Pretty disappointing... the introduction sounded promising, but that was as good as it got, after I found myself confronted with page after page after page of tables, and very little substance. Seriously... I like a good career-based system, but the character creation section consists of about 80 pages of low-information tables listing the different academic and career progressions.

I couldn't actually find anything that explained what the mechanics were... the examples imply that it's roll-under percentile, but it doesn't seem to say this explicitly anywhere. In general, the presentation and layout leaves much to be desired... the small amount of setting fluff is good, but everything else is just hopeless.

Frankly, there are plenty of much better games available... Traveller, Diaspora, Stars Without Number... games that I can actually read and work out how to play.

StarCluster2 (from here on "SC2")is a Sci-Fi RPG with a great concept and setting. The book though is heavily flawed in it's layout and explanation of rules.

The basic concept of SC2 is that the people of Earth find out that the world will be destroyed in 300 years.Then the mad rush to get everyone out begins by transporting people in sublight ships to the cluster. The problem is that the ships are so slow that they actually have less than 300 years to evacuate and get out to the area of destruction. They then begin to send on the younger people because the elderly will die of old age long bfore they can get to the cluster.

Once they arrive in the cluster and begin to settle the area they come in contact with other humanoid races. It turns out that these "aleins" are actually humans that were taken form earth and moved to the cluster by a highly advanced alien race so long ago that they have evolved. while they resemble human they have mutation that have helped them adapt to their new home.

The cluster also has true aliens that pose threats and others like the Guaru who are allies to humankind.

While i like the setting and the basic premise of SC2, I should also comment on it's short fallings.

First the layout is not good. The section on character creation that contains all the tables with the education paths and careers wastes space. If the tables were mroe tightly formated and empty spaces not left on the lower parts of the page, the book would have a lower page count or contain more setting info (SC2s strenght). Overall could be more space efficient and leave less "open" spaces.

Second the while the system is playable(if you like the BRP system for CoC you will like this) it is not very well explained. Even and a player who has played a lot of RPGs might have some dificulties understanding the rules as written. The biggest problem is the fact that there is no place in the book that actually tells you in plain english how to resolve an attack or how armor is used.

Overall well worth a look for the setting info and overall good concept. If layout issues bug you or if you are new to RPGs you may want to look elsewhere. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: New and different sci-fi setting. Well supported product line.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: bad layout and does not explain the rules well. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

OVERVIEW

Starcluster 2nd Edition is a science fiction RPG in the vein of Traveller; it favors small scale space opera involving smugglers, merchants, scouts, & soldiers making their way in a vast and not very friendly universe. It is built on solid percentile mechanics and utilizes a detailed year by year education/career system to define characters. It is set against a detailed, unique universe, called the Cluster, which ended up as the final refuge of a displaced humanity after Earth was destroyed in a supernova. This refuge was reached at long last by slower-than-light generation ships filled with refugees fleeing earth before its destruction. Upon their arrival they found many worlds connected by jump routes, 3 of those worlds were home to descendants of transplanted humankind, adapted to the rigours of their homeworlds, the Sastra, Vantor, & Tagris. Thus the game provides a vast detailed universe in which the players can play out the adventures of their characters as they seek their fortunes among the closely connected stars of the Cluster.

INTRODUCTION

This chapter starts with the story of history past, specifically what drove the Diaspora of the peoples from Earth, and the surrounding solar system. This back story, the exodus of peoples from the Earth's solar system via slower than light generation ships, which took place over a couple hundred of years, leaves some interesting options open for the GM and players. They can add new elements to the game as their campaign progresses, in the form of interesting new cultures of people arriving on an unknown generation ship.

CHARACTER GENERATION, SKILLS & METASKILLS, AND HUMANS & HUMANOIDS

These three chapters definitely could have benefited from a short overview of the mechanics of the game, in order to provide players with a better grasp on what the skill numbers and other statistics generated in these chapters mean. Secondly, a better overview of the steps in the character generation process and how they relate to each other would have helped as well.

