TIME

Galactic Standard Time (GST) is the most popular time system in the Frontier. The GST system uses hours, minutes and seconds. An hour is 60 minutes long, a minute is 60 seconds long. A second is defined as the length of time needed for a beam of light to travel 300,000 km through a vacuum.

One year in Galactic Standard Time is 8,000 hours long. A standard year is divided into 400 20-hour days. Each day is divided into a 1 0-hour work period and a 1 0-hour rest period. These standardized days and years are used mainly for record-keeping.

Besides Galactic Standard Time, many planets have their own local time system. These local systems use GST seconds, minutes and hours, but the length of the day and year varies from planet to planet. The length of a local day is the time it takes for the planet to rotate through one complete day/night cycle. A local day usually is divided into equal periods of light and darkness, although these can vary if the planet's axis is tilted in relation to its orbit. A local year is the length of time the planet takes to make one complete revolution around its star.

Game Turns. A STAR FRONTIERS game turn is six seconds long. There are 10 turns in one minute. The referee should not break the game down into individual turns until the characters get into a fight, a chase or some other situation where a difference of a few meters or a few seconds can be important. When the characters are not under pressure, the referee should ignore game turns. He can either run the game in real time or use his own judgment to decide how much time the characters spend doing something.

THE COST OF LIVING

Instead of keeping track of many small expenses, the referee should assume that characters spend one-half of all the money they earn on food, clothes, rent and other miscellaneous items. This is the same on every planet. Unless there are unusual circumstances, players always will have enough money to pay for these and other mundane items not included on the Equipment List.

The referee can adjust the cost of living to fit the circumstances in the game. For example, if the referee thinks the player characters have too much money, he can raise taxes, raise the price of traveling between planets, declare that a drought is increasing food prices, etc. If the characters are having trouble saving enough money to buy equipment they need, the referee can declare a special tax refund to celebrate a prince's wedding or some similar event.