A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Ashen Stars

Ashen Stars by Robin D. Laws is a role playing game supplement published by Pelgrane Press. This is a supplement for GUMSHOE but is a standalone system and setting.

The supplement is available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG or in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF has 305 pages and costs $24.95 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. One page is the front cover, three the front matter, three the Contents and seven the Indices. There is a second PDF, that is one page shorter as it lacks the cover, intended to be printer friendly, which has instructions as to how to turn off layers for printing.

Where the Stars Turn Grey is a brief introduction, details on what other GUMSHOE games have been published and how the book is laid out.

All the Justice Credits Can Buy starts out by explaining that the characters are Lasers; freelancers called in when the situation gets too tough in the area known as the Bleed. The Bleed is the frontier, and it was under better control until the recent Mohilar War. The war resulted in the interstellar polity called the Combine abandoning its fringe areas to a large extent.

It next goes onto character creation, starting with determining what the characters did during the war. Characters are then created using a step-by-step process. Species, crew packages, investigative abilities, general abilities, drive, ship – all Lasers have a ship – tech and enhancements, personal details and reputation are determined. Personal arcs are narrative hooks for characters and can be developed over time, especially as they meet the primary theme. Arcs are created by players but need approving by the GM, so that they fit into the campaign and have room for development.

The Seven Peoples describes the major sentient species of the Combine. Each follows the same format; introductory text written as if by a member of that species followed by game appropriate details. A sidebar mentions player-built cultures.

What You Can Do is the abilities that characters have. It starts with crew packages and the various warpside and groundside assignments. Ships and ground have different needs, though there is one that crosses into both realms, that of doctor. Abilities has descriptions for the various abilities, starting with Investigative. There are a few new ones with explanations as to how to use them in other GUMSHOE games. In addition, there are some that are only available to the Vas Mal, one of the Seven Peoples, who, through their unusual origin, have some different psychic abilities. Next are general abilities with details on what these do; some of them are specific to one of the Seven Peoples.

Drives are motivations for characters, which can be invoked by the GM when a character is in a situation where their drive would be relevant in order to make the player move forward. A variety of drives are given, with details as to what they will do, but players can create custom drives, with the GM’s agreement.

GUMSHOE Rules explains how the system works. GUMSHOE is used to run investigative games, but these can be derailed if characters don’t find the clues. So, GUMSHOE ensures that clues will be found; it’s what’s done with them that’s important. Finding clues may also cause problems. Tests are next, and these cover situations where dice would be rolled. These range from simple tests to making them without a relevant ability to fighting. Fighting comes in two main types; scuffling, for close combat, and shooting, for distance. Characters have pool points and how these are recovered is detailed, along with time increments. Following this are explanations as to how characters can be improved and a number of hazards.

Starships starts with rules on space combat. When two ships fight, goals are determined as to what each one wants to accomplish, whether this be escape or destruction of the foe. Characters who blow up surrendered warships suffer a loss of reputation and the rules are deliberately skewed towards one-on-one combat. Characters who regularly get others to help them in ship combat do not gain as much reputation, and uneven fights deliberately work differently depending on who’s outnumbered, so that heroes have to pull of exciting escapes rather than roll over the enemy with a superior force. Ships are next, which starts by covering the stats and a sidebar details battle arrays and sometimes which of the major species created them. There are a number of ship classes, created by the different species, each of which has an illustration. After the standard ships is a section on making custom ships, with a sidebar giving examples of just how the characters came into possession of a valuable ship they can barely afford to run. There are details on repairs and upgrades for ships, what happens when things are not kept on top of, navigational hazards and why leaving a ship in orbit empty is safer than staffing it. Several more ships classed as out of their league are next and some brief details on shuttles.

Tech covers equipment of all types. Some have a Preparedness Difficulty, which is explained in a sidebar as a way of having items that not all groups will necessarily own without having to go into the type of monetary depth seen in some games. Technology is divided into Communications, Cybernetic Enhancements, Medical and Forensic Gear, Protective Gear and Investigative Gear, which includes Surveillance Gear. Viroware is genetic alterations that can be bought but which has a maintenance cost. Weaponry follows and finally Unclassifiable Items, a single balla device.

