Looking to run a Sci-Fantasy game with lite rules and HEAVY on good times? You have found it. Plays like Swords and Wizardry White box but with a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Space Opera feel and setting. Easy to play,easy to have fun,easy for fans of Rebels and Empires to make their own...

This game is amazing. Unlike other OSR Sci-Fi games, this one stays very true to the Gygaxian White Box game. It is balanced and easy to house rule. Additionally James includes many popular optional rules in the text. I am greatly looking forward to further releases for this game.

White Star is worth five stars for the bestiary chapter alone.

Back at home and I just discovered that James Spahn from Barrel Rider Games released White Star, his OSR sci-fi game. The G+ OSR community is buzzing with excitement. The products I bought from Barrel Rider Games so far were always top-notch (take a look at my review of White Box Omnibus), so I was definitely in. The game was released on May the 4th, how fitting! I skimmed through the PDF and I’m sold. Fans of old school role-playing games and space opera sci-fi should take a look at White Star.

I’m not writing a full review here as I normally do but I’ll tell you a bit more than “it’s awesome”.

Why White Star?

The book comes with 132 pages total (including cover and OGL) and is 100% compatible with Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox. That in itself will tell you a lot about the rules mechanics. Basically, White Star is WhiteBox in space. And I could leave it like that. The ruleset is totally old school D&D, based on the 1974’s original system. The game captures the feel of space opera science fiction and some of the gonzo parts of the 70s. Inspiration comes from movies and books like Flash Gordon, Star Trek, Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy. In fact, everything (classes, alien races etc.) feel very much like a mix of Star Trek and Star Wars to me. For instance, the Star Knight is a Jedi, the alien race Quinlon are Klingons and Procyons are a raccoon race inspired by Guardians of the Galaxy. If you want to play in one of these settings and are willing to go with D&D, White Star has you set right from the start without a need to adjust things.

The classes easily model the typical tropes. You have the charming Aristocrat, a Politico, the martial Mercenary, the dashing Pilot and the afore-mentioned Star Knight. Alien classes are generalized into Alien Brute, Alien Mystic and Robot. Although I’m not too fond of the race-as-class-mentality I must say that White Star’s approach works fine for most character concepts. (Fellow blogger and Basic-Fantasy-fan Brian attempts to fix that by using Alien Knacks). The game comes without psionics but Star Knights and Alien Mystics still have access to “magic powers”. They both have a fixed set of “spells” available to them and must prepare them in advance. Star Knights use Meditations like Charm Person, Detect Invisible, Heal Other or Expand Senses. Alien Mystics have Gifts like Light, Hold Person or Alter Time. Folks who have played D&D will feel at home.

In addition to the normal combat system (again, it’s S&W WhiteBox) there are also rules for space combat. The mechanics are mostly the same but scaled up to starships. I like how easy it feels to learn the system as it is basically the same you already know.

Equipment and starships look adequate to me. The GM also has access to a small bestiary of alien lifeforms. Advanced Equipment is only available later in a campaign (i.e. Cybernetics) so there’s definitely something to look forward to in a longer campaign.

White Star also comes with setting ideas and a fleshed out sector to play in. Moreover, there is a sample adventure. Besides these, the game doesn’t have a pre-generated setting but asks you to create a sandbox.

In contrast to Stars Without Number (SWN) by Kevin Crawford there is no exhaustive system for building your sci-fi sandbox. That means you need to come up with your planets, alien cultures and societies yourself. Also, there are no random tables or other generators for different encounters (starship encounters, hooks for adventures or similar). So while White Box is a sandbox it isn’t the swiss army knife of old school space opera. If you’re looking for a more “complete” toolkit, SWN is the way to go. However, White Box stays in the spirit of its parent WhiteBox: Matt Finch’s rules-lite game is also quite bare-bones but still sufficient. There just isn’t much support when it comes to adventure/sandbox-building.

