 November 10, 2007 - 6:03pm | To find a way to defeat the Sathar's growing presence the UPF is hiring experienced crews to survey and map star systems adjacent to the Frontier in hopes of finding bases or operations or the Sathar home worlds. |
 November 12, 2007 - 5:44am | That's really really good... the UPF being pro-active instead of waiting for the next Sathar attack. Building infrastructure to resist a potential onslaught is one thing, but actively seeking them out beyond the Frontier is a whole new direction -- one that makes sense to most folks in the Frontier who probably tire of tax money being pumped into an organization that seems more and more unneeded as time goes on. It also builds nationalism (um... frontierism? galaxalism? *shrug*) for a victorious UPF to turn the battle on the offensive. However - are you sure this should all be done through UPF? Isn't one of the foundations of Star Frontiers the ruggedness and inventiveness of private groups and corporate endeavors? Maybe the UPF has offered special interstellar traderoute terriff breaks for those industrious corps willing to explore and chart the regions beyond the known Frontier? This might help keep the Alpha-Dawners happy instead of making it all seem like Knight-Hawks only gaming. (since the poll on the front page o'the site shows greater support for AD/Expanded preferences). Just a thought... perhaps could be offered as an editorial sidenote in the article. 3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our
vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time. |
November 12, 2007 - 1:07pm | Good point. I forget who opened the Zebulon system, and someone open Starmist as well. Gerg, wanna go this route? |
 November 13, 2007 - 10:37am | Lets write it down in the notes and then when it comes to writting out the article/adventure we'll at least have some options. Confucious Says: Man with one chopstick go hungry. Man who eat many prunes get good run for money. Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement. |
 December 17, 2007 - 3:46am | That's really really good... the UPF being pro-active instead of waiting for the next Sathar attack. That is the mainstream of my campaign. The way the KH Campaign Book is laid out, the UPF is barely capable of defending the 27 planets outlined in Alpha Dawn (never mind adding all the new systems from Zeb's) as it stands. Two "task forces" that are stationed in Cassidine and Prenglar, which tactically serves only to protect those two core systems (the "Hub of the Frontier" yadda yadda yadda) and add the roving Strike Force NOVA which patrols the other systems, that's their entire roster. Less than half of the civilized worlds have militias, few have a decent sized fleet of ships to protect themselves while some planets have merely a pair of assault scouts to fend off any invading Sathar Fleets, others don't even have that much (as in no ships). If the Second Sathar War, according to the boardgame layout as described in the KH Campaign Book, went just a tad into the worms' favor they'd literally kick the UPF's collective butt swiftly and efficiently...meaning if the Sathar had a few Zuraqqor ships along for the ride they'd have little trouble wiping out the UPF for good. As it stands, the UPF fights the second war on the sole basis of "acceptable losses", as it barely has a fleet large enough to commit one warship per civilized planet, which of course would result in an immediate defeat to any Sathar Fleet. So the ships are grouped into three fleets, and gamble on intercepting the worm flets before they cause too much damage. Once you realize that the UPF is already outnumbered, becoming proactive is the only method of survival for the Frontier. Because there really is no such thing as an acceptable loss when it comes to protecting entire worlds. It's how my Dominion campaign takes off...a stronger military might enters the scene just as the UPF becomes proactive by calling for much larger fleets, and does the job of overtaking the Frontier before the UPF reaches their full potential. Then this new sovereign authority kicks the Sathars' collective butts when they intrude upon the Frontier for the third time. But back to outer-Frontier maps: However - are you sure this should all be done through UPF? Isn't one of the foundations of Star Frontiers the ruggedness and inventiveness of private groups and corporate endeavors? Definitely. The KH Campaign Book already makes it clear that the UPF will gladly pay 100K for any new star routes. Sooner or later, a Star Devil or other pirate vessel is going to get captured and the astrogator will plea for freedom or even defect (I have such a PC that I portray) by coughing up some travel routes into their secret hideaway systems (re: my Vast Freehold sector that I posted), or one of the captured ships will have a few routes stored in the computer's memory, etc. |
 December 21, 2007 - 12:13pm | The UPF would definitely sponsor independant ships and crews to explore the surrounding systems and bring back the star routes and any intel. The megacorporations, while still conducting their own private operations (Starmist, Alcazzar, etc...), would join up with the UPF endevour -- provided they also gain star route data and access/rights to lucrative resources. The exact mechanism is wide open. But privately owned ships would be the primary exploration arm -- unless the UPF developes a squadron of vessels specifically for that purpose. However, considering their significant lack of vessels, something would have to change with the order of battle for that to occur. |
 May 19, 2008 - 12:17am | One of the things I think that is a possible question to consider is the "flavor" of the expansion. This is a hard question to articulate. Is it a "squeeky clean" exploration, a la Star Trek, going into the middle of nowhere and reporting back? (Often implying huge ships btw ... at least IMO.) Or is it a "rough and tumble" feel, like the feeling from "Westerns", perhaps with short range ships never ranging far out from "civilization"? Or is it something otherwise? Maybe articulating such approaches as possible "tacks" one could taker in presenting the material would be helpful to some beginning GM's? @}-,-`- "It is a joyful thing indeed to hold intimate converse with a man after one’s own heart, chatting without reserve about things of interest or the fleeting topics of the world; but such, alas, are few and far between." – Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), [i]Tsurezure-Gusa (1340) |
May 19, 2008 - 12:57pm | The UPF would definitely sponsor independant ships and crews to explore the surrounding systems and bring back the star routes and any intel. The megacorporations, while still conducting their own private operations (Starmist, Alcazzar, etc...), would join up with the UPF endevour -- provided they also gain star route data and access/rights to lucrative resources. The exact mechanism is wide open. But privately owned ships would be the primary exploration arm -- unless the UPF developes a squadron of vessels specifically for that purpose. However, considering their significant lack of vessels, something would have to change with the order of battle for that to occur. |
