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Dungeons & Dragons & Satellites? NASA releases free role-playing game

Game is available to download on the NASA website

The Lost Universe is NASA's tabletop role-playing game. (NASA)

What if the Hubble Space Telescope never existed?

NASA asks you to ponder the question and solve a space mystery in a new tabletop role-playing game that combines the adventure and fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons with space, science and history.

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The Lost Universe, a game for four to seven players, is now free to download on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope website.

Your party is a group of scientists for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where you work in a world where the Hubble never existed, and neither do the scientific advances that stem from the telescope.

Then, suddenly, you’re pulled to the rogue planet Exlaris, transferred into the bodies of characters you create for the game, and you are tasked with figuring out why this planet’s greatest minds are disappearing — and what really happened to the Hubble Telescope.

The Lost Universe is a module, which you can adapt to play with any tabletop role-playing game system, such as Dungeons and Dragons. You explore the cities of Exlaris, accomplish tasks, talk to the planet’s residents to uncover information, fight enemies and along the way learn about the science of studying the stars.

The game is designed to fit in a single 3 to 4-hour campaign session.

You can download an instruction booklet and a map on the NASA website.

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