I have the purple book, I remember when I got it as a kid, I was so excited! Then I realized I had no one to play with and just reread it for the 12th time.
There were sections about designing an adventure AND running it. TSR was pushing it into the mass-market, so you could buy their boxed games at any suburban bookstore so people didn't need to learn from existing players. You did have the tools to spread RPGing to friends. Even if it was to play the Basic Rules version.
@@Dracopol I was 12 and the friends around me had no interest in it. I did make them all characters (D&D though) and it never went further than that, still have their characters because us D&Ders save that stuff. =)
LOL, Yeah I was in 6th grade and someone brought this to school and I was so excited. I went home and asked my Dad to get me this game and he drove me all over town trying to buy it...not realizing that he needed to visit a hobby shop to buy it. Once we finally found it and got home, my Dad read the instructions thinking we could play the game like a Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders. Quickly he realized it was a BS Role Playing game and gave up. Might as well been a Sci-Fi novel for me because I never actually played it with others.
A healthy shoutout for Bill Logan and his excellent reboot of Star Frontiers, Star Frontiers 'Gamma Dawn', and the excellent (free on DriveThru RPG) 'Star 'Frontier Explorer' and 'Star Frontiersman' for keeping this franchise alive.
@@theroguegeneralhunter2206 Ditto. The e-mags are a particularly wonderful throwback to the old days when physical gaming mags were more common and more varied. So few left these days that are anything more than a fancy sales catalog.
woot! yes! I was angry when I couldnt get his updated version of the rules anymore due to WOTC being dicks, wish there was a place I could still find them.
@@gzombie1 I suspect if you asked around the SF fan community someone could provide you with a copy. I can't help myself, but someone must have a set - or maybe it's been archived somewhere.
I bought all of the Star Frontiers stiff when it came out and had notebooks full of the photo copied magazine articles. We stopped playing as time went on. Bill Logan rekindled that faint ember into the campaign it is today! Without him, the Space Fleet cadets would not have graduated from the DE Montgomery before being promoted to the .CA Challenger. Thank you Bill Logan!!!!! 👻
I fully approve of this review and love this game. And I solemnly swear I am not under any Sathar mental influence. Not at all! Completely and utterly making this comment of my own free will. I am not a Sathar double agent...
I still have the original Alpha Dawn module plus the Knight Hawks module. And a few of the Adventures with player and Ship tiles. CANT wait until my 7yo is old enough to play with dad.
I printed and created some homemade counters using a pack of the inexpensive floor tiles with adhesive backs. Just printed my counters off on regular paper, pressed it down on the adhesive side, then cut down the lines on my cutting mat with a utility knife & metal edged ruler I already had. They're a bit flexible but weigh more. Didn't want to buy a paper cutter, adhesive pages, etc, as they wouldn't get much other use.
@@captcorajus To create as much as I have created in the Star Frontiersman and in the Frontier Explorer I style myself as an "idea whore" and I absolutely came here to steal ideas- but since I am a huge SF fan I also came to see the review on my favorite RPG- love that you covered using adhesive-backed photo paper and chip board to recreate the counters. Also gratified your judgement of the game was so high. Respect for the fact that you clearly knew what you were talking about when it came to the game.
@@captcorajus Looking forward to the Knight Hawks set. Still one of my favorite starship combat games, although I confess we chucked the movement system and replaced it with a modified version of Ground Zero Games' Full Thrust's vector movement rules instead. Surprisingly easy rules hack and makes for a much better gaming experience.
@@captcorajus Yep, although I've done quite a bit more with the more abstract High Guard/Trillion Credit Squadron rules. Also some (much later) Brilliant Lances and Battle Rider, although that's MegaTraveller era rather than Classic. Played the Traveller/Full Thrust Escort and Fleet hybrid rules from BITS too. And Star Cruiser from the Traveller 2300 line, which is a very different animal with new tech assumptions than regular Traveller has. You know, it's probably easier to just say if GDW made a starship game, I've played it at least a bit.
Since my introduction to D&D, way back in 1985/6, I have searched for this game. It took me almost 30 years to finally obtain a copy (Thanks to Drive-Thru RPG!). Seeing the talents of Elmore and Easley visualizing a Sci-Fi universe is a real treat. The Original cover of Star Frontiers is one of my all time favorites in the RPG (and comics!) universe - the colors, humor, concepts, kineticism and general aesthetics... like seeing a brand new 80's Red Line BMX, my inner kid gets butterflies all over again. An extremely flexible game whose system easily translate to whatever hits your fancy - Raw Percentile probability all the way!
Yesssss! As a young man I got an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, but I was missing how to run an RPG. TSR Inc. dared to make mass-market boxes, stopped depending on word of mouth and gave away the secrets of designing and running game adventures. At that point, any kid could pick up a Star Frontiers box in a bookstore or mall, read the programmed-learning parts in the Basic Rules, and have a half-decent chance of "getting it" about RPGs and run it for their little friends. As a bonus, the kids were not dependent on old bearded grognards to tell them what to do! The original electric-blue box was only US$10. It did not have much on starships: it assumed you were taxied to a new planet by an agency to get on with exploring. Later the Knight Hawks set came out about starship combat and RPG aspects, and the original box was identified as "Alpha Dawn", a very arbitrary term having NOTHING to do with the game! The combat system is beautiful. Basic Ability scores are almost 5 times what you are used to in D&D because it is a percentile game and not d20-roll based. There are only 13 skills but there are subskills within each skill with different base chances, so these adequately cover adventurous actions. Knight Hawks and especially Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space added more skills. The basic combat calculation is 1/2*STR or 1/2*DEX plus 10% per level of skill. There is a ponderous table of combat modifiers, big and small, but take the time to learn these tables! The importance of each factor lends realism, and the factors won't change often from turn to turn. You always know what your odds are in simple direct per cent. The game allows figuring melee attacks but also the very powerful ranged weapons. Robots and vehicles are added, even aerial vehicles, all going on in fast-playing, nervy six-second turns. In the second Volturnus module (SF1: Volturnus, Planet of Mystery), I managed to run the fight in a jungle between the PCs, 12 Star Devil Pirates and 40 Kurabanda allies of the PCs. It is fast-playing if you learn the system and don't fear the Melee and Ranged Combat Modifiers Tables. A wonderful experience for a young adult whose little feet were set on the dark path of role-playing, vocabulary building, public speaking, resource allocation know-how, and my humble efforts at creative writing.
