Assault on Starship Omicron (spoilers)

Art by Jeff Easley

In Heroic Worlds, Lawrence Schick declared, “There is no SFAC2.”  However, the Star Frontiers Referee's Screen is commonly considered to be the second Star Frontiers accessory.  In fairness to Schick, SFAC1 (Star Frontiers Official Character Record Sheets) and SFAC3 (Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space) are clearly labeled as such; the code SFAC2 appears nowhere on the Referee's Screen product.

As is common, the screen itself is a tri-fold sheet of thick card stock.  As is also common, the screen displays a combination of art and charts/tables.  For the Star Frontiers Referee's Screen, the art is limited to the Jeff Easley cover – a portion of which is depicted above.  The cover helpfully informs, “This package includes a durable referee's screen with all charts needed to play STAR FRONTIERS™ adventures.”  This product pre-dates Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space, so the rule changes introduced in that book are not addressed.  Otherwise, the information presented is fulsome.  Does the chart display “all charts needed” for play?  Well, not all tables from the rules are available but, technically, few tables are actually necessary to play the game.

As a game master, I have little use for screens.  I certainly understand their utility, but I would rather not have a barrier between me and the players.  As a player, I can benefit from information on the screen only if I'm sitting next to it; even then I would only be able to see one panel.  As a player, I prefer mood-setting art on a screen rather than charts and tables.  Obviously, the point of the charts and tables is to limit delays during the course of play.  Most information on a screen relates to combat since combat is the stage of play where delays are least tolerable.  The Star Frontiers screen includes the Skills Cost Table and the Robotic Design Cost Table; this sort of information is only needed during the game's downtime.  The following items are absent from the screen:  the Vehicle Control Table, the Rate of Fire Table, the Punching Table, details about structural damage, Grenade Bounce Diagrams, and the Avoidance Roll Table.  Any of these items presented on a screen would better serve a referee rather than “downtime” information.

In the Old School era, when Gamemaster's Screens were sold separately from a boxed set, they were commonly bundled with a small adventure.  The Star Frontiers Referee's Screen is no exception.  The cover continues to tell us about the product:

It also includes a mini-module, ASSAULT ON STARSHIP OMICRON, that can be used as a re-playable game.  The players must defend the starship from an attack by hostile aliens.

The concepts of “assault” and “attack” successfully convey the notion of hostility; referring to the aliens as “hostile” is somewhat superfluous.

The 'mini-module' was written by Old School stalwarts Mark Acres and Tom Moldvay.  Two distinct scenarios are provided:  “Sathar Attack” and “Rogue Robots.”  When the cover refers to the mini-module as a “re-playable game,” it is not an error.  In the 'How To Use This Module' section, we are informed:

Each scenario has been designed so that it can be used by a referee as part of a continuing campaign, or played and replayed on its own as a game.  Eight pre-rolled characters are provided.  When the scenarios are being replayed as a game, the pre-rolled characters should be used.  There should always be eight player characters at the beginning of each scenario; if there are fewer than eight players, some players should play more than one character.

In fact, using the mini-module as part of a campaign may not be desirable.  The referee is warned:

The combat in these scenarios is intense and deadly.  Players should not use their campaign characters unless the skills and equipment of the characters are equivalent to those of the characters included in the module.

Among the eight pre-generated characters, there are a pair of characters from each of the four player character races.  Each pair includes a male and female except for the Dralasites – their gender phase is not specified.  Generally speaking, the pre-generated characters are formidable.  The average number of skill levels among them is 8.375.  One of the characters possesses a Stamina of 85 and another has a Stamina of 75.  Write-ups for the pre-rolled characters take up one of the mini-module's eight pages.

'Assault on Starship Omicron' introduces a new alien species, the Zuraqqor.  They “are a race of intelligent, bipedal insects.”  We learn that the “Zuraqqor are technological experts” and they are allied with the diabolical Sathar.  Unfortunately, the module contains no illustration of a Zuraqqor.  The 'Alien Life Form Update File' for the Zuraqqor is a little more than one-half page.  A portion of the file is presented below for the reader's delectation.

