Table-Tested Review of “Apollo 47 - Technical Handbook”
This is one of those books that I just needed to own at some point. The game itself is only 30 pages long, the rest of the book is printed out NASA manuals. 1200 pages of them. People aren’t joking when they say that this book is so large and heavy that it starts taking itself apart. The most hilarious bit? The author promises you that you won’t ever need the manual part. It’s just there for the ludicrousness. When I unpacked it I giggled like a mad-woman. I absolutely love it.
“Apollo 47” is written by the same author as “Thousand Year Old Vampire” which I’ve reviewed before here.
Some quick facts about the game.
- Game Designer: Tim Hutchings
- Genre: Sci-Fi, Technobabble, Slice-of-Life
- Publication Year: 2022
- Page Count: 1207 (not numbered beyond the first 30)
- Best For: people with some experience with improv and/or story-games
The Vibe
It’s an improv game set in an alternate-history 1980s where Apollo missions are a boring routine. It’s boring radio chatter and minor inconveniences. It’s technical jargon the players don’t necessarily need to understand, on routine missions that aren’t necessarily explained. It’s short “slices of life” of the many astronauts on the moon.
Playing the Game
It’s a complete improv game: there are no rolls or other kinds of randomization. One player is the spotlight astronaut, while the others are the radio chatter (or things like static) around them. A scene plays out for about 3-5 minutes and the spotlight switches to the next player. Repeat as long as you like.
There is a card deck with prompts that the author tells you you don’t need; but in my opinion it would have been really convenient to have. It’s 27 cards with eight of them being two images of different moon landscapes (front and back) and the rest with one side of moon landscape and one side of long prompt lists. The text-based prompts are also provided in the book, but with five people at the table with no prior experience with the game, everyone relied a lot on the book for inspiration and it was constantly passed around. I can see this being less of an issue after a group has some experience with the game and the jargon.
Another thing the author tells you that you don’t need is the NASA manuals in the back and I can’t fully agree with that either: we had an absolute blast looking in there and picking up a fun detail to focus on in a given scene. But to be fair, I do have a technical background and might think them more interesting than the average person.
The game is surprisingly easy to get into and as long as you have two players who get the conversation flowing initially, everyone eventually joined the chatter in our game.
Conclusion
Apollo 47 is an amazing game to play when you have 20-30 minutes to fill or to play with people who are into grounded/realistic sci-fi. I wish I could bring it with me anywhere to spontaneously play, but with roughly 3.2 kg the book isn’t exactly pocket-sized - but that’s also what makes it so charming. It’s a book that always draws interest when you’re showing it to people, I think I will never tire of pitching it.
Other Recommendations
Need some more games with a somewhat similar vibe?
- VOID 1680 AM by Bannerless Games
- Alone Among the Stars by noroadhome
- Salvage Union by Aled Lawlor & Panayiotis Lines
- 2400 by Jason Tocci
- Solivago by (yours truly) CrowberryCake
Apollo 47 also tells you to provide some props and space exploration books for inspiration, so I’ll use this moment to recommend you some non-RPG books I enjoyed:
- “To Be Taught, If Fortunate” by Becky Chambers
- “Project Hail Mary” and “Artemis” by Andy Weir
- “Goldilocks” by Laura Lam
