Timeline Timing

Forum to discuss topics related to the revamp and clean up of the Frontier timeline.

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Timeline Timing

Postby Jo_Mistero » Sun Sep 05, 2010 2:13 pm

I know there are the Knight's Hawk & Zebulon versions of colony and exploration events. Many people will be glad of these, though whether these fit in with the Star Frontiers Volturnus modules or each players own adventures is another matter.

What I am interested in finding out is: Does anyone think some of the timeline occurrences seem a bit too far apart?
Especially from an Alpha Dawn point of view. For example. Humans in the real world, with limited technology managed to spread to new "frontiers" and establish themselves in a relatively short period of time. For example U.S Colonial small holdings to multi story multi sprawling cities in a few hundred years or so.

In contrast the humans and aliens in SF-AD are already well advanced and can obviously travel vast distances across the stars within days. How long would it take them to colonize worlds? Many in Alpha Dawn still unexplored and unsettled.

Apparently some colonies have been established for over 400 years yet the original Star Frontiers is based on exactly that: The Frontier of explored space.

Personally, I am not happy with the "new" timeline. It contradicts a view that this is the back of beyond, freshly explored space. I can understand a hundred years or so of exporation at most. But more than that? When does the Frontier stop becoming the frontier and start to be an old, established sector?

But this is just my own imperfect opinion. Our own adventures have probably split timelines into many different paths!

Does it really matter anyway? Probably not.

What do you think?
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Will » Sun Sep 05, 2010 10:48 pm

I think you're an idiot. :D
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Jo_Mistero » Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:46 am

Ah. Thanks for the enlightening reply, and first welcome to this site.

It's just that in the Original TSR 1982 edition of Star Frontiers the history page says the initial contacts take place over severl years and then "SOON" the frontier gets set up. 400 years or so doesn't seem particularly "soon" to me.

But your discussion skills, welcome and community representation are duly noted. Thanks. Like I said, it doesn't really matter. I just found this site from a link. I had no idea people were still involved with Star Frontiers and never heard of Alpha Dawn, Zebulon or KH until recently. I just knew of the original 1982 edition.

Have fun.
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Will » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:08 am

Jo_Mistero wrote:Ah. Thanks for the enlightening reply, and first welcome to this site.

It's just that in the Original TSR 1982 edition of Star Frontiers the history page says the initial contacts take place over severl years and then "SOON" the frontier gets set up. 400 years or so doesn't seem particularly "soon" to me.

But your discussion skills, welcome and community representation are duly noted. Thanks. Like I said, it doesn't really matter. I just found this site from a link. I had no idea people were still involved with Star Frontiers and never heard of Alpha Dawn, Zebulon or KH until recently. I just knew of the original 1982 edition.

Have fun.


And, this is why I said what I said.

If you bothered to check, you'd find I'm one of the plank owners of this site, so to speak.

Now, in order:

1) If I hear "it just doesn't have that frontier feel" just one more time, I will start throwing bodies out the window! Honestly, this is the battle cry of anal-retentive grognards who just can't seem, or flat out refuse to understand that the game is based on the works of LeGuin, Clarke, Smith, Dick, and Foster, not Brand, Grey, Johnstone, and L'Amour.

And, if you must quote "canon" material as a defense, let me remind you that in SFKH0's System Brief, it specifically says the current royal family has been in power 400 years, and that the monarchy's been around a whole lot longer than that.

Since the system brief was prepared for the Frontier population at large, in particular, visitors to the White Light system, we can assume "400 years" to mean 400 Galactic Standard years, not 400 local years, not 400 dog years, not 400 years of the dragon.

(After all, Japan and China have a different calendar from us, yet every encylopedia I know uses Gregorian calendar years to refer to events in their history).

2) I just love rules lawyers who insist that those playing a certain game adhere to "canon," which is a thinly-disguised way of saying,"we have to do this my way."

Guess what, pendejo? This is a ROLE-PLAYING GAME! It is not the King James Bible, it is not the Douai Bible, it is not the friggin' Book of Mormon, it is not the Qu'ran, it is not the Talmud, it is not the Tao te Ching, and it sure as hell is not the Gospel of the Lord according to Joe Sockpuppet.

It is an RPG, and what most so-called gamers seem to have forgotten is that little bitty line at the end of the AD&D 1e Dungeon Master's Guide which says, and I quote "The DM is in charge of the game, not the rules. "

This line is, BTW, repeated in various forms in many of the rulesets out there, and implied in the rest.

3) The timeline is on a wiki. Do you know what that means? It means if you don't like the proposed timeline, you can edit it to suit your view on what the timeline should be. Please, go ahead, I won't mind.

I don't care. It's not as if Big Sky Daddy used His lightning bolts to etch the damn frickin' thing into a convenient stone-tablet form, now is it?!
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Jo_Mistero » Mon Sep 06, 2010 10:45 am

Um. Ok. I've not had much experience with "anal-retentive grognards" in connection with Star Frontiers, so I wouldn't know.
I also am not really upset by changes. Like I said everyone's timeline must be different in some way.

I just thought it was an interesting idea you had in sorting out and re-vamping the timeline which is what caught my attetion.

I am non of the things you have once again accused me of. I am a little out of time, however. I enjoyed playing with groups of friends with great imaginations. I have no history with you or what "gets your goat". I'm sorry.

