 July 15, 2014 - 4:58pm | Star Law agents kind of come across as goody two shoes, all spit and polish with the might of 10 men because of their superior moral and upstanding righteousness. But do you really want to play a Star Law marshal? The Frontier still has some wild and wooly places and why not a "marshal" or lone ranger on the classic western theme? No pesky authority for the PC to answer to and Star Law, corporations, pirates, and criminals all can be opposition. Players can free wheel and dispense justice as they see fit. Plus in this post Shadow Run and other dark RPG age this would certainly appeal to some players. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 15, 2014 - 6:02pm | If I understand the concept Marshals are appointed by higher governments and cover a wide range/territory. Now a group of PCs roll into a town with a messy situation and wham bang they have a badge and it says Sheriff and her Deputies. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 July 15, 2014 - 8:35pm | Am I just failing to see Star Law in people's posts? I thought everyone was avoiding Star Law like the plague in their campaigns anyway. The only time I see Star Law mentioned is when someone is discussing Mutiny On the Eleanor Moraes. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
July 16, 2014 - 3:58am | I was just thinking that casting the PCs as a militia officer, star law or in some other authority based organization can be constrictive, instead putting them in a position as technically an outlaw but still a do gooder could work better in an RPG. Lone Ranger and Zorro are classics of that western story genre but there should be others if we get to thinking about it. (Robin Hood just came to mind and it might be a better model in that Robin Hood had a band with him which compares to having a whole group of PCs) Don Quiote would be another but not quite the outlaw motiff unless you go to The Man From Lamancha since you then get the Spanish Inquisition in the act. GM gets to present problems and injustice and let the PCs decide how they will handle it but probably best used on a light to out post population classified planet. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 16, 2014 - 7:48am | My SF group went from being Star Law, to working for the CDC, and then went freelance, then nominally back to Star Law. Star Law was useful for them because it gave them access to certain objects - in our case, stuff we'd invented such as battle suits, folding sub-machineguns (similar to the Ares FMG) and the MPG (multi-purpose gun). |
 July 16, 2014 - 6:37pm | The original SF (rebadged later as Alpha Dawn) pretty much promoted the mercenary role for PCs (or more appropriately, trouble shooters for PGC or any other outfit that threw some work at them), and that theme pretty much spilled over into Knight Hawks as well. Star Law only received honorary mention at best in the canon material with nothing tangible until the "Freeze! Star Law!" article in Dragon. Sad to say, Zeb's Guide probably mentions more about Star Law than everything before it combined (everything outside the aforementioned Dragon article). Even if you disregard the lacking definitions and guidelines, there really should be no surprise that it was a tough sell to players, even in D&D an all lawful (or AD&D Lawful Good) party was tough to sell. |
July 16, 2014 - 6:37pm | The original SF (rebadged later as Alpha Dawn) pretty much promoted the mercenary role for PCs (or more appropriately, trouble shooters for PGC or any other outfit that threw some work at them), and that theme pretty much spilled over into Knight Hawks as well. Star Law only received honorary mention at best in the canon material with nothing tangible until the "Freeze! Star Law!" article in Dragon. Sad to say, Zeb's Guide probably mentions more about Star Law than everything before it combined (everything outside the aforementioned Dragon article). Even if you disregard the lacking definitions and guidelines, there really should be no surprise that it was a tough sell to players, even in D&D an all lawful (or AD&D Lawful Good) party was tough to sell. |
July 16, 2014 - 6:55pm | @ Shadow: 4 articles "Freeze! Star Law!" Dragon 87 "Careers in Star Law" Dragon 91 "Silver Twin" Dragon 102 "Star Law Returns" Dragon 104 and you could contend that "Patriots, Terrorists, and Spies" (Dragon 109) is actually a Star Law article in that you need opposition for the fuzz But you are right that of the canon material Zebs has more to say about Star Law but then Zebs is the least reliable of the cannon material I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 17, 2014 - 12:04am | Even if you disregard the lacking definitions and guidelines, there really should be no surprise that it was a tough sell to players, even in D&D an all lawful (or AD&D Lawful Good) party was tough to sell. It depends on how you play it. If the Star Law are seen as cops, you can borrow themes from all over the place. In turn, that means that things don't have to be so black and white. And the way the Star Law go about their trade on the various planets may vary. I can't say that any of my players who were Star Law saw themselves as goody-goody Lawful Good types, but they still had some idea that they were preserving law and order for the greater good. It just wasn't written all over their faces 