The Feed and the Bleed is setting information. It starts with some details on the Combine and its organisational structure; a structure that is found on many planets as well, and how the Combine currently influences the Bleed. Synthcultures are essentially recreationist planets, some of which have become rather more stringent since the war. There are details on a lifeform created by the Mohilar, followed by a number of ideologies and nufaiths, religion having seen a bit of a resurgence. Following this is Interstellar History, which covers events up to the present, focusing on the various species that formed the Combine.

On the Contract starts with Reputation, with how it can be gained and lost and how loss might be prevented, other than by not doing the actions that cause it. Bloodthirstiness is definitely discouraged; lasers that go around slaughtering enemies no matter what will soon wind up with a very poor reputation and will probably become targets of contracts themselves. There are details on acquiring contracts and their different types and some notes on how the game doesn’t focus on the minutiae of money. Money can also be borrowed, if need be. Following this are details on the law, jurisdiction, trials and sentencing.

Worlds Are Stories explains that worlds are created for the story they have, with three different examples. Worlds can have problems, or be tangential to the main plot, or adventures can take place outside of worlds. There are details on how worlds were named in the Bleed. Stellar Navigation covers travel between the worlds, and how travel times can easily change due to external factors, even along the same routes. There is a map of the various clusters of the Bleed; clusters are of worlds close together in travel terms, not stellar terms.

The Bad, the Worse and the Alien starts by discussing different classes of entities; sentients, quasi-sentients and lifeforms, with a sidebar on Class K entities. Using them as opponents in rivals is followed by a listing of Class K entities, and when the latter are encountered, Lasers are intended to destroy them, they are so potentially dangerous. Next is a list of generic xenozoological threats followed by stats for a number of beings from the player species.

Running the Bleed starts with Building Cases. This is essentially adventure creation, using the GUMSHOE and Ashen Stars formula. Building Series is on how to link cases together with story arcs, rather than just having them be planet of the weeks. There are series arcs and personal arcs as well as recurring characters. GUMSHOE Tips is on how to handle investigative stories, which is what GUMSHOE stories are, especially as investigations tend to be more linear adventures. Finally, there is an example of play.

The Witness of My Worth is a sample adventure. It breaks the adventure down into the different scenes as described earlier and also has various sidebars of advice.

Appendix I: Sample Names covers names for the different major species, with tables and explanations as to naming conventions.

Appendix II: Space Combat Example plays out combat between two starships.

Appendix III: Tables and Charts has various reference sheets, including for technology and ship bolt-ons.

Ashen Stars in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. Only sidebars appear to be missing. The Contents are to a similar level of depth and are hyperlinked. The Indices have a primary Index of content and subsidiary ones of Ship Classes, Tech and the Entity Database. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be mostly free of errors, though there were a few in the bookmarks. There are a lot of colour illustrations of varying sizes and they appear to be custom. Presentation is good.

Though this is a science fiction game, it is also an investigative game. It would be more accurate to call it an investigative game with science fiction elements. The setting may be described as being gritty, and in some ways it might be, but characters cannot go wild and shoot everything that could potentially harm them. Damage to reputations means that lots of what might be thought stock elements for a gritty setting must be avoided. No killing anyone who could be stunned, no stealing other ships, even if they may have fired on you first.

The setting, and the system, will seem very odd to those who haven’t had any prior experience with GUMSHOE. GUMSHOE is intended to run investigations, but it was also designed that investigations couldn’t be derailed by failed rolls, something that admittedly could otherwise be a problem. Characters can get all the information they need. This system is definitely suited to specific styles of play and is rather less suited to others. The game is definitely not suited to players with a play style that involves a lot of mayhem; such characters will quickly become outlaws and hunted down. Though it is stated to be a space opera game, and indeed does have similarities to the genre, truthfully, it isn’t really suited for running a lot of space opera. Such tend to involve too much shooting and killing. Ashen Stars is a bit of a different style of science fiction game, one that won’t be suited to everyone, and it can be found by clicking here.