Parameters for the Project

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 23, 2018 - 8:02am
A dralasite with a working name of Marlborrow will rise to become the Malthar over the course of several advnetures with a final adventure being Dramune Run. A Beyond Dramune Run adventure is certainly possible but the primary focus should be adventures set in or connected to Dramune system that have some interactions (although not every time is neccessary) with Marlborrow.

Major repeating characters
Marlborrow- the once and future Malthar
Dabeleck? spelling? - NPC dralasite enforcer from Dramune Run module

A syncorp executive who hires the PCs (character will grow to be an EVP in Synth Corp before being assassinated by the Malthar)

An Inner Reach militia officer that will start out as a Lt. or captain and rise to commander over the course of time and be in command of the Inner Reach Militia contingent at the battle of Dark World Station.

i suppose the adventures should be rules nuetral.
I like a Skilled Frontier in SFman #9 and Spacer skills Revisited in SFman #10 or 11 for a better and looser character development experience which also allows for some early KHs skill use. but for widest acceptance I suppose a rules nuetral approach is best.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!
Comments:

Putraack's picture
Putraack
July 23, 2018 - 8:24pm
Dablak is the deputy MalCo guy in Clarion, perhaps the one who chased Garlus there.

Admiral Kadara is the UPF admiral named, but I think I'll be changing that to commander of the IR militia.

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
July 27, 2018 - 5:03am
You absolutely MUST throw Garlus Tylappar and his five dral Gullwind crew somewhere into the pre-Dramune Run fray.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 27, 2018 - 8:37pm
Shadow Shack wrote:
You absolutely MUST throw Garlus Tylappar and his five dral Gullwind crew somewhere into the pre-Dramune Run fray.


Agreed.
Waiting for inspiration to strike again. Thinking the next adventure should focus on smuggling. Smuggler's Run for a working title. Pirates cum Outer Reach militia should get more play.

Would like to develop the Inner Reach Militia captain a little.

I'll be reviewing the John Ross big list of RPG plots and looking at setting details to see what pops for me.

So Next two adventures working titles:

3. Smuggler's Run

4. Rise of the Malthar
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 28, 2018 - 9:39am
Chronicle 3.
Smugglers Run

Note: I'm ripping off someone else's plot but the story was written over 60 years ago so...

An abandoned chache of sathar weapons from the Great Sathar War (No one calls it SW1 until theire is a SW2) was discovered on (Pale, New Pale, or Laco) and sold by enterprising individual to expand his fledgling business.

The Weapons and alien tech is being transfered to Out Reach for resale on the far more relaxed black market.

Garlus and the crew of the Gullwind are innocents being used to lend an air of legitimacy to the whole affair.

Chess pieces on the board:
1. Malthar and associates

2. sathar agent?

3. Star Law agent

4. Inner Reach Militia

5. PCs. which suggests their boss the mega corp exec. who is interested in certain sathar drugs reported to be part of the cache thus the PCs are in the dark as to what their real role is thinking its one thing but unwittingly they are mules and cupable if they get caught.

Cover story? transfer of ag equipment from the ag colony of New Pale to expand agricultural output of city state crime lord on Outer Reach to relieve suffering of workers and promote greater prosperity. Why all the way from New Pale? New Pale with it agricultural economy, according to cannon has dinosaur like creatures which suggests jungles but some fan cannon suggests a cold world for Pale- company on New Pale that produces ag equipment has experience producing such equipment cold environments as Pale thus the shipment of equipment to Outer Reach.

Exec at Synth Corp is arranging a triangle deal: purchase of ag equipment by S.C. Transfer to shell corp Dark world station who will arrange the transfer of important organic compounds mined from ice deep under ground on Outer Reach to Synth Corp.

secret side deal is the exec gets the sathar drugs for secret study and R&D. Malthar and Pirates have fingers in the pie to get a cut and possibly obtain a super weapon. crime lord/ city state agency is just trying to navigate the changing political situation that the Malthar represents and the losers are the virtual slaves that do the mining for him.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 28, 2018 - 9:47am
Aftermath and consequences for Chronicle 3:

1. the exec can cut his losses at any point and claim plausible deniability. As long as he gets the sathar drugs he doesn't care if the rest of the deal goes in the crapper and his personal trouble shooter team (the PCs) are completely expendable.

2. the Malthar and pirates will not be happy with anything happening to the contraband- if its lost or dumped the PCs and Garlus will be held responsible.

3. Star Law will imprison the PCs if they are caught.

4. Inner Reach Militia will lead to Star Law involvement and imprisonment

5. crime lord city state- the Malthar ripping apart the ag equipment to get at the contraband, it will be delivered in poor condition. leading to a pissed off crime lord and food riots by his workers.
PCs could be part of a peasant revolt. PCs could help slaves escape to Inner Reach?
PCs could just do the job and get the organic compounds and return to Inner Reach.

