In a spacefaring civilization, some people eke out their living in less than legal ways. Illegal outpost Platform 6 is one of their havens, as security gets tighter and raiding opportunities scarcer. Some characters have political goals and want to embarrass Internal Security or even assassinate a politician. Some are new to the underworld and want to make money. Others are old hands who already have money and want to retire back to the overworld, but have filial duty to others, or need to erase evidence of their past crimes to avoid execution.
Platform 6 is an experimental space piracy game, inspired by Firefly, Reservoir Dogs, the video game FTL, and the LARPs Devil to Pay, Spring River, Ex Ignorantia, A Crown of Hearts, A Second Chance for Wings, and Bad Apples. The purpose of the game is to produce emotionally intense moments and difficult choices with limited immersion. The four hours of out-of-game time do not correspond to four hours of in-game time, but to days or weeks.
The game consists of several episodes: each episode features an opportunity to go on a mission, such as raiding a loosely guarded cargo ship, robbing a first-class passenger ship and maybe taking hostages, and attacking an Internal Security installation. Not all characters can go on all missions; characters have to distribute themselves to crews, while those who stay during a mission will instead deal with events on Platform 6, such as gang politics. Each episode is somewhat self-contained, but still affects future developments of both plot and characters.