Stargrave news and rumors. Scavengers II. p.44.

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**Shadow Walker**

Some official art. Wonder if there will be a limit for how many aliens you could include?

**lord_blackfang**

Considering the open-ended, miniature-agnostic nature of the game, I am willing to bet there will be no mechanical distinction between species and if we get any rubber forehead alien miniatures, they will be purely aesthetic.

**warboss**

Was there any incorporation of races in Frostgrave? Did it matter mechanically if your wizard or mooks were dwarves, elves, or humans? Or was the choice simply asthetic?

**zedmeister**

warboss wrote:
Was there any incorporation of races in Frostgrave? Did it matter mechanically if your wizard or mooks were dwarves, elves, or humans? Or was the choice simply asthetic?

You had Gnolls an Rangifers, but he said elves etc use the standard statline

**Cronch**

It looks interesting, but Zone Raiders exists, so I'll probably not look too much into this one.

**highlord tamburlaine**

I used dwarfs pretty regularly with Frostgrave. Only difference it made was easier finding cover!

**Easy E**

Frostgrave did not care about race, only class.

Racist class warriors everywhere!

**Ancestral Hamster**

The history of role-playing games is a history of class struggle. - Gandalf Marx, 16th level Philosopher -

(quote from a John M. Ford article on RPGs.)

Easy E wrote:
Frostgrave did not care about race, only class.

Racist class warriors everywhere!

**Albino Squirrel**

There are a lot of people LARPing as racist class warriors these days, so seems like a popular genre.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Easy E wrote:
Frostgrave did not care about race, only class.

Racist class warriors everywhere!

“My thieves only steal from the 1%!”

Great, now I’m going to have to bring out the Bernie voice every time I play Frostgrave (and probably Stargrave).

**warboss**

Thanks for the replies (and jokes!). Hopefully (at least from my admittedly blissfully ignorant perspective) the scifi game will have some meaningful incorporation of species.

**Lucas Blackwolf**

Cronch wrote:
It looks interesting, but Zone Raiders exists, so I'll probably not look too much into this one.

I have that one pegged as backup too. Love the idea and aesthetic of the unofficial Blame! tabletop game.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
The above image was accompanied by the following text on Stargrave fb group;

Today we’re giving you a low-res preview of a fantastic piece of Stargrave artwork from Helge C. Balzer. It shows a mercenary standing alongside a biomorph – one of the backgrounds available for your captain in Stargrave (we’ll be looking at how you create your captain in the future!)

Below you will find an extract from the book describing biomorphs:

"When the old empires fell, so did their laws limiting ‘genetic enhancement’. A few scientists seized this opportunity to engage in radical experimentation. This involved both the genetic manipulation of naturally-born individuals and the creation of wholly new ‘tank-born’ individuals. In either case, those that survived these experiments were often left with unique abilities to control their own bodies, such as realigning their skeletal structure, growing new limbs, changing their skin tones, or even growing additional organs to deal with toxic substances or alien environments. Unfortunately, many biomorphs were also left psychically scarred by their modifications. While the worst of these tend to destroy themselves quickly, almost all carry some form of phobia, psychosis, or other mental impairment.

Depending on the abilities of a biomorph, they tend to dress in loose, or very stretchy outfits, or have specialized suits of armour made that take into account their abilities. More than any other background, biomorphs tend to form independent crews because they are on the run – either from those that created them or want to do further experiments on them, or to escape the consequences of some crime (often unintended)."

Excited to head into the Ravaged Galaxy? Preorder your copy of Stargrave from your Friendly Local Gaming Store or preferred retailer today!

This makes me think alien types will be classes ... And have depression.

**Pacific**

I'm wondering if the background of this game is going to line up very closely with Rogue Trader 1st edition 40k (or at least have that 'feel' about it) and whether there will be a way to use collections of miniatures from that era..

**Coenus Scaldingus**

Pacific wrote:
I'm wondering if the background of this game is going to line up very closely with Rogue Trader 1st edition 40k (or at least have that 'feel' about it) and whether there will be a way to use collections of miniatures from that era..

I'm mainly wondering just how much background the game will have to begin with. Frostgrave was largely very vague in the core book from what I remember, with a short intro about the setting (magical metropolis, big spell, long winter, now thawing and becoming accessible again for those seeking the old magical artefacts... and that's it?), and a lot of small anecdotes about the weird things you may encounter in the city. I imagined the rest was kept vague so that everyone could make of it what they wanted, but at the same time maybe more wasn't necessary because it was meant to mainly be a generic fantasy setting. This preview already appears to be more specific, which in turn gives more specific in-game options by the sounds of it. (Which is good: it won't just be Frostgrave in space.)

**BrookM**

I had my issues with Frostgrave, but I'm willing to give it a try when it pops up, looks interesting enough.

**Mr Morden**

Shadow Walker wrote:
Some official art. Wonder if there will be a limit for how many aliens you could include?

