History TableTopGame / StarFrontiers

* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Laser and Disruptor canons on the larger ships, and Assault Rockets on the smaller ones.

* [=~Everything's Better With Monkeys~=]: The Yazirians are intelligent ''flying'' monkeys!

* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Most of the Frontier sector is unexplored, including lots of systems practically between the inhabited ones.

** But then, the planets in the Alpha Dawn books are given a line apiece so we don't know exactly what they were like.

* ArtificialGravity: Averted. Ships accelerate constantly in order to provide gravity.

* FirstContact: Happens all the time. Much of the Frontier is unexplored, and sentient races seem to be all over. Volturnis (from the intro module) has five sentient races by itself.

** They did get a +5 to a single stat (out of eight stats). All other PC races had balanced stat modifiers (added up to be zero) but also racial abilities.

* PsychicPowers: Apart from the ability of the Sathar to hypnotize, absent.

** The were also later recycled for Alternity in Dragon Annual 3 and for Modern d20 in the Future d20 sourcebook, except the reaces from ''Zebulon's Guide''.

* SpacePirates: Pervasive, and present in the introductory module, no less.
* StatDeath: Stamina is one of your attributes. Run out of Stamina points and you were dead.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The Cover of SF3 shows an alien called a Heliope shooting at a group of adventurers with a pistol held in humanoid hands, but the descriptions of the Heliopes in the module say they have pincers, not hands.

* EscapePod: Module [=SF0=] ''Crash on Volturnus''. After their ship is captured by the Star Devil's pirates, the PCs abandon ship in a lifeboat and use it to land on the planet Volturnus.

* Binary Suns: Many of the worlds in the Frontier sector have two suns.

* Precursors: Several vanished older races with advanced technology used to live in the Frontier sector. ''Sundown on Starmist'' centers on a Precursor hovertank.

The basic game setting was an area known as "The Frontier Sector", where four sentient races (Dralasite, Humans, Vrusk and Yazirian) had met and formed the [[TheFederation United Planetary Federation [UPF]]]. The original home planets of the Dralasites, Humans and Vrusk were never detailed in the setting and it is possible that they no longer existed. A large number of the star systems shown on the map of the Frontier sector in the basic rulebook were unexplored and undetailed, allowing {{the Gamemaster}} (called the "referee" in the game) to put whatever he wished there.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Most of the published materials featured visits to planets that have breathable atmospheres.
** The module [=SF5=]: "Bugs in the System" featured the Belnafaer system where most of the action occurred in the atmosphere of the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform. The system also had two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, neither of which were Earth-like.
** But the Alpha Dawn game modules only covered three other planets: Alcazzar, Starmist, and Volturnus which were Earth-like. The planets in the Alpha Dawn books are given a line apiece so we don't know exactly what they were like.

* FirstContact: Happens all the time. Much of the Frontier is unexplored, and sentient races seem to be all over. Volturnis (from the intro module) has five sentient races all to itself.

** They did get a +5 to a single stat (out of eight stats). All other PC races had balanced stat modifiers (added up to be zero).

** Fortunately some weapons (lasers) are capable of dealing out a lot, although you would then have to reload...

* Precursors: Several vanished older races with advanced technology were present in the setting. ''Sundown on Starmist'' centers on a Precursor hovertank.

** Unless you have the later "Zebulon's Guide to the Frontier" and became a Mentalist or Enlightened character.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: Most of the published materials featured visits to planets that didn't have breathable atmospheres.

** But the game modules only covered three other planets: Alcazzar, Starmist, and Volturnus which were Earth-like. The planets in the Alpha Dawn books are given a line apiece so we don't know exactly what they were like.

** But the S'sessu introduced into Dragon 96 were a "friendlier" version of the Sathar, even though they were predatory capitalistic sharks...er...worms.
* ArtificialGravity: Averted. Ships constantly accelerate to provide gravity.

* FirstContact: Happens all the time.

* JackOfAllStats: Humans are this, with average stats and no special abilities.
** They did get a +5% to a single stat (out of eight stats). All other PC races had balanced stat modifiers (added up to be zero).

* MadeOfIron: Nearly everyone can take a lot of damage before dropping.
** Laser pistols did 1-10d10 damage, Laser rifles did 1-20d10 damage, so they were quite lethal. It was the automatic pistol and rifle that were truly pathetic doing 1d10 damage or 5d10 in a burst or melee weapons that did 1 or 2d10 damage against characters with 20-99 Stamina points for damage.

* Precursors: Several older races with advanced technology are present. ''Sundown on Starmist'' centers on a Precursor hovertank.
** Their artifacts were present, but they weren't. The Clikks and the Tetrarch societies never appear in the game themselves.

** Unless you have "Zebulon's Guide to the Frontier" and became a Mentalist or Enlightened character.

** The were also later recycled for Alternity in Dragon Annual 3 and for Modern d20 in the Future d20 sourcebook.
** Not all of them were. The Zebulon Guide races (the Ifshnit, the Humma, the Osakar, and the Mechanons) only appear in that book.

** Bulky power armor appeared in Dragon Magazine 129.

** The module SF5: "Bugs in the System" featured the Belnafaer system where most of the action occurred in the atmosphere of the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform. The system also had two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, neither of which were Earth-like.

* BrianInAJar: Module [=SF1=] ''Volturnus, Planet of Mystery''. The slavebots in the Sathar Artifact are controlled by a Sathar's brain which is in a large fluid-filled flask.

* EscapePod: Module SF0 ''Crash on Volturnus''. After their ship is captured by the Star Devil's pirates, the PCs abandon ship in a lifeboat and use it to land on the planet Volturnus.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: None of the published materials featured visits to planets that didn't have breathable atmospheres.
** But the module SF5: "Bugs in the System" featured the Belnafaer system where most of the action occurred in the atmosphere of the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform. The system also had two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, neither of which were Earth-like.
** The game modules only covered three other planets: Alcazzar, Starmist, and Volturnus which were Earth-like. The planets in the Alpha Dawn books are given a line apiece so we don't know exactly what they were like.

* MadeOfIron: Nearly everyone can take four or five laser blasts before dropping.

** Not all of them were. The Zebulon Guide races (the Ifshnit, the Humma, the Osakar, and the Mechanons only appear in that book).

** Though there have been corporate wars and the module SF 4: "Mission to Alcazzar" puts the characters against the secretive Cassidine Development Corporation and the aggressive Streel Corporation.

** They did get a +5% to a single stat (out of eight).

** Unless you have "Zebulon's Guide to the Frontier" and become a Mentalist or Enlightened character.

** But the module SF5: "Bugs in the System" featured the Belnafaer system where most of the action occurred in the atmosphere the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform. The system also had two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, neither of which were Earth-like.

** But the module SF5: "Bugs in the System" featured the Belnafaer system with two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, but most of the action occurred around the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform.

** But the module SF5: Bugs in the system featured the Belnafaer system with two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, but most of the action occurred around the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform.

** Unless you have Zebulon's Guide to the Frontier and become a Mentalist or Enlightened character.

** Averted : The module SF5: Bugs in the system featured the Belnafaer system with two small, hot, rocky, and barren planets called Gog and Magog, but most of the action occurred around the gas giant Venturi on the Jetsom extraction platform.

* AllPlanetsAreEarthLike: None of the published materials featured visits to planets that didn't have breathable atmospheres.

TSR's third entry into Sci-Fi {{RPG}}s (after ''Metamorphosis Alpha'' and ''GammaWorld''), first published in 1982.