Rethinking the Plague Worlds

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 28, 2012 - 12:01pm
I really am not a fan of how Zeb's guide handled the plague worlds. I think the UPF would have worked to help those people once the Blue Plague was under control.

That said, I do like the idea of a place that's so dangerous, that it is placed off limits. It would open up some really cool adventure opportunities:

1. A Zombie Apocolypse? Perhaps a settled world with a highly infectious outbreak...

2. Riddick - Pitch Black - an alien so dangerous that it wiped out every attempt at colonization

3. ?
Comments:

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 28, 2012 - 12:15pm
Zombie plague, from say nanites or virus could work or alien infestation. Both work and make far more sense then the blue plague at least as far as writing off the plague worlds. To play devils advocate though zombies change the flavor of the game away from classic SF though there is nothing really wrong with that. To save work i'd use the zeno-morphs from the SFman face huggers, warriors and queens. Then the reason that space fleet has shoot on site orders for ships leaving plague (or rather infestation) planets is the danger of the infestation spreading.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 28, 2012 - 1:38pm
jedion357 wrote:
Zombie plague, from say nanites or virus could work or alien infestation. Both work and make far more sense then the blue plague at least as far as writing off the plague worlds. To play devils advocate though zombies change the flavor of the game away from classic SF though there is nothing really wrong with that. To save work i'd use the zeno-morphs from the SFman face huggers, warriors and queens. Then the reason that space fleet has shoot on site orders for ships leaving plague (or rather infestation) planets is the danger of the infestation spreading.


This is true. I was using the term Zombie more as a colloquialism. Some sort of ancient tetrarch nanite tech or a Klikk bio weapon left behind at a test site or such like that. I'm actually thinking more of that angle, but something to add a taste of survival horror to the frontier. Or perhaps something like the Borg.

All of the above would be an interesting antagonist.

CleanCutRogue's picture
CleanCutRogue
August 28, 2012 - 2:36pm
Maybe a technological virus was engineered by one political group for use against another.  It infects tech of all sorts (robots, computers, fancy toasters, etc.).  The original idea was that the virus would cause the circuitry to identify itself as defective or as an enemy and destroy itself or at least shut down.  But the creators of the virus had no idea that it would interact with primary function programming the way it did, and so the robots, computers, and automated systems of the planet identified its designers as defective enemies and started trying to destroy them. 

This technological war was brutal.  UPF and various corporations with interests on the world all tried desperately to help, but nothing they could do would immunize their technology from this virus, which now was infecting nanites (once used for construction and repair, now simply vehicles for the spread of the virus to "liberate" tech still slaved to the defective creators).  The virus kept mutating and causing off-shoots to the core tech regime, some of which is occasionally helpful to creators but none of which are powerful enough to stand up to the ruling technocracy.

Eventually the world was regretably identified as a plague world, leaving behind a very small remnant population unable to be rescued and unable to interact with technology in any way.  These few remaining people live their lives in hiding from the word's oppressive unceasing hunt for biological "creators".  No ship of the frontier is permitted to come within 1 light year of the planet, out of fear that the ruling tech might develop wireless technology which can breach firewalls and other defenses of ship's passive sensor arrays.

It would be fun to be hired to land a ship (which will likely turn against its passengers on the way down!) and rescue the daughter of a merchant that was forced to jettison in an escape pod when attacked by pirates.  Being forced to use simple tools and items against a technologically superior foe would be a lot less like an armed rescue operation and more like a cat and mouse game, trying to avoid direct confrontation where possible.  How would such a rescue operation end?  How could they get offworld? 
3. We wear sungoggles during the day. Not because the sun affects our vision, but when you're cool like us the sun shines all the time.

-top 11 reasons to be a Yazirian, ShadowShack


jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 28, 2012 - 2:37pm
There is also that lifeform of supposed sathar origin that took control of a UPF citizen and used him to assassinate the Govenor of Volturnus late in the zebs timeline which led to a new fashion trend of transparent clothing- im guessing they weren't completely see thru but more in the vein of todays see thru where you just see the undergarment. At any rate this vreature is clearly been modified or developed by the worms what if the infestation is a more natural form of the creature or perhaps a very dangerous form that the sathar never were able to control.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 28, 2012 - 4:18pm
CleanCutRogue wrote:
Maybe a technological virus was engineered by one political group for use against another.  It infects tech of all sorts (robots, computers, fancy toasters, etc.).  The original idea was that the virus would cause the circuitry to identify itself as defective or as an enemy and destroy itself or at least shut down.  But the creators of the virus had no idea that it would interact with primary function programming the way it did, and so the robots, computers, and automated systems of the planet identified its designers as defective enemies and started trying to destroy them. 

