KaosDevice
Explorer
DragonLancer said:
I think I might give the ship combat system from Farscape a whirl on this one.
Bab5 D20-start of game
- Thread starter KaosDevice
- Start date
I think I might give the ship combat system from Farscape a whirl on this one.
qstor
Adventurer
I'm a big fan of the series and the writing in the books. I have a few of them. But if I ran a game, I might pick up D20 Future and use some of the material from there.
But of course I'm a Lazy DM and wouldn't want to convert all the ships from B5 into D20 Modern.
I started to write up a campaign based around the Narn Centauri war.
Mike
But of course I'm a Lazy DM and wouldn't want to convert all the ships from B5 into D20 Modern.
I started to write up a campaign based around the Narn Centauri war.
Mike
KaosDevice
Explorer
qstor said:
I'm using Mongoose's 'The Fiery Trial' as my A plot and then some stuff I'm working up for my B plot. Should be fun.
Howdy. Welcome aboard the B5 line!
Sorry for the late response, I have been very busy.
I really like Mongooses B5 lines. They have some great people working on it. If it has any problems, it would be the starship combat - which they are revising with a big hardcover Starship recognition guide later this year, or early the next. And I third (fourth? fifth?) the deadliness of the system. Keep it in mind when your players launch into thier first PPG fight.
I agree whole-heartedly with Dragonlancer. If you adhere to continuity (which our group insists on) it is challenging to find new mysteries to uncover. I mean everyone already knows about the shadows, the narn-centauri war, etc. Taking the vibrant universe and introducing new mysteries and events while still maintaining the B5 feel is a challenge. It took me a couple of tries to get it right.
I will try to give you some tips that will hopefully make your game exciting and vibrant.
The first thing is that the rules suggest you keep things on or around B5. You can do this, but if you do, you will constantly be overshadowed by the characters of the show. THEY will uncover the big mysteries. Nothing to big and exciting can happen, because if it did, then THEY would have been the ones to take care of it. So I think that B5 is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay there... For me the story has been told. It is now a way point for the PCs exciting adventures.
I suggest you create a new "base of operations" for the players that is somewhere else. Your base could be anything from a ship to a planetside colony to another station. Based on what type of campaign you want to run, choose your "base". When you do, you want to make it laden with possibilities - which will be connected to the time you run your game. If you are running a game set during the show, keep in mind the political situations. If during crusade, keep in mind that the the Vorlons and shadows are gone, but their seeds lay everywhere. If during the minbari shadow war, you are all minbari. Some possibilities include:
- a battlecruiser cruising along a hostile border
- a freighter who travels between star systems.
- a station out on the rim
Now take those ideas and make them B5
- a Narn battlecruiser that cruises along Centauri space and also bumps up against the Free zone, a neutral haven for raiders, smugglers, and wanderers
- You work on a tramp frieghter. The owner is really a high ranking member of a criminal syndicate or really and undercover agent for earth force securty. You find yourself going to all manner of worlds and connecting to the underworlds there - from B5 to Centauri Prime to the Drazi home world to the Free Zone (a haven fo scum and villainy) based on you background you could be smuggling as a cover for your Syndicates/Agencies real goals - to find out/get as much alien tech as possible.
- a neutral station out on the rim. The station is run by the Earth Alliance, but the system is neutral because of the strange stellar object found - a hyperspace wormhole. The station was made neutral to prevent races from warring over the find. Currently the Hyperspace wormhole is dangerous, because when you go into it, you come out a different place every time. So all races are there studying it, trying to find out if it is worth rumbling over. Eventually we will learn that this was a project of the Vorlons and it is somewhat sentient. Telepaths will be the key to determining where you come out (imagine what happens when the psi corp figures this out?!?!) It is on the rim, way out there and far from help. You have explorers, raiders, running pretty extensive operations out here as well as some of the lesser known non-aligned races that you can explore further.
Now consider your timeline and what you want to do with it.
- Our battlecruiser idea works great in 2258-2262.
