 July 17, 2010 - 9:40pm | Whether you're for or against Zebulon's material this thread is not a Zebs debate It is merely a brain storm session to draw out ideas on issues relating to the plague systems and the MSO. RE: Rhianna System: in The new Zebulon's Guide It is listed on the chart but not shown on the map. In the Old Guide it is shown, but in the wrong spot according to the module wich places it "in the vast reach of space between Cassidine, White Light and Timeon" (From Mission to Alcazzar Page 6 Beta .4 section) But, they put System Delta there; and moved Rhianna to below and to the left of Gruna Garu. Just one more reason to Ignore the plague systems if you ask me. Here's my read on the "purpose" of the plague systems- they're a reason for the existence of the Medical Services Organization. I believe that had the full three volumes of Zebs Guide had seen the light of day that the MSO would have seen more coverage or even a module. So if we chuck the Plague systems what do we do with the MSO? chuck it too? come up with a different reason for its existence, keep the "Blue Plague" but no "plague systems"? I'm generally loathe to chuck official or even quazi official material but in this case I think chucking the plague systems is a good idea: no need to factor in secret jump routes, no need to give those planets and systems names or to even detail them in the case of adventures prior to the plague, its really a simple solution. The other side of that coin is that its an opportunity for GM creativity. Which is a strength of the system. I'd prefer to focus this thread on what do we do with the vacuum created by chucking the plague systems I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 18, 2010 - 2:48am | OK, first of all, I believe (note: believe) that the Plague systems were created by lazy hacks. They were potential new habitable systems that they didn't feel like making "official", so they just offed them. Secondly, my take on them for the longest was to ignore the "Plague System" nonsense, and allow development as "unexplored systems". Lately, however, I have been thinking that the UPF and the megacorps could have use of secret "dumping grounds", and the Blue Plague could have provided the perfect exuse. As to the Plague itself and the MSO, both are perfectly usable adventure hooks, with or without the existence of Plague systems. In my own current version of SF, there are Plague systems, but they have names and histories that everyone knows, and then the secrets only I know. The MSO is one of many government branches, and the Blue Plague is still an unknown quantity; it is viral and highly mutagenic. Although a cure and vaccine was developed, it could show up again in a mutated form that cannot be so easily cured. Also, it has a murky background, suitable for making it a Sathar weapon, a bizarre space-germ, or some megacorp project gone wrong... Food for thought. :) Long live the Frontier! |
 July 18, 2010 - 7:46pm | Simple enough. Just call them uninhabited or unexplored systems. I don't think anyone will miss them. I think the Zeb's timeline says 17 million died of the Blue Plague? That sucks, but I doubt that's any cause for a permanent quarantine on multiple star systems. Consider that between 50-100 million people died of the Spanish Flu in 1918 on this one planet of ours. Do you think the rest of the Frontier would permanently cut off contact with Earth forever more even after the epidemic passed? The whole blue plague / plague worlds story is stupid enough that it should be ignored and we should pretend it doesn't exist. I'd love to hear a plausible theory about why an entire star system would be declared so dangerous that no one is ever allowed to go there EVER again, but a plague that's already over is not it. Especially a plague that's been cured already. I guess it could be someone's dirty political laundry like someone said, but I think they'd still come up with a better cover story. |
July 18, 2010 - 8:10pm | I think there are too many complications with quarrenting a whole system- number one there'd be distraught family members begging, borrowing or stealing ships to go there to find missing family. The Plague wont affect sub space radios and the pleas for help would galvanize public opinion to do something and even if the government stood to the party line of "Its too dangerous" private individuals and groups would say screw this and run the blockade to bring food, vaccine, and aid. There'd be way too much activity going to those systems that the UPF would be hard pressed to police it and they have to post major task forces to catch every ship that tries to lift off from those planets. I agree with making them uninhabitted systems- far better to leave them to individual GMs to create what they want and since the game is an exploration game having systems to explore close to hand makes some sense. So what's the story for the founding of the MSO? Still the Blue Plague? EDIT: I can see great possibilites for adventures involving the PCs as members of the fledgeling newly organized MSO sort of in the vein of SFKH-0 with a possible major climax during the Blue Plague. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 19, 2010 - 10:06am | So what's the story for the founding of the MSO? Still the Blue Plague? Could be. I did a quick read on Wikipedia about the World Health Organization and I don't see that they were founded due to a specific outbreak. Their missions are basically to control international outbreaks and distribute vaccines. They've basically eradicated smallpox and they think they'll have wiped out Polio in a few years. Since the MSO is the interplanetary analogue to the WHO, why not use them as a guideline? |
