I bought the $5 PDF for Black Star two weeks after it came out in May.  I'm always up for a rules lite game, or Star Wars.  This is both. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/437327

It's interesting in many ways.  First is that skills and attribute scores are combined into a list of ten abilities, and those ten things are the only dice rolls there are.  Or eleven, if you're a knight.  It's 2D6+Ability and get a 9 or more (it's always a 9).   

There are professions, and each PC gets two, each with a short list of Talents.  They're used as advantage or disadvantage in specific situations, so you roll 3D6 or 4D6, picking the best/worst 2D6.

All rolls are player facing.  Players roll to attack or defend, but NPCs never roll.  In fact, NPCs can be grouped up and treated as one entity.  Good attack rolls can kill multiple minions in one attack, while bad defense rolls mean players take more hits. 

Hit points do double duty as hero points to power Talents, or turn failed dice rolls into success.

Interestingly, gear is treated as Talents.  If you didn't pick the talent, you don't get the benefit of the gear, like armor or heavy weapons. 

Overall I like the game, and I've been playing it instead of Mini-6 Bare Bones.  But just slightly more.  They're both good Star Wars games, but I like Dark Star just a bit more. 

Anybody else get it and what do you think?

Interesting. What do ability scores usually run to? Because for a 9+ on 2d6+ability, your odds are good if you have a +2 or better, since 7 is the most common result on 2d6.

Quote from: Ghostmaker on July 25, 2023, 01:46:47 PM
Interesting. What do ability scores usually run to? Because for a 9+ on 2d6+ability, your odds are good if you have a +2 or better, since 7 is the most common result on 2d6.

You get a 1 in everything at the start, then 10 points to divide between the 10 skills at creation, but a cap of 3 at creation as well. 

After that you can buy a better ability stats at the cost of your new skill x2 in XP.  You get 1 XP per session, and 1-3 XP when you finish the mission, GM's choice. 

You can raise your hit points from the 7 you start the game with by 1 (new hitpoint number is the cost), or get a new talent (5 XP), or a new profession (15 XP).

Here is a typical character sheet.  This is "Not Han Solo, but it's Han Solo". 

I used the term hit points as we all know that, but they call it Resolve.  Like I said, it's got three uses.  Hit points, or your Talents sometimes need you to turn one in to use it, or to make a failed dice roll into a Costly Success.  The GM can set the new cost, but your two archetype professions remove the Costly part of a Costly Success for one Ability.   A soldier archetype profession can spend a Resolve (hitpoint to me) to make a failed blaster shot into a success.  Part of the combat is getting one resolve back after each fight.  So if a soldier encounters a single low level baddie (1 HP), fails to make his shot, just spend a Resolve point to hit him anyways.  The baddie dies, and you get a Resolve point back after combat. 

If that same guy tries to Diplomacy someone to help them and fails the dice roll, you could spend a Resolve to succeed and get his help.  However, the GM sets the cost as he helps you.  Maybe the guy never wants to speak to you again, ever, or that you must do a mission for him, or secretly contacts the Empire and tells them where you are.

I should add one thing.  Dax Losa character sheet mentions a showdown

Yup, the game has a High Noon, tumbleweed blowin across a deserted saloon street, QuickDraw mini-game.  Three steps.  Discipline first to let the other guy make the first move, then a Speed roll to draw faster than him, then an attack roll to actually shoot him.

The three bits of the character sheet that are X'ed out are Power, Will, and Conflict.  These are Force Skill, Mana Points, and Dark Side Corruption by other names.  Power is the 11th Ability that only Knights have.  Will points can be used as fuel instead of Discipline points, and recover by simply sleeping instead of GM dolled out rewards for good role playing that Resolve recovers from. 

I should add this as well.

Black Star is really good for running a game as a solo RPG. 

There are several reasons why I say this.

