 February 4, 2012 - 8:27pm | Idle thought here spurs this question In SFman #5 page 37 we find the vimh (rodent PC race) They dont know where they come from, they reproduce rapidly, have little culture of their own besides what the borrow from the surrounding culture, not well educated, pretty much scavengers, with huge appetites. they are written as an under class exisiting at the edge of society and scavenging. They dont maintain technology of their own but borrow what they need. 1. one implication is that they are not a proper space faring race. 2. a another implication is they live a rat like existence on the edge of civilization. So my question is What would their first contact with the Frontier look like? I've been imagining that they would first stow away on a ship and reach the Frontier that way. Then get aboard a station and hide out in the guts of the station. Eventually they would infest the whole Frontier. So in thinking about how this would happen and how to incorporate it into a game it seems that the first station that they got aboard would experience some problems: food disappearing, things being stolen, stuff along those lines. Someone would begin to take notice and investigate. That would be where the PCs would come in. The vimh would be a little fearful and seeking to protect themselves. How would you could set up some Alien (the movie) style bug hunt and first contact with the vimh? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 4, 2012 - 9:12pm | If they are space farring, which is how they are often written about, they would make contact most likely the same way any of the other races made contact. Probably by radio transmission and then in person. They may fly their ship into a frontier system and meet with a trader or trading outpost. Or maybe they would just drop in on a population center like Port Loren. Eventually they would work their way into the underground and set up shop. If they are smart enough to operate a starship they probably would be able to interact with the other races. |
February 4, 2012 - 9:22pm | Reading the two page brief in SFman #5 it doesn't seem that they really maintain a technological society, my impression. Certainly possible that they do but I dont think so. I think its more interesting if they are a little lost vermin race lost in space. Stow aways sneaking onto a shuttle that visited a planet, whether as the result of a misjump or because of a exploration team. Leaves some mystery to play with. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 5, 2012 - 5:44am | Well Jedion knows the Vimh are one of my favorite races (with a name like Rattraveller what did you think?). Now I have the idea they are similar to the Weevils of Torchwood. As to where did they come from and what are their goals? That is anyone's guess at the moment but here is somethings I believe. They do not build their own ships but manage to get around pretty well most probably stowing away with cargo. Their spread around the Frontier was probably not intentional but pragmatic. They had opportunities and took advantage of them to spread out. They are not out in the country since they need the refuse of large groups to scavenge and survive. While their numbers are much more than suspected they NEVER overpopulate an area. Not due to society but simple laws of nature. Too many of them overuse their resources and the population can not be supported. This is probably what led them to start spreading out. Also hiding on the fringes is their norm. Overpopulation would go against this. More later it Superbowl Day the third biggest holiday in the US, go party. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 5, 2012 - 7:25am | Well reasoned, rattraveller. I'm thinking about what the encounters should be for first contact. But then again you also have to decide where that should be. It seems to me setting it on space station would be good. Its the first outpost of civilization they would encounter and being the first vimh there they would settle right in feeling like they had found the promise land. Clarion station is an obvious choice since we have a bit of map and a cross section for it but I also had a back burner project of working up a resort station. With Clarion station its the RM that would investigate and once they discovered that a strange alien has invaded their military installation, which is exactly what Clarion Station is, orders from the top would be to capture them and they would turn the station up side down searching for them and incarcerating them. That would be slightly unsuitable in light of how the racial brief presents them. If it was a Mega corp owned station the situation could reach the point of costing too much to eradicate and as long as they don't poke their noses too far out of the gutter security will turn a blind eye. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 5, 2012 - 7:56am | RE: Vimh society, civilization and history; the reason the vimh are deficient in these areas is that they simply dont see a need to bother with writing down their history. They live in the moment and are usually only thinking about the next meal. Thats not to say they cant be educated or that they are not smart and cunning simply that they're just not wired to care about ephemeral concepts like history, civilization and society. What they do have of a society is pretty basic and boils down to the strongest, toughest, fastest or smartest being on top and those who are less so get ranked out below that. The sad fact is that if the vimh are to ever have a history it will be written by a historian from another species. Vimh and Weapons: racial brief say they are badly near sighted and -20 to ranged combat beyond point blank range. For that reason they prefer melee weapons. Couple of thoughts if they do use ranged weapons automatic firearms are prefered since the burst fire rules overcome the -20 sight penalty. This of course makes them ammo hogs always hosing opponents when a few well aimed shots would work. The sniper archetype is probably contra indicated for this race (technology could allow one to overcome his short coming but better to play to their strength). Secondly, if they prefer melee weapons because of sight problems they probably will prefer not to use sonic and vibro weapons since they make a certain ammount of noise and they probably rely on their hearing in the same way a blind person does. No real game effect here just a preference and a player playing a vimh can certianly still equip his character with a sonic sword. Thirdly, PB range is effectively melee range with a short movement so a vimh really ought to focuse on melee weapons skill (and possibly projectile weapons to use burst fire) Fourly, I really see these guys liking "reaper blades" a gripped weapon that makes it appear as if they have Wolverine style blades coming off the back of their hands. If they can be said to have a racial weapon it would be reaper blades. Anyone wishing to parlay or trade for something the vimh have would do well to have a technician get into a machine shop and whip up a set of reaper blades as a trade item (assess 20 cr cost for materials and the reaper blades are fairly crude though the technician saves 10cr for doing it himself sadly on the open market they are only worth 20cr due to the crudeness of the manufacture). Since its a Racial weapon the special thing it does for the vimh is that any successful hit means the target must make a STA check or be infected with a disease (-5/D6) [that would be -5 to all ability checks for 60 hours or 3 GST days] Anyone trained to use this weapon can use it for a 5 point bonus the defending in combat- a character defending in combat causes his attacker to suffer a -15 penalty to the attack roll so defending with these makes that a -20 penalty to the attack (simulates parrying moves without actually complicating the system with new parrying rules)
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 5, 2012 - 8:19am | The Vimh seem like a race that a party could pick up as an NPC follower. One of the player characters could bestow the vimh follower with glasses and train him up a bit then play him as a character for a season until he tires of him. The vimh PC would then go back to an NPC by settling in with some other vimh he came across. This is the kind of NPC that players could then get odd things from in a pinch. We need a sonic motivator to repair our custom sonic devastator cannon but we have no cash. Hey, we left the vimh with glasses in this town. He really likes vrusk cheese. If we can persuade ki'did-ko to part with some of his stash he's aging in his foot locker I bet the vimh with glasses has a sonic motivator we can trade for. -iggy |
February 5, 2012 - 8:58am | @iggy, or as a PC companion RE: D&D 4.0e DMG2 a PC companion is DM created but player controlled. DMG2 codified some rules for doing this with a list of creatures out of the monster manual that would be suitable. Halfling archer, street urchin, giant beetle, wolf etc. Basicly some event in game lead to the creature or sapient deciding to accompany the PC. More or less functions like an unpaid retainer or a wardog. Since this is Star Frontiers and not Star Wars the players get a vimh instead of a wookie. Just have to take care that he's not used as a Nodwick. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 5, 2012 - 9:07am | Need to modify my own comments on vimh and history- perhaps they have an oral history. Not a well kept one due to how they spread their population but still some oral history. Still no real Willie idea about where they come from. I just got asking myself what do you do alone in the dark- I bet that they do tell stories and thus have some oral history. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 5, 2012 - 9:21am | As spread out as their society is the oral histories are going to conflict with each other. Each group may have a common theme, but the details will morph from group to group. Great way to bury the truth of something by spreading it between a dozen groups with extra useless facts and myths that the players need to sift and piece together to save the day. -iggy |
 February 5, 2012 - 6:54pm | If your looking for some type of first contact situation I see two ways that come up. 1) It says in the write-up that the Sathar cannot seem to get rid of them either. You could have them start showing up during/after SWI at one of the landing sights(Pale for instance). They may not have any intel on the Sathar or maybe some confusing facts as they really don't care about the Sathar, just their own survival. 2) They could just be discovered on a planet in the Frontier and slipped aboard the exploration ship. From there spread out. If there is some type of outpost on that planet, everytime a ship resupplies the Vimh somehow sneak aboard and find new places to live. This would give a home planet and it would not have to be any special planet. |
