|
|
Raven Star (1994)
Raven Star Game Designs
Date Reviewed: Oct 15, 2004
Critical Kobold Rating:
(2 out of 5 Dice)
Tigers in SPAAAAAACE!
|
|
|
"Judge Your
Enemies By Their Will To Survive."
The planet designated C93 is on the edge of known space, as is
customary for all cool sci-fi planetary settings. Naturally, being
out of the way, it's dangerous and chaotic and full of surprises and
opportunity for adventurers.
Soon after it was settled as a farming colony, the
humans discovered huge deposits of a valuable resource called Nor-X
in a solar system nearby. Nor-X is used to build hyperdrive engines,
and you know it's important because of its cool scientific-y
sounding name.
So, anyway,
everyone comes hustlin' out to mine the Nor-X, and before long,
little colony C93 is a metropolis. The locals rename C93 "New
Chicago". I suppose because they couldn't think of anything better.
|
 |
|
| |
Now, as
if this weren't bitchin' enough, archeologists dig up some ruins
from a long-lost technologically inferior race. They translate some
of the markings on the ruins, and discover that this dead race had
mastered the powers of magic. The markings also state cryptically
that "the coming of Raven Star brings rebirth." The planet C93 is
quickly renamed Raven Star. (Because "New Earth" would have been too
obvious, even for these people.)
Into this wide and woolly galactic setting stride the
characters, ready to tackle the life of a space dude!
So my
choices are tall human, short human, cat person, or cat person?
Players first pick their race.
Of course, humans are
the most prevalent race. These are, as in all sci-fi games, the
baseline for PC types. Humans come in all sorts of varieties, like
some sort of cosmic Dunk 'N Donuts display case. The humans are the
primary explorers, movers and shakers in the galaxy.
There are also short stocky aliens called gidans.
They look like humans, only they come from a high-G world, so
they're strong and short. They're nicknamed 'dwarves'.
Looking for something a bit more exotic? Well,
then don't look at the next race, the drielons. They're
basically humans, with pointy ears. They come from a low-G world, so
are weaker but more agile. In fact, they're even called… 'elves'! (Siiiiiigh.)
OK, we gotta have something alien-like in a
sci-fi rpg, right? OK, lemme look…. hmmm…. A-ha! OK, we gots us some
aliens called the assads. The assads are described as
"cat-like". Which means they look like humans, only a little furrier
and with vaguely cat-like faces. They're a strong warrior race with
night vision. (On a totally unrelated note, these sound very much
like a race I invented for my Star Frontiers campaign. Only
mine didn't look like humans with cat-heads stuck on top.) |
|
| |
But we have
one more choice! It's the khochas, a
tribal culture with high technology aptitude. Hm… waitaminit. While
the description doesn't say *anything*
about their looks, their picture is distinctly like that of… Tony
the Tiger ®?!
What the fuck? Another definitely cat-like race of aliens. Only,
wearing high-tops. And really
strong. And did I mention they look like Tony
the friggin' Tiger?
OK, so maybe the races are sort of a bust.
Perhaps we should just move along to the professions.
I'm
thinking, Space Mime. Or maybe Galactic Pimp.
There are no
set classes or types of PCs. You can basically think up a quick
descriptor for your guy, such as Diplomat, or Bounty Hunter, or
Journalist, or Scientist, or Miner, or Medic, or Drunkard, or
whatever. You can be whatever you want, because your PC concept is
going to be determined by your choice of skills. Which we'll get to
in a minute.
First, let's determine our
ATTRIBUTES.
We've got you covered with the basics:
Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Agility,
Willpower, Charisma, and Appearance.
None of these need
explanation for those of you who've ever even glanced at an rpg book
before, so let's move on.
Players roll 10d6, double that roll, then add 40. These
are the character points you have to build your PC. You may apply
these points to your attributes as you see fit, but must abide by
the racial maximums. (Your attributes will fall into the 1-20
range.) Once these are calculated, you need to do some math to
figure out your derived attributes:
Reflex, Awareness, Speed, and
Humanity.
|
|
| |
You ALSO get a Reputation
rating. This starts out equal to your Charisma rating, but goes up
by 1d6 after each mission you complete in your adventuring career.
People will react better to you the more famous you are.
Finally, you get a Luck rating, with increases
after each game session. Luck points can be used as bonuses on rolls
during the game.
With your space chick all statted up, it's time to get
skilled.
|
In the far future on the planet Raven Star, the retro 80's look is
"in"!
Also, thanks to cybernetics, petite women can heft guns the size of
their torsos, and shoot your ass dead. Choose your pick-up lines
carefully! |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
My last three PCs
specialized in 'Dying Stupidly'.…
OK, the skills are bought with skill points.
You start with points equal to twice your PC's age. The age may be
determined with a random roll, or simply chosen.
Skills are broken down into four categories, which
explain how complex a skill is: Simple, Average, Challenging, and
Difficult. For example, brawling is a simple skill, architecture is
an average skill, astronomy is challenging, and karate is difficult.
The more complex a skill is, the more skill points it requires to
buy levels in.
All the standard skills are here, such as a variety of
weapons proficiencies, sciences, technological talents, and athletic
skills. You pick skills to help further define your PC according to
the general profession you chose for him earlier. For instance, if
you wanted to play a scientist, you'd pick perhaps botany,
chemistry, anthropology, and zoology. If you were a bodyguard, you
could pick quick draw, pistols, stealth, and thrown weapon. Maybe
you're a former gangster, and have forgery, streetwise,
intimidation, and fashion sense. Whatever your character vision,
there are skills to accommodate you.
