 May 23, 2012 - 5:24pm | Here is a link to a retro-clone style SF rpg. It could be of interest to some of you : http://www.mediafire.com/view/?7viyc7wzica91ck «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
 May 23, 2012 - 6:52pm | looks like a remake of Basic and Expert D&D done as a Sci-fi game shake and baked with Traveller setting elements. I also think this is something that an annoying guy at the war game club talked to me about but 1.) I found him annoying and 2.) he did a seriously lousy job of explaining it. So I gave him a "Yeah, sure." To bad I would have played it with him if he hadn't been so annoying. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 June 4, 2012 - 4:02am | eeyup, it has all the elements a game could have... to make me love Star Frontiers all the more!  (but I might rip out the setting fluff for mine-able ideas!) Dune Space Folding 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 23, 2012 - 7:12pm | I didn't get past character generation, at this point if its d20 combat, my recent break with D&D 3.5 and by default 4.0 has pretty well poisoned me against it but the fact that its obviously styled on B/X D&D evokes some fond memories puts me in a quandry in that I'd want to like it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 24, 2012 - 6:14am | I'm actually investing time to read this. The document seems geared front to back for sand box gaming, something SF, being a product of its time, was not. Found and interesting idea, and being an idea whore I love ideas: Planet X is the ancestral home of Alien species Y, who must return every 1000 years for a great spawning rite to perpetuate their species. The presence of humans defiles this world and as the time for this ceremony approaches these aliens become increasingly frantic. EDIT: Interesting Quote: "... it can be advantageous for players to roll up these replacements before the game even starts, so they have a character in hand should their former PC catch a bad case of laser poisoning." EDIT 2: I love this paragraph, its a good alternative to philosophy of skill checks seen in many recent rpgs: "Dont spam skill checks. If a character is trying to repair a fusion generator while under fire from badland raiders, don't turn it into a roll-each-turn extravaganza to determine how far he progresses in the attempt. Let him roll once with failure meaning that he cannot do it in the time available or that he will need another 1d6 turns before he can bring the defense laser power plant on line. Give the player choices each turn, like deciding to bring a laser online early and risking a short in the wiring. Let a single skill check indicate the general course of success or failure, but then let the PC make additional choices not additional rolls. Rolls can only add so much tension, tension does not guarantee engagement in a situation." I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 24, 2012 - 8:48pm | Review by jedion First off I did not dig into the "system mecanics" to deeply as B/X D&D is sort of a known entity, to me and a SF game based on it will no doubt have a few new wrinkles. Its class based with only two classes if you discount the Physic class (also known as Messes in game due to the physic ability arrising from a syndrom with a alphabet soup acrostic called MES) Basically your a warrior or an expert (or a Mess  ) Plenty of skills to choose from so that even with two or three classes there would seem to be plenty of room for a wide variety of characters. While you may be turned off by the idea of playing a d20 rule system this rule set has a lot to offer.It massively promotes sand box gaming and supports that with a wide variety of tables for generating aliens, animals, planets and star systems, political parties, factions, religions. There is even a d100 table of adventure seeds with 100 entries. thats impressive and what referee would want that sort of game support. there is an interesting discussion on the difference between story driven and sandbox games. the section on creating actual adventures though is very pertinent to any style of game- story driven or sandbox. RE: Faction- lots of details about having a faction turn (the typical faction turn is one turn per month) going on in the background while the adventurers are adventuring with advice on how to turn the results of faction turns into rumors for the PCs. Tags or attributes for factions (secrative etc) that are designed to help the GM "play" the faction. The point is that the players will have the feel of living in a living universe that changes and adapts with consequences for their actions if they were involved in an adventure that dealt with a faction. Using this will mean a little extra work but I think its worth it even in a story driven game. RE: Setting- the canned setting is our gallaxy and earth exists somewhere in it though whether the PCs will be able to actually visit it is up for debate. Its basically a rough outline of a timeline with some explanatory material and only one sample mapped sector that does not even need to be used. the idea being that its a sort of post apocalyptic galaxy that saw two waves of human colonization before the crash and slowly lost connections between planets are being re-established but lots of information has been lost and know one really fully knows whats out there. Ideal for the sandbox aspect. I like the style of game and approach to setting the author proposes. He's certainly thought it out and tested it though some small things i would change but then who wouldn't? RE: Equipment- has a streamline Alpha Dawn feel which is good and this does not prohibit adding in favorite gadgets from other sources. The space ships are handled in a way that feels like Alpha Dawn if you understand my meaning, at least in the ship construction aspect. RE: Alien generation section- some of it was fairly standard but the one thing that grabbed me was the tables for racial lenses. When creating an alien race you will usually roll