Darkstar Gaming Party Ltd. (Keith D�ne)

 

Mindbane by Keith D�ne.

24pp UK A4-size book with paper cover.

Published (for tournament play) in 1983 by Darkstar Gaming Party Ltd., Brisbane, Queensland.

Republished (for public release) in 1986 by Darkstar Gaming Party Ltd., Brisbane, Queensland.

 

Scenario for character of levels 3-5. Heroes are quested with recovering a magical amulet from an evil clerical sect, a task frought with danger and intrigue. Tournament rules and 6 pregenerated characters are provided. Image and information courtesy of Brett Easterbrook.

The following was written by Keith D�ne, and is posted here with permission.

 

Darkstar was put together by a group of friends who met in 1983 at Queensland Role Players, arguably the biggest games club that has ever existed in Australia, numbering 300 members in 1985. The group had a common interest in RPG and strategy games and spent many long nights pooling ideas for the development of a unique fantasy role-playing world that became known as Eldoria.


The creative drive of Darkstar came from Greg Lane and Keith D�ne. Greg was the catalyst for Eldoria, instilling Keith with a designing spark that still burns today, over 10 years since they first met. The working relationship was akin to a paint by numbers set - Greg designed the black and white skeleton and Keith coloured it in.


Darkstar produced only one 'generic' RPG module for commercial sale in 1986. The module was called "Mindbane" and was made and distributed by Chess Sales Qld. It featured a unique scenario that called for the GM to include a 'secret' player in the group who was working against the rest of the players. Although it looks dated by today's standards, it was a breakthrough in RPG design at that time - offering something different from the run-of-the-mill hack and slash scenarios of the early 80's.


Although reaction to "Mindbane" was good, the market in Australia in the 80's made it impossible to produce profitable RPG games. Darkstar faded away, with Greg Lane pursuing an interest in the design of computer games and Keith continuing to expand and detail the fantasy world of Eldoria.
Since then, Keith has been heavily involved in the design of tournament AD&D games for conventions and has run highly-acclaimed games in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. He has also written and conducted a continuing series of Free-Form Live Role-Playing games all based in Eldoria.


Greg has recently achieved success with the design of the world-wide hit computer game, "Dark Reign" and intends to move into the fantasy realm over the next few years.

This is the only known product by Darkstar Gaming Party Ltd.  Darkstar's other planned module, The Glittering Grottoes, was written but never published. The information posted here is available thanks to the work and research of Brett Easterbrook, an authority on Australian RPG products. His site can be found here.

 

 

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