Editing Star Frontiers (section)

== Description ==
''Star Frontiers'' is a space opera role-playing game that is set near the center of a spiral galaxy (the setting does not specify whether the galaxy is our own [[Milky Way]]). A previously undiscovered quirk of the laws of physics allows starships to jump to "The Void", a hyperspatial realm that greatly shortens the travel times between inhabited worlds, once they reach 1% of the [[speed of light]]. Four races — Dralasite, Humans, Vrusk, and Yazirian — have independently discovered this way of travelling vast distances, and in "The Frontier Sector", they form the United Planetary Federation (UPF). A large number of the star systems shown on the map of the Frontier sector in the basic rulebook are unexplored and undetailed, allowing the [[gamemaster]] to put whatever they wish there.

Players can take on any number of possible roles in the setting but usually act as hired agents of the Pan Galactic corporation in exploring the Frontier and fighting the aggressive incursions of the [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]] and mysterious worm-like race known as the Sathar. Most published modules for the game follow these themes.

The game is a percentile-based system and uses only 10-sided dice. Characters have eight attributes rated from 1-100, which are paired together: Strength/Stamina, Dexterity/Reaction Speed, Intuition/Logic, and Personality/Leadership.

Characters also each have a Primary Skill Area (PSA), either Military, Technological, or Biosocial. Character generation uses a point-buy system to buy skills; skills falling within a character's PSA can be bought at a discount. Unlike TSR's better-known fantasy role-playing game ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'', there is no character level advancement in ''Star Frontiers'', although skills can be improved through experience.

Because of the lack of magical healing found in fantasy RPGs, characters are quite durable in combat. Medical technology is also advanced, so characters can recover quickly from wounds with appropriate medical attention.<ref name=mahg /> Additionally, a dead character can be "frozen" and revived later.

The original boxed set includes two ten-sided dice, a large set of cardboard counters, and a folding map with a futuristic city on one side and various wilderness areas on the other. The box also includes the first ''Star Frontiers'' adventure, SF-0: ''Crash on Volturnus''. The characters would remain marooned on Volturnus through the next few modules: SF-1: ''Volturnus, Planet of Mystery'' (1982)<ref>{{cite web |title=Volturnus, Planet of Mystery |url=https://rpggeek.com/rpgitem/43597/volturnus-planet-mystery |website=RPGeek |publisher=BoardGameGeek LLC |access-date=February 5, 2021}}</ref> and SF-2: ''[[Starspawn of Volturnus]]'' (1982)<ref name="Imagine3">{{cite journal |last=Bambra |first=Jim |author-link=Jim Bambra |date=June 1983 |title=Game Reviews |journal=[[Imagine (game magazine)|Imagine]] |type=review |publisher=TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd. |issue=3 |pages=14}}</ref>

In his 2023 book ''Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground'', RPG historian Stu Horvath noted that during this time on Volturnus, "Strangely, ''Star Frontiers'', a science fiction game about space exploration, went two years without rules for spaceships."<ref name=mahg>{{cite book| last = Horvath| first = Stu| title = Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground| publisher = MIT Press| date = 2023| location = Cambridge, Massachusetts| pages = 104–105| isbn =9780262048224 }}</ref>

(Rules for spaceships and space combat finally appeared in 1983, with the boxed set titled ''[[Knight Hawks]]''.)