 February 27, 2012 - 1:54pm | Just had a thought: we have an article introducing aliens from the Aliens movie to the SF setting so why not a Bugs conversion from Star ship Troopers. Might be a great excuse to locate the unfinished models I have of them and finish that. (one flamer and some warriors IIRC) For the brain bug I'm down with mentalist powers. The flame bomb bug- can either make it the giant category that already exist in the AD game or poach ideas from the titan discussion though my leaning is simply to slot it into the standard AD rules I believe that the Giant creature size stated in the rules matches its size. Warrior bugs would rate as large flyers as medium to large I believe the scarabes that carry the brain as medium but not combatant. oh yeah forgot the big artillery bugs that shoot plasma farts out their arse into space- giant but vullnerable to ground troops. Also think we need a planet tary brief. Does anyone know if these bugs can planetary hop? I never got why they attacked earth and that earth had to go their and waste a lot of good men to kill them. Sure they sent the plasma farts through space at earth which was ridiculous but if they cant planet hop then what danger do they really pose? My leaning is that discovery of bug planet is by a ship misjumping and bad stuff ensues, Space Fleet sends rescue vessel and more bad stuff ensues, a task group responds to emergency calls and more bad stuff ensues, Politicians are paid by mega corps to wave the bloody flag and "we must teach these bugs a lesson to make the planet safe for mega corp exploitation" and more bad stuff ensues when ground fleet units land, discoveries are made and corporations line up to exploit and send in mercenaries and more bad stuff ensues. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2012 - 2:22pm | Oh bonus, just snagged a download of the rules off scribed so I can consult that game before writing a conversion. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 27, 2012 - 3:14pm | I assume you're talking about the movie (which I've never seen, don't watch rated R movies) as most of what you just described is not in Heinlein's book which I just read a few months ago. Or at least I don't remember it being there.  I remember warrior bugs that did the fighting, the brain bugs that directed things and worker bugs that basically looked like warrior bugs but didn't actually fight. Although I'm not surprised that they took lots of liberties with the movie as the book is not so much about the battles and combat as a commentary on personal rights and freedom and about Johnny Rico growing up and adapting and assuming leadership and responsibility. 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 27, 2012 - 3:36pm | Worker bugs looked like giant scarab beetles and they clumped together in a mass and the brain bug rode on top. Brain bug had a disgusting organ that it deployed and stabbed into a human head to such their brains out and process their knowledge.
Again, I'm not surprised they may have played fast and loose with the novel. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 27, 2012 - 3:40pm | It was a very good book. I'm not a big fan of the movies or putting the bugs in my universe (at least not as they are in the movies...but I'm a humbug....not to be confused with one of the bugs from the movie). But there is certainly a lot of good stuff in the book for Star Frontiers. And personally, I think that the most common alien form should be some type of insect. Just because that is the majority of life forms here (not counting bacteria and such) and they are just plain creepy...even vrusks...sorry.  |
February 27, 2012 - 4:13pm | I just thought that they could use a treatment in the SFman and once I do some reading in the two downloads I got from scone I'll try my hand at stats (input welcome) I'll likely follow the movie, despite how dreadfully awful it was, simply because gigantic flame thrower bugs are pretty cool and with the extra creatures from the movie a GM has a broader bestiary to play with. Combine a good system brief and adventure seeds and I think you have a good article to help a time poor GM. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 27, 2012 - 6:43pm | I watched the movie first, before I read the book. I liked the movie for what it was, but it was very graphic, not my usual liking. After I saw the movie I read a magazine about it, that helped me understand where the director and writer were coming from and so I had to read the book. The book was the best. I hated the other two movies they made. Not only were they poor quality acting, the story and the special FX sucked. So with that said, I like your idea Jedion about making a conversion. Have you ever seen Roughnecks. It is a CG cartoon based on the movie. It is actually pretty good. The CG was some of the best I had seen at the time. It was on at a wierd time so I only caught some of it. There is more material in there for putting together stuff for an RPG IMO. I have not seen or read any RPG stuff for Starship Troopers before but I think the cartoon has a better mix. Also, the bugs in the movie attacked earth with asteroids and had attacked several human planets before the attack on their homeworld. That was in the movie. IIRC they never explained how they got from planet to planet. In the book, the bugs were on multiple worlds, but I don't remember if they ever explained how they got from point A to point B. The cartoon showed massive bug ships. Living creatures that transported the hive, swarm, or whatever they called the groups from place to place. They even have an episode where the troopers have to infiltrate the giant bug and there are all kinds of the other bugs inside. |
February 27, 2012 - 6:51pm | @Inigo Montoya: I think there is something to what you say about bugs. If you look at several sci-fi plots they have bug or bug-like antagonists. Bugs creap most people out(no offense Mr. Vrusk). In Warhammer 40K you have the Tyranids; In Starcraft you have the Zerg; Aliens has the Aliens; Robotech had the Invid; I know there are more. Those were on the top of my list. |
February 27, 2012 - 9:59pm | I had no idea that there were more than the first movie. As for the acting in the first while I wouldn't say is was bad I think some of it was over the top like the actor felt they were trapped in something goofy. I just double checked something- one of the other mothers at dance school gave me a pile of dvds and it turns out that the animated Roughnecks, Starship Troopers Chronicles sub titled The Klendathu Campaign. Going to have to pop that in and watch it. I wonder what my level of interest in this would be if I had seen the two sequels. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 27, 2012 - 10:11pm | Technical stuff: I think that any campaign involving bugs in the Frontier should be suggested as happening after SW2. Just long enough after the war that politician start thinking, "What we need is a short victorious war." and military brass are glad for anything that inflates its budget. Aliens Style drop ships and power armor aught to be in as well as possibly 1 kiloton pocket nukes for the Johny Ringos to play with. Plus I liked that fort they had in the first movie so drop forts should be in. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 9, 2012 - 9:52pm | Jedion, Have you had a chance to look into converting any of the Starship Troopers stuff for SF? |
April 10, 2012 - 4:15am | Jedion, Have you had a chance to look into converting any of the Starship Troopers stuff for SF?
I went to scribd.com and downloaded a copy of the rules to consult, but I have this problem, I hate reading PDF on my computer and I got distracted by other stuff. I'll email the document to my self and open it on the smart phone so I can read it at work during the hurry up and wait moments. My feeling on this is we can ignore its setting as far as humans are concern and plug its aliens into the star frontiers setting which really cuts the conversion down to size. Along with the stats for the bugs probably ought to be included bullet list adventure seeds. And location map of a square drop fort with instructions on running a 1800s style British vs the Fuzzy Wuzzies in the Sudan which is what the movie sort of evoked. In this case the player s run a squad not a PC. However that gets into the nebulously formed ideas I m mulling over for massed combat which means refocusing on those and play test.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 11, 2012 - 11:02pm | I perused the PDF too. I think you are right about focusing on the bugs. The humans are just humans after all. There is some gear that might be fun like the Marauder Armor. But I know powered armor has already been covered elsewhere. I thought I saw a project before where someone was working on a massed combat system already, was that you? |
April 12, 2012 - 4:08am | I perused the PDF too. I think you are right about focusing on the bugs. The humans are just humans after all. There is some gear that might be fun like the Marauder Armor. But I know powered armor has already been covered elsewhere. I thought I saw a project before where someone was working on a massed combat system already, was that you?
No but being into miniatures wargaming I sort of have my own ideas, chief of which is that I'd like a system that meshes seamlessly across the three principle levels of combat, RPG, skirmish and massed combat. Plus I'd like a system that works well at the wargaming table.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 April 12, 2012 - 10:07pm | Jedion, Have you had a chance to look into converting any of the Starship Troopers stuff for SF?
