Negative Space Wedgie

Basic Information

The Negative Space Wedgie is the equivalent of the Monster of the Week for space-based science fiction settings. This trope includes actual monsters, but also astronomical phenomena, weird energy fields, and other problems that can't be solved by simply shooting it.

Related Tropes:

• Lost Technology of the Precursors
• Monster of the Week
• Mysterious glowing cloud
• Planet of Hats
• Sufficiently Advanced Aliens
• Swirly Energy Thingy
• Unknown Phenomenon

See also:

• Alien
• Alien biology
• Dark Matter
• Exotic Matter
• Interstellar Terrain
• Space Weather
• Stellar Megastructure
• Strange Matter
• UFO

Sources

Bibliography

1. TV Tropes Wiki

Game and Story Use

• An ill-conceived space wedgie might end up crossing into Space Does Not Work That Way, but a well-crafted wedgie can make for an exciting plot.
• What kind of Negative Space Wedgies you have in your game will largely depend on where you fall on Mohs scale of sci fi hardness.
  • Softer sci fi should probably stick to mostly things that can be solved with charisma or firepower. If you're playing fast and loose with science, there's not much for player-character scientists to manipulate.
    • You may hand wave past this hurdle, by making Reverse the Polarity a standard action with reasonably intuitive results, or by just abstracting the solutions down to die rolls and resource allocation.
  • Harder science has more tools for player character scientists and astronauts to use in solving science-related problems. At the same time, getting the facts straight requires some research from the GM, and then a way to make sure the PCs, their players, and the GM are all on the same page.
    • In a game this arcanist ran recently, I tried out a tool I'd come up with to make the science-related plotlines work more smoothly without a really ugly info dump disrupting the role-playing. You can read about it on my blog.