 August 3, 2012 - 7:21am | It's been so cool playing the Volturnus series with my kids. I remember being a young teen - maybe 14 and GM-ing the modules when they were new for my friends. This time around I've incorporated most of the ideas in Jedion357's remix project and it has been a fantastic time. A particularly fun part has been some changes in the way the Mechanon are handled - http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/6651 So after discovering a ruied Eorna defense installation they met the first Mechanon - 1X01 and aided him after being severely damaged. They went into the ruined installation to retrieve repair parts and ran into some pre-AI Mechanon prototypes that seriously kicked butt. They also found evidence to show that a single Eorna named Anon called an audible and decided to elevate the machines to sentience. Anyways - stream of thought here - it's cool to see my kids thinking things through. So far they have succeeded in making Allies of all the races through good decision making, wiped out the pirates in slave city one with the Edestekai, and fought the star devil at the Sathar artifact. They captured his corvette the "Crimson Tempest" which was damaged, but he got away by stealing their jetcopter. They also helped 1X01 remove the sole obstacle to the Mechanon helping against the Sathar - they had to disconnect the cybernetic brain of the crazy Eorna Anon and stop his insane directives to wipe out biological life at all costs. Now the Sathar are coming. My kids have to use the "Tempest" to fly out to one of the moons with some Eorna techs to repair the offline lunar defense installation. Hopefully with that and the installation of the Mechanon they can hold off the Sathar invasion fleet until the UPF task force arrives. Anyways, it's been years. I'd forgotten how much fun table top gaming can be... PS - I'm almost done with my final revisions for the Eorna ruined defense installation which is in the above project downloads page. If anyone is using MapTool I can send some of the map files I've been using. The site infrastructue here doesn't seem to support uploads of the necessary file extension, but PM me your email address if you are interested. |
 August 3, 2012 - 8:03am | 1X01, that's awesome. How did your kids like the artwork for the Edestekai race? My son was like, "Cool! But it's kinda freaky". Captain Rags did a great Paint job here; http://ragnarr.webs.com/frontierraces.htm#802983681 and I found an actually miniature online.   |
August 3, 2012 - 8:05am | I like your Map Tool work, you could also upload it to the Downloads section of the MapTool project. :-) |
August 3, 2012 - 8:29am | @ Woot - they loved the Edestekai. I need to show them that picture - it's great! I looked at that project, but the permissions are set so only the project manager can upload. Additionally, in another project I'm on, there was a narrow list of file extensions listed as permitted for upload, image files, docs, pdf, etc. I didn't see anything that looked like it would be allowed. This site has been a tremendous resource to me, so I would be happy to share my map files here. I'm making quite extensive use of the maptool program and have system maps, ship plans, space stations, all of the volturnus maps, and many more using personal use licensed items and objects. I just need some help overcoming these obstacles. If PM is a better way to work this out, hit me up and we can talk further. |
 August 3, 2012 - 10:10am | What is the extension for the MapTools files. The list of allowed extensions is editable by the admins and we can add that extension to the list to allow uploads. 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 |
August 3, 2012 - 10:55am | @TerlObar - sweet! - The extension is .rpmap @WOOT - Now all I need is upload rights on the maptool project |
August 3, 2012 - 11:24am | OnceFarOff, Please try to upload now. I'll have to update my BareBones files for Star Fronteirs and upload. :-) |
August 3, 2012 - 11:54am | Ok. @WOOT - I'm good to go - thanks. @TerlObar - tried uploading and got this message: |
August 3, 2012 - 12:59pm | Hrm... I'm not sure what's going on with the site. I've allowed both "cmpgn" and "rpmap" but it gives me the same result as you. I'll have to dig into it further, for now can you .zip up the file(s)? -lgm |
August 3, 2012 - 2:13pm | Try uploading it now. I checked the downloadable content type and the required extensions weren't there so I added them and they are now showing up in the allowed download types list on the page to add a new downloadable to a project. I don't know if you can generally upload those types of files but you should be able to put them into projects now. 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 |
August 3, 2012 - 3:00pm | Tom, I removed those to find out where the extension were coming form, fyi. It could the the limited number of characters allowed by the upload.module. |
August 3, 2012 - 3:14pm | Oh, okay. 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 |
August 3, 2012 - 8:18pm | I need to find a program to zip the files. I'll look tomorrow. |
August 3, 2012 - 8:29pm | Back to the OP - Played again tonight. The tension is building! They went to the lunar outpost with some Eorna techs and got the reactors online as well as the main computer. The installation robots had been reprogrammed to recognize the Eorna as foes. The computer showed a log entry with the Eorna being blown out into space as an emergency bulkhead was opened while the Eorna techs were working in the fighter launch bay. The computer records showed that one of the Eorna reprogrammed the robots and opened the bulkhead, exposing his comrades to the vacuum... The kids don't know it yet, but they just ran into their first Sathar hypnosis victim. Then the installation computer showed a sensor reading from deep orbit. They found the egg ship, and boarded it, giving all Eorna hope for the future. With the installation coming online, the party brought the rocket ammunition form the Eorna fighters they found at the installation to a staging area outside the Volkos ruins. The next session is the invasion. They aren't sure they're going to survive. Lt. Col Stevenson told them that he doesn't believe they will. He told them that two defense batteries, a pirate corvette and a handful of fighters are not going to stop the capital ships that are sure to come... My 13 year old went around to all the NPCs and basically told them all goodbye. My 9 year old sat in the galley of the Corvette and watched movie recordings... Ah kids... |
August 3, 2012 - 10:30pm | I need to find a program to zip the files. I'll look tomorrow.
