Star Frontiers

Обложка первого издания "Star Frontiers" (1982 год)

Star Frontiers (рус. Звёздные границы, звёздные рубежи, также «звёздный фронтир») — научно-фантастическая настольная ролевая игра, выпускавшаяся TSR, Inc. в 1982—1985 годах. Авторы базовой книги — Зеб Кук и Лоуренс Шик. В разработке игры также принимали участие Брюс Несмит, Том Молдвей, Дуглас Найлз, Стив Винтер и другие гейм-дизайнеры TSR.

Сеттинг

Действие Star Frontiers происходит в некоей спиральной галактике (описание галактики никак не связывает её с Млечным Путём). Космические корабли перемещаются в гиперпространстве, известном как «Пустота» («The Void»), что позволяет им достигать удалённых миров за короткое время.

Непосредственно местом действия является «Пограничный сектор» («The Frontier Sector»), где встретились четыре разумные расы: люди, драласиты (Dralasite), враски (Vrusk) и язириане (Yazirian). Эти расы создали Объединённую межпланетную федерацию (United Planetary Federation, UPF). Помимо населённых миров, входящих в Федерацию, в секторе имеется большое количество незаселённых и необследованных звёздных систем, что позволяет мастеру (называемому в этой игре «рефери») свободно дополнять канонический сеттинг собственными материалами.

Персонажи игроков по умолчанию являются агентами Пангалактической корпорации, которая занимается изучением Пограничного секора и отражает нападения со стороны не входящей в Федерацию расы сатаров (Sathar). Большинство изданных для игры приключений используют этот сюжет.

Расы

• Dralasites are short, gray amoeboid creatures capable of changing their form to a limited extent by extending and retracting pseudopods. Lacking a digestive system, they consume their food by surrounding and absorbing it. A network of nerves and veins intersects at a Dralasite’s two eye spots. They cannot see colors, but have a well-developed sense of smell. They have a sense of humor that the other races often find strange or quirky, and a love of bad puns.

• Humans are a race of beings virtually identical to Earthly humans. The most notable difference between these and earth humans are that the humans of the Frontier have a 200 year lifespan (possibly due to the advanced technology of the setting).

• Vrusk are an insect-like (arthropoid) race with eight walking legs and two five-clawed manipulating arms. Their ant-like heads included two antennae and two mandibles. They are omnivorous. They are noted for their logical minds and their society is structured as commercial ventures. Many Vrusk give their company name before their given name.

• The Yazirian race are anthropoids similar to various terrestrial apes. They are muzzled, lightly furred, and have patagia stretching between their arms and legs which they can use to glide over short distances in low gravity (their home worlds are all low-gravity). They are descended from a nocturnal species, and prefer to wear tinted goggles to protect their eyesight during the day. They are said to be rather violent and pushy, and have a custom to choose a «life-enemy», which could be anything; a company, person, or a concept. The fictional species was rehashed as Shadow People in TSR's later Dragonlance series of campaign modules and also as the Hadozee race presented first in Spelljammer and secondly in Stormwrack. All bear a strong resemblance to the High Martians of GDW's later Space: 1889 RPG. Yazirians bear a passing resemblance to Wookiees in Star Wars especially in the matter of battle rage or a berserker state of mind.

These races were altered slightly and reused in TSR's Spelljammer, and have now been republished closer to their original form for d20 Future by Wizards of the Coast.

• The Sathar are a race of mysterious, worm-like beings who are the enemies of the UPF (they are not intended to be used as a player race). They have wormlike bodies of 3 to 4 meters in length with two tentacular arms that end in fine tentacles for manipulation and two tentacles that end in paddles that can be used for heavy lifting (including acting as «legs», lifting the front of the creature off the ground in a humanoid-like stance). Their eyes have two pupils each, giving them good peripheral vision. The races of the Frontier know little about them other than their basic anatomy and the fact that they are hostile, as no live Sathar has ever been captured. Some of the behaviors and motives of the Sathar were revealed in the printed adventures for the game, and adventures commonly featured mercenaries working for the Sathar to undermine the UPF as villains.

• There are also other non-player races in the Star Frontiers universe, including many in the printed modules, but these five are the only races who developed space drive technology within the Frontier.
• Several new player races appeared in a late addition to the line, Zebulon’s Guide to Frontier Space, and include the Humma (which resemble kangaroos), Ifshnit (akin to dwarves), Osakar (lanky, parthenogenic quadrupeds) and Mechanons (intelligent robots).

