Traveller-61
Mongoose
Yes: "Snowball" is an adventure and there are details on the planets of the Vorlons and Shadows.
DW (whose copy just arrived this morning
)
DW (whose copy just arrived this morning
)
Darkness and Light Source Book
- Thread starter Vorlon Raals
- Start date
Mouth of Sauron
Mongoose
Traveller-61 said:Yes: "Snowball" is an adventure and there are details on the planets of the Vorlons and Shadows.
DW (whose copy just arrived this morning
What about ships?
How are people getting copies so soon? Or are you another playtester?
I MUST this book! :lol:
Traveller-61
Mongoose
Mouth of Sauron said:What about ships?Traveller-61 said:Yes: "Snowball" is an adventure and there are details on the planets of the Vorlons and Shadows.
DW (whose copy just arrived this morning
How are people getting copies so soon? Or are you another playtester?
I MUST this book! :lol:
Ships: fighter, scout and cruiser for the Shadows [plus a little bit on the Death Cloud] and for the Vorlons: fighter, transport, star dreadnought & swarm fleet [plus little bits on motherships, planet killers and defence satellites].
No, I'm not a playtester (except for a little bit on ACTA). I just ordered my copy direct from Mongoose before Christmas
DW
Mouth of Sauron
Mongoose
Cool. Thanks Traveller-61!
Traveller-61
Mongoose
Mouth of Sauron said:
You are most welcome!
On my initial flick through I was a bit disappointed, but then I started reading properly and all I can say is
DW
Mouth of Sauron
Mongoose
Is the "star dreadnought" just a new name for the Vorlon heavy cruiser?
That ship had better be pictured and fully stated out. :twisted:
That ship had better be pictured and fully stated out. :twisted:
Traveller-61
Mongoose
Mouth of Sauron said:
That is a good question! My initial impression was that is a true dreadnought rather than the crusier (it has a BIG gun :twisted: ) but looking at the hull score etc I think it is the heavy cruiser. There is no particular picture with the stats but there are quite a few pics in the book of the Vorlon warships in action.
Tip of the day: do not get the Vorlons mad! No, bad thing, do not do! :shock: Do something safer - like ripping up Ivanova's coffee plants, or go for a walk in Mordor and paint "Orcs are wimps" on the inside of the Gates. Honest, a lot safer.
DW
PS. The Shadows are worse..... :!: :!: :!:
ShadowScout
Mongoose
Yup.Mouth of Sauron said:
Not an new name though - an old one. The ship in question was named "Star Dreadnought" before AoG, though only in certain web-based fan communities (those who made CGI meshes - FYI, all that non-show artwork wasmade with fan-made -and thus sometimes less then "structurally show correct"- CGI meshes, because first WB wanted to be paid extra money to let licenseholders use their show meshes, which most, like AoG and CCE, didn't have the budget for, and then WB kinda lost the meshes... that's why there are so little "known from the show" ship in LotR BtW).
Anyway, the CGI fan boys didn't have a name for the Vorlon big ship, so they came up with "Star Dreadnought". AoG later made "Heavy Cruiser" the official name, mainly because they wanted a bigger, badder ship as "Dreadnought" (think of an overgrown HC with eight instead of four "main gun" tentacles).
And now that Mongoose holds the license, they have decided to go with the Star-DN name instead (and let's be honest - it Does sound cool!). Their license, their call.
Now... what disappointed me a little was that there wasn't enough ship info for my taste. Especially nothing on variable-size ShadowShips - we know from the show that the shadow "Battlecrab" (another name first coined by the CGI fans IIRC) comes in several sizes; from a "bigger then a T`Loth" ("Crysalis") ship to a "barely bigger then a Vorlon Transport" (Interludes & Examinations). Now thare's two ways to solve that - either the ShadowShip comes in two sizes, or the Vorlon Transport-like ship comes in two sizes, or both. AoG took both; making the ShadowShip a small "Patrol Cruiser" and a large "Cruiser" (and introducing a extrta-large "Dreadnought" with an additional "spine-section"), while making the VorlonShip into the 150-meter "Transport" we see docking at B5 and the larger "Destroyer" we see in "I&E". Basic explenation Was "organic techology - their ships grow over time, the small ships are young versions, the large ships are old versions". I liked that one, and would have loved to see it revived in Mongoose's book too. Well, maybe they'll do an add-on some day...
And I'd also have liked to see a bit about how ships changed over time - in the "Thirdspace" flashback the Vorlon ships were slightly different from their modern "Babylon-5" versions... and I'd have liked different stats and miniatures! (as AoG did with the "Vorlon Strike Cruiser" and "Vorlon Assault Fighter") Though I suppose one could point to the "Swarm Fleet", as they didn't seem to be connected to any show stuff I remember...
