Axanari

[Sheliak Bob]

Well, I've FINALLY managed to get my Cochrane-inspired Perseus Federation TOS game off the ground!
Much to my consternation, the Player taking the role of the Captain has decided to play an Axanari. Oh boy. NOTHING to go on. Basic descriptions, etc. Scraps from the core book and two or three other brief references.
The campaign takes place as far from Axanar as you can safely go, in TOS era, but being a finicky GM, I want background for the character. An Axanari Captain commanding a mostly Human crew is going to make for some fun scenes that depend a lot on background.
So, before I launch into a detailed designing binge (history and cartography and technology etc. of the Herar Cluster that the Axanari conquered as "gifts" for the Federation to start with), before I conjure vast mounds of Axanari background (that doubtless won't see the light of day in actual game play. sigh.) I thought I'd check to see what other GM's have come up with for our dusky skinned friends with the anime-hair.
Any of the LUGTrek staffers out there got any Axanari secrets hidden away? (for that matter, is there ANY chance we'll see Axanari again in the Decipher version?) Anyone got backgrounds or overlays and such already made up (I feel a binge coming on, please, somebody, save me from myself!)
I seem to recall a similar topic coming up on this board some time ago, but a search turned up nothing useful.

[calguard66]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Sheliak Bob:
Well, I've FINALLY managed to get my Cochrane-inspired Perseus Federation TOS game off the ground!
Much to my consternation, the Player taking the role of the Captain has decided to play an Axanari. Oh boy. NOTHING to go on. Basic descriptions, etc. Scraps from the core book and two or three other brief references.
The campaign takes place as far from Axanar as you can safely go, in TOS era, but being a finicky GM, I want background for the character. An Axanari Captain commanding a mostly Human crew is going to make for some fun scenes that depend a lot on background.
So, before I launch into a detailed designing binge (history and cartography and technology etc. of the Herar Cluster that the Axanari conquered as "gifts" for the Federation to start with), before I conjure vast mounds of Axanari background (that doubtless won't see the light of day in actual game play. sigh.) I thought I'd check to see what other GM's have come up with for our dusky skinned friends with the anime-hair.
Any of the LUGTrek staffers out there got any Axanari secrets hidden away? (for that matter, is there ANY chance we'll see Axanari again in the Decipher version?) Anyone got backgrounds or overlays and such already made up (I feel a binge coming on, please, somebody, save me from myself!)
I seem to recall a similar topic coming up on this board some time ago, but a search turned up nothing useful. </font>

The onlyy material I can think of is the Axanari from FASA'a Four Years War... the first Axanari to reach the rank of Captian happened in the movie era with FASA.

Axanari culture stressed the importance of the individul, and Axanari superiority. I played them as having a racial inferiority complex, due to their early exposure to warp-civilization by the Klingons when the Axanari were still pre-to-early industrial. they come across as self-centered, even arrogant... but masters of administration and organization. They had a nasal ridge of some sort, IIRC it ran down the nose (like Elim from VOY), rather than across (like Bajorans).

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"I'd rather die standing than live on my knees..."
Shania Twain

[Sheliak Bob]

Alas, that would be the FASATrek version of the Axanari. Have all that material. All of it was tossed for the LUG version. Were I less of a Purist and more of a Universalist, I'd just adapt the FASA materials, change the little bits that are necessary to keep them from contradicting LUG and run with it. Unfortunately, I am a Purist. LUGTrek Axanari and the Axanaran Rebellion had nothing to do with the Klingons. Completely different history and completely different species from the FASA variety.
Any other LUG-TOS GM's got Axanari notes?

[Phantom]

Sorry I'm not able to help. I just have a question myself, I maybe under a misconception but since they included a small write up about how the Andorians and Axanari get along I assumed there was info about Axanari characters in the TOS game. Or are you saying that you don't have that particular volume?

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In the Praetors Name!

[Sheliak Bob]

Yes indeedy! The current LUGTrek version of the Axanari and a brief overview of the Axanar Rebellion is given in the TOS core book. The Axanari are included as a PC Species Template in that game (along with the Tiburonians, who at least actually appeared on the show).
The short form of the available info is that the Axanari had a caste-based society that had already established an interstellar presence, though without inventing warp drive as such. After contacting the UFP, they decided that they wanted to join. In order to properly impress the Feds, they went out and conquered the Herar Cluster and presented the captured worlds as prizes to the Federation. Needless to say, this did not have the desired effect on the Federation Council. There was a huge debate over what to do about the Axanar situation. The Vulcans demanded immediate action (specifically the liberation of the occupied worlds in the Cluster) or they threatened to withdraw from the Federation. Reluctantly, the other worlds agreed and an expeditonary force was sent, including a squadron of Constitution class starships under Capt. Garth of Izar. The Axanari fleet, while numerically far superior to the Starfleet expeditionary force, was woefully backward technologically and Garth's ships outmanuevered them, eventually winning the war. The Caste-based system on Axanar fell apart as the lower castes rose up in rebellion and the new government made peace with the Federation. Axanar worked to overcome this initial "misunderstanding" and managed to obtain Federation member status in 2265.
That's the gist of the historical info from the TOS core book, The Federation sourcebook and snippets from the Andorian sourcebook. There is a LEETLE more social/physical information on the Species in the Template and the Species descriptions in the TOS book.
Right now, I'm designing the worlds of the Herar Cluster (including the Herari, Vaspari, Cresari and Tolloni species and a system of Warp Booster stations created by the Herari to allow interstellar travel among the Cluster worlds, without giving away Warp Drive technology. It would be this system of Warp Booster/whatever stations that gave the Axanari the ability to send vast fleets into the cluster without Warp Drive themselves.).

