 June 7, 2009 - 3:06am | Two major points of focus should be addressed: technology and economics. The first key for a pre-history type of game is that it must be lower tech. Not all those nifty gadgets we enjoy in the modern AD/KH settings are going to be available in the earlier days of Frontier exploration. Laser weaponry won't be as advanced (meaning shorter range). Tracking and guidance software won't be as advanced (e.g. lower chance to hit with a torpedo). Computers won't be as advanced, possessing fewer function points per level (re: multiple computers for more advanced settings like a city or massive starship rather than a single LVL:6 computer) and higher level programs taking up more space (re: more fp). And I daresay even the ion drives won't be as efficient, mandating double to quadruple fuel expenditure during a trip wouldn't be out of line (re: 2 to 4 units of fuel consumed for each ADF point expended instead of 1). The referee would ultimately have to decide which items would exist and how effective they would be for something set that far back in time. The other item to touch on is the economy. Stuff isn't going to be priced the same. It wouldn't be out of line to charge half the book value for equipment, but then you would have to adjust the characters' income in a similar fashion (re: 5Cr/level instead of 10). Not to mention "stuff" isn't going to be as universal as there are no Frontier-wide mega-corp businesses in existance in order to effect a universal guideline...specs for an auto pistol from a human world may not be the same as specs for an auto pistol from a vrusk or dralasite world, the human gun might have a higher capacity magazine while the vruskan gun has a longer range. Bursts might be set to 5 rounds instead of ten for the dralasite gun. And a loan for that starship to make the journey to an unknown system or for a fabled first meet & greet? Suffice it to say it's going to be financed at a much higher than the "booming Frontier-wide economy" interest rate of 4% as listed in KH Campaign Book. 15% and a generous down payment wouldn't be out of line...moreso considering the nature of the expedition (a very good chance that the bank will never see the ship again). |
 June 7, 2009 - 8:33am | Wow, this project really excites me. I don't tend to go beyond several years after SWII and have always wondered what happened "before UPF time". +1 Great project! A mix of characters might be unusual. During this time races might "stick to themselves" except on the core worlds as they form societies adjacent to each-other. Getting financed for a ship would mean a great deal to a character or a party. People would have to be more efficient with their resources. Screens might randomly malfunction. ...just some ideas. |
June 7, 2009 - 3:17pm | Back in the day, this project wouldn't have done much for me. But role playing history has taken on a greater appeal lately, and the idea of participating in a few key events in Frontier history can make for some entertaining times. Besides, it gives players a chance to portray ancestors of their current characters...thus further defining the personalities and background of their "modern day" heroes. |
 June 9, 2009 - 5:24am | Bursts might be set to 5 rounds instead of ten I dont think that needs to be technologial "throw-back". At the time SF was produced, there werent too many real world weapons capable of firing controlled bursts. Look at the M16. How long was that in use befor someone came up with the 3-rnd burst? (Late 80's, M16A2) Maybe I am just looking at it wrong. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
June 9, 2009 - 5:46am | I dont think that needs to be technologial "throw-back". At the time SF was produced, there werent too many real world weapons capable of firing controlled bursts. Look at the M16. How long was that in use befor someone came up with the 3-rnd burst? (Late 80's, M16A2) Maybe I am just looking at it wrong. Actually that was an "intergalactic economical" issue, rather than a technological one...seeing as the Frontier has yet to be unified there isn't anything universal yet. Hence the idea that one planet/specie's auto-gun would fire a 5 round burst while another planet/specie's design would fire ten. One design may have a longer barrel (greater range) while another's would have a shorter barrel (shorter range). Lots of variations can be had, depending upon how far you want to expand the realm of your adventure. If you want to centralize your group in one system or planet, you can develope a single set of specs as the equipment would be more centralized or "universal" to that society. In the case of the game I'm working on (Rise of the Mega-Corps), everything takes place in Truane's Star and most of the goods will be universally produced by newly founded Streel, Inc. which has offices on both worlds, and is the victim of an intrusion by soon-to-be-a-megacorp PGC in the form of an established Mining Guild. As players encounter/discover/capture PGC goods, they will be specced differently as they hail from an outside source. Now as far as tech issues go, you could make an earlier model laser pistol cause less damage, or gobble up additional SEUs from the power source, or reduce their effective range. Check out the DOCUMENTS section here, you can see how I tailored the pf100 computers to reflect less technology than the modern day counterparts: http://starfrontiers.us/node/3683 |