The design and layout job are well done and convey the tone of the space opera genre very well. Everything is good to read, the font and the border are very appropriate for a sci-fi book. I like how the boxes and chapter headings look. The artwork is nice but not spectacular. The book is completely done in black and white (except the cover). And the cover somehow reminds me of Firefly’s Nathan Fillion!

The price point may be a bit steep considering you can get similar products for fewer bucks (Stars Without Number Free Edition or Hulks and Horrors, to name a few). That said, White Star is its own distinctive game. It’s one of the games where I don’t feel intimidated by the rules and where I really want to start playing.

TL;DR

White Star is a well-written space opera game with OSR rules. It’s totally compatible with Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox and thus with a range of old school D&D systems. The strength of the game is that it can be played as-is with a wide range of well-known settings. The toolkit part of the sandbox approach falls a bit flat. Nonetheless, White Star is an interesting ruleset if you want to play D&D in spaaaace!

Actually, I’m really tempted to pair this one with Trey Causey’s Strange Stars (aff), review here. (Strange Stars is on sale in May, along with other sci-fi products.)

And if old school D&D is not heroic enough for my taste (remember that 1st level characters in S&W WhiteBox are a bit squishy), I’m taking a page or two out from Scarlet Heroes to fix that.

Unless you are living in an OSR-free zone you may have missed the big release this week of "White Star" from Barrel Rider Games and +James Spahn.

BRG had made a name for itself publishing classes for "Basic" era D&D/Labyrinth Lord which is how I discovered them. Recently James has made the switch with some very successful products for Swords & Wizardry. In particular he released the White Box Omnibus to much acclaim.

White Star is a similar quality effort, but represents a serious step up in terms of quality and content from his previous efforts. This is immediately obvious in terms of the quality of the cover art, but the interior really lives up (and beyond) that first impression. White Star is Space Opera viewed through an old-school RPG lens. So think Star Wars. Not the series of movies really, but just the first 1977 movie. Starting with the basics the book is 132 pages, two pages of cover art, two blank pages and one page of OGL. As usual BRG is very permissive with the content of the books. So this amounts to 128 pages of content (127 + OGL). Not a bad deal really. The book is divided up as expected. Chapters on Attributes, Character Classes and Races (more on this in a bit), Equipment, Game Play, and Combat. These chapters are more or less similar to what you might find in S&W White Box. Not a copy, but a re-write to accommodate the style and tone of the book. The remaining chapters cover the important topics of SciFi; Starship Combat, Gifts and Meditations, Aliens and Creatures, and Advanced Equipment. There are also chapters on The White Star Campaign, Interstellar Civil War and Kelron Sector, and the Second Battle of Brinn. As my friend, Greg Littlejohn says, "just enough meat on the bones, yet room on the plate to add some nice sides." That is 100% true.

Character Classes and Races The classes of White Star are simple enough to cover a variety of character archetypes. The classes include Aristocrat (think Princess Leia or Paul Atreides), Mercenary (Boba Fett, nearly every movie in the 80s), Pilot (Han Solo), and Star Knight (Luke). There are also two race as classes, the Alien Brute (lots of examples), Alien Mystic (Yoda) and Robot. Each class is 10 levels and presented in the same format as S&W. So one could easily move classes back and forth between the two games with ease.

Sci-Fi Chapters The chapters on Starship Combat and Alien Creatures are really the star here. Starship combat of course can be easily ported over to S&W as ship combat. But there are a lot of really cool nuggets here. It is also one of the chapters where the pure "Star Wars"ishness of the book fades a bit into some "Star Trek".
Alien Creatures covers a wide variety aliens. Nearly everything is here; Borg, Greys, Fluffy aliens, the lot. Since everything is S&W compatible you can move anything back and forth from S&W to White Star. This little feature opens up thousands of creatures to WS.

Gifts and Meditations covers the magical-like powers used by Star Knights and Mystics. Many of these are re-skinned spells. You could add more powers as spells, but only carefully. Some spells are not entirely appropriate for a sci-fi setting.

