 January 22, 2011 - 2:56am | I know there's at least one other person here who is fanatical about expanding the Warriors of White Light module. I've had numerous links to the Clarion Royal Marines in my campaign. Even my Basic Plus project utilized them as the basis for beta-testing here in our own game room (a la Basically Speaking) --- players served as boarding party members on the CMS Falcon in parallel adventures that took place in the same era as the SF/KH:0 module settings, with settings that included a daring rescue of Princess Leotia Valentine from the clutches of Clarion Liberation Party members who kidnapped her (while the Osprey was busy with the Streel weapons smugglers), various inspections including the inbound SS Gullwind that is suffering drive problems and is on a collision course with Majora Station (whose skipper relays intel on drug smuggling on another inbound ship after the Falcon crew assists in repairs --- the Nightshade, both craft serve as actual prequel encounters to the Dramune Run game), followed by an Ixiol bust on another inbound craft (further fueling a Dramune Run prequel), which leads to a sting against the suppliers that are discovered to be residents on Majora Station, and wrapped up with a rogue scout ship that gets captured but needs boarding while berthed within the station. The Royal Marines were also integral in my Dominion campaign, where an upstart dictator acquires a UPF world and secedes from the UPF and eventually overtakes the Frontier by sheer force...an early appearance by this dictator is made in Clarion to draw attention away from their real target, and the Marines find themselves preparing for all out war. Clarion also factors into the later years of said campaign, where a two-generations-displaced Princess Leotia XXII is captured in Zebulon, believed to be a UPF Loyalist looking to help kick start a new Federation under the dictator's nose (before my old PC crashed the players were in the middle of rescuing her from a prison transport ship that they disabled with the help of UPF Loyalist plants). It all leads me to wonder what other possibilities are out there for expanding this introductory module, I know jedion has a slew of "future" (meaning several decades after the actual module) CRM scenarios that he is resolving in his online PbP game...and again if there are others out there with similar desires or ideas --- is it enough to start a new project? Enough interest to turn that introductory game into a trilogy of modules? |
 January 22, 2011 - 5:56am | Interest Yes Time not so much. Will take a look and post an idea within 24 hours. I can only work with deadlines to lazy for anything else to get me off my butt. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 January 22, 2011 - 9:41am | I'm interested in playing in your online game. I would help document the play session to assist in creating adventures/encounters. |
January 23, 2011 - 6:00am | OK to continue with the CRM adventures the describtion of the CRM mentions they are also the station police. Here we go 1) PCs are assigned to work with the Station Security Section (SSS) either as patrol officers keeping the peace and doing everything from finding lost children to breaking up brawls to handling domestic calls. CRM Security Chief Captain Garabaldi a paunchy, balding human and member of the command staff leads this section. But occasionally when a crime is committed and an investigation is needed then Detective Chief Lt. Odo a dralasite who is so flexible it can change its shape to assume many different forms leads to PCs in finding murderers, arsonists, sexual offenders, smugglers and is also in charge of under cover operations. 2) There is the fortress, Clarion station, a Class III spacedock and a half dozen other stations. The CRM is responsible for all of these except the fortress. There are many things to do here. a) Spacedock-CRM ship is in for repairs and sometries to hijack it (Sathar) b) Spacedock-Discover someone is building a warship/smuggling ship and they must investigate c) Other-lost contact with a research station going to investigate and discover a strange virus has been released with bad results (Zombies baby) d) Trash runs-most refuse is recycled but some most be disposed of. This trash is very dangerous and in many cases valuable so it most be guarded, enter the CRM 3) The Asteroid belt hides many secrets and adventures. a)Miners abound in the belt and only the CRM can deal with them. You have rescues to perform, claimjumpers to investigate, and those Hatfield and McCoy clans to seperate b) illegal bases hidden there for everything from pirating to illegal manufacturing to spy listening outposts c) Streel is allowed to work the Asteroid belt But what are they really doing there? d) A mysterious ship hidden under or in an asteroid comes to life and strange things start to happen (think Gamma World Legion of Gold) 4) Go back to the basics, either actually run the PCs through the 20 day CRM basic training OR they have been selected to be the new class of CRM recruits drill instructors (and it is the worst class in CRM history but when the emergency arises during the final training flight only the PCs and their students can save the day) 5) Their is a command staff and its the PCs turn to serve on it. (In real militaries all officers must do both command and admin assignments) They find: a)Lt Tabbe isn't the only Sathar or Streel agent. Who else in the command staff is betraying the CRM b)The CRM Commander is retiring. The infighting over the next Commander has begun and it is not gonna be pretty. c) Someone in the Logistics section is getting rich diverting CRM supplies. Can the PCs find the embezeller before the CRM ships fall apart. Sorry this is so short but I tried to keep to my 24 hour deadline. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 January 23, 2011 - 7:29am | @ Shadow: First off your post suggests that the point of the project is to work up a module and little more. Is this the case? If it is then you could easily do this in the adventure writing forum. as a new adventure easily fits in that project. If the intent is to do something like what I'm trying to do in Zebs Expanded project; which is take aspects of the original material and expand it to have a more well rounded presentation that promotes its use, then I say yes do a new project. and things that would happen there would be new adventures, development of material that you, I, or others have already done and tweak and expand it more. Rank insignia done as artwork and added just because, dress, duty, BDU, and etc uniforms done with nice presentations worthy of going into the fanzine. writing a UCMJ for the Royal Marines would be good too. The point is that a lot of things would go into a project like that and some of it would only be fluff but taken altogether then it adds up to some major setting material. Counter proposal: I've often thought that the Royal Marines, simply by virtue of being the only military organization with some solid development in the canon material were all to often poached by players who were writing a character background. Ie there is a disproportionate number of character backgrounds out there that involve the Royal Marines- and why not we like em. However, I've also thought that there would be value to working up a good system brief, planet history, and militia organization for another system like maybe Cassidine. with the sort of indepth treatment we've been discussing. including all the fluff, and the adventures. done as a collaborative venture invovling the community I think we'd do good stuff. it also would not only would be limited to the militia, but all aspects of the system and government would fall into that project. Either way you want to go, I'll certainly be apart of the effort and will push to produce material that will end up in the fan zine (sorry I just see the ultimate purpose of the projects on the development site as being to produce material for the fanzine). And if even if we dont do some other system's militia I'll likely still tackle that in the future. Which brings me to a new question? do you want to head the project or would you like me to head it? I know you have computer issues right now and I can probably help with being a project lead and pushing things along. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 23, 2011 - 8:07am | RE: Rattraveller's post: some good ideas- like the embezelling idea incidently: I had planned to run a court martial as a backdrop to a CRM adventure in my game. I particularly liked that idea so I cant talk about it much publically. EDIT: In my timeline project I tried to tackle the whys and hows of how the CRM was founded and made Morgaine part of the driving force behind that. In the process of doing that I created a connection between one of Shadow's clans and the CRM (the connection is more in the minds of the yazirian clan than in the minds of the CRM general staff-not that they aren't above using that connection!) Also in trying to create a cohesive timeline I suggested that the first military action of the CRM was as peace keepers detailed to Madderly's Star to stop the killing during the Free World Rebellion. limit the equipment list to just the AD list and no assault scouts but shuttles and ion drive freighters and this could be the basis of a CRM module....hmmm....that gives me an idea.... I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 23, 2011 - 1:59pm | rattraveller offers some great adventure ideas, a few of which both jedion and I have explored (I had some station duty games in Basically Speaking, jedion has explored the belt miners angle in his game). @ Shadow: First off your post suggests that the point of the project is to work up a module and little more. Is this the case? If it is then you could easily do this in the adventure writing forum. as a new adventure easily fits in that project. If the intent is to do something like what I'm trying to do in Zebs Expanded project; which is take aspects of the original material and expand it to have a more well rounded presentation that promotes its use, then I say yes do a new project. Ultimately? Yes on both counts. While more gaming (read: modules) is always a target, expansion of the background would really help define the game. Ultimately I would like to see a "CRM Source Book" addendum to any modules, perhaps even including a time line that corresponds with the canon material (which could be tricky assuming the errors in Zeb's Guide --- but seriously we could belt something out that starts with the UPF rather than dive into the pre-UPF history). Stuff like insignia, ranks, uniforms, etc could be explored in such a book. As for who heads the project, not a big deal --- I'm merely trolling the waters right now to see if there's enough interest to start a project, and as jedion points out --- what would we need to make it a unique projewct rather than a "clone" to another project that it would fit into instead. As it stands, I have two outstanding projects. The Deck Plans project is something that will never be complete, after all is there such a thing as having "enough deck plans"? My Basic Plus is one of the two, it's close to completion but needs some finishing touches. My Prehistoric Adventures is far from complete, I'm working on one facet right now and have several other ideas to start there too. So I'm not overly tied up to lead a new project. |
January 23, 2011 - 4:56pm | @ Shadow: I'm glad to hear where you are thinking to go with this. There would be great value in a CRM source book. just the collaborative effort from the community that worked up the latin moto and crest for the CRM in my game was cool and fun. and Will's proposing a CRM drinking song was typical of the fluff you begin to get with these collaborations. I think the best thing to do to parse out the source book into bite size chunks and maintian interest over time would be to tackle portions that would make good zine articles example. I still think we need a source book on another militia in another system but a CRM source book also has strong value too. You have less on your plate then me, go ahead and start the project. People and take the lead on individual things within for instance I plan to write up that early adventure for the CRM getting involved in the Police Action to halt the killing in Madderly's Star. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 23, 2011 - 6:29pm | Ah well count me in and lets do this someway. I like the Clarion Royal Marines because of their versatility as both a military and law enforcement agency like the US Coast Guard and also by the way the PCs get recruited they are a French Foriegn Legion plus you know their has to be some jealousy between them and the Royal Guards who are probably a little divided themselves between the 12 cities of Clarion. Yes so much possibility with those guys. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
January 24, 2011 - 1:38am | That's right...the Royal Guard. I nearly forgot about them, probably an often overlooked facet. Now that you mention it...I recall one of the players from my Basically Speaking game had their character's background entrenched in the Royal Guard --- transferring over to the Marines for shipboard/station duty. I'll fire up the project soon. |
January 24, 2011 - 2:12am | Okay, we're live with this one. Click the pic of the crude, lewd, dralasite dude to get there:
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January 24, 2011 - 7:31am | Clarion Royal Marines |
