[Actual Play Report] Star Wars - Scum and Villainy, Session 6

EPISODE 5 - PART 1

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN AND INTO THE FIRE

Having narrowly escaped an assault by the ISD EXACTOR, flagship of imperial hero DARTH VADER, the crew of the BLACK PARIAH fled into the thick atmosphere of the gas giant PUJOOL. Beneath the clouds they escaped detection and pursuit.

Though safe from the Empire, they encountered a new, equally formidable adversary - a centuries-old storm the size of a planet. CAPTAIN VAN DRALL fought to pilot the ship through the fierce maelstrom. Damaged but not disabled, they emerged on the other side of the planet. 

With only minutes to spare before being detected, DESCA DAHL plotted a course for the first system she could think of. The small freighter limped into hyperspace bound for the desert planet TATOOINE. As they began to repair the ship, WULF WARSTAR quickly noticed that all was not what it seemed....

Cast of Characters:

Van Drall
Smuggler, Hacker, Consummate Pessimist

Played by: Walton Goggins
Career: Smuggler
Specializations: Scoundrel, Slicer
Stats: Br 2, Ag 3, In 3, Cu 3, Wi 2, Pr 2

Skills: Charm 1, Computers 1, Deceit 1, Perception 1, Pilot - Space 1, Skulduggery 1, Vigilance 1, Gunnery 1, Ranged - Light 1
Talents: Codebreaker 1, Black Market Contacts 1




Wulf Warstar
Mercenary, Agent of Chaos

Played by: Mickey Rourke
Career: Hired Gun
Specializations: Mercenary Soldier
Stats: Br 4, Ag 3, In 2, Cu 2, Wi 2, Pr 2

Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Coordination 1, Resilience 1, Vigilance 1, Gunnery 2, Melee 2, Ranged - Light 1, Ranged - Heavy 2, Underworld 1
Talents: Point Blank 1, Strong Arm, Natural Marksman, Sidestep 1, Toughened 1




Desca Dahl
Hyperactive Archaeologist

Played by: Meg Ryan
Career: Colonist
Specializations: Scholar, Scoundrel
Stats: Br 2, Ag 3, Int 4, Cu 2, Wi 2, Pr 2
Skills: Charm 2, Cool 1, Deceit 1, Negotiation 1, Core Worlds 1, Education 1, Lore 1, Pilot - Planet 1, Ranged (light), Ranged (heavy), Streetwise 1, Underworld 1
Talents: Brace 1, Black Market Contacts 1, Speaks Binary




Royce Antarii
Hitman with a Code of Honor

Played by: James McAvoy
Career: Bounty Hunter
Specializations: Assassin, Martial Arts Expert
Stats: Br 3, Ag 3, In 2, Cu 3, Wi 2, Pr 2

Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Cool 1, Discipline 1, Knowledge: Underworld 1, Ranged (Heavy) 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 1, Vigilance 1
Talents: Stalker 1, Lethal Blows 1




R5-D4
Astromech with a Broken Motivator and a Broken Attitude

Stats: Br 1, Ag 1, In 2, Cu 2, Wi 1, Pr 1
Skills: Astrogation 3, Computers 3, Cool 2, Mechanics 2, Pilot - Space 2
Talents: None

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scene One - The Stowaway

The Crew of the Black Pariah spent much of the next several hours trying to undo the damage to the ship caused by the storm. The more they worked on it, the more it was obvious the shields were only going to be able to be repaired in dry dock. Nevertheless, there was still much to be done. Wulf headed to the engine room to replace a damaged coupling. Much to his surprise, he discovered a man, bound and hooded, cuffed to the trivalve assembly. In a corner a few meters from that spot, Wulf spotted a full duffel bag tucked behind some coolant pipes.

The mercenary drew his combat knife and removed the hood. The man was human, with dark stringy hair, high cheekbones and piercing eyes. His skill was pale and his face bruised. Wulf gave him a nudge with the butt of his knife and, groggily, the man came to. After he was unable (or reluctant) to answer Wulf''s accusations and questions, the large man broke the binder cuff and drug him up the metal stairs to the bridge. The man groaned as his head bounced off of each step.

The group assembled to interrogate the stowaway. Wulf tossed the bag down and Desca greedily went through it. Desca pulled out a light blaster pistol, a holdout blaster, two doses of neurotoxin and a stack of Pau'an porn magazines. The stowaway claimed none of those items belonged to him, and deftly resisted providing any useful detail. Desca and Wulf debated what to do with him; the former quite interesting in learning more, the latter suggesting shoving him out the airlock. With an anxious look on his face Van Drall popped up out of the access alcove and asked the crew, annoyingly, if they had searched the ship for anything else of concern.

Desca and Wulf looked at each other in panic, tied the man to a chair, and scrambled off to search the ship. Van Drall ducked back into the alcove and continued to refit the alluvial damper.

Alone, the man began to work himself free of his restraints. Luckily, dragging him up the stairs loosened the rope just enough to wriggle one wrist free. With the ease of a man who had certainly done this a number of times before, the man quickly escaped his bonds. With a loud crack the chair he was tied to buckled - and he was free. He cursed himself for being sloppy, as he could not pretend to be tied up. R5D4, plugged into the mainframe, swiveled his head around in response to the sound, squeaked out something in binary, then went right back to work. Though he could not understand the language, the man got the sense that the droid was metaphorically rolling its eyes at him. Its eye turned back to its work, the stowaway picked up the holdout pistol from the duffel bag and hid it in the small of his back, tucked into his belt and hidden by his long black duster.

Game Note: The player succeeded at a coordination check to get free of his bindings, but generated two threat. We interpreted this as damaging the chair and creating a sound.

Down in the cargo hold, Desca noticed a faint trail of spattered blood, leading from the cargo loading ramp. She bent down to examine further. The blood was no more than several hours old. She tasted the blood, which had the distinct coppery taste of human (or at least near-human) blood. Wulf walked in, and catching her gaze, shrugged his shoulders. He found nothing in his search.

