The Dragon Tonic

 So, in the late 90s, I was on a Dragonlance listserv. If you were on one, you know that they could just be a firehose of emails, especially if something controversial was going on, and moderator emails would be buried somewhere in the flow. So, if there was a controversial subject, and you were sufficiently hot-headed, you would not see "drop this now" messages from the mods until you'd fired off a response, and, because it was email, you couldn't say "oops" and delete the message.

I don't recall what I was right about, but I ran afoul of this, and, as punishment, I was required to write a short story, about two con-men trying to sell dragon parts as medicine. I decided that it was too much homework for a listserv, and didn't do it. And, so, for about 26 years, I've had this assignment in the back of my head. And, with the 40th anniversary of Dragonlance, I decided to do it. Maybe a bit different than the moderator wanted, but it is, at least, recompense for being right when I'd been told to stop.

The Dragon Tonic

Tirolian Space: Destroid Tomahawk Chassis

  Soon after the crash of the Robotech battle fortress on Aelois III, the human inhabitants of that planet began to reverse engineer and experiment with the technology. One of the first devices they produced was the Tomahawk frame of what became known as “Destroids”; large, bipedal, walkers designed to engage the gigantic Zentraedi on their own terms. In Aeolian fashion, this basic frame was outfitted with different weapon systems and accessories to serve different functions, and then given distinct names… the Anti-Aircraft platform known as the “Defender”, the missile boat referred to as “Phalanx”, and the multi-function assault platform, the eponymous “Tomahawk.”

As with the later battloids of the Southern Cross army, while these Destroids used a common frame, they were not capable of rapidly changing between roles; one could not easily turn a Defender into a Tomahawk, or a Tomahawk into a Phalanx. Doing so required significant engineering and sensor upgrades.
While largely humanoid in shape, the Tomahawk frame has one critical feature lacked by the more maneuverable Valkyrie battloids: the torso can turn 360 degrees easily and rapidly; thus, while the weapons may appear to be limited to the front arc, they are, in fact, all turret-mounted.

 

Destroid Tomahawk Frame

Craft: Various Designations depending on specific design

Type: Non-Transformable Battloid

Scale: Starfighter

Skill: Walker Operation

Crew: 1

Crew Skill: All skills typically at 4D

Cargo Capacity: 60 kilograms

Consumables: 1 day

Cost: 180,000 (new), 145,000 (used), both prices are black market value

Move: Depends on the loadout; the Phalanx is 25, the Tomahawk is 30, and the Defender is 35

Body Strength: 3D

 

Weapons and Equipment:

Defender:

M-996 78mm Anti-Aircraft Auto-Cannons (2)

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 10-300m/8km/16 Km
Space Range: 1/10/25
Damage: 5D per weapon; can be combined in groups of two or four, for 6D or 7D damage, respectively
Ammo: Each cannon can fire 60 times without reloading; reloading takes significant time and crew support.

 

Some versions have their auto-cannons replaced with the primitive laser weapons of Tirolian Space; those do not have an ammo rating, but reduce the damage to 3D per weapon (3D+1 or 4D+1 when fire-linked), and the range to half.

 

 

 

Tomahawk

HPC-155 Heavy Particle Acceleration Cannons (2)
The Heavy Particle Cannons are mounted in place of forearms or hands.

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 10-300m/4km/8 Km
Space Range: 1/5/15
Damage: 3D+1 per weapon; can be fire-linked to do 4D damage

 

TZ-IV Gun Cluster

The gun cluster  combines several anti-personell and anti-armor weapons into a single package. Unlike the other weapons, these are all Walker-scale weapons, rather than Starfighter-scale. Each Tomahawk has two such clusters, mounted on each shoulder.

