Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch

Crothian

First Post
YOU ARE GO FOR LAUNCH!

Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch is the highly anticipated science-fiction campaign setting from Blue Devil Games built on d20 Modern and powered by d20 Future.

The human spirit shines greatest during the darkest of times. Never was this proven more fully than in the year 2196. With certain doom hurtling toward our planet, the free countries of the world united and prepared for a mass exodus aboard a score of gargantuan transports. But our escape was just the beginning of the adventure. By some freak occurrence, our ship, the Dawning Star, was sent hurtling across the galaxy. We found ourselves alone, cut off from the fleet, in alien territory. It was not in our nature to give up. We found a habitable planet and began our new life. In the intervening years, we have encountered strange new species, overcome dire threats, and taken the first few steps in building a new life.

Operation Quick Launch introduces the DAWNING STAR CAMPAIGN SETTING and provides everything you need to launch a high-adventure, science-fiction campaign on the planet Eos:

# A full description of the velin, the other primary species on Eos.

# Dozens of talent trees, occupations, skills, feats, species classes, advanced classes, and prestige classes.

# An exhaustive list of equipment, weapons, armor, gear, cybernetic implants, vehicles, and starships.

# Strange, new xenomorphs, including the exotic Eotian fauna, the mysterious tentaari, and the shadow-shrouded vaasi.

# The Eotian lands presented in exacting detail, including maps, regional descriptions, NPC’s.

# A full-scale introductory adventure to start your campaign with all the energy of a Davinger Ion Drive.

Written by Lee Hammock, Chad Barr, and Justin D. Jacobson. Art direction by Danilo Moretti. Technical Advice by Robert J. Grady.

The demo includes: the cover, table of contents, introduction, and Chapter I: History. Fully bookmarked.
 

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Dawning Star

Another setting but this one is quite a bit different. It is not fantasy. I have done a fair share of reviews on fantasy settings and read plenty more. A change of pace is always good. No orcs and goblins invading, no magic or gods to fear; just good old technology and people exploring the world they live in. With d20 Modern and d20 Future both out there for setting to be built from I am hoping to see more of these modern and futuristic settings.

Dawning Star is a futuristic setting by Blue Devil Games. These guys have done a few really good PDS and this is really the first big release from them. Dawning Star is a two hundred and eight page PDF. It is black and white but very well laid out and with some great art. The product has high production values and is very professional in look. The book is well book marked and comes with a great index something not usually seen in PDFs. The cover of the book is a separate PDF and is a really cool full color cover.

Dawning Star is a futuristic setting. Basically in the late 22nd century a large object is seen coming toward the Earth and people have to evacuate. One of the great big evacuation ships encounters an alien space platform that transports it with all of its crew and all of its cryogenically sleeping passengers thousands of light years away. There they find an inhabitable planet and start a new life. The planet does have some native intelligent life forms as do seemingly some other planets in the system. There are spaceship wrecks of a few different racial designs and ruins of a civilization long ago. The new plant has many new and interesting things for the humans to explore as the set up their new lives.

The Dawning Star Campaign setting is filled with a variety of different play style. It can have a very western feel as there are boom towns being set up and places of lawless activity. The settlers are going out into the world and away from the safety of the established government. There are other small forms of government people have set up and in many places the law of the land whoever has the power. The game can also have a very strong pulp feel. The ruins are deep and hold great secrets and bits of technology for people to discover and find. They can travel to unexplored areas and be the first people to brave these new and dangerous places. The game can be set up to be even more dangerous. The atmosphere can be a little more hostile allowing for equipment to breathe it. The aliens can be more mysterious and unknown allowing for a dark campaign style of unknown beings with impossible to understand motives. Lastly, the setting can emphasis the space side and be more space opera. There are other planets in the solar system to explore. The DM can also have other space fairing aliens from other places in the galaxy show up and just use this as one planet of hundreds the players can visit. The setting was specifically designed to be versatile and they succeeded on that very well.

The book starts off with a nice timeline of events. It starts with the after effects of some nasty global events on Earth and the discovery of the great rock that eventually kills the planet. It details the discovery of the planet Eos where this campaign setting takes place and through the many years of setting up a community and scientific endeavors to make the plant livable. The time of the players the humans have been there for a while though most where still in cryogenic sleep during a lot of the early ears.

There are plenty new mechanics in this book designed for the campaign setting as well as for sci fi campaigns. There are nineteen new talent trees presented here with at least three new ones for each of the six basic classes. There are thirteen new occupations, plenty of new uses for skills, lots of new feats, species classes, advanced classes, and prestige classes. Species classes are like the racial classes Unearthed Arcana and other books for the fantasy game have in them. They are just levels in one’s own race and one gain abilities suitable for that race. There are lot of new and interesting character options in this book that can easily be adapted to other d20 sci fi campaigns.