The two followed the trail to the engine room where the stowaway was found. In a corner a few meters from that spot, Wulf spotted a full duffel bag tucked behind some coolant pipes. Baffled but intrigued, the two made their way back to the main hold.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scene Two - Interrogation

Wulf and Desca relieved Van Drall's worries as they returned from their search. The stowaway was free of his bonds, and took a defensive stance with his back against the wall. Immediately, Desca raised her rifle and Wulf readied a grenade. After a tense exchange of threats, both sides ready to spring into action, Van Drall piped in from below. "Dammit Wulf, I told you - no grenades on the ship!"

Desca made the first move to relieve the tension in the air, and lowered her rifle. Very slowly, the stowaway pulled the hidden holdout blaster and set it on the floor. Weapons lowered, the two parties began to talk. Desca introduced the crew of the Black Pariah, and proceeded to narrate every detail of their previous adventure - annoying everyone.

In the back of his mind, the man was sizing up the crew. They told him they were headed to Tatooine. Could they be returning him to Keemo Pas, who placed a bounty on his head? A while back he assassinated a merchant named Chooloo. Chooloo happened to be Pas's lover, and he'd been looking for revenge since. Pas is a patient, methodical man who plans every detail with obsessive attention, and prefers to employ only those who do the same. Given the erratic behavior of his current company, the stowaway doubted they worked for him.

Feeling a bit more secure after hearing Desca's story, he decided to share a bit more information. The man replied in kind, and named himself Royce Antarii, and described himself as an individual with quite a few enemies and an aptitude for killing. He had no idea why he was here. The last he knew, he was sipping a strong cup of Felucian coffee some time ago, when he was attacked by an unidentified group. Before he could react, he had a bag over his head and was being tackled to the ground. He broke a few jaws with some powerful kicks, but once the sedative was injected, it was sleepy-time for him. He awoke sometime later in a tiny cell, where he was given meager food and drink. Days and possibly weeks passed and he never saw his captors. Finally, one day he was given a meal laced with a sedative, and hungrily ate every scrap. The next thing he knew, Wulf pulled the hood from his head.

With the tension somewhat lessened, Desca invited him into the makeshift kitchen and fixed him a meal. She regaled him with stories of their recent adventures, never failing to go in great depth about some boring, worthless detail. Royce didn't care. He hadn't eaten in a long while, and the Nerf milk he greedily swallowed was spectacular. After he finished eating, Desca announced that Wulf would give him a tour of the ship, annoying both men.

Wulf reluctantly agreed, and half an hour later the two were fast becoming friends. It turned out they both knew a few notorious figures from the galactic underworld and shared a love for guns. They spent the next two days assisting in ship repairs and trading war stories.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scene Three - Revenge!

The Black Pariah made it into the Tatoo system without complication, and made its way towards Tatooine's capitol, Bestine. Van Drall addressed his crew through the interior speaker system. "If you look through the port windows you will see the famous Beggar's Canyon, where part of the Boonta's Eve Classic Podrace is held." After a moment, he continued. "Port is to your left."

Almost immediately, a silhouette 4 object appeared on the ship's radar. It was moving faster than Van Drall's small freighter, and was approaching on an attack vector. The smuggler hit the alarm button, and klaxon's wailed. R5D4 came forward to man the co-pilot's station, while the other three passengers each manned a different gun emplacement. Van Drall executed a quick break, turning sharply against the oncoming ship's flight path. Desca scanned the ship as it came into range, identifying it as a KR-TB Doomtreader, heavily armed and shielded, its transponder code naming it the "Hater Player".

Where all the real mc's is at? 

Almost immediately, the com came to life. "You won't get away from us this time" the attacker announced. "You ruined our careers once, and now its time for revenge!" Wulf and Desca recognized the voice as that of Yasiin and shook their heads in disbelief.

In response to Royce's puzzled look, Desca explained. "Yasiin and Talib were two security guards on Acherin. The two responded to an alert when Wulf and I broke into Jar Tindel's house to..." she noticed Royce's expression glazing over, "well, they had a bit of a tussle with Wulf. By the end of the night, they were unconscious in a ditch."

Game Note: See the session 1 recap here. 

Closing quickly, the Hater Player peppered the G9 Rigger with laser fire, and rocked the ship with a concussion missile. Their com still open, the crew heard Yasiin and Talib high-five, exclaiming "Damn right!" in triumph. Van Drall gained altitude quickly and quickly nosed his ship back down again, giving his gunners a clear line of fire. Though they connected on the barrage, the opponent barely felt the barrage due to its augmented shields.

"Screw this" Wulf exclaimed, and headed towards the cargo hull. "I have an idea." He grabbed Desca's grappling line launcher and nodded for Royce to follow. As they made their way down, Wulf elaborated his plan on the internal com. The Black Pariah will maneuver such that they are only several meters directly above the Hater Player. Royce will open the cargo bay doors, and Wulf will fire the grappling line down to the top of the attacking ship. Royce and Wulf will then proceed down the line and enter the hatch on the top.

Game Note: I allowed to players to declare that an access hatch existed on the top of the ship by flipping a destiny point.

Van Drall protested, assuming the worst; R5-D4 chirped and whistled excitedly. Slowly, the pilot's readout screen translated the droid's binary: "HELLS YEAH." With a resigned shrug, Van Drall maneuvered his ship into position. Desca continued to trade fire with the opposition, neither side doing much damage. Wulf and Royce opened the cargo bay doors, and signaled to the crew that they were ready. Van Drall feinted a wing-over maneuver, and smirked when he realized that Yasiin was a novice pilot at best. He slammed on the breaks for a heartbeat, then matched the attacker's speed. Perfectly executed, the two ships were now only about 10 meters apart!

