Star Traders

Star Traders Revival – David Ladyman Interview


New Edition of an 80's Classic Boardgame

David Ladyman, the creator of Star Traders, gives an update on the new edition on Kickstarter.

Star Traders

Star Traders on Kickstarter!

When did you discover your love of games?

Let me see … I was born in … it was about that long ago. I have always loved games, and analyzing how game mechanics work.

Tell us the history of Star Traders.

Our tale begins in the dim past, about thirty years ago, when I was working as an editor for Steve Jackson Games. I enjoyed pick-up-and-deliver games (called “train games” at that time) but found them lacking in two key respects: very little player interaction and very little climax.

Meanwhile Steve acquired a license from Isaac Asimov to publish a series of games under Asimov's name. Steve announced an internal competition to determine the first game in the series, and I started working on a pick-up-and-deliver game in space. When the dust cleared about six months later, Star Traders had been chosen as that first game.

The game was somewhat popular, but not a runaway success. It went out of print after about five years, and the rights reverted to me. Even at that point, I knew I wanted to make changes in it, and I began modifying it. Jumping twenty years ahead, there’s a boardgame revival and the advent of Kickstarter. Combine those two, and there is a real opportunity to get the new, improved Star Traders back into print. It’s bigger, brighter, and full of new worlds and Trader’s Luck cards. And it’s fun.

boardgameWhy create a new edition?

Because I’ve had thirty years to playtest the original edition. While I still like the original, the new version is much, much better — more balanced, more interactive, more fun.

And I’ve taken the opportunity to rename most of the worlds — they’re now named after science fiction authors, with appropriate exports: Wells exports Time Machines, Adams exports Towels, and so forth. Nearly all the Trader’s Luck cards reflect a science fiction TV series or movie — “It’s Bigger On The Inside” gives you extra actions in your turn, “StarGate” lets you jump to any world in the game, and so forth.

Star TradersHow can people help out?

I can design games. I am much less skilled at marketing them. What you can do is check out Star Traders on KickStarter — before March 27! If it sounds like fun, please pledge, and please tell your friends, especially those who don’t live near you and so can’t expect to play using your copy. 🙂

That’s the only way we’ll get it funded and actually get a chance for more people to discover it.

What does the future hold for Trader's Luck Games?

If Star Traders takes off, there are more games in store. An obvious possibility is something similar to Star Traders, set in fantasy realms. And people keep asking me about licensed versions that set Star Traders in other universes.
But first things first. We’ve got to make Star Traders succeed before we can do anything else, so please spread the good word!

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