Lets see, while printing this one out, I found major problem #1: 0.5" margins. It's obviously laid out for professional printing, not POD/Home printing, where our printers have no-print zones.

Major Problem #2: Expletive usage. Not "Ghetto Street Jive" level, but clearly enough to offend. Not something I would let my daughter read. Not heavy, but present, and mostly grammatically appropriate... or at least as GA as can be said for the F-word. Really, I'd say not worse than prime time TV except for specific word choices.

The rules are clear, easy reading. But check the demo BEFORE you buy; this isn't your ordinary RPG.

1st is scale: you don't play a character, you play a ship's whole crew, and may possibly wind up with subordinate ships (hirelings, if you will) in addition to the rest of the party, each of whom also controls a ship and its crew. To recap: Number of ships equals number of non-gamemaster ships.

2nd is mechanics: The mechanics use D12's; 1 per player, maybe some more dice of other sides as damage markers only. A number of CCG-ish elements, too. See the demo.

3rd is "PC Heroicness": PC's and "Mooks" (NPC's) are clearly handled with different levels of detail... PC's Low by RPG standards, and mooks at nearly no info.... HP and attributes. Very clearly cinematic.

This is, however, an innovative approach to the genre of Spaceship Crews in a cinematic light. Simple rules, a decent amount of background, and a variety of resources.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Innovative concept, blends elements of boardgaming, CCG's, and Roleplay into a narrativistic RPG.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of whitespace on page borders; margins narrower than my printer's minimum.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

On the plus side, Star Thugs uses a pretty simple engine. On the minus side, it's more a tactical game than a roleplaying game. Because each player controls an entire ship and crew, it feels rather like the unackwowledged love-child of Ars Magica and Hol, with Magic: The Gathering acting as godmother.

On the practical side, there are random character generation table for quirks and background that could actually be useful for a GM designing NPCs on the fly. The mission generation tables could be useful for similar reasons.

Star Thugs is probably going to be of interest mostly for the humour value of the writing style, and for the ideas it can generate. As for playing it the way it was intended, I regret to say that someone else will have to try that and report.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: (1) Funny read; (2) simple system.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: (1) Abysmal art, including the title block; it would be better not to have any graphics. (2) More tactical than I really enjoy.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>