Character Creation: Black Star

Yes, it's a second space-opera game in a row, but a) there's no reason you'd have to play Once More Into the Void as a space opera game and b) I saw this game on my list and now this commercial from my youth has been in my head ever since:

The 80s were a strange time, but at least we had toys.

The Game: Black Star
The Publisher: Lakeside Games (they have a website, but it's giving me security risk warnings)
Degree of Familiarity: None, but the book is only 54 pages and I've seen Star Wars
Books Required: Just the one

So, Black Star is pretty unabashedly Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. There's a big intergalactic empire kind of thing, you're living in the black star sector, the hotbed of resistance (and also scum and villainy), there's optional rules for the Force Resonance:

But y'know, that's fine. It's not meant to be a licensed property, it's a real simple 2d6 kind of system using a property everyone knows (even if they haven't seen the movies) as inspiration. Let's make a star guy!

Thinking about the inspirational material, who do I find inspiring? I'm actually not a huge Star Wars fan, though I've tried to be over my life (I saw Return of the Jedi, objectively the worst of the orig trig, in theaters when I was smol). Let's say that my Hero stowed away on a ship bound for some gleaming Imperial city, hoping to find his real parents (for he is an orphan), but the ship got jacked by space pirates (you know, pirates, but in space!) and wound up in the black star sector. My guy wound up running with the pirate crew, because Tanla, the pirate captain, wasn't a complete asshole and wasn't going to leave a kid out in the middle of black star with no family and no way home. 

(I rewatched Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2 last night; maybe it shows.)

So my character was raised by space pirates, and I think he'd be pretty much primed for a Call to Adventure. On we go!

I have 10 Abilities, they each start at 1 (average), and I have 10 points to distribute betwixt them. 3 is rare, 5 is best in the galaxy. What does this mean in context? An Ability check is roll 2d6 and add the Ability, 9 or better is a success. Oh, so if you've got a 2 you're likely to succeed most of the time, and if you've got a 5 you can fail but it's not going to happen much. Nifty.

Well, I think my guy is likely to be a bit of all-rounder, but I always like to have something my characters are good at, so let's leave Brawling and Strength at 1 so I can bump something up to 4. Hmm...Tools or Transports? Tinkerer or pilot? Let's go with tinkerer, I'm mechanically inclined. That's fun escapism. 

And then I pick two Archetypes. Well, I want Outlaw, obviously, and Tech makes the most sense.

And then I get five Talents. Two of them are my Archetypes (they both mean when I spend Resolve to turn a failure into a success on certain kinds of rolls, I don't suffer a complication, which I think is cool). Two of them have to be Talents within those Archetypes, and then the fifth is a freebie. Hokay. I need a Tech Talent, and Outlaw Talent, and a [whatever] Talent. 

Well, for my Tech Talent I'll take Improvise (I can whip together a piece of gear out of spare parts). For Outlaw, I'll take Hotwire (I get a bonus to break into ships and hack their operations systems). And then for the freebie...hrm, man, there are a lot of good choices. Tempted to take a Gear Talent, but I think my guy is used to whipping up whatever he needs out of junk and then letting it fall apart. I'll take Stealth instead (+1 die to do stealthy things).

Gear! I get a link (a smartphone, but in space!), a standard weapon (let's take a pulse pistol), and five pieces of Gear, though I'm encouraged to take 3 and leave 2 for assignment during play. I'll take a backpack, a toolkit, a utility belt, and a scanner (yes, that's four, but it's not like I'm gonna play him anyway). 

I start with 7 Resolve, and...that's actually it! Just need a name and a brief backstory, which I did already, so just a name. Let's say his buds call him "Noj". It's a truncation of "not junk," which is something he says a lot - his crew gets annoyed that he spends time picking through every trash pile for spare bits, and Tanla used to tell him "leave the junk alone", and he'd said "IT'S NOT JUNK", so folks started calling him "Not Junk." Eventually it got shortened down to "Noj."

Noj is now in his early 20s, perpetually grease-stained, but a lot quicker and quieter than you'd think. His ears stick out too far from his head and he has freckles, you just usually can't see them for the grease.