 August 28, 2009 - 12:13am | I was combing back through the pages of the forum collecting up all the ideas I had blogged about for adventures or campaigns and even a few by others. The list represents about 10 different threads and about 13-15 good adventure ideas. And it occured to me that I really ought to get off my but and run an on line game. The problem is I've already given away a lot of plot twist for stuff I blogged about...sooooo I've come up with more ideas and more plot twist. And I'm considering, providing there is interest, in GMing So is there interest in a: Warriors of White Light 2 The Royal Marines Want You! Campaign/ linked series of adventures? Not to give things away but I can say this: "Pirates, Terrorist, and Kidnappers; Oh my!" My inclination for this campaign is to set as post most (not all) of the printed modules and to include Zebs material (haven't made any decision about how much Zebs material to allow- most likely 70-90% of the equipment, the races (not promoting them just allowing them) and the fluff on mega corps and cadres. Actual rules will be AD & KHs with key stuff from the fan zine: Yazerian clans, Character arch types, some equipment. NOTE: I am commited to play testing,"Spacer Skills Revisited" from SFM #10 see page 15. (This means a 1st level pilot could be built from 26exp min or an astrogator from 20exp min so its likely that players will get something like 30 exp to build their character. I'm tempted to tweek the rank structure of the Royal Marines (deviating from SFKH0) to include enlisted as well as officers Officers hold positions as pilot, astrogator, engineer, and Dr. where as the enlisted would do the heavy lifting on boarding parties & as medics While NCOs would be Gunnery Officers. PC's would start as Midshipmen or as at least a corporal and advance accordingly. To start, at least, a higher level NPC would be the Lt. in command of the Assault Scout. In light of how the opening came about for the PCs to join the Royal Marines in SFKH0 (killed inspecting a freighter) I would think that the marines would transition to having classic Star Trek "red shirts" and officially, at least, disavow the practice of risking highly trained bridge officers though on ships the size assault scouts it's likely that 1 or more officers would be present and directing things but royal marine ship will have started to include dedicated troops. Feed back? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 August 31, 2009 - 5:59pm | I had the classics written on my helmet:
 The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
 September 1, 2009 - 12:53pm | Still accepting submissions? I'd love to get on board, so to speak. If I need a motto it would have to be..."That's one big twinkie!" ...or maybe..."Hey, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" Or, an all time favorite from Army of Darkness..."Good, Bad, I'm the guy with the gun!" |
 September 2, 2009 - 3:14am | Fooling around with the character generator here... |
September 2, 2009 - 9:45am | EDIT- DOUBLE POST SNAFU I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2009 - 9:40am | More the merrier- for the game I have an "Invisible" site set up in one of the game forums to which I'm posting all the back ground notes and character generation stuff. the site is visible to just me and Terl Obar till I tell him to kick it live- which is good as I keep tweeking the house rules and story fluff. But if you want to start thinking about your character read up on "A Skilled Frontier" by Bill Logan in SFM #9 and "Spacer Skills Revisited" in SFM #10 with the caveat that I split Bill's Sciences PSA into Physical Sciences and Life Sciences and added an extra skill to each PSA so that ship engineers aren't cross training as a doctor and doing brain surgery. Also system vehicles skill and space vehicles skill is merged in to one skill just called space vehicles (Lvl 1-can fly HS1 atomic powered craft and the next size category up of system craft- you can fly the next higher skill levels atomic ships too but in normal boring flight not comat or difficult docking manuevers). Each of the classic space ship skills or their equivelent in Bills article must be qualified for as per the chart in the Spacer skills article even though Bills system let you just buy that skill day one of the character's adventuring life. With the obvious change that technician skill is no longer the pre-requisite for piloting but air vehicles now are. Sadd to say your choice of PSAs while multipled to 1 Prime and 2 secondary will be dictated by the position you want (pilot, engineer, astrogator, weapons officer, med officer) Almost everyone will have to have the military PSA as at least a secondary PSA to complete their training. Each character starts as a set of ability scores- the marine screen process is fairly rigorous so roll 5 sets as per standard AD rules and choose the best set - this should ensure all characters are above average. (I was going to put minium limits for STR and possible LOG for the screening process but changed my mind but I dont recommend you do a character that becomes encumbered easily) Next