Because of the funky runes discovered by the
archeologists, magic is a viable and accepted "science" in the
universe. The writings from the ancient race explain how to harness
and use the energy permeating the galaxy to shape reality. Anyone
can learn a spell just like learning any other skill. (Spells have
different difficulty ratings, as well.) With a few gestures and the
right spoken words, your space man can fling around such classics as
levitation, flight, silence, flesh to stone, major healing, or
dispel magic. There are spells covering just about any common task
you need to get done; spying, healing, seeing, hearing, feeling,
hurting, etc.
The down side to using magic is that it drains the PC,
making you weaker until you rest and recover your stamina. So spells
may be useful to accomplish something quickly, but rely too much on
them, and you're in a bad state fast.
(Click! Click!)
What? You said 'buy
a big gun'. You didn't say jack about ammo! |
|
| |
Combat is pretty
standard. You take whatever skill you're using to try to smoke
somebody (brawling, melee, martial arts, missile, etc.) and add your
skill level to a d20 roll. If you roll higher than the target
number, you hit the slimy bastard you're aiming at.
The target number depends on what your target's doing
to protect himself. For melee, your opponent makes a d20 roll as
well, adding any modifiers for blocking, parrying, hiding, moving,
etc. Your target's defense roll becomes your target number to hit
them. If you're firing a ranged weapon at them, your target number
depends on how far away you are from them.
Damage is recorded in Light, Serious, Critical, and
Fatal stages. Each stage has five "blocks" of damage. So a PC can
take five points of damage which are "Light". If he takes one more
wound, he's now taking "Serious" damage. Five more points, and he's
taking "Critical" damage. At each stage after Light, the PC starts
taking penalties to actions, and must make a saving throw to remain
conscious every time he gets hit again. Once you reach the Fatal
blocks of damage, you make saving throws just to keep your heart
beating...
How deadly are the weapons? Well, your standard light
pistol does 2d6 damage. A medium laser pistol does 3d6. Shotguns do
4d6+2. Laser rifles do an ass-kickin' 5d6+2. Trust me, you want to
wear armor if you plan on getting into some fights. (And you WILL
get into fights.)
Gettin' Better At
This Stuff
Assuming your PCs live through an adventure, the GM
awards 1-5 Improvement Points to each, which may be used to
crank up your skill levels or buy new skills.
You're now ready to blast off into the wonderful world
of space adventure! Your companions are cybernetically enhanced,
magic-using, cereal mascot clones. Good luck.
|
|
| |
THE GOOD
There's a nice
selection of equipment in the game, including weapons, armor,
gadgets, med tech, and vehicles that fly, hover, roll, jet, and
glide. Plus, there's an entire section devoted to cybernetics. Any
character can get cybernetic enhancements that crank up their
strength, add armor to your body, enhance hearing or eyesight, even
add a pop-out weapon to your body! (Wouldn't that be fun at
parties!) I find these rules extremely useful, and will actually be
incorporating them into my favorite sci-fi rpg. And yes, there is
cybertech for a Sexual Implant. It adds to your Seduction skill
roll.
No, really!
THE NEUTRAL
While there
is a section devoted to space-ship design, and rules for
starship combat, it's rather sparse for a sci-fi game. Granted, this
may be just the thing for the gamers who want a more off-the-cuff
play style, who don't want to get bogged down in space flight, but
rather just want to use spaceships as a cool backdrop to get from
one place to another. However, while they give you stats for one
common ship to use as a template to crafting your own, it doesn't
include a map or even a picture of what this ship would look like to
scale. It's a very simplistic system. Someone looking to have
their PCs spend a lot of time aboard ship, or enjoy deep-space
adventure, may have a lot of work to do to flesh out this aspect of
their space campaign.
THE EVIL
Raven Star has some promise. It's got a good
start to some solid rules, but I feel like there's not much
background to work with. Except for the brief mention of the history
of planet C93, and some very generic comments about New Chicago,
there's nothing in the rulebook about the rest of the galaxy.
There's a short section in the Game Masters' portion of the rules
with charts that allow you to randomly roll up or create planets,
but it would have been nice to have a few samples, or a map of the
solar system, or something to use as a starting point.
Also, I gotta say it, the whole magic thing seems kinda'
outta' place. I mean, there's such a nice section of cybernetics,
they should have just gone with that, and not tried to slip
something as random as magic into an otherwise fairly
straightforward sci-fi game.
And the aliens really get shorted. There's the barest
info in the races' descriptions, so one doesn’t get any real feeling
at all about how these aliens are any different in culture,
attitudes, and personalities than humans or each other. Plus, they
all look the frickin' same.
SUMMARY |
|
| |
So, I give
this game a hearty "Eh". There's enough to give an experienced GM a
place to start a sci-fi campaign, if you're looking for a simple rpg
that gives you some room to play around and create your own galaxy.
But it seems to be lacking some useful background notes. The authors
should have dumped the entire magic-in-space idea and used that
chapter to describe the rest of the spacey world that the characters
will want to be exploring. New gamers might be a little lost on how
to incorporate these game mechanics into a world-spanning campaign.
Well, that sums it up. So grab your laser and ready
your fireball spell! We're setting a course for…
Whoa! Heh heh! Sorry about that! That's my little
cybernetic implant…
|
It's an assad! Or maybe a khocha! It's really kinda' hard to
tell! But it's insanely muscular, so you know it's a Raven Star
character!
|
|
| |
|
|
|
[Go to Critical Kobold Game Reviews Page] OR [Go to Critical Kobold Movie Reviews Page]
|
|
|
|
|
|
