 February 21, 2017 - 7:17am | When establishing a universe to populate your stories it is important to eliminate contradictions that pop up as you come up with ideas. Right now we have a planet developed with lots of mega corp presence and lots of things rebuilt. How long after the Battle of Volturnus does this incident take place? You see building all this takes time and resources and TRANSPORT. If you have a limited starship SF universe then all this will take more time and the adventure will take place many many years after the battle. In our world when a plane goes missing search and rescue crews are dispatched and dozens if not hundreds of people are sent out to find the missing plane. Heck they finally called off the search for the missing Malaysian plane after two years of looking. CONTRADICTION In an SF universe where starships are rare (or even not so rare) why does a megacorp have to hire a mercenary search team several days after the crash to go look for the missing ship? More later Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 February 22, 2017 - 11:12am | I'm on the road so I'll have to check dates in Zebs when I get home. However, post battle of Volkos the eorna will be scrambling to rebuild but won't have a lot in infrastructure or resources to do so without UPF help. Logically the eorna should be the planetary government but the UPF appoints a governor? We probably can presume that there is an agreement between the eorna and UPF. Something where the UPF governor manages /administers insterstellar stuff and UPF citizens and mega corps on Volturnus. The eorna would be autonomous but limit themselves to the planet surface excluding areas reserved for a Star port and some corporate enclaves. Infrastructure is probably very rough and ready on Volturnus for a long time. I can see situations like a mega corp receiving a mining concession and as part of that deal they build a highway between Volkos and the star port or something similar. Search and rescues is fairly rudimentary on Volturnus and with out an initial E beacon nothing happens. The parachute beacon is launched by the dead Yazirians found outside the ship. They realized the ships beacon was destroyed that no one was coming and decided to launch a emergency flare beacon. Signal is picked up but since what passes for government on Volturnus is confused and contradictory it's the company holding the insurance policy that sends a team - either new hires for this mission or existing team as Terl Observation suggested elsewhere. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 22, 2017 - 4:59pm | This is a good rationale. Joe Cabadas |
 February 22, 2017 - 7:57pm | I think that rattraveller's point is that if you have a Frontier where ships are really rare, any ship going missing is a big deal whether there was a beacon or not. If it doesn't check in, people are going to be looking for it. 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 22, 2017 - 8:05pm | I think that rattraveller's point is that if you have a Frontier where ships are really rare, any ship going missing is a big deal whether there was a beacon or not. If it doesn't check in, people are going to be looking for it.
Yeah, get that. It's just that the premise of this project was to build the Sample adventure into a whole module either by 1.) Developing the Hepllewhite crash into a whole adventure where the crash of this ship is a big deal and central to the adventure OR 2.) Develope a whole adventure where the crash is just the kick off. This means you either keep the hired team of stringers and rationalize it or modify the sample further. My knee jerk is to rationalize but I'm open to ideas? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 February 22, 2017 - 10:28pm | Yet if the frontier is so limited in ships then intersteller trade is too expensive to do. We only think of limited ships because there is a limited number of star ship construction centers. Yet the Hepplewhite is a smaller ship that could have been constructed on the ground. Also, there is the mention of dozens of ships being lost exploring the vast expanse and crash landing on unknown world or misjumping is part of the wild west frontier setting. I'm having problems with too much limiting of star ships in the game. The harder thing for me to rationalize is Volturnus populating and industrializing so fast. -iggy |
February 22, 2017 - 10:35pm | The harder thing for me to rationalize is Volturnus populating and industrializing so fast.