I think that's the best overall score you've given anything you have covered thus far. Thank you so much for covering this. Star Frontiers has a special place in my heart and have notified everyone on our Facebook page about your video. Cheers.
Traveler fan here, but Star Frontiers was a really good one as well. Too bad they couldn't keep the TSR-tanic moving. Star Frontiers and Gamma World will always have a soft spot in my heart. Didn't know anything about the updated effort, I'm going to have to check that out. Thumbs up to the Thri Kreen, they are alive and well and living in Dungeons and Dragons.
I don't know if I'd agree with that. Both settings have their fans, but there's a lot more traveler in print than star Frontiers ever saw. And, even though the fanbase is about as fractured as it can get, traveler has been in print consistently for over 30 years. All that said, I have various versions of traveler, and I have star Frontiers. And I haven't played either, but I have no doubt that star Frontiers is a lot easier to get into. Over my life I have had countless people joke about Traveler mechanics, and no one who jokes about it has played it. Obviously people do, but I wonder if a chunk of their sales go towards people who buy it ironically or to see if the jokes are true
My local am radio station back in the day had ads for this game. I remember the over the top voice over and cool sound effects. Being a basic D&D kid at the time, I always wanted it... but my brother went with Gamma World instead.
I loved this game soooooo much, for a little while when I was a kid this was the only RPG I was allowed to play due to the Satanic panic, until my parents recognized the foolishness of it. But this game still holds up today and is fun to play.
My friend and I had this back in the 80's when it first came out. Never played it, made characters and dreamt of playing, but with just two of us, we never really played enough. Sad.
Well I gotta give Traveller credit for teaching me vectors when I was in high school but game was like running a business....I stayed with DnD... But when I discovered Star Frontiers, I basically converted my whole DnD circle to play it and we never looked back. Just love the flow and simplicity compared to DnD.
A hand salute to you Captain for bring back nostalgia for me! We played star frontiers for several weekends! Volturnus campaign left a lot to be desired and had some silly story issues. Ty for reviewing this game!! 😊
Such good memories! I had everything for SF back in the early/mid 80s except the figures. Initially ran the game then my best friend ran a great campaign we never finished because we later graduated high school and went into college/military. I also played Spacemaster from ICE. Good times!
I do like this review. A couple things I would differ from you is this: traveler I saw more like Star Wars, or even possibly Blakes seven, or the greater University of Doctor Who in the future. Very broad and diverse Starfrontiers I did love the simplicity and well written rules. There was no confusion and how to do things. But if you take nighthawks for example, easy to use, but they were very limited options on chip designs. Traveler was very open ended including up to 1,000,000 tons The game mechanics of Star frontiers was percentage based. The game mechanics of travel was the classic roll 2D6 and try to do eight or better. modifiers would help you go up or down. classic traveler to come up with the book called the unwritten rules which helps with that concept. It was probably written this way because a lot of classic war games were roll two dice six and try to get eight or better I am a fan of basic and advanced rules. The basic were set up for people who were not into role-playing but were into doing a quick combat. and the advances for those who have tried the basic and comprehend it and not want to get into it more. Dungeons and dragons also had a basic version and a advanced Version. The basic ways simple rules but not too much complexity and allowed for a lot more role-playing. The advanced of course has a lot more color in details in it. Which if you can use to the basic only flushes it out for your role-playing. Kind of like the difference between a weekend warrior and a full-time special forces I forgot to mention if you look closely in nighthawks the ship rooster, showing sizes of the ships is actually presented upside down. In my own copy of the PDF I have fix this
Ha! I literally just tracked down a copy of the original 1982 blue box Star Frontiers and got it yesterday! Was a fun RPG to play back in the day -- I liked playing Dralasite characters.
This game holds a special place in my heart. I remember fighting the whole 2nd Sathar war? Didn't they include that scenario? Thanks for your great reviews and I hope you do more on this game.
Just grabbed one of the blue box sets on eBay recently. I've got to run a campaign with this system. I had the books as a kid but I never talked my friends into playing.
I was given the Blue Box in an old collection of RPG Mags and books. I playstested the combat in the first scenario with a buddy and wowza, the combat is DEADLY. Its one of those games you want 2 or 3 characters rolled up at any given time lol
YES! BIG SF fan. Taking a break at the moment but have run a Star Frontiers Gamma World mash-up campaign for past few years. Have couple very old copies still getting heavy use.
Another great review Cap! Well done. Star Frontiers was the first opportunity I had to be a player; after chewing AD&D, it was a light load on the brain, to be sure. I loved the open ended nature of the gaming universe. Thanks again.
Gloop and Gleep from the Herculoids, too. Ancient H-B cartoons for the win. :) How do we still not have any licensed RPGs for (say) Space Ghost or Herculoids or Thundarr in 2021? I know the OSR has some suitable rules out there, but you'd think someone would have done an official game/games off them. Nostalgia sells.
@@captcorajus I would also accept the Galaxy Trio or even the Mighty Mightor. :) Hmmm. Given that they're all essentially weird superhero cartoons, maybe something could be done with the Sentinel Comics RPG from Greater Than Games? It'd do a good job of modelling those short episodes.
As always, great review! Forty years ago I found "Star Frontiers" to be somewhat generic and bland (the percentile system didn't help to change that assessment), however the PC races were appealing (like the amusing Dralasites and simian Yazirians). Traveller (publ. 1977), on the other hand, was a great way to play out the novels by E.C. Tubb on the interplanetary wanderer named Earl Dumarest (with a bit of "Space Viking" in the mix). Traveller's infamous die-while-in-chargen rules were a big turn-off, but there were ways of getting around that bug/feature. Traveller also had some great support from third-party Judges Guild. My all-time favorite scifi RPG has to be the super-rare SPACE QUEST (Hume and Nyhen, publ. Tyr, 1977) with all its freaky, psychedelic setting ideas, and hyper-technical rules.
