The galaxy is vast and starlit, peopled by multitudes on its myriad of strange and wondrous worlds.

The galaxy is vast and starlit, peopled by multitudes on its myriad of strange and wondrous worlds. There is darkness among the stars, where we can hide among the thousand-thousand secrets and seek our fortune between the grasping claws of tyranny. This is why the restless, the hungry, and the dispossessed turn ever #Starward…

Starward is a space-fantasy hack of Swords Without Master (www.swordswithoutmaster.com) set in the universe of Vast & Starlit (www.dig1000holes.com/vast-starlit).

INFLUENCES

Leigh Brackett's Skaith Trilogy & the Flash Gordon comic & serial
For wondrous aliens, worlds and cultures. For battles with swords and ray guns alike. For a healthy dose of sorcery with our high sciences. For the opening titles crawl from the Flash Gordon serial.

Kurosawa & Seven Samurai
For gathering a crew of masterless rogues. For tense and decisive sword fights. For something a bit more complex than powerful strangers coming to help.

WWII Aviation Films
For turbulent and nail-biting dogfights. For tense bombing runs. For a handful of crewmembers holding a stubborn craft together with elbow grease and a few prayers.

THE RITUAL OF THE OPENING CRAWL
Each session begins with the Overplaying reciting the opening crawl, a brief introduction to what has gone on before and what it about to happen. In the opening crawl, the Overplayer must answer at least two of the following:

• What is going on in the greater struggle?
• What has happened just before now?
• What machinations have lead to the beginning phase?

The opening crawl need not tightly knit previous adventures with the current one.

THE RITUAL OF STRANGE & WONDROUS ENCOUNTERS
(All but nine words taken verbatim from Vast & Starlit.)

Whenever you need an alien species, culture, or environment hold the action, step out of the game, and follow these steps:

Create Your Base
Alien species—One player selects 2 types of animals they are familiar with.

Alien culture—One player selects a culture or subculture they are a part of.

Alien environment—One player selects a location & a climate all are familiar with.

Deviate Aspects
The next player picks an aspect of the base, such as a cat’s aloofness, the pettiness of oˆce politics, or a half-frozen bog. Then the next player chooses to tweak, reverse, or exaggerate this. Repeat this step 3 to 5 times until it feels alien.

Combine & Synthesize
The next player makes a coherent whole from only the deviated aspects, not the base.

THE RITUAL OF DUELS & DOGFIGHTS
When you stand against a worthy foe with sword or pistol, or when you scream across the sky in frantic battle with enemy aces, it never ends as it begins. If your dogfight or duel ends up part of an element on a Motif, your struggle cannot be resolved in just one phase.

If the current phase is the first phase featuring this particular dogfight or duel, you must wait until this phase ends and the next one begins before ending it. Additionally, the Overplayer must attempt to follow the current phase with the next phase on the chart below (though this may be subverted by a Trick).

• Follow a Perilous Phase with a Rogues' Phase
• Follow a Rogues' Phase with a Discovery Phase
• Follow a Discovery Phase with a Perilous Phase

If the duel or dogfight has already lasted through more than one phase, you may resolve it whenever.

THE RITUAL OF THE WANDERING TONE
The base Overtones are Glum & Jovial. Planets, spacecraft housing three or more crew, and other significant environments may have one or more alternative tones, like below. 

The jungle planet of Ul-Gallaroon:
• Lush
• Cacophonous
• Claustrophobic
• Misty

The Golden Moon:
• Opulence
• Austerity

The Princess May, the star galleon of Captain Ceres and her stardogs:
• Brutal
• Treacherous
• Vibrant

A space freighter in chronic disrepair:
• Clunky

Such environments have their own die as well. When first you come upon a significant environment with alternative tones, the Overplayer chooses one of the tones already in play and swaps it for one of the environment's tones as they swap the tone's die for the environment's die. 

As the rogues wander through fanciful vistas, the tones will wander with them. Once swapped, the new die stays in play until swapped out by another. All who roll must now adhere to the new tone, though their Feats Heroic and certain Tricks may affect this. Unparalleled rogues ignore any new tone that replaces the tone they have already replaced, but must adhere to tones that replace the other. For example, Captain Ceres is Unparalleled—she is Raucous instead of Jovial—and if aboard The Princess May the Overplayer decides to swap Jovial with Vibrant, her tones remain Glum and Raucous; but if the Overplayer swaps Glum with Treacherous, her tones become Treacherous and Raucous. She will always have Raucous as one of her tones as long as she's Unparalleled. 

You will only ever have two tone dice in play and whenever you come upon an environment without its own tones, the Overplayer may swap Glum or Jovial back into play.

THAT WHICH IS DESERVING OF A NAME
Occasionally the story is as much about the ship or companions or gear of the rogues as it is of the rogues themselves. When you create your Feats Heroic, if one of your Feats features something named on your rogue's sheet, you may choose a second Trick for your rogue that also focuses on this named thing.

The stardogs are a group of rowdy space pirates that Captain Ceres holds to her command and has named on her rogue's sheet. Her Glum Feat Heroic is to "Commit a loyal stardog to a doomed course of action that just may save The Princess May." Because she features the stardogs in her Feat Heroic, she can have another Trick (in addition to the previously mentioned Unparalleled) as long as that Trick also features the stardogs. She chooses Ill Fate and writes the lesson "Never fully trust your second in command."

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