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Sample file Issue TABLE OF CONTENTS ON THE COVER: LILYPAD, A FLOATING OPTIONAL RULES ........................ 1 ECOPOLIS by Vincent Callebaut. GOING FOR A SWIM ........................ 1 INSPIRATION ZONE ..................... 7 OTHER ART CREDITS: INSPIRATION FROM VINCENT CALLEBAUT » Artist Credit on images .................................................... 7 CHARACTER RACES .................... 12 FOREWORD In this issue of the Star Frontiersman, we have a mix of the old and PEELOVEN .................................... 12 new. I suppose though that that is the case with each issue. SLIRRYS ....................................... 14 We have a really good vehicle supplement from Andy Campbell over at the SF-Un group on Yahoo. I have included the link here so you can THE FELPA ................................... 15 check out the discussions and see what else is new. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/SF-Un/ EQUIPMENT ............................... 17 Last issue we got introduced to the Gold Star Cruise Lines. Now you can check out some of their competition with the ‘Embecker Dance’. NEW VEHICLES FOR STAR FRONTIERS . 17 On our cover, we have some great inspiration from the French SPACESHIPS ............................... 31 architect Vincent Callebaut. I found an article with his work in it last year and he graciously allowed us to use his work in our fanzine. Check out more of his work @ http://www.vincent.callebaut.org/. THE EMBECKER DANCE ................... 31 With our inspiration Zone, Remastered ‘Going for a Swim and the CREATURES OF THE FRONTIER ... 51 Creature Section this issue, we are setting you up for a big adventure next issue, “Balneum Blue” from Ben “Rollo” Gorman. I was inspired to do a water themed issue. First from Jedion’s article in Frontier Explorer BALNEUM BLUE CREATURES ............ 51 #1, “Don’t Go in the Water”. http://frontierexplorer.org/magazines. The second was Vincent’s work. MORE ANIMALS OF THE FRONTIER .... 69 KAR'TIX XAG-XIN'S FIELD GUIDE TO So get yourself and your pc’s prepared for some water action. FRONTIER CREATURES, VOLUME III ... 76 FRONTIER EXPLORER ................. 80 Raise your dice hand high! William Douglass Sample [email protected] STAR FRONTIERS, WIZARDS OF THE COAST, and the WIZARDS OF THE COAST logo are trademarks belonging to Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used here without permission. © 2001 Wizards of the Coast. All Rights Reserved. The free distribution of this revised edition of the out-of-print game system is not intended to detract income from Wizards of the Coast. OPTIONAL RULES underwater, and they could trade, fight, or otherwise Going For A Swim interact with that race. By William Tracy Artificial gill suits Underwater action in To survive underwater for long periods, characters must employ a breathing apparatus known as an STAR FRONTIERS®gaming artificial gill suit (AGS), which covers the wearer’s entire body. It is made of a material that is similar to From Dragon Magazine #110 June 1986 that used in skeinsuits, and it may be left transparent or colored as the manufacturer desires. Normal goggles may be worn by Humans, Vrusk, and Yazirian divers. The AGS will absorb one- fourth of all damage caused by projectile and gyrojet weapons, fragmentation grenades, explosives, and melee weapons. It cannot be worn with any other suit of armor, but a screen may be used with it. When the AGS has taken 35 points of damage, it will be ruined and useless as armor. The AGS for Humans, Yazirians, and Vrusks conforms to their basic physical shape The AGS for Dralasites will stretch to accommodate their shape-changing abilities. During the course of a STAR FRONTIERS® campaign, a A Yazirian AGS covers the group of adventurers might want or need to enter an glide-wing membranes without hampering their use in underwater environment unfortunately, the rule swimming (see below). Much of the exterior of the books contain no rules for underwater play. This AGS is covered by a series of microfilters, all made of article attempts to rectify that situation, and some tough, translucent plastic. These microfilters draw additional equipment usable in undersea oxygen from the water, pumping the gas mixture environments is also presented using these rules, through small tubes to the area of the body where the adventuresSample could be created in which characters must wearer inhales air. The wastefile gases produced are reach an underwater city covered by a pressurized released directly from the suit. dome, escape from a damaged submarine, or swim in search of a sunken ship or crashed spacecraft. They The whole system is regulated by a computer chip and might also encounter a sentient race that lives powered by a small energy cell good for five hours OPTIONAL RULES – GOING FOR A SWIM before it needs to be recharged. The AGS also has a small digital display which can easily be seen by the wearer. The display shows the diver’s depth, time in Chances of Contracting the Bends the water, and the amount of power left in the suit’s Rate of Chance to get the Chance of Death energy cell. The suit also has a built-in low-frequency Ascent Bends radio system, which has a range of one kilometer. The 6 m/turn 10% 8% AGS weighs five kilograms and costs 800 Credits. The 7 m/turn 40% 16% suit can be safely used at a maximum depth of 110 8 m/turn 60% 24% meters on Earthlike planets. 