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 be changing, though - because Evil Hat Productions has applied for the trademark to Star Frontiers.

Some caveats are worth noting - the trademark application was made in July 2017, and it's likely that nothing will happen on it for months. At this stage, it's just an application, so there's no guarantee that it will even be approved. Speculation is what speculation is, but this is very much a "wait-and-see" situation.

So, what's Star Frontiers? It's a space opera RPG produced by TSR back in the early 80s. Many elements of the game were later re-used in various forms in Spelljammer, d20 Future, and other TSR/WotC games and settings. It was a percentile system game, set in an area of space dominated by the United Planetary Federation composed of four races - Humans, the amoeboid Dralasite, the insectoid Vrusk, and the ape-like Yazirian.

Evil Hat, of course, is the publisher of the popular ENnie-winning Fate line of RPGs, which is a flexible system designed to accommodate a vast array of settings. Whether they plan to make a Fate version of Star Frontiers is far, far too early to start speculating on. I guess we may find out more next year, if the trademark application is approved.

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[Hussar]

I pretty much agree with everything [MENTION=6906865]Frank W Patnaude Jr[/MENTION] just said. The setting really was fantastic. Now, I only played the Alpha Dawn rules and the later space ships rules Knight Hawks. And, yeah, I'm not sure Space Opera is really the genre here. The system was fairly hard science - you had space ships that tracked Accelleration/Decelleration and a pretty involved combat system. Combat could be INCREDIBLY lethal. If you didn't mind turning up the juice on a beam weapon, you were going to drop pretty much anything you aimed at with a single shot.

Plus, you had the obligatory enemy race - the Sathar. Very cool. Very, very 1980's. More or less squiddy super smart bad guys manipulating things behind the scenes.

Oh sure, there was some rough parts to the rules. Totally. But, it was surprisingly robust for a game that was only two small softcovers.

Granted, this could easily be me rocking some nostalgia glasses, but, I don't think you'd need to completely revamp the rules. You've certainly got most of the basics there already.

 

[Corwin]

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 be changing, though - because Evil Hat Productions has applied for the trademark to Star Frontiers.

Look, don't get me wrong. I have a special, nostalgic place in my heart for Star Frontiers, too. But I see you made passing mention of Star*Drive. Yeah. That's where I'd get giddy. Loved me some (Alternity) Star*Drive...

 

[aramis erak]

Isn't this what the Internet was made for?????

You mean it's not for kitten vids and porn?

 

[Pierre Savoie]

If Evil Hat is doing anything with the name Star Frontiers, they are so SJW that most of the core rulebook will be occupied with the appendices for 30 gendered pronouns PER alien species, and the grammar conjugations for them, written by an Estonian because who else can keep all of those straight?

 

[Pierre Savoie]

In any case, Evil Hat is coming in very, very late to the party.

Star Frontiers was an excellent percentile system (you ALWAYS knew what your odds were, they were not disguised by Fudge Dice probabilities or anything) and it can calculate falling damage. Storytelling games (and to me all games of the past 20 years are "light" RPGs) cannot. Star Frontiers had fast, thrilling personal, vehicle and aerial combat going on round-by-round in six-second rounds.

Fan editions of Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn, and most of the rest of the rulebooks and modules, are available for free download here: http://www.starfrontiersman.com/remastered.php

Another game by DWD Studios is loosely inspired by the skill/subskill tree system of the Star Frontiers rules, and adds their own rules. It is called FrontierSpace and also has a multi-species area of space with emphasis on exploring new worlds:

http://drivethrurpg.com/product/222633/FrontierSpace-Players-Handbook
http://drivethrurpg.com/product/225299/FrontierSpace-Referees-Handbook

So by now the market for "unknown planets" SF is saturated.

 

[Morrus]

If Evil Hat is doing anything with the name Star Frontiers, they are so SJW that most of the core rulebook will be occupied with the appendices for 30 gendered pronouns PER alien species, and the grammar conjugations for them, written by an Estonian because who else can keep all of those straight?

1. Here's the rules. Have a look at them and see if you can work out which you broke.
2. Please do not post in this thread again.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/misc.php?do=showrules

 

[Pierre Savoie]

1. Here's the rules. Have a look at them and see if you can work out which you broke.
2. Please do not post in this thread again.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/misc.php?do=showrules

It is perfectly okay to criticize the Politically Correct at EvilHat. They are not demi-gods.

 

[Morrus]

It is perfectly okay to criticize the Politically Correct at EvilHat. They are not demi-gods.

Don't argue with moderators in-thread, or post in threads you have been asked to leave.

 

[Shasarak]

For a second there, when Morrus said "Heres the rules" I thought he had a link to some secret copy of the game rules.

Alas.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

For people still following this thread, Mearls just retweeted this:

https://twitter.com/DriveThruRPG/status/935654733611716609