Darkstar Gaming was a small company based in Brisbane, Queensland. They produced one AD&D module, with another being written and advertised but not produced.
The follow was written by Keith Done:
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 Done. 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.
 | Originally played at the 1983 Canberra Wargames Convention. Artwork, both cover and inside, is kept simple. The adventure itself is only about 10 pages long, with the remainder of the 24-page booklet occupied by maps, diagrams, pre-generated player stats etc. Another adventure "The Glittering Grottoes" an underwater adventure, was advertised on the back cover of Mindbane. This module was written but never published. |
My email address is Brett@arielarchives.com.