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

 

[darjr]

So pick up your Star Frontiers PDFs ASAP.
Cause I have a bad feeling about this.
Irony would be that “TSR” gets them unavailable because of their actions.

 

[VelvetViolet]

I'm not interested in yet another version without the original setting and races.

Ditto. I wish somebody would get a license from WotC to make a new edition of d20 Modern and revive TSR’s forgotten settings like Star Frontiers, Alternity, Amazing Engine, Gamma World, etc.

Does anybody have a comprehensive list of retroclones of the old TSR games/settings?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

So pick up your Star Frontiers PDFs ASAP.
Cause I have a bad feeling about this.
Irony would be that “TSR” gets them unavailable because of their actions.

Eh, I doubt WotC is going to tear them down because a tiny TSR thinks they can republish it. The silverback gorilla isn't going to back down from a mosquito bite!

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Anyone interested, these products can be purchased from WotC here.

 

[darjr]

Eh, I doubt WotC is going to tear them down because a tiny TSR thinks they can republish it. The silverback gorilla isn't going to back down from a mosquito bite!

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

Anyone interested, these products can be purchased from WotC here.

No, but they’d listen to a judge. I know WotC would crush “TSR” if they so chose. But in the short term who knows? And WotC would have to decide to crush them. I think they would but PDFs have been pulled for stranger reasons. Short term being some indefinite time.

adding the link was nice. Thanks for that.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

No, but they’d listen to a judge. I know WotC would crush “TSR” if they so chose. But in the short term who knows? And WotC would have to decide to crush them. I think they would but PDFs have been pulled for stranger reasons.

Trademarks don't work retroactively like this. TSR created and owned these modules, WotC bought the company so owns the material. Another company registering a lapsed trademark (and the legality of even this is in doubt) doesn't mean that WotC can't keep selling the original material.

No judge, or even a bad lawyer, could reasonably conclude otherwise.

 

[darjr]

@Urriak Uruk conceded.

Someone on face book shared this. I’m posting it just for more info and/or view. I dint necessarily agree or disagree with it.

 

[darjr]

Here’s the old thread when Evil Hat registered the trademark.

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

 

[Davies]

The hadozee originally appeared in the Spelljammer campaign setting as a monster, and as a PC race in The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook. I've noticed the resemblance before, too, and I've always wondered if it was intentional... but if it was intentional, why did they change the name? If it wasn't intentional, it's a hell of a coincidence.

It wasn't a coincidence. There are thinly disguised Dralasites ("Degleash plasmoid"), Sathar ("syllix"), and Vrusk ("rastipede") in the same Monstrous Compendium appendix that introduced the hadozee. I don't know why they did this, but it clearly was intentional.

 

[DammitVictor]

It wasn't a coincidence. There are thinly disguised Dralasites ("Degleash plasmoid"), Sathar ("syllix"), and Vrusk ("rastipede") in the same Monstrous Compendium appendix that introduced the hadozee. I don't know why they did this, but it clearly was intentional.

Right, I forgot about vrusk and rastipedes because I generally forget about rastipedes. Were the plasmoids and syllix playable?

 

[Davies]

Right, I forgot about vrusk and rastipedes because I generally forget about rastipedes. Were the plasmoids and syllix playable?

I don't think so.