 December 2, 2010 - 6:44pm | Someone else mentioned as a curiosity why did TSR produce the 2001,2010 modules for Star Frontiers, and that started me thinking about how interesting it would be to see a version of Classic Star Trek (not next Generation, or the others) done using the limitation imposed by SF on technology, (no replicators, and maybe bap bins in shuttles allowing for teleportation between an orbiting Enterprise, and a shuttle on a planet's surface) Of course the ship's would look totally different since gravity would be dependant on the ship's engine. I also thought about how shows like Babylon 5 or Space 1999 would look like if they were made to conform to canon Star Frontiers rules. Anyway has anyone ever thought about this, or has anyone ever tried to adapt their favorite shows/movies to Star Frontiers, and if so how did it turn out? "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
 December 2, 2010 - 7:09pm | Babylon 5 and Space 1999 could easily be done, B5 being like an O'Neill or Vivarium type station can easily be done with SF limitations. Star Trek would be heavily or I'd say more realistically down graded, as would Star Wars. But I'm sure it can be done. In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
 December 2, 2010 - 7:19pm | Space 1889, the victorian steam punk rpg would easily translate to SF mechanics and rules. Though I think that rule set brings things to the table that SF does not so better to just play Space 1889 (thought the Beast men of mars look incredibly similar to yazerians) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2010 - 7:45pm | I was just thinking how interesting it would be to see a Star Frontier's version of a Constitution class Starship and to hear Spock say " There are three Sathar battle cruisers in formation decelerating rapidly, captain." "Chekov man the weapon's station, and target their atomic engines."-Kirk "Captain, They've raised their Proton shields, and are arming their laser batteries."-Spock "I'm transmitting friendship messages on all chanels."-Ohura "Captain may I remind you Sathar don't take prisoners."-Spock "They're locking laser batteries."-Chekov "Shields."-Kirk "They're firing, sir."-Spock "Fire."-Kirk static..... "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 2, 2010 - 7:51pm | Its a wacky old campy sci-fi moive but it also matches SF tech- Dark Star- agro domes, robots, planet busting bombs, and "beach ball" alien all on one ship- (hippies go to space- almost) I loved the ending when the guy in the eva suit grabs a piece of the ship and goes surfing toward the planet- nice visual. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2010 - 8:22pm | Darkstar was awesome (I love shlock movies) I think I remember someone mentioning Saturn three somewhere in the forum once, and Outland as SF compatable. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 2, 2010 - 8:54pm | "Captian, the proton screen is givin all she's got, it can't take much more of this! The Uranium pellets are almost exhausted!" - Scotty In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
December 2, 2010 - 9:11pm | "Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Yazirian proverb, that revenge is a dish best served cold. It is very cold in Space."-Singh Khan (Yazirian Space pirate) "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
 December 2, 2010 - 11:08pm | Deryn, way earlier this year, Malcadon, in another thread, dropped a link for this site It has some vintage United Earth and early Starfleet vessels with perpindicular deck arrangements " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
 December 2, 2010 - 11:46pm | Why try to replace star trek tech with Frontier tech, why not just re-stat Star Trek tech so that it is Star Frontiers Compliant. I.E. Ship based phaser weapons do same damage as proton battery. Phaser Cannons do same damage as Distruptor Canon, etc. Now The TOS enterprise with a crew compliment under 500 could be comparable in size to a SF Battleship, you would just have to scale accordingly. The really big ships seen in the next generation would require a new stat system but could be done. As for Artificial Gravity that would have to be new tech for the setting as would warp drive. I designed a Star Trek setting once for a gaming group that was fed up with the FASA rules and wanted a less complicated game mechanic to play with. I adjusted all Star Trek weapons to their corresponding Star Frontiers counter parts. Since all combat occured at STL the need to explain the mathematical differences between warp drive and void drive were moot, it was just explained as travel time. "At a normal crusing speed of warp factor 4 the U.S.S. Polaris drops out of warp just outside the Beta Ceti IV system after four days of travel...(Resume Character Actions On Bridge, describe what they detect on sensors, etc." Now I do understand that in the Star Trek Universe combat at warp is depicted but almost every Star Trek game I have read avoided that hot potatoe and just assumed combat occured at STL if purely for the simplification of the math involved. As far as the Sathar or other opponents, just adjust their stats for balanced game play. The same could be said for Star Wars its just on an even larger scale as their capital ships are just plain massive. As far as replicators, transporters, forcefields, warpdrive, artificial gravity, and phasers are concerned well you can either balance them out by giving them comparative SF game stats, do away with them (but then you have to explain why they dont have the tech in question), or create new rules and stats to cover the questionable tech. IMO I would say that Firefly and Space Above and Beyond would be the easiest conversions as they really dont have any outrageous tech.  Sometimes you just have to suspend the dependance on real-life physics, hard sci-fi facts, and just enjoy the sheer coolness of a great adventure. Its just for fun, so have fun with it, step out of the box and try a trek based game session. After all, if we had the resources to build our own starships bolt form bolt we wouldn't be imagining them with paper and dice. |
December 2, 2010 - 11:43pm | Deryn, way earlier this year, Malcadon, in another thread, dropped a link for this site It has some vintage United Earth and early Starfleet vessels with perpindicular deck arrangements The starfleet museum site has many way-cool star ship designs that are very close to Star Frontiers Knight Hawks and could easily be converted for canon compliance. The site is mostly pre-TOS romulan war vintage and when reading the comments it is easy to see the author wanted to take a more balanced approach to warship design for the 22nd and 23rd centuries. |
