 March 25, 2011 - 11:53pm | Was brain storming on the Big List of RPG Plots web page: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm and thought this up; its inspired by his "How much for the dingus plot?" Set Up: 1. PCs are part of a ships crew or have a ship 2. something rare and valuable has turned up on the black market and they need to run it down. This may work best if the ship involved is a tramp freightor with light armament. Competitors: 1. Pirate working for (or against) the Malthar, 2. a vrusk thief (member of the Zenk), 3. Star Law marshal, 4. Rich Private collector, maybe more competitors Note this adventure can take place and or start in any number of systems as the idea is to travel from place to place on the trail of the item, assembling clues and or attempting to negotiate for its purchase. I'll however just give place names to get the ball rolling. Players start in Capella after finishing a successful run with a CFM captain. Rumor turns up that item X was offered for sale on Volturnus. They off load their merchandise and refuel and head back to Zebulon. Wild cat prospector came out of the burning lands with item x, and sold it for 10,000 credits (but was latter robbed). buyer was a young human (20 ish). Asking around causes shady parties to start following and monitoring the PCs (pirates- though they dont do anything untoward at this point-except maybe put a tracking device on the the ship and just follow the PCs a little). Looking into the young human, its realized that she is a student at the University of Zebulon and the trail leads there (the planet Ankor in this system), At Ankor they can talk to various npcs and learn a variety of information about the girl (where she's from, her interest in Tetrarch archaeology, etc) if they talk to her professors they will meet the Professor of Xeno Archaeology who was shown item X by the girl and asked if it was the real deal. At the time he was not sure if it was authentic and so refered her to a college on Laco in the Dixon's Star system. Before leaving Anchor an earnest vrusk grad student is looking to get back to the Frontier proper and would like to pruchase a ticket on their ship. Is he an opertunity to defray the cost of operating the ship or is he an agent of the competitors? He could be either but especially the vrusk theif. A seedy looking corvette is also in orbit at anchor and it was at Volturnus. (It will later turn up in Truane's Star and Dixon's Star. Opertunity for random layover encounters or for run in with the pirate crew of the corvette. Pirates are not looking to do anything to the PCs yet as they are hoping that the PCs will lead them to the girl. Going Loco on Laco Trying to run down the archaeologist on Laco can be quite a chore- since artifact theives are a huge problem he does not advertise his location when in the field. Going out looking for him or the girl could lead to encounters with the local wildlife. The Girl is here and looking for him too. The PCs should just be missing her at each stage. The professor met with her and saw item X and offered to buy it from her lest it be lost to the black market but she ran out on him. He's actually considering to report the incident to Star Law as they have juristiction in the area of artifact smuggling ans since he's almost sure its tetrarch in origin that means its illegal to buy and sell it. The latest intell is that she is probably heading for Cassidine as Triad's black market is one of the more robust in the sector. and her parents are from Cassidine so she's familiar with the system and may have contacts on the black market. Laco should be the planet where a little sabotage of the PC's ship occurs: by the girl or by a competitor. An offer they can refuse? Once they reach Prengular the rich collect approaches them and flat out offers 500,000 credits for the PCs to bring the item to him when they get it. Role play encounter, plus the corvette is passing through and no longer following them its headed straight off to Cassidine. Tough Times on Triad The girl is trying to sell the item on the black market, PCs can hack computers on the data nets or ask around about the item. Problems crop up with what ever their actions are, local crime lords looking to muscle in for a % of the money on item x, pirates of the corvette are getting more aggressive with PCs. Resolution: Item is going to auction and the PCs need to approach one of their competitors to negotiate for a pooling of funds to get a bid in as the bidding is currently going or is projected to go to over a mil. Twists: Item X has weird fantastic properties which intrude into the adventure. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 14, 2014 - 2:11pm | This post predates the creation of the Venture and the Mooks Without Number serial but it would be ideal as a Venture follow up. What would be crucial would be to invent an artifact of sufficent value to warrent the interest of so many parties and to warrent the costs of all the void jumps this adventure would require. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 14, 2014 - 10:04pm | A tetrarch device that restores live to the dead, and regenerates from DNA samples. The Mathar would seek it to prolong his life. The PCs could seek it to resurect their freeze fielded dead captain and retain ownership of their ship. -iggy |
