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Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 8:43 am
by Nuristas
Greetings,

I have just been able to borrow a book from a friend where I read that Dominator Star Fortresses are powered by a being called a Boiaw.
Does anybody know where you can find references or stats for this beings?
Or is that all there is to find regarding this being?

Thanks for any and all feedback.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 2:33 pm
by Warshield73
Nuristas wrote:Greetings,

I have just been able to borrow a book from a friend where I read that Dominator Star Fortresses are powered by a being called a Boiaw.
Does anybody know where you can find references or stats for this beings?
Or is that all there is to find regarding this being?

Thanks for any and all feedback.

This is the only reference to them in any of the books. I believe it says somewhere that they are all but extinct except for the ones being used as power sources by the Dominators.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 3:43 pm
by Nuristas
Warshield73 wrote:
Nuristas wrote:Greetings,

I have just been able to borrow a book from a friend where I read that Dominator Star Fortresses are powered by a being called a Boiaw.
Does anybody know where you can find references or stats for this beings?
Or is that all there is to find regarding this being?

Thanks for any and all feedback.

This is the only reference to them in any of the books. I believe it says somewhere that they are all but extinct except for the ones being used as power sources by the Dominators.


Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping to find a bit more since I was curious but if that is all there is, it'll have to do.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2020 10:08 pm
by Braden Campbell
Also, if you free them, they comit suicide!

(Man... I must have been going through a real dark patch back then...)

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:35 am
by Nuristas
Braden Campbell wrote:Also, if you free them, they comit suicide!

(Man... I must have been going through a real dark patch back then...)


It's a way of not having to stat them I suppose :lol:
As I said, I was just curious about how much PPE beings would have that can power a whole planet. Couldn't wrap my head about it, hence my question.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:05 pm
by SolCannibal
Braden Campbell wrote:Also, if you free them, they comit suicide!

(Man... I must have been going through a real dark patch back then...)


Is it explained why? Depression/claustrophobia-induced madness from millenia of imprisonment + maybe a degree of awareness of their people virtual extinction?

I had kind of considered the matter of freeing them, but it has just crossed my mind that there as many remnants as there are Dominator Star-Fortresses, read, possibly even less than there are actual surviving Dominators, that are in the hundreds across the Three Galaxies at most. Yeah, in retrospect i can see how even freedom might be super depressing for a surviving Boiaw....

Coincidentally, i was exploring the subject of potential Dominator solitude and desolation over their virtual extinction just yesterday while sketching out the Colossians, a race of space giants made as companions/pets of sorts by a melancholic and lonely dying Dominator.

Funnily enough, they started as just me exploiting that blurb on CB1 about Jotan Giants getting lower IQ requisites, reflecting their mastery & passion of all crafts, so they might be Techno-Wizards. And then i hit the "oh, wait, space giants....Dominators!" elephant in the room and things turned out interesting for them.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:05 am
by Warshield73
SolCannibal wrote:
Braden Campbell wrote:Also, if you free them, they comit suicide!

(Man... I must have been going through a real dark patch back then...)


Is it explained why? Depression/claustrophobia-induced madness from millenia of imprisonment + maybe a degree of awareness of their people virtual extinction?

I had kind of considered the matter of freeing them, but it has just crossed my mind that there as many remnants as there are Dominator Star-Fortresses, read, possibly even less than there are actual surviving Dominators, that are in the hundreds across the Three Galaxies at most. Yeah, in retrospect i can see how even freedom might be super depressing for a surviving Boiaw....

Coincidentally, i was exploring the subject of potential Dominator solitude and desolation over their virtual extinction just yesterday while sketching out the Colossians, a race of space giants made as companions/pets of sorts by a melancholic and lonely dying Dominator.

Funnily enough, they started as just me exploiting that blurb on CB1 about Jotan Giants getting lower IQ requisites, reflecting their mastery & passion of all crafts, so they might be Techno-Wizards. And then i hit the "oh, wait, space giants....Dominators!" elephant in the room and things turned out interesting for them.

I have always viewed it as irrelevant. With the power of a star fortress there is nothing short of an actual Old One or the entire power of Phase World (and that is just because it is written in the books I still don't see how Center could fight off more than one of these ships) that could free the Boiaw so it's not something you have to worry about too much.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:33 am
by SolCannibal
Warshield73 wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:
Braden Campbell wrote:Also, if you free them, they comit suicide!

(Man... I must have been going through a real dark patch back then...)


