 February 9, 2014 - 9:25pm | There have been some rumblings of desire to locate or start a new Star Frontiers game on-line in various locations and I'm starting to feel that itch myself. So I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what comes flying back. I'm thinking to at least start it as a play by post game. Eventually, I'd like to do the occasional live session via something like Roll20.net or even just google hangouts. So questions for the crowd are: 1) Who's interested in playing 2) Should we start with basic starting level characters or more advanced characters (and if so how much advanced)? 3) What kind of campaign would you be interested in? For example, I could ressurect my Obar Enterprises campaign where the PC's are trouble shooters for a small organization with a ship and a lot of lattitude but assigned jobs, or we could go more open ended where the PC's just go where their noses take them. Or anything in between. What flavor would you be interested in playing? 4) Post rate? How often should the game update? Once a week, twice a week, something else? 5) Any other thoughts? 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 |
 February 9, 2014 - 9:54pm | Any level would be fine. I mean we don't need to be level 6 in everything/about to retire, but skilled or unskilled characters really makes no difference. From my experience and observation, it's probably best to run short games so they don't lag and go unfinished, as they always seem to do. Something like the Port Loren intro game or the Omicron mini adventure would do. I say that as the only game I ever completed was my Raiders of Port Loren expansion I ran at the SF.org site. That game was run and done, and only disappeared into obscurity when I began the sequel adventure. The other option that seems to last is a game that has no preset direction...let the characters decide what they want to do and where they want to go and the GM jsut wings it from there. My Space Rats game and Parriah's game lasted years under that format, with players coming and going along the way. If my desktop PC was in decent order I'd have started GM-ing a new game already. As it stands I have quite a few ideas for a PbP game... |
 February 9, 2014 - 10:17pm |
1) I am 2) I would prefer basic as I am getting back into the swing, but to adhere to peers...I would personally like to be more a newbish character build so my progression and learning can be on par rather than trying to adjust to stuff I am unfamiliar with on the fly. 3) I like an open ended, maybe a prompt to get us started and then go from there. Allows for new players to enter later, attrite out anyone who wants out, etc. If we are not stranded, secluded, or otherwise off the beaten path then we have a lot to work with...work towards getting a strong base before an enduring run. 4) I think twice a week is fair. It ensures some promptness to getting the game moving, less than twice a week could bog down IMHO. 5) Let me know when we begin. |
 February 9, 2014 - 10:27pm | I'm interested. Any level/scenerio/etc. Frequency no more than twice per week (have to be realistic about my available time :( ). |
 February 9, 2014 - 10:52pm | I think that the open ended game might go a bit longer as characters could change and reappear with simple explanations. I think I would go for a once a week turn. The players could post all week and then the GM calls the shots by a given time each week. Some times this could speed up if all players make their posts early but there should be a definite schedule of a week. This would be a good excersize to whip us into shape for another virtual con. Maybe we all start out thrown together by some event. Probably best on a core world so that comings and goings of characters can go with the flow better. -iggy |
February 10, 2014 - 1:30am |
I agree with Iggy, as long as there is a post by date each week then everyone should be able to get everything in that wants/needs/should get put in. |
 February 10, 2014 - 4:51am | To Answer Questions: 1) I'm interested 2) basic or slightly advanced: a 2nd or 3rd level skill and a couple of 1st level skills 3.) kind of campaign: a. resurrect a game that lagged- Terl Obar's or the classic run through of the published modules that Sam started and I stepped in when he couldn't continue: I get my schedule worked so that I can game and every so often 1-2 years the schedule changes and it really take me out of the loop. this change of schedule has just happen to occur when I was running a PBP so trying to do something epic with me as a referee is perhaps not the best idea. b. open ended? who's going to GM? do they have the commitment to a long running game? I'll play in this game but not sure if I could commit long term to refereeing and do the group justice c. more directed short adventures like Shadow's Port Loren Raiders- I think this is a good possibility 4. Post Rates: nature of the beast with many of us having family, work and whatever else going on I think 1/week is enough but email notification for everyone involved to keep your head dialed into the game will help: lets face it we all probably have developed the habbit of checking our email on a regular basis and with smart phones that's probably multiple times in a day. 5.) Other thoughts: two things a.) Sams game was kept alive awhile because I stepped in to run it; lets have a policy of pitch hitting referees: someone's unable to continue as referee somebudy step in and take over for awhile: keep the game going. Communication will be key here, be honest about whats going on and dont just drop off the grid. We should agree to this up front. B) Short games: I have a suggestion: we can play test adventures slated for the magazine, play test new rules or even say someone submits deck plans we might play test the deck plans with a mission that is a shake down cruise of the ship which will be more of a wing it for the referee but fun I'm sure. play test new