 October 16, 2007 - 7:04pm | I don't recall the Centispeed...looking through the module (briefly at that) all I found was the VSS Last Legs. The description about the Legs says it was an old ship that was retrofitted. Since it's a lander, and going by Knight Hawks rules, that puts it at HS:3 at a maximum with a pair of atomic drives. Now my house rules say that a starship of up to HS:5 may be streamlined to land in an atmosphere, after all KH rules say a HS:5 system ship may do so then what difference do the drives really make? Even a craft with Ion drives can have a set of additional chemical drives for such duty, and the atomics work in either environment. But going strictly by KH rules, since it is a published module, I'd say the ship would be listed as follows: VSS Last Legs civilian scout ship HS:3 HP:15 Powerplant: 2 Atomic "A" ADF:4 MR:4 DCR:29 Crew: up to 12 (pilot, astrogator, engineer, owner, + up to 8 player characters) Armament: none (LB @ -1 ADF or MR) Defenses: none (although RH is certainly feasible) Communication/Detection: Subspace Radio, Radar, Energy Sensor, Intercom Misc: streamlined hull, camera system COMPUTER Alarm (2) Analysis (4) Astrogation (4) Communication (1) Damage Control (2) Drive (4) Industry (1) Life Support cap:12 (1) Maintenance (2) + optional Laser Battery (1) Cargo Capacity: 0.5 Crew Accomodations: 4 single, double, or triple cabins Passenger Accomodations: 0 Ship's Vehicles: 0 |
 October 17, 2007 - 9:40am | Well, it looks like the name of the ship got changed in the Remastered version. The original name is "VSS Last Legs", but the Remastered version calls it the "VSS Centispeed". |
October 17, 2007 - 4:54pm | Ah, being on dial-up I went with the faster method of researching the module: grab my hard copy LOL |
October 17, 2007 - 5:10pm | Ah, being on dial-up I went with the faster method of researching the module: grab my hard copy LOL ...and what did you find? Mr. 1980's Dial Up Joe |
October 17, 2007 - 6:46pm | Notes scribbled in pencil near the margins... |
 October 19, 2007 - 10:32am | The best kind, Shadow. Most of my campaign notes are yellowing sheets of college-ruled and graph paper in three-ring binders...most of which are sitting in a box somewhere in my mom's house 800+ miles away in Georgia. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
 November 3, 2007 - 1:11am | Well, it looks like the name of the ship got changed in the Remastered version. The original name is "VSS Last Legs", but the Remastered version calls it the "VSS Centispeed". Actually the original book gives it three designations. Front cover: UPF Centispeed. Back cover: VSS centispeed. Various pages :VSS Last Legs. Just be thankful the remastered version didn't have it labeled UPF: Lastispeed Or VSS Centilegs. |
November 3, 2007 - 2:41am | Actually the original book gives it three designations. Front cover: UPF Centispeed. Back cover: VSS centispeed. Various pages :VSS Last Legs. By golly, lad --- you're right! After all these years and I never caught that between the two covers and the interior. This would make for an interesting Marvel Comics "No-Prize" explanation... |
 January 19, 2013 - 6:50pm | It's been a while, I see, since the VSS Centispeed / aka VSS Last Legs / aka UPFS Centispeed discussion occured. Can anyone tell me what the "VSS" stands for? Thanks! Jack. |
 January 20, 2013 - 12:28am | It's been a while, I see, since the VSS Centispeed / aka VSS Last Legs / aka UPFS Centispeed discussion occured. Can anyone tell me what the "VSS" stands for? Thanks! Jack. I think its "Vrusk Star Ship" but that would be rather odd since it would mean the ship is flagged under a race instead of a nation or organization. I suppose I would create a vrusk trade house that starts with a V and claim that the ship is owned by that. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 20, 2013 - 1:07am | VSS is Russian, "Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya"...it's a sniper rifle. ;) |