on the lens table twice. To give an example of what a lens would be I'll use the AD aliens- Dralasites- Philosophical, jokers; Vrusk: business oriented, Yazirians- aggressive but honorable warriors You may or may not have noticed that alien creation has been a topic of some interest to me and I feel I've been flailling around to get the right recipe for it. After having read the alien chapter I feel like that its the sort of resource that a game designer could have sat down with and come up with dralasitesl, vrusk, and yazirians particularly because of the lenses aspect. if that is true then it could be used to create aliens that measure up to the beloved aliens of the AD. RE: Sector Generation section is adequet and servicable One question in my mind is what the difference is between the free version and the commercial product. Normally the free version is only enough to give you a taste or feel for something and yet the free version had 210 pages and seemed pretty comprehensive. The publisher only supports the product with a core rule book and a Star Ship book but then the sand box approach would not cater to stroy driven modules. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2012 - 6:30pm | Not so bad after all !  I agree that this document is a great ressource for anyone planning a SF campaign - sandbox or not. Unfortunetly I have no info on the full version... «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
May 27, 2012 - 8:25pm | I don't know any game that is not both sand-box and railroad capable. yes, there has been quite a few gems in this. Though I have encountered a few potential issues, only playtesting would be sure. 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 27, 2012 - 8:46pm | I don't know any game that is not both sand-box and railroad capable. yes, there has been quite a few gems in this. Though I have encountered a few potential issues, only playtesting would be sure. True, I was just surprised at how much they put their money where their mouth was and supported sand box gaming in these rules. Clearly the author has thought it out and wrote quite a bit promoting it perhaps even evangalizing it. For myself I'm more of a unconscious devotee of the Hickman Revolution and automatically think in terms of story driven adventures. I'd love a chance to play in a game particularly at a convention where I'd assume that the guy bringing the game to a convention must be experienced with it. I just would not want to get roped into the "we must raise these characters to 20th level" kind of thing where the goal is not neccessarily a good story or something interesting. but to attain 20th level. yes I know that SWN doesn't go to 20th level but you should get my drift. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 28, 2012 - 2:07am | I do, I do!!!  I found a youtube review...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYzV0vNbvxU seriously... how do you loose an entire star system... just not going to happen folks... they are kinda visible from a long long way away! 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 28, 2012 - 4:12am | I do, I do!!! I found a youtube review... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYzV0vNbvxU seriously... how do you loose an entire star system... just not going to happen folks... they are kinda visible from a long long way away! There are many levels of lost. Could be that all the records and flash drives on a world that had the coords for all the planets were lost. We're talking about a 700 year period that resembled the Middle Ages. Could also be that the star & planet's coords were not well publicized for some reason. Personally I think this guy doing the you tube review is making a mountain out of a mole hill on that point. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 5, 2012 - 1:36am | On one or two worlds such secreted or lost archives does make sense during a dark age, but as soon as there is an obvious reason to hunt down and expose all that lost data, it would be nigh-impossible to keep it from being publicized among the free-thinking community... 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 28, 2012 - 2:03pm | Game designer intended individual users to do thier thing. So if this guy doesn't buy systems being lost then so be it. I'm sure some people do. I just dont see his big issue being all that big an issue. I see the possibilities for a lost world, lost due to the dark age and hostile factors in its environment killing off all the humans, lost due to 700 years of time passing, lost due to the fact that its to farm from the closest system for spike drive ships to have reached it in that 700 years so everyone forgot about it and its become legend like Atlantis, lost due to any number of other factors so that a GM can craft a treasure world in the setting and entice players to seek it out. I would concede that most are known but a few exist here and there; or whenever a GM needs one to exist. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 29, 2012 - 4:12am | That mountain guy obviously never read any 40K books... «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
May 29, 2012 - 6:03am | That mountain guy obviously never read any 40K books... Me neither, is there a reason I should have? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 29, 2012 - 7:28pm | I have read some 40K books. Worlds are lost there for many reasons, including time. They get sucked into the Warp, an area outside our space, they can be blocked by warp storms and no one can visit for centuries. Sometimes a world can be forgotten because no one cares. It is stil there but, really, who would want to go there. there are other reasons too, but it would really just depend on how you have your story set up. |