Is it explained why? Depression/claustrophobia-induced madness from millenia of imprisonment + maybe a degree of awareness of their people virtual extinction?

I had kind of considered the matter of freeing them, but it has just crossed my mind that there as many remnants as there are Dominator Star-Fortresses, read, possibly even less than there are actual surviving Dominators, that are in the hundreds across the Three Galaxies at most. Yeah, in retrospect i can see how even freedom might be super depressing for a surviving Boiaw....

Coincidentally, i was exploring the subject of potential Dominator solitude and desolation over their virtual extinction just yesterday while sketching out the Colossians, a race of space giants made as companions/pets of sorts by a melancholic and lonely dying Dominator.

Funnily enough, they started as just me exploiting that blurb on CB1 about Jotan Giants getting lower IQ requisites, reflecting their mastery & passion of all crafts, so they might be Techno-Wizards. And then i hit the "oh, wait, space giants....Dominators!" elephant in the room and things turned out interesting for them.

I have always viewed it as irrelevant. With the power of a star fortress there is nothing short of an actual Old One or the entire power of Phase World (and that is just because it is written in the books I still don't see how Center could fight off more than one of these ships) that could free the Boiaw so it's not something you have to worry about too much.


Yeah, yeah, but Campbell's comment on their suicidal tendency - and being the writer of that part - piqued my curiosity.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:35 am
by taalismn
Warshield73 wrote:I have always viewed it as irrelevant. With the power of a star fortress there is nothing short of an actual Old One or the entire power of Phase World (and that is just because it is written in the books I still don't see how Center could fight off more than one of these ships) that could free the Boiaw so it's not something you have to worry about too much.



(Discovered on Dominator Ship in a lower deck side corridor)(simple flip switch) *EMERGENCY BOIAW FLUSH RELEASE. DO NOT TOUCH*


Dominator: "Damn...forgot about that old design feature..."

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:46 am
by Warshield73
taalismn wrote:
Warshield73 wrote:I have always viewed it as irrelevant. With the power of a star fortress there is nothing short of an actual Old One or the entire power of Phase World (and that is just because it is written in the books I still don't see how Center could fight off more than one of these ships) that could free the Boiaw so it's not something you have to worry about too much.



(Discovered on Dominator Ship in a lower deck side corridor)(simple flip switch) *EMERGENCY BOIAW FLUSH RELEASE. DO NOT TOUCH*


Dominator: "Damn...forgot about that old design feature..."

Unless it's on a remote you can activate from a thousand miles away it still won't work but it would even things up a bit.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:15 am
by SolCannibal
Now i'm thinking of doing a "spelunking in the Death Star/Unicron" style adventure in Dominator ship.
(Though the second might be more applicable to a Mechanoid mothership, i guess)

Goddamn, now i'm thinking of some clique of AIs rifting a Mechanoid Mothership and a Marduk Fortress to the same general area as a Dominator Fortress, just for the fireworks.

"Pretty sure the demons weren't expecting that result for their little ritual in the Demon Planet."

"Ok, which of the three will start shooting?"

"Three?! Shouldn't we count the Demon Planet too?"

"Quickly, adjust the betting pool before they start!!!"

"Relax, i have temporal magic for exactly those times."

"Ok, who brought the popcorn?"

"I have cargo ships for that incoming."

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 2:18 pm
by Warshield73
SolCannibal wrote:Now i'm thinking of doing a "spelunking in the Death Star/Unicron" style adventure in Dominator ship.
(Though the second might be more applicable to a Mechanoid mothership, i guess)

If you simply convert a Mechanoid mothership to MDC and then just a small boost, like we see for the new Mechanoids in SB 2 then absolutely. I had Phase World players in a Mech MS for several sessions. The great thing about it is there are things in the Mech MS that your players can fight and kill, not just Mechs but other creatures as well. Not so much in Dominator ship.

SolCannibal wrote:Goddamn, now i'm thinking of some clique of AIs rifting a Mechanoid Mothership and a Marduk Fortress to the same general area as a Dominator Fortress, just for the fireworks.

"Pretty sure the demons weren't expecting that result for their little ritual in the Demon Planet."

"Ok, which of the three will start shooting?"

"Three?! Shouldn't we count the Demon Planet too?"

"Quickly, adjust the betting pool before they start!!!"

"Relax, i have temporal magic for exactly those times."

"Ok, who brought the popcorn?"