The game has lots of great intrigues, mysteries, options, and plenty of great adventure potential. However, when the curtain was drawn back and the secrets revealed I just was not that happy with the way it goes. Pretty much all the secrets of who the aliens are, what their relationships are , and what happened to them are spelled out in the book. This is not always a bad thing but for me I was just not that impressed with it. I am not going to give it away here but I was just hoping for something different. Like a movie that has great build up and great characters, but the end just does not live up to the rest of it. That is how I felt with this book. But unlike a movie the end and reasons can easily be molded and changed to fit the DM’s vision and one is not locked into the way it is presented here. And obviously, I do think there are plenty of people who will like it as is. It is well thought out and creative, just not what I wanted to have happen.

Aside from the reveal that did not like the book is really well done. Plenty of adventure ideas from exploring ruins, to alien technology, to dealing with survival and humanity await players and DMs in this book. This I do believe e is he first setting for d20 Future. Anyone looking for something to use with d20 Future has got a good product right here for them.
 

Dawning Star
Operation Quick Launch



When d20 Future was first announced by Wizards of the Coast, there was a lot of excitement among d20 Modern fans and publishers. But when it actually was released, well, it kind of fizzled. Something of a lukewarm reception among fans, and not really much in the way of publisher support, either from WOTC or 3rd parties. (Pretty much only some PDFs from RPGObjects).

Enter Dawning Star, a new science fiction setting from Blue Devil Games (and available through Indie Press Revolution), which hopefully will address this void.


This book, Operation Quick Launch, is just the first in a planned series for the setting. As the name implies, it's meant to get you up and running in the setting and pretty much gives you what you need in both terms of background and rules to use the setting. While it is based on d20 Future's rules, you really only need d20 Modern.

Many other books in the line are planned for 2005 alone.


The Dawning Star Setting

The setting is a bit like a combination of the old PC game Alien Legacy (with some bits of the game Alpha Centauri), and the TV shows Stargate Atlantis and Babylon 5, with a dash of Trigun. Or at least elements from each, along with some SF classics and even some bits from UFO Lore.

Basically, near 2200 or so, Earth gets destroyed. But there is some warning, and so before that happens, 40 million or so people escape in 20 big evacuation ships (plus various smaller ships), and plan to move at well below light speed to a nearby star system which happens to have a moon that can be terraformed relatively easily*.

However, near the edge of our solar system they encounter a mysterious space station. Sort of like a stargate or gateway. This gets activated and transports the ships all over the galaxy, sort of in clumps of ship.

This setting revolves around what happens to the ship the Dawning Star (thus the name). It ends up in a very unique star system they call "Helios" and setting up shop on a planet dubbed "Eos".


Eos

Eos is fairly earthlike, though it apparently needed some terra-forming to make the atmosphere easily breathable, there was some sort of pollution that caused coughing.

At first, everything was fine and dandy on the planet. At least all the humans got together. But eventually people got sick of the ruling government, and left the main city to strike it out on their own.

These various smaller settlements have banded together into something called the "Eos Freedom League". They really really don't like the big government (the Dawning Star Republic) much, and so spent a lot of time either plotting against it, or trying to outdo it economically. (Though the latter is unlikely, since there's a huge difference in size).


While there is a great deal of room for conflict, it seems like an opportunity was missed somewhat by basically only have one evacuation ship make it to Eos and thus basically only having 2 human factions. While I really didn't like the PC game Alpha Centauri (as it was full of tree hugging, planet is a living being stuff which makes my skin crawl), I did like how it had so many different factions (16 total, including in the expansion pack, methinks).

The planet is described in a decent amount of detail. Sort of "atlas" level. You get a map of the place, some basic information on each major settlement, what they do, who they are, how many, etc.

There's really only the one major city on the planet, Dawning Star (named after the ship), which has about 2 million inhabitants. There's probably about a dozen other small towns mentioned, generally with populations only in the low tens of thousand. (The second biggest settlement after Dawning Star has only 30,000 people. The 3rd has 28,000, and the rest drop off dramatically).

There's sort of a western feel to the outlying towns and such. Very frontiersy, including lots of cowboys. Or murcowboys (the murcow is an alien animal kinda like a cow, but tastes like pork, which seems to have largely taken the place of cows on Eos. Which I don't think would actually replace cows, since a lot of people don't like pork as much as cow. At least not for steaks. )


Aliens

But there's more to life on Eos than humanity and its squabbles. The former Earthlings are not alone. At first they only noticed the many ancient ruins littering the planet, but after a fairly long time on the planet (40 years or so), a race of beings suspiciously similar to humans named the "Velin" introduced themselves. (There are reasons for both the delay and the similarity). As mentioned, these are very close in appearance to human, other than having a slightly different colored (grey-ish) and leathery skin. Sort of like George Hamilton.

Unlike George Hamilton, their culture is very similar to that of American Indians. They have largely made peace with humanity, thinking humanity is their long lost brothers. These are detailed as a playable race in the game.


Besides the Velin, there are the aliens you know and love from UFO folklore, the Greys. Or as they apparently call themselves, the Tentaari. They met the humans a couple years before the Velin did, but aparently don't actually live on Eos, but out in space someplace.

