 August 3, 2011 - 5:06pm |
Planetary Footnote: Headquarters of Tachton Instruments and location of the Frontier's highest mountain, Mt. Spire. Tachton Instruments T.I. controls most of the Frontier's industrial engineering business and more importantly, almost all of the robotics industries. T.I. holds the patents to the Freeswing Gyroscope, necessary for the operation of cost-effective bipedal robots, and on the Marilin Cybernetics Cortex, without which cybernetics would still be a theory. T.I. also produces bionic body parts. Headquarters: Tachton, Lossend, Timeon Chief Executive: Margaret Bouvia (human) Subsidaries: Raupp Robotics, Elmore Electronics, Easley Androids Ltd., Egalt Robotics, LaForce Industrial Engineering Corporation, Dwack Factories The above represents the primary canon material from AD, KHs, & Zebs. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 3, 2011 - 7:28pm | Digging deeper we get to what could be called secondary canon material. Polyhedron #14 "Ambush on Lossend" by Steve Winter Lossend is famous for its copper and diamond mines. LRM enterprises is the largest mining interest on the planet, but several other large companies and many small operators and independent prospectors also have claims on the planet's surface. The sun shines for 40 hours aday pushing the temperature to 55 degrees Celsius (131 degrees F). During the 30 hour night the temperature drops to freezing. While waiting for a connecting flight at Lossend's orbiting starport, Diamond Station, the characters are approached by a LRM agent with a job offer. LRM needs beings from outside the company to drive supply trucks from LRM's main surface installation to one of its mining camps, a round trip distance of 2,600 km. The trip takes 50-55 hours. LRM will pay 1000cr apiece plus free passage out of the system on the next available company transport going their way. Spoiler alert: I'm going to cut to the chase here- the adventure is predacated on a lie by LRM telling the PCs that the trucking concern is shaking them down and they simply need drivers to resupply a camp that has an emergency to prevent possible loss of life there. The reality is that the company has been having trucks hi-jacked and the PCs are bait; there is no emergency and the trucking concern is not shaking them down. The PCs can draw 1 pistol and 1 rifle and no heavy weapons the hi-jackers have heavy weapons in near overwhelming strength and the module is written such that the PCs will be captured. A LRM security team will show up and recapture them with the hi-jackers but will assume they're hi-jackers too. they then have to survive 15 hrs in detention with the real hi-jackers who assume they're working for LRM and will attack them through out that time. At the end of 15 hours the corporate boss who hired them will find them and pay the agreed upon fee plus a 1000 cr bonus. I have a few problems with this. 1. Primary sources say nothing about mining economy and quite the contrary detail farming and industry. 2. the encounters are written as a rail road with the tracks going right through 2 captures and detainment reguardless of what the players do. Then after the railroad they get a 1000 cr bonus for having sat in jail. Whats good with this: A. I like the bait and switch set up by LRM, it would work equally well with a subsidary of Tachton or Tachton itself having its shipments hi-jacked. B. it would work as written for any planet with resource mining economy. for the above reasons I think it should be ignored as canon material, including the name of the armed space station as Diamond. the details about the temperature extremes dont work for a farming colony either. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 3, 2011 - 7:07pm | Next up is Polyhedron #18 "Layover at Lossend" with pre-gen characters who are part of the PGC Scout and Exploration Team on a 5 day layover at Lossend who see extra employment. by Referee fiat their jet copter crashes in a coniferous forest and the previously undiscovered primitive apemen race called Wypong, who have been worshiping the flying craft they see as gods come to the crash site. The characters escaped the crash on parawings and when they hike to the crash to recover the rest of their equipment they discover the Wypongs. Its a thin sketch of an encounter that leaves much to the referee. Details it gives us: 1. dense coniferous forest that are large enough to hide bands of primitive ape cover Lossend's surface. 