This technological war was brutal.  UPF and various corporations with interests on the world all tried desperately to help, but nothing they could do would immunize their technology from this virus, which now was infecting nanites (once used for construction and repair, now simply vehicles for the spread of the virus to "liberate" tech still slaved to the defective creators).  The virus kept mutating and causing off-shoots to the core tech regime, some of which is occasionally helpful to creators but none of which are powerful enough to stand up to the ruling technocracy.

Eventually the world was regretably identified as a plague world, leaving behind a very small remnant population unable to be rescued and unable to interact with technology in any way.  These few remaining people live their lives in hiding from the word's oppressive unceasing hunt for biological "creators".  No ship of the frontier is permitted to come within 1 light year of the planet, out of fear that the ruling tech might develop wireless technology which can breach firewalls and other defenses of ship's passive sensor arrays.

It would be fun to be hired to land a ship (which will likely turn against its passengers on the way down!) and rescue the daughter of a merchant that was forced to jettison in an escape pod when attacked by pirates.  Being forced to use simple tools and items against a technologically superior foe would be a lot less like an armed rescue operation and more like a cat and mouse game, trying to avoid direct confrontation where possible.  How would such a rescue operation end?  How could they get offworld? 


Wow...just...wow...

That's awesome.

With my kids' campaign being earlier in frontier history - ie volturnus mission & sw2 era, I was thinking of this:

A previosly unexplored system in the core of the frontier. The explorers arrive in-system to a strange discovery: an alien technology in orbit around the planet. This strange device has ceased functioning long ago, and it's origin and purpose is a mystery. The explorers land on the planet to find similar technological artifacts. Only when it is too late do they realize that the device in orbit was a warning beacon placed there when the earlier inhabitants found something sinister on their colony planet...

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 28, 2012 - 4:23pm
And am I the only one who has seen "Pitch Black"?

A planet that is locked in orbit, facing it's star. On the surface of the day side of the planet there is evidence of a prior civilization. And a violent end.

The other planets in the system periodically eclipse the sun, which allows the darkened surface of the alien world to reveal it's deadly secret. A species of arial carnivores rule the dark side of the planet, and seek to rule the other half as well, but they die after prolonged exposure to daylight. As the explorers discover this truth they realize that a massive eclipse is on the way...

Inigo Montoya's picture
Inigo Montoya
August 29, 2012 - 8:53am
I've seen it as I'm sure others have. It was long ago so the details are vauge. One thing about antagonists like that, or zombies... And this is totally a personal nit-pick... but what happens when everything is dead. How do the antagonists subsist?  I enjoy plots that have some basic plausibilities. I understand that ALIENS lay dormant and viruses can do likewise. Regardless, I think the general consensus is that the plague planets could use a re-write.

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 29, 2012 - 11:55am
Inigo Montoya wrote:
I've seen it as I'm sure others have. It was long ago so the details are vauge. One thing about antagonists like that, or zombies... And this is totally a personal nit-pick... but what happens when everything is dead. How do the antagonists subsist?  I enjoy plots that have some basic plausibilities. I understand that ALIENS lay dormant and viruses can do likewise. Regardless, I think the general consensus is that the plague planets could use a re-write.


Agreed. I'm thinking something along the lines of an alien virus myself - more I Am Legend than The Walking Dead.

And pitch black had these crazy bird-dinosaur things that would swoop in like a flock and shred people. Kind of like arial pirahnas. But they couldn't be exposed to daylight. And flashlights would knock them back. If you had a planet that was orbitally locked, they could infest the dark side... I would quarrantine that planet...

Karxan's picture
Karxan
August 29, 2012 - 6:39pm
OFO, I loved Pitch Black, and as survivability for the creatures, they fed on themselves to sustain their life Inigo. Still not real plausable due to the fact they should have eaten themselves to death. There was evidence of larger creatures at sometime on that planet as there were large skeletons.

Maybe you could have a creature that travels through space and lands on a planet and consumes cretain carbon based lifeforms? The plague world is created but then when the food runs out, somehow the creatures go into a molting and transform once again into a space born entity and moves to another planet.

Basically create a life cycle for the creatures. It doen't explain the SF plague worlds but it is a way to look at creating one for an adventure. If one of the creatures escapes, then your antagonist will survuve to plague another planet for a later adventure.

