 March 18, 2017 - 3:14pm | A bit of news from MSN. The venerable Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game is partnering with Curse to build a next-generation web application. The platform, called D&D Beyond, was unveiled last week during PAX East in Boston. The team has announced that it will enter open beta on Monday. Sign ups are now open. Curse got its start managing mods online for games like Minecraft. It later morphed into a kind of community-centric chat system, allowing players to find and play with each other more easily. The company was purchased by Twitch in August, bringing its voice-over IP technology and 30 million users along with it... See the rest here: Joe Cabadas |
March 18, 2017 - 3:14pm | I'll bet we won't see a Star Frontiers app any time soon. Joe Cabadas |
 March 18, 2017 - 4:00pm | Just load up the maps and counters in maptool and call folks on skype... |
 March 18, 2017 - 11:27pm | I'll bet we won't see a Star Frontiers app any time soon.
That's because WotC would rather sit on the copyright than make a profit by selling it to Jedion and TerlObar...and we thought Lorraine Williams was the real reason SF died. (well, she did kill it, but it took WotC's efforts to ensure that it STAYED dead). |
 March 19, 2017 - 5:43am | Actually, I've been reading Designers and Dragons and if the history there is correct, it was actually Gary himself that killed it. The Blumes were mis-managing the company and got TSR into a lot of debt. When Gary came back to get the company back on its feet in '85 he killed a bunch of projects of which SF was just one in order to get the company solvent again. He succeeded but then got ousted by Williams a couple of years later. However, she didn't really come on the scene until 1987. So she might have prevented it from being rejuvinated but Gary killed it. And I really think the issue today is Hasbro, not WotC but that's just speculation on my part. 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 |
 March 19, 2017 - 6:53am | Well, if I've been unfair in blaming Lorraine Williams in the past I don't feel bad bacause she damn sure killed TSR, draining the company of money via the Buck Rogers product line, forbade play testing and ran the company into debt that if WotC hadn't come along D&D might be in the same position as Star Frontiers. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 19, 2017 - 7:05am | Actually, I've been reading Designers and Dragons and if the history there is correct, it was actually Gary himself that killed it. The Blumes were mis-managing the company and got TSR into a lot of debt. When Gary came back to get the company back on its feet in '85 he killed a bunch of projects of which SF was just one in order to get the company solvent again. He succeeded but then got ousted by Williams a couple of years later. However, she didn't really come on the scene until 1987. So she might have prevented it from being rejuvinated but Gary killed it.
And I really think the issue today is Hasbro, not WotC but that's just speculation on my part. Then let's rename the Xaxyg Nebula! Joe Cabadas |
March 19, 2017 - 7:51am | Actually, I've been reading Designers and Dragons and if the history there is correct, it was actually Gary himself that killed it. The Blumes were mis-managing the company and got TSR into a lot of debt. When Gary came back to get the company back on its feet in '85 he killed a bunch of projects of which SF was just one in order to get the company solvent again. He succeeded but then got ousted by Williams a couple of years later. However, she didn't really come on the scene until 1987. So she might have prevented it from being rejuvinated but Gary killed it.
And I really think the issue today is Hasbro, not WotC but that's just speculation on my part. When you stop to consider that Zeb's was the attempt to breath new life into SF, it's easy to see why it got kicked to the curb... |
March 19, 2017 - 8:50am | As I sit on this site, I keep wondering why everyone says "Star Frontiers was killed" hehehe... |
March 19, 2017 - 11:32am | As I sit on this site, I keep wondering why everyone says "Star Frontiers was killed" hehehe...
