This is not a history lesson. Well not really. Its really a post about my history with Sci Fi RPG's.
Soon after my world was rocked in 1981 by Moldvay's Basic D&D, another game entered my orbit, Star Frontiers. I was lucky in that the box set I bought was the 1980 Blue Box set. The Magenta Box set, renamed 'Alpha Dawn', would be released in 1982.
I was hooked. Space pirate adventures against corrupt corporations, crooked governments, and an alien menace, while playing as a Drasalite blob, a Vrusk bug, or a Yazarian flying monkey. Oh there were humans if you wanted to play a Han Solo smuggler clone. There was always one in the crew.
It was cinematic, it was fast, and fun. It used a different set of dice (d10's/d%) than Dungeons and Dragons. The art was different in a good way. Calamity seemed to be around every corner. It had space combat rules and ships that had decks oriented along the drive axis so thrust could be used to creat artificial gravity. My twelve year old brain melted.
I must however admit, I hate the Sathar. I was never afraid of space worms, that, despite advanced intelligence, skill, and lack of humanoid physiology, used weapons and tools made for grasping hands and a spindly set of legs that had no hope of supporting the worms bulk.
They were silly. Too silly to be a main villain, even in a somewhat silly and gonzo game. Star Frontiers was a game of swashbuckling exploits on a far away lands. But when the Sathar would enter the picture as the string pullers behind the scenes, it was always snickers and laughs from the players. I wanted for them to be expunged or used as bait for a giant space fish. That's how silly and unintimidating they were.
Star Frontiers was played often. I have never not taken a gyrojet pistol as a side arm in a sci fi game since. It has had a few revivals over the course of my gaming history. Most notably was when I found Bill Logan's 2007 reformatted and edited version of Alpha Dawn and Knight Hawks. Downloads | Star Frontiers It was the early days of new accessibility of digital gaming content. I felt like a little kid. Bill did an amazing job of making the game available, and rekindling interest in Star Frontiers for many new and old players. His newly edited version and the impressive and indispensable Star Frontiersman Star Frontiersman, as it expanded all aspects of the game.
Bill went on to publish several great sci fi projects under his DWD Studio company including a terrific accessory for GM's the Adventure Idea Factory Adventure Idea Factory - DwD Studios | DriveThruRPG.com and Frontier Space DriveThruRPG.com - DwD Studios - FrontierSpace - The Largest RPG Download Store!, an exceptional reimagining of Star Frontiers with tons of great content with familiar and new mechanics. I will cover both of those at some point as well.
I dabbled in many sci fi games and sub genres pver the years, mostly briefly. I tried a little Traveller. It wasn't my cup of tea, but you have to admire a game where you can die in character generation. I loved Shadowrun and Paranoia. We also played a few games of the original Star Wars RPG and even Lords of Creation. I never played a game of Cyberpunk, but like so many rulesets, I had only ever read them.
The internet made long forgotten rulesets accessible again. RPG Now and then Drive Thru RPG did more for spreading the gospel of classic and modern RPGing than almost anything by providing digital and print on demand copies of old and new rules, accessories, mapping, cards, etc. They provided a collective venue for sales and purchase of gaming materials whether you were a large or micro publisher. They allowed for long dead games to have a new life and new audiences.
Sci Fi gaming may not have reached the heights of fantasy gaming, its hard to be more popular than fantasy and Dungeons and Dragos, but if you think in a fantasy world, the possiblities are endless, in sci fi gaming they are truly infinte.
Excelsior
Lead Addict
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