| Starchildren: the Velvet Generation
Game Type: RPG
Authors: Richard Ranallo & Scott Leaton
Publisher: XIG Games
Medium: 8˝x11" Hardback, 125 pages
Price: $24.95
Reviewer: Logan L. Masterson When reviewing new role-playing games, one must consider origins in genre. For example, many games spring from the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres, while only a few ever break into other realms. There's a reason for this phenomenon—it is anything but easy to craft an exciting game from less exciting genres. Mystery, Old West and Roaring Twenties games have been tried, but those without elements of the above-mentioned milieus have failed. Even Top Secret, a great old TSR spy game, is all but unknown today, and it had high-tech gadgets, explosions and many other typically thrilling elements.
The authors of Starchildren have accomplished a feat that other successful multi-genre games depend on—the merging of themes. This is a science fiction game in exactly the same way that 1984 and Brave New World are science fiction novels.
Starchildren tastefully merges the mysteries of alien life with the mysteries of human nature through the theme of music. Imagine our world in 2073 and our music has touched the far-off sphere of another civilization, creating a renaissance there in culture and art, a new age. Rock & Roll literally changed the galaxy forever as radio waves hit this alien planet and its inhabitants began a journey to the source of these strange emanations.
Meanwhile, things have gone sour back on earth. The Ministries of Culture control all forms of art, including music. Rock & Roll has truly gone underground as brave musicians strive against the evil MoM (Ministry of Music) to free the minds and hearts of the people from the Man.
When the Starchildren arrived, they found not the lyrical paradise they had been told to expect, but a wasteland of dreary muzak. They secretly moved among the people, joining or forming bands, infiltrating nightclubs and inspiring the human race to find its Rock & Roll freedom once again.
As for mechanics, Starchildren is diceless. Instead of the traditional dependency on polyhedrons, Starchildren calls into use the deck of playing cards. Players and the game master (the Man) each draw a small hand (5-7 cards) to use in their tests. Skills are linked to suits of cards, and many simple permutations allow for a detailed and fair system. Players are allowed the opportunity to weigh the value of their actions and play their hand accordingly, blowing their best cards on the most vital actions or guitar solos.
The design and art of Starchildren are pretty basic, the whole interior being composed in black and white. My biggest complaint is the use of sidebars. A sidebar in Starchildren: the Velvet Generation can run for pages and pages, which I find inimical to their intended use. The art is typical of many small gaming publications—spotty. While it is mostly thematically appropriate, certain illustrations are amateur at best. The book has a simple organization scheme and everything is easy to find, though the index is small.
Starchildren is definitely my favorite new game. It holds true to the gaming dogma of mechanical originality while diverging from over-developed genres. As a musician and a rock fan, this game covered a milieu I had been waiting to see taken seriously. Music isn't just a part of this game like it is for, say, Cyberpunk (the next best thing). Music is the key. Remember— they came to rock. Playability:
Game Mechanics:
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Presentation: Logan L. Masterson 12/11/02 | |