Always enjoyed the game back in the 80s even if it never quite clicked with me the way D&D and TSR's Marvel game did. Having said that, I enjoyed it and have fond memories of it.
I love this game! I still have it and played a one-shot, not too long ago. The space battle game is good on it's own too. I converted all the percentages into d20 rolls. I even acquired a few starship minis and kit-bashed the rest.
...I studied the rules thoroughly and corresponded with Penny Peticord of the Role-Playing Games Association. Some of my concerns got reflected in Dragon articles about Star Frontiers errata. For example, if a vehicle is damaged, it may suffer effects like loss of control. The effects tables had "2d10+damage" across the top but the text said to roll 2d10 and add only the number of DICE of damage from an attack, so if the damage was 3d10 and you rolled 15, add only 3, NOT 15!. If you did it wrong, the severity of effects would increase too sharply, up to the notorious "Roll and Burn"! I think you can play Car Wars-type games with this even better than Car Wars (which at the time broke up rounds into 15 segments every second!), or the types of battles from The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) with that insane pilot swooping around on his autogyro too, dropping hand-made bombs, why not?!
The vehicle combat system actually worked quite well (assuming people spotted that error you noted) IME, especially with that Dragon article that expanded on vehicle construction. We had some fun times with that.
This is a game that with a little more support could have been around for a long time. If you want minies for this game, I've found proxies that will work for most of them. I've found some sci-fi snakemen that make good Sathar, some bugs that are like the Vrusk, humans are everywhere a plenty. The Dralasites, are a tough proxy to fill. I've been looking for minies at 15mm scale instead as vehicles are also much easier and small enough to fit on the table as well.
While the rules were...odd...I LOVED this setting! It was kitschy in the best way, and was just this side of Flash Gordon and Lost in Space to allow my players to ignore the physics and enjoy the wacky science fiction.
I’ve recently rediscovered Star Frontiers and love the system - the basic / expanded break up is a bit weird, but I find I use the basic game as a skirmish/board game. And the expanded rules will be my basic for a campaign I’m planning next year. Thanks for the awesome content!
The basic rules existed mostly to make the game as accessible to folks who might never have tried an RPG of any kind before. SF was part of TSR's big push to get into the mass market, mostly through book store chains like Waldenbooks and B Dalton's, and they really tried to be newbie-friendly in the extreme.
@@richmcgee434 for sure. It’s very cool to see such a simple book with so much good advice - make up your own stuff, talk to the table and figure out how things can be handled if there is no rule etc. that basic book is a gem IMO - I guess these days they’d call it a quick start.
This was the second RPG I ever played (After D&D of course) It has always been one of my favorites. I preferred Human, but all of the playable races were fun to play. I fondly remember my first SF character Jon Carter (so original I know lol) a Demo expert (Okay... level 2) use D19 to sabotage a pirate starship and keep them from escaping later in the scenario. Good Times.
The only thing I don’t like about the DrivethruRPG PDFs for Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks is they only have printer friendly broken up maps and not full one page ones, the modules don’t have this problem. I guess if you have photo editing skills to combine the images it wouldn’t be a problem but I do not. Other than that nitpick they are very nice.
I have _no_ memory of those species featuring in Spelljammer. It's been a long time, though, and I only mined that boxed set for a few long-lasting concepts for my own setting.
DTRPG just listed a new Star Frontiers module called Taking Out the Trash. Sounds like it's set on/near Clarion from the Knight Hawks boxed set mini-campaign.
There must be a disturbance, no, the opposite of a disturbance in the force this week. I've been thinking about Star Frontiers all through Thanksgiving and this culminates it.
I would imagine someone has mentioned this. I read down the comments by about 15 post and didn't see it. Regardless, the final score out take is for some reason at the front of the review. I started the video with the final score and a thanks for watching. :)
Ha - I literally just dug out my Alpha Dawn box this past weekend! (Alas, it's a replacement for my original, pre-AD blue box that I got in '82.) Been too long since I last looked at it. Such a cool game but one I haven't had many chances to play, unfortunately. That didn't stop me from making character sheets and maps for it, though. Speaking of which, I'm amused to see my map of the Frontier at 1:30 - that's two of my reimagined maps that have found their way into one of your videos! :D If any other viewers want to download that and my SF character sheet (and peruse a ton of other old school RPG stuff I've made) they can find them at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword)...
Still think this was a cool rpg. Have nearly the entire series. Lots of fun. Mish-mash of Trek/Wars in concept, but has its own galaxy-wide commonwealth that is unique. Thanks for this review.
I'm as much of a fan of SF as anyone old enough to remember it from my childhood but taking the nostalgia goggles off for a minute, SF disappointed a lot of people back in the day by leaving all the rules for starships and space combat out of the main box set. The only element of space travel in Alpha Dawn is ticket prices for catching a ride to another planet. When you compared it to just about any other SF game on the market (Traveller being the big one, but FASA's Star Trek dropped in 1982 as well and there were others like FGU's Space Opera or Starships & Spacemen) that was a pretty glaring omission. Critics tore the game a new one over it too. TSR fixed it with the Knight Hawks boxed set next year, and in the end the game wound up with more page space devoted to starship rules than most because of it - as well as getting a pretty decent strategic boardgame around the second Sathar war in the process. Still, I suspect the year-long wait for what most people regarded as a vital part of any starfaring scifi game cost SF quite a lot of impetus and some customer ill-will, since KH was widely (albeit perhaps unfairly) seen as a cash-grab to sell two box sets instead of one. Not one of TSR's better design choices from a marketing standpoint.
Like a lot of reviewers, had the box set mostly unplayed. It's too bad that like Top Secret, Gamma World, and Boot Hill, this game never reached its potential. Star Frontiers Expanded came out with a module based on Kubrick's "2001". THAT would be and interesting review, Corajus.
