What now?

[Dust Raven]

Okay, I recently picked up Star Hero. I've talked it over with my players and everyone is interested in playing. I'm even interested in running a Star Hero game. I suppose that works out....

 

However, I've never run Star Hero before. The closest I've come to running the genre is Cyberpunk 2020 (R. Talsorian), Rifts (Palladium) and Robotech (also Palladium). What my group is most interested in is a Space Opera game kinda like Star Wars. Not necessarily the Lucas Universe, but something involving lots of aliens and planets and whatever troubles might be plaguing everyone the player character are destined to solve (or try to).

 

So I'm lost. The last thing I want to do is copy the movies and books. Evil empires have been done to death, and so have lost heirs to the throne. Space pirates could still be cool. Probably just as overdone, but lots opportunities to do it differently, or even classicly and still be fun. I'm just not sure if the players would have fun either being or hunting prirates. I think they want something more epic.

 

So, what other galaxy shattering plots are there I could use for the theme of my campaign? Something that the players can work toward, but isn't so immediate that the campaign will be over too soon. Definately something attainable though.

 

Any suggestions?

[Cmonkey]

Re: What now?

 

I always find it easier to design a campaign meta-plot when I know the setting it's going to take place in....is this campaign for a commercial setting or homebrew?

[Eodin]

Re: What now?

 

Assuming you're going to build from scratch ("not copy the movies or books"), you can still have fun with the "something out there" bit. And that something could be pirates organized for a yet-to-be-defined reason, or aliens testing humanity (Shadows in B5), an awakening "Q-like" being, and so forth. If the pacing is as good as B5, that's five years worth of stuff.

 

You can also do the pirates as rebels bit (also overdone though).

 

There's also the "cool million" (an old show) or Star Hero:Private Eye kind of campaign, where investigation of seemingly unrelated crimes may point to a grander scheme (e.g. pushing a sector into war or such).

 

Lots of choices, really.

[Jhamin]

Re: What now?

 

Something I've been kicking around for a long time is a sci-fi archeology campaign.

 

The premise is that the PCs are part of the government, either military or an official explorer corps. Their galactic civilization is on the brink of war with one or more rival species. There are ominous signs that a mysterious and previously unknown enemy may have a connection to the ruins of several dead civilizations that have left ruins on the fringe of explored space.

 

The player characters are tasked with checking these rumors (or stumble on them and are morally obliged to follow up). Their government sees this as an interesting line of investigation (and hopes to salvage some tech from the ruins) but is unwilling to divert large forces from the hot spots elsewhere. Problem is several of the rival races are also investigating these rumors.

 

The campaign involves players combing through the ruins of dead cities while trying to piece together what happened to the races that built them. They simultaneously have to deal with rival explorers from the other races and the advance agents of the mysterious enemy.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What now?

 

Not to sound like a company shill, but it does sound like Hero's Terran Empire campaign setting would be right up your alley. Very definitely a space-opera setting, lots of aliens, a detailed timeline allowing you to choose the most interesting era in which to game, plenty of setting-appropriate details, and tons of plot ideas and genre gamemastering advice for different types of campaigns using this setting. In conjunction with Star HERO you should have everything you need.

[Dust Raven]

Re: What now?

 

I'm looking for something that's definately home brew. One of my players is an author looking to turn the adventures of the game into a series of short stories meant to publication. Granted, she's likely to make some extreme edits on the actions and speach of some characters, given out group is prone to out of game but in character comments and vice versa.

 

I was thinking of looking at the TE, but I'm thinking I probably won't, just to make sure any ideas we come up with won't be too influenced by it. The last think we want to take an established setting (from any source) and just change the names of the innocent to protect the guilty.

 

After a few conversations it's apperant we're gonna have some sort of Jedi in the game. We might have this covered though, as the ideas we've been throwing around for it don't sound anything actual Jedi, Green Lanterns, Cosmo Knights or other interstellar heroes of fiction.

[Aroooo]

Re: What now?

 

I have to agree with Lord Liaden's recommendation, although Jhamin's idea sounds really cool. (If you ever get something 'formal' written up, let me know.) While Alien Wars is a very specific setting (time period wise), TE offers enough variety that you could do a lot.

 

Aroooo

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: What now?

 

When in doubt.....

 

 

BUG HUNT!

 

Of course, Space Pirates is a great idea, or try the other side of the spectrum (I've done this)

 

Space Cops!

 

Chasing pirates and scum of the galaxy across the vastness of space.

