 December 1, 2013 - 2:09pm | This topic has been something I've thought about for awhile. I was excited to discover a first contact module from the Space Opera RPG of the early 80's. However I just had a "duh" moment when I realized that Star Frontiers has potentially done first contact more than any other system. Volturnus Campaign 1. Ul-mor- first contact happens in terms of the PCs desperately needing help 2. Kurabung- first contact happens in terms of the PCs have a chance to help out the desperate primates 3. edestakai- first contact happens in terms of PCs are in possession of vital information about how this primitive race has been taken advantage of and is in need of securing their help with the PC's mission and goals. 4. Eorna- hidden advanced race that has its own goals and objectives help must be secured as it turns out if they dont work together everyone will die. Bugs in the System module first contact is with alien intelligence that has invaded the station's computers network Mission to Alcazzar Another first contact with a primitive ape species that lays an ambush for the PCs Beyond the Frontier Campaign two first contacts one of which is with an advanced space faring species Magazine encounters: Layover at Lossend- first contact is with a primitive ape species that worships the PC's crashed air car as a sky chariot of the gods and the PCs who paraglided out of it before the crash are thought to be gods. Encounter is underdeveloped but has some potential for humor I would think. The Zethra- new race is presented in such a way that a game master is encouraged to have the PCs be the first to encounter one. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 1, 2013 - 8:20pm | Saurian first contact...I heard several but, PCs receive a coded message and go to the next system to see Saurians fighting Sathar. Mhemne was good - a probe comes to the PCs with a coded map. They go there and meet them. Language was a barrier there. |
 December 1, 2013 - 9:40pm | Don't forget first contact with the Mechanons, Heliopes & Notui. What is Layover on Lossend? I don't know that one. What Dragon issue is it from? |
December 2, 2013 - 3:41am | Forgot the Mechanons and couldn't remember the name of the notui. Layover at Lossend is a Ares, Polyhedron or Dragon article-probably Ares or Polyhedron it introduced yet another primitive ape man to the setting. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2013 - 12:44pm | In fact you might say that the writers of the Star Frontiers modules got into a rut and took a page from Star Trek with the "forehead of the week" syndrome. Except, in Star Frontiers it was: primitive of the week. This was similar to the Iron Crown MERP modules which were stunningly gorgeous if you were a fan of Middle Earth but invaribably had a spell caster as the ultimate boss encounter at the end of every module except Bree and the Barrow Downs. This was a symptom of the setting in that it was a classic fantasy setting but lacked the broad monster manual of D&D. When Star Frontiers was coming out STar Trek was heavily into syndication reruns and perhaps this was a major influence? Merp would have done well to develop more political intrigue in its modules and Star Frontiers would have done well to develop more corporate intrigue or even intrigue involving the plethora of cadres available. Saddly both RPG properties were killed by an evil money grubbing overlord. All of this does not change the fact that I'm still interested in the challenge of writing a first contact adventure where the challenge is establishing peace contact. I feel like I've not seen it done really well yet. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 2, 2013 - 1:58pm | There are alot of possibilities for first contact. Stumble upon planet---Volturnus did this alot Electronic---Finding of radio/video/subspace transmissions Relic---either ruins, buildings, derelic ship Ship to ship---kinda explains itself After indepth study---kinda explains itself The one thing that is not really hit upon in the scenarios. The goals of race encountered are not usually thought of. It is usually "hey nice to meet you let's set up a trade relationship" Two exceptions would be the Sathar who just want to shot everyone and the Family of One who could be interested in converting everyone if you played them that way. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 2, 2013 - 8:05pm | Jedion357 said: [both RPG properties were killed by an evil money grubbing overlord.] LOL! Seriously, though - you are totally right about how they seemed to run out of ideas, because someone somewhere stopped caring & they stopped putting in any real effort to make it a quality product. TSR repeated the same scenario again later with Alternity. Great idea, but killed before its time by an "evil money-grubbing overlord". Now, back to the topic - I really like the idea of first contact scenarios. I had a lot of fun doing that in the Volturnus module series, and it is one of the main things I enjoy about reading science fiction. Star Trek does it well sometimes (I'm thinking of the "Darmok" episode here), and I would love to see more of it in Star Frontiers. The only thing is, are we are talking about introducing yet another intelligent alien species to the setting? |