The mini-module makes use of the Starship Bridge Area map from the Star Frontiers boxed set.  One of the booklet's pages is a Starship Upper Deck map meant to be used in conjunction with the Starship Bridge Area map; the hatches of both maps line up with each other.  (“An individual who opens a hatch on one map can move directly into the corresponding airlock on the other map.”)

According to the Introduction:

The starship Omicron, the pride of the Pan Galactic Corporation, disappeared years ago on its first voyage.  Recently the ship was found drifting in space, the passengers and crew killed by a strange and virulent disease.  The ship was decontaminated, refueled, and made ready for operations.  The PGC has hired eight adventurers to “babysit” the Omicron on her voyage back to a Corporation starport.  The ship is being navigated by her computers and robots and this promises to be an easy mission for the “babysitting” team.

Two pages are devoted to rules specific to the module (such as movement, life support, and ship locations).

In the “Sathar Attack” scenario, an invasion force boards the Omicron.  The force consists of “10 Sathar, eight Zuraqqor, two quickdeaths, and one cybodragon.”  The player characters are not alerted to this incursion until the Sathar open the “outer hull hatch.”  Evidently the Omicron has no escort and the Sathar can avoid the ship's sensors (assuming it has any).  As an option for the scenario, “a small sample of the disease spores...[are]...stored in the Medical Lab.”  Should combat occur in the Medical Lab, “there is an 80% chance that the vial containing the disease spores will be broken...”

In the “Rogue Robots” scenario, “the Zuraqqor have infiltrated a rogue robot onto the starship Omicron” somehow.  “The rogue robot has secretly reprogrammed all the other robots,” but not necessarily successfully.  Different types of robots have different percentage chances of genuinely being in the rogue robot's thrall.  The objective of the player characters is to determine which robot is the rogue and destroy it.

More Concepts from Zebulon's Guide

Art by Ed Emshwiller

Not just a rules expansion, Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space (hereinafter Zebulon) substantially modifies the Star Frontiers setting.  According to the provided timeline, Zebulon describes a time about one hundred years after the original of Star Frontiers milieu.  Various events transpired during the intervening century.  Most importantly, new sentient races were introduced to Frontier.

Ifshnits are, in effect, space dwarves.

Ifshnits are the major race in the Capella system.  They founded the Capellan Free Merchants and still control the organization.  Their strange, polite dickering is known and welcome on most planets.  Due to their origins, Ifshnits are fiercely independent...

They automatically possess one of the following skills:  Appraisal, Gemology, or Haggling.

Osakar are expert linguists and have a superb sense of smell.

The Osakar epidermis is made up of thousands of large, white, hard, plate-like cells that are shingled downward all over the body.  They resemble a huge, white plant more than any animal.

Because Osakar are the only sentient race to have “achieved perfect equality,” they have a “natural inclination toward individuality.”  Additionally, “All Osakar are fervently religious, but the religion itself is not as important as the fact that the Osakar believes in it.”

Humma bear a superficial similarity to kangaroos; they can leap up to twenty-five meters horizontally.  However, Humma tails are prehensile.

Humma are rude, crude, lewd, pushy, and arrogant.  The only races they enjoy working with are the Yazirians (Humma admire their battle rage) and Osakar (because no one likes them either).

Their “lack of smell and taste, combined with their tough digestive system, means they can eat almost anything that is vaguely edible.”

Mechanons are the sentient robots from Starspawn of Volturnus.  Since leaving Volturnus and colonizing the planet Mechano, their “aggressive tendency to dominate and destroy organic, intelligent life” has abated.  Nonetheless, “Some robopsychologists are beginning to suspect that two completely different Mechanon societies may be evolving:  one bent on peacefully coexisting with the other races, and another, smaller faction bent on destroying them.”  Perhaps because of this, Mechanons are relegated to non-player character status.

Another prominent event in the timeline was the spread and eradication of the Blue Plague.  First appearing on Starmist, the plague would eventually kill 17 million entities.  Presumably, victims included all of the (organic) sentient races.

Additionally, of the approximately four pages devoted to the timeline, the description of the Second Sathar War takes up slightly more than an entire page.

Aside from the timeline, there is a five page chapter about mega-corporations.  Seventeen mega-corps (including the Capellan Free Merchants) are described in capsule form.  Emphasis is placed on the phenomenon of “Corporate Wars.”  The stages of a corporate war are indicated by the acronym ICEWARS:  Interest conflict, Corporate espionage, Economic sanctions, Withdrawal, Armed conflict, Reinforcements, and Stabilization.”

