"Official" timeline

FirstCitizen's picture
FirstCitizen
December 23, 2011 - 8:48pm
Is there an official timeline of the Frontier?

I've been reading a ton of the available information while working on my 'Mystery of Starium' adventure, and cross referencing items.  Working on the adventure setting/timeline I noticed some date differences and was wondering if the SF community recognized an official timeline?

From the Frontier timeline article in sfman #16, p44
Humans Arrive: 143pf  (what earth year did they leave, about 2150ad?)

Cassidine Colonized: 115pf
Dixon's Star route mapped: 80pf

Cassidine is discovered in 249pf in sfman #17, p71
Dixon's Star is colonized in 220pf in sfman #12, p45

So is the Frontier timeline article in sfman #16 the official guideline?
Comments:

Deryn_Rys's picture
Deryn_Rys
December 30, 2011 - 1:29pm
In the Star Frontiers (URS) Project because I reimagined everything for my d20ish conversion I rewrote the timeline to suit the campaign I was creating, which created a backstory of Earth being decimated by a mutagenic plague leading to a dark ages situation which eventually came to an end (this period is covered by my Gamma World Campaign setting) and after some major events Earth is recolonized and after a major war it's forced to submit to rulership by an intersystem government and is renamed Thesius.  From there I reworked the Zebs timeline including moving events around until it made sense in my campaign.

I think that every referee should feel free and should be encouraged to make the campaign background fit the game he wants to play, specially since Star Frontiers was so brilliantly written to be so adaptable to whatever the games players want it to be.
"Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words
"Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words
"You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words
"Did you here that?" -Famous last words

jedion357's picture
jedion357
December 30, 2011 - 3:18pm
@ firstcitizen: ding, ding, ding, I'm not sure but I think you are the first to publicly reference my timeline article. Watch for material in issue 18of that brings the Rim upto the same point in history. Guess I have to get cracking on the Age of Adventure portion of the timeline bringing it up to the start of the 2nd sathar war.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Porthos's picture
Porthos
November 15, 2014 - 9:20pm
I had been more than willing to accept that the humans of Star Frontiers are "not of this Earth" and was indeed preparing to allow for that in my game by giving Star Frontiers what my players call the "Battlestar Galactica treatment" -- rather than have it be the future, I make the events of Star Frontiers contemporary with the modern Earth from my other games (most of which share a timeline).

Then I noticed the following in the System Brief from SF0 -- Crash on Volturnus:

"Named after the Greek god of the southwest wind..."

If the humans who named Volturnus did not come from Earth -- or at least have a tradition that includes Earth -- then they could not have named the planet for a Greek god.

So I am going to work on it some more and see what I can come up with.

AZ_GAMER's picture
AZ_GAMER
November 16, 2014 - 1:12am
There are a lot of inconsistencies in the canon game system when it comes to whether SF is something from our future or parallel evolution. The inclusion of the 2001 and 2010 movie based modules in the game system suggest that either they were just exploiting these stories because they had a hard sci-fi problem solving feel or that they really had trouble themselves reconciling human culture outside of Earth. In my opinion its up to each individual game master / referee to create their own universe and determine the answer to this problem. I don't think we will ever reach a conseus in the SF community for a new "canon" answer as it would only serve to validate some concepts in the game while invalidating others.

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 16, 2014 - 11:03am
Yep the timelines hurts the head... Surprised

I also believe someone posted development notes for the game that explained originally humans came from Earth but then due to RPG fashion they went generic, in the original concept only 1 human colony ship made it to the Frontier the 2nd ship never made it, they where thinking of a ship along the lines of the Warden if I remember right... either way I say do what feels right for your vision of your Frontier Universe.

For me I have decided Old Terra exists, but as to where it fits in timeline wise to SF is very questionable. I have decided the SF Humans are descendants of a colony that survived all the stuff that happened in the old GW timelines. This allows me to draw on GW ideas for background to the SF Humans if I need it, but place them far enough away from GW Space to have only a vague knowledge of what went wrong on Terra. It also allows for other domestic creatures from Terra to exist logically, but that is me. Humans in SF can be equally from a different place per passages already quoted by others.