 

Seedy space stations and backwater planets (use a frontier-western style motiff. Works great) are the settings. Eventually the PC cops should discover the Galactic mob boss behind everything and try to bring his criminal empire down. Problem is, he's got lots of influence, everywhere (including in the office the PC's report to!)

[Cmonkey]

Re: What now?

 

When I think of what the future spacefaring empires might look like, I tend to think of the Old-West-Style situation, where there is a core with heavily settled worlds and a fringe of colony worlds. Some borders may be shared with other empires, but all borders are fairly fluid at this point (this is the best time for roleplaying games, at least), except in ancient parts of the galaxy (galactic core) where borders are a bit more static. Trade tends to occur between the cores of the empires by the megacorporations. Freetraders or Freelance-traders supply colony worlds that are close to the core. Worlds further from the core than the freetraders reach have to be self-sufficient.

 

In such a setting there are many options:

Quasi-Military Campaign (Mercs, Pirates, Bounty Hunters or Imperial Navy)

Settlers (First Wave, Second Wave, Third Wave, etc. - the earlier the more exciting, and the less travelled the region of space, the better)

Scouts/Explorers (Private or Corporate)

Traders (Freelance or Corporate)

Planetbound (In which case it’s just roleplaying in a high tech world - this could be as interesting as any other, the players will just have to pay for travel off of the world, where in other options they have a ship)

[Spence]

Re: What now?

 

I ran a successful game along the following premise.

 

The PC's are members of the governments exploration corps operating at the fringe of the empire/republic/whatever. At this time humanity has not found any other intellegent life, though other life abounds and there are "signs" of "others". War breaks out on the "other side" of known space and the PC's discover that in states of emergency the explorer corps takes on all duties to include anti-piracy and none planetary law-enforcement when the military and naval units are "re-allocated". You can do all kinds of things with the PC's.

 

Spence

[BobGreenwade]

Re: What now?

 

Not to sound like a company shill' date=' but it does sound like Hero's [i']Terran Empire[/i] campaign setting would be right up your alley. Very definitely a space-opera setting, lots of aliens, a detailed timeline allowing you to choose the most interesting era in which to game, plenty of setting-appropriate details, and tons of plot ideas and genre gamemastering advice for different types of campaigns using this setting. In conjunction with Star HERO you should have everything you need.

I echo almost all of this. I'd strongly recommend Spacer's Toolkit on top of it, just to have a few more equipment ideas. Alien Wars would be handy too, even if you want to set your game in the Terran Empire period, as it gives historical information, additional alien species, equipment one could have as antiques or just "old-fashioned" tech, and several other ideas easily carried to a Terran Empire game.

[Ben Seeman]

Re: What now?

 

I echo almost all of this. I'd strongly recommend Spacer's Toolkit on top of it' date=' just to have a few more equipment ideas. [i']Alien Wars[/i] would be handy too, even if you want to set your game in the Terran Empire period, as it gives historical information, additional alien species, equipment one could have as antiques or just "old-fashioned" tech, and several other ideas easily carried to a Terran Empire game.

Ditto.

 

Although Terran Empire is my favorite setting of ours, Alien Wars provides a much simplier setting so getting started will be much easier although it may seem somewhat restrictive due to the nature of the War. There wasn't much exploration or colonization during the Xenovore War, so most of your adventures will be bug hunts, full scale battles and maybe some ship to ship combat, if that's your bag.

 

TE, on the other hand, is a much more expansive setting but it takes more work on your part to set it up.

[Metaphysician]

Re: What now?

 

Not to sound like a company shill' date=' but it does sound like Hero's [i']Terran Empire[/i] campaign setting would be right up your alley. Very definitely a space-opera setting, lots of aliens, a detailed timeline allowing you to choose the most interesting era in which to game, plenty of setting-appropriate details, and tons of plot ideas and genre gamemastering advice for different types of campaigns using this setting. In conjunction with Star HERO you should have everything you need.

 

I'll second this motion. If Space Opera is what you want, but your stuck for ideas, Terran Empire is a great thing. It doesn't inherently provide any particular plot for you, but instead, provides a setting with tons of plot thread possibilities. I'm sure at least one would make for a good metaplot.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What now?

 

Guys, all of these promos for Hero Games products is great, and I heartily agree with the recommendations; but if you read DR's last post, you'll see that he's looking for something that's not necessarily in a published book, so that his player with writing aspirations can use these developments in the campaign as the basis for stories to be published. DR is concerned that he might take too much out of a published source.

 

Perhaps if we can provide him with ideas that aren't clearly from those HG books, that will be of more help to him. I'll be back when I've had time to come up with some.