After reading through these chapters a couple of times, and the playing the game chapter once or twice, you would have found out the characters are defined by three sets of key statistics, Attributes, Race, and Skills. Two of these statistics are constrained by the character's birth world and its inherited Tech level. The character?s Tech Level, as determined by his Birth World determines the possible range of three of the character's attributes, IQ, PSI, and (Social) Rank. It also determines the education options the character has open to him and through that the skills he will be able to acquire.

Now the Attributes, most of which are rated from two to 12 or more, with the average being seven, are Strength (STR), Coordination (COOR), Agility (AGY), Endurance (END), Charisma (CHA), IQ, PSI, and (Social) Rank (RANK). IQ, for reasons I do not understand, uses the ?real world? scale where an IQ score of 100 is average, so while you might have an STR of 8 and END of 8, your IQ is 125. PSI tends to range from 0, no PSI ability, to 5 or more. Attributes provide a modifier to a skill for which they are a controlling attribute. This modifier is +5% for each 2 points they are over 7, so +10% at 9, +15% at 11. I didn?t see it mentioned if the reverse is true, that stats below 7 provide a -5% modifier for every 2 points below 7. IQ is an exception of course, in which case the modifier is equal to +1% for every point of IQ over 120. Your physical attributes are used to determine your Constitution ((STR+COOR+AGY+END)*10), which should just be called Hit Points or something, since that?s what they are. Finally, many education and careers options have minimum attribute requirements.

Two options are presented for generating your attributes, random or directed. Random, you roll 2d6 for most of your attributes, except for IQ, PSI and RANK, for which you roll percentile dice and compare the result to a table based on your character?s Tech Level, as determined by his Home World. In the directed method you are given two sets of points, 35 to split between your STR, COOR, AGY, END, & CHA, and 135 points to assign towards your ?rolls? on the IQ/PSI/Rank table. You don?t spend the points directly, but instead take the score that a roll equal to the points assigned to the attribute would generate.

There are four ?races? in the Starcluster universe, which can inter-breed to form an additional 3 types of hybrids. The races are ?Human?, Sastra, Vantor, & Tagris, and the Hybrids are called SaHus, VaHus, and HuTas.

Sastra are a race of humans adapted towards climbing, being smaller and slighter than average humans and sporting a prehensile tail and large feet which can manipulate objects and pivot like a wrist, think of humans gengineered to have monkey or marsupial features. They have fur on most of their bodies and large pointed ears which give them greater than human hearing. SaHus can have features of either parent.

Vantor are a race of humans adapted to aquatic environments, they have broad, muscular tails, and broad finned feet, how that works wasn?t obvious from the picture of the Vantor, though she was hot. They are also described as having no body hair, with their bodies being covered by a unique pattern of stripes, whorls, spots, clusters, or splotches, depending on the Vantor. The Vantor-human hybrids, VaHus can have features of either parent as well.

Tagris are a race of humans with features similar to large cats such as tigers. They are larger and stronger than the average human, but have limited endurance compared to a human. Part of this greater strength is achieved by having their arm muscles anchored to their necks and heads as well as shoulders. The most notable feature in comparison to human?s, other than their size, is that their heads are covered in fur, except for the mouth and chin with their ears set high on their head. The Tagris-Human hybrids are called HuTas, and again can have the distinctive features of either race.

The primary effect of the choice of race is the attribute modifiers associated with each race. No information is provided as to how these different races are integrated into society or if there are any reaction modifiers or other effects associated with your choice of race, in the Humans and Humanoids chapter.

Skills are rated in levels, with a skill level of 0 representing no training/skill and +1 representing rudimentary ability, with Skill levels reaching +10 or more. Your chance of success is equal to a base chance of 40%, + 5xSkill Level. When attempting tasks in which you have no skill, i.e. a skill level of +0, you chance of success is equal to the Skills controlling Attribute, unless it is based on IQ, in which case it is a flat 10%, regardless of IQ. (Again with the non-standard handling of IQ, sigh. ) Which is the number you must roll less than or equal to on the percentage dice to succeed in using a skill.

