 July 17, 2012 - 1:03pm | Bible quotes have been inspiration for literature and book titles for centuries. "A Stranger in a Strange Land." This thread is to propose adventure, encounter or campaign titles for sci fi rpg or I guess even fantasy, based in part or whole from Bible quotes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 19, 2012 - 5:16am | "...they shalt mount up with wings as eagles..." from Isaiah a popular devotional verse change it a little and: On Raptor's Wings or To Mount the Skies- sounds like an adventure to get a ship off the ground- through in a threat to the party if they dont get the ship off the ground- star is going super nova (lets ignore that fact that by the time you knew there was danger of a super nova it would be pretty much too late to escape) Then throw in stranded pirates or a ravenning primitive horde who want to stop the PCs and fixing the ship on a deadline becomes stressful. alternately the title sounds like something involving the quest for mastering space flight. an apolo missin to the moon, perhaps. PCs are the first astronauts on the moon and discover something. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 19, 2012 - 7:31am | I think proverbs says "he who troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind" Inherit the wind could be a good title. Although it is also the title of an extremely boring play I was in during highschool (insert sarcastic comeback here) |
 July 19, 2012 - 12:23pm | I've always loved Ecclesiastes, there are two phrases that have always stuck out to me: "Under the sun" and "Chasing the wind" Ecc 1:14 NKJV - I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all [is] vanity and grasping for the wind. "Under the sun", or "Nothing new under the sun" could be a desolate planet, or perhaps in the latter case, a wild planet, with a typical antagonist: Streel, Sathar, etc. "Chasing the wind" could be a mystery type adventure or where someone the PCs are chasing is mysterious and elusive. Or the name of an antagonist's ship. |
July 19, 2012 - 12:28pm | Also, any of the parables of Jesus had solid object lessons that are still heard in our culture today... "The pearl of great price" Matthew 13:46 could be a high level robbery, or investigating one. It could also be a story where a central tenet is an individual's obsession with a valuable item - his ship, company, a person, etc. |
July 19, 2012 - 12:31pm | "The prodigal son" based on Luke 15 could be about a notorious person surrendering, the PC's have to go obtain him, but another faction wants to stop it from happening... |
 July 19, 2012 - 1:30pm | I like "Chasing the Wind" in reference to a ship. I might just have to steal that one and use it for a module around the ship I designed for the Virtual Con, the CSS Nightwind. It's been stolen and the PC's have to find it, chase it down, and bring it back. 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 |
July 19, 2012 - 2:30pm | I like "Chasing the Wind" in reference to a ship. I might just have to steal that one and use it for a module around the ship I designed for the Virtual Con, the CSS Nightwind. It's been stolen and the PC's have to find it, chase it down, and bring it back. Perfect application... |
July 19, 2012 - 9:50pm | "The prodigal son" based on Luke 15 could be about a notorious person surrendering, the PC's have to go obtain him, but another faction wants to stop it from happening... BTW David Copperfield stated that he thought tha the story of the prodigal son was the most sublime ever. Not sure what I'd do with this but I considered a change of name: A Son Sublime Thumb up on Terl Obar's: Chasing the Wind I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 20, 2012 - 3:20am | One Idea that I had after initially creating this post was that the sathar agents use the phrase as a counter sign one agent says, "and the worm dieth not," and the other answers "and the fire is not quenched" which is straight form Mark 9:48 the PCs learn this counter sign and use it to penetrate the cell of sathar agents and foil their dastardly plans. I like the idea of the counter signing phrase. It gives the feel of the old spy movies and reminds me of the cold war era. This would be a good plot device in an adventure. