Game Night — Every Saturday at 10pm GMT!

Space Station 13 is a free online game I was introduced to a while back wherein the players, which can be of basically any number (Really Yogstation? What do you even do with 80+ players?), take on a variety of jobs in order to keep a space station running and protect it from the machinations of traitors, aliens (everyone's favourite face-hugger-acid-blooded-oh-god-its-tongue-has-a-mouth variety), meteor showers, revolutionaries, changelings, cultists, rogue AI's, wizards, black holes, incompetent superiors, clowns which some severely bored roboticist has provided with a mech, janitors that don't put up 'wet floor' signs...

...All the threats on that list (with the sole exception of meteor showers) are also player-controlled. >:} But then again, when you're still discovering things it's enjoyable / challenging enough just to keep the station in working order / explore / try new things.

It's a 2D game played from a top-down perspective, generally with a focus on RPing, and more things to do than you can shake a stick at.

Click for full-size map!

Full list of jobs here.

There are a few things that take a bit of getting used to (including the game's complexity as a whole, which is softened by the presence of other players who know what they're doing) are the movement and the GUI; fortunately, the wiki is here to help, as is anyone else you find yourself playing with.


To get the game, download the BYOND client here and once you've created an account, launch the application and navigate the drop-down menu through 'file => open location' and punch in the IP address of the server you want to join!

-- Captain / HoP
-- AI
- Chief Engineer
Covers Station Engineer and Atmospheric Technician jobs.
- Chief Medical Officer
Covers Medical Doctor, Virologist and Chemist jobs.
- Research Director
Covers Roboticist and Scientist jobs.
- Head of Security
Covers Security Officer, Warden and Detective jobs.
- Quartermaster
Covers Cargo Technician and Shaft Miner jobs.
- Chef / Bartender / Botanist (Combinable in a pinch!)

In the early stages of the game everything in Engineering things got off to a bad start and got worse — in a good, Space-Station-13-y way of course. An engineer beat himself into unconsciousness with his tools, giving the Chief Medical Officer his much-needed first patient, and meanwhile the Chief Engineer and Captain continued setting up the singularity — accidentally triggering a plasma leak in Engineering which flooded the south side of the station with toxic gas. They both succumbed to the toxin in Atmospherics shortly thereafter, and so the station was bereaved of its leader and its electricity in one fell swoop, and madness began to descend — welcome to Space Station 13 errybody!

The Head of Security (HoS) and Research Director (RD) (traitor!) arrived in medbay for no reason that I could at the time register, and a scuffle ensued wherein the Head of Security was attacked by the RD with a circular saw — unfortunately for the RD, tazer and cuffs beat saw every time. He was quickly subdued, but released again without charge when he stated that the incident was an accident. After quite some badgering from the AI, the HoS was convinced to try and retrieve the bodies of the Captain and Chief Engineer for cloning. However, it seemed someone had gotten slightly the wrong idea about the 'traitor' gamemode and the HoS suddenly turned on the newly-arrived Head of Personnel with all the weapons at his disposal; it wasn't much of a fight. Both the Captain and Head of Personnel were played by Epsilon. I think he might have been a little annoyed by this turn of events.

The Head of Security, now handcuffed by his former robotic servant Officer Beepsky but continuing his fit of space-madness, made for the airlocks in the escape-arm of the station, wearing his space-suit, and was swiftly trapped in between the airlocks by the AI.

Meanwhile the Research Director, bored of being stuck in his department with no power, which would otherwise have enabled him to build robots, took a more pro-active approach to his objectives. As the Chief Medical Officer was roped in by the AI to help contain the Head of Security, the good doctor was intercepted by the RD and beheaded by an energy sword. Unfortunately the AI saw this happening, and began bolting down doors to stop the traitor from making progress: The traitor-RD swiftly found himself trapped in the escape arm, right by the airlock in which the Head of Security was trapped. When it became clear the traitor was attempting to cut through the windows to reach the Head of Security — and thence, perhaps, pilfer his tools and space-suit — the AI decided to unbolt the exterior airlocks. The HoS promptly launched himself off into space and was never heard from again.

Following this the AI took two measures: He called the escape shuttle, which would eventually end the round, and set the air in the escape arm to panic syphon. The traitor was soon neutralised by oxygen deprivation, and died cursing the name of Isaac Asimov.

With everyone aboard the station dead or inactive or an AI called T.A.L.V.O.X, the round was set to end — but shortly before the escape shuttle arrived a roboticist, arriving rather late, popped in. Unfortunately the doors leading to the escape arm were still bolted and the AI had switched into standby mode.

So, the round ended with the AI and Roboticist stranded on the station with the inactive janitor and Quartermaster — both of whom had gotten on with things with a relative lack of fuss and hence almost completely eluded my sight (especially the Quartermaster; what did you get up to that round Darkshadow?). The Chief Engineer, Captain, Head of Personnel, Research Director and Chief Medical Officer were all painted various shades of dead; the formerly-injured engineer was naked somewhere in the medbay, having become inactive after being healed, and the Head of Security was out in space somewhere. Doubtless he would go on to have many adventures we shall never hear of — maybe he found the derelict space station? Maybe he landed on the mining asteroid? Maybe he discovered the clown planet? Maybe he forgot to hook up his oxygen tank and breath-mask properly and suffocated in space, cold and forlorn.