A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Far Frontiers Border Worlds 1

Far Frontiers Border Worlds 1 by Martin Rait is a role playing game supplement published by FSpace Publications. The supplement is aimed at the publisher’s own FSpaceRPG but is generic enough to work with other systems.

This is available as a PDF from RPGNow at the regular price of $2.540 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.25. The PDF has 24 pages with one page being the front cover, one page the Credits and two pages of ads for other products, updates and an app.

The single page introduction covers how the worlds are described and how to use them. In particular, they are aimed to be used in the Serpenti region of the FSpaceRPG but no details of the systems are given so they can be dropped in other settings.

The next two pages cover the Serpenti Quadrant and give some history. There is a map of the region with the star systems and worlds located on it, together with the area of influence of three stellar polities, one of them being Terran Colonial Space.

Eight worlds are then described. Each world has a one page description of the world itself, habitability (although none are colonised as yet), resources and Terran interest in the world and forces that may be in the region or have previously visited it. This is followed by a one page map of the world in a style that will be familiar to those who have played Traveller and derived systems such as Cepheus Engine.

Finally, there is a one page summary table of the different planets, given details such as size, gravity, hydrosphere, atmosphere and habitability.

Far Frontiers Border Worlds 1 in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks or a table of contents. Despite its comparatively short size, these would have been appreciated. Navigation is fairly poor.

The text maintains a single column format with a coloured border on one side and there are quite a few errors in the text, mostly grammatical in nature (such as using “it’s” instead of “its”). Bar the world maps, cover and border, there is a single illustration that looks like a stock photo. Presentation is fairly decent, and the maps are serviceable if not exceptional.

As mentioned, although this is intended for the FSpaceRPG setting, it is in fact system neutral and could be used with other systems. Using Border Worlds 1 with other settings can be done, although all the descriptions do reference the setting this is aimed at, and none of the worlds have been colonised as such. They could perhaps be used to flesh out systems in more developed settings (such as the official Traveller setting), but the best use is probably the one they are intended for, as border worlds on the edge of an expanding polity.

Far Frontiers Border Worlds 1 does have some flaws but is a decent enough supplement that contains useful material and it can be found by clicking here.