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Starting a Campaign
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Love the write-ups! Keep 'em coming!

Sounds like a great game!

What are the four character's names?





Lord Zash wrote:
I have always loved the look of that ship. However I want to make it a bit old and rusty.


How about this: CLICKY FOR BEAT UP YT 1760

You can find various deckplans for this vessel on the net. Check Google Images.




Quote:
The name of the ship is the Black Rat (ask her... not my idea xD) and as the name says... it's going to be completely black.


Black Rat? For a Senatorial ship? Are you sure that it's not just the nickname for the vessel? Something Lionel calls it, but not offiical?

Maybe Edden has several of these vessels, all of the same class, all painted black. Lionel likes and uses one particular vessel, officially designated R-8T. Lionel calls it the "Black Rat".

Just a thought.





A Couple More Thoughts For You...

TIREE

Tiree shows up again in the adventure, The Game Chambers of Questal. You may want to incorporate that into your future adventures. And, you could take parts of that adventure, like Moff Bandor, and establish him early--way before the events of the Game Chambers are played by the players.

BTW, you probably know that "Tiree" is one of the pilots that died at the Battle of Yavin. "Lost Hutch. Lost Tiree."

That Tiree (I think his name is Dex Tiree) is a Y-Wing pilot. Vader takes him out in the trench, IIRC.

The Tiree in your game could be this same person. Maybe he ejected (had to have blown a Force Point to survive that AND get away from the DS before it blew up!). Bacta Tanks can work wonders.

Or, maybe your Tiree is a relative--his brother, maybe. Yanneth Tiree.

Or, maybe your Tiree is a Rebel Intelligence Operative, not unlike Cassian Andor from Rogue One. He's charged with locating and recruiting new recruits--especially those with high value skills, like Senatorials (who have political influence) and starfighter pilots (because the Alliance is going through those like hot cakes).

Undercover, the agent doesn't use his real name, of course. Instead, the Intelligence Arm is currently using the identities of the dead. First, it is in honor to that person's ultimate sacrifice. That person is still contributing to the cause by use of his background details, even after the person is dead.

Second, many Alliance members are hard to trace. They've been with the Alliance for years. But, there are some records out there about them. This makes it easy for Alliance Intelligence to keep using the background, inputting whatever they want for recent activity, giving the Intel agents living, breathing cover credentials.

Your Tiree could be using Dex Tiree's name and background as his cover.





Leia and Han.

They are also met by PCs in the adventure, Graveyard of Alderaan. This is another one that you might want to incorporate into your future adventures.

If you want to pull in a "Jedi" story to your game later, there is a light saber at the beginning of this adventure--just waiting for the right PC to pick it up and have a moment the way Rey did in TFA.





FRAGMENTS OF THE RIM

I love this supplement. It's a collection of random things--all cool for your game. You may want to look through this and pull things for your game.

I've always loved High Inquisitor Tremayne. I've used him before as a recurring BIG BAD GUY. You can use him as the "Darth Vader" or your campaign, if you like.

And, if you do start to meddle with the Jedi stuff, this books also brings you a great character that you can use as a mentor for them. Corwin Shelvay.




ASSAULT ON HOTH

I have never played, or even looked closely at this game. But, you may want to check it out. It may be something that you want to use when you play out the Imperial Attack.

Somewhere--maybe it was in one of the Adventure Journals--I saw some SW Miniature Battle scenario for playing the Hoth attack. If I figure that out, I'll post it here.

IIRC, the Imperial Sourcebook or the Alliance Sourcebook discusses the battle.





TIERFON BASE

I've always loved Tierfon Base, at the back of the Star Wars Sourcebook. Your Rebels are going to have to go somewhere after the Battle of Hoth (or maybe they miss the battle and leave for Tierfon before the Imperials hit).

This might be something that you'll want to integrate into your game after Hoth.

Of course, there's the Hideouts & Strongholds book, too, that you can use for base ideas.





CLASSIC CAMPAIGNS

One thing the SW game has is a lot of NPCs. There's lots of 'em. The Adventure Journal is full of them. Fully detailed, fully statted, ready to go.

I've always enjoyed Captain Ixsthmus and his crew, from the Longshot Campaign. You may want to look at that--to have a friendly, rival group of Rebels that your team interacts with, from time to time.

Rotating guest stars, if you will.





BESPIN

Since you're at Hoth, you may be interested in doing something on Bespin, too. First, there's the full blown adventure, Crisis on Cloud City. That adventure takes place concurrently with the scenes from TESB. At the end of the adventure, your players, on another part of Cloud City, hear Lando's announcement about the Empire landing--that it's time to evacuate.

I thought that might fit your campaign well.

