 September 24, 2011 - 6:41pm | I'm considering making a retro clone of Star Frontiers which combines Alpha Dawn with Knight Hawks into a single book.
Questions to consider:
Ideally this is something we could all benefit from, that is, if your like-minded and wouldn't mind making a few extra credits for doing something you 1.) already contribute and/or 2.) have existing material that can be converted into the new setting. |
 September 24, 2011 - 7:11pm | It will be the same character scale, meaning, you won't be able to pilot, repair, astrogate, etc. ships at starting level. ...fine... since it is character scale and has space in the main package... ??? can you pilot, repair, navigate, astronaut, etc. EVAS, SPACE suits, Sleds, Skiffs, Workpods, Tugs, Trolleys, Orbiters, Runabouts, Yachts, and Fighters... these are not ships... heck barely even boats... and they are still round about character scale... 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? |
September 24, 2011 - 9:49pm | Poor choice of words; starting level characters do not have access to the Knight Hawk skills without fulfilling prerequisites. With that said, one change I'd like to consider is using [[Spacer Skills Revisited]]. Do you have any comments or answers to the questions posted? |
 September 24, 2011 - 10:06pm | Will it have the 80s sci fi tech like data cubes and computer banks full of flashing lights? |
September 24, 2011 - 10:17pm | Will it have the 80s sci fi tech like data cubes and computer banks full of flashing lights?
Is that important to you or the setting? What about wafer chips and 5 1/4" floppy disks. :-) If, in the 80's, bobby-pins could open high-security locks, why can't they in the Frontier? lol |
September 25, 2011 - 11:57am | Just sayin --- if it's going to be a retro clone it has to have the retro setting. See, the following just wouldn't be the same with a laptop and a few CDs in the background:   |
September 25, 2011 - 12:29pm | Ahh, very good point. Well, I'll have to list that as a criteria for my artists. SS, does your response indicate interest in a Star Frontiers Retro Clone? Another question for everyone; Would a retro clone help the SF Revival? |
September 26, 2011 - 2:18am | Oh, I'm interested. You know me, I have a flair for that old school 80s work. Let me know if you need some interior art or some paintshop deckplans. |
 September 26, 2011 - 5:32pm | We could make some before retro clone pics and after retro-clone pics :) |
 September 26, 2011 - 7:40pm | I thought that what you are proposing is basically what FrontierSpace was supposed to be. That was what the intention seemed to be when we started FrontierSpace originally. Maybe not an exact copy of the rule system like you seem to be proposing but something along that flavor. Maybe that has changed. Just a thought, but for the retro clone, I think you'd need a significant divergence from the AD/KH rules to not be violating the WOTC IP of Star Frontiers as the rule system is part of the IP. But maybe not, IANAL so I don't really know. Personally for me, it's the setting not the rules that holds my interest. If we're going to have to change the setting anyway, there is no real reason to keep the ruleset. Might as well just move to FrontierSpace or Xplorers or any other system. So I guess my read is that while it might be fun, there are a bunch of other things out there and it may not be worth it. Of course I'm horribly out of touch with the gaming community so I could be comletely off base. 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 |
September 26, 2011 - 9:21pm | We can copy the game mechanics, we can't copy the IP, so your exactly right - it's not worth the effort if we can't write adventures that include White Light or Dralasites. Frontier Space is an entirely different product than AD/KH, it's like comparing yazirians to sathar (I've heard someone say FS is a SF clone). So.. if people want a game system to publish their supplements and adventure for free or for profit, we'll have Frontier Space and Bare Bones Game System. FS is based on d100, so I imagine most people will gravitate towards that, and, you can play any concept you can imagine. BBGS is intended to be lite and simple, employing many of the things common to most RPG's. However, I built the foundation and its up to the GM to fill in the blanks. I see our community as that type of GM, we like to create. |
September 27, 2011 - 12:38am | not a poor choice of words... my point is actually in what I said... in spite of being introduced by the slowly expanded sequential rules-sets as many others have been... I do not keep the rules so compartmentalized. A spacer-born character is a starting character, and has access to space based skills at generation, requiring that all characters must start as ground-wellies is far to limiting within the scope of the setting. for me it is a total equation: SF = (AD+KH+ZG+{etc...}) The rules must be interpreted to reflect the setting, because if you try to play monopoly on a chess-board with rules found in a book of 101 games of solitaire... it will be frustrating if you don't start making lots of interpretations and home-fixes. A ground-sided gravity-well raised terrestrial should have some 0-g skill prerequisite to perform basic space based skills... likewise... an asteroid-hoping luni-farm raised spacer should require some G-well skill prerequisite to perform basic terrestrial based skills... I would say that the same applies to a deep-water raised aqua-boy, or a cloud-skimming bespin air-head... a car is a car whether it has wheels, fans, chem-jets, or ion-rockets... to the person raised with them it drives like a car. a car is not a bus, truck, tank, or ocean-liner... star-yacht, space-shuttle, trans-atmofigher, or interstellar void-liner... a scuba-suit, skateboard, bicycle, jetski, motorcycle, tractor, car, exo-frame, jetpack, hang-glider, trifan-glider, air-saucer, motorboat, tug, orbiter, workpod, prop-sled, eva-suit... in-spite of environmental specialities of land, water, air, and space, these are all the same category of character-scale simple transports and equipment... I was asking if the proposed lack of larger KH ship-skills included all character-scale equipment and vehicular-skills... based on an arbitrary separation of space and ground... in spite of being a setting that blurs the distinction to nill-boundary. Larger interplanetary and transstellar scale ships being left to the side for optional inclusion and advanced-characters is fine... but basic equipment and starting skill packages for all starting environments in one base rules compilation would make it more appealing to me. 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? |
