Midnight On Starmist, A Sequel

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 19, 2012 - 6:16am
Was wondering in the shower about the source of the UPF's knowledge about the klikks- The starmist mod has a story arc and doesn't go into deep detail about the klikks- where did the name klikk come from anyway? Was it the name used by the brain wiped heliopes? Could be they were brain wiped. How do we even know they were brainwiped? And just why were the sathar there anyway? I know the module give an excuse but really are we going to buy that? they could easily have established a similar facility on a less hostile envrionment planet or even deeper in sathar space to prevent discovery by the UPF and Space Fleet.

So here's my thought: we the community of Star Frontiers fans have some sketchy details about the klikks but they are details that we should presume that are known to the UPF or Space Fleet, even if classified top secret so how did this knowledge come to be in the hands of the UPF? We can hand wave that and just say that in the aftermath of the Starmist mod that experts generated this information. But I think there is room for a Midnight on Starmist sequel that delves into the mystery of the klikks.

1. First thing to do is to identify just what information is referee background about the klikks and what information the PCs (not the players) discover in the course of the Starmist adventure.

2. Identify the talking points for what mysteries the PCs will uncover, have a database (file computer from Zebs) that was owned by one of the sathar agents fall into the PCs hands and have files that reveal the sathar were greatly concerned about the klikks and were looking for something on STarmist

3. Craft a Temple of Doom adventure where the PCs discover a klikk armory/installation on starmist. In this adventure the PCs unravel mysteries surrounding the klikks and deal with an ancient klikk threat.

BTW the fiction in a recent SFman called "Bug Hunt" that was an interesting cross between Call of Cthulu themes and Star Frontiers was a very interesting take on the Klikks and would be worth considering as a guide for klikk attitudes and philosophy.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
October 19, 2012 - 7:03am
This is a great idea. I'd love to be in on the discussion on this one. I want to run something on this topic for my kids campaign as so I'll probably be doing a map as well.

Are you going to hash this out here or in the Klikk project forums?

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 19, 2012 - 9:41am
Off the top of my head I would say map of one of the rift valleys and one of the primary adventure location plus maybe a global map showing the location of the original adventure and or the new Star Law/ Triad Institute of Technology base camp as well as the location of the new adventure site. For the new rift valley lets imagine one with walls of ice that come close together at the top like a slot canyon and block and difuse sunlight to an blue light and is spookily dark after sun down such that the rift is named Midnight Rift.

or Midnight Chasm
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

bossmoss's picture
bossmoss
October 20, 2012 - 6:10pm
The clikks have been sitting in this rift, quietly gathering information on the UPF for years.  They have a high-tech listening post there.  They are planning an invasion that makes SWII look like a walk in the park.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 20, 2012 - 8:56pm
bossmoss wrote:
The clikks have been sitting in this rift, quietly gathering information on the UPF for years.  They have a high-tech listening post there.  They are planning an invasion that makes SWII look like a walk in the park.
thats one way to go but in keeping with the background of a scout ship dumping cargo and abandoning the heliopes and not coming back I'm in favor with more of an exploration/ archaeology sort of theme.

make it a supply depot and some clikks in stasis that get accidently revived and then bring on the hard core "the UPF is about to get corn cobbed" unless someone does something.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Karxan's picture
Karxan
October 22, 2012 - 1:33am
Jedion, are you thinking something similar with ruins like that adventure we played on the vrusk world?

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 22, 2012 - 6:44am
Karxan wrote:
Jedion, are you thinking something similar with ruins like that adventure we played on the vrusk world?


I'm thinking through whats there for terrain and what might be there logically from prior klikk activity and then begin extrapolating ideas for the adventure.

Normally I'd say that after 700 years nothing is running which would give you the sort of adventure I ran at the virtual con but rather than be a one note horn I'm thinking that a supply depot they were leaving for essentially centuries might have a stasis field which when the PCs knowingly or unknowingly shut down opens a facility that is in 'like new' and the equipment has that new hover tank smell. In fact with the shut down of the stasis field the whole facility is coming to life and rebooting itself.

And excitement ensues.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
October 22, 2012 - 7:29am
jedion357 wrote:
Karxan wrote:
Jedion, are you thinking something similar with ruins like that adventure we played on the vrusk world?


I'm thinking through whats there for terrain and what might be there logically from prior klikk activity and then begin extrapolating ideas for the adventure.

Normally I'd say that after 700 years nothing is running which would give you the sort of adventure I ran at the virtual con but rather than be a one note horn I'm thinking that a supply depot they were leaving for essentially centuries might have a stasis field which when the PCs knowingly or unknowingly shut down opens a facility that is in 'like new' and the equipment has that new hover tank smell. In fact with the shut down of the stasis field the whole facility is coming to life and rebooting itself.

And excitement ensues.


That's a nice angle to come from. In my mind, I'm imagining just a handful of Klikks/defense items that are so powerful that the entire party fighting ONE would be a tough fight. Add to that some sort of fight to escape from the "vault".

Another thought... What if the installation was a military outpost, where supplies were dwindling for some reason, causing the Klikks to decide to go into stasis rather than starve or some other plot device... Bottom line: There's a base with hundreds of these things-allow the PC's to discover that the Klikks waking up are just the scouts/techs that are set to investigate the cause of the alarm protocols being triggered before the ENTIRE BASE gets woken from stasis and you have a "hope I brought clean underwear" kind of scenario...

Just a thought.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 22, 2012 - 9:37am
I think provision for tech skills is important here
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Karxan's picture
Karxan
October 22, 2012 - 11:13pm
I like both the ideas of a base in stasis and only a handfull of Klikk come out of stasis to start with. then an epic awakening of a major force. This could lead to a really big battle eventually. You could have automated defenses, as in robots to begin with that once they are defeated that is when the klikk techs awaken. Maybe a small security team awakens and almost overwhelms the pcs'. Barely defeating this security team the pc's breath a sigh of relief. Then the base awakens a full contiengent of warriors that there is no way they could possibly face and they call for help.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 23, 2012 - 3:56am
Somewhere i invented a klikk version of the pocket nuke that the predator carries. It may have been that "Magic of the Frontier " article, I'll have to look. But anyways these items should be present and something like that certainly presenta an oportunity for the PCs to prevent a major klikk force from awakening. Also I think I may need to locate and read, "Han Solo at Stars End" which IIRC had a similar theme to this. There should be opportunity for the pcs to reprogram klikk robotic equipment as well. On the klikk side they could send out a drone or scout and summon a horde of heliopes to do their bidding as well.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Karxan's picture
Karxan
October 24, 2012 - 8:09pm
Jedion, you are correct about the Klikk nuke. It is in the "Magic of the Frontier" article.