 March 17, 2016 - 8:37am | In the real world we have organ donors. In the Frontier they might have brain donors. Donated for science the brain goes to the University of Zebulon for college students to experiment with in their advanced cybernetics class building a cybot. CyberGen Ltd. Offers a bounty for donated brains. Imagine the PC asked to sign a brain donor card in exchange for a 1000 Cr bounty. They're required to wear a special chronocom that signals the local brain recovery team to come collect the brain upon death of the character. If the didn't read the fine print they find out the hard way that there are now travel restrictions: cannot leave the Frontier nor travel to planets with outpost populations and a few other planets that lack a CyberGen office. Plot hook: PC medic gets sued by CyberGen for reviving a dead PC or NPC who was a registered brain donor. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 17, 2016 - 9:23am | Sounds fun. Very cyberpunk, which I like. |
March 17, 2016 - 11:22am | I think it might be fun to offer a brain donnar card to a player rolling up a new character and agonizing over the limited starting funds. And having 3 consequences for the signing the card- small print stuff. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 17, 2016 - 7:19pm | Building on this: the one sci-fi franchise that I can think of that explores this was Robo Cop. Cyborg has memory wiped but the memories begin to re-imerge. I suppose Universal Soldier is similar in theme: man turned into a machine but his humanity struggles to assert itself. In the Frontier the sathar also did this on Volturnus I forget what the "creature" was called? Slave bot maybe? Of course the worms are famous for the disembodied brain in a tank running the obelisk installation. Then you get the thinly described cybot which may just be a corporate scheme to build upon sathar tech captured during SW1. EDIT: The Black Hole, explored this theme as well. Primal fear of oppressive control and loss of choice. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 17, 2016 - 8:47pm | During SW1 the worms were only able to bring so many ground troops to the table so the set up a production line to make slave bots, brain wiping Frontier citizens and grafting cybernetic control devices to them. These slave bots were used as prison guards and etc to free up sathar forces for active military operations. (Brings to mind interactions between TNG crew and the Borg.) After the war slave bot were rounded up and institutionalized since they were in effect family members of the living/free. Attempts/experiments have been done over the years to restore these individuals to their right mind with no success. Till one day one of the wakes up. Plot twist: this NPC witnessed something and holds clues to an important secret. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 17, 2016 - 10:26pm | Player Character start as a former slave bot that has suddenly woke up from his "coma" in an institution. Player gets starting skills as other PCs then "buys" more skills with 20-30 or 40 EXP but these skills have not been recovered yet and are still "forgotten". The ability scores are then temporarily modified to reflect the character having been in a coma: 1/2 of the points used to by the above skills is taken from STR, and 1/4 is taken from STA and DEX. In addition the referee will have to create a mystery that surrounds the PC that the player must unravel. The player may buy back his temporary reduced ability points at a cost of 1 EXP for 2 ability points and the forgotten skills are also bought back at 1/2 cost in EXP. No new skills can be learned until the forgotten skills are recovered. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 17, 2016 - 10:31pm | There should also be a cadre that opposes the "dehumanization" or rather the de-Sapientization that cybots represent. The picket robotics labs and occasionally take more forceful methods. They would be loosely allied with the Silver Death Cult. Name? The Cybernetic Emancipation League (CEL) I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 March 18, 2016 - 5:08am | Well, the idea of donating brains could help explain the cybot concept in Star Frontiers. I also always thought that the Sathar would probably have other slavebots rather than just using the Eorna on Volturnus. Another thought along those lines is about the disembodied Sathar brain in the artifact in Volturnus, Planet of Mystery. I always wondered why the module writers didn't offer any role laying suggestions. You would think this Stathr brain might try communicating with the PCs -- perhaps to hypnotise them? Or even delay them until another trap was sprung. What if the "Freeze Chamber" where food was stored for the quickdeaths and as storage for extra slavebot bots was a little more elaborate? It could have a hatch or a a ramp leading to a lower level where dozens or hundreds of Eorna slavebots are stored in stasis while cyber-carapaces (like on the cybernuk from Frontier Explorer) are nearby. As the Sathar brain talks to the characters, some of stasis chambers could start bringing the Eorna out of hybernation while a robotic assembly line begins attaching the cyber-carapaces. If the PCs haven't disabled any machinery in this chamber, or aren't watching, they could soon face more slavebots. They should only appear a few at a time and they might not have weapons initially. This might be a bit much for entrty level PC... but then again, so are characters going against the Meachanons and their warbots armed with heavy lasers. Joe Cabadas |