February 5, 2012 - 8:48pm | Ah now while we can speculate on the Vimh we do have a similar group here on Earth. The Romany or the more commonly called Gypsy. Good place to start for a history but do not forget the Weevils. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 5, 2012 - 8:49pm | neat new avatar Karxan. Encounter set up: Set up: Tourist is found knocked out and stripped of valuables but not Hard credit vouchers (hard currency credits that can be exchanged physically without an electronic record). Initial investigation ruled it as a mugging with heavy drunkeness as a contributing factor. Victim staunchly insists he had not imbibed much alcohol as well as had not been with a Star Play Companion as had been insinuated at first. PCs are either security that will investigate or alternately the victim is rich, pissed off and wants something back that was taken from him so he has hired the PCs to investigate. Location of the mugging, blind corridor without video cameras. Seemingly secure airduct covering nearby. Hyptnotism of victim could give a clue that he unconsciously heard a metalic sound that could have been the air duct openning. Air duct seems secure but if opened its obvious to a tech automatically or anyone else for a LOG check that its been tampered with to allow for easy openning from the inside as well as to be resecured. Bruise on the back of the victim's neck is from a stun stick strike but was discounted during the initial medical exam but has since become more pronounce a medic can make a skill check or LOG check to reveal the truth about this clue. Record's search would reveal a rise in muggings and thefts in blind corridors. If cross referenced against the location of air vents 89% of the muggings & thefts in blind corridors are very close to air vent covers and date back to 5 months ago. Another records search will show 5 ships docking during the time right before the rise in muggings. This is the initial encounter: its all about investigation and skill & ability checks. I've got about 3 possible ability skill checks situations above but lets face it hyptnotism is not on the top of peoples list to try. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 6, 2012 - 2:51am | @ Jedion, Thanks. This encounter is good. I could use it in my City adventure. |
 February 6, 2012 - 7:35am | I’ve been trying to cook up an adventure series for my girls influenced by “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. I may employ the Vimh as the product of early genetic experiments. Since their seemed to be such promise with them, many Vimh were developed for further research. However, when it became apparent that their development was stymied, they were utilized as servant-like creatures. This all is done illegally and thus is in secret. Because of the need to hide their activity, the lab is relocated through the frontier several times. As a result, a few of the Vimh become unaccounted for. After a few decades in the romantic lights of the nebula and too much yazirian ale…badaboom badabing; you have a sizable population without a known culture/history or home drifting through the frontier. Because of their limited capacity and lack of interest, they don’t know much about the research that gave life to them. I like your encounter idea Jedi. I may include some missing pets from the lower levels and little children crying about monsters that took them (the pets). |
February 6, 2012 - 9:05pm | @Inigo I like your take on vimh creation. Work on uplifting a species that didn't fully work. Potentially their lab relocated a dozen times trying to stay secret and then ran out of funding. Now no one is out there that has incentive to capture and keep hidden the vimh that that got away. -iggy |
February 6, 2012 - 9:11pm | @Inigo I like your take on vimh creation. Work on uplifting a species that didn't fully work. Potentially their lab relocated a dozen times trying to stay secret and then ran out of funding. Now no one is out there that has incentive to capture and keep hidden the vimh that that got away. I like that part; the lost funding part. Create a failed corporation with corrupt Executives (NPCs that could be foils for the PCs to oppose or even a possible employer for some reason- the NPC not the failed corporation). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 7, 2012 - 4:47am | Ah we all do think alike it seems. I have been working on an Island themed adventure including the Vimh in a minor role but more toward the Gamma Dawn rules. Since the Vimh have good and bad abilities they were an unsuccessful super soldier mutation but broke out and started wandering the Frontier. They are now to numerous to round up and too accepted for it to be a problem but still anyone getting to close to the "Secret of the Vimh" will find Mega-corp pressure on them. Not what I was going to use so feel free to take it away. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 8, 2012 - 6:27am | Just a notice for those not members of the Adventure Writing project. I've started a thread to work on a down below adventure involving first contact with the vimh. http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/6160 I'm also using the adventure writing advice form pages 56-57 of AD expanded book and working methodically through the check list there to see what happens. I've created a document on the AD adventure writing advice here: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/6159 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 8, 2012 - 8:11am | Great another project. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 8, 2012 - 9:07am | Great another project. no not a new project, simply a new thread in the Adventure Writing project. At this point I've charted a whole first contact adventure using the two pages of instructions in AD, well up through the events part of the check list. starts with the mugging encounter I posted here and takes it to a scripted conclussion but with possibilities for the path to that conclussion to vary depending on player actions. PCs can even fail and be rescued by Star Fleet or fail and end up prisoners at a secret research facility though the prisoners thing is very much off script and will require the referee doing that one to come up with material. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 16, 2012 - 9:22am | OK here's an idea for you. The Vimh were not first encountered in a space station. In order for them to survive on one it would have to be very big with a good sized population for them to live off. A real space station would not have the room or secret spaces to hold a big population. Plus the security cams they might have been able to backtrack what ship they came in on and then figure out where they came from. So I would make first contact in Port Loren. This contact was made but not realized at the time by some security guards or local law checking up on supposed break ins at some unused warehouses. First couple times they checked there was evidence of something there but no one was found. Finally by accident one team discovered the Vimh there and just made them clear out thinking they were some race they hadn't heard of. But a report was filed along with pictures. After a few months and more reports of this new race taking over other abandoned or little used buildings an enterprising young officer looking to stand out and be promoted to detective started to put the reports together and actually go interview the Vimh. He also sent out requests for information to other agencies both on and off planet and discovered these "aliens" were on at least six other planets but no one knew their origin. There were however numerous reports of them working in low end legal and illegal (sweatshop) jobs and numerous arrests for petty crimes. All of this was turned over to the University and the UPF council but they could not discover much more accept the Vimh population was growing and they needed some legal protections so were accepted as an official race. Not that they really cared. Currently they live in ghettos in all major cities and are generally hired as day laborers or in dead end jobs other races do not want. However there are several groups and social organizations who try to educate them and the occasional success keeps these groups trying.(See the story of Louis Aykroyd and Billy Ray) PS The notoriety of discovering the Vimh led the officer to leave the police force and become a sociologist and a best selling author Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 16, 2012 - 11:19am | I think we can have multiple first contacts going on but once the word is out on the vimh there is no sense in corporate bounty hunters trying to nab them. I like the idea of a police detective leaving the force to become a sociologist and best selling author and an expert talking head on the holovid. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 18, 2012 - 11:35am | I do like the inherent aesthetic of the "stow-away space rat" best... while there is a ripe playground for many conspiracy theories to all have quantifiable and contradictory "proofs" of validity. I don't mind one or two races with such a pervasive existence... and no origin, culture hub, or population of significant size to be found. I would not have more than say... around 1.166666666666667 or so... or it is certainly become cliché. Since the Sathar are also plagued by these rats, assume that the Sathar are also carriers... and from there everyone that the Sathar have ever come into contact with are like-wise carriers... of this "rat plague"... ...that means... that every space-faring species, and half the worlds (habitable or not) within a basic plot-distance of the Frontier Sector has rats!!! (dead or alive)... I like the oral-tradition & primitive-peoples motif... they lend themselves to small settlements of "native population" for those who like the "American-west Frontier" and need something as a "nearly-indigenous people" to push around, move onto reservations for their own protection, fear for being possible "demon-dabblers" with the Sathar, and are a threat to public health & safety in general... consider some tribe of rats contracting the blue-plague... consider the rats being the actual unidentified origins of the blue-plague (unlikely but many will not be convinced that it is not true!) consider the rats to be used as servants of Sathar as easily manipulated and quickly discarded front-line saboteurs and spies... consider Pirates, Politicians, Corporations, and even Street Gangs able to do the same... and consider their ease of becoming quickly submissive and hard-working "indentured servants" for payment in food - to anyone with a persistent source of food... and