May 30, 2012 - 3:53am | I have read some 40K books. Worlds are lost there for many reasons, including time. They get sucked into the Warp, an area outside our space, they can be blocked by warp storms and no one can visit for centuries. Sometimes a world can be forgotten because no one cares. It is stil there but, really, who would want to go there. there are other reasons too, but it would really just depend on how you have your story set up. Exactly. This is SF afterall. The number of possible explainations for loosing a system is up to the GM. As long as the explaination of the loss does not intervene with «suspension of disbelief» with the players it will work. «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
May 30, 2012 - 4:20am | What i picked up of the 40K setting around the Hobby Bunker quickly made me think that it wasn't for me. Add to that someone telling me that if I was going to really get into 40K then I'd end up spending $900. That was predicated on the idea that you need two armies because you may not find an opponent who has one so thus you need two. Add to that the fact that so much of their product line is overpriced because they've decided to charge for the army points value of a model instead of its raw worth as a toy and i pretty much was immunized against 40K. That said anytime i can get someone to give me left over bitz from their 40K models I jump at that. Was even given a nice collection of nicely painted necrons which are beautiful models. But as for paying full price for anything Warhammer- fat chance. I'm constantly blown away by people trying to sell their Used, badly assembled, and primered black warhammer models on ebay at the new in the box price. Apparently people who would pay the inflated price are whacked in the head enough to think someone else will pay full price for used when they could just as easily buy new. Sorry thinking about warhammer make me irritated. Is there any reason i should bother with reading the novels? EDIT: BTW, I'd pay the shipping if anyone had a bitz box of left over weapons and heads from any warhammer models they're getting rid of- this stuff is real handy for conversions and weapon swaps. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 30, 2012 - 5:25pm | Don't waste your time playing or reading 40K books. I was just making a point. If by any chance you are looking for a good SF wargame with balanced rules go for INFINITY by Corvus Belli. The rules are FREE to download, there is a FREE army builder online. AND it only cost 60$ to start (150pts) and another 60$ or so to get your team up to tournament level (300pts). The models are really nice : (and would make great models for Star Frontiers) http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/en/2011/access/infinity-getting-started/ «Language is a virus from outer space» William S. Burroughs |
May 30, 2012 - 8:54pm | I've seen some of Corvis Beli's stuff before but was unaware of their SF wargame rules. Actually like the Ground Zero Games, Star Grunt Rules (also free) for small unit skirimsh actions. Plus their line of troops with arabic turbans is pretty cool. Was planning to use a pile of pre painted plastic figs from AT43 for star grunt just never got around to running the game. Dont get me wrong I dont mind spending money on figures but I can buy reasonable quality metal figures for $1-$3 per 25mm man there is no way I'm going to pay for army points on inflated plastic models so games workshop can gouge me. Frankly I'd rather pay Reaper's higher prices simply for the fact that their miniatures have insane detail so that you're still getting what you pay for and their new Chronoscope line just rocks, especially for Sci-fi figures. Its the principle of the thing with Games Workshop, I jsut wont give money directly to the company when there are so many other miniatures companies out their with good product at good price and great customer service. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 4, 2012 - 5:54am | got back a bit late to say this, but you have echoed my own thoughts... "I would concede that most are known but a few exist here and there; or whenever a GM needs one to exist." ...is just what I was saying in my post. A "few dozens" but not "many multitudes"... and thus far I have had the impression that there is a running expectation in the setting description of this being "most of the previously known space"... if the other material I have not yet read changes that perception... great! IF that is not the case however; I find it entertaining in an "amusing fiction" way, but not in a "plausible fiction" way... which is much the same way I take WH40k... it does not make it bad just because I find it lacking in plausibility, nor is it outright dissmissable if Great Claims are made without any coresponding Great Explanations. Starwars is an Epic Saga but it is not Science Fiction, it is Space Fantasy... so I just note what genre it is and why... not that it is wrong for being so. Ten Years After:WORLD ECONOMIC COLLAPSE Due to the failure of proper shipments during the Silence, The Colonial Intelligent Robotic Control Engine is an AI that never received it's limiter components... all colonial bases in the Polycaon-Messene system were implemented with CIRCE systems, however most do not have the level of sophistication of Main-Misson Tower on Aega, and it's moon Cassiphone. The three small moon colonies that orbit the gas giant Ulysses outside the hostile radiation belt -; Romus, Anteias, and Ardeias -; are in an Interplanetary High Transfer Data Exchange Network with the main habitable zone planet-system -; Aega-Cassiphone. The binary star system Polycaon-Messene, on a route half way between the Naval Outposts of Triopas and Lelex, was chartered to be colonized slowly by the no longer existant AgroPharmicological and Exobiological Reaserch Corporation (APERC) [...] however, while most of the short duration naval outposts and other small colonies failed within a few decades of being "abandoned to the dark" after The Scream, Polycaon-Messene continued to survive under eye of a former high-ranking employee, now known as the legendary Watchful Matron. "Science and the taboo of psi" with Dean Radin Tower watch over