I'll give you TS and BH doing pretty lackluster business, but not GW. Gamma World has had seven editions over the course of 32 years and dozens of modules, and that's not even considering its older cousin Metamorphosis Alpha, all the Dragon articles, and the OSR stuff inspired by it. The game's done better than the vast majority of RPGs already, and sure isn't dead and gone yet.
I had the misfortune of reading Catch-22 before first encountering the Captain Scarlet tv series. The principal "human" villain in the latter is Captain Black, and I kept subconsciously conflating him with Catch-22's Captain Black.. I kept expecting the character to go on an anti-Commie tirade, or mock Scarlet for going out to get killed over and over again.
I was wondering why they haven't re-released it. Even in "nostlagic releases" in 2008 seems to lack one. Heck, many TSR fans seem to show Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha as non-DnD TSR games to the point that I know Star Frontiers in 2020. Edit: Just a retrospect, I didn't realize their current shenanigans, i was really curious why it never received "nostlagia RPG" until 2020 (I mean I've seen more Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha than this, especially in 4E nostlagia update era).
Holy shit this looks good. Any idea if these books or even modules could be adapted and usefull for my Dnd5 campain. I want to bring my party into space, so I was of course considering Spelljammer, but could use a bit more lore and possibly some cool adventure to use. Cheers !
You might consider Stars Without Number which is B/X DnD (d20 rules) converted to a sci fi setting and an excellent rule set. It's probably easier to adapt than a skill driven d100 rule set. But every 5% is one 1/20 of a D20 so it is possible to convert to D20. You might also look into the classic module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. for a DnD sci fi cross over.
If you get the softcover do you also get the PDFs? I have the original, but nice to have an extra copy bound copy and ability to print certain pages as needed.
I played this game a bunch back in the day and still have it. But let's be honest - the style of the original game and modules is very much "D&D In Space!". I mean, crawling through a dangerous cavern complex? Really? When the game came out it didn't even have space ship rules because you were meant to be fighting monsters in the wilderness... I mean, on unexplored planets. It did get better and I agree that it's good for novice players but Traveller is a much better game.
Great video! Do you know if the PDFs on drive-through or actually PDFs or are they just scanned images? I ask because I’m blind and screen readers don’t read scanned images. Thanks!
Mechanoid invasion is one of my all time faves and IMHO still one of the most interesting game worlds/setups ever. Too bad I couldn't find people who wanted to play it lol.
Paranoia was a lot of fun for one-shots, but running a campaign never seemed to work for us. Worked better in small doses - which was fine, since the many modules were just about the perfect length and generally really well-written.
@@richmcgee434 - did we even call them "One shots" back then? Paranoia encouraged better role playing by lowering the stakes for your character dying...
@@stevendavis7628 Locally it was "one time adventures" IIRC - although sometimes we'd come back to re-visit a given system with the same characters later, which was more like a very casual campaign with long gaps between sessions. Or "playing a module" for pre-made stuff instead of a homebrew thing like a Call of Cthulhu scenario set in our hometown. Paranoia and Ghostbusters probably had the best stand-alone modules, but comedy RPGs lend themselves to that IME. :)
Based on the race traits it appears that I am a Dralasite. Interesting and not unwelcome. Not a fan of the angry monkey birds. Imagine all the poop they would throw around. 🤮
It's a shame what became of the reboot Star Frontiers (or rather the racists who took up the mantle) as it really casts a shadow on the brand when you try to recruit players.
OMG, It breaks my heart. You're right, what a shame. In addition to WOTC suing them for copyright infringement, they ought to sue them for ruining the titles with their idiocy.
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I have the purple book, I remember when I got it as a kid, I was so excited! Then I realized I had no one to play with and just reread it for the 12th time.
There were sections about designing an adventure AND running it. TSR was pushing it into the mass-market, so you could buy their boxed games at any suburban bookstore so people didn't need to learn from existing players. You did have the tools to spread RPGing to friends. Even if it was to play the Basic Rules version.
@@Dracopol I was 12 and the friends around me had no interest in it. I did make them all characters (D&D though) and it never went further than that, still have their characters because us D&Ders save that stuff. =)
Most of my rpg rule books and modules had the same fate.
I'm right there with you. I had a hell of a hard time finding a game to join in my town.
LOL, Yeah I was in 6th grade and someone brought this to school and I was so excited. I went home and asked my Dad to get me this game and he drove me all over town trying to buy it...not realizing that he needed to visit a hobby shop to buy it. Once we finally found it and got home, my Dad read the instructions thinking we could play the game like a Monopoly or Chutes and Ladders. Quickly he realized it was a BS Role Playing game and gave up. Might as well been a Sci-Fi novel for me because I never actually played it with others.
A healthy shoutout for Bill Logan and his excellent reboot of Star Frontiers, Star Frontiers 'Gamma Dawn', and the excellent (free on DriveThru RPG) 'Star 'Frontier Explorer' and 'Star Frontiersman' for keeping this franchise alive.
Those publications are amazing. I found them a few years ago by accident.
@@theroguegeneralhunter2206 Ditto. The e-mags are a particularly wonderful throwback to the old days when physical gaming mags were more common and more varied. So few left these days that are anything more than a fancy sales catalog.
woot! yes! I was angry when I couldnt get his updated version of the rules anymore due to WOTC being dicks, wish there was a place I could still find them.
@@gzombie1 I suspect if you asked around the SF fan community someone could provide you with a copy. I can't help myself, but someone must have a set - or maybe it's been archived somewhere.
I bought all of the Star Frontiers stiff when it came out and had notebooks full of the photo copied magazine articles. We stopped playing as time went on. Bill Logan rekindled that faint ember into the campaign it is today! Without him, the Space Fleet cadets would not have graduated from the DE Montgomery before being promoted to the .CA Challenger. Thank you Bill Logan!!!!! 👻
Been thinking about getting into Star Frontiers lately and this video helped! Cheers!
I fully approve of this review and love this game. And I solemnly swear I am not under any Sathar mental influence. Not at all! Completely and utterly making this comment of my own free will. I am not a Sathar double agent...
5min ago, 8 mins postet, 16 mins long. you cant possible watched the whole video...
@@domdombjj I didn't need to watch it all as I played it back in 1984 and fondly remember it.
