INTRODUCTION

This is the STAR FRONTIERS™ Expanded Game rule book. This book adds more details to the Basic Game rules, and introduces new rules that widen the game's scope and make the game more challenging and more fun to play. If you have not read the Basic Game rules and played the basic adventures, you should do so before starting to read these Expanded rules.

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.

Differences Between the Basic and Expanded Rules

The Expanded Game rules give more detailed explanations of character abilities, new rules for movement and combat, new equipment, and rules that allow characters to improve their ability scores and learn special skills.

The most important change in the Expanded game is the addition of a referee. A referee does what the reader did in the Basic Game, but he also creates the adventures and makes the final decisions about how the rules should be applied. If players are the citizens of a world in the future, then the referee is that world; he writes the laws, he creates the unexplored planets and alien races, and he controls everyone that is not a player character. The referee has the most important job in the game.

Because his job is so important, this book was written especially for the referee. It not only explains the rules, but teaches the referee how to apply the rules to special situations and how to handle situations that are not covered by any rules. Other sections on how to create adventures and how to control non-player characters are very important for novice referees.

The separate adventure, Crash on Volturnus, will help a new referee get started. It is intended to help the referee learn the expanded rules.

Anyone who has played STAR FRONTIERS game and is familiar with the rules can be a referee. If you like telling stories, springing surprises and making fast decisions, you will have a lot of fun as a STAR FRONTIERS game referee.

How to Use the Components

To play a STAR FRONTIERS game you need these rules, two 10-sided dice, the map and counters included with the game, pencils, paper, a place to play, and your imagination.

Counter Facing. Players can use the counters to indicate which direction a character, creature or robot is looking. The top of the picture on the counter indicates which side is the character's front. Players can imagine the character standing upright on the counter, facing toward the top of the counter.

A character can see anything that is not behind him. He can attack anything that is in front of him, and can defend himself from any attack that comes from the front or the side.

Maps. Seven small maps showing different types of terrain are printed on the back of the Port Loren map. These were drawn for the Crash on Volturnus adventure, but they can be used in any adventure calling for that type of terrain.

Map Scales. In the Basic Game, distances were stated in terms of squares on the map of Port Loren. In the Expanded 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 square, map a city using a scale of 5 meters per square, and map the area around the city using a scale of 25 meters per square.

If the size of a map square does not divide evenly into a character's movement rate, counters can be placed on the lines between squares.

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. The planetary map from Crash on Volturnus is this type of map.

Playing Without a Map. STAR FRONTIERS combats 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; 1 inch should equal 5 meters.

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 simple fights 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 Expanded 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.

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