*2258 Skirmishes with the Centuari. Intrigue dealing with spies and such in the Free Zone. You have the Narn selling technology and dealing with the results. Disapearences on old dead worlds in Narn space - things are starting to stir..... and of course Raider attacks.
*2259 the Narn-Centuri war. You have several eps where the Narn are on the offensive, then several while on the defensive. the loss of the war, and your cruiser is one of the lone surviving Narn ships on the run from the centauri.
*2260 You now run a series of eps as guerillas against the Narn. Then your crew signs up with Sheridan. You spend the rest of the season fighting with the rangers against the shadow threat. In the climax, the cruiser is destroyed in a shadow attack (sliced in two), you could find your the characters escape... barely.
*2261 in honor of their noble sacrifice, your PCs are assigned to a whitestar crew, and go on to fight the shadow war in style, freeing Narn, and then the retaking of earth.
- Our freighter now:
*2258 A season of establishing the setting... contacts, rivals, fighting of raiders up close and personal, and seeing dark things moving when you are not looking at them in when in deep space.
*2258 ramp up your underworld tale with a conflict between powerful alien/human crime syndicates that you have involved them in(make them contain lots of B5 aliens). Force the players to take sides. Along the way, run some smuggling runs through war-zones between the narn and centauri
*2259 As earth gets more serious, your part alien crew starts to experience discrimination. Take sanctuary at B5 when it declares independance. Be confronted by sheridan who has a use for your talents. Have spy runs into EA occupied territory to deliver secret information to contacts on earth an other colonies. Pop through war zones as the centuri "expand" their borders and smuggle refugees out to B5. Flee as the shadows begin to attack openly.
*2260 Run recons during the shadow war as a innocent smuggler. Get id'd as a pirate or traitor by EA. Go on the run for a few eps playing cat and mouse with an EA cruiser, with the PCs being unable to get back to B5. Join the fight to retake earth as your freighter is retrofitted with minbari jammer tech and you begin to do stealthy incursions into earth space. Conduct a failed plot to free sheridan. Work with the Mars resistance. experience the civil war on a personal level on mars. Plus see the effects of a dictatorship first hand. Then when it is all over, the PCs dance away in their new minbari-tech frieghter with an amnesty.....
- our station now:
*2258 The first season is all about settling in. The edge of the frontier is a dangerous place. Raiders are far brasher. Vigilantism. Think frontier town (Deadwood with all the B5 aliens not holding back one bit), with the poor EA officers simply stuggling to hold the place together. And then there are the sightings of "things" moving around out there...
*2259 The Narn Centauri War heats up and the colony/station is contested territory with neither side wanting it to fall into the others hands. The discovery of ruins on the systems only habitable planet leads to clues as to how it works. These ruins indicate that the key to its usage is telepaths. Meanwhile the galaxy is going to hell in a handbasket. This season explore the darker EA projects, the consequences of war, and the discovery of things greater than one-self watching from a distance.
*2260 - build up to the EA civil war in grand fashion... follow the show closely making EA tighten their grip on the station, and start requiring aliens to register, etc. bring aboard political officers, and park a clark Omega on its door. This time when the civil war breaks out, have the OMEGA get jumped and destroyed by two break-away cruisers, like B5 have them enlist the station, and just when the players think they know whats coming, have the station fall to pro clark forces. The command staff (and characters) try to escape via the hyperspace point with a telepath and all that they have learned. They do so, and end up back in time during the last shadow war. Have them make their way to Babylon 4, enlist with Valen to fight the big fight. While in the past, we learn that the hyperspace point is really a failed experiemnt of the Vorlons. They bury the secret of destroying it deep in the mind of the PC telepath. They fight the last shadow war making it their war (including a mysterious shadow-omega that somehow made it back in time with them - where did it come from, and why was it here?). By using the last shadow war as a playground, you can throw whatever you want that the PCs and keep to continutuity -- thereby making it their war! Once they fight the shadow war over several eps, the Vorlons "escort" them back to the future by cryo freezing them in vats for a thousand years....
