A Module Based Campaign – part 1

As I’ve been creating and tweeting the #SFTimeline on the @StarFrontiers Twitter account, I’ve been thinking more and more about how to string all of the published Star Frontiers modules into a comprehensive campaign.

As I was writing up this post, I was reminded that the topic for the RPG Blog Carnival this month was “The Art of Customization”. This series of articles falls directly into that topic as I’m customizing the published modules to form a comprehensive campaign and story from the disjointed publications. So this will be an entry in the Blog Carnival. I don’t often do Blog Carnival posts as the topics don’t ever seem to mesh up with what I’m working on (or I don’t want to try to shoehorn them together). This one just happened to line up.

The timeline I’ve been tweeting doesn’t work as I’ve been interspersing the modules into the timeline out of order. That’s mainly because I’m a bit impatient and wanted to incorporate the modules early to give me some ideas of things to include in the timeline. I have enough threads running now that I can safely drop the rest of the modules in in their “appropriate” order for set of PCs to be the protagonists in all the events. Maybe at some point I’ll go back and tweak the timeline to match the one I’m presenting here.

The modules don’t provide enough XP by themselves to move directly between them, so in addition to providing my preferred order to the modules, I’ll be providing some suggestions of additional adventures, either from the fanzines or that the Referee will need to create for their group. Depending on how much I end up writing, this may end up as a series of posts.

I’ve posted bits and pieces of this campaign idea over the years on various social media and forums but in this series of posts I’m going to try to collate all of that into a comprehensive document. Let’s get started.

Ground Rules

In the timeline that follows, I’m going to assume that the PC’s start as fresh, new adventurers newly minted with the Alpha Dawn Expanded rules: a PSA and two level 1 skills.

I’m also going to be a generous Referee and assume that in the published modules, the PCs earn the maximum (or nearly the maximum) XP possible in each of the sessions. As we launch into each of the modules in the timeline, I’m going to present what I expect the approximate amount of XP the characters should have earned at that point. If you are running this campaign and your characters aren’t quite there yet, run a few more side adventures for them to get them up to speed.

I’m also going to assume the module are run as written, warts and all. You’re free to tweak them as you see fit but I’ll assume the events described occur.

TL;DR Version

In case you don’t want to read all the details, here’s the overall order I’d run the modules in sans, any intermediary adventures to get the XP progression correct. It’s mostly the order they were published, but bumping Mission to Alcazzar after Dark Side of the Moon.

SF0: Crash on Volturnus
SF1: Volturnus, Planet of Mystery
SF2: Starspawn of Volturnus
SF3: Sundown on Starmist
SFAD5: Bugs in the System
SFAD6: Dark Side of the Moon
SF4: Mission to Alcazzar
SFKH0: Warriors of White Light
SFKH1: Drammune Run
SFKH2: Mutiny on the Elanor Moraes
SFKH3: Face of the Enemy
SFKH4: The War Machine

TSR did a good job in publishing the modules in order of increasing power level. The exception being the two modules developed by the UK group (SFAD5 & 6) that only require PCs with a power level a little less than Mission to Alcazzar. I’m sure if more modules had been published, they would have bounced around more but their initial offerings were spot on.

The Grand Campaign

The Great Sathar War

You may or may not have noticed in my other writing, but I will typically refer to the First Sathar War as the Great Sathar War in my writing and “in world” documents that discuss events occurring before the Second Sathar War (SWII) starts. You can’t have a “first” without a “second” so until the SWII starts, and is recognized as such, there would be another term for the first conflict. And while I typically use “The Great Sathar War” as the name, due to its localized extent – only affecting four star systems – using the term “great” is probably a misnomer and I should be referring to it as the “Sathar War”, “The Sathar Incursion”, or “The Sathar Incident”. Although since it affected the two most populated systems (Cassidine and Prenglar) it might be considered a “war”, even if mostly just a naval one.

In my mind, all these adventures take place, and in some cases, trigger, events in the Second Sathar War. In any case, they have to occur after the First Sathar War as the PCs know of the existence of the sathar even in the first Volturnus adventure which they wouldn’t if it occurred before the first sathar invasion.

I also see the SWII as a much longer and more protracted affair than the First Sathar War with the sathar trying to undermine the UPF and Rim systems and infrastructure before the actual invasion. This can be seen in the Detailed Frontier Timeline I’m working on and will be reflected in some of the side adventures here. While the PCs may not be involved in any of the major military conflicts of the war (especially at the beginning of the campaign), those events will be happening in the background and the PCs may find themselves in the aftermath.

Volturnus

We begin the campaign by running though the three published Volturnus adventures.

SF0: Crash on Volturnus

Since the original boxed set included the Crash on Volturnus module, that is where we will start. This module assumes brand new PCs with 0 XP. I always tell the players to not spend any of their initial funds on weapons and that they will be issued weapons as part of the start of the adventure. And then in the introduction I let them choose a weapon and tell them that it is placed in the weapons locker on the Serena Dawn. That way they aren’t really penalized for the game fiat that their weapons are destroyed.

