Dead Belt is the creation of Navi and Shawn of A Couple Of Drakes based on the Carta system (found here), from Cat McDonald and Peach Garden Games SRD
Get your own copy at https://acoupleofdrakes.itch.io/dead-belt

Dead Belt is a game that is hard to define. Just ask the authors. They settled on Strategy RPG. And that does fit.

Dead Belt is a game you play with a couple of 6 sided dice, a deck of playing cards, a character sheet, and the 63 page rule book. Oh, and a healthy dose of imagination. You are a belter. The only thing between you and the cold lonely embrace of space is your ship, and your suit.

The art in Dead Belt is gorgeous.

You start out by picking from a group of character types. Vet(eran), Cowboy, Void Rat, Scoundrel, or Slicer. Each character type has different stat levels, abilities, starting debt, and motivations.

Then you pick your ship. You’re going to be up to your eyes in debt one way or another. Do you play the conservative game, and go with the small, but affordable Kildeer? Do you go all out with the behemoth that is as expensive as it is big, Albatross, or do you meet in the middle with the Jackdaw?
Each ship has a buying cost, a sell back cost, and cargo space. No, you don’t get any fancy thingamajigs on the base models, those cost extra.

Once you have your character fleshed out, and your ship tuned up, you head out to the belt to find your fortune, or your grave. Lets be honest, few people go out to the belt out of an abundance of options, and fewer still strike it rich and can retire from belter life. But what are you going to do?

From here on out, you know the drill. Fly through the belt, looking for birds to pick clean. The belt is where old ships go to die, but some of them still have some shinies left on board, if only you can find them.

Each ship you find is different. There are 3 different tiers of ships, based on their size, and multiple classes of ships in each tier. They may have similar layouts, but each one is different. To build your ship, you draw a certain number of cards, lay them face down based on the tier and type of ship’s deck plan, and each card represents a compartment, with all the opportunities, and perils, that a decrepit ship in a ship graveyard entails.

Its not all fun and games though. These are derelicts. They’re falling apart, they’ve got random computer programs running haywire, and you aren’t the only one out here. Some’ll just take your stuff and let you leave. Some will take your stuff, your life, and your ship. Some’ll eat you. Not to mention, you’re on a time limit. Your suit only holds so much O2 and can only scrub so much CO2 before you’re breathing nothing.

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This is the account of Captain Jason Scott of The Salvage Ship Corsair.

Captain Scott, like many older belters, fought in the Consolidation War. But don’t bug him about it. He doesn’t like to talk about it. For years after the war, Jason went from ship to ship, planet to planet, working what jobs he could find, getting by. But eventually, something would happen, and he would have to move on.

One day, he’d had enough of this life and finally bit his tongue and clamped down on his pride. Taking out a loan was not an easy proposition for Jason. But, if he was lucky, he might just come out ahead.

Out here near the belt, Bankers aren’t like they are on the big worlds. Oh sure, they keep hours, and wear suits. They’re also likely to shoot you themselves if you don’t pay your bill on time.

Jason had had his eye on a ship for a while now. Nothing too fancy. Used, of course, but reliable he thought. A JK-43W Jackdaw. It was fast enough, and held enough cargo that he thought he could pay it off in a few good salvage operations. He named her The Corsair, after a ship in one of the vids he watched as a kid. She was big enough for a crew of 3, but Jason was flying solo, at least until he got himself out of debt. He didn’t want to ask anyone to sign on to that obligation.

On his first trip out to the belt, Jason thought he hit the jackpot. No, the ship wasn’t huge, or even in good shape, but she was a Military Class Scorpion, patrol boat. Jason knew how wasteful the military was, he was bound to find something on there.

That the first compartment Jason searched had a bundle of hard credits in one of the storage lockers that hadn’t been picked clean, was to Jason, a good sign. But it wasn’t all easy. There were a couple of times Jason thought his first salvage might be his last.

By the end of it, Jason found enough loot to make the trip worth while. Though he was running on fumes by the time he got back to his ship, and he had a couple near misses with death.

By the end of it, Jason walked away with some weapons, some minor contraband, a stack of credits, and though he didn’t hit the jackpot, he did find a pristine collectors edition Works of Jules Verne that he knew he could sell for a pretty good price.

At the end of the day, Jason was able to pay off some of his debt, keep his ship, and put a little away for a that farm on Talkien IV he had dreamed of for years.

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This is not the last salvage job Captain Jason Scott will take while piloting The Corsair. You may not get to hear all of his exploits, but you may hear a tale or two from time to time.

If you want to play your own game of Dead Belt, go check out A Couple Of Drakes, word around the space port is, there may be an expansion coming one day. But you didn’t hear that from me.