characters attend basic training- spend 10 exp on STR/STA, melee weapons, or unarmed combat you must buy at least one of the skills mentioned and all skills bought at this step cannot be higher than lvl 1. After Basic is AIT: which is 30ish (currently 32 but likely to be bumped up to give players more choices) pionts to build a character up to star ship skills level 1. Each AIT course has different requirements for spending those points with pilot being the most restictive and gunnery officers the most flexible; astrogator and ships engineer fall in the middle with medical officer being slightly more flexible than those two. Its possible for a character to attend scout school (buying survival and navigation skills lvl1 means you went to scout school during training) and having done that like having lvl 1 medical skill gives you a small bonus in pay. This is not going to produce 1 hit wonders who blow away the opposition with one shot of the laser rifle. and should keep things lower powered initially. I also ward 3exp to players for doing 3 things: write a character discription, write a character background, and come up with a character portrait. currently the forum site seems to be down so I cant copy the full post on character gen and the document on my computer is version 1.0 while the one in the forum is ver 1.2 but if I cant kick this off in the next few days I have a character generation document available by email request so you can play around with it. In fact if you send me your email address I'll forward the most current document with the caveat that its subject to change before going live. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 2, 2009 - 1:51pm | "A Skilled Froniter" covers all the skills in "Spacer Skills Revisited". I like the idea of splitting up the Sciences, make a great followup article. Since your creating non-starting-level characters, you could use the Character's with Class article to make new classes; Spacer: Pilot Spacer: Astrogator Spacer: Gunner :-) |
September 2, 2009 - 5:54pm | I'll wait to generate my character once the site is live. I'm trying to decide between a medic/computer geek, or a hard core grunt with aims of being the guy in charge. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
September 2, 2009 - 8:22pm | "Since your creating non-starting-level characters, you could use the Character's with Class article to make new classes; :-) [Shudder] shades of D&D thou speakest heresy in these forums  Seriously though I'd have to reread the article more closely than skimming it. and I've always thought the level system was just...I dont know but its something...(and I still play in a 3.5 edition game mostly for the comradship as I find those rules tedious) I really think Bill hit on a good ballance with his article though it may not play out that way but I think its one of the best adaptions of the original rules I 've seen. But I also like the idea that you have to qualify for spacer skills as nobody wakes up one day and say, "Today I think I'll become a rocket scientist." its kind of one of those things you build up to. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2009 - 9:30pm | While I find the revised spacer skills (issue #10) to be reasonable, but if you go by canon the tech skill to pilot prerequisites don't match up well: My question: what are the XP graduations for the spacer skills? Still the same as KH lists them, just lesser prerequisites? So far it appears for my energy gunner dral he needs beam weapons LVL:2. So are we starting off as completely unskilled, and character skills will be developed as the training procedures go, or are we entering the game fully trained and Y amount of XP allotted for skills/abilities? |
September 2, 2009 - 11:12pm | I tinkered with Bills skill system and a character with one first level spacer skill plus the pre requisite skills and a smattering of military training appropriate skills can be done for 30-40 exp. Characters will start fully trained with 1 first level star ship skill the adventure doesn't involve the training period I just describe the build process in terms of basic training and AIT. they will be fresh out of training and the bottom wrung of their rank ladder (like the first White Light Module) The exp cost for spacer skills are the same for the PSA they're a part of which is dependent on whether its a Primary PSA, Secondary PSA or Tertiary PSA. My big changes to that article are 1. splitting the sciences PSA and 2. requiring a character to purchase foundation skills before purchasing star ship skill. In the case of your energy weapons officer, he will likely have Military PSA as his primary PSA thus paying the cheapest exp cost for all military skills (lvl 1 cost 3, lvl 2 cost 6) this means that after purchasing Beam 2, unarmed combat 1 and Space energy weapons 1 you'll have only spent 15 pts and with the target level of 32ish points to build a character you should be able to have a well rounded one and you've picked the most flexible build. the Pilot build is the most restrictive as it takes 32exp to get him to 1st level piloting skill and still have a minimal amount of military skills as would be expected of someone in the military. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 3, 2009 - 8:55am | Cool. I was actually scheming for a way to be "multi classed" but 32 XP didn't quite get me there (engineer/gunner, could have been LVL:1 engineer w/LVL:1 beam weapons and 2XP leftover). Close though...I would have to rewrite my background so I'll stick with the original plan (I pretty much have the background as I like it anyways now, I don't foresee any changes to it). So, with the original plan I got pretty much what I'd hoped for on that premise. LVL:2 beam weapons and LVL:2 melee, with LVL:1 in both demolitions and thrown weapons, and LVL:1 space energy gunner for a total expenditure of 30XP (2 leftover). In conjunction with the description/background/sketch, the extra 3XP (assuming that's not part of the original 32XP, I don't have it included at the moment) still comes up short for further improvement on those skills (and wouldn't help the multi class goal either LOL), but puts me that much closer to LVL:2 space energy gunnery. Overall I'm quite content with Grelude, just let me know if I have the XP in accordance and if I need to add the 3 bonus or if it was included in the original 32. finished draft, subject to minor editing (re: equipment, not sure what we have allocated for funding so I "guesstimated" it at a minimum for now): http://starfrontiers.us/node/3806 |
September 3, 2009 - 12:20pm | @ shadow I'm still likely to just make it 35 exp and the 3 for the pic & background are bonus on top of that. as for equipment a lot of it is issued and replacable at need from the quartermaster with the proper paperwork and turning in the used up item. I've made a list but I'm still mulling that one over quite a bit and still trying to decide about the stuff in Zebs (I'm thinking Zebs overly complicated things in the equipment list now; especially how they named models of weapons Ke 1000, Ke 1500, Ke 2000- too much to keep straight just call them laser pistol, laser rife, and everyone knows whats what). Currently the list reads (IIRRC): 2 military skien suits (BDU uniform its an obvious uniform but camoflage variants are available at need for any environment- just fill out a form and see the quartermaster) 1 dress blues unifrom (civilian skien suit) 1 ships jump suit (plain old coveralls but still a uniform) All officers carry an issue side arm usually a laser pistol but any other "ship safe" pistols may be requested (needlers for the guy with only projectile skill) and you get one clip of ammo. Vac suit and vac suit armor And tool kit appropriate to a skill your have (medical, technician, robotics, computers, enviromental) someone looking to get the pay bonus for having med skill will have to have a med kit. There is always a ships engineer's tool kit available in engineering on all ships. since anyone not directly involved in "fighting the ship" in combat is still involved (medical orderlies, damage controll, repelling boarders) I specified that those in the gunnery officers AIT had to take one skill from a list (tech, robotics, computers, medical or go to scout school- the gunners have the most free exp to spend) but since you took demolitions, which I had not considered, I think it will go on the list. Concerning demolitions: the shaped charges from ZEbs are in as standard tactics in boarding a hostile ship would involve shaped charges on the hull and a plastic air lock placed around that (idea stollen from Honor of the Queen by David Weber) you do get the occassional bit of back blast that will break the plastic airlock's seal with the hull but most techs can handle that. This tactic saves the marines from stroming defended airlocks and prepared defenses. any ideas on what else a marine ship would carry in the way of explosives and detonators? no specific reason I just want a reasonalble armory on each ship I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 3, 2009 - 2:11pm | While I find the revised spacer skills (issue #10) to be reasonable, but if you go by canon the tech skill to pilot prerequisites don't match up well: My question: what are the XP graduations for the spacer skills? Still the same as KH lists them, just lesser prerequisites? Are you asking for a clarification to the "Spacer Skills Revisited" in #10? This article should have include the KH Skill table as well. I can't imagine that having Tech 2 and Computer 1 make your a Pilot 1 without purchasing the skill in XP. Spacer Skill Requirement Table (Pilot)
|