equipment. because things are short it keeps it open for players to drop out and drop in and for the baton to be handed off by referees. Even a possibility to swap in and out different player characters if you wanted. As to games: I've been working on two things simultaneously for the magazine and have a starting adventure that had a good openning but lacked a good conclusion, I'm trying to wrap this up and come up with a conclusion that satisfies. A play test with the participants giving feed back would probably be a good thing for it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 10, 2014 - 9:05am | 1) Ooh. Me! Me! Pick me! :) 2) Please not total wet behind the ears! A couple of skills would be nice. 3) Up for anything. Something wasy to wrap might be nice. I like what Jedion said about playtesting stuff for FE. 4) As often as the Least Common Demoninator allows. I could post daily. 5) Short but sweet would be nice. |
February 10, 2014 - 10:31am |
Jedion is right about the abilities we have with newer technologies. I have my smartphone which I do have with me all the time (much to my own chagrin I find myself on it often). I also use a tablet as my primary internet access (mostly for online school, business, and email) so I have my fingers on the pulse (so to speak) right now. I also only have 1 major thing (aside from finishing this degree plan) that I want to accomplish this year and it is still 6 months off or so (open a business). My time is devoted to my wife, my children, maintaining myself, my house, and my home, and then of course the time I get to spend on whatever else...which is sometimes more than I need to accomplish things...so I will be able to keep up for awhile. What Jedion points out for swapping GM's is a decent idea. Army teaches to always train the guy beside you for your job, in case you leave and he can move in (by leave you can assume). This practice of always training a replacement, a cover down, or just mentoring to mentor is great for having that next guy ready. Who will be the GM when you are done DONE GMing? I am not ready to GM, not by a long shot, but I have gotten it into my head to get ready to ... my sons will need a GM. (I think I am just talking to talk, its Monday and this is my last day off of my 4 day weekends...see, too much time.) |
February 10, 2014 - 12:19pm | Well, the e-mail thing won't be a problem. I intend to use the forums at http://starfrontiers.info to run the game. That was the reason I set up the forums and the accompanying wiki in the first place. The forums there have an e-mail notification system so that you get e-mails whenever forums or topics you subscribe to are updated. It's opt in but its just a matter of clicking a link on the bottom of the page. I'll post notes on that in the game when it gets started. So e-mail notifications will be available. I like the idea of a playtesting campaign but for the main campaign it may just have to be for rules and equipment. I don't see a PBP game being fast-paced enough to test out an adventure prior to publication unless you want a really long lead time on publication. For example, a raid on a small outpost took us over a year to complete in PBP format but would have been just a couple hours (I think) in live play. However, one-off "live" sessions might be the thing to do there. Well, we've already gotten enough positive responses to have enough players to make this worth the effort. Based on responses, I think the following seems to be what is desired. More discussion to clarify is always welcome: 1) Beginning characters but maybe not "freshly generated" with only the basic skills - I agree here. Especially for a PBP game. So what I think I'll go with is basic character plus 50 XP. That's about what you end up with at the end of the Volturnus modules. Unless of course everyone wants to have a ship to start, in which case, we'll need to bump up the XP to allow for ship skills. (more on skills later) 2) Start PBP with one update a week at a minium. If everyone involved is updated more often, we may go to twice a week when possible but falling back to once a week automatically if post rate drops off. The initial plan would be for me to post Saturday or Sunday night and then have the players post actions by Friday night. If everyone posted by Tuesday or Wednesday, I could do a mid week post/update to double up. Also, I know from past experience that some of the people interested in playing have a literary bent and like to do long descriptive/story-telling posts (you know who you are and I'm one of them but as the GM it's part of my job  ). And I also know that others don't. Either is fine and those that don't like to make the longer storytelling posts shouldn't feel put off by their existence. I think this is one of the advantages of the PBP format. It doesn't have to be used but it can be to enhance the story of the game.3) Backup GMs - I'm all for this. Just need a volunteer or two. Also if we do "live" playtesting sessions, we could swap GM's out for those sessions as well. 4) Open ended but short - These two seem to be a bit at odds with one another in my mind. By definition open-ended means that it continues on indefinitely. Although I guess the idea would be to have the individual scenarios relatively short within the open framework. Altenrately, if we want to run a series of "short" adventures where the PC's have the pick of assignment but are working for a larger organization we could do that as well. In the latter case, I'd probably dust of my Obar Enterprises campaign. The group effectively finished the first scenario and we were just wrapping that up when the game fell apart. This style was my intention for this game. There were lots of jobs and the PC's were to have their pick, (plus there are several larger plots running through the various scenarios). So the question here is the theme? What kind of game do you guys want to play? 5) Skills - Lots of options here.