A short section explaining these things would have helped new players get into the system much easier. As it stands, these things must be gleaned by scouring over the first three chapters and the playing the game chapter.

Knowing the things described above would have made the actual character generation process much easier to follow. Character generation in Starcluster 2nd edition, is similar to that in the Traveller games, you follow your character?s life path year by year through his education and career choices, improving his skills and attributes as you go (no survival rolls though, so you character won?t die in character generation.) Your character?s basic stats represent his abilities at age 10. You get 4 ?mother?s milk? skills based on his Rank and upbringing, representing childhood skills he learned. You then choose a secondary school for your character, gaining additional skills. From there you can choose to have your character pursue secondary education, assuming he can afford it (You have an amount of starting credits based on your social rank), or enter into a career. You guide your character through careers and education until you reach the age in which he will adventure at, and then he enters play.

You might think it is best to make your character as old as possible, so he can have the maximum skills; however there is Physical Deterioration to contend with. Every 3 years, starting at age 34, your character loses on point from one of his physical attributes. This being the future, it is possible to reduce the rate of this deterioration of your character?s abilities by the use of Boost, which reduces the rate to one point every 12 years.

There is no adventure based experience system in these rules, advancement only occurs through the year by year method. A character?s adventure(s) are assumed to be the most exciting thing that happens to him in that year, the rest is assumed to be his normal schooling/career. There are a large number of tables detailing each education and career option, defining the skills the character can gain and his chance for promotions, etc. It is a pretty good system, as proven in Traveller and other games.

EQUIPMENT, PERSONAL & EQUIPMENT, WEAPONS

This Personal Equipment chapter opens with a discussion of the prevalent technologies at each tech level, including the primary materials and power systems used, then goes on to list various pieces of equipment including their weights and costs. Due to the significant number of low-tech worlds in the Cluster, many low-tech items and armor are defined as well. The armor types even include ?wicker? which the text informs us is very effective against arrows & darts (Thus the discerning player will have his power armor clad warrior carry a wicker shield just in case he is waylaid by a band of pygmies.). Popular fabrics and other details of clothing are described as well. All in all, the equipment is fairly standard, though little information is provided about the prevalence of computers and information networks within the Cluster. An interesting omission, also little is said about nano-tech and bio-tech. I get the impression that Starcluster goes for a more classic space opera feel, and downplays any cyberpunk/trans-human elements in its technology base.

The weapons chapter provides statistic for both modern and archaic weapons, all of which see use within the cluster. High tech items include arc swords, laser pistols & rifles, gyrojet pistols, slug throwers, molecular swords, sonic weapons, & stun weapons. No plasma weapons or other high-tech energy weapons are listed. Archaic weapons are what you would expect, with nun-chuks and katana listed, because even in the future they are damn cool.

Weapons use hit tables based on the damage type and armor type against which they are being used. Damage types include, cut, arrow, bash, kinetic, energy, electric, sting, & unarmed, pitted against hide, ballistic, steel, plate, ceramic, plasteel, chromeskin, and wicker, yes wicker. Though, as explained in the designer?s notes, armor reduces damage, these damage reductions are front-loaded in the resolution process, and are handled as to-hit modifiers instead, for ease of use.

PLAYING THE GAME

This fairly short chapter includes a brief discussion of the play style assumed by the game, and then dives into the combat rules followed by some skill use rules.

Starcluster is based on a ?survival? model, that is, your main goal is assumed to be your character surviving to gain more skill & ability. The default campaign is assumed to a linked series of adventures, each presumed to take place over a period of years, spanning the character?s career. Thus you first adventure or two might involve a military character fresh from the academy, then a few years later in his first campaign, and years later as grizzled NCO leading a troop in a campaign.