Игромеханика

The game was a percentile-based system and used only 10-sided dice (d10). Characters had attributes rated from 1-100 (usually in the 25-75 range) which could be rolled against for raw-attribute actions such as lifting items or getting out of the way of falling rocks. There were eight attributes that were paired together (and shared the same rating to begin with)—Strength/Stamina, Dexterity/Reaction Speed, Intuition/Logic, and Personality/Leadership.

Characters also each had a Primary Skill Area (PSA—Military, Technological, or Biosocial) which allowed them to buy skills that fell into their PSA at a discount. Skills were rated from 1-6 and usually consisted of a set of subskills that gave a chance for accomplishing a particular action as a base percentage plus a 10 % bonus for each skill level the character had in the skill. Weapon skills were based on the character’s relevant attribute (Dexterity or Strength) but other skills had a base chance of success independent of the character’s attributes. Many of the technological skills were penalized by the complexity of the robot, security system, or computer the character was attempting to manipulate (also rated from 1 to 6).

Characters were usually quite durable in combat—it would take several hits from normal weapons to kill an average character. Medical technology was also advanced—characters could recover quickly from wounds with appropriate medical attention and a dead character could be «frozen» and revived later.

Vehicle and robot rules were included in the «Alpha Dawn» basic set. A beneficial feature of the game was its seamless integration of personal, vehicle and aerial combat simulation. The «Knight Hawks» rules expansion set included detailed rules for starships. The basic set also included a short «bestiary» of creatures native to the world of Volturnus (the setting for the introductory module included with the basic boxed set), along with rules for creating new creatures.

Character advancement consisted of spending experience points on improving skills and attributes.

Издания

The basic boxed set was renamed «Alpha Dawn» after the expansions began publication. It included two ten-sided dice, a large set of cardboard counters, and a folding map with a futuristic city on one side and various wilderness areas on the other for use with the included adventure, SF-0: Crash on Volturnus.

A second boxed set called «Knight Hawks» followed shortly. It provided rules for using starships in the setting and also a set of wargame rules for fighting space battles between the UPF and Sathar. Included were counters for starships, two-ten sided dice, a large folding map with open space on one side and on the other a space station and starship (for use with the included adventure), and the adventure SFKH-0: Warriors of White Light.

Adventures printed separately for the game included two more adventures set on Volturnus (SF-1: Volturnus, Planet of Mystery and SF-2: Starspawn of Volturnus continuing the adventure included in the basic set), SF-3: Sundown on Starmist, SF-4: Mission to Alcazzar, SF-5: Bugs in the System and SF-6: Dark Side of the Moon. The last two modules (SF-5 and SF-6) were written by authors from TSR’s UK division, and are distinctly different from the others in the series in tone and production style.

Adventures using the Knight Hawks rules included SFKH-1: Dramune Run and a trilogy set «Beyond the Frontier» in which the players learn more about the Sathar and foil their latest plot (SFKH-2: Mutiny on the Eleanor Moraes, SFKH-3: Face of the Enemy, and SFKH-4: The War Machine).

Two modules also re-created the plot and setting of the movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two.

A late addition to the line was «Zebulon’s Guide to Frontier Space» which introduced several additional races and radical changes to the game’s mechanics. Of the three planned volumes of the Guide, only the first was ever published (in 1985), leaving the game in an uncomfortable, half-overhauled state. Gamers were given little to no practical advice on how to convert their existing characters to the new rules, and TSR never published any further products using the «Zebulon’s» concepts.

Wizards of the Coast published many of the races originally found in Star Frontiers in their d20 Future supplement for d20 Modern.

Current versions of the original game are fanworks. In addition to the Star frontiers Redux and Knight Hawks Vector Rules, a high-quality fan E-zine named «Star Frontiersman» is being published on a regular basis. A multiplayer flight simulator version of Knight Hawks Vector is being developed for Orbiter Space Simulator program, and a virtual tabletop version is also in the works. Play-by-forum post and OpenRPG games are currently being played with new ones starting all the time in the Starfrontiers.org forum.

A version of the setting called «Star Law», which uses the d20 system rules was published as an alternate campaign setting in the d20 Future book. It uses the species names of Vrusk, Dralasite, Sathar, and Yazirian, but is not actually the Star Frontiers setting.

Ссылки

• StarFrontiers.org — наиболее крупный веб-сайт о Star Frontiers.
• StarFrontiers.com — официальный ресурс со свободно распространяемыми материалами по игре.
• The Star Frontiers Network — сайт онлайновых игр по Star Frontiers, содержит также википедию игры.
• Star Frontiers to GURPS 4e Conversion Notes — любительская конверсия Star Frontiers под систему GURPS.
• Star Frontiers — Digitally Remastered — переработанные старые книги, вебзин «Star Frontiersman».
• Palalyrn Cluster — дополнения к карте сеттинга Star Frontiers.