They have a fairly complicated backstory (including an explanation for their love of probing people), but one I really can't go into without giving away spoilers. But suffice it to say, they have something of a hidden agenda, though they are nominally on the same side as the humans and the Velin. (These are not playable in the book. There also apparently aren't all that many of them)

So who is on the other side? Well, this is where it reminds me a bit of Babylon 5. There's a race of mysterious beings called the "Darklings", at least that is the name the humans use. The Velin use the true name of Vaasi, but they can't seem to convince the humans that these critters exist. Since the Vaasi rarely show themselves.

Thankfully for the humans & Velin, because the Vaasi are pretty nasty fellows. If the Alien from well, Alien was a 10, and Alf from well, Alf, was a 0, then these would be in the 8.5 or so range, nastier than Mork (if less hairy) or the Alien from Spaceballs, but not as tough as say a Predator.


There are hints of other aliens, apparently called Saurians, presumably a race of lizard folk (who hopefully look like Jane Badler...). I'm not sure if they are friend or foe.




Setting Summary

The setting is excellent, with potential for lots of different types of game. You could focus on the conflict between the human factions, and play sort of an espionage/cyberpunk style game. (Though as mentioned, this would have been better if there were more factions/humans). You could focus on exploring the ruins, sort of high tech dungeon crawls.

You could focus on a military style game dealing with fighting the Vaasi. Bughunting really, since they are in fact insects.

There are lots and lots of adventure seed ideas given (most of them along the above lines).

Really, the only sort of space game that doesn't seem all that possible is a Free Trader sort commonly found in Traveller, where the PCs fly around the galaxy in a spaceship. Since spaceships are extremely rare and not something generally owned by private individuals. But I like the gaming potential of the setting.

The last 20 or so pages of the book is a sample adventure that illustrates the conflict between the Dawning Star Republic and the Eos Freedom League. While I generally like the setting, the adventure didn't do much for me. For one, it seemed an somewhat poor introductory adventure. The PCs are apparently aimlessly wandering in the woods while they suddenly have to take shelter in a secret government lab. Too much railroading is needed to get them involved.

Secondly, the actions of the EFL in this seem unlikely - they would almost certainly be sufficient cause for a war, but the original problem their action is supposed to fix or cover up wouldn't really even been that big a deal, since the DSR guys started it. So there is really no motive for the EFL's action. (Though admittedly, given my libertarian leanings, I tend to think of them as the "good" guys).


New Rules

The book is probably about half setting and half rules material, though of course, the rules material is largely based on the setting.

As mentioned, you get a writeup for the Velin as a playable race. They are tough and wise but a bit dim and uncharismatic.



After that comes some new Talent Trees. If you aren't overly familiar with d20 Modern, it has something called "Talents", which are sort of like feat chains, but tied into the abilities of the 6 basic character classes (Strong Hero, Smart Hero, etc). There's actually not that big of a selection of them in the d20 Modern book, generally I think 2 or 3 trees per class.

This pretty much doubles the available amount, an extra 2-4 for each class.



There are lots of new classes. Very interestingly, there are 2 racial classes, one for humans and one for Velin. The book says they are new to d20 Modern, but that's not quite true, the Second World Sourcebook was the first one that had them, period (As far as I know) and that was a d20/d20 Modern hybrid book.

The human one is "Human Survivor" and the Velin one is "Velin Hunter". They are really more like prestige classes than Racial Classes. (Usually racial classes are for a more powerful race than is typically playable, and it lets them start off weaker then gain levels to gradually become a normal member of its race)

Beyond that there are several new advanced classes and a couple prestige classes. The advanced classes are: Air Runner, Barter Jack, Colonial Leader, Gunhand, Lawman, Rancher, Rebuilder, and Velin Guardian.

The Air Runner is sort of a hot shot pilot, there being few roads between settlements on Eos. The Barter Jack is a freelance trader type. The Gunhand is something of a rarity in d20 Modern, a gunmen that is actually good at combat (most gun oriented classes in d20 Modern seem to have the mediocre base attack bonus progession, something that has always puzzled me, since it has the effect of making martial artists better with guns than gunfighters, albeit with fewer gun related special abilities). The rest are pretty self-explanatory.

I am no means an expert when it comes to d20 Modern class balancing. But to my eye the classes do look balanced. The gunhand for instance, may have a better BAB than most other gun fighting classes, but only has a d8 for hit dice.


The two prestige classes are Republic Ranger (sort of like the old Texas Ranger) and Velin Guardian. I'm really not up on d20 Modern enough to know just what is the difference between a prestige and advanced class (other than prestige seems to be better and with stricter entry requirements), but these are both 5th level.


2 new skills are introduced, Barter and Terraforming. Personally, I tend to dislike adding new skills to d20, since the skills are meant to be fairly broad and there are a few categories that is meant to represent catch-all skills or skills that aren't common to most people (Craft, Profession, and Knowledge).

