1988 to 1991: College Years

1988 to 1991: College Years

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System: Star Frontiers, modified Zebulon’s Guide system

Setting: Star Frontiers mixed with material inspired by Other Suns, what became the first incarnation of Advanced SF.

Started: 1989-1991 (estimated)

When/Where: UNCC Guild

Star Frontiers merged with Other Suns, ran several loosely linked adventures over several years. Many good memories and made some very close friends through my college years.

Source Material

Adventure Timeline

This is a basic timeline of all the adventures I ran under the Advanced Star Frontiers (pre-4th Edition) rules during my college years. It became rather popular among my friends, and it spread to as far as Arizona. I hope these help to give you ideas on adventures to run. Some of these are loosely based on adventures written for the SF universe, but I modified them to my liking.

163 fy

 Mystery in Conildra Tatil

Conildra Tatil 1

Planet: Outer Reach

System: Dramune

The Players are sent as a freelance Star Law Mercenary team into a covertly-run prison city on Outer Reach. The Star Law specialist on the planet secretly contain criminals in the city of Conildra Tatil, through brain scanning and implants. The criminals have fragmented into clans and are beginning to clash. A very important Council Senator has stumbled across the city, which was supposed to be kept secret from the Council of Worlds. Unfortunately, the Senator has been captured by one of the Clans and they are asking for freedom from a prison the inmates aren’t supposed to realize exists. All inmates are programmed to think that they are free to do what they want, and not realize the prison existence. Star Law wants the Senator out, and back in their hands, as well as information about why this mysterious faction knows they are being contained. The PCs face radical factions of the extreme kind, victimizing corporation that secretly experiment with in the city, and violence beyond any comprehension within the Frontier. They face a dark group of mentalist tapping alien powers that no one knew ever existed. These were no normal in-mates.

164 fy

Mission to Alcazzar (modified from original version)

Planet: Alcazzar

System: Rhianna

Hostile take over of a CDC industrial colony by Streel, using some unconventional as well as conventional methods. Horrid bio-weapons that mutate their victims into writhing masses of tenticles, shows that Streel has decided to take corporate wars to a new level.

165 fy

Sundown at Starmist: The Clikk Arise. (modified from original version)

Shri'ikii Campaign

Planet: Starmist

System: Sundown

A mission to investigate a archeological mystery leads to the initial unveiling of a dark race that haunts the stars of Allied space but has never been seen; the Shri’ikki. PCs have to engage a horde of Shri’ikii attack drones, called Clikks. They discover ancient Shri’iki artifacts like an alien hover tank, and use them to ultimately destroy the threat.

170 fy

Return to Starmist – Part 1: Slaves of the Shri’ikk

Shri'ikii Campaign

Planet: Hargut

System: Gruna Garu

PCs uncover a conspiracy of terrorism and mind control against a corporation, MEAR, that has recently sent a mission to Starmist. PCs fight off a group of cloaked terrorists, pirates armed with Federanium projectile weapons, and their masters, to save a corporation from destruction, while other competing corporation help the destruction along in their own manner. They travel in the sewers of the city and find MEAR’s left GEMM (Genetically Engineered Mutants/Mistakes) dumping ground.

171 fy

Return to Starmist – Part 2: The Shri’ikki Arise

Shri'ikii Campaign

Planet: Starmist

System: Sundown

PCs are hired as security for the Starmist mission, after their efforts on Gruna Garu are recognized. They find out, as a result of actions taken in “Sundown at Starmist”, whether the PCs were directly involved in it or not, a huge solid Federanium alien ship has arisen from beneath the ground. Players have to fend off pirates that are after the ship, a conspiracy with in the mission and Clikk warriors that survived the first adventure.

172 fy

Noninterference Legally Violated – First Contact: Thrid – Birth of Alamane

Alamane

Planet: Zebrefron (Odessa IV)

System: Zebrir (Odessa)

PCs are called onto a first contact mission that intends to legally violate the Alliance’s noninterference laws. A newly discovered race is engaged in a viscous war that has apparently wiped out a majority of their population. The first contact team intends to peacefully stop the war for the sake of the race, and attempt to revive some semblance of civilization. What they discover is an old Terran colony, a conspiracy conducted by the Imperial humans to cover up barbaric practices held secret on this planet, and an ancient malevolent entity that used to be human, named Alex Korosh Alamane.

The world was once an old Terran colony, run by some of the most powerful Terran mega-corporations. As the need for a more diversified work became strong, the corporation began experimenting on forced-evolution techniques and human genetic manipulation to create specialized workers. These workers were left behind when the corporation when under, and the colony was abandoned. The strongest of them continued to evolve, and the two strongest remained after several centuries of war.

