A very good story and hook dice rolled generator for Sci-fi adventures. I highly recommend this for $1.99. I use it enough that I have printed it out. It is original enough, with enough choices to generate good ideas, if not totally unique. Every major cliche is available to remix in the generator.

LOVE this system! Totally reminds me of the old Top Secret/S.I. which I played until the books lost their covers...

FrontierSpace Player's Handbook by DwD Studios A review TLDR summary: Great game, good possibilities for tinkering, great art, good setting, great writing. Buy it, for it is fun. I will admit first of all that I have been looking forward to this game for quite some time. When I bought BareBones Fantasy several years ago, I learned that the authors had taken the system they loved from Star Frontiers and had carved it down to a lighter version which they called the D00 Lite system. Among the changes made to the system, attributes were changed, a new critical mechanic was given, and skills were changed to the class-as-skill model I have seen used successfully here and elsewhere. The BBF game was really a great innovation, to my mind, and I was left with an eager desire for the day when I would see my old friend Star Frontiers (by TSR back in the early 80s) take flight again in this system. I eagerly devoured Covert Ops soon after BBF, and saw a few more changes to the system that adapted the game to that setting, showing how versatile the game engine could be. My eagerness only grew. Now that I have my copy of the game, I am even more eager to take it for a spin. The first thing I saw from the game was in the notice of the download which contained the author's’ invitation for anyone to take the system and setting and do whatever they liked with it under the Creative Commons license. This impresses me especially as a game tinkerer and is a refreshing change from some other games. I already have a couple setting ideas that almost write themselves, and a few more ideas within the setting as it is written. And now the game itself. In the introduction of the game the primary setting ideal is explained, that this game is about small fish in a very big ocean. The frontier is the star of the show, so to speak, and the players part of a far larger whole. Here I got a glimpse of the quality of writing I could expect throughout the book, which was engaging and clear; dramatic yet succinct (if I am using that word correctly.) It is a gritty setting. The discussion then continues to explain the role players and referees each serve in, and the all-important golden rule of RPGs, that when the GM makes a ruling, accept it and move along. The dice system is broken down and explained in the beginning of the first chapter. All dice are ten sided. Most rolls will be percentile, with two zeroes read as 00 and not 100. You succeed if you roll under the target number, usually a skill plus an attribute plus modifiers. Rolls for damage or some other effects are the dice rolled and added together. There are six attributes which cover whatever your character is going to do. Skills follow the class as skill model as in the other outings of D00 Lite, but here instead of the previous games’ formula to arrive at the overall skill, it is simply expressed as a number between -20 (untrained) and +30 (top in the universe) with 0 being basic professional level training. At first I was thrown by this idea, but as I got used to it, I began to see how brilliant this is. For one, it is possible to use the same skill with multiple attributes. If you have a Medic skill, for instance, you could use it with Perception to examine your patient, with Coordination to perform surgery, and Willpower when you are telling the patient to relax and heal. Character creation is in the second chapter, and has a couple of neat points. You can roll for your attributes and then put the rolls where you want them or choose a predetermined array that includes a good mix of values to give a character enough depth without being overpowered yet. Species are discussed elsewhere in detail but are conveniently summarized here. The Referee’s book will have the means to create new species but the five included in the book are plenty to start with. (I have to wonder how hard it would be to adapt the various fantasy races from the BBF supplement Flesh and Blood. Probably pretty easy, and just a bit of re-flavoring and reskinning.) Characters start with one skill at 0 and two at -10. This I like because you then have a character that can do one thing well and a couple others (out of 12) that they do sort of well. I like the way character creation comes together as a fast and easy thing. The rest of the book follows along as a logical progression through the technology and the culture of the game and winds it all up with the setting. While glossing over much of the book and encouraging you with my opinion that it comes together well, is well written, and engaging, I will say that the game makes a few assumptions that pinch just a little. The setting is somewhat limited to a couple dozen systems but with a lot outside of this area left nebulous enough to be mysterious and so forth, but in saying that I have to giggle a little at myself since I haven’t seen more than a quarter on my own state and rarely leave a hundred mile circle of that. Ships are kind of on the small side but only when compared to Star Destroyers and Trek ships. The only other annoying thing about the setting is the number of loose ends set up in it which would all be things one could use as story hooks to get player characters doing cool stuff. It would be really easy, though, to port in any setting you like with this game. The artwork throughout the book is pretty cool and captures the essence of a spacefaring gritty story based game. Only a couple of the spaceship drawings were not quite up to my standards, but are still a ton better than what I manage. One thing the old game did that is rare to find elsewhere in science fiction shows and games was that almost all of the ships were built on the tower model rather than the boat model, which is to say that in a spaceship decks would be best placed perpendicular to the thrust so that you have acceleration as your false gravity. There is very little evidence that gravity floors would be possible let alone cheap enough to be ubiquitous. It appears that the space vessels are built on the boat model for the most part. Really that is my only gripe with the art. Everything else is awesome. Those boat model space ships are pretty awesome, too, really. Fair or not, I judge games on several criteria, mostly having to do with feelings. Frontier Space wins first because I have been excited for a long time to get it. It wins again in how confident in the way the rules are laid out that I could easily play and enjoy it. It wins in that I can see myself walking around on many of the described worlds, talking to Yar, Erakai, and Novim friends. It wins in that I can see piloting huge freighters and nimble fighters through the deep voids of space. It wins in that I cannot think of any ways in which it loses, with the only exception being the relative obscurity of the game, which is something I can at least try to do something about through this review and getting the word out on other places. I was going to ask for more D&D books for Christmas and birthdays upcoming, but since i got this as an early present from a kind benefactor, I think I would rather get printed copies of this book and the referee’s book, which together would be less than either the 5th Edition DMG or Monster book.

