 September 20, 2017 - 6:23pm | ...if you still happen to have any of it. I've made numerous mentions over the years of my SF star ship house rules that were penned when I first got the SF boxed set (long before it was retitled "Alpha Dawn", a.k.a. the "purple box"), citing my characters' ship that was dubbed "Volturnian Knighthawk" and the corresponding tale of the following year when I discovered a pink SF expansion boxed set sporting a similar name. So without further adieu, I submit the "1982 Volturnian Knighthawk" as the first part of this thread. It's an obvious cross between a Millennium Falcon and Traveller Scout/Courier. Key features would be the air lock & boarding ramp (1 & 2 respectively), a cockpit that doubles as an escape pod (3), an air car bay (7), crew quarters (9), common area (12), the ladderwell to the dorsal turret, lower cargo hold, and ventral turret (13), and retractable laser weapons all around. |
September 20, 2017 - 6:42pm | ...and a post-KH acquisition ignore the rules Millennium Falcon after spending countless hours with the pause button and a ESB VHS copy. |
 September 21, 2017 - 5:56am | Unfortunately after I jioned the Army my mother put my things in the garage to have more room in the house. She lives in Florida so it did not take long for mildew and insects and these horrible things called "brothers" to ruin (take) my early things. Would really like to see other people's early items and bring back some memories. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 September 21, 2017 - 10:31am | Played more KHs with the game back in the day, had discovered Star Fleet Battles and Car Wars, I was easliy distracted by those games although KHs was easier to teach to a novice. Eventually fell back into role playing and gravitated toward B/X D&D and dabbled a little with Alpha Dawn but by that time had bought Zebs with paper route money and was eventually frustrated that Zebs was an incomplete 2nd edition. Eventually walked a dark path after college: crime and the occult. Had a reckoning with God where he made it clear that I had limited time to live on the path I was on. This realization was in part due to my then favorite song, Highway to Hell and I had a "coming to Jesus" moment on the Maine turnpike while speeding. The irony being my life was figuratively on the highway to hell, I was literally driving on the highway going too fast, and my favorite song was.... Anyhow, I decided if I was going to do that Christian thing that I was going to go all in, no half measures. So the church I ended up at was pretty conservative and when the pastor said I should burn all my occult material and that would include Dungeons and Dragons materials I said, OK. So there went my early stuff. Be critical if you like but that was simply part of the path I walked and needed the sollid break with the past . Didn't really need to burn my role playing games but people I loved and respected said yes so I did. I still love and respect that pastor today but clearly I dont advertise to him that I'm involved with role playing games. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 21, 2017 - 6:20pm | I asked my pastor about non-D&D gaming and was given a generic "if it's not from God it's not for you" answer. Personally, that can be applied to many things up to and including church services themselves...espcially considering how the Good Book proclaims honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest and Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week A.K.A. the day God rested --- not the first day of the week like most churches observe and adopted to attract pagan worshippers to their folds back in early times. Anyways, having said that I offered up a gaming session so he could get an objective view of what it's all about. He actually agreed but alas I could not get a coinciding day off to make it happen. So no judgement being passed on this end.  |
September 24, 2017 - 4:10pm | (duplicate posted deleted by author) |
September 24, 2017 - 4:09pm | This next one is not SF rather something that predates it...namely D&D, my "gateway drug" to Star Frontiers per se. I want to say this is from around Spring of 1981 when a friend of mine first bought the now-classic Moldvay Basic boxed set and our group's first endeavor via Keep on the Borderlands. (complete with Coke stains  )__________________________________  Sadly these never got any actual use during the course of game play, but I did base my computer rendered versions them. |
September 30, 2017 - 8:10am | A couple more of my early renderings --- the first is yet another Millenium Falcon-esque deck plan of the "Terran Falcon", a ship I drummed up in a series of Earth-based sci-fi stories I was writing back in junior high/high school & college. WHile it was never actualy utilized in SF I drafted it according to my pre-KH starship house rules. Next up is the "good ship Rabbit's Foot" which was plagiarized from the original Marvel Comics Star Wars run, this was the ship belonging to Jaxxon & Amaiza. All were breifly utilized in my pre-KH campaign.    |
September 30, 2017 - 1:49pm | I remember those comics. I think I got three of them in my Christmas stocking. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 30, 2017 - 2:59pm | The first run of Marvel's Star Wars is hands down the best non-canon material out there --- and it could be debated that it is Canon since Disney owns Marvel now. I've yet to sample any of the current crop though, I got out of comics when I thought $2/issue was getting pricey. Now it's $4 per issue, five comics per month is an investment you can make in a regular run single silver age book these days that will only continue to go up in value. |
