Lightspress Media Ventures Beyond The Stars
Starlight Opera, one of my all time favourite TTRPG settings, returns
The latest product line from Lightspress Media finally dropped this week, and it is trippy.
To cut the story short, way back in the Deep Times, before Berin Kinsman’s publishing project even had its present name, he released a single book called Starlight Manifesto. This turned out to be one of my favourite science fiction tabletop games, and there were not nearly enough people buying it at that time.
Here’s the first part of the blurb of the current incarnation.
Welcome to Starlight Opera, where adventure knows no bounds, and the infinite expanse of space beckons to you. Whether you're a starship captain charting a course through the stars, a diplomat negotiating peace with alien species, a scientist unraveling the mysteries of the galaxy, or a security agent safeguarding your crewmates, your actions will echo across the universe. Prepare to go boldly as you embark on your unique space opera adventure, filled with challenges, moral dilemmas, and moments of heroism. Your journey awaits among the stars, and the future of the galaxy rests in your hands.
Starlight Opera is contained in a series of five books. There’s a bundle deal which allows you to buy all five books at once, or you can buy them separately. I’m posting the link to the bundle below.
The reason why I was so jazzed by this game was that the original captured the essence of roleplaying a Star Trek style setting, but with many problematic elements taken out.
You know how Star Trek is kind of shocking when it comes to the treatment of physical and mental ailments, as seen in episodes “Dagger Of The Mind” and “Whom Gods Destroy,” and in Deep Space Nine episodes such as “Melora” and “Doctor Bashir, I Presume?” … well, in this game, you can create a Starlight Union where they don’t make such huge, discriminatory missteps.
And they clearly don’t make a huge mistake by only making cishet white men into Captains, either, thank you “Turnabout Intruder” and “if only … if only …”
Review
This product is a worthy reboot of the original Starlight Manifesto. Starlight Opera is powered by Lightspress Media’s DoubleZero and leans heavily towards a light, optimistic future, where humans have overcome their differences and headed out to the stars to find their destiny.
There are conflicts - the vicious, honour-bound T’Leng; the machine god civilisation of Kumbru; and if you are creative enough as a Guide, you can create all manner of hauntingly familiar situations, such as salt vampires, android planets, Godlike beings with incredibly whimsical attitudes and vicious senses of humour, and evil mirror protagonist Science Officers with beards. You can pit your gallant Captain in one-on-one gladiatorial combat in some sandy desert enviornment with a reptilian Lisko Captain, or negotiate with your T’Leng counterpart over the disposition of some grain while one of their subordinates poisons said grain.
Run adventures from any genre of Space Opera that you want to, even borrowing from other SF genres such as Farscape, The Orville, Babylon 5 or Doctor Who if you want. You could poach Ursula K LeGuin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” Why not? Strange New Worlds did.
Trippy Covers
Starlight Opera has been split up into five volumes. Volume 1 is the System Core. Volume 2 is Characters; Volume 3, Worlds; Volume 4, Factions; and the last book is Adventures. Each has a cover with the same image of a human woman’s face, lost in rapture, in different colours.
The pic above was my first effort to turn PNG images into an animated gif. It took a while, but this was my best effort.
Yes, it does look as if she’s tripping. It’s that Brocourian Brandy. “What the Hell did they put in these drinks?” - Dr Joseph M’Benga, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
They say you only need the first book, System Core, to play the game. But for full immersion, I’m recommending you get all five books and enjoy taking deep dives into Starlight Opera. This is one of Berin’s best new releases, alongside his Fantasy Manifesto and release 3 of DoubleZero.
