic component list could probably be improved as well.

This blog post and the game “Hypership” is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.