 December 31, 2020 - 7:01pm | Was reviewing and editing my article on Scree Fron, which is a review and extrapolation of all the cannon material on Scree Fron. What got me jazed was the part about a Ravenloft like adventure set at a yazirian monastery on Histran where an evil Mechanon and a sathar co-conspirator have invaded the monastery turned the monks into slave bots. The sathar might have brought along some other stuff- the fruit of sathar bio-engineering whether classic stuff or the 10 altared frontier creatures from the back of Sundown on Starmist- most of which funciton as traps. And then I suddenly remembered these maps for this image are available for use:  So we have a couple of big bads: 1 mechanon & 1 sathar plus a 1/2 to full dozen of slave bots and other sathar creatures or organisms. and a map. I'm thinking to cast the sathar in the vampiric role and the mechanon in the Frankenstien role. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 31, 2020 - 10:19pm | thinking about the ravenloft inspiration- The monastery is built into a rock formation called Rivencrag. PCs are invited to visit this monastery because it said to have the best gliding. They meet in a bar in Iko's Landing. Iko's Landing is the civilian entry point to Histran, pretty much how you access the remote areas. in the bar or just in the settlement is an old yazirian woman/gypsy fortune teller who offers to read the PCs fortune [fortune can be diced for on tables]. I believe something like this has been a feature in one of the version of the Ravenloft module. Iko's Landing doesn't have a PGC showroom so there is no rental service but the PCs can try to rent the personal hovercar from an NPC who will drive a hard bargin- role play encounter. Renting a car shortens the trip to a day. Overland travel to the monastery. Perhaps the fortune teller yazirian crone meets the PCs on the way and offers foreshadowing and fortunes? The monastery is a bit of a mini dungeon crawl. Frankie Stien the evil mechanon should have an early brush with the PCs before the final show down. That is of couse if the PCs decide to dungeon crawl the monastery. sathar is probably using a holo screen. the sathar holoscreen in Villians of Volturnus is actually more capable than the one in AD. He should present as an urban mad scientist "under the control of the mechanon" Of course later the PCs learn he's the big bad. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 1, 2021 - 8:19am | Musings on a yazirian fortune tiles- note not cards. Yazirians had "bones" like humans for telling fortunes in the great black of the past. Fortune bones evolved into carved bones and eventually carved tiles of first of bone, then wood and stone. In the modern frontier they are made of synthetic materials much like the pieces of the human game dominoes or Mahjong. The suits and the "trump" tiles evolved over time The tiles have been used for games and for fortune telling, for omens, for deciding who would speak first at an important meeting (peace negotiations during clan war and etc.) Musing on suits and individual tiles: Trees, rocks, water, air? Tree of Life, Tree of spirits (death), Clan War, The Hirkal (from other fan fiction- a haunting spirit), The Kah'dan (sword), the zamra (throwing disk), The Litter Mates, The Lovers, The Betrayal, Life Enemy. 4 suits numbered 1-10 and 10 "trump" tiles. One modern wrinkle: traditionally the tiles were held in a bag and you reached in an drew one but some individuals became adept at feeling the carving on the tile and could tell what the tile was before drawing it from the bag. Because of this if you went into a Star Play casino to play a yazirian game of chance there would be a device with a hopper that the tiles were dumped into and they would be funneled down randomly into a track like a deck of cards. at the bottom of this track one tile at a time could be drawn thus ensuring randomness and no forcing of a result by any participant. Naturally old school fortune tellers decry this device as devoid of spirit. roll 1d5 to determine which of the 5 suits (treat trump tiles as a suite) and 1d10 to determine which tile. choose 3 tiles discard duplicate results as there is only one of each in a bag. 3 differnet (of regular suits): confused or obscure fortune, neither good nor bad 2 the same and one different of regular suites: seemingly positive result, a safe fortune that could be interpreted many ways 3 the same of regular suits: strong fortune, 2 different and one trump tile: fortune directed by the trump tile as the two regular suits cancel each other out. although certain trump tiles lean toward one of the regular suits like the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Spirit with the suit of trees. the Hirkal with the suit of air, 2 the same suit with a trump tile- major mojo two trump tiles together: serious mojo I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