 December 2, 2016 - 9:00pm | *thread resurrection powers activate* I ran across this thread while researching the timeline of the SF universe. The confusion around the Sundown on Starmist module is straightforward, but easy to sort out: The front cover reads: "The crew of the UPF Centispeed must discover what it is to save the planet." Page 4 "The Sathar" reads: "A while ago the planet was discovered by the merchant ship carrying Maximillian Malligig" Page 4 "Plot Synopsis" reads: "Characters begin their adventure about Malligigg's ship, the VSS Last Legs." Page 24 "Star Frontiers System Brief" reads: "Colonizers None; newly discovered by VSS Centispeed. System presently under investigation by Clarion Department of Extra-Solar Affairs" Notice that this block of text is repeated as an editing error in the original book. Page 29 "Player Character Background Report" reads: "... During his last voyage, Malligigg made an emergency landing on Starmist ... ... Since he knew an official expedition would be sent to Starmist soon following his captain's report to the authorities... ... Therefore, after raising the funds, he purchased and refitted an old ship, the VSS Last Legs ..." So, I interpret all of that as: Malligig was crew on the VSS Centispeed which was forced down in a survey. He finds the metal bit. Once the Centispeed returns to Frontier, Malligig decides to freelance his own ship and get there first. Two ships, common crewman. And the UPF centispeed on the cover was just a cover edit error since most of the other ships in the books had UPF prefix ... someone probably "fixed" the VSS before print not realizing. Side note, this module also illustrates some of the many ways Zebulon's Guide timeline is just wrong. Page 3 "The Heliopes" reads: "Culture among the Heliopes is shallow since they have developed on Starmist for only 600 years." Yet the cover says UPF on it, indicating the UPF had been formed and existed in the background of the Starmist module universe, even if the ship was supposed to be the VSS Centispeed. Putting this together implies Heliopes could have only been left on Starmist sometime between 600 PF to 0 FY... yet Zebulon's states it was 950PF when they got left. We have a 350 year difference, assuming the years in Alpha Dawn are the same as the "standardized" years in Zebulons... oh I just gave myself a headache. |
 December 6, 2016 - 4:09pm | *thread resurrection powers activate* I ran across this thread while researching the timeline of the SF universe. Putting this together implies Heliopes could have only been left on Starmist sometime between 600 PF to 0 FY... yet Zebulon's states it was 950PF when they got left. We have a 350 year difference, assuming the years in Alpha Dawn are the same as the "standardized" years in Zebulons... oh I just gave myself a headache. Sadly I no longer have my original copies of the game or the modules to look at, but I've been relying on the remastered versions. I don't know if you've found it yet, but a couple months ago there was a lot of effort put into a forum topic called the non-Zebs canon timeline. And there are other various fan-created timelines on this site -- some better than others. While Zebs has some good information, it does a bad job with incorporating the modules as you've pointed out. There's a similar problem with how Zebs treats Krataar in the "Dark Side of the Moon." The module has the humans on the planet for about a century before the Vrusk show up, but I believe Zebs truncates that to a couple decades. Basically use Zebs where it fits your campaign and ignore the rest is the advice I go by. Joe Cabadas |
 December 4, 2016 - 9:47pm | You can get all the originals in pdf format at http://starfrontiers.com if you want them. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
December 6, 2016 - 7:50pm | Thanks, Joe! I ran across this site on Friday when I had finished up making a timeline for Crash on Volturnus. The more I dug into the problem, the more I realized the map and timeline in Zeb's is just wrong. In the end, I spent the weekend replacing both. I took the map from Dramune Run and added the corrected locations for Sundown, Rihanna, Tristkar to it... decided I liked a different system in the cluster for Belnafaer, and am going to use that map instead. For the timeline, I just threw out the Zeb's timeline and started building mine from Dramune Run. Makes me sad a bit, because I never noticed those problems back in the day, was too busy just homebrewing it up and going crazy. Now I want to run my kids through the SFAD and SFKH core, and relearning it all, I realize how much I'd missed... and as much as I loved Zeb's Guide when it came out, I am about a centimeter from throwing it into the non-canon bucket. Now I have to go line by line through Zebs and pick and choose exactly what I can use that won't invalidate the original canon game... in my copious spare time. Meanwhile, my kids have a Pan-Galactic Security Breach to figure out... |
December 6, 2016 - 9:05pm | Meanwhile, my kids have a Pan-Galactic Security Breach to figure out...
