Re: Ecology of the Scro

Sorry for the delay in responding Ben, a work like this deserves a thorough
read and I wanted to give it one.  I have a few comments.

>        The scro are unique among most races in that we have only one god. We
>are monotheistic, and we look to Dukagsh for all our blessings and all
>our needs. To understand my people you must understand our god, and how
>he trained our minds and bodies to becomes weapons of his will.

Actually, this would be 'hennotheism', basically similar to the Hebrew
tribes of Moses. 'Monotheism' is the belief that only one god _exists_,
that there are no other gods. 'Hennotheism' is the belief that while other
gods may exist, there is only one god for this people and they will worship
no others.  This is a pedantic comment, I admit!:)


>        At a young age we each choose a Mohr Kraz- a Life Study. We choose an
>avenue of knowledge and seek to learn as much as can be learned for that
>specialty.

This is too similar to the 'Life Quest' of Tinker Gnomes for my taste.


>a young race compared to the others among the stars. But we grow at a
>rapid rate, our last study of the matter revealed over 120 million scro
>within our domains.

I think its important to keep numbers vague, this reduces the need for the
reader to suspend disbelief.

>readied long before a battle to simplify the use of our weapons. Then the
>gunsmiths soon followed with a brilliant invention. The cartridge allowed
>them to design a weapon that held more bullets and could be fired many
>times before reloading. Looking back to Dukagshís double barreled
>arquebus they designed the revolver, a hand held pistol that held
>cartridges in a rotating cylinder that fired and turned across a waiting
>barrel. Years later the gunsmiths built the first lever action rifles,

Like others have pointed out, I think introducing 'modern' weapons is
problamatic. First, it seriously affect the feel of the game. Second, there
are several technologies that are required first for such weapons to cme
into play.  There is a reason it took our world as long as it did to
develop such weapons, and they weren't developed everywhere.  Third, such
weapons haven't shown up in any official material, and they should have.
Their inclusion makes this an 'alternate' scro version (which is cool). I
have advanced the scro to Reformation-era weapons instead, using those from
_A Mighty Fortress_. This gives them a significent technological edge to
counter elven magic, yet remains 'fantasy'.

>        We scro saw a change within ten years that revitalized the empire. We
>began to use steam engines and Falchatz construction ideas on all our
>worlds.

Steam engines would not be as much help in ship building as you might
think. What they really need is a new style of forge, like the Catalan
forge.

Well, the rest basically follows the same lines.  It's a detailed write up,
which makes sense within its own parameters.  It's far too modern for my
tastes (and I don't like the concept of the Morags) but as an alternative
version of the scro it has a lot to commend itself.

I think it would work better in a 'future' version of Spelljammer, perhaps
a combination of Spelljammer with _Masque of the Red Death_.  In fact, your
scro would make great 'invaders from beyond' in that campaign world.

It upsets me that so much of my cmments are negative.:( The work is good,
it is well written, and very detailed. It shows a great deal of
imagination.  It just moves Spelljammer in a direction I personally don't
like. For those who want a more 'sci-fi' feel though, this seems well
designed.

Any way, thanks for sharing Ben!!!

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, OSU Dept of History
Adjunct Professor, Columbus State Humanities Dept