*2261 In the future, the PCs are found by rangers in a easter-egg type message left by Kosh (complete with riddles). Might be fun to run an adventure with other PCs who unlock the mysteries, and find the tanks containing the PCs other characters!!! Anyway, after being awakened, they are sent to B5, and enlist with Sheridan (thanks to a personal message from Valen - delivered by envelope of course), and then work with Sheridan to retake earth. While Sheridan heads towards earth, the PCs stir up trouble the other direction to keep clarks forces spread thin. They return and retake their station, now much less defended as clark has recalled the mainstay of the fleet. Once they regain their station, all seems well, Sheridan is on Mars, the final battle is about to take place. And then hit them with their season finale - clark has sent a lone shadow-omega to either retake the station or destroy it. A group of rangers intercepted the order, and just beat the PCs back to the station to warn the PCs. If the PCs are smart, after a big ol' fight, they will make the connections, and lure the shadow-omega into the hyperspace point, and close it permanently... who knows where it went? Or *when* it will show up again.... (the PCs will marvel at your continutuity. cuz they really know. They fought it and finished it off over a thousand years before). After the final fight, the station is turned over to the Alliance, the PCs are given amnestry, and you are ready to take on the Drakh!
So once you have a outline, like those above, break each "season" down to ten to twelve eps, and you are off. Enough B5 for years to come. All fresh, new, but distinctly B5. And your players will have played an interesting major role in the events of the show without impacting the continuity. Your characters will have become apart of B5 lore!
The race guides on the big 4 and the League books are filled with great stuff to take you in new directions. I highly recommend them.
Hope that helps!
Razuur
Sorry for the late response, I have been very busy.
I really like Mongooses B5 lines. They have some great people working on it. If it has any problems, it would be the starship combat - which they are revising with a big hardcover Starship recognition guide later this year, or early the next. And I third (fourth? fifth?) the deadliness of the system. Keep it in mind when your players launch into thier first PPG fight.
I agree whole-heartedly with Dragonlancer. If you adhere to continuity (which our group insists on) it is challenging to find new mysteries to uncover. I mean everyone already knows about the shadows, the narn-centauri war, etc. Taking the vibrant universe and introducing new mysteries and events while still maintaining the B5 feel is a challenge. It took me a couple of tries to get it right.
I will try to give you some tips that will hopefully make your game exciting and vibrant.
The first thing is that the rules suggest you keep things on or around B5. You can do this, but if you do, you will constantly be overshadowed by the characters of the show. THEY will uncover the big mysteries. Nothing to big and exciting can happen, because if it did, then THEY would have been the ones to take care of it. So I think that B5 is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay there... For me the story has been told. It is now a way point for the PCs exciting adventures.
I suggest you create a new "base of operations" for the players that is somewhere else. Your base could be anything from a ship to a planetside colony to another station. Based on what type of campaign you want to run, choose your "base". When you do, you want to make it laden with possibilities - which will be connected to the time you run your game. If you are running a game set during the show, keep in mind the political situations. If during crusade, keep in mind that the the Vorlons and shadows are gone, but their seeds lay everywhere. If during the minbari shadow war, you are all minbari. Some possibilities include:
- a battlecruiser cruising along a hostile border
- a freighter who travels between star systems.
- a station out on the rim
Now take those ideas and make them B5
- a Narn battlecruiser that cruises along Centauri space and also bumps up against the Free zone, a neutral haven for raiders, smugglers, and wanderers
- You work on a tramp frieghter. The owner is really a high ranking member of a criminal syndicate or really and undercover agent for earth force securty. You find yourself going to all manner of worlds and connecting to the underworlds there - from B5 to Centauri Prime to the Drazi home world to the Free Zone (a haven fo scum and villainy) based on you background you could be smuggling as a cover for your Syndicates/Agencies real goals - to find out/get as much alien tech as possible.
