Starguild is an tabletop RPG – a role play game. To those of you unfamiliar with the concept, RPGs are games where you meet with friends, create characters and play through stories that are derived mostly from your imagination.
An RPG consists of two basic components: the setting, and the rules.
The setting is the context in which you play the game, which I think is a cool concept.. A Star Wars RPG is based in a galaxy far, far away, a Hobbits RPG is based in Middle Earth, an RPG about being a doctor seeing patients is based in a hospital, a Star Trek RPG is to boldly go etc.
The rules are the framework that help you to play the game. Some have very intense, detailed rules for every tiny possible occurrence, others give the merest hint of a structure, allowing you to mould the gaming system to flow and adapt to whatever you feel it needs.
In the last week I have read all 238 pages of the prerelease copy that Alex, the creator, kindly sent my way, with the gateway to adventures. I have As well downloaded and now reading the finalized 248 pg pdf copy from Alex in which he delivered to drive thro rpg dot com. The galaxy is presented in Starguild is one of opportunity, inequality, and flexibility.
There is an overarching storyline of human existence in Omega Centauris, with a very readable backstory – the 10 pages of Campaign history are perfect for bringing the galaxy to light, and pretty great prose in their own right.
What I love is how they aren’t prescriptive at all – you could literally set anything in this game: multi-ship, high-tech space battles; highly social political wrestling, emotions on tenderhooks; even a fantasy style rags-to-riches story on one of the less developed worlds.
There’s a detailed explanation of tens of planets, providing you with plenty of room to set your story literally anywhere you fancy, and loads of features in the rules that allow your characters to be shaped by their environment. For example:
Planet Martell: The militaristic world of Martell dominates its neighbours in the Independents quadrant, and takes an aggressive political posture both externally and internally. Acutely aware that traffic from the capital has to travel via the hazardous Coltech nebula in order to reach the other worlds in the Union, Martell has established strong garrison forces on each of its worlds. This has led to an increasing degree of internal unrest. Union repre- sentatives have a reputation for being aggressive and confrontational.
Planet Erith: The Lord here runs a semi-feudal style of government. There are strictly defined lines of communication and citizens are expected to show loyalty to their immediate overlords and through them up to the Lord. Technically anyone can be called upon to do any service, although this is used sparingly except in times of emergency.
Planet Canopy: This world has a vast agricultural resource in the form of its seem- ingly limitless forests. The trees are huge, over 200m high and very broad. Most of the colonists live well up in the trees, traveling by simple cable cars and small balloons. The capital city of Haig is renowned for its intricate hedge maze of shrubbery which winds from the sunlit treetops where lovers meet for romantic trysts and into mid level parkland. But few consider that it also extends to the dark shadows of the undergrowth where eco terrorists meet and plot, and parents scare their children with tales of plant-men who spirit away citizens to secret vats.
Alongside these patches of flavour text are nearly 100 “adventure seeds” – ideas to help you kick start a new plot twist or campaign. Here’s a sample from Canopy
Adventure Seeds
• Eco-terrorists bomb the starport concourse, causing it to be sealed for several weeks for repairs. Their real target was the cap- ture of a biologist whose virus samples could be used for a wider ranging biological attack against the civilian population.
• An experimental giant logging vehicle designed by MERCAL has gone out of control and is heading straight for a tree town. If nobody can stop it, hundreds will die!
• One of the eco terrorist groups could be traced back to a remote valley where the people have somehow merged with plants. Bark-like skin is the least of it. They have inhuman vitality and an implacable hatred of people. It turns out that they had entered an old imperial research station which was working on a hybrid project, and accidentally opened some vats... They now capture people and subject them to the vats to build their numbers.
The cool thang about the Martial Union is I got to influence the faction and name the capital city on Canopy, and name a feature the city was famous for so I did. I named it Haig and added my famous hedge-mazes. I meant to write a source book on this subject but never finished it. (Just a foot note about what happens in real life just got in my way and my computer crashed with the file and then when I retrieved it it was courrpted so I will need to rewrite it again).
