Dawning Star, opinions?

[Hjorimir]

I've been considering picking up Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch and have read a few reviews. I was wondering if anybody here has it and how they feel about the product overall.

 

[Timespike]

OQL is well into the HOLY [CENSORED] level of product quality. Design & layout are amazing, the rules will enhance any future game, and the setting's pretty cool, too. I wish I'd known about it earlier, and I picked it up on a money-back guarantee by one of the creators. Suffice to say, they still have my money.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

It's awesome!

Seriously, if you have any questions about it, I'm happy to answer. I'll let the unbiased customers provide the commentary. (And thanks for the kind words, Timespike.)

 

[philreed]

Seriously, grab it even if the setting doesn't interest you. I was shocked at the number of bits and pieces that I could steal from it for different settings.

It has equipment, vehicles, mecha, starships, feats . . . it's loaded.

 

[Psion]

It's nice, and I considered running some of it.

I keep wanting to shove a variant of the Homeworld plotline into it...

I think if it needs something, they need to cover the missing setting bits in greater detail soon.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

Helios Rising should be released in pdf format within the next 30 days, followed by a print version thereafter. 350+ pages of more DS goodness. As good as I think OQL is, HR will be amazing! I'm only half-joking when I say that my primary purpose in printing the book is to finally win an ENnie.

 

[physicscarp]

I recently bought d20 Modern and I've been really considring Dawningstar myself. Do I need d20 Future to run the game? Or can it be played with just d20 Modern?

 

[Hjorimir]

Hi Justin, thanks for jumping in.

If you had to give a rough ratio of fluff:crunch, what would you place Dawning Star: OQL?

As starships are a primary element of sci-fi settings, do you have an up to date ETA on the release of Silver Eclipse?

 

[Timespike]

I recently bought d20 Modern and I've been really considring Dawningstar myself. Do I need d20 Future to run the game? Or can it be played with just d20 Modern?

Well, sort of, but everybody seems to forget about the future SRD. I've never bought d20 Future, and I'm getting by just fine with SRD material only. The closed content in d20 Future consists of the following:

Dimension Ranger Adv Class
Star Law Officer Adv Class
Bughunter Adv Class
Purifier Adv Class
Nuclear Nomad Adv Class

And a whole lot of art and flavor text. Since all of those classes are setting-specific (and the nuclear nomad one doesn't even mesh up particularly well with d20 apocalypse) and I don't need the flavor text, I've never bothered to buy the book. I may pick it up if I can get it cheap on ebay someday or something, but it's not a major priority.

 

[Wycen]

CarpBrain,

You can run dawning Star with just d20 Modern. D20 Future introduces cybernetics and starships, a few things you would not be able to fully utilize, but cybernetics and starships are rare on Eos, which is the extent of the campaign setting until Helios Rising is released. Also there are equipment mods and mecha, rare again, that you might miss out on, but the equipment modifications within Operation Quick Launch are just a short section (2 items if I'm recalling correctly).

You might miss some feat, equipment, or occupation references but most can easily be swapped for something you are familiar with. For example, scout armor is found in d20 Future, but just create a light armor type with minor Defense and you can get by.

The free adventure Edge of Shadow can function as a gauge for what you might be missing out on.