Jedion mentioned the Alien xeno-morphs. IIRC, they took on the traits of creatures they infected, so you could have different abilities with different infections that would keep the pc's guessing each time you used them in another setting.

I was working on an outline for an adventure that used the Plague Worlds. The Plague worlds were left to die and were quarentined, but nobody went back to check on them. So that is why they just sit there. The UPF has a patrol that goes through each system to keep ships away but that is it.

So the pc's are approached by a rich old guy and asked to rescue his daughter who crashed on one of the plague worlds. He insists that his butler and two of his own guys go with the pc's. The real purpose of the extra help is that the rich guy sent his daughter there to locate an old family vault on the plague planet. That vault contains a tetrarch artifact of great value that his family hid before the plague hit their planet. You could even have that as the reason for the plague too. The pc's head to the planet but are shot down by the UPF patrol.

They find a planet with several different types of civilizations(cultures) in small communities. Like all of those great post-apocolyptic movies. One of the groups has a mining operations and is using slaves to mine a special mineral. That mineral is actually being taken by a pirate group sneaking on to the planet. That is how the pc's will escape eventually.

The daughter in the meantime has fallen in love with some local leader's son. Go figure. all of the beings on this planet are immune to the plague now but there are birth defects. So you can find all of the core four here, but there are physical ailments and such. The pc's will not have any defects so this might give them away eventually as outsiders. Also there is no working tech left, except for thos leaders who have horded it.

The three npc's that have tagged along will try and split from the party and find the vault and this could lead to all kinds of trouble. The vault is in an area of one of the cities controlled by a crazed religious fanatic and his group.

Like I said I was working on an outline but it got lost in my move last year and I have not found it yet. There were more details, but you could use that to build an adventure on.

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
August 31, 2012 - 8:48pm
Alpha, Delta and Gamma are all near each other. Perhaps another species had an empire in this region of space before the humans arrived. They could have encountered the Sathar, or even better-they entered a bloody civil war in which the leading factions used powerful weapons against one another which all but wiped out their civilization. The homeworld of this race was in the Gamma system, where nuclear and mutagenic weapons completely altered the genetic makeup of the people and animals. An early UPF exploration set down on this world and encountered freakish and violent mutated life forms. The danger presented by these creatures when added to the lack of any potential for development caused the UPF to declare a quarrantine on Gamma.

Delta, the first colony system was also dragged into the conflict. A nasty biogenic weapon was employed here, which caused all sentient creatures to lose control of their higher brain functions and become extremely violent. Within months, the population of the planet had killed each other off, but the virus managed to survive among the insect population. UPF explorers landed on this planet, and several crew members were lost as they were bitten by insects on the planet surface and within a 24 hours went berzerk and attacked their fellow shipmates.

Alpha was colonized toward the end of the civilization's history and was an outpost at the time of their downfall. Cut off from home as the civil war began, this science colony kept busy about it's work. Then the eclipse came, and the creatures they had caught glimpses of on the dark side of the planet came...

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
September 2, 2012 - 6:06pm
Well if you want zombies and I mean real fast, super cunning and very dealy zombies and you want ruined cities to play in and you want ancient tech that got exposed and all of it left on a world your not supposed to go to then we have a wonderful model in the movie "GHOSTS OF MARS".

Probably best played by a party the really likes to shoot things.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
September 2, 2012 - 6:11pm
I need to check that out.

jedion357's picture
jedion357
September 2, 2012 - 6:59pm
rattraveller wrote:


Probably best played by a party the really likes to shoot things.


Not that there is anything wrong with pistol problem solving.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
September 2, 2012 - 9:48pm
I call it aggressive negotiations...

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
September 26, 2012 - 9:39am
So I'm giving the matter more thought. In my campaign I'm playing the timeline very loose. Especially since Jedion interviewed Zeb Cook and I cam to the realization that the setting was always meant to be a suggestion anyways. I'm running the established modules in an order that fit the travels and story line of my kids' characters rather than by Zeb's timeline. In that regard, I'm ditching the Blue Plague entirely. I figure I'll have the PC's explore the plague worlds on their own, and discover things that cause them to be placed off-limits firsthand.

On some unexplored planet near the core of the frontier, a crash site is discovered. It's an unknown civilization, unknown to the frontier, but not hyper-advanced like the Eorna or the Tetrarchs. The tech was on par with current frontier tech, perhaps slightly more advanced. In the wreckage, a symbol was discovered, matching the constellation formed by the planets Alpha, Delta and Gamma. The wreckage is ancient, pointing to an ancient civilization.