July 20, 2010 - 8:46pm | So what's the story for the founding of the MSO? Still the Blue Plague? Could be. I did a quick read on Wikipedia about the World Health Organization and I don't see that they were founded due to a specific outbreak. Their missions are basically to control international outbreaks and distribute vaccines. They've basically eradicated smallpox and they think they'll have wiped out Polio in a few years. Since the MSO is the interplanetary analogue to the WHO, why not use them as a guideline? Good point but not very dramatic I think I'd lean toward it being founded but underfunded till something dramatic, like the blue plague comes along, then it comes to the fore. Side note: I remember reading a short story in Asimov's magazine 25 years ago about a racist group that developed a biological weapon that targeted humans with genetics typical of dark skinned races, Since the Frontier is so heavy with racist humans hating vursk particularly this sort of bio weapon might be a good plot hook or is the racist angle over done? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 21, 2010 - 3:54pm | I kept the plague systems and tied them into large story arc starting with Sathar War I (SWI) and ending with Sathar War II (SWII). In my Frontier (mF), the plague systems had not been "discovered" until after the Zebulon was open to exploration. SWI was not actually a full large scale invasion of Frontier space, it was an expansion attempt by one caste/clan of Sathar which in mF explains the relatively small scope of the war. When the final battle was fought, the Sathar did not flee the Frontier as thought, they instead split up and executed a second phase. That of hiding within the Frontier and attempting to weaken it for a third phase (SWII). Part of this weakening was to slow or halt expansion by contaminating several planets with a plague, enter the Blue Plague. Explorers land on the planets, gather samples etc and bring the plague into contact with the Frontier species. Thinking the plague is simply a natural phenomenon, they quarentine the planets and systems until the root cause can be determined. This is another sub-plot for PCs, discover that the Blue Plague has a Sathar origin and slowly uncover that there are Sathar within the Frontier. It is also not harmful to Sathar and is actually a way for them to create a foothold in the Frontier via safe planets without even resorting to combat. This would lead to the reason why there are Sathar agents found so readily through the modules and what not, there are actual Sathar bases present. All being put into place for the eventual invasion of the Frontier, bringing us to SWII. The ability of the PCs to uncover the plot and many sub-plots all tying the Sathar to several attempts to undermine the Frontier through instigation of civil wars, political strife and actually controlling a mega-corps through agents in an attempt to replace PGC as the primary supplier to the military so they can sabotage the ships. So, while they may not really serve a purpose in general, the plague planets/systems serve a big purpose in mF. "I reject your reality and substitute my own."
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July 21, 2010 - 5:25pm | Sathar....actually controlling a mega-corps through agents in an attempt to replace PGC as the primary supplier to the military so they can sabotage the ships. I'm totally using that. |
July 21, 2010 - 8:00pm | @ shing: that is a great take on the plague systems- nice sub plots since the plague systems were contaminated by the sathar as a fire break against Core 4 expansion in the area and as a biological booby trap and since the sathar are immune to the plague the sathar no doubt have secret bases there. Thus the whole bit about the UPF interdicting the systems and destroying any ship that lifts off from the surface makes tons of sense for your frontier. really cool idea. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 24, 2010 - 8:27am | I agree with the MSO being the frontier version of the WHO. They would also spend time visiting outposts and developing worlds to inspect their standards of living and meddle in the affairs of the megacorps. Also as mentioned, they would have plenty to keep themselves busy concerning bio-warfare & terrorism. There should be or have been at some point plenty of medical dilemmas related to contact between alien races to keep some organized medical body busy. Perhaps they are the official bureaucracy to inspect and sign off on new worlds to be "open to the public" after examining all the potential viral and bacterial threats and then leaving a small contingent to observe and periodically test the colonists for a set duration. |
July 24, 2010 - 9:40am | Sathar....actually controlling a mega-corps through agents in an attempt to replace PGC as the primary supplier to the military so they can sabotage the ships. I'm totally using that. For this first time (in my opinion) this idea allows the characters to become movers and shakers in the Frontier. Not sure about y'all but I always felt my characters were just a cut above average. Nothing really special although reaching high-levels gave me a feeling of epic-ness (especially when my character got his first KH skill). In my Star Wars campaign, where in just a few sessions, I felt my character was able to change the course of the galaxy. Great stuff. A lot of work but wouldn't it be nice to have all these ideas typed up in a readable format for the webzine? I can see our non-SF readers taking your ideas and incorporating them in their sci-fi campaigns. :-) |
