 November 9, 2014 - 6:48am | How would you use the classic themes of Sci Fi in your campaigns/adventures? Wikipedia list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_themes I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 9, 2014 - 7:11am | Overarching themes: 1. Cosmology: you could grab any of the religions established in the Frontier, Two stand out to me Fo1 simply because its the one cannon religion and Bailorism since its ancient in origin, modern practice of its recreated from the yazirian epic of Beaowulf and no one is sure if the modern practice actually matches ancient practice which leaves a lot of room for secrets & mysteries about Bailorism to be uncovered. 2. Creation of the universe- I would go to the Tetarchs and what their activities were 10,000 years ago and what hand they played in the formation of the present setting. 3. Future: future visions of the Frontier- possibly through mishaps with void jumps passing within close vicinity of a black hole or acidental entering of a worm hole etc. 4. History A. Alternate History: the what ifs of the time line: what if they Fo1 established hegemony and peaceful coexistance with the Yazirians had not been the rule of the day. What if the colonies of the Frontier had failed to establish the UPF, what if Hatzk Naar had established a pirate kingdom, what if the Sathar had not been defeated in SW1. What if the sathar had not been defeated on Volturnus. What if Zebs had never been written  ?B. Ancient astronauts: I would go the route of having some interesting petroglyphs on Laco that the science community attribute to the Wypong but others attribute to the Wypong's forerunners depicting the Tetrarchs. Mysteries and Travel and a potentially hostile powerful race or brain headed aliens. Whether they are truly the tetrarchs is never really learned as the PCs only just barely escape with their lives. C. Secret History- truth about the mega corps control of the UPF, truth about Fo1's rise to power. 6. Language ( I dont currently see much of an angle for this as we already have universal translators unless its a quest to unravel the Tetrarch written language. 7. Military: development of a new weapon and its use on the sathar or its use to unbalance power in the Frontier? PCs working for a mega corp end up preventing a military Coop. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 9, 2014 - 2:37pm | 7. Military: Space Warfare
This is where my campaign gets its juice. For those not in the know --- In my game an upstart dictator rises to power and concquers the UPF, creating a new form of interstellar government (similar to the "Fall of the Republic" plot lines in Star Wars). They subsequently annihilate the Sathar when they attempt a third war with the Frontier, going so far as to tracing their travel routes back towards the fringes of the Sathar home systems where they meet a stalemate. Former UPF loyalists regroup and begin a "rebellion" effort to slowly retake the Frontier. My resulting time line: |
 November 9, 2014 - 9:44pm | Future Esthetics: Ships and equipment range in style and appearance form vintage/retro sci-fi (for the older tech), to the the more glam with industrial look from '70s and '80s sci-fi (the current tech), and even the glossy iPod look used in Wall-e and the Star Trek reboot (for new and state-of-the-art tech). Normal clothing look like the concept art for Star Trek and Logan's Run. Uniforms look like colorful tights. For the most part, the '70s and '80s glam sci-fi look is the default mode of my games. Exploration: Characters would explore... strange new worlds, to... seek out new life... and new civilizations..., to boldly go where... no man has gone... before. *hums Star Trek theme* Ancient Astronauts: The history of events follow closely to what was printed in the old Basic rulebook, with the advent of sub-space broadcasting, and the ancient ruins and artifacts of a long dead alien race. Beyond that, much of the history of the Frontier people is a complete mystery. It is widely believed that the races migrated from other far-off worlds, where they migrated over a wide area of space only to meet some sort of calamity that throw everything into chaos and everyone was left on their own to degenerate into a barbaric state. This is do to some evidence of past exploration and the presence of of the core races found living like primitives on isolated worlds. They are called the "Lost Settlers." This also gives me liberties to make scenarios with primitive versions of the core races, or some weird genetic variation of them. (Imagine a race of red-skin, egg-laying Humans form a dying world with super-tech, but live like a semi-barbaric people. Sounds familiar?  )Cyberpunk(-ish): Characters are wayfaring freelance agents, who would often do jobs that groups (governments, corporations, etc.) would rather distances themselves from, should they get caught. Basically they are like the Edgerunners/Shadowrunners form the more iconic Cyberpunk settings. Corporations are huge powerful monopolies with strong political and social power to the point of being governments into themselves. People fired form the companies eather have to find a new future in space, or rot in the slums. There are also whole communities of space-faring Nomads akin to the Nomads form Cyberpunk 2020. Unlike true Cyberpunk fiction, cybernetics, cyberspace and '80s glam rock (things are way too Disco for that) are not the highlights of my setting. Spaceship Porn: As much as I avoid actual ship-to-ship scenarios — at most, the characters would have to work Damage Control in combat situations — I still like spaceship designs and interior layouts. Even though I like the Knight Hawks style deck arrangements, the ships that I use are too slow achieve torchship velocity, so most spaceships would have an deck arrangement akin to the USS Discovery form 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a three-dimensional layout for zero-gee or low-gee maneuvering, and centrifuge decks for living/sleeping area. Only fusion engines would be mounted on external struts. Ion and chemical-burn engines are safe enough to be housed in the ship's hull. Ships also mount one or more giant rings to generate a space-warp bubble, that can also generate a powerful energy field that can protect the ship form radiation and weapon damage. Without this ring (and the proper astrogation systems), FTL jumps are not possible. Frontierism: The Megacorps control the core worlds, and stretch their control out to a number of the outlying colonies. There are worlds that rebelled and worlds that formed by outliers who wanted to make a new world without the dominion of the Megacorps. The outlying worlds are rugged and fiercely independent. This is seen as an usual outlook in the core worlds, as they see large companies as a symbol of social and economic stability, and because of this, they see the colonies as lawless and primitive, full of thugs and outlaws. Casual Nudity and Sexuality: My views of sci-fi was shaped by works that was shaped by the sexual revolution of the '60s and '70s (Star Trek, Logan's Run, Barbarella, A Stranger in a Strange Land, et al.). In practice, they are handled so mundanely at my table, they blend into the background. That is, the Humans of the Frontier (the only race with any sense of modesty) are so comfortable with nudity, that they have co-ed baths and restrooms, and no one bats an eye over bare breasts, yet they still prefer to to dress in clothing. (Modesty is a trait found in Human adolescences, and it is considered silly and immature. They also believe that "The clothes makes the man." on a personal level.) Do to a healthy lifestyle and diet, as well as cheap and easy cosmetic surgery, people tend to say younger looking for much longer. The downside to this, is that enhanced beauty is so normal, it is considered a sin to look too natural or ugly. Medical science also allows couples to activate their fertility like an off/on switch, and with a complete lack of STDs, sex is largely recreational, as people are rather squeamish about natural birth, so artificial birth is the preferred option. Gratuitous sex scenes are so common in Frontier media, that they are seen as the boring parts of a show. Even with all the "swinging" going on, there is still a big market with life-like companion-droids (although, this is considered pathetic). Naturally, people still have laws and etiquette regarding what people can and cannot do. NOTE: I should note that I do not use the Sathar or the UPF fleet. I do not see the need for an external, omnipresent treat on the frontier like the Sathar menace — their use feels like holdovers of Cold War fiction — and make the threats more internal. Plus, I like the S'sessu, and the alien invasion theme is way too played-out! The UPF still runs Star Law, but much of the naval power lies with local governments — who are not puny little militia fleets — and corporate-owned Security fleets. Militia fleets are small independent forces made up of armed civilian ships in the outer colonies, who could form into a "Common Muster" should there be a major enough threat. |
November 10, 2014 - 4:49am | Themes involving beings 1. beings of pure mentality: Star Trek did this to death so its kind of cliche and un-interesting 2. Hive mind, not sure what i would do with this as the vrusk dont have a hive mind but reading Serpants Reach recently was very inspiring and possibly the Zerg converted to SF would be how I would explore this theme 3. uploaded personalities? The NET mega corp's CEO may have done this to himself and re-emerging personality of a cybot (robocop) potential for a PC or NPC companion 4. Replicants? computer made copies of actual people but the personality is off sounds like the work of NET 5. Clones were provided for in a Dragon article and there are a lot of ways to go with this- organ harvesting, clone seeking to replace the principle 6. Dinosaurs- probably here because of the Jurassic Park franchise but the basic premise is interesting bringing back to life an extinct organism, "Just what could go wrong with that?" Perhaps someone is trying to create a sathar in this way so that it would be devoid of societal programing and could be studied and interacted with. 7. Alien invasion: kind of what the sathar story arc is of the Volturnus series. However alien invasion stories have the Earth at a disadvantage so doing one where the Frontier's defenses are swept away and the Frontier is at a disadvantage? Cue the Zerg and Protoss? 