Played this for the first time last night, and it was a real blast. Science fantasy rpging based on the 0D&D rules.
The game started with the players right in the action. We were mercenaries recruited on a planet called Hunter's World. This planet, a fief of the noble House of Edrezen, was about to be attacked by the evil armies of the House of Bashar. The battle was a forlorn hope, with the local planetary commander not having a hope of holding off the overwhelming enemy, and ordered simply to sell his world as dearly as he could.
Our party, consisted of Arizan, a true mercenary and hybrid star warrior/empath, Vau'Lought, one of the mysterious face dancers, Daverous, a star warrior/mentat who had previously escaped torture and experimentation by the evil Bashars, and Duncan MacGregor, a mentat addicted to psychotropic drugs.
We were given command of a small orbital defense station equipped with tractor/pressor beams, and ordered to disrupt the enemy fleet as long as we could. It should be pointed out that in this universe, the presence of Holtzman shields (Dune) makes missile and laser combat impossible. Ships jockey for position and can do each other minor damage with their pressor beams, but the real fighting is all boarding actions fought blade to blade.
Our crew did what it could, until the station's weapons were knocked out, and then hunkered down to prepare for the worst.
The small station was only garrisoned by ten of us (the four PCs and six NPC conscript soldiers). When the Bashars blasted in with their boarding drills, we chose the better part of valor and hid in the duct work.
The Bashars invaded with a squad of their conscript humans and two squads of orcs.
About half our comrades sold their lives well, while the rest made the mistake of surrendering, only to be disemboweled by one of the villainous Bashar scions, who was known by his bright red hair and diabolic good looks to be Sir Damien Bashar. With him was Lucrezia Bashar, beautiful, indifferent to suffering, and thoroughly bored by the whole affair. Damien used his superior swordsmanship skills to butcher the all but helpless conscripts, while their men stood about cheering as if it was high art. Lucrezia simply crossed her arms, and rolled her eyes.
At this point, many of the undisciplined Bashar warriors took to looting, and a fight broke out between an orc and a human warrior in the navigation area, where we were hiding. When the orc was killed, we saw our chance, and disposed on the human. Our face dancer donned his uniform, which, fortunately, was that of a corporal. Using his rank, he was able to coax a few more Bashar soldiers into the area… and before long we found ourselves members of the conquering force. When the Bashars left, having set the station's atomic pile to blow before they did, we simply joined them aboard their boarding cutter.
Some tense moments certainly followed. The Bashars do not like spies, and our fates would have been grim if we had been found out, but we had little choice.
Combining our mentat's computation abilities with the disguise and security bypassing skills of the face dancer, we were able to gain access to the ship's fire control bay. From here we disabled the tractor beams, set off the fire alarm, and were able, in the ensuing confusion, to escape aboard a life pod. It was our hope to escape the much faster and more powerful cutter before it could fix its tractor beams and haul us in. Again, a forlorn hope, but the only shot we had.
However, we were then subjected to a surreal experience.
Suddenly, as we are attempting to escape the cutter with the life pod's pitiful drive, the universe goes blank. All of the stars, the sun, the Bashar fleet and Hunter's World simply are not there. We are in total blackness, relieved only by a single asteroid, towards which, of course, we guide the life pod. As we get closer, it becomes obvious that the asteroid is a base of some kind, and that it boasts technology far in advance of ours.
We are met by a silvery ball, which guides the pod into a bay. The "ball" then destroys the pod, and informs us that we are to be tested. It then disappears.
We wander for awhile through a maze, in which we are (evidently) tested for courage and fighting skills against a giant lizard-like monster, tested for intelligence against a mathematical puzzle involving a series of prime numbers, and tested for compassion when we must rescue what seems to be a helpless creature from a torture device, at risk of injury. We appear to have passed all of these tests, and were so informed by the silver ball when it reappeared.
At this point, the ball "rewarded" us with three small glowing crystals in varying colors. One appears to make the body of the holder more robust [GM informed us this raises constitution], of the others, we have no present knowledge.
The alien station then vanished around us, and we appeared on a grassy knoll. The purple skies and slight smell of ozone in the air tell us that we are back on Hunter's World.
***
This adventure was pure science fantasy, and was, for me, somewhat reminiscent of the Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise is fighting the Gorn, and, suddenly, the super evolved Metrons grab Kirk and the Gorn captain, and make them fight it out mano a mano. It was no more realistic than that scenario, but just as much fun.
The scenario was interesting. The players had some queasy consciences about hiding in the ducts while the conscripts died at the hands of the evil enemy, but saw it as the only way to survive, and continue in the service of their world. Also, there are now two plot hooks for future games. We have seen the cruelty of the Bashars at first hand, and, since the battle for control of our world is possibly still raging (though, who knows how long the aliens kept us… where ever…), and will doubtless encounter the vicious knave, Sir Damien, in the future.
The big question is what or who are these aliens, what have they given us, and what threat do they pose to us and the Empire.
The system was fun and nicely streamlined. It is mostly 0D&D in science fiction dress. Spells become Telepathic abilities, etc. The game was designed at the behest of another member of our gaming group (who is not a TMPer). Inquisitor Thaken wanted to run a sci fi game, but our friend "Jerry", cannot stand rpgs that involve guns, so the two got together, and STAR BLADES was the result.
Of course, it is never really a true test of the system when you play it with the game designer as GM, but as this was based on original D&D (and there aren't too many rpgs more tried and true than that one) this was not really an issue. The only question was whether OD&D would make the transition to sci fan, and it seems to have filled the bill nicely.
The saving throw and ability check systems were nicely cleaned up, and I found the result simpler and better than either original D&D or 3e.
The only real difference was the introduction of the Mentat class. Very non-combat oriented, he has the ability to ask the GM yes or no questions about the campaign, representing his vast cognitive abilites. This made for an interesting twist, though the class appears to have its limits, as the mentat's powers were of no use in the lain space station.
In all, it was great fun, and reminded me of my early D&D games in the 1980s.
PS there has occasionally been some confusion as to whether Inquisitor Thaken and I are sock puppets for each other, probably because we often reply to each other's posts and genuinely agree. However, we are simply good friends and members of the same gaming club. Hence, we tend to play each others' games.