Combat in Starcluster is conducted in one-minute long rounds divided into a 120 segments called initiatives. A character?s initiative score is determined by the roll of percentage dice. This is the character?s base initiative. A character can take penalties to his hit or damage rolls to speed up his initiative, acting on an earlier segment or can delay his initiative, thereby gaining a bonus to his hit or damage rolls. Character?s with high skill levels with certain weapons are able to make additional attacks during a round, each occurring 10 segments later, the first occurring on his acting initiative segment. Character?s make attacks using their weapon skills, damage is based on the weapon modifier plus the roll of a d100 (damage values of 100 or more are common, as most characters have between 250 and 350 Constitution). A character has 4 damage levels, Normal, Hindered, Unconscious, and Seriously Wounded, corresponding to 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 of his Constitution. As you will note, there are no automatic dead results, most character will be knocked unconscious as a result of combat.

STAR TRAVEL & SPACE COMBAT

This chapter describes space travel within the Cluster, which is accomplished via the use of A-grav, g-Drive, and jump. A-Grav is the use of anti-gravity fields for propulsion and used mostly to and from orbit, G-drive is a anti-matter based reaction drive and is used mostly for in-system travel. Finally, Jump is based on the use of a Jump field guided by a psionic navigator, no spice required. Jumps are limited to the closed system of Jump routes which are based on stellar type and location. The Jump drive only works within the Cluster, as the jump routes don?t extend beyond the confines of the cluster, limiting travel to slower-than-light means.

Starship combat is conducted in a series of turns, in which movement, fire, damage control, etc are performed as tasks by the crew members. Damage is handled similarly to that of characters, with ships having a constitution score based on their size.

GUIDE TO CLUSTER POLITICS & SOCIETIES

This chapter provides an overview of the political divisions of the Cluster as well information on the major worlds that it comprises. The Cluster is dominated by the SaVaHuTa, a loose confederation of world including the Diasporan humans, and the ?native? species of the Sastra, Vantor, and Tagris. Second is the Diasporan Community, which is much smaller than the SaVaHuTa, there defining feature being their xenophobia and distrust of the Sastra, Vantor, and Tagris, whom they do not consider human. There are also the Independent Worlds and the Thieve?s Worlds rounding things out. There is a League of Alien Nations, there being a number of non-human species native to the cluster. No information is given on the actual alien species nor any information on playing them as characters. The chapter is rounded out with a detailed description of the Aztec system, suitable as a beginning area for play, some nice maps of the Aztec system and the Cluster round out this section.

Overall, the Cluster presents a pretty interesting environment for play with some engaging elements. Things seem focused on small scale actions by players making their way among the worlds of the cluster, as there are no great monolithic empires or opposing empires to go to war or such. Smugglers, merchant princes, and fleet captains are all likely adventurer types to include. There is the ?seeder? background, the aliens who seeded the humans that would become the Sastra, Vantor & Tagris, as well as the now collapsed Etvar Empire, plus all manner of intrigues between the various states and the SaVaHuTa and Diasporan Community.

DESIGN NOTES

This chapter provides some insight into why certain mechanics were designed they way they were. Most useful for players who want to use the system are the core goals of the system, from the text.

The basic, core goals of StarCluster are:

? To sustain a survival oriented, realistic style of play

? To promote unique and memorable characters

? To allow for competent but not vastly superior characters

? To allow for various methods of game structure, both traditional (Campaign, One Shot) and nontraditional (Serialized Adventures, Flashbacks) as the GM and players wish.

? To allow for various points of emphasis, Exploration, Story Arc, Combat, and Social interaction, among others.

PRESENTATION & LAYOUT

The document makes use of both single column and double column layout throughout The PDF (as a second look shows). Certain sections definitely would have benefited from using a multi-column layout, especially in presenting the numerous tables. The artwork appears to be doctored model photos against hand done backdrops using a kind of watercolor or oil paint filter or effect. The effect is hit or miss, with some of the illustrations looking quit striking and other ones looking like a quick photoshop job. Overall it is pretty good though. The text doesn?t make use of bookmarks, but the TOC and Index use hyperlinks (the page numbers are linked in the index, not the index entry it corresponds to.), however. It is serviceable, but better layout would make the tables easier to nagivate and save on paper should you want to print them out.