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:26am | "...they shalt mount up with wings as eagles..." from Isaiah a popular devotional verse change it a little and: On Raptor's Wings or To Mount the Skies- sounds like an adventure to get a ship off the ground- through in a threat to the party if they dont get the ship off the ground- star is going super nova (lets ignore that fact that by the time you knew there was danger of a super nova it would be pretty much too late to escape) Then throw in stranded pirates or a ravenning primitive horde who want to stop the PCs and fixing the ship on a deadline becomes stressful. alternately the title sounds like something involving the quest for mastering space flight. an apolo missin to the moon, perhaps. PCs are the first astronauts on the moon and discover something. I think this title could be used for a fighter squadron during one of the SW's. Call it Eagle squadron or Raptor squadron, but the PC's could be fighter jocks for an adventure. Maybe you could get TerlObar to make a squadron patch.  You could also use this title for a team of yazirian parajumpers. They go on secret missions all over the Frontier, silently gliding from on high to smite their foe. I am feeling another biblical reference here but am too tired to think of it right now. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:29am | The Whore of Babylon is quite famous from the book of the Revelation but the title is quite provocative- perhaps to much so for an rpg module and actually may invoke too much in the way of religious themes. However, a title like, "The Hand Maiden of Babylon" is kind of intriguing. It would be about a central female npc antagonist who would be totally amoral. She could probably be an assassin with little scruples about how she gets the job done. Have her be in the employment of the Malthar and she is the reason Garlus went astray in the past. Now the PC's have his ship and have defeated the Malthar, so she is bent on destroying the PC's reputation through any means possible. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:34am | What about " Pride comes before the Fall", Proverbs 11:2 basically. This could be about one of the megacorps getting to big for itself and imploding from within. Maybe they commit some major crime against a new low tech race or experiment on individuals from the core 4, but something very bad. The pc's are investigating rumors of crimes and end up helping the downfall of the magecorp. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:37am | "My Brothers Keeper" famous from Genesis and the story of Cain and Abel. Immediately invokes issues of family and in a sf context suggests a story involving yazirians and clan honor. Expanding on this theme, have a dishonored yazirian trying to regain his honor for himself with his clan, or even make it bigger, he/she has to get back the whole clans honor. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:43am | "Wheels within Wheels" - one of the prophets saw a vision of heaven and angels and tried to describe what he saw in the vision and decribed the angelic beings he saw as wheels within wheels. I would write an adventure module with the title of "wheels within wheels" centered on a space station, specifically a station with multiple wheels on one axis. Dont know what the adventure would be about the setting would have to be a space station. Have the space station be a major one, centered around one of the core worlds. Have lots of political intrigue, Babylon 5ish, with all of the races being a part of it. This could very well be a central point for a module or series of modules. Depending on the players likes for gaming, you could have a treasure trove of role-playing here. Not so much action, unless you have small encounters on the station, but it could lead to action taking place elsewhere. |
July 20, 2012 - 3:49am | "All the world should be taxed" - Luke 2:1 - Dealing with oppressive Megacorp owned world and residents trying to gain a voice in the govenment. Could be a megacorp plotting a legal/political way of enslaving a colony and making them edentured servants. The pc's are from Star Law investigating rumors of slavery and end up going against the megacorp. Or the pc's are the people trying to break the yoke of oppression. |
July 20, 2012 - 8:37am | "...they shalt mount up with wings as eagles..." from Isaiah a popular devotional verse change it a little and: On Raptor's Wings or To Mount the Skies- sounds like an adventure to get a ship off the ground- through in a threat to the party if they dont get the ship off the ground- star is going super nova (lets ignore that fact that by the time you knew there was danger of a super nova it would be pretty much too late to escape) Then throw in stranded pirates or a ravenning primitive horde who want to stop the PCs and fixing the ship on a deadline becomes stressful. alternately the title sounds like something involving the quest for mastering space flight. an apolo missin to the moon, perhaps. PCs are the first astronauts on the moon and discover something. I think this title could be used for a fighter squadron during one of the SW's. Call it Eagle squadron or Raptor squadron, but the PC's could be fighter jocks for an adventure. Maybe you could get TerlObar to make a squadron patch. You could also use this title for a team of yazirian parajumpers. They go on secret missions all over the Frontier, silently gliding from on high to smite their foe. I am feeling another biblical reference here but am too tired to think of it right now. A life time ago I wrote an article about a squadron named Raptor Squadron, we may one day see it in print. Expanding on this theme, have a dishonored yazirian trying to regain his
