Let’s try the Star Frontiers emulation from a third direction.
Update #7 took the original skill names, turned them into wildcard skills, and paid for a short list with the 3× Very Hard tax. That works. A 250-point pilot still brushed 14s, awards had to swell, and raising attributes was the rational buy. It is a different game than the one most people mean when they say “GURPS.”
The last pass tried to keep those Star Frontiers names and price them as ordinary skills. That version fell apart in the gaps. Stealth, Shadowing, Merchant, Streetwise, Driving, Diplomacy — GURPS already has those skills; they are good skills, and pretending Psycho-Social or Technician covers them is how a conversion starts feeling off. Alpha Dawn used ability rolls for a lot of that. GURPS players will not.
So this version does it the GURPS way. Real skill names. Real specialties. Real defaults. We do not buy Light Walk, Typing, or Sumo Wrestling. We print a campaign list and treat it as the whole list for this universe.
If it is not on the list, you do not spend points on it. You use the normal default if that default points to an attribute or something on the list. Or you do not roll.
The point is still a GURPS-normal budget. A competent spacer should cost what a competent GURPS character costs. Fifty-odd skills is enough that 2–3 points a session still have somewhere to go. That was the wall last time: a dozen names and then a sheet that only wanted advantages. This list is short compared with the Basic Set. It is not short compared with a career.
The laws
- This is the buy list. Cinematic chi skills, sport/art combat skills, office hobbies, and the low-tech pile the Frontier will not touch stay in the book and off the sheet.
- Specialties work as written. Guns (Pistol) is not Guns (Rifle). Beam Weapons (Pistol) is not Beam Weapons (Rifle). That is the job Beam Weapons / Gyrojet / Projectile used to do, without inventing a parallel vocabulary.
- Missing skills are not secretly present under a friendlier name. Technician does not mean Driving. Environmental does not mean Stealth in a duct.
- One Expert Skill or Professional Skill per character is the escape hatch for a weird job (belter, xenologist, newscaster). Not a second catalog.
- Techniques still exist on these skills. Familiarities still exist. That is where improvement goes after the rating is already good.
Advantages stay available. This universe’s advantages stay available: Combat Reflexes, High Pain Threshold, G-Experience, 3D Spatial Sense, Rank, Security Clearance, Patron, Reputation, Language, Ally, Signature Gear. Extra Attack and Innate Attack are how you notice you have started a different game.
Shoot
- Beam Weapons (Pistol, Rifle, Projector)
- Guns (Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, SMG, Gyroc, Grenade Launcher, LAW)
- Gunner (Beams, Rockets, Cannon)
- Liquid Projector — only if the module actually issues one
- Throwing
Hit
- Brawling
- Karate
- Judo
- Knife
- Axe/Mace
- Broadsword — put vibroblades here or on Shortsword, not both
- Staff
- Explosives (Demolition; EOD if you are running Star Law)
Move
- Acrobatics
- Climbing
- Stealth
- Free Fall
- Vacc Suit
- Swimming
Drive/Fly
- Driving (Automobile, Hovercraft, Heavy Wheeled, Tracked — only what the table will see)
- Piloting (Aerospace, High-Performance Spacecraft, Low-Performance Spacecraft)
- Spacer
- Navigation (Land, Space, Hyperspace)
- Shiphandling (Spaceship)
Fix/Operate
- Computer Operation
- Computer Programming
- Electronics Operation (Comm, Sensors, Security, Medical, Surveillance)
- Electronics Repair (same specialties, for the person who opens the panel)
- Electrician
- Mechanic (Vehicle, Robot, Starship — pick what exists)
- Armoury (Small Arms; Battlesuit if suits matter)
- Engineer (Electronics, Mechanical, Starship)
Medical/Science
- First Aid
- Physician
- Surgery
- Diagnosis
- Pharmacy
- Biology
- Naturalist
- Survival (by planet type)
- Tracking
- Camouflage
- Geology
- Chemistry
Talk/Interaction
- Diplomacy
- Fast-Talk
- Streetwise
- Merchant
- Leadership
- Intimidation
- Acting
- Savoir-Faire (Military, Police, Corporate)
- Carousing
- Detect Lies
- Interrogation
- Psychology
Public Speaking defaults from Acting or Leadership if you need a speech. It is not a required name.
Notice/Sneak
- Observation
- Search
- Shadowing
- Holdout
- Lockpicking
- Traps
- Smuggling
Job Skills
- Tactics
- Soldier
- Criminology
Strategy stays off unless you are playing the fleet map as a skill game.
What this is not
It is not Alpha Dawn’s thirteen skills. A military specialist will still look like a military specialist. They will also have Stealth, Driving, and a social skill if they paid for them, because those are GURPS skills and this is a GURPS game.
It is not the Basic Set index. Light Walk is not here. Typing is Computer Operation, or it is not a roll. Sumo Wrestling is not here, but Dralasites may do that; if the campaign goes there, rename the skill and have fun. If a published adventure calls for a skill we cut, use the default or the closest skill on this list at the usual penalty.
Spending
Stay at 2–3 character points a session. A 150-point spacer can be good at a job, a gun specialty, Vacc Suit, and still look like a person. After the gun is 16, they buy the other gun specialty, a technique, a familiarity, Mechanic, or Streetwise. That is the wide campaign. You do not need to starve the table of points to make the list last.
Attribute+3 or +4 is a competent expert on the Frontier. Higher is allowed and should look like a reputation, not a quiet 20 on a starting sheet.
When you would still use Update #7
Solo play with a twelve-person crew. A table that has never seen a GURPS specialty. A one-shot where nobody should learn what Gunner (Beams) means. Wildcards are a teaching tool and a solo accounting tool. They aren't required to run Star Frontiers.
For a normal group that already likes GURPS, print the list, use the book, and play.
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