 October 25, 2015 - 11:52am | I am working on Old Yazaria for a very Yazarian adventure...any ideas welcome on what the home planet might have been like in it's pre-industrial feudal period. After re-reading through some of the SFmans I am thinking there should be a greater cultural variation as they have not been forced into a global unified culture yet. However many clans would exist, with many septs, the clan system seems to have a caste aspect to it as well. I also get there are sub-cultures with in the existing future clan system, some more primitive others more "civilized" which can be drawn on. I get a sort of Asian feel to the clan system, warlord's supporting various religious castes like one sees in Indian, Chinese & Japanese history. My idea is to recycle a bunch of old D&D stuff, while completely changing it to legendary Yazarian home world adventures of long dead figures from their myths & legends. So no dwarves, elves, humans or that sort of thing. :) "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 October 25, 2015 - 4:05pm | jedion357 has written a bunch of stuff, both in the zines and here on this site, about yazirian homeworld ideas. Unfortunately, he's MIA right now due to real life issues so may not be on the forums much for a while. He'd be a good one to bounce ideas off though when he does make it on. 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 |
October 25, 2015 - 6:30pm | I am thinking of borrowing the idea of clan trees from his musings for sure. The whole article on clans which also had racial differences I plan to use to help figure out how to populate the planet. I will also need to create clans (which don't necessarily survive to the future but are needed as part of the story lines). I am going to work up some different kinds of weapons, the zamira will be important of course, but there will be other weapons needed. Names of places on the planet... I am going to assume names on Yazarian worlds like New Khir probably mean there was a Khir on Yazaria, I may keep some names used in various D&D settings as they sound Yazarian. I will need to populate the planet with Yazarian wildlife & domestic animals as well, and make sure I have pictures & descriptions handy. I think though this will be a fun way to immerse folks in a culture and recycle a bunch of D&D maps, & modules... story lines will need major rework of course but I have this crazy idea of tying the Yazarian legendary past to the future time in SF via the stories of the clans, including epic tales of a few dead clans. Expedition to Barrier Peaks is getting a major rewrite as my test conversion... I have 15 PCs to create all with feudal clan skills that can hopefully handle the death wielding doom of that module. So it is review old D&D and try and figure out how to convert a 12th level fighter to SF terms... but I am sure it will be fun for folks to play a 100% Yazarian adventure. I also decided the ship in this version will not have been maned by humans per say but another race maybe different than Yazarians but Yazarian/Primate like enough as to be described as odd, weird, demonic or angelic Yazis (no ability to glide as they have no flaps for instance), so rewrite, I would like to use or model them after an existing SF race in one of the mags or modules... so I will have to look for potential candidate species. One of the reasons I want this change is many of the various crashed ships in the TSR universe had "human" crews & crashed on a fantasy worlds which was human centric/dominated story line wise, so it seems to me a reasonable story line gloss. I have been reviewing OD&D resources and I can safely say tons of sci-fi things where running amok in that fantasy setting... a wizard that was an android building a robot army for instance was in one early supplement. I am going to consider "magic" to be "scientifically" explainable with technology, psionics, mutations and so on. So I will have to figure out what is Yazarian "magic" and so on. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
October 25, 2015 - 8:17pm | Honor is huge to Yazarians so I am thinking it should be something a PC can earn & loose and when one earns so much or looses so much it effects the reactions of others... I could modify a D&D Barsoom mechanic for this. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
October 26, 2015 - 4:51am | Racial/cultural groups often share related language bases (of course there are always history mysteries that create exceptions to this rule in which case migration/assimilation has often occurred), so based on this idea: SFMan #21 pg 11 Yan hoo grandee, Pan-Gal? Language in the Frontier and RimBy Allen Trussell
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Aza Languages: Azana, Hentzir, Siina, Tsavi. Breena Religious Languages: Bereenou, Granee. Garaal Languages: Garaa, Hargu, Larou, Minou.
Haaz Languages: Daaz, Haaz. Krolou Religious Languages: Broloa, Krolou, Mraaz.
