 August 8, 2013 - 9:44am | So going with the location of Volturnus we could rewrite the Volturnus campaing as the Hepplewhite being the ship that brought the first survey mission. Pcs would be members of the team but the NPC Jamison is still in command. They pick up the mayday from the Hepplewhite and Jamison orders SAR. While the team (ie PCs) are investigating the crash the pirates hit the command center and take Jamison hostage. Script from modules gets adjusted but for the most part the story remains the same. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 8, 2013 - 9:45am | Big difference is PCs start with a jet copter or air car and are not on the ship that crashes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 8, 2013 - 10:26am | Also SF-0 starts "en media res" with the pirates hitting the Serena Dawn but with this change you could start the mission a little slower with the Hepplewhite's arrival, landing and deploying of the base camp (base camp is cargo container buildings like the mobile lab in the Avatar movie). For early action its a few animal encounters. There is a pirate infiltrator who plants the bomb on the Hepplewhite and figuring out who that is will garner exp bonus. Discovering the mole is something that can happen early on but if not the npc can be a long running mole if the GM likes. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 8, 2013 - 10:57am | Roster of the (First) Volturnus Survey Mission Commander: Col. Luis V. Jamison Science Department: Geeko-sur-Mang, Geologist Itklikdil, Cartographer Grod, Engineer Support staff and security: Player Characters Pirate Mole: could be Itklikdil or an NPC on the support staff, perhaps the cook? Act 1: loading the Hepplewhite at Point True, Pale. putting most of the team into storage class for trip because Hepplewhite is so small of a ship. Arrival and reviving of the support staff. landing sites that were mapped by the remote probe are checked from orbit and the Hepplewhite lands. Team must secure site and begin off loading the buildings from the cargo hold as well as errecting a perimeter fence and un palletting the team's vehicle(S) Initial animal encounters and a clue they might not be the first ones here that is down played by the the mole. Act 2 Hepplewhite sabotaged on lift off and crashes- team detailed to SAR operations investigate the crash site. pirates hit the compound while the team is away. PCs may potentially figure out who the mole is at this point or soon. Investigation of the ship should very strongly point to sabotage. telling the PCs that something is not right ie someone on this planet and someone they know set the bomb before the Hepplewhite took off. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
August 8, 2013 - 11:39am | Act. 3, Return to base but the pirates have hit it. and there is a little surprise waiting since the pirates will know that the PCs are coming back. Most likely a bunch of low level goons with weapons. If the team manages to bug out with the vehicle- a pirate shoots a sholder fired rocket at it which may or may not hit by GM fiat if the referee wishes to strip the PCs of the air vehicle. Any ground vehcile has already been taken or disabled by the pirates. This leaves the PCs in roughly the same position as Crash on Volturnus after they get down from the Serena Dawn. its more or less logical and doesn't do the "your guns were all locked in the arms locker on the serena dawn and the pirates blew that up so too bad for you." If the players had extra ammo and such when they went looking for the Hepplewhite they will have already expended some on the slitherer and the ripper. (the slitherer should put them on notice that the sathar are aware of this world) then the return to base portion of the above could be reasonably assumed to chew up any ammo reserves. Now they need to build contacts and new bases of operation (the natives of the eorna). Frankly you could have the PCs did detect a signal prior to the Hepplewhite crash and go to run it down only to discover the ruins of Volkos and the eorna. The eorna are concerned over the pirates because the sathar left an obelisk and they returned shortly after the Day of Doom when eorna survivors attempted to used surviving space vehicles to recover the egg ship. The eorna believe that the sathar obelisk is a listening/detection post and that the pirate activity will bring them again if it has not already called for the sathar fleet. PCs could investigate the obelisk or go after the pirates to shut them down. They can seek to recruit the aid of the primitives but this will only be allowed by the eorna if they know the sathar are coming. Recruiting the natives can be a combo of the first encounters with them as in SF-0 and SF-1 plus the A,B,C quests in SF-2 (Ie the great game- loper/sand shark polo, and catch a quick death for the edestakai. not a fan of the giant eagle stealing the kurabunga idol so I'd change the kurabunga portion of the adventrue to involve the roller hunt via hang gliders. I'd even allow an option for the pirates to be negotiated with to aid against the sathar though you'd probably expect the pirates to simply bug out in the face of the sathar. Maybe one pirate captain can be swayed but the rest simply skeedaddle, that is if the PCs attempt to negotiate. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