September 3, 2009 - 4:02pm | Yeah I got the prerequisite bit, gotta spend the XP on the PR skills before the KH skills. I was just questioning the tech level, as Technician LVL:2 seemed a little low considering AD lists that as qualified to operate an explorer and a jetcopter at most, while LVL:6 Technician was mandated for "rocket powered vessels" which I might interpret as launches, shuttles, and system ships. It was more of a "sticking to canon" thing than anything, but I do see the inherent value of reducing the requirements. In my house rules, I separate the subskills in the technical and bio-social PSAs and players spend XP to improve each individually. Of course the reduced XP expenditure comes into play, you spend one or two XP to gain all the subskills at zero level and at that point you spend something like 1XP to improve two to three subskills to LVL:1, after which 1XP can be used to raise a LVL:1 to LVL:2, etc...so a prospective pilot in my house rules merely needs to acquire LVL:6 in machinery operation and vehicle operation (two different subskills in my rules) and can become a pilot without increasing any of the other tech skills beyond LVL:0 (along with the basic operate computers at LVL:2 as well). Then they progress on the KH skills table as originally written, 10XP for LVL:1 pilot, 20XP for LVL:2, etc like I said, it's another "streamlined" XP system that permits earlier KH skills acquisition. Anyways, back to the topic --- I'm still likely to just make it 35 exp and the 3 for the pic & background are bonus on top of that. Cool, I'll adjust it to 38XP total (assuming you approve my sketch/description/background) and adjust accordingly. That gives me 8XP left over (still not enough for multi-classing LOL, probably a good thing for game balance), which I'll most likely continue to place on "hold" for future developement. Ideally I'd like to be LVL:3 in beam weapons (hand weapons) but without sacraficing any of the other skills, so that gets me pretty close --- I can bump that as soon as we complete our first mission. Like I siad, I'm quite content with Grelude as he is as he makes for a decent starter character. but since you took demolitions, which I had not considered, I think it will go on the list. Always keep 'em on their toes LOL Experience dictated that I take the skill. Seen way too many games where the party gets deeply involved and needed a demolitionist, yet nobody had the skill let alone the equipment. Concerning demolitions: the shaped charges from ZEbs are in as standard tactics in boarding a hostile ship would involve shaped charges on the hull and a plastic air lock placed around that (idea stollen from Honor of the Queen by David Weber) you do get the occassional bit of back blast that will break the plastic airlock's seal with the hull but most techs can handle that. This tactic saves the marines from stroming defended airlocks and prepared defenses. any ideas on what else a marine ship would carry in the way of explosives and detonators? The shaped charges, D-20 I believe as it's described in Zeb's, really wouldn't be much of an issue unless you had interlinked docking collars like I incorporate in my game. For standard canon boarding actions, where the troops "spacewalk" the short gap between ships, a standard clump of D-19 will work fine with the canon variable timer/detonators, and even radio detonators from Zeb's if you want to go that far. I really don't see the need for any of the other fancy ZG detonators (at least from what I recall without actually looking at their list), those are mostly for booby trap type bombs than forced entry. At the minimum, the ship would have to be stocked with enough D-19 to blast open two hatches (outer hull hatch and inner airlock hatch), which IIRC is 6 charges per hatch. Nonconventional boarding actions would call for a larger supply, 8 charges per hull section blown away for starters. I'd say stocking a kilogram of the stuff (20 charges) and 4-5 V/T detonators would be more than sufficient. And at his first opportunity, Grelude will be concealing a stunstick for head-busting duties LOL |
September 4, 2009 - 7:14pm | For those interested in the game I told Terl Obar to kick the site live, no need to keep people twiddling the thumbs- might as well get character generation going and start the action. You can see the site here: http://starfrontiers.info/forum/ go to the player character folder and you'll find the instructions for PC generation plus scrolling down the thread you'll see a character sheet template you can copy and paste to Word. fill it in and email it to me (PM me and I'll give you my email as I dont desire to post it publicly) I'll look over your character and create a thread with your character sheet as the first post. or if you're having questions about the process we can handle that through email as well. Also check the post in the character generation thread about NPC contacts- its something I stole from Shadowrun and its worked well for me in other games but it boils down to you get to create an NPC that your character knows within the setting. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 4, 2009 - 9:40pm | Jedi, you might want to talk to Tom...we can't post replies in your subforum. Shadow had the same prob initally with his WC game. "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
 September 5, 2009 - 8:01am | It should be fixed now and registered users should be able to post. 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 |
