 August 1, 2012 - 8:41am | Suarians were written as an NPC race with little impact on the Frontier and tacit GM approval for PC use. I'd like to take another look at them and develop more detail. Home World: Kischen (Oceanic- though I would not make it a total water world) Star's proposed working name: Saria Article says their world is distant from the Frontier and that they lived in peace trading with the races around them till the dreaded sathar discovered them. This statement clearly illustrated the move to make Star Frontiers more Star Wars like on the part of TSR- which is only a problem for those of us that like to lean toward harder science [harder not neccessarily hard science  ] where less races make more sense. so one way to deal with this statement is make one of said races they traded with the mhemne from SFKH 4 The War Machine- they were a space faring race (barely) that was conquerored by a sathar clan as client race/slaves. Before they were conquerored by the worms they traded with the saurians. Nothing in the modules goes against that and it would put Saria distant from the UPF proper.Article says waves or sathar overwhelmed the saurians till the point where the government decided to outfit ships with stasis chambers and send them in direction of the UPF having detected signals from that direction and hoping it wasn't a sathar trick. 19 vessels sit in orbit around Theseus with 500K more saurians in stasis while 200k now live and work throughout the Frontier. and a plan to send some of those vessels on to Lossend. The Theseus angle works well with my supposition that their homeworld lies out past Liberty system. I would contend that since they come from a Oceanic world that a soggy planet like Clarion and a world ocean like Faire in the Rim might appeal to them. I would further contend that 500K saurians would not be left in limbo in stasis for long. Characteristics- warmblooded egg laying reptiles with four digits per webbed hand and foot, gills for breathing water and excellent under water vision (I would write in nictitating membranes that protect their eyes from bright lights especially out of water). Rapid growth- reaching maturity in 5 years. Natural weaponry- their claws have degenerated through evolution but still offer some effect in combat +1 to punch score when punching and tail slap is -10 to hit but 2d10 damage(I would enforce a limit on that of every other combat turn as that make sense to me) Evolved from a land dragon into 4 races on the planet Kischen. Society and philosophy of saurians: core beliefs: individuality and freedom of choice. they dont like authority but if convinced its in their best interest they will obey. Hate dictatorships and psych-social skilled saurians will not hyptnotize someone against their will. Clan or svik is base social unit- handles raising children, all four races are inter-fertile and all four are represented in a svik. their near brush with extinction has cause them to eschew violence among themselves. touchy about insults and slights to their race, vengeful and a wrong done to one saurian is a wrong done to all. noted for rage and fury directed at the sathar. Horrifying losses in the war with the sathar has made them very militant. There has been some discussion of forming a saurian military force to raid sathar space and locate the sathar home world as well as retake Kischen. [Call it the Saurian Expeditionary Assault League- which will send out SEAL teams] for a cultural reason they love swords, pole arms, crossbows and other archaic weapons- enter the sonic pole arm! Names: common and svik name for first and last name plus performance of a great dead will cause an honorific to be added then there is the 'tarish satimu' the sacred name that only a saurian's svik may know but anyone else learning such a name will be cause for a duel to the death. the sacred name is actually believed to be part of the saurian's soul. Attitudes: get along well with most everyone but find Yazirians pushy and rude though when they make a friend of a yazirian its for life. Other special abilities: resistent to hyptnotism and mind control see article for details (basically you wont see a saurian as a sathar agent IMO) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 1, 2012 - 8:59am | This is a pretty good start Kischen- Oceanic- doesn't mean no land just dominated by ocean and the evolution from a land dragon suggests presences of land. I'm leaning to a variety of small continents with a variety of climates to facilitate the evolution of 4 distince races. to be space faring they need a land based industry at the very least. Need to review the four races and think about habitat they would evolve in. Does kischen have moons? to create tides? or does it have no tide? I can see them commenting on strange tides on a new planet or the lack of a tide so I kind of like the idea of at least one moon. Relationship to Liberty system- I think the internal content of the article and my supposition about who they could have traded with points to a place beyond Liberty System and in the heart of sathar clan Y territory. Essentially pick a spot on the map further beyond Liberty system. Militant