I just had a disturbing thought...

After the last heart-pounding, action-packed (and nudity-free) episode of Game of Thrones, something occurred to me...

"Let it go! Let it go!"

Review: White Star

A while back, I mentioned that my first RPG (i.e. Star Frontiers) was a science fiction title rather than a fantasy game like all the cool kids were playing. I was one of those poor schmucks who were dealt easily-duped right-wing parents who bought into the Satanic Panic of the early-mid 80s, so D&D and other fantasy games were verboten in my family's household. However, sci-fi games were accepted grudgingly. I assume my mother didn't think I'd be summoning any demons from the deepest pits of Hell with a copy of Palladium’s Robotech or Cyberpunk 2020 (although I was able to sneak Call of Cthulhu past them). Therefore, since I spent most of my adolescent gaming years blasting aliens and leaping across galaxies, science fiction games have a special place in my muscular blood pump.

That's why I was particularly excited when James Spahn of Barrel Rider Games announced the publication of White Star, a new OSR science fiction game using Matt Finch's Swords & Wizardry: White Box engine. There are many sci-fi games with an old school flavor: Stars Without Number. Starships and Spacemen, X-Plorers. However, White Star is meant to be a more direct restatement of the Gygax/Arneson rules specifically for the science fiction genre.

Fans of White Box will have no problem digesting the rules and they are easy enough for the neophyte to jump into without headache. In White Star, damage and hit dice are d6 based, and most of the time the only other dice you'll need is a d20. All characters have a single saving throw and there is the option to use either descending (THAC0) or ascending armor class for combat. White Star is also designed to be 100% compatible with White Box so if you want to attempt a sci-fi/fantasy mash-up like the classic Expedition to the Barrier Peaks module or settings like Dragonstar or Amethyst, you should be in excellent shape.

The classes in White Star cover a wide array of established sci-fi character archetypes: Aristocrats are your leaders and negotiators, lending a bit of social gaming amidst all the blasting and hacking. Mercenaries are your basic fighters. Space Knights defend peace and justice in the universe with star sword and psionic “Meditations” (i.e. think Vanician spells). Pilots are daredevils who can coax your starship to perform gut-churning maneuvers while keep their ships in space. Like Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings, aliens and robots are treated as race-as-class, and they are generic enough to fit whatever setting you desire. There is an Alien Brute class if you want play a hulking non-human warrior, and an Alien Mystic with their own supernatural “Gifts.” Robots can be designed as diplomats fluent in over six million forms of communication, repair and maintenance models that can be useful that hyperdrive or shutting down garbage smashers on the detention level, or hulking combat 'bots programmed for destruction.

White Star features comprehensive equipment list that features everything from communicators to mono-swords, stats for starships as well as simple rules for ship-to-ship combat and operations, and even bionics if you want your campaign to have a more cyperpunk feel to it. There's also a bestiary featuring alien adversaries and monsters ranging from ravening space bugs to assimilating cyborgs. A chapter is devoted to the various campaign styles that the rules would work for, and there is even an introductory adventure for Level 1-3 adventurers, something not a lot of OSR titles include.

Do the various classes, monster's and other tropes seem derivative. Sure, they're pretty much total rip-offs, but you can say that about any modern fantasy role-playing game. If anything the familiar settings and adversaries gives the players and GM a common frame of reference from which they can modify the game to suit their own campaign. When and if I were to run a White Star game, my setting would be slightly grayer than a Star-Wars-style universe. The generic Galactic Empire would be far less tyrannical, rebels would be factious and indiscriminate in their violence, nobles houses would play a bigger role, and the Space Knights would not be cold, emotionless monks with energy blades with a weird disdain for ranged weapons and sex. It's ultimately all up to you.

It's easy to see why White Star has in the span of a very short time (Less than a week!) gained an enthusiastic following. It's already “Electrum” rated on RPGNow and in the Google+ community there is already talk of two fanzines being started. Like all OSR games, White Star's simplicity and open-ended, do-it-yourself nature encourages gamers to get creative. In a hobby that is supposedly fueled upon imagination, that is always welcome.

White Star is currently available on RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com as a .PDF for $9.99. Print-On-Demand copies are expected to be available by the end of the month.

White Star Character: Kay'Lanna Dreen, Knight of the Rising Star

James Spahn's OSR science fantasy game White Star has taken off like a tramp cargo ship full of fugitive rebels trying to get to the Alderaan System. While I compose my review, I thought I'd share my first character; Kay'Lanna Dreen, Space Knight. While the inspiration for this character class should be obvious, the White Star universe I'm concocting is far less black and white than that one that took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Think more Dune than A New Hope, where the psionic Space Knights, products of a thousands-of-year-old breeding program, serve their virtually immortal masters who rule planetary fiefdoms as their elite agents and warriors. 

Dame Kay'Lanna Dreen

1st Level Space Knight of the Rising Star Order

STR: 8

DEX; 15 (+1)

CON: 12

INT: 13

WIS: 13

Chas: 12

AC  6 [13] (Using Dex Bonus for AC Option.)

BHB: 0

HP 6 (I always allow my starting PCs max HP)

Meditations: None

Equipment: Star Sword, Laser Pistol, 1 Energy Cell, Light Armor, Clothing (Common), Communicator. 15 Credits.

A scion of the Dreen lineage of the Rising Star Order, Kay'Lanna has just earned her knighthood and vowed fealty to House Salzor of Caldor. As a novice knight of House Salzor's cadre, Kay'Lanna has been assigned protection detail for Lady Almada's ne'er-do-well son Feldan as he leaps across Imperial space in search of adventure. While Feldan is brash and reckless, Kay'Lanna is a loyal knight and will do her duty to keep the party-boy lordling in line and out of trouble as he hones her own skills.