Some entity wants to preserve their corporate exclusive rights (ala Burke from Aliens) and sends the PCs to figure out where this comes from and why there's no evidence of another civilization in the frontier currently. The three planets were the beginning of an emerging space empire that fell long ago. Either from the Clikks, Sathar or from self destruction. Some extinction level event wipes out their three planets, leaving them a mystery. From there the details can be whatever. Perhaps the empire splintered, causing one world to fight another, and having different planet destroying techs impact each world differntly. Perhaps a bio-plague wipes everything out throughout the entire empire leaving behind some uber dangerous beasties like the Xerg in StarCraft. Anyways, the WHAT needs to be determined, but I like the idea of a budding empire being struck down in it's prime, leaving behind a mystery.

This could really be interesting as it plays out, as the corporation would probably attempt to suppress the information.

For Epsilon, I'm thinking of something a little more nasty. In my campaign - I'm going with a story line based off something here on this site I read about a terrorist attack on Founders Day. I'm having the FFF working on a bio weapon based on terraforming technology. A key Administrator for the FFF has been hooked by the Sathar, who want him to use his position in the FFF to wipe out one of the core worlds on founders day as the prelude to an all out Sathar attack. The "Beta" test for the weapon was in Epsilon. The PCs find out after the fact, with some help form the Investors - who don't like where things are going and cryptically intervene ala the Smoking Man from the X-Files.

Anyways - randon thoughts. Not sure if I should throw this in Jedion's plague world project or start my own.

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
September 28, 2012 - 6:06pm
Star Trek The Next Generation had a few episodes with fallen star empires and the ST TOS did too come to think of it. They were big on hologram guardians and some magical tech like The City on the Edge of Forever time/distance traveling device.

Thinking slightly malfunctioning hologram killers are alot like zombies.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
October 1, 2012 - 10:38am
It might strain any kind of credibility for a three system empire to have different catastrophic events that each result in a planet being placed on a quarrantine list.

It might be a little easier to explain:

1. Homeworld was completely obliterated in an attack/civil war and is now a barren, desolate, radioactive wasteland that is completely lethal to any who attempt to land.

2. GAMMA - Second largest world, (1st colony) was destroyed by similar means, but the devastation allowed for some survival, although it now is twisted and mutations abound.

3. An outpost world, the latest colony at the time of the downfall of the homeworld, cut off and alone. I an attempt to survive on their own, the colony planet discovers a hostile alien life form in stasis/egg form that soon wipes out their remaining population.

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
October 1, 2012 - 7:13pm
Reference: Plague World and the Post Apocolypse project

Added a page in the Plague World project - thanks Jedion

bossmoss's picture
bossmoss
October 1, 2012 - 8:02pm
In my campaign universe, there was an empire that existed thousands of years before the modern era.  Those people once dominated the area of the Frontier.  Then, a thousand years ago, they had a massive interstellar war, which brought about the fall of their once-great civilization.  Their ruins can occasionally be found on habitable worlds throughout the Frontier.

On a handful of their ancient colonies, there is still life.  These are post-apocalyptic settings that have been declared off-limits to the general public by the UPF, due to the dangers encountered every time someone has tried to land there.

Each of these "plague world" systems has a different tone.

Alpha is quasi-modern-day, but is suffering from massive overpopulation.
Beta has mutants, and is similar to a traditional Gamma World setting.
Gamma is a more realistic Mad Max style world, with no mutants.
Delta has mostly recovered, and has several successful cultures.  Might come off the list.
Epsilon's recovering civilization was recently decimated by meteors.
Zeta is often the victim of pirate slavers.

OnceFarOff's picture
OnceFarOff
October 2, 2012 - 7:16am
bossmoss wrote:
In my campaign universe, there was an empire that existed thousands of years before the modern era.  Those people once dominated the area of the Frontier.  Then, a thousand years ago, they had a massive interstellar war, which brought about the fall of their once-great civilization.  Their ruins can occasionally be found on habitable worlds throughout the Frontier.

On a handful of their ancient colonies, there is still life.  These are post-apocalyptic settings that have been declared off-limits to the general public by the UPF, due to the dangers encountered every time someone has tried to land there.

Each of these "plague world" systems has a different tone.