What was left of the corporation execs remained in sleeper chambers, because they planned to awaken to a new world for them to rule. What they didn’t plan on was one of their ranks, Alex Korosh Alamane, to use alien technology to feed on their psionic essences, increasing his own. They all died, and he became a very powerful being no longer truly human. The players killed the human body of Alamane, but his psionic essence escaped into the planet-wide computer. They knew that wouldn’t be the last they heard from him.

173 fy

Holier than Thou – Alamane meets the Shri’ikk

Alamane Shri'ikii Campaign

Planet: Chueju – “Chuie”

System: Narquel

(Based on Challenge Magazine #64 Unholier than thou)PCs are hired to thwart the efforts of a militant cult called the Equlisiasty of Narquel, led by Ian Narquel. The rich and powerful human cult has invested into a collapsing corporation known as MEAR, which has assets on a planet called Chueju (“Chuie”). The government of Chuie does not want anything to do with the Equlisiasty, and will go to any effort to boot them into orbit. The PCs face Alamane again, as he controls the Equlisiasty, and are forced to team up with a Shri’ikki and his Clikk minions to destroy all of MEAR’s records on Chuie and oust the Equlisiasty.

Did you drop Some Thing?

Planet: Arias III

System: Arias

While in the Void, the PCs’ ship receives a distress signal from a Streel corporate freighter under attack by pirates. The ship detonates upon the PCs arrival, lifepods flying in all directions. With orders to recover all survivors, the PCs land on a isolated planet marked as a Noninterference planet by Star Law, Arias III. The PCs confront a band of pirates lead by a Sathar/Que’Sha cross-breed left over from the last Sathar War, and a Streel Bio-Weapon that was dropped from the freighter.

Ancient Derelict

In asteroid field, in uncharted space. As a result of a Misjump, the PCs end up in uncharted space where they find a derelict starship, obviously, of Old Terran design. Onboard they discover the last place it visited was an ancient Dyson Sphere, in a far off sector. They discover signs of mad suicides and murders, and a very deceptive and deadly alien entity. (Based on a Traveller adventure in Challenge Magazine #65 called Derelict).

175 fy

Colonial Conflict – Rangers of Graltuane 

An attempted campaign where the PCs were assigned as a special “untouchable” unit of Star Law rangers on a Sovereignty colony.

176 fy

Armageddon: The Girrillian Greed – Part 1 of the Girrillian Chronicles

Planet: Arion III

System: Arion

The PCs are lured to the planet Arion, a once great and powerful colony world in a joint sector shared by two Dominion of Sovereignty species. The planet Arion is swiftly self-destructing, and evacuation efforts have been less than successful. Raiders seize the moment, parasitic criminals flocking to the planet in an attempt to take advantage of the chaos. A known mercenary kingpin hires the PCs for what he calls a “mission of mercy” for several hundred refugees. The PCs face the viscous planet surface as it explodes around them, looting raiders reaping the spoils of the chaos, corporate GEMMs (Genetically Engineered Mutants/Mistakes) let loose from abandoned corporate storage, and discover a cover up that has destroyed millions of lives. A corporation owned by a greedy crimelord named Girrillian, has caused all the problems of Arion III, and are taking no steps to rectify. Apparently, Arion III was rich in veins of a highly volatile element dubbed Thundranium. Thundranium only becomes volatile under specific conditions, and in a field test of a prototype weapon, this corporation caused the chain reaction to set of all the Thundranium in the planets crust.

The Hunt And Resurrection: The Zed Strike – Alamane’s Death

Alamane The Hunt & Resurrection

Planet: Vex III

System: Vexor

The PCs are drafted by Star Law to act as an observation team to watch a planetary survey that is being conducted (in part) by a Noble Family. The planet is being investigated for possible colonization, in extreme secret (the family is a target for an extremely radical terrorist group called the Gray Vengeance.) The PCs will watch for any violation of the Non-interference laws and act as Frontier escorts (bodyguards) for the Noble entourage that will be accompanying the survey (a young boy – teenage, by human terms.). The players face the last remnants of a old Terran colony that has strange customs, remnants of Alamane’s legacy as a corporate president of THRID, the hidden power within the minds eye of a young boy, and the destructive power of an alien race called the Zed – a race of nanite based creatures that use flesh as there raw materials. PCs also discover evidence of the Zeds origin points to the Dyson Sphere in the Ancient Derelict Adventure.