change in society- good stuff and you'd find that most military and mercenary outfits accross the frontier will quickly have a few token saurians in their ranks. the discussion of the saurian military force- A huge percentage of the saurian populous kicks back a percentage of their income to this endeavor (10%-20%). I proposed Saurian Expenditionary Assault league for fun but basically it would be a paramilitary organization. naturally the UPF and Space Fleet will become concerned over it but the natural disdain by the saurians for authority will cause them to ignore any pressure to tone down their activities. HS 4 corvettes seam like a good hull for SEAL teams. plus conversion of some of their refugee ships to heavy cruiser/ battleships to retake their homeworld thought this process will take time and money. Saurian government within the UPF? their relationship to the UPF and the council of worlds? they no longer have a world. Perhaps they have a govenment functioning still that meets at Theseus and an ambassador to the UPF. Sacred Name: interesting idea- player should not write it down on their character sheet. how did this evolve what other religious beliefs does it suggest? There is a Brave New Alpha Dawn for the Saurian in the Frontier, are you prepared for it? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 1, 2012 - 9:05am | Racial Weapons? I prefer a pole arm since the yazirians now have the khadans. two weapon to focus on are crossbows and pole arms. the racial aspect can easily be just style and design- no specail advantage for using such are really needed. Leave it as just fluff they they like them due to cultural reasons. Though what the cultural reasons are maybe ought be investigated. Needs a cool name and design. plus a pissed saurian coming at you with a sonic pole arm would be pretty scary. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 1, 2012 - 7:11pm | Jedion, It makes snese to have them associated with the mhemne for continuity. There could even be a joint mhemne/saurian raiding group/team/force. I have always like crossbows. There is no reason they cannot have a hightech one. Not necessarily like Chewbacca's. Maybe one with special tips similar to what you find with Hawkeye in the Avengers. |
August 1, 2012 - 10:00pm | I would campaign for making crossbows helacious weapons- they were responsible for barbaric wounds and a pope even tried to outlaw them but people who were using them ignored that. crossbows challenged armor technology but did not obsolete it as firearms did so while they had awesome penetration power (going through oak doors) They certainly should do more damage than a bow and arrow. Hi tech or perhaps modern materials constructed crossbow is simply more reliable and less likely to have problems. Ammo could be hi tech like the gyro-jet ammo that was based on some of the grenades. I remember seeing the "goat's foot" in the tower of London or Warwick castle (or both) which was a leverage device with two prongs that slid into rings mounted on the side of a cross bow an had a hook that caught the bow string and allowed a crossbowman more leverage to cock the device. I've never seen it accounted for in a RPG. I imagine a modern crossbow could have an intregral "goats foot" device that does not come off but greately speeds reloading. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 1, 2012 - 10:24pm | With hightech crossbows, I would think they would have some type of integrated motor system for auto draw. If they still had to hand crank, it would really not be effective in a war situation that had automatic/laser weapons. You would still have a slower fire rate, but could give it a higher damage curve. It would make a great shipboard weapon with the right type of ammo. As long as the saurians were using non explosive tipped bolts, it would not penetrate the hulls I would assume. This could be a great advantage for them. Pole arms would be awkward. I have always liked Bill's Blast Axe in SFman #5 pg 20. I thought it would be an ideal weapon for vrusk. I picture them as pole arm users. Maybe the saurians have something similar. Like you said a sonic pole arm. Maybe even have different lengths for boarding actions, like stunsticks. They probably want lethal ones for sathar though. Dead worms are better than live ones. :) |
August 1, 2012 - 10:54pm | Actually cranked cross bows were seige weapons not persnal arms. The goats foot was developed to use leverage (with a big enough lever you can move the world) I'm not aware of modern crossbows using a leverage device to cock but I think it could be feasible. It would mean holding the bow with one hand and pulling the leverage device toward you with the other. In some ways it would be similar to operating the pump on a pump action shot gun. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 2, 2012 - 10:11pm | I have seen drawing of mechanical hand cranks on crossbows. Even levers. You have to draw and then load. In some show I saw a crossbow with a 3-4 rotating chamber. Each crank would pull the draw and load a bolt. I guess you could have a lever that pulls back on the bow and raises a bolt into place. Give it a clip of 5 bolts and you would have one turn to draw and load, then fire. Not hard to see in a modern crossbow. |