We're just fans of "Night of the Living Dead." Joe Cabadas |
 March 26, 2017 - 8:25am | That's because WotC would rather sit on the copyright than make a profit by selling it to Jedion and TerlObar...and we thought Lorraine Williams was the real reason SF died. No disrespect to those you've named, but WotC would probably want to sell the rights to an actual origanisation/company with a track record, even if they have no interest in it as a product themselves. The thing is, they may be sitting on it because as an RPG it may have some legs as a project at some future point in time. Or it may be that they just think it's worth the time and money to sell it on to a third party - personally I think this is probably the most likely reason 
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 March 31, 2017 - 4:29am | I got a 5E basic game set on sale.... omg a lot has changed in little ways, so went and picked up the players guide... everyone wants to kill some goblins, and play an oriental based game... conversion from 2E or even 1e is a big jump, but I am working on it... got the 5 elemental Spirit Folk figured out, right now scratching my head over the Dwarf conversions to 5E as oriental Dwarves are different than the hill or mountain ones. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
March 31, 2017 - 6:59am | everyone wants to ... and play an oriental based game
Is that actually true or is it a PC move on WotC's behalf due to the fact tht everything these days is made in China?  I only ask as I recall the 1e/2e era"Oriental Adventures" book was an utter failure, and that was released back in the hey-day of 80's Ninja obsession. Even today it is the least discussed book on the D&D boards I frequent. I have a copy of that book that is missing a couple of pages (acquired in an eBay lot) and I can't even give that away, even if I sort of/kind of/accidentally/on purpose neglect to mention the missing pages nobody bites on the freebie... |
March 31, 2017 - 7:30am | I remember coming across some Vietnamese goblins in 25mm scale miniatures- ie goblins in outfits and hats that suggested the Viet Cong. Interesting idea but didn;tbuy them I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 31, 2017 - 11:22am | Just a heads up that I also posted a set of icons for Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn in the Maptool project here to get everyone started. |
March 31, 2017 - 5:38pm | everyone wants to ... and play an oriental based game
Is that actually true or is it a PC move on WotC's behalf due to the fact tht everything these days is made in China? I only ask as I recall the 1e/2e era"Oriental Adventures" book was an utter failure, and that was released back in the hey-day of 80's Ninja obsession. Even today it is the least discussed book on the D&D boards I frequent. I have a copy of that book that is missing a couple of pages (acquired in an eBay lot) and I can't even give that away, even if I sort of/kind of/accidentally/on purpose neglect to mention the missing pages nobody bites on the freebie... No you misunderstand... the people willing to play wanted to do a different sort of setting than typical, so asia was chosen... so I have been seeing what to tweak. There is cool stuff in the three Asian based supplements but I think some things where made to complicated or presented poorly. So this is home brewing on top of everyone learning a new system, how ever the players will be helping with some aspects... as we will be play testing some ideas and changing some classic critters to oriental. We have banned Tolkien style elves... we got the 5 elemental Spirit People instead. Bamboo, Grass, River, Sand & Mountain. I am tempted to make the halflings like the ones in DarkSun... cannibal halflings. The korobokuru (dwarves) really seem to me to be very different so they will take some thought on presenting such a different sort of Dwarf... There is more but we plan to have fun world building as we go and try things... pilfering from Kung fu movies for ideas... the venom clan, the elemental ninjas and so on. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
April 24, 2017 - 10:52am | Thought I should check in... between work, life, hubby's illness, classes for renewal, complete lack of people to do my job in CA (so doing lots of extra) and trying to figure out D&D 5E I have not been around much. So some thoughts on D&D it has been sped up there are no more 1 minute turns... on,y 6 second rounds also now called turns. Most spells have been sped up too. It is now more similar to SF in that the ability stats determine your chances of doing stuff, saves and more, skills exist of course but they are bonuses to your abilities. Lacking charts... no seriously my Screen is really solid, but lacks all the stuff I am used to seeing for D&D regardless of system. Point system for buying your stats is now the big thing... I still don't like that do we rolled our stats. Healing has been excellerated in my opinion to a some what unrealistic way.... We are following those rules right now but we will have a discussion over the rules after we finish first Adventure, mostly through that, one more session needed. Humans now get +1 on all stats at creation and I noted all negs for other races seem removed too... my guess is the younger gen does not like taking a neg at PC creation and also for.t it unfair humans didn't get perks... never mind humans are the base race which all races are designed around for PC purposes so that is why no neg or pos adjustment. A lot of folks keep saying it is because of the desire to make the game more MMO by younger players and designers... I think we will probably very carefully test play it and add things in or tweak as we see fit, for example one does not wander around with burning incense sticks required for a spell... I think you need to light them first then cast said spell so that has got to take more than 6 seconds with old school tender box... just saying the spell might say one action but in reality I think it is 2. Any how I will be checking in more.... "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