Zebulon brings cloning technology into Star Frontiers.  For five thousand Credits a skin sample is placed into a body-gene box.  Being “part stasis field, part freeze field,” a b-g box “is a 20-cm cube made of federanium.”  We are told, “As long as the box remains closed, the sample remains fresh.”  I guess you could say that a sample in a b-g box is stayin' alive.  (Sorry, my inner demons forced me to make a Bee Gees joke.)  It costs ten thousand Credits per year to maintain and store a b-g box.  Once it is “positively established” that a sample donor has died, a clone can be generated at a cost of 75,000 Credits.  Proof of a person's demise requires “witnesses, a medical certificate of death, or the identifiable remains of the [person].”  However, to be eligible for cloning, the person must have “died an unusually early accidental death.”  Absent this restriction, “Most of the Frontier believes that...the clone merchants would overpopulate the systems in a matter of decades.”

Since this is science fiction, clones have the memories of their originals.

When a character has a sample taken, the referee must record all of the character's abilities, skills, and so forth.  This record is then the basis for the clone, if and when it is grown.  Any new abilities or skills developed after the sample is taken are not recorded, unless the character has another sample taken later (whereupon the original sample is destroyed).

It is not explained how an original's personality is linked to a skin sample.  The sample is destroyed when a clone is generated from it and – for undisclosed reasons – “Another sample cannot be taken for at least three months.”  Supposedly, when a clone is generated, it has the same physiological age as the original at the time the sample was taken.

If a clone learns that his original is still alive...

...he becomes obsessed with a desire to kill the original character and never stops trying until one or the other is dead. The next step, usually, is that the cloned character then becomes suicidal after realizing that he has killed himself.

Presumably, this also applies to female clones.  Given this behavior, it is understandable that, “If it is discovered that a clone exists while the original still lives, a general order to shoot on sight is immediately given.”  We also learn that, “Unfortunately this usually results in both the clone and the original being destroyed.”  Can't the original be put into protective custody?  If I realized that I was a clone and found out my original was still alive and knew that, as such, I would be destroyed, I would approach things differently.  I might toy with the idea of taking my original's place.  Quickly dismissing this notion as not being feasible, I would distance myself from my original identity in an effort to convince people that I'm not a clone.

Naturally, cloning presents a variety legal and ethical considerations.  Is a clone responsible for the actions of its original after the sample is taken?  Felons aren't allowed to maintain b-g boxes or be cloned, but does a clone inherit its original's debts and responsibilities?

We learn “there are always rumors of the 'filthy rich' who can buy their own clone banks and almost become immortal, but that is for NPC consideration only.”  How does that work?  Do these would-be immortals pretend to be their own offspring for purposes of inheritance?  How would their actual children feel about that?  In any event, a clone isn't really a continuation of the original.  The clone and the original “share a life” until the time of the sample; the original then has its own experiences and develops independently.

Cloning offers some adventure opportunities that Zebulon does not touch upon.  For instance, the clone of a player character would want to know how and why the original died.  Because of the cloning restrictions, the death couldn't be the result of natural causes.  Another opportunity would be for player characters to be clone hunters, tracking down and 'retiring' clones that are alive illegally.  Also, Sathar would certainly take advantage of cloning technology.  They could steal samples of important people, generate clones that are completely loyal to the Sathar cause, and replace the people with their clones.  Positions of great influence would be infiltrated by agents who could not be distinguished from the originals.

Sundown on Starmist (spoilers)

Art by Clyde Caldwell

Sundown on Starmist, having the module code of SF3, is the fourth Star Frontiers adventure (given that the Volturnus trilogy was numbered SF0, SF1, and SF2).  Aside from working on other TSR products, writer Garry Spiegel did design work for Pacesetter.  Prior to providing a plot synopsis, the introductory material claims, “To obtain maximum play value and fun, try to follow this plot outline as closely as possible.”  Unfortunately, the plot is disjointed.  Sundown on Starmist suffers from poor editorial decisions (or perhaps editorial inattention).  My primary complaint is that much of the background information is unknown to the player characters and cannot be discovered.  However, let's start with the background information to which the players are exposed.  The first paragraph of the player character background report reads:

Maximillian Malligigg, a former second-master and navigator of a Vrusk freemerchant ship, has hired you for a private expedition to an uncharted planet he calls Starmist.  During his last voyage, Malligigg made an emergency landing on Starmist.  The planet was within the normal range of for all races.