SF timelines like GW or MA timelines can hurt the head a bit. Use what works for you & junk or move what does not work... there is a wealth of ideas, approaches and game visions in the forums that effect timelines. 

I like ideas in Zeb but they often don't work with what I want so I adjust as needed. As I am not handing out timelines to players I look at them as guidelines for me more than them. 

Pick a start date in SF time for your adventures... that is the real start date, then decide what has happened in SF prior (you can be vague) and what has not happened... for instance if you use Zeb, when are you starting, is it before or after the Blue Plague for instance, that becomes your focal point then to order or reorder and move forward from. Basically pick an event you know you want to either be recent history, or be something Players live through adventure wise and that is what you then build the timeline around, you will diverge from "canon" but you would anyway if you think about it as no two refs are going to be doing the same things, we all tweak ideas presented in the books, modules, sci-fi and various game systems to our needs. 

Remember the first rule: Have Fun! 

Foot in mouth








 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
November 16, 2014 - 7:27pm
I don't own the 2001/2010 modules but I'm guessing it was merely an exploration of using the rules in another setting versus campaign material. Considering how 2001 has successfully put me to sleep after dozens of valiant attempts at watching it, I never really found any interest in playing it.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
November 16, 2014 - 8:47pm
One ship, 10k colonists, 500+ years of aggressive expansion, exploitation, and entrenching... and a little help from the life sciences and state eugenic intervention programs.
Population could be about 10k^5 for just the catastrophe surviving humans on the dozen planets they've scattered across... that would allow for about 8 space-aged maglev-cities of roughly one million (in just human populations alone... not counting the other half dozen races heavily populating most multi-species settled worlds along side the humans of the most populated cosmopolitan settlements) on each planet... and still be conservative (and too evenly distributed) enough to drop in another half dozen megaport-cities across the whole sector at ten times that in population each.

Many discussions on this have been held, but -- recap; it is evidenced that a viable genetic population can start with only a couple dozen, but no sane attempt would be intentionally conducted on less than 500 (about the size of a healthy village or oversized hamlet) and preferably around 10k... the later being the equivalent of dropping a planned city, onto a remote location, with no guarantee of return visits, all in one go.

My numbers go from three colony ships of around 30k each, plus one yazirian planetary exodus of around 10million a bit late to the negotiations (many more yazi launch into the deadly fires of the space wars than any other... and similarly to the vrusk, they have their own reserved planets in a sizable exclusionary zone... so some balance is maintained...) to a total reckoned Sector Consensus very roughly between 80^12 and 8^18 after all cataloged sentients are guesstimated, P.F./Fy 1.
That is; by the time the federal establishment is in full force 800 years after the grandly celebrated historical First Contact (Dralisite-Vrusk) and the initial plans for mutual trade and colonization (before humans, or even yazi, were discovered) far too many individuals (organic, clone, unspecified, synthetic, and mechanical) for public records to actually account for have been included into the various communities in a variety of capacities and recognition... and the exact numbers are largely dependent on the prejudices of the local census bureau about the constitute declaration of sentient populations, and their importance to the jurisdictional colonial and civic charter.
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

jedion357's picture
jedion357
November 17, 2014 - 12:21am
I'm a proponent of humans are colonist from Earth but with the caveat of Earth is  not in contact with the Frontier (that is an important point) as it give you access to Mythology, literature and historic references that would not make sense if humanity did not originate on Earth. It does insignificant violence to the SF setting.

I would also contend that you need multiple colony ships that arrive at White Light and Theseus and Triskar at about the same time. The cannon setting (sans Zebulon's G) suggests that White Light has been colonized for 900 years and that Triskar was originally colonized by humans from Clarion. Theseus with a High pop rating should have a colonization date similar to Clarion.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 17, 2014 - 5:55am
The colonization dates per Zebs makes little sense to me if only one ship arrived for Humans. (Multiple ships work out better.)  

