 November 22, 2011 - 12:37pm | I am running some old SF modules now in a merged setting of SF and Star*Drive (Alternity setting) using True20 as the system. I am bringing some of the politics of S*D and have modified somewhat the SF universe to fit into that political tense model. I thought I would share to see what people thought (be kind, please) .... There were three major sources I used to draw from. (1) Core Star Frontiers rules books, (2) Dragon Magazine's conversion of Star Frontiers races to Alternity, and (3) d20 Future.
Anyway, I thought I would share. Hope you enjoyed. *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
 November 22, 2011 - 3:31pm | I like where you're going with the sathar mechanon connection. It also ties into the whole cybernetic shtick that they have with the cybo-dragon, cybot and other bio-engineered attack monsters. The tech exchange between the sathar and the Mechnons could lead to New BSG style fighters with sathar brains in a mechanon style fighter craft garnering better ADF & MR. If you're recasting the vrusk in the role of the hormone then you might as well go ahead and have a B5 style station that plays a central role except call it Nineveh Station instead of Babylon. Since you're using the sathar as a major foil, have you been by the sathar project on this site? There has been some new ideas and development of their there, particularly I speak of the caste system that's been kicked around. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2011 - 11:41am | Continuing my work on this campaign, I am finishing up the "Beyond the Frontier" modules (slightly modified to fit my story arch) and am planning the next modules and then the finale. My plan is to do a trilogy. The middle modules will be kicked off with "Sundown at Starmist" (once again modified to fit my story arch, including the obvious link between the Clikk and the Star*Drive Klick) and then the finale modules will be the Volturnus adventures. Just to be clear ... In working each adventure into my story arch, I am trying to keep as much as I can that is core canon as I can. I have to rename the worlds and systems, but the encounters and most of the story line stays intact. Going through my old stuff, I have come to the realization that I have never actually run the Volturnus adventures and never actually read them. I ran so much of my own stuff that I never really got into the canon adventures that much. I had heard of the Eorna before from my other SF fan friends but by the time I got the adventures, my version of SF had advanced far past anything the Volturnus adventures could contribute too. Reading them now, I am re-writing the Eorna and the Volturnus background to make it work into my story arch as well as linking them into some of the Star*Drive background. I am making them mush older than they seem to be described in the Volturnus text and removing the link to Sathars - making their big bad enemy the Thaal from Star*Drive. As I have been working on this, I am realizing that there are some similarities between the Eorna and another race I have encountered in another setting - one of my favorites, Fading Suns. The Vau in Fading Suns evolved in a very similar fashion - from dinosaur like creatures. I highly recommend checking out the setting (although the system sucks). I am using pictures of the Vau as my representation of the Eorna (see below) and using some of the mystery of the Vau to boost the coolness of the Eorna.    *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
December 2, 2011 - 12:18pm | Here is the re-write of the Volturnus background that I worked up (OCRed the orginal and just editted it a little). I had to rename the system and world to Altrensia and Altrensia IV, respectfully. The {ancient alien} donation is a placeholder for when I decide who the Tetrarchs were at war with. It's more than likely going to be the Thaal from Star*Drive Externals but I am leaving it open for right now. I am also inserting a Star*Drive concept of the Glassmakers, a precursor race. As part of my story arch, the region of space it takes place in has a high concentration of Glassmaker artifacts, including a some planets "infested" with a sentient cystalline entity, which is at the center of my campaign. I felt that there was enough commonality between some of the mysteries of Voluturnus and what I was developing as Altrensia IV that I decided to merge the two concepts.
