Introduction
Bugs Don't Surf* (hereafter abbreviated to BDS) is the name of the Stargrunt II alien supplement, as mentioned in the back of the SG2 rule book. This section of the HyperBear Stargrunt II pages contains rules for aliens, particularly those that could make it into the final BDS book.
Disclaimer and Warning
These documents are "beta test" versions of Stargrunt II alien rules. They were written by several people with the permission of Jon Tuffley, Stargrunt II author. These rules are an "in development". They are currently not OFFICIAL, though Jon has given me his blessing to post these to the Ground Zero Games community at large. These rules have seen limited play testing by members of the Ground Zero Games playtest list. We would like to invite further testing from the members of GZG-L and other GZG-oriented mailing lists.
Do not post these rules to other websites (other than the mailing list archives), or disseminate/distribute them outside their local play groups. We invite and encourage the wider community's opinion and feedback, pro and con. Jon Tuffley has reserved the right to summarily change or ignore any of these rules.
Any questions or comments should be addressed to the author, or Allan Goodall. Watch this page for updates.
Phalons - written by Allan Goodall
Version History
A version history document is available for those who downloaded a previous version (either version 1.0 or 1.1) of the rules. Download the version history document by clicking on a link, below:
- sg2-phalons-10b-to-12b.pdf – version 1.0 to 1.2 history in Adobe Acrobat® 5 format, for 8 ½" x 11" paper (North America)
- sg2-phalons-10b-to-12b-a4.pdf – version 1.0 to 1.2 history in Adobe Acrobat® 5 format, for A4 paper (Europe)
- sg2-phalons-10b-to-12b.rtf – version 1.0 to 1.2 history in a Rich Text Format document, for 8 ½" x 11" paper (North America)
- sg2-phalons-10b-to-12b-a4.rtf – version 1.0 to 1.2 history in a Rich Text Format document, for A4 paper (Europe)
Note: Adobe Acrobat® PDFs require Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ version 5 or greater to read and print.
Current Version – 1.2 (July 14, 2004)
Download a full copy of the current Phalon rules by clicking on a link, below:
- sg2_phalons-12b.pdf – full rules in Adobe Acrobat® 5 format, for 8 ½" x 11" paper (North America)
- sg2-phalons-12b-a4.pdf - full rules in Adobe Acrobat® 5 format, for A4 paper (Europe)
- sg2-phalons-12b.rtf – full rules in a Rich Text Format document, for 8 ½" x 11" paper (North America)
- sg2-phalons-12b-a4.rtf – full rules in a Rich Text Format document, for A4 paper (Europe)
Note: Adobe Acrobat® PDFs require Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ version 5 or greater to read and print.
About the Bugs Don't Surf Public Beta Test Project
Early in 2003, someone asked the Fullthrust-Stargrunt Yahoo Group a question about aliens. Someone else mentioned that there were no official alien rules, that those would be included in the long-awaited Bugs Don't Surf. After reading this, I e-mailed Jon Tuffley, suggesting that Stargrunt II players on the GZG Playtest Mailing List could create alien rules for SG2 and put them up on a web site. The rules would be "semi-official" and would do until they were included in, or superceded by, the eventual release of BDS. To my surprise, Jon agreed!
A number of people began discussing rules for two of the three alien races in the Tuffleyverse (the GZG "official" universe). A couple of sets of Kra'vak rules had been floating around for a while. A couple of people on the playtest list began discussing the Sa'Vasku. No one mentioned rules about the Phalons. Beth Fulton made a comment about the Phalons being "beyond the pale for some" (if you haven't seen their spaceship models and correlated that with their name, you wouldn't understand). I took her remark as a challenge!
I worked on the Phalon rules beginning in January, 2003. The rules and background information were presented to the playtest list. I got amazing feedback and altered the rules. The Phalons were playtested for about 10 months. In the winter of 2004, the playtest list received permission by Jon Tuffley to release some of their playtest rules for Full Thrust to the public as a "public beta test". I sent Jon my Phalon rules and asked if it was time to present these, too. Jon hadn't read the rules since he gave me the go-ahead to create them. Jon liked what he saw and let me post them on the web. They are available here, and on the Ground Zero Games web store.
This page will be a home for Stargrunt II alien rules. As more BDS rules are released for public beta testing, they will be included here. I will remove the rules if/when BDS sees print.
*The name Bugs Don't Surf is a play on words from two different sources.
Science fiction stories have long called aliens "bugs" (probably at least from the days of Heinlein's Starship Troopers), but this entered the mainstream with the release of the movie Aliens. The characters talk of clearing out aliens from the colonist site as "another bug hunt".
The film Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now had a memorable scene involving Robert Duvall's Colonel Kilgore character. Kilgore, an air cavalry commander and an avid surfer, kept an eye out for beaches with excellent surfing potential. The beach near where he was going to land the boat of Captain Willard (played by Martin Sheen) was one such beach. A subordinate pointed out that the beach was held by the enemy, saying it was "Charlie's point". Charlie is short for Victor Charlie, the NATO designated words for the letters "VC", which in turn was the short form for "Viet Cong". Kilgore famously retorted, "Charlie don't surf!"
Thus "bugs" and "Charlie don't surf" becomes Bugs Don't Surf.