"I have cargo ships for that incoming."

I have mentioned this in the forums before but a buddy of mine and I actually ran the numbers one Christmas. Hit and miss ratios, average damage, ranges all in an excel and really nothing beats a Dominator. Now we never ran it against a Marduk but I just looked at the numbers and it would die fast. MDC too low and it's main guns are basically the same as the Dominator but the dominator's secondary weapons are just too numerous and too effective. Rate of fire and range are either equal or give an advantage to the Dominator. There are scenarios where the Marduk heavily damage a Dominator but there are also scenarios where it is destroyed without scratching the Dominators paint.

Cormal we ran and it is in the opposite position. It has way more MDC than a Dominator but just can't dish any out so it lasts the longest but is the least threat to it. Now if you say that demons can teleport through the temporal shields then they would definitely win but since it says you can't teleport through force fields or phase fields I am just assuming that temporal fields are the same.

The Mechanoid MS is in the worst position, straight MDC conversion it just doesn't last long enough and can't deal enough damage.

Now all three of these together should gut a Dominator but they have to decide which one gets killed so the other two can win so in the immortal words of the Eleventh Doctor "Do the smart thing, make somebody else go first."

As reimagined in the Fleets book Dominators serve as great road blocks and the ultimate ticking clock. If there is a place you want to keep your players away from or want them to leave, send a Dominator. They can't fight, can't hide from it, can't sneak past it, but everyone with a ship can out run it.

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 4:56 pm
by SolCannibal
Warshield73 wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Now i'm thinking of doing a "spelunking in the Death Star/Unicron" style adventure in Dominator ship.
(Though the second might be more applicable to a Mechanoid mothership, i guess)

If you simply convert a Mechanoid mothership to MDC and then just a small boost, like we see for the new Mechanoids in SB 2 then absolutely. I had Phase World players in a Mech MS for several sessions. The great thing about it is there are things in the Mech MS that your players can fight and kill, not just Mechs but other creatures as well. Not so much in Dominator ship.


Now i'm definitely going to try that in the future.

Warshield73 wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Goddamn, now i'm thinking of some clique of AIs rifting a Mechanoid Mothership and a Marduk Fortress to the same general area as a Dominator Fortress, just for the fireworks.

"Pretty sure the demons weren't expecting that result for their little ritual in the Demon Planet."

"Ok, which of the three will start shooting?"

"Three?! Shouldn't we count the Demon Planet too?"

"Quickly, adjust the betting pool before they start!!!"

"Relax, i have temporal magic for exactly those times."

"Ok, who brought the popcorn?"

"I have cargo ships for that incoming."

I have mentioned this in the forums before but a buddy of mine and I actually ran the numbers one Christmas. Hit and miss ratios, average damage, ranges all in an excel and really nothing beats a Dominator. Now we never ran it against a Marduk but I just looked at the numbers and it would die fast. MDC too low and it's main guns are basically the same as the Dominator but the dominator's secondary weapons are just too numerous and too effective. Rate of fire and range are either equal or give an advantage to the Dominator. There are scenarios where the Marduk heavily damage a Dominator but there are also scenarios where it is destroyed without scratching the Dominators paint.

Cormal we ran and it is in the opposite position. It has way more MDC than a Dominator but just can't dish any out so it lasts the longest but is the least threat to it. Now if you say that demons can teleport through the temporal shields then they would definitely win but since it says you can't teleport through force fields or phase fields I am just assuming that temporal fields are the same.

The Mechanoid MS is in the worst position, straight MDC conversion it just doesn't last long enough and can't deal enough damage.

Now all three of these together should gut a Dominator but they have to decide which one gets killed so the other two can win so in the immortal words of the Eleventh Doctor "Do the smart thing, make somebody else go first."

As reimagined in the Fleets book Dominators serve as great road blocks and the ultimate ticking clock. If there is a place you want to keep your players away from or want them to leave, send a Dominator. They can't fight, can't hide from it, can't sneak past it, but everyone with a ship can out run it.


Good rundown still. Think i'm going to throw that scenario in a Phaseworld game anyway just to see the group scrambling for cover, trying to come up with ways to help any one side, taken any poor unrelated schlubs out of the way, looting stuff dropped by either side amidst the infighting or whatever.

