 February 28, 2011 - 11:07am | I was looking at some things in star Frontiers the other day, (doing research as always) and I began to see a few things that make me believe that TSR was using US history as its basis for the history of the Frontier. Now some of you might be a little sensitive to some of my thinking so I apologize in advance. First off lets look at what was said about Pan Galactic Corporation...Pan Gal was to the Frontier much like the railroads of the 1800, basically the only game in town for the many colonies (or in our history towns) to get the things they need. Then in the early 1900 we had world War one, which was a major factor in what is now nown as the industrial revolution. This coralates to Sathar war one, and the rise of the other mega-corps coming about as a result of Sathar war I. Then we have the great influenza pandemic which swept through the US, much in the way the Blue Plague swept through the Frontier, which leads us to Sathar War II.....We have the Sathar representing the Axis powers to the point that they gathered up groups of people and sent them to labor (read concentration camps) to build war materials (well I guess TSR didn't want to say that the Sathar were exterminating a group of people but if we cast the sathar in that light than that's what we can infer from this), Oh and as a result of Sathar War two we develop landfleet and a strengthened UPF, could just as easilly corelate to the whole league of nations giving rise to the United Nations organization. And finally we have the Red scare of the 50's, which could easily explain the fear of Sathar (read Communist) agents infiltrating the US. So will the Frontier have a Korean war, and Vietnam, or a desert storm, or maybe a historic period of prohibition, and the rise and fall of the syndicate? If we use US history as the basis for Frontier history there is a lot of adventure and timeline materal just waiting to be developed. "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 |
 February 28, 2011 - 12:03pm | That's a weak, but not untenable, connection, IMO. Good thinking. It reminds me of Twain's quote that "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme on occasion." |
 February 28, 2011 - 4:12pm | I'm sure the author's drew inspiration from many areas. Often times, being human beings, we can only imagine as far as our own limitations. I see a lot of different Sci-Fi Universes recycling ideas from each other and borrowing on Earths own history and even current events. |
 March 1, 2011 - 10:50pm | As a general guideline and inspirational tool, I agree. However, in a galactic community there are going to be fundamental differences, of course. One of the things that I like about Star Frontiers is the complete ability to pick one of the totally neglected planets from the Frontier Sector (or beyond) and weave an entirely new world. So to develop the basis of your own adventures, I don't think that looking at events or strings of events in our history is a bad idea at all. You just want to be careful that you don't wind up with some cheesey Nazi episode like in the original Star Trek. I always thought that was the WORST episode of the old series - soooo contrived and made to put Bill Shatner in a sexy SS uniform -ugh! The Roman (with the submachineguns) one was pretty dumb too. But I digress... But tones and influences - absolutely! We're not that far off from the Frontier with some of our gadgetry. Fascist regimes, ideological struggles, slavery, piracy, revolutions... Rip them right from the headlines of your newspapers or from your history books. How about an SF parallel adventure of a planet in rebellion against its dictator like what we have in Libya right now? Maybe the PCs are just employees caught in the middle and they are FORCED to pick sides or else they will all die? Are the rebels actually worse than the dictator? Call it "Dragged In" There's a decent idea for a full blown module, or even campaign - right there. And you can use the Libya events (as best you can glean them) to serve as a model for your plotline and event guide. |
 March 2, 2011 - 7:42pm | Now you have not exactly got the timing right but for Pan-Galactic you should look at the East India Trading Company and several other similiar businesses. While the King gave permission for colonies to be built up it the colonists often did not have the money to establish a new colony or even go to an existing one. They received sponsorship for companies in return for promising to send back certain resources. Most often it was find gold or furs both very profitable. As for the Communists/Sathar there is some similiarities but we do not have the proxy wars to support that. Still many Cold War scenarios will work with them. The Industrial Revolution contributed to WWI and was not caused by it. It had actually been around since Eli Whitney and interchangable parts. Influenza pandemic, small pox spreads especially among Native Tribes, Polio and many more diseases have all taken their tolls over the years. Heck we are over due for a big one and Swine Flu doesn't count. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 2, 2011 - 11:04pm | I was looking at US history through the haze of 30+ years out of school so I might not have gotten some of the points exactly on the nose, but I just found it very interesting how the course of Frontier history seemed to follow the general pattern of US history, and rememberng some telling remarks about how Knight Hawks was loosely based on submarine/naval warfare during World War 2. I'm sure that we could find hundreds of other real world events that could fit into the Frontier timeline but i just thought it was an interesting enough observation to talk about, and as always when these discussions go on they tend to spark ideas in some people's heads as to the cool ideas that could come from taking a historic event and turning it into a cool adventure... Like having some low life Streel corporation officer give a native race some toxic prefab shelters because they want to colonize a planet and the natives stand in the way of Progress. of course the PC's get involved either stopping this scheme and racing to Star Law headquarters while dodging Streel agents to inform the UPF of streel corp's latest dastardly scheme. ...or a group of colonists who have been abused by a local corporation sneaking into the space port disguised as employees of the company and destroying a rich cargo slated to return to the Corporate headquarters, which starts a chain of events that ends with the gyrojet heard around the world. "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 |
