 March 4, 2012 - 12:08pm | I've been thinking about what would exist in a private residence for the various races as a place they would go to relax/play. For humans, something that I think would be common is a pool and/or hot tub. For drals there would probably be a fancy steam room. But what would the other races have has an equivalent. Maybe for yazirians it is a overgrown jungle room? What would the vrusk have? What other things would you put in your private getaway location? 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 |
 March 4, 2012 - 1:34pm | Vimh would of course have gadgets and food. Think something like a playstation or Wii so everyone could gather together and eat and play. Probably lots of incense burning too. Vrusk private space would be very much tailored to the individual. Since they like to work alot their relaxation would be some equally intense artistic hobby. I just picture all Vrusk as amateur artists busily creating some never going to be a masterpiece in their basements. Yazirians could be either some kind of workout room or dojo but for the Family of One definitely a meditation room. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 March 4, 2012 - 5:52pm | vrusk love beutiful objects so they could easily be a collector of fine art. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 4, 2012 - 8:32pm | Steam baths are to drals what showers are to humans. Games that make you think are popular, like chess. Yazirians would have a lot of relics and knick-knacks. Most would have skins, skulls, horns, antlers, taxadermy taking from their hunts. Game perserves are not popular amoung yaz, they like the wild hunts and often poke fun at needing a guide. Yaz travel far and wide to hunt exoctic and dangerous animals with tradition family weapons. Vrusk as mentioned - fine art studios, library's. I can see a captain picard as a vrusk, enjoying tea and music. Humans enjoy sports and a little of that mentioned above. |
March 4, 2012 - 9:49pm | I would want a fortress of solitude. Paint studio, game room and entertainment room. Game room to feature purpose built war gaming table, small frig, wet bar, bar stools, and a hutch with glass doors to show off my painted minis. Would need a tricked out kitchen too. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 4, 2012 - 10:24pm | Oil bath and a "thank the maker" t-shirt. |
March 5, 2012 - 5:28am | Oil bath and a "thank the maker" t-shirt.
"Thank the maker?" Wouldn't that be an evil Sith Lord bent on galactic domination? Hhhmmm what does that say about you?I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 5, 2012 - 7:32am | I never accepted C-3P0's maker as anakin. He was made in a factory and didn't have as many memory wipes as the others. :-) |
 March 5, 2012 - 7:39am | Can we mercifully forget about those horrible Prequels, they are the Zeb's guide to the Star Wars Canon. "Hey guys I wonder what this does"-Famous last words "Hey guys, I think it's friendly." -Famous last words "You go on ahead, I'll catch up." -Famous last words "Did you here that?" -Famous last words |
 March 5, 2012 - 7:42am | Oil bath and a "thank the maker" t-shirt.
"Thank the maker?" Wouldn't that be an evil Sith Lord bent on galactic domination? Hhhmmm what does that say about you?-iggy |
March 5, 2012 - 8:11am | Love that comment, "Zebs Guide of star wars." +1. And I agree with iggy w00ts quirky memory is during to memory wipes.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 6, 2012 - 6:48am | Unfortunately we can not forget the Prequels since they are well Prequels. Zeb's like some of the Traveller later editions can be dropped just by saying I don't want to go that way let's go this way. Prequels on the other hand lay the ground work and should build up the original story. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Star Wars failed (although I don't know how the cartoons affect it). Now Ginger Snaps and Ginger Snaps Back "The Beginning" did work out fairly well. Which brings me to my SF question. How much backstory (prequel) do you require from your players? Is it you just roll up a character and play or do your players have a four page story complete with timeline? Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 6, 2012 - 8:55am | While a backstory is nice and I'd probably want a character to have one for a long running campaign, it the past for me it's just been roll up a character and start playing especially if running the existing modules. Player's usually have a character concept in mind and that is good enough. If I were to start a from scratch campaign, I think I'd want them to come up with a backstory to allow me as the referee to have some ideas to work into the campaign that relate to the characters. 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 |
March 6, 2012 - 10:11am | I can understand the attraction of not worrying about back story- lets just roll up characters and get playing. However, a character with backstory is prone to having actual "role play" happen even if its just the slightest of back story. Example: character's back story is Parents killed by pirates raised by uncle. Anytime pirates show up I will automatically drop into thinking about how the character will react because his back story states that. Now for back story and setting- it gives depth and reasons why things are the way they are. Do you have to have that? No. but I suspect having it gives a campaign longer legs to walk on ie that if you was running a campaign an it was a blank sheet with nothing but what you make up each week then I believe that two negative things could happen: 1. writers block- 2. Monty Haul- whats the latest thing behind door number 3? It also inhibits the players making a choice about what they might like to do, where they might like to go or what they might like to explore. Benefits of back story. 1. Creative spring board 2. continuity issues are usually minimized 3. provides the players with grist for the role play mill 4. can enhance the immersive imaginative experience 5. allows the player to have his character to have a real connection to things in the setting, a former royal marine will care about Clarion and other veterans of the RM (or will he? if he was dishonorably discharged perhaps he hates all things Clarion, the monarchy and the RM) 6. Greater grist for plot hooks. just a few thoughts on that I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 6, 2012 - 3:27pm | Plus I always hated it when in season 3 the main character's brother shows up. Wait she has a brother that was never mentioned before? Who lasts for this episode and goes away never to be seen again. Back Story with family mentioned along with other other details like you have a Military PSA so who trained you? Were you in Landfleet, a private security job, your family hunted Supernatural creatures and trained you since birth to fight. OR you have a Technical PSA so did you go to college to learn to fix robots or did a miniature flying Vrusk keep you as a slave fixing robots in his shop? Even a couple quick lines can make a character alot more interesting. Heck even Master Chief has a backstory. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 6, 2012 - 1:40pm | It doesn't take much of a character background, one trick is to make every player invent a secret about their character that only they and the referee know. That will give you back story and plot hooks on one fell swoop. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 7, 2012 - 1:56am | I agree with having a backstory. the very first time I played an RPG at an overnight BD party, back 30yrs ago, The dad who was the GM gave us a little backstory and told us to play the character that way. It was fun, plus we were on 10. but most of the time when I played it was roll up a character and play the module. Backstory was not really an issue. I think now I would like a little backstory, 1-2 paragraphs and off you go. Like Jedion said, it gives you a reference for role play. |