This is a well-done but incomplete product. As other reviewers have noted, it's very much done in the spirit of Star Frontiers, except that the game mechanics of FrontierSpace are much better - smooth, consistent, and pretty fast. The downside is that the book is quite incomplete - combat rules, for example, are in the Gamemaster's Guide, and although there are a selection of stock NPCs, there isn't a bestiary of aliens (other than alien PC races), monsters, and such. For that, you need the Gamemaster's Guide (which has a tiny selection of creatures along with good rules for crafting them). As such, there's a fair amount of prep-work from a GM, since you'll have to create adversaries from scratch continuously. I recommend the game, but be aware that what you're buying is not complete. If you're used to having to buy multiple books (like D&D), this won't be a major issue for you.

As a Star Frontiers fan for years I bought these books out of curiosity and was quite surprised to find a well designed game inside. Tons of information, the extra stuff I like such as: generation tables for systems, planets, etc. I like to create my own adventures and I will be moving them in this direction. The books are clean and well designed. There's not much I can add to the already great reviews for these products.

FrontierSpace Referee’s Handbook Wow! This book made two very strong first impressions on me. The first is the speed at which it came out. I never expected to see the Referee’s manual so fast on the heels of the FS Player’s Handbook. It’s rare to see such good production quality and well-timed execution from a game company.

The second very good impression this game made on me was, at first glance, I was almost looking for a boxed set with the Player’s book, some maps, player handouts, cardboard counters, a poster, some plain dice, and a crayon to “ink” the dice. Then I realized the sheer volume of this book. While I wax nostalgic for the good old days of boxed sets which are now all but obsolete because of prohibitive costs, this really did remind me of diving into one for the first time.

As gamemaster books go, this one is by far one of the most well put together, professional, and useful I have seen in the last twenty years of being a player, gm and writer. I love everything about this book from cover to cover. It shows a real passion for not just the game and the genre, but for being a referee as well. We know this game has its roots firmly in old school Star Frontiers, and this book not only emulates those golden days of sci-fi gaming, but goes far beyond the scope of quality the old T$R designers could have only dreamed about back then. This is one of the few Referee/GM/DM guides I have ever dove into and gone from cover to cover just amazed at everything. I can only think of a handful of gaming books that have ever captivated me this much. Thank you Bill and Larry. It brings me back to my younger years.

