Reich Star
Entry updated 10 April 2015. Tagged: Game.
Role Playing Game (1991). Creative Encounters. Designed by Ken Richardson, Simon Bell.
Reich Star is a Space Opera set in a world where the Nazis won (see Hitler Wins). In its Alternate History Germany's early development of atomic weapons allowed it to conquer the Allies in what is now known as the "War of Unification". Two hundred years later, Earth – or "Erde" – is heavily polluted and severely over-populated, trapped in a centuries-long Cold War between the totalitarian empires of Nippon and the Reich. Meanwhile, both superpowers have expanded to the stars, subjugating and enslaving every alien species they encounter. The two sides keep their conflict warm by sponsoring terrorist attacks on each other's colonies, while home grown rebels fight for causes ranging from a Communist galaxy to the return of democracy. Players adopt the roles of revolutionaries, using a somewhat convoluted system which resembles a more cumbersome version of that used in early editions of Traveller (1977). If its politics are excluded, the future of Reich Star is that of a fairly traditional Space Opera, with Faster Than Light drives, Psionics and Cyborgs all making prominent appearances. But the politics are inescapable. This is a game which views its own setting with an almost obsessive disgust, which tries – perhaps unsuccessfully – to convey the evils of fascism by letting its players experience them for themselves. The intention, perhaps, is neither to show nor to tell, but to make it possible to become. [NT]
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