Using Google Sheets, I threw together a quick character sheet for my discord sessions of In The Light Of A Ghost Star. I went back to it and ended up adding the game rules to it. So here’s the spread sheet version of ITLOAGS. Playing it over discord on voice chat went well and really made me feel like I accomplished what I set out to when making Ghost Star. It’s easy to play with little prep and new RPG players have no problem getting the hang of it.
I just made some more Ghost Star zines. I’m out of the map posters and buttons, so it’s just the zine and some character sheets.
In The Light Of A Ghost Star is a rules-lite system and setting for sci-fi roleplaying. It comes with a hex crawl and random tables that can also be used with other RPG systems.
Ghost Star was designed to be quick and easy to play. It’s perfect for one shot games and short campaigns. Characters can be created quickly and can die even quicker!
In The Light Of A Ghost Star by Nate Treme is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. So feel free to chop it up and make your own game out of it!
These are homemade prints of In The Light Of A Ghost Star. Like many zines, they are handmade and NOT PERFECT. Sometimes the pages and staples aren’t perfectly straight. They are all a little different. I used different colored paper randomly so no two are exactly alike.
Thanks everyone who bought a copy of In The Light Of A Ghost Star! I’m not planning on making another batch except for some to sell locally in Shreveport. I was asked to do a book signing at the library. I’m thinking about that. I really want to run some open games at the library. Also Ghost Star is a copper seller on DriveThruRPG, I’m not sure what that means exactly. Maybe that you sold at least 50? I’ll probably sell copies here on my website again since I can make them pretty easily as they’re ordered. I’ll also make a booklet pdf with the pages in booklet order to make DIY printing easier.
I started working on Wanderers Of The Strange Earth again. I stopped to focus on Ghost Star and also was having trouble getting motivated. It’s based on Knave and every time I hacked into it I kept changing it back to vanilla Knave cuz guess what? Knave is clean AF! That sucker is pretty tight and balanced and it feels like I’m screwing it up anytime I change it. Then I started doing that Descendants idea in my last post. That was fun but I think it’s gonna stay a thought experiment for a while. But I really like the combat idea. So I wrote out the rules of Wanderers, which is basically Knave and tried to fit that combat system into it. I’m bad at math so it’s going to take some time to get the numbers feeling right but I’m having fun with the combat test I’m doing by myself.
The print version of Ghost Star is now for sale!
In The Light Of A Ghost Star is a rules-lite system and setting for sci-fi roleplaying. It comes with a hex crawl and random tables that can also be used with other RPG systems.
Ghost Star was designed to be quick and easy to play. It’s perfect for one shot games and short campaigns. Characters can be created quickly and can die even quicker!
In The Light Of A Ghost Star by Nate Treme is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. So feel free to chop it up and make your own game out of it!
These are homemade prints of In The Light Of A Ghost Star. Like many zines, they are handmade and NOT PERFECT. Sometimes the pages and staples aren’t perfectly straight. They are all a little different. I used different colored paper randomly so no two are exactly alike.
Got this great message in the Ghost Star comment section on Itch from first time DM Viscole.
Viscole also created the Fungal Star Imps as friendlier counterparts to the Fungal Star Goblins. Very cool!
Ray Otus of Jellysaw Games talked about In The Light Of A Ghost Star on his podcast Plundergrounds! I’m a regular listener of the show so it was a really nice surprise to see Ghost Star in the episode title! Ray Otus said Ghost Star was “very cool.” Mr. Otus also makes the Dungeon World Zine also named Plundergrounds and this awesome micro rpg based on the original version of The Hobbit called There And Back Again.
The only thing I want to add to what he said is that the pdf is designed with 5.5x8.5 pages and when you count the covers is 16 pages total. So it can be printed in booklet form (quite easily if you use Adobe Reader.)
Just played a session of In The Light Of A Ghost Star with friends I’ve never played with before, most who had never played a TTRPG before. Everyone seemed to have a good time. I definitely did even though I’m always really self conscious when GMing for new people. I wrote up a little mutation table right before the game and that was a lot of fun.
D8 Mutations
Lasts for 2d4 days or until another mutation takes over.
Carapace - Your skin hardens like the shell of a beetle. +2 to total HP
Glow In The Dark - Your skin glows in the dark. Lights a 30ft area.
Transmorph - Your mind and body go through a strange transformation. Switch Scientist and Fighter dice.
