Reich Star
Cover art by Ken Richardson
DesignersSimon Bell, Ken Richardson
PublishersCreative Encounters
Publication1990
GenresAlternate history
SystemsCustom

Reich Star is a science fiction/alternate history role-playing game published by Creative Encounters in 1990.

Description

Reich Star is an alternate history role-playing game set in 2134, almost two hundred years after World War II was won by the Axis forces. The Third Reich and the Empire of Nippon subsequently ruled the world before moving out into space in the 22nd century, where they have enslaved technologically inferior alien races.[1]

Players create characters who are part of a resistance movement, seeking to overthrow the Nazi regime. Characters can be mercenaries, smugglers, explorers and other character classes. Characters receive a limited pool of Luck Points that can be spent to temporarily increase an attribute such as Strength when needed.[1]

The book also covers history, notable persons, and technology.[1]

Publication history

Reich Star was designed by Ken Richardson and developed by Simon Bell.[2][3]

Reception

In his 1990 book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games, game critic Rick Swan did not think the game mechanics were especially innovative, "but they're clearly explained and quite thorough." Swan liked the concept of the game and concluded by giving it a solid rating of 3 out of 4, saying, ""Designers Ken Richardson and Simon Bell have a lot of fun with the premise, producing a solid science fiction RPG in the process. Reich Star is just about as realistic as a Roger Corman movie, but in the hands of an experienced referee, it can be just as exciting."[1]

In an article about alternate history games in Issue 105 of Polyhedron, Roger E. Moore pointed out that alternate history games involving changes to already fictional settings, such as a new Star Trek timeline, were less compelling than an alternate history where the timeline diverged from real events. Moore held up Reich Star as an example of this, writing of the Nazi-dominated future, "This possibility is quite intriguing, but it was founded on a change in real events, not a fictional future divergence in history, and is thus innately more interesting than the latter."[4]

Other reviews and commentary

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Swan, Rick (1990). The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 166–167.
  2. ↑ "Reich Star - RPGnet RPG Game Index".
  3. ↑ "Reich Star | RPG | RPGGeek".
  4. ↑ Moore, Roger E. (June 1995). "The Living Galaxy: Alternate History Gaming Made Simple — Sort Of". Polyhedron. No. 105. p. 26.
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