I went to scribd.com and downloaded a copy of the rules to consult, but I have this problem, I hate reading PDF on my computer and I got distracted by other stuff. I'll email the document to my self and open it on the smart phone so I can read it at work during the hurry up and wait moments. My feeling on this is we can ignore its setting as far as humans are concern and plug its aliens into the star frontiers setting which really cuts the conversion down to size. Along with the stats for the bugs probably ought to be included bullet list adventure seeds. And location map of a square drop fort with instructions on running a 1800s style British vs the Fuzzy Wuzzies in the Sudan which is what the movie sort of evoked. In this case the player s run a squad not a PC. However that gets into the nebulously formed ideas I m mulling over for massed combat which means refocusing on those and play test.The player could still run a single PC with a squad of NPC that are under the PC's / player's command. |
April 13, 2012 - 3:28am | GASLIGHT has rules that seem to transition well from RGP to skirmish and massed combat, plus they put out a supliment for playing more of a pulp kind of game with fun craziness and zany-ish villians. then they turned out a suppliment for the american civil war. Your RPG hero can function as a leader for squads of heros or as a squad/vehicle element all by himself but then again the rules are weighted to make heros larger then mere "extras" I did pick up the Hard cover compendium rule book at Historicon this year but the presentation in it confused me a little and I had already read all the little rule books minus the pulp one. Not saying I want ot copy them just that the system allows for seemless upgrade from RGP to skirmish and then to mass combat. This should be the goal for a Star Frontiers skirmish and mass combat level of play. However to be honest if we just get a skirmish level of play that works I'd be happy with that. A seemless transition would take the basic combat values and mechanic for combat at the RPG level and scale them up for a squad with some simplification. In a wargame you have established classes of troops which makes this sort of thing easy- for example the Italian Bersiglieri were elite light troops that were highly mobile and could shoot and had good morale (originally organized by a duke with no access to horses so these troops are not allowed to walk anywhere on post- going to the latreen, the mess tent, the barracks they run if they aint running the Sgt. is on them rumor has it tha they still practice this today) So a squad of bersiglieri will likely have better movement and or shooting then average regular infantry and their combat stats will reflect this. The problem with Star Frontiers is that there are not real classes of troops established and if we threw together a group of RPG PCs as a squad how do you account for this one having a screen x and that one having screen y? and the mix of weapons. So its looking like a fudge factory but I think its doable I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
April 13, 2012 - 4:22pm | Like all militaries the equipment is probably standardized so all troops are equiped with laser rifle or auto rifle and screen x. If you could also assign it like this. squad has 2 troops with laser rifle, 1 troop with a support weapon like a grenade launcher or rocket launcher, and one troop with a machine gun or heavy laser and then the PC character leading them. There is no need to have the troops have a mix of anything, keep 'em all the same and maybe allow the squad leading pc to have different equipment since they are the hero after all. |
April 13, 2012 - 5:35pm | Standardization is the way to go; after all G I stands for Government Issue. There will be rifle squads and heavy and or support weapons squads at the skirmish level. Theses largely disappear into larger groups on the massed combat level. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 15, 2013 - 9:19am | I am working on this. I have the basic: soldier, worker, tanker, flyer, plasma and brain. I did not go into queen and transport bugs. I do not have a home planet - there are enough out there already. I have them on a Plague World. My adventure has a Corp send a ship to the world and picks up 5 soldier "UET" (Unknown Extraterrestrials). They get loose and attack the crew. The PCs are sent to rescue the freighter that has sent out a distress signal. Corp. Bureaucrat ~ "It is a simple mission. Go to these coordinates and try to help affect repairs and then escort the ship back, the Flying Fox. It's a cake-walk! We will give you some spare parts and be sure to be armed - in case it is pirates. Here is a list..." There are ....3 movies and the animated series has 8 sets: Pluto, Hydora, Tophet, Tesca, Sephyr, Klendathu, Trackers and Homefront. As for movement, they used transport bugs, a large bug with hollow spaces inside to accomodate other bugs...soldiers, plasma, etc. They also put spores on rocks and asteroids and pushed them out into space. |
December 15, 2013 - 12:59pm | I like the idea of a corporation smuggling xenoforms back and they get loose. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 24, 2016 - 5:39pm | It was a very good book. I'm not a big fan of the movies or putting the bugs in my universe (at least not as they are in the movies...but I'm a humbug....not to be confused with one of the bugs from the movie). But there is certainly a lot of good stuff in the book for Star Frontiers. And personally, I think that the most common alien form should be some type of insect. Just because that is the majority of life forms here (not counting bacteria and such) and they are just plain creepy...even vrusks...sorry. You sound like a Kraatar Liberation Corps sympathizer! Shame, shame...  Joe Cabadas |
