Re: Planejammer

From: "Michael Shell" <FenrysStar@???.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 3:57 AM


> <snip> But I also have the
> imagination that runs more often than not to furry characters. My one 
> storyline
> that I should get back to writing about that revolves the adventures of 
> space
> pirates that are all athropomorphic animals. The captain is a Chaotic Good
> Lupin Ranger with Aberrations as his main Favored Enemy and whose first 
> mate is
> a Giff Paladin. He accepts no humans, no elves, no dwarves as crew members 
> but
> a lizard folk or an aarocockra wanting to sign up will probably be let in.
> And he has a mercane in his debt for clearing his name after some mind 
> flayers
> and neogi were in the business of running it into the ground. But this is 
> my
> imaginaition and how I run things. Especially if I should make a go at 
> running
> an off-line SJ campaign. Your mileage may vary.

Given that you have one chaotic good character and one paladin in there, I 
would suggest thinking about making this ship a privateer ship rather than a 
pirate ship.

Privateers use similar tactics to pirates, but operate under licence of 
"letters or marque" to attack and harass the ships of an enemy power. 
Privateers are self-financing, so poor nations can afford to use them.

You could easily create a background for your ranger that gives him a 
homeworld or country that has been attacked by abberations. He could either 
be defending this homeworld (or if his homeworld was destroyed, another 
world) to somehow get back at the race or races that hurt him.

If mind-flayers are involved then they may well have eaten your lupin 
character's friends or family. And if neogi were involved they might have 
enslaved the lupin ranger's friends or family. (You could even use mental 
powers or spells to brainwash one of his most trusted friends and put them 
into the enemy camp. Or introduce fur-covered mind flayers that have "family 
markings" that are identical to missing people from his tribe.)

If your captain has a distrust for humans then maybe his home sphere has had 
attacks from The Xenos or raids from the Chainmen. The Long Fangs might 
operate privateer ships for the opposition or The Tenth Pit might secretly 
control the local weak human societies. This could present humanity at its 
worse and lead to your captain having a low opinion of humanity.

Problems between him and elves or dwarves are going to be harder for you to 
explain. Elves can be a bit snooty, but the fanatical elves in the SJ novels 
are an aberration. Mostly elves are viewed as friends of nature and 
respected by creatures like hadozee and dracons. Some of your captains crew 
would probably want him to cut the elves some slack.

Dwarves at their worst are stubbon and rude. So if your ranger is suspicious 
of them, I can imagine them being equally suspicious back towards him. But 
dwarves are also loyal to those who get through their stubboness. And if 
your captain goes up against mind-flayers and neogi, he is going to 
eventually accidentally rescue a captured dwarf and find himself stuck with 
a grumpy argumentative companion who will fight to the death to defend him.

I think you are going to have to work to justify continued hostility to 
demi-human races otherwise your ranger is in risk of looking like a racist.

On the elven side, how about your lupin ranger comes from a sphere with 
little organised civilisation. During the Second Unhuman War (or the First 
if that fits better) the Unhumans could have attacked several spheres in the 
area and the elves could have decided to pull out their forces to reinforce 
"more important" spheres.

If the local governments were over-dependent on the elves they may not have 
been able to defend themselves and may have been attacked by every 
opportunistic faction in the area.

I can't really imagine dwarves being involved in any events that would 
justify xenophobia against them. I suppose you could give your crystal 
sphere a rich asteroid belt and have dwarves come in to mine the asteroids 
under mining franchises from your ranger's goverment or king or whatever. I 
can't imagine dwarves being cowards, but maybe they were used to keeping to 
themselves and didn't notice the war around them. The government of your 
ranger's world/country might have accused the dwarves of being cowards and 
they might be too angry and too stubbon to reopen communications.

But I don't think you can keep your ranger hostile to these races forever 
without him looking like one of the bad guys.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
http://www32.brinkster.com/virtualeclipse/