 August 17, 2011 - 1:03pm | I ran across this today: http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/173656-oozeforged.html This got me thinking about ways to introduce increased special abilities for the SF races. In d20, this is easy using the feat system (see the link above for some dral racial feats). Any thoughts on new abilities for SF races? Ways to implement it in the classic/remastered system? Long live the Frontier! |
 August 17, 2011 - 1:22pm | Matter of fact I was thinking of this today just hadn't had a chance to post. Yazirians with their wing flaps and fingers have a lot of scope for developing slight of hand. Slight of hand can of course be used to entertain or steel. However the Yaz honor code wouldn't even all one to steal unless he was already disgraced or clamored OR if he was an intelligence operative. +10% to slight of hand. But this is knot if the character has developed a skill giving him slight of hand or has spy PSA. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 17, 2011 - 1:42pm | Humma excel at rudeness. +20% to any PER check when attempting to illicit a negative response from an NPC. Actually that bonus is probably too low, it should be +40%. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 17, 2011 - 1:46pm | Vrusk have an affinity for business +15% to LOG checks while reviewing business records to spot an inaccuracy or +15% to comprehension checks while observing the Frontier version of the Amway sales being to spot the flaw in the pitch. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 17, 2011 - 1:54pm | Human knack for ______________. Human picks one narrow skill or one subskill spends 3 Exp at character generation and has a permanent +5% in said narrow skill. Knack must be within PSA. and limited to a narrow skill or to a subskill. Shooting must be limited to a certain type of weapon like only pistols in beam weapons. The exp comes from either a total given by the referee to build the PC or baring that its charged against the PCs next 3exp. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 17, 2011 - 2:21pm | This never works on another Humma. A Humma in a non tactical social situation can, with a successful apposed INT check then make a melee attack with his tail an trip his target. If the Humma lost the allowed INT check then there is no melee roll but the target knows the Humma was trying to trip him. There is no damage from this just the Humma being an ass and looking for trouble. I guess this is more of a feat. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 17, 2011 - 2:10pm | Dralasites and handcuffs? Just how do you shackle a dralasite? That's all I got on dralasites for now. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 18, 2011 - 7:26am | Edge and Flaw system in the back of the AD Remastered book. - Combat and non-combat Adopt Savage Worlds Edges and Hinderance system. - Mostly combative, check out the SFSW project on this site. Like jedion is kinda doing, make a bunch of house rules. Start a list of feats. - The great thing about feats is tailoring a character and thinking of stuff you might not consider. The down side is a huge list of feats. |
August 18, 2011 - 9:27am | @ jedion: Great ideas! Thanks, man! @ w00t: Yeah, of course. I was just looking for discussion on what kind of rules people would write up. As I run d20 SF, I use feats. Now all I need to do is write up some good racial feats for humans, vrusk and yazirians. :) Long live the Frontier! |
August 18, 2011 - 1:45pm | Guess I was disconnected, why don't you write a feat system for SF and submit to the zine for publication? .... |
August 18, 2011 - 9:33pm | Its on the list now... :) Long live the Frontier! |
 August 23, 2011 - 7:59am | I have never liked the time limit on drals to grow and expand their limbs. I believe that their lack of rigid internal structure that allows them to grow limbs would be the same lack of internal structure that does not restrict the rapid movements of those limbs. For instance, running and using a keyboard is not hindered. In my games, I do not enforce waiting periods for drals to ‘sprout’. This may not exactly be what you’re looking for but this has been on my mind lately. |
August 23, 2011 - 11:41am | Hrm.. you could base sprouting on DEX. :-) |
August 23, 2011 - 5:58pm | The higher the DEx the faster a dral can sprout a limb? Best to keep it uniform so there is no delay of game to look it up even on a character sheet. Keep it the same for all drals then its easy to remember. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 23, 2011 - 6:59pm | I actually like the 5 minute rule. I've always imagined the drals skin as rubbery, a thick viscous rubber that is not easily pliable. Thus it takes time and effort for them to change shape and they have a slightly lower DEX/RS score on average because of the slight resistance that their rubbery skin has to any type of motion. Anyway, that just my $0.02 worth. 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 |