[travellerne]

Re: What now?

 

I'm looking for something that's definately home brew. One of my players is an author looking to turn the adventures of the game into a series of short stories meant to publication. Granted, she's likely to make some extreme edits on the actions and speach of some characters, given out group is prone to out of game but in character comments and vice versa.

 

You've got a source right there: she's a writer, get her help!

 

TNE

[Legendsmiths]

Re: What now?

 

Well, the names and faces can always be changed to protect the innocent. Terran Empire has some great ideas for running that style of game that can be applied without referencing the original material. However, if he is looking to not cloud his setting with any outside influences of a popular nature, I'm not sure what to say.

 

Go Pirates! It establishes an underlying theme, allows the GM to support exotic locales and fringe peoples, ang gives a baseline of adventure. Just add plot twists, angry competitors, dangerous cargo, and so on. For inspiration you could watch Firefly just to get an idea of the kind of crap you can pull with a freemerchant cargo hauler.

 

Go Bounty Hunters! Cowboy Bebop can help with some ideas for recurring bounties. This has many of the advantages of Pirates in that it can be episodic, flexible, diverse, and allows for plot twists at almost any point along the way.

 

Go Freespacers! The idea is to have the group renounce any citizenship and become a citizen of the universe. Create a society around the existence of such people. Trade passes would be required, kind of like visas, to allow a ship to travel in controlled territory. You could then have stations that exist on the fringe of terriories that allow unregistered ships to dock and trade goods, turn in bounties, swap stories, get into bar fights, etc. Each station would be unique, some more than others (e.g. large asteroids, free stations, halos, junk/glom stations, etc.). Both Bebop and Firefly can give you ideas on tone (not setting).

 

Obviously for these you need either local space (solar system) and non-FTL ships or FTL capable ships. I like the latter, because of freedom.

[Greg]

Re: What now?

 

Go Pirates! It establishes an underlying theme, allows the GM to support exotic locales and fringe peoples, ang gives a baseline of adventure. Just add plot twists, angry competitors, dangerous cargo, and so on. For inspiration you could watch Firefly just to get an idea of the kind of crap you can pull with a freemerchant cargo hauler.

 

I figured you were done with pirates after this last Gencon...

 

 

Anyways, I ran my first Star Hero game last weekend and user Terran Empire to pull equipment and ran an Aliens-style game that was pretty fun. Though I did find out the hard way that an AF5 2d6 AP laser rifle will take out just about anything in 1 or 2 phases.

 

To keep the game from being too formulaic I built the characters myself and wrote up "secret" backgrounds for each character that let the game play on 2 different levels. The obvious Aliens knock-off on one and a fairly deep space opera on another.

 

For our next go I'm pretty tempted to look at something ala Event Horizon or to be more specific Cthulu in space. The captain of this ship is an archaeologist so I already have a perfect in.

[Legendsmiths]

Re: What now?

 

Ouch. Now Greg, that's just mean.

 

Sounds like fun.

[Aroooo]

Re: What now?

 

Another thought I had this afternoon, that would translate into published works well, is Romeo & Juliet in Space. Boy and Girl from opposing Houses/Governments/Races/Etc elope, heading off into space in a ship (perhaps they stole it). Picking up some friends/strangers along the way, they are pursued by various factions/forces of their parents in order to get them back. The rest of the goings on in the galaxy will fall into place as the story progresses.

 

Aroooo

[Lord Liaden]

Re: What now?

 

Here's a campaign idea that borrows a little from works by Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett and John Norman:

 

PLANET OF ADVENTURE!

 

The PCs are explorers/ missionaries/ military recon or whatever works for you, who land or crash on a previously uncharted planet. This world is very ancient, and over many millennia has seen habitation, colonization and conquest by numerous races, most of whom have long departed from this sector of space. However, some of their descendants continue to inhabit it in uneasy coexistence. Much of the planet's civilization is technologically primitive, but isolated pockets of advanced technology (sometimes extraordinarily advanced) still survive.

 

The PCs will probably be focussed on finding the means to escape the planet, at first; they will likely seek out any source of communication or transportation advanced enough to let them do so. However, because of their alienness, the knowledge they possess, and possibly their own ethics, they find themselves increasingly drawn into the conflicts on this world.

 

Some of the complications they might encounter include:

 

Ancient ruins housing long-lost knowledge, fantastic artifacts, or dormant intelligences. Perhaps abandoned for a very good reason...

