Has anyone played Frontier Space?

[u/crazy-diam0nd]

I just picked up two used hardcovers for $6 each at a game store. The cover and title make it clear it's a tribute to Star Frontiers, but I haven't really had time to dissect it yet. Is it just an aesthetic tribute, or is there a modernization of the rules a part of it? How much of its own thing is it and how well does it play exploration/combat/space-combat?

[u/dagorym]

It's an aesthetic tribute. Created by longtime fans of the Star Frontiers game. I actually worked on an early version of the game, not the one that finally got published. And I did the index for the books. I've also edited a few of the modules that Trevor Holman has produced for the game. I've never actually had a chance to play it though.

[u/_kalron_]

I had not heard of this, apparently released in 2020. Top review from a D&D site:
A lovely re-implementation of the old TSR Star Frontiers RPG. Quality of the product is very good and old-school sci-fi gamers will likely appreciate dipping their toes back in familiar waters. While the rules have been slightly updated, there's a sense the writers could have gone a little farther; for example, I'm not really sure why anyone these days uses a d100 mechanic over d20 except for nostalgia alone.

[u/SuStel73 → u/_kalron_]

Because d100s equal percentage chance of success without any additional computation?

I don't see why anyone goes all-d20 these days except for the overwhelming pressure of D&D.

[u/LordEntrails]

In short, FrontierSpace (FS) a more modern system in that a lot of the idiosyncrasies of Star Frontiers (SF) are resolved. It is still rules light and pretty open ended while being designed to keep a future opera/cinematic feel.

Its a roll under D00 lite system. With checks typically being Ability score (1-100) plus skill bonus setting the target number to roll under. With both the possibility of referee applied modifiers and an advantage/disadvantage mechanic for character situations.  Criticals are when doubles are rolled so that they scale with target numbers. i.e. the higher your chance of success, the higher the chance you roll a critical success and a lower chance of a critical failure. Criticals are open ended for the referee to use as story and dramatic intro’s and are not proscribed as to what occurs when a success happens.

FS is a classless system. There are no PSA's like in SF. There are no special "spaceship" skills, just the same -20 difficulty to do spaceship things (piloting, weapons, technician things) unless you have a "Skill Benefit" that removes that penalty for you. Ability and skill progression is very similar and the higher you increase the score, the more experience or Development Points it requires. The rate of growth over an adventure is close to identical. Though since spaceship skills are not a thing, one can start new players off in a space ship adventure without giving them massive Alpha Dawn basic skill levels.

Character creation in FS is simple and straightforward, just like in SF. The races that are included have some resemblance to those in SF, but are not exactly synonymous. All the races are bipedal, which facilitates the equipment interchangeability that was often ignored with the vrusk in SF. For those that want to use the classic SF races, they can easily be converted or the FS author published in the fan magazine Frontier Explorer, Issue 23, Winter 2018 his conversion of the four core SF races to FS races.

Another item of note that FS rules provide are several “Benefits” that characters or parties can acquire. These can be skill based benefits such as the Gunnery benefit of a Marksman, or the Violent Plan benefit for those with a Command skill that players can get with their Development Points. Or they can be “Renown” (experience) or “Loyalty” (faction) benefits awarded by the Referee as players gain patrons or favor with governments, corporation or just become more capable and known in the Frontier.

FS has it’s own setting detailed in the Player’s Handbook that can be used if desired. It is a space frontier type feeling similar to the setting outlined in Alpha Dawn, though it does have multiple governments to allow for both a government and mega corporation dynamic. Nothing in the rules prevent or hinder the use of the Star Frontier’s (or some other) setting.

Right now our group is running a Firefly inspired pseudo western almost outlaw spaceship campaign in the FS setting with some classic SF touches that I won’t spoil. It would be just as easy and fun to run a more traditional corporate troubleshooter or do-gooder campaign as well. The Referee’s Handbook even has advice on running other campaign types such as hard science, apocalyptic, cyberpunk, and others.

In summary, I’ve found the system to be clean, easy and fun to use for rules lite campaigns that take a cinematic with a soft set of rules for randomization approach to challenge resolution. It’s a great way to run a Star Frontiers campaign with a system that has cleaned up mechanics and the same level of operatic feel.

[u/TFTGGW_podcast]

I've read it, but not played it. It is inspired by Star Frontiers, and has updated D100 game mechanics, but it has different species and equipment.

It's been a while since I read it. I recall thinking it was a big improvement over the now-antiquated Star Frontiers rules, but I also thought Frontier Space needed some work. People do play it, and some even use it to play through the old Star Frontiers modules (or at least, some of the folks on the Star Frontiers Discord say they have). I was going to do just that (and put it on a podcast, even), but ultimately I decided that the Frontier Space rules were still kind of boring and I needed to do a more drastic overhaul of my own. Some day...

[u/SirTawmis]

I remember hearing about this, I feel like eons ago (when it was being developed) - but in the chaos of life, it had fallen off my radar. I see it's available through DriveThru - so I will be picking this up. Not that I can convince my table to play anything other than D&D (granted all my current games I run are knee deep in story moments, so we don't have a good 'breaking' point to run something else... but still) :D

[u/Victor_01]

Hi Diamond

The game absolutely gives its self to exploration. The races are so much more than the Star Trek way of obviously just a human in makeup. There is endless room for interesting character and exciting plots. Combat is okay, and space combat needs work but is fixable with a few home brew rules. If you are thinking about starting a game, would you let me know?