25mm autocannon   

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/400m/600m
Damage: 3D+1
Ammo: 20 shots (each)

14.5mm laser
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/800m/1200m
Damage: 2D

Flame-thrower

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Range: 5-50m/600m/180m
Damage: 2D+1
Ammo: 10 shots (each)

Grenade Launcher
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Range: 5-100m/250m/500m
Damage: 8D+1
Ammo: 8 shots (each)

 

MDS-L-12 Multiple Launch Missile Pod (2)
Like the Gun clusters, the MDS Multiple Launch pods are Walker-scale weapons, designed for engaging tanks and speeders. One is mounted on each shoulder, near the chest.
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/250m/500m
Space Range: 1/3/5
Damage: 7D
Ammo: 10 shots (each)

 

 

MDS-M-6 Air Defense Missile Launcher
Mounted in a pod above the right shoulder, the MDS-M-6 is designed as an anti-starfighter weapon.

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 30-100m/300m/700m
Space Range: 1/3/5
Damage: 8D
Ammo: 6 shots

 

Phalanx

The Phalanx mounts only one weapon system; massive barrels of long-range missiles, designed as anti-starfighter weapons. This variant is rarely used; it is often more efficient to mount smaller numbers of missiles on more platforms, but in the early days of the First Contact War between the Aeolians and the Zentraedi, limited numbers of pilots and platforms, faced with massive numbers of Zentraedi soldiers, made Phalanx-style large capacity launchers an effective use of resources.
The Phalanx has another advantage, and that is of multiple actions. Each round, up to four actions may be made, two per missile pod. These may be used to target one or multiple targets. Additionally, the parallel arrangement of missiles allows the Phalanx to fire a large amount of missiles at once; they may fire up to ten missiles per action.

MDS-H-22 Long range missile launchers (2)

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 30-100m/300m/1000m
Space Range: 1/5/10
Damage: 9D
Ammo: 22 shots

 

Savage Dark Sun Bestiary

 Ok, here it is, the bestiary. The last bit I have, unless I chase a wild hare and come up with more. I focused on, first, the common animals like kank, inix, and mekillot, but then other ones with a strong Dark Sun flavor, including dwarven banshees, drakes, and weird Athasian golems.

Something that may annoy people is how useful I found the 4e Creature catalog in doing this; not infrequently, a good attribute set was had by taking the 4e attribute and halving it; a 24 became a d12, a 12 became a d6. Worked really well for a lot of things.

Psionics in Savage Dark Sun

Ok, here we are, psionics. Only thing left after this is the bestiary, which I might post tomorrow, and might post on Sunday, depending on my mood.

 

Psychic powers are very common on Athas; the Way, as it is known, is ancient, respected, and studied, in one form or another, among every species capable of study. Many creatures have and use psychic powers in their daily lives to hunt prey or escape predators, and many humanoids will develop a Wild Talent, even without formal study of the Way.

Psychic powers in Savage Dark Sun use the "No Power Points" rule from SWADE, p. 140. Accomplished psychics may be able to do many things, but they find it easiest when they take a moment to consider their actions. The psionics arcane background is slightly altered from SWADE, however, into The Way. Followers of The Way are often called Psionicists.

Priests in Savage Dark Sun

 I think I've reached my limit with this project, at least for now. I'll post what I have, of course, but I don't know if I'll work on more monsters (the bestiary is at 35, now). Ascended beings will also have to wait. However, here's Athasian Priests... Elemental Clerics, Templars, and Druids.

Wizards in Savage Dark Sun

 I added 8 more monsters to the Bestiary today (Hej-kin, Hunting Cactus, and 6 different golems), and decided to stop there. The Bestiary is already 33 monsters (and creatures) long. Also, if you're eagerly checking, I'm going to take a few days off posting or converting more; I'll do it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday next week. Then I have to get to work putting Mutant Rise into a printable state! If you like my Dark Sun, check out my cyberpunk mutant animals when it comes out (and my modern mutant animals, already out).

Gear in Savage Dark Sun

 I've spent a good chunk of today adding to the bestiary, converting monsters out of the 2e Terrors of the Desert, mostly using the stats from 4e's Creature Catalog as a guide.  But, since it is more explicitly a work in progress (as opposed to a work that's getting fiddled with as I go along), here's the Gear chapter.