Star Ace

Adventures in Space

Review by Ryk Strong

Designed by Mark Acres and Gali Sanchez Written by Michael Williams
Pacesetter Limited PO. Box 451, Delavan, WI 53115
Released: August 1984
Catalog No.: 4001
Price: $12.00
Complexity: Beginner
Solitaire Suitability: Low

STAR ACE is a science fiction role-playing game apparently inspired by Star Wars. The game comes with a 64-page rulesbook, a 32-page book describing the world of STAR ACE, a 16-page introductory adventure, and three high quality 10-sided dice. The box and booklets are sturdy and designed to last. The interior art is very good for a game, with illustrations of unfamiliar weapons and aliens.

My overall reaction to this game is mixed. The designers have succeeded in producing a science-fiction game of "starships, alien worlds, and swashbuckling action" aimed at the 14 and under market, but in doing so they have ignored the most basic physics and economics. For example, starships do not accelerate; in one turn they can go from standstill to their maximum speed-about 3.3% the speed of light in Einsteinien space. All ships can have hyperdrives (which occupy no space). Hyperdrive is faster in space with fewer suns because jump distance is measured in "grand strategic sectors;" that is, "the amount of space required to contain one million star systems." Obviously, it requires about the same amount of time to travel around the galactic rim as it does to travel from the rim to the galactic core. But that~ O.K. because starships don't use fuel, they just fall apart. Using hyperdrive causes damage to the craft proportional to the length of the jump.

Once you get from point A to point B, you should have no trouble selling your goods on the black market. Of course, that~ the only market that you can sell to. But you can't tell how much money you will make on a given cargo as that is randomly determined. Whether or not you can sell your goods has nothing to do with supply and demand. The chance of selling raw goods is equal to the planet tech level times 10.

The chance of selling finished products is equal to the planet's economy level times 10. For example, vou leave a tech level four planet (early industrial revolution) with a standard cargo ship full of slightly pitted ball bearings. (Don't ask me how you bought them, it not in the rules). You jump to a tech level 7 planet (translight travel and communication), which has no need for early industrial revolution for slightly-pitted-ball - bearings, and you can sell your cargo for on the average four and one-half times the emperor's ransom. You'll have no trouble moving about on alien worlds to arrange this buying and selling because all planets have the same gravity and atmosphere as earth.

The rules are tightly written and well organized with a complete table of contents and an index in each book. Players must run characters that are members of a star team (privateer guerillas fighting the evil empire). Within the star teams there are four "free orders" that serve as classes. Characters have skills, but skills have both levels (Recruit, Veteran, or Ace) and a percentage chance based on statistics and level. Skills are learned with a bonus if they are in the correct character class. Skills increase through an experience system as the character increases in level; shooting enemy spacecraft makes you a better thief.

The game's resolution system revolves around a table printed on the back of each book. All skill rolls on the table give a result which must be looked up in the text for each skill. This is awkward and time consuming. Non-player character reactions are governed by a system in which social status is a negative modifier; therefore, the higher a non- player character~ social status the more unfavorable his reaction. Most of the upper nobility illustrated in the rule., are aliens, even though the empire is described as humanocentric.

Characters also have a statistic in luck which non-player characters do not have. Luck is a character's chance for survival when all other rules say he or she should be dead. Rules like this tend to take some of the suspense out of the game.

This aside, the game could be fun if run for younger players. The rules, although inaccurate, are fast and easy, and the game comes with an introductory scenario.

The problem with both the introductory scenario and with the first module, Goodbye Kankee, is that they lead the player characters by the nose, rarely offering a choice for significant interaction or even real decision making. There are very few motivations given for many of the nonplayer characters actions. There is not enough information printed in either the rules or the module to run day-to-day life in an interstellar empire. Further, although being a member of a star team is illegal, most non- player characters can tell with no effort that the player characters are star team members.

In STAR ACE, Pacesetter's design philosophy seems to be that accurate simulation doesn't matter at all. Maybe it doesn't in the 14 and under market, but today's older gamer is well versed in science fiction and wants a game that has a logical, believable universe. Although STAR ACE is well written, with a professional look, it is a game designed and produced for a small market niche and has nothing to offer the rest of the hobby There is not a single rules innovation in STAR ACE that has not been done much better elsewhere, and other science fiction games are out that have vastly superior milieus, One of my major objections is that any game this narrow (player characters have just four approaches to the games one occupation) should supply enough in-depth information to make role-playing viable and challenging within the limited definition set. There is not enough information in STAR ACE to allow for anything other than a "kill the monsters-grab the treasure" approach. This game is only for those who do not care for hard facts in their do not care for hard facts in their science fiction, and for them, it should be fun.

The following is a question from Pacesetter Ltd. concerning the review of Star Ace: "How can anyone expect a game with twelve foot tall psionic polar bears and pigs in space wearing nose rings to be a hard core simulation rather than a swashbuckling adventure, for crying out loud?"

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