A quick romp through all of the chapters. Chapter 1 is a basic Referee’s how-to for running the game itself. There’s an alignment system of sorts; earning/spending DP; a lot of the standard RPG fare of how to deal with combat, injuries, repairs, etc; npcs; and psionics. Normally psionics in any game is a major turnoff for me the moment I see them. (I feel like it turns every game into a supers campaign of sorts.) However, FS saves the day on this by giving differing levels of psionics available and leaves it in the hands of the ref up front. Thank you for that!

Chapter 2 is all about technology. I found some of this chapter reminiscent of Covert Ops, which is cool because I like that game and the weapon quality table therein. This chapter does a lovely job covering all of the mundane-ish aspects of life in space and helps a GM decide where he should probably set the tech level for his campaign. The weapon, robot, vehicle, and starship qualities tables really add to the game, should you choose to use them.

Chapter 3 is so outstanding, it could have been an entire sourcebook by itself. Back in the day, it probably would have been a couple of pages in the GM Manual and a separate $12 sourcebook later on. Regardless, this chapter covers everything you could ever want from a xenomorph with acid for blood all the way up to all the freaky looking aliens wandering around in the cantina or zocalo of your favorite sci-fi franchises. Yes, there’s probably even a way to build those honor bound warrior aliens with the ridges on their heads and arm them with their ‘battle-eths’, etc.

Chapter 4 is also a tip of the hat to Covert ops, but provides a ton of really good mission/adventure building stock. Combined with the beautiful material from Chapter 5, it really would make for a really cool hex crawl in space campaign. Again, Chapters 4 and 5 could probably stand on their own as a sourcebook. Chapter 5 boldly does what many other hard sci-fi games have attempted before. This chapter covers the generation of planets, planetary systems and sectors. It’s clear, concise, and useful without going overboard. It’s not a catalog of everything possible under the stars, but enough for most referees without having to go to work for NASA.

Chapter 6 is not long, but inspiring nonetheless. There’s a good primer on sci-fi games which a lot of old school gamers already know, but invaluable to a new ref. The storytelling advice is brilliant for any ref, and greater for a novice referee. There are also forms in the back of the book for everything discussed in the chapters which prove very useful.

I’d also like to compliment the artwork in this game. Even the headers look great. The layout of this book is clean, too. Overall, I can’t say enough good things about this book. If you’re looking to run a science fiction game of any kind, this book is definitely worth a look. Even if you’re not planning to run FrontierSpace, it’s a great resource for any space-based game.

I don't write that many game reviews, but I've enjoyed FrontierSpace so much that I felt compelled to say a few words about it. The system is lite enough to be easy to pick up and play quickly, yet has enough moving parts that characters feel different and unique. The combat system is also light, yet versatile. The artwork hearkens back to my old school gaming days, and I mean that in a positive way, feels very much like the old Star Frontiers game, with a sleek, fun rules system. I would have liked the psionics abilities to have been included in this book rather than the Referee's Manual, but I understand not all Referee's will be using psionics in their games.
All in all, I am quite pleased with this purchase and recommend the game for those looking for a fun, easy to play/run Sci Fi System.

I had the honor to take part to this game's playtest and it's a pleasure to finally see it published.

This is a work of love and passion. You can see the guys at DwD studios put an insane amount of work and energy into this project, and the result is a top notch, rules-lite, modern RPG which also retains that nostalgic "old school" feeling.

The game is openly inspired to "old school" RPGs (specifically, the classic RPG "Star Frontiers" from TSR), but don't get fooled: this is a modern game, which benefits from all the experience gained in decades of Role-Playing.

The Referee's Handbook is the perfect companion for the Player's Handbook, and contains a ton of useful info and material to help Referees create, manage and play adventures.

Presentation:

The layout is clean and professional. The art is very good, especially considering the low price of the final product.

Content:

In perfect DwD Studios style, the manual packs a huge amount of useful content in its more than 200 pages, but it manages to keep it all simple and easy to use. You'll find everything you expect from a Referee-oriented manual, including rules on action checks, situational modifiers, combat, conditions, healing, repairing things, etc., but also some great info on more refined topics like how to run investigations in your adventures.