- a neutral station out on the rim. The station is run by the Earth Alliance, but the system is neutral because of the strange stellar object found - a hyperspace wormhole. The station was made neutral to prevent races from warring over the find. Currently the Hyperspace wormhole is dangerous, because when you go into it, you come out a different place every time. So all races are there studying it, trying to find out if it is worth rumbling over. Eventually we will learn that this was a project of the Vorlons and it is somewhat sentient. Telepaths will be the key to determining where you come out (imagine what happens when the psi corp figures this out?!?!) It is on the rim, way out there and far from help. You have explorers, raiders, running pretty extensive operations out here as well as some of the lesser known non-aligned races that you can explore further.
Now consider your timeline and what you want to do with it.
- Our battlecruiser idea works great in 2258-2262.
*2258 Skirmishes with the Centuari. Intrigue dealing with spies and such in the Free Zone. You have the Narn selling technology and dealing with the results. Disapearences on old dead worlds in Narn space - things are starting to stir..... and of course Raider attacks.
*2259 the Narn-Centuri war. You have several eps where the Narn are on the offensive, then several while on the defensive. the loss of the war, and your cruiser is one of the lone surviving Narn ships on the run from the centauri.
*2260 You now run a series of eps as guerillas against the Narn. Then your crew signs up with Sheridan. You spend the rest of the season fighting with the rangers against the shadow threat. In the climax, the cruiser is destroyed in a shadow attack (sliced in two), you could find your the characters escape... barely.
*2261 in honor of their noble sacrifice, your PCs are assigned to a whitestar crew, and go on to fight the shadow war in style, freeing Narn, and then the retaking of earth.
- Our freighter now:
*2258 A season of establishing the setting... contacts, rivals, fighting of raiders up close and personal, and seeing dark things moving when you are not looking at them in when in deep space.
*2258 ramp up your underworld tale with a conflict between powerful alien/human crime syndicates that you have involved them in(make them contain lots of B5 aliens). Force the players to take sides. Along the way, run some smuggling runs through war-zones between the narn and centauri
*2259 As earth gets more serious, your part alien crew starts to experience discrimination. Take sanctuary at B5 when it declares independance. Be confronted by sheridan who has a use for your talents. Have spy runs into EA occupied territory to deliver secret information to contacts on earth an other colonies. Pop through war zones as the centuri "expand" their borders and smuggle refugees out to B5. Flee as the shadows begin to attack openly.
*2260 Run recons during the shadow war as a innocent smuggler. Get id'd as a pirate or traitor by EA. Go on the run for a few eps playing cat and mouse with an EA cruiser, with the PCs being unable to get back to B5. Join the fight to retake earth as your freighter is retrofitted with minbari jammer tech and you begin to do stealthy incursions into earth space. Conduct a failed plot to free sheridan. Work with the Mars resistance. experience the civil war on a personal level on mars. Plus see the effects of a dictatorship first hand. Then when it is all over, the PCs dance away in their new minbari-tech frieghter with an amnesty.....
- our station now:
*2258 The first season is all about settling in. The edge of the frontier is a dangerous place. Raiders are far brasher. Vigilantism. Think frontier town (Deadwood with all the B5 aliens not holding back one bit), with the poor EA officers simply stuggling to hold the place together. And then there are the sightings of "things" moving around out there...
*2259 The Narn Centauri War heats up and the colony/station is contested territory with neither side wanting it to fall into the others hands. The discovery of ruins on the systems only habitable planet leads to clues as to how it works. These ruins indicate that the key to its usage is telepaths. Meanwhile the galaxy is going to hell in a handbasket. This season explore the darker EA projects, the consequences of war, and the discovery of things greater than one-self watching from a distance.
