STAR GUIDE MANUAL
DEADSTAR IS AN ONGOING PROJECT — THE STAR GUIDE MANUAL IN PARTICULAR WILL RECEIVE REGULAR UPDATES THROUGHOUT BETA AND BEYOND
BEING A STAR GUIDE [SG]
A Star Guide is a player just like anyone at the table — everyone else prepares a character, you prepare the world. Whether that means a detailed dossier, loose bullet-points, or something in between, it is your job to modulate the environment that your Spacers have come to play in.
As Star Guide, you control the flow of the story and assist a player in realizing the potential of their Spacer. While you craft stories with your players it is important to keep their concerns on your mind, applying the same grace you hope to receive in kind.
This guide will highlight the mechanics and rules you have at your disposal as the Star Guide. See these as tools you can either lean on or ignore, as much or as little as you see fit. At the end of the day you are here to tell a collaborative story with friends, you should only allow the rules to exist as support for that story.
THREAT LEVEL
THREAT LEVEL:
The system by which difficulty in a scenario is determined. Threat Level has three degrees: GREEN, RED, and BLACK which correspond to the Threshold spacers must meet to succeed Tests and Resists (within a scenario). When spacers make a contested roll against a non-spacer character [NPC], the Star Guide [SG] may choose to instead have the NPC add its applicable modifiers to the current Threat Level Threshold [TL].
THREAT LEVEL GREEN describes a scenario wherein the crew is operating at full capacity with minimal stress or time constraints. Tests and Resists in THREAT LEVEL GREEN succeed on a result of ten (10) or higher.
THREAT LEVEL RED describes a scenario wherein the crew is aware of an impending failure, their stress is rising, and without reducing the Threat Level back to GREEN it will eventually rise again. THREAT LEVEL RED has a Threat Level Threshold [TL] of fifteen (15).
Threat Level BLACK describes a scenario wherein the odds are stacked against the crew. The stakes could not be higher. Threat Level BLACK has a Threat Level Threshold [TL] of twenty (20).
Examples of events that may trigger a Threat Level increase: the failure of a crucial roll, an NPC catching the crew in a lie, a plan falling apart, the activation of an alarm, the application of the DOWNED status to a crew member, critical moments relating to a spacer’s Origin, etc.
THREAT LEVEL is ultimately a tool to assist a Star Guide [SG] in determining the difficulty of a scenario. A Star Guide [SG] may choose to broadcast the Threat Level [TL] to their spacers, keep it hidden, or ignore it altogether when they see fit.
STAR GUIDE [SG] TOOLS
TESTS:
Tests are necessary when a spacer’s actions are left to chance or are performed under the pressure of potential failure.
RESISTS:
Resists are necessary whenever a force is working against a spacer.
GRIT:
Grit Points can be rewarded to any spacer that leans into their role and makes an effort to advance the story in a particularly clever or immersive way. Grit can be used by spacers to reroll a Test or Resist of their choice.
CORRESPONDING STATISTICS - TESTS & RESISTS
STATISTIC
TESTS
RESISTS
STRENGTH
Grabbing an enemy, lifting heavy objects, climbing a wall, hanging on a ledge, forcing open a door, leaping, and other feats of athletics.
Maintaining stance, withstanding powerful forces, fighting against a grab.
PERCEPTION
Making a ranged attack, searching a room, sensing danger, reading into someone’s intentions, eavesdropping, and other uses of the senses.
Seeing through sensory deception, maintaining senses in adverse conditions.
APTITUDE
Catching someone in a lie, preventing a Digital Implement [D-IT].
Information recall, deciphering code, understanding unknown languages, piecing together clues, and other applications of the intellect.
COOL
Maintaining composure, steeling oneself, pain tolerance.
Bartering, lying, persuading, intimidating, convincing, calming, and other social applications.
ENDURANCE
Withstanding damage, resisting toxins, maintaining bodily function, physical constitution.
