Star Frontiers

[RTGoodman]

Earlier this evening, I was at the home of my professor/advisor/mentor/fellow gamer for a Christmas party, and as a gift (since he has about 3 rooms full of games and supplies) he gave me a game by TSR called Star Frontiers. From what I can gather (via Google), I believe this is the first edition or something like that - it's a boxed set including the Basic Game Rules, Expanded Game Rules, Adventure Module SF-0 ("Crash on Volturnus"), some punch-out cardboard tokens, character sheets (i.e., super-old photocopies of the back of the Basic Rules book), and a couple of maps. (Basically, the only thing missing seems to be 2d10 that came with it.)

Basically, I have a few question:

First, does anyone actually know about this game? I've not really been gaming for very long, and I've never heard of it. Also, is it something super-rare and worth a lot, and thus something that I should take super-special care of?

Either way, has anyone played it before, and if so, was it fun? I'm thinking about running a game of it over Christmas (if I can get my old gaming group away from WoW or Magic long enough to actually play an RPG) - is the system difficult to learn or play?

Thanks!

[Sleet]

It's not worth a whole lot, certainly under $50 even if it's in mint condition.

But Star Frontiers is one of the funnest games I've ever played. I played it from 1985 or so until, well, I played a session of it just last month. A fantastic setting (think: Old West meets Buck Rogers space opera) coupled with a flawed but charming and very playable system; easy to learn and it just works. One of the top five best games ever, and I've played most of 'em.

Edit: And an extremely active (until a couple of years ago, at any rate) Internet fan community has provided a wealth of unofficial additional material. Google for it - there's a lot out there. Enjoy the hell out of this game, mate! :smallbiggrin:

[horseboy]

I remember seeing adds for it on the back of comics ages ago, but never saw it for sale. Wasn't there like some sort of four armed gorillia alien on the cover?

[Matthew]

Star Frontiers? Go here: Star Frontiersman (http://www.starfrontiersman.com/)

[Fhaolan]

I've played many different Sci-Fi RPGs, and I honestly have to say that Star Frontiers is possibly the top one I've ever played with.

There are three main places on line to go to for Star Frontiers.

The first is http://www.starfrontiers.com/ which has hyperlinked and .pdf versions of all the rules, including Alpha Dawn (the box set you have already), Knight Hawks (the second boxed set that details starcraft and space combat), Zebulon's Guide (the first of what was supposed to be three volumes that featured extensive revisions to the ruleset (almost a 'Star Frontiers 2nd edition') but the second and third volume were never completed, so it feels very incomplete), and all the Dragon Magazine articles, Aries Magazine articles, and so on.

The second is http://www.starfrontiersman.com/ which has a current Star Frontiers magazine, and re-edited versions of the orginal rules. They're not new rules, but re-arranged to fit in with the way more modern games are organized.

And the last is http://www.starfrontiers.org/, which has a downloadable revised version of the both the Alpha Dawn and the Knight Hawk rules, collectively known as Star Frontiers II.

There are lots of other sites, but between these three you cover the main points, and have jumping off points to reach most of the others.