He looks a handy sort of fellow

Interested to have a look at this - although we did find 1st ed FG a bit swingy given small mods and D20.

**lord_blackfang**

Mr Morden wrote:

Interested to have a look at this - although we did find 1st ed FG a bit swingy given small mods and D20.

If you didn't stack up +8 to hit you weren't trying hard enough

**BobtheInquisitor**

I was probably a terrible opponent in Frostgrave because all I did was run around murdering.

**Lucas Blackwolf**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
all I did was run around murdering.

You're doing it right. Getting treasure is just extra.

**privateer4hire**

We do the opposite. After six months or so of trying to kill each other, we transitioned to just getting treasures with the occasional friendly pot shot. We’re just too nice.

**Rosebuddy**

Coenus Scaldingus wrote:
Pacific wrote:
I'm wondering if the background of this game is going to line up very closely with Rogue Trader 1st edition 40k (or at least have that 'feel' about it) and whether there will be a way to use collections of miniatures from that era..
I'm mainly wondering just how much background the game will have to begin with. Frostgrave was largely very vague in the core book from what I remember, with a short intro about the setting (magical metropolis, big spell, long winter, now thawing and becoming accessible again for those seeking the old magical artefacts... and that's it?), and a lot of small anecdotes about the weird things you may encounter in the city. I imagined the rest was kept vague so that everyone could make of it what they wanted, but at the same time maybe more wasn't necessary because it was meant to mainly be a generic fantasy setting. This preview already appears to be more specific, which in turn gives more specific in-game options by the sounds of it. (Which is good: it won't just be Frostgrave in space.)

I expect that Stargrave is simply going to have a basic premise of being set in a time of collapsing stellar empires and roving pirate fleet nations, and mostly leave the exact planets and politics up to you to imagine. Anything that's expanded upon would then be connected to improving the game's central complicating mechanic. Or something like that.

I would imagine that Stargrave spreads out the weird abilities and tech over your entire warband instead of concentrating them into your two magicians (even if you have two main characters and a bunch of redshirts) simply due to the nature of equipment and mutant/alien powers. A technology-based game will probably have a wider range of weaponry and other gear than what the relatively plain soldiers in Frostgrave have. Probably you'll pick a model and purchase Leaping as an upgrade, and leave it open whether it's due to a jetpack or kangaroo legs. At most I'd expect a separation between technological and innate ways to grant flight or whatever just so that you can have tech disruption zones or mutant-detecting lasers. Y'know, a little bit of granularity just to give your specific modelling choices a little bit of weight without demanding a specific statline for a specific kind of model.

Mainly I'm very interested in the model line because applying the Frostgrave kit layout to aliens, mutants, robots and all sorts of space dudes would make for extremely useful conversion fuel.

**Easy E**

I would not expect that. I would imagine a more Ghost or FGII of you can always have a crew of X grunts, but then you can upgrade Y number as specialists. The crew are expandable and easy to replace, where specialists are not.

**warboss**

Easy E wrote:
I would not expect that. I would imagine a more Ghost or FGII of you can always have a crew of X grunts, but then you can upgrade Y number as specialists. The crew are expandable and easy to replace, where specialists are not.

So basically kill team? I seriously doubt that GW pioneered the style in Kill Team (I don't recall even if it was in their earlier skirmish games like Mordheim or Necromunda let alone if someone else did it first/better) but it's what comes to mind for me personally.

**Easy E**

No idea who did it first, but in FG1 you had to hire all the guys.

In Ghost Archipelago and Frostgrave II you are assumed to always have access to essential workers/crewmen. A handful can be upgraded to specialists with limits.

Here is my review for Ghost Archipelago that talks a bit about it, but I honestly do not recall how much.....

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2020/01/review-ghost-archipelago-osprey-games.html

**lord_blackfang**

The real question is... will only specialists get ranged weapons? That could look very awkward in sci-fi.

**Rosebuddy**

lord_blackfang wrote:
The real question is... will only specialists get ranged weapons? That could look very awkward in sci-fi.

I doubt that they're going to essentially just copy the Frostgrave lists. Your basic dudes having rifles or at least pistols seems incredibly obvious to me. Why wouldn't they?

**warboss**

I think NOT having a change in default to ranged combat as the baseline with melee as a backup or optional upgrade in a scifi game would be incredibly stupid.

**Llamahead**

I'm really intrigued to see how this handles weapons as it's the issue with sci-fi vs fantasy as generics for me. I feel that the difference between a laspistol, plasma pistol and rail pistol should be in the rules and make a difference. Unfortunately it's hard to make that happen easily and recognisably for your opponents if your not using the same range. With fantasy I'm far happier with more generic weapons.

**Grot 6**

I think I just found the game to play with my Goblin with the fishbowl helmet...

**Shadow Walker**

Grot 6 wrote:
I think I just found the game to play with my Goblin with the fishbowl helmet...

From what game is this gobbo?