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In my opinion, StarChildren goes too far with the drug-use facet of the gameworld. Despite XIG's glib disclaimer, "…XIG does not officially endorse any such activities [sex, drugs and rock & roll], except under the guidance of a competent professional", I think there's too much encouragement to try the stuff. Now that I've admitted my bias, let's get to the review.
The book is well-presented with a slick cover and 80s style glam-rock art on the cover and throughout. The interior illustrations are black and white and remind me a lot of Steve Jackson's GURPS books artwork. They're more than good enough to get across the idea of the background and game and are a good retro view of the kind of illos found in many games and adventure modules from the 80s (Star Frontiers anyone?). The rules are laid out in a logical manner and are indexed well with the table of contents. Very easy to find what you're looking for in here.
The Premise: It is late in the 21st Century. Humanity has inadvertently allowed itself to be taken over by a manipulative and oppressive government nicknamed "Mother", filled with agencies to monitor and control social activities--most importantly MUSIC. Add to this, a race of aliens called Starchildren--at least the good ones are called that--who have traveled to earth to take part in 80s glam rock life that no longer exists in the 2070s.
Starchildren have special magic-like abilities and come in two flavors: The good Starchildren who are backing a music revolution (via Velvet--a sort of underground movement for rock) against Mother in hopes of rousing our slumbering freedom and the more pragmatic Blackholes who are cool with humanity being down in the dumps under an oppressive regime.
Players can be either humans or Starchildren, with humans being much more resistant to---you guessed it: drugs, while Starchildren have cool mental powers called Mojo. The gamemaster is imaginatively called "The Man" and represents all the bad guys and other NPCs that characters will interact with. To play, you need two decks of playing cards (including jokers).
Character classes are replaced with "Backgrounds" that are kind of skill packages typical for a person with that, er, background. For example, a businessman has skills in bureaucracy, computers, negotiation, promotion. Fairly intuitive stuff. You are limited in the number of skills you get to start with and skills are tied to "Attributes" to determine success. The "Vocals" skill is tied to the Presence attribute. So, if your character has a high presence score, he or she will have a better chance of succeeding at vocals. And of course, Starchildren have access to Mojo.
There are eight Attributes, four of the mind, four of the body. Each suit in the card decks represents two attributes: Diamonds for example mean Presence (on the mental side of attributes) and Appearance (on the physical side). You get certain card denominations to assign to your attributes and these, in turn, affect how fast your character is, how many actions he/she gets in a fight and how much damage he/she can take. The next level of character development falls back on the perk/flaw school of thought. Edges give your character advantages (and cost you skills). Flaws give you the ability to buy more skills.
Game play mechanics are based on The Man drawing cards and players drawing cards and competing to see who wins. Attributes are tied to the suits and factor in a PC's success at a given task. The four suits play heavily in these contests and I'll admit I'm lost just trying to go by memory during game play. Fortunately, the rules have good examples and you can check to see if you're at least moving in the right direction by following them. Like the first few players to use d20s and other non-d6 dice, I think the system will become more reflexive with use.
The Man is allowed to hold back on playing his most powerful cards and he can give players the benefit of the doubt for tasks that are easy or almost foolproof by modifying the procedure. Mojo abilities are also handled by card mechanics and again, I would recommend following the book examples at least the first few times to make sure you've gotten it right.
Like I said earlier, the background of this game really sounded neat and I still like it sans the drug stuff. After all, in 2073 video games have been so watered down and regulated that good old fashioned pinball has made a whopping comeback. Gottlieb fans unite:) But seriously, there are enough Rock and Rule-type references and NPC organizations to keep any campaign jumping, if the Man knows what's good for him.
The Ministry of Music is Mother's primary arm for keepin' mankind down. They are kind of like the Gestapo against tunes and PCs will have to watch their backs to make sure their bands aren't being followed, infiltrated or taken in for questioning.
The Osterburg Institute is a fringe group of UFOlogists led by a madman who KNOWS that aliens are out there---and he wants some to experiment on--so Starchildren PCs gotta another reason to watch their backs. The Institute also manufactures one of the more powerful drugs (arrrgh!) that is affecting the population during the 2070s.
Finally, a separate cell of the Velvet underground has started taking more violent and direct action to change things. Calling themselves the Blue Army, these guys are officially in enmity against the Velvet movement, thinking them less than direct in their musical movement. These guys can add some definite plot twists, if played right.
In summary, the background is pretty neat (except for the much-belabored drug issue). As one of only three people who probably ever enjoyed the Max Headroom TV series--told ya I was getting old--I thought that the background itself stood up well as just that: an excellent sourcebook.
The game mechanics aren’t my cup of tea but I suspect that has more to do with lack of familiarity than with any inherent flaw with the card system. I liked the card system in DeadLands after a while, so I’m betting that it gets easier with practice. I’m not a hardcore advocate of d20, but I found myself wondering why XIG didn’t make this as a d20 sourcebook--would be perfect for d20 Modern. Such a move might actually increase gamer exposure to a pretty interesting background.
If you're looking for a different sort of background for alternative near future adventures, I would recommend the game for that purpose alone. As for mechanics, I can only say that it will probably grow on those who really like the game and others will either use the rules as background for their own game favorite game systems (d20, GURPS, Alternity, etc.) or tinker with the rules until they're happy.
