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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.
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