 March 3, 2011 - 7:12pm | I think you're spot on with your entire analysis, Deryn. Pan-Gal does not compare to the East India Trading co. except in where Pirates come in. The whole corporate aspect of Star Frontiers is very much old west in America. I don't think it's any little inspiration. In all, the whole setting is anachronistic, true, but where you take each aspect (political wars and famine and diseases [ala 1900's; though the blue plague may be made to correspond to the black plague or the red death as much as smallpox], corporate growth and Frontier spirit [ala 1800's], corporate piracy [ala 1980's], real pirates [ala 1600-1700's], etc.), the general timelines matches identically. I think that should very much influence the fleshing out of a timeline for setting loyalists. Of course, you should also pepper them with resurgences of similar issues, overlapping as need be. For instance, mixing old piracy with new piracy. Deforestation mixes nicely with colonization. You could even mix early colonization (British Empire) with the spread of the American west. I think to maintain the flavor of the original setting and to help people know where to add something into the timeline, the timeline should stay true to its category. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 May 1, 2011 - 3:20pm | **WARNING POLITICALY INCORRECT CONTENT** the commentary is made for the purpose of exaggeration, comparison, and entertainment, and does not reflect the true attitudes, values, or cultural orientations of the author.... (hounestly, many of my best friends are vollyballs...), those who are easily offended by ethnic stereotyping have been warned.... I would suggest a comparison check be made with other famous (at least localy) Frontier Eras... Austrailia, Africa, South, and Central, Americas were all individually accounted as 'new frontiers'.... and as I recall, the surface history matches in all those cases. If a similar correlation of timeline comparison can be made by people in those countries, we have a list of environmental events likely to happen to settlers and colonists... and Mark Twain is supported. Personal feeling on it tho' the author probably used a historic frontier template to model everything on, and the american west is a popular template, but not the only one ever used, after that global influence likely increased the 'real history' elements by including other events people were familier with. I have, tho' it was some time ago, found a strong correlation with the Austrailian Frontier history and the events outlined in Star Frontiers.... are we sure there was no aussie influence? I've traced the development of lots of games to Australia (setting influences and developers locations), it's kind of like how all grunge bands are said to come from Seattle, but when you trace thier real names and homes, they all started and were first discovered, in the south eastern states. Sathars don't seem influenced by 'Communisim/Red Scare' to me, they seem to be directly influenced by the Alien/Slime Creatures/Catchy Villan Threat, that is ever present in the Xeno-fiction Golden-age Sci-Fi, but if pressed for a politically incorrect impression, they correspond with asian ecconomic infiltration scares that have plauged australian mentalities in the past, and I am sure that similar 'xeno-scare' accounts could be made by every country in the world, of some other group. Using a historic model to develop a future-history on, is probably the best way to match accuracy of events tho', and use the form you are familier with, but don't discount other possibilities. Sathar = asian tradeguild conglomerates (because they are the wyrms(worms?) that distabalize everything, and insist you like it.) Yazirian = west asian and native tribes (Aboriginies, India, and China the friendly alien neighbors, that were already in the area.) Vrusk = North American Megacorporate houses (we will go over yonder and set up some comfy relations, and shall we dub this Ze Land We Use?) Humma = Cat-headed Kangaroos (because cats and kangaroos are kewl) Humans = Wandering Monsters (White-Men, because really thats all they do, wander and be monsterous.) Ifsnit = pygmy merchant gypsies (and can be chucked at walls by Wandering Monsters) Dralasite = volleyballs (especially after a good spot of tea  volleyballs get real philosophical)It is a matter of perspective, and that is influenced by what you might be familier with. Wander through the wonder, dream for what is real, we all share common origins and destinations. Politics and Naval Submarines during the Great Wars: http://www.gunplot.net/404.html http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/ww1/homefront/homefront.html http://www.navy.gov.au/World_War_Two New Frontiers from Old Histories http://www.jstor.org/pss/1007529 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_America#European_colonization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_West_African_Frontier_Force http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma#Colonial_era_.281886.E2.80.931948.29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Tripoli#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_frontier_wars one would hope that information beyond North American and Australian Frontier Era's, could be found on the internets.... but I am at a loss, and those darn Vusk seem to own all the computers in the world, and only want to talk about their own history!!  Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 April 19, 2011 - 5:04pm | Spirit C., while I think you've made some interesting comments, I think that you have to consider who and when and why when you read into what the intent was behind the Frontier setting. For the most part it was Americans in the late 70's and early 80's who produce Star Frontiers, people who had either worked on Boot Hill or rubbed elbows with those who had and they were producing it for and American market. I wouldn't read too much into the setting material and not every single thing is going to be inspired by a real world detail. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 19, 2011 - 8:11pm | I made some mention about these points in my post, but I didn't detail, I was only agreeing with some of the other posters, that other sources could have been of influence, and why... Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
April 20, 2011 - 11:15am | for the sake of the US History being used as a model for Frontier events, I found this and found a correlation of use, to some of what was mentioned... HERE:http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5268 Quakers on Deep-space asteroid colonies... ? http://thorn.pair.com/earlyq.htm http://www.quakerinfo.org/history/slavery.html http://cghs.dadeschools.net/slavery/anti-slavery_movement/quakers.htm Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
April 20, 2011 - 12:02pm | Quakers, Shakers, Amish, Bruderhof, Hutterites, Ashkenazi, Eutopianists, Romani, Roma, Sinti, Dom, Lyuli, Lom, Banjara, Domba, Pavee, Ceàrdannan, Yeniche, and Sea Gypsies etc... all make nice candidates for out-back communities, dirt-side or deep-black... and could be used as a model sub-culture, coming from any of the avaliable races in the Frontier.... Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
May 1, 2011 - 3:46pm | William Duer and the 1792 first ecconomic crash of the us, during the script-o-mania, and the rise of the 6%ers club... interesting frontier potintial on a planetary scale, harder but not impossible, to work into an interplanetary scale. Plenty of double-cross, back-stabs, front-stabs, cross purpouse agendas, and when the dust settles several dead bodies are ignored by the law, a few secure old-money families are replaced, and someone once celebrated as a young-hero among legends, being blamed for the whole mess, goes to jail for life. A beautiful, epic, adventure story, of a new frontier trying to establish some central authority, and the needs and passions of men, and their survival in a new world. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