I wanted to be a Dralasite so bad.
Sadly as I age, I am morphing into one IRL.
LMAO
I still have the original Alpha Dawn module plus the Knight Hawks module. And a few of the Adventures with player and Ship tiles. CANT wait until my 7yo is old enough to play with dad.
This was the 1st RPG I played when I was a kid. Still have fond memories of it.
I printed and created some homemade counters using a pack of the inexpensive floor tiles with adhesive backs. Just printed my counters off on regular paper, pressed it down on the adhesive side, then cut down the lines on my cutting mat with a utility knife & metal edged ruler I already had. They're a bit flexible but weigh more. Didn't want to buy a paper cutter, adhesive pages, etc, as they wouldn't get much other use.
Excellent review of Star Frontiers, and I speak as the content editor of the Frontier Explorer magazine.
Oh wow!! Great to have you visiting the channel, welcome, nd thank you for the kind words!
@@captcorajus To create as much as I have created in the Star Frontiersman and in the Frontier Explorer I style myself as an "idea whore" and I absolutely came here to steal ideas- but since I am a huge SF fan I also came to see the review on my favorite RPG- love that you covered using adhesive-backed photo paper and chip board to recreate the counters. Also gratified your judgement of the game was so high. Respect for the fact that you clearly knew what you were talking about when it came to the game.
Whoop whoop whoop! I have been waiting a long time for this one! Thanks!
😊👍
*Please cover more Star Frontiers .*
That's the plan!
@@captcorajus Looking forward to the Knight Hawks set. Still one of my favorite starship combat games, although I confess we chucked the movement system and replaced it with a modified version of Ground Zero Games' Full Thrust's vector movement rules instead. Surprisingly easy rules hack and makes for a much better gaming experience.
@@richmcgee434 Have you ever played May Day, the space combat system that was suppose to be for Traveller?
@@captcorajus Yep, although I've done quite a bit more with the more abstract High Guard/Trillion Credit Squadron rules. Also some (much later) Brilliant Lances and Battle Rider, although that's MegaTraveller era rather than Classic. Played the Traveller/Full Thrust Escort and Fleet hybrid rules from BITS too. And Star Cruiser from the Traveller 2300 line, which is a very different animal with new tech assumptions than regular Traveller has.
You know, it's probably easier to just say if GDW made a starship game, I've played it at least a bit.
YES! Needs a review of each of the modules as well as Knight Hawks!
Since my introduction to D&D, way back in 1985/6, I have searched for this game. It took me almost 30 years to finally obtain a copy (Thanks to Drive-Thru RPG!). Seeing the talents of Elmore and Easley visualizing a Sci-Fi universe is a real treat. The Original cover of Star Frontiers is one of my all time favorites in the RPG (and comics!) universe - the colors, humor, concepts, kineticism and general aesthetics... like seeing a brand new 80's Red Line BMX, my inner kid gets butterflies all over again. An extremely flexible game whose system easily translate to whatever hits your fancy - Raw Percentile probability all the way!
Remember playing this game as a 13 year old. Thanks for reviewing it!
You're very welcome.
Yesssss! As a young man I got an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, but I was missing how to run an RPG. TSR Inc. dared to make mass-market boxes, stopped depending on word of mouth and gave away the secrets of designing and running game adventures. At that point, any kid could pick up a Star Frontiers box in a bookstore or mall, read the programmed-learning parts in the Basic Rules, and have a half-decent chance of "getting it" about RPGs and run it for their little friends. As a bonus, the kids were not dependent on old bearded grognards to tell them what to do!
The original electric-blue box was only US$10. It did not have much on starships: it assumed you were taxied to a new planet by an agency to get on with exploring. Later the Knight Hawks set came out about starship combat and RPG aspects, and the original box was identified as "Alpha Dawn", a very arbitrary term having NOTHING to do with the game!
The combat system is beautiful. Basic Ability scores are almost 5 times what you are used to in D&D because it is a percentile game and not d20-roll based. There are only 13 skills but there are subskills within each skill with different base chances, so these adequately cover adventurous actions. Knight Hawks and especially Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space added more skills.
The basic combat calculation is 1/2*STR or 1/2*DEX plus 10% per level of skill. There is a ponderous table of combat modifiers, big and small, but take the time to learn these tables! The importance of each factor lends realism, and the factors won't change often from turn to turn. You always know what your odds are in simple direct per cent.
The game allows figuring melee attacks but also the very powerful ranged weapons. Robots and vehicles are added, even aerial vehicles, all going on in fast-playing, nervy six-second turns. In the second Volturnus module (SF1: Volturnus, Planet of Mystery), I managed to run the fight in a jungle between the PCs, 12 Star Devil Pirates and 40 Kurabanda allies of the PCs. It is fast-playing if you learn the system and don't fear the Melee and Ranged Combat Modifiers Tables.
A wonderful experience for a young adult whose little feet were set on the dark path of role-playing, vocabulary building, public speaking, resource allocation know-how, and my humble efforts at creative writing.
I think that's the best overall score you've given anything you have covered thus far. Thank you so much for covering this. Star Frontiers has a special place in my heart and have notified everyone on our Facebook page about your video. Cheers.
Traveler fan here, but Star Frontiers was a really good one as well. Too bad they couldn't keep the TSR-tanic moving. Star Frontiers and Gamma World will always have a soft spot in my heart.
Didn't know anything about the updated effort, I'm going to have to check that out.
Thumbs up to the Thri Kreen, they are alive and well and living in Dungeons and Dragons.
Oh, I'm very much a Travller fan myself!
Holy COW! I had this, but had completely forgotten about it. Thanks for taking me back. Far out.
Nice to see that game again!
Amusing to see the dig at Traveller. History shows that contest didn't work out TSR's way.
I don't know if I'd agree with that. Both settings have their fans, but there's a lot more traveler in print than star Frontiers ever saw. And, even though the fanbase is about as fractured as it can get, traveler has been in print consistently for over 30 years.