2. primitive race of ape men 3. PGC has various teams under various names all through out the canon literature which suggest a corporate culture that spawns teams left and right with various names. I think it tells us something about PGC that each planet that has a corporate office and the local CEO of PGC's operation that runs the PGC operation on that planet as a personal fief. In other words there is a lot of kingdom building going on within the Pan Galactic Corporation with even espionage going on against other PGC factors. My 1 problem with the encounter, and I suspect that Terl Obar is with me on this, is that we get yet another primitive race of ape like beings to add to the collection of such within the Frontier: the Kurabanga of Volturnus, the ones from the Bugs in the System module, the ones from the Mission to Alcazar module, did I miss one? Its just getting a little cliche let alone the odds of so many sentient races evolving within such a tight region of space. Its not a problem for people who like a Star Wars like game- with a whole menagerie to populate the Mos Eisley cantina. While I dont like the cliche of the ape men and yet another primitive race I'm not sure this encounter needs to be ignored, if nothing else the details gleened from it about the environment and PGC should enter the canon. the environmental details from this more closely match the implied details of the primary canon. There is also the the possibility that you could combine the two polygon articles giving the PCs a chance to use the ape men as allies agianst the hi-jackers but then that sounds exactly like Mission to Alcazzar. EDIT: a creative referee could take the Wypongs and the convention module "Something Janus" that had primitives being used as Blade Runner style skin jobs and make it that a robotics corp was experiementing with the Wypong and they were the primitive that got used as a skin job. In addition the Snapes from Bugs in the system are engineered Wypongs and you could throw in some good old fashioned slavery with the Wypongs being used on the farms on Lossend. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 6:43am | to write up Lossend I'm for a more commodius range of temperatures than 131F to lower than 32F, So despite the 70 hour day with what ought to be hot days during the Summer and longer cold nights during the winter. Large tracks of coniferous forest will help to regulate the heat a little. No doubt the farmers came to Lossend first and the industry came 2nd. Due to the light population and Tachton's specialty being in robotics most of the industry happens in robotic factories. Tachton must have research labs in the city of Tachton. the question of why there is an armed space station in orbit should be asked. Before the Zebs guide came out it only had jump routes to Prengular, and White Light, both of which have significant military presence with Space Fleet Fortresses and a major fleet in one and a strong militia in the other. it seems that Timeon was well protected from all sides and no doubt once the jump routes to Pan Gal system and New Streel were discovered you could expect the mega corps to maintain its own security there. The sathar could almost never hit Lossend without having been engaged by some sort of armed forced and been chewed on a little. So I think the armed space station is linked to a corporate conflict, perhaps a small one. Since Tachton would have been the driving force behind the station you could expect that it was heavily automated, more so then other stations in the Frontier. Lots of interaction with robots for PCs visiting the station. In the Jedion canon Lossend was colonized as an Ag colony to help provide food for the exploding human colonies in White Light and Thesseus (both heavy population). there was a special agreement between Clarion and Minotaur that since both worlds contributed to bring about the ag colony that neither would control Lossend but rather the colonist their would have self determination. In return for material support the colonist provided food for both planets. A similar arrangment happened on a few other planets around the Frontier and the prescident established by Clarion and Minotaur lead to its incorportion into the laws of the UPF and explains why there is only one colony in the Frontier controlled by an extra system government. The sponsoring institution is called FARM (Frontier Agricultural Resource Mission). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 6:45am | A Short History part 1. Settled by colonist from both Clarion and Minotaur before the first contact with the vrusk and dralasites, Lossend remained an agricultural outpost till the organization of the UPF. The farmers first established on Lossend followed a philosophy of sustainability and soft impact on the environment. At the time of the First Sathar War, with thousands of refugees at Truane's Star and Dixon's Star, inflationary food prices and insufficient food production capacity lead to changes. Larger farms with more automation began to appear which resulted in shift in the population too: fewer farm owners and more laborers. After the war with greater emphasis on automation, the robotics industry prospered on Lossend. Margret Bouvia, a Land Fleet captain freshly discharge from service, returned to find her family's farm sold. Using her back pay she founded Tacton Instruments to meet the rising demand for automation in the agricultural sector. Officially, PGC and Tacton never had a corporate war but historians debate back and forth whether the period of market competition between PGC and Tachton should be labeled a corporate war. Since there was never any real shooting the majority opinion is no. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 6:48am | MARGRET BOUVIA is a tough as nails CEO and former Land Fleet captain. With no prior background in robotics its truly surprising that her company became the mega corp in the Frontier specializing in robotics. Before Tacton reached mega corp status she aggressively threw herself into learning the business, leveraging her knowledge of farming and her status as a native and descendant of one of the first colonizers to gain market share on Lossend. PGC, as the first mega corp, had had the robotics market fall into its lap but its attitude was, "This is our product, take it or leave it." In less than 7 years Tacton had come to dominate the market on Lossend and was beginning to branch into military applications as well as file some of the most significant patents in robotics. Margret, an experience leader had always attracted good personnel as she made a point of returning loyalty for loyalty and betrayal with vengeance. A number of Land Fleet veterans came to work for her, mostly NCOs and a few junior officers who had served with her. With the combined military experience and connections her company quickly broke open the robotics market on the military sector which put her on a collision course with PGC. PGC had been getting its way since the First Sathar War and attempted to simply land mercenaries on Lossend and shut down Tacton but the combination of solid security personnel back by a horde of armed robots caused the mercenary leader to wisely back down. Next PGC attempted to block Tacton's ability to ship product of planet but this move failed due to the perception that PGC had become a bully. A period of corporate espionage and sabotage went on but the conflict never broke out into a true shooting war. Tacton had succeeded by catering to the customer in every sector of the robotics market while PGC had failed through largely attempting to squeeze out the competition. Eventually PGC made peace with Tacton to purchase their excellent security and warbots for use in the conflict on Laco. Tacton used the influx of capitol to expand the corporation to true mega corp status. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 26, 2012 - 7:30am | MARIN BOUVIA, Margret's youngest brother came back from war shell shocked. His unit has been decimated in heavy fighting on Pale. It's even been rumored that he had been captured by the sathar. Some people on Lossend like to say that the worms got into his head but its never said where it might be heard by Margret. Its also not meant literally though it may be litteraly true. Marin suffers from PTSD, nightmares, drug and alcohol abuse. He been hospitalized repeatedly and Margret has done her best to care for him feeling gilt over his following her into the army. She eventually bought back the family farm, automated it and nominally put Marin in charge of it. She also sent a former Land Fleet corporal to watch over Marin and keep him out of trouble. The farm virtually runs itself and Marin stays fairly quiet using drugs and alcohol to block out the voices in his head but occassionaly he slips away to be found naked, gibbering and wandering in the forest. Of late he's been heard talking to himself about eyes, the mission, and other incomprehensible things. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2011 - 7:48am | Margret is always accompanied by a former Land Fleet Sgt., a female yazirian named _____________________.
