Return to Stars an optimistic science fiction roleplaying game that helps you tell stories of exploration and adventure. To celebrate the Return being prominently featured in the Polygon essay on Hopepunk games, it we’re running a flash sale–check out our award nominated game!
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The Kinetic Brilliance of Tsui Hark’s Peking Opera Blues
Knife. Horse. Actress. That’s a blunt, character by character, translation of Daomadan, the Chinese title of Peking Opera Blues—which is also the clearest possible key to a film where performance is a weapon, gender is a disguise, and survival depends on how convincingly you can play your part. The term daomadan names a specific kind …
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Jeanne Dielman: the Best Christmas Movie Ever Made
(The following is the script for a humorous holiday vlog post, with a link to the video. This site does not *actually* recommend Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as holiday classic.) What’s up, Film Fans! Welcome back to Mark Loves Films. I just watched a 1975 masterpiece that critics have been SLEEPING …
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The Dark History Buried in Exhuma
While Exhuma is marketed as a straightforward horror film, its true genius lies in its structure as a piece of supernatural “competency porn.” This is a film about experts doing their job with breathtaking skill, only the job happens to be calming the dead and confronting ancient curses. The narrative begins with a wealthy Korean-American …
Return to the Stars: Science Fiction Roleplaying Game
In dark times, games can fill us with joy and hope.
Return to the Stars, a tabletop science fiction role playing game, helps players create their own stories in an optimistic space opera setting.
To celebrate Return being prominently featured in the Polygon essay on Hopepunk games, it we’re running a flash sale–check out our award nominated game!
Return to the Stars is designed to allow the creation of characters that evoke the best elements of geek culture. In the far future hyperspace travel gave easy access to countless worlds, and humanity sorted itself into like-minded communities. One such society was the Convention Authority, founded to celebrate the now classical arts of science fiction, fantasy, and gaming.
One day, without warning, the stellar beacon that illuminated hyperspace went silent rendering galactic travel impossible. The systems of the Convention Authority stayed connected thanks to a replica fleet of early starships. Now, after more than a century of effort, a long-range exploration craft has been built. Its purpose: to return to the stars and reconnect with lost civilizations of humanity.
The players of Return to the Stars are a new generation of geeks — makers, cosplayers, scientists, and pop culture enthusiasts setting out on an adventure of exploration and discovery.
Easy to Learn, Simple to Play
Return to the Stars is powered by the popular Fate Core SRD, an indie game system that helps you tell rich stories without a lot of preparation or calculation.
Return to the Stars comes with an adventure specially designed to teach the core concepts of the game. In playtests at many different conventions, new players have been up and running and having a good time after ten minutes of explanation.
Our goal: if you love anime or games or science fiction or cosplay, and have thought about trying roleplaying games, you can get Return to the Stars, read it, and play.
Cool New Tools
If you already love games powered by Fate, we’ve added some fun new subsystems that you can enjoy in Return, or adapt to your existing games and settings.
Character Arcs
Often in fiction a protagonist has a problematic way of interacting with the world. It kinda works for them, but its shadow side takes a cost. Eventually, they learn they need to change and grow. Character arcs are a structured way to spotlight how someone grows past their Trouble.
Competitions
Competitions are a type of contest in which the drama comes as much from trying to perform at the limits of your ability as it does from overcoming the opposition.
Downtime Tinkering
Creative options that players can have fun with between sessions to make the game richer for everyone, getting minor in-game benefits. Equally inspired by the Amber and Pendragon RPGs
Props
Return to the Stars is a game about who people are not about the stuff they carry. Still, loot makes players happy. Props are gear that you can have fun collecting but which are only used a single for a dramatic effect. Like an intriguing prop in a well-made science fiction movie it provides a moment of cool that shakes thing up and advances the story, and then you don’t see it again.
Space Opera Skills and Stunts
Skills tailored to tell science fiction stories—play as a scientist or an academic rather than someone with “lore”. Hack into computer systems, change your genetics on the fly. Skills can be varied with over 100 fun stunts, including many novel templates you can repurpose for other settings.
If you enjoy tales filled with optimism and hope, where players can paint a better future in bold primary colors, then you should prepare to Return to the Stars!
Optimistic Indie Roleplaying 