Terl obar at 17:40, 10 March 2010

2010-03-10T17:40:05Z

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		+	Top:[[Star Frontiersman]] main page
		+	\| Up: [[Star Frontiersman Issue 3]] main index
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	by [[Bill Logan]]		by [[Bill Logan]]

Terl obar at 05:32, 10 March 2010

2010-03-10T05:32:55Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:32, 10 March 2010
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	using his last credits to enjoy life and see the Frontier		using his last credits to enjoy life and see the Frontier
	since he’s only got a few weeks to live... be corny.		since he’s only got a few weeks to live... be corny.
		+
		+	'''Complications Arise.''' Four days into the voyage,
		+	there is a loud explosion heard from the rear of the
		+	passenger liner. Smoke starts to fill the cabin, and
		+	panic ensues. After some time, a second explosion.
		+	An alarm claxon sounds, and the captain announces an
		+	“abandon ship” alert. Ham it up here... have beams
		+	falling on old people, children trapped by walls of
		+	intense flame, women wailing at the chaos as their
		+	husbands are trampled by the masses heading for the
		+	escape launches. The players will be too busy saving
		+	people to be the first ones to the escape launches.
		+	Give each player an important job... someone to
		+	rescue: the person they befriended earlier in the
		+	voyage.
		+
		+	'''Heroic Decisions.''' When they finally get to the escape
		+	launches, they’re the last ones left on the ship. Only
		+	one launch remains, and it will only hold a number of
		+	people equal to the number of characters. But since
		+	they all brought someone they rescued, what will they
		+	do? They can’t rescue someone then tell them: “sorry,
		+	no room for you on the launch. Bye!” Have someone
		+	notice a drawing of the starliner on the wall near the
		+	launch, showing that the pilot compartment is vacant
		+	yet reinforced to have a chance to survive a crash
		+	landing. They should send their rescued friends in the
		+	launch and take their chances in the cockpits.
		+
		+	'''Crash.''' When the ship crashes, make it devastating.
		+	Have the characters sustain damage (3d10 should hurt
		+	them enough but not kill them). Once on the ground,
		+	they find that they have landed on Domus, a plague
		+	world in the Alpha system. Obviously, something
		+	happened that altered the course.
		+
		+	'''New Hope.''' When they climb out, they will find that
		+	there are survival kits (treat as a Standard Equipment
		+	Pack from the Alpha Dawn game, or a Survival Kit from
		+	Frontiersman #1). Any character who has a skill that
		+	offers a toolkit finds one in the wreckage, and any
		+	character with a weapon skill finds that the cockpit has
		+	a strongbox with a lowest-cost version of their weapon
		+	with a single full load of ammunition. The ship’s
		+	computer (right before failing completely in a dazzling
		+	show of sparks and flame) spits out a print-out of the
		+	last known telemetry data for all 10 escape pods,
		+	overlaid on a map the ship’s sensors charted during
		+	descent of the layout of the planet. They have rations,
		+	they have weapons, a map, and a purpose now...
		+
		+	'''Adventures.''' You could do one of two things: either
		+	treat overland travel abstractly and treat each of the
		+	ten launches as a separate encounter of some sort, or
		+	drag this out over ten individual sessions, each
		+	adventure session designed to give challenge and
		+	complexity to the recovery of the passengers.
		+	Remember this is a plague world. There are diseased
		+	animals, rabid and wild from their current state. This
		+	planet was evacuated, but there are ruins of cities and
		+	vehicles. Nuclear war was the end result of the wars
		+	which escalated over the vaccination for the Blue
		+	Plague. You can state, if you wish, that the plague and
		+	radiation are significant enough that if the characters
		+	remain too long they will start having to deal with the
		+	onset of the disease or radiation poisoning. Or, you
		+	could simply state that the levels are low enough that
		+	the characters are only in trouble from infection from
		+	diseased food or animals. Finding food is going to be
		+	difficult too... and water...
		+
		+	'''Adversaries.''' The characters learn that there ARE
		+	humans left on Domus, but they’re diseased and
		+	mutant and would have been luckier to have died in
		+	the wars. They are crazed and operate under a martial
		+	law, using vehicles to maraud against one another and
		+	weaponry of an archaic nature (sledgehammers, tools,
		+	etc.) Only the leaders have weapons such as auto
		+	pistols. Several generations have passed since the
		+	destruction of Domus, and they’ve been cut off form
		+	the rest of the Frontier since then. (If desired, you
		+	could have a few of the mutated humans possess
		+	helpful mutations from the Gamma Dawn supplement,
		+	but most mutations should be grotesque and vile).
		+
		+	'''Icharus Returns.''' Mr. Wade will continue to be a
		+	problem. While the characters spend their weeks
		+	assembling the passengers, rescuing them from the
		+	situations they’re in, Mr. Wade will be dealing with the
		+	leader of one of the more cannibalistic mutant
		+	marauders. He works out an arrangement to use their
		+	(surprisingly still functional but not understood)
		+	subspace radio. Their price: un-diseased bodies to eat.
		+	Icharus has already turned over his launch’s other
		+	eight people (of course, his bodyguard is still with
		+	him). He will use trackers from the marauders to help
		+	lead them to the other launch wreckages. Once the
		+	cannibal leader is happy with the number of bodies
		+	he’s been given, he’ll allow Icharus to use the subspace
		+	radio to save himself.
		+
		+	'''Epic Battle.''' Have the salvation of each launch’s
		+	passengers be a separate adventure, with its own miniclimax
		+	and adversaries. At first just have a rabid
		+	animal or two, or an isolated crazy mutant... but
		+	eventually the characters will have to deal with these
		+	marauders. They’ll hear about the deal Icharus has
		+	made by one of the marauders they defeat.
		+	Eventually, there will have to be a larger battle:
		+	Icharus and his bodyguard and a large force of
		+	cannibal marauders versus the characters along with
		+	any able-bodied survivors they’ve assembled. The
		+	battle will be bloody and difficult, but the prize is
		+	simple: a functional subspace radio to call for help.
		+
		+	'''Aftermath.''' When they are finally rescued, it will be by
		+	a PanGal ship and crew. They’ll be praised for their
		+	ability to save so many, and offered a job to work as a
		+	planetary search and rescue team for PanGal, given a
		+	salary and equipment budget and everything. Since
		+	being away from their own occupations has caused
		+	them to be fired from their regular jobs, this is a great
		+	opportunity for future adventure!

