Publisher's description:
Vanguard Free Roleplaying (VFR) is a free science-fiction role-playing game about characters in the vanguard of a technologically advanced civilization that is moving into space. The name describes the class of people that we expect most player characters to be. The Vanguard are explorers, inventors, pioneers, leaders, risk-takers, colonists, space-farers; in a word, they are innovators. The Vanguard create new worlds. Instead of clinging to what is comfortable, they reach for a vision of opportunity. So Vanguard is a game about seizing the opportunities and confronting the challenges that arise in a developing interstellar civilization. Thus is a science fiction role-playing game. It also has definite leanings toward "hard" science fiction.
VFR is about 120 pages. Its rules sections include an introduction, character creation, action resolution, combat, and medical rules. Its background sections include a historical timeline, overviews of politics and economics, a short chapter that explains how to play law enforcement campaigns, and descriptions of weapons and equipment.