Alpha is quasi-modern-day, but is suffering from massive overpopulation.
Beta has mutants, and is similar to a traditional Gamma World setting.
Gamma is a more realistic Mad Max style world, with no mutants.
Delta has mostly recovered, and has several successful cultures.  Might come off the list.
Epsilon's recovering civilization was recently decimated by meteors.
Zeta is often the victim of pirate slavers.


@bossmoss - I would really be interested in hearing more about your campaign. Care to post some thoughts over in the Plague World project?

Reference: Plague World and the Post Apocolypse project

bossmoss's picture
bossmoss
October 3, 2012 - 1:58am
I'll take a look & post some stuff!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
October 29, 2017 - 1:03pm
Rather then start a new thread I figure based on the thread this was the right spot...

The movie The Ghosts Of Mars, one of those unloved sci-fi films by many. Well rewatched it last night with hubby... and it had some interesting ideas. 

First up the Colony is matriarchal in power structure an interesting idea for a Human Colony, there appears to be a Consortium Of some sort. Breeders are mentioned but they are rare... “breeders” are straight people in the LG community and homosexuality is presented up front right away along with same sex sexual harassment and opposite sex harassment... no sex in the film, but enough hints that future people are following different plan than modern society... the “breeder” thing makes me wonder about how babies are made in this version of the future. 10 years away from Earth like atmosphere...any how exploring different social set ups for colonies is always fun and adds flavor to a colony.

But the real reason I wanted to discuss the Ghosts Of Mars and it’s plague aspect is well the “Ghosts” we only get vague ideas about them or glimpses as to what they are.

The effects of being possessed is very Reaver like... or maybe Reavers are like the Ghosts. 

In watching the film we learn the Ghosts were in a sealed ancient constructed vault... that’s odd.

We discover they travel by air but can be contained in closed spaces.

We see the past were an army of aliens... they have sharp teeth, wear masks, and lots of metal... a pale lizard/amphibian/fish biped species?

The possessed actively try to make themselves look like their old alien selves... thus the masks of human faces, white paint, carving themselves (sort of self plastic surgery), putting metal in themselves, sharpening their teeth... thus the Reaver look... they also make weapons like their old ones, follow a command structure, communicate.

We learn there is a limited number of these beings, about 200, they oddly were not killed by the nuclear explosion now that’s interesting. So either they got outside the range of the blast, or they are immune, or there is more than stated? 

When we see the ghost memories we see a vast army with clearly the head possessed guy being the leader of this alien army.

The doctor thinks they are a hibranating life form that possesses others for territorial control of their planet after who knows how long in hibernation. So either they started out as the pale aliens or they also had possessed those aliens, I think the second option is not likely as they would not try to make themselves look like an earlier possessed species. 

Not every human can be possessed, it is clear from the guy locked inside a car rover thing with one he was not possessed and killed himself rather than allow it released, when seeing through the alien eyes they sometimes pass people up, the various survivors recount that not all who come into initial contact were infected, and an illegal drug forced one out of one persons body... 

So what the heck are these things? They hibernated for millions of years, sealed in a tomb or was it a prison or purposeful way of preserving these warriors for some other purpose... 

*prisoners
*booby trap in which consciousness of aliens take over invaders
*natural life form
*consciousness meant to be rehosted into cloned bodies, last act of the rich and powerful
*alien experiment gone wrong to become immortal

The fact that they can be seen sometimes and not others is a bit strange too... they obviously have a semi physical form.

Who locked them up in the first place? Seems like a really weird defense plan, what army would volunteer to be made into roving intellects to possess invaders? That is not going to be on any bodies to do list, even a generals, no one wants to hang out with nothing to do in a cave for millions of years as a mind... can you say go insane.

Note all the killed people get treated like butchered animals, heads on stakes if not face turned into mask... so it is implied this species eats meat. 

So I am thinking some sort of issue here other than planetary defense... maybe a Mad Martian Napolean wanted immortality for himself and most trusted inner circle, or maybe a really cruel punishment, or someone’s crazy war weapon gone wrong and the buried on purpose... 

So what sort of science would this be? Nanonite bio mutant?




 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 29, 2017 - 5:13pm
I like the idea of deranged warrior things held in prison for a millenia just in case they are needed. Although cold sleep chambers make more sense. Enter shades of Space Seed TOS.

Ghost of Mars, so memorable I completely forgot it.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
October 29, 2017 - 5:49pm
Well maybe cold storage won’t work for millions of years?

