Star Frontiers

Infobox RPG
title= Star Frontiers


caption=
designer= TSR Staff, Edited by Steve Winter
publisher= TSR
date= 1982
genre= Science fiction
system= Custom
footnotes=

Star Frontiers is a science fiction role-playing game produced by TSR during the 1980s. It offered a futuristic setting, a single page map of the Frontier, and a selection of alien races (including humans) that one could play. It also featured spacecraft and space stations designed with simple methods of artificial gravity; namely thrust and spin.

Setting

Star Frontiers takes place near the center of a spiral galaxy (the setting does not specify whether the galaxy is our own Milky Way). A previously undiscovered quirk of the laws of physics allows starships to jump to "The Void", a hyperspatial realm that greatly shortens the travel times between inhabited worlds, once they reach 1% of the speed of light (3,000 km/s).

The basic game setting was an area known as "The Frontier Sector" where four sentient races (Dralasite, Humans, Vrusk, and Yazirian) had met and formed the United Planetary Federation (UPF). The original homeworlds of the Dralasites, Humans, and Vrusk were never detailed in the setting and it is possible that they no longer existed. A large number of the star systems shown on the map of the Frontier sector in the basic rulebook were unexplored and undetailed, allowing the Gamemaster (called the "referee" in the game) to put whatever they wished there.

Players could take on any number of possible roles in the setting but the default was to act as hired agents of the Pan Galactic corporation in exploring the Frontier and fighting the aggressive incursions of the alien and mysterious worm-like race known as the Sathar. Most published modules for the game followed these themes.

Sapient Races

*Dralasites are short, gray amoeboid creatures capable of changing their form to a limited extent by extending and retracting pseudopods. Lacking a digestive system, they consume their food by surrounding and absorbing it. A network of nerves and veins intersects at a Dralasite's two eye spots. They cannot see colors, but have a well-developed sense of smell. They have a sense of humor that the other races often find strange or quirky, and a love of bad puns.

*Humans are a race of beings virtually identical to Earthly humans. The most notable difference between these and earth humans are that the humans of the Frontier have a 200 year lifespan (possibly due to the advanced technology of the setting).

*Vrusk are an insect-like (arthropoid) race with eight walking legs and two five-clawed manipulating arms. Their ant-like heads included two antennae and two mandibles. They are omnivorous. They are noted for their logical minds and their society is structured as commercial ventures. Many Vrusk give their company name before their given name.

*The Yazirian race are anthropoids similar to various terrestrial apes. They are muzzled, lightly furred, and have patagia stretching between their arms and legs which they can use to glide over short distances in low gravity (their home worlds are all low-gravity). They are descended from a nocturnal species, and prefer to wear tinted goggles to protect their eyesight during the day. They are said to be rather violent and pushy, and have a custom to choose a "life-enemy", which could be anything; a company, person, or a concept. The fictional species was rehashed as Shadow People in TSR's later Dragonlance series of campaign modules and also as the Hadozee race presented first in Spelljammer and secondly in Stormwrack. All bear a strong resemblance to the High Martians of GDW's later RPG. Yazirians bear a passing resemblance to "Wookiees" in "Star Wars" especially in the matter of "battle rage" or a "berserker" state of mind.

These races were altered slightly and reused in TSR's Spelljammer, and have now been republished in original form for d20 Future by Wizards of the Coast.

*The Sathar are a race of mysterious, worm-like beings who are the enemies of the UPF (they are not intended to be used as a player race). They have wormlike bodies of 3 to 4 meters in length with two tentacular arms that end in fine tentacles for manipulation and two tentacles that end in paddles that can be used for heavy lifting (including acting as "legs", lifting the front of the creature off the ground in a humanoid-like stance). Their eyes have two pupils each, giving them good peripheral vision. The races of the Frontier know little about them other than their basic anatomy and the fact that they are hostile, as no live Sathar has ever been captured. Some of the behaviors and motives of the Sathar were revealed in the printed adventures for the game, and adventures commonly featured mercenaries working for the Sathar to undermine the UPF as villains.

*There are also other non-player races in the Star Frontiers universe, including many in the printed modules, but these five are the only races who developed space drive technology within the Frontier. Several new player races appeared in a late addition to the line, "Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space", and include the Humma (which resemble kangaroos), Ifshnit (akin to dwarves), Osakar (lankly, parthenogenic quadrupeds) and Mechanons (intelligent robots).

Game Mechanics

The game was a percentile-based system and used only 10-sided dice (d10). Characters had attributes rated from 1-100 (usually in the 25-75 range) which could be rolled against for raw-attribute actions such as lifting items or getting out of the way of falling rocks. There were eight attributes that were paired together (and shared the same rating to begin with)—Strength/Stamina, Dexterity/Reaction Speed, Intuition/Logic, and Personality/Leadership.

Characters also each had a Primary Skill Area (PSA—Military, Technological, or Biosocial) which allowed them to buy skills that fell into their PSA at a discount. Skills were rated from 1–6 and usually consisted of a set of subskills that gave a chance for accomplishing a particular action as a base percentage plus a 10% bonus for each skill level the character had in the skill. Weapon skills were based on the character's relevant attribute (Dexterity or Strength) but other skills had a base chance of success independent of the character's attributes. Many of the technological skills were penalized by the complexity of the robot, security system, or computer the character was attempting to manipulate (also rated from 1 to 6).