Wulf fired his line, and manage to get it to clamp onto the Doomtreader's hull about 9 meters from the hatch. Yasiin cursed when he realized what they were up to, and plunged the stick forward, sending his freighter into a steep nosedive. As the line alarmingly spooled out, Royce tackled Wulf, hurling them both clear of the Black Pariah's cargo ramp.

Game Note: Destiny points were being flipped right and left at this point, with most successes barely succeeding. I stated that if the ranged (light) skill check to fire the grappling line was a success, each advantage scored would remove 3 meters from a base 15 meters of distance between where they end up and where the hatch access was.

The two mercenaries plummeted, barely able to hold on as the Hater Player rolled and changed direction. Finally they slammed into the ship's hull! Wulf kept his grip on the grappling line and secured himself to the top. Royce landed at a difficult angle, lost his hold on Wulf, and bounced off the hull again. Arms flailing as he flew past the length of the ship, he managed to miraculously snag his pants on an exterior communications antenna. Desperately he held on tight. "Damnit, we've got to get beneath them in case he falls!" Van Drall moved his ship into position below the larger freighter.

Fearing to hit her two companions, Desca changed tactics and accessed the Black Pariah's computer system. Working quickly, she located a sub-routine she could exploit to gain access to the Hater Player's computer. She found the system path to unlock the exterior hatch, but was unable to execute the open command as the signal kept dropping. Van Drall passed the piloting off to R5-D4 and began his own attempt to hack the ship.

With the thud of the two men landing on the top of their hull, Ta lib looked at his companion with an excited glint in his eye. Yasiin knew exactly what he was thinking. With a high-five, they both shouted "BARREL ROLL!" The Doomtreader spun on its long axis, imparting centrifugal force to the two would-be shipjackers. The force was too strong for the com antenna, and it snapped, sending Royce on a trajectory that intercepted Tattooine's desert surface. Wulf, thinking quickly, used the motion granted by the roll to launch himself in a long arc, still attached by the grappling line. At the last possible second, he grabbed onto Royce's forearm and yanked him back.

Yasiin's face lit up with a flash of brilliance, Yasiin rotated his ship around. Now inverted, he pitched down to smash the dangling pirates between the two ships. With the new firing angle, Talib opened up on the smaller craft with his linked double medium laser cannons, and shredded the Black Pariah's hull. The two ships collided a half-mile above the surface of Tatooine, but Royce and Wulf managed to escape being caught in that deadly vice. Both ships were damaged in the collision. The Hater Player suffered only minor hull damage, but the Black Pariah began experiencing wild power fluctuations as an external ion flux stabilizer was destroyed.

As the two ships separated, Wulf and Royce once again dangled precariously. To their horror and surprise, the hatch opened! Talib steadied himself and fired downward on the two men swinging below, missing badly. With the hatch open, Royce directed Wulf to use the momentum of the swinging line to launch him into the now-open hatch! Sailing through the air, Royce missed a direct hit on Talib, but managed to gain purchase on the hatch. A forceful kick to the head sent Talib sprawling backwards. Talib lurched towards the hatch controls to seal the two mercenaries out, but Royce staggered him with a roundhouse to the throat. In searing pain, Talib didn't see Wulf scamper through the hatch, nor did he see the combat knife Wolf plunged into his throat. 

In the cockpit, Yasiin immediately cut off his attack pattern and yelled hysterically at his foes "I give up! I give up! No need to kill me!" Royce pulled the terrified man from the pilot's seat, passed him off to Wulf, and settled in to pilot the craft. Wulf slammed the man's skull into the bulkhead to stop his desperate pleading. "I know just what to do with you. Royce, open the cargo bay doors. Yasiin fell limp with doomed resignation as Wulf dragged him to the back of the ship. With a heave, the would-be bounty hunter went sailing into the blue Tatooine sky. Wulf's smug grin quickly disappeared when he saw Yasiin pop his parachute and shoot him an obscene gesture.

Game Note: I couldn't resist flipping a destiny point to ensure the party's would-be nemesis lived to fight another day!

As Tatooine's two suns began to set, the two ships continued towards Bestine. Upon reaching the capitol's broadcast range, Desca noticed a message light on her comlink. The comcode belonged to Bib Fortuna, whom they smuggled illegal spices for some months ago.

“Seems you have been in a bit of trouble lately. Fortunately, The Great Jabba has graciously offered to be of assistance. Meet me at Chalmun’s Cantina tomorrow evening and we’ll review the details.”

Van Drall groaned, echoing the thoughts of the others. "Great. A Hutt offered assistance. Something tells me we can't say no." Ever cheery, Desca merely shrugged. "Could be worse!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scene Four - Wheeling and Dealing

Landing in Mos Eisley that night, Van Drall got his first chance to inspect the newly 'acquired' ship. The Doomtreader was just as fast and more maneuverable. It boasted an impressive weapon layout, and the previous owners had even upgraded the defensive systems by installing a reinforced shield generator. In true bounty hunter fashion, the ship was outfitted with prison compartments that can hold up to 6 individuals. Interestingly, Yasiin and Talib had a full-sized, professional music recording studio and practice space installed. Despite Desca's protests "but I had all that Kashykkian hardwood flooring installed on the Black Pariah" Van Drall decided they'd keep the Doomtreader and sell the damaged G9 Rigger.

The next morning, the crew set out to find a buyer. As they had sizable bounties on their head, it impossible to locate a legitimate buyer, and almost impossible to locate a black market buyer. Thankfully, Royce found just the right person near the end of the day.

Ar Mar claimed to be a legendary podracer who builds his own racers. He said he had a streak of recent first place finishes, and was looking for a fast freighter to transport his racers in. Upon first seeing the ship the Sullustan was not impressed, but the crew promised it had all the upgrades he needed.

