Star Frontiers for T20

[LcKedovan]

Hi All,

I have finished my first draft conversion of the old Star Frontiers races from Alpha Dawn to Traveller D20. These include the Dralasite, Vrusk, and the Yazirian.

Since I can't attach files and have no personal webspace anywhere, you might be able to reach them here:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48631

or here:
http://groups.msn.com/ISSUrsula/general.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=799&all_topics=0

Otherwise I would gladly forward them to anyone interested until such time as I get some space somewhere. Also, comments are welcome. This is a first draft, and although I hope there are no balance issues or problems I would appreciate the feedback good and bad.

The majority of the text is from the original, all I have really done is edit here and there for "Travellerness" as well as changed the mechanics to operate in T20. Thanks!

Next plans are to convert the Sathar, as well as the remaining races from the Zebulon's guide.

-Will

 

[LcKedovan]

Originally posted by LcKedovan:
Hi All,

I have finished my first draft conversion of the old Star Frontiers races from Alpha Dawn to Traveller D20. These include the Dralasite, Vrusk, and the Yazirian.

Since I can't attach files and have no personal webspace anywhere, you might be able to reach them here:
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48631

Just FYI, I have added the Humma, Ifshnits, and Osakar from the Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space to the document now.

-Will

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Excellent work, good Sir! I applaud you! It is very pleasing to see the old races again, especially the Draslites, as I used to be in an all Draslite Campaign and it was a good parcel of fun, What? Good show!

Regards,

The Baron

 

[oldcolt]

Good work, this well help.
Thankyou.

 

[Jamus]

Good stuff man..I love it!!

 

[ElHombre]

Oh man, I haven't thought about star frontiers in a long while. Good going, LcKedovan!

 

[kafka47]

If T$R wouldn't mind, why don't we suggest that we could put this all into a Traveller's Aide complete with updated illustrations?

Both gamers from either game can borrow from the treasure trove that is becoming T20.

 

[mike wightman]

Now this brimgs back memories...

I wonder who owns the rights to the SF setting? I remember seeing a conversion for Alternity to SF, but I can't remember where.

Another thought, will the release of d20 Future also produce a re-release (or re-imaging) of the SF (or the Alternity Star Drive) setting?

Come to think of it, the Star Drive setting could be quite a good setting for the T20 rules to be used

 

[jfwking]

Star drive would be a very easy conversion from T20, it even has jump drives.
Actualy now you have mentioned it.............

 

[TKalbfus]

As I recall, Star Frontiers had no specific FTL Drive, it was just a property of the Universe that if you exceeded 0.1% of the speed of light you'd go FTL, no specific FTL Drive was required. Other things about Star Frontiers was more realistic such as no grav tech. Fission rockets accelerated the space ships and the floor of the space ship was opposite the direction of acceleration. I think the no grav tech option is an interesting one for T20. You can still have accelerations of from 1-g to 6-g, (see alternate ship designs - rocket engines) The crew would need to wear g-suits for the higher accelerations, but with those their survivable. Perhaps a powered exoskeleton so they can move about while in the ship. All the floor plans of the standard Traveller ships would have to be redone, but they would remain essentially the same, or perhaps the engines could be swiveled 90 degrees for atmospheric travelling and then assume an unstreamline position when travelling in space so that acceleration is against the floor. I was never very fond of reactionless engines and gravity plates, they always seemed to be the easy way out of engineering challenges. Jump drives are required however if you want an interstellar campain, that's my minimum concession. Some magical technology that can't be explained by our science is required to go faster than the speed of light without getting into time travel issues.

 

[mark_harder]

Great stuff.

I also did a conversion of Star Frontiers to T20 and came to some very similar conclusions.

Dralasite are definitely a +1 Level Race.
I see no notice of a penalty for Black and White vision only. I recommend a -2 to spot checks.

Under Vrusk you give them a +4 AC bonus for Carapace, I would disagree for game balance reasons and also because it describes the Carapace as preventing scrapes and bruises, not as armor. So I would recommend just a bonus to life’s blood / and or stamina

Equipment is definitly next on the list to convert

 

[Stilleon]

I loved the Dralisites... best character race I ever played- so much fun. I think I'll introduce them as a minor race in my T20 game.

BTW: I agree with the -2 to spot because of color blindness, but only when color is an important determining factor.

 

[clementk]

Some things:

TSR no longer exists. T$R was a lame term even before then. (WotC owned TSR was much better internet and finance wise) WotC likely still has the rights to Star Frontiers though I seem to remember something about starfrontiers.com having the ok to post stuff online. Since I can't access that site at the moment I can't confirm this and I have to wonder with the site being inaccessible.

WotC possibly could part with it / allow someone else to publish a new version for the right price as they have with other lines but I don't think the interest is there and the fandom (such as it is) is too split between the original rules, the updated rules, and converting to d20 or some other rules. (sound familiar?

) They also stopped converting their non-D&D games to pdf before they got to Star Frontiers IIRC.

I believe there was a conversion of the Star Frontiers races to Alternity in Dragon magazine, not sure if that issue is in the cd archive or not. Some of the Alternity races have appeared for d20 Modern but no Star Frontiers races and I've not heard anything on d20 Future aside from the catalog blurb.

Casey

 

[Flynn]

From what I understand, Star Frontiers will be one of the settings presented in the D20 Future book to be released in August of this year.

I also recall an Alternity to Traveller conversion in Dragon long ago, so if there's a Star Frontiers to Alternity conversion, looks like it's a messy three-step process and you're done.

Still, it sounds good,
Flynn

 

[The Hinterworlds Rambler]

Draslites Rule! A blast to play!