Jugger as a trigger for conflict

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 5, 2012 - 5:46am
Been posting ideas in the adapting Jugger for SF project re:
http://starfrontiers.us/node/6410

(admittedly I didn't know anything about Jugger till this project was started)
apparently a skull is used in the game as a trophy and there was some discussion about a stuffed sathar head.

1. I feel that sathar artifacts and specimens are illegal to possess (Star Law as per their mandate to hunt out sathar agents would also be tasked with confiscation of such things). However, the sathar disdain for their lower caste cannon fodder troops means there were plenty of specimens laying around on several occassions.

2. One person felt that it was indeed possible that yazirians would take a head and bring it back to his clan as a trophy. I was persauded and the few clan trophies out there of this nature are for the most part overlooked; ie everyone pretends not to notice.

Now to the Yazirian Civil War nature of this project.

1. Fo1 suppresses most things traditional in favor of the Brave New society that its Recreating in its own image. This includes Jugger, under its yazirian name that has not been determined yet. When I say suppresses that is to mean that on Hentz the sport does not occur and its clergy speak against it on other yazirian colonies where it does occur.

2. Yast and its moon Exib have been cast as a very traditional colony and I proposed that Yast be the epi-center of jugger.

Imagine a young zealous Fo1 clergy on Yast, frustrated with the lack of respect for his one true religion who has become even more strident in his railling against the sins of the barbarous past committed by the near heathens of the Yast lineage clans. Now normally everyone pretends not to notice that Clan X has a sathar head as a trophy but this guy latches on to the idea that, "Hey that thing is illegal and should be confiscated." He's just looking for an excuse to supress the sport and manages to decieve himself into believing that he's doing the right thing when he has no authority to confiscate this item (that is Star Law's job which it very carefully takes no official notice of the few such clan trophies out there so as to not percipitate a political firestorm)

This clergymember seizes the sathar head trophy and the clan it belongs to explodes. Fo1 has to get involved because their clergymember was killed and they just cant let that pass. They would have rather not had this guy start this thing but they cant let anyone think they can kill the Fo1 clergy and get away with it. So they send their militia to punish the clan (Hentz is listed in KHs as having a sizable militia as far as militia's go and Yast has no void jump capable hulls- though I assume they have fighters and shuttles).

Now what's about to go down is clan war- Fo1 which is clan Anglann is sending a planetary military force made up of crew of many different clans to attack and punish one clan on Yast. The Council of Clans on Yast cannot let this go down or it will lose credibility with the population. In fact the whole sentiment on Yast supports the clan about to be attacked.

Exib is traditional like Yast but perhaps slightly less so since a significant though small percentage of its population was born elsewhere and relocated there (many miners from Guna Garu suffering from Blue Lung have come to Exib for some relief in their symptoms). Exib does not have a dog in this fight but realizes that Fo1 is in the wrong and that if things come to blows that it will be swept into the conflict and that it almost has to support Yast. The Council of Clans on Exib attempts to play peace maker in this.

All that is needed is a spark. As it turns out one of the militia ship captains was litter mate to the dead clergy member and he is just as hot headed as his littermate and he pulls the trigger on a Yast militia shuttle; the situation goes to hades from there.

the Hentz militia lands and takes out the Yast militia base on Exib which would be much easier to execute then making a hostile landing on Yast.

UPF involvement:
There only happened to be a lone assualt scout in system at the time of this incident. Its commanded by just a Lt. or Commander and the Hentz militia has 3 assualt scouts and a frigate. Yast has a few squardons of fighters and perhaps a few system ships used as command and control and fighter tenders.

This Space Fleet officer lacks the experience to handle this and certainly lacks the firepower to step inbetween the to combatants so he radios for support form Prengular. Fo1/Hentz officials immediately begin a spin campaign with the UPF concerning this being religious in nature and that the Council of Worlds (UPF) cannot intervene. They are hoping for a short victorious war and to wrap things up before Space Fleet can effectively intervene.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 5, 2012 - 5:53am
This could play out as a KHs campaign: series of KH's encounter for victory points winner is the side that accrued enogh victory points withing a certain number of rounds before a fleet from Prengular shows up and orders the combatants to separate.

Or there could be a campaign map of the Yast system much like the sathar war campaign map from KHs and they Hentz player must solidify his hold of the system before Space Fleet shows up and the Yast player must preserve a semblance of control until Space Fleet shows up.

This means the Hentz player must effectively wipe out the Yast Militia and the Yast militia needs to stay alive, he must keep one of his system ships/CnC/ fighter tenders alive till space fleet shows up.

This could be a module with KHs and AD action. Though PCs might need to be mostly yazirian for this to work. Long running PCs of an even mix of the core four could be harder to work in.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

TerlObar's picture
TerlObar
April 5, 2012 - 8:19am
You'd need to limit it to just one or maybe two squadrons of fighters for the militia (assuming a squadron is 6 fighters) if you want the Hentz militia to have the upper hand.  Give me a dozen fighters and I could do serious damage to a frigate and three assault scouts.  In fact 12 fighters against the four militia ships is pretty even, it could go both ways but my nod would to be to the fighters.  Give me a few (3-7) squadrons and I don't think those four ships would have a chance.
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jedion357's picture
jedion357
April 5, 2012 - 10:30am
TerlObar wrote:
You'd need to limit it to just one or maybe two squadrons of fighters for the militia (assuming a squadron is 6 fighters) if you want the Hentz militia to have the upper hand.  Give me a dozen fighters and I could do serious damage to a frigate and three assault scouts.  In fact 12 fighters against the four militia ships is pretty even, it could go both ways but my nod would to be to the fighters.  Give me a few (3-7) squadrons and I don't think those four ships would have a chance.
I'm of opinion that the order of battle for the militias in KHs is very low. For this series I was thinking it would be good to have Hentz have just commissioned something big, cruiser or carrier. Also was thinking that the climax of the series could also be the destruction of the new ship, sort of a zero sum change to the setting for the purist out there though its not absolutely required. However a big KHs battle or a Break out of the "Death Carrier" after disabling the grapple system and rescuing Princess Yazirian from the brig by way of the trash compactor could be a good climax or a break out of the carrier during a KHs battle to Change it up. Have a whole timeline of when enemy fighters strafe the carrier causing damage to various locations. If the PC's totally bog down allow Enough damage to destroy the carrier forcing everyone into escape pods.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!