There are dedicated sections on planetary and space travel and rules for robots and vehicles. The starship combat and damage rules are particularly well written and detailed.

But where this manual really shines is the awesome generators. You get rules to generate custom alien species to use for your PCs or NPCs (my players LOVED these rules, so much that almost all of them wanted to create their own, unique species), to generate star systems (a must-have tool for any sci-fi RPG Referee) and to generate adventures and campaigns. The latter is arguably the best tool in the manual - it really contains everything a Referee needs to create great adventures, and it's simple and compact. What impressed me more is that using this generator really sparked my imagination in ways that I thought impossible for a system based on random tables!

Conclusion:

The game is a must have for any Sci-Fi RPG enthusiast out there. Whether you like hard sci-fi, space opera, cyberpunk or any other sci-fi-related genre, this game has all you need to kick off a great and incredibly fun series of adventures!

We never stopped playing it after the playtest, and are sure to keep at it for many long years yet. :)

FIVE STARS! Absolutely wonderful. If you are a Star Frontiers fan then this is a "must buy!".

FrontierSpace is the latest creation from the brilliant minds at DWD. It has proven to be everything that was promised or hinted-at in previews, developer logs, etc. The system should be familiar to anyone who plays Covert Ops or BareBones Fantasy. Interestingly enough, the look and feel of the game should be familiar to anyone who loves the old T$R Star Frontiers game. (This is not a coincidence- Bill and Larry are huge Star Frontiers fans.) All around, I think this game has a lot of appeal and came out at a time when space games are in the spotlight more, perhaps. With the recent release of the new Space Trek, Space Wars and Space Finder games, players are just feeling a little more spacey. By Space, I mean “Star” but slightly more lawsuit-proof. That having been said, one of the nicest things about FrontierSpace is that it is not set in a well renowned science fiction franchise. There are no preset expectations or character roles and no canon to infringe upon. Much like the good old days of gaming, FrontierSpace gives players and gamemasters a framework, some standard references and rules, but leaves the rest to be created. No one should be jumping up at the table and yelling, “But a real SpaceFleet Jed-Hi wouldn’t do that!” And thankfully there are no space elves, space gnomes or pesky spellcasting. It’s more of what we would call hard science roleplaying. Of course, all this is subject to change at the whim of the GM. As written, this game reminds me of Traveler, or even GURPS Space in its approach, only I don’t have to practically have a degree in astrophysics or work for NASA to understand it. I can construct a new ship for the game without having to practically build it in my backyard. Another thing I love about FrontierSpace is the openness of the campaign world. You can build deep relationships and delve into freaky intricate alien politics just as easily as you can fly from one star system to the next slug it out with aliens and find an attractive green alien girl to fall in love with before the end of the game session. It’s really in the hands of the GM (and players.) I’m considering trying a hex crawl type campaign only with space hexes instead of on land. I’ve also thought it might be cool to do a Lost In Space type of game where the pc’s are stranded outside known space trying to find their way home. This game screams sourcebook potential at full volume. There could easily be a starship book, one for vehicles, gear and guns, one for robots, and especially one for alien races. Given the outstanding BareBones sourcebook for fantasy races, I think an alien guide would be easy pickings for DWD. (Just please limit the number of buganoid 3 meter tall cockroach/praying mantis knockoffs to just one or none?) There are less obvious sourcebook choices worth exploring such as one for planets and one for hostile creatures/environments. I would also like to see a Gamma World book done in a similar style, given this was originally spawned from Star Frontiers. Overall huge kudos for art, layout, genre emulation, rules, new player friendliness, expandability, flexibility and campaign world. Great job!*

I had the honor to take part to this game's playtest and it's a pleasure to finally see it published.

This is a work of love and passion. You can see the guys at DwD studios put an insane amount of work and energy into this project, and the result is a top notch, rules-lite, modern RPG which also retains that nostalgic "old school" feeling.

The game is openly inspired to "old school" RPGs (specifically, the classic RPG "Star Frontiers" from TSR), but don't get fooled: this is a modern game, which benefits from all the experience gained in decades of Role-Playing.

Presentation:

The layout is clean and professional. The art is very good, especially considering the low price of the final product.