In my game, there are quickdeath on Pale from the sathar invasion during the Great Sathar War. While the PCs may know of their existence and have seen pictures, they probably haven’t seen one in real life as they have been mostly hunted and controlled. Thus the presence of the quickdeath in the Ul-mor ceremony should be the first clue to the PCs that sathar have been on the planet in the past and may be still here.

SF1: Volturnus, Planet of Mystery

This module follows directly from the events in Crash on Volturnus and so the characters continue in their struggle to survive and escape Volturnus. If all went well, the PCs will have picked up 18 XP in the previous module and added a couple level of skills.

In this adventure they deal with the pirate threat on the planet and discover the larger sathar history and current presence on the planet in the form of the artifact. In my universe, the Star Devil pirates are partially supported by the Pan Galactic Corporation. If you want to provide that level of detail, the PCs can notice that most of the equipment the pirates have are PGC models and not Streel ones, even through Streel headquarters are on Pale in Truane’s Star, the nearest star system to Volturnus.

Another change I make to this adventure is in ending 1. If you want (as we do) the PCs to play through the next module in the series, I don’t feel that 2 weeks is enough time. Some of the tasks in the next module can take two weeks all by themselves. I tend to leave the time frame vague, i.e. “Attack on planet eminent”, or give it a month or so. Additionally, I want the UPF ships to show up right after the fighting starts and I don’t feel that two weeks is enough time to get any ships assembled beyond the Truane’s Star militia and get them to the Zebulon system.

The PCs can pick up another 18 XP in this adventure.

SF2: Starspawn of Volturnus

At this point the PCs have collected 36 XP and are probably level 3 or 4 in their primary skill and have a smattering of others. This adventure consists of a series of mini-quests to do something of benefit to each of the sentient species on Volturnus to convince them to join in the fight against the incoming sathar attack.

My players always like the Great Game of the Ul-mor and have a fun time trying to win. My last group, which happened to be my kids, managed to no only win the game, but do so without a single of the PCs being knocked off their mount.

The retrieval of the Sacred Idol of the Kurabanda is the part of the adventure that could potentially take the most time as part of the travel is through the wilderness on foot or by vehicle. If they drive all the way there it’s a several day journey each way. If they fly, they have to make the last part of the trek on foot which can take a few days, and if they happen to get caught in one of the blasts while flying and crash, they have a several week trek back without their vehicle.

The module ends with the massive Battle of Volkos, where the PCs pit themselves and the various species of Volturnus against the invading sathar hordes. Regardless of whether the PCs win or lose the battle, I have the UPF fleet arrive as the land battle is winding down and drive off the Sathar fleet. If the PCs win the ground battle, shuttles from the UPF fleet can safely land and possibly take the PCs back to Truane’s Star. If they lose, the UPF fleet is a naval force only and doesn’t have ground troops to fight off the surviving sathar army. They will radio back to the Frontier, but it will be some time before ground forces can be assembled and brought to the surface. The PCs will have to hold out until then.

I described the composition of both the UPF and Sathar fleets in last week’s Battle of Zebulon post. If you have players already familiar with the Knight Hawks rules, you could run this battle as an evening’s session. There are a lot of ships, so it takes a while if you use the advanced rules as I did.

The PC’s can earn up to 15 more XP from this module bringing their total up to 51 XP.

After the Modules

As the last module suggests, there are a number of other things the PCs could do on Volturnus before leaving. I have the UPF sticking around for a while after driving off the sathar so they can get transported home at any time if they do decide to have a few more adventures on planet. Possible endeavors include:

The Devil’s Lair

In Frontier Explorer issue 7, I detailed a small complex that is the personal hideout of the Star Devil when visiting Volturnus. I leave clues about the existence of this hideout in the computers of Slave City one for the PCs to discover. The Star Devil isn’t in the system at the moment, but the PC’s can clear out the hideout and learn more about the Star Devil’s operations. This small adventure is worth another 3 XP.

Eorna Defense Installation

In Frontier Explorer issue 2, Jim Young detailed a ruined Eorna Defense Installation. The PCs could have noticed it while flying back and forth recruiting the species for the war or maybe found mention of it in the Mound of the Mechanons or the Eorna Archives. The article provides two different scenarios for the location’s use depending on the background you want to use. This would worth another 3 XP if successfully explored.

Eorna Lunar Defense Battery

Jim provided another location, this time on Volturnus’s moon, in issue 3 of the Frontier Explorer. If you plan on having a Knight Hawks component to the game, you could have the PCs find a way here before the sathar arrive and use the fighters in the base in the battle (which is a bit of bending of the standard rules) or you could have the UPF forces discover the base and send the PCs in to investigate. The fighters discovered could form the basis of the Zebulon system’s initial militia forces. This could generate the PCs another 3 XP.