1.  Player facing rolls.  Because the player makes all the dice rolls, the non-existent GM isn't missing out for not rolling too.
2.  You also don't need stats for baddies.  A short list of quirks or traits and you're done.  I.E:  a combat droid that is a poor shot (1 bonus die when you dodge gunfire from this droid), stubborn (1 penalty die when negotiating with it), and fearless (1 bonus die to attack these droids who stand out in the open and just let themselves be shot).
3.  Rules lite.  You're doing it all.  It's best to not have too much to look up.
4.  Prefab heroes.  Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie are already rolled up as starter characters.  Or should I call them Jake Starlighter, Princess Fia Olara, the scoundrel Dax Losa and his big Wrutani copilot named Grula. 
5.  Costly Success in combat.  To use a Resolve (hit point) to turn a bad die roll into a Costly Success out of combat, the GM will impose a new snag.  But, get this.  In combat the players get a short list of six penalties that the player, not the GM, picks from.  That's nice for solo play. 

It's worth a look.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on July 26, 2023, 11:43:58 PM
1.  Player facing rolls.  Because the player makes all the dice rolls, the non-existent GM isn't missing out for not rolling too.
2.  You also don't need stats for baddies.  A short list of quirks or traits and you're done.  I.E:  a combat droid that is a poor shot (1 bonus die when you dodge gunfire from this droid), stubborn (1 penalty die when negotiating with it), and fearless (1 bonus die to attack these droids who stand out in the open and just let themselves be shot).
3.  Rules lite.  You're doing it all.  It's best to not have too much to look up.

Thanks for the overview on this. I'll be picking it up thanks to you. I like #2 and #3 - we do similar stuff in our homebrew. We don't do #1, since I'm the GM and I like rolling dice too. (Our system uses opposed dice rolls for everything.)

I'm surprised I'm ok with hit points doing double duty as Hero points in this game. 

The way it works is everyone starts with 7 Resolve.  If you fail a dice roll you can spend 1 Resolve to either buy a re-roll attempt, or a Costly Success.  That is to say you succeed, but this other bad thing happens.  Example, you fail a pick lock attempt with Tools ability, so you buy a Costly Success.  The door is opened, but red lights and a klaxon is going off, or you broke the lock and its obvious the lock was meddled with. 

I like it here as you can say that you're never hit in either lightsaber or gun battle fights.  You literally just take a "hit" to you're Resolve until the end. You lose confidence, or morale, then finally get 1-shot dead at the end, just like an NPC. 

I know a lot of gamers say HP in all the D20 games are supposed to work like that as well.  They're trying to explain how a person can go from 7 HP at level-1 to 45 HP at level-16.  It's meant to be abstract.  I like that Dark Star actually calls it by a different term so you know it's abstract just by the name alone.  I'll tell you that on first reading of Dark Star I was not grasping the concept since Resolve didn't sound like Hit Points.  It took until a few passes over the rules to make the connection and remember that Resolve is HP, but also Mana used for abilities, and flipping your luck. 

Quote from: weirdguy564 on July 25, 2023, 11:51:27 AM
Anybody else get it and what do you think?

I don't have Black Star, but I do have Magnum Fury, which is the same system but for RPGing 80s action films. I like it, especially how rules-lite it is without going too lite, but I haven't got around to actually playing it yet. It does appear to have a good reputation as a solo game though, which is why I picked it up. I wonder if Black Star has improved the mechanics.

I'll see if I can't fit in a solo game tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Anyone know of any complete one shot for Black Star or the weird west version? This system would work really well for my wife's first time GMing, we think. But she needs a complete adventure, with maps, minions, and villains and all that.

That's the one thing holding this system back, I think. It isn't accessible to newbie GMs.

Quote from: Tod13 on July 27, 2023, 09:09:03 PM
Anyone know of any complete one shot for Black Star or the weird west version? This system would work really well for my wife's first time GMing, we think. But she needs a complete adventure, with maps, minions, and villains and all that.

That's the one thing holding this system back, I think. It isn't accessible to newbie GMs.