Overall, the flavour I get from Starguild is a universe I’m always keen to visit. I think there’s plenty of hand-holding, if you want it – just use one of the detailed, multi-scene sample adventure to get you started. Yet, for those of us keen to run before we can walk, there’s enough ammunition to let you start imagining a story with a very helpful backdrop to orientate yourself, hence The Adevtures 9of Captain Hedges Across Time and Space.
How does it play…
Simple answer: It plays like a fast paced Sci Fi game, which can get bogged down by players, wanting to do stuff, most of the adventures can be played in a two to four hour block. Some times longer if the pcs go off script. I have run it twice and I like it a lot. Although some of my players have had a few characters in this campagin few have ever played them twice.
Starguild is based on the d20 Open Game license that Wizards of the Coast released back in 2000. So, if you’ve played Dungeons & Dragons, or many similar games, you’ll have at least a foothold into the basic structure of play.
“The game treats social conflict – the ability to alter someones emotions and thinking – just as importantly as the more traditional kinds of conflict of fist and gun.”
This appeals to me. I’ve enjoyed playing D&D but I find the battles a bit unfulfilling.
- In a fight in D&D, two characters fight over about 50 turns, with magic spells, and special moves. They have a number of hit points, and slowly wear down the other player’s hitpoints until someone dies.
- In real life, when two people fight, they each have a knife, it lasts about 2 minutes, and someone gets rather injured.
- In Starguild Space Opera Noir just a few rounds for combat.
I’m sure you could try to play Spaceguild the D&D way, but it seems much more focused on the social dramatics, and the intensity of choice in high pressure situations. That rather appeals. I know I’m roleplaying as a fictional personal, in a made-up situation, in a fake galaxy, in my imagination – but I want to feel like disturbing a guard and getting shot is as weighty as it would be in real life.
As a new game-master to this system, it’s setting, and the various sections on guilds, weapons, vehicles, etc… all seem well put together, but I don’t think I’ll have a real handle on it until I put another game together. I definitely feel these rules explain the system enough that I wouldn’t have any big problems running a game. Well that’s what I thought until I actually ran a free for, game of a written adventure, someone pointed out I should have made Pregens. So sense them I have had a set of Pregens to choose from but if players want to make Thier own characters I allow it. There is also an excellent set of reference table appendices and a comprehensive index – too often lacking in rule books.
From giving it a re-read, and comments from others on Alex White’s Website, which I do read from time to time and use when prepping my games. It seems like the addition of “Conviction” is an interesting feature, where you gain conviction points for doing actions that fit with your character’s personality. For example:
Captain Hedges (a new notable character)
“Vargon, (a noteably strong character) nonchalantly crushes cans in one hand, whilst waiting for the action to start”.
You keep tokens to represent your conviction in front of you as a visual reminder, and you can spend it to help you out, such as adding a D6 to the score of a D20 role. I feel like conviction could be gamed quite easily – “Vargon quickly crushes 4 cans, gaining 4 points” – but if you use it in the spirit of the game, it rewards you for roleplaying, and even the advantages it gives can be RPed to cohese the theme even better…
Vargon tries to kick the door down. The DC is 20, and he rolls 12. This, plus his physique (1) + his characteristic of being “burly” (+2) = 15. He spends a conviction point, bunching up his huge arms to increase his effort to the extreme, and rolls a D6, which gives him a +5, just making the DC… and the door tears off its hinges, leaving the gang free to run into the corridor.
Go on, support it.
All in all, I’m excited about Spaceguild, I’m keen to play it with some friends and I think it will look fantastic with more artwork, once the kickstarter is finished.
Also Alex maintains a new website for this game.
Starguild RPG Wordpress Blog about the game found here!
Yours For now Captain Earl C. Hedges Jr.