December 2, 2010 - 11:50pm | I meant to add that the tech is easily translatable to KH canon. And, yeah, I agree, the author did want to take a more balanced and more realistic approach to 22-23d century starship design(not to mention the fact that the artwork is compelling in and of itself...). All in all, the site's an excellent reference for anyone who wants to run a Star Trek-type campaign that's not run of the mill. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
 December 3, 2010 - 6:01am | While the mechanics may not be easily transferable the general setting of a small group performing somewhat illegal missions and living by their own rules and snobbing the Star Law Rangers of Serenity/Firefly always struck me as a good basis for most Sci Fi games. OK there were no aliens but that is too easy to change and the Reavers are so like the Sathar in battle tactics and the BIG mystery of who they really are they make a good fit. Of course Reavers in Star Frontiers either as a small outpost or plague planet would be fun. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 3, 2010 - 12:33pm | What I was thinking of in my post was really about the idea of what various science fiction shows, and movies would look like if the tech level had to conform with what is available in SF. I wasn't thinking about an out and out conversion, just about taking the core concepts of the show or movie and working it into the Star Frontiers rules. Years ago I ran an adventure where a group of Frontier marines were dispatched to investigate a derelict freighter that had unstable atomic drives and was coming too close to a recreation station. Needless to say when the heroes got on the ship they encountered a xenomorph that had concentrated acid for blood, and had a drooling problem. I also ran an adventure with a terminator type robot that was hunting down a bounty hunter, and these adventures were an interesting change of pace for our group, so I started thinking about other Sci-fi movies and shows and how interesting and different they would be if they had to conform to cannon Star Frontiers rules. For example Predator would make a perfect creature for Star Frontiers. The Predator tech level is not so far removed from what is possible in SF, and having a Predator hunting a humma or Yazirian would be really cool. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
December 3, 2010 - 1:15pm | @ dern_rys: that is an interesting idea making star trek conform to SF teck its what shadow did in his dominion game. The problem with the Predator in an RPG is that there must be real jepordy for the PCs from him and for there to be real jepordy there must be real PC death. Thats not to say you cant use him but that a GM will have to use some creativity to make it work IMO. Unless its the first game session and you make everyone roll up 2 characters because they will be losing one. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 3, 2010 - 1:47pm | I don't want anyone to think I'm a killer Referee or something, but after years of playing, and often coddling my players because the heroes should always win, I started playing the game straight with the possibility of players dying being a real concern. Well I got an arguement with only one player in the group, who quit the game saying that I was using the game to take out my personal issues with her (long story) but I realized that it was really that I was no longer playing favorites that upset her because she had become accustomed to the way we always played. long story short, the other players however thought that the added danger of actually losing a character they had worked hard to get where he was made them enjoy the game more then when they knew that no matter what they would always win in the end. So I would have no problem using crab face in my game. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
 December 3, 2010 - 2:15pm | Yeah, I don't mind killing characters either. Especially if they deserve it (bad decisions, dumb actions, etc) but also if they've been given a fair chance and they fail. When I started playing RuneQuest in high school, I had a ref that felt the same way. My first character lived for a grand total of about 4 gaming sessions and the second one for about 10. Considering that we played twice a week, that wasn't very long  .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 3, 2010 - 2:47pm | Oh I'm not opposed to killing a character but the predator aught to pretty much be in the Total Party Kill category. He Is the ultimate can of kick butt and he dont like to loose. In fact he's down rite against it and carries a portable nuke or whatever it was just to ensure that if he does that you wont win either. If fact no game with a predator would be complete without the bomb, IMO. Whether it kills the party or not you just have to have it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 3, 2010 - 7:38pm | Well I did make a campiagn that followed like the movie Aliens. The players had a great time making a last stand and all that. PC hauled some unknown cargo to some outpost only to find every one missing and the place infested with nasty bugs with the whole acid blood thing. Ironically had plans for a Die Hard type game as well, terrorists seize a corporate space station and the PCs must try and thwart the terrorists plans. The terrorists were using powered armor to make up for lack of numbers, which made it harder for the PCs until they got some PA as well. In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
December 4, 2010 - 4:07pm | Players and Referees should always have the possibility of character death to worry about. Let's face it we play face to face games because real consequences for real actions (in game terms) are enforced by group concensus. Otherwise we could all go play some game with save points and endless replays until we figure it out. I say bring on the predators and aliens and reavers and romulans and terminators and blobs and little green or gray or blue aliens and cylons and those weird humans running around the sanctuary just keep a charged blaster handy. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