But I do know I didn't expect to reconnect to Star Frontiers to get insulted. I have nothing against you.

I'm interested in others viewpoints and ideas and have nothing against discussion. I think that's what forums were intended for.

I am sorry for spoiling your world.Like I said in my first post. I didn't think it was a big deal. I'll find (hopefully) another site.

Thanks for replying.
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Terl Obar » Wed Sep 08, 2010 12:01 pm

Cool it Will or you will find yourself banned. The tone of your response was completely and 100% uncalled for. I'm the only "plank owner" here by the way and can and will boot as needed.

Actually, Jo_Mistero has some good points that I happen to agree with. It does seem a little spaced out in time and there needs to be some explanation as to why. Or it needs to be compressed (which is the way I'd like to go). I don't know how I'd go about fixing it but there are definitely things that could be improved.
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby simplymenotu » Wed Sep 08, 2010 8:38 pm

Hey Jo_Mistero, welcome!
I have not been active on the site for a while so maybe I could get a welcome back. heh.
(This is the first thread I've pulled up, trying to help a little with the Wiki)

I don't want to spurn your ideas, just wanted to say jedion357 is working up a complete timeline, he's told me a little about it and it sounds like fun. Almost all of us have our own timelines, some even have Humans originating from earth. I'm biding my time (get it?) and waiting to see what others come up with. You might be familiar with the Remastered project (putting SF into a pretty PDF format), I'll be heading up a project to put together a complete Star Frontiers Setting book gathering ideas from discussion of the Core Four on sf.us, the wiki on this site and other sources (like your ideas). We'll have fun as a community making a great book. Maybe we'll have a section in the webzine to discuss just that... hrm..

Ok I'm rambling... but it's FUN!.

Just one more thought, not to differ with anyone's opinion but I LOVE the frontier feel. Here is our take on the "frontier feel" for the upcoming RGP, FrontierSpace.

In a frontier setting, resources are never what they could be. You're always rationing food and bullets. Medkit provision will run out long before your character run out of ways of getting hurt.

The frontier is a place of action and adventure and in its own way is bigger than your character. Your character is important to the story and can make a difference in a big way - but you're just a few ppl doing that.

The frontier is deadly. Just like settlers in the American west had to face animals and natives intent on causing them harm, you're character will need to be guided through danger. Players should always be aware that dying in the frontier is real.

The frontier is dirty and gritty. Spaceships are held together by the inventiveness of technicians. It isn't clean cut with sharp corners and crisp tech. You're character should find himself with dust on their boots, stuffing rags in life support ductwork to keep it from venting precious 02. That isn't to say isn't without luxuries, Players should see that spaceships are vehicles and weapons get dented.

The frontier is isolated. You don't flip on a channel and see what's going on several light years away. Signals take hours and days to get from one place to the other.

The frontier is vast. Even though spaceships can travel faster than light it still takes days and sometimes weeks to get from one place to another.

Over time you begin to appreciate the scale and scope of the setting while you fear the fast-paced nature of the danger that lurks there.
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby BD Cerridwen » Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:04 pm

Yo jo. Don't worry about will, that bark is worse then the bite - but keep you medkit handy. ;)

Regard 'frontier feel', think more in regards of the wild west of the late 1800s then the North American Continent of the 15, 16, and 1700s. Some places are more settled then others, and the lesser settled areas, though mapped and somewhat explored, are relatively lawless. The Mega-Corps are the railroad barons, pirates are the bandits and bank robbers, and the sathar are ... er ... the Native Americans I guess? Ok, that last one doesn't fit so neatly but you get the picture.

Also, I will back Will up on one point - that the GM is the rules. If the KH, Zebs, Wiki, Jedi's, or any other timeline doesn't fit your image of the Frontier, change it. Terl did just that for his Obar Enterprises PBP game on this site. I've run adventures where it was pre-SWI to give the game the Frontier setting that you appear to have imagined. I didn't even lay out a specific timeline, I only gave a briefing to the players about having no knowledge of the Sathar and explaining which systems have been discovered and what stage of exploration or colonization they are in.

Welcome aboard!
Be alert! After all, the galaxy needs more lerts!
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby simplymenotu » Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:57 pm

Thanks for clearing that up -- I'm a GM and I'm the rules. I shall now post the correct timeline because we all know that without a timeline you can't play in the setting!!!!
:D

j/k
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Jo_Mistero » Mon Sep 13, 2010 10:46 am

Thanks Will, Terl, BD, and Simplymenotu for your interesting idea's and views.

Will. I agree with some of the things you said in your second post. Sorry for any unintentional disrespect and my over reaction. And while I feel I have no right to barge in and start altering people's work on wiki, as I am I just new to the extra Zebulon and Knights Hawk rules. I appreciate the points you reasoned on.

I am eagerly devouring, digesting and storing all the idea's on these sites. Including what you have to say.
Thanks for all the hard work you guys do and for the time you spend on Starfrontiers for us.
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Re: Timeline Timing

Postby Dralasite89 » Thu Feb 03, 2011 12:13 pm

I would like to change the wiki to reflect that I am the master of the universe. It's very important to my gaming experience that I get to control the universe. Very important. That being said, I really like the explanation of the frontier feel.
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