Kid, I've been from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of space adventure RPGs. Black Star is the one I want for adventuring in a galaxy far, far away.

I'm supposed to be informative? Here's some information: go read the other reviews. They've got it right, and I can't say it any better than they did.

If you like Star Wars (or science fantasy writ large) this book is a must buy. It's lightweight and good at prompting cool narrative moments without getting overly perscriptive. Wonerfully "fiction-first."

Another title I find myself loving more and more from LakeSide! Player facing, fast, furious (as the game engine name implies), easily winged (is that a term?), and thoroughly enjoyable to a fault. Take their movies for guys who like movies action piece Magnum Fury, give it an upgrade with some overhauled fun fun 2d6 bell curvaceous die mechanics, then slap some space opera chicanery across its smug face and behold the game of Black Star game!

What an awesome, fun, rules-light game! You basically roll 2d6, add the relevant Ability (which are a combination of stats and skills), and you need to get a 9 or better to succeed. That’s pretty much the basic mechanic, but there is minutia beyond that. Such as rolling a 5 or 6 on your dice gives you extra damage; bonus and penalty dice, etc.

Every character gets 2 Archetypes, which I love because nobody ever really seems to be just one thing. Wanna play a Luke Skywalker type character? He’s a Mystic and a Pilot. Etc.

Then there are Talents (like Feats) for each Archetype. There are also Gear Talents for super-fancy or high-end equipment, Mystic Powers for your “Force” users, and Innate Talents for creating bots, cyborgs, and aliens. If you want to play an alien instead of a human, simply choose an Innate Talent during character creation and you get to make up the rest (assuming you aren’t just importing your favorite sci-fi races).

Resolve is a combination of Hit Points and Hero Points, which I’ve never seen done in a game before and I think is really cool. Is it worth using a point of Resolve right now, knowing that its going to reduce your “hit point” level?

Only the players roll dice! Not only do the player’s roll when their characters attempt to something; they also roll when something is being done to them. So, assume a bad guy is shooting at you (the PC) and will hit you unless you make your dodge roll. It’s all in the hands (well, dice) of the players.

The setting information is pretty bare bones. But I think the assumption is you’ll be playing Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off, so there’s no need for pages and pages of world information, alien races, etc. This is a plus for GMs who like to create their own worlds, because you could easily ignore what setting info there is and import your own. I could easily use these rules to run Firefly, Farscape or Cowboy Bebop, and with a little work Star Trek, Stargate, and the like.

And with a companion book nearing completion, there’ll be even more options. New talents, new archetypes, rules for classic psionics, ship rules, and more.

Fantastic job on this game! I can’t wait to get this to my table.

An excellent game, easy to learn and a bit of a relief from the high rule content games availiable. I called it the "not" star wars game :) A nice simple system, with the potential to mod easily. A few things that seem missing/not well explained No capital ships. They were mentioned, but no examples. Also some rules on modifying ships and vehicles would have been nice Some of the talents are very under detailed. For example, Primary function (bots) seems to serve no purpose except as a description. (Though thinking on it, that may be the point) Another thing is no currency system. Nothing seems to be for sale or to be sold. Cred chips are mentioned, but no costs are. None of these are non starters, but still are there. But I am definitely going to GM this game. I already have an idea. The bot wars and the purging of the Star Knights (Started have the bot wars) Or maybe a smuggler game I think there is room for a few supplements, may be a campaign book, and a ship book? But it doesn't need it that bad.

Black Star is the role-playing game that my friends and I have been searching for a long time. Being able to experience adventures in the Star Wars universe through a streamlined and elegant rule system that requires very little preparation. I studied it and builded 6 character sheet in less than a day, and the evening after we played our first oneshot: "Escape from Mos Shuuta". This game is perfect for us busy thirtysomethings caught up in the Dark Side of adult life. I hope that more in-depth content will be released in the future, perhaps with some examples of adversaries and villains to use. May the Force be with you!

This is the space opera game I've always been waiting for. Fast, cinematic, thematic and using just regular six-sided dice. The author has a way of boiling down what would otherwise be overly crunchy concepts into rules that are very elegant. Can't wait for the follow up companion book.