She is a sort of self appointed body guard/butler that served with Margret. She is very lethal and eliminates threats with extreme prejudice. She commands a 6 being security detachment supported by numerous robots. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 4, 2011 - 11:34am | The Farming Community on Lossend. The first colonist on Lossend recieved grants, material and support form FARM (Frontier Agricultural Resource Mission). The arrangement meant that these colonist paid back their "homestead stake" with cheaply priced food. Originally it was a win win situation as the FARM board recived food to funnel into population growth programs on Clarion and Minotaur and the ag colonist paid off their loan at a fraction of the total cost. The board of FARM had requirements concerning farming practices, farm size, sustainability, and environmental impact that the colonist had to follow or they would have to pay back the full loan with fines. The families that came colonized Lossend through the FARM program were the first wave and socially this carried clout in the farming communities. Later immigrants that came without the support system of FARM board largely populated the laborer class. At the time of the organization of the UPF (during SW1) a small percentage of the Lossend farm owners had paid off their loan to FARM and were able to increase their operation's size and impliment large scale farming practices that were a little harder on the environment (but noticibly so). The slightly elitest FARM board tried to halt this but had no power to do so especially in the face of the emergency situation and the critical shortage of food. It did bar the farmers with outstanding loans from doing this and the end result was that the farms that were able to expand got rich while those that could not were marginallized as they were forced to provide food to the FARM board at pre war prices despite the inflationary economy. By the end of the war the fortunes of many first wave colonist had reversed and their particular social status only remained in the minds and hearts of those families. By and large, farmers on Lossend are seen as resourceful, hard workers with just a bit of haughtiness in their character whether they're 1st or 2nd wave immigrants. By the time of SW2 no one much paid attention to whether a Lossend native was 1st, 2nd or latter wave immigrant. However, there is an sort of faternal organization called the Grange of the Founding Father (GFF) that requires that be descendents of the 1st Wave and the family has continuously farmed with the orginal homestead still in the family. Naturally this organization is smaller every decade with such strict rules and there has been noise about changing the rules a little to open up membership to families that no longer have their original homestead but still farm or that lost their homestead and have re-acquired it. Typically the GFF is concerned with social status and the glorious past. It provides exclusive club houses to its members and arranges for collective bargining by its members to negotiate the best prices for exported food. More and more farming is becoming big business on Lossend and there is tension between smaller farm outfits and larger or corporate run farms. Some of the most successful small farms have converted their operations to wineries and breweries unable to compete with large farms mass producing cheap food staples. Pine Hills Valley has become Lossend's Nappa Valley producing highly prized wines consumed throughout the Frontier. Lossend's independent micro-breweries are prized as well. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 2, 2011 - 7:43am | Um.. Star Frontiers in an IMO gaming mag? Are you sure you don't mean Polyhedron Magazine? I thought Polygon only lasted to issue 9. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
September 2, 2011 - 8:30am | yeah, I got in the bad habbit of typing it that way. I even own a number of the issues in the polyhedron archive. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 8:49am | Cool Theres an archive? Been trying to find Polyhedron for a while. Was never in the RPGA. Wish I could find a complete archive myself. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
September 2, 2011 - 11:54am | Cool Theres an archive? Been trying to find Polyhedron for a while. Was never in the RPGA. Wish I could find a complete archive myself. there is a link to the web page the archive is on but damifIknow where it is try this: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5640 I jsut uploaded it for you Maybe w00t or someone remembers where the archives are. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 5, 2011 - 7:35pm | All the SF related ones are on starfrontiers.com. They are in the magazine section of the offical TSR materials menu item. However I think they are off-line at the moment as he is still rebuilding the site. 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 12, 2011 - 4:09am | THOUGHT: what if we kept the wypong race but tweaked them to be less then sentient and more of a very smart animal? Then they're not yet another primitive ape race but an animal. On par with chimps. Previous reports of their sentience were over stated. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 13, 2011 - 3:33am | The hotter parts of the planet, with less heat reduction adaptations, and beyond the extents of suitable farming climates, could be turned over to mining to support the robotics industry... Minerals for high-yield fertilization of the farms... and high profit precious resources of copper and diamond have their lure even in a agriculture based society (Agricultural India for example), as well as uses very much more common to the maintenance of a robotic farm tech-base, than would be seen in a lesser medieval farm tech-base. Mining could also be supported by dynastic families of the mining families of the original old worlds, that are themselves entrenched in the social-political-economic foundations of Lossend. These families would technically predate and be the original power behind FARM, having the original motivations, resources, and power to start the institution and formalize Lossend as a food supply planet. I do not like it either, and especially not another 'ape-man' species... but if the numbers are low, or it turns out they are not really sentient just really smart, I'll buy it as a Sasquatch with a Kea's mentality, an East African Grey's vocabulary, and a propensity for being called vermin by the more rural locals. Wypong: The rural farmers despise them for ruining crops and wreaking expensive equipment... the wildlife and forestry are fighting a loosing battle against their natural curiosity of the electrified mono-tracks, auto-mining stations, unmanned survey post power-generators, global waste-depositories, and many other unguarded hazards away from urban areas they tend to kill themselves with... off-worlders hunt them for sport, pets, and research... and lobbyists are constantly trying to include them as citizens, only to end up lunch or mistaken as a potential mate when they try to share their picnic-baskets in gestures of galactic peace with the easily spooked and 'overly friendly' uninhibited primitives... Sure there might be a few Wypong geniuses in the lot, but those are smart enough to stay away from the high-tech strangers. In any case, as a species, they are not going to be joining any council meetings any time soon. (This may offend, it is not a true reflection of my personal beliefs, no speciest rage please: In effect it doesn't matter how smart they are, they are alien-primitives at best... if you don't want them in the local cantina, don't give them a cred-stick, bank-account, or comprehension of sliding-glass doors... play up the primitive aspect to heights of alien-stupidity... and they will be like animals... you can even change your mind a few times and it still wont matter... gorillas, birds, and dolphins can talk, learn how to use windows based computers, and be taught to shoot a projectile weapon... but they still don't vote or drive cars... to be fair, some cantinas do allow them inside, but it is rarely a free ride.) Oh humans!!  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? |
September 13, 2011 - 5:39am | After reading spiritcoyote's post I was suddenly reminded of a very old name for big foot: skunk ape, which dates to colonial times on the East coast. I think I like it as a derogatory name for the wypong by the farmers. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 29, 2011 - 2:39pm | EDIT: Lossend's Economy Major Trading partners: Lossend exports food to Clarion and Minotaur (High population worlds lacking in agriculture) Robotics are exported to Gran Quivera and sold under license to PGC (mostly personal robots and security bots sold through the PGC catalog and showrooms). Robotic factories are manufactured modularly and shipped throughout the Frontier Robotic farming and food processing equipment as well as parts is sold locally as well as being marketed to New Pale, Ruperts Hole, Yast, Inner Reach, Groth, Ken'zah-kit, Kdikit, Morgaine's World, Hakosoar, Circe, and Kraatar. Finished goods are imported from Gran Quivera and refined metals mine on the moons above Morgaine's World's and refined on planet. Petroleum for plastics is imported from Clarion and heavy duty industiral materials from Minotaur. Common Agricultural Exports (see SFman issue 17) the native inikfruit, High in starches and nutrients, 200 million tons ship is shipped to Clarion and 180 million tons shipped to Minotaur. 