8. Astrobiology- that a fore runner species seeded the galaxy with intelligence and locked into the DNA of various sapient species is a piece of the message, if you recover enough of this code and upload it to a computer or hologram device you can get the message. TNG did this story line and it was anti-climatic (the fore runner message was kind of "hold hands and sing kum by ya" in TNG) You need something more interesting that that. 9. Living planets? I have no inspiration for this 10. mutants - go play Gamma World 11. super humans or super soldiers GMOs made to be better, stronger without fear of any kind 12. Symbionts- I liked what DS9 did with this theme but unsure of using it in SF 13. Up lifted animals- i love David Brinn's Uplift Saga but would not want to see raccoon, cat or dog headed humans. David Brinn's presentation of the uplifted dolphin was great requiring the spider walker to travel around out of water. Also liked the psychopathic dolphin that secretly had orca DNA mixed into its makeup. Edit: I dont remember seeing body devouring dopple gangers on the list. Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes to ming but also the Alien in the Alien series somewhat in that it uses you body to incubate and copies you physical format. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 10, 2014 - 4:53am | Potential for a X-files styled game with PCs as the investigators unravelling the truth. each adventure is a mystery but it could lead to something bigger. For example one investigation is into the origin of replicants (dopple gangers in the Frontier) which leads to NET. Next the PCs discover that NET's CEO has uploaded himself to a computer and is trying to kill them. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 10, 2014 - 6:24am | Hbitat Themes 1. Alien zoo with humans as exhibits Done famously in the Twilight zone but for an RPG it would be the "You meet on a prison galley chained to an oar" In someways I view Metamorphisis alpha as this. 2. archologies - I like these as setting background but for an adventure? Perhaps a Towering Inferno scenario, or the novel "Vertical Run" (Vertical Run could work well for a SF adventure: corporation involved in secret research and mercenary team sent in to cover up- all SF troupes) I'd grab material on the PGC tower; Iggy did some nice sketch up images of the towers and the Port Loren down town. 3. climate warming and change- need to involve GODco in this and terraforming I would think 4. domed cities, I would pull out my box of Paranoia RPG materials as there was one module with a domed city and I would recycle the map and illustrative cross section of the city for this but where to place the city in the Frontier? 5. endemic species only found in one location and no where else, shades of saving the environment here, not that interesting in that the PCs can get in their ship and fly away. 6. Exploring alien habitats- kind of what the game is about but we could always use a really good alien habitat that is mysterious and dangerous 7. Floating cities- famously done in Empire Strikes Back but not limited to that sci fi property. works well enough in a counter grav civilization which the Frontier is not. so a floating city would be an alien artifact that the PCs could find and explore. 8. ocean civilizations - underwater cities- domed city works here saurian refugees would/could establish underwater colonies in the Frontier and the ifshnits of Faire might also build some underwater cities since Faire is a water world. 9. Terra forming- something that could be explored more in SF. possibly including the endemic species theme. corporation pushing the terraforming knowing or not caring that its destroying something. 10. underground city? there be morlocks down there! not that interesting to me but a viable sci fi theme. 11. The walking city? my first question is Why? 3. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 10, 2014 - 1:13pm | 10. mutants - go play Gamma World Or Marvel Super Heroes "FASERIP" I actually incorporated mutations in my game but it is rare and restricted to NPCs. Including a former PC of mine that became an NPC for other players to interact with. |
November 10, 2014 - 9:33pm | One could consider mentalism powers the mutations of the Frontier. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 11, 2014 - 10:25am | The limited number of "mentalists" in my game were also restricted to NPCs. |
 November 15, 2014 - 5:04am | Regarding the climate change meme, isn't that what happened to the Mhemne? They had a world war, and dropped an asteroid on the planet, causing a nuclear winter. Then regretted it because they were forced to live on the moon, and in asteroids & space stations. Then the Sathar came and things got really bad. So, the lesson here, kids - don't drop an asteroid on your own planet. |
November 15, 2014 - 6:12pm | Regarding the climate change meme, isn't that what happened to the Mhemne? They had a world war, and dropped an asteroid on the planet, causing a nuclear winter. Then regretted it because they were forced to live on the moon, and in asteroids & space stations. Then the Sathar came and things got really bad. So, the lesson here, kids - don't drop an asteroid on your own planet.
Ok, note to self, becareful when you play with asteroids. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