March 7, 2012 - 6:06am | I do a lot of creative stuff and a corner stone of thematic creativity is exploring the backstory. Just saying. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 7, 2012 - 9:00am | I allow back-stories to be created on-the-fly. For instance, a major NPC is introduced to the story, Bill decides he wants his character to know this NPC. We discuss in what capacity he knows the NPC, perhaps Bill's PC was caught red-handed hacking into the apartment computer system owned by the NPC or Bill's PC and this NPC were part of an operation in the past. *p00f* - instance back-story. Sometimes this is a tab bit easier than trying to weave PC's back-story's into your campaign. Of course this goes along with my Referee style, ylymv. :-) |
 March 7, 2012 - 10:39am | Besides the many forms of luxury (hot tub and such), this would be high on my list: Yep, a non-robotic cleaning crew (and they clean-up so nicely  ). |
March 7, 2012 - 10:47am | Backstory does not have to be extensive but should enough to allow for detail and fill in. In Woot's example the NPC is introduced and one of the PCs wants to know them. If part of the Backstory is they learned robotics at college then throwing the NPC in as an old professor, frat brother, someone in their class, or that guy who owned the cafe we sometimes went to lunch at would be easy. No backstory forces a complete makeup on the spot which usually slows down the game. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 7, 2012 - 7:32pm | No backstory forces a complete makeup on the spot which usually slows down the game.
It can create interesting twists and glue a character to the story. Not sure how it would slow down the game, it's all part of telling a story. I mean, other than telling a story with lasers and bullets. |
March 8, 2012 - 4:48am | @Malcadon: yes I do believe I like the non robotic cleaning crew. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 8, 2012 - 8:46am | Creating a backstory during a game slows things down by either creating a rift with the players. Why is Mike the one with the college contacts? Last week he was a high school dropout? Which also leads to disjionted backstory as you try and meld the various elements into something that makes no sense. Take Star Trek. Hooray we have a new Star Trek and all it took was the planet Vulcan being destroyed. Wait didn't they introduce the Timeline police in Voyager and Enterprise? Why didn't those guys show up and save Vulcan? That storyline makes no sense. That movie is completely wrong. Still Uhura looked good in her underwear. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 8, 2012 - 11:26am | Wait didn't they introduce the Timeline police in Voyager and Enterprise? Why didn't those guys show up and save Vulcan? That storyline makes no sense. That movie is completely wrong. Still Uhura looked good in her underwear. Perhaps the timeline police did show up, but in an alternate reality or another dimension. We saw all sorts of realities of the Enterprise in the TNG last episode "All Good Things" easy enough to envision that there are hundreds of realities where Vulcan still exists. Perhaps the Romulan mining ship going back in time actually changed the future enough that there will not be a timeline police. After all Kirk's timeline is significantly disrupted by the events on the Kalvin. Plus I dont think that the time line police can fix everything. and not just Ohura but I loved the return of the Green chicks too. Though IIRC that they were not as intelligent as the one portrayed in the new flick. Though that detail may be from a novel I read and not from TV show cannon. But if true it supports your complaint. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 8, 2012 - 2:02pm | Creating a backstory during a game slows things down by either creating a rift with the players. Why is Mike the one with the college contacts? Last week he was a high school dropout? Sorry to hear you have a hard time GM'ing this style. Guess I keep better notes. Which also leads to disjionted backstory as you try and meld the various elements into something that makes no sense.  (I've been in games where the GM didn't keep notes and kept asking us, the players, what corporation we worked for. hehe) |
March 8, 2012 - 4:15pm | Woot your attempted slight just backfired and proved my point. If you are taking notes which means you are also refering to notes you are slowing down the game. Since taking these new elements into the game requires some thought instead of just randomly assigning them you have slow downs. Now if you have back story and have a reasonable idea of where the story is going you can assign new elements to players without to much difficulty. This is pre-game work. If you are doing a game on the fly or this is a one shot game then of course none of this matters. But a campaign requires work from the GM not just a "Yayy we'll do that" attitude. Also in the future make NO assumptions about me or my playing style till you have met me. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
March 8, 2012 - 5:42pm | Besides the many forms of luxury (hot tub and such), this would be high on my list: Yep, a non-robotic cleaning crew (and they clean-up so nicely ).I only quote Malcadon here to simply remind people to MAKE LOVE NOT WAR ;) Lets not get to crazy here. I myself like back story and proper preparation which prevents piss poor performance. However, I recognize that some people do fly by the seat of their pants and seem to have plenty of fun doing it and thats the point anyway isn't it? Games are toys and when you boil it all down we're just playing with toys here. Its about having fun. I understand the opposite pole of my refereeing style and sometimes I'm a little envious of other peoples ability to fly by the seat of the pants when the players have gone off script. I while I'm definetly at one pole on the spectrum I would not take a position that any one style is the correct style. again look at the picture and relax. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 8, 2012 - 6:16pm | Although, I would not mind knowing their back story... or their top-heavy front story... |
March 8, 2012 - 8:01pm | Although, I would not mind knowing their back story... or their top-heavy front story... You know what, in this case I think with a great front story I might just forego the backstory.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