6) Combat scenes. This by far is what bogs down the PBP format, in my opinion. There are a couple of ways to deal with it. One is just to minimize the occurence of combats and/or make sure they are small scale. Another is to just play them out and try to get the post rate up during them. Still another is to have characters declare intentions and let the Referee resolve several rounds at once. This is basically giving up some detailed control of your character in favor of speed of play. Another option is to try to schedule live sessions for the combat segments. Again suggestions are welcome. 7) Dice roling. In the PBP format, dice rolls will be performed by the Referee. I actually make big spreadsheet of random d10 and d100 rolls in advance and just go down the list as rolls are needed. That keeps me honest and prevents me from giving in to any impulse to "doctor" the rolls. I always post the rolls with the skill resolution in my posts. In a live session we'll make use of a die roller in whatever medium we use. Okay, fire feedback. 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 |
February 10, 2014 - 1:06pm | RE: combat resolution I think declare intentions is good and let the referee work out several rounds Also in my first PBP game the team was back from Alcazar and we were given time to shop and learn new skills in Port Loren but had to detail where and what our character was doing on a specific day at a specific time. The Referee sprung the hydra escape from the Basic Game book on us. I played out shooting the hydra with a laser knowing what would happen and then went looking for a weapon. I had a crazy idea for my character but what I had in mind really required referee approval thus I wrote 3 post and emailed it to the referee explaining that I didn't feel it was right for me to post what I wanted without him signing off on it and waited out the week to see what he would do with the post. He made it seem like I was going to get a knife at first but gave me the muzzle loading reproduction rifle from a yazirian clan war re-enactor that I had wanted to go shoot at the hydra. For myself, I would be open to someone taking a little bit of creative license like that as long as I was given power of veto as referee and as long as you didn't have an NPC give your character a Mark XXIII plasma cannon that destroys whole building in one blast. If its a short post it could be a statement of intent and if X happens then PC does A, if Y happens then PC does B. Or if its a longer creative post then its probably best handled in email. Also When I worked a new player into the Volturnus camapaign we had a back and forth email conversation going for several days so that his character could catch up to where the PCs were. It was very fast paced as we both were monitoring email via smart phones and we covered a lot of ground that way. handling combat via email with a post or two per day would move fast and a digest could be prepped at weeks end. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 10, 2014 - 3:34pm | I would prefer skilled frontiersman. I think there was more thought put into that system than into KH! I agree with Jedion that a statement of intent goes a long way to speed up combats. I've been in on a pbp game that's lasted almost a year and a half, and that has been the key. Player X prefers to use attack A in situation A kind of thing. The GM assumes the players and their characters are not idiots, and attacks like it. |
February 10, 2014 - 9:15pm | I had an idea: partly because Terl Obar suggested characters starting with 50 EXP What if one character was allowed to trade a large portion of that EXP for the organic computer implanted in your head from the Dragon magazine #112 "A Fist Full of Credits" The Story would be that he has a proto type. i need to reread the article but it possible that the organic computer could make up for the deficit in skills by trading EXP for it. Only one character should have this. Cant think of any other "big" item that would be worth trading EXP for other than mentalism powers but since they are not well balanced I dont think they are a good idea. The other idea is that characters could have individual agendas being members of cadres like Silver Death Cult or Free Thinkers etc. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 10, 2014 - 10:47pm | I go for posting intent and if then actions and letting the GM work it out so we don't bog down in the combat sessions. I think that long term the "campaign" would benifit by the adventures being episodic like old school TV. This way there are easy hand off points the the GM to let another take over for a bit. I think we go with AD/KH rules or Skilled Frontier. I need to practice skilled frontier more anyway. 50xp sounds about right to start with. -iggy |
February 11, 2014 - 7:13am | I had a thought for theme. I'm in no way wedded to it but it popped ito my head last night. How about an early Frontier setting and have the characters start on Pale as the Sathar invasion begins? It would be a bit of a survival/resistance game to begin and then move off planet as the conflict and reconstruction ends? I'll have to reread the writeup on the organic computer. 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 |
