Star Frontiers (TSR, 1982-1985)
The cover above sold Star Frontiers for me. I walked into a hobby shop, grabbed it, and wouldn’t let go. My 11-year-old self couldn’t resist the cool hero, his hot girlfriend, and his alien buddy. The crashed spaceship in the background was the icing on the cake. I wanted to be that guy so badly, my first character was basically him. I came up with the coolest name I could think of at the time: Steve Green.
I took the game to school and introduced my friends to it. We played during recess and had tons of adventures. One of my friends would come over and we’d spend entire weekend playing. At night, we played inside on paper; during the day, we acted out our characters crashing on a desolate planet. Ah… those were the days.
I reread the rules a few years ago, and all I could do was laugh. I never played by the rules at all—but we had so much fun, I don’t care.
The game played an important role in the history of RPGs and sci-fi RPGs, all the way down to the most recent incarnation of Spelljammer. I’ve included links so you can learn more or even buy a copy yourself—plus a couple of videos explaining the rules and the setting.
Star Frontiers Links:
- Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn (2nd edition)
- Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks (expansion)
- Star Frontiers: (SF1) Volturnus, Planet of Mystery
- Star Frontiers: (SF2) Starspawn of Volturnus
- Star Frontiersman – An independently published digital magazine that began in 2012.
- Star Frontiers (Wikipedia full history)