Desca put her arm around him and let her Falleen pheromones go to work. She took him into the small kitchen area, where she'd installed a number of modern upgrades. "This ship is fast and well armored, but its also something that will bring in the ladies" she purred. His ears twitching, he began to think he'd get Desca as well. Wulf volunteered to show him the weapons systems and targeting array - but he was less than impressed. Royce and Van Draal took a shot at selling him on the engines; but he didn't bite. In fact, he pointed out a few easy modifications than Van Drall never even thought of. Desca came in to attempt to salvage the sale, but the canny Sullustan suddenly realized he was dealing with some very wanted criminals and made a hasty retreat.

With the only buyer they could locate turned away, they realized they would have to try and sell it to Jabba. Dejected, they set off to meet Bib Fortuna.

Game Note: I had the party make five social skill checks to convince Ar Mar to buy; all they had to do was succeed at 3 of them. Sadly, they failed four times.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End Part 1

Plug And Play: Maps For The Lazy

I used to spend so much time as a kid with my graph paper and pencil, crafting elaborate dungeons for my players to explore. Even when I was not running a game, I was at it, drawing in secret doors, statues, pit traps and the like. Half the fun was painting yourself into a corner and trying to, to use a writing analogy, let the character figure his way out. Why is does the dungeon transition from being carved out into a natural cave feature? How could you use the underground river to get around the bugbear lair? Why didn't Gygax make a map icon for the toilet?

I tended to put curtains all over my dungeons. No idea why.

Creating this environment for pcs to explore was always at least as much fun as actually letting them explore it.

As many of you probably agree, creating gaming maps is, to a large degree, a kind of art-form; there's a reason Christopher West gets paid to do it and not me!

Now that I'm older, not only do I not have the time to play as many games as I'd like, but the prep time available to me to prepare for my own game is limited as well. This annoying logistical complication is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the lot of us here at Station53 espouse such a player-driven narrative, since it has the bonus effect of eliminating much of that much of that preparation. That being said, even with an pseudo-abstract, non-tactical system such as Edge of the Empire, I still need maps to keep everything straight in my brain. Fortunately, the Gods have provided us with the internet.

Google Image Search is a powerhouse for locating good maps. A search string consisting of "[game system] map layout" works wonders. For my Star Wars game, I need something a bit more modern than most of the gaming maps you find online, and modifying that search string with [Modern Warfare], [Halo], [Black Ops], or any multi-player FPS brings up a great deal of usable maps. Though I don't play The Old Republic*, Torhead has all the game-maps on their site, which is quite useful for porting into your game.

I've a game coming up tomorrow, and needed a few maps, but none of the usual suspects were doing the trick. Fortunately though, I discovered Dave's Mapper! This site is a collection of artists who contribute modular tiles you can cycle through to build just the map you want - perfect! Best of all, its free! Here's a few random examples below. As you can see, the image is generated by combining a set amount of predefined tiles (in this case, 3x3), and their site allows you to cycle through each tile location to find the one that works:

I generated this at random, so lets see what we can do with it. This looks like a well-used mine. The dwarves in the mountains have been taking ore from this vein for centuries, and have slowly upgraded the access to that vein as the go. This is represented by the fact that the 'dungeon' portions all enclose the rough natural passages in the center. Once that ore runs out and all of those passages are sculpted, it will make a fine lair for a lich. Over on the left side we have a few passageways that go under/over each other; might this be designed to allow for mining carts to move through different levels? The shaft in the top left corner is how the miners go from the surface to this area. To the right of that (top-center) is where the miners sleep, eat, fight, and drink while not on duty. The tile in the top-right corner is interesting; might that be a well they draw their water from? A temple to Dumathoin? Perhaps they stumbled onto something Dwarves Were Not Meant To Know in that chamber, and it wiped them all out.

Here's another, from spaceship tile-set. I generated it randomly, then made a few changes. Below is the Procrastinator-Class System Patrol Craft:

Affluent systems use a ship like this to patrol the hyperlanes for pirates, with a drop ship for any surface excursions needed. To port lies cargo storage and extravehicular access via an airlock; engineering and crew quarters to starboard. Two turbolaser batteries flank the bridge to blast those filthy pirates into elementary particles. Behind the bridge lies the captain's office as well as a multimedia room that can be used to brief the crew before a sortie or watch old Buck Rogers serials. To the right of that room are two heads. Our esteemed ship designer added a personal touch and placed two rooms stern with large view-ports for relaxation.

I think I'll be using this site frequently going forward.

Here's a few other links to mapping sites I find helpful for my Star Wars game:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/finished-maps/
http://www.colonialchrome.co.uk/Pages/Root_1_A_Starships.html
http://www.tomshut.de/rpg/deckplans.html
http://www.mapsofmastery.com/
http://starwarsmaps.blogspot.com/
http://www.d20radio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5755&sid=52804a8fc5a856852b550a81840e808b



*general Star Wars rant coming soon...

What does your Star Wars look like?

I've always been intrigued with alternate history and historical fiction in its various forms. Arthur C. Clarke did it on every sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. His introductory notes explaining the changes were always fascinating, as each change was done to match something new learned in astronomy or new technologies since the last book came out. Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey novels are a go-to comfort food read, as are Steven Pressfield's books.

A while back, I talked to my group about running a Star Wars game focused on the criminal underworld. I wanted to tell stories based on films like The Third Man and Miller's Crossing, and the crime novels of Elmore Leonard. As is just so happened, Fantasy Flight Games had just released the Edge of the Empire Beta! With a ruleset designed for this model in place, I needed a Star Wars Galaxy to match. There are many reasons for this, and I won't go into those here, as I'm sure most of you are well-versed in those arguments.

Before Phantom Menace, I read that Lucas envisioned the fall of the Rebublic as an analogue to the fall of the Roman Empire. Palpatine, then, becomes the returning hero with his own personal army, veterans of many conflicts. He did this to some degree in the prequels, but not enough for my tastes, so that had to go in!

Dooku is a boring character as a mustache-twirling villain, and the banking clan felt the same way. I always loved the idea of Dooku as depicted in the great Jon Ostrander Clone Wars comics. Instead, why not model the Seperatists on the Confederate States of America? Dooku then is less a Snidley Whiplash character and more of a man with a different view of how things should work.