And all race in colonization ships to meet near a perfectly good planet and no one notices a nice planet & set up colony ASAP? They just all go back to their ships and twiddle the fingers? 

I have begun to think maybe everyone already was going to colonize & had actually headed out to do that... got to where ever they where going in the Frontier, set up at least 1 colony and then had the "um we are not alone" discovery? Then they chatted & agreed to meet.  


One more thought "19-8PF The area beyond the Greater Morass claims hundreds of exploration vessels. Though it is believed that most Frontier races came from beyond the Greater Moras, all information about their origins have been lost. Exploration of the area ceases and it is named the Vast Expanse."... note the word "believed" and only about 300 or less years has passed between contact? No one is 100% sure where their HWs are? I know this has been debated, but what if they all ended up in the Frontier by accident? Colony ships that went off course? What are the odds 3 races would pop out in the same area of space by accident... just saying that how did the information get lost for ever? I think this is intriguing...  
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 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
November 17, 2014 - 3:42pm
If there was a colony fleet from Earth and the void effect had not been known and they accidently entered the void without understanding the effect they could end up 100s or 1000s of LY from Earth. I used this for my timeline project (SFman #?) The ships began their programed decel and awok command crew from sleeper berths. They werecould unfortunately out inthe the black with limited fuel. One ship captain deduced the nature of what happened and worked out how to use the void effect in a controlled jump to reach a system a dozen LY away. The implimentation of his planned was not quite as precise as it could have been and 6 ships arrived at Theseus, 4 at White Light, 1 at the planet in the Dark Side of the Moon mod and the 12th was never heard from again. This gives you a start on growing two of the three heavy population human colonies. They are initially out of contact but both work together to establish the farming colonies on Lossend and at Madderly's Star to support their aggriculture poor planets.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 17, 2014 - 5:38pm
See that makes more sense... one of the things that bugs me is the colonization plan in Zebs is absolutely not what sentient technologically advanced races would do, rush out to the middle of no where to meet other races. No everyone on a planned expedition would send probes first (just like we do today) and have a destination they felt good about as a base of operations/colony, before meeting at a neutral location. Not zip on out there and then go snaps we need a place to live guys... so sense it looks like everyone had to go scavenger hunting for new homes my guess is none of the races expected to be in the Frontier...

A technology issue, jump engine issues like you suggest or, sabotage of computers, or MAAO's scenario where The Morden's AI simply abducts people, animals, plants & supplies from Old Terra/GW and jumps away... to where no one knows but away from alien invasion fleet. All that makes some sort of logical sense for Humans trying to do the  "recalculating" of what happened.

A Natural Phenomenon that caused a colony fleet to get lost.

An ancient piece of defense technology? Say a race found a nice spot (probe said it was okay) but when they showed up with their fleet the ancient super science gizmo gets activated and propelled them to the Frontier... oops on triggering automated non lethal defense system.

Anyhow if everyone was Lost In Space that makes more sense to me. If everyone ended up in an unknown Galaxy to boot, there would probably be even less chance of getting back to HWs.


 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Stormcrow's picture
Stormcrow
November 18, 2014 - 9:19am
I don't like explanations that tell us everyone has the same or similar origins that somehow cut them off from their home worlds. It seems far too contrived.

The Frontier Sector is obviously only ONE sector in the galaxy, the one where the four spacefaring races met. They must have come from their own worlds, and there's no good reason why those worlds shouldn't be there, off the edges of the map. And even worse, there's no good reason why those worlds shouldn't be expanding into their own sectors.

So unless you can convince your players to stay in the Frontier as a matter of convenience, you're really obliged to start detailing those other sectors. You need to account for them if you start the Second Sathar War. They're going to be economically and militarily powerful. Either that, or you need to pick Frontier systems that are really the races' home worlds (e.g., Theseus for humans).

The matter of home worlds has always been a thorn in the game's side.