December 2, 2013 - 9:35pm | Darmok went against the Star Trek grain for a couple reasons. One the race wasn't first contact they had known of them for a while but could not communicate with them. Two the Star Fleet people didn't figure it out and it took the Darmok Captain taking matters into his own hands. You would need a puzzle loving group of players to pull that kinda first contact off. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 December 2, 2013 - 10:21pm | We can have first contact and avoid introducing yet another alien species if we pull both electronic and relic from Rattraveller's list. Make the scenario the reactivation of some ancient communication device where the PCs get to talk to some ancient race that long ago moved away. Now the PCs have to work through how much information do they give the unknown entity on the other side of the line? What are their motives for leaving behind a connection to their old stomping grounds? Are they good ancients or bad ancients? This could then playout as a story line that covers the lives of several generations of the PCs. The aliens don't ever have to show up in person. Hey, this gives me an idea for why vrusk, dralasites, and humans don't have a home world. Maybe they were decoyed to the frontier by an alien race? What they thought were transmissions from each other near by were actually from far reaches of the galaxy and the ancients were making the communications appear near by. Then when the colonists came they messed with the ships in the void to take them to the frontier. OK, Twilight Zone mode over. Ignore the idea and stick the the thread at hand. I like the idea of first contact but I too feel that there are enough races in te frontier. If I were budgeting the number of first contact events in the timeline I would make them every 50 years or so given continued expansion of the frontier. In times when the exploration tapers off the contacts would cease. Think of it as something like 1 in 10 new systems having a sapient race and then make them run the gammot of tech levels. -iggy |
December 3, 2013 - 5:17am | Well we dont have to introduce a new race but rather use an existing one like the notui, could even write the first contact between humans and vrusk and dralasites. I even have a name for that adventure: Star Frontiers, First Contact Could even re write the rather thin Layover at Lossend encounter though this is advance PCs meeting primitives. First contact with an advanced race allows for agendas that have to be dealt with whereas with primitives do you really HAVE to care about their agenda when you can blow them away with your laser if you wanted to? Hurdles to effective first contact 1. communicaiton - tough to play learning the language plus we have the polyvox that eventually puzzles the language out for you. 2. cultural differences that can be land mines "sitting before the great pooba sits is a terrible insult and the offender must fight the champion to the death" etc. 3. agendas what do they want? what do you want? and where do the two overlap. I feel like I'm revisiting my brainstorm on diplomatic based adventures. Which of course is what first contact is in a way. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 6, 2013 - 12:30am | I read one article that a team is sent to an asteroid and crashes and needs to scavenge a part. On the planet is a new race - kind of like predators ~ there for a rite of passage/hunting expedition. This is an idea for a first contact. It even allowed for the PCs to get aboard their ship - steal the part they need and search their nav computers for reverse trajectory back to their home world. Now the last part you can cut out but, you can interject a race in a one-shot idea. I'm thinking about putting in one of the "old ruins" a race called Ixtls from A.E. Van Vogh. They are 2 or 3 and in storage and are revived. They need a host to multiply - good one uses animals and bad ones use other races. Planet of Origin:
Unknown but presumably destroyed for a long time. |
December 7, 2013 - 12:38pm | I suppose a classic "Predator" scenario is first contact and quite obviously not very friendly. [Absolutely loved both of the first two Predator movies]. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 7, 2013 - 11:58pm | Well look at the Alien vs Predators - the one in the South Pole. That was a first contact and the lady did not die. |
December 9, 2013 - 5:18am | Technically the Alien vs Predator was not a first contact. The Predator race had obviously been here before and humans had agreed to work with them. Also saw this in Stargate. While some of the races were First Contact others were previous contacts finally revealing their true nature to humans. Of course Battlestar Galactica ended up being one long recontact once they found their previous homeworlds. The recontact scenario could be useful in SF. 1) The Sathar might actually be attacking because of a previous contact with some of the Frontier races. Maybe the Yazirians actually fled because of the Sathar but never bothered to mention it to the other Frontier races. 2) Are the Tetrachs still out there? What do they know of the Frontier races and what rituals are they waiting to perform on the Frontier? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 9, 2013 - 6:24am | Technically the Alien vs Predator was not a first contact. The Predator race had obviously been here before and humans had agreed to work with them. Also saw this in Stargate. While some of the races were First Contact others were previous contacts finally revealing their true nature to humans. Of course Battlestar Galactica ended up being one long recontact once they found their previous homeworlds.
Any Frontier race could have had an expedition that triggered this since none of the four have their homeworld in the Frontier. Also the eorna are supposed to have sent out exploration ships then the sathar showed up afterward so this might be an old script with the sathar that at some time in their past first contact occured then was followed by an attack and the sathar have a very black and white approach to this meaning that they have one response to first contact. Since the Day of Doom for the eorna happened 900 years ago and the sathar have been active interstellar explorers for a millenium and since this area of space seems to produce a space faring sapient species every other planet we should assume the sathar have encountered several sapient species in that millenium. Thus this response by them has had time to become hardwired in them.