I think Windows XP (and maybe 7) has a built-in zip. Just right-click to see your options (send-to compressed zip) I use IZArc. |
 August 4, 2012 - 6:55am | Cool plot twists. But even throwing that bit out, a HS:4 starship needs a lv-3 pilot. Even if you go by the "reduced performance" rule offered in SF/KH:0 Warriors of White Light, you would still need a lv-2 pilot. Unless of course you had some Eorna crew members doing these tasks... |
August 4, 2012 - 8:08am | BTW here's a little extra flavor if you want to add a post-script KH adventure to the final module: |
August 4, 2012 - 8:59am | @ Shadow Shack - Thanks. I've been reading that KH adventure for weeks. We're about to run it! I had the Eorna fighters on one of the moons. I figure the Mechanon will reveal that they have fighters as well, a little closer to the time. Right now, they are cautious and aloof. Actually, my kids are currently members of the Clarion Royal Marines and were running the KH0 module. I used a Volturnus tie in by assigning several members of the CRM to the expedition as orbital support staff when the mission went dark. That and a brother of one of my kids' favorite NPCs. Prior to the PC's enlisment in the CRM, they had served as crew and security on a freighter that was attacked by the pirates as they entered the white light system. The PC's found some good cover as the Pirates forced their way in and made a good showing before the RMS Wasp showed up to drive off the pirates. With the freighter they were on out of comission for repairs, they took the offer from the command crew of the Wasp to consider the Royal Marines. With their space skills and experience fighting pirates, they were attached to a unit to assist in the rescue. The Lt in charge was killed escaping the Serena Dawn, leaving the PC's the highers ranking Marines there. In my campaign with the kids, I'm running the Skilled Frontier ruleset from SFman #9. I just don't think it's a good mechanic to require all of the pre-req skills in the Canon rules. Especially for my kids. I want them to be excited about playing in space. So they used their exerience to each take a level in a space skill. My 9 year old became a level 1 pilot and my 13 year old an energy gunner. Then we ran through some of the scenarios, and my 9yo is now level 3 in pilot. He actully pilots the Osprey. My 13yo is a level 2 beam gunner so be operates the battery. I still have more for them to do with the CRM, so I'm considering how to work out the ship. I think the Truane's Star government would allow for them to keep it, although not the ore from Slave City One. I imagine that they would want to go over the astrogation logs, etc. maybe some red tape before it gets released to them. They don't have a proper engineer or astrogator anyways. I may have some UPF crew help them with the jump to Truane's Star where the ship will stay until the PC's leave the Royal Marines. |
August 4, 2012 - 1:52pm | Ah that works, I was under the presumption that they started the trilogy as new characters. ANother neat plot twist. ;) |
 August 4, 2012 - 4:57pm | OnceFarOff, Things are progressing nicely in your game. Please continue to keep us all informed, It is good to read about your kids enjoying SF. |
 August 4, 2012 - 5:47pm | You could easily progress your CRM cadettes to the Eleanor Mores adventure and its beyond the frontier campaign, use a miss jump and a break down when leaving the Volturnus system for Clarion to put them in the proper system for Bugs in the System. Pretty sure you could get away with a thin reason for them doing Alcazzar or Dark Side of the Moon and of course there is the classic Dramune Run that starts in Clarion. Its sounds like You've really milked the Volturnus series and much of the discussion centered on it for this campaign with your kids though. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 4, 2012 - 8:44pm | Its sounds like You've really milked the Volturnus series and much of the discussion centered on it for this campaign with your kids though. Milked it pretty dry. Tonight we played again (they wouldn't stop talking about the coming battle all day - gotta love summer). So the kiddos finished preparations, cleaned out the Slave City armory for the recoilless and the heavy laser. They got all their supplies staged and then headed to the moon installation to wait for the big day. The Eorna techs returned the fighters to Volturnus to wait for the best opportunity, the PCs trained on the Eorna equipment under the tutelage of Ter-el, one of the Eorna leaders. The Corvette was stashed inside a large cavern opening with a retractable roof. Since the installation had been taken by subterfuge the mechanical components were all functioning. Then they waited for the Sathar to come. I wanted to make it exciting for the kids, so I made the installation have the equivalent of 4 laser cannons