50million tons shipped to to misc. destinations. The dried gourds are painted and decorated and sold at trinkets to tourest and used as a popular musical instrument locally but otherwise do not impact the economy significantly. chyctoss (originally imported from Morgaine's World), and excellant meat substitue, 250 million tons shipped to Clarion and 98 million tons shipped to Minotaur. Bacaya Fruit, Grown on many worlds in the Frontier it is not a significant export but certainly a important to the local economy. Baslic herb, transplanted from Clarrion, the baslic plant is grown for both the local economy and for export but is not a significant export item. Chale, transplanted from Gran Quivera, is a delectable leafy plant and 300 million tons is exported to Clarion and Minotaur. Karreega, another transplant from Gran Quivera, is a popular food with vrusk but only a small amount is grown and shipped to Kwadl-kit. Lurine, a transplant from Minotaur is a major export in the form of liquor. Its shipped throughout the Frontier but Lurine liquors from Lossend sell poorly on Minotaur. Its used in whisky, and brandy but the Lossend Liqueur Company has become quire successful marketing flavored line of Lurine Liqueurs for desserts and coffee and tea mixers. Popular flavors are Inik Liqueur (Red), Grawbello Liqueur (deep orange), and Maccatta Liqueur (Bright green in color). Note Dralasites despise Maccatta Liqueur and any food prepared with it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 6, 2012 - 7:04am | Lossend's Star Port: Dawn's Landing When the joint agricultural mission from Clarrion and Minotaur landed on Lossend they named the sight Dawn's Landing after the hot shot Royal Merchant Marine pilot who first landed here. Pilot Lt. Dawn Winters' landing craft suffered a catastrophic failure that should have crashed her ship but somehow managed to pull off a landing saving the equipment and engineers on board the shuttle. Unable to lift off Lt. Winters organized the engineers and kicked and cajoled them into overcoming the obstable of leveling the location and setting up a landing feild. The sight was not the intended location for the first Star Port on Lossend but neccessity required that it be used in the early days of the colony. There has always been discussion building another Star Port but the political will and even more importantly the financing is lacking. O'Donnal's Station is a thriving but moderately sized city a kilometer away fromt he star port. Its main street is lined with general stores, saloons, barber shops, trading posts, equipment repair shops, and stables. A major component of the city's economy is the food processing and packaging business (for export), the animal trade (local), and Tachton's warehouse and shipping facility. Sherridan Vallley is a major wine producing center, with idyllic environmental conditions for the cultivation of grapes and other fruits used in the wine making process. Tachton City is the corporate headquarter of Tachton Industries on Lossend. It has a better star port than Dawn's Landing (though reserved for company craft), research labs, factories (mostly robotic), an arcology for corporate personnel, and support facilities for its operations. Its called a city more for its size then its organic population. What is of note is that Tachton City is a show case for automated living. There is a conference center and major symposiums on robotics and AI are sponsored by Tachton. There is also a robotics camp sponsored by the company for the youth of Lossend to attend. EDIT: the government runs a clinic at O'Donnal's Station, The MSO runs a hospital at Dawn's Landing (or should the government run that?) and Tachton City has a corporate run (effectively private hospital) its for the company personnel employed on planet and though it will care for farmers showing up who need medical treatment payment is expected. government pays for the public hospital and clinic out of tax money and Rangers repond to medical emergencies in the out back. Otherwise most people do for themselves. If there was a disaster Tachton security personnel would assist and the hospital care at Tachton city would be provided free in the interest of public relations. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2011 - 7:26am | Commonly raised or maintained animals on Lossend: The Pecken is a 4-7 kg flightless bird, genetically engineered to effectively digested Lossend's inscet life. (Looks and tastes like chicken.) Its an excellant source of protien as well as the eggs it lays. The pecken is extremely cost effective for farmers to raise as they will gorge and grow fat on insects with only minor amounts of feed required to round out their diet. A local food chain resturant Lossend Fried Pecken (LFP) has just recently expanded to its operation to extra system locations at Port Loren, Clarion Station, and Minotaur. More are planned for next year but the company is branching into corporate run Pecken farms to support the increased demand. The Genquine is a genetically engineered Equine stock from Clarion that has adapted well to the Lossend environment. Some breeds have been interbred with cloned horse stock and thus there are now a wide variety of breeds on Lossend. When the colonist arrived on Clarion it was discovered that their cloned horse stock easily became sick and experienced a high death rate. Geneticist eventualy came up with a genetically engineer horse stock called genquine that proved resistent to the adverse Clarion environment. The first farmers on Lossend brought genquine with them for muscle power. Latter it was determined that the terran horse would do well on Lossend as well. Some ranchers use pure cloned horse stock but most use genquine or mix bred genquine and horse stock. They're powerful, smart animals and many farmers keep them for transportation even if they have electric vehicles available. Despite Tachton's claims concerning their recent debut of the robotic horse; genquine and terran horses remain the best and most reliable method of transportation in the undeveloped mountainous ares of both Lossend and Clarion. Loxxen is a genetically engineered bovine developed specially for the farmers on Lossend. Not terribly bright, it can be ill tempered and dangerous. They grow big on Lossend's Parie Grass. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2011 - 8:12am | RE: the Wypong From "Layover at Lossend" from Polyhedron #18 thought it over now for quite alwhile and the work on "Mooks without Number" adventure got me thinking: if I use the town map on the back of the Port Loren map for the farming village then why does it have a fence? With a farming village it would likely be to keep out a predator so that got me thinking about animals and then it occured to me that we have this wypong creature and while I'm loathe to introduce an unneccessary primitive sapien these creatures could be recrafted as a just an animal, sometimes aggressive, mostly a nuisance and easily driven off or kept out with a fence. By doing that it leaves that bit of minor canon in and anyone who wants to play Layover at Lossend as written can but the wypong can also remain in as tool using animal much like large apes on earth. I have to double check the article to confirm these are herbavores and then create a large predator that may have fed on weak or isolated wypongs as well as bothering the farmers. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 29, 2011 - 5:14pm | I sent some stuff in to the SFMan about the lossodragon, a flying predator that lives on the slopes of mount Spire on Lossend. I mention them in the second Alex Stone article in SFMan #17 and in the Wiggling Brothers and Timeon Safari classified adds. There are some other beasts mentioned in the Timeon Safari add and when Alex Stone finally gets to Lossend he will write about the safari business. The campaign I have with my kids will take them to Lossend after they finish the Voltrunus series. If you have not done a map of Lossend yet I would love to do it and collaborate with you to include what your doing here and what I have in mind for the adventure my kids will have there after Voltrunus. I view Lossend as a mix of 19th century colonial Africa and Australia. I have an indigenous NPC race that lives on the continent with Mount Spire and no where else. They are very primitive, traveling in groups of two or three, beginning of language and tool use, can be domesticated, but protected by the government to prevent exploitation. Their continent is a preserve due to their existence. -iggy |
October 30, 2011 - 6:22am | @ iggy: WOW, my bad, I thought I remembered Mt Spire being on Minotaur! Sure Iggy I'm happy to collaborate- I had not thought out the environment much beyond detials revealed in the 2 magazine articles. I like the idea of Africa/ Aussie savanah like terrain. I'd like to keep the forest of "layover at Lossend" article so perhaps its at higher lattitudes. Ultimately I think we should detail 3-5 or 5-7 environments. Also we should do our homework and detail conditions on Mt Spire at different elevations in case a GM wants to use that location for action. I have personal experience at 13,000 ft and its amazing just how tough it is to keep moving, putting one foot in front of another. Just How High is Mt Spire? I think its name suggest its shape or look. What sort of Geology might have gone into its creation? Does it reach vaccum? Is that possible? I think that there has to be some serious mountain ranges to reflect the mining detailed in one of the magazine articles and to support the idea of Mt Spire. BTW I think Mt Spire should be higher than Everest. RE: primitives; it doesn't sound that you're down with the Wypong? of LayOver at Lossend. I'm not in favor of a sapient race (or rather yet another) Are you up for a compromise where we leave it vague concerning the race or write that there is debate among scientist as to whether the race is actually sapient despite having tool use and some primitive vocalizations? Basicly I think I'd like to leave it so that GMs can interpret the race the way they want- dumb animal or sapient primitive. I like the idea of a Continental Preserve. No doubt there is a science station. I also think that there should be some Core 4 presence on that continent from before it was designated a preserve at least one settlement and maybe a monastery thus since these predate the legistlation of a preserve they're grandfathered in. The settlement could be coastal with a fishing and farming economy and the science station uses it for logistical support: bulk freight has to be shipped out somehow so the science station gets its supplies in and out through the port or the landing field. The manastery could be an odd brother/sisterhood of yazirians or something. Perhaps 20-60 km from the one settlement. I'd say you should have at the map since you're planning to run