The Fly - Bug like wings sprout from your back. You can only lift your self a couple feet in the air for a few seconds at a time but you can glide from high places.
Glass Eye. One of your eyes becomes hard like a marble and falls out of your head. You can still see through it.
Werepig- In light of a full moon you become a fierce humanoid warthog beast. Fighter=12 Explorer=4 Scientist=4. 1 in 20 chance of full moon every night.
Monkey Tail- you suddenly grow a furry prehensile tail.
Brainiac - Your brain mass doubles at the expense of the rest of your body. Scientist =10. Total health is 2.
Also here are everyone’s character portraits.
Making copies. Using some metallic paper for some of the covers. Some times it prints fine and sometimes the toner doesn't stick. They still look neat faded. Pages also print a little crooked sometimes and page numbers get trimmed off. But that's all part of making zines by hand right?
Had a fun session with DM Alan Matlock running the game. One of our crew was infected a purple gelatinous worm and we ended up stranded on Earth by what I think were ourselves from a parallel dimension maybe. We found amazing treasures: a Barbie, a 100 Grand Bar, and an AOL Free Trial CD. We fought some battle apes and piranha dogs. Now we live in small pyramids and are trying to assimilate into cockroach society.
Belgian gaming blog jeepeeonline wrote about In The Light Of A Ghost Star and even created a French translation. Thank you jeepee!
Thank you Outpost Owlbear for playing In The Light Of A Ghost Star and sharing your experience and great house rules!
Check out their live stream!
I received this transmission from a group of scavengers from Indiana! Thanks gamemaster Jack Lowe for running In The Light Of A Ghost Star!
************************************
This was a blast. We played a 3 player group. Each specialised in a different attribute and named their scavenger group The Lootas.
Fighter: Hrothgand (an inexperienced fool who is strong but made a horrible mistake... you'll see.) Explorer: Duane Shan (cyborg found and rebuilt by the Scientist on a previous scavenge mission.) Scientist: Speakatron (named for having built in speakers in his face. Unknown if Speakatron is a robot or cyborg.)
The group purchased plenty of rations and knew of their mission in advance. One week to explore and find artifacts and return to the drop zone to be taken back to Mars. A very "space pulp" style was presented to them as they descended to Earth.
The party was split on where to go but ultimately decided it was best to not split up. So a final vote was decided by way of a chance cube. (Dice roll) and they went south.
Towards the woods. In hopes of finding food or wildlife. A random encounter roll resulted in 5 ape warriors which were heard moving in the woods.
Hrothgand approached the trees and successfully hid himself as he listened in to figure out what was waiting for them in the woods.
Discovering the threat he signaled to the party as they came up with a plan to draw them out with their lanterns. A fight ensued along with a lantern successfully turned into a makeshift bomb. Sadly the group discovered that Hrothgand did not purchase a weapon. Of any kind.. so he attempted to wrestle the apes and steal one of their primitive glaives. His attempts were in vain as were many of the phaser blasts from the explorer and scientist.
Hrothgand was grappled and brought to the ground. While Speakatron ran along with Duane Shan.
Hrothgand heard the apes say he would make a good feast before being knocked unconscious.
That player began making a new character as the scavengers retreated to a black pool of water. Along the beach of this pool they saw a local primitive human abandoned by a campsite. Andrin the new player character. Equipped with a stone spear he joins the party without question after they save him from his bindings.
There they meet Dr Quartec and assist in recovering the device in the lake. A few days of travel and survival later they eventually make it to the astro liches tower. Delivering the device he grants them a plasma key and the knowledge of the location of a treasure in a nearby city. He also gives the party a set of red armor to disguise themselves amongst the apes. The lich took a liking to the party.
That's where we ended the session for the night but everyone enjoyed it. Even though Hrothgand ended up being Ape food
An Abominable Fancy
The ChaosGrenade
The Many Headed Troll
Herror Grafico
Jellysaw Games
jeepeeonline
Cave Girl Games
Wizard Thief Fighter
Coins And Scrolls
Goblin Punch
The Dungeon Dozen
DIY And Dragons
Necrotic Gnome
Ten Foot Pole
Lost Pages
Melsonian Arts Council
Hydra Cooperative
False Machine
Hill Canton
Zedeck Siew
Bastionland
Monster Manual Sewn From Pants
Monsters And Manuals
Jeff’s Gameblog
Exalted Funeral
