 September 30, 2010 - 4:28pm | Just what the title says; I'm currious why vrusk seem to be the least played race. Is it because bugs creep you out? You can't wrap you're head around their alienness? Or is the perception that they are the red headed step child of SF is incorrect? What say you? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 30, 2010 - 5:33pm | i feel im in a corp mold when playing vrusk |
September 30, 2010 - 6:20pm | @ w00t: i dont understand- whats a corp mold? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 30, 2010 - 7:04pm | I think he means he has to force himself into the mold of a corporate employee. While I ususally play Humans or Yazirians, I will typically play a Vrusk before playing a Dralasite. The Vrusk definitely have some advantages from the point of view of an adventurer, greater speed, increased DEX/RS, and being ambidexterous all help out in tactical situations and the 15% Comprehension skill gives a decent chance, right from the go, to be useful in social situations. It beats the 5% battle rage or lie detection the other races get. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 September 30, 2010 - 7:43pm | It's been so long since I role played heavily that I need to ease back
in, so I typically play humans as they're easier to RP while getting
used to the mechanics again. The vrusk buggie-ness never bothered me so much as I simply don't understand them as a race (i.e. mannerisms, moltivations, likes/dislikes, etc.). However, watching umungus play a vrusk in Terl's Obar Enterprises pbp game has really opened my eyes and given me some ideas about how to play one. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
 September 30, 2010 - 8:05pm | Kinda creeped out by Vrusk for my part. Think it has something to do with encountering Praying Mantis' when I was just a wee Ragnarr; those creepy eyes that always seem to follow you like the little critter it's thinking, and then suddenly...SPROING!!! The f'er tries to land on you!  One of my player's Vrusk character (Ix Nix) was kool to see in action though; tossing 2 grenades at a time, and always at the head of the pack. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
 October 2, 2010 - 12:31am | Are you kidding? Vrusk is my first choice! Even though I am really creeped out by bugs, I love the vrusk! Second is dralasites, third yazirians, and then osakar. Ifshnits and humma are the ones that I just ignore. Hell, I'm more at home playing vrusk than any other alien, other than homebrew creations (since they are totally my creations, I know everything about them). Long live the Frontier! |
October 2, 2010 - 11:24am | That really bugs me.  |
 October 2, 2010 - 6:23pm | I actually find the dralasite the most difficult race to get my mind around. No definitive head or arms and legs? Weird. Vrusk at least have a consistent body structure. Their inability to use some standard equipment is annoying but not too big a deal. I can understand why the collective or corporate suit mentality would turnoff some players, but that could also be used to flesh out a character or storyline. |
October 2, 2010 - 7:38pm | Corp Mindedness ca be a good thing, when the corporation needs you to be an effective guerilla, or a double agent, or an investigator.... ect... Death is lighter than a feather Duty is heavier than a mountain |
 October 3, 2010 - 3:32am | My order of preference? And they even look good barrel-assing down the road on a hovercycle. 
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October 3, 2010 - 11:11am | @Gargoyle: I'm not saying I wouldn't play a Vrusk character on an adventure. I'm saying that if one was sitting across the table from me at the local hip hop spacer bar (owned by a Humma snerk), I'd be pounding down a few more shots than I normally would. @wOOt: (doing the Australian salute) @Mother: Agreed. Vrusk furniture has always given me a problem when designing ship deck plans.  @LanWarder: Yeah but, according to Alpha Dawn, Vrusk PCs are more like corporate Ronin (lordless samurai). @Shadow Shack: Dude, your art rocks like Van Halen! Mine is more like dentist office music.  My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
 October 3, 2010 - 1:47pm | Humans, Yazirians and Dralasites are pretty much the same physically and as for roleplaying them Humans anything goes, Yazirians just hit it and Dralasites are clowns nothing hard there. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 4, 2010 - 2:51am | Thanks for the comps! Vrusk furniture has always given me a problem when designing ship deck plans. I think it was mentioned somewhere in the canon books (maybe the actual vrusk description?) that a vrusk chair is like a bar stool and they simply wrap their legs around it. I never warmed up to that idea, I try to make their "furniture" more human-esque while keeping their physiology in mind. So a vruskan command chair on a ship's bridge would end up looking more like a reclining lounge chair, the vrusk would "climb" on facing the "backrest" and strap in --- much like the way Fonzie (Happy Days) would spin a chair around and sit with his stomach/chest against the backrest. Yeah, it's a great reference....after all vrusks are cool (note the black leather vest on my biker vrusk)! As far as having a non-vrusk "relieving duty", it's a simple matter of unbolting and swapping a new chair to the position (one that is stowed on the same deck), not a difficult task in zero or one gravity. I'll address their beds next. They breathe through their sides and no one has ever mentioned how they sleep. Do bugs sleep? I only ask because those damn crickets always keep me awake at night...  