September 5, 2009 - 9:33pm | Royal Marine graduation ceremony is in 5 days and the adventure begins.... I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 6, 2009 - 1:26pm | "Dear Dad, I can't believe I'm really going to graduate from the Royal Marines! Just yesterday we all recieved minor surgery for the med-inject implant that operates off the body comp on our combat harnesses. My arm is a little sore. Two of the guys were messing around trying to see if story about activating the med-inject by punching the implant site was really true. They were pounding away on each other's arms when Dudd suddenly went into a drug induced coma from the stay dose. Way too funny! Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen happen to a dralasite. Hope to see you at the graduation ceremony. Love, your son.... I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 6, 2009 - 4:53pm | "Dear Dad, I can't believe I'm really going to graduate from the Royal Marines! Just yesterday we all recieved minor surgery for the med-inject implant that operates off the body comp on our combat harnesses. My arm is a little sore. Two of the guys were messing around trying to see if story about activating the med-inject by punching the implant site was really true. They were pounding away on each other's arms when Dudd suddenly went into a drug induced coma from the stay dose. Way too funny! Maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen happen to a dralasite. Hope to see you at the graduation ceremony. Love, your son.... Dear son, Your mother and I are proud of you. I hope my recent bridge nights with the Liberation Front cell leaders, and my hunting trips on Voltunrus with the Streel Corp board of directors(those darn Eorna make for some tenacious game) don't affect your chosen field of endeavoor adversely. If they ask about the unumbered bank account in Port Loren, the one with the fifty million credits, tell them it's 12 years' worth of lunch money or some such. I'm sure my receiving kickbacks from AIPS to pressure Parliament into raising the price of petrol won't ruin your chances for advancement. Oh, darn, I was supposed to keep all this secret from you, wasn't I? Guess the telol injection my Sathar handler gave me during yesterday's debriefing still hasn't worn off. Love, Your dad P.S. I think you might want to destroy this letter..... "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
September 7, 2009 - 6:17pm | Ha! The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
September 7, 2009 - 8:45pm | Wow, 52 replies and the thread hasn't really gone off topic! Just an FYI for those interested: I started two polls over on the game site to open voting for the Royal Marine crest/badge and for the Latin motto. (they'll run for 14 days) Thank you all for the tremendout imput! There were close to 20 mottos and I had to whittle it down to 10 to accomodate the voting mechanism- not that easy as there weren't any that I could discount as truly lame. With so many candidates, I set it so each voter votes for 3. I'm guessing you have to be registered on Terl's site but you're all welcome to vote. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 8, 2009 - 1:42pm | Incidently, I discovered an oblique mention to enlist personell in the original White Light module- a statement saying that all enlist personell will be transfered off the Osprey when the PCs are assigned to it. Yet the authors neglected to detail an enlisted rank structure. so my big question now is what do you all think should be the names of the enlisted ranks? follow the naval style used for officers or go with army names. Naval style: Spacer, Spacer 1st class, Petty offiver, Chief Petty officer Army style: Private, corp, sgt., master Sgt., chief master sgt. or another option? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 8, 2009 - 5:13pm | Well, the canon module lists entry rank as Midshipman, and the officer ranks are naval. I'd stick with that and go with NCO naval ranks from there (using spacer instead of seaman as you did in the example). |
September 8, 2009 - 7:38pm | I'm biased towards the army ranks myself. (signed) SPC Georgie (ret). ;) The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of
the strong. * Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi |
 September 8, 2009 - 8:51pm | If I remember right in the USMC it went something like: worm filth maggot ladies grunt magnificent bastard At least I got to scare an alien rabbit thingy...... |
 September 8, 2009 - 9:51pm | I tend to think Navy terminology.... SpaceSHIPs, not SpacePLANES or SpaceTANKS.... ;-) |
September 9, 2009 - 2:03am | I'd further say that the naval ranks would apply to milita ship personnel, and army ranks would apply to the Royal Guard...Royal Guardsmen could always be utlized to serve as ship's troopers or boarding party. |
September 9, 2009 - 3:18pm | If I remember right in the USMC it went something like: worm filth maggot ladies grunt magnificent bastard While in the Navy, it went like this: Jarheads. Gyrenes Naval infantry.  "You're everything that's base in humanity," Cochrane continued. "Drawing up strict, senseless rules for the sole reason of putting you at the top and excluding anyone you say doesn't belong or fit in, for no other reason than just because you say so." —Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stephens, Federation |