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July 17, 2014 - 1:04am | Going with the lack of popularity of "Lawful" types is just something to do with American culture which emphasizes the "Rebel" above all else. Even the police dramas usually feature the rogue loner cop or partner pair who know they must do what it takes to bring in the bad guys. (The "Law and Order" series are a notable exception but we have Castle, Sherlock Holmes, Dexter, True Detective, NCIS and alot more). In the majority of these shows the by the book officers are comic relief at best and "your just stopping the real cops from doing their jobs" at worst. Ask yourself do you want to be one of the "Bad Boys" or one of the CSI lab techs? Then ask yourself which one actually puts more criminals behind bars instead of in the ground. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
July 17, 2014 - 5:14am | I knew there were more articles in Dragon --- I didn't realize there were THAT many --- but my point was of the canon material there just wasn't anything to build on until Zeb's (I don't consider Dragon to be canon, even though most of those articles in the grey 8 page inserts were penned by TSR staff the material was never actually utilized by TSR outside of a box of miniatures for the Yachts & Privateers). And yes, Zeb's was something I reluctanty mentioned...which is why I find it sad that the "best" canon definitions hail from the worst source. In my game I have pushed the cops angle far more than the anti-sathar agent role, and players still turned it down. As I mentioned, the game itself focused on hiring yourself out. Even a career in Space Fleet (which was very well defined in canon material) was a challenge for luring players to join...they don't want to answer to someone all the time, they want adventure. |
 July 17, 2014 - 6:13am | I have yet to run my space fleet game, but my guiding concept for it was to keep the players from ever having an NPC be in charge of thier ship so I made sure they are all running command crew officers. I mean yes they are being sent out with mission orders but I wanted to make it almost sandboxish in giving the captain free reign to approch the mission how ever they want. Like if they want to be evil exploitive villians or higher idea sort of spacers is up to them. Hopefully I get this game going and I'll let you know how it goes. ----------------------------------------------- |
 July 17, 2014 - 1:18pm | Adding cop drama to the games can be fun. In most cases, the players and GM would play it like a Buddy Cop film/show and/or Forensic Drama, as real-life police/investigation investigations is really boring, with a mountain procedures and limitations. Although, giving characters constraints — rules to prevent police/agent corruption — could help balance-out their power and authority. Without these constraints, the players would just go on a reckless, Judge Dredd-style crime-fighting rampage while sporting full S.W.A.T. gear. If the players want to maintain their carefree, freelance lifestyle while busting criminals, they could be Private Investigators or Bounty Hunters. |
July 17, 2014 - 2:23pm | If the players want to maintain their carefree, freelance lifestyle while busting criminals, they could be Private Investigators or Bounty Hunters. That was the point of the original post- no overriding authority, PC does what he thinks is right- Lone Ranger/Robin Hood model But you do bring up a good point: bounty hunting, PCs can buck the law a little if they feel like but do need to stay on the good side of the law as much as possible since they are bounty hunters and the majority of their contracts will be from local municipalities. its the kind of game that you should pay attention to reputation and the kind that the PCs are acruing. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 17, 2014 - 6:36pm | I guess I see Star Law in a much more wild west sort of marshal thing as you mentioned. Like a Star Law officer would have great leyway on thier methods. As in... they wouldn't have to be Lawful Good types... but they should still be good and not corrupted. ----------------------------------------------- |
July 17, 2014 - 8:17pm | Bounty Hunters in Star Frontiers: I apologize for the use of "Gollywog" instead of "Clarion". I was getting punchy and using Zeb's list because it was what I had in front of me at the time. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
July 18, 2014 - 12:47am | I think the trick is not to see them as standard police-like personnel. After all, planets would have their own police forces and/or militias. Star Law are more like troubleshooters whose remit extends over the frontier. Their work tends to cover the more 'exotic' operations, rather than more simple day-to-day police stuff. |
July 18, 2014 - 4:43am | I apologize for the use of "Gollywog" instead of "Clarion". That has started many a brawl within Clarion's watering holes.  |
