The Volturnus Modules: Part 1

Mild spoilers ahead for the Star Frontiers Volturnus Module Series...

I have fonder memories of these adventures.

I was trying to start the first one, arriving on a space liner going to the planet, the liner coming under pirate attack, and having to escape the ship before it explodes.

The first scenario is almost like a tutorial mission you can't lose. When you play by the original Star Frontiers rules, unarmed characters do minimal damage (without saying they can find a club), and melee combat is a little painful. The map seems strange, like it was made before any of the concepts of how starships would work. In Frontier Space, it plays a little better, and characters have more options and skills to deal with this situation.

There are pirates in airlocks and halls, fights in halls, and no other passengers to speak of. This really kills it for me, I want a chaotic run for the lifeboats, random NPCs to bump into, people pinned under furniture to help, and a table of random NPCs that get in the lifeboat with you, and you have to keep them safe, or get them to the first safe village on the planet where they can stay until help arrives. I would like there to be a few more lifeboats and guiding the random NPCs that you meet (and possibly captured space pirates) into the lifeboats and sending them down to the world.

I also want "plot treasure" like maps and data on computers to download that could give clues to places to go on the planet. If you are smart and hack computers, you could lock the pirates out of the ship or seal them in secure rooms while everyone evacuates. Taking over the security systems and causing them trouble by hitting groups of pirates with the foam fire retardant system. Activating security robots to help out. Searching the ship for trapped passengers and directing them to lifeboats via the intercoms.

Hero stuff.

I know, this is just a tutorial mission (likely written for kids like we were) to get you a few resources used to combat and movement and as a prolog to kick off the actual game. Still having random NPCs on this ship to interact with, calm down, help find family members, save from being trapped, and get them to the lifeboats would have been a fantastic moment.

When you are finally on the planet, getting stuck with a group of helpless and panicked survivors, you need to shepherd them along and take care of them until the first place you can make sure they are safe and taken care of would have been another incredible moment.

The entire adventure seems railroaded into a set encounter, and many future scenarios seem that way.

Part of me wants to retool this adventure into a "crashed on the alien world" hexcrawl adventure kit and play that instead. The entire experience is very John Carter of Mars in structure and inspiration, with outsiders coming in and creating peace between warring alien factions, uniting them against a more significant threat. Then it stops right before the part where we "bring the world into the galactic community."

I have fond memories of this series, one of the all-time greats. The structure and scenarios are a little flawed when we look at them today and don't provide enough freedom and exciting things to do. To be fair, these are 40-year-old adventures, and I would love to see the concept updated to a more modern framework and theme.