Check out the Galaxy Guides Yavin & Bespin and the one for The Empire Strikes Back. Lots of cool info for Bespin those, plus you'll find a complete short adventure (look at the 2E versions) plus some adventure ideas for playing on Bespin.





Lots of ideas!

May The Force Be With You!
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 5:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As usual thank you for your elaborate replies Wajeb! Lots of interesting ideas there.


Arrow Yep... Black Rat, is just the nickname of that particular ship. I will go for sort some of design based on the Baudo Class Yatch (I really liked that suggestion) and I also like 'RT-8' as the particular class of these ships, sounds really cool. Good thing is that as I'm making Edden from scratch... I have creative freedom and to be honest this particullar group is not crazy interested in game balance, precise rules etc. They just want a story!


Arrow Beat up YT1760...Exactly what I was looking for, thanks Smile


Arrow Players and characters:

GURNEY HALLECK
-Player: Alex
Template used: outlaw

LIONEL ARTHEMIS (Donovan Thadeus Fukdemol)
-Player: Brenda
Template used: young senatorial

INDIGO MONCADA
-Player: Judith
Template used: Pirate

P.P. MONCADA
-Player: Fernando
Template used: Brash Pilot



The outlaw is not really playing so but he chose first the template and then we talked about background. As for the first game of Rebel Breakout we just wanted to try the game we didn't really want to put too much work into this just in case we didn't like it and was discarded. However, we all had a great time and then we started working from there on solid backgrounds.

My aim is to run Star Wars maybe twice a month. It's not our main campaign as Brenda is running her game once a week.


Pirate and sister Pilot are looking for their 3rd brother who was taken by Imperial Forces when they were kids.

By the way... I reckon Indigo Moncada's old pirate mates have the Black Rat right now... hehhehe

Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil Twisted Evil
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2018 8:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lord Zash wrote:
Arrow Yep... Black Rat, is just the nickname of that particular ship. I will go for sort some of design based on the Baudo Class Yatch (I really liked that suggestion) and I also like 'RT-8' as the particular class of these ships, sounds really cool. Good thing is that as I'm making Edden from scratch... I have creative freedom and to be honest this particullar group is not crazy interested in game balance, precise rules etc. They just want a story!




A few more thoughts...

The RT series of ships are converted Baudo Class yachts specifically customized for the Royal House of Edden. The designation stands for "Royal Transport".

These vessels were painted solid black, but if you look close, there is some gold (hard to see) trim.

The Royal House of Edden had seven of these vessels in general use for diplomatic duty: vessels R-1T through R-7T. These ships were never given single names as they were owned by the Royal House and used in a "motor pool" type fashion.





There were two other vessels, augmented, used only by the members of the Royal Family: R-8T "rat" and R-9T.

Lionel's favorite (and the ship he always used himself), was R-8T. Lionel calls it the "Black Rat".

These two special transports are augmented by having their computer systems upgraded to actual droid status. The ships are actually droids!

GM: Use the 1E rules and give R-8T some skills. Those rules say to give a droid one, two, or three skills.

If you give R-8T Starship Piloting, then the ship can fly itself just like a character flies it. It will have a vocal interface, so Lionel can give the ship commands just standing in the corridor of the vessel. He doesn't have to be on the bridge. "Rat? Take us to orbit."

Lionel could also contact the ship via comm and have it go to a certain place or come to where Lionel is--all by itself.

Cool, huh?

The droid brain of R-8T could be programmed to respond only to Lionel voice (only to the Royal Family of Edden, but since Lionel is the last one...)



Astrogation could be the second skill given to R-8T. That way, the ship can also travel through hyperspace by itself. If Lionel could get a message to it, it could actually come to Hoth by itself.

You may want to use a different skill in place of this one. If so, then R-8T must wait for human input into the Navicomp just like normal vessels and cannot travel through hyperspace without a navigator.



An obvious third skill is Starship Repair. R-8T can actually repair itself! The system incorporates these little drone units, operated by the ship's automatic repair system. They look like dinner plates placed on top of small boxes. Each has retractile spider like legs that it uses for locomotion. The little drones (not complete droids by themselves--they are directed by the ship) look like dog sized crabs, scurrying around on their multiple legs.

These drones pop out of various hatches throughout the ship (and internally, too, into maintenance crawl spaces) and on the outside skin of the ship, doing repair work.

The dish at the top of the droid is actually a socket that can hold various types of interchangeable tools, depending on the job being done at the moment.



Other Skills: Going by the rules, we're only supposed to give a droid one, two or three skills with high dice in each skill. Starship Piloting, Astrogation, and Starship Repair, as I've just detailed seem the most obvious. But, there are other ways to go.