Pradeen Languages: Bradep, Kardaan,
Pradeen. Razzir Languages: Hzaar, Laapaa, Pozeen,
Razz, Viaz. Thaar Religious Languages: Alaar, Thaar. Yazi Languages: Hakosao, Histra,
Yasti, Yazi. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> Major Dialects: Drammi (Hentzir), Exi (Yasti), Palaaz
(Hakosao), Quivas (Hargu), Trefrou (Hargu), Triaadz (Hentzir). <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> Secret Languages: Izaa, Kalee, Paralou. <!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> So that is 9 major language & cultural/racial groups which probably expanded out of home territories. Often the oldest names for countries, territories, kingdoms, an area are taken from the people who live in that area either based on their tribal name or the name the map maker's culture uses... not always of course, but a lot of times. So I think these language groups probably give me ancient clan names associated with different areas of Yaziria. The dialects/languages would occur as septs became clans in their own right, migration, linguistic drift, trade and war all effect language. Aza Breena Garaal Haaz Krolou Pradeen Razzir Thaar Yazi
"Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 October 30, 2015 - 3:54am | Within racial languages groups you can have divisions but speakers usually can understand each other across the divisions example: Portuguese speakers do well with Spanish & Italian. I would recommend only having 3-4 major languages and at most 1 secret language so players can keep them straight. There can be subdivisions that largely don't matter but can come into play when for a LOG check a character realizes that NPC Monkey Joe is actually dialect X which makes it 80% likely that he's from Hentz so why did he claim that he was from Athor? If he's lying about where he's from could he also be lying about hating the Fo1? In this way the major languages are easy to use by common players but subdivisions would exist and could be used by referees. Spotting a particular dialect is a LOG check for a speaker of the major language group. Those who don't speak the language group can't spot the dialect but a linguist who didn't happen to know the language group could spot the dialect for 1/2 LOG + 10%/level. A linguist who speaks the language group- automatic. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 30, 2015 - 6:30am | 1) Weapons - Zamra or Zamira ~ boomerang razor disc, Disc Grenades and Khad'dan ~ essentially a sword - which works with their Battle Rage. 2) Languages - Argoonian is the language on Hentz (Fo1) and sub-language of Gnarsh, formed after first contact, adopted on Hargut and by dissenting groups - such as Athor, after the civil war. 3) Creatures - since the Fo1 brought the genes with them of all flora and fauna, the following (or variants) should be on the home planet: Creatures of Hentz, #2-p18 Kar'tix Xag-Xin's Field Guide to Frontier Creatures, Volume I, #16-p9 Kar'tix Xag-Xin's Field Guide to Frontier Creatures, Volume II, #17-p52 plus: Shing, Heck'nor, Munsk and Narzim. A lot of the information is out there. Good luck and I hope this helps. |
October 30, 2015 - 5:51pm | I am rereading everything I can find... and really thinking about what "fuedal Yazaria" would be like... plus you got to figure less advanced clans existed on the planet as well. I will probably start with creating one fuedal group to be the basic culture. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
October 30, 2015 - 9:20pm | I am thinking Hentzir is probably Argoonian thus Argoonian is an Aza language, Gnarsh was a modern reconstructed language based on older languages if I remember that article right? So maybe a specific dialect/language or group of related languages that Argoonian replaced but were then used to make a new language? Anyhow I think Gnarsh might be also Hargu in the Garaal language group... reconciling different ideas people have written. Since I am tweaking Exp. to BP (that is the idea that started this crazy idea) I may keep some names from it and change others, the city of Gorma works for a name of a Yazirian town so I may keep that unchanged, Duchy of Geoff does not work, but Clan Geoff might (this clan would be ancient history in modern Yazi culture and no longer around per say). I am thinking of renaming the Barrier Peaks to the Wa or Wal Mountains, Hornwood I am thinking of renaming it to Khir but not set on that as I may wish to use Khir elsewhere. So I am thinking about a medieval Yazi town... the basic Yazi is naturally a tree dweller or cliff dweller/mesa dweller, so I am trying to imagine using the tree culture as my basis what this would be like... Would it be Ewok village time? or Would a more advanced agricultural group build fortresses (wood & stone) around their tree houses and carefully tended fruit/food trees? Sort of open air towers around great trees, and then expand out from that center? I am trying to think about how different a feudal gliding warrior culture would be from ground pounding humans. Eventually "artifical trees" would replace real trees as living spaces I am thinking, so a town might reflect a mix of living trees and constructed towers that function as trees? "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
October 31, 2015 - 9:17am | There are probably sacred places to consider for addition... in looking at current & ancient human culture: Places of pillgramege concerning important people: an important person's birth place, test or trial or experience/vision location and death/burial: for example there are a couple locations in Turkey: Abrham's birth cave (with assoiciated holy spring) and the location he was thrown into fire and god turned the fire to water and the logs into fish, the fish (carp) are sacred and protected by law and you can feed them. There are of course tons of places like this world wide for various individuals of historic & religious importance and unique customs are often associated with these places. So I should probably consider the sacred side of culture & land when recreating this little area as Yazarian versus Human. At least give it a little thought. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
October 31, 2015 - 12:02pm | In looking at PC skills, professions, disciplines, & classes between D&D & SF I think Clerics & Magic Users are probably Mentalists... this makes the most logical gloss. So now I have to figure out what spells gloss to what disciplines. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
November 4, 2015 - 4:26am | I can see clerics as mentalist. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 4, 2015 - 5:20am | I started converting and researching another D&D critter from E to BP the Phase Spider, I am very slowly converting the module... and thinking hard on the classes. I was going to have a different species run the ship but maybe I should just keep it human, still going back and forth on that, as I can than have some alternate reasons for certain clans lacking certain traits latter... but I have not decided for sure, as part of me thinks it would be nice for a different species to (bipedal mammal) crash... toying with it. In Old D&D the PC's Class AKA Profession determines weapons that can be used (not sure what the new rules allow). Magic Users get a knife and Clerics must use blunt weapons (clubs, maces & so on)... SF is set up very different, however I could retain these odd rules as a cultural aspect of the Yazirians because of the clan/caste system, which would make total sense. In that certain types of clans are forbidden by the feudal period from using certain weapons... however Barbarian tribes would have different rules and you know need to be "civilized" by the local war lord and clergy. Each type of Profession also sets your clan and social standing (in real life societies this determined who you could marry clans of the same caste usually, what you could wear, your life value under the law, how you make a living and so on pretty much everything, clanless folks usually get the jobs no one wants on the other hand the clanless often are protected by heavy taboos and take in abandoned/orphaned children). I think Honor Points should exist for this sort of culture... an idea I am stealing from Doc for Barsoom D&D. May pilfer old D&D supplement WoM before I am through as the Barsoomian culture is all about war & honor. How does Waka' Tan sound for the name of the Mountains? "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 November 6, 2015 - 4:36pm | Look into the Hulks and Horrors game. It makes no bones about being Dungeons and Dragons in space. They have the psykers as clerics and the scientists as the wizards. You know cause any sufficiently adviced science looks like magic and psykers have that gentle friendly touch just like clerics. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