Normal range of what for all races?  Is it no longer with the normal range?  Anyway, said ship was the VSS Centispeed (with VSS presumably meaning Vrusk Space Ship).  According to the front cover:

Something ancient and powerful is hidden inside the pyramid constructed by a primitive alien culture.  The crew of UPF Centispeed must discover what it is to save the planet.

The ship that Max and the player characters use to travel to Starmist is the VSS Last Legs (alternatively spelled Last Leggs).  Aside from Max, there are no crewmembers of the Centispeed in the adventure.  That's two mistakes in the module's cover description; not a good sign.

The surface of Starmist is frozen and uninhabitable; however, “Huge rifts formed in the surface, much like gigantic canyons, many of them miles deep.”  Eventually, “Water and atmosphere collected in the rifts and they slowly became habitable.”  When the Centispeed made an emergency landing in one of these rifts, the crew encountered “a predominantly nomadic culture” and Max came across a sample of processed metal beyond that culture's ability to create.  Given “an official expedition would be sent to Starmist soon following his captain's report to the authorities,” Max arranged for a private expedition so he could reach Starmist beforehand.  “If he could find evidence of a lost civilization, and perhaps locate some artifacts,” Max thought, “he could become a wealthy man” (or at least a wealthy Vrusk).  Max has retained the services of the player characters for an undisclosed amount. 

Although the module can be used in conjunction with Knight Hawks (according to page 21) and Max is said to be a navigator (and “he completed courses for a degree in science and astrophysics”), he possesses no Spaceship Skills.  “Maximillian's purpose is to aid you in running the adventure,” the referee is told, “He is ambitious and eager but neither brave nor smart.”

The sentient (but primitive) beings on Starmist are called Heliopes.  This suggests some affinity for sunlight, like maybe they're lethargic at night.  In this way, the phrase “Sundown on Starmist” would be meaningful.  This is not the case.  First, Heliopes are not associated with sunlight; no reason for their name is given.  Second, “Sundown” is the name of the sun.  Seriously, who names a sun “Sundown”?  The module's title makes no sense.  I mean, they could have called it The Secret of Starmist.

One might think that the blue cyclops on the cover represents a Heliope.  Maybe it's supposed to be a Heliope, but the pictured entity does not conform to how Heliopes are described in the text.  They have no hands, but instead possess “two pincers, slightly rigid, with a sharp nail along the edges.”  Their “feet are large, long, and splayed.”  They have mandibles and translucent skin.  Also missing from the tail are characteristic painted designs.

The image clearly depicts two moons; however, the text emphasizes, “The nights are very dark on Starmist because there is no moon and few close stars.”  Yet an interior illustration shows two moons.  Also, where did this non-Heliope obtain human skulls?

Part of the background that the players don't know about is that the Heliopes are not native to Starmist.  “They were slaves of a race called the Clikks, resembling the Vrusk,” we learn.  A Clikk exploration vessel in the Sundown system “had problems that required dumping any extra weight.”  Heliopes and various items of non-essential equipment were left on the planet, but not before the Heliopes were subjected to “a mindwipe that caused amnesia.”  This happened 600 years ago, but somehow the space-faring Clikk are unknown to the Frontier races.  In the centuries since they arrived on Starmist, the Heliopes have expanded “to nearly 200 tribes.”

So, Max and the player characters land and travel overland to the single Heliope village.  On the way, “nomad Heliopes...attack and village Heliopes...come to the rescue.”  When Max was on Starmist previously, he learned the Heliope language.  One can suppose that, having Max as a translator, the player characters can communicate with the Heliopes.  However, Heliopes and the PCs can communicate with one another when Max is not present.  The only exception to the ability to communicate happens in Village Encounter 11 for some reason.  Otherwise, we learn that “the Heliopes will be friendly and curious about [the player characters]; however, they shy away from Vrusks.”  Their attitude toward Vrusks might be explained by a racial memory of the Clikk slavers.  Yet if this is the case, why did they interact with Max?

