 January 22, 2012 - 9:18pm | I am working on equipment books (weapons to start with), and would like to give each race a unique technological development. I am trying to make other races something other than humans with different "faces". Look a bug with a laser pistol, and a blob of protoplasm with a laser pistol, and a flying monkey with a laser pistol, etc, etc... Due to the way space travel was discovered, it would not take huge amounts of time to develope FTL travel. It would be found quite by accident while exploring the local solar system. This would make technology more "primitive" than most sci-fi settings. Humans are easy, we like things that go boom. Most of our early technological development relies on chemical interaction. Coal, steam, gunpowder, gasoline, etc. Continue that thought and man goes into space with chemical drives and weapons that fling projectiles at each other. Gauss weapons were never pursued and laser weapons were in a primitive stage due to energy requirements. What if a race did not have such volitile materials? What would there technology be based on? I thought of the Vrusk. I pictured their world as a wonderous place where the rock is very magnetic. This would make the Vrusk masters of manipulating magnetic fields. They would have vehicles that are suspended on repulsor fields (the basis behind aircars and skimmers). They would have floating islands and cities (every sci-fi setting has continents flying above the landscape somewhere). Vrusk security forces would be armed with gauss assault rifles and intertial screens. Vrusk spaceships could fly between the stars on magnetic sails and magnetic rail drives (suppress a weight's magnetic field and shoot it at one side of a ship while giving it back it magnetic properties creating thrust in the opposite direction). I need something for the Dralasite and Yazarian races. One I want to develope sonic weapons, probably the Dralasites. I figure the Yazarians (with their honor system and berserker tendancies) would go more toward powered melee and thrown weapons (that whole look your enemy in the eye thing). Let me know what you guys think. Greymyst |
 January 22, 2012 - 9:38pm | It is a hard thing to assign a specific weapon type to a specific race because you can get different perspectives on it. Humans could be masters of magnetism and gaus tech as easily as the Vrusk. Another member suggested that the vrusk would be fond of laser weapons because they are tech savy and like neatness. Vrusks may also be fond of sonic weapons as they make a nice gooey mess out of their bug like heads and bodies. The primal nature of yaz would make them prone to want to use blades and needlers which may remind them of early hunting blow guns from days past in the garden of Yazira. Yaz may also favor gyrojet weapons as they fit their aggressive nature with a satisfying boom and low recoil while manuvering or gliding. Dral may be fond of plasma weapons as they cook the mushy membranes of their fellow ameoboids. Or their more diplomatic debate natured sensibilties may support more humane weapons like electro stunners and sonic weapons because they can't debate the issue with a corpse. So as you can see the general race specific weapons could go many ways. I would agree that auto pistol, auto rifle, recoiless rifle, grenade launcher, and rocket launcher are very human weapons and may have come with human colonists when they came to the frontier. However, I propse that the auto weapons of the humans are not the clumsy gun powder weapons we are familiar with. I would suggest that they use higher tech chemical propellents in caseless amunition or recyclable metal casing when they are used. I would take it one step further and have the auto weapons using binary propellent technology that allowed for smaller projectile with no cases at all allowing for much larger ammo capacities or smaller magazine sizes. |
 January 26, 2012 - 3:41pm | Racial weapons sound cool, but I think they would mostly be melee. Human - samurai sword or long sword Dral - bola Yaz - weapon from krull (lol) Vrusk - numchucks Just wild suggestions but you get the point. |
January 26, 2012 - 11:04pm | OK, I am not suggesting that only Vrusks can use gauss weapons or only humans can use electrothermal weapons (slugthrowers). Just certain weapons have a legacy with certain races. Once the races combined each would contribute to making even better ways to kill each other. The weapons book gives each type its own advantages and disadvantages. I am exploring how each race could have developed under different conditions using different technologies. I plan to delve into my entire vision of what the frontier is like. Most of this is a mental exercise. Besides, like wOOt said, racial weapons are cool. We could just say Yazarians use knives and swords, but what fun would that be? |
 January 27, 2012 - 5:38am | I get the legacy issue, really only impacts setting adventures early in the time line or adds a bit of subtle favor: all the vrusk security personnel are carrying weapon x. Unfortunately, most players need the subtlety of a sledgehammer over the head. Still I like the idea that each race had settled on a weapons tech that had worked for it for centuries but PGC wanting to be all things to all races figured it would market all weapons tech to all races thus giving us a modern Frontier where a wide variety of weapons are available. If you think about it the AD equipment list raises some questions. In the RW we have slug throwers, period. Sure there are peeps here and there playing at home made gauss guns and in the 70's a gyrojet weapon was briefly made commercially. There are some unique, and usually non lethal, weapons systems the crop up but Overall guns is it. The AD list has a broad