that could fire 360 degrees due to the size of the place. I also included 12 missles that acted as torpedoes. The first ships were 2 Sathar Heavy Cruisers and 2 Assault Carriers with some frigates behind as a second wave. The PC's attacked the ACs first, after the HCs had passed. Classic killzone ambush. They made quick work of the carriers, and by the time the HCs could turn around to bring their FF weapons to bear they had damaged them as well. I allowed them to finish off those big capitals ships before the base was knocked out. They escaped from the approaching Frigates by using a masking screen - although the arrival of the UPF fleet in the system drawing off the closing Frigates probably had something to do with it as well  Planetside, they finished the first two phases of the battle, lost a favorite NPC to a slither, and we had to leave it with the Eorna calling for help on the Skirmish line. Next session should finish the planetside battle and then off into Shadow Shack's KH scenario with the fighters and a pirate corvette. Then I think a medal ceremony at Truane's Star, some job offers from the UPF, and maybe a dirtbag reporter that misrepresents their statements or pushes them into hostile questions out of disdain for the UPF policy toward exploiting worlds... But for today I think I blew their little minds... |
August 6, 2012 - 8:44pm | So we played a lot this weekend. The kids won the ground war by the seat of their pants. They lost another favorite NPC - Aakin Darkhana - who was with them off and on since the beginning. It was pretty much GM fiat as Jedion says. I wanted them to get a sense of 'we barely made it' and also remind them that they can lose their characters if they play too poorly. I spared their favorite character, who remained with the Eorna (he's not Clarion Royal Marines with them) to continue the search for his brother, who was seen escaping the seren dawn, and evidence was found that he survived, but they couldn't find him. Anyways, the PCs and some Eorna helpers took the battle into space using Shadow Shack's KH encounter with the Mechanon and Eorna fighters. The pirate corvette tipped things a little too far in the PC's direction, but I prefer to run a more heroic PC kind of game to keep the action exciting for them rather than focusing on hard science and game mechanics. Again, it's Jedion's fault - with that awesome Gary Gygax quote about not needing rules in his sig line. So after dishing out some damage and losing a few fighters, the PCs returned planetside to 'spike the ball' and meet up with the tribal leaders. A leader from the UPF and also Truane's star met them and congratulated them. After they took a victory lap, the UPF helped them get their spoils loaded up they flew the corvette to Truane's Star. There they recieved medals for valor, and were asked to surrender the Star Devil's corvette until they can deal with the red tape and search for clues to his whereabouts, etc. (ie after they get out of the CRM). The UPF taskforce gave them a ride back to Prenglar, where they were honored by the corporate leaders of Star Play Inc. who treated them with free first class accomodations on their famous luxury liner "The Ambassador" - using the Truane's Express deck plans. They enjoyed being famous. The war heroes were bombarded by reporters requesting interviews, some of whom had ulterior motives: one is pro-UPF war propaganda, one looking to use PC's words against the Truane's Star's claim to Zebulun, and one looking for a scoop to connect Truane's government with corruption. They met some rock stars, agreed to help them get a paparazzi's camera and met a passenger who just lost a brother (ship's medic in UPF) in the battle for Volturnus. Just when they thought they were going to die of boredom, one of the reporters asked them to meet in conference room where the he and the camera crew pulled out guns and started firing at them. Security got there just in time before if got lethal for the PCs. My oldest son is an Agent type of character and is trying to work out why he has people trying to kill him. It happened once before as well. He also has a strange message that the chief of CDC security on Clarion Station wants to speak with him. The hit on the Luxury Liner was a sophisticated job... Fake press credentials, camera and lighing cases that had secret comparments to conceal pistols. He's eventually going to find out that there's an octopus network that is trying to get him... But first, they still have a dozen tendays before their enlisment with the CRM is up... |