As the Empire functions so well as a re-skinned Third Reich*, I felt I was ready to present what, to me, is just the right version Star Wars setting for my game. As a bonus, it allows me to surprise my players with well-known characters turned on their heads.

Here's the backstory I gave my players:

-----------------------------

For as long as most can remember, the Jedi Knights controlled the Republic. Their representatives were elected to most system, planet and local offices, and the halls of the senate chamber were filled with their ranks. Eventually inefficiency, nepotism, and an adherence to long outdated policies led to the party’s downfall. Several notable Jedi, such as Qui-Gon Jinn, Sora Bulq and Quinlan Vos began to publicly push for reform but were overruled by the council. About 30 years ago, after a long, steep decline, the galaxy suffered near economic collapse. The citizens of the republic had long viewed the ruling Jedi as elitist and insulated from the troubles of the populace, and when the collapse finally came, the galaxy fell apart. Food shortages and resource scarcity fueled outrage and riots.

From the chaos, many systems, trade organizations and disgruntled Jedi broke from the republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The Confederacy clothed itself in traditional moral values and advocated a local, decentralized economic model. Almost immediately, the Republic declared war on the new political state. This move served to fuel Count Dooku’s fledgling cause further; in a very short time, many systems allied themselves to the Separatists. Led by the Jedi Knights, the republican forces were spread thin. By the end of the first year of the conflict, both sides suffered horrendous losses and the war was locked in a stalemate.

Seeing an opportunity, legendary republic general Palpatine, commanding his Clone Army** and a force of Mandalorian mercenaries in the Unknown Regions beyond the Outer Rim, decided to return to the core systems to enter the war. The combined might of the Jedi Republican Army and Palpatine’s loyal, highly trained Clone Army defeated Dooku (who went into hiding) and brought the Separatists under control. Two assassination attempts on Palpatine, one led by Jedi Master Mace Windu and the other led by Jedi Master Yoda, cemented the populace’s rejection of the Jedi. Shortly thereafter, Palpatine’s general, Darth Vader, brought evidence before the senate of a criminal conspiracy perpetrated by the Jedi Knights, an angry galaxy made them the scapegoat for their woes. The Jedi were outlawed, hunted and imprisoned. The public trials lasted for years, with most of those convicted put to death.

Palpatine, backed by an adoring populace, accepted the title of Emperor, and promised to bring order to the galaxy and restore it to its former glory. After assuming control of the government, he initiated many reforms to restore the Republic Credit, forgive debt, and rapidly correct the economic depression. He employed millions through public works projects, most notably Tarkin’s Death Star and Vader’s flagship, the Executor. Palpatine nationalized many private businesses to control production and then sold them at a fraction of the cost to a small subset of devoted individuals.

The Senate became largely symbolic as he ceded control over to sector governors. Hand-picked and loyal, these former military and political leaders (some former Separatists) became the real power-brokers in the galaxy. All facets of government were, for the first time, in the control of one political party headed by Palpatine and the hero of the public, Darth Vader.

During the economic collapse preceding the Clone Wars, the black market thrived, generating very wealthy crime syndicates. Rather than cracking down on them, the local governors used them to their advantage to manipulate prices and increase their power during the immediate post-war period. A few governors, such as Grand Moff Tarkin, got their start as black market criminals. Tarkin’s underworld influence through his control of Black Sun proved invaluable to the new Empire.

In a few short years, the new Galactic Empire has the galaxy largely at peace with a recovering economy. The working class is back to making a stable living, though the hours are now longer and the pay less. Beneath the shining facade of propaganda, the Empire rules with a despotic hand, crushing resistance wherever it emerges. Admiral Thrawn, a Chiss hero of the Clone Wars and a popular writer and orator, heads the Empire’s public face as the Minister of the Interior***. Under his control, arts and centralized news organizations have become a focus of Imperial propaganda. The new face of the Empire is a human-centric one, advocating loyalty and public service. The populace has learned to fear the Empire’s Stormtroopers; particularly the famous 501st Legion (known as Vader’s Fist) and Thrawn’s Inquisitors.

Despite consolidated control, the Galactic Empire still faces a number of threats. The remnants of the Separatists keep the Imperial Navy busy in isolated pockets of the Outer Rim systems, but whether Dooku still leads them is unknown. The assassin driod IG-88 has consolidated the remainder of the Separatist driod army as a kind of holy war against the ‘inferior biologicals’ that run the galaxy. Recently, a mysterious group calling themselves the Rebel Alliance has emerged. They’ve adopted the banner of the old Jedi-led republic and launched a guerrilla war against the infrastructure of the Empire.

-----------------------------

How have you changed history to suit your Star Wars game?

* See this article.

** The Clone Troopers are not clones as described in canon, but are referred to as such because their white armor makes them anonymous. I also use the Imperial Army/Navy Trooper for most imperial minions instead of Stromtroopers. That way, when the more competent Stromtroopers show up, the PCs quake in their boots.

*** I like having an alien as the head of the racial purity division as a mirror to the idea that Hitler, certainly not the model of the Aryan Race, espoused this idea.

[Actual Play Report] Star Wars - Scum and Villainy, Session 5

Previously, on Nar Shadda, our heroes got caught between two rival gangs at a local nightclub where a birthday party for a notable member of one gang was happening. When the kitchen staff (all Rodians, who in my game are space-Mexicans) came out to serve the meal, all hell broke loose. The Rodians removed the tops of their serving platters to unveil guns, and started shooting everyone up. The PCs managed to set off a huge explosion, bringing down the roof, and barely made it out alive, and one of them did not.

After escaping Nar Shadda, Desca managed to purge the records of their bounty from the records of a few smaller planetary records, while Van Draal called in a favor to get the Black Pariah repaired and retrofitted with the ship weaponry they acquired on Acherin.