Lizard Head Rock

A long time ago, I did an entire complex under Lizard Head Rock, a location suggested as a possible adventure at the end of the module. In my teenage years, this complex housed another species, even older than the Eorna, in a large, active, and hidden society. If I were to use it today, I’d redesign it (I was obsessed with the confines of a single sheet of graph paper) and make it ruins instead of an active area, but it still would make a fun little exploration dungeon crawl. The Yernoids in the area are a primitive version of the ancient race. Depending on how big you make this, it could be 3-6 more XP.

Sathar Survivors

Finally, they could track down sathar survivors, another adventure hook suggested by the module. Spacefleet doesn’t have the personnel and the native species are drifting back to their homelands. It’s up to the PCs to clean up the pockets of sathar still sticking around. If the PCs really are in to this, it could go on for a while but assuming they only do a small number of these roundups, they could earn 3-9 XP depending on the number, the complexity, and how generous you are with XP.

Returning to the Frontier

There are a number of events that could happen once the PCs return to the Frontier from Volturnus. At this point, assuming you’ve done some of the additional adventures on Volturnus, the PCs should have between 60 and 70 XP.

Tracking down the Star Devil

Information collected on Volturnus provided clues to the Star Devil’s operations in the Pale system. By the time the PCs return, the Pale government has identified the location of a small Star Devil Operation on New Pale. The PCs are sent to investigate and shut down the operation, capturing the staff if possible. This should be worth another 3 XP.

Council of Worlds

If your players want to get involved in some political wrangling, you could have them summoned to Gran Quivera in Prenglar to testify before the Council of Worlds as to the events on Volturnus and the state of the species there. Because of the Sathar, the Council of Worlds is interested in the events in the system.

In my game, the Battle of Zebulon (the space battle) and the Battle of Volkos (the ground battle) are the opening shots of the Second Sathar War. It takes a while for everything to get going but the loss at Zebulon jolt the sathar out of their complacency towards the Frontier and cause them to step up their activities.

The PCs are the Frontier experts on Volturnus at the moment and their words could have far reaching impacts for the future of the planet and the species living there, as well as the Frontier’s response to the sathar. This should be worth another 3-9 XP depending on how involved you make it. It also gets them part way across the Frontier where they could be recruited for the next module SF3: Sundown on Starmist.

Up Next

That gets us through the first three modules with the PCs earning around 70 XP (possibly a bit more) from the modules and side adventures. In the next installment, we’ll look at the rest of the Alpha Dawn modules and supplementary adventures that will get them to the spaceship skills and ready for the Knight Hawks adventures.

How have you strung the modules together? Have you added in additional adventures on Volturnus? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Frontier Explorer Issue 24 Available

I’m going to assume that those reading this blog have heard this already from another source but just in case you haven’t, Issue 24 of the Frontier Explorer is now available for download from DriveThruRPG or on the magazine’s website. Here’s the announcement text:

Hello Explorers!

Welcome to issue 24 of the Frontier Explorer. Now that Spacefleet has cleared out the recent sathar incursion, we can start publishing again.

This issue picks up right where we left off including some articles that were ready to go but didn’t make it into issue 23. All of the usual articles (Jurak Hangna, comics, etc) are here along with articles about derlict spaceships, and some not so derelict ones along with an small mini adventure in our Warriors of White Light 2 series.

The biggest change is that we’ve moved to a new layout and design for the magazine’s cover, logo, and interior. Let us know what you think about the changes and any suggestions or ideas you might have to make it even better.

This issue continues and strengthens our support for the FrontierSpace RPG in addition to Star Frontiers. Issue 23 had a conversion of the Star Frontier races to FrontierSpace. This issue contains the details of a star system from the FrontierSpace frontier sector as well as stats in the Jurak Hangna creature article for use in that system.

The full article list for this issue is:

Frontier News
Dark Shadow’s Revenge
Duergan’s Star System
Of Lost Ships and Derelicts
Exploring a Deserted Spaceship
Meet the Crew of the SS Knight Owl
Titan Rising: 2299 #17
Kdikit Blue Biters
Ghostship of the Terran Queen
Escape Run #3

Grab your copy today and as always, keep exploring!

Battle of Zebulon

I finally got the Pursale ship deck sketches up last week but then got completely distracted by a number of other things. One of those was the decision to write up my concept for a complete “zero-to-hero” style Star Frontiers campaign that takes the characters from starting PCs to major players in the Frontier with high level spaceship skills that uses all the published modules. The first of those posts will be next week.

While working on that, I talk about the space battle around Volturnus at the end of the first 3 modules. The modules hand wave it away as, at the time, the spaceship rules weren’t published so there was no way to run it. In this post, we’ll look at my concept for that battle. What sathar ships are there, and what the UPF sends to the fight. If you read my Detailed Frontier Timeline posts, you know the answers as this has already been covered in the posts there, but I thought I’d lay out some of the rationale behind the decisions and set the game up for an epic Knight Hawks board game battle. And I’ll tell you how it played out when I ran through the scenario to generate the timeline posts.

Sathar Ship Design

In my universe, all the sathar ships of destroyer size or larger are also troop transports. While the UPF tend to have small crews and lots of allocated space, the sathar pack in lots of ground troops on to each ship.

