"Low Tech Future: Star Frontiers" Topic

I never played it back in the day, but a few years ago I got a copy in trade. I was reading it yesterday to see ihow it would work for my teen RPG program at the library, and I was struck by how low tech and limited the original rules are. It's not unusual for imagined futures to be bypassed by actual tech developments (like the cell phone, the iPhone and now the iWatch, all superior to Star Frontier's personal comm/calc tech), but I was stunned by how little beyond existing '80s tech the rules went. The vehicles are largely mundane, the weapons not all that impressive, and in the original game there's no provision for PC-owned or operated spacecraft… and these rules were developed well after Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, with Han Solo as the prototypical intergalactic smuggler that everyone wanted to be!
On the one hand you have Traveller, with anti-grav air cars that can reach orbit, gauss rifles, plasma rifles, battle armor, interstellar Scout ships that can be gained on mustering out, and the classic Free Trader analog to the Millennium Falcon, and in Star Frontiers you're a big deal if you can afford a ticket on a starliner.
Traveller states that Earth circa 1977 is Tech Level 7.5. On that scale, Star Frontiers is barely Tech Level 8. (Maybe 9 for the laser rifle, but that's it.)
I wonder why Star Frontiers was so low tech? Sure, it's got a thin bit of a gritty feel in there (like a happy, upbeat, non-rainy Blade Runner). But man, they held back on the technological advances in almost all areas. Robots and FTL are the only truly advanced stuff in the setting.
I know that space travel got a boost in a supplement, but it seems odd to have it so glossed over in the initial set.

Any Star Frontiers players out there? How did you respond to the limited space component when you started playing?

As with pretty much every role-playing game I ever played, I take the rules I like from the source material, and make the rest of it up as I go along.

I played Star Frontiers alot in the '80s. "Blade Runner" is a good analogy. We were more interested in the setting and the cool, different aliens than any minor concerns about the technology. Much of our campaign took place in a pan-racial orphanage, where we addressed the difficulties of balancing the physical and social needs of four totally different kinds of beings.

Played the heck out of the game when it was released. You just have to remember that it is Star Wars without the name.

Communications? No networking that we know of (same as in Star Wars).

AI? Robots are just as capable as humans at everything but Humans (well, sophonts in Traveller terms) are there to do everything just like Star Wars.

Starships, OK a bit different there but there were Space Ship rules added in the "Knight Hawks" module – personally I did not care for that one very much since I was in my Vector Movement or nothing phase.

Weaponry – nice special effects but the weapons are no more accurate or destructive (in most cases) than they were in the eighties. For the most part every scifi setting at the time falls into this, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc…

You can also try to find Zebulans guide to the Galaxy which updates the rules quite a bit and adds more goodies – but the tech is still retro. You can also find the Knight Hawks module for Space Ships.

It would still be good for a '50's-era campaign-like the Fallout series but expandable per the GM

In the setting that I'm working on with my brother, we have numerous races working together in a grand interstellar alliance, locked in a deadly struggle with an alien confederation.

The technology allows for conventional and magnetic firearms, as well as lasers and plasma explosives.

The primary, independent, human faction uses conventional firearms, cybernetics and internal combustion engines… Because they're under sanction by the good guys.

The good guy alliance uses rail and coil guns, grav assisted hover tanks and more fantastic technology.

The alien confederation uses low velocity weapons like spike throwers, exploding plasma grenade spears, lightning guns and lasers.

The good guy alliance sets the technological pace. The independent humans make due with what they have and advance their technology along different lines out of necessity. Their weapons are sufficient enough as they are, so they focus on areas that the establishment has neglected, like more efficient FTL.

The alien confederation's weapons are adapted due to the same requirements. Laser rifles are common for most, but in order to effectively deal with the prevalence of personal force field technology in the other two forces, several low velocity weapons were developed to just put a hurt on their enemies.

The principles of the force fields being that they divert high speed projectiles quite well. Thus, exploding throwing spears, spike throwers and DEW.

The humans like their shotguns and multiple effects 20mm semiautomatic grenade launchers.

The technology is decided by the circumstances and it's set to change significantly through out our campaigns.

How does that relate to Star Frontier? I'm sure that the author will be able to put it all into context if you asked… Because there's probably a rational explanation.

Not that familiar with Star Frontiers, but even Traveller is very technically backwards, especially with respect to computers.

Having players choose, or develop their own computer programs for space combat, and having such weak computers harkens me back to the day of late 1970s and 1980s dark ages tech.

Can you imagine having a vessel that is capable of FTL travel, or even sublight travel between worlds, where the owner(s) need to write such basic programs?

Never bought the Traveller Robots supplement, but again, suspect it is pretty archaic, and apparently they are rarely used in peoples' games, causing some to ponder why on the CotI group.

No doubt, synths are also rarely used.

Given the interest in robots and synths in today's world, I suspect in the near future they'll be far more numerous than gamers' scenarios tend to indicate.

I suspect in the case of Star Frontiers and other rules sets, the issue is probably more due to the writers' inability or unwillingness to ponder how technology will change the future, or to have a grasp on how significantly things may change over the span of a few centuries, or millennia.

They've had to retrograde technology.
It's terribly difficult to explore a planet when everyone is just stumbling around, texting on their iPhone 734s.

Played Star Frontiers a lot when it cam out and had a lot of fun with it. Hawks supplement for starships added more info on these, but the skills did not really work with the original skills (you don't get to use starship guns until you have level 7 with hand held lasers?). Zebulon's added a lot of tech, but also rewrote the main rules & skills system. Only background really remained the same. Like a lot of scifi rules for the period it suffered from advancements in real world. The belt pack PC could hold about 4 programs…. Similar to travellers 16k starship computer weighing 1 ton.

Can you imagine having a vessel that is capable of FTL travel, or even sublight travel between worlds, where the owner(s) need to write such basic programs?

They don't need to, it's that you could to save money …

Galaxia (rules being released soon, by the way!) also uses a very low tech level. Due to the very small human population, the manufacturing infrastructure necessary for things like computers and anything much more sophisticated than a VHF radio or 70s-vintage car arely exists. Nearly all capacity that does exist is used for military or aerospace equipment, with personal computers being a bit of a rarity.

Spaceflight technology isn't too far advanced from the present day, the only major developments being closed-cycle nuke-thermal engines, and Alcubierre FTL drive rings. The average human outside of the UNCS has a standard of living very comparable to the US of the 1960s or 70s, with patches of higher tech (Gauss rifles, networked computers, body armor, basically anything of military utility) in the hands of wealthier private citizens. Spacecraft are, surprisingly, fairly affordable, with something akin to an armed X-15 able to sustain very low orbit costing well under the equivalent of $1 USDM. The cost bottleneck is in FTL rings, which, virtually without exception, cost several times as much as the spacecraft docked to them. In effect, shuttles and aerospace fighters are not terribly uncommon for private citizens, but they are reliant on buying space on an FTL ship for interstellar passage.

Again, rules coming soon, free(!) campaign supplement coming a bit later.

When I played Star Frontiers in the 1980's it was pretty high tech. I thought it was comparable to Traveller; laser guns and space ships etc but with better artwork. I never got further than generating a character with Traveller, which I thought was a pretty cool process. But I found that although the Sci-Fi and other genre RPGs were fun to read they are difficult to actually play. Something about having characters explore a dungeon maze makes the fantasy RPGs very playable. But getting back to Star Frontiers being low tech; I think any future based game will seem low tech looking back on it from 30 years in the future. You ever notice in the original Star Wars movie Han and Luke wearing "wired" headsets as opposed to wireless headsets which hadn't been invented yet in 1977.