 December 12, 2011 - 5:59am | Was thinking about how race car teams work together to draft and both cars go faster then the could go individually. Naturally the brain then asked how would that play out in the Frontier? Vrusk trade house who's business is racing? Mega corp sponsorship? Vehicles on a team who's job is to interfere with other racers? What's the angle for adventure? Laco Run! One part Death Race, one part Cannon Ball Full, three parts Mad Max , Road Warrior & Thunder Dome, and maybe a little something from George Lucas. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 21, 2011 - 6:14am | Set on Laco's World, Laco's Run is a long distance endurance race with a 1,000,000 credit prize. Dangers of the run? Left over unexploded ordinance from SW1 and the corporate war, pirates hiding out on Laco, other competitors, the environment. Game is run with a driving skill roll to determine placement in the pack of racers; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and etc for each leg. Referee rolls for breakdowns, random encounters stops for recharges, etc. PC's hired to help an underdog racer and keep the wreckers from team Streel and team PGC off him and give him a fighting chance to finish and perhaps will. BTW just how long does a parabattery take to recharge? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 12, 2011 - 6:35am | Sounds like "Return to Ord Mantel". Assume each 500 SEU takes 1 hour to recharge. |
 December 12, 2011 - 7:55am | Apparently you are not a NASCAR fan Jed. Price list is 5,000 credits for a standard ground car or if your doing an endurance race 20,000 for an standard explorer. To make it a high end competitive racing vehicle go with at least 10 times that amount. Add in a driver, co-driver, crew chief, and 1-3 pit crew members. Do not forget spare parts, food and water and transporting all that around to the races and well a professional race team would not get out of bed for 100,000 credit prize. Maybe you were thinking of an amatuer race at a local track. OR a challenge race where the sponsors provide the vehicles AND the race is really a cover for a smuggling operation where special data chips are hidden in the vehicles and at various stops spies (Sathar or Corporate) are downloading the info and maybe doing away with racers who interfere. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 12, 2011 - 9:32am | I should have specified this is a cross country race and sure RatT the cash prize could be inflated; I just didn't want it to be so large that if the PC's won it it would be a game changer and complicate the referees life. Don't forget the cost of ammo as shooting at other contestants is not only allowed, its expected. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 12, 2011 - 8:28pm | I've always been a game master who loves to give lots of gifts and goodies to my players. After all, the joy is in the giving. But then I challenge myself by finding new ways to take away their gains. So essentially, I guess I get twice the joy! The federal government assesses a "games tax" on lottery winners. I believe it is about 50% of the winnings. I've wanted to do a death race game as well. An in system race where they are given parts and have to craft their own ship and overcome obstacles along the way. They have certain planets as checkpoints. Of course, I never get very far with any of my ideas. |
 December 13, 2011 - 12:24am | I have some racing details written into an upcoming Alex Stone article. Look for it after the currently submitted article. I figure that private courier ships would be friendly competitive about who can make deliveries faster. This would naturally develop into formal races. -iggy |
December 13, 2011 - 7:54am | Despite the focus on drivers racing is very much a team sport. That said the credit prize could be what the driver's share awarded based on position placed. Taxes ah now your in my domain. I am a tax preparer for H&R Block so could go on for a while about them but won't. The simple answer is gambling winnings are not taxed at a higher rate than other income it is just they are added to your income. Win $1,000,000,000 and pay no tax at time of winning congrats you are in the highest tax bracket around 50%. Like I said it is actually much more complicated and the highest winnings I have personally done are $1,000. Maybe I should look into doing some tax code for the UPF? Maybe when I finish the first 20 writing projects on my list. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 13, 2011 - 8:37am | Book says that living expenses are 50% of the pay check so perhaps taxes is assumed to be In that and if a cash prize is one mil they just get a half. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 20, 2011 - 1:43pm | Sounds like "Return to Ord Mantel".