All that said, I have various versions of traveler, and I have star Frontiers. And I haven't played either, but I have no doubt that star Frontiers is a lot easier to get into. Over my life I have had countless people joke about Traveler mechanics, and no one who jokes about it has played it. Obviously people do, but I wonder if a chunk of their sales go towards people who buy it ironically or to see if the jokes are true
My local am radio station back in the day had ads for this game. I remember the over the top voice over and cool sound effects. Being a basic D&D kid at the time, I always wanted it... but my brother went with Gamma World instead.
I loved this game soooooo much, for a little while when I was a kid this was the only RPG I was allowed to play due to the Satanic panic, until my parents recognized the foolishness of it. But this game still holds up today and is fun to play.
My friend and I had this back in the 80's when it first came out. Never played it, made characters and dreamt of playing, but with just two of us, we never really played enough. Sad.
Well I gotta give Traveller credit for teaching me vectors when I was in high school but game was like running a business....I stayed with DnD... But when I discovered Star Frontiers, I basically converted my whole DnD circle to play it and we never looked back. Just love the flow and simplicity compared to DnD.
A hand salute to you Captain for bring back nostalgia for me! We played star frontiers for several weekends! Volturnus campaign left a lot to be desired and had some silly story issues. Ty for reviewing this game!! 😊
Wow I love this game. I played back in 1984 when I was 14
I played this more than D&D when I was a little kid.
Such good memories! I had everything for SF back in the early/mid 80s except the figures. Initially ran the game then my best friend ran a great campaign we never finished because we later graduated high school and went into college/military. I also played Spacemaster from ICE. Good times!
I do like this review. A couple things I would differ from you is this: traveler I saw more like Star Wars, or even possibly Blakes seven, or the greater University of Doctor Who in the future. Very broad and diverse
Starfrontiers I did love the simplicity and well written rules. There was no confusion and how to do things. But if you take nighthawks for example, easy to use, but they were very limited options on chip designs. Traveler was very open ended including up to 1,000,000 tons
The game mechanics of Star frontiers was percentage based.
The game mechanics of travel was the classic roll 2D6 and try to do eight or better. modifiers would help you go up or down.
classic traveler to come up with the book called the unwritten rules which helps with that concept. It was probably written this way because a lot of classic war games were roll two dice six and try to get eight or better
I am a fan of basic and advanced rules.
The basic were set up for people who were not into role-playing but were into doing a quick combat.
and the advances for those who have tried the basic and comprehend it and not want to get into it more.
Dungeons and dragons also had a basic version and a advanced Version. The basic ways simple rules but not too much complexity and allowed for a lot more role-playing. The advanced of course has a lot more color in details in it. Which if you can use to the basic only flushes it out for your role-playing.
Kind of like the difference between a weekend warrior and a full-time special forces
I forgot to mention if you look closely in nighthawks the ship rooster, showing sizes of the ships is actually presented upside down. In my own copy of the PDF I have fix this
Ha! I literally just tracked down a copy of the original 1982 blue box Star Frontiers and got it yesterday! Was a fun RPG to play back in the day -- I liked playing Dralasite characters.
Love the instructions for the counters. They're almost identical to the originals. Nice!
Thanks! That sticky photo paper and chip board combo along with the paper guillotine will serve you well in a LOT of projects!
Thanks, this brings back fond memories.
This game holds a special place in my heart. I remember fighting the whole 2nd Sathar war? Didn't they include that scenario? Thanks for your great reviews and I hope you do more on this game.
Echoes of Dr. Demento in your voice. That brought back some memories.
people keep telling me that!
Star Frontiers is such a fun game! I had so much fun with it! The Volturnus campaign was so much fun!
Just grabbed one of the blue box sets on eBay recently. I've got to run a campaign with this system. I had the books as a kid but I never talked my friends into playing.
I really think that there was a strong mythical belief in the need to do a Basic/Advanced rules thing, up until around 2000.
I was given the Blue Box in an old collection of RPG Mags and books. I playstested the combat in the first scenario with a buddy and wowza, the combat is DEADLY.
Its one of those games you want 2 or 3 characters rolled up at any given time lol
So good! My favourite RPG channel along with bandits keep
I tottaly agree about the aliens that aren't just blue humans thing. This is a very well made and informative video!
Always wanted to play a drasalite
YES! BIG SF fan. Taking a break at the moment but have run a Star Frontiers Gamma World mash-up campaign for past few years. Have couple very old copies still getting heavy use.
Another great review Cap! Well done.
Star Frontiers was the first opportunity I had to be a player; after chewing AD&D, it was a light load on the brain, to be sure.
I loved the open ended nature of the gaming universe. Thanks again.
Watching this now I've only just realised that the Alternative Armies miniatures line Space Simian X is totally based on these races!
Still love this game. I gotta pick up Zebulon’s guide tho.
Yes! Finally!
My favorite rpg. I run it for pick-up games at cons or when I game with kids who haven't gamed before.
I swear the dralasites were taken from the old cartoon the Shmoo. It's what they always reminded me of when I 1st saw them.
OMG! I never thought of that but yes! lol
Gloop and Gleep from the Herculoids, too. Ancient H-B cartoons for the win. :)
How do we still not have any licensed RPGs for (say) Space Ghost or Herculoids or Thundarr in 2021? I know the OSR has some suitable rules out there, but you'd think someone would have done an official game/games off them. Nostalgia sells.
@@richmcgee434 Yes, I need a Space Ghost RPG in my life. lol
@@captcorajus I would also accept the Galaxy Trio or even the Mighty Mightor. :)
Hmmm. Given that they're all essentially weird superhero cartoons, maybe something could be done with the Sentinel Comics RPG from Greater Than Games? It'd do a good job of modelling those short episodes.
As always, great review! Forty years ago I found "Star Frontiers" to be somewhat generic and bland (the percentile system didn't help to change that assessment), however the PC races were appealing (like the amusing Dralasites and simian Yazirians). Traveller (publ. 1977), on the other hand, was a great way to play out the novels by E.C. Tubb on the interplanetary wanderer named Earl Dumarest (with a bit of "Space Viking" in the mix). Traveller's infamous die-while-in-chargen rules were a big turn-off, but there were ways of getting around that bug/feature. Traveller also had some great support from third-party Judges Guild. My all-time favorite scifi RPG has to be the super-rare SPACE QUEST (Hume and Nyhen, publ. Tyr, 1977) with all its freaky, psychedelic setting ideas, and hyper-technical rules.
