Magical Girls In Old School SF Gaming

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika, title also given as
Puella Magi Madoka Magica

I used to be embarrassed to admit it, but I have a soft spot for Magic Girl anime. I've given up that embarrassment (and honi soit qui mal y pense). Sailor Moon, Minky Momo, Fancy Lala, all of them. The genre has a romance and innocence that I need as a counter to my usually grim, gritty, noir predilections. I only ever bought (and still own) two Tri-Stat games: Ghost Dog and Sailor Moon. In some way, that explains a whole lot about me.

As many of you know, I'm in the middle of writing an SF game based on Swords & Wizardry: White Box, which takes a different tack toward the material than White Star did.

What brings these two facts together today? It turns out that there is a release for White Star of a supplement that details a Magic Girl character class, Star Sailors. Obviously, I bought it right away. It's good, if you like that sort of thing, and I do. I will have to make sure that, whatever I end up doing, it will remain compatible with this. I will have to point people toward it in Spectacular Science Stories. It can be an alternative to the Psychic Warriors, perhaps as a rival "organization". Since it can be thought of as similar to the Green Lantern Corps or perhaps the Lensmen, it even fits the setting to some degree.

Star Sailors are empowered by the Star Entity to fight against the Gloom. They gain several abilities, such as their Transformation and Starlight Wand, the Starlight Blast (100' range increment, 1d6+level damage) and the Mascot, and especially the Color of Their Heart power. Those last have names like Royal Passion Rapture (for the color violet), Luminous Courage Glow (for yellow), or Lava Ray Escalation (for red). The Mascot is an animal companion, very intelligent and wise, that grows (or "evolves") as the character rises in level.

(Hat tip to Tim Brannan for bringing this to my attention.)