If you want to keep Astrogation in the hands of the humans, then just focus on Starship Piloting and Starship Repair.

Starship Shields is another idea--allowing R-8T to automatically control the ship's shields in combat. Security, Comp. Program/Repair, Droid Program/Repair are other skills that could be exploited for use with R-8T.



The Pirates have the ship. Why hasn't the droid mind in R-8T taken itself and escaped?

Some ideas: The ship doesn't have Astrogation control (see above), so if it ran by itself, it would only be able to hide. The better course of action is to keep its droid status secret from the pirates and allow them to believe that the Rat is a normal ship.

Or, Rat does have Astrogation, but has shut down its droid control. The ship can be operated like a normal ship. Lionel, or another member of the Royal Family can "wake up" the droid in the ship by voice activation.



Again...just some thoughts. Use 'em or not! Very Happy
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2018 4:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So tonight I'm running another game, taking up where we left off.

I have prepared a few things for them and quite a lot of options about directions the adventure can go.

One of them... is surprise Wampa!

The excuse is that in one of the perimetral posts a couple of workers have dissapeared last night with a snow storm. PCs are going to be sent to investigate.

I have these stats for the Wampa:

DEX 3D
PER 4D
search: 6D
CON 1D
STRENGTH: 7D
Claw attack: 7D+1
Teeth: 7D+2

+3D at hide/sneak in artic climate.



The way I want to do it is that the players find a couple of clues about the workers and end up in a cave like structure where the Wampa lives.
Rolling hide/sneak for the creature (difficult maybe) I will hide from them. If I fail the roll then they find the Wampa having lunch (tauntaun) and normal combat goes on.
If I successfully hide from them, then I can surprise them. I don't exactly know how to do that bit.... as they are 4 players it might not work great. Like... yep, surprise! then... they start shooting the wampa. Although I think if they get suprised at least the Wampa should have a surprise round attack.

Basically, I don't want this combat to go like this: 4 players see a wampa... they start shooting before the thing gets closer... thing gets stunned with each shot... thing doesn't move xD... they keep firing.. thing is dead.

Any tips?



(btw... I bet they won't stay for the wampa! players...)
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Wajeb Deb Kaadeb
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PostPosted: Mon May 21, 2018 9:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lord Zash wrote:
Any tips?


Probably can't use snowspeeders because, according to the film, they aren't ready to withstand the cold yet.

So...tauntauns!
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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2018 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So we played Smile 2 hours session... kind of frustrating Sad


I notice that the guy that plays the pilot looked a bit tired and the girl that plays the pirate too (actually this one looked like she needed to go to sleep a bit). Anyway... with this I decided to start the game:

I did a quick catch up for the pirate and the pilot (both siblings in the game). Told them they are in Hoth and described them the base and tried to get them into the mood and the setting. Comes the morning after and they all have some lunch at the base with Lyonel the senatorial and Gurney Halleck.


This led to about 5 minutes of really cool RP led mainly by the girl that plays the senatorial. She's into her background, she acted like her character would, it was great! She took that time to get to know about the pirate siblings, ask them questions and know about their background.
I deeply enjoyed the scene and didn't even opened my mouth for about 5 minutes.

However... I noticed that the pirate started yawning... so I thought arfff she's literally falling asleep when she's got a great rp player in front of her giving it all...
Then noticed that the guy that plays the pilot even though he says he's played a lot of RPG games .... he doesn't really roleplay anything. He had told me after we finished the last game that it'd be cool to get to know the other characters a bit because the adventure at MESA 291 was so action packed that they didn't have a moment to meet each other really. So comes this moment and he acts all suspicious about the rest of the group and doesn't RP much... ok. Gurney Halleck is alright though although he's not a man of many words.


So here is the situation. I have 1 great roleplayer, 1 guy that is ok but a bit more spectator type, 1 that doesn't know what he wants (the pilot) and giving 0 roleplay and 1 that is falling asleep. And me as a noob-master... great situation!


Day carries on, the pilot notices that rebels are having trouble at the engineering department with the speeders because of the weather. He's got some dice on Tech and Repair so I thought ok, you can help with this. So he decides to help the lead engineer there but after some not very good rolls he solves some stuff but spends a couple of hours on that. 0 Roleplay on this player's part but in all honesty I had thought about them helping with the speeders and without me even mentioning anything he came out with the idea of visiting the engineering department to give a hand. So will grant him a +1 experience point Smile


After that...they still have about 6 hours of daylight so they decide to follow the lead of the missing engineering worker that was on duty at the (soon to be finished and powered up) Perimeter Point.