honor for himself with his clan, or even make it bigger, he/she has to
get back the whole clans honor. Call it the My Clan's Keeper @Karzan: Pride Goeth Before a Fall- thats good. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 20, 2012 - 10:00am | 1 Timothy 6:10 - "The love of money is the root of [all kinds of] evil..." "The root of all evil." Either addressing corporate and/or criminal organization greed in some manner, or as a play on words for some hostile plant occuring as an antagonist. |
July 20, 2012 - 6:57pm | 1 Timothy 6:10 - "The love of money is the root of [all kinds of] evil..." "The root of all evil." Either addressing corporate and/or criminal organization greed in some manner, or as a play on words for some hostile plant occuring as an antagonist. I'm so glad you didn't misquote that as Money is the Root of All Evil- You dont know how many well meaning people advocated that we shouldn't have money base on that misquote and yet those same people weren't walking around naked- they were wearing clothes they had bought with money. I've had personal and mentally painful experience dealing with that line of illogic. Adventure named "Root of All Evil" cool concept however I think that the adventure will need to illustrate greed and its effects- I think that might be tough. It'll take some creativity to do this well I think. Perhaps 3 different NPC 'expressing' greed 3 different ways- 1) homeless guy showing greed for scraps of redeemable metal perhaps he collected brass casings to recycle for money and the PCs need to convince him to let them have them without actually hurting him or he just madly attacks a PC when they pick up one casing to inspect it. of course that means the brass casing has to be a clue for some reason. 2. corporate officer expressing worst forms of corporate greed- raid headlines for that. Perhaps this is a contractor supplying weapons on a government contract. 3. Politician taking money and will only help the PCs for a "And the envelope please" Each NPC figures prominently in one act of the adventure you can do this as a 3-4 act drama (with dice rolling) the 4th act might be the climax where the PCs put everything together or bring down the baddies. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 20, 2012 - 7:25pm | It's surprising how often this verse is misquoted! Fortunately, I have been a part of a couple of great churches that haven't... If I had a nickel for every sermon I've heard correcting the misquote you mentioned... I'd have a lot of nickels... What if someone sold out the PC's, the UPF etc. for money... Maybe UPF races turned spy for the Sathar? What if a sentient or predatory carnivorous plant was the cause of some mysterious disappearences on a colony planet? |
July 22, 2012 - 4:58am | I was in a neighborhood doing a delivery last night that has a store that sells beef jerky the size of a roofing shingle and naturally my van drove straight there after the delivery. Funny how that happened. Anyway, I also picked up a previously viewed DVD for a few bucks, Slumdog Millionaire. I had never seen it and I figured it might give me ideas about greed for the "Root of all Evil" title. Sadly, not really much of a greed theme in there but still a pretty good story. Sort of, in a way, a Forest Gump for India. I predicted a few things while watching but was still debating the outcome till close to the end. there was a strong theme about fate in the movie but I'm at a loss as to how to use that in SF. I suppose the thing you could do is work a campaign so that the PCs hit the major events in UPF history. Being on Pale as young teens during the arrival of the sathar at the outbreak of the SW1, being on the 2nd Volturnus Survey Mission, being present for first contact with the Rim, being at Laco during Laco's War, Discovery of Sundown etc. Although a Forest Gump kind of campaign is probably not as intriguing to play as watching the holovid. "A member of Lt. Dan's family had fought and died in every corporate war since the founding of the UPF, I guess you could say he had a lot to live up to." I suppose