June 9, 2009 - 6:29am | Actually that was an "intergalactic economical" issue, rather than a technological one...seeing as the Frontier has yet to be unified there isn't anything universal yet. Hence the idea that one planet/specie's auto-gun would fire a 5 round burst while another planet/specie's design would fire ten. Yep. I am sitting on Tunnel-Vision mode. I was thinking just in terms of one species. Time flies when your having rum. Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time. |
 December 19, 2009 - 9:19am | How Early do we want to go back? I the campain I was working on many years ago, I had the old "Amazing Engine" game "Bug Hunter." I incorporated much of this material to explain how the human race developed before contact was made with the other species. I am in the process of scanning it. More to come. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
December 21, 2009 - 2:53am | Go back as far as you see fit. I thought it might be interesting to explore the friction between Streel and PGC, having Streel in their infancy (not quite megacorp status, re: "Streel, Inc.") falling victim to the much stronger presence of Pan Galactic, who is trying to muscle in on Streel's interplanetary action between Pale and New Pale. |
 May 5, 2015 - 10:27am | I am starting to work on a retro setting... So I will start moving ideas over here for input and use. I know my FTL will not be as great as AD/KH presents and I may divide tech advances/styles up so in the end each race brings new ideas to the Frontier... I may rewrite Volturnus to fit as a pre-frontier adventure and the hornets nest that ultimentyly brings the core 4 and Sathar together (still kicking that one around). I am not married to anu cannon timeline. I need to come up with names for the plague words too "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 6, 2015 - 12:26pm | Welcome to the project. Feel free to start a new document section and forum topic to discuss your work. A rewrite of the Volturnus adventure would certainly help it fit better with the time line published in Zeb's Guide. |
May 6, 2015 - 6:44pm | My thoughts are the Core 4 have had Sather contact, they just do not know it at first... alien ships that don't handshake back, but ignore them. Missing exploration ships... captured or destroyed by Sathar, possible destruction of failed early mining outposts (Sathar Reavers maybe), maybe even some pirate activity was really Sathar. The Sathar at this point are really not interested in the 4's activities, it is 2 things that cause the interest & war in the timeline I am considering... 1) Volturnus right or wrong is clearly perceived as their space by them. Why they hate reptiles who knows but they definitely want the Volturnus population/civilization kept in check. So any Core 4 muster UPF or pre-UPF would probably cause issues latter. 2) Digging around in Tetrarch ruins in Dixon's Star System. I have always felt the Sathar have an issue with this... maybe the place is "sacred", maybe too dangerous for any race to have, maybe they are tasked by some other race in keeping it safe, so like good guard dogs attack... who knows but I really think the Tetrarch Ruins caused action. I suspect the Sathar have bigger problems & have been sending not the best put together fleets, most experienced crews or up to date toys out to deal with Core 4 & Rim races doing what ever it is that made the Sathar take exception. To me this makes more sense than just whole sale their bad so they just kill and bomb planets idea... So I am re-working the Sathar to be intelligent, enigmatic and dangerous based on their actual physiology and AD description... not push over mooks. So when I am done with them I can really attack Volturnus Series, and make changes that work for a real threat but beatable & rework all the background... including Tomar's Horse. Tomar had to name it, so Tomar must have seen it. So I want an explorer bopping around named Tomar, probably a NPC. I am also mulling over the Core 4... Humans have weapons like we have now more or less, cause we like to blow stuff up and shoot things, 3rd best FTL. Drals I have no idea what I want to do with them, yet weapon wise, 2nd best FTL. Vrusk I am thinking chemical weapons are their thing (peroxide guns) and they have the best