As the speeders still don't work they have to get 4 Taun Tauns! For this I thought... roll Beast Riding. For me as GM I want to move the plot along so thought difficulty 5 + stubborness of the taun taun (1D). I got a 6. All the players were fine so in about 40 minutes of riding in the snow... the get to the point.


They investigate a bit finding a couple of clues, a taun taun bridle and a bit of blood under a layer of recent snow.

They feel that it's getting late and they haven't come prepared. Plus they feel that the worker might be dead anyway so they decide to go back to Echo Base before it gets dark. They report to the Hangar Captain, which thanks them for their help and they volunteer to go help the day after if the weather allows.


By that point I notice the pirate is falling asleep and it's about dinner time. So we stop and have dinner. After dinner it gets a bit late talking and chatting so I decide to leave it for another day leaving me a bit frustrated thinking I've done a bad job Sad





So being critic with myself I am trying to analyze where I failed to make an enjoyable session.

I went to the session with a few things prepared:

- The Wampa / missing workers mussion if they wanted that.
- Helping with the speeders.
- Just waiting... In 3 days they were going to get a transport anyway. Will be the beaten up Equinox freighter. I know that the senator wants to get to her ship as soon as possible. I will give her the ship eventually Very Happy but... I have planned a whole adventure in Tatooine. They jump to hyperspace with the Equinox... mid jump they get out of hyperspace around Tatooine... something has failed with the hyperspace engine. They have to go down to Tatooine and get a repair... Wont' be easy but they have chances. In there I plan to drop hints for the story of the pirate brothers. So that was pretty much another adventure prepared if they wanted to take that path!


Arrow I think maybe I failed to give them more action! Or maybe a strong sense of purspose? But then the senatorial and Gurney have both worked and stablished their backgrounds giving themselves pretty good reasons why trying to get the Rebels to help them.


I also tried to care a bit about the spotlight and tried to give them time each but the pirate was falling asleep anyway. I feel that although she likes SW it's not really her thing...so I'm kind of puzzled by why did she come anyway? Also she did 0 work on her background so even though they are trying to find her brother she said ''Sorry I feel a bit tired... ehm and also I feel I have no reason why being here (as in the rebel base)''.

Then the pilot... lots of RP experience... he doesn't RP anything. It's more of a decision tree game for him. I am given a Problem ---> solutions A, B, C or D. My character would do D... then take D. 0 RP.


So the only 2 that are having a blast are the girl that plays the senator and her companion.



I am going to run next Monday again as the girl that plays the senator is not ready yet to start her own homebrew campaign (fantasy setting, D6 system). I think they will probably do the Wampa mission. If the pirate brothers are 1 falling asleep and the other giving 0 RP... I think I will run future missions with just 2 players: the senator and his companion. They said to me they had a real good time all 4 times I've run Star Wars even when they know I am a complete noob at Game Mastering. So I will run for them because I feel the other two are just coming along for the sake of doing something social that day... Thing is we see each other at least 2 or 3 times a week (some beers after work, maybe go out)... so I feel that they are coming along just because of FOMO rather than because they are actually interested on Star Wars.

It might all be my fault though Sad I'm starting as a GM... I don't know... it's hard to tell.
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2018 6:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is how I have thought about the Wampa encounter should my players decided to go for it:

WAMPA
DEXTERITY 3D
PERCEPTION 4D
(sneak/hide: arctic 7D -->Camouflage: +3D to sneak in arctic climates, heat-diffusing body adding +2D to sneak versus sensors.)
STRENGTH 7D
Special Abilities:
Claws: STR+1 damage
Teeth: STR+2 damage
Size: 3 meters tall


I will describe the cavern more as a net of caves, holes, full of stalactices and partially being part of a glacier. I am planning to be quite generous in description to try to get them in the mood and maybe make them feel they could even get lost in this cavern. Hopefully they might come with some inventive stuff.


Rolls:
Arrow 1) Players SEARCH vs Wampa's HIDE
If players win: they will see the Wampa soon after entering the cavern, allowing them to shoot before the creature tries to hide in the depths of the system of caverns.

If I win but players get a 15+ I will describe those caves as being not made by any type of alien/human hand more like natural caves. They will also find traces of blood confirming they are on the right track.

If players talk in loud voice: I get a +2 in my roll and there won't be surprise attack against me. If they are cautious I don't get the modifier and if they find me they will get me by surprise.

Arrow 2) Players SEARCH vs Wampa's HIDE
If players win: they will find the Wampa feasting on the poor rebel worker's tauntaun. If players have been talking in loud voice: there won't be surprise attack round against me but they will get initiative.

If I win but players get a 15+ they find a rebel helmet and a torch light. Light is not going to be a problem really in the encounter but I will give them a +2 in their next search roll. Also will let them know they might feel they are being observed. Hopefully they will take it as a hint to draw their weapons and lower their voices if they haven't done so prior to enter the cavern.