Again, back to their physiology. While the typical rendition of a vrusk is like a centaur, keep in mind they do not have human/horse like skeletons. Their "spine" can bend more than one way, much like their double jointed arms & shoulders it stands to reason that a vrusk has a pretty good range of motion at the thorax/abdomen* or any other joint as well, I would say up to 90º rotation left or right at their "waist" and pretty much 180º as far as how they can "bend", meaning they can extend themselves "flat" (about 3m length judging by their average 1.5 height and length) or bend backwards and touch the back of their heads to their abdomens. I see them as rather flexible critters, I would surmise all of their joints are double jointed, rather than just their arms (their description doesn't specifically say the rest are NOT double jointed, it merely mentions that their arms are double jointed). That said, their beds would probably be something in the neighborhood of 3m in length, like any other human bed but longer, so they can stretch out and sleep (on their back, side, or stomach --- like a human would). This unique range of motion, of course, would mandate additional expense in vruskan items --- such as a spacesuit that costs 1500Cr versus 1000 for any other race. No reason you can't incur such costs on other items like armor at +50% cost or mandating an extra fee for "vruskan operator packages" on vehicles. It certainly offsets their "better" 15% racial ability.  IIRC their breathing "holes" are on the undersides of their abdomens (which explains why they fear water...they'd have to do a backfloat/stroke at best), something akin to gills in nature. Personality --- I tend to portray mine as emotionless cold-blooded beings. That's not to say they lack emotion, rather they simply do not show it. They can be angered or saddened, but unless they have an actual outburst you wouldn't know just looking at them...their faces simply do not translate feeling. They do not smile or frown, they do not grimmace or contort their cheeks. They do not have eyebrows to raise nor eyelids to wink. If anything, their antennae would display emotion but to anyone other than another vrusk, it would not be comprehended as such unless the non-vrusk observer studied vruskan linguistics & physiology etc --- like someone that specialized in PsychoSocial skills. * abdomen meaning the large tail section of a bug rather than the mid-section of a human |
 October 4, 2010 - 4:57pm | There have been some great comments on here about our buggy friends, so let me throw in my two pennies. First of all, I prefer to play fat Dralasites. Vrusk can be fun too, though. They have the best starting stats of any of the races with their speed and all that. Statistically, they have an edge over all the others. I don't remember being anti-Vrusk in my PC selection... But I don't really remember being pro-Vrusk, either. Every party that I have been in has had at least one, as far as I can recall. Maybe it's the corp thing? Maybe it is difficult for us humans to accept and rp? Is it the lack of facial expressions and the kind of cold personality? By the way - one method of overcoming that is having Vrusk characters give away their emotions through their antennae, which I have always felt are special organs for the Vrusk. Kind of a combination of sex organs (pleasure-wise) and hands. A "Vruskan kiss" is when two Vrusk intertwine their antennaes, for example... They can also express surprise with them, etc. Just some ideas. To conclude, I have nothing against Vrusk PCs and would happily play one if, for some reason, my ref required me to (like maybe I was in a tournament or something.) They are probably my third pick of the Core Four: Dralasites, Yazirians, Vrusk, then Humans. But it's all good. |
October 4, 2010 - 6:28pm | Some of the recent comments on vrusk emoting via their antennae brings to mind China Mieville's kephri. These beings are insectoid, with the males being largely mindless 2-foot long beetles, and the females being human-like bodies with a beetle for a head. Kind strange, but hey; its fantasy. What is really interesting to this discussion is the fact that kephri have no spoken language. All communication is done with chemicals and sign language, from their antennae and bug-legs. Wouldn't it be interesting if the vrusk can make sounds to speak with other races, but amongst themselves their was a whole other language based on wriggling antennae? Could allow vrusk to converse without other races even knowing... Long live the Frontier! |
