A TSR Announces a Star Frontiers Reboot

One of the new TSRs (yes there are now two TSRs!) has announced a reboot of Star Frontiers, the sci-fi game made by the original TSR back in the 1980s. Star Frontiers was a percentile dice roleplaying game set in a galaxy with four races (Human, Dralasite, Vrusk, and Yazirian) which were re-used by WotC in d20 Future in 2004.

Happy to announce that in addition to our flagship new world and game system by James M. Ward & Dinehart, GiantLands, and Justin LaNasa's children's RPG Tales & Tots, our next internal project "Star Frontiers", a reboot of the original, is currently in preproduction and has Larry Elmore attached. Stay tuned for more details!

It appears that one of the new TSRs registered the trademark in April. More if I hear it!

You can currently buy the game from WotC on DriveThruRpg, so I'm not sure how that works. When asked about this on Facebook, one of the TSRs answered:

Of course, Evil Hat Productions registered the Star Frontiers trademark, too, back in July 2017.

Is Evil Hat Republishing TSR's Star Frontiers?

Last year, Sasquatch Game Studio announced that it had acquired the trademark for TSR's old Alternity science-fiction game. At the time, it was mentioned that they did not have the Star*Drive, Dark*Matter, Gamma World, StarCraft Adventures, or Star Frontiers, properties owned by WotC. This may...

www.enworld.org

 

[Marc_C]

As I understood it the original agreement had as a part that WotC might take them back, and as they showed up in drive thru the links to the free PDFs came down and were repointed to drive thru on that site.
And as far as art in Star Frontiers magazines there was a new one with new art that is definitely WotC IP, I can only guess they have permission somehow from WotC.
But I wasn’t steeped in the community at the time, so I’ll defer there.

it is too bad about the remastered PDFs, they were great.

The art that had to be removed were digital redrawings of floor plans from modules and also SF articles from the Dragon Magazines which had been reproduced exactly.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And what is a new Star Frontiers going to be, without its IP? Maybe Wizards really doesn't care if they use Dralasites and Yazirians - Star Frontiers has been dead for decades after all.

Didn't they bring Yazirians over, with a different name, into 3E's Stormwrack?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Huh, I did not know that. I'm not sure if the cannibalization of the Yazirians into other IPs is better or worse for NuTSR's chances.

Minor nitpick: Star Frontiers races did make appearances in Alternity and in d20 Future (3e, 2004). I did a Star Frontiers campaign using d20 future. But yes it has been 10+ years, so only one decade technically.

He did The Lost City of Gaxmoor, and contributed to Gygax magazine, but those were both with his brother Luke. Before that he's credited with working on the Monster & Treasure Assortment and Dungeon Geomorphs Set Two: Caves & Caverns.

Oh, Marmoreal Tomb! Still waiting...maybe this year will be the year. I only backed at the lowest print level, because the stretch goals sounded like trouble to me from the get-go. I feel for the people that went all-in on that project.

He will say that he inherited his father's imagination but not his work ethic. That tracks.

By all accounts, Ernie Jr is a nice guy in person. But it sure seems like his entire career is selling his name and his dad's work, rather than create anything of his own. While I guess he helped run Gencon with Skip Williams back in the day, and managed the retail store, has he ever actually created a product or managed a product*? Everything I see is "Hey, I playtested dad's modules!". So to that point, it doesn't surprise me that they are being disingenuous by saying the old TSR is back, because his entire career has been on capitalizing on the work of his dad and others.

I find it ironic more than anything that Gary's son seems willing to use another's IP for their own monetary purposes.

* the last project he was associated with as a co-creator failed miserably and still hasn't delivered more than 6 years later.

It appears that they were called the Hadozee there, but they clearly look like Yazirians.

Didn't they bring Yazirians over, with a different name, into 3E's Stormwrack?

 

[VelvetViolet]

I thought it was very disappointing how WotC is handling TSR's neglected IP. I really wish the Star*Drive and Star Frontiers and so on could get real re-releases and not just cameos in d20 Future more than a decade ago. WotC previously licensed Gamma World. Why not those?

 

[Dire Bare]

I thought it was very disappointing how WotC is handling TSR's neglected IP. I really wish the Star*Drive and Star Frontiers and so on could get real re-releases and not just cameos in d20 Future more than a decade ago. WotC previously licensed Gamma World. Why not those?

WotC didn't license out Gamma World, they actually produced a new Gamma World game during the 4th Edition era.

While there are fans who would love to see some of these classic games actively published again, it isn't clear that there is enough of us to make it worth doing for WotC. At the same time, the properties are too valuable for WotC to just let go.

 

[VelvetViolet]

WotC didn't license out Gamma World, they actually produced a new Gamma World game during the 4th Edition era.

Gamma World - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Dire Bare]

Gamma World - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Well, nevermind then!

 

[darjr]

I LOVE D&D 4e Gamma World. Soooo good.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WotC previously licensed Gamma World. Why not those?

Maybe no one asked. I don't know that there are hordes of people demanding Star*Drive be brought back, whereas Gamma World has spawned numerous imitators, even today.

 

[Nebulous]

indeed, me and my younger brother have very fond memories of Star Frontiers. I'm hoping the new TSR does it justice!! Hell, if Larry Elmore just does a cool cover I'll probably consider it a success