rules

Ooh, here's an accomplishment most trivial: This site's Star Frontiers to GURPS 4e Conversion Notes page ranks #1 on a Google search for "star frontiers gurps". That just might be my first first ever.

There's even more Dralasite-steeped goodness out there than I realized, though. Check out Star Frontiersman Magazine, a slick-looking magazine of all-new fan material, plus remastered versions of all the original books. That's some serious fandom at work!

For the GURPSters, there's another conversion page out there, GURPS Star Frontiers Conversion, a PDF that starts with this site's conversion but makes changes where the author disagrees. (What items those would be, I don't know; I don't see who made the conversion.)

Those links are now on my conversion page. Hasbro has allowed the Star Frontiers downloads, or so I've heard repeatedly, so both original book PDFs and the remastered goodies appear kosher. Whether you play GURPS, another system, or are open to SF's own rules, it's a full space opera setting ready for the taking. Enjoy!

Here's a minor, yet-untested melee idea that came up during chatter over some GURPS combat scenarios:

When you close a distance gap to attack, you give the defender more time to react than you do by starting out close enough to strike. Game that consideration with this simple rule:

• If the attacker needs to Step or Move to get within striking Reach, the defender gains +2 on Active Defense vs the attack.
• If the attacker begins his turn within striking Reach (even if he chooses to Step or Move anyway), there is no mod to Active Defense.
• If the attacker begins his turn in close combat and strikes in close combat (even if he then moves away), the defender takes -2 on Active Defense vs the attack.

The first case represents the attacker having to first move to get within striking distance, which hands the defender extra time to prepare (as well as an extra, clearly visible indicator that the attack is coming).

The second case is the default combat norm: You're already within range to strike, and you do so. Nothing special going on.

The third case helps model the "roaring and punching" aspect of close-combat free-for-all. Attacks come from so close, and thus come so fast, that it's hard to defend against them (or even see them coming in the first place).

It's all extremely simple to play out when using a hex map. How will it change combat? I expect the following: Read more...

Here's a quick example of putting the ideas in Game design musing: Pricing breadth in skills to work:

GURPS' Wildcard skills (BS 175) allow purchase of multiple skills for the price of three; Talents (BS 89) allow a bonus to many skills (plus other minor benefits) for a fraction of the eventual cost of full levels in those skills. Both share fuzziness in common: There's no stated limit on on how many skills a Wildcard skill covers (so why stop at 10 if the GM will allow 20?), and you can freely choose the number of skills a Talent covers, within the limits of its group size (gee, should I take one skill or six for the same 5-point cost of a small group?). 

There's no big problem in all that, but what if you wanted more varied costs to reflect the number of skills covered? The "Zeno's method" suggestion in those breadth rules offer a solution: Read more...