 January 11, 2009 - 1:15am | I've long considered having an epic work in my setting called, "Legends of the Lost Homeworlds" as well as "Legends of the Lost Worlds" and "Lament for the Lost Hives" in the Vursken translation. which would be a dustly neglected epic detailing the loss of 4 home worlds for four space faring species with chapters devoted to parrallels and alignments in the stories of the loss of these homeworlds much like how stuff seemed to line up between the Lincoln's and Kennedy assassinations. the last chapters have some very mystical overtones hinting at the possible influence of these events by some sort of unknown and powerful progenitor race. This book is not actually that popular as for the most part humans, drals, and yazerians have adopted a very forward looking world view after the trageties their races suffered. For the vursk though the loss of the first hive has impacted the race with a sense of sadness and loss hence their renaming this book the Lament even calling it simply, "The Lament" (the vursk and dralasite homeworlds are two of the plague planets in my setting and a 3rd plague planet is New Earth the first human colony in the frontier which is some times refered to as the 5th home world). The yazerian homeworld was destoyed when its moon's orbit decayed and collided with the planet. The yazerians had seen this coming and this lead to the Great Exodus to the Stars and as a side effect allowed the Family of One rise to power and gain control of Araks, the first yazerian colony in the frontier. the yellow journalism rag sheets of the frontier from time to time carry shallow davinci code and Nostrodamus style predictions and revelations supposedly based off of the "Legends of the ..." or they make claims that a lost original copy has turned up with missing chapters that no one has seen which is false as the original bound monograph is in a special research collection at the Port Loren Public Library. I would use this book as a hook to start a Plague Planet campaign. a rich old vursk has become obsessed with this book and is looking to steal the original he also desires to end his days on the surface of the first hive. so there would be a high speed blockade run into that system or a stealthy sneak in. thats it for that adventure so far plus a very sketchy idea about a mission to recover something form the surface of new earth-maybe the flight computers form the original colony ships that left Old Earth which are in a museum on the surface of New Earth. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 9, 2009 - 7:18am | I think this book idea would work as a treasure hunt adventure hook. Some researcher has hit upon a vague reference or obscure passage in the work concerning a small fleet of refugee ships that fled one of the doomed planets. The fleet disappeared and is presumed lost but this researcher has for years been saying that the ships are out there. Only the yellow journalism rag sheets have given him any press time so that now every one considers him a crack pot. ENTER THE PCs: He comes to them with an artifact and his theory and an offer of equal share for their help. If they look into his background they find out he's a considered a crack pot so they'll have to decide if the artifact is real or fake or if they believe him. The artifact seems to be the real deal but since it was bought at a market like the one on Cappella where everything is for sale its next to impossible to back track the artifacts history beyond that point. The artifact (a ships log or black box or data storage device) would generate information if they could power it up- but its so old it wont mate with standard frontier tech. so its a trip off to the junk yards and antique shops to find the items needed. Looking into the crack pot's background and trying to generate information on the artifact isn't very exciting so theres a need for some opposition: a star law special investigator is looking for the crack pot; Thieves/ gang/ toughs looking to take the obviously valuable artifact. With some difficulty the artifact will generate a hint that the missing fleet made it to an as yet unexplored star but there is not astro infor (make the astrogator work for it). I could see One or 2 of my players would eventually trying to kill the crack pot npc as I'd almost feel compelled to play him as a religious zealot with his religion and zeal focused on his belief that he's ordained to find this lost fleet. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
