Currious about Tetrachs

jedion357

June 21, 2009 - 7:03am

just call me the guy who sits around thinking up threads to start- but I do spend a lot of time thinking about the game!

1. Has anyone done much with the Tetrarchs? If so what?

Besides the Zebs comments, a Polygon #9 article from Dave Cook tells us that "Laco, poor in resources, has only one feature of interest: a huge deserted Tetrarch city" and it seems PGC, at least after Laco's war is in charge of the excavation. http://www.starfrontiers.com/rules/Polyhedron/encounters.jpg

The article implies that the city is still standing though with the Zebs time line listing for the tetrarchs I would expect entropy to have taken its toll and for the city to be ruins

2. Anyone want to propose ideas as to what the ruins should look like? I'm asking about a general feel for the ruins as we all know when we're looking at Greek and Roman ruins or Egyptian ruins- each has its own flavor. Personally I dont want to use greek looking collumns from a wedding cake in my games.

3. I'm always tempted to go the progenitor route with the Tetrarchs and make their big secret that they originally seeded intelligence into a multitude of species on a multitude of planets throughout the galaxy (or at least this portion of it) as an explanation of all the multitude of races (including the sathar).

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Ascent

June 21, 2009 - 7:40am

There are 3 articles in the Starfrontiersman mentioning the tetrarchs:

Issue #4: Adventure!: Temple Raiders, p.36
Issue #7: The Tetrarchs, p.35
Issue #8: Planetary Brief: Dinosaur Planet, Torrent, p.11

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jedion357

June 21, 2009 - 7:45am

To answer my own questions:

1. I've ignored the Tetrarch till now

2. Concerning ruins of their city I feel these questions should be answered 1st:
     A. what was their pallete of building materials? I want to go crystal type materials but it seems cliche with the eorna on Volturnus.
     B. What were the dominate archetectural styles? I like some of these shapes which also come in free paper models: http://www.korthalsaltes.com/
specifically the twisted rectangular prism, most anti prisms, the twisted pyramids, the compound of two truncated asymetric pyramids, as well as compound of two asymetric pyramids (sorry the site won't let me do direct links)
     C. What level of technology did they reach and what remains of that are there?
         Will their be remains of their space industry? launch facilities? Libraries? Monuments?
         Homes?

The polygon article tells us the city lies close to a ridge in a hot arid waste land and the human explorer had to fight off some dangerous animals. Though by and large most life clings to the shores of Laco's seas.
So I would avoid an "Ankor Wat" ruins in the jungle look and maybe go with something like this:
http://www.thongtinnhatban.net/photo/data/504/Kasbah_Ruins_Ait_Benhaddou_Morocco.jpg
http://www.farhorizons.com/turkey/images-turkey-greece/Knidos-ruins_lg.jpg
http://robertdfeinman.com/arizona_new_mexico/arizona_horz/images/canyon_de_chelly_ruins.jpg

though a deep valley rivalling Death Valley in harsh conditions with sand dunes and little water surrounded by high ridges would work for me.

I suppose since Laco's World is the site of the 1st corp war and if the Tetrarch city is the only real point of interest here then as per the Zebs outline of a corporate war the ruined city would be the area of 'interest conflict' between Streel and PGC. So I'd guess we could include some ruined base camps and burnt out wrecks of vehicles that bought it during the corporate war. Maybe even some grave sites of mercenaries.

Now that i mention grave sites it make me imagine some tetrarch tech that gets activated that re-animates the mercenaries' corpses for a SF zombiesk adventure.

EDIT: its been awhile since I read those issues thanks ascent I'll have to break those out and add them to the bathroom literature.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Ascent

June 21, 2009 - 8:42am

You're welcome.

I think your first image is too close to an Anchor Wat style, and no mention is made in your citation of it being attached to a cliff face which would most cerainly be an outstanding feature worth mention. Given the mystery surrounding the Tetrarchs, I'd go with something similar to the second image.

I like how well you thought out the presence of the Laco's War playing out there. Good thought.

If you include ancient tech, I suggest making it of uncertain origin (in otherwords, no way to confirm that it is Tetrarch, but that it being of Tetrarch origin is possible) in order to maintain a certain amount of continuity. The idea behind the The Tetrarchs article is that any evidence found of Tetrarch technology, racial description, and culture is speculative. A mystery for the ages. But again, that is just a suggestion. Do as you prefer. In the past, people haven't taken too well to my suggestions to maintain some amount of continuity or merging of ideas even though I made it clear that they were just suggestions.

jedion357

June 21, 2009 - 1:43pm

Being a fan of Harry Turtledove's alternate history novels and short stories I see the value of alternate history adventures too like Shadow's Volturnus Pirate campaign. That twist would also work with Dramune Run as well.

Yet I feel that its better to start with the canon & semi-canon material first and try to maintain the continuity- not neccessarily slavishly but if possible it should be maintained for the simple reason of broadest appeal- if you divate with material to conform it to the individualized setting of say Shadow's campaign setting then its only appeal is to those who play in his setting or who want to copy his ideas.
Using the canon as the base we can all branch out and modify stuff for our own use but keeping the broadest appeal is just good sense.

I deffinetly agree with the point of ancient tech of uncertain origin and mystery for the ages. if for no other reason I can bring it back and play with it again cause we dont really know what it was anyway.
And it keeps the continuity thing allowing any other GM twist it to fit their ideas.