Over the next two months they managed a few low-paying jobs, one of which was delivering a shipment of spice to fence affiliated with Bib Fortuna. After they dropped off the spice on Akranis, they were pursued by, and escaped, from the feared Bounty Hunter Bossk.

Star Wars 

Episode 4

Scuttle Me Scuppers

Crawl:

Two months after the incident on NAR SHADDA, the crew of the BLACK PARIAH have struggled to make ends meet. With a price on their heads, jobs have been hard to come by, and BOUNTY HUNTERS are never far behind. 

A pirate fleet from the ZANN CONSORTIUM lies in orbit around the gas giant PUJOOL in the ANOAT SECTOR for refitting and repair. You docked with the Corellian Corvette GILDED HARBINGER this morning to purchase an astromech droid from a Neimoidian pirate named LANA KEEG. Thus far, it has been a rather boring day…

Breakfast on a pirate ship in hiding - what could go wrong?

SCENE 1 - Surprise Attack!

The pirate fleet consists of four smaller capital ships and supporting vehicles. The Gilded Harbinger has certainly seen its share of combat, but looks sturdy enough. Its decks and corridors are utilitarian, and the primary contingent of the ship are old Banking Clan battle droids left over from the clone wars. The officers are mostly a mix of Duros and Neimoidians, with a few other races sprinkled about. You've spent the morning in an officer’s meeting room with Lana Keeg, eating a spartan meal and listening to her drone on about Duros opera. The hallucinogenic oranges, reds and purples of Pujool’s vast bulk occupy all of the lone window in the room.

Lana Keeg (played by Helen Mirren) receives the credits from the crew, and signs the droid over to Desca. The droid, which she calls ‘Red’, is an R5 series astromech droid with a faulty motivator. They've tried fixing it numerous times, but they can’t seem to resolve the issue. Furthermore, the droid has a rather abrasive personality, and constantly feuds with the other droids on board the ship. Given the fact that a large percentage of the ship’s crew are Battle Droids, this has caused endless issues. Even repeatedly wiping the droid's memory hasn't made any difference, and now she just wants to be rid of the thing.

As they talk, Wulf puts his dirty boots up on an expensive ottoman, drawing the ire of Lana, a perfectionist. When Wulf makes a crack about the droid being equally filthy, Red replies with a vociferous stream of obscenities. Wulf and the droid nearly come to blows before Van Draal and Desca alleviate the situation.

The four criminals talk about possibly using this meeting to set up future collaboration. The Zann Consortium pirate fleet is currently striking at the Empire whenever they can. They are a remnant of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and are building their resources awaiting a return by their leader, Count Dooku, who is rumored to still be at large.The PCs can help by acquiring much of these resources for them, and they begin to flesh out how to make this alliance happen.

Suddenly, the corvette reels from what feels and sounds like a huge explosion! Klaxons roar, and red warning lights flood the room. As you get back on your feet, Keeg leaps to a computer terminal. “This is not how I wanted to spend the rest of my day,” she remarks, as her fingers dance across the control panel. “Lovely. ISD Exactor. 501st. You should make yourself scarce - this is going to get ugly.” Another blast shocks the hull, causing the lights to flicker. Across the hallway you can see laser-fire batteries arcing towards the ship.

Good morning! I hear you are serving breakfast! We'd like a table for 47,060 please.

Red immediately wheels towards the corridor. The harsh whistles and groans he lets out are easily recognized as profanity, even if you don’t understand Binary.

As the ship rocks from the turbolaser barrage, the PCs quickly decide to follow Red’s lead and make for the turbolift. They need to navigate down four more decks to get to the Black Pariah and escape.

SCENE 2 - Escape To The Hangar Bay

As the turbolift goes down, another direct hit causes systems to go haywire aboard the Corvette. The turbolift grinds to a halt as it nears the next level down, and the lights begin to flicker on and off intermittently. The doors half open, and the crew clamber out onto the Engineering Deck.

This dimly-lit corridor is flanked by tanks holding the ship’s tibanna gas fuel. Red pulls up a ship schematic, and directs the party to a service ladder at the far end of the deck. They make their way down the corridor, and another hit rocks the ship. A routing tube breaks loose and sprays Van Draal with supercooled toxic coolant. Luckily, he took the brunt of it and none of his companions were harmed. As the coolant begins to fill the corridor, they make haste to the safety of the ladder.

The PCs hastily scramble down the ladder to the Bridge Deck below. Desca falls, but Wulf’s bulk softens her landing. Moving from stern to bow, the crew hears screams and smells the odor of an electrical fire ahead. Stopping at in a maintenance room, Red unsuccessfully tries to active the floor’s fire suppression system. Van Draal takes a moment to fully don a fire suit, while Wulf and Desca put on masks. Rummaging through the remainder of the gear in the room, Wulf snags his oxygen tank on a shelf, discharging its contents and rendering it inoperable. Desca locates a liquid cable launcher and stashes it away.

The corridor leading to the bridge itself is filled with smoke; as the players approach, four short-circuited battle droids, rifles raised, step out of the burning hallway and open up. Wulf bounds towards them, destroying three and severely damaging another. The damaged droid's power battery is exposed to Desca’s next shot, and resulting explosion sends droid parts everywhere.

The bridge is a mess. The turbolift is sealed shut, and two beleaguered crewmen busy themselves trying to deal with the growing fire emanating from the wall. Wulf and Van Draal, wearing the proper gear, aim their fire extinguishers to help. Desca directs Red to a computer port near the entrance to the turbolift. Red tries in vain again to activate the deck’s fire suppression system, but in the process, he confirms that the aft turbolift is indeed operational.

Abandoning the plan to put out the fire, Wulf uses his vibroaxe to pry the doors open. He’s successful, but his vibroaxe suffers a fractured head. The remainder of the team pile into the elevator. One of the two crewmen continues to fight the fire, but the other follows along: “You guys have a ship right? Lets get out of here!”

