The Drakaar

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 11, 2011 - 8:24am
I liked that Fiend Folio (?) pic of a Drow Elf so much that I morphed it into my SF campaign. Enjoy! Wink


http://ragnarr.webs.com/peripheryraces.htm#736618444

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com

Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
May 11, 2011 - 5:17pm
nicely done
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Anonymous's picture
w00t (not verified)
May 11, 2011 - 6:44pm
+1

thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 11, 2011 - 7:27pm
I like it, bit Vulcan but still distinctive, got some of the Maktar guys in there too... works for me... where to put them...

I like the whole site, BTW, Cool... left with a where to fit it all in, I found nothing to suggest good placements... consistently intentional that seems... but not very helpful... is usually the second thing I look for in any write up... as it helps establish how it fits into existing setting...
Still all good and admirably complete otherwise tho' Cool These guys I would want to play.
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 11, 2011 - 8:39pm
I guess it's my love of the game that's the root of my work on the website. I'm ever aware that the work most of you in this forum create & share are lightyears better than anything I hack out for my site, but I still have a complete blast doing it.

Oh, whatever you guys do, DO NOT look at the latest race I'm just finishing up. It's already up on my site under Periphery Races, lower on the same page as the Drakaar. I had to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes as I was typing it up today. It's called a "Phert" which intentionally sounds very close to the word you're already thinking I meant to say. What player would ever have the cahones to play THAT alien? Cool

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 11, 2011 - 8:58pm
Dr. Dzackobpt Kaaah'vhorkiiiin, Phert Health Diagnosis and Anesthesiologist.

Oh, and what examples might there be, for the Drakaar's uniqe consonants, what kind of sound are you thinking of?
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 11, 2011 - 9:30pm
Well, we can only imagine how a humanoid with a unique larynx and tongue would sound like when speaking their native language. But I would think it somewhat akin to that african tribe that makes that clicking pop sound when they speak. That sound is not found in any other language on our planet, and those attempting to speak that tribe's language never get that sound right or even close. I did say that Osakar and Mechanon are able to speak the Drakaar language somewhere in the text.

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 12, 2011 - 8:12pm
ok, thats what I was asking... kewl
Non-pulmonic consonants(pops, clicks, and ejectives) and Affricates would likely be more ranging than Humanly 'normal' in the Vrusk languages also,
the Dralasite are more apt to range across more of The Obstruents and Labial Plosives, and weak in the Coronal and Dorsal consonents, like the Phert (though the Phert may not be quite as weak as the Dralasite in those).
All of them are likely to be more expressive in their various Fricatives and Trills but not likely in the same places.

So from that description, I would up the Drakaar's unique consonants, and expressive ranges, among the Non-pulmonics, Vowels, and the Radical Trills unknown outside of some obscure Vrusk dialects, and possibly give them a higher tendency for Tonal Contoured languages.
Human and Yazirian music and poetry would bore them, just by a lack of subtile aesthetic variation alone, but Dralasite and Vrusk would be more aesthetically interesting... kewl...
Philosophically they share tendencies with the Yazirians however, but the lack of expressiveness expected of such a culture, would make the Yazirians seem child-like and naive to the Drakaar.
Overall, it seems likely the Dralasite would actually be able to find more Drakaar that are capable of understanding, even if they are ambivalent to their philosophical-comedy, than they usually find among the other races.
Humans... not as child-like and naive as the Yazirians, not as Interesting as the Dralasite or Vrusk, obviously capable but possibly not very wise, and definitely undisciplined. Humans can be a threat just by being occasionally unpredictable, but not very worthy of enmity as a whole. A truly unremarkable species, that seems to survive simply by being unremarkable. The factionalism seems to make them more of a threat to themselves, and any warrior in such a high internal conflict, is either to be admired for the struggle, or avoided for their demons.

-brainstorm- kewl...Cool a lot of extrapolation can come from just a few small seemingly unrelated seeds... but this is just suggestion, that key was what I needed to flesh-out that part of them in my mind, thank you.
[added a blurb for humans in edit, took a bit more thinking, sometimes it's hard to step outside of humanity and be unbiased.Foot in mouth]
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 12, 2011 - 7:41am
Mmm... thanks TSC. You have provided me with a delectable spread of yummy buffet style ideas, all steamy and ready to eat. (captain rags ties on a lobster bib) Can I use some of what you wrote to beef up my Drakaar text? Sure am hungry here... um, or there.
Cool

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 12, 2011 - 5:11pm
Cool Glad to help! was a brainstorm in progress, so what you got there was rather raw stream-of-consciousness. Internal dialogue took over my fingers, so lets hope I didn't stick my thumb somewhere inappropriate... [added a blurb for humans in editSurprised

Was also thinking on where they might be appropriately placed, and I came up with a 5ly cluster of about three systems say, about 20ly, give or take a parsec, from Solar Major and Solar Minor, about one and a half jumps past the Vrusk ("Hope Station?" I think it's called, something like that...) Outpost,  puts them just far enough out to be 'out of the way' and gives the Vrusk something to do (not much has been done in that direction, other than the Vrusks seemingly endless attempts to find a gap in the Xagyg to contact the lost colonies, and get a reliable line-of-sight for homeworld transmissions. These guys are not too dissimilar to the Vrusk to form mutual threat relations, or too similar to be seveare competition. But could prove to be yet -another-obstacle, in the Vrusks attempts to secure a nice line-of-sight tachyon emitter/scanner station, for homeworld communications.)