December 3, 2012 - 9:11pm | Well, my kids just finished the beyond the frontier series tonight. It was a pretty cool thing. Their characters went to Mahg Mar as the crew of the Osprey to answer the distress call of the Eleanor Moraes. From there they met up with the crew and then proceeded to establish peaceful talks with the Notui. After a little bit of trouble understanding the concept of buoyancy, they got into the Sathar scout ship with little trouble. The taking down of the Sathar Base Ship nearly got one of their favorite NPCs killed as they were taking out the intelligence agents, but their medic got him in a freeze field before it was too late. They thought it was really cool to be the "first" to capture a Sathar ship (and they got 2 after they blew the engine struts with TD19). Then they met the belter Mhemne and hit it off with them, landing some defense and trade agreements with them. I love that my kids will talk it out before going all Rambo on people. Then they took out the mining outposts and finally the L4 station. So my kids are now the heroes of Volturnus and of the Liberty campaign and are about to get discharged with honor from the Clarion Royal Marines. Next up is some personal story line stuff and then into SW 2. (I know I ran it out of order-GM fiat). My 9yo's PC Mikal has been wanting to see his estranged father. He's the head of a large corporation - Advanced Technological Concepts. He has recently stumbled across a rare find - a Tetrarch jump nexus and a crashed ship located in the binary star system next to Cassidine and Prenglar. My kid's PCs sister Xarena is going to be kidnapped for the information. As they free her and track down the mystery ship, they will find a control device that will activate the jump nexus (star gate). Then the twist - Xarena was under Sathar hypnosis and flies their ship into the gate - which takes them to a MASSIVE SATHAR BASE in the Formad cluster. She sends the Sathar the information they need to access the long lost gate, enabling them to launch an attack on the heart of the UPF. SW 2 is about to begin. Meanwhile, at the same time, my 13yo's PC Nunor needs to put a ghost from the past to rest. The entire game started with him waking up in a cave with no memory of anything. In time he began to remember some things, his skills, etc. After he helped rescue Volturnus from the Sathar, he discovered that he had been an assassin, tasked with aiding the Free Frontiersman Foundation in developing a weapon. The memory loss was due to a rare plant on CorpCo which causes memory loss. A FFF operative named Nom Nescio had been trying to kill him for failing to complete his mission and not checking in (because he forgot). Star Law recruited Nunor to help them shut down Nescio, and had him break into a research center to steal an atmospheric dispersal unit for Nescio to get him off his back. That was before Mahg Mar. Now that he's back, Nescio was tracked but escaped. His accomplice however was captured and is in evergloom prison in Cassidine. Nunor has to go there to interrogate the prisoner along with Star Law Ranger Dayce Trinnell to find out where Nom Nescio's hideout is. But Nescio knows they're on to him. He uses some of his contacts to run a TRUE story about someone Nunor killed before he lost his memory. Star Law is now on him - he gets arrested. Then before he is interrogated, a mysterious stranger (from the Investors) sneaks him out of the jail, giving him some clues that Nescio is under Sathar influence and is planning a massive attack somewhere soon. The evidence is on Epsilon - the plague planet. As he's making his escape, Dayce catches Nunor, who will have to talk him into trusting him. They go to Epsilon and find a planet that has been completely wiped out by a bioweapon. Using the atmospheric dispersal units he had stolen for Nescio. Nunor and Dayce have to go to Nescio's mansion in Madderly's Star and wipe the place out, but Nescio will escape leaving behind his plans to launch a bioweapon attack in Port Loren on Founder's Day. The Sathar plan the attack to cause confusion just before their fleets invade. The frontier looks done. Nunor Turott, the hero of Volturnus and the Liberty Campaign is a murderer, on the run with a disgraced Star Law Ranger. The manhunt is on, and the only one who can save the frontier is #1 on the most wanted list... |
 December 6, 2012 - 4:21pm | I love reading this stuff, Once. Having run the Volturnus modules recently myself, and currently gaming with my kids, it is nice to see the differences and parallels. Good luck with the campaign! |
December 16, 2012 - 10:05pm | So Sathar War II has just begun tonight... I had the kids tie up some loose ends tonight, including breaking up a WMD plot in Port Loren on Founder's Day, which was to be used to damage the UPF command and control as well as supply lines. The kids boke up the plot just in time with their main characters. Meanwhile, their characters who are a part of the Volturnus militia were in Scree Fron as the sathar Juggernaut entered the system. A few destroyed UPF ships and a Juggernaut later, the kids got recalled to Capella to await the main sathar fleet. The war has begun... |
