Okay, you have Star Frontiers; now, where do I get the other books? The same place you got the other books is the best answer! Let's take a look at them and see what we need.
FrontierSpace Players Handbook
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/222633/FrontierSpace-Players-Handbook
I like this system. The action economy supports the high skill levels that ruined the end-game of the original Star Frontiers for us. Once you have skill levels over 100%, the game is not much is a challenge anymore, and even we lost interest. The higher your skill level goes, the more automatic the game gets, and also less interesting.
Here, having a score over 100% means the fun is just beginning, and you can start to do lots of crazy actions. The higher your skill level, the more fun the game gets. This is the action economy of the game.
The system is easier and more streamlined than the original game too. The gear feels modernized and contemporary with what today's players expect without being too high-tech. You also have more customization with skill and loyalty benefits. The skill list is improved considerably. Character advancement is incredible.
There is a destiny system that works like fate points, but it helps balance characters that need to have excellent scores or are highly optimized. Average Joes can find themselves more fortunate heroes. As characters take fate into their own hands, destiny can decrease.
There is a renown system that "levels you up" in an organization, along with loyalty benefits. You can play a "Star Law" campaign and level up in the organization, getting higher ranks, more dangerous assignments, higher pay, and more benefits of the "star cop badge."
You can play as robots or have cyber implants. There are mech-like walkers. The weapon list is better. You can invent new species to play or convert them from other games or movies. You are not limited by the 1980s tech of the original game, and you have many more cool toys to play with.
The game feels better thought through and supports a lot more modern design concepts than the original game it was inspired by.
FrontierSpace Referee's Handbook
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/225299/FrontierSpace-Referees-Handbook
This is a good book for referees, but it also is more useful when you start going out and exploring the universe. We have expanded rules for actions and combats, psionic, species creation, monster creation, and many more referee assistance sections. We have mission generation and also how to generate star systems and planets. You get guidelines on running a campaign.
The information on running sci-fi is much better than in the original Star Frontiers game, and the book focuses on giving referees many tools, tables, random charts, and advice on how to run a sci-fi game. This is something the original game sorely needed, and we even found ourselves going to other sci-fi games for this information.
How do you create a star system? A planet? A sector?
How do you create an installation map? A random villain? A new space monster? Or even a random mission?
How do you run a game with a theme, such as a military or space law enforcement campaign?
While the original Volturnus modules will keep you gaming for a long time with plenty of fun and action, there will come a time when you want to go beyond what those adventures had. You will need a complete set of referee tools to get you going in the right direction. This hurt us after Volturnus; we did not have much to go on, other games had better tools, and our entire game sort of fell apart. I wish I had had these tools when running Star Frontiers with my brother; they would have helped me make that jump from published adventure to sci-fi campaign much more manageable.
Maybe we would have stuck to a lower level with a lot more exciting adventures than what we ended up with. As it was, Space Opera and Traveller's Mercenary and High Guard made our version of the Star Frontiers universe way too militaristic and war-focused when exploration and adventures are where the game shines. There is a point when fleets and diplomacy get boring, and you feel you are playing a 4X "star general" game in space, and the adventure is gone.
So yes, a flaw of the original Star Frontiers is referee support, and I see it clearly today. Fortunately, Frontier Space has excellent referee support. Using the Volturnus series as a "framework for planetary adventures" and the FS tools as generators for adventures in that framework would support a sci-fi "space dungeon" game nicely.
It is one of those things, sort of bittersweet hindsight, but we were kids, and we did not know better. If I had the tools in Frontier Space, our entire game and experience would have improved.
Running sci-fi is hard! Telling kids to run it is even harder! Dungeons and fantasy are straightforward and can be based on myths and fairy tales. You can do that in sci-fi, but too much sci-fi these days destroys all need for travel, exploration, and adventure. Having tools to help you figure out "what is out there" and get your brain imagining "what could be happening here" are critical to making a "go anywhere and do anything" sci-fi game a success.
And a success that you can sustain and build a long-running game from.
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