Swimming, ingesting chemicals, long distance running, and other applications of stamina.
REFLEX
Dodging visible danger, reaction time, flinch responses.
Making a melee attack, piloting a vehicle, sneaking, sleight of hand, short distance running, balancing, and other feats of grace.
RUNNING A ROLEPLAY SCENARIO
When running a roleplay [RP] scenario, a Star Guide [SG] has many tools at their disposal to keep things interesting. Remember, tension is key to telling an engaging story, so knowing when to apply versus ease the pressure of a situation is an art, not a science. The following are a few methods a Star Guide [SG] can use to make their roleplay [RP] scenarios more compelling.
PACING:
When in doubt, keep things moving! A crew can only go wherever the Star Guide takes them so taking a cue from the players to wrap up and get to the next location can make things feel more snappy and fast-paced. Alternatively, if the crew has been experiencing non-stop action for hours on end, it might be a good opportunity to let them breathe with a period of downtime. Prompting players to describe how their spacer spends the trip between planets is a great way to immerse them in what their spacers do in their day-to-day lives.
SUSPENSE:
Nothing builds tension like not knowing what comes next. A wonderful way to keep players on their toes is to drop hints that things are in the works in the background. Maybe an enemy is plotting the crew’s downfall, they catch wind of a gang in town chasing a crew member's bounty, or they come across a distress beacon for an unresponsive ship. Whatever it is, leaving the players in the dark can make them desperate to find out what comes next.
PLOT HOOKS:
Sometimes, the best way to get the players to participate is to serve them up a juicy plot hook. Calling on a spacer’s backstory is a great way to make them care about what they're doing. Plot hooks become relevant when spacers are in between missions or when the Star Guide [SG] is setting the stage for future adventures. A spacer could have: a figure from their past attempt to make contact, their home colony attacked, or their choices spawn a fierce rivalry. Anything a Star Guide [SG] can do to engage their players should be pursued so long as it does not interfere with the enjoyment of the table as a whole.
RUNNING A COMBAT SCENARIO
When running a combat scenario, a Star Guide [SG] needs to keep two things in mind: challenge and fun. Maintaining a healthy balance between the two is essential to creating an engaging combat scenario.
When deciding how challenging to make a scenario, it is important to recognize where the crew is at in their journey. If they are just starting out, it’s best to focus more on creating a fun scenario and less on making the scenario difficult. Obviously, this all depends on the type of game the Star Guide [SG] is running and what the players expect, but as a rule of thumb the first few combat scenarios should be dramatic in terms of their context rather than their deadliness.
To balance a combat encounter, first understand the power level of the crew. If each member is highly optimized in their roles and at the top of their game, they’ll likely be up to just about any challenge thrown at them. If they’re just there to have a good time and less focused on optimal gameplay, an easier combat will be more suited. Usually, a crew will fall somewhere in the middle.
Overall, there’s a lot of nuance to making a fun, balanced combat scenario. If things don’t go as planned, improvise! If the crew is wiped out, it may lead down a new pathway along their journey where they are taken prisoner by enemy combatants or rescued by another daring crew of spacers. At the end of the day, the goal of a combat scenario is to challenge the crew to test their mettle and provoke intense storytelling moments. Remember: the goal is to tell a compelling, collaborative story.
CREATING A COMBAT SCENARIO:
When making a combat scenario, there are a number of things a Star Guide [SG] needs to keep in mind: where the combat takes place, the number of enemies, their Health Points [HP] and other statistics, and what kind of gear they have.
Where does this combat scenario go down? An environment can determine a lot of factors in a scenario and change the difficulty vastly. Are the crew perched on an overlook with plenty of cover against the enemy? Or are they having to navigate through a zero-G, depressurized environment against highly mobile enemies? Both of these environments would have wildly different challenge levels, even if all combatants are the same across both.