Somewhere on this site I have buried an Expanded Game version of that for more experienced characters with bigger challenges... |
December 6, 2016 - 10:07pm | Thanks, Joe! I ran across this site on Friday when I had finished up making a timeline for Crash on Volturnus. The more I dug into the problem, the more I realized the map and timeline in Zeb's is just wrong. In the end, I spent the weekend replacing both. I took the map from Dramune Run and added the corrected locations for Sundown, Rihanna, Tristkar to it... decided I liked a different system in the cluster for Belnafaer, and am going to use that map instead. For the timeline, I just threw out the Zeb's timeline and started building mine from Dramune Run. Makes me sad a bit, because I never noticed those problems back in the day, was too busy just homebrewing it up and going crazy. Now I want to run my kids through the SFAD and SFKH core, and relearning it all, I realize how much I'd missed... and as much as I loved Zeb's Guide when it came out, I am about a centimeter from throwing it into the non-canon bucket. Now I have to go line by line through Zebs and pick and choose exactly what I can use that won't invalidate the original canon game... in my copious spare time. Meanwhile, my kids have a Pan-Galactic Security Breach to figure out... Hi Exile: You'll also find various alternative rules on this site, such as The House Rules Wiki, which has some interesting ways of trying to merge and rearrange the Alpha Dawn and Zebs skills systems. There is also something called Star Frontiers 2000 that does something similar. Before I could sign up as a member for this site -- it didn't like my Comcast Business Class email address -- I couldn't access some of the information under the Projects tab. There's a wealth of stuff there even in the dead projects. If I can give a plug for my own project "Joe's Half-Baked Ideas," you might find a few interesting things there... though some are works in progress. Joe Cabadas |
December 6, 2016 - 10:09pm | Thanks, Joe! I ran across this site on Friday when I had finished up making a timeline for Crash on Volturnus. The more I dug into the problem, the more I realized the map and timeline in Zeb's is just wrong. In the end, I spent the weekend replacing both. I took the map from Dramune Run and added the corrected locations for Sundown, Rihanna, Tristkar to it... decided I liked a different system in the cluster for Belnafaer, and am going to use that map instead. For the timeline, I just threw out the Zeb's timeline and started building mine from Dramune Run. Makes me sad a bit, because I never noticed those problems back in the day, was too busy just homebrewing it up and going crazy. Now I want to run my kids through the SFAD and SFKH core, and relearning it all, I realize how much I'd missed... and as much as I loved Zeb's Guide when it came out, I am about a centimeter from throwing it into the non-canon bucket. Now I have to go line by line through Zebs and pick and choose exactly what I can use that won't invalidate the original canon game... in my copious spare time. Meanwhile, my kids have a Pan-Galactic Security Breach to figure out... Hmm, it might be interesting to see your version of the map sometime too. Joe Cabadas |
December 7, 2016 - 8:57pm | Joe, I posted it over in the issues of Frontier Astrogation thread, but summarized: Use the Dramune Run map where Zebulon only shows Volturnus and K'Tsa-Kar shows Zoot-kit. Put Sundown where Zeb's showed the Gamma plague planet near White Light where Clarion Dept. of Extra-Solar Affairs can get at it and a VSS merchant would be likely to force land there. Put Rihanna where Zeb's shows the Delta plague planet, near Cassidine so CDC can get at it. Jog Belnafaer 2 right and 2 down and link it up with Dixon's Star to make an interstellar bypass characters might be travelling through. Put Tristkar where Zeb's shows "Solar Major" so its more in the core part of Vrusk territory and still "right of K'Tsa-Kar" as stated in the module. Draw in Padda, FS24, and FS30/Liberty/Snowball from Beyond the Frontier modules and you have it. |
