Gloom in Space

The game of black holes and bleak adventures

Players: 2–5 Ages: 13+ Time: 60 minutes

Gloom in Space at a Glance

  • Lead your sci-fi explorers to delightfully dramatic endings while inflicting tedious success and mind-numbing happiness on your opponents.
  • Brings beloved science fiction tropes and archetypes to your hopefully heartbreaking cosmic Gloom.
  • A standalone card game that is also compatible with Gloom second edition and its expansions.

Space Sucks: What is Gloom in Space?

Space is not a pleasant place. All that airless emptiness, broken up by things like clouds of flaming plasma and sentient space beings the size of planets that would like nothing more than snacking on a passing ship. As a result, the lives of space explorers aren't all sunshine, roses, and space blasters. 

That's a good thing, because in Gloom, outer-space misery loves company. Put your Characters through the interstellar wringer before they come to an ignominious end, and win the game!

Gloom in Space can be played alone or combined with Gloom second edition and its expansions. 

Gloom in Space card fan

Calling all Redshirts: Gameplay Basics

Create your ragtag band of not-so-hardy space explorers from familiar archetypes like the Doctor, the Farmboy, and the Android. Play Modifier cards on them to make them miserable — maybe the Doctor quarreled in the cantina and was beaten by bugs. Play cards on your opponents' Characters to make them disgustingly happy and successful.

Gloom in Space Characters

As you play, the stories get more convoluted — and funnier — as you tell your fellow players exactly how your Character got into the situation. When your Characters are sufficiently miserable, kill them off to lock in your points and win the game.

As in the other Gloom games, Gloom in Space features unique transparent cards that stack atop each other to hide and reveal the Self-Worth scores from the cards below. The easy scoring and sci-fi cartoon art are guaranteed to make your table delightfully depressing.

The game ends when all of your Characters have left for the great beyond, and the winner is the player who managed to smuggle the most misery onto their ships.

Gloom in Space kid copy

Vital Stats

Designer: Keith Baker
Artist: Michael Cunliffe
Cover Art: Nicolas Gluesenkamp
Producer: Kyla McCorkle Tonding
MSRP: $27.95
Atlas Stock #: AG1334
Barcode: 978-1-58978-176-4
Format: Two 55-card decks of transparent cards and a rules sheet in a double-width tuckbox
Number of Players: 2–5
Ages: 13+
Play Time: 60 minutes
Release Date: January 2017