178 fy

Planet of the High-Breed.  The Eleanor Moraes Returns

Planet: Altrensia

System: Altrear

The HighBreed

The PCs are a part of the revived Eleanor Moraes missions, modeled after the original to survey planets the old fashioned way. On board the Eleanor Moraes IV, the players are hired to be general labor for a standard mission to a surveyable planet. However, there are secrets on that planet that someone does not want the surveyors to see. The PCs face a Streel plot to fowl the survey team and destroy their ship, a society of GEMMs (Genetically Engineered Mutants/Mistakes) that was not supposed to exist, bizarre intelligent crystals that have integrated themselves into the GEMM Society, and remnants of a old Terran colony leading to the origin of the Drell, the crystalline life forms. The Drell are the only reason the Highbred exist. The Drell are crystalline entities from an ancient once-planet-wide computer that evolved threw the centuries to complete colony-based sentience. Each crystal is an entity in itself, and has strong psionic powers, enough to manipulate life force, and keep the Highbred alive. They have established a symbiotic relationship with the Highbred and have modified the Highbred physiology, fixed the genetic mistakes, to the point that they can live and thrive as a society.

Saint Sinner Campaign

Saint Sinner

Saint Sinner Part 1 – Khan of End – Return to Conildra Tatil – Girrillian Chronicles Part 2

Planet: Outer Reach

System: Dramune

PCs unknowingly begin the quest into the corruption of Girillians kingdom. Star Law hires the PCs as freelance mercs as part of a mass man-hunt to get Ramsey Dramius, a seemingly insignificant gun-smuggler and pirate. He is said to be last seen on the planet Outer Reach, in the city once known as Conildra Tatil, now renamed End City. Star Law abandoned the prison city after the massive unrest that resulted from the uprising of 163 fy (Mystery of Conildra Tatil), and sold it to the corporations. The city is now suddenly at peace after the rise of the Khan of End, and as part of the PCs job, they will gather intelligence information about the city and the corporate activities within. When it was sold to the corps, Star Law agreed to stay out as part of an agreement. The PCs are told not to get caught by the corporation. They are given the code name SparkFire and a ship, the Long Shot. They are also told that if they can recover any Star Law equipment abandoned there, there will be a bonus. The PCs face a whole new threat with in Conildra Tatil as the clans have regained new strength since 15 years ago, and new dangers from the corps. The corps, with complete control of End, use it not only as a testing ground, but also as storage for special specimens, like a Kzin prisoner of war no one knows about, and a small group of Shri’ikk captured from Starmist. The PCs face this plus they tangle with a few of Dramius’s enemies, including a mysterious group of high powered Human sovereignty  Imperial Marines that will stop at nothing to see Dramius dead. They also make a pact with the Khan who they realize later is a Girrillian clone that escaped, and learn of a secret circle building against Girrillian, the Order of Bakash. The Order knows of several Girrillians clones with in his organization that want out but can’t. Dr. Jamus Arlington-Welles is the key to that, and the PCs will be crossing paths with him also.(

Saint Sinner Part 2: United We Stand

Planet: Rupert’s Hole

System: Cassadine

Dramius leads the PCs on a chase after escaping via a BAP bin on Outer Reach, to the Cassadine system, which supplies the Frontier with 75% of all its raw food material. The encounter a strange cult like society of humans that control this food supply. The United is a large society of Amish-like humans that follow the Way of the Quosod. Dramius easily slips into hiding with in the society, in order to pick some cargo. The PCs are ordered to find out what the cargo is. The PCs deal with the mysterious separationism of the United, limited in all their movement by Laws set down by the United. They discover a dark and alien secret with in the United that no one is supposed to know; the Quosod is more than just a doctrine, but an alien-plant parasite, being grown amongst the foodstuff on planet, that controls the United in a plot to control the Frontier through their food supply.

Saint Sinner Part 3: The Church of Glom & The Warriors of Sor

Planet: Timeon IV (Kischen Minor)

System: Timeon

After finally drawing the PCs on his side in the last part & getting his cargo of 8 Saurian Warriors of the svik Sor, they travel to the Sor-dominated world of Kischen Minor, a dense and dead rock of a planet. The PCs are told that there is severe tension between the svik ruling Chief and the Church. The Warriors of Sor, a disbanded Royal Guard for the Chief, are scattered through out the area, and need to regroup to save the Chieftanship. A call to arms is ordered, and the PCs are asked to help. They discover the immense Citadel built by the svik of Sor beneath the surface of the planet, in an ocean of acid and industrial waste. The PCs deal with the internal politics and learn of Streels influence on these politics, and Girrillians attempts to stop their efforts all together. Also, Girrillians is hot on their trail, wanting Dramius dead, as well as the PCs. He sends his secret assassin Sandman to do the job, as well as one of his 48 unstable clones. The last 48 made of the 96 clones were mentally unstable in many ways. This information comes out slowly through the first three parts of the Saint Sinner adventure.