[Sheliak Bob]

Okay. Barring semi-official word from LUG staffers, this is the Herar Cluster as I'll be describing it.

The Herar Cluster is a grouping of between 12 and 15 systems, all squeezed into a space a little more than 10 ly across. Named for Herar Prime, a Class L world orbiting a red sub-giant star. Herar is home to an ancient and technologically advanced humanoid culture, the Herari. The Herari civilization has been warp capable for thousands of years. Their initial explorations extended throughout the Cluster, then withdrew back to their homeworld. Herari are average build humanoids with ruddy orange to red skin and colorless white hair. They have large, keen eyes and high foreheads with a slightly extended cranium. They are a fanatically conservative species, with a passion for preserving rather than replacing antiquities. They are also xenophobic with a strong dislike for mixing with other species.
Combining traits similar to the best and worst of British Imperialism, the Herari developed a passion for exotic imports, displayed a zeal for "civilizing" backwards planets and for establishing large scale infrastructure. They did not "conquer" other species, since that would require daily contact with their subjects. Instead, they established trade relations and colonies on other worlds. Herari colonies are shut off from their surroundings by formidible force fields, existing in near total isolation from the indigenous species.
The Herari built a system of Warp Booster Stations, huge donut-shaped rings which are capable of projecting a warp field onto a ship which is then propelled at Warp Five to a maximum distance of five lightyears. This allowed less developed species to bring their wares to trade stations in orbit over Herar Prime without the Herari having to share their Warp Drive technology directly. Ships using a Booster field cannot deviate from their projected course without collapsing the field and stranding themselves in interstellar space. (Orions have since moved in and have had a flourishing "salvage" operation based on finding and exploiting the hulks of non-warp ships that fell out of collapsed fields in between systems and didn't have the fuel to make it back on impulse power.)
After centuries of interaction with the other Cluster species, the Herari withdrew back to their homeworld, leaving only a few scattered independent colonies behind. Their own star has been dimming steadily and their once cold but Class M world has slipped just over the line into Class L. Most of the Herari population has moved into elaborate underground habitats where replicators and holographic technologies provide them with a standard of living far above the average Federation levels. Only savages and outcasts remain in the ruins of the cities on the surface.
Other species native to the Cluster include the Cresari, hairless albinos who wear rainbow colored tunics and are famous for their advanced textiles, literature and dance; the Vaspari, a blue-skinned humanoid species with bright green hair, predisposed toward a fleshier build than the average human and possessed of an innate sensuality that rivals the Orions. They come from a warm jungle world where their domed pleasure-palaces rise out of squalid, sprawling slums with mud-walled hovels and prefabricated packing modules used for habitations. The Tolloni have scaley skins, long black hair, spines on their forearms and along their backs. They live in nomadic tribal groups and regularly launch raids on the scattered trade ports and Herari fortresses constructed on their world to exploit its rich mineral resources. They practic cannibalism and head-hunting and are ferocious enough to impress your average Klingon.
The Axanari come from a system just on the fringe of the Cluster. There is a Herari booster station in their home system and this is what allowed them to launch their invasion into the Cluster. They hoped that seizing the superior technology of the decadent and withdrawn Herari and giving it to the Federation would guarantee their admission.
Captain Garth ignored general staff recommendations to destroy the system of booster stations first, thereby depriving the Axanari of strategic movement capabilities and ending the war early and cheaply. He opted instead to preserve the now irreplaceable warp projectors, which were crucial to the economy of the Cluster, and tackle the Axanari fleets in a much more direct and potentially costly manner. He set ships to intercept Axanari ships travelling through the projected fields, attacking them while they were locked in one-way warp trajectories. His interceptors did only enough damage to knock the Axanari ships out of warp, stranding them in interstellar space until the war was ended and they could be recovered with minimal loss of life. He then followed up with raids against the fleets already bottled up inside occupied systems, wearing them down with repeated hit and run engagements. Eventually, larger task forces came in to dislodge Axanari ground forces already dug in on the occupied worlds. Though the Axanari resisted with fanatical dedication, they were totally isolated and strategically outclassed by the Federation forces. Fighting, though hard, was rarely prolonged since the Federation established orbital supremacy before staging any troop landings on the occupied worlds. Also, in almost every instance, the Federation forces received significant assistance from indigenous partisan and resistance fighters.

[This message has been edited by Sheliak Bob (edited 08-03-2001).]

