DwD Studios
Additional Alien Races
Thu, 05/24/2018 - 9:14am | 
Methuselas
So I have around 30 to 50 (mostly humanoid) aliens that I created originally intended as a Zebulon's Guide to Xenobiology type-thing, back when I was deep into the Star Frontiersman development. Of course, real life, having a kid, a major move and financial strain always managed to put it on the backburner. The majority of them are from old spiral notebooks I had from games I ran in the 90s.
Last night I found all my old Star Frontiers stuff on an external drive buried deep in a "to-do" folder. Not all the aliens were completed, but some of them still have the color concept art I rendered out. I picked up copies of the PH and RH for Frontier Space, last week and have read them front to back.
It shouldn't be much to convert them to Frontier Space, but the question is, would this even be relevant? Do people have a need for more aliens? I always ran my game like it was in a "galaxy far, far away", rather than just having the main 4 races (I still pretend that the Zebulon Guide and races never existed.)
Thoughts?
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Do these have consistent style Illustrations you own the rights to? Maybe this would make an amazing FrontierSpace supplement! Is there anything that is IP belonging to another source? Or is it all your creativity?
It's all my artwork. 3D renders, mostly. I only managed to re-paint a couple before I moved. I even found the 3D Model of the "Bee" scout bot I did for the Frontiersman, but never completed. I found EVERYTHING from 2008 or so. I thought I lost it all in a hard drive crash, but apparently had it tucked away on an external drive.
Keep in mind, all my background and history is based off the Frontier from TSR, not DwD. I don't have a lot of info on the DwD Frontier and it's kinda small. ;)
Ya know... I've heard that before that the FrontierSpace space sector is small... but I disagree. I modeled its scope after Star Frontiers.
The Frontier Sector in Star Frontiers from the Alpha Dawn core rule book is 34LY x 44LY, containing 50 star systems, 17 of which are settled, containing 4 distinct species living mostly in harmony.
The Frontier depicted in the FrontierSpace core rule book is 47LY x 80LY, containing 44 star systems, 25 of which are settled, containing 4 distinct species living mostly in harmony.
So they're not so different in scope really... of course, a supplement expanded the frontier as depicted in Zeb's Guide... which is exactly what could be done to this core rulebook.
Okay, I'll have to look at the map again. It just seemed sparse, but it might be the lack of UN-inhabited worlds. Then again, I've only read through the PDFs once (I wanted to get the actual books, but finances are still thin, so I opted to just buy BOTH pdfs, since they're the most recent core rules and I could get them both for the price of one, with a hard copy.)
I don't want to mess up any plans you have for backstory for planets, though.
Yes, there are indeed fewer uninhabited worlds, but more inhabited. I figured for the center of the setting it'd be that way. Expanding this to a larger area in each direction would certainly open it up to much more exploration, maybe bumping into more species, and that'd be a fun addition to the game. No worries about stepping on toes of DwD Studios. I'm a collaborator and am willing to work with folks.
I just want to avoid rulebook creep. XD
I hate the fact most systems require 20+ rulebooks.
This will give you an idea of what I was doing.
This was my original concept for the Gorlian from Star Frontiers, but someone beat me to it.
Bill,
So I've been doing some more FS reading and I have a solution I want to run by you.
I think I'm going to make a new map that's 47LY x 80LY and place it to the LEFT of the current Frontier Map. The FS Frontier map is to be "Sector 000" of the galaxy. Mine will be "Sector 001." Basically, if anyone wants to make a new sector of the Frontier Space galaxy, they make their map 47 x 80 and have to align it to a Sector so it matches up edge to edge.
If I do this and you're okay with it, can I make the Human homeworld? I planned on calling it "Terra" to be done with it and make it simple. If you have plans for the Human homeworld, I'm fine with that. I can easily make splinter colonies.
These designs look fantastic. Go ahead and create a PDF for them; I'd love to pick this up. If I could suggest, if they are for player character use, write them up in for a generic sci-fi setting (nothing too specific -- you know, it could fit the Frontiers of either the Star Frontiers or FrontierSpace games). Offer an advice brief with each race description with notes on adapting them specifically into the FrontierSpace setting (encounter notes, citizenship status, tech level differences, etc.) so that individual GMs can choose for themselves how they adapt each into their games. i can't wait to see your stuff.
These are notes from when I was working on Star Frontiers. Essentially PC/NPC designs. Some have back stories in the original frontier, some have Star Frontiers stats, some are just concept sketches and some are actual Morphs and Sculpts of actual models. All of them should be re-textured as they're a decade old.
My biggest complaint was the lack of aliens in Star Frontiers. Always having the big, bad Sathar as the antagonist, or "space pirates" got boring real quick for me. The issue is the "Frontier" is rather small. It's why I was electing to make an additional "sector" to the Frontier. That way, my stuff wouldn't necessarily "pollute" Frontier Space.