 August 3, 2012 - 12:02pm | Almost looks like a crossbow... |
August 3, 2012 - 4:53pm | Jedion, funny you post a picture of the sleestack. I have a comment in my remastered copy of the saurians where I state they remind me of sleestack. Funny. |
August 3, 2012 - 6:06pm | Jedion, funny you post a picture of the sleestack. I have a comment in my remastered copy of the saurians where I state they remind me of sleestack. Funny. "I Am Not Spock!" er I mean w00t. But you're both right they do look a little sleestack-ish but I think the saurians probably kick more tail then the sleestacks ever did. you know you have to be over a certain age to recognize those sleestacks. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 3, 2012 - 6:08pm | Ok, Seriously, I googled "secret/sacred names" and came up with nothing. was there an earth culture that had that practice I could look into for referrence? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 3, 2012 - 9:39pm | Your right Jedion, I did not look at the avatar. Sorry to both w00t and Jedion. Maybe I should do this while I am awake. Hmmmm? |
August 4, 2012 - 5:02am | Your right Jedion, I did not look at the avatar. Sorry to both w00t and Jedion. Maybe I should do this while I am awake. Hmmmm? No worries- and how often am I going to have an opportunity to quote the cover of a Lenard Nimoy book that angered fans? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 10, 2012 - 1:29am |
|
October 13, 2012 - 6:09am | They are neither mammals nor reptiles, but are very much like the ancient warm-blooded "mammal-like reptiles" that existed on Earth before the dinosaurs. They evolved from similar mammal-like, quasi-dinosaur creatures. They reproduce by laying eggs. They are amphibious, and have webbed hands & feet. They can breathe both above & below the water. Like many reptilian creatures, they are capable of hibernating. This natural ability facilitated the development of hibernation technology (such as suspended animation or freeze fields) earlier than other species. Have the natural ability to resist hypnotism. This might be one of the main reasons the Sathar hate them so much. Their technology is inferior to that of the rest of the Frontier, but better than the Mhemne. Saurian society is structured around their religion - they have many superstitions, taboos, myths, ancient prophecies, rituals, etc. They often carry religious talismans to ward off evil. They have no formal government or police system other than the church. The Kitsaza Intana is like the Pope or the Dalai Lama - they all revere him, and he is the de facto ruler. Saurians can be very sensitive. They are touchy about anything that could be taken as an insult, to the individual, species or religion. This has been made worse by their refugee status, which bothers them a great deal. Some Saurian subspecies are more sensitive than others. They favor archaic melee weapons over high-tech weapons, despite their availability. Saurians are a complex mix of the futuristic and the ancient. They have ships & high-tech items, but can be barbaric & primitive in many ways. The interiors of their ships are full of old-fashioned handles, levers, dials, and a lot of wood & brass. Each Saurian has a sacred name, or tarish satimu, which is considered a part of its very soul. It is only known to its owner's svik, and must be kept secret from outsiders. To let outsiders learn the name defiles it, and is considered an unholy act. This abomination can only be cleansed from the soul by blood. There are four subspecies: The Vanar These are the most common Saurians. 90% of all Saurians are Vanar. The Saurians in the photo above would be Vanar. They have no horns or crests or ridges. Vanar are generalists, and can be found doing any job in Saurian society. They are not as aggressive or confrontational as some of the other subspecies, and other species tend to get along with Vanar. The Talsoi About 5% of Saurians are Talsoi. Talsoi are easily identified by the Godzilla-like ridges running down their back. They are tough, with a stockier build than the skinny Vanar. They are calm, efficient, cold & logical. They make sure Saurian society operates properly. Although there are no limitations on what sort of careers they can have, Talsoi tend to gravitate toward careers such as bodyguards, security guards, managers, investigators, inspectors, priests, military commanders, ship captains, and so forth. The Kamier Only about 3% of Saurians are Kamier. Kamier have a rooster-like red crest on their heads, and a spiked tail. Like the Talsoi, they are tough & solidly built. The Kamier are built for combat. Their claws are more developed than in other Saurian breeds. They have a more aggressive & violent nature, which they often find difficult to control. These are the most sensitive Saurians, and the ones most likely to get into fights. They are confrontational and hot-tempered, and prone to making rash decisions without thinking things through very well. Kamier are the elite warriors & athletes. By tradition, Kamier are never employed in certain careers, such as public relations, due to their flightly nature. They are not permitted to be leaders, and must always work under Talsoi. The Kavak Only 2% of all Saurians are Kavak, making them the rarest of all Saurian subspecies. They are striped, and have a rhino-like horn on the forehead. They are placid, calm & even-tempered. The other Saurian subspecies treat the Kavak with a mystical reverence & respect. Kavak are the leaders of Saurian society. They are usually found as public service personnel, diplomats, intellectuals, philosophers, caregivers & religious leaders. By tradition, the Kitsaza Intana must always be a Kavak. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had not considered having them trade with the Mhemne. Seems like an obvious solution to me now that you say it. I had simply made up some other aliens that were exterminated by the Sathar when they attacked the Saurian's home system. The Mhemne would have done just as well. I like Jedion's suggestion that they avoid violence amongst themselves. Although they are not pacifists by a long shot, they DO want their species to survive. The Sathar decimated them, and they are now refugees in a foreign land. They would have a certain level of solidarity and a sense of species brotherhood. I like the weapons ideas you guys have mentioned so far. Crossbows & sonic polearms totally fit the way I think about Saurians. |
October 13, 2012 - 6:41am | Nice work BossMoss, funny I just got an email from someone this morning inquiring about the saurians and my intent to use them in a future project. SO I'm going to lay a few things out 1. at the FE I'm sitting on a really cool article that was submitted on subspace radios and I felt that it should be expanded to a whole theme and that one of the adventure seeds in it should be written up as a one shot adventure of first contact brought on by intercepted sub space transmissions picked up by a UPF listening post. There is actually a lot of work to be done for that for next year so I figured that rather than try to develop a whole new species for the PCs to meet that perhaps we could do a treatment of the saurians like what went on for the humma and is going on for the osakar in the zebs guide project and the adventure can be a Khs/AD adventure of first contact with the saurians 2. So the above said- I'd like to flesh out the saurain home world some and detail some environments there as well as their culture, perhaps develop some native saurain flora and fauna. 3. design and detail saurian tech and how their ships are different from the UPFs and or sathar though since they were in contact with the mhemne, I'm supposing we should look at mhemne tech which IIRC included ion engines. they would not name their ships anything so "human" but because Dracos (Jason of Star Com) has been on my mind lately I'm liking the idea of a dragon ship or dragon fighter and chalk the name up as the Pan gal translation. Adventure will have this general outline I. signal detection and search for system of origin II. First contact - obviously a RP encounter in there but we need a little more than just one "hi, how are you doing?" encounter. III. Sathar encounter (saurians are facing annihilation and the crew of PCs get involved- small to medium KHs encounter) IV. Ground encounter (AD action) perhaps to rescue the high priest guy- small elite team goes in. V. Rear guard action in space to cover the rag tag refugee fleet's escape. (PCs don't have to survive this adventure and can have a heroic death as they will likely be members of an as yet to be detailed branch of Space Fleet. I may just include he new sathar cutter in the Knight Hawks action for this as well. I'm open to collaboration on this one thing I dont want it so differ too much from the original saurian material (unless necessary) simply expand on it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 13, 2012 - 2:33pm | Cool. Sort of an alternate, semi-canon version of how the Saurians left their system and ended up in the Frontier. I like it. Sure, I'm up for collaboration. Let's keep fleshing out some ideas here on this thread. I like everything you've got so far, so let's build on that. Years ago Pan-Galactic started sending out these signals, hoping to contact new species so they can beef up their business, and drum up new clients. Sort of a "Here we are, come trade with us". It's mentioned in one or two modules or articles. I don't remember which ones, but I think it might have been the Saurian article AND the Mhemne module, which works well. So, both Saurians & Mhemne can speak some very basic Pan-Gal, and know the UPF exists. Hmm, kids need me. Real Life calls. I'll post again soon. Just want to say I like the idea of having to rescue the Saurian high priest in addition to the whole first contact scenario - that gives it some high stakes. The players will come to realize how much this guy means to them, and how important this mission is to their future relationship with this species. |
