White Star Campaign: 0 - Plans and background

White Star can be bought from RPGNow -
both PDF and print formats available!

WHAT IS WHITE STAR?

White Star is Dungeons & Dragons in space, using Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox rules. Basically it is OD&D with a modern and simplified touch, frosted with space-themes. You get everything you need to play, including space crafts combat! In short, easy and fun science fiction gaming where the rules are not a cumberstone!

HOUSE RULE: DIS/ADVANTAGE

I plan to play-by-the-book as much as possible. There are not many different rules, anyways. Only thing I am going to adapt is the dis/advantage system from D&D 5e and/or The Black Hack. Skill tests are d20 < attribute rolls. If the conditions are favorable OR character should know what she is doing or her character class is good at the task, she'll gain an advantage. If conditions are bad, she'll get a disadvantage instead. Easy.

SETTING

I am going to use White Star's default setting with some additional touches from me as a starting point for my campaign. A remote location, with three factions: Space Pirates, Galactic Consortium and The Resistance. Galactic Consortium has cut this sector from rest of the space by shutting down the only (known) jump gate there. They want total power and dictatorship and don't want anyone or anything from other sectors or places to come and interfere with their plans. When they have a total control of this Kelron sector they begin to build their military strength to take on a sector after a sector... Or that's their plan on the paper!

It was 60 years ago when Galactic Consortium cut out the power of the jump gate. It is now heavily guarded, and no one is allowed to get near to it. Safety reasons, they say, but the rebels know better...

Supreme Lord Adlar is either very old, or not completely human anymore. True, some genetics and advanced medical care can expand normal human lifespan, but people talk. Some say that Supreme Lord Adlar is half human, half machine. Some whisper that he has learned darkest secrets of the Void and is immortal. Whatever the truth is, Supreme Lord Adlar's humanity is long lost, and what remains is hunger for power.

Galactic Consortium wants to bend everyone within the Kelron sector into its will. Those who will not become workers or warriors for them, shall die. Galactic Consortium has been careful this far not to just go killing people, as there are more free-willed than brainwashed followers. But they will get there in a way or another...

Resistance is against the Galactic Consortium believing in free will and democracy. They are strong, as Galactic Consortium is not yet ready to fight the people and the mass. They fight against the most active and loud members of the Resistance, using not only firepower and force but also propaganda.

Space Pirates are just people who want to make riches fast by venturing the space and smuggling and stealing. They are stuck here, when the Galactic Consortium cut out the jump gate - only way away from this sector. Many original of the Space Pirates who got stuck into this sector are already dead, but their power and will are strong. They recruit new individuals continually amongst those who want true freedom to travel and explore. They have no place with Resistance and the people, as they are feared because of their original arrival of plunder. They refuse to take steps towards the Galactic Consortium which originally restricted their freedom of travel.

Space Pirates are a loose faction. There are gangs with one leader, the Overcaptain. But as long as the gangs do what the Overcaptain says, anything can happen, resulting that the gangs are rivals. Some of them respect each other, some of them are backstabbers.

Planets and other places of interests are vague enough to be used as they are written in the book, so adding material and adventures custom to the events of the campaign will be easy.

PLAYER CHARACTER

This campaign is for only one player, my girlfriend. She has interest in playing Aristocrat character class, which is a little different from other classes more familiar to D&D or Hulks & Horrors, what we have played earlier. Because this is a one-on-one campaign, I let her roll her stats 4d6 drop the lowest and assign at will. Because more interesting in this is the story of the character than the adventures. Well the adventures create the character, but in this case player will be playing her character, the antagonist of the setting, and her story will be on focus instead of the story what developes by playing adventure modules. If it makes any sense at all.

Player character will also have NPC companions from the beginning of the game. They are close to her, her crew, her comrades, her support, her friends.

Player will choose which faction her character will be a member of. She can be part of Galactic Consortium and try to get rid of resistance in order for her faction to conquer this section before they travel forth. Or she might be part of the Resistance and fight against the Galactic Consortium. If she is a Space Pirate, she will do this and that freelancing for her own good - and maybe towards opening the gate so Space Pirates can get out of this section. It's not good for the business to have been space pirating the same sector for over 60 years!

CAMPAIGN BEGINNING

I'll start the campaign with the beginning adventure from the White Star rulebook called The Second Battle Of Brinn. It's a good introduction to the system, and I can sneak lots of campaign background information. Depending on which faction the player character will belong to.

• Galactic Consortium: The player and her crew must retrieve the data so the Rebels don't get their hands on it.
• Resistance: Get the data before Galactic Consortium will get it, because it is important for the cause.
• Space Pirates: The data is valuable, and will be easy to sell for the highest bidder - Galactic Consortium of Resistance. But before you sell it, you should make a copy of it. The information must be important, because them two factions are both after it. (At location 7, there are pirates, but they are from another gang).

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

It depends on the player and her character's actions and motives, what the campaign will be like. I will use some scifi adventures and modules I have, dropping them into the campaign where they fit - or I will make the campaign fit the adventures. I did this same thing when I ran Labyrinth Lord for her. We had this campaign plan, the great plot, but I used all different adventure material to flesh it out with fun content.