Star Frontiers

Star Frontiers was TSR's science-fiction space opera RPG. It was shoved in a closet and ignored during the reign of Lorraine Williams because she wanted to push her Buck Rogers licensed-material and soak up the royalties. It had three releases: "Alpha Dawn" for player characters, "Knight Hawks" for ship-to-ship action including boarding parties and trade, and "Zebulon's Guide" for campaign setting fluff and politics. It had a more than respectable combat system with easy percentile rolls and modifiers, which included vehicle and aerial combat during the same six-second turns, using archaic weapons, melee weapons and futuristic melee and ranged weapons.

Characters

Unlike other TSR products of the time, they don't have a career "class" that dictates their aptitudes. Characters are skill-based instead, although the character picks a Primary Skill Area (PSA) that allows the character to pay half-price for advancing skills in that area.

Attributes are percentile, and are allocated as pairs. The pairs are:

• Strength / Stamina
• Dexterity / Reaction Speed
• Intuition / Logic
• Personality / Leadership

Attributes are usually identical in pairs, though racial bonuses or spending experience points can change that.

Race plays a very important role in Star Frontiers. Most StarFrontiers NPCs use race as a shorthand for the personality to expect (except Humans, of course, because Humans are always the jack of all trades/unpredictable race). There are five major races in the campaign setting, four of them are playable:

• the amorphous thoughtful Dralesites (+5 Str/Sta, -5 Int/Log, multiple limbs, lie detection),
• the gangly curious Humans (+5 to any single ability but not both in a pair),
• the insectoid dedicated Vrusk (-5 Str/Sta, +5 Int/Log, Ambidextrous, Sense Motive)
• the simian fierce Yazarians (-10 Str/Sta, +5 Dex/RS, +5 Int/Log, Night Vision, Gliding)

These four races are allied for setting and exploiting the frontier sector that is the default campaign setting.

The fifth major race is saved for the BBEG:

• the maniacally violent vermiform Sathar (-5 Dex/RS, -5 Int/Log, +0/+20 Per/Ldr, Hypnotism)

They are written intentionally as an enigmatic BBEG race for the GM to use for spooking the players or setting up a conspiracy.

Images

• 
  Dralesites, Humans, Vrusk and Yazarian anatomy
• 
  map of the systems in the default setting

Links

• Official Rulebooks TSR gave these fanboys permission to republish all the original material electronically. For free.
• Remastered Rulebooks these fanboys have "digitally remastered" and patched up the rules. Also free to download. Also modules, maps and links to Star Frontiersman fanzines. Kick-ass!
• Star Frontiers as a 4E game laugh at the heretic. Point and laugh.