[mactavish]

S_Bob: WOW!

Very cool stuff.

mactavish out.

P.S. MORE, MORE, MORE!!!

[Fortunae]

I have to agree, this is great stuff Sheliak Bob...maybe you should be Cluster Bob.

Fully developed with adventure seeds, racial templates and so on this could be the beginning of a great Source Book/Setting Book.

Really, really, nice stuff. =)

Thanks for sharing,

Peace.

[Cochrane]

hey, maybe the Sheliak are from the Herar cluster. Ya think? Nah.

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Games. The Final Product. These are the books of the Star Trek RPG. Their five year license. To explore strange new roles. To breathe new life into get togethers. To boldly play what no fan has played before!

[Sheliak Bob]

Well. Meant to have more stuff up before now, but I've had another gout flare-up and more pain than my brain can focus through. Templates for the Herari, Cresari, Vaspari and Tolloni species should be up tomorrow or Monday night at the latest. (Just gotta pull all the notes together and bring 'em to work with me.) In the meantime,

some overviews of Axanari ship design and Herar Cluster booster stations.

Pre-membership Axanar did not have shield technology. Their ships, often very large battleships, depended instead on armor and solid construction for defense. Small ships like fighters and scouts have a Resistance of 3, larger destroyers and cruisers have Resistance 4, and the big battleships, the assault carriers and the warstations have a Resistance of 5. Ships may have had another 5-10 pts of "ablative armor" that had to be blasted through to damage the hull underneath.
Axanari weapons were also primitive by Federation standards. Most common were lasers with a damage rating of 5-10 depending on the size of the vessel. The main guns on Axanari battleships were plasma cannon that had a maximum range about equal to a Constitution Class starship's medium phaser range. Damage from these main guns topped out at 20pts with a two to one energy cost. The plasma cannons fired fan-shaped streams of accelerated plasma that were designed to sweep incoming fighter waves or hit multiple capital ships that were fighting in tight formation (common Axanari fleet strategy called for tight, close formations, so that ships toward the center of the formation would be protected by the hulls of other ships between them and the enemy. Sort of a starship version of the "Testudo" legionaire's formation. Ships would rotate inward after taking damage. Being on the outer ranks were said to be "riding the rim", which was considered a position of honor, as well as extreme danger.) The plasma cannons were designed to damage a whole formation at once. Axanari fleet doctrine would end up with two cones of ships relentlessly bearing down on each other, blasting away with sheets of plasma-fire, while fighters and support ships hammered the rim of the cone with missiles and lasers. Unfortunately for the Axanari, the Federation fought in a completely different style with open formations and fired from well beyond the effective range of most Axanari weapons.
Axanari vessels carried large numbers of atomic warheaad missiles. These have damage values of 15-25 pts. They also have very limited range, compared to the more advanced Federation photon torpedoes. Axanari missiles are limited to what would be "point blank range" by Federations standards and their guidance systems were vulnerable to Counter Measure interference. Often, Axanari battle doctrine called for anti-ship missiles to be delivered by "fighters", small fast ships built to be as fast and manueverable as the Axanari could build them. These would swarm in toward a target, dodging interception fire, and launch their missiles at near suicidal range. Too often, the highly disciplined (and completely expendable lower caste) fighter pilots would simply ram their targets, arming the missiles to go off on impact. This tactic increased significantly late in the war, after the Axanari fleet's capital ships had already been effectively neutralized. Planet based fighters launched wave attacks at the troop ships and orbital support ships that took part in the landings on occupied planets. Though there were some costly early successes for the Axanari, superior Federation sensors and beam weapons soon made the attacks hopelessly futile.

The Herari projected Warp Fields, created by the booster stations, wrap a target ship in a 20pt shield/warp bubble. The ship cannot change course or speed until the bubble has travelled its preset distance. It takes 20pts of damage to the bubble (from either inside going out or outside firing in) to distabilize it. This style of travel is in some ways similar to the Soliton Wave technology that the Federation will experiment with in the 24th century. The difference being that the projected warp field is stable and completely wraps around the ship. (actually, it is a two step process. The station contains the ship in a projected force field, to isolate it and protect it from space debris. Then, the shield bubble is bombarded with a soliton stream that propels it into warp speed. The time/distance limitations of the booster stations are based on the maximum time that their projected force field can maintain coherance. Theoretically, the travel time could be boosted if a ship had a way of reinforcing the force field before it deteriorated.)
Herar Cluster pilots will have their own package which includes Stellar Cartography, Astrogation, and the Language--Herari skills. Needed to plot a course, then relay the instructions to the booster stations' automated systems in the language of the species that constructed them.

[Samuelli]

So, before I start into the process of designing information (history and landscape and technology etc. that the Herar School of Axanari won as “gifts” for the Federation to begin with), before I conjure the material of the sheer size of the Axanari genre (no doubt overcame that I didn't see the light of day in the actual game. Sigh.) He needs http://www.mobileappsoftware.at/ . I think I'll check to see what the other GM has come up with for our friends who have failed with hair -ori anime.