a a campaign here. So far we have savanah, sea, temperate forest, Mountains, (note I pretty much treat Ocean as a default environment for planets that have them- they don't really need an environmental discription but I like to describe 3-4 fauna and possibily 1-2 flora) so discounting the ocean thats 3 environments. I like the California Oak Woodland for a model environment ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_oak_woodland )where the savanah give way to oak savanahs in the foot hills of the mountains or in valleys and along the coast. Naturally we wont use an oak but describe a native plant though humanity may have imported an oak tree which would to do well colonizing Lossend. (Suggested plants: Lossend Iron Oak, Lossend Birch, Savanah Grass, Husk Nut Kelp) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 6, 2012 - 7:11am | Government? Democracy small communities elect a part time mayor Larger towns have full time mayors All citizens vote for a President and legistlature. One house legistlature? Elections held after the harvest. Judiciary? circut judges? Them's Fighting Words: insulting a Lossend citizen you could call him the slang term for the wypong: skunk monkey or skunk ape further you could insinuate that his parentage included a wypong but you better be able to take a punch, "You're so ugly, your momma must have slept with skunk apes." a nickname sometimes use to refer to a big tough individual is Lox. Its a reference to the genetically engineer Loxxen which are big tough sometimes ill tempered but also noted as not too bright. This nickname can be used as an insult or not depending on the social context. For instance calling someone a, "big dum Lox," would be an insult but a member of Dragon Squadron could have the call sign Lox because he's big and tough and that becomes his nickname. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 6, 2012 - 9:43am | Planetary Brief update. Good work done on environment, some flora and fauna has been done but more could be developed. Good material on history, society, and some notes on some locations as well as material on how to insult a native Lossendite. Material on Tachton but could use a map of Tachton city (general city map should be good). Need a write up for the space station, as well as some stat blocks on common robots produced by Tachton that could be encountered. Government should be fleshed out. Militia needs more fleshing out. Details on mount spire and Timon Safari need filling in. Finally some encounter tables. Note to self: bug Iggy about his Timon Safari material. ALSO a detailed table on cargoes that could be picked up here. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 15, 2012 - 9:44pm | It's all look'n good to me. gotz to love touring the local flavors of parley, especially around-about the more frontier-à'la-frontier...Hey'they'rah skunk monkey! Ye rah'mama gi'tah loss ind'ah herd, yew'ah der lox'd?  shi-i'ew, fer ah'space-cadet y'mus go'tam dus'neb ah'tweem yew'ears, son... I'eh ah'mean, com-sings jus'a do'un get'on thru, done they?  Simpul Ieh git tew muh biz'ah in-is! kay? Tew Wich yew Need'ieh fix'un, an'ah wich yew not Need'ieh fix'un?  ...sometimes its hard to tell who is being nice, and who is just being a bit too chum·palsy, on the outward verge, open-range perimeters, or the protected extrinsic territories. Walk softly, keep you laser handy, and your screens on.  Oh humans!! 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? |
October 3, 2020 - 6:26pm | Environment 131 F to 32 F or below because of 40 hours sunlight and 30 hours night suggests an axial tilt equatorial zone is probably desert which gives way to savanah which gives what to "coniferous forest" which gives way to tundra which gives way to artic. mountainous should be covered as a biome since we have Mt. Spire. Poetentially oceans too Desert to tundra should be described. I'm not going to put too much into change of season just the default biomes classic creatures for this planet are the losso dragon and wypongs. dragons primary band of environment is savanah and mountainous but they "bleed" into desert and coniferous forest. Wypongs default or primary band of environment is forest but they "bleed" into savanah and tundra. should consider other creatures besides the imported ones. EDIT: Lossend could be one of those planets lacking in bio diversity. so maybe not much besides whats imported and the wypongs and the losso dragon However, the must be an evolutionary tree that culminates in the losso dragon- lizard like creatures: Losso monitor- lizard without wings potentially dangerous or very dangerous? minature losso dragons- not an imaginative name so playing with Losso fairy dragon. new species of losso dragon- the forest dragon with slightly different stats then the original losso dragon wypongs? hairy apes- another evolutionary tree of mammalian type creatures- potential prey for the losso dragon. other small mammalian creatures? losso vermin- a least of dozen different species of small creatures that the dragons and the wypongs feed on. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