July 24, 2010 - 7:37pm | I agree with woot about PCs in the MSO being on a stage that affects the destiny of the galaxy it puts him on the cutting edge of whats going on I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 24, 2010 - 10:40pm | Like I said in other post, I see the Blue Plague as a good way to shake-up the setting - halting expatiation and cutting down the all-around population. I always got the impression that the quarantines where just temporary, and that the quarantines where from some of the outline worlds. In the past, I over-looked the detail about the Greek letters, but I always figures that those systems where just empty systems (a star without planets). I also agree that the "Plague System" was a cop-out, but I consider it a rather pointless one, seeing how not all systems need to be populated. |
July 26, 2010 - 6:46am | What-if robot ships brought supplies to these areas? How would the ships be decontaminated after returning so they could be restocked? What-if robot doctors and medical staff were loaded aboard a cargo container and put on a ship. The ship would of course be kept by the plague planet. What-if a planet wanted seclusion and made-up a plague scheme to isolate themselves? (Far fetched of course but neat. Then centuries later you get a race like the Krikkit's. lol) |
July 26, 2010 - 9:43am | w00t: that reminds me of the Star Trek episode where they told everyone to stay away because of plague, but it was really overpopulation... To me, the Blue Plague was a cop-out to keep from developing some systems in the Frontier, but can be used as a springboard for adventures. Long live the Frontier! |
July 26, 2010 - 3:28pm | I don`t have a lot of time these days, but I can try to outline a more detailed series of plot lines using my mentioned ideas. Maybe see where I can make it go, but yes, it would be a very large amount of story telling to tie it all in. "I reject your reality and substitute my own."
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 August 5, 2010 - 6:51pm | In my last campain the plague planets were the worst infected in an attempt to augment humans with internal nano technology. The nanos ran amok and began mutating biological life. I basicly used this as a vehicle to merge SF and Gamma World. In my universe the plague system designated as Gamma IS Gammaworld and all three plague systems have been reduced to pre-spacflight tech levels. The major thrust of the adventure arch on GW was to discover what had gone wrong while trying to survive in a shattered world. I like Shings Idea of the Sather being the cause of the plague. I was leading toward a similar plot twist when the campain ended. One notable drama hook that the PCs discovered prior to the end was that the nano tech was meant to be a new form of medicine. The healers of GW through there attempt to cure destroyed a world when some hacker modified the nanos programing. The hacker was going to be a Sather agent, but we never got that far. 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 |
August 5, 2010 - 10:52pm | You know, considering that the Sathar are known to work with genetics, and have produced engineered monsters, it would make sense for them to have been behind something like the Plague. And if one were to use jacobsar's ideas above, it could even have been a nano-virus designed to bio-engineer worlds to the Sathar's wishes (a la Threshold tv series; if you have seen it, you should), and the plague worlds are too transformed for the UPF's liking... Long live the Frontier! |
 March 22, 2014 - 10:45pm | So this thread has not been used for a long time, but I came across something very interesting. I was watching The Clone Wars on Netflix and season 1, episode 17 has something called the Blue Shadow Virus. In the episode, a scientist brings back a virus that was eradicated because it destroyed so many people. He thought bringing back the virus was bringing something to life and who cares what dies to make it happen. Of course the Jedi save the day. So if one wanted to, you could have a mega-corp trying to(or mad scientist), bring back the Blue Plague. The pc's would have to stop it and save the day of course. Some of the plague was released but contained in the facility. The jedi had to go to another planet and retrieve a root for the cure. Some good adventure ideas in the episode, but it would make for a good rpg quest. The whole adventure could be in Port Loren and the plague could be contained in the secret lab, and breaching it would kill so many civilians. this would force the pc's to go to some other planet or even area of Grand Quivera to retrieve some type of cure. But I like them having to go to some remote planet that would make them have a time limit for retrieval. |
March 23, 2014 - 4:33am | I happened to mention the book Vertical Run in another thread and it had a bio-weapon virus was secretly developed that had an interesting life cycle. When first infected its dormant in your bodily fluids but when it becomes active its highly contageous and the virus can only be contained by immersing the body of a victim in an acid bath. The acid bath was a particular feature in the book. The mercenary team had orders to contain the virus at all cost and when the protagonist who had been spec ops seriously piss off the merc leader he was told that nothing in the order that said the protagonist had to be dead before going into the acid bath. Later on the protagonist got the drop on the merc leader and rather than kill him with a bullet he simply bit him on the leg deep enough to draw blood knowing what the orders of the merc team were it sort of force the merc team to kill their own leader but that scene was "off camera" and yet very satisfying for the reader since the merc leader was a dick. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