me, Matron teach me, Sisters provide, All that is known shall be revealed by thy need, All that is reveled shall be recorded as thy decreed. ~ Matrons Prayer Episode 16 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 31, 2012 - 3:56am | I could argue the other side of this and say that I did get the feel that the author's intent was to set up a setting that was much like Earth after the Dark Ages- lots of knowledge is lost, some still exists in a dusty tome locked away in some abbey But people just dont know what is out there beyond a few weeks sailing time and even what they do know is often times sketchy. I suppose you could characterize it as for some people knowledge is lost, it still exists somewhere but it is nolonger universally known. If his dark age had been 70 years then the objection about "How do you loose a planet?" would bear weight with me. Since its 700 years and there was a general collapse then I can buy that. It also presents an opportunity for the GM to give the players ancient data bases as treasure. For a little bit of time he could draw up a table like in AD or ZEbs of the stars and planets and write a series of planetary footnotes with the hook being this is 700 year old information. The GM of course has a current document. The Astrographic information on stars and planets wont have changed much but the societal information will be badly out of date. The Sand box format is such that the players will need to carefully consider clues in the planetary footnotes to determine where they want to go. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 4, 2012 - 5:44am | I kinda take the opposite thought... it would appeal to me more if it had been a mere 70 years of immediate upheaval, panic, and chaos, anarchy, then all starts getting back to normal... as the people who study this common phenomenon called interstellar travel (astrophysicists and physical engineers, I think they are called), actually work on the problem and redesign the ships and engines to compensate... instead of playing game-boy and letting their great great great great great great grand-kids deal with it. Lt. Commander Percival I. Grant officially assumed command of GNS-1 and all colonial missions in the year 2666 under a state of extended emergency. He had been acting commander of the Naval presence in the system since VAdm. Karl J. Knots dove the flagship "Pegasus Major" directly into Messene to "...save the crew from the Death Swarm..." he apparently imagined was "...attacking the souls of everyone in the system..." one week after The Scream, and the death of Base ADM. Alaen Pietor Kosovak.
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? |
June 4, 2012 - 4:37am | I was thinking about the timeline as I was developing the parts that pertain to this particular system, and I realized.... the book has been avoiding any real description of Day 0. Imagine, the term "Silence" is really appropriate not just poetic, for some time immediately after the scream, the known galaxy was cut down to lower levels of chatter, and most of that chatter was panicked... possibly bordering on hysteria.... as the realization slowly sets in that nearly a third of the population just died a quick and horrifying death... ...and still, when those left behind ask "what happened?" for most of the year... the question is met with nothing... but chaotic silence... would it be much to think that even if a survivor was not psychic they might enter a state of temporary insanity? Science, parapsychology and taboo - Dean Radin PhD Journal Entry - Reference Code: Day 0 2665 - Lucky Scout On route to Ulysses-Anteias from Aega-Cassiphone. Shipment is bulk food stuff, much of that is fresh-pack crates -; those will be well received on the Latinus industrial complex -; and a quarter hold of bulk refined material. Looks like a clear and clean run, I'm going to the galley, Aithne has our meals on. [...] I ... This makes no sense ... my wife... she... how? [...] }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ fornist Jay whisht all bad cess... I am to head back to Cassiphone... SQP ASAP ... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ In the middle of our meal we was, discussing... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ When... she... Aithne... Violent convulsions... A psychic epileptic fit of some sort... creepy as feck... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ I ... she ... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ ... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ I should move her now... if the aneurysm have stopped bleeding... }}} General Alert from Cassiphone Main-Mission : Quarantine Procedures In Effect from Cassiphone Main-Mission and Aega Station repeat [...] {{{ Begor I hope. }}} General Alert Update from Cassiphone Main-Mission : SQP is rescinded... Not Viral, Not Biotoxic... repeat [...] {{{ Faith and Begorrah! What is going on? [...] Blessed stars! If anyone knows What's in the Blinding Blazes of Avalon, no one is talking... I have moved the body to our bunk... I don't expect to be needing it... ... Ship's time is now at 38 hours 24 minutes... Though I should sleep... it wont likely come easy. I need to keep at an open com... in case there is any further news. ... This chair is comfortable enough for now. ... [...]
Ulysses Orbit... traffic is heavy... does not look like anyone is taking the Glaucus order serious here, though several ships in the area have called for rescue. I am soon to be in que for approach... my estimate is about 4 hours till equalized atmo... then I can find port authority, a chapel, a pub, and a bunk... [...]
Éirvíne Síoda Chever - Captain of the Aris Class Transport "Lucky Scout" 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? |
March 1, 2015 - 7:51pm | Found this resource: it generates a whole sector as per the tables in Stars without Number http://swn.emichron.com/ use the tabs to explore politics and npcs and etc. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
