Not all starship crews are as friendly and collegiate with each other as the crews of the ships in Star Trek. In SabreWolf Games' Blame Space, the 2-6 players form a much more dysfunctional crew where, as the name of the game suggests, everyone is trying to foist the blame on others for their space ship's malfunctions and misfortunes. The player who ends up with the most blame points will get spaced (thrown out of an airlock) and the other players may be left scrambling for what lifepods still remain.
Blame Space is a card game where you'll be playing cards ('issues') to a blame pile, where the symbols on the cards match the various ship's officer roles. You can play 1-3 cards on your turn but each card has to share at least one icon with the card that preceded it. Play two cards and you can swap roles with another player. Play three cards and you can try to blame another player: check all the blame cards that have been played and if the player you've blamed has more in the blame pile than you then they take the blame and can end up in the brig or in quarantine. However, you will take the blame if it turns out the player you've accused has fewer icons than you: this is a game which favours card counters and those with a good memory.
If you just play one card on your turn, it'll have the additional effect of decommissioning a lifepod, so reducing all the players' prospects of surviving the game. If you don't play any card you have to pick up three cards; and that's also the penalty if you refuse a request to swap roles. Having a lot of cards in your hand is likely to be bad because they'll add to your blame at the end of the game when the draw deck is exhausted.
And just in case blaming each other isn't dysfunctional enough for you, you can also play with an actual traitor mechanic, where the player holding the Betrayal card can win by sabotaging all the life pods.
Blame Space is designed by Richard Wolfrik Galland. It's essentially a reworking of his earlier Medieval-themed Game of Blame (Warm Acre) and with a higher player count. Having played both games, the Board's Eye View team much prefer the Blame Space setting. It's a fun 'take that' card game that certainly makes a change from the majority of other similarly themed games. Tho' you can notionally play the game at lower player counts, it's at its best with a full crew of six players. Just remember, you're not paranoid - your crew mates really are out to get you!