Arrow 3) Players SEARCH vs Wampa's HIDE
If players win: they will find the Wampa feasting on the poor rebel worker's tauntaun. If players have been talking in loud voice: there won't be surprise attack round against me. They will also see the missing rebel worker hanging upside down just by the Wampa.

If I win (expected), this time I will present them anyway with the missing rebel worker who is unconscious although has a bit of pulse if they check.

While they are checking... the wampa will attack from his hiding place!


I thought following order:

Completely by luck, don't have any grudge against anyone: 4 players, roll a 1D4.

The unlucky player is the one attacked.



The wampa falls over that poor PC. I don't want to be too mean so even though is a SURPRISE attack segment I will allow some luck. If the player rolls a 6, he/she will hear a crack and quickly be able to turn around and I'll let to roll a dodge with a penalty (whatever rolled divided by half). However, if that player rolls a 1 to 5 in the surprise attack... no possible dodge. The rest of the players won't be able to react during that segment independently of what we've rolled.

If I succeed to surprise them, then I will roll my 3D dexterity, difficulty 5+ (it's like a hand attack), should be able to hit that poor player.

7D+1 (claw) vs 3D+1/3D/3D or 2D+2

good chances are they might end up wounded, incapacitated or even mortally wounded (in which case they are screwed unless they brought some med pacs). That player will probably have to use a Force Point.

Combat will follow as per normal.


If at some point the Wampa feels overwhelmed it will try to escape. The players will have to then carry the missing rebel and any other PC that got wounded/incapacitated. Or chase the wounded wampa.



If they kill the Wampa and return the missing worker: money + plenty XP + depending on how heroic they do in the fight +1 force point.
If they just return the worker: money + some XP
If they have to run: little XP no money.
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Mon May 28, 2018 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back to it,


just run another episode Smile


The girl that plays the pirate didn't show up which I kinda thanked because I know her head is not in the right place at the moment and I feel Star Wars is just not for her.

I feared though an unbalanced encounter.

Before going to bed that day the pilot decided to go to work with the lead engineer on trying to adapt once and for all the speeders to the freezing cold climate. Great advance was done that night.

The morning after with the first lights they decided to go search for the missing worker at Delta Point. After looking for some clues, they found a trail of blood under a layer of snow like the one left by pulling a body. The trail pointed at the near mountains while the perimeter point is in a big valley (at least in my story). So they followed their gut feeling and started going towards the near mountain.

They didn't come very prepared (even though I gave them strong hints). They completely forgot medpacs!!!!! However one of them brought a movement/life sensor.


They approached the mountain and discover a big glacier so they started scouting for some type of big cavern where a person + tauntaun could enter.

They didn't roll very well so they didn't receive much clues + the Wampa rolled very high on hiding (even from sensors). So they lost a good part of that day. Eventually they found a cavern.

Just at that point behind the screen I rolled a dice. Result: 1. The missing worker died at that very moment somewhere inside this ominous cave that goes deep within the glacier.


They weren't stealthy at all and I carried on rolling very high against their search rolls.

Finally they reached the cavern to find a frozen rebel hanging from the ceiling. Just when they are checking the man is actually dead a thing attacked the Pilot from behind. I said to the players, let's do it by luck...

Penelope (our pilot) rolled a 2 on the dice so she was the unlucky one. Then rolled a 5 (I had said... even if this is a surprise attack if you roll a 6 I let you do a dodge with penalty knowing that whatever the creature touches has high chances of dying). No luck, however she 'trusted to the Force'.

Good strength roll (doubled stats due to Force) vs a not very good damage roll from the Wampa, Penelope goes to the floor stunned.

From then on, a lot of segments followed creating an intense chase type battle. Soon the players realise that even though they keep firing at this thing they are not really hurting him much although they are bringing it to the ground from time to time gaining a bit of time to escape the cave.

They tried to recover the body but in the end knowing the rebel is dead they all decide to run.

Final scene of the fight.. the Wampa is chasing them, with the senator nearly getting caught and one of the other two throwing a grenade into the cave. The cave collapses with the Wampa on it (although knowing what I rolled... the creature didn't die but they will never know).

They managed to escape and run back to the base to report.

They are given a reward and XP points.



They wait until the morning later and a transport is brought for them in reward for bringing back all those nice Y Wings. Transport is the beaten up YT Corellian Freighter.


The game finished with them introducing the coordinates to the planet where the Senatorial's Ship is kept (with a friendly ally).

They jump to hyperspace.... and mid flight something happens with the hyperdrive mechanism... an emergency... they exit hyperspace to find themselves in front of a strange planet that looks like a desert in a system with two suns. The Senatorial curses... and that's how we ended the game.