 

Hidden or well-defended refuges for the remnants of races thought extinct in the wider world, or refugees from those races unwilling to watch their people slowly die out;

 

Isolated areas with atypical physical properties (climate, gravity etc.) maintained by ancient machines, perhaps as preserves for exotic alien animals;

 

Cults which worship the departed aliens as gods, perhaps seeing the PCs as their second coming... or as their gods' diabolic enemies;

 

Creatures and races who are the product of ancient experiments, and now have forms and/or powers that make them revered or shunned by the majority: amphibious or subterranean beings, individuals who inherit psychic powers, and the like;

 

A variant on the above; hybrids of some of the races who are pariahs, persecuted or enslaved by the "pure-blooded";

 

An individual or a group who has acquired some ancient knowledge or artifact that grants them extraordinary abilities, and now claims the status of prophet and has launched a jihad of conquest;

 

One group who has retained knowledge of the most advanced technology and set themselves up as the gods of this world. Concerned that the PCs may represent a threat to their established order.

 

In a prolonged campaign the PCs will likely cause profound changes to this planet, through their own actions and maybe later by bringing in more of their own people to interact with the inhabitants. This may cause one of the great alien civilizations that abandoned the planet in the past, to look with renewed concern at this previously moribund world on their undefended flank...

 

I hope there's something there you can use.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: What now?

 

If you're looking for some ideas to help put your SH campaign together, then

check out the OLD FORUM THREADS section of this board; specifically, the

Star Hero section. One thread in that section might be of particular use to

you: the "Please review my Space Opera Villain" thread that ran for some

time on the original boards before they were frelled over by the illegitimate

spawn of some Denebian Slime Devil out there. Since the startup of the new

boards, however, the fellow who started the topic has made only one post

related to it, and hasn't been heard from since (The Planet Lord, originally

known as Dizzy Dan on the old boards). There were some rather interesting

ideas that popped up during the run of that particular thread that might give

you some ideas for your own game.

 

If I sound somewhat biased towards this particular thread, it's because I was

one of the contributors to the topic during its run on the old boards under my

original username of Space Cadet.

 

Major Tom

[Lord Liaden]

Re: "Review My Space Opera Villain"

 

I've got that old thread covered, Major:

 

http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/StarHero/000074.html

 

http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/StarHero/000074-2.html

 

http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/StarHero/000074-3.html

 

http://www.herogames.com/oldForum/StarHero/000074-4.html

[Dust Raven]

Re: What now?

 

Another thought I had this afternoon, that would translate into published works well, is Romeo & Juliet in Space. Boy and Girl from opposing Houses/Governments/Races/Etc elope, heading off into space in a ship (perhaps they stole it). Picking up some friends/strangers along the way, they are pursued by various factions/forces of their parents in order to get them back. The rest of the goings on in the galaxy will fall into place as the story progresses.

 

Aroooo

Oh! I like this! I like this alot!

 

Not specifically the Romeo & Juliet story arc, but the idea of recreating Shakespearian themes and plots in a Space Opera setting. I can actually switch from Hamlet to Much Ado About Nothing from adventure to adventure while maintaining the same overtones. Brilliant!

 

Now, if only my players will go for it...

[Mantis]

Re: What now?

 

Okay, here's a suggestion:

 

Space is divided into four Quadrants. You have the Earth/Terran/Human Empire/Federation/Soviet/Commonwealth/whatever in one quadrant. Two others quadrants are regions colonised by other races or groups of races, and all Empires are of similar size.

 

The fourth region is currently unexplored. The reason is that FTL travel was range-limited, and the closest system in that quadrant to Known Space is beyond that range. However, a scientific breakthrough has increased this maximum range, and the "Great Void" can be crossed. Once across that gap, ships can refuel (solar power, skim gas giants a la Traveller, or whatever) and continue deeper into the unexplored territory.

 

All three civilisations know about the breakthrough, and race to complete the first ships to cross the Void (called "Voidships" perhaps to differentiate them from "Starships"?). Perhaps they are mostly engine, with little room for payload (perhaps the breakthrough was simply improving the FTL engine performance sufficiently to carry a minimum payload, a natural progression, hence everyone can do the same thing at roughly the same time).

 

The borders of Known Space are such that each civilisation borders the Void, but there are only one or two Crosspoints within each civilisation - that is, there are only one or two systems in the Dark Quadrant (do you like the names I'm giving things as I go along ?) close enough to Jump/Warp/FTL to from Known Space. From there, events are up to you...

