![]() Instead, there are skill clusters that add 10% per level. No classes! No levels! It must have felt so freeing to TSR fans that hadn’t found Traveler at their local wargame store. ![]() Here’s where the game really peels away from previous designs. The Extended Rules get into a bit more complexity. There’s an almost board game-like feel to these rules which focus on a pursuit of bad guys across the space mall/space station map. The basic rules engage primarily with the big spaceport map and an introductory adventure featuring numbered sections for everyone to read. Characters are kept simple with percentile abilities and bumps based on their species selection. There’s a small smattering of setting info on the inside cover of the main rules involving space rangers, galactic corporations and such but it’s all just there to get folks in the mind set of pew pew lasers and whoosh rocket ships. ![]() The aesthetic is very timely to the 80s with padded vests and chunky goggles the norm. No levels or strict classes, with XP being simple additions to character abilities. Already, it’s easy to see why players back then thought this was revolutionary. The system is a very basic percentile one which characters trying to roll under a calculated skill level or attribute number, with critical hits and failures at the top end of each. There are four playable species to play out of the box baseline humans, amoeba-like Dralasites, insectoid Vr usk and the flying (gliding) monkey inspired Yazirians. The Alpha Dawn boxed set (as the main set would come to be known) came with basic rules, advanced rules, the adventure Crash on Volturnus, a pair of maps and chits for use on the maps. Star Frontiers was originally released between 19. Would I have played this game back then? Would I play it now? Let’s play to find out. I decided to crack it open and look at it with fresh eyes. I never really gave it a second glance until I remembered I had acquired a copy a few years ago in a trade. Other gamers spoke fondly of the games that had come before like Traveller and TSR’s entry into the market, Star Frontiers. I only had eyes for WEG’s seminal Star Wars D6 ruleset. By the time I got into role playing games in the late 80s, I already had found my sci-fi space opera game.
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