On the Frontier...

The Boys (Greyson and Dane, my sons) and I played our first little bit of Star Frontiers last night. I think everyone had a blast, and we ended on a cliff hanger - more on that in a bit.

We started slow, creating characters using the Basic Rules, with one change - we did each attribute seperately instead of in pairs. Dane (11) chose a Yazirian Technologist named (I hope I get this right!) Yanshack'A of the Zingara. His friends call him Yan. He's strong and bright and fast, but gets winded very easily (STA 25!). Greyson (14) plays a Human Military Specialist named Bahud. He's tiny, but mighty. Using the optional rules we found in Issue 4 of Star Frontiersman, we generated a height of 1.5 meters and a weight of only 40 kg. Considering this child is actually 185 cm tall (6'1" for us 'Mericans), I find it funny. Bahud also has a Strength Attribute of 70 - well above average. One tough little person!

Anyway, we played through the first scenario in the Basic Rules, where you are working for Pan Galactic Corp to discover the security breach. Of course, it's an inside job. The boys managed to take down two of the spies (a Vrusk and a Dralasite) with doze grenades and captured a third (the Human) who was running off with a stolen data crystal. A quick call to Star Law resulted in the Yazirian's apprehension at the starport of Port Loren.

Later that evening, the Boys accepted a permanent position as agents of WarTech, Inc., a major weapons manufacturer in the Frontier. Their first assignment was to infiltrate the planet Torrent (as described in Issue 8) and capture specimens for the Biotech Warfare division. Specifically, they want dinosaurs!

After successfully landing their shuttle on the planet, the Boys disembarked in their modified Explorer. It took a few days, but they decided that they were never going to catch anything running around in this loud vehicle (the animals kept running away). So, they got out and set up camp. Waiting a few hours, a small herd of giant herbivores came through nearby, followed by a lone predator. One (lucky!) shot with the gas grenade rifle later, and the ten meter long carnosaur was down and sleeping. Bahud tried to determine the gender of the dinosaur, but he just couldn't get the biosensor to give him that much. He was able to get a species: Torrentus leapyclawclaw, common name the Ripclaw. Bahud restrained the sleeping beast with webbing straps while Yan brought the explorer close and they winched the heavy beast into the cage in back.

After a brief rest, the Boys went hunting, looking for signs of Ripclaws in the area. They found sign, alright - followed by a swift, running attack by a pair of angry, hungry carnosaurs! The carnosaurs flashed past, clawing and biting as they ran (nipping Bahud), then turning to make another pass. As they turned, Bahud pitched his frag grenade at them, only to fumble with it and drop it just outside the blast radius. Yan took aim with his grenade rifle... and we ran out of time.

Tune in later this week for more exciting tales. I promise you, my sons are not going to let me rest until they get these dinos!