9 m/turn 80% 32% 10+ 100% 40% If a deeper dive is attempted, there is a cumulative 5% m/turn chance per 10 meters below the safe limit that the AGS will malfunction. This chance must be rolled for If death is indicated, it will occur in 10 minutes. During every five minutes, with an additional 1% chance of these 10 minutes, the character will lose one-tenth of failure added for every additional five-minute period his current hit point value (rounded up) every minute spent beyond the first. The wearer will also take one This procedure can be stopped by a freeze field or a point of damage for every 10 meters he dives past the decompression chamber. A character must stay in a maximum safe depth. This damage will be taken every decompression chamber for a number of minutes minute and is caused by increased pressure. Dralasites equal to the lowest depth in meters that the character will not start taking pressure damage until they reach reached. If a character dives below 60 meters, even if a depth of 160 meters, due to their elastic abilities. he did not contract the bends, he must spend some There is also a 10% cumulative chance per 10 meters time in a decompression chamber. If the character of depth beyond the maximum safe limit, checked for does not do this, he will get a case of the bends, like every 10 minutes, that a Human or Yazirian character that described above; within 1d5 hours Dralasite will have vivid hallucinations for five minutes as a characters will never contract the bends due to their result of nitrogen narcosis. A check against the unique physiology. character’s Logic score lets him disbelieve the hallucinations. If characters need to dive deeper than their limits, they will have to use a submarine or an AGS designed If the AGS malfunctions, the character wearing it must for greater depths hold his breath until he can reach the water’s surface. A character can hold his breath for a number of turns equal to the character’s Stamina score divided by five. Movement If the character is still underwater after running out of Characters can swim at a rate of 10 meters per turn breath, the character will take 2d10 damage for every (or one kilometer per hour). If a character swims turn spent under water until death occurs from longer than one hour, he will lose five Stamina points drowning. If a character dives deeper than 10 meters, for every 30 minutes he continues swimming. These the character must ascend slowly (at a rate of five movement rates can be affected by obstacles such as meters per turn) or risk getting a case of the bends. seaweed or coral (or alien equivalents thereof). Rends are caused by nitrogen bubbles forming in the bloodstream, due to the quick change in pressure. If a character swims through seaweed, he must move This can cause intense pain, doing one point of at a rate of four meters per turn if a character tries to damage per round until the character is placed in a move faster than that, he may become entangled (a freeze field or a decompression chamber to stop the cumulative 10% per every turn of movement). This loss of Stamina points. The damage from should be checked for every third turn the character decompression will never exceed 40 points, though will be entangled for 1d10 turns (1d5 if the character death can still occur as a result of it. Note that there is has a sharp instrument with which to free himself). a chance of dying as a result of the bends, independentSample of the amount of damage taken, as per If a character swims through areasfile containing coral the table below. Dralasites do not get the bends. reefs, he must swim at a reduced rate of five meters per turn. Faster speeds allow for a 10% chance per turn traveled that the character will be cut by the OPTIONAL RULES sharp edges of the coral, causing 1d10 damage (half of be accommodated aboard it, though in VERY cramped which can he absorbed by an AGS suit). comfort. The sub carries four in relative comfort. The Another factor that might affect movement is the cargo limit is 1000 kilograms, within a space of two presence of underwater currents.