 February 11, 2014 - 7:18am | OK would love to get back into the game. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 11, 2014 - 10:39am |
Evade sathar agents and soldiers whilst saving the Frontier from devastating conquest...all the while chewing bubble gum. Could be fun, limits how much new/later Frontier is involved. |
February 11, 2014 - 12:43pm |
Evade sathar agents and soldiers whilst saving the Frontier from devastating conquest...all the while chewing bubble gum. Could be fun, limits how much new/later Frontier is involved. i could go with this, I want to be a yazirian that gives up his seat on his ship for a refugee, Have honor blade will travel, then kick your butt. if the organic computer was used at this point in history than its a prototype developed by a genius and only tested on one test subject, the genius and his notes get destroyed/killed/lost in the fighting and this explains the lack of organic computers being present in the Frotnier during the age of adventure. it will be 20, 30, 40 years before the work is recreated and if any corporation finds out about the organic computer in this PCs head then he'll have a target on his back. EDIT: we all got into the habit of calling SW1 SW"1" but until there was a SW2 no one would call it SW1 but rather the Great Sathar War or simply the Sathar War or Sathar Invasion or something. And no one would know anything about the sathar or their creatures so all of this would have to be learned in game. and we would probably have to establish what equipment is available this early in the time line, like lasers? I think we discussed this before, or rather Terl and I did with laser tech in the Frontier being limited bulky heavy lasers and the sathar getting off their ships with laser rifle teck that the Frontier Peoples will want to reverse engineer, this might also mean that the sathar have albedo screen and suit protection but the Frontier peoples do not and so on. Probably a good place to limit equipment is at the AD list with some modifications to the beam weapon inventory but toss in some shot guns and maybe a self propelled rail gun for the local Pale defense forces (after all Zeb Cook intended to include rail guns in the Alien Worlds RPG before TSR gutted that and turned it into Star Frontiers, infact the self propelled rail gun ought to be named after Zeb in some way IMO) EDIT 2: starting this early in history wont preclude running stuff latter either I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 11, 2014 - 2:00pm | We all got into the habit of calling SW1 SW"1" but until there was a SW2 no one would call it SW1 but rather the Great Sathar War or simply the Sathar War or Sathar Invasion or something. And no one would know anything about the sathar or their creatures so all of this would have to be learned in game. and we would probably have to establish what equipment is available this early in the time line, like lasers? I think we discussed this before, or rather Terl and I did with laser tech in the Frontier being limited bulky heavy lasers and the sathar getting off their ships with laser rifle teck that the Frontier Peoples will want to reverse engineer, this might also mean that the sathar have albedo screen and suit protection but the Frontier peoples do not and so on. Probably a good place to limit equipment is at the AD list with some modifications to the beam weapon inventory but toss in some shot guns and maybe a self propelled rail gun for the local Pale defense forces (after all Zeb Cook intended to include rail guns in the Alien Worlds RPG before TSR gutted that and turned it into Star Frontiers, infact the self propelled rail gun ought to be named after Zeb in some way IMO) Yes. In my Sathar writup in FE issue 6, the "briefing" was before the second sathar war so I specifically referred to it as the "Sathar War". If we go this route for the game the sathar will be completely unknown to the PC's but they'll get first hand knowledge by the end. As to tech, yes, there would be some modifications, mostly along the things jedion357 mentioned that he and I talked about a couple of years ago. If we chose this route, I'll write up details. This would probably be the second easiest campaign for me to run (after my Obar Enterprises game) as I have notes for Pale during this time period as I started writing a novel (have about 28,000 words in rough draft covering the first 1/5-1/4 of the story) set on Pale during the Sathar invasion and so have some ideas of how "history" will go. Another option, another campaign that we started years ago as live sessions but which quickly died due to schedule conflicts, is a MerCo campaign. The PC's are a mercenary band for MerCo and are sent out on assignements (or pick the assignments they want to be recruited for). This one is firmly in the short, episodic vein. And I don't think anyone participating in this thread besides myself participated in the opening adventure so I could reuse it to get us started. I'm not as keen on this on as the other two but could definitely do it. 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 |