Wonderful video! Thanks for sharing!
Always enjoyed the game back in the 80s even if it never quite clicked with me the way D&D and TSR's Marvel game did. Having said that, I enjoyed it and have fond memories of it.
I love this game!
I still have it and played a one-shot, not too long ago.
The space battle game is good on it's own too. I converted all the percentages into d20 rolls. I even acquired a few starship minis and kit-bashed the rest.
I still have both that & the Knight Hawks expansion. Only played it once, but it was an easy & fun system as I recall.
Oh wow, I need it.
Ooops! I did it again didn't I? Lol
@@captcorajus You certainly did! I need all of it. Lol. How well does the guillotine cut through the chipboard?
@@dmmikerpg Like a hot knife through butter! You better watch your fingers!! Best thing I ever bought, I use it constantly. So handy.
_Dralasites do it with dexterity!_
...I studied the rules thoroughly and corresponded with Penny Peticord of the Role-Playing Games Association. Some of my concerns got reflected in Dragon articles about Star Frontiers errata.
For example, if a vehicle is damaged, it may suffer effects like loss of control. The effects tables had "2d10+damage" across the top but the text said to roll 2d10 and add only the number of DICE of damage from an attack, so if the damage was 3d10 and you rolled 15, add only 3, NOT 15!. If you did it wrong, the severity of effects would increase too sharply, up to the notorious "Roll and Burn"!
I think you can play Car Wars-type games with this even better than Car Wars (which at the time broke up rounds into 15 segments every second!), or the types of battles from The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2) with that insane pilot swooping around on his autogyro too, dropping hand-made bombs, why not?!
The vehicle combat system actually worked quite well (assuming people spotted that error you noted) IME, especially with that Dragon article that expanded on vehicle construction. We had some fun times with that.
This is a game that with a little more support could have been around for a long time.
If you want minies for this game, I've found proxies that will work for most of them. I've found some sci-fi snakemen that make good Sathar, some bugs that are like the Vrusk, humans are everywhere a plenty. The Dralasites, are a tough proxy to fill. I've been looking for minies at 15mm scale instead as vehicles are also much easier and small enough to fit on the table as well.
While the rules were...odd...I LOVED this setting! It was kitschy in the best way, and was just this side of Flash Gordon and Lost in Space to allow my players to ignore the physics and enjoy the wacky science fiction.
Many a weekend in high school playing SF. My character eventually became the ship's pilot.
I’ve recently rediscovered Star Frontiers and love the system - the basic / expanded break up is a bit weird, but I find I use the basic game as a skirmish/board game. And the expanded rules will be my basic for a campaign I’m planning next year. Thanks for the awesome content!
The basic rules existed mostly to make the game as accessible to folks who might never have tried an RPG of any kind before. SF was part of TSR's big push to get into the mass market, mostly through book store chains like Waldenbooks and B Dalton's, and they really tried to be newbie-friendly in the extreme.
@@richmcgee434 for sure. It’s very cool to see such a simple book with so much good advice - make up your own stuff, talk to the table and figure out how things can be handled if there is no rule etc. that basic book is a gem IMO - I guess these days they’d call it a quick start.
@@BanditsKeep Yeah, that'd be the modern terminology for it. TSR was ahead of its time there.
Long ago I wanted to play Star Frontiers instead of D&D. It was complicated but more fun if you liked Sci-fi.
This was the second RPG I ever played (After D&D of course) It has always been one of my favorites. I preferred Human, but all of the playable races were fun to play. I fondly remember my first SF character Jon Carter (so original I know lol) a Demo expert (Okay... level 2) use D19 to sabotage a pirate starship and keep them from escaping later in the scenario. Good Times.
Never new this stuff. The boxed sets were a feature of my childhood
The only thing I don’t like about the DrivethruRPG PDFs for Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks is they only have printer friendly broken up maps and not full one page ones, the modules don’t have this problem. I guess if you have photo editing skills to combine the images it wouldn’t be a problem but I do not. Other than that nitpick they are very nice.
I have _no_ memory of those species featuring in Spelljammer. It's been a long time, though, and I only mined that boxed set for a few long-lasting concepts for my own setting.
this game has piqued my interest as well as Spell Jammer, so I'll definitely give this a look and get the PODs!
DTRPG just listed a new Star Frontiers module called Taking Out the Trash. Sounds like it's set on/near Clarion from the Knight Hawks boxed set mini-campaign.
Love this !
Star Frontiers is technically the first role playing game I played.
There must be a disturbance, no, the opposite of a disturbance in the force this week.
I've been thinking about Star Frontiers all through Thanksgiving and this culminates it.
This was interesting. As someone who never played this or Traveller, more detailed info on the rule system would have been runtime well spent.
I would imagine someone has mentioned this. I read down the comments by about 15 post and didn't see it. Regardless, the final score out take is for some reason at the front of the review. I started the video with the final score and a thanks for watching. :)
oh, thanks! lol, I need to fix that!
There, fixed. Thanks for the heads up!
Thank you, very fun.
Ha - I literally just dug out my Alpha Dawn box this past weekend! (Alas, it's a replacement for my original, pre-AD blue box that I got in '82.) Been too long since I last looked at it. Such a cool game but one I haven't had many chances to play, unfortunately.
That didn't stop me from making character sheets and maps for it, though. Speaking of which, I'm amused to see my map of the Frontier at 1:30 - that's two of my reimagined maps that have found their way into one of your videos! :D If any other viewers want to download that and my SF character sheet (and peruse a ton of other old school RPG stuff I've made) they can find them at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword)...
It was too cool not to include!! Great job!!
Still think this was a cool rpg. Have nearly the entire series. Lots of fun.
Mish-mash of Trek/Wars in concept, but has its own galaxy-wide commonwealth that is unique.
Thanks for this review.
I remember seeing the ad in the back of Comic books .
yes, those were great!