EDIT: I dont really need to answer the big questions about the Tetrarchs per se; I'm just kicking ideas around about the setting of the abandoned city seeing as how its semi-canon and it has so much potential-
Throw in Laco's War, weird ancient tech re-animating the war dead (thankyou The Keep and Ghost of Mars for inspiration) and some other stuff and you got a campaign with an almost exploring ancient egypt feel- how cool is that?

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Ascent

June 21, 2009 - 2:08pm

I suggest putting in a pseudo-scientific explanation for their reanimation to keep it in the science fiction range. I love zombie stories.

Shadow Shack

June 21, 2009 - 3:14pm

For starters, look no further than the root meaning of the word:

TETRARCHY - a government by four persons ruling jointly

(that's about all the effort I've put into it myself LOL)

I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why.

My SF website

jedion357

June 21, 2009 - 11:54pm

Ascent wrote:

I suggest putting in a pseudo-scientific explanation for their reanimation to keep it in the science fiction range. I love zombie stories.

oh absolutely

in the book The Keep ( I never saw the movie) the dead germans where animated by the evil whatever to dig to uncover the talisman that kept him imprisoned in the keep. I hadn't come up with anything yet but if nothing else presents then it could be robotic worms that crawl in through the ears.

EDIT: In fact a close exam by the PCs and a successful determine robot level would reveal quite a bit that would suggest that they "are not in Kansas anymore!"
@ shadow: thanks for supplying the def. I had not got around to looking it up but it suggest a core 4 sort of leadership among the Tetrarchs hmmmm....
Further research reveals that Laco's war is the longest corporate war on record: 10 years, 235,000 dead, 367,000 wounded, 170 trill-credits in equipment lost the prize had to be rich indeed which suggest the tetrarch city and its potential value in new tech and prestige.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Rum Rogue

June 22, 2009 - 5:13am

jedion357 wrote:

I hadn't come up with anything yet but if nothing else presents then it could be robotic worms that crawl in through the ears.

EDIT: In fact a close exam by the PCs and a successful determine robot level would reveal quite a bit that would suggest that they "are not in Kansas anymore!"

I have been playing Mass Effect recently, and in there a robotic species has a way to reanimate organics. If this link comes through properly, here is a screenshot of one. http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/718963/mass-effect/images/mass-effect-20070711012325798.html

Here is a description and another pic of the "synthetic zombies" aka Husks. http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Husk

The game also has a precurrsor race called Protheans, and towards the end you manage to find their last stronghold/city. Its all overgrown and tumbling down, but I found it to be rather impressive. Will see if I can find some screeshots later. if not, then I will post some when I get to that area in the game.

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Ascent

June 22, 2009 - 8:37am

I was thinking nanites that reconstruct the proteins necessary to reanimate dead cells, but it doesn't fully restore the bodies to full health, but it simply reanimates the tissues as is and sets up a matrix in the brain that seeks out food to maintain the process.

jedion357

June 22, 2009 - 10:21am

Ascent wrote:

... and sets up a matrix in the brain that seeks out food to maintain the process.

that sounds ominous.

And in light of the uproar over the fighting in Iraq I think people would have been screeming for UPF intervention long before the death toll in Laco's War reached 200,000 so this sort of thing representing an unkown and mysterious power/ player in the midst of a war by two other powers/players (Streel & PGC) could get quickly out of hand. and drive the death toll up markedly. Then a 4th player- the UPF navy and land fleet would get involved and Star Law will have already been functioning under the surface so they'd be a 5th player in the larger scheme of the campaign oh yeah and the local militia would be a weak 6th player. Once the husk nanite zhombies reach a point of critical mass there'd be all hell to try to stop them and even though all the players involved would certainly agree to work together to halt them each of these power/ players would be totally looking to gain approprate samples of the nanite- zhombie tech and would do anything to do so including betraying allies.

this could be a heck of a blood bath. and we haven't even gotten to sathar agents or the sathar themselves
and we have a back drop of a mysterious city in ruins which should feature prominently.

@ Ascent: Nanites are good but some reading turned up DNA machines and Nubots: Nucleic Acid Robots which could work as well as nanites and are kind of scary in that all they need is pieces of your own DNA to re-create themselves plus their new and shiny and not a sci-fi staple like nanites so would fit a mysterious races tech capability.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Rum Rogue

June 22, 2009 - 10:17am

Ascent wrote:

Which would be creapier?
A: Zombie Vrusk
B: Zombie Dralasite

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Ascent

June 22, 2009 - 11:56am

Ohhhhh. Dang. Zombie Dralasites. That would be wicked awesome. Their porous and stretchy corpses would be like a cross between a grotesque gray ooze and a shambling mound. That rocks.

jedion357 wrote:

@ Ascent: Nanites are good but some reading turned up DNA machines and Nubots: Nucleic Acid Robots which could work as well as nanites and are kind of scary in that all they need is pieces of your own DNA to re-create themselves plus their new and shiny and not a sci-fi staple like nanites so would fit a mysterious races tech capability.

Works for me.

[Wow. I just had a "Hunter" flashback

]

Rum Rogue

June 22, 2009 - 11:59am

Ascent wrote:

Ohhhhh. Dang. Zombie Dralasites. That would be wicked awesome. Their porous and stretchy corpses would be like a cross between a grotesque gray ooze and a shambling mound. That rocks.

That would be like a mobile, oozing, puss-pocket. Makes me want to hurl to just imaging how it would look and smell...

However when it has sustained enough damage, it could rupture and send infectious goo flying for several meters..

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Ascent

June 22, 2009 - 12:06pm

Oh man. This is getting gruesome.

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