You can see an example (and more detailed explanation) of this in my Sathar Destroyer Technical Manual (link goes to product page on DriveThruRPG – it’s a free product) that details the interior of a sathar destroyer. That ship carries over 500 ground troops packed into its bowels.

Based on the ship sizes, I’ve extrapolated that the light cruisers carry about 4,500 troops, the heavy cruisers carry over 15,000 and the assault carriers transport around 10,000 troops in addition to up to 12 fighters. While I haven’t completely fleshed out those larger vessels, this is a close enough estimate for this article.

How Many Sathar Ships Are Involved

Now that we know how many troops each ship transports, we can come up with a reasonable composition for the invasion fleet that is attacking Volturnus.

The boxed text from the adventure gives us the following clues:

All that can be done has been done to prepare the planet for defense against the hideous worms. The initial reports arriving at the Eorna complex beneath the ruins of Volkos are good; the Eorna planetary defense batteries have kept the Sathar fleet at bay, and many of the Sathar shuttles have been destroyed attempting to land ground troops on the planet

The successful landing of a large Sathar army has been detected. After scanning the planet, the Sathar advanced in the direction of Volkos. They should arrive in full battle array sometime tomorrow morning. They number at least 30,000 plus robots and other weapons!”

This tells us that there are at least 30,000 troops on the ground and that there were more to begin with as many were destroyed in the landing attempt.

So, we want a mix of ships that can transport something over 30,000 troops. Based on the mix of ships given in the Knight Hawks campaign book, I settled on the following mix of ships for the fleet:

2 frigates
6 Destroyers
2 Light Cruisers
2 Heavy Cruisers
1 Assault Carrier with 8 fighters

This gives me a total troop compliment of about 52,000 troops plus robots, attack creatures, and heavy weapons. We can assume that about 40% of the troops were killed by the planetary defense system leaving about 30,000 for the assault on Volkos.

The UPF Contingent

We have to remember that this is not a planned engagement in an on-going war. Rather it is a sudden call to arms that has to be filled in at short notice with no idea of what the opposing force will be. In fact, given the overwhelming number of ships that were seen at Pale 50-60 years earlier (in my history), the UPF might be loathe to commit any ships fearing that they are sending them into a deathtrap. Regardless, the ships are sent, but they are assembled on short notice.

The most obviously available ships are the Pale militia ships, consisting of a frigate and three assault scouts. They would almost certainly be pressed into service by Spacefleet as they are only one jump away. If Laco (in Dixon’s Star) had a militia, they too would probably have been involved but Laco is only an outpost.

Streel is headquartered on Pale, and it is almost certain that they have a number of military or paramilitary vessels at their disposal. They might be conscripted by Spacefleet or possibly even volunteered as Streel has a definite interest in opening (and exploiting) Volturnus. Keeping the sathar out of the system and off the planet is just good business practice. So Streel will probably send some ships along.

That leaves Spacefleet. Strike Force Nova might be around. It patrols around the Frontier constantly so there is a chance it is nearby. The nearest large group of ships with a known location is Task Force Prenglar, stationed in its namesake system. The problem is that it’s three systems away from Zebulon. Which means it’s going to take some time to get there and may not arrive in time.

If you just use the distances between the stars as travel time, it’s only 15 days. That’s they way the Alpha Dawn rules described interstellar travel. However, the Knight Hawks rules say you have to accelerate up to 1% the speed of light to make the jump and then slow down at your destination. That acceleration, at 1g takes a little over 83 hours or just over 4 days. And then 4 days to slow down. Assuming some maneuvering at the beginning and ending of the trip and checking vectors and such just before Void entry, a single interstellar hop really takes about 9 days, regardless of distance. Maybe a bit longer on long jumps due to extra astrogation calculation time.

Now we can speed this up a bit by accelerating faster but for a long transit, that has detrimental effects on crew. If you expect to be coming out of the Void into a firefight, you don’t want to have spent the last two weeks strapped into an acceleration chair at 2-3 gees.

We can also speed up the transit by not slowing down in the intermediate systems. Then we only have the astrogation time to worry about. That might work for the Dixon’s Star system, but they will have to slow down in Truane’s Star to rendezvous with the ships from that system and coordinate their jump. So assuming ships from Prenglar blow through Dixon’s Star without stopping it will take them 4.5 days to get to Void speed in Prenglar, 2.5 days in Dixon’s Star to do the astrogation calculations, 4.5 days to slow down at Pale in the Truane’s Star system. Then they need to accelerate and jump to Zebulon which will take another 9 days. All told, that’s 20.5 days of travel. Add to that any time it takes to assemble the Task Force and get the ships ready to leave.

What other options are there? In the description of Spacefleet, it describes the two Task Forces and Strike Force Nova and then says that there are other smaller units as well. I decided to take advantage of this.