Couldn't tell if you were modeling a pre-industrial, pre-information, post-space, interplanetary, interstellar, or full Type-I society, or if it maybe hadn't been thought out yet,... but I did get the impressionof a pre-industrial/post-space split, with an information-age gap, and a little interplanetary/interstellar wild-card technology, in a Type-0 society... If any of that, works or doesn't, let me know...
[hopes that made sense, lots of obscure literary sci-fi-ology references in there Foot in mouth]

and yeah, that is what I see the boards for, a place to gather up, discuss all the missing keys... and share 'em... [hopefully] everyone benefits. Cool use it...
yea, good idea to ask first tho, some stuff can be 'unmarked proprietary' at least in the mind of the creator.
I see this as something you brought to the table, so I am bringing feedback to be used, abused, or ignored, as you find necessary.
All I can do is appreciate your garden, and hope I don't squish any flowers, as I search for a proper path, pardon me if I stumble around and identify weeds incorrectly. Wink I will try to clean up any messes I make, along the way.
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 12, 2011 - 9:36pm
Nothing in the write-up garden has been squished there TSC; not a concern. I appeciate all input always. Sometimes when I'm writing up a new race or working on some other SF related item for my site, I seem to want to get it done and posted quickly more than just taking a little extra time to detail it further (which in turn can only make it better). I often go back to material I already posted to do some detailing, or rework a posted pic to make it better.

All in all, this forum is a great place to take the SF mind where no (or few) SF minds have gone before. Wink

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 12, 2011 - 11:30pm
kewl, when you get the opportunity, critique my suggestions, or pass me the update. Good to catch thoughts that wander off mark early, to avoid error creep.

I caught the bit about being interstellar in my third read through, (I knew I got the idea that they had a few nearby systems from somewhere, but it was one of those 'hidden in an unrelated paragraph' and 'subliminal information retreival' moments.) but I still have the same basic questions about society level there, and whether my ramble on that was clear, or if maybe I need to define some of the references I made. (Paragraph 2 and 3 of the previous post.)
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 13, 2011 - 7:56am
My thoughts on the Drakaar tech level would be that they developed FTL capabilty only recently (within the past 10 years or so). Their home system was as yet unexplored by the other races when the Drakaar first began to explore neighboring systems. The Drakaar soon discovered the presence of 'other beings' remotely inhabiting nearby star systems and immediately withdrew back to the Drakaar system. After much discussion, they decided that only their honored warrior-priests (the Chin Za) were allowed to leave their star system to make contact with the other races, learn everything they could about alien technology, and also convey the warning from the Drakaar high council telling the other races to stay away from the Drakaar system; any intrusion would be met with extreme and immediate violence.

Regarding location of the Drakaar star system, I intentionally left that out as I feel placement of a new race or star system should always be decided by indiviual GMs to best fit into their campaign.

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 13, 2011 - 1:15pm

kewl, makes sense... it could work out like I'd imagined.

That point is understandable, and thought that was intentional... but hoping I was wrong.
Speaking As just one of many individual GMs that make up that target audience, my response to that tactic is:
   "It is easy to change the suggestion made by the original author/creator if you are going to that anyway, but frustrating as heck to deal with the multi-sourced ambiguity of saturated inconsistant fan-apocrypha, with no original statement of intent existing by the author/creator, when you are looking for usable material that isn't 'the rut work' you fall into on your own."
 
   I may have some use for these guys placed as I was eluding to, but I usually overlook incomplete write-ups for that reason... second thing I looked for, an absence is almost as much a reason as incompatibility, for not reading further, for me.

   But that sounded negative, what has been done is still pretty sweet, and I like where it seemed to be going, and would like to see more of them, or at least your ideas on the apocrypha you might use for your own game.

   I could ramble all day about how I would use them, but at the end of the day, I didn't bring it to the table. Been there before, so I guess I have a bit of the 'more than once bitten' negative here... that is probably an even greater reason for me passing over incomplete works.

[Tongue out Over explained.] I like everything I have seen on your site, what is done is well thought out, so It is a bit of a drooling fan wanting to see where it is going. [runs off to take his rabies shots, before accidentally biting the author at the signature booth. I did that once too (not literally), felt like a heel for a year, then I got to sit down over pancakes with the guy after a gaming session, absolution tastes wonderful with syrup.]

That is just one guys opinion on that tactic, others are still applicable.

Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?

Captain Rags's picture
Captain Rags
May 13, 2011 - 11:03pm
I think you'll like the write up on the Drakaar when I detail it further. I'm sure the Sisteen Chapel looked pretty kewl even before Michelangelo got to brush on those last few strokes of the paint too (yes, I just compared myself to the immortal genius Michelangelo; you read it right).

Although thinking about it, were not the original write ups regarding the four races in Alpha Dawn kind of brief or generalized also? I mean, they didn't delve into every detail of the Human civilization; just enough to cover what's generally important to know about them, right? 
Money mouth 

My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com


thespiritcoyote's picture
thespiritcoyote
May 14, 2011 - 12:01am
true, but I use the expanded xenobiology of the Vrusk mating cycle, and four(I think?) stage metamorphosis. Foot in mouth what do ya' need to know about humans, consider everything else to be a freaky alien, exploit what you can before it eats you, and be as chaotic as possible. 'sides no one plays them right anyway, they are just too difficult to understand.Laughing

'sok, I don't think Michelangelo would be offended, I'm pretty certain he was a gamer...
Oh humans!! Innocent We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".
~ anymoose, somewhere on the net...

so...
if you square a square it becomes a cube...
if you square a cube does it become an octoid?