In this case, I really think Barter is sort of redundant - the "Diplomacy" skill pretty much covers that sort of thing (negotiation & bribery).

Terraforming probably should have been Craft (Terraforming), I'd think, since you are making a planet (or new ecosystem), and the write of the skill in the book greatly resembles the ones for craft skills.

Stil, neither is exactly a deal breaker. Only Barter would seem to be a common skill, though I would note that none of the sample characters or NPCs in the book seem to have it. (Some characters in the adventure do have the terraforming skill).


New Gear

There's quite an impressive array of new equipment in this book. In fact, when it comes to guns, there's more than what was included in d20 Future, filling in many of the gaps from that product. Most notably it adds gyrojet weapons.

Not everything is new, but many weapons and items from d20 Modern/d20 Future are adapted to fit the Dawning Star setting. That is, they are given specific names and such. While it might seem like a minor thing, it helps provide a cohesive background to the game.


Because there really aren't any roads between the settlements, most the travel is done by air. So there are a lot of different air vehicles. Mostly vectored thrust stuff, but some regular aircraft.


There's only a handful of human starships in the Helios systems, but most of them get stats. Including that of the sort that the Dawning Star was. (Apparently a later book is coming out with info on alien spaceships and apparently with rules for combat and such. So presumably you could buy that instead of d20 Future if you don't have d20 Future)



Looks

The layout of the book is quite nice. Very easy to read. The looks are actually somewhat similar to the old WEG Star Wars books, from the latter day era when they were putting out their best stuff. But the paper quality is better. It's black & white, but the paper is glossy and fairly thick. I would have liked to have seen the name of the chapter (or number) in the outside margins, but not all that many companies do that.


The artwork is generally good. Somewhat stylish looking than realistic, but it generally works. It all seems to be done by the same artist, Danilo Moretti, so there's no clash in styles, and for just one guy, a lot of it.

I do dislike most of the technical illustrations. Most are way too stylized to be practical (or easy to build). The guns are all curvy, with things jutting out and with the handles going the wrong way.

And the spaceships... The Dawning Star (the ship) looks like the Gnomish Sidewheeler from Spelljammer. Just wacky looking. Other ships are catamaran like. That is, seemingly have two hulls stuck together, which makes sense for the water but not so much in space (or the atmosphere).

I am not a design expert by any means, but it seems to me that primitive starships would be very boxy. Especially evacuation ships - you'd want to try to maximize the available volume inside the ship and something easy to build and that pretty much implies a brick shape, since atmospheric performance doesn't really matter.


My final thoughts...

I have conflicting thoughts on this. I really like the setting a lot, but at the same time, I find the basic premise rather depressing - Earth being destroyed and all. I know a lot of people don't even like post-apocalyptic games because of this, but in those, the Earth is still around, just banged up a bit. In this, it's not even there anymore (presumably).

Still, as a setting, it's utterly fascinating - once I started reading it I was glued to it until I finished.


Not very many science fiction games are plausible. Not so much technology, but how people act in the future and how society developers. About the only one I ever found plausible was 2300 A.D. from GDW, and even then they got where you put the A.D. wrong (it should go in front). For the most part, this is very plausible.


All in all, it's a compelling product, very much an A.
 

Some words form the AD

Many thanks for the observations and comments, any kind of feedback is always welcome.

So I take the chance to unveil a little of the behind the scenes part of doing the Art Direction for Dawning Star.

Having to design technology for a game my primary concerns where two:

- Real Word tech should be a model
- Real Word Tech shouldn't be a limit

Of secondary concern:

- ergonomics Vs. design
- help to visualize a new world

So in DS we have a lot of weapons close resembling RL weapons (especially light and heavy firearms) and a few of more exotic kind, most notably Gyrojet and Vaasi weapons.

I gave the Gyrojet pistols an loose art-deco feel. Certainly these could have looked more traditional (if "traditional" is correct word for an advanced technology weapon of this kind) but then the second pair of "design concerns" stepped in, too often "realistic" technology in SF goes unnoticed being quite "transparent" amd such losing much of is appeal and becoming "interesting" like the equipment of the typical marine (form a POW of a SF aficionado and not an army buff).

Unlike licensed products, DawningStar is a setting who can't count on a strong starting visual recognition, so it need as much cool factor as possible (in reasonable limits), and I was afraid that a too realistic approach o design was an very artificial limit (whe are talking about a star spanning story, aliens ancient relics of lost technologies, etc.).

Also if is it possible to have a spaceship that carry millions of peoples in the space, or a music player with all the music humans ever created on Earth, why limit ourselves to the idea that design cannot be applied also to weapons?

Vaasi are aliens, not the Mork not the Alf kind, but a vicious race and their technology should be truly different, so I had to take into account the difference in body shape and mindset. Just a look at the oddly-jointed arms they have should suffice to explain how vaasi weapons looks weird or difficult to handle (for a human perspective). The D20 system takes into account that most of the equipment of fallen foes can be acquired and used (Treasure?). This was a limit and a challenge for me, the first draft of the Vaasi weapons looked much more strange and unmanageable than the ones that went to print but I preferred to give Humans and Velins the possibility to use them without too much discomfort.