At the same time as the events are unfolding on Volturnus, Streel and Pan Galactic are locked into what will be known as Laco’s War, the first corporate war. In my games, this war is just starting to heat up. Because of that, Spacefleet had recently dispatched a medium sized Patrol Group to the system to attempt put a damper on the rising hostilities. Patrol Group Virgo, consisting of 2 light cruisers, 2 destroyers, 2 assault scouts, and an assault carrier with 8 fighters, has just recently arrived in Dixon’s Star. That puts them marginally closer only requiring 18 days to get to Volturnus with the advantage that since they are already out on patrol, they can depart immediately.

So once the call comes in from the PCs, Spacefleet takes a day or two to make the decision and then dispatches Patrol Group Virgo from Dixon’s Star. In Truane’s Star they pick up the Pale militia as well as a frigate, 4 corvettes, and 3 assault scouts that Streel sends along on the expedition. With that, the ships arriving at Volturnus from the UPF are:

8 Assault Scouts
4 Corvettes
2 Frigates
2 Destroyers
2 Light cruisers
1 Assault Carrier with 8 fighters

From a campaign perspective, I have the UPF fleet arrive just as the battle on the ground is ending, driving off the sathar ships.

The Knight Hawks Scenario

We now have the order of battle. The sides are fairly evenly matched. The UPF fleet has more ships, but the sathar have slightly more hull points. The UPF’s forces are concentrated into its smaller vessels, lots of little assault scouts and corvettes that can potentially be picked off fairly easily.

This scenario can be played by any number of people. Simply divide into teams and each team takes a side. The UPF forces divide fairly easily into three groups, one playing the UPF ships, one the Pale militia, and one the Streel ships. Although the number of ships and their strength isn’t evenly distributed between those groups. The sathar ships can be divided up any way that team sees fit.

Setup

A planet counter representing Volturnus is placed in the center of the map.

The sathar are the defenders in this scenario. Sathar ships, with the exception of the frigates, are all placed in orbit around Volturnus with a speed of zero. They have just recently finished dropping off all their troops. Since the frigates are not troop carriers, they can start in any hex within 5 hexes of the planet with a speed of up to 5 hexes/turn.

The UPF are the attackers. They all start along one of the short sides of the map. The individual ships can be anywhere on that side, but all the ships have to be on the same side. They must start within 3 hexes of the map edge and be moving at any speed up to 15 hexes/turn. All the UPF ships have to start at the same speed.

Special Rules

Escaping the Battle

A ship is considered to have escaped from battle if it moves off any edge of the map with a) no ships in pursuit, or b) is out of weapon range and has a higher ADF of any pursuing ships.

Preserve the Fleet

Heavy cruisers and assault carriers are important vessels in the sathar navy. If the tide of battle seems to be going against the sathar, they will try to pull back to preserve these larger vessels, sacrificing the smaller ones if necessary (even if it means ramming) to delay the UPF ships and allow the larger vessels to escape.

Victory Conditions

Sathar Victory

The sathar claim victory if they can destroy all the UPF vessels.

UPF Victory

The UPF claim a complete victory if all the sathar vessels are destroyed. If any of the sathar vessels escape, it is only a partial victory.

When I Played

I played this out once using the full Advanced Combat rules of the Knight Hawks boardgame. I wanted to test the plausibility of this mix of ships in the scenario. Basically I was playing to make sure it was possible for the UPF to win. I definitely thought the sathar would have the advantage. It turned into quite the slugfest. However, the UPF got in some lucky early blows with the assault scouts living up to their hype and taking out nearly half of the sathar fleet by round 3 of the game after losing only a single assault scout.

In the end, the sathar fleet was routed, escaping with only 1 frigate, 2 destroyers, and a heavy cruiser. The other heavy cruiser and assault carrier were lost on that fateful round 3. The UPF only lost a Pale militia assault scout, and a light cruiser and assault scout from the Spacefleet contingent, but almost no ship escaped unscathed. The die rolls favored the UPF and it ended up being a very lopsided game. I suspect if played through several more times, it could go either way.

Last Thoughts

Do you like these Knight Hawks game scenarios? Would you like to see more of them? Should I include the statistics for the ships? If you play this scenario out, let me know which rule set you used (Basic or Advanced) and how it turned out.

Pursale Colony Ship Sketches

It’s taken me a long time to get to this point but I finally have sketches of the ship embedded in the center of the Outpost Osiris asteroid. These are my initial roughs that I will fill in with details as I complete the write-ups.

The scale on the images is 5 meters to the square. This ship is quite large with a “wingspan” of nearly 200m and a length of over 300m. It consists of five decks each of various sizes. I’m going to try to do a 3D render of the shape of the ship at some point.

The bold outer outline in each of the following images represents the outer hull of the middle deck (deck 3). It is shown on each of the images to allow you to compare the other decks to the overall size of the ship.

Only parts of the ship are going to be physically accessible in the module. Other parts are fused with the rock of the asteroid or crystalline structures piercing through the body of the ship in the central cavity of the asteroid. I’ll be deciding exactly what is obstructed and what isn’t as I work on the module details. I know for sure that the engines are not accessible and that the phase shield room (deck 3) and power core (deck 4) are undamaged as is the starboard airlock. Some of the robot storage areas will be accessible as will at least one cryo bay (so the characters can find some desiccated Pursale remains) but beyond that, I haven’t decided what to make accessible. That will come at a future date.