 

Options:

 

1. The ship can be small in payload - just the PCs and their supplies (think Lost in Space but without being lost). Or it can be huge, and the PCs are a key part of the team (think Star Trek). What their exact role is in this latter case depends on what you think the players would prefer - bridge crew, ship's marines, ship's fighter pilots, etc.

 

2. Relationships between Empires could be friendly, cordial, cool, strained, hostile, or die-you-*&%$s! This attitude may effect reactions when ships from rival Empires arrive over the same piece of Real Estate. Or the rules may change across the Void - and change either way.

 

3. Assume the PCs are on the first ship to Voidtrek. What will they find? New Life and New Civilisations as they Boldly Go? Will such Life be Friendly, Unfriendly or Pleased To Eat You? Maybe it will be still evolving (Welcome to Jurrasic Planet). Will they instead find shattered Ruins of an ancient civilisation, once proud rulers of the entire Quadrant, with remnants of valuable hi-tech gizmos lying around? Will some vestiges of this civilisation remain in some form?

 

4. As the campaign progresses, will they need to return to base periodically for supplies, or can they keep going, self-sustained ("Our five-year mission...")? At what rate will new Voidships be built and join the exploration mission? How often will the PCs encounter Voidships from their neighbours? Possible campaign events include rescuing a sister-ship, rescuing a neighbour's Voidship (perhaps from an unfriendly neighbour), or getting in trouble themselves and being rescued by another Voidship (reverse of previous scenarios). Perhaps war breaks out back "Home" and the Earth Empire's Crosspoints are captured by the enemy - the crew must find another way home, perhaps through the "neutral" third Empire. However, since the volume of the Dark Quadrant is known, there is a definite campaign goal - explore and claim as much of it as possible! Other goals may be added as desired ("Hey! According to these hieroglyphs, these long-dead aliens had a Stargate on their home planet, and they used that to leave this galaxy for another! Maybe they're not long-dead after all...").

 

Anyway, that's my suggested campaign skeleton.

 

Mantis

[RPJesus]

Re: What now?

 

I think Lord Liadon is right, in making that great campaign like the space opera it is important to find as much as you can and gorge yourself on tidbits from other campaigns. This all is not for the purpose of stealing other peoples intellectual property and claiming it as your own. The idea is to use good ideas to fuel new good ideas, get the juices flowing. I am a big fan of starting small in the space opera, mainly because the idea of space opera is big and you lose characterization and depth if you go for the gusto in the first couple adventures. Example: Your character is human in the 2600's and earth humans make contact with.....(I'll borrow the reference) the Phychi who enter into earth space and impress earths governments with their advanced technology and Utopian culture. The Phychi ships travel FTL 2000 X the speed of light and earth culture has barely mastered 8 X the speed of light in their fastest ships. Terrans being terrans can't stand the idea of being left behind and after years of light trade and technological endowments by the Phychi. The Phychi offer to give the Terrans a place in there Galactic Empire and a seat of there Inner council but the terran ships are still painfully slow compared to the Phychi so the Phychi arrange for transport vessels to move the humans with enough currency for passage to the holding planet of Garo where the humans will stay while their new world is being Terraformed. Now it seems pretty simple you make the character the child of someone who wanted to start their life over in the empire. The next key is your ability as a GM to do a pre-story for every character letting them know who there parents were on earth and why they left then you explain how they sold all their stuff to get passage and that the voyage was supposed to take 6 weeks but actually it took 10 months and the fact that terrans were deloused shaved and regularly sprayed with chemicals that supposedly killed the germs that terrans carried, how the terrans themselves had no immunties to the Phychi diseases and roughly 60% of the people died from common colds and metal allergies while locked like cattle in a cargo bay for 10 months. Then you set the PCs down on Garo a planet of an inhospitable nature with only to resources coal and oil, sparce vegetation and an overabundance of a dog faced fish used to make the planets only noted delicassy Gib Stew. Gib Stew is like throwing dry grass onto a bowl full of eels floating in fish oil. The Terrans are dumped on this planet along with the race that has evolved from primates here(The Kindred). The Kindred are under an odd state of home arest by the Phychi and take a serious offense to the presence of the Terrans and the tension mounts as more and more terrans arrive(Think GANGS OF NEW YORK) This all sets up tensions and it buys you time to see the way the characters develop and plot out the rest of your campaign. There are so many directions. Eventually one of the characters could become a spokesperson for the terrans and the Terrans could unite with the Kindred and over throw the Phychi Duchy on Garo set about to govern of this unofficial prison. This is only the pre, during this time you could sculpt the actual campaign.

RPJ