October 13, 2012 - 2:38pm | Perhaps it will take the high preist to order the evac or it will never happen. Or no one will go without him since he's the spiritual and cultural heart of the saurian civilization. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 13, 2012 - 5:40pm | Have the encounter with the High Priest a KH encounter. The pc's ship saves his ship from the sathar persuing it. The pc's did not know they were saving the single most important saurian, then turn it into a rp session with the remainder of the encounter. The question now would be to go backward and decide how the pc's get into this battle in the first place? I think the first encounter with the saurians could be this one or maybe several KH encounters(small ones) having the pc's or a small fleet led by the pc's defeating sathar and rescuing this rag tag fleet fleeing from them. Each KH session could end with a rp time to help the pc's get to know the saurians. Each time they could learn a little more about who they are and where they come from. Maybe throw in some sathar intel for the pc's as a reward for a few of the battles won. Having the encounters be in space for the beginning makes sense if they are discovered while fleeing the sathar. The only thing is how do the mhemne and their timeline fit with the discovery of the saurians? More thinking. |
October 14, 2012 - 6:22am | Dragon article says the sathar come in waves; what if they come on a time schedule? tht the waves are predictable for some reason? Perhaps the sathar clan that attacks has a robotics focus and it takes time to build up their assault force. or they simply double the time between each wave and show up with double the previous wave? No reason for the worms to be smart & stratebic or even realize that their predictability gives their enemies an edge. The saurians are loosing ground though and eventually if the trend continues they will be overwhelmed. PCs show up at time when the sathar advanced scouts are showing up and this is the initial space battle for the PCs. there is now a clock ticking on when the main force shows up and the saurinas know it they are having difficulty communicating this to the PCs and a LOG check or a linguist PC or a psych-social PC must pass a skill check to figure out the math and deliver the grim news to the rest of the PCs. there can be more of these LOG or skill checks over the course of time for the Players to learn other key info about the saurian society and culture. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 14, 2012 - 6:26am | Biomes its a water world with at least one sizable continent; perhaps two- and many islands Since this is likely to be just a one shot on this planet I dont think we really need to invest too much effort to craft alien environment for the most part coastal biomes will be similar to costal and island biomes on earth with due changes for equatorial, tropical, temperate and polar regions. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 14, 2012 - 9:35am | From the dragon article and in particular in the descriptions of the four subspecies we find reference to grasslands, plains, fresh water rivers, lakes & streams, swamps, and jungles. There is reference to a land dragon and we should suppose there is a water dragon as well or perhaps the land dragon is as comfortable in the water as some species of monitor lizard. Also there is reference to a swamp plant that looks like the kamier crest and gave them camoflague in the swamp. One sathar connect would be the worm's desire to develop the planet Kischen as a new source for cybo-dragons. Perhaps this sathar clan has not focused on cybernetics and their version is not as capable as that seen on Volturnus and in SW1 of the warm blooded biology of the Kischen dragon is seen as a new asset and upgrade and may improve this clan's standing in the sathar hierarchy of clans. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 15, 2012 - 2:46am | I like that the Kitsaza Intana orders the evacuation. That makes sense to me. The Saurians are stubborn, but because he is the big holy guy, they listen to him. They want to ensure that he survives. Maybe they even think of it as a holy voyage, like a crusade. Their ships are slower-than-light, and do not have Void engines. The PCs would have to act as an escort for a LONG TIME. One scenario I played in my game was that some Saurian ships didn't get programmed accurately, and ended up in different systems, arriving at different times. They could arrive in the Mhemne system (oops, that one was on autopilot from its last voyage), or in Yazirian space. Maybe one even gets turned around and heads into the Vast Expanse - it crashes on some unexplored planet and sends out a distress signal and the PCs have to go rescue them. So, are the PCs going to land on the Saurian planet? That could set up all kinds of scenarios. They might get caught up in the middle of the exodus, and the Sathar bombardment. Plenty of room for combat setups there. Or between Sathar attack waves. At some point, they would have to realize that it was a losing battle... I think the Sathar want to use the local wildlife for cyber-tech, but want to "cleanse the planet" of higher life forms first, as jedion said. There might be Sathar agents working amongst the Saurians for months beforehand, collecting intel on local species, and sizing up Saurian defenses. Maybe