''Star Ace'' is a role-playing game published by

Pacesetter Ltd Pacesetter Ltd was a game company based in Delavan, Wisconsin, founded in 1984. Company founders included CEO John Rickets, and Mark Acres, Andria Hayday, Gaye Goldsberry O'Keefe, Gali Sanchez, Garry Spiegle, Carl Smith, Stephen D. Sullivan an ...

in 1984.

Description

''Star Ace'' is a science-fiction system. The rules are simple; most actions are resolved by checking against a single multi-purpose table. Player characters are Star Aces, interstellar outlaws who oppose the Empire. The game includes a rulebook (64 pages), a campaign setting, the "Wilderness Briefing Manual" (32 pages), an introductory scenario "Deuces Wild" (16 pages), a star map, and counters. The game is compatible with ''

Chill In computing, CHILL (an acronym for CCITT High Level Language) is a procedural programming language designed for use in telecommunication switches (the hardware used inside telephone exchanges). The language is still used for legacy systems in ...

'' and ''

Timemaster ''Timemaster'' is a role-playing game centered on traveling through time and alternate dimensions, written by Mark D. Acres, Andria Hayday and Carl Smith (game designer) and published by Pacesetter Ltd in 1984. Players take on the role of Time C ...

''.

Publication history

''Star Ace'' was designed by

Mark Acres Mark Richard Acres (born November 15, 1962) is an American former professional basketball player who spent most of his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was a 6'11", power forward/center. Acres attended Oral Roberts Unive ...

and Gali Sanchez, and was published by

in 1984 as a

boxed set A box set or (its original name) boxed set is a set of items (for example, a compilation of books, musical recordings, films or television programs) traditionally packaged in a box and offered for sale as a single unit. Music Artists and bands ...

including a 64-page book, a 32-page book, and a 16-page book, a large color map, a cardstock counter sheet, and dice. ''

'', ''

'', and ''Star Ace'' were all built around the same house system and all released by Pacesetter within a year.

Reception

Marcus L. Rowland reviewed ''Star Ace'' for ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' #67, giving it an overall rating of 5 out of 10, and stated that "All in al1, a dull and uninspiring game and I think that ''Pacesetter'' should have tried to develop something completely new, rather than re-hashing old themes and producing a disappointing result."

Warren Spector Warren Evan Spector (born October 2, 1955) is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how ...

reviewed ''Star Ace'' in ''

Space Gamer Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

'' No. 75. Spector commented that "if I could buy just one Pacesetter game – and maybe even just one science fiction game – ''Star Ace'' would be the one. It's flawed, but utterly charming – a 'Golly-gosh gee-whiz, Captain Terrific!' sort of game. and what the heck, you'll hear the sound of lasers roaring through the vacuum of outer space as flaming engines propel you at speeds far greater than that of light. So it ain't science."

Lawrence Schick Lawrence Schick is a game designer and writer associated with role-playing games. Early life and education Schick attended Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university al ...

describes the game system as "heavy on the fiction (dramatic role-playing) and light on the science", and suggested that the game was inspired by the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' movies.

References

External links

*{{cite web, url=http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9638.phtml, title=RPGnet: Review of ''Star Ace'', access-date=2007-07-24 Pacesetter games Role-playing games introduced in 1984 Science fiction role-playing games