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


Players had a blast so I was quite happy with the session.

Combat was great, it's not realistic but actually I prefer it that way although had to explain them before hand what type of system this is. I don't want to change to 2nd Edition because it looks too complicated.


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


Mechanical question!

The Senatorial fired at a big stalactite just above the Wampa. She passed the shot so the stalactite started falling. I didn't have a clue about what to use then. The Wampa had a big reaction roll (even with -1D for other action taken before). I said to the player... roll me Dex... she didn't roll great so the stalactite fell on the floor very close as the Wampa dodged it showing great skill.

It was an inventive moment and I thought mechanically I could have used something better.

Any idea/suggestion on how to handle this under 1st Edition?
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah! Yesterday we played the next session of my campaign. In the end comes down to two players: the Senatorial and his companion Gurney because the other two players... one doesn't seem really interested in SWars and the other is not there to roleplay.

So I spoke with the other two and we decided to carry the game as 3: 2 committed players that love the setting and are always asking when are we playing next! + 1 Master (me).


IF YOU ARE A HARDCORE SW FAN... WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO READ... MIGHT ANNOY YOU... (as in I'm using the SW setting... but making up a lot of stuff)
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 4:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, as the situtation with players changed a bit, I had to rewind a bit...

In the EQUINOX... there were only 2 passengers:

LYONEL - Our standoffish young Senatorial (played by Brenda)
GURNEY - the Senatorial most loyal companion and great warrior (played by Alex, Brenda's husband).




Good old Equinox had a malfunction while travelling from Echo Base to Bothan... Comes out of hyperspace in front of Tatooine. Our heroes know a couple of things thanks to moderate Planetary Systems/Streetwise rolls. Unfortunately they don't know yet what's exactly the problem with the hyperdrive.

They find a blockade in the main entry point to Mos Eisley. Luckily they remember to use their entry codes. They get permission to land in Docking Bay 94. Customs officer does a very loose inspection which our heroes handle perfectly without having to upset anyone.

Our senatorial has his personal ship still in Bothan but knowing of the blockade doesn't want to call it so decides with his companion that the best option is to try to fix the Equinox, leave and then change ships.

They go to the Cantina and then a secret rebel agent named G. Dyllon (you son of a b****)... puts his attention on them after a drunk Devaronian gives them a bit of trouble.

Dyllon comes across as nice at the beginning, tells them that he comes from Botham... and then goes full spy mode saying... ''I've heard about an incident on a mine called Mesa 291 in Botham... Now the main city there is filled with ''Wanted'' signs with both your faces'' To which both players wanted to reach for their blasters but Dyllon was already aiming at them with a concealed blaster. He invites them to go to a booth and have a quiet drink.

Dyllon closes the booth and reveals he's a rebel agent and that knows they are wanted in Bothawui. Our heroes lower their defenses and share info with him. He's not a double agent or anything like that. He's in Tatooine waiting to get paid after securing a cargo of grenades and go for his new destination... planets close to the Outer Rim Territories in the other side of the Galaxy.

Apparently the Empire has developed new technology to shorten hyperspace jumps based on enrichment with ''Gadonium'' for their Destroyers class I and II... Our heroes know that their home planet Edden is very rich in this mineral. Other news are that the Senate has been permanently dissolved and a few more plot hooks for our players.

Sadly, Dyllon hasn't been paid yet and needs to get to his ship which has been left in a secure place just before getting to the Sea of Dunes. The reason why he had trouble with the blockade and had to do a clandestine entry to Tatooine.

Our heroes decide to meet Dyllon in 2 hours.

They purchase a protocol doid from some Jawas...

They visit Tar Lup's general store... 2 thugs enter the store and go to Lup... Our players catch that Lup is under threat from the local mafia run by Jabba. 2 aliens threaten Tar Lup with killing him in 2 days if he doesn't pay an important amount of money.


Our heroes hear this... wait until the thugs have left and then decide to help Lup in order to make an ally. They mention the Equinox (which by the way, they diagnosed that the problem was a Quadex Power Core...) and say to Lup... we give you this ship if you could give us a speeder, a R2 and a few more things. Lup can't believe this! it's his day of luck. Players proceed to do the transaction but before they make sure all navegation data from the Equinox have been erased.


Time to meet Dyllon... he tells thems with an intercom that he will meet them in the outskirts of the city. When they reach the meeting point, they hear blaster fire... they rush to a small alley and inner patio to see Dyllon on the floor, unconscious and a human in full Mandalorian armor (Jodo Kast) walking towards him. Blaster fire ensues. Jodo is a great warrior but makes an exit as he didn't expect this job to be this messy with this new people appearing. He manages to wound the senatorial, while Gurney picks Dyllon up and finds cover under blaster fire. Jodo activates his jet pack and leaves using terraces above leaving no trace.