The Heliopes developed a religion featuring Clikk relics.  Of course, the piece of metal Max found was left behind by the Clikk, but neither he nor the player characters ever learn about the Clikk or the history of the Heliopes.  The module relates that, “Massive tools and heavy structural members from the Clikk ship are corroded and broken from age and lack of proper maintenance.”  However, the Heliope aristocracy possess “sophisticated” weapons that are still functional after six centuries despite “lack of proper maintenance.”  Acquisition of ammunition does not seem to be problematic.  Also fully functional is the War Tank.

Three pages of text, a page of diagrams, and three tables are devoted to the War Tank and its weaponry.  “The tank is designed to be played with,” we read, “and the characters should be allowed to explore and experiment.”  One problem is that the tank is encased in a pyramid which happens to be “the holiest place of the Heliopes.”  The module explains that the “Heliopes will allow the PCs free range of the village but will fight anyone who approaches the pyramid, temple or river huts.”  Are the player characters supposed to decimate the Heliopes to get the tank?  One of the reasons the tank possesses religious significance is that its defense field produces intoxicating effects in Heliopes.  Another problem is that:

The tank is provided with a special security device to keep it out of enemy hands.  Once the tank is under power, the code must be entered daily from the captain's position; otherwise a self-destruct sequence is activated.

(Seemingly, having the defense field activated does not count as “under power.”)  Of course, the player characters don't know about the self-destruct sequence and – once the sequence is activated – it cannot be countered.  According to page 13, “The time required for self-destruct is up to [the referee] as the length play time will vary from game to game.”

At some point, the priests kidnap Max, requiring that the player characters invade the priests' river complex.  “Most important,” during the incursion, “the PCs must obtain one of the black and red rods which will give access to the tank.”  The next required encounter is an attack upon the village by Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes – no, wait – in Star Frontiers, S.A.S.E. means Sathar Attack Simulacra Exterior.  These should not be confused with Sathar Attack Simulacra Interior but, honestly, the differences between the two seem negligible.  According to page 7, the attacking 'robots' appear to be “four Heliopes who seem to be moving without quite touching the ground.”  However, according to page 24, both S.A.S.E. and S.A.S.I. have “secondary tentacles” (which implies the presence of primary tentacles).  Heliopes don't have tentacles.

The S.A.S.E. attack a second time once “PCs are familiar with the tank and begin to move around the village with it.”  After the second attack, “The PCs should follow the robots to the hidden base and bunker.”  Alternatively, “If the robots are destroyed, their signal beams will still operate and be traceable back to the base.”  So, there's a Sathar base:

During the day the players will see the hologram...The hologram projects an image of the bluff and rolling hills as well as the pond. At night the holograph is turned off and the PCs will be able to see the buildings by means of night vision or a light.

Apparently none of the Heliopes have ever seen the base at night.  The Sathar base serves three purposes:  (1) “a training base for [non-Sathar] espionage agents,” (2) “a heavy weapons bunker,” and (3) for “work on bio-genetic constructs.”  Somehow, “The Heliopes provided excellent cover for the Sathar operation.”  At the time of the adventure, the base is undergoing an evacuation:

A while ago the planet was discovered by the merchant ship carrying Maximillian Malligigg.  Alarmed, the Sathar decided to use the delay between the time they sent their official report and the resulting investigation to evacuate the base.  When the warships arrive and after evacuation is complete, the Sathar plan to destroy all lifeforms on Starmist.  The Sathar will let the PCs land since they plan mass destruction anyway, but they will shoot the PCs down if they try to leave.

The Sathar base has a weapon “capable of shooting down aircraft and/or spacecraft in orbit.”  Through the simple expedient of shooting down the original merchant ship, the Sathar could have obviated the need to evacuate their base and “destroy all lifeforms on Starmist.”  Also, just because “you plan mass destruction” at some point, people you allow to land aren't prevented from foiling your evil plans.

Upon infiltrating the Sathar base and reaching the power room, player characters – assuming they have appropriate skills – “will be able to determine that the [nuclear power] unit will explode in three hours.”  How or if the base personnel planned to survive is not disclosed.  Nonetheless, should the base commander perish the base will self-destruct in twelve hours (according to page 17) or merely one hour (according to page 20).

