Sector Scavengers: Signal & Salvage

OPENING

You wake up in a cryo-tube owing a million credits.

In the early 21st century, AI replaces millions of highly paid software engineers who accept Cryo Freeze as a severance option. Seeking refuge from the coming global conflicts related to scarcity. 

Instead of a cushy retirement in a post scarcity paradise, The Company folded, you were sold as debt multiple times until finally you were converted to unhealthy inventory and purchased by an intergalactic salvage corporation.

Now you owe them 1 million credits and you've been given a barely functional single man salvage skiff, an environmental suit, and a hearty "good luck!". 

You'll mine space fields filled with broken down derelicts hoping to find enough salvage to sell and pay off your debt.

Between runs, you generate the energy you need to survive salvage, and eventually you'll build stations that generate energy and credits. During runs, you draft cards—Scavenge, Repair, Extract—and hope the hull holds. Death isn't the end. Death is how you get stronger.

Your base is an idle RPG.

Claim derelicts. Convert them into stations. Watch energy and credits tick up. Build rooms—Engineering Bay, Med Bay, Science Lab, Crew Quarters—with metal and tech from your dives. Assign crew to ships for passive bonuses. More stations, more income. The loop: build → generate → fuel your next run.

Every dive is a 10-round card draft.

Pick from three cards each round. Each card belongs to a different category:

Scavenge for loot, and risk a hull breach.
Repair to patch the ship and keep it on your board.
Extract to leave with your haul before it's too late.
Dangers like Hull Creaking, Power Surge, Structural Stress, can blow you up, grant shields, or reveal hidden caches. You have 10 rounds. Spend energy wisely.

When the hull goes, everything goes.

A breach means your run is over. Your salvage? Gone. But every collapse fills a Void Experience bar. At 100%, you tier up: unlock Shield and Upgrade cards, start runs with +1 shield, bank credits, or save crew on death. Dying teaches you. The more you die, the more options you get.

Sell what you find. Pay what you owe.

Visit the Salvage Yard between runs. Unload Medical Supplies, Coolant Tanks, scrap metal. Recycle power cells for energy. Credits pay debt. Debt pays the Company. The question isn't "get stronger"—it's "can you build enough to escape without becoming the next layer of management?"

The Company is watching.

V.A.L.U.—your friendly corporate liaison—will congratulate you on your "persistence." The sector is full of abandoned ships, ghost fleets, and euphemisms. Cards have names like Compliance Scan, Break Room Raid, and BOHICA Protocol. The tone is darkly funny. The stakes are real.

Risk. Reward. Extract.

Roll the dice on Scavenge and find a hidden cache—or trigger a minor breach. Play it safe with Repair. Or hit Extract and leave with your loot before the hull gives out. Ten rounds. Your cards. Your call.

Look how cute this guy is.

FEATURES

Idle basebuilding — Stations generate energy and credits passively. Build rooms. Wake crew from cryo. Assign specialists to ships. More stations = more income.

Deck-building roguelike — Draft, Scavenge, Repair, Extract, Shield, Upgrade, and danger cards each round. Energy management. Hull pressure. 10 rounds per run.

Death progression — Every collapse grants Void Experience. Tier up to unlock new cards, shields, crew, bonuses, and more

Debt macro loop — Wake into debt. Run to stay solvent. Pay down or leverage harder. Escape—or become management.

16-ship hub — Claim derelicts (common to epic). Repair to keep them. Convert to stations. Build your fleet.

Named & unnamed crew — Recruit story-driven characters (Max, Imani, Jax, Sera, Rook, DELTA-7) or wake generic specialists. Lead + companions per run; assign crew to ships for bonuses.

Corporate satire — Tongue-in-cheek, euphemism-heavy. Darkly cheerful.

Wake. Scavenge. Die. Repeat.

Until you don't.