consider how little it even matters whether that food was live or dead, animal or sentient... or as real rats in description but not quite mentioned, do they really even care how quickly they "grow their own food" as population sizes become critical... and consider how little they hold accountability or concern in other races for "fair treatment" and "innate rights", or even have grounds for comprehending such philosophical and social quandaries in a historically relevant or institutionally recognizable and meaningful way... I like the Vimh as I read it... prolific scavenging repulsive rodentia, stowing away on transport vehicles and quietly brooding in nests of the lest livable locations, and holed up in packs around abandoned urban slums, obliviously and comfortably appeased in a [non-claimable] second class position, in their "live day to day lives" mentality... Vermin that are often found needing to be removed from claim-hoping private property, and merrily engaged in strained relations with everyone, including other over-sized broods of their own kith & kin in competitions over food and illegal territorial squatter disputes. It only takes two Vimh to hop a transport and settle at some other port in an abandoned drain-pipe for around five years and two become eighteen... a decade in some basement of an abandoned building 2 becomes 50 Vimh!! They breed like rats!! 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? |
February 18, 2012 - 11:32am | First contact to me seems as pragmatic as the spread of their presence... in a historic perspective of First Contact it would most likely be a collection of non-date-able first foot-notes... arising as reports (many unconfirmable) of singular sightings and small groups in many widely separated and oddly non-profile-able environments... A space-station, a transport ship, a small family in an abandoned warehouse making do with a hobbled-hydroponics garden... a wild-pack of feral cannibals squatting in an old industrial mine & refinery complex left for fallow after an industrial accident, that plagued a local biker-gang to near-extinction... Then eventually someone looks up from the foot-notes and says "Wait a minute! One of these guys works at the local stop-n-shop maybe I should ask her about her peoples origins!" so he does and is taken back to her under-sewer village to discuss about twenty different "creation myths" around the family table... and armed with this plethora of non-tractable data from which to determine origin possibilities... he gives up. [Follow-up Story] Six months later MSO Civil Health & Security clean-up teams were allocated temporary relief duties in quarantine of three sections of sewers for a variety of public health and civil sainitation issues. This clean-up is acknowledged as including the area surrounding the reported site of the "village". Data-trails indicate a temporary housing facility was established in a remote location for a "village" of emigrant refugees. No official status records were kept of non-civilian survivors after the temporary camp was closed. All further data states in simple terms that "for safty reasons [...] transient populations were relocated." and non-indigenous emigrants were "Removed From The World." Further information is directed to databases kept on-site -; at the now closed and dismantled temporary reservation. First Contact is accountable as a slow flood... everywhere by the time it was noticed anywhere. Am I off-my-rocker, or does this jibe with what others read? 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? |
February 19, 2012 - 8:04am | Good Stuff Spirit coyote. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 25, 2012 - 8:24pm | Instead of The Secret of Nimh, you get The Secret of the Vimh. |
March 2, 2012 - 3:22am |  yes, I had several rat-story classics try to tempt me off-target while contemplating this... not saying there isn't something to use in them, just wanted to ensure I had them pegged as they are before mixing metaphors and confusing myself with the psychology of an anthropomorphous rodent.How many Vimh have a variant of the name Miqi Mahws? 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 11, 2012 - 6:04am | I was doing some idle ebay searches and turned up some "bitz" for skaven night runner minis which were just a collection of arms holding thrown weapons- dagger, throwing star (looked like a sprocket off a bicycle which was cool), and two other thrown items. I love the sprocket as it really fits the Vimh. Need to revisit the eye sight issue with these guys. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 11, 2012 - 1:47pm | I have a couple hundred Skaven figures from Warhammer. Look over the entire line at Games Designer Workshop main site and you can find alot to work with. They are a little pricey straight from the dealer. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 11, 2012 - 2:29pm | I bought a few auctions of bitz from the skaven line and some 40K bits with mostly cadian equipment to asseble some night runner skaven with modern/sci fi equipment. Got some nice holstered pistols, ammo pouches, and a very nice looking arm with a flame thrower and feul tanks for the back, I have picked up a small OOP box of skaven at Historicon couple years back and converted one but they were a pain as they clearly had a robe and some metal fantasy armor. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