Spaceships could suffer from the "Big Grey Box In The Sky" syndrome, realistically no one in space need design and color, but again why limit ourselves? DawningStar is not a "generic" setting and is spaceships *should* have some (good or bad) design. Admittedly there is more "Star Wars and Babylon 5" than "Alien and Predator" behind my reasoning for the outlook of spaceships in DS.
When you see the huge spaceships of Riddick's Chronicles you say "WOW" not for the technological aspect but for the awe that those huge semi-egyptian monoliths could inspire.

As long as nearly everyone will recognize the shape of the Millenium Falcon better than those of the Dropships used in Alien I'll gladly succumb to the suggestions of traditional Space Opera :o)

I hope that my grasp on english language is adequate to explain how sometimes in a SF RpG (and Science Fiction in general) all we ned is only a huge dose of "fantastic verosimilitude".


PS: on a funny note, when a few days ago I saw Star Wars Episode III a friend of mine seeing the flying vehicle used by Obi-Kenoby exclaimed "How catamaranesque!" ;o)
 

d20 Future has a home

Dawning Star
Operation Quick Launch
Produced by Hammock, Barr, Jacobson, Moretti
Published by Blue Devil Games
http://www.dawningstar.com
ISBN: 0-9763795-0-3
Stock Number: BDG05001
208 b & w pages
$29.95

Dawning Star is a new product line from Blue Devil Games. It’s one of the first d20 Modern settings to use the new material from d20 Future. Written in two-column format, Dawning Star has a wide outer margin and fair text use. The chapter breakdowns are at the bottom of the page. Art is fair and the black and white format doesn’t hurt it.

Operation Quick Launch brings several elements together. For those looking for a d20 Future campaign setting, the book includes more than enough to get you started. It includes background information of humanity and it’s leap to the stars. A meteor was detected that would smash Earth so lotteries were held to launch people into space. Things didn’t go exactly as planned when a space gate left behind by an ancient race activated and sent one ship to another place.

Once there, the members of the ship Dawning Star were lucky enough to discover the planet Eos and that Eos was much like their old planet had been. A lucky event that allowed them to progress faster in terraforming it than they would’ve had. Things weren’t perfect and the planet had its own share of mysteries. For example, there were ruins of ancient civilizations all about and the humans that had founded this new planet weren’t all in alliance over how their new society and civilization should progress.

Along the way, humanity has discovered that they’re not only the only sentient race in the galaxy, their not even the only sentient race on the planet. Through the use of a few well placed secrets, the authors have given the GM numerous tools for his campaign in dealing with the native race, the Velin, a race that when compared to humanity, is primitive, but seems to have some knowledge of an old enemy of man that is commonly referred to as the darklings.

And that technology that sent the Dawning Star ship into another place to begin with? That would be the ancient technology of the tentaari. Or would it? Despite their seemingly superior attitude, there is a lot about the tentaari that is unknown and despite looking like the typical alien from earth, they aren’t well loved or even trusted in the Helios system. Other things go bump in the night too and unlike the Velin, they aren’t interested in friendship and unlike the tentaari, they don’t want to be far away mentors. They want blood.

While the vaasi seem to be one thing to the denizens of the planet, this history is far longer and only hinted at here. Their culture of destruction though, does provide them with several options, including different types of vaasi, including true, phrenic, soldier and warhound. Not quite up to the zherg or tyranids, but it’s a good start and their lengthy origin allows the GM to do more with them than just throw hordes of them at the players.

In addition to the background details, we have information about Eos. Some of this is scientific in nature like how many hours in a day, how maydays in a year, what the holidays of the world are, and what the geography of the planet is like.

Such hard facts, while interesting in and of them, do not a setting make. Rather, we get some of that through the two-page black and white map and its dotted cities. We get that through the various notes on the important locations on Eos, including the Dawning Star city itself, including details on population, major exports, major imports, progress level, purchase DC limit, black market DC, and item restrictions.

While a map of Dawning Star City is provided, there are only some general locations noted on the map. In addition, there are no upclose maps. For a first product in the line, it’s a good start. Dawning Star seems to be a settled frontier city, one where the law has a bit of sway and pull and that people should be on their good behavior.

For those who want a little more wildness however, we have places like Iron Scar, the first major settlement outside the Dawning Star itself. In this mining town, things can get a little rougher and uglier but things aren’t as well watched.

As noted, not everything is happy on the world of Eos. To showcase that, we have different faction camps, these created by people who left the growing Republic that is the Dawning Star, setting in places like Broken Town or Roger’s Point.

In addition to the geography notes, there are several NPCs fully statted out with background details. This allows the reader to get an idea of the types of characters that might be found in the setting, and thus the types of characters that might be made. Also included are archetypes for common encounters like explorer or soldier.

