First, thank you to Wizards of the Coast for keeping Star Frontiers around in PoD form and PDF. This is one of the things the Wizards crew does very well - is support game preservation - and they deserve support and a lot of respect for keeping these parts of our childhoods and memories around.
Yes, this blog proposes playing in this setting with the excellent Frontier Space rules, but this is like playing GURPS in the Forgotten Realms. Wizards are still selling Forgotten Realms books, so we are supporting the product and paying our fair share. And Wizards need to keep supporting their claim in the IP and preserve the game, so a purchase helps keep the game around.
If Wizards ever decides to revisit the game, cool! I will check it out and urge everyone to do so as well. We must be positive and give the new generation of designers a chance.
But since the classic SF rules did not age too well compared to modern games, we can move on and play this with any game we like, 5E, GURPS, Starfinder, Savage Worlds, or the excellent Frontier Space. And honestly, these articles and information are focused on Frontier Space, but really - play the game you love and choose to spend time with. Even if it is still Star Frontiers or a modded version.
So, where do you get Star Frontiers? You can still get the game in PDF and hardcovers! I would consider these books to be "must buy" books for any game you would play in a hybrid FS-SF campaign:
Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226710/Star-Frontiers-Alpha-Dawn
This is the book that started it all, and it is a good primer for the species and background of the setting. Ignore the rules and gear and instead use the star map, species, look, and fantastic feeling of this universe. You also get the first Volturnus module in this book (SF0), so it is a must-have for understanding the actual feeling and structure of the universe.
Why not use the Star Frontiers rules? The unarmed combat rules desperately need a rewrite, and the action economy is stuck in the one-action-per-turn dungeon. The skill system could be more exciting. Frontier Space is a much more modern and clean system with plenty of options for customization and the potential for pulp sci-fi action. Star Frontiers is a sound system, but it shows its age, and it needs more modern improvements and streamlining to get me excited about playing and customizing my character.
We loved this as kids. The system is still solid.
But Frontier Space is where it is at for me today. This excites me.
Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227734/Star-Frontiers-Knight-Hawks
Star Frontiers always had classic hard sci-fi starships, and this wargame is perfectly playable. You can use your Frontier Space skill rolls for all of the checks in combat.
Why you need this is to get the ships, design system, wargame-like alternate starship rules, and the hard sci-fi feeling of these ships and this spacefaring technology. The technology level in Star Frontiers is more like the movies 2001 and 2010, where 1G acceleration is used to fly between planets; being in orbit means the whole ship's interior is weightless. There is this gritty, hardcore, almost mechanical feeling to spaceships and space travel that makes things hard.
Why make space travel harder? Well, it avoids the "flying van" mentality games like Star Wars have, where "landing your starship next to the dungeon" is the answer for most travel problems. Getting to a planet is the job of the starship, but most of the time, it sits in orbit. It can't land on the planet, and you need a shuttle or space-capable SST to land and carry a truck or explorer down. This opens up hex-crawling, and hex-crawling is a staple of the genre.
If your ship is in orbit, someone has to stay up there and crew it, or it is a sitting duck for space pirates or Sathar. You get a whole new level of planning and complexity with orbit-bound ships that you just do not get with any other sci-fi genre. So now you have half your crew in orbit (this can be NPCs) and the PCs down on the planet checking things out. Getting down to the planet and back up again can be dangerous. Protecting the shuttle or SST is another worry.
If the ship gets attacked in orbit, let the players play the NPC crew in orbit and have a space battle. Or let everyone run two characters, the away team, and the crew. It is all fun!
What is this? Old-school expedition and resource management in sci-fi? Oh yes, music to my sweet ears like a John Williams score. With flying van sci-fi, the game gets too focused on power-gaming by the characters. Without it, the focus becomes strategizing how you are going to fly a metal can light years to a system with hostiles prowling about, get your ship to a tiny speck of light in space called a planet, land on it, do what you need to do, get back to the ship, and run like heck to get out of there while the bad guys are chasing you down. A well-crafted plan is power gaming, and the focus is off personal power.
And Knight Hawks isn't the movie Aliens. I love you, Aliens, but I am tired of games endlessly repeating you as hard sci-fi. This is hard sci-fi influenced by the original Alien and 2001 movies, but it does not have a dark corporate-space feeling.
And the base Frontier Space game, while excellent, feels a bit too high-tech with starships and could have that "flying van" problem if it is not pulled back. Knight Hawks is also a fun wargame and one you can play with your FS characters as the crew.
Volturnus, Planet of Mystery (SF1)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226992/Star-Frontiers-SF1-Volturnus-Planet-of-Mystery
The second part of the Volturnus series is a must-have. I recommend reading John Carter of Mars to get yourself in the right mindset for this experience. You are not leaving the world or going home; you are stuck here and need to adapt and survive.
Starspawn of Volturnus (SF2)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226993/Star-Frontiers-SF2-Starspawn-of-Volturnus
The finale of the Volturnus series and a fitting climax!
But don't make the mistake we did and fold Volturnus into the central "space civilization" and leave it there. Stay there. Cut the system off in a second Sathar attack and leave it isolated for years. Let the Sathar blockade the world and the space lanes in nearby systems, and have players "break the blockade" with their fast starships. Have evil corporations support pirates and claim parts of the world for themselves, and have other planets support that and make claims to the world. Put enemy mercenaries and evil corporate towns and factions on the world, and let the players deal with them or expose their nefarious activities.
Possibly put more species on here to discover or clues to other worlds with more adventures and space civilizations to contact.
Stay here, make this a "Wild West" planet and frontier, and keep the focus on this world for a long-long time. This world should be your home and hub world, and it should never ever be safe and comfortable. This world should be as dangerous and alive as any campaign setting, like Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, and it should keep changing and evolving to keep it exciting and never the same place for long.
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