SUMMARY

Starcluster 2nd edition is a solid Sci-Fi game set against an engaging universe. Its mechanics are easy to use and functional. The game text could use more summary & explanatory text to make it easier for the players to get into the game, but overall it is a good buy for player?s looking for some hard SF gaming focusing on the small scale stories of the peoples who make their way among the many worlds of the Cluster.

[Review edited to address publisher's comments]

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Interesting background, career system<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of explanatory & summary text, sprawling layout used for tables.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

StarCluster 2 is a game with a grand design and flawed implementation. The background setting and story is pretty solid, the classic sci-fi diaspora of refugees escaping from generic cataclysm 34. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and the authors put a lot of thought and effort into "why things are the way they are".

The game mechanics are perhaps too thought out and suffer some overcomplexity problems, despite a design goal of making things as simple as possible. It uses a d100 and reminds me a little bit of Traveler and Star Trek. Overall, the layout and structure (single column, pages of charts/tables, no bookmarks) make it very difficult to read.

My best recommendation would be to take the settings, gut the mechanics, and call it even. A layout specialist and a content editor would be helpful as well to make the product flow a bit easier and be more accessible.

At the end of the book are dozens of pages on star systems and planets. This information is nice, but could easily have been separated into a free download. The art appears to be pictures modified in photoshop to appear appropriate for the setting. It's a little odd at first, but it grows on you.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The setting and detail.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The mechanics, the look and feel.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The book opens by telling us that everyone knows about the slow boats. I don?t. I can guess and extrapolate an idea that these are generation ships based on my knowledge of common science fiction (it turns out they are). Following are 11 pages of table of contents which could have been reduced to 6 pages by using two columns or even crunched down to 4 pages with three columns. I notice at this point the PDF has no bookmarks. It?s not something I use very often but it can be handy. I did not like the art at first but it?s really starting to grow on me.

We move on to the story. The people of earth determine that the sun is going to be vaporized in 300 years. As a ball of super-heated fusing gas, I think vaporized is the wrong term. I would have liked ?super-nova? as that is what is described. The cause is never explained. I am left to wonder if this is a Hitch Hiker?s Guide homage where all the ?trash? from civilization is sent away on arks but as the story progresses this seems less likely. In any case, a lot of people depart, Noah style, for another world. It?s a very old and much used theme and the real interest is upon their arrival.

Beginning the character generation we are told all the wondrous things the GM will do. ?The GM will be happy you too the initiative and gladly work you idea in unless it conflicts with the GM?s plans in some way.? So the GM will allow player ideas unless he doesn?t allow them.

Character Generation While there were complains from another reviewer about having to use different dice for character generation, I have plenty of dice and changing from one die type to another is not such a problem. d20 is hugely focused on d20 and d6 with a smattering of d8 but it?s good to use some different dice for a change. Besides it feels good to be rolling d100 for a stat such as IQ. There are a LOT of tables for skills and jobs. There is an interesting table with a long list of skin, eye and hair colors.

Employment Your job seems to be a big focus of the game, which is difficult because adventurers rarely have time to go to work when their arch-enemy is hunting them. It leaves only a few career options open, such as military and exploration, depending on the campaign.

Skills Skills start off a little weird. The first skill I came across was ?aqua ? the knowledge of growing plants and animals underwater?. I?m afraid this reminds me of the old joke class at college, underwater basket weaving. There are a lot of skills though and many deal with fairly primitive activities such as blacksmithing and dowsing to locate water but in the same breath there are skills for dealing with cybernetics and business. It?s very diverse.

After the skills are the meta-skills which modify the skills. I like this concept because it exponentially increases the number of options when dealing with skills.

Races There are modified human races, the fish-men, monkey-men and leopard/hyena-men. These are interesting but I would have liked to have seen some aliens too.

Equipment The more you spend on equipment, the better the bonus. With such a range of technologies, from barbaric to futuristic, this is a reasonable mechanic.