 October 5, 2017 - 8:26am | Played more KHs with the game back in the day, had discovered Star Fleet Battles and Car Wars, I was easliy distracted by those games although KHs was easier to teach to a novice. Eventually fell back into role playing and gravitated toward B/X D&D and dabbled a little with Alpha Dawn but by that time had bought Zebs with paper route money and was eventually frustrated that Zebs was an incomplete 2nd edition. Eventually walked a dark path after college: crime and the occult. Had a reckoning with God where he made it clear that I had limited time to live on the path I was on. This realization was in part due to my then favorite song, Highway to Hell and I had a "coming to Jesus" moment on the Maine turnpike while speeding. The irony being my life was figuratively on the highway to hell, I was literally driving on the highway going too fast, and my favorite song was.... Anyhow, I decided if I was going to do that Christian thing that I was going to go all in, no half measures. So the church I ended up at was pretty conservative and when the pastor said I should burn all my occult material and that would include Dungeons and Dragons materials I said, OK. So there went my early stuff. Be critical if you like but that was simply part of the path I walked and needed the sollid break with the past . Didn't really need to burn my role playing games but people I loved and respected said yes so I did. I still love and respect that pastor today but clearly I dont advertise to him that I'm involved with role playing games. Definitely don't burn old RPGs. But, as noted in other posts, I gave away my Star Frontiers/Knight Hawks games when I was trying to downsize some of my collection. My early campaign didn't go very far as my friends were more into Star Fleet Battles, D&D, Gamma World, Traveller, plus dabbling with Top Secret, Paranoia and such. Then came Star Trek the Role Playing Game, BattleTech, Shadow Run, Twilight 2000, Traveller 2300, etc. Now, those games I kept, though they are still boxed -- in Rubbermaid totes -- away in my garage. Heck, I even have the ElfQuest RPG that I never used. I do wish that I hadn't gotten rid of SF, but the half-complete Zebulon's Guide killed a lot of my interest for the game back then... plus the fact that TSR stopped producing any SF materials except for the occassional (and rare) Dragon magazine article. Joe Cabadas |
October 5, 2017 - 8:33am | I asked my pastor about non-D&D gaming and was given a generic "if it's not from God it's not for you" answer. Personally, that can be applied to many things up to and including church services themselves...espcially considering how the Good Book proclaims honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest and Sabbath is the Seventh day of the week A.K.A. the day God rested --- not the first day of the week like most churches observe and adopted to attract pagan worshippers to their folds back in early times. Anyways, having said that I offered up a gaming session so he could get an objective view of what it's all about. He actually agreed but alas I could not get a coinciding day off to make it happen. So no judgement being passed on this end. Ooo, a religious discussion! While postings aren't necessarily the best place for something like this -- some people, as I've experienced, think I'm trying trying to adopt a holier than thou tone or something, which I'm not... I'm really just trying to pass along a different point of view... Anyway, you have a point about the Sabbath, but the Catholic Church didn't change it from Saturday to Sunday because of it wanting to attract pagan worshippers. Since it is our belief that Jesus was ressurrected on Sunday, that is one of the reasons for switching it to Sunday... But, I understand this is not the forum (or at least not the best place) to discuss faith/religious comments -- unless we are dealing with alien/sci fi religions like the Yazarian's Family of One or what the Sathar worship -- so that is all I will write for now about real life beliefs. Best Regards Joe Cabadas |
October 5, 2017 - 9:51am | Anyway, you have a point about the Sabbath, but the Catholic Church didn't change it from Saturday to Sunday because of it wanting to attract pagan worshippers. Since it is our belief that Jesus was ressurrected on Sunday, that is one of the reasons for switching it to Sunday... Best Regards Joe makes a good point. While it is true that the Catholic church did change some stuff here an there to aid/entice conversion it did not do it to the extent that is widely thought. Its hard to say what the motives of an individual were unless that individual tells you. Its also entirely too easy to suppose that things are a certain way because we like to think that and not have it supported by facts. Christians can also be guilty of this, too. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 5, 2017 - 9:26pm | Yep, also note I said "most churches" rather than any/one/groups of faith(s). While I've read excerpts from numerous different faiths' books (AKA "bibles"), I've yet to go cover to cover in any of them (granted I've read the entire New Testament from the King James version and about half of the Old Testament from the Gideons version), I have noticed there are just as many common threads as there are diversities between them. All in all I would liken them to "books of advice" except that unlike most advice books, I was never really able to find anything I would label as "bad advice" in any of them. P.S. more early stuff to be posted as I unearth it, I am still hunting down my elusive "Aquillian Starling" deck plan, my first ever ship that I penned for the game. |
October 5, 2017 - 9:32pm | P.S. more early stuff to be posted as I unearth it, I am still hunting down my elusive "Aquillian Starling" deck plan, my first ever ship that I penned for the game. Looking forward to this. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 25, 2017 - 8:53pm | I still haven't found my Starling but I unearthed another mouldy oldie...a pair of fighter craft that I was able to readily convert to KH from my starship house rules. |
October 26, 2017 - 5:50am | I still haven't found my Starling but I unearthed another mouldy oldie...a pair of fighter craft that I was able to readily convert to KH from my starship house rules. The second one has a nice Colonial Viper vibe to it that I like. and the first reminds one of the Y wing. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2017 - 6:54am | Yes, the heavy fighter is very Y-wing-ish. The other one was more of a Draconian Marauder/X-Wing amalgam. |