White Star Emerging From Hyperspace May Fourth!

Yeah, this was what I first thought of when I heard the title, too.

As I briefly touched upon in my last post, James Spahn of Barrel Rider Games has been cooking up White Star, a new OSR sci-fi game using the Swords & Wizardry: White Box engine. Just yesterday, James announced that the .PDF will be released on RPGNow/DriveThru on May the Fourth.

Hmmmmm... I wonder if there is some significance to that date?

White Star promises to feature new classes. robots and aliens, science fiction hardware, starships, cybernetics, and much, much more. The game is also supposed to be completely compatible with S&W:WB so you can easily play high fantasy/science fiction mash-ups like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, Dragonstar, or Amethyst. The PDF will retail for $9.99 with a PoD digest (6" x 9") edition in both softcover ($14.99) and hardcover ($24.99) coming out as soon as James okays the proofs. Preliminary reviews appear very positive. James has also wisely started a Google+ Community to give players a place to discuss the game as soon as it drops.

You will be able to read my review here as soon as I get my hands on a copy!

My Muse Wears Combat Boots!

SCENE: Mark's Room. Mark is lying on the bed, semi-conscious. An old MST3K episode is playing on the TV. He's surrounded by empty soda cans and crumpled microwave popcorn bags. Suddenly the door breaks open and Mark's Muse comes storming into the room.

Mark's Muse: Okay you fat, ugly load! Up and at 'em.

Mark: (Groans and mumbles groggily.)

Muse: None of that, wuss. It's been two months since you posted a damn thing on your crappy little blog. Time to get your ass on that computer and post something! Now ooze your tonnage out of that bed and get to work!

Mark: Go away. I've not up for it. I'm feeling depressed. Work has been a real drain. I've got writer's block.

Muse: Oh, writer's block my eye! Look, you totally neglected to post anything about your trip to Gary Con, you let Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day slip by you, you've posted nothing on James Spahn's upcoming SW: Whitebox-based science fiction game, and the "Year of Tekumel" is a quarter over and you've only posted about that lame-ass GM screen!

Mark: Yeah, yeah, it's not as if anyone really cares about this damn blog. I only have around 80 subscribers while all the other cool OSR bloggers have hundreds of followers, some with lucrative Paetron accounts to justify the time and effort they put into their work.

Muse: Oh boo hoo! Nobody reads my blog and I'm a pauper with a lousy day-job! Save the crippling self-doubt for your therapist, worm! Now write!

Mark: Fine! (Gets up to open up his laptop.) This will teach me to get my muses second hand from fantasy porn-comic sites.

Muse: More writing, less snark lard-bottom or I'll use your meager excuse for genitals as a whimsical pencil topper!

Crypts & Things Remastered, Conan, and things Sword & Sorcery

You can hear the heavy metal guitar solos
coming from this cover, can't you?

A few years back, Newt Newton at D101 Games published a sweet Swords & Wizardry variant titled Crypts & Things. This OSR-flavored game has everything who like their fantasy dark and gritty with some pretty cool rules additions inspired by Akrasia of Akratic Wizardry fame. Now Newt is about to launch a Kickstarter campaign for a "remastered"edition of C&T.

This upcoming edition promises new and improved artwork, tighter editing, new and streamlined rules, more classes, more spells, more monsters, more EVERYTHING! Donors will also get a sneak peek of the draft rules, so they can get a taste for what is to come.

Makes you want to strip down to your breechcloth and run around with a huge sword slaying serpent men, doesn't it?

(Except myself, of course, Me in any state of undress is a horror of Lovecraftian proportions!)

Since I'm one of those types who needs miniatures for my games, I've been thinking about great sources for appropriate Sword & Sorcery figures. I've mainly been getting mine from Reaper, but Newt's initial announcement turned by attention toward this recently funded Kickstarter campaign by from Monolith Board Games featuring a familiar fantasy hero:

"CROM! What manner of foul sorcery has put me in a box!" 

"Conan is a miniature-based board game that pits one player, the overlord, who controls hordes of savage tribesmen, no-good lowlifes and undead minions against 1 to 4 players who incarnate the legendary Conan and his fellow adventurers. The gameplay is asymetric, as the overlord possesses a large selection of models and objectives which are his own, whereas the brave heroes are played from a first person perspective, much like in a role playing game. An adventure can be played out in 1 hour on one of the beautiful game boards as you pit your wits, daring and tactical acumen against your opponent."

The miniature samples look nothing less than awesome and the "King Pledge" level gives you a heap of familiar heroes, human, enemies, monsters, and terrain. I normally don't buy into board games, but like the Reaper Bones, Heavy Gear, and Robotech: Tactics crowdfunding campaigns that came before, I could not resit the wealth of figures that I would be getting for the price. Even if it turns out that the game itself is a bust, I will certainly use the miniatures for other things.

The Crypts & Things Remastered Kickstarter starts March 1.

Miniatures Jackpot!

The UPS man arrived yesterday, and what did he have for me? Why, the fruits of the the Reaper Bones II Kickstarter, that's what! Over 150 bendy plastic generic fantasy figures (with a few Deadlands and Numenera figs thrown in for good measure) to be painted, used, and abused in role-playing campaigns to come. Look! I say, LOOK upon this glories bounty!

I got in of the first Bones Kickstarter and I haven't even finished half the figs I got from that campaign, so I don't know when I've ever going to start in on these babies. I admit, I do get frustrated at times with the "bendy" nature of these figures, and wish they were molded from a harder variety of plastic, but they're great if you need a lot of miniatures for a very low price.

I better start painting.