Maybe someone was trying to save the intellects of skilled, important people such as great hero’s and it went all sorts of wrong? Or maybe right... 

I like the idea that this was someones idea of saving till latter an instant army... but I get the feeling from the clips in the film these were bad ass kill everyone even there own species army. So maybe something akin to keeping the worst of the worst around as the ultimate weapon... you know trying to use science to control your monsters in a box?

 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
October 29, 2017 - 6:58pm
First I love that movie have seen it about ten times and will probably watch the DVD again tomorrow, Halloween and all, good movie for that.

The only clues we have as to who the Creatures are are from the Archeologist lady and not a whole lot there. I always went they are an energy creature who were resting peacefully until disturbed which activated them. Now they are following the programming the Martians but on them to defend the planet.

Sometimes I went with cursed guardian spirits.

There was never a hint that the ones attacking the city were the same ones who attacked the settlement. Whether they were another wave sent after the first were wiped out or a second group that moved off since there were not enough bodies to hold them in the settlement. They could have been since they were following the train line but I think not.

Their society was interesting but not a huge plot point. Did make things more interesting by giving a good background story instead of just letting everyone assume it was like Earth.

The little details like needing atmosphere breathers and the cheap knockoffs the criminals were using were nice. 

Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

JCab747's picture
JCab747
November 7, 2017 - 7:58pm
Hmm, interesting ideas.
Joe Cabadas

jedion357's picture
jedion357
November 8, 2017 - 11:14am
Reviewing HARP Sci-Fi RPG rules and their canned setting as an analog to the Zebs guide plague world's: the sol system government had required new colonies sent out into the verse to be members of the Sol government. Internal domestic policy is each members business but military and interplanetary stuff is the Sol government province. And colony that doesnt want anything to do with the home system government can accept interdiction which means they forswear developing space flight technologies and contact with the rest of the verse. The planet is also guarded by automated Fortresses. 

It seems they wanted 4 planets cut off from the rest of the intergalactic civilization for some reason I just don't get the reasons why but these four interdicted planets function in the Tantamar setting the same as the plague world's do in SF. 
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 9, 2017 - 10:08am
I do wish they had given more specific information in Zebs... but I get it was published in haste and as the last bone to us fans of the game as the folks working on SF knew the game was getting the axe by one of the folks who would doom TSR to failure.

As more Systems than those were infected and cured I am of the opinion something else went way more wrong on each planet that makes it near impossible for the government to deal with. This of course opens it up to the Ref to decide what to do with them. But it does beg the question what sort of things would get a World Quarantined? 

Ideas

*Disease so contagious and deadly it is to big of a risk to go there.
*Every ship that goes there is never heard from again.
*Culture controlling planet is extremely hostile to outside influences and dangerous. Religious sect, intelligent species that is xenophobic or extremely aggressive.
*Dangerous technology, example dead culture but planet/system a death trap of old weapons systems, or a cyborg society that needs fresh people.
*Interplanetary War, that no one wants a part of.

Any other ideas folks?

I am not inclined to think of PC reasons to stay away as SF lacks that Star Trek Prime Directive vibe of protecting lesser cultures.

I am thinking it would be nice to develop stats for "The Ghosts"... I will poke at that a bit.





 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

rattraveller's picture
rattraveller
November 9, 2017 - 3:18pm
There are two factors that should be included in figuring the plague worlds. 
1) Each planet has a different environment and biology. Viruses mutate and evolve under these different conditions the Blue Plague could have become to dangerous to allow anyone near it again. Possibly airborne or developed a cyst casing so that it can survive outside a host for many years.

2) Each planet has a different culture. Even if they are of one race the cultural reactions can be quite different. Mass panic on some planets could have lead to a breakdown in society which led to environmental disasters which make the planet unlivable or maybe someone decided that cleansing by nuclear weapons or retro-virus (what does that term really mean?) has turned the planet even deadlier than the Blue Plague.
Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

JCab747's picture
JCab747
November 10, 2017 - 10:04pm
This is a good topic to delve into, so I appreciate your fresh thinking efforts.

I would agree that each quarantined world was probably given that designation for something other than just the Blue Plague. The one in the Yazarian arm of the Frontier could have been declared off limits by the Family of One for example... maybe its the site of their lost home world or were they sent undesirables early during the Yazarian Exodus.

I believe someone wrote up an adventure for the Alpha quarantine system in one of the early Star Frontiersman magazines, so that offers a good alternative for that world.

Rattraveller has some interesting ideas too.
Joe Cabadas