SCENE 3 - The Deck of Death

Desca presses the button for the lowest level, marked TURBOLASERS, HANGAR and the turbolift goes down, interior lights flickering. A red light opens flashes, indicating a stop request on the next level down: DROID CONTROL. The turbolift slows and stops. The PCs are lifted off their feet as the artificial gravity on this deck is no longer functional.

The aft turbolift doors open onto what can only be described as Hell. At the other end of the long passageway that runs the length of the deck, a black wall of smoke slowly advanced. The only thing emerging from that fiery blaze were the cries of the dying. In front of the wall, desperately swimming aft in zero-g, desperate crew members focused their panicked eyes on their only escape - the turbolift now on their floor.

As the party floated to the top, Red - his feet magnetically clamped to the floor - calmly pushed the button to close the door.

SCENE 4 - The Shaft

You begin to hear a roar, growing stronger by the second, coming from every direction. The ship begins to vibrate, then shake, sometimes violently. You begin to realize that the artificial gravity on the ship is failing, and a new gravitational force is being applied to the ship. The aft section seems to be rotating to point to that new source of gravity. Suddenly, as the turbolift changes its axis, you realize something terrible - the ship is beginning to plummet into Pujool’s atmosphere!

"Well, lets look on the bright side. At least we'll die with a full belly."

As the ship groaned and shuddered, the doors opened. The lowest deck on the ship loomed above them, now a tall shaft. Debris tumbled into the turbolift, and the entire area was only faintly illuminated by the dim red emergency lights.

Desca was thrilled - the synth-rope launcher she acquired previously was now the perfect tool! After a few attempts to fire it securely to a high spot on the shaft above, Van Draal took it from her and planted the magnetic end securely. The two of them zipped up. Red, by virtue of his magnetic feet, climbed the wall effortlessly. Wulf grabbed onto the henchman - confused as to why they kept calling him “24” - and began to climb.

The going was tedious for Wulf - not made any easier by the fact that he was carrying someone and his companions were making their way, bit by bit, up the shaft. The hull was beginning to be torn apart by atmospheric re-entry, and they had very little time to get out on their ship before the whole thing was torn and burned to pieces. Upon securing himself to one of the walls, Van Draal noticed that the turbolift far below had gone back up again. It would not be long before they had company.

Doubling their efforts, the party continued to climb. The red light on the turbolift blinked shortly thereafter, and the doors opened to reveal a ragged band of weary pirates. “They have a ship” one exclaimed, pointing at the party, “lets get ‘em!”

Blaster fire bounced off the walls of the shaft. Luckily, the pirates were a terrible shot in this dim lighting. Van Draal secured himself in a doorway and squeezed off a shot; in the process, he lost his footing and nearly tumbled to his death. While he was lucky, his heavy blaster pistol was not, and it tumbled down, down, down into the open doors of the turbolift. Irritated, Wulf resorted to his standard problem-resolution technique, and dropped a grenade. the pirates looked on in horror as the grenade made the long fall to them, and scrambled to close the turbolift doors. No matter how many times they pushed the button, the doors were too slow in closing. When they finally did, the grenade was at their feet. The resulting explosion made short work of both the pirates and the turbolift as well.

The party resumed their long climb up towards the stern of the corvette. Desca and Van Drall zigzagged their way up with the synth-rope launcher, 15m at a time. Wulf spotted a computer terminal that had wrenched from the wall and was now dangling by a bundle of power cables. Slinging 24 onto his back, he used it to climb. His and 24’s eyes widened in terror as, halfway up, the cables started popping loose, one by one. The whole thing gave way, and Wulf managed to latch onto a doorway. Unfortunately, the sudden stop was too much for the opportunistic henchman, who tore loose and fell. He screamed as he plummeted, and ended his life in a sickening crunch at the bottom.

Eventually the crew made it up the majority of the shaft, into what used to be the Medical Bay. Exhausted, they took a moment to catch their breath before continuing up to the blast doors above and into the hangar. Suddenly some exterior structure tore loose from the ship with a horrific ripping sound,resulting in a small breach of the hull. Pujool’s toxic atmosphere came flooding into the lower-pressure interior, accompanied by fire. They scrambled up the computer stations and walls in a rush to make it through the blast doors. All, that is, save for Red. Ignoring the furnace the room was quickly becoming, the droid rolled over to the breach. Debris flew about him, and his claw appendage snagged a large sheet of metal from the air. He slammed it over the hole and, shortly thereafter, sealed a weld to end the threat. Meanwhile, Van Draal hacked into the blast door controls and got it to open.

SCENE 5 - The Hangar

Once you manage to get the door open and push aside all the debris that has fallen onto the brand new floor, you let out a sigh of relief, as your ship is still attached to what is now a wall by docking clamps. Under normal conditions, the floor opens beneath the ship and it drops out; now that floor is a wall. You aren't quite sure how this will work. As you speculate, you can hear parts of the ship being ripped away as you plummet deeper into the thick alien atmosphere of the gas giant. You then notice verbiage all over the place stating “WARNING - DEPRESSURIZATION ZONE.”

The hangar was unbearably hot. The lights were out, save for the faint red emergency lights, which meant that the room did not have full power. Far above them on the new ceiling, the PCs spotted a computer terminal labeled MANUAL DOOR CONTROL. Desca suddenly realized, to her horror, that this meant they would not be able to wirelessly link into the hangar bay controls and remotely retract the docking clamps as well as open the hangar doors from the safety of the ship.

Thinking quickly, the PCs came up with a plan. Desca securely attached the synth-rope to Red while Van Draal climbed into the cockpit. They opened the Black Pariah’s cargo bay doors and activated the ship’s magnetic field. Wulf wrapped himself in whatever he could find attached to the back wall of the cargo bay and held on to the other end of the synth-rope. Desca joined Van Draal while Red wheeled up the wall to the manual terminal.