October 4, 2010 - 8:09pm | @Gargoyle: Never thought about antennae speak among Vrusk, but now that you've mentioned it, I'm liking it a lot. Gonna add the concept to my campaign here as an optional language for Vrusk. @All: Maybe you talented & learned folks might help me with a Vrusk problem I'm having. Designing an underwater adventure here (still in its very early stages), and wondering how I'm going to approach the Vrusk scuba gear aspect. Facemask with O2 works fine for Humans and Yazs. Dralasites would need some sort of underwater spacesuit-type rig. I guess I could do the same with Vrusk, or else possibly have some sort of O2 suction cup respirator to cover their abdomen nostils (alpha dawn calls them 'nostrils' in the Vrusk description, not me).  My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
 October 4, 2010 - 10:05pm | I have long thought of the vrusk augmenting their spoken language with gestures, body language, and antennae movements. They would cue in on scents but do not have control over making them. I suppose their gestures, body language, and antennae movements are so well defined that vrusk learn to use them to speak when silence is required. @Captain Rags: Well, those intelligent resourceful vrusk would take a cue from nature and copy small diving insects found in their ecology similar to our diving spiders. Diving spiders drag an air bubble along with them surrounding their abdomens. The vrusk would have long ago developed an abdomen vest that seals around their nostrils and pumps air too and from them from the air supply. I can imagine a vrusk might have a slight advantage to humans as to maximum depth due to their hard exoskeleton and open circulatory system. -iggy |
October 7, 2010 - 8:35pm | @iggy: That would work fine I think, and I also agree about the Vrusk being able to dive to deeper depths. Thinking that Drals would be able to also handle deeper depths than either Humans & Yazirians (they would just get tall and skinny...or short and way fat...or very compact like tennis ball size). My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
October 7, 2010 - 9:01pm | Bowling for Drals! This week on BfD we take you to the heart of Outer Reach's bowling extravaganza! I'm here with Newt Twite at the Q-Ball bowling alley, Darkworld station. Newt, what do we expect from today's performance? Well Hank, I'm expecting a lot of "ugh" and some "pfft" and a little "spunk". Thank you Newt. I see the lanes have been freshly coated with Space Butter(TM) and it looks like were about to roll! Pun intended. *smiles* |
October 8, 2010 - 8:21pm | lol yoo funny. While I normally give televised bowling a miss, I'd certainly tune in to watch Bfd. The space butter (tm) part makes me wonder though; did anyone ever do a SF write up about food? Zeb's Guide added the food prep skill, so I'd imagine there is potential for a mini-adventure using that somehow. On Dead Man's Wharf space station, I have an Osakar vendor selling "Ploom Toob", an unidentifiable multicolored food on a stick. Some of the other vendors sell "stew" priced by the plop full. I suppose if a ship's galley had enough Space Butter (tm) on hand when the ship was being boarded by hostiles, a generous amount of said spread could be utilized by the defenders to coat a section of deck for some good ol' fun. But I have deviated from the original topic. Um, Vrusk would like butter I'd say. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
October 8, 2010 - 10:09pm | Vrusk are good with butter! Red Vrusk, the other red meat!  |
October 9, 2010 - 4:22am | Maybe this is strange question but do the Vrusk actually sit down or sleep lying down? They have internal skeletons and external chitin so maybe they can lock thier limbs and do not need as much furniture as the other races. Speaking of which why would Dralasites need chairs? Thinking we need any article on furniture and interior design by race and generic as this can get complicated. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 10, 2010 - 8:44pm | Dralasites like bowl shaped furniture for relaxing and sleeping. Climb in and relax the muscles. Let it all loose so to speak. I like the idea of vrusk settling their exoskeletons together to sleep. I see chairs as more like benches. -iggy |
October 10, 2010 - 10:56pm | I think bugs just become inactive to rest as opposed to lying down or sitting. Then again, Vrusk have muscles and skeletons according to Alpha Dawn, so they would likely prefer a nice comfy couch. I'd also think that Drals would find virtually any place or position comfortable, as they are in effect their own beanbag chair. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
October 11, 2010 - 2:06am | Red Lobster...that's just a step below Long John Silvers. Only because Long Johns deturds their shrimp. |
October 11, 2010 - 11:45am | Just sat through another productivity management training in my career. Next time I play a vrusk he is going to be a little on the artistic, free spirit side. He is going to be his own company. When he interacts with other vrusk he will speak about how his company is doing. Even though it is a company of ONE. -iggy |
October 11, 2010 - 1:01pm | Awesome idea. Nobody needs to know the better. The vrusk often leaves the group to attend company meetings remotely. :-) |
October 12, 2010 - 2:02pm | @ iggy: the company of one is a great idea! irl, people often incorporate themselves, especially artists, writers, etc., who want a corporate entity that is seperate from themselves. An artistic, free-spirit vrusk company of one is fantastic and realistic. Long live the Frontier! |
