Starguild is Space Opera Noir, where futuristic weapons and faster than light travel meet heartbreak, decadence and betrayal. Be brave naval officers or devious smugglers. Match wits and passion in high society or creep through ganglands in derelict cities. Explore dangerous jungles on the frontier worlds or engage as high tech mercenaries on future battlefields. But it all has a price.
The game setting has been influenced by the high action space opera of Star Wars, by the competing diplomatic regimes of Babylon 5, by the grittiness of Firefly frontier worlds and by the underlying horror of the Cthulhu mythos for those who wish to draw in genuinely inimical aliens. It isn’t exactly like any of those, but the fingerprints are there, and it is easy to run adventures which are drawn from any of those settings within the world of Starguild.
All this is underlaid with the essential noir setting details – cynical, ambitious, cruel; with dark undertones of emotional blackmail, sex and betrayal. Conflicting agendas and fragile trust. Secret deals and complex intrigues. The good guys do not always win. The good guys do not always live. The good guys are not always good guys.
To support this atmosphere, the game treats social conflict – the ability to alter someones emotions and thinking – just as importantly as the more traditional kinds of conflict of fist and gun. There are many ways that adventurers can achieve their objectives, including manipulating their friends and allies should the need arise. But beware – lest your head be turned by seduction, poisoned by distrust, swindled out of something important or taunted into an irrational act!
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