Red released the docking clamps and Van Draal powered the ship up. Engines ready, Red manually opened the hangar doors. Immediately the room exploded in blinding 1000 degree fire as Pujool’s atmosphere forced its way into the hangar. Wulf could barely hold on as Van Draal plowed the Black Pariah out of the plummeting capital ship. Seared and nearing his melting point, Red retracted the synth-rope and got to the safety of the magnetically sealed cargo bay. Moments thereafter, the synth-rope dissolved from the heat.

SCENE 6 - Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire

Finally free of the burning ship, the crew of the Black Pariah watched it break apart and dissolve in flames. Van Draal could barely keep control of the small freighter a midst the 300 km/h winds of the planet. Thinking quickly, he realized that the ionized atmosphere would shield the little ship from the sensors of the tie-fighters behind them, and, at a minimum, make it difficult for the Exactor to spot them. He throttled the engines and dove deeper into the blinding violent could, and set a course for a super-massive storm just ahead. Entering the maelstrom, all hands worked desperately to keep the ship in one piece as it was swatted around by the fierce winds of the storm. After what seemed like an eternity they neared the other side of the storm, but just as they were set to be free of it, the ship was hit with lightning, completely melting its shield generator. The Pariah limped out of Pujool’s atmosphere on the other side of the planet battered but not broken. Fearing detection by the Star Destroyer, Desca rapidly plotted a course for the first system she could think of, and the freighter leaped into hyperspace, bound for the Tatoo System.

GM's Water Cooler: Choosing Your Own Adventure

I think it all started with Choose Your Own Adventure books. As a kid, reading was fun, but there was nothing like this! I could make the decisions, and see how they would play out! By crafting the stories with a point of view perspective, not only was I making choices about narrative, but I was making choices about myself. At first I’d simply decide which of the two possibilities seemed the most interesting, but eventually I began to try and imagine what choice the person whose eyes I was peering out from would do, and choose appropriately.

That, I think, is what led me to role-playing.

It wasn't long thereafter that I was recruited into a D&D game with my friend’s older brother, and then played in other role-playing games. While I did get to pretend to be someone else, I still could not fully choose my own adventure, as the game master ultimately decided what choices I had. Naturally, this led to running my own games, ostensibly with the idea that I’d run the game I wanted to play.

After getting some experience as a dungeon master, I finally gave my play group the Holy Grail choice I always wanted as a player. I was nervous, and excited. It went something like this:

Me: “OK, you all are in a bar. You have all of the gear on your character sheet, the you grew up in this small town and have heard all the tales of lost treasures, abandoned towers, haunted forests, etc. So – what do you want to do?”

The players: “Ummmm…”

---------------

As a player in a role playing game, we accept certain constraints. The world our characters are in is this way.  My character sheet says I can do these things well, and I’m not too good at doing these other things. The dungeon has an entrance, an exit, and numbered rooms with 3 goblins, a table, and a chest containing a 20 silver and 34 copper pieces. The module states that defeating Lareth nets the party 2500xp. In a lot of ways, many of us were taught that a roleplaying game was one in which you were free to act as you (or your character) choose, but only within certain limitations.

Interestingly, early editions of D&D rejected this philosophy to some extent, by virtue of both characters that are defined only by a very limited set of mechanics, and Gygax’s seemingly contradictory approach of defining lots of highly-detailed rules and tables, while simultaneously advising to use some of it, none of it, or all of it as you see fit. Player-generated adventuring was embraced to some degree via the hexcrawl. A hexcrawl game gave the players a wide-open sandbox to work with, much of it unknown at the start to both the player and the GM. I’d love to revisit this at some point now, using the fantastic rule set over at The Alexandrian.

In recent years, that paradigm has changed, both in roleplaying games and games in general. Savage Worlds and the D20 system are the first games I played that introduced a mechanic allowing you to spend a disassociated resource to influence your rolls and, sometimes, narratively state what is true (thought I’ll bet many of you can point to other systems that did it first). Fiasco forces the players to create their own preferred fiction* at the start, and then sand-box it from there. FATE does this quite well, abstracting things and boiling them down to simple aspects to be tagged. Diaspora does both, with its fantastic cluster creation minigame.

The latest Star Wars system, Edge of the Empire, requires players to narrate their dice rolls, forcing the players to declare what is actually happening, or negotiate it with the game master.

---------

I’ve been running an EtoE game intermittently for the last several months, and after seeing it in action, began to think this system might have what it takes. Part of what made me think it was possible was not entirely the system, but rather the setting. I try to run my Star Wars game as if it were a film, calling out the actor playing a PC and setting up a scene in cinema terms (things entering from frame-right, lighting direction, narrating screenwipes, etc).

As Star Wars, as originally espoused, was a modern take on old Flash Gordon serials, each adventure can be disassociated from the campaign as a whole. This is quite helpful. As a serial, each session is self-contained to some extent, allowing it to be ‘reset’ in the same way that each episode of the A-Team begins at the same point, independent of the previous adventure. 

This setting/system combination seemed spot on to try my Holy Grail experiment again. I came into the session with nothing planned, a book full of pre-generated NPCs, and grabbed a Rolling Stone magazine as a reference to pull ideas from if needed.

Again, I was nervous, this time that 1) the players would not realize how to create their own narrative, and 2) that I would not be able to ‘keep up’ with them, and follow through on their choices in a way that was both easy and exciting. Of course, all such fears were instantly dismissed, as it was an absolute blast. The players took to it like a Dianoga to trash.

Going forward I’m not so sure I want to sit down with absolutely nothing planned going into a session, but I might! Its also good to know that if someone didn’t show up for some other game we had scheduled to play, I could break out EtoE at a moment’s notice and collectively create a satisfying session.

Now I just have to figure how to use my finger to bookmark the page so that if I don’t like the outcome generated by the player’s choice, I can go back and choose a different page.

*blog tagline reference entirely intentional