So here are the five decks of the ship, from bottom to top.

Deck 1 – Shuttle bays

This deck primarily contains 8 shuttle bays, a storage area, and the ship’s two underbelly laser batteries. The large engines out on the wings also extend down to this part of the ship but are not accessible from here. The large storage area here contained colonization supplies.

Deck 2 – Robots and Tech

This deck has another large storage area for colonization supplies, as well as the robot storage areas and a tech shop. There are also two more shuttle bays on this level as well as the first of many cryo bays containing rows and rows of the (once) frozen colonists.

Deck 3 – Crew Deck

This is the largest deck of the ship. It contains the engineering section, access to the engines and the crew quarters for the active crew. There is a large garden area, dining an food storage, as well as several cryo chambers. There is also an aft observation deck, forward sensors, and the ships two forward facing laser batteries. The airlocks are also on this level as are some of the ship’s workpods. The phase shield generator is located on this deck in the very center of the ship.

Deck 4 – Cryo Bays and Power

This deck consists almost completely of cryo storage bays containing colonists in frozen storage. The only other ship system on this level is the ship’s power core, which amazingly wasn’t destroyed when the ship unphased into the asteroid.

Deck 5 – Bridge

This deck contains the ship’s bridge and medical facilities, a few more smaller cryo bays, as well as the ship’s launches and some more workpods. It also has the upper laser battery.

Next Steps

This is the ship as built when fleeing the Pursale homeworld and fully functional. By the time the PCs discover it, it has been embedded in the asteroid of millenia. Many of the parts of the ship are fused with either the rocks of the asteroid or crystalline structures in the central cavity. All of the crew and colonists are long dead however some of the robots, along with some parts of the ship’s machinery has survived.

The next step is to figure out which parts of the ship are still accessible and create the actual maps for the game along with the description of the various areas.

The intention of this part of the adventure is for the players to make their way onto the ship, overcoming the last of the ship’s defenses, and attempt to obtain the phase shield generator off the ship and install it on their own. They then need to feel the outpost as their tampering has caused the ship’s power core to enter a self-destruct mode that cannot be stopped.

The details of the ship are still fairly malleable so let me know if there are any major ship systems or details that you think I missed.

Maps from the Past

This post is going up a day late. Partially because I didn’t finish what I had wanted to post yesterday in time, and partially because time got away from me working on issue 24 of the Frontier Explorer (which is almost done). So I didn’t have a post ready yesterday

My original plan was to post my sketches of the Pursale ship entombed in the center of the Outpost Osiris asteroid. But in looking at those I realized a couple of things:

I had used the wrong scale grid when building the original sketches. Interestingly enough when I applied the correct grid to the maps, all the corridors I had free-handed in that were off the original, wrong grid, matched up almost perfectly with the correct grid. I guess subconsciously I knew there was something wrong.
I forgot a few fairly important parts of the ship, for example airlocks.

That means I need to rework the sketches before they are ready to present. That’s this week’s project.

In the mean time, I rooted around in my old folders and found some old location maps that I drew way back in the late 80’s as a teenager when I was actively playing Star Frontiers in high school. I’d probably draw them differently now, but they definitely hold a bit of nostalgia.

I’m presenting them in this post as-is. These are simply scans of the original hand-drawn maps that were created on 8.5×11 quad-ruled graph paper. (I even think I still have some of the original pads as I bought a big box of them back in the day.) I’ll be providing a little bit of commentary but not much. I actually have write-ups for some of them but I’ll hold that for a later post when I have a chance to review them and update them to remove any glaring errors I made as a teenager when I first concocted them. For all of the images, you can click on them to get the full 200dpi resolution version (each one is about 5 MB in size).

Conference Center

This one is a portion of a large area map. It is inside a clear, domed area which I think was supposed to be on an asteroid or moon but given the layout, needs some significant gravity. This location is the basis of a murder mystery adventure. I’ll definitely be updating and writing this one up at some point in the future.

Pirate Base

This location consists of three maps, and as far as I can tell, I don’t have any sort of write-up for this one. Although it is supposed to be in an asteroid. Probably inspired by the idea of the Planaron pirate base from Warrior of White Light. Do with it as you will.

Upper Level

This is the main level with the main entrance via the airlock in the lower left. I think this one has some serious scale issues. According to the scale at the bottom, one square is 10 meters. Which makes those passages large enough to drive trucks down. It probably should be 2m per square.

Lower Level

This is the officer level with private facilities, also two different escape routes, one via the airlock in the upper left to a tunnel through the asteroid and the secret exit in the upper right

Secret Escape Bay

The pirate officers have an assault scout stashed away in a hidden bunker. That ship is 21.5 squares long which gives more credence to the 1 square is 2m scale hypothesis. I vaguely remember painstakingly drawing that assault scout based on the image on the little Knight Hawks chit.