If you want minions, maps and villains, then you don't necessarily need something written for Black Star. For example, here are some free Star Wars adventures for the FFG Star Wars game:

https://www.swrpgcommunity.com/gm-resources/adventures

Given the lack of stats for enemies in Black Star, I imagine they'd run without much prep pretty nicely.

Quote from: Krazz on July 28, 2023, 06:31:34 AM

Quote from: Tod13 on July 27, 2023, 09:09:03 PM
Anyone know of any complete one shot for Black Star or the weird west version? This system would work really well for my wife's first time GMing, we think. But she needs a complete adventure, with maps, minions, and villains and all that.

That's the one thing holding this system back, I think. It isn't accessible to newbie GMs.

If you want minions, maps and villains, then you don't necessarily need something written for Black Star. For example, here are some free Star Wars adventures for the FFG Star Wars game:

https://www.swrpgcommunity.com/gm-resources/adventures

Given the lack of stats for enemies in Black Star, I imagine they'd run without much prep pretty nicely.

It's a brand new GM running her first adventure. We'd like system specific stuff. I'll bookmark this for my use though. Thanks.

Black Star has six adventures in it already.  Each is a page long, six or seven paragraphs.  They're not written very specific, so no dialog, or even specific scenes with pre-written descriptions.  They're overviews of where you're going, why you're going, who is there, and the problems you should run into. 

NPCs are exceptionally easy to create in Black Star.  You can describe a government inspector as Corrupt and Cowardly.  And that's it.  That's an NPC stated out.  The game just makes you (because only players roll dice) include bonus/penalty dice whenever those descriptions seem to apply, and use the best/worst 2D6 as the roll.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on July 28, 2023, 11:46:29 AM
Black Star has six adventures in it already.  Each is a page long, six or seven paragraphs.  They're not written very specific, so no dialog, or even specific scenes with pre-written descriptions.  They're overviews of where you're going, why you're going, who is there, and the problems you should run into. 

NPCs are exceptionally easy to create in Black Star.  You can describe a government inspector as Corrupt and Cowardly.  And that's it.  That's an NPC stated out.  The game just makes you (because only players roll dice) include bonus/penalty dice whenever those descriptions seem to apply, and use the best/worst 2D6 as the roll.

They are way too bare for a never-GMd person. The samples give the "why" but not really the who, and only general problems. It would work fine for me, but for a newbie, they're insufficient.

Quote from: Krazz on July 27, 2023, 06:01:42 PM

Quote from: weirdguy564 on July 25, 2023, 11:51:27 AM
Anybody else get it and what do you think?

I don't have Black Star, but I do have Magnum Fury, which is the same system but for RPGing 80s action films. I like it, especially how rules-lite it is without going too lite, but I haven't got around to actually playing it yet. It does appear to have a good reputation as a solo game though, which is why I picked it up. I wonder if Black Star has improved the mechanics.

I'll see if I can't fit in a solo game tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

I played a solo Magnum Fury game, using Mythic. It worked well, and the feeling was suitably cinematic - having randomly selected my career and drive, then let Mythic take over, I found myself as a martial arts fighter in an underground fighting ring, who went on the run from the Mr Big who wanted me to throw a match. The rules make PCs much tougher than mooks, which fits well with the genres the games are made for. I asked a Mythic Complex Question whenever I had a costly success outside of combat, and it worked well to create the chaotic atmosphere of an 80s action movie. In particular, I had a car chase that was manic and great fun.

One thing I didn't find worked well was combat itself, at least not against villains. The rules make villains no better at fighting than mooks, which means they aren't as good at fighting as PCs. Maybe I should have given them multiple attacks, or given myself disadvantage. The other let-down was that combat followed a standard "I attack, you attack" approach. Perhaps I'll use Complex Questions for costly successes there - I suspect that will lead to more interesting battles.

There won't be a sequel to this story - my PC died in the final hand-to-hand showdown against Mr Big. I think I'll pick up the Spaghetti Western version of the rules and see how that plays next.