Our heroes get back in their landspeeder and rush out Mos Eisley. One of them manages to cure Dyllon's Wounds and Dyllon applies a medpack on the senatorial healing him too.

After a few adventures (finding a stormtrooper control point, some jawas and nearly getting lost a few times in some canyon) they eventually reach Dyllon's ship.

They leave the planet by the entry point thinking that their codes would be ok, but one of the players does a mistake and causes a discrepancy. A TIE starts following them...

Dyllon still not fully recovered lets Gurney pilot his ship while he calculates a jump to Bothawui.... 30 secs left. The TIE approaches, our senatorial gets in the defences of Dyllon's ship prepared to answer some fire (I let the player prepare getting 1D extra per turn).... 25 secs.. the TIE closes in despite Gurney's proficiency in piloting and fancy maneuvers. The TIE communicates with the ship asking them to stop or will fire...


Combat ensues... 10 secs... Our senatorial manages to fire at the TIE and rolls 3x damage vs hull... the TIE explodes! and the heroe's ship jumps to hyperspace.



And that's it. 5 hours of game, my players were really engaged throughout and they want the next game soon! I had a blast

I know this is very loose SW setting but it's so much fun!
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Raven Redstar
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds like a lot of fun!

That's part of the enjoyment of the RPG, is that you can use the SWU as your sandbox to tell a story in. I don't really feel constricted by Canon, the point is to have fun and tell a story everyone enjoys.
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 5:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Played another game recently! Whoop

what a blast we're having Smile I'm dreading the day we finish a session and we'll all be... meh, that was ok? meh...

So, I didn't have much time to prepare this one and decided to use Shantipole (Namai in my game... as Shantipole doesn't reallly work as a name in Spanish) and called it operation Fenris.


Our two heroes return to Echo Base with their flagship (the R8T Modified Star Yatch from Edded shipyards) to report to the high command. They tell them all their adventures, they are rewarded some money (and XP) and are asked to go on a short mission to escort Commander Ackbar from the Namai asteroid system to Pothor system where the fleet is gathering.

They accept because they still want to prove themselves to the high command of the Rebel Alliance, because they are promised military ranks within the alliance and because I have placed Pothor system closed to a corridor of systems near Edden so that way they jumped straight away at the mission as it will benefit them in the future.


So they start the adventure, they arrive at the asteroid field and... bam! 3 TIE fighters start following them.

Gurney did some incredible piloting rolls and their ship is decent so they were dodging asteroids while trying to get away from the TIE fighters. It made a great fun action scene. One of the dodging asteroid rolls I made it at even more difficulty narrating that a space slug appears! He dodge it (almost) but one of the TIE fighters failed and was eaten by the thing.
The other character was controlling one of the ship's turret. Failed a lot of shots but had 1 good one which damaged one of the wings of the TIE making it spin in space and end up crashing against an asteroid.

Only one was left, our senatorial decided to release some proton torpedos against an asteroid. The whole thing exploded in space and the last TIE was caught in the explosion failing some rolls to dodge.



So they arrive to the base. They meet Suskafoo, Salin Glek, Pollard and eventually Ackbar like in the book.... Later on at some point alarms start screaming and the base is under attack (and no sign of Glek) ....and I left it there (it had been nearly 3 hours of game and didn't have it very well planned after).

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I think I'm going to run this different than is written in the book. I have a major problem with the hourglass asteroid.
The whole premise is that Glek leaves in the player's ship. That's pants...My player's ship is protected and closed and has a robot loyal to his owner inside. There is no chance Glek can access it and even less start flying around.


So I think I'm going to have to change the imperial attack a little bit. Also I thought of having Glek running away in one of those asteroid jumpers. Somehow they will have to avoid the imperials and try to get Glek. If they forget about him I was thinking that will have serious repercusions in the adventure as he pretty much knows everything about the B-wing...
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We played another game of this campaign. Session lasted 3 and a half hours

The asteroid base is under attack. In this game the players have their ship in the main hangar. I thought Salin Glek stealing their ship was just not possible as the ship is sealed and there is a droid with intelligence enough to know who should and shouldn't get into the ship.

So Salin Glek makes an escape with a asteroid jumper.