Saint Sinner Part 4: Narusian Sanctuary

Planet: Naru III

System: Narus

The PCs continue to accompany Dramius in his crusade against oppression, with hopes to eventually take down Girrillian. They get a chance to meet the Order of Bakash, a circle of vigilantes out to destroy what the authorities can’t seem to; Girillian’s power. The order consists of former corporate officials from many of the now-Girrillian owned corps, and other that have been effected by Girrillian’s Greed. Upon receiving sanction from the Order, the players go with Dramius to his last and most important deal; the Narusian colony, where a Human sovereignty megacorp, InstelComm Corp., has secretly made a deal with an otherwise unknown race, the Talgorians. The Talgorian Empire has enslaved an intelligent race on a particular planet, Naru III, and processes them into a drug they sell to a mysterious client. As part of a trade deal the Human sovereignty mega-corporation made with the Talgorians, the processing plants on Naru III would be taken over by InstelComm, which in return would get exploration rights within the Talgorian Empire. Dramius is supporting a slow-growing resistance group that has arisen within the Narusians. He needs the players as mercenary advisors. The PCs face the harsh environment of the swamp world Naru III, the Imperial Marine Garrison lead by a new enemy, General Gregorius Alyas-Ceasar Masterson, and discover who the Talgorian’s mysterious client is, along with who arranges the deals. The Talgorians trade with the Kzinti Empire’s fringe, and now the Human sovereignty is involved. The deal-arranger turns out to be Girrillian himself.

179 fy

Saint Sinner Part 5: Fall from Grace – The Fragments of Grastal

Planet: Grastal

System: Gras Pron (Within Kzin Space)

After stowing on board a Talgorian drug freighter, the player travel far across unknown space, hidden in the holds . They are delivered to an asteroid field where they are picked up by a Grastal Trade Syndicate freighter and brought to Grastal. On the Kzin occupied planet in the Kzin Empire, the PCs finally locate the real Girrillian, hidden with in the enclaves of the Kzin Patriarch. He is the primary trade king for the Kzin drug, potekra; a psi-enhancing made from the blood of the Narusians. The PCs are forced to hide with in the occupied society of the planet, combat the harsh environment of a post Kzin-invasion world, and integrate into a society of alien dissidents in an alien city made from the ruins of a tremendous fortress. The players are thrown into a world of warring factions that are too busy with trying to kill each other to think about their Kzin keepers. Peace between the factions seems impossible, but the only way to fight their way to their target; Girrillian. They discover aliens races of unique quality, myths that have more truths in them then most believe, and the last remnants of a puzzling race long thought annihilated by the Kzin; the Raspkod.

The Citadel & The Evolved: The Plague of the Insanities

The Citadel

Planet: Eltross

System: Eltria

The PCs are hired for a special research team to investigate some kind of trouble brewing in a remote ranching planet, bordering the Frontier. The PCs are told that there as a strange discovery in the mountains that cover a majority of the surface of Eltross, and since then, there was no contact from the colony. The last contact with the scout team described a large artifact inbedded in the moutai-side; a huge conical shaped craft. On arrival, the PCs discover that the ranch colony is devastated by a strange mental plague driving all colonist insane, and is also under assault by a alien race that is all too familiar but yet changed… Evolved Mechanon. The PCs face a new alien race of intergalactic law enforcers, the Morad, an imprisoned race the Morad are responsible for, the Ravers, a solid federanium ship crashed in the mountains that is conical in shape that acts as an alien prison, and the Plague of the Insanities, the Ravers first attack.

198 fy

Operation: Madhouse

Madhouse

Planet: Hannibal

System: Lector

The PCs are drafted into a special mission for Star Law, involving military intelligence for the War Effort against the Kzin and the Khalia. The mission is highly secret and dangerous. The PCs will be sent to a former specialized penal colony long abandoned by Star Law. Apparently, before the penal colony was shut down, Star law sent what was considered an insane human to the colony, not long after which, Star Law abandoned the project to upkeep the colony; a colony for the criminally insane. The PCs are to get this human off the planet, and get the information he holds. No indication of what the information is, is given. The PCs face espionage tricks, clans of the insane asylum, two enemy strike team – one Kzin and the other Sauron, and the remnants of an insane prison let loose to rule their own world.