The last three chapters cover roughly a White Star campaign universe. The Kelron Sector is given some detail. Enough to get you going and enough to give you a good idea of what is going and where you can take it your own. If you watched any Sci-Fi in the 70s or 80s then you will recognize a lot of the pastiche here.

What can I say about White Star? It is one of the best Sci-Fi games I have picked up. The more and more I play, the more and more I like level and class based systems for space opera. It seems right to me somehow. I think it is because I discovered Star Wars and D&D right around the same time and to me they always go together.

IF I had one criticism it would be I would prefer Sword and Wizardry Complete rules or Labyrinth Lord. But that is weak-sauce on my part really. I could convert it if I wanted.

So your a DM looking for a science fiction or science fantasy retroclone system. Are you looking for one that will work with OD&D and Swords & Wizardry? A game that can handle all of the nuts and bolts of cinematic science fiction and allow you to fit your Swords and Wizardry game characters in through the back door easily? You have been recruited for White Star! Alright I know what your thinking, oh great another science fiction clone rpg system when your looking at White Star. What does this rpg system do that X plorers, Stars Without Numbers, and Hulks and Horrors do? Well right off the top White Star is cross compatible with the Swords and Wizardry retroclone system but so what there are more then a few add on systems for that. Well White Star is pure flat out space opera and emulates films such as Star Wars, the recent Guardians of The Galaxy Marvel movie. I own X plorers and its a great game, it is a fast, very concise set of rules that takes PC's into the great beyond ala a Saturday matinee. Stars Without Number is complex space opera with a solid science fiction background that has lots of nifty add ons, bells, and whistles to it. Hulks and Horrors is a combination of partial bug hunt, space opera, and a more lost universe style of play with humanity's former empires cut off from the main hub. I'm rather fond of all of these games and that's where White Star comes in. This is a space opera retroclone system that emulates none of the above and is actually a sliced up and concise set of science fictional space opera tools in a nifty little tool box. Right out of the gate its got a ton of stuff going for it. Some nice artwork, good solid PC options with aristocrat, mercenary, pilot, and star knight as your options on the table but a DM could easily add in their favorite Swords and Wizardry classes as well. There are also racial options to add in to your parties as well as the normal human. You've got Alien Brute, Alien Mystic, & Robot on the table as well to add even more to the party. Anyone familiar with Sword and Wizardry isn't going to be out of their depth at all here. The character generation is straight forward and concise which is nice. The equipment section is inclusive and includes a wide variety of galaxy and interstellar pieces of hardware. Many of these are going to be solidly familiar to any science fiction fan or Star Wars aficionado but this is a solid selection of stuff here. The playing the game section is short sweet and to the point giving PC's a solid grounding in a science fiction version of the grand game. This is done very well and with little fuss. There's a bit here and there about hirelings and the assistants. The personal combat section is where some of the variations of space opera madness come into play with Space Knight meditations and gifts complicating the usual D&D style of combat. This isn't a bad thing just a bit well different. I say that as a science fiction fan because if you've seen any of the Star Wars or old school science fiction many of these powers and abilities will be familiar. Its interesting to see them added into a D&D style game. The section on the meditations and gifts of the space knights are pretty interesting and solidly done in a pulptastic style. Star Ship combat in the far reaches of space is solidly done, effective, and very space opera style. There's more then a few options in this section, its far cinematic then realistic in its execution. Its very well done and its a good section of space based combat. Aliens and Creatures gives the DM a good solid range of options and that's all that really needed to get your own style of monsters, horrors, and what not to bedevil your party. Advanced equipment brings cybernetics, more armor, and a host of add ons to customize your PC's. Sort of like how cybernetics was lurking in the background of Star Wars and some other 70's and 80's science fiction space operas. Not to mention some of the 60's. But then we get not one campaign setting but three options on the table for your old school space operas. We get the White Star campaign setting outlined with a solidly done history, background, and how to incorporate the rpg system into your Swords and Wizardry Whitebox campaign. Then we get a whole sector to play in as well with the Kelron sector and lots of pretty worlds for the PC's to go play in. Then we jump right into the introductory adventure The Second Battle of Brinn. Here's where the game really shines and its a great adventure that pits six to eight PC's with their wits, their courage, and their assets into the deep end of the setting. You go exploring into the bowels of an asteroid base and get your necks up in adventure. This isn't a waist high pack of trouble but one where the party better actually have a Space Knight or two on hand to help handle some of the issues in this adventure if things break down your also going to want a fighter or pilot on hand with a steady blaster to help sort out trouble this isn't all hack and slash either. This game also includes some damn fine rules on diplomacy and they are in the rule book for a reason. The adventure really sets out the tone of what the authors and designers were going for. Yes it is an emulation of 80's and 90's science fiction films, literature, and more. Is the White Star worth the hype and volume that its been receiving? Yes I believe its a really welcome set of tools for the science fiction DM. And I do think that its worth grabbing a copy to play an extended campaign of ? Yes because it adds a whole damn exciting extended range of science fiction options for the Swords and Wizardry DM or any OD&D style rpg system. Now there is one thing missing in my humble opinion while there is a starting adventure, lots of worlds, etc.,etc. there aren't any encounter tables the game include encounter tables (space, wilderness, urban, asteroid belts, etc.) And here's where the game loses points in my humble opinion. This is a point that many science fiction games miss. An inclusive set of encounter tables helps a DM determine placement of adventure elements in a game. Another thing I came across was this on OSR today, "The new game is completely compatible with other versions of S&W Whitebox and other Swords & Wizardry [AL] games and products, and even comes with its own compatibility logo that third party publishers can use to create and share their own products with." Lately I've been very carefully reading through various retroclone's OGL and White Star has something very interesting going on under its OGL. Everything in the game is OGL except the author's classes, sector, setting, and campaign details. This one thing caused me to look at the game and make a very solid decision. Gut the setting out and create my own. This is where the DYI aspect of the game shines though. Without the restrictions of the setting the DM is truly able to work up their own material in a very well thought out and put together pulptastic system. My advice is to take your existing campaign write out the elements that you want to turn into a cinematic science fiction adventure and use White Star to go for it. The game does lots of things very well. I do think that Barrel Rider games adds a lot to the table with this game. The price point is a bit steep but there are frequent sales through rpg and Drivethru. Personally I'd wait and grab the print copy when it hits lulu or Drivethru's print option. All in all I was pretty happy to look into the background of White Star. A nice and neat little piece of science fictional and science fantasy cinematic retroclone action.