As for the ShadowShips... anyone noticed the Battlecrabs seem to have too few fighters? Yees, I did do a freeze-frame during "The long, twilight struggle" and counted... on ther screen the fighter bomb easily had four times the number cited in the supplement. (and of course, if the shadows have so many fighters, then the vorlon big ships would need an similar number to keep up with them - can't see the vorlons staying behind in the ancient arms race...)
However... considering how badly done many others of the ships in the RPG are, I don't really mind. the rest of the D&L book is great, and the whole RPG-based ship stuff needs one gigantic revision anyway IMO. So I'll use the ships here as "working hypothesis" and wait for better stats to come along (or for that matter, do them myself, as I have been using AoG's B5W mechanics for all my RPG space encounters anyway... with lots of alterations to the ship stats.)
qstor
Banded Mongoose
I just ordered a copy from my FLGS store here in the US.
Was the heavy cruiser seen on a episode? With my memory, alls I can recall is the "normal" Vorlon ship and the smaller ones which were like fighter types.
It will be interesting to see any stuff about Vorlon interference/activity on Earth. No Greys here just those angel guys
Mike
Was the heavy cruiser seen on a episode? With my memory, alls I can recall is the "normal" Vorlon ship and the smaller ones which were like fighter types.
It will be interesting to see any stuff about Vorlon interference/activity on Earth. No Greys here just those angel guys
Mike
Mouth of Sauron
Mongoose
qstor said:
It sure was, in fact it was shown in many episodes. It was in the pilot and "Deathwalker" to name 2.
qstor said:
When you say "normal" are you refering to the small transport used by Kosh or to the much larger four pronged warship. As I mentioned above the large warship with the four tentacles/prongs is the heavy cruiser. It was classified "heavy cruiser" in the B5wars game and A Call to Arms uses the same term. Apparently in "Darkness and Light" it's referred to as the Star Dreadnought, a much cooler name IMHO.
qstor
Banded Mongoose
I just got this last night from my FLGS in the US and I have to say many kudos to the author and the Mongoose staff. The book was great and full of B5 goodness!
I had one question in regards to a game idea I'm trying to form.
IDHTBIFOM now but the planet near Earth Alliance space where the ship in "Ship of Tears" was taking the telepaths to, has Drakh labs on it. Who would be in charge of it when the Drakh go to Centauri space after the destruction of Zha'hadum.
thanks
Mike
I had one question in regards to a game idea I'm trying to form.
IDHTBIFOM now but the planet near Earth Alliance space where the ship in "Ship of Tears" was taking the telepaths to, has Drakh labs on it. Who would be in charge of it when the Drakh go to Centauri space after the destruction of Zha'hadum.
thanks
Mike
Mongoose Gar
Mongoose
Probably still the Drakh - they didn't all go to the Centauri Republic. The Drakh can show up anywhere...
Aramanthus
Mongoose
I picked up mine from my FLGS today. It looks really great! Finally the GM has access to data on the ancients. I have a question though.....Wouldn't have been nice to include a small section on generating first ones? That way the GM could have some that weren't featured on the show. What if we could always try to come up some house rules for that sort of thing. It is nice to see Kosh's stats! Although you'd thinkk he'd be an epic level NPC. Just a thought.
Neo
Mongoose
Aramanthus said:
Wasnt really intended as a generic primer on all things First One so much as a Vorlons and Shadows sourcebook. Most of the non shadow or vorlon related info in the book is provided mostly as it was a necessary part of the thier story, not so much as a ground from which to details all first ones if you see what I mean.
Maybe a generic "Beyond the Rim" type book will appear down the road that details the other first ones and means for producing more.
Neo said:
Spooky. Just this week, we were talking about a trilogy of books covering the bottom part of the galactic map, entitled IPX, The Rim and. . .
Beyond the Rim. . .
lastbesthope
Mongoose
msprange said:
Want, want, want!
LBH
Traveller-61
Mongoose
lastbesthope said:
What he said!!! :lol:
And can we please, please, please have a Thirdspace book????
Considering how important the original invasion was and the links to the Gate at B5, the Hand, and the hints that there might be more of this stuff lying around, this should make a great sourcebook (not to mention some very nice miniatures
)DW
lastbesthope
Mongoose
D&L will be in My FLGS this Wed, but I won't be picking it up for a month until I build up £100 to use a £20 off voucher, still it means I'll get the Minbari warriors for free :lol:
LBH
LBH
