Continuing a basic GUMSHOE motif, Ashen Stars encourages GMs to find inspirations for scenarios in the news of the day. In so doing, it follows in the issue-oriented footsteps of the Star Trek franchise, the Battlestar Galactica reboot, and the general observation that all science fiction is really about the present. For example, you might […]
Author Archives: Robin Laws
It’s not just The Esoterrorists that urges you to reconfigure real-life mysteries by ripping tales from the headlines. With Mutant City Blues undergoing a resurgence of interest lately, I figured I’d start swapping in case ideas for the Heightened Crimes Investigative Unit as well. Japan’s strict limitations on organ donation have created a thriving black […]
Earlier I talked about the way every SF game calls for a unique setting, whether the designer likes it or not, because there isn’t a complete enough assumptions set to present a default universe. Ashen Stars creates its setting to serve the action. This of course is how a creator in a non-interactive story form […]
A hurdle any SF RPG faces is the lack of default setting assumptions. From the earliest days of D&D, we have been accustomed to a portmanteau fantasy world. This hybrid creature sprang from the experimental vats of the wizards Gygax and Arneson, combining the Howard sword and sorcery and Tolkien epic literary fantasy modes into […]
When a phone tip from a woman claiming to be a psychic leads police in a rural community to excavate a supposed mass grave, the Ordo Veritatis dispatches a team to the site to cope with supernatural repercussions. By the time they arrive at the scene, the call is shown to be a hoax. But […]