Anyhow, back in the D20 era, when I didn't game but I did collect gaming books, Dragonstar was a setting that really caught my eye and sparked my imagination. On the surface, it seemed similar to Spelljammer, but it was much darker (Spelljammer always felt "campy" to me.) Hmmm, the other D20 era setting that got my imagination going was Midnight. Must be the idea of dark in my fantasy.
Tonight I stumbled across the Dragonstar SRD, which to be honest is really just the 3.0 SRD with some minor additions. Of course, the fluff is not open, so it's not included, but it did get me thinking - how hard would it to be to take one part S&W White Box, one part White Star, add in some dragons, borrow inspiration from Spelljammer, Calidar and Dragonstar, sprinkle the decay of a multi-world evil empire, distill it down with White Box sensibility and simplicity and cook it on the stove of creativity?
Yeah, not something I should even be thinking off with my current screwed up work hours. But wait! I've decided to run some of the comp time I've accumulated (and vacation time I've banked) to give myself a four day weekend every other week before I hand in my shield in the Spring. If I block out some creative time I may have something usable before I retire. With some work, it may even be usable by others too ;)I think I'm going to bring a notebook to training tomorrow. 8 hrs of lectures by folks that don't and can't, so therefore they teach. I'll look attentive, taking notes and such while I'm really mapping out universe of White Dragon (or whatever it's going to be called - for now, it's code name "White Dragon".)
The secret to anything White Box is less is more. So I need to think big and execute small.
Alright, time for sleep. I have to be at work an hour before I'd normally be heading for home. Sleep won't come easy...
Funny. I've been toying with the idea of doing a science fantasy supplement to follow up my wuxia supplement, and Dragonstar was one of the books I got for research.
ReplyDeletegreat minds and all ;)
DeleteI played in a couple of Dragonstar games around when it first came out. The setting was fun. It might have just been the groups that I gamed with but they mostly felt like Traveller with fantasy elements & a 3.x mechanic. In one, I ran an Orc barbarian from a backwater world called Oerth and, in the other, I ran a female Half-Orc lounge singer (She was probably the most fun I've had running a bard.).
ReplyDeleteThis is the kind of stuff I love to do. Unfortunately, my players don't really like to mix Sci-Fi with their D&D (nor do they really like to mix up the D&D status quo, for that matter). Otherwise this is what I would be running ALL OF THE TIME!
ReplyDelete"Football is alive and well in NYC :)"
ReplyDeleteWell, New Jersey, really. :{)
I would love me some WhiteDragon.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Dragonstar, as much as I could really enjoy anything d20. I would be all about this.