INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
What Is A STAR FRONTIERS Game?
STAR FRONTIERS Science Fiction Game is a role playing game. In this type of game, each player controls an imaginary hero, making all his decisions and guiding him through heroic exploits: defeating villains, capturing criminals and exploring strange alien worlds.
Although the STAR FRONTIERS rule books contain detailed rules, the special quality of a role playing game is that players are not limited by the rules. Players are encouraged to use their imaginations and find creative solutions to the problems facing their characters. The rules are designed to help players see the effects of their decisions.
To play a STAR FRONTIERS game you need these rules, two 10-sided dice, pencils, paper, a place to play, and your imagination.
Counters . Players can use counters to indicate which direction a character, creature or robot is looking. a counter may be a miniature, a cardstock marker, or just about anything.
Maps. Maps may be created to give a visual aid for the players and game master.
Map Scales. In the game, distances are measured in meters. This makes it easy to play the game on maps with different scales. A referee could map the inside of a building using a map scale of 2 meters per hex, map a complex using a scale of 5 meters per hex, and map the area around the city using a scale of 100 meters per hex.
If the size of a map hex does not divide evenly into a character's movement rate, counters can be placed on the lines between hexes.
Players can draw maps with much larger scales, showing entire continents or even planets. These types of maps are used when characters must travel a long distance.
Playing Without a Map. STAR FRONTIERS can be played on a table top, without using maps. Pieces of paper or other items can be used to show furniture, doors and other obstacles. Another possibility is to play on a sheet of plastic, using wash-away markers to draw obstacles on the plastic. Distances can be measured with a ruler; for example : 1 CM = 1M, or 1 inch 5 meters, or whatever seems convenient.
Miniatures. Instead of using counters, players can use small metal or plastic figures painted to look like their characters. These can be purchased in many toy and hobby stores.
Imagination. After they are familiar with the game, players may decide it is easier to play without the maps and counters. The referee simply keeps track of ranges and obstacles in his head, and lets the players picture the situation in their imaginations. Besides being a lot of fun, this eliminates the need to draw a map for everything.
Dice. Some rules in the game use a 5-sided die (abbreviated 1 d5) to roll a number from 1 to 5. When a d5 roll is called for, the player should roll 1 d10 and divide the result by 2, rounding fractions up. For example, a 6 becomes a 3 and a 7 becomes a 4. When it calls for a d100 (or “percentile dice”) roll two ten sided dice of different colors. One die will be the high number indicating tens, and the other will be the low number indicating ones. If a 0 is rolled on both dice then the result is a roll of 100. Most rolls made in the game are attempts to get under a certain percentage chance, thus low rolls are desired. When rolling for character attributes, however, you are trying to roll high.