As an avid player of Labyrinth Lord, I have always relied on Barrel Rider Games products to expand my campaign, but maintain the spirit of old school gaming. I had heard about White Box for Swords and Wizardry on the Save or Die podcast and was intrigued enough to download it and teach it to kids who were eager to run their own games. I was impressed by how fast everything went and how old school it felt. Fast forward to White Star, the science fiction equivalent of White Box. I picked this up as soon as it was released. My first game was on May fourth so it had some strong Star Wars elements including a down and out Star Knight and a galactic empire invading planets. We made characters and had our first adventure in no time. The game allows for lots of familiar character options with the classes and races. Many pop culture aliens and characters are emulated using these rules, much in the same way D&D emulated the works of Lieber, Vance and Howard. In a real sandbox approach my group created a Star Knight, a Lizard man warrior, a robot dog and a human mercenary. In an attempt to get the Star Knight to a set location there was a battle on the waterfront, an alien invasion, fancy flying, stowaways, Space Ogres, Anime Magical Girls and so much more.. on just the first night and in a fun and playful sandbox approach that is difficult to pull off with more cumbersome systems. My group of 30+ years loved it and I have lots of cool ideas just skimming the rulebook. I know much more will be released and I am keen to get in on the action myself. Great book! I love the simplicity and fun this game brings to the table. Adventure details available here: http://okumarts.tumblr.com/post/118179239713/i-got-to-play-white-star-tonight-very-fun