Supernaturals as usual sabotage themselves by ignoring technology can provide "mere mortals" with strategic advantages like RANGE and SPEED. But then supernaturals and strategy have a long, long story of not going hand-in-hand anyway, something i lampoon the hell off in my own Minion War game. :twisted:

Re: Dominator Power Source - Boiaw

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:41 pm
by Warshield73
SolCannibal wrote:
Warshield73 wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Now i'm thinking of doing a "spelunking in the Death Star/Unicron" style adventure in Dominator ship.
(Though the second might be more applicable to a Mechanoid mothership, i guess)

If you simply convert a Mechanoid mothership to MDC and then just a small boost, like we see for the new Mechanoids in SB 2 then absolutely. I had Phase World players in a Mech MS for several sessions. The great thing about it is there are things in the Mech MS that your players can fight and kill, not just Mechs but other creatures as well. Not so much in Dominator ship.


Now i'm definitely going to try that in the future.

If you have the collected Mechanoid book it has things like a floorplan rundown and random encounter tables that are a lot of fun. For me both times I put players on the MS I had them get on board with an enemy force they were forced to work with, the first was the CS and later the TGE, just to increase the tension as we moved through the story to the inevitable treachery.

SolCannibal wrote:
Warshield73 wrote:
SolCannibal wrote:Goddamn, now i'm thinking of some clique of AIs rifting a Mechanoid Mothership and a Marduk Fortress to the same general area as a Dominator Fortress, just for the fireworks.

"Pretty sure the demons weren't expecting that result for their little ritual in the Demon Planet."

"Ok, which of the three will start shooting?"

"Three?! Shouldn't we count the Demon Planet too?"

"Quickly, adjust the betting pool before they start!!!"

"Relax, i have temporal magic for exactly those times."

"Ok, who brought the popcorn?"

"I have cargo ships for that incoming."

I have mentioned this in the forums before but a buddy of mine and I actually ran the numbers one Christmas. Hit and miss ratios, average damage, ranges all in an excel and really nothing beats a Dominator. Now we never ran it against a Marduk but I just looked at the numbers and it would die fast. MDC too low and it's main guns are basically the same as the Dominator but the dominator's secondary weapons are just too numerous and too effective. Rate of fire and range are either equal or give an advantage to the Dominator. There are scenarios where the Marduk heavily damage a Dominator but there are also scenarios where it is destroyed without scratching the Dominators paint.

Cormal we ran and it is in the opposite position. It has way more MDC than a Dominator but just can't dish any out so it lasts the longest but is the least threat to it. Now if you say that demons can teleport through the temporal shields then they would definitely win but since it says you can't teleport through force fields or phase fields I am just assuming that temporal fields are the same.

The Mechanoid MS is in the worst position, straight MDC conversion it just doesn't last long enough and can't deal enough damage.

Now all three of these together should gut a Dominator but they have to decide which one gets killed so the other two can win so in the immortal words of the Eleventh Doctor "Do the smart thing, make somebody else go first."

As reimagined in the Fleets book Dominators serve as great road blocks and the ultimate ticking clock. If there is a place you want to keep your players away from or want them to leave, send a Dominator. They can't fight, can't hide from it, can't sneak past it, but everyone with a ship can out run it.


Good rundown still. Think i'm going to throw that scenario in a Phaseworld game anyway just to see the group scrambling for cover, trying to come up with ways to help any one side, taken any poor unrelated schlubs out of the way, looting stuff dropped by either side amidst the infighting or whatever.

Supernaturals as usual sabotage themselves by ignoring technology can provide "mere mortals" with strategic advantages like RANGE and SPEED. But then supernaturals and strategy have a long, long story of not going hand-in-hand anyway, something i lampoon the hell off in my own Minion War game. :twisted:

I did something similar in a convention game. A Dominator ship showed up and started destroying everything. A few points to remember when you use it.

1- Range. Most ships in 3 Galaxies have ranges in the hundreds of miles with CM's and 1,000. DSF weapons all beam weapons are 200,000 miles. Put in context the fastest sub-light ships would need 14 hours to cover that distance which means you have ships trying to use FTL drives for what are tiny distances, assuming you allow that in your game. No matter what you are always under fire.

2- Damage. Even if you are hit by secondary or point defense weapons you are talking thousands of MD per hit. Anything small dies, even destroyers.

3- Temporal field & Plasma Shockwave. This is why anything smaller than a battleship is inconsequential and anything smaller than a cruiser is completely irrelevant.

The players where running from pirates and TGE and then all the sudden everyone was running from a Dominator. It was a great way to end a convention game that was coming up on the time limit.