 October 10, 2012 - 2:48pm | I used the Fraal once. I was planing to use the Sesheyan also. In my version of SF the Mechalus were hold overs from the human races experiments in cybernetics and cloning. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
 October 10, 2012 - 12:25am | That makes sense about the Mechalus. I could see that. How did you use the Fraal? Were they friendly or hostile? |
October 10, 2012 - 2:54pm | Inscrutable. I used them as a mystery for the PCs to figure out. They are peaceful but their scientific curiosity makes them do things that could be seen as hostile. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
 October 12, 2012 - 8:17pm | I like the Fraal. I think you could use them as a gypsie style race. They have city ships and come and go as they please. Jacobsar, I think you profile is a good use for them. I have never used them, but I picture them as coming into contact every so often with the Frontier. A city ship may be near a planet and then there is some trade, but they keep to themselves for the most part. I would use them as aquiring tech from the Frontier from time to time too. Maybe legally and maybe not. The Mechalus are another good race to integrate. I read a couple of the Alternity write-ups for them, I just am not so sure about them really developing on their own. So your take on left over cybernetic experiments is a good way around that. That makes more sense to me for their development. It seemed to me they were like a good Borg or something like that the way the write-ups I read came across. |
October 15, 2012 - 3:16am | Benevolent Borg... that gives one pause. I always liked the Aleerin (aka Mechalus). Their whole history is interesting - how they became near-pacifists after ruthlessly wiping out their neighbor species. I never could reconcile the fact they are basically humans with cybertech, though. I see the Fraal as mysterious, yet vulnerable. I always think of the Greys and Half-Greys. If the Thaal are the Greys, then the Fraal have to be the Half-Greys, which gives them a creepy yet tragic genetic link to humanity. |
October 25, 2012 - 9:23pm | Karxan, I like the city ship idea for the fraal. Never got as far giving them a home, so It fits. For the Machalus (Aleeran), my univers had bits of the "bug hunter" (for amazing engine) universe dropped in as back story. The Sythetic humans the UTRPF used as wariors for there initial explorations to local star systems were eventualy discarded as the earth gov banned the practice of cloning. A group of them rebeled and struck out on there own. Since they were designed not to be able to reproduce they were forced to experiment on themselves with cybernetics and disigned a cybernetic "work around." They setttled on Aleera because it was uninhabited, but eventualy got into conflict with a planet in the same starsystem (they were bred to be warriors after all) and that is where the story in Alternity picks up. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
October 26, 2012 - 1:28am | jacobsar, that is pretty cool for the creation of the Aleeran. It makes sense. I have not read the "Bug Hunter" material before, but heard a lot about it. I read somewhere in a frall write up that they had city ships. (It was in SFman #7, called a colony ship) It reminded me a little of the Eldar from Warhammer 40K. But I have read it in other sci-fi stories before. A city ship makes sense for a race that has a thirst for technical knowledge and are somewhat timid. This way they can live amongst other species but also be seperate. I thought of them as nomads or gypsies when I read the article. Also read in an Alternity ezine that they had some organic weapons that might be cool to cross over with the vrusk. I see the vrusk as having organic weapons sometimes. |
 November 23, 2012 - 6:10pm | I'm getting ready to incorporate Alternity into my setting. My kids each have a couple of PCs that they really like and I'm having them run up to SW2. After it ends, I'm going to have them discover a Tetrarch Stargate that will give them a one time use that will put them in the Verge. I'm really digging the setting, and plan to use all of the races there and some of the factions. Now that they're used to the Frontier, I want it to be really alien to them. From there I plan to have them run two different campaigns: One will be in the frontier, now with 75% less sathar and a lot more corporate fighting. The other will be in the Verge, which I have about 140 ly away from the frontier. I think for both campaigns I will have there be Clikk involved (I have them as one of the reasons for the fall of the tetrarchs). I will also have a Fraal city ship show up in the frontier at some point. I may use the encounter to let my players know that reestablishing contact with the frontier IS possible, they just need to figure out how. The fraal will either interact peacefully with the frontiersmen or perhaps be an industrial accident Pandorum/Metamorphosis Alpha kind of scene. Either way, I won't let the Frontier know where the verge is because I plan to use a higher tech level out there. The fraal are interesting because their racial memory goes back 10,000 years and there was something bad they can't remember. I'm thinking 10,000 years is when the Clikk started trouble, the Tetrarchs disappeared and the Fraal were one of the older races that chose exile or such like that to fighting the Clikks. If the Verge ever gets old - cykotec pirates=serenity reavers anyone? - then I'm thinking a campaign arc where one of the Alternity factions figures out where the frontier is and plans to use superior tech to conquer it - the PCs need to find allies to help them stop it. After that comes the Clikk... |
 November 23, 2012 - 6:40pm | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 23, 2012 - 8:52pm | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. Hmm...now there's a thought... |
November 24, 2012 - 5:08am | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. Hmm...now there's a thought... sort of a dead lands in space, a terrain obstacle half in peoples minds and half in reality I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 24, 2012 - 1:13pm | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. Hmm...now there's a thought... sort of a dead lands in space, a terrain obstacle half in peoples minds and half in reality Now when you say a dead zone, do you mean everything is gone? Or there are still systems but they are all dead from the force of the super nova? |
November 24, 2012 - 4:40pm | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. Hmm...now there's a thought... sort of a dead lands in space, a terrain obstacle half in peoples minds and half in reality Now when you say a dead zone, do you mean everything is gone? Or there are still systems but they are all dead from the force of the super nova? Info that I've seen suggests a kill zone for 120 LY, System of the super nova is destroyed but other systems close by are probably irradiated and others more distant probably suffer mass extinction and some might simply loose a generation. The point I should have made clear is that the perception could be that its a dead zone and yet they have to cross it but they end up discovering stuff. Almost a Voyager or Lost in Space, wait Voyager was Lost in Space done Star Trek style and they even had a quirky robot named 7 of 9. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 24, 2012 - 7:03pm | Just an idea here since you mentioned 140 LY, but a super nova could create a 120LY dead zone between the Frontier and the Verge. Hmm...now there's a thought... sort of a dead lands in space, a terrain obstacle half in peoples minds and half in reality Now when you say a dead zone, do you mean everything is gone? Or there are still systems but they are all dead from the force of the super nova? Info that I've seen suggests a kill zone for 120 LY, System of the super nova is destroyed but other systems close by are probably irradiated and others more distant probably suffer mass extinction and some might simply loose a generation. The point I should have made clear is that the perception could be that its a dead zone and yet they have to cross it but they end up discovering stuff. Almost a Voyager or Lost in Space, wait Voyager was Lost in Space done Star Trek style and they even had a quirky robot named 7 of 9. That's pretty sick. I need to chew on this... |