there used to be more Kamier Saurians before the attacks, but because they died defending their Kitsaza Intana, the Kamier are now a dying breed. I like the idea of some role-playing in between, to get to know the Saurians, and connect with them. We want the PCs to take the Saurians' side, and they're not the easiest guys to like. So we've got to make them sympathetic characters. The Mhemne question is a good one. The Saurians were described in an article, not in a module, and so they're not on the timeline like the Mhemne. Have the Sathar already enslaved the Mhemne when they attack the Saurian system? Are the Sathar attacking both systems at the same time? Or do they hit the Saurians first? We should remember how low-tech the Mhemne are, and how fragile. They can't stand up to any acceleration. Most of them have been living in space (except the tough ones on their frozen planet), and would be suffering from the long-term effects of low gravity, such as bone loss. Their senses are not as keen as a human's senses. When they meet the UPF, they are shocked to discover that they're not as cool as they thought they were. So what is the nature of the Mhemne & Saurian trade relationship? What do the Mhemne have to offer? Their planet is toast. "Here, want some snow?" Maybe they have raw ore in their asteroid belt, and the Belters have been mining it. The Saurians could have been trading almost anything, right up until the Sathar attack. In the Mhemne module, the Sathar have a base there. Is there a Sathar base nearby in this scenario? How far do they have to come, in order to carry out this attack on the Saurians? Maybe they have a mobile base nearby, like a space station or a couple assault carriers. The PCs can piece this information together a little at a time, like Karxan said, as a reward. Maybe the Sathar are using enslaved Mhemne pilots against the Saurians, which throws the Saurians off balance. Why would our allies be attacking us? That, combined with Sathar robot ships or pilots, would delay a Saurian response long enough for the Sathar to prepare the next wave. By the time the Saurians figure out what is happening (with the PCs' help), it's too late - the Sathar main force is on the way. Just a little brainstorming here... |
October 15, 2012 - 10:58am | I'm going to go with at least ion engines for the saurians as you do not want to tie down the PCs escorting sublight ships. plus chemical drives and perhaps something else I was thinking that we could make the saurian system a binary (distant companion) and say that they are masters of the solar sail and that the distant companion gives them some ability to tack with their solar sails and that they get more performance out of them than you would in a system with one star. Also the saurian solar sails would be invisible to energy sensors but might have a bigger radar profile because of the sail, unless they use plasma solar sails in which case the radar profile is unchanged and the energy sensor will likely show the ship. I was imagining a sonic polearm for the saurians but with a beam weapon at the other end sort of like the staff laser weapons on Star Gate. Perhaps its a sonic beam weapon at one end and a sonic pole arm at the other and as a limitation you can use it at a bo staff to bludgen your opponent when you run out of energy in the clip but doing so is likely to damage sonic emmitters so while it could be used in that fashion most people prefer to not do so unless as a last resort. Timeline issues- you could fudge this as pre or post the discovery of Liberty system I think but in general I think it plays better as post so that the saurian ships can stage through Liberty to get to the Frontier. I think if there is a sathar agent among the saurians that it would come as a huge surprise. 1) because they cant be hyptnotized by the worms and 2) the impending genocide makes it unlikely that a turncoat would continue to work for the worms willingly but ... it is a possibility that cant be absolutely ruled out. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 15, 2012 - 1:31pm | Sounds good. |
January 20, 2013 - 3:59am | Weird thought just hit since the saurian like weapons like pole arms, swords and crossbows it just occurred to me to rip off StarGate and have the Saurians have a laser pole arm. that then brings up Chewie's bowcaster-an energy crossbow? if it shoots energy beam of some sort then making it a crossbow is superfluous because the bow mechanism is what propels a bolt but the bolts have been replaced with energy beam of some sort. so why might a saurian build an energy weapon with a cross bow construction to it? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 22, 2013 - 8:30pm | An energy crossbow may turn the bow part into a melee weapon, since they don't need it for the draw anymore. |
 May 10, 2013 - 12:38am | Or it is still a crossbow but in an over and under configuration. the over is the crossbow the under is the energy beam. The keep the crossbow for cultural reasons but use the energy beam mounted under as it is modern and rapid. Perhaps lifted from the sathar by necessity. They will quickly adopt grenade bolts ala granade gyrojet ammo. -iggy |