Combat Combat is based on your skills. You require certain skills to be able to use each weapon. Characters have four levels of injuries, normal, hindered, unconscious and seriously wounded. I like these systems because your performance deteriorates with your injuries.

Vehicles and Vehicle Combat We start the vehicles section with a photograph of an advanced looking car. The wheels appear to be airbrushed off to make it appear to be a flying vehicle. It?s a good looking picture so there is nothing to complain about. Vehicle and space combat rules are a couple chapters ahead. You?ve got to love a combat system that includes ?waste recycling subsystem? on the critical hit chart. The lunar transit time table is starting to make my head hurt. That is something I might just fudge.

NPCs I like the temporary NPC rules. d20 requires about an hour of work for every properly done NPC and that puts a load of work on the GM. There are a ton of pre-generated character and NPCs.

Politics The history of StarCluster 2 is interesting because it allows for such diversity. Each slow boats? coming from earth developed its own culture during the voyage. There are yet more tables about the worlds describing the stats of each world; gravity, atmosphere, temperature, orbit and so forth. Its interesting by lends little to actual play. There are not details players want to know about unless they affect the players. There are dozens of planets ? too many to visit. Then there are pages and pages of affiliations and associations for each world ? but no real details about these worlds. This is a video game programmer?s dream

?The descriptions of the worlds have been left open to the GM?s imagination.? I find this statement frustrating. We are handed dozens of pages of technical information about these worlds and told to make the rest up. I would rather have those pages filled with a complete description of a small number of worlds that I could actually use. I purchase a product to get a campaign, not the rules for creating a campaign.

Finally we get a few pages of description on a handful of worlds, complete with maps. Then we get a beautiful star chart and looks like it came out of the old Star Control video game. They are amazing maps.

The system is greatly percentile based. This gives players a very clear understanding of the chance of success or failure. With d20, you need to calculate the numbers by 5 to get back to a percentile system we should all be so familiar with after high school. However it does mean rolling a lot of d100?s, or the more common 2 ten sided dice. Its twice the dice but players love dice, well mine do. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: A lot of work has been done on this product. The table of contents and index are exhaustive. There are a ton of worlds and books of ideas here. The length of the other reviews speaks volumes about the following of this work. People are interested in it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I don?t like the term ?mother?s milk skills? printed boldly on the character sheets. The tables are really dry and make me scared to get into this system. Maybe I missed it but I would like a summary of the rules system so I can understand it easily. I would like a 1-page outline of the game mechanics so I can look at the rest knowing how it should work.

There are a lot of ideas here, too many. It is unreasonable to expect to put out enough supplements to flesh out the dozens of worlds. With your birth world being so important, it would have helped to know more about the worlds besides the need for the GM to make them up.

The pages and pages and pages of tables could have been shorter by condensing the tables and removing blank spaces in them. The job tables are at least 50% blank space. For the length of the work, I would like to see a little more art and a page border. There are some grammatical errors left in the work but nothing too staggering.

There are several technology levels. Clearly it is an advantage to play at the highest technology level. I saw no advantage for playing as a lower technology player.

I think this product needs another author. There are only two and a few holes appear in the material. Bringing someone else in to fill in things they think are missing and give the product another theme or element could enhance the product overall. The product feels a little 2 dimensional, on the cusp of being a fleshed out 3D world.

This product is headed towards a good 5 stars but it needs some fleshing out.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Summary: Some nice colour artwork. Complex and uninspiring rules.

What You Get: 8 PDF files covering character generation, races, equipment, playing the game, star travel.

Pro: Nice-looking starmaps.

Con: Complex character generation using multiple types of dice (Strength on 2d6, Intelligence on 1d100, etc) and many, many tables. Uninteresting text layout with no page numbers. (sooner or later if I were using this, I would print it out, and drop the pile of paper...) Uninspiring equipment lists.

Comments: The obligatory "mediaeval technology world where psionics have developed into true magic" has been overdone IMHO. I liked the look of the starmap and the teaser material on the Flying Mice website, but sadly the rest of the product doesn't live up to those.