High Dawn Frontiers

High Dawn Frontiers

The Basics

Welcome to the High Dawn Frontiers game, an adaption of the Star Frontiers role playing game to play out Wild West adventures. Before you lies the frontier of western adventure with lost gold mines, bandits, desparados, stagecoaches, and dustly little towns. Keep your six gun handy, the sun at your back, and never let your guard down or you just may end up buried on Boot Hill.

WHAT THE GAME IS ALL ABOUT
Each player in a High Dawn Frontiers game  plays a character; a cowboy, a prospector, a desparado, an army veteran, a gambler or even a tin horn from back East. Characters can do anything a real person can do if he was living in the High Dawn Frontiers world: shot a six gun, ride a horse, carouse in a tavern, or rob a bank. Players are not limited to a few actions by the rules. A player has complete conrol over his character, and makes all the decisions for him.

Unlike many other games there is often no clear winner in a High Dawn Frontiers game; often enough there is only the quick and the dead. In most games the players will have a goal like helping the sherrif capture bank robbers or riding shot gun for the stage and preventing trouble. A skillful player that uses the same character in several adventures will see that character grow, become richer or be rewarded in other ways.

HOW TO USE THE DICE
The dice used in the High Dawn Frontiers game are ten sided, numbered between 0 and 9 (referred to as d10). Two are needed to play and one should be dark colored while the other is light colored.

If the rules say, "1d10" roll one die to get a number between 1 and 10. A zero is read as a 10.

If the rules say, "2d10," roll two dice and add the results to generate a number between 2 and 20. A zero is read as a 10. For example , if the rolls were 0 and 4, the result would be 10+4=14. More dice can be rolled to give results of 3-30 (3d10), 4-40 (4d10), etc.

If the rules say, "1d5," simply roll a normal 10 sided die and divide the result by 2 , rounded up. A Roll of 1 or 2 is treated as a resutle of 1, etc.

If the rules say, "d100," roll both dice. Instead of adding the results, roll both dice. Instead of adding the results, read the dark colored die as the first (tens) digit and the light colored die as the second (ones) digit. A zero is read as a zero. The following table shows several examaples of rolls.

Dice Example Table
Dark Die
 Light Die
 Result
 5 3 53
 6 0 60
 0 6 6
 0 0 100

THE REFEREE
One player plays the role of the referee, a special kind of player responsible for storytelling, playing side characters (non-player characters, or NPCs), and judging situations in which the player's characters find themselves. Refer to the referee's section for further details on this important job.

ABILITIES

All characters have eight abilities, arranged in four pairs. These are Strength/Stamina, Dexterity/ Reaction Speed, Intuition/Logic, and Personality/Leadership. These eight abilities tell players how strong, fast, smart and masterful their characters are. They are explained below.

Each of these abilities could have a score from 1 to 100. However an ability score generated during character generation phase will have a score between 30 and 70. This is explained in the Characters section. Circumstances of the game can raise and lower scores.

EXPLANATION OF ABILITIES
Strength is a measure of how strong the character is. A character with a low Strength score is scrawny and weak. A character with a high Strength score is very strong. A character with a Strength score of 100 may be one fo the strongest characters around. Strength is a physical ability score and is abbreviated STR within these rules.

Stamina measures a character's physical fitness and general health. A character with low stamina will get tired easily and will be prone to injury and diesease. A character with high Stamina could work hard all day without getting tired, and might never be sick a day in his life. Stamina also measures how badly a character can be wounded beforehe passes out or dies. Stamina is a physical ability score and is abbreviated DEX within these rules.

Dexterity measures a character's coordination. Character's with low Dexterity scores are clumsy, while characters with high Dexterity scores are very agile. Desterity is very important in combat. Dexterity is a physical ability score and is abbreviated DEX within these rules.

Reaction Speed measures the quickness of a character's reflexes. If a character with a low Reaction Speed is attacked suddenly, he probably will fumble with his weapon or react slowly. A character with a high Reaction Speed could draw and fire a weapon quickly, jump out of the way of a run away stagecoach, etc. Reaction Speed is a physical ability score and is abbreviated INT within these rules.

Intuition measures a character's alertness and ability to draw conclusions from what seem to be unrelated fats. Characters with high Intuition scores are more likely to solve problems by having  hunches or making guesses than by carefully considering all the evidence. Intuition is a mental ability score and is abbreviated INT within these rules.

Logic is a character's ability to solve problems in an orderlly, step-by-step way. It is the opposite of Intuition. Characters with high Logic scores make good doctors and gamblers. Logic is a mental ability score and is abbreviated INT within these rules.

Personality measures how well a character gets along with others. Characters with high Personality scores are friendly, pleasant and persuasive, while those with low scores may be grouchy and hard to get along with. Personality is a mental ability score and is abbreviated PER within these rules.

Leadership measures a character's ability to give orders that other people will understand and obey. It also measures how willing other people will be to work for the character, take his advice or follow him into a dangerous situation. Leadership is a mental ability score and is abbreviated LDR within these rules.

ABILITY CHECKS

Whenever the referee decides there is a chance for your character's action to fail,