Sathar Training Base

Our last location is a set of two maps detailing a sathar training base. I’m pretty sure this one was inspired by the sathar training base in the Sundown on Starmist module. I have a write-up for this one as well that I will post in the future once I’ve had a chance to review it.

Surface Level

This is nestled in a forested area and has a number of features that stick up through the trees. I was also inspired to draw a profile view (lower right) that is looking from the bottom of the map towards the top.

Lower Level

This is the actual base and built completely underground. The defense turret is automated and has a magazine that feeds the rocket launcher and recoilless rifles mounted on the defense dome.

Other Locations

I have several other maps of other locations I developed back in the day, and even more recently. There are only one or two of the older ones that I would consider useful. Most of them were way too far fetched and fantastical for any game I’d run today but I guess made sense to my teen-aged self.

I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane with me. Let me know what you think of these maps and which if any you’d like to see detailed out first. Feel free to use these maps in your own games if you want.

In the mean time, I need to get back to working on the alien ship for the Ghost Ship Osiris module. See you next week.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY60.054 to FY60.084

Here is the next set of entries in the detailed Frontier timeline. This month includes the beginning of the events in the Sundown on Starmist module, the beginning of the final campaign of the sathar against the saurians in the their corner of space, as well as the commencement of hostilities by sathar agents against military targets throughout the Frontier.

Date (FY)	Event
60.054	Waiting for decisions from the Council of Worlds and Spacefleet, PGC dispatches several vessels from Gran Quivera (Prenglar) to Dixon’s Star to serve as a corporate militia in the system.
60.055	Sathar SCC#3, near Kizk-Kar, completes production of a frigate.
60.056	The small raid (1 LC, 2DD) launched by Clan Z arrives in Kizk-Kar system. With SF Nova in system, the UPF ships soundly defeat the sathar ships in the first official battle of what will come to be called the Second Sathar War. SF Nova extends its stay in the system for an extra 7 days.
60.057	Council of Worlds envoys arrive at Volturnus (Zebulon) to meet with leaders of the various native races.
60.058	* In wake of the recent sathar attack and activity, the Zik-Kit (Kizk’-Kar) government joins the trade and defense alliance with Kawdl-Kit (K’tsa-Kar) and Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) * News of the failed raid on Kisk-Kar reaches sathar space. The premature action and its failure curries disfavor and Clan Z falls out of favor, losing any chance to leading the attack on the Frontier.
60.059	Careful examination of the Eorna eggs has determined that they are, in fact, viable. Eorna on Volturnus (Zebulon) celebrate and declare the day of discovery to be known as the Day of Life to be remembered just as the Day of Doom.
60.060	Members of the Second Volturnus Expedition depart Volturnus to return to Pale.
60.061	Sathar SCC in the Liberty system completes construction of half a dozen fighters.
60.062	Rim Coalition delegation arrives at Gran Quivera (Prenglar).
60.063	Sathar vessels from the Liberty system arrive at the staging area to await assignments.
60.064	Rim delegation begins meeting with the Council of Worlds to discuss the sathar situation and the mutual defense of the Frontier and Rim.
60.065	* Supplies intended for Fortress Kdikit in Madderly’s Star are stolen/destroyed by pirates while in route to the construction site. * SF Nova departs Kisk-Kar for the K’aken-Kar system.
60.066	After several space battles, sathar forces overcome the saurian defenses in the Dayzer system and bombard New Kischen (FE004) obliterating the saurian settlements on the planet.
60.067	The first of Spacefleet’s Talnor-D (FE004) communication ships, the UPFS Nexus, emerges from the shipyard at Gran Quivera (Prenglar). It begins a 30-day shakedown cruise with Task Force Prenglar.
60.068	Sathar forces in the Tischen system finally overcome the saurian defense forces and launch a planetary bombardment of Kzz-ten (FE004) destroying the settlements on that planet. The defense of both the Tischen and Dayzer systems have put a serious dent in the sathar resources for the campaign, buying the saurians some time to bolster Sauria’s (FE004) defenses and work to complete the Great Ark project.
60.069	Second Volturnus Expedition members arrive back at Pale to a hero’s welcome and receive recognition for their work in repelling the sathar attacks in that system.
60.070	* Sathar agents in the Frontier begin stepping up activities, especially focused on military and technological sabotage. * An anti-Streel group, funded by sathar agents, strike at the Streel SCC around Pale, reducing capacity by 63% while repairs are made. Several ships under construction are damaged but the militia Assault Scout miraculously escapes unscathed.
60.071	Two small flights of three Saurian Battle Rays (FE004) each are dispatched to investigate the state of the Tischen and Dayzer systems and determine the strength of sathar forces.
60.072	CEO of Streel, Hilo Headrow (ZG) signs deal with his friend from the Great Sathar War, Esper Henshaw (ZG), CEO of MerCo, for MerCo to supply several teams to increase the security at the Streel starship construction center orbiting Pale (Truane’s Star) while Streel investigates the source of the recent attack.
60.073	SF Nova arrives in the K’aken-Kar system and will remain in system for 8 days.
60.074	Initial damage assessment of the Pale (Truane’s Star) starship construction center reveals that the damage was not as extensive as originally thought. Materials and equipment shuttled up from the surface quickly bring production capacity back to 58%. Work begins to restore full capacity.
60.075	A mountaineering survival team, calling themselves the Spire Dragons, begin their attempt to traverse coast to summit and climb Mt. Spire (Lossend, Timeon) (ZG) completely on foot. The team consists of members of all seven Frontier and Rim species with the goal that a member of each species will reach the top of the Frontier’s highest peak.
60.076	Medical Services Organization issues another alert about the drug Ixiol, stating that the use of the drug on Triad (Cassidine) has reached dangerous levels and is impacting work and economic activity on the planet. They call for the Council of Worlds and Star Law to investigate the production and trade of the drug.
60.077	* An independent freighter in the Gruna Garu system claims sighting of an unknown vessel, roughly the size of a light cruiser bearing UPF markings but not matching any known UPF vessel type. * Spacefleet dismisses the sighting as inaccurate claiming no vessel of that type in its inventory and dispatch a small patrol group (a frigate and 2 assault scouts) from Prenglar to investigate.
60.078	* Maximillian Malligigg takes possession of the VSS Last Legs, a small freighter, and with a small crew and scouting party leaves for Starmist. (SF3) * Sathar reinforcements arrive in the Tischen system.
60.079	Members of the Second Volturnus Expedition summoned to the Council of Worlds to testify of events on Volturnus (Zebulon) leading to the Battle of Volkos
60.080	* Sathar reinforcements arrive in the Dayzer system. * Saurian scout ships arrive in the Tischen and Dayzer systems and begin to probe the systems while avoiding sathar forces.
60.081	SF Nova departs K’aken-Kar for the K’tsa-Kar system.
60.082	After months of fundraising, a new organization, The Yazira Heritage Foundation, purchases and begins refitting a small vessel to use as an exploration ship. Their goal is to reach the star that rumors claim is Yazira.
60.083	Sathar launch a probing raid into the Sauria system to test saurian defenses. The two-destroyer task force is quickly destroyed by a wing of saurian Battle Rays.