February 11, 2014 - 8:18pm |
Seems like the Sathar War would be all around more fulfilling. It seems to be where the hearts are leaning. |
February 11, 2014 - 10:09pm | I would like to offer an alternate suggestion: bring on the bad guys. Meaning let's portray ourselves as anti-heroes. Space pirates. Something players would normally go up against. We could be agents of the Malthar, Star Devil, even sathar agents. One of my older PBP games was a portrayal of the Volturnus series from the viewpoint of the Star Devil...players were on the boarding team that ransacked the Serena Dawn, chased down some survivors that escaped on a lifeboat, ran missions for Outpost One & Slave City One, stuff like that. Short game? We could be the Raiders of Port Loren attempting to deliver the data cube to the sinister sathar agent who hired us working against the team hired by PGC to stop us. |
February 11, 2014 - 11:59pm | I would like the SW1 or the bad guys scenarios... |
February 12, 2014 - 5:47am | RE: Bring on the Bad Guys 1. at first blush it would seem to be less likely to lend itself to episodic format but I think with a little thought put into it its doable 2. Might be interesting to play the published modules from the bad guys side of things, start with Port Loren transgress to Volturnus series, Alcazar, take on the Royal Marines from Planaron, Dramune Run The Beyond the Frontier KHs campaign might require some creativity for this Bugs In the System might be run from the stand point that we have an agenda to steal something from the station in question when we get the invitation to help so that we must survive the station, steal what we're after and keep everyone involved ignorant. 3. Lots of opportunity to work in episodes like "Spring Prisoner X from Rura Pente Asteroid" and so on Issues of alignment need not apply as we're playing bad guys so morals need not apply, or "exact retribution on bad guy X who sold the secret pirate jump route to be published publicaly" (there is money in charting jump routes and pirates will naturally want some secret short cuts it would be tempting for someone to tryt to benefit from that) 4. If the campaign was long running (measured in years) I would like for the possibility for my character to have a redemption moment even if he will be still a wanted man I would be very interested in this campaign idea especially if it included a Volturnus story arc. I think, if there are no other ideas forthcoming that we should poll to settle an idea in a few days. Final thoughts: what ever we do its sounds like were going to explore new ground with this and I'd like to see post action write ups (adventure for publication) and we might even include "play tester comments" on these episodes I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 12, 2014 - 10:57pm | I call dibs on Manetoe. Just because I've always wanted to hurl some green slime... 4. If the campaign was long running (measured in years) I would like for the possibility for my character to have a redemption moment even if he will be still a wanted man Two of my characters have done that. During one of my earliest GM running of the Volturnus series, the party lost a few characters during the Slave City One portion and things were looking grim. So I decided to whip up a couple of NPC Star Devils that wanted to defect. They convinced the party to allow them to assist, detailing key portions of the compound and leading them to the control center. I NPC'd them with the group during several other adventures as the players progressed. Thus were born two of my primary PCs Kenneth Drake and Scultar the yazirian. |
 February 13, 2014 - 4:17am | 1.) I would be interested in playing. |
February 13, 2014 - 5:42am | Anti heros. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 13, 2014 - 5:45pm | Regular Joes making big decisions. -iggy |
February 14, 2014 - 2:48am |
I do love making major decisions that affect morality, balance of favor in our hands or NPCs hands, something that would otherwise be unorthodox or outside of normal bounds of our reality. Its a shifty world. I think I would let the Prince stay, maybe he got shot in out escape attempt, we narrowly escaped. We still get paid right? |
February 14, 2014 - 7:26am | We're probably at the juncture of making a decision about the game and pulling the trigger on starting it. However, it occurs to me that Terl Obar suggestedt a SW1 set on Pale with the implication that he would ref. So if its to be a criminal campaign he would have to say if he's up for running it or someone else has to volunteer to start it. Otherwise we should probably go with Terl's first suggestion since he's been putting together notes on the setting during that period. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