focus, not the narrow focus of the RW. It seems odd but is easily explainable by the coming together of the various technologies. If anyone actually paid attention to this oddity a GM could explain it with that simple statement and move on. So the question is what do you want to do with these technological legacies? Racial weapons? Not really in favor of that as I can see it getting out of hand. What might work is adding a new layer of detail to the character generation process: PC backgrounds- character is vrusk and the Player chose to make him from planet X where they still follow the old ways of using mostly the legacy weapon thus the character gets level one in that weapon to start for free. Adventures in history? That I'm for. Plot device, hook, or whatever for a modern Frontier adventure- PCs are a team sent out from Triad Institute of Technology to investigate an archaeological site and since the site is old they encounter an deactivated vrusk robotic army and things go from there. Flavor in the setting? I like flavor. Though I suspect that what it adds to the average player's experience of Star Frontiers will be overlooked and unnoticed. I'd be interested in your ideas on how tech legacies will impact the game. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 27, 2012 - 6:22pm | I think alpha dawn made it clearer than that. Gyrojet pistols cost less than laser pistols. That is why there are a variety of weapons available..there are sophisticated and expensive weapons like lasers for those who can afford them and there are cheaper rocket guns for those who can afford those. It doesn't matter if Vrusks like or prefer laser guns its what the individual, company, or government is willing to pay for. I'm sure all air force pilots would prefer to fly F22 Raptors but end up flying 40 year old F16's because their are alot more F16's than F22's because the cost prohibitive nature of the F22's. I propse that the weapons on the list were chosen because they are all technology that each of the four races have the capacity of building. If they can put an ion drive into space they certainly can figure out how to make a needler, a gyrojet, a laser, and sonic or electrical weapons. Sure they have their preferences but I would think such preferences would be on a government, company, or individual basis as a opposed to a racial preference. Its too hard to put the square pegs in the round holes... simply you can find reasons why each of the core fore could take a prefernce to each of the major weapons. Yes humans love our slug throwers, I know I love mine, however...i would trade that slug thrower in without hesitation if someone gave me an ultra cool, silent, efficient, self-cotterizing weapons grade laser gun. |
January 28, 2012 - 1:17pm | I think I concentrated too much on weapons. I am great with stats, but apparently am not that good at conveying my ideas. I am just exploring how different races could have developed different technologies. It could be just as readily be the same race on different worlds. It would have little bearing on what weapons, spaceship propulsion, comunicators, or anything are out there "now". it wouldn't be more than "flavor". Every race has access to every technology by the beginning of the current timeline. I started with weapons, just because it was easy. I dislike some of the stats as they stand. A laser pistol can do 10 times the damage of a auto-pistol, and twice even if you are spaying half your clip at somebody. So I absolutely would trade my slugthrower in for a laser pistol. I tried to envision why each weapon class would find it's niche. To that end I finished the initial firearms book. In that book, I really don't give any one race any peticular weapons. Money never becomes an issue in a campaign, except right at the beginning. Characters always get access to some, and sometimes a lot. If characters are thinking of buying a spaceship, then getting the best weapons with the best upgrades is little problem. I am going to use the different technologies to develope all kinds of things. I am a gadget freak, and will concentrate on equipment. I was not trying to put anybody else's ideas down or any part of the game down. I was looking for any suggestions as to neat ideas as to how differing technologies might develop. It was only to add flavor to my campaign universe, not to say that Vrusk's can only use weapon x. Also get feedback on my ideas or how my idea of how technologies "stack up" and how playable they are. |
January 28, 2012 - 1:30pm | There is nothing wrong with your ideas. I am just encouraging a healthy intellectual exploration of the idea. Our ideas here often get honed and sharpened by having to express what we are trying to accomplish. It's also good because you will get these questions from players too and may have to explain your concept on the fly. There certainly isn't anything wrong with race based tech. My point is that you can see it from different perspectives each race could have its own reasons for picking the weapons they like. The artists and creators of star frontiers depicted Yaz characters with tri barralled gyrojet gun that isnt really touched upon in the rules. This is why this weapon is often associated as a Yaz specialty or race favorite. |
January 28, 2012 - 1:53pm | No worries. I should have left race out and just asked for different technology paths. I see humans using chemicals, although those chemicals would get much more advanced. I saw the Vrusk developing on a planet without those types of chemical and explored how they would reach for the stars (in addition to killing each other). Their rocks on their world were highly magnetic, and as such most of their technology was based on magnetism. I just didn't have much for the others. |
