If the original 'White Star' is a tribute to Star Wars, this is a tribute to Star Trek executed with the same love of the source material and dedication to making the material playable and approachable.

9 new classes, rules for space exploration and military ranks, as well as a sizeable bestiary.

The new setting included offers two 'Eras' of play. A 'Golden Age' of peace when the Federation is at it's height and a 'Dark Age' after it's fallen with our heroes struggling to restore it's light to the galay.

Besides Star Trek this product is heavily influenced by Andromeda and FarScape. the blending of ideas and themes makes it a setting both familiar and new at the same time.

If you like White Star I'd highly recommend this add-on

A fun and interesting impulse buy priced item, Five Year Mission adds elements of Star Trek, Farscape and Andromeda to Whitestar, with a number of new classes, ship types and alien races.

There are some really fun ideas in here My favorite is the Expendable class, where the player gets to run a number of "Red Shirt" style crewmen and can expect to see them knocked off as the other players get into and barely survive dangers. My second favorite is the Living Starship class, letting the player roleplay the group's vehicle and homebase in the stars.

A few ideas don't grab me. the Exiled Ruler in particular - based I am sure on the Farscape character - seems like too narrow a character as written, portraying that specific character rather than a more broadly defined archetype.

Hey! For seventy cents this is a no brainer. If yo are playing Whitestar or any other OSR Sci-fi style game it is worthy adding to you tool box.

The White Star rpg has been based on the Swords and Wizardry engine pretty much catters to the pulp and Star Wars style space opera genre. It also has one of the most active and passionate fan bases imaginable pumping out incredible content for the game as fast as possible. But much of the OSR material for the game has centered around this style of space opera and Star Trek style adventuring has been lacking. And yes there are a number of OSR products and retroclone that meet that need. This isn't what Five Year Mission by Kirt A. Dankmyer is, instead this is an add on tool kit support system for adding in federation style star ships casts and crew to your White Star Games. But Kirt this isn't a complete product, its a product that has some development and the designer/writer wants to share it with you! And at .70 cents can you go wrong? Five Year Mission adds in tongue and cheek elements to the game in Kirt's solid writing style and it adds in a whole other dimension to your White Star games. This book adds in all of the usual suspects from Trek to your White Star Games. Think about that all of the usual suspects are now dropped straight into your Space Opera games of White Star. Here's the offical word from Ivanhoe Unlimited:

BUT it will transform into the final product! As more is added, the price will go up! But you'll get the updated version, free of charge!

What is it about? It's a supplement for White Star with a sort of Star Trek theme.

Right now, it contains:

But let's take this a step further, have you ever wondered about those away missions that have gone wrong during those five years out in the middle of unexplored space? What would happen if some Star Wars style adventurers ran smack into the midst of this business? Well now you can and at .70's cents its easy to get into the back end of the action. Most of the material here is well done and plays out someplace between the original Star Trek series and Next Generation with a combination of the two possible and easily done. Now there are tons of Star Trek expanded universe material out there to use. What Five Year Mission does is saves you half of the head ache of searching for it and hunting through tons of books to locate facts and figures. Five Year Mission isn't complete but its a damn fine start to a promising book that could add a ton of material to the White Star Universe for Old School play. Personally I would get in on the ground floor cheaply and then as things build you the old school DM is ahead of the curve. There are several other possible uses for Five Year Mission easily right out of the gate. It could be used to emulate those dirty and dangerous failed colonies we used to hear about on Star Trek in both the original series and the Next Generation. Combined with elements already in White Star this book could simulate a post apocalyptic world or colony. Used to get PC's right smack into the middle of dangerous situations in the wastelands. This book could be used with elements of Swords and Wizardry added in to simulate elements of science fantasy or monsters who have become mutational horrors reminiscent of some the classic D&D or AD&D modules such as Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. And you've got the makings of a complete campaign for years to come. The possibilities here are endless and its only .70 cents right now. Personally I can see a myriad of uses for this product and as a Star Trek fan this is a welcome addition to the growing White Star universe and family of products