Star Frontiers® Conundrum #3: Origins of the Frontier Races

The Star Frontiers® rules have always been a little vague about where the homeworlds of the player character (and non-player character) races are. Obviously, most of them are somewhere off the Frontier Map, but the only concrete information provided is in the Star Frontiers Timeline, page 52 of SFAC 3: Zebulon’s Guide To Frontier Space, Volume 1. It says:

19 – 8 p.f. The area beyond the Greater Morass claims hundreds of
exploration vessels. Though it is believed most Frontier races came from
beyond the Greater Morass, all information about their origins has been
lost. Exploration of the area ceases and it is renamed the Vast Expanse.

Sorry, but this just doesn’t work for me, and it doesn’t work for anybody who thinks about it. If all the PC races came from the same area of space, why the hell would they decide to meet in the Frontier Sector? The logical meeting place for two races is half-way between their homeworlds; I’ve always assumed that the Frontier is therefore about half-way between the homeworlds of the Humans and the Vrusk. (Remember, it was their radio contact that first brought PC races to the Frontier.)

So, who lived in which direction? Well, I’ve always assumed that the Vrusk (and Dralisites) originate from someplace "above" the Frontier because all their worlds are clustered in the top half of the original Frontier Map. Likewise, I figure Humans came from "below", because the Human worlds are clustered in the lower right area of the map. It only makes sense that the races would most heavily settle the first star systems they found, right?

Since the Yazirians dominate the (lower) left of the Frontier Map, I figure they originated to the far left of the Frontier, perpendicular to a line connecting the Vrusk and Human home-sectors. (If they had originated off-perpendicular, they probably would have encountered the Humans or Vrusk before finding the Frontier, and we don’t want that, do we?)

Portions of the Star Frontiers Timeline preceding that annoying 19-8 p.f. entry actually seem to support `the first-found, first-settled’ theory. The order of discovery for the various star systems works from the outside of the Frontier towards the inside, with the four races coming from the appropriate directions. I have to assume the annoying timeline entry represents some sort of late change of concept that wasn’t fully double-checked. So I vote we ignore it.

The Rim Races, I don’t know. They could have originated right there on the Rim (not noticing, and unnoticed by, the four races, perhaps because they never invented subspace radio), or they could come from somewhere else, as implied in the Ifshnit page.

NPC Races

The Clikks and the Heliopes

Since Starmist, the only known Frontier planet contacted by the Clikks is on the far left of the Frontier Map, I’m assuming the Clikks (and the Heliopes) came from the left edge of the Map. (That’s the same direction the Yazirians came from. In my SF campaign, that’s a plot point, but your mileage may vary.)

The Sathar

Where do the Sathar come from? The Zebulon’s Guide Frontier Map suggests they’re from a direction to the upper right of the Map. I personally would have gone with the upper left, since that’s where their early activity in the First Sathar War was, but that’s not as important — we know its definitely somewhere way off the Frontier Map. Wherever you decide to put it, be careful about putting it too close to a PC race’s homeworld, or you may end up doing some fast-talking to explain why the worms haven’t conquered the homeworld. (Then again, you might want them to do that.)

Much more interesting (to me, anyway) is what we can deduce from the Frontier Deployment Map from the Star Frontiers Knight Hawks boxed set. The Deployment Map is designed so that each transit box is equal to one day of interstellar travel. Standard interstellar travel in Star Frontiers occurs at a rate of one light-year per day (1 ly/day), so the complete travel routes (the blue transit boxes) on the map actually show how many light-years are between star systems. The incomplete routes (the red boxes) represent the deceleration time for Sathar ships invading from unknown bases. Want to know how far away those bases are? Just double the number of red boxes in a route, and you know how far away (in light-years) the Sathar staging area was. We can now locate five different Sathar staging areas on or near the Frontier. Whether these staging areas were just stopping points in space or true military installations is up to you. Going counter-clockwise around the Frontier Deployment Map, the staging areas are:

Staging Area #1: Near Zebulon

The Sathar Start Circle for the Zebulon system is 3 days away, so the staging area is 6 light years away. There are actually 2 star systems 6 light-years from Zebulon.

On the Alpha Dawn Frontier Map, one system is the binary star system on the other side of the Xagyg Dust Clouds, 2 light-years to the left, and 6 light-years up. (That would make the system 6.3 ly from Zebulon, but that rounds down to 6 ly in Knight Hawks astrogation rules.) The second system is an Uninhabited/Unexplored system that’s, coincidentally enough, 6 ly down, and 2 ly to the left of Zebulon.

On the Zebulon’s Guide Frontier Map, the binary system is still an unnamed system, but the other star is Belnafaer, the setting for adventure module SFAD5 Bugs in the System. If you’re looking for an excuse to get your PCs back to Belnafaer, you’ve definitely got one. (If you don’t want to go back, put the Sathar in the other system.)