Here is the complete, cumulative timeline as a PDF:

DetailedFrontierTimeline Download

State of the Frontier – March 2019

This post should have come out yesterday but life has been quite crazy for me the last few days (and weeks really).

Looking Back

For the most part I accomplished everything I set out to do. I got the Sathar Cave System and Hum Calendar published as well as the updated engine data for the new starship construction system. What I didn’t get to at all, once, again, is the Pursale ship for the Ghost Ship Osiris module.

Most of my spare time this last month was eaten up by working on the Frontier Explorer. So much so that my buffer of articles has been completely used up and I’m writing this one a day late. The good news is that the issue is almost done.

The other thing that suffered a bit this last month, especially toward the end, was the Frontier Timeline posts on Twitter. There were a few days that I was so busy that posting the event (or two) for those days completely slipped my mind and they didn’t get posted until the next day. The summary post with all the events from the last month will be coming out tomorrow along with the updated comprehensive document (which is starting to get quite large. This month saw the beginning of the end in the the Saurian sector of space as the sathar begin their final push to eliminate the Saurians.

Looking Forward

The end of April will mark the first full year of my blog. I’m amazed it’s been that long already and I’m very grateful to all my readers and supporters. Toward the end of the month or possibly in early May I’ll do a “year in review” post. The exact timing is a little uncertain as I’ll be traveling during that time frame. Early May is my 25th wedding anniversary and my wife and I will be gone starting in late April on a two week vacation including a 7 day cruise where I will have little to no internet access. So we’ll see what I can get queued up before I leave.

While not directly related to the blog, April will see the publication of issue 24 of the Frontier Explorer. I’ll be sure to post a link here when it is available.

As I already mentioned, tomorrow will see the next Detailed Frontier Timeline post. Beyond that I’m not really sure what the month will bring. I think that regardless of how far I get, I’ll be posting at least the sketches of the Pursale ship as that will give me some incentive to get back to that project. I also have some setting “fluff” pieces that have been on my mind for a while that I might flesh out and publish.

On the starship construction system, I now think I have everything I need to have it work as a replacement for the standard system in Star Frontiers. There are some other tweaks I want to make to the system but it is otherwise good to go. I think I’ll start publishing the details specs for a number of standard ships from the game in the new system as I work on cleaning up the write-up of the system.

I also think that I now have everything for the Death at Rosegard adventure as well and it’s time for me to fully write that up. I’m sure I’ll discover lots of little bits and pieces I’ve left off as I go so that may take some time to finish.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about is designing one or more small, introductory adventures for Star Frontiers. Something that can take someone completely unfamiliar with the game and walk them through the basic game mechanics. I’m thinking at least two small adventures: the first a solo introductory adventure for someone completely new to the game, and the second a simple adventure that can be used to introduce others to the core of the game. The idea is still percolating in my brain but the beginnings might happen this month. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Once again thank you to everyone reading the blog and especially to those supporting me on Patron. I really appreciate the feedback and support you provide.