That and " Ultimate warrior" action figures
I'm as much of a fan of SF as anyone old enough to remember it from my childhood but taking the nostalgia goggles off for a minute, SF disappointed a lot of people back in the day by leaving all the rules for starships and space combat out of the main box set. The only element of space travel in Alpha Dawn is ticket prices for catching a ride to another planet. When you compared it to just about any other SF game on the market (Traveller being the big one, but FASA's Star Trek dropped in 1982 as well and there were others like FGU's Space Opera or Starships & Spacemen) that was a pretty glaring omission. Critics tore the game a new one over it too.
TSR fixed it with the Knight Hawks boxed set next year, and in the end the game wound up with more page space devoted to starship rules than most because of it - as well as getting a pretty decent strategic boardgame around the second Sathar war in the process. Still, I suspect the year-long wait for what most people regarded as a vital part of any starfaring scifi game cost SF quite a lot of impetus and some customer ill-will, since KH was widely (albeit perhaps unfairly) seen as a cash-grab to sell two box sets instead of one. Not one of TSR's better design choices from a marketing standpoint.
Like a lot of reviewers, had the box set mostly unplayed. It's too bad that like Top Secret, Gamma World, and Boot Hill, this game never reached its potential.
Star Frontiers Expanded came out with a module based on Kubrick's "2001". THAT would be and interesting review, Corajus.
You're right! I love SF and 2001. I'll see what I can do.
I'll give you TS and BH doing pretty lackluster business, but not GW. Gamma World has had seven editions over the course of 32 years and dozens of modules, and that's not even considering its older cousin Metamorphosis Alpha, all the Dragon articles, and the OSR stuff inspired by it. The game's done better than the vast majority of RPGs already, and sure isn't dead and gone yet.
1:58 You tried to say Yazirian, but it sounded like Yossarian (the hero of the novel Catch 22?) :-)
I had the misfortune of reading Catch-22 before first encountering the Captain Scarlet tv series. The principal "human" villain in the latter is Captain Black, and I kept subconsciously conflating him with Catch-22's Captain Black.. I kept expecting the character to go on an anti-Commie tirade, or mock Scarlet for going out to get killed over and over again.
Star Frontiers was a good game. There should be an OSE version.
So good! SF forever!!
Wonderful video thank you.
You know Star Wars vs. Star Trek? Yeah, it's like that.
I was wondering why they haven't re-released it.
Even in "nostlagic releases" in 2008 seems to lack one.
Heck, many TSR fans seem to show Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha as non-DnD TSR games to the point that I know Star Frontiers in 2020.
Edit: Just a retrospect, I didn't realize their current shenanigans, i was really curious why it never received "nostlagia RPG" until 2020 (I mean I've seen more Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha than this, especially in 4E nostlagia update era).
Holy shit this looks good. Any idea if these books or even modules could be adapted and usefull for my Dnd5 campain. I want to bring my party into space, so I was of course considering Spelljammer, but could use a bit more lore and possibly some cool adventure to use.
Cheers !
You might consider Stars Without Number which is B/X DnD (d20 rules) converted to a sci fi setting and an excellent rule set. It's probably easier to adapt than a skill driven d100 rule set. But every 5% is one 1/20 of a D20 so it is possible to convert to D20. You might also look into the classic module Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. for a DnD sci fi cross over.
Nice! Was always curious about this because it was advertised in my Mentzer redbox Player's Manual on the back page. Can you do Marvel Super Heroes?
I use to play that all the time in Middle School until Star Wars finally put its official (and kind of hard to use) RPG out.
Classic game
I'm going to introduce my players t this game but adapt it for D&D Basic.
I loved star frontiers
If you get the softcover do you also get the PDFs? I have the original, but nice to have an extra copy bound copy and ability to print certain pages as needed.
I played this game a bunch back in the day and still have it. But let's be honest - the style of the original game and modules is very much "D&D In Space!". I mean, crawling through a dangerous cavern complex? Really? When the game came out it didn't even have space ship rules because you were meant to be fighting monsters in the wilderness... I mean, on unexplored planets. It did get better and I agree that it's good for novice players but Traveller is a much better game.
Great video! Do you know if the PDFs on drive-through or actually PDFs or are they just scanned images? I ask because I’m blind and screen readers don’t read scanned images. Thanks!
I think what you're asking is if they are editable.... and the answer is yes.
I hear rumours there might be a revival, or a mashup of SpellJammer, Planescape and Star-Frontiers? ... how plausible is this?
Good game but not supported very well by tsr (only a dozen modules or so). I always thought the skills section was lacking and vague.
Great game!
I never got into this...Paranoia and Mechanoid Invasion anyone?
Mechanoid invasion is one of my all time faves and IMHO still one of the most interesting game worlds/setups ever. Too bad I couldn't find people who wanted to play it lol.
Paranoia was a lot of fun for one-shots, but running a campaign never seemed to work for us. Worked better in small doses - which was fine, since the many modules were just about the perfect length and generally really well-written.
@@richmcgee434 - did we even call them "One shots" back then? Paranoia encouraged better role playing by lowering the stakes for your character dying...
@@opa-age - definitely a problem...do you still have the 3 volumes?
@@stevendavis7628 Locally it was "one time adventures" IIRC - although sometimes we'd come back to re-visit a given system with the same characters later, which was more like a very casual campaign with long gaps between sessions. Or "playing a module" for pre-made stuff instead of a homebrew thing like a Call of Cthulhu scenario set in our hometown. Paranoia and Ghostbusters probably had the best stand-alone modules, but comedy RPGs lend themselves to that IME. :)
Based on the race traits it appears that I am a Dralasite. Interesting and not unwelcome. Not a fan of the angry monkey birds. Imagine all the poop they would throw around. 🤮
It's a shame what became of the reboot Star Frontiers (or rather the racists who took up the mantle) as it really casts a shadow on the brand when you try to recruit players.
OMG, It breaks my heart. You're right, what a shame. In addition to WOTC suing them for copyright infringement, they ought to sue them for ruining the titles with their idiocy.
Old 1980s crap. No thanks.
We only want dnd review of new books