FTL. Yazis are using old school Yazi hand to hand weapons, worst FTL. Than Bazinga oh heck everyone has the we are not alone Scooby-Doo moment, so land grab by humans with cleaver use of flags (we have a flag, do you have a flag? No. No flag then it's not your planet.) while secretly worrying about those aliens "who say they are friendly, but..." Everyone else does their colonization & exploration with different ideas in mind than the humans it seems. So they go slower as they are not having a knee jerk reaction & already had plans in motion, where as the humans just freak out a bit... Pirates: I have several ideas about these guys, some are just bad people doing bad things for profit... and the question that has to be asked is with whom are they trading their ill gotten goods? Sure you would have a black market in every colony of every race, so sure you could do business, but they get so aggressive everyone says oh we got to put a stop to it, which usually means everyones' colony is getting hit all the time and not seeing any reward through back channels, so for that many colonies to be hit too many times means there had to be an outside sales area... makes the most sense, where they trading with the Rim? with the Sathar? Others are folks kicked out of colonies, why bother with prisons in the early days of colonization? Just kick people off the world... so an outlaw colony or two is very possible, or a gypsy like pirate culture developing. Others are probably the Sathar Reaver idea being kicked around. Oh I will have a big Trade Station in Prenglar for sure. The Humans, Drals, & Vrusk build it together but there is friction of course, but it is neutral space, and the races can trade, move cargo there and then return to their space, gives them all a feeling of security, & allows them to build trust. Humans aren't the only ones a little paranoid.  Also I am going to assign different preferred energy sources, and computer tech... so in the beginning things are not standard outside of their racial groups. Each race will have a preferred currency but the big station will be using Credits and some sort of exchange rate, is the idea. I think the Vrusk & Drals will bring in the idea of Credits as they where already trading. I am going to borrow a unique currency for the Yazi from an old sci-fi book series, humans get GW Dolmars. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
May 7, 2015 - 1:49pm | Pirates: I have several ideas about these guys, some are just bad people doing bad things for profit... and the question that has to be asked is with whom are they trading their ill gotten goods? Sure you would have a black market in every colony of every race, so sure you could do business, but they get so aggressive everyone says oh we got to put a stop to it, which usually means everyones' colony is getting hit all the time and not seeing any reward through back channels, so for that many colonies to be hit too many times means there had to be an outside sales area... makes the most sense, where they trading with the Rim? with the Sathar? As written the pirates triggered the Sathar artifact. I wish I could remember the website, it probably fell off the net by now, but there was one site tht postulated how the Star Devils were working for PGC to thwart Streel's exploration of their homeworld's neighboring star. From a corporate point of view it makes perfect sense, and it melds well with my take of early pre-megacorp happenings that I am exploring in my historic game. |
May 7, 2015 - 4:43pm | Oh yes I agree, so in a round about way PGC causes a bigger war. Oopsy. Found this resource for Pirate ideas: Now it postulates Pirates & Sathar are buddies, I am more inclined all the poking around triggered a response, delayed, but a response... but the site has some good ideas, when I sped read through it. I think I do remember something about that too... New Pale vs Pale is really PGC vs Streel (Quest books New Pale was a PGC planet even), Red Devil vs Streel on Volturnus was also PGC vs Streel... interesting thought as Planets owned by corporations becomes common, that means pirate fleets that are really mercenary/privateer fleets of corporations would be very common... For instance Sir Francis Drake did all the same things "pirates" did under contract of the English Crown for the benefit of the English Crown, thus a privateer, a man of honor, a patriotic, but to the Spanish he was a low down murderous scum pirate outlaw. So in theory it would be easy to have "pirate fleets" that where sponsored by corporations or governments as well as independent contractors hitting everyone. Well Black Markets, individual planets profiting, coorporations profiting, outlaw communities needing supplies, and possibly an alien connection to sell to all equal serious adventure time. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