Our both players won time by using different tricks: grenades, closing the doors etc. The outcome of the combat was:

-Plenty of stormtroopers down. I wasn't really taking care of the stuns.
-They deployed a heavy blaster which took down several doors (why not?). I was adding tension because naturally the players stop sometimes to discuss the next course of action but I don't think this is the type of game to make meticulous plans so from time to time they would hear a loud BANG! on one of the doors.
-The heavy blaster took Pollard. My player passed a dodge roll but Pollard didn't. However my player used a force point to rescue Pollard (who by the way was mortally wounded) and get him out of there. I made her roll Strength/Stamina difficult to carry Pollard like a sac of potatoes in the middle of blaster fire so the player used her Force Point in what I thought it was quite heroic.
-They saved Ackbar!

They got on their ship and started attacking the imperial shuttle and escort TIEs.

After that they took care of the main Asteroid Colony which was ready for evacuation. Detonation of the colony was programmed after everyone was evacuated. However the players found it under attack with the unarmed verpin transports trying to avoid fire.

Players came around to save the day Smile Finally they took care of Salin Glek chasing him and nuking him (with a bit of difficulty... If they had failed I would have made him escape and made the B-Wing project useless as he knew all secret data from the project).


Finally they rejoined the evacuated Verpin fleet in the middle of a passage/tunnel of asteroids that occur naturally within the field. As they passed their piloting rolls they managed to join head of the group. Just to find a Nebulon B waiting for them with a few TIEs.

They chose to gain a bit of time by distracting but they failed a couple of rolls and they couldn't save several verpin ships which exploded in space Sad

Finally they manage to jump to hyperspace to join the rest of the fleet in Pothor System.


To be continued.....





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Game loosely based on Shantipole Campaign. I absolutely love the feel and idea of the adventure.

I need to review rules. I am blessed with 2 players that are totally keen on Star Wars system and are not too much into reading rules and being rules lawyers. I tried to be fair as possible but... I need to review the rules as at some point I was making up stuff on the spot.

Does this happen to you guys?

I found that my players were super into it when the action was super fast paced and I find that controlling everything with very detailed actions/turns etc. was getting a bit in the way of the tension. So at some point I decided to loosely have control of my stormtrooper troops etc. and just go with tension building (Ackbar demanding more time as the data transfer was taking time... explosions in the distance coming closer etc.) and a few fast paced encounters in the tunnels of the base.


I find that first edition works a treat in this kind of play but probably in a table with other masters they would kill me for making up things on the spot so much?
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sounds fun. Thanks for the game session synopses.

In my 1e days I was the master of winging it, but back then I played a lot more than I do now. I had three separate gaming groups and ran for all of them, sometimes two groups in the same weekend. (I wasn't just a huge nerd in high school, I was the king of the nerds, lol.)

Nowadays I prefer not to wing it and instead like to have all my ducks in a row.
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Lord Zash
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 6:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So we have played like 4 or 5 times since the players saved Ackbar and this is getting better and better... I love this system and works well with my players who aren't really interested in rules and crunchy games.

A sum up:

- Players saved Ackbar and took him to a rendezvous point where the rebel fleet is regrouping ready to invade some Mid Rim territories.

- I created a whole sector for my players. Different planets... rock, desert, lava type... but it's under heavy blockade and the players have to get information.

- Players got an opportunity to help the Rebel Invasion of the Mid Rim by creating a big distraction in a neighbour jungle type planet. Here we had so much fun... we all love Predator and Alien... so I threw agent Dillon and a team of rebels based on Aliens marine characters (Vasquez...).
The whole thing was a train heist type of scenario and it went down great.

- Took a lot of advice from this forum about how to invade a planet. That work had already been done by the rebels in the Mid Rim Planet and I hope the players took good note of it so they can apply it in the future to their sector and home system.

- They stayed for a few days in the Mid Rim and then after having a reboot of their ship they decided to head towards the neighbouring sectors of their home sector. So they ended up in a place called Belassar IV.

-Threw some weird vision at one of the players. He's been having dreams / nightmares but he was given a jewel that triggered a stronger vision. Giving them clues about one of the planets in their system (kyber crystals, force etc.). However, not forcing the player to act on that, I'm happy if he ignores it, don't wanna take his agency.

-Belassar IV is like an underground city where they have started gathering information about their home sector by visiting the local bar etc. It looks a bit like Utapau but with a Tatooine feeling and lots of salt caves. It's like a big underground dome and in the centre it has a big spire of rock on top of which Imperials have put a fort connected by bridges to the city. They are going to be involved in a lot of shenanigans. They have to infiltrate the imperial fort somehow to get specific access codes to their sector so they need a distraction done by some scoundrels for money.

- And this next Monday we are playing that distraction with a different game (3 different characters, 1 is same player 2 new and the same setting). It's Guy Fawkes night in the UK so these other players have to go to a warehouse in the city (it has a clock tower...), blow it up and get out the city as soon as possible.
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