Think of Japan and to a lesser extent Germany after WWII. Both had been bombed pretty heavily but both managed to come back after in a few years with alot of outside help. The Populating would come from the ship of eggs but would have to think that they did not hatch all of them at once since 50,000 kids and 200 adults would not work out well. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 22, 2017 - 10:54pm | Japan and Germany were not restarting a society with just 200 people and a bunch of kids. They had large populations and recent government or still existing government. The Erona are hiding and living in shifts of hybrination off of survival organization. They are decimated way beyong Japan or Germany ever were. I buy into the UPF or Truane Star government oversight but I do not see Volturnus becoming a focus of industry or commerce. It only has a light population even in the Zeb's timeline. But this is deviationg from the topic of the Hipplewhite. I can see a small ship going down on a light population world with mixed government jurisdictions (apointed governer, Erona, Mechanons, uplifted races) and getting ignored or mishandled. -iggy |
February 22, 2017 - 11:40pm | I've always been one in favor of the "more ships the better" theory when it comes to the Frontier. Joe Cabadas |
February 23, 2017 - 3:46am | Maybe it's a bit off both. We are talking about long lifetimes here. So what if it was more a case that ships were limited and this idea is sort of locked into the public consciousness but the reality has changed in part because of the rise of the mega corps and the "globalization" of the Frontier sector's economy. Long lifetimes ensure longer periods of contributing to the work force. And people are loath to just throw a ship away. So when it's reported that 11 star ships were destroyed during the Laco's War people shake their heads and make clicking noises with their mouths at the shame of the loss. The reality of it really is those were privateer vessels built for corporate war and the impact to the interstellar economy is negligible. Also Iggy is right we are talking about a HS3 system ship. The big shame here is is Hepplewhite was a small outfit it did cost them something to get towed out to Zebulon system. No doubt they saw that as an investment banking on the trade from Volturnus growing just on the resource exploitation. Another thought: the outpost and the pirate town are already built so someone will take them over. In the aftermath of the Battle of Volkos someone will grab these and use them. Probably not the eorna. These locations will represent some of the locations reserved for UPF activity and administration by the UPF governor. The town being close to a mine site is likely to become the headquarters of who ever gets the mining license/concession/rights. The outpost maybe something more interesting. I'm thinking to use it as Bio-gen's on planet lab- for the ease of recycling the map but it is way too small. Perhaps the town was used as a corporate enclave by a mining concern but the mine played out. Bio-gen bought the property on the cheap for a ready made facility. Sure it's isolated but then they wanted that and part of the isolation is that it allows for quietly bringing in of sathar creatures for examination and experimentation. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 23, 2017 - 7:12am | I think there should be more ships as well. I was just making an observation. 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 23, 2017 - 3:27pm | Japan and Germany were not restarting a society with just 200 people and a bunch of kids. They had large populations and recent government or still existing government.
Japan and Germany were just like the Eorna just on a bigger scale. Large numbers of the adult population were either killed or disabled during the war. More males than females but not just a few. Many German soldiers remained in Soviet and French prison camps long after the war ended or did not return at all. Quite a few in American and British prison camps did not want to return. As for Government the Eorna have the edge since they have a fully functional government which is totally supported by everyone involved in it. Germany and Japan had all the top leadership removed or killed. Most of the lower levels of government were either brand new people or left overs who were not trusted to well by the people. What all three have in common is they have massive organizations looking to help them rebuild but with their own agendas (Berlin Wall anyone?) Perhaps a more relevant comparitive would be Kuwait. Another country invade and left pretty decimated by a foriegn power which was rebuilt with the aid of larger outside forces. Also the current population of Kuwait is believed to be only about 30% Kuwaiti with the rest being foriegnors working in the country. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
February 23, 2017 - 3:50pm | An important question should be, "What makes the mega corps want to swoop in and grab stuff on Volturnus?" My answer would be the Tomarillium and vibranium that the PCs recover at the pirate town and can proffit from. I suspect that these two mysterious minerals are required for the also mysterious and ill defined Federanium alloy. So yes the corporate exploitation of Volturnus is largely about obtaining the rare and valuable Federanium. Managers from Streel, PGC and etc are not going to be too concerned about one lost shuttle unless of course their cargo was on it. The UPF govenor will have limited resources at his disposal- remember the UPF is not supposed to be a government even if it quacks like one. Its budget is largely voluntarily given by member colonies and a huge chunck of that is no doubt consumed by Space Fleet. So the govenor will be operating on a shoe string. And as for the Eorna why should they care? Its a UPF matter. The one group that will really give a dame is the Brotherhood of Spacers and by extension all spacers. So while their individual ships are orbiting and doing other stuff they very likely will have someone on the scanners looking for evidence of the Hepplewhite Dream's location. This effort will be volluntary and ad hoc but they will be very ernest about it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 23, 2017 - 8:46pm | The harder thing for me to rationalize is Volturnus populating and industrializing so fast.
Think of Japan and to a lesser extent Germany after WWII. Both had been bombed pretty heavily but both managed to come back after in a few years with alot of outside help. The Populating would come from the ship of eggs but would have to think that they did not hatch all of them at once since 50,000 kids and 200 adults would not work out well.
Ah, but it was 900 years ago (game time) that the Eorna started with less than 150 individuals. I tried to show in my Volturnus article in Frontier Explorer that it is likely they would have a population of several thousand before egg ship was found. Of course, how many of those aren't insane and affected by birth defects? Still, it's far too few to care for 50,000 youngsters without a lot of help, robot or UPF. Joe Cabadas |
