 May 12, 2011 - 4:38pm | Character creation: Becca 5yrs wanted a human doctor (didn't want to play an alien because she didn't want to be a monster):named Rabecca Allesandra Rachel 9yrs wanted a yazirian as soon as she heard about the gliding ability and went for military PSA with technitian so she could be the drive and beam weapons skill so she could fire a laser. Named: Rose Sunflower Dad 44yrs created an NPC companion- Rollo a dralasite Roboticist and Computers tech to help out. First Session: Jumped right into Crash on Volturnus with fighting pirates in the corridors. using the remake of the serena dawn deck plans that I uploaded to the deck plans project. The 5yr old wanted to be the first into combat with her doctor and complained if other characters monopolized the fighting. to move the game along I offered choices of course of action and they made the decision as to what we'd do next. Searching the cargo hold was interesting- when the High Fashion Human dress (I called it a fancy dress) came up the 5yr old wanted to keep it; she's a bit of a girly girl and loves dresses so I had to add it to her character sheet. by the time we got to the top deck which was the 3rd fight the 9 yr old was asking if we could stop so I cut to the chase and started describing the ship breaking up and asked them if they wanted to try running for the life boat. The NPC suggested they each grab a survival pack from the locker and they boarded the lifeboat with pirates shooting at it while the door closed. as the life boat dropped to the planet below the Serena Dawn blew up and a small pirate ship came in pursuit and shot at the life boat, hitting it just before it entered the atmosphere. At this point I told them the lifeboat was on fire and going to crash on the planet but tried to leave it as a cliff hanger, asking questions like, "Will the pirates destroy the lifeboart?" "Will everyone die in the crash?" Very matter of factly the 9yr old told me, "We'll live." Seems like she knows the game cant go on if we die in a crash. Due to the ages involved I used lots of miniatures and printed deck plans to give them somthing to focus on and center their attention. In particular they liked moving their own miniature. There was some minor irritating of Dad with the dice and a cup and tray for rolling dice in might solve the problem of wild dice flying across and off the table. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 12, 2011 - 11:20pm | The wild dice thing is quite familiar. My ten year old and thirteen year old both still have that problem. But the thirteen year old is not to bad if his fifteen year old sister keeps reminding him to control the dice rolling distance. My eight year old daughter didn't participate too well in SF0 and would wander away allot when the others got into discussions about how they would go about things. Glad to see you playing with your kids. This project is a great idea for getting us active as GMs for the next generation. My kids are at the start of SF1 in the fight in the trees. But we have been stalled for five months now. This project may just help kick me in the pants. -iggy |
 May 13, 2011 - 11:57am | Dudes... I ROLL DICE OFF THE TABLE ALL THE TIME.  I've never had the wife unit and son unit play in the same game... it's always one or the other. The son unit makes his own game mechanics and stories, typically using HeroScape dice but he likes percentile and d20's as well. I expect we'll have a huge spaceship battle when my spyder mini's come in. w00t! We have never played Star Frontiers - I think thats due to lacking miniatures, I have hundreds of Star Wars & DnD mini's which we use all the time with terrain. Star Wars has been fun and he is helping me test the Bare Bones Game System (BBGS). Wife unit likes Lord of the Rings Adventure RPG, which I'm converting to BBGS with an optional damage table (kinda like MERP). |
May 13, 2011 - 8:35pm | just an FYI for those of you who are at the fight in the trees in SF1; I've long had plans to do a terrain piece that would be printed tree leaves with 1" grid super imposed and glued onto foam core. All 4 levels of tree branches that are represented on the trees section of the back of the port Loren map will be cut separately and then slid down a 1/2" dowel that would be set into solid wood base. The point being its a tactical encounter and the wargamer in me knows that good terrain peices enhance tactical wargaming. - often enought you can look and say yes or no on whether a figure should have line of sight. Since my kids are young and they like moving the figures around this will probably be a memorable encounter for them. I'm mixing tangible and abstract elements in the game and hope to determine if both work or not. RE; the terrain piece; Planning to make the bottom most level the most connected from tree to tree ie it will be on piece and allow the greatest movement. The 2nd level will have several connection between trees but not all. The third level will only have a few and the 4th will have none. Will show pics of the piece when its made. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 13, 2011 - 8:55pm | I am interested in the tree terrain. How soon will you be working on it? -iggy |
May 13, 2011 - 9:05pm | soon I should think, next couple of weeks. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 17, 2011 - 1:42pm | Well we've crash on Volturnus, the dralasite NPC was knocked unconscious and everyone was very nearly incinerated when the life boat blew. We had to fight a funnel worm (quick battle as it was over when a solid throw of a tangled caught the worm square in the face. Then a sand shark and then we met the Ul-mor. I cliff hangered them with "you have to fight the beast to join the tribe." Doing an RPG with kids work. Lot of management by having then roll dice and move miniatures as well suggesting courses of action. They need lots of activity and less abstract playing methods. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 15, 2012 - 3:06am | I introduced my kids to role-playing with Star Frontiers. I hear them talking about Vrusk & Dralasites with their friends, which is pretty cool. We still play, whenever we can. Mommy has a Yazirian, big sister has a human cyborg (modeled after 7 of 9), little sister is a princess from Clarion, and big brother is a Dralasite. We have a vrusk medic NPC, and a couple robots. Yes, we have that same dice problem. We finally got some plastic trays, and handed them out. |