What do PCs do when the realize they are patsies and involved in highly illegal trade with dire consequences....
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
July 28, 2018 - 8:40pm
Just remember the Gullwind was commissioned 20 years prior to the events in Dramune Run, anything happening before that with Garlus and his quintet of drals would have to utilize another ship. With Garlus being a lv-5 pilot in the module, it's safe to say he would easily be lv-3 or 4 prior to acquiring the Gullwind.

I'd be delighted to whip up a pre-Gullwind ship if needed.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 29, 2018 - 5:27am
Shadow Shack wrote:
Just remember the Gullwind was commissioned 20 years prior to the events in Dramune Run, anything happening before that with Garlus and his quintet of drals would have to utilize another ship. With Garlus being a lv-5 pilot in the module, it's safe to say he would easily be lv-3 or 4 prior to acquiring the Gullwind.

I'd be delighted to whip up a pre-Gullwind ship if needed.


Absolutely have at it.

Wondering if we shouldn't include one non dralasite in that crew so that referee has a canon fodder NPC he can kill with immunity or impunity.

Actually, what if Garlus was from Rupert's Hole and had a mixed crew? When he settled into the Dramune system he picked up the crew full of Dralasites. Then you can let the whole adventure go to hell if you have to as long as Garlus survives.

EDIT & NOTE: I hadn't really viewed this as being a major time shift between these adventures and Dramune run but simply as a mega campaign with Dramune Run as the capstone. And even then there is the possiblity of further adventures with the Malthar's escape from Dark World in the end of Dramune Run with "The Malthar Strikes Back" or "The Return of the Malthar" Actually both title would be good- in the first its just a revengeful strike back and the 2nd its a play for the full return to power. So this project could be  a 4 adventure campaign arc with a 20 year shift then a 3 adventure campaign arc. but any referee that wants to and fudge the time period  and run all 7 or 9 (Including Bugs in the System as suggested earlier).
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
July 29, 2018 - 11:03am
Putraack wrote:
Dablak is the deputy MalCo guy in Clarion, perhaps the one who chased Garlus there.

Admiral Kadara is the UPF admiral named, but I think I'll be changing that to commander of the IR militia.

You dont actually have to change that but rather create an IR militia commander, dralasite no doubt. I'll use a younger version of this guy in the early adventures.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

JCab747's picture
JCab747
August 1, 2018 - 9:58pm
I am interested in providing feedback to you, but i've been in the middle of a very time consuming writing project. I've only glanced a bit at the thread above, however. When I get a chance, I'll see if I can make any positive contributions.
Joe Cabadas

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
August 3, 2018 - 1:39am
jedion357 wrote:

Absolutely have at it.

New thread started:



Quote:
"The Malthar Strikes Back" or "The Return of the Malthar" 

As much as I like the SW sequel titles to a SW-based module, for prequel adventures I'm thinking more along the lines of the Han Solo trilogy instead of Star Wars --- with Dramune Run being the Kessel Run and any prequels leading up to it with appropriate titles such as:

Garlus Tylappar at Frontier's End
Garlus Tylappar's Revenge
Garlus Tylappar and the Lost Legacy

...or the newer trilogy:

The Prenglar Snare
The MalCo Gambit
Federation Dawn

Wink
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
August 3, 2018 - 7:15am
Shadow Shack wrote:
jedion357 wrote:

Absolutely have at it.

New thread started:



Quote:
"The Malthar Strikes Back" or "The Return of the Malthar" 

As much as I like the SW sequel titles to a SW-based module, for prequel adventures I'm thinking more along the lines of the Han Solo trilogy instead of Star Wars --- with Dramune Run being the Kessel Run and any prequels leading up to it with appropriate titles such as:

Garlus Tylappar at Frontier's End
Garlus Tylappar's Revenge
Garlus Tylappar and the Lost Legacy

...or the newer trilogy:

The Prenglar Snare
The MalCo Gambit
Federation Dawn

Wink


Tylappar titles- three good titles but what I'm working on is not primarily focused on Tylappar.  I would say have at it if you are so inclined those are good titles and I loved the books they are based on back in the day. To that end I would suggest a "big Ship" campaign see article in the whatever archive Polyhedron or Ares (I'm sure it wasn't Dragon) actually it was two articles with different titles but they were a part 1 & 2
IIRC "Of Great Ships and Captains" & "The Big Ship Campaign" covered this style of campaign of a big ship detailed to the Nth degree and a NPC captain in charge and PCs as crew. I think that is the way to go with a Tylappar series. Tylappar should be a scoundrel with a heart of gold as well.

Your second set of titles intrigues me very very much. and suggests a 3 adventure campaign set back in time perhaps a Adventures in History. I dont want to get distracted with that right now though.

I've got what I think is 3 good story lines right now and a working title of Rise of the Malthar which should be some sort of adventure where the Malthar is consolidating power in the background and the advneture happens concurrently with that. Very likely that the PCs activities during their adventure intersect with whats going on with the Malthar. We know the Malthar rises to power so he will succeed. thus is the PCs are working against his interest the situation must be won in which they can succeed at their task but ultimately Malthar wins the war. or if they are working in harmony with his plans then it should be a task at which they can succeed and yet maybe feel a little guilty about their success? more of a bitter sweet victory.

I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!