While the colonists haven’t explored all of Eos yet, they do have some knowledge of where they are at, the Helios system, and the stellar objects that make Helios it’s home. This includes the belt of asteroids known as Markin Belt and planets like Thres. A full page map of the Helios solar system breaks down the planets and sun, including how many moons each planet has. Eos for example, has two.

In addition to the background information, there’s a lot of crunch. The good thing is that the authors didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Where something worked in d20 Modern or d20 Future, they include notes on what’s appropriate, while still giving the GM a lot of new toys for his campaign.

For example, they use racial levels here for the humans and velin. Speaking of which, the velin themselves are a new race that’s uncomfortable around technology but do well in hunting their ‘ancient’ enemies, the darklings. New talent trees are introduced by type of hero (strong, fast, etc…), as well as new occupations, new uses for skills, and rules for bartering. See in Eos, despite some high technology, not everyone has access to the same thing so sometimes it’s best to know how to talk your way into that new item.

New feats are included with new racial levels, advanced classes and even some rare, in d20 Modern at least, prestige classes. Velin can augment their hunting nature while humans can augment their ability to survive anywhere.

Not everyone is going to be concerned with becoming a Velin chief or a Republic Ranger. Some are only going to be interested in how to blow things up and how to avoid being blown up in turn. They’re covered as we have multiple examples of technology in this setting ranging from mecha and ships, to new weapons and armor. The good thing about these sections is that they’re cleanly illustrated. Few things are as frustrating as hearing about how cool an item is only to have to imagine it.

The nice thing about the book is that because the Velin are hunters, not every weapon here is high tech. Next to the Gyro-Jet Ammunition, we have rules for Velin War Bows. Next toe the frontier styling rough outs, we have heavy combat armor. While it’s not Rifts, it’s certainly a good deal better than I expected in a first release in a new campaign line.

While the monster or xenomorph section isn’t huge, it does give the reader an idea of some of the alien life on the planet. This includes the dawson dragon, ridden by ranchers to replace the missing terran horses, to the tasty, depending on who you ask, murcow, the staple food of the people of Eos.

Like some other well-done game books, say, Warhammer FRPG, Dawning Star doesn’t give you everything in one shot. There are hints and suggestions of future books coming down the line with further information to enhance your game. That’s good for those who like a well supported setting and bad for those who want it all in one book.

Unlike some settings that are split between the player and GM, this book has both the basic information or common information, and secret information that only the GM should know. Not a problem if you have an honest group, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be hard to ruin the surprises of the setting for yourself just by reading through things.

While looking over the campaign book, there are some other elements that help. For example, they provide different campaign concepts and adventure hooks to get you started. Some of these are just a paragraph or two, but others include notes on how to advance the particular idea forward, noting what fits into the campaign and how best to move forward with that theme. One old favorite of mine is “The Magnificent 7.1”, updating the old Seven Samurai gig where a group of lone heroes defends an outpost town against overwhelming attacks. Good stuff.

Of course the fact that there is an actual introduction adventure in the book, A Day in the Life, is icing on the cake. One of the problems d20 Modern and d20 Future campaigns have as opposed to say standard Dungeons and Dragons, is that the responsibilities and goals of characters in the settings vary tremendously. While role-playing can shape and focus a fantasy character, he’s really there to collect the gold and the power ups. While futuristic games also have their share of power ups, one of the reasons Rifts is probably so popular; it also has a much broader base of options. Including a starting adventure gets the players into the setting quickly and gives the GM some ideas on how to move forward in this type of campaign.

Overall I like the feel of the planet. On one hand, its history is based in part on our own. For example, while looking to introduce old animals from Earth to the new setting, the scientists are careful not to overburden the eco system of Eos. While needing land and supplies, most of the governments set up don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past and tend to treat the Velin well. While there is high technology, it’s not everywhere and not involved in every part of live, giving the players plenty of leg work to do.

It has a main antagonists set up that the players might not be aware of for some time as they deal with rogue human factions. It has ruins and aliens who aren’t what they seem. In short, it should have something for everyone.

If you’ve been looking for something to do with your d20 Future book, Operation Quick Launch is worth your time.
 

I finished reading this book about a week ago and it's very, very good. Highly recommended to anyone looking for support material for D20 Future.
 


[imager]http://www.dawningstar.com/images/cover_thumb.jpg[/imager]Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch is a campaign setting sourcebook for d20 Modern and d20 Future (alas, the latter only unofficially, as Wizards of the Coast has not extended permissions to mention this product in compatible products using the modern and future SRDs.) The setting is a science fiction setting based in the far off helios system, colonized by remnants of the human race. The setting is published by Blue Devil Games, and credits writing to Lee Hammock, Chad Barr, and Justin D. Jacobson.

A First Look

Dawning Star is available as a hardcover book and in PDF format. The hardcover runs $29.95 US, and the electronic version is available at RPGnow and DriveThruRPG for $12.95. This review will focus principally on the hardbound edition.