Characters were usually quite durable in combat—it would take several hits from normal weapons to kill an average character. Medical technology was also advanced—characters could recover quickly from wounds with appropriate medical attention and a dead character could be "frozen" and revived later.

Vehicle and robot rules were included in the "Alpha Dawn" basic set. The "Knight Hawks" rules expansion set included detailed rules for starships.The basic set also included a short "bestiary" of creatures native to the world of Volturnus (the setting for the introductory module included with the basic boxed set), along with rules for creating new creatures.

Character advancement consisted of spending experience points on improving skills and attributes.

Products

The basic boxed set was renamed "Alpha Dawn" after the expansions began publication. It included two ten-sided dice, a large set of cardboard counters, and a folding map with a futuristic city on one side and various wilderness areas on the other for use with the included adventure, SF-0: "Crash on Volturnus".

A second boxed set called "Knight Hawks" followed shortly. It provided rules for using starships in the setting and also a set of wargame rules for fighting space battles between the UPF and Sathar. Included were counters for starships, two-ten sided dice, a large folding map with open space on one side and on the other a space station and starship (for use with the included adventure), and the adventure SFKH-0: "Warriors of White Light". [cite journal | last = Slack| first = Andy| authorlink = | coauthors = | title =Open Box: Knighthawks | format = | journal =White Dwarf | volume = | issue =Issue 51 | pages =12 | publisher =Games Workshop | year = 1984 | month = March | url = | issn = | accessdate = ]

Adventures printed separately for the game included two more adventures set on Volturnus (SF-1: "Volturnus, Planet of Mystery" and SF-2: "Starspawn of Volturnus" continuing the adventure included in the basic set), SF-3: "Sundown on Starmist", SF-4: "Mission to Alcazzar", SF-5: "Bugs in the System" and SF-6: "Dark Side of the Moon". The last two modules (SF-5 and SF-6) were written by authors from TSR's UK division, and are distinctly different from the others in the series in tone and production style.

Adventures using the "Knight Hawks" rules included SFKH-1: "Dramune Run" and a trilogy set "Beyond the Frontier" in which the players learn more about the Sathar and foil their latest plot (SFKH-2: "Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes", SFKH-3: "Face of the Enemy", and SFKH-4: "The War Machine").

Two modules also re-created the plot and setting of the movies ' and '.

A late addition to the line was "Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space" which introduced several additional races and radical changes to the game's mechanics. Of the three planned volumes of the Guide, only the first was ever published (in 1985), leaving the game in an uncomfortable, half-overhauled state. Gamers were given little to no practical advice on how to convert their existing characters to the new rules, and TSR never published any further products using the "Zebulon's" concepts.

Current Products

Wizards of the Coast published many of the races originally found in Star Frontiers in their "d20 Future" supplement for d20 Modern.

Current versions of the original game are fanworks. In addition to the Star frontiers Redux and Knight Hawks Vector Rules, a high-quality fan E-zine named "Star Frontiersman" is being published on a regular basis. A multiplayer flight simulator version of Knight Hawks Vector is being developed for Orbiter Space Simulator program, and a virtual tabletop version is also in the works. Play-by-forum post and OpenRPG games are currently being played with new ones starting all the time in the Starfrontiers.org forum.

A version of the setting called "Star Law", which uses the d20 system rules was published as an alternate campaign setting in the d20 Future book. It uses the species names of Vrusk, Dralasite, Sathar, and Yazirian, but is not actually the Star Frontiers setting.

External links

* [http://StarFrontiers.org StarFrontiers.org] - The original Star Frontiers website and Forums. Lots of gaming resources here, including Star Frontiers video games such as VECTOR and a 3d space-flight simulator. You can find downloadable RuleBooks for Knight Hawks and Alpha Dawn and hundreds of 3d models and Star Frontiers artwork.
* [http://www.starfrontiers.com StarFrontiers.com] - An online resource that offers legal PDF downloads of the game and links to many great SF webring sites.
* [http://starfrontiers.homelinux.net The Star Frontiers Network] - Site designed for hosting on-line Star Frontiers games and software development as well as providing links to other Star Frontiers resources. Links, forums, audio and text chat servers, FTP site and more.
* [http://arsponline.org/Game.html Game Design Studio: Founded in 1997, this was a gateway website involved with re-developing The Star Frontiers Setting. Nowadays it is a download page for development threads on StarFrontiers.org forums.
* [http://StarFrontiers.us StarFrontiers.us] - (off-line as of Oct 2008)Star Frontiers wiki projects and forums. The fastest growing and largest online community for Star Frontiers.
* [http://zebulon-university.com Zebulon University] A fan website based on a "possible" future beyond the canon historical timeline.
* [http://www.gamesdiner.com/star_frontiers_to_gurps Star Frontiers to GURPS 4e Conversion Notes] Fan-made conversion for gaming Star Frontiers in a popular modern RPG system.
* [http://www.StarFrontiersman.com Star Frontiers - Digitally Remastered] - Recently created site that has the original books reformatted into a more modern and user-friendly sensibility. Also, the home of "Star Frontiersman", a 'zine dedicated to fan contributions.
* [http://www.technomage.com.au/U.P.F/index.html "Black Hand Gang"] - Play-by-Email "Star Frontiers" campaign

References

[www.Starfrontiersman.com]