The recontact scenario could be useful in SF. 1) The Sathar might actually be attacking because of a previous contact with some of the Frontier races. Maybe the Yazirians actually fled because of the Sathar but never bothered to mention it to the other Frontier races. 2) Are the Tetrachs still out there? What do they know of the Frontier races and what rituals are they waiting to perform on the Frontier? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 15, 2013 - 1:28am | OK, I finally got my hands on the Star Frontiers adventures in Polyhedron, Ambush on Lossend & Layover on Lossend. Pretty thin, as you say, Jedion. The Wypong are just spear-wielding apemen, not much different than the Lokkuku. The potential for an exciting first contact scenario there is not very promising, although I suppose a good game master can make something of it with a little work. However, in issue 9 of Polyhedron, I did find the seed of a more interesting adventure. Pirates had captured an Ul-Mor (and Loper) from Volturnus, intending to sell it as a curiosity. Instead, they just dumped it on Laco and left it to fend for itself. The PC (someone doing a survey on Laco) runs into it. Depending on how you play it, and when you decide it happens in the timeline, it has some great potential for bigger things. |
December 15, 2013 - 4:27am | OK, I finally got my hands on the Star Frontiers adventures in Polyhedron, Ambush on Lossend & Layover on Lossend. Pretty thin, as you say, Jedion. The Wypong are just spear-wielding apemen, not much different than the Lokkuku. The potential for an exciting first contact scenario there is not very promising, although I suppose a good game master can make something of it with a little work. However, in issue 9 of Polyhedron, I did find the seed of a more interesting adventure. Pirates had captured an Ul-Mor (and Loper) from Volturnus, intending to sell it as a curiosity. Instead, they just dumped it on Laco and left it to fend for itself. The PC (someone doing a survey on Laco) runs into it. Depending on how you play it, and when you decide it happens in the timeline, it has some great potential for bigger things. That is one of the more interesting encounters TSR produced but then it also was written by Zeb Cook. As far as i know its the only thing he ever wrote for the the game after TSR took the rules away from him and L.S. and did a complete rewrite. When I cornered him for an interview my last question was if he'd consider writing something new for the game to publish in the SFman. His answer was we'll see but I sort of read between the lines and got a "no" so I didn't include that question in the interview that was published. Lawarence Schick's original notes from Alien Worlds and the notes for the game development he continued in his local table top group were lost to him after a divorce as rumor has it. (I suspect it was one of those even splits where she got the inside of the house and he got the outside side of the house). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 15, 2013 - 7:23am | The Lacos/Ulmor encounter could DEFINITELY be a good first encounter! |
December 15, 2013 - 1:36pm | The Lacos/Ulmor encounter could DEFINITELY be a good first encounter! That's a tough call, my feeling is that it was written as "that's odd, there is an ul-mor and his loper on Lacco but they're from Volturnus, wonder how he got here?" So it would be a post Volturnus campaign encounter but could equally be a pre one but no one will know where he's from. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 16, 2013 - 7:17am | Ahhh, but that is the point of a first encounter. Let's say it is pre-Volturnus. The PCs meet him and have these questions they seek to answer. Then, they go on the Volturnus campaign and find some answers! |
December 16, 2013 - 7:43pm | Ahhh, but that is the point of a first encounter. Let's say it is pre-Volturnus. The PCs meet him and have these questions they seek to answer. That changes the set up for Volturnus but lets say that the ul-mor has a crystal dangling around his neck, something that is off the charts intriguing? Something that could make the PCs fabulously weathly...Then, they go on the Volturnus campaign and find some answers! Funny, I had envisioned prequells to Volturnus but not starting on Laco. Though starting with Zeb Cook's encounter is different. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 22, 2013 - 6:08pm | Sad part about Volturnus is this... Your PCs are not making First Contact....The Original Team of NPCs got to do that with the Ul-Mor. The Star Devil Pirates gang already did that with the Kurabanda... violently i might add. On top of that the Star Devil gang also enslaved the Edestekai. This is before the Player Characters ever reach the planet. So your PCs are really making Second contact. Its only the fact that these races are intelligent that allows the players to make alliance with them. If they were stupid they would view all the Core Four as hostile. Lukily The module is written to allow the Primitives to distinguish between the PCs and the bad guys. I wonder if anyone has ever written an adventure module where the PCs are automatically assumed to be with the baddies, simply because they look like the actual baddies. The bombing starts in five minutes. |
