 March 14, 2010 - 9:45pm | So there I was having a late night glass of wine and watching a rerun of House and flipping through KH looking for ideas and it hit me- Tracer Implant for bank loans over 10,000 Cr Then it occured to me that Bounty Hunters and repo men could be a good campaign hook. -lots of action -some violence -plenty of oportunity for twist: target turns out to be a sathar agent or other -pitates are now in possession of the ship they're suppose to repo -they can take jobs that are illegal or shady -conflict with law enforcement that doesn't respect their proffession - forced to travel to exotic places and meet strange races I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 14, 2010 - 10:15pm | Cool idea Jedi... a lot of adventure possibilities. Starship repo men. Very cool!!! I used a tracer in a game I was running. It was a bit of improve. The players were trying to track down an NPC. They looked him up over the net. The players found out that he had a loan tracer implant. They hacked the bank loan computer and got the code to track him. The tech made a home made tracker. and off they went. Pretty ingeneous on their part. At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
 March 15, 2010 - 4:04am | Interesting, I never thought to throw the PCs in as such a role. I have a boat load of pre-generated bounty hunters and assassins in my game. For the most part I use them as agents of formerly usurped villains looking for revenge against the PCs (Star Devil, Malthar, Streel, etc from the published modules) and as you surmise for PC roles, as antagonists they are just as great of a twist to throw into a campaign that starts to stagnate... |
 March 15, 2010 - 6:11pm | Interesting. I have a completed article on Bounty Hunters. I already have an article submitted on playing a Star Law officer for issue #15, so the Bounty Hunters article wouldn't be pub'd until issue #16 (assuming it were used). I'm doing a series on various careers in Star Frontiers. Each article is very thorough. They're sort of taking the Archetype theme further, with tips on how to roleplay the characters, as rules regarding their behavior within the Star Frontiers universe, including necessary skills and pay ranges. For the Mercs, the Bounty Hunter article suggests a situation in which one player plays a bounty hunber, and the other players in a party are the mercs hired by the bounty hunter, ala Coombs and co. So far I've finished: Star Law (which will also help a little with planetary law enforcement) Bounty Hunters (includes average bounties and reasons for bounties, but excludes the underworld kind of bounty hunters) Pirates I'm currently working on: Assassins (includes the underwold kind of bounty hunters) Scouts (including explorers) Mercenaries Medics Emergency Rescuers I'm considering: Tracers Engineers Drivers Pilots Archaeologists (Including tomb raiders) View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 March 15, 2010 - 5:01pm | Oh! Oh! Star Frontiers tomb raiders. Why didn't I think of that? (Prob 'cause it's too dnd) Off Topic: I had an idea where a sathar sleep ship was caught in orbit around a gas giant with some weird-0 radiation. Over time it ripped the sathar souls from their bodies. The souls roamed the ship. The PC's find the ship and enter. They encounter the souls who can speak but are harmless, they try to lead the PC's to the engineering section of the ship. When the PC's enter the souls issue commands to warbots to ATTACK! ....one of my SF buddies said it was too D&D. Ascent, way to use formatting in your post. +1 |
March 15, 2010 - 6:11pm | The tomb raiders idea I had in mind was more tech-oriented than hack and slash. It would involve ancient traps, primitive cultures, political agendas, millionaire badguys, and alien artifacts. Everything that makes a tomb raiding adventure. Though that does sound like it needs its own article. I updated the above post with "Archaeologist (including tomb raiders)". View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
March 15, 2010 - 7:08pm | Repo and bounty hunters would be ideal to take on a tomb raid- they're always looking to get rich quick and for the most part they sort of control their own schedule. They dont have to be concerned about the niceties of scientific investigation of a site but just "raid" you could throw in salvage as an adventure with this as well. Also, who else would be crazy enough to run the blockade on a plague planet to recover item X- naturally they'll need to obtain, by any means possible, some power armor that would be enviromentally sealed. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 16, 2010 - 11:31am | How exactly do you Repo a star ship? Would repo ships carry enough crew to fly the other ship? would they be a modified version of the jump tug? or would they be equipped with grapples? Do you board like a navy strike team? do they have to inform the local authorities that they are serving papers? do they have to bring along local authorities while they are boarding and serving papers? rules could be different for each system. Enquiring minds want to know? I imagine the the SOP would be to take advantage of when the target ships crew is not around or not watching. which suggest being docked at a space station. Real Life Example: My best friend became a constable here in MA- which meant that besides serving papers for divorce or eviction that he also could seize vehicles for non payment even do the MA version of bounty hunting- serving warrents to appear in court & bringing said individuals to court. What he did for that was he sub contracted to a company that was owned by a constable from another town who could not do process in boston- The company would handle all the paper work and has a ton of contracts for collecting cars but would use my friends license since he was licensed in boston and he got a flat fee per car- he'd go with the flat bed tow truck and they'd try to "resolve" 7-8 contracts on cars in one night. Either the owner would fork over cash to bring it current or they'd tow the car. One guy jumped in his car and tried to run my friend over driving over the lawn and sidewalk. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 18, 2010 - 3:46pm | I think repoing a starship would require some stealth, disguise, and forged passes. A pro job. I actually have "repossessor" as a variant on the Tracer (as in SKIP tracer) profession, which also includes bill collecting. Not quite the same as a bounty hunter. But yes, bounty hunters would very much come in handy for that, seeing as "recovery" is within their job description. I could see a party made up of a bounty hunter, repossessor, and a temple raider, along with a merc tech and medic and whatever other mercs. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
March 18, 2010 - 5:09pm | How exactly do you Repo a star ship? Would repo ships carry enough crew to fly the other ship? would they be a modified version of the jump tug? or would they be equipped with grapples? Do you board like a navy strike team? do they have to inform the local authorities that they are serving papers? do they have to bring along local authorities while they are boarding and serving papers? rules could be different for each system. Enquiring minds want to know? If it had to leave the system, then an additional crew would have to come along in the repo ship. Same system - grapples will suffice. Either way, the ship would most likely be targetted for repossession while it's docked. With luck the defaulting owners will be far away, tucked within the bowels of the station (or better yet, on the planet below). Still, it would have to be boarded if a crew were to be commanding it, and said crew will have to contend with any security measures onboard (robots, automated weaponry, etc) which may alert the defaulting owners to such "unauthorized boarding"... |
March 18, 2010 - 7:05pm | I also think paying for little distractions, of the feminine kind and other sorts could tie up the crew to make taking the ship easier or even a ruse. Though it seems to me that it might be easier to set up repo men as NPCs and have them run distractions and ruses on the PCs I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
