Quote from: RandallS;832059I thought the question was rhetorical, but as it wasn't. I'll answer it.  
B/X is old school as is 0e, 1e, Holmes Basic. Some people also consider and BECMI and 2e old school.

However, you may have missed my point. White Star is based on S&W White Box and is intended to be fully compatible with it. Both are therefore based on 0e (without the supplements). The fact that 0e was cloned after B/X and 1e were cloned doesn't really matter. White Star is a 0e variant not a B/X or 1e variant.

Nah, I got you, man. I was just contesting the idea (which did not come from you) that the inclusion of moral rules somehow makes a game not old school.

However, to touch on an earlier point, I did bitch about the lack of such rules when I reveiwed Warriors of the Red Planet. I understand about compatibility with 0e and all, but any game that uses ascending AC and/or a unified save, and any other number of minor modufications, has already blown that. Burning a paragraph for BX style morale- even if just as an optional rule, only seems sensible to me. It adds a lot with very little effort expended, and causes no more of compatibilty problem than many of the extant changes, imo.

Quote from: Aos;832065Burning a paragraph for BX style morale- even if just as an optional rule, only seems sensible to me. It adds a lot with very little effort expended, and causes no more of compatibilty problem than many of the extant changes, imo.

There's a bit more to it than explaining the 2d6 B/X-style morale die roll. You have to add a morale rating to each of the monster descriptions. I did this for Microlite74 Extended (the version of M74 with my standard house rules from the late 70s) and updating the monsters is somewhat more than what I'd call "very little effort" -- and you are adding something to 0e fairly major to 0e. That's why I it wasn't in M74 Basic or M74 Standard.

Quote from: RandallS;832074There's a bit more to it than explaining the 2d6 B/X-style morale die roll. You have to add a morale rating to each of the monster descriptions. I did this for Microlite74 Extended (the version of M74 with my standard house rules from the late 70s) and updating the monsters is somewhat more than what I'd call "very little effort" -- and you are adding something to 0e fairly major to 0e. That's why I it wasn't in M74 Basic or M74 Standard.

Well, we'll have to agree to disagree. I add b/x style moral scores to everything. It takes seconds per monster. That is exactly what  I'd call "very little effort," in fact.
Another good reason to include it is that  further data can regarding the monster can be inferred from the score assigned.  As a mechanic it pulls its weight.

I'm vaguely interested as I'd be totally down with a TSR D&D-based SF game that does Star Wars right out of the box — D6 is fun but rolling and adding tons of dice all the time gets old. Nevertheless, White Box OD&D is a tad lighter than I prefer. SWN and Hulks & Horrors feel closer to my crunch sweet spot but would require some retro-fitting.

A B/X, BECMI/RC, or LL-powered ersatz-Star Wars game would be my dream OSR game right now.

Just curious (and maybe I missed it), but has anyone here purchased White Star? Curious as to their take. Maybe Pundit will get a review copy, because I'd be interested to see what he has to say about it, as well.

Quote from: cranebump;832119Just curious (and maybe I missed it), but has anyone here purchased White Star? Curious as to their take.

I bought a copy. It's about what I expected: OD&D (3 little books only) in space -- science fantasy/Star Wars style. It's easy to add anything I want from White Star to my 0e game (currently a M74 variant) and it would be equally easy to do the reverse adding anything I wanted from a 0e rules set to White Star. It's a great toolkit -- which is exactly what I want from the game.  

If you are looking for an SF game with more mechanics meat that Swords & Wizardry White Box, you will likely be disappointed. If you are looking for a game where the author built around a specific vision (e.g. a detailed setting the game is specifically built for), you will likely be disappointed. If you are looking for hard SF as opposed to science fantasy, you will have more work to do.

If you are looking for innovative mechanics, you probably should not be looking at any OSR game. However, while treating starships as basically characters with a combat system very much like normal combat isn't really that original, it is well-handled well-handled in White Star, but like OD&D combat in general, it is very abstract.

Quote from: RandallS;832121I bought a copy. It's about what I expected: OD&D (3 little books only) in space -- science fantasy/Star Wars style. It's easy to add anything I want from White Star to my 0e game (currently a M74 variant) and it would be equally easy to do the reverse adding anything I wanted from a 0e rules set to White Star. It's a great toolkit -- which is exactly what I want from the game.  

If you are looking for an SF game with more mechanics meat that Swords & Wizardry White Box, you will likely be disappointed. If you are looking for a game where the author built around a specific vision (e.g. a detailed setting the game is specifically built for), you will likely be disappointed. If you are looking for hard SF as opposed to science fantasy, you will have more work to do.

If you are looking for innovative mechanics, you probably should not be looking at any OSR game. However, while treating starships as basically characters with a combat system very much like normal combat isn't really that original, it is well-handled well-handled in White Star, but like OD&D combat in general, it is very abstract.

I tend to go light on things, so I'd likely enjoy this mode of play. Just out of curiousity, how does it handle space travel? Does it bother with any of that stuff?

Quote from: cranebump;832125I tend to go light on things, so I'd likely enjoy this mode of play. Just out of curiousity, how does it handle space travel? Does it bother with any of that stuff?

Ships have an abstract movement rate -- mainly for comparing to other ships in chases and such. FTL drive exists but is it is up to the GM to define how it works in each campaign. FTL drive can also be replaced by warp gates or the like. A sample sector is provided along with a sample adventure in that sector. Unfortunately, however, no random method of sector generation is provided. That lack is what I see as the game main fault. While such a random generation proceed isn't strictly necessary, it is helpful.

Hey guys, I'm new on this site, and have a copy of white star and the PDF for SWN, the white star book was cool, but I had to modify the characteristics to better fit in with my 5th edition D&D ability score modifiers, I have to admit, if you want to create a new space opera d20 system both white star and stars without number can help you , but if you want to play Star Wars d20, the Saga edition tears into it all perfectly as far as I'm concerned, someone could take all three systems and mesh them together to create a better Star Wars game, but I still think Saga edition would be hard to beat anyway, but my preference for Star Wars is the story dice system currently being played, I still love the old d6 as well, but I'm just a RPG nut.