More Mental Powers in Star Frontiers

Art by Steve Ditko

In a comment for last week's post, Down Under reader Konsumterra referenced the Star Frontiers psionics rules as presented in Arēs magazine.  This week we discuss said rules.  Arēs Special Edition 2 was published in Spring 1984, more than a year before the release of Zebulon's Guide to Frontier Space.  By this time, Arēs was published by TSR but had not yet been reduced to a mere section of Dragon.

The two-and-one-half page article, “Frontiers of the Mind,” was written by Jon Mattson, an occasional contributor to Dragon magazine.  Mattson introduces a new ability score:

When characters are generated, each player must roll for an additional ability score, Psionic Ability (PSI), using the same die-rolling procedure as used for any other score.  There are no racial modifiers for this roll, although Human characters can add their 5-point bonus to this score, and it is not “paired” with any other ability.  In every other respect, PSI is treated as a normal attribute.

There is a Psionic Primary Skill Area with each psionic ability represented as a separate skill.  A character can have a maximum number of psionic skills “equal to his PSI score divided by 15 (rounding fractions to the nearest whole number).”  Characters can have expertise (i.e., above Level 4) in a maximum number of psionic skills “equal to their PSI score divided by 25 (dropping fractions).”  In terms of cost, psionic skills are more expensive than Biosocial skills.

As the table suggests,“the experience point cost is doubled for psionic skills when the Psionic PSA is not taken.”  Mattson states, “a character who has not chosen the Psionic PSA cannot learn any of the psionic skills unless his PSI score is 60 or higher.”  However, in the following paragraph he claims, “Characters who do not choose the Psionic PSA may not use any psionic abilities.”

Using a psionic ability requires the character to expend Psionic Energy Points (PEPs).  The number of PEPs a character has “is equal to the average of his PSI and (unwounded) STA scores.”  Recovery occurs “at a rate of 3 per hour of rest, or 1 per hour of activity.”  Successful use of psionic abilities requires concentration.  “Any violent shock,” we read, “has a chance of disrupting a psionic's concentration and ending a talent's use prematurely.”  The psionic can attempt to maintain concentration with a LOG ability check.

Like normal skills, psionic skills have a percentile success chance enhanced by the character's skill level.  Failure means “the character will only lose half as many PEPs as would have been expended had the ability been successfully used (round fractions up).”  Seven psionic skills are presented.

• Clairvoyance:  The character can view “a person, place, or object” at a number of meters equal to ten multiplied by skill level.  At level four, the character can also hear the target.
• Energy Manipulation:  “This ability allows the character to channel energy harmlessly away from his body.”  In game terms, this means a reduction in damage caused by “beam weapons” and “kinetic energy.”
• Mind Contact:  The highest level of this skill represents telepathy.  Level three allows the character to create a psionic shield.  The first level of this ability merely “allows the psionic to Sense the presence of any life forms.”
• Illusion Creation:  The character can cause a being to perceive an illusion with “visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory components.”
• Mind Control:  The “victim” can avoid the effects of control with an ability check based on “the average of his LOG and PER scores, with a penalty equal to twice the level of use of this talent.”
• Telekinesis:  “This is the ability to move objects merely by thinking about it.”  The description references a table that is supposed to indicate modifiers based on mass; however, the actual table lists intervals of time.  The 'mass' table actually appears in the Teleportation description.
• Teleportation:  The character can “instantly transport himself...to any spot of his choice within his line of sight.”  Contrary to the notion of “line of sight,” there are modifiers for teleporting to locations the character cannot see.

“The referee may of course create new psionic powers,” we are told, “but should in all cases use discretion when doing so.”  Also, “Having too many characters with psionic characters can throw a campaign out of balance completely.”

Mattson states:

The referee should determine how psionic skills are acquired by a character.  It may be necessary for someone to seek out a psionic mentor...or a psionic organization that will train him properly.  Either way, an interesting series of adventures could be set up in which adventuring groups hunt for such sources of information.

Does Mattson mean that beginning characters cannot possess psionic skills?  Perhaps he is referring to skills acquired after character generation (and/or improving beginning skills).