System brief: Altrensia (Revised for the Highbreed Reborn campaign) System name: Altrensia Star color: Yellow Habitable planets: Altrensia IV (Hades) Moons: 1) Leo: Completes one orbit every three days, reddish-orange in color 2) Lulu: Completes one orbit every 27 hours, bluish-silver in color Climate range: Hot, arid to humid Atmosphere: 78% nitrogen, 21 % oxygen, 1 % argon Gravity: 1.0013 Diameter: 12,895 kilometers Length of days: 24 hours, 03 minutes Average surface temperature: 25 degrees C Colonists: Unsettled Native population: 1.) The UI-Mor, desert-dwelling novepi (nine-limbed creatures). 2.) The Kurabanda, forest-dwelling bipeds similar to tarsier monkeys 3) The Edestekai, hill-dwelling tripeds, trilaterally symmetrical. 3.) The Mechanons, a mysterious race of intelligent machines. 4.) The Eorna, a race of dinosaur-like bipeds. The original intelligence on Altrensia IV. Planet history Altrensia IV is a hot, dry world with many types of hostile terrain. The endless deserts, rugged mountains, volcanic wastes, and dangerous salt flats are constantly scoured by a strong southwesterly wind. Despite these harsh conditions, rare patches of forest and even a few lakes have managed to maintain a perilous existence. Streel Corp discovered a star route to the Altrensia system recently, sending an expedition to the planet nine years ago. Seeking out a system that would not attract a lot of attention in a remote part of space, Streel eagerly set up an operation in this system. Streel set up their genetic manipulation operation once the space station around the inner most gas giant was built.. The story of Altrensia IV is a strange one. Once the home of a gentle race called the Eorna, it is now a barren, harsh world. The fall of Altrensia IV begins when the Eorna, a race of intelligent dinosaurs. One of child races of the Tetrarch Societies (like the Vrusks), the Eorna developed as rapidly as the Vrusk brothers. While the Tetrarch watched, the Eorna discovered the crystalline entity on their homeworld and its nature. They studied it, developed a religion around it and anointed themselves the caretakers of it and any other relics of what are now called Glassmaker relics. The Eorna colonized a few worlds, discovering more ruins of the Glassmakers, including several with crystalline entities throughout the planetary crust. (It is during this time that the Eorna built technology using crystals from the crystalline entities they found. They built robots using crystals from the entities and eventually it became a common technology. These robots eventually evolve into the various versions of the Mechanon race.) However, unlike the Vrusks, the Eorna did not benefit from close protection of the Tetrarchs. After the Eorna colonized a few nearby worlds, they fell victim to the {ancient alien} and their space armada. The attack came with no warning; the Eorna were not even aware of the presence of the {ancient alien} until the mysterious aliens invaded their region of space. The {ancient alien} space armada quickly overwhelmed the Eorna, wreaking destruction across their planets. In a short amout of time, the {ancient alien} had nearly driven the gentle Eorna to extinction, wiping out their colonies and leaving their world in ruins. Still, the homeworld Eorna fought valiantly, and were able to resist complete annihilation because the {ancient alien} had overextended their supply lines in the War with the Tetrarchs. The {ancient alien} retreated, hoping they had destroyed enough of the Eorna civilization to prevent the gentle creatures from ever attempting interstellar travel again. In case they had failed, however, the {ancient alien} left a mysterious artifact behind to alert them of any interstellar travel in the Altrensia system that might occur in the future. Very few Eorna survived the Day of Death. They soon realized they were doomed as a race, for they knew that their numbers were not large enough to provide a viable gene pool. The survivors chose to dedicate what remained of their lives to the evolution of other intelligent races on Altrensia IV. The Eorna hoped to prepare these races to meet and defeat the {ancient alien}. The Eorna are using a subtle process of DNA manipulation they learned from the crystalline entity to accelerate the development of three races toward intelligence. Once that process was started, most of the Eorna survivors placed themselves in stasis, waiting to be awakened until they are needed. Meanwhile, despite that most of their young were born physically or mentally deficient because of the limited gene pool, the Eorna that remained continued to breed, relying upon their children to watch over their genetic evolutionary project. The project grew to a legend and then a myth, and eventually a religion to the descendants of the original Eorna. The development of the star route has completely upset Eorna plans. Though three races are intelligent, they have advanced only to a primitive state of technology. Meanwhile, a race of intelligent machines has evolved in the secret caverns. These machines, the Mechanons, are determined to eliminate or control the organic life forms infesting Altrensia IV. They will stop at nothing to insure their utter and total domination of the planet. (These are the Altrensian version of the Mechanons. The Sathars have since contacted another subspecies of the Mechanons, who are equally aggressive and insidious). Also a ruthless band of pirates and mercenaries, hired by Streel, have established an operation on the planet, and have enslaved Edestekai farmers. They were hired to harass and protect the Streel operation, while the Streel allowed them to run pirating and illegal mining operation on the planet. The primary jump route into the system usually hits the Altrensia IV orbit first, because of the gravity well created by the Twin Sisters. *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
December 2, 2011 - 1:08pm | I'm kit bashing and revising the Volturnus series In the Volturnus Revisited porject, its more of a hobby right now but the dream is to redo and publish a modern retelling of the Volturnus series that might be fun to play and that Veteran SF players may not know whats coming next. Current effort is to look at the creatures and rethink some of the wonky ones. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2011 - 2:00pm | I have already started changing the first encounter - the Pirate Attack. Why would pirates attack a ship so lightly armed. *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
December 2, 2011 - 3:40pm | I don't think the question is why the would attack a ship so lightly armed but how did the pirates get so close as to board the ship before anyone knew? At a minimum the ship has to have radar and in an uncharted system what sort of an incompetent captain isn't paying attention?
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 2, 2011 - 4:43pm | Inside job *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
December 2, 2011 - 5:33pm | I had considered that but its not clear in the module. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 4, 2011 - 4:52pm | I assumed that the original intention would have been to acquire more slave labor. But seeing as how they made no effort to capture anyone, it appears that at best, they were very inept. I hate it when things do not make sense from a practical standpoint. And I am not a big fan of coincidence. |
December 5, 2011 - 1:00pm | In the end, you write it up to starting adventure writing. It was not supposed to be a hard adventure because it was the first you were supposed to play. As for why, I think they left that up to you. That's what I love about the SF universe in general. It leaves a lot for the GM play with. *---------------------------------------------------------------------* Seawolf's Den - www.seawolfsden.net *---------------------------------------------------------------------* |