*2260 - build up to the EA civil war in grand fashion... follow the show closely making EA tighten their grip on the station, and start requiring aliens to register, etc. bring aboard political officers, and park a clark Omega on its door. This time when the civil war breaks out, have the OMEGA get jumped and destroyed by two break-away cruisers, like B5 have them enlist the station, and just when the players think they know whats coming, have the station fall to pro clark forces. The command staff (and characters) try to escape via the hyperspace point with a telepath and all that they have learned. They do so, and end up back in time during the last shadow war. Have them make their way to Babylon 4, enlist with Valen to fight the big fight. While in the past, we learn that the hyperspace point is really a failed experiemnt of the Vorlons. They bury the secret of destroying it deep in the mind of the PC telepath. They fight the last shadow war making it their war (including a mysterious shadow-omega that somehow made it back in time with them - where did it come from, and why was it here?). By using the last shadow war as a playground, you can throw whatever you want that the PCs and keep to continutuity -- thereby making it their war! Once they fight the shadow war over several eps, the Vorlons "escort" them back to the future by cryo freezing them in vats for a thousand years....
*2261 In the future, the PCs are found by rangers in a easter-egg type message left by Kosh (complete with riddles). Might be fun to run an adventure with other PCs who unlock the mysteries, and find the tanks containing the PCs other characters!!! Anyway, after being awakened, they are sent to B5, and enlist with Sheridan (thanks to a personal message from Valen - delivered by envelope of course), and then work with Sheridan to retake earth. While Sheridan heads towards earth, the PCs stir up trouble the other direction to keep clarks forces spread thin. They return and retake their station, now much less defended as clark has recalled the mainstay of the fleet. Once they regain their station, all seems well, Sheridan is on Mars, the final battle is about to take place. And then hit them with their season finale - clark has sent a lone shadow-omega to either retake the station or destroy it. A group of rangers intercepted the order, and just beat the PCs back to the station to warn the PCs. If the PCs are smart, after a big ol' fight, they will make the connections, and lure the shadow-omega into the hyperspace point, and close it permanently... who knows where it went? Or *when* it will show up again.... (the PCs will marvel at your continutuity. cuz they really know. They fought it and finished it off over a thousand years before). After the final fight, the station is turned over to the Alliance, the PCs are given amnestry, and you are ready to take on the Drakh!
So once you have a outline, like those above, break each "season" down to ten to twelve eps, and you are off. Enough B5 for years to come. All fresh, new, but distinctly B5. And your players will have played an interesting major role in the events of the show without impacting the continuity. Your characters will have become apart of B5 lore!
The race guides on the big 4 and the League books are filled with great stuff to take you in new directions. I highly recommend them.
Hope that helps!
Razuur
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Oh, slightly off topic, but I am also gearing up for a B5 campaign that I am planning to run in a few months.
Stealing a page from TV series in general I am using World Works Games' First Light and the Retrofit expansion to prebuild some recurring sets. How many times do you see a firefight in the same bit of corridor in the series? How many times can they use the Ambassador's Suite with changes of details to serve for all the ambassadors? The Zocolo? The Bridge? A hangar bay? A cargo hold? All can get reused, which means that I can build a few set pieces, some props, and not have to worry about them again. If I liked the B5 ship combat system better I would build a ship as well... A small freighter and crew would be rather handy as 'minor' PCs. (Like the series I like to have the ability to pick up the action going on in another area of the campaign while the main PCs are busy with another plot.
My game starts during the building of the original Babylon Station, focussing in the early sessions on what is going on after Earth 'wins' the war against the Minbari... I have run a portion of this before, with the old Babylon Project game. (Which used a great ship combat system...)
The Auld Grump
Stealing a page from TV series in general I am using World Works Games' First Light and the Retrofit expansion to prebuild some recurring sets. How many times do you see a firefight in the same bit of corridor in the series? How many times can they use the Ambassador's Suite with changes of details to serve for all the ambassadors? The Zocolo? The Bridge? A hangar bay? A cargo hold? All can get reused, which means that I can build a few set pieces, some props, and not have to worry about them again. If I liked the B5 ship combat system better I would build a ship as well... A small freighter and crew would be rather handy as 'minor' PCs. (Like the series I like to have the ability to pick up the action going on in another area of the campaign while the main PCs are busy with another plot.
My game starts during the building of the original Babylon Station, focussing in the early sessions on what is going on after Earth 'wins' the war against the Minbari... I have run a portion of this before, with the old Babylon Project game. (Which used a great ship combat system...)
The Auld Grump
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