The cover of the book features a dark green cloudy backdrop with a glow emanating from the symbol of the setting, embedded in the setting title.

The interior is black and white. The art direction and art appear to be entirely by Danilo Moretti. I have appreciated his work in prior d20 roleplaying products, and having him as the sole talent for this book does it credit and lends it a strong, consistent feel.

Thought the character, creature, and technology art is generally crisp and appealing, I found the singular land map in the book to be a bit behind the curve for RPG products when it comes to visual appeal and utility.

I like the writing style of the book. I feel it has just enough flavor text to set a mood, but gets to the point in explaining setting details. This makes the book a nice, uncomplicated read, unburdened by the weary pretension of trying to be a work of fiction in addition to a gaming novel which afflicts many modern gaming products.

There is one bit of the writing that bothered me. The book uses the term “hard science” where it seems to mean “hard science fiction” in a few places. The terms are not equivalent. Hard science specifically refers to actual scientific disciplines such as chemistry and physics that are thought to have a good degree of rigor; it does not refer to the SF subgenre that attempts to achieve a high degree of believability known as hard science fiction.

A Deeper Look
(Spoiler Warning: Some of the setting elements that are not normal PC knowledge are mentioned in this section of the review. Take care if you intend to play in the setting.)

The Dawning Star setting aspires to be a hard science fiction setting, though it confesses that a few liberties were taken in the sake of fun. In reading the book, I see some conventions that have been part of classic science fiction literature, though many of the elements resemble those that have received attention in recent TV, movie, and videogame SF, such as Outpost, Sid Meyer’s Alpha Centauri, Homeworld, Aliens, Earth 2, and Babylon 5.

The first chapter covers the history behind the setting. The basic premise of the setting is that Earth is doomed by the imminent collision of a moon sized object, which set the governments of Earth into motion to create a number of seeder ships with the intent of saving the human race and terraforming and colonizing a world around a nearby star.

The ships never make it to their original destination. Instead, the fleet encounters an alien device outside of our solar system that transports one of the seeder ships, the Dawning Star and her supporting ships to the periphery of a system with multiple habitable planets. The central star of this system would become known as Helios, and the colony ship lands on the world (one of three habitable worlds in the system) that would become known as Eos. The fate of the remaining colony ships is unknown.

The subsequent history of the world of Eos sets up a number of mysteries and challenges for the PCs. At the time the setting “begins”, over 50 years after the Dawning Star lands on the planet, a number of events occur that set up plot possibilities for the setting. Colonists encounter the very human-like, but apparently native, race known as the velin and the aloof and spacefaring “grey alien” like tentaari. Rebellions factions form among the humans, some eventually becoming part of the Eos freedom league. A number of ancient ruins are found with powerful relics, and the colonies are occasionally plagued by attacks by mysterious and mythical creatures known to humans only darklings.

This leaves you with a setting with a technological society with a somewhat under-developed industry, frontier regions plagued by alien creatures and rebellious factions, fremen-style proud natives, and intelligent aliens whose presence here has a long history untold in the opening chapter... and with far reaching implications. Which I’ll touch on later.

A single chapter covers all the new material needed to create characters for Dawning Star, including races, starting occupations, skills, talent trees, feats, and classes.

Humans and Velin are the default playable races of the setting. Humans have statistics similar to the d20 norm; velin lack the human skill point bonus, but gain low light vision, survival related skill bonuses, and abilities to detect the hostile vaasi alien race. I think giving vaasi both an intelligence penalty and not giving them a skill bonus make them somewhat unappealing as a playable race in a modern/future setting. Though velin are somewhat the brutes of the setting, it seems to me that survival, stealth, and perception skills would be their forte and the double-hit is probably too much.

The book tries to surmount the issue that d20 modern creates by making human skill bonuses implicit in descriptions by listing two totals for each class. This really is an issue created by D20 Modern itself. Handling skill points this way does a little to alleviate the possible confusion. A sidebar like the one that exists in Urban Arcana would have done more to dispel confusion over the issue.

New talent trees include a strong rage and tough rage tree (for the strong and tough hero, respectively), resembling the D&D barbarian rage ability, but the strong version has a larger strength boost whereas the tough version provides a bigger constitution boost. The fast hero gets a footwork tree that gives them bonuses in grapple situation, which seems somewhat paltry compared to the new and existing trees; I would consider granting a larger bonus.

Starting occupations correspond to common callings one might have on Eos such as dissident, explorer, or hunter. Some of these are more primitive occupations and velin are restricted to some of these more primitive occupations.

There are two new skills, barter and terraforming, with the appropriate support in terms of usage rules. Though there is nothing wrong with the skills per se, tucking them under profession might have given them better support from existing rules in other products that aid profession skill checks.

Feats principally support unique aspects or common roles in the game. Many of the feats reflect your upbringing, memberships, or other recognizable traits that give you bonuses when dealing with certain groups of people/aliens.