September 15, 2014 - 4:38am | A tetrarch device that restores live to the dead, and regenerates from DNA samples. The Mathar would seek it to prolong his life. The PCs could seek it to resurect their freeze fielded dead captain and retain ownership of their ship. A Stargate style sarcoffagas that would be worth millions. Other options: 1. a Rosetta stone like artifact that holds the promise of unlocking the Tetarch's written language 2. a destructive device "of untold power" (Red Matter from recent Star Treck creating a singularity at the center of a planet it pretty bad) 3. a genesis torpedo ala Wrath of Kahn; an item that can destroy and recreate or possibly just recreate like the stargate sarcoffagas 4. A stargate 5. Perhaps Lacos is the lost home world of the creators of the Protoss and Zerg, which both species would dearly love to locate and the artifact is a map to their part of the galaxy? Frontier experts just think its a map to other tetrarch worlds. EDIT: what I meant to say is that the tetrarchs are the creators of the protoss and zerg of Starcraft. so while a map is not an item of immense power it would be an item of radical change and serious ramifications. 6. a copy of Hamlet in the original Klingon, this item is simply something of incredible value without innate power of its own but no real impact to the setting (Rosetta stone will have impact on the setting) Hamlet in the original klingon was thought lost and an intact copy would bring millions at auction and no doubt universities are hoping that you will donate it or put it on loan/display at their institution. Here is my thoughts: While The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force, items of untold power that could be used by the PCs that could radically change or impact the setting are things not to be introduced lightly. There would be a lot of ramifications for many of the above type items including the STargate style sarcoffagas, which is the least dangerous of the powerful items to introduce. Thus my knee jerk reaction would be that the Rosetta stone artifact is a better bet. On the plus side some people like their setting to lean less toward the really fantastic and the Rosetta stone would certainly fill that bill. I'm not opposed to the items of immense power, I just recognize that they will change the setting and are hard to back off from. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 15, 2014 - 6:37am | The item being sought can have incredible value, incredible intrinsic power, or be of incredible social/historical significance and it might have two or more of the above. The stargate sarcophagus would have value and power but not really a social or historical significance while a rosetta stone would be of incredible historical significance and value. A copy of Hamlet in the original klingon would he of high social significance and value but its impact on the setting is negligible. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 15, 2014 - 2:15pm | The flight records of one of the colony ships from the home world. -iggy |
September 15, 2014 - 2:34pm | The flight records of one of the colony ships from the home world.
I like that, valuable with historic significance. Eorna flight data recorder as well as one of the core four would work. You have one adventure just running it down (and in the case of the eorna flight recorder its 900 years old) naturally the second adventure would be locating the destination of that ship 900 years ago. That prospect should bring the sathar into play as the eorna deep space program is no doubt responsible for leading the sathar to volturnus. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 15, 2014 - 2:46pm | Algae prawn (Faire's version of the shrimp) fisherman on Faire hooks some wreckage in his net and brings it to the surface but cannot bring it onto his boat so he settles for salvaging a piece which turns out to be a sealed eorna star ship flight data recorder from 900 years ago. He, nor anyone else know what it is but he sells it in the Minzii market place. As per the original set up for this adventure. A grad student from U of Z that specialized in eorna tech thinks it eorna and shes on the trail as well as the PCs somehow. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 15, 2014 - 3:05pm | So the staship flight data recorder has sold without anyone knowing what it is and the artifact leaves the capella system. The grad student spotted an auction listing (expired) for it. And begins asking questions which becomes the catalyst for various parties to wonder if an incredibly valuable artifact has sold for vastly under market value. Enter the pCs and their employer. And the hunt for the artifact. Thus the Venture's captain could be tasked by a group of other CFM merchants to act as their agent and run down this artifact and confirm if its from an ancient eorna starship now resting on the seafloor of the planet faire. The Venture's captian is authorized to pay a huge ammont of money to recover it but his backers will settle for strong confirmation of its origin. Also tantlizing is the fact that while out pf power it was still sealed and since the eorna use a solid state crystal memiory matrix the artifact may still have data that could tell a great deal about a lost eorna expedition. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 15, 2014 - 3:13pm | Possibility for PCs to fail to obtain the flight recorder but still confirm its the real deal. Since they fail to recover the artifact they can return to Faire and rent boats and submersibles to try to locate the wreck and thus could move forward with the adventure to track diown this lost eorna's expedition's fate. Since a rich collector retained the artifact he has some of the same data the PCs get which is that the ship was returning to Volturnus after depositing its outpost colony. Thus the PCs and the Venture would have a competitor team snapping at their heals on the trail to Zebulon 2. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