Terl obar: Created page with 'by Bill Logan '''Create Characters.''' This article should help get a new campaign started. Have the players assemble, and give them some simple guidelines on character gene…'

2010-03-10T05:11:10Z

Created page with 'by Bill Logan '''Create Characters.''' This article should help get a new campaign started. Have the players assemble, and give them some simple guidelines on character gene…'

New page

by [[Bill Logan]]

'''Create Characters.''' This article should help get a new
campaign started. Have the players assemble, and
give them some simple guidelines on character
generation: Roll ability scores like normal, select a race
and a PSA and two starting skills and roll for money –
but buy nothing. Tell each player they must come up
with why his character is boarding a starliner bound
from the Prenglar system to the Timeon system. They
are not adventurers, they are normal professionals of
some sort or another. They don’t have to know one
another (though some can). Perhaps one went to
Prenglar to service a robotics plant, and is returning
home. Perhaps one is a military scout coming home on
leave. Maybe one is an archaeologist going to study
fossils on Lossend. It doesn’t matter, as the
character’s current occupation will change by
adventure’s end.

'''New Enemies.''' On the ship, have one of the
characters get into a scuffle with a jerk human named
Icharus Wade, a traveler used to getting what he
wants (including the seat one of the character’s have
been assigned to). If things come to blows, his big
bodyguard will put a quick stop to the hostilities – and
starliner attendants will help out. Eventually
everything should settle, but Icharus Wade becomes
established as a pompous selfish man with money and
clout. His bodyguard is a veteran soldier of some skill
(create him with 100xp worth of development) but no
moral code.

'''New Friends.''' Have a player hit it off with a small child
(of whatever race) as the voyage gets underway. The
child plays peek-a-boo and is generally adorable. Have
another player flirt a little with an attractive member of
the opposite gender (but of the same race). Have
another talk about interesting topics with an old man
using his last credits to enjoy life and see the Frontier
since he’s only got a few weeks to live... be corny.

A Heroic Start - Revision history

Terl obar at 17:40, 10 March 2010

Terl obar at 05:32, 10 March 2010

Terl obar: Created page with 'by Bill Logan '''Create Characters.''' This article should help get a new campaign started. Have the players assemble, and give them some simple guidelines on character gene…'