you could work in a theme of fate where the adventure is centered on a location like Volturnus and tied to the fate of a group like the mechanons. If you are giving any wt at all to the Zebulon timeline (and I don't generally) all the mechanon entries in the time line are spread out throughout 100 years of UPF history. The Volturnus campaign, the mechanon revolt, The mechanon migration to Mechano, the mechanon application to membership in the UPF. My feeling is that with the undercurrent in Mechanon society of hatred toward biologicals and the cadre The Silver Death Cult there is room for a few side plots/quest in-between the big historical events. A campaign of this sort would include years and decades of time that are glossed over- break out the tables in the SFman on aging. The final tie in is an NPC that was somewhat close to the PCs, who is elected to office and ends up being crucial to the decision concerning allowing the mechanons to join the UPF. Plus look up a Bible verse that speaks to fate and you have a campaign title. Problem is that the Bible doesn't really endorse the concept of fate in its classic non christian essence. Now before anyone jumps on that, yes, I'm well aware of Calvinistic theology and the concept of predestination and verses that imply that eternal destinies are determined solely by God but proper interpretation of the Bible calls for comparing all verses on a subject together and the ones that Arminian theology (not the the ethnic group but the theologian Arminius)is based on imply that eternal destiny is a choice by man. Both need to be balanced against each other and I think both are actually correct in the sense that when a man chooses a wife he has chosen her but she also gets a say in the matter. That analogy is apt since Christ is called the groom and the church and Israel are called the Bride. That said I'm just not aware of any really good verses that speak to fate but maybe I just missed them due to theological blinders while reading the Bible. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 22, 2012 - 11:44am | ^ I love a post that ranges from Forrest Gump to Calvinism vs Armenianism... |
July 22, 2012 - 11:46am | Oh... and "In the presence of my enemies..." - from Psalm 23 - A great title for a battle heavy adventure |
July 22, 2012 - 2:56pm | Oh... and "In the presence of my enemies..." - from Psalm 23 - A great title for a battle heavy adventure
I like that, psam 23 I believe. Have to look up the one the sniper was quoting in Saving Private Ryan as well.Here is a list of possible vs about war Ex 15:3 A Man of War Ex 17:6 War From Generation to Generation Num 1:3 Go Forth to War Josh 6:3 All Ye Men of War Judges 5:8 War in the Gates- immediately reminds me of "Hannibal Ad Porta!" After Hannibal had crossed the Alps and invaded Itally with a patchwork mercenary army knew that he could nover storm the gates of Rome so settled on maneuver in the country trying to incite ally cities to rebell against Rome and to draw out the Roman army for a battle in the field where he could get at it. He got his wish at Cannae and slaughtered 70,000 Roman soldiers which lead to panic cries of "Hannibal at the Gates" among the populous and in turn lead to the formation of the slave legions from all the slaves in Roman and everyone in the prisons. In truth Hannibal would have destroyed his army attacking Rome directly and he almost certainly was aware of that. Still Hannibal at the Gates and War in the Gates have a certain ring to them. Judges 18:11 Weapons of War Sam 8:12 An Instrument of War 1 Kings 2:5 Shed the Blood of War In Peace 1 Chr 5:18 Skillful In War 1 Chr 12:23 Armed for War Job 38:23 Day of Battle Ecc. 3:8 A Time of War Jer 4:19 The Alarm of War Ez 26:9 The Engine of War Dan 9:26 The War of Desolations Joel 3:9 Prepare War 1 Tim 1:18 War a good Warfare Side Note: since I brought up Hannibal and Rome's Slave legions the Roman commander made a grand pronouncement that anyone that took a head in combat would gain his freedom thinking this would motivate the slave legions problem was that once a slave or prisoner slew one enemy they stopped to collect the head and essentially ceased from fighting. Once the general realized what his stupid offer was going to cost the battle he immediately ordered that everyone was free and that everyone should drop the heads and get back to fighting. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 22, 2012 - 3:35pm | Psa 144:1 NKJV "Blessed [be] the LORD my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, [And] my fingers for battle..." "Who trains my hands for war?" - The party has to train an army of natives to help against impending streel/pirate/sathar invasion |