I was thinking hovercraft as well...considering Laco is predominantly sand a "Boonta Eve Pod Race" came to mind. Why bother with traction when you can opt for the vehicles that avoid traction? |
December 20, 2011 - 11:41pm | Yet again another totally wrong thing from Star Wars. Giant turbine pods in front of the racer. If the pilot somehow survived the exhaust from them racing in a desert means sand. Sand which does not do any kind of air propelled vehicle any favors. Especially open cock pit jobs. Oh wait I forgot they were wearing goggles. Stick with ground vehicles please. They would at least survive a sand storm. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 21, 2011 - 5:59am | Actually the movie Hildago is more inspiration for writing this than Star Wars /Lucas. Some inspiration can be taken from from Lucas for sure but the pod design stinks and if I wanted a analog to them in SF them I'd go with hover cycles. I think the race as an adventure would work best as a multiday endurance affair with time for encounters and stuff to happen along the way. The pod race in star wars took place inside an afternoon- no time for distractions and side encounters in that. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 21, 2011 - 6:20am | Each day of race a driver skill roll is made, success can affect overall standing in race. If driver in front of you fails his skill check and you pass your s then you switch positions with him or something to that effect. A breakdown can drop you back in standings having a firefight can also do the same. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 21, 2011 - 6:27am | I won't dispute the absurdity behind the pod race...I was merely suggesting hovercraft over ground vehicles. But yeah, I would surmise the "repulsor lift --- that techno-wonder from the SW universe that allows ANYTHING to hover (remember those hover sleds that were drawn by herd animals on Geonosha when Anakin/Padme were to be executed? Now that was preposterous) --- must have somehow deflected the exhaust venting from those turbines  |
December 21, 2011 - 6:50am | Note to self: when sabotaging a pod racer sabotage the turbine exhaust diverted, the racer will appear in good working order but the turbine exhaust will cook the pilot even before the race starts. That of course should add to the pr-race show. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 21, 2011 - 6:53am | Hildago! Well why not go with an animal race? Hover cycles are good too but an old fashioned Falherd race could be very interesting. Just picture these majestic beasts racing across the sand dunes. To make it interesting this is a team race so you only get credit for finishing a leg when all members of the team cross the finish line. Yes Falherd racing the most popular sport on Laco. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
December 21, 2011 - 6:54am | Sidenote: I was just tracking links to bucksurdu.com/blog to look at the flakasaurus photo he posted and spotted the game review of a GASLIGHT race game run at a convention. The blimp portion caught my eye with card board mountains and cotton batting clouds. The recount of events sounds fairly typical of this type of game at a miniatures con. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 January 16, 2012 - 2:41am | What about the movie "The Great Race", 1965. It is a land race in 1908 from New York to Paris across the continents. It is a comedy, but has some good ideas for side stories. It has been years since I saw it, but are we talking a long race taking days, to provide lots of adventure plots? I say, custome explorers for the participants. If you have enough players, you could split them into teams to work against each other and have a prizes for which team wins, but still give experience to all, whether they win or lose the race. SF still has the atmosphere of a place that is not so far technologically everywhere as to make travel instantaneous all the time. Rattraveller's idea of Hildalgo is a good one. Animal races would be fun too, just not so much of a team sport, except for the rider and animal.An airship would be fun, but are there not dust storms on Laco? Maybe that is the appeal. |
January 16, 2012 - 6:12am | I remember that movie or marathon, it is like 3 hours long. Of course it could have been a mini-series since the side adventures were the most interesting thing about it. Hildago was similar in that the race was only part of the movie and the side stories kept things moving. Of course what side adventures you have will depend on terrain of race, type of race, number and type of participants, setting and of course how devilish the GM is. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
January 16, 2012 - 6:19am | @karxan: maybe the game could be set up as a board game (like KHs) probably need simplified vehicle combat system, event card and map/board. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 28, 2012 - 9:00pm | @Jedion: Actually that would be a good idea for the race itself. Then you could add the role-playing part for side adventures. A fuel/rest stop one night turns into a raid from one of the other teams, or one of the racers is smuggling drugs/tech to someone on the race route. Maybe a lost lover turns up and distracts one team mate/driver and now the team has to find their missing person. |
January 28, 2012 - 11:42pm | @Jedion: Actually that would be a good idea for the race itself. Then you could add the role-playing part for side adventures. A fuel/rest stop one night turns into a raid from one of the other teams, or one of the racers is smuggling drugs/tech to someone on the race route. Maybe a lost lover turns up and distracts one team mate/driver and now the team has to find their missing person.
I need to add this to the list of things to get around to doing. It seems workable. One thing is that you'd want some control mechanism that prevents race participants from getting too strung out on the course. Like the way pit stops function in the Amazing Race. Nothing comes to mind other than enforced pit stops. If you had enforced pit stops that would also facilitate the side stories. The challenge there would be crafting a series of encounters that would logically play out over the course of the race and build to a finish. Even if the PC's don't win the race but succeed at the side adventure its all good if the finish is big enough.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