August 23, 2011 - 10:29pm | I'd keep the limits on the number of actions for multiple limbs, at the very least, otherwise drals (or other multi-limbed beings) could gain a huge advantage. One of the reasons I like the d20 system is it addresses this - two limbed creatures may make one melee attack normally, two at -6 and -10 (with modifying circumstances able to take that down to -2/-2), and creatures with more limbs can make more attacks at increasing -5 penalties (with ways to compensate that downward). In SF terms, one could impose a penalty of -25% on each attack beyond the first when using an extra appendage/arm/tentacle/etc. Personally, staying with the AD rules should follow the KISS principle (Keep it Simple Stupid). :) Long live the Frontier! |
August 24, 2011 - 6:39am | Sounds like d20 uses something similar to Frontier Space. But then star frontiers handled it with 1melee action per hand and foot pairing which meant that only the sralasite got extra attacks. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 12, 2011 - 6:25pm | I like Drals to move and reshape faster based on reaction speed, and have a higher capacity for appendage number based on logic, and longer length based on stamina, using the base line given in the rules as a Sta 50%, RS 50%, and Log 50%, and adjusting on 5% intervals in curved steps from there, such that in one action (~6 seconds) 6cm can grow of one finger-cilia out of 40 possible 60cm cilia (effective STR 2% each, and no other appendages) if accounting for a 100% in all relevant stats (a technical impossibility for the common Dralasite), thus allowing some Dralasite to look like 'kooshie-balls' or have cilia 'hair stylz'... I also like ambidexterity in Vrusk to allow a second action in a round with no penalty, and pairs of appendage pairings, AFTER' all hand-arm/leg-tail pairings have been accounted for, to count for further extra actions... thus giving the Vrusk 2 front facing hand-foot actions (doubled from ambidexterity) and 2 additional appendage actions from the back four (also doubled from ambidexterity)... facing for use matters some, appendage type matters more, but in a blood-brawl or from a trained martial-combatant not much... Notes: Dral are not counted arm/leg but as ambidexterity appendage pairings... arm/leg has no meaning to a Dral, it is all flagella-appendages and cilia-digits, and one flagella works as well as another for a given task... Tails and legs without a grasper count as appendages... Prehensile tails and tentacles count as 'hand-less' arms... Hands count as 'hands' no matter if they are on an appendage or a main trunk, with or without a thumb, and again Dral do not have them no matter how many cilia they group in one place it is an imitation of an alien concept at best... Not all Yazi need to follow the strict adherence to an Honor Code... "Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing." ... this is a point that still applies to the Yazirians, and 'Houner in Motion' should be considered stratified and dynamic in the culture and people, and universal or constant only in concept as it is only 'permanent where writen'... as such something like 3rd Ed. Oriental Adventures Honour should be considered for reference but not enforced as an 'alignment rule'... I like using patagia for advantages with slight-of-hand prestidigitations, and the Dralasite with inverted flagella 'mouth-pockets' and the Vrusk chitin 'joint-holes' doing the same... Human Knacks need not be limited to PSA, as they represent natural ability and affinity and not training or environment... could be purchased to full 100% at generation (points coming from other stats and skills), but can not be improved afterward if not a valid PSA skill... I like the merit-edge-advantage/disadvantage-flaw-hindrance systems, the Gamma Dawn works well for this... not fond of the setting crossover ideas, but as the basis for a merits-and-flaws system and alien-construction-kit it's priceless... "The imperfections of a man, his frailties, his faults, are just as important as his virtues. You can't separate them. They're wedded." Feats as a stand alone system lack the negative side of this equation, and is my only reservation for applying them to other systems... there needs to be equally negative Faults to balance every Feat in D20 to mature the Feat system to my taste in this matter... I could mention I prefer to count in ~1-3 second actions, ~9-12 second rounds... and one minute turns... which is a bit off the standard SF way of doing things... so some of my details may need to be adjusted slightly... in this counting tho' effectively 4-6 actions caps a round to max, without some super quick inhuman physics being applied... and even then, 12 1 second actions is a approaching the limits of the combined operators target-acquisition and gun's trigger-reset can keep up with the pulls... now granted if there is no readjustment to a new or moving target and you have a reliable gun, 12 pulls in three seconds is fine, but lets assume that has more to do with skill and weapon type adjustments to the operators natural speed... 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? |