A special mention should be made for the included fillable PDF character sheet, which is invaluable for modern players IMHO.

Rules:

This new incarnation and evolution of the D00 Lite system used in previous games from DwD studios (BareBones Fantasy, White Lies and Covert Ops) gives more value to an already great ruleset. Basically, all abilities and skills are percentiles, and rolling less than or equal to your score on a D100 grants you success. You get a critical success or failure when the tens die and the units die show the same number. It's a system that's both very effective and very easy to use in practice.

There are six base abilities (strength, agility, coordination, perception, intelligence and willpower) which can be used directly for actions that do not require any specialization or can be combined with 12 skills that cover all the needs for any modern or sci-fi setting, ranging from Academic to Explorer, Marksman, Pilot, etc. And you can add your custom skills to cover anything that's specific to your setting or not in the rules. My personal pet peeve, and possibly the only weakness in the ruleset, is the absence of a charisma ability (willpower is used instead) - although you can easily add it if you want: all the rules will just keep working with no conversion or adaptation needed.

Skill may have specializations, and some skills (like for example Technician or Scientist) require you to specialize, granting you a bonus on a more specific field of application (for example, a Scientist can specialize in Life Science or Physical Science, etc.).

There's also a neat rule for Advantage and Disadvantage, which is tightly connected with how the skill system and racial bonuses work.

Most rules are either optional or very easy to modify to your liking, and that makes the game an excellent starting point to build your customized RPG experience, if you need to. In my opinion this may be one of the best selling points for this game!

Characters:

Character creation is a process that can take only a few minutes, but does not sacrifice anything in terms of flexibility and character customization. With the way skills work, you can actually create your customized class every time you create a new character - all in an easy and quick way.

There are five playable species in the game, including humans and robots, each with a specific set of options to create a unique character. In the Referee's Handbook, which should get published in a few weeks, you also get an awesome chapter with rules to create your own customized species, and a few other boons like psionic powers to further enhance your characters.

Character progression is designed to be sligthly on the slow side, in line with the "old school" feel of the game, but it's never punishing or frustrating. And you can still have your characters progress at a faster rate if you prefer.

Benefits are probably the best progression option in the game. When your character attains new "ranks" you get Skill Benefits, linked to your skills, and Loyalty Benefits, linked to the organizations you work with or for during your adventures. Benefits can grant you all kind of boons, ranging from special bonuses and advantages to in-game use of facilities like specialized laboratories, starships, etc.

You get destiny points, which let you re-roll, change the result from failure to success, etc. These are assigned based on a simple but very effective rule that helps compensate some of the character's weaknesses when they have particularly low abilities or lack the skills to survive dangerous situations, like for example combat.

At the end of the Handbook you get a full set of 20 pre-generated characters ("Archetypes"), which cover a wide range of specializations. These are incredibly well made and really make you want to check them out and play them!

Content:

A ton of weapons, armors and technology is included in the Equipment chapter. You'll find everything you need here, and a lot of surprisingly clever and interesting pieces of equipment (like for example all the different kinds of Scanners). A special mention should be made for how well the game combines different kinds of damage (physical, energy, sonic, stun...) in a very simple and effective way.

With dedicated chapters for Robots, Vehicles and Starships full of pre-generated, ready to use stuff, the Handbook packs a whole lot of content considering the price.

There's also a chapter on the standard setting for the game, which is exhaustive enough to get you started and interesting enough to spark your imagination. The galactic map of the "Frontier" (the sector of space where the setting takes place) you get together with the manual is really well made and useful. The game never forces you to use the included setting, but it's a great starting point for your adventures.

Conclusion:

The game is a must have for any Sci-Fi RPG enthusiast out there. Whether you like hard sci-fi, space opera, cyberpunk or any other sci-fi-related genre, this game has all you need to kick off a great and incredibly fun series of adventures!

