Alpha Dawn - Star Frontiersman

across an open area, they must move straight at a
constant speed until they reach the opposite wall.
Some ships have Velcro strips along the hallways, so
characters wearing special boots can walk normally.
Characters walking this way can move at one-half
their usual walking speed. Characters can move
outside ships or space stations using space suits.
Space suits have magnetic boots so characters can
walk on the metallic surface of the ship or station at
one-half their usual walking speed. Characters can
connect themselves to the ship with a tether, if they
are knocked off the ship they can simply pull
themselves back along the tether.
Combat
In a perfect world, nobody would fight. People
wouldn’t die of blaster wounds, creatures wouldn’t
attack even if provoked accidentally, and robots
would never be programmed with the ability to seek
out intruders and shoot to kill. Fortunately for the
fun of the players, STAR FRONTIERS isn’t such a
perfect world.
The Combat Turn
When the players find themselves in a combat
situation, the referee starts keeping track of time in
combat rounds, or turns. Each turn is
approximately six seconds long, thus there are ten
such turns in a minute.
During his turn, a player’s character can try to do
anything that could normally be accomplished within
six seconds of heart-racing adrenalin-pumping time.
Examples include running, firing at an opponent,
reloading a weapon, take careful aim to improve
your chances of success, dive for cover, or even
multiple actions like dodging and attacking or
attacking with multiple weapons.
Don’t forget, just because your referee is
incrementing time in the form of six-second combat
turns, that doesn’t mean you can’t attempt noncombative
actions, such as swinging on a rope or
leaping a pit, or even working on hacking a security
system while your teammates keep the security bots
busy.
Combat Sequence
The sequence of events in combat is outlined below.
This is the basic form of combat, and situations may
arise which violate the normal flow, depending on
referee fiat. However, in fairness to the players,
referees should only deviate from this sequence
when vital to the story or when situations demand a
change.
COMBAT SEQUENCE TABLE
Combat Sequence
1. Check to see if characters are surprised.
2. Roll for initiative. (Throughout this section,
the side that gets initiative will be called side
A and the side without initiative will be called
side B.)
3. Declare what each character will do. Side B
declares first, so Side A can decide what to do
in relation to the anticipated moves of Side B.
4. Side B moves. Characters on side A may be
able to shoot at opponents who move through
their field of fire.
5. Side A moves. Characters on side B who did
not move may be able to shoot at opponents
who move through their field of fire.
6. Side A resolves any wrestling attempts,
remaining weapon fire, grenade tosses and
melee. Wrestling attempts are resolved
before other types of attacks.
7. Side B resolves any remaining attacks.
SURPRISE
If there is a chance characters will be surprised by
an attack, the referee should let characters make
Intuition checks. The referee must decide which
characters get to make checks. For example, only
the last character in a marching line has a chance to
notice a sneak attack from behind.
If a character fails the check, he does not suspect
anything and will be surprised. When a character or
group is surprised, it automatically loses initiative
for the first turn of combat and can do nothing that
turn except move and take cover.
If a character passes the check, he notices
something unusual: footsteps behind him, a gun
barrel poking around a corner, or anything else
appropriate to the situation. The player must decide
how to react to this information. If he makes a bad
choice, he may still be surprised. For example, a
group of adventurers is driving down a dirt road with
tall grass on both sides. Suddenly, a flock of flying
lizards takes off ahead of the vehicle and flies away.
The characters decide the animals were frightened
by their Explorer and continue driving. Within
moments, a group of rebels hidden in the fields
opens fire on the ATV.
Spotting Distance - When characters have an
encounter, one factor that will affect whether they
can be surprised is how far they can see. A
character standing on flat, level ground can see a
man-sized object up to 1 km away, but can not see
any details about the object. A character can see
details at a distance of about .5 km. Binoculars,
magnigoggles and telescopic sights will multiply
these distances by three. Weather conditions such
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