Staging Area #2: Near Prenglar

The Start Circle for Prenglar is 4 days away; the Sathar were based 8 light-years from Prenglar.

On the AD Map, there’s an Uninhabited/Unexplored system 8 light-years to the right and 2 light-years down — again, those numbers round down to what we want. (It’s actually closer to White Light than Prenglar.)

On the ZG map, that same system is the Plague system known only as Gamma. That has all sorts of interesting possibilities: Are the Sathar staying away from the Plague worlds, or are they just immune to the Plague?

Staging Area #3: Near K’tsa-Kar

The staging area for K’tsa-Kar (the system left out of the original AD Frontier Worlds table) is 3 days, or 6 light-years away from that system.

The AD Frontier Map, disappointingly enough, doesn’t have a world 6 light-years away. However, the binary black hole system called Ebony Eyes (from Dragon® Magazine issue #98, "The Battle at Ebony Eyes" by William Tracy) is located 4 light-years up and 4 light-years to the left of K’tsa-Kar, making it 6 light-years away. The magazine article also revealed that there’s a Sathar base there. I suspect Tracy was trying to gloss over a mistake in the Frontier Maps.

The ZG Frontier Map, still doesn’t have anything the right distance from K’tsa-Kar, but it does move one star (from between K’tsa-Kar and Madderly’s Star to between K’tsa-Kar and Kizk’-kar). Maybe they were trying to fix the original mistake, but got it wrong. The system moved, by the way, became the Plague system Epsilon.

Staging Area #4: Near Kizk-Kar

This staging area is 3 days (6 light-years) away from the Kizk-Kar system.

The AD Frontier Map doesn’t have any systems at the proper distance (and Ebony Eyes doesn’t work, either), but the "search radius" for the staging area extends off the top of the Frontier Map — when I first figured out these locations, I assumed it must be up there.

When the ZG map was published , it agreed with me. There’s a binary system 4 ly to the right, and 5 ly up from Kizk-Kar (only 2 light-years away from the top of the new map) that’s 6.4 light-years from Kizk-Kar (rounds down to 6; just what we needed). You cannot believe how arrogant this discovery made me at the time.

Staging Area #5: Near Fromeltar

The final staging area is 3 days (that is, 6 light-years) from Fromeltar.

This Fromeltar staging area has the same problem (and solution) as the Kizk-Kar staging area: There’s no suitable system on the AD Frontier Map, but the search radius extends off the top of the Frontier Map.

The ZG Frontier Map suggests how well (parts of) Star Frontiers were planned out: Not only is there a star system 6 light-years away from Fromeltar, but the system is Klaeok, a Rim system. The Sathar use of the Klaeok system may be the event referred to on page 54 of ZG, where "The Rim Coalition dispatches the Flight to the other side of Klaeok in search of Sathar supply vessels" in 81 f.y. (Of course, Staging Area #4 is technically on "the other side of Klaeok", so it’s an and/or situation.)

The Saurians

The Saurians (introduced in an eponymous article by Jeffrey Bouley in Dragon Magazine #103) first appeared in the Theseus system, so I’ll semi-arbitrarily place their homeworld, Kischen, to the far right of the Frontier Map.

The S’sessu

The S’sessu were introduced in Dragon Magazine issue #96, "The Coming of the S’sessu", an article that clearly places their homeworld just "below" the Frontier Map. (It’s a system not there in Zebulon’s Guide, but that can be tweaked.)

The Tetrarchs

The Tetrarchs get mentioned exactly twice in all the Star Frontiers references I own: once in Zebulon’s Guide, and once in the Dragon article that introduced The S’sessu. I’m not even going to hazard a guess on this one.

The Zethra

The Zethra (introduced in Dragon Magazine #84, "The Zethra", originate from "a single, unknown planet beyond the borders of the Frontier sector in the direction of the Xagyg dust clouds". That kind of rules out any system on the Alpha Dawn map, doesn’t it?

Looking at the Zebulon’s Guide Frontier Map, there is a promising unexplored system just above the Kazak-Cryxia star route, if you really want to them that close to the Frontier.

The Zuraqqor

The Assault on Starship Omicron adventure that introduces the Zuraqqor never even hints where they came from, although I’d guess it’s in the vicinity of the Sathar systems.

Brian Valentine’s article "The Zuraqqor Strike Back!" in Dragon Magazine #95 suggests they originate somewhere near Zebulon. Zebulon’s Guide doesn’t leave many empty systems in that area, but there’s a nice unexplored system just 2 light-years above Mechan. (Now, that’s a rough neighborhood.) On the other hand, you could push your luck and put the Zuraqqor homeworld in that binary star system between Osak and Kazak (which happens to be Sathar Staging Area #1, remember?).