We never stopped playing it after the playtest, and are sure to keep at it for many long years yet. :)

Review for frontier space. By Christopher Lee House and Anne House I give this offering 4 out of five stars. I would have possibly gone as high as 5 stars except that it requires a game master manual; since I don’t know what is included in the Game Masters Manual (and that is where I suspect the bestiary is), that takes a star way in my opinion. I believe it’s still got a lot of possibilities that are not fulfilled as a whole. Art: Fair to good. I found the space ships kind of dull, been-there-seen-that types. I must say that the art is very reminiscent of older games of distant past. Done by Khairul Hisham and Wayne Peters, it delivers on atmosphere old-school style. Considering that DWD is an indie company that kinda cut their teeth on fanzine reminiscence of an older gamer), I see they tried to carry that on in this work. Its 240 pages - three time bigger then Barebones Fantasy. I thought they would stick to the Barebones and Covert Ops system, but they expanded by adding three more attributes. Barebones Fantasy and Covert Ops has Logic, Strength, Dexterity and Willpower. Frontier Space has added Perception, Coordination and Intelligence, and replaced Dexterity with Agility. 18 pages (minus 3) are needed to explain the system, and character creation takes 3 pages. It is quick and easy and by page 21 you have gone through 6 step program to make your character. It took me about five minutes to go through and make out two characters (Leigh Poll and Anne Poll). You get human with all types of human origins, aliens (do not think you are going to get same species from the reminiscent older game), and robots, so you have a good start for any game. Now, this is just the players hand book, so there weren’t any psionic or mystical abilities listed here. I will say that it would be easy to convert over from Barebones Fantasy or Covert Ops to this game. You also get the rules to build your robot. This is a good change from reminiscent older games that did not even allow you to pilot till you bought another box set. There is enough here to make a good character, with a few custom options. However, there appears to be nothing on the staple Psionics, mass fleet combat, planet making or in-depth starship construction– perhaps that in the Game Master Manuel. The layout is clean

• Introduction
• The Basics
• Character Creation
• Species
• Skills (12, with specializations for Art, Academic and Technician)
• Equipment and Technology
• Character Development
• Robots
• Vehicles (which come with upgrade options, but not so much construction)
• Starships
• Frontier settings
• Archetypes
• Character sheets It has enough to keep you busy for a few game sessions, possibly a whole campaign! It has its own world and the background is light and fluffy as the tradition. In my opinion its worth at least the $9.99 price-tag for the pdf. Go ahead check it out! As a sci-fi game its got potential and I say get in on the ground floor and ride this baby to the top - woohoo!
  Post script or notes: Editing and spelling corrections are brought to you by Anne House, not only is she Beautiful wife and my bestie Friend and fellow Gamer,, but she is a fair enough editor and Very fine Writer and game master.

I keep going back to this book because it has so many wonderful ideas that inspire me in everything from my modern spy campaigns to my OSR classic fantasy game. It's totally worth it. I have the print copy because it is handy to pass around the table during a game. Great character classes and tables.

I'm impressed. So many lite RPG's leave so much out, they are only good for one sitting or you have to make up more rules than they provide. BBF packs alot of material in 80 pages, way more than I expected. The core book contains everything you would expect; character creation (d10 based), weapons, armor, equipment, spells, a GM guide, monsters, an adventure creator, a world map and more. The core book also came with a free adventure (at least from DTRPG). I love the simple mechanics (percentile and d10), and character generation is a breeze (5d10 +30 for 4 abilities). If there is a down side, it would be that beginners may need an assist from a more experienced gamer to help figure out how to use the "open" description spells and skills. Lets face it, we are all used to a long list of individual spells or skills, not a sentance saying "you can do all of this". There is a good amount of BBF support material available for download; adventures, spell cards, status cards, and fantays settings. I'm very happy with what I've purchased so far. Wish I could have gotten it all in a bundle... This is very playable for new and experienced gamers.

White Lies is an OSR spy game from DwD Studios. It is a variation of the old white box rules (hence the name), and the classes are types of operatives in an intelligence agency.

The rules are simple and tooled to a genre best described as cinematic spycraft, but easily used to run more grim and realistic espionage as well. Support for the game is as well-wrought as the base rules.

The graphical presentation is on target with cool silhouetted spies doing spy stuff. The whole 'vibe' here is perfect for that Bond or Bourne feel.