The next step is to determine the number of enemies the crew will be facing. In general, difficulty increases exponentially as more enemy combatants are added into the fray. If nothing else, one side having more action economy than the other will usually determine the outcome of a fight. More enemies means more firepower and more bodies the crew will need to face.
Now, determine the toughness of the enemies in the combat scenario. Optionally, enemies can have less maximum Health Points [HP] than spacers in order to make their role in the story feel more substantial than enemy grunts: anywhere between ten (10) and twenty (20) Health Points [HP] can work depending on the Threat Level [TL] of the scenario. Boss enemies like those that have been built up over multiple sessions may have more maximum Health Points [HP] than a spacer to make them feel truly threatening: a good place to start is thirty (30) maximum Health Points [HP] then adjust depending on the crew’s levels.
Next, determine the statistics of the enemies participating in the combat scenario. One method is to choose a pre-built STAT BLOCK from those provided in the Close Encounters section. Another is to develop customized STAT BLOCKS based on the type of enemies the crew will encounter. Either way, it is important to note the crew’s own statistics when choosing enemy STAT BLOCKS: enemies with stronger overall statistics than the spacers should be chosen with careful consideration.
Finally, determine the kind of loadout the enemies of a combat scenario will have. At lower levels, choosing the cheapest kinds of firearms, martial weapons, and armor will be most appropriate as these are likely the items the crew will have access to at the beginning of the game. Keep in mind that any item given to an enemy can be hypothetically acquired by the crew so make sure to keep things fair and balanced. If there are items that an enemy would have access to that is better left out of the hands of the crew, it can become BRICKED during the course of battle, rendering it INOPERABLE. As the crew levels up, enemies can be given a budget they can spend on their arsenal, such as 2500¢ for a level 3 combat scenario. As the crew becomes more familiar with the system and more specific in their builds, the Star Guide [SG] may start distributing custom made items suited for members of the crew into the hands of notable enemies, making their defeat all the more rewarding.
CREATING FACTIONS
FILLING A NICHE:
Deadstar is a big system filled with every kind of group you can conceive, if your game requires elements not covered in the source material we encourage you to use these tools to create factions of your own.
LITTLE SPACERS, BIG SYSTEM:
Since the collapse of the ISSC, Humanity has never known true unification. While organized political systems and corporations vie for control and influence, no one power reigns over all of Deadstar. Because the world is individualist by nature, micro-factions are plentiful. It is common within Deadstar for groups to splinter or create webs of influence under the umbrella of larger factions.
CLIMBING THE LADDER:
Every organization, no matter how big or how small, possesses a structure of power and methods by which an individual may rise or fall within it. When you create a faction, be sure to keep in mind what its leadership would look for in new members. If spacers are interested, propose routes for climbing the chain of command. This can be a great way to hook spacers into daring new adventures.
INDIVIDUALS:
From system-wide political ideologies to backwater gangs, all factions are constructed of individuals. While creating factions, ensure you don’t lose the little people along the way. When spacers hear tell of a pirate crew in a bar on Phirnaut, a myth is built. While myth building is important, remember that players come to the table to tell stories, this is achieved via interaction – The instruments of a Star Guide’s interaction are NPCs (non-player characters). Building interesting NPCs that personify aspects of their organization can pull your players into the world and allow them to interact with the factions directly.
SHADES OF GRAY:
No faction is perfect in Deadstar. Some try their best, many fall short, and most are out for themselves. While spacers might find strong alignment in a faction, or even pledge their undying allegiance to a cause, inevitably there will be conflict between the goals of an organization and individuals in its orbit.
All minor factions within Deadstar exist within the larger eco-system. Minor factions that players interact with will possess numerical values associated with their reputation in the context of Major Factions. Star Guides can use these values to influence how a member of an organization may treat a spacer (based off each of their respective past actions and alignments). Remember that these factors are always in flux, the continuing deeds of a spacer may change a faction's perspective on them (for better or worse).