I'll say, right from the get-go, that I really like Lakeside Games' recent offerings, particularly Prowlers & Paragons. But moreso than anything else they've released, their new game Black Star hits ALL THE RIGHT SPOTS for my typical gaming - lightweight, action-packed, easy-to-understand, and using just D6s. This might now be my go-to for future Star Wars-ish roleplaying, since it really allows me to tell a cool story, and still have enough bits and pieces for my players to make cool characters with.

...and now I'll probably have to pick up Magnum Fury, since it's the same ruleset.

Thumbs up. Five stars. Bravo. I love it.

Black Star is a tightly written Space Fantasy/Opera roleplaying game with a unified player-facing mechanic that encourages fiction-first roleplaying. While described as a rules-light game I'll note that there's a complete vehicle system, space magic, dueling/shootout rules, aliens, robots, character advancement, and a talent system that provides plenty of hooks for players who like to engage with the system. The d6 & resolve mechanics fit the genre very well and give the GM plenty of room to dial the game between something like Firefly or Andor ("gritty Star Wars") up to full on herioc/cinematic Star Wars Rebels style games. The talent system in particular seems very flexible and appears to allow enough customization to dial in just how much influence "space knights" or "cyberware" will influence your game world. There's a tremendous amount of game in 43 pages and I highly recommend this title to anyone on the fence.

Some areas for improvement:

Guidance on capital-scale starships would be good - I don't think they would even need to use the vehicle system (typically in other systems I would run them as set pieces, not vehicles) - but Space Opera is full of massive ships as a threat or opposition and it should be expanded upon here.

A very small planet generator would be helpful, there are many out there but would be nice to have it as a tabel reference. This is not a hexcrawling/resource management type game so I'm not imaging sector generation as being useful.

I understand how the NPC system works but I think a small page of examples, similar to the vehicle section, would be extremely helpful to newer GMs. Likewise Aliens and Bots could use some pre-built samples.

The space magic system is great but a Psionic-style system would probably be helpful as well.

Possibly some guidance on "extended challenges" or "helping" would be good. For helping my first GM instinct is to rule it situtionally between the fiction & roleplaying allowing for a bonus dice without a roll to another team member and having the assisting team member make an Ability roll first in order to pass on a bonus dice. Extended Challenges could just be NPCs reskinned but new GMs may not realize how easy it is do things like that on the fly.

Simple, fast, easy game that encapsulates the 'Feel' of everyones favorite Science Fantasy Space Opera. Really, the only negative I could give it is there lack of "Adversaries" but even with that, there's enough information given throughout the book that it's only a minor issue.

Great stuff!

Can't say enough good stuff about this game! It hits all the right notes for me. Went out and got By This Axe and its companion.   Both just as good.

These games need more love!

The design is smooth and light while still managing to have depth. The rules are easy to learn and they do a very good job at emulating the high fantasy/fairy tale fantasy genre. The fonts are nice(especially in the headers) and I loved the art. I was a little disappointed by the lack of art in some places (such as the bestiary),but that's because the art that is in here is fantastic. I would suggest this for anyone who wants an old school classic fantasy feel along with smooth, concise rules.

The system here is on the rules light end, yet complete in what is needed to run any of the Mongoose Conan modules of old or the newer Modiphius Adventures. If you want to just run your own Hyborian Age or Hyborian like games or just need a faster paced and more fade into the background system for the adventures above, this game will work great for you. With little work you could add the Author's There and Hack Again game to have Frodo, Bilbo and Aragon join Conan, Kull, Fahrad and the Grey Mouser and Elric on a quest to fight Thulsa Doom, Thoth-Amon, Smaug and the Ringwraiths if you like. All this with a complete yet light game.

The system here is on the rules light end, yet complete in what is needed to run any of the MERP modules of old or the newer The One Ring/Adventures in Middle Earth Adventures. If you want to just run your own Middle Earth or Middle Earth like games or just need a faster paced and more fade into the background system for the adventures above, this game will work great for you. With little work you could add the Author's By This Axe I Hack game to have Conan, Kull, Fahrad and the Grey Mouser and Elric join Froto, Aragorn and Bilbo on a quest to fight Thulsa Doom, Smaug and the Ringwraiths if you like. All this with a complete yet light game.

Excellent blend of easy play combined with comprehensive rules make TAHA awesome. You can quickly whip up some characters, then go adventuring, battling a rogues gallery of Tolkienesque villains. Tons of fun!