Star Thugs

[sonofzeal]

You Might Be a Snarfhocker If:
1. You ask what a snarfhocker is.

2. Anything is ever "Off the scale."

3. You wonder why people laugh every time you say the word "Tachyon."

4. You think Star Trek is a drama and not a comedy.

5. You think "Shields" are ephemeral energy fields that can stop anything you want, including bad language.

6. You think that "In space, no one can hear you scream." (Look at your copilot and tell me you think that the fact that sound doesn't travel through space means he won't still turn around and tell your whiny posterior
to shut up.)

7. You think that "alien crossdressers" are a joke. (We only wish.)

8. You think you're clever for saying it's impossible to hack an alien operating system with a Macintosh.

9. The first words out of your mouth when meeting an unknown member of an alien race are "We come in peace" or "Take us to your leader." Or worse, you expect them to say that.

10. You think that, just because laser technology exists, a conventional firearm is no longer capable of putting a hole in someone's brain.

11. You think that when an energy weapon misses, it puts a cute little scorchmark somewhere like a good boy and doesn't punch through the wall and fugg up your bathroom.

12. You think that a "Photon Gun" is more powerful than a laser, and that a "Phased Particle Cannon" is more powerful than a plasma gun.

I have never heard anyone mention this obscure, out-of-print RPG (http://web.archive.org/web/20070210191920/http://www.ghazporkindustrial.com/?P=StarThugs), but I've been a fan of the Maggott Show for a while and a friend of mine has the book but has never managed to put a game together. But the few reviews I can find don't really give me a sense of what gameplay is like, and the most recent of them is seven years old.

Has anyone else heard of it? Has anyone played it? Is anyone interested in it? Or have the Narxblosh won?

[houlio]

While I think the humor is great, it definitely seems like something that a sci-fi group would play to take a quick break from their main game. However, while having nothing productive to add, I'm interested to see if anyone else has more stuff to add.

[TheHarshax]

I corresponded with the author while this was in its final edits... wow that was long time ago.

It's a great read, very sarcastic and matter of fact. It's like Maddox made an RPG.

...except it isn't an rpg. It's more like running an ongoing starfleet battle campaign. Instead of playing a single character, you play a whole gang of pirates.

It's very funny.

[sonofzeal]

I corresponded with the author while this was in its final edits... wow that was long time ago.

It's a great read, very sarcastic and matter of fact. It's like Maddox made an RPG.

...except it isn't an rpg. It's more like running an ongoing starfleet battle campaign. Instead of playing a single character, you play a whole gang of pirates.

It's very funny.
Oh, wow! I guess you know what happened to him then. Very tragic.

The big question for me about the game is whether it strikes the right sort of balance between too little complexity and too much. Too much, and the game is impenetrable. Too little, and there simply aren't a sufficient number of valid tactical/strategic options to make it interesting.

Have you ever actually played it? What was your experience?

[nweismuller]

Out of print, and unlikely to go back into print, as I heard from another friend of the Maggott's that he passed away a while back. Unfortunately. I was one of the people who was involved in early prototype testing online, before the rules reached 'published' status.

Edit: vis-a-vis gameplay- fairly simple rules, but a decent amount of room for tactical choices, and significant strategic choice involved in spending money on designing a ship. You might enjoy it, I think. Maggott was a clever guy.

[houlio]

Out of print, and unlikely to go back into print, as I heard from another friend of the Maggott's that he passed away a while back. Unfortunately. I was one of the people who was involved in early prototype testing online, before the rules reached 'published' status.

Edit: vis-a-vis gameplay- fairly simple rules, but a decent amount of room for tactical choices, and significant strategic choice involved in spending money on designing a ship. You might enjoy it, I think. Maggott was a clever guy.

It's available at drivethru it looks like, for less than $10 too.

Link for those interested: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=18437

[TheHarshax]

Oh, wow! I guess you know what happened to him then. Very tragic.

Goodness, no! I hadn't heard.

We became aquainted because I had read about the Star Thugz draft while cruising the net. Using mad internet skillz, I actually found a formatted final draft of the product and emailed the author so he could remove the lingering web-copies prior to putting it up on rpgnow.com.

He sent me a complimentary copy. I thought he was a really great guy.

So sad.

[nweismuller]

It really is. I still miss him. The very first mechanical seeds of Star Thugs came from a long-running play by e-mail game he was running that I was in; he decided to introduce some codified fleet combat rules beyond simple 'GM fiat' which, eventually, through repeated revision, eventually evolved into the final form of the Star Thugs rules. (The fictional seeds, of course, antedated that, with the long-running setting the Maggott Show was in...)

[sonofzeal]

It really is. I still miss him. The very first mechanical seeds of Star Thugs came from a long-running play by e-mail game he was running that I was in; he decided to introduce some codified fleet combat rules beyond simple 'GM fiat' which, eventually, through repeated revision, eventually evolved into the final form of the Star Thugs rules. (The fictional seeds, of course, antedated that, with the long-running setting the Maggott Show was in...)
Hey, do you still have any contacts in that direction? The friend of mine who introduced me to the show was thinking about doing some fairly major work within the setting, possibly even a novel (though almost certainly not commercially), and was wondering how Maggott might have felt about that or if there's even anyone left to ask permission of. Any words of wisdom you could share on this front would be appreciated.

[nweismuller]

Unfortunately, Maggott stopped showing up online for some time before his death, so I had lost track of him before he passed away. As far as anybody to ask about his setting... I honestly couldn't tell you who has the rights, if anybody. It's a damned shame. He was a good guy.

I suspect Maggott would be flattered by people wanting to work in the setting, although I think he would have been even happier if he were around to exercise editorial perogative to make sure none of the lore got stepped on. I couldn't really say for sure, though.

[Sparky29252]

I can't say as to official rights holders, but I actually know a few of Maggot's family, including the one who has the remaining Star Thugs print copies. As far as I can tell they seem alright with others having fun in the Star Thugs world (presuming non commercial work of course), and would probably be flattered to hear the game has anyone playing it or even thinking to. I could ask who the rights have legally passed to if need be.