There is an array of advanced and prestige classes for various setting archetypes, but more noteworthy is that there are two racial paragon classes, a mechanical convention that has been making the rounds since Malhavoc’s Arcana Unearthed hit the streets. There is a Human Survivor racial paragon class and a Velin Hunter racial paragon class. Though in some ways, I feel the d20 Modern base classes fill some of the same space as paragon classes do (being sort of “pre-professional” classes), they do serve to help create character with more in the way of archetypal racial abilities without overloading the basic race with capabilities.

Of the existing d20 modern advanced classes, there is little guidance on how they fit in the Dawning Star setting other than which are unavailable. New advanced and prestige classes reflect possible common character types, and include Air Runner (pilot that provides services to remote regions), Barter Jack, Colonial Leader, Gunhand (mercenary gunman), Lawman, Rancher, Rebuilder, Velin Guardian, Republic Ranger (elite law officer), and Velin Cheif.

The technology available in the setting is normally d20 Future PL 6 or less, with limited PL 7 items. The technology chapter outlines which items are appropriate of Pls 6 or 7. For many item categories, the technology chapter defines its own setting specific technology items, such as energy weapons, vehicles, and mecha. Many more primitive equipment items are defined that exist as a consequence of the setting, such as Dawson dragon harnesses. Advanced and special versions of melee weapons and other primitive weapons get a lot of love here, helping to make more primitive velin characters more viable.

The World of Eos chapter defines much of the settlements, geography, and politics of the world. There are four major political bodies covered here: the Dawning Star Republic, the Eos Freedom League, the Terraformer’s Guild, and the Velin Tribal Council.

The chapter includes statistics blocks for major personalities, as well as stock stat blocks for common ordinaries of the world. All of the stat blocks listed here have 4 ordinary class levels, which is towards the low end of the scale for d20 Modern. This sort of leaves the implication that PCs are supposed to be more heroic exceptions than they are in a standard d20 Modern game.

The Galactic Survey chapter is a bit of a misnomer. It really primarily concerns the Helios system, and as most civilization as the PCs know it exists on one planet, yet there are multiple habitable planets, the action may be confined to that system for some time to come. There are quite a few possibilities for adventure in the system. This is primarily related to exploring the two habitable planets other than Eos, but there are mysterious stations and ancient alien habitations to be dealt with...

The xenomorphs chapter provides alien challenges for the players, both in terms of alien animals and sapient alien life forms. The animals are not so alien as you might expect, largely resembling mildly altered versions of Earth creatures like sharks and cows. This is a little of a disappointment in some ways, though it makes sense given some of the backstory.

There are two sapient alien species defined here, the tentaari and the vaasi.

The tentaari, as previously mentioned, are strongly modeled after UFO-folklore “greys.” Note that as the fraal from D20 Future are not open content, these are not statistically the same creatures. Tentaari are psionic creatures and somewhat decadent inheritors of the technology that they possess.

The Vaasi are the setting’s “lurking alien threat”. Thematically, they play a role similar to the shadows of Babylon 5 or the Sathar of Star Frontiers. They are psuedo-insectoid creatures that once waged a terrible interstellar war. They are pretty much a fallen species, but they exist in troubling numbers in the Helios system and stand to become a new threat to the galaxy.

The Master Control chapter is essentially a campaign guide for Dawning Star. It spells out some of the hidden secrets of the setting history, particularly regarding the positions of the tentaari and vaasi. The history of the setting presents a plethora of options for would-be adventurers, and many of those campaign models and some possible adventure seeds are spelled out here.

The final chapter, A Day in the Life is a short adventure for low level characters. The adventure has the PCs intervening in a relic finding expedition on the frontier of Eos. The adventure has a good deal of built in level flexibility in the form of three different statistics blocks for a variety of encounters.

The book also contains a character sheet and (thankfully) an index.

Conclusions

Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch provides a setting with a strong “American Frontier” feel instead of the more typical “interstellar civilization” feel of SFRPGs. The book does a good job of presenting a setting ripe with setting possibilities. The setting as presented in this book is obviously in the very early stages of its lifecycle as a viable setting. There are a lot of setting possibilities and a lot of challenges for the PCs to face, as well as a lot of room for the publishers to expand the setting.

Of published RPG settings, Dawning Star probably most resembles Centauri Knights by GOO, but lakcing that setting’s “nanotechnology as magic” features, but with a few more possibilities in terms of frontier survivalism and potential evolution into a campaign involving alien politics.

The setting has a self stated goal of plausibility except where fun is sacrificed. I see a few minor places they could have brushed this up. The description of how the Dawning Star was transported by the gateway device seemed very hand-wavey to me, and the discussion of making a gas giant into an artificial star stands out as an implausibility in what is otherwise the most scientifically rigorous chapter of the book.

Overall, this is a nice app for D20 Future, with some real possibilities in variety of gameplay, while breaking out of some RPG molds that may be getting a bit tired.

Overall Grade: B

-Alan D. Kohler
 
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