Star Wars: Actual Play

With all of our work in place, how did the Star Wars session play out?

They players came ready for Star Wars.  As mentioned, I put the pre-gens face down in the center of the table. There was one trade, and no Force Users.  After a few questions about abilities and character notes, everyone has happy and ready to go.  I read the Opening Crawl and one player opts to play the theme on their phone (I award a Force Point).

Play starts a bit slow as folks get a hand of their characters and the open ended nature of the scenario.  In no time at all they are trying to bluff their way onto the hyperrail and eventually steal a sky car.  The sky car theft leads to be chased and shot down by security forces.  A battle on the jungle floor leads to them bluffing their way past space port security in a stolen securicar.  

Their attempts to fence the stolen securicar in order to pay for transport off world go awry.  Plan B is to steal a ship outright.  At this point one of the players can't make it so is off "doing recon".  Much splitting of the party and mixed success leads to a rooftop pickup and blasting out of atmosphere.  A couple of very good pilot and astrogation checks avoids a drawn out startship battle, and they successfully complete the scenario.  The session ends with them discovering the missing PC hiding in cargo hold.

It was interesting to see how play ran differently than a traditional D&D dungeon crawl.  There was much more dependence (by the payers) on skill checks and planning than fighting.  Is it something about the setting, that steered them away from the usual "fight first" approach prevalent in a dungeon based game?

It was a fun challenge for me, lots of "Yes, And" as a GM, dealing with party splits as they attempt to accomplished split tasks. Again, a big difference in behavior than D&D.  Since the scenario was open ended, and I had no specific written plot, I did a lot of listening to the player's plan and improved base on what sounded plausible. 

When it was all over, one of the players said "This was like the opening 10 minutes of a movie.." So I figure it is time to write scenarios for the rest of that movie. 

All in all, a success.

Star Wars Quick Shot: The Scenario

We have our rules, a stripped down d20 Star Wars.  We have our setting, the fringes of Hutt Space during the Imperial Era. We have our characters:

• Wookiee - Soldier 5
• Twi'lik - Scoundrel 5
• Human Pilot - Scout 5
• Battle Droid running Protocol Droid OS - Soldier 1 /Expert 4

Now I need an adventure and starting point for this quick campaign.  In the films, it can take a 3rd of the runtime to actually get folks together.  I don't want to do that....

So I determine the characters will already be working together, and with the setting being Hutt Space, it makes sense to just be some cadre of smugglers.  Plus, if a character dies, or someone else joins the game, there is a built in reason for a new character to show up.

I wanted to avoid just making a "dungeon in space" as it feels too limited.   I also don't want them to have complete run of a fictional galaxy, first to avoid paralyzation by choice, second to avoid having to make up worlds on the fly.  I need a sweet spot in between.  Finally, I want them to get right into play, so I brainstorm for a bit and come up with and idea, and for the heck of it, I write an opening crawl:

Pirates of hutt spacE

XIII PEARSHAPED ON NAR PARTHAN

It has been 10 years since the great Jedi betrayal and forces of the new imperial order work tirelessly to stamp out separatist troublemakers. The Hutt consortium, having no official ties with rebel interests are spared from Imperial complcations. An established mercenary group finds its latest mission on the Hutt world of Nar Parthan has ended badly. Some of the survivors have found a temporary safe spot in the outpost known as Coralite Shaft 16. Unsure of the location of the rest of their companions, they know they need to get spaceward...

Great! now how to write it up so I can run it at the table.  In the end, the whole game which took 4 sessions originally took only 3 pages, and then an additional page written up between sessions.

Rather than try to plot and plan it out, I just made sure I had a list of handy stats, info and general sketches of what I wanted the locations to look like and their relation to one-another.

• Its a jungle world, if they go by foot, plenty of chances to use skills and fight local creatures. 
  
• There is a monorail for transporting people and coralite to the space port, train heist!
• There is a small landing pad where planetary aircraft/security forces can fly from.

So my pages to start consist of stats for thugs, law officials, locals, small beasts and a big beast, and a few vehicle types.

I also make a list of "Star Wars" sounding names in case I need them.

I also jot down some rough notes on what space ships are available.

Finally I have a timeline of events to help keep the action moving (in 4 hours, their pictures go up on the holonet, in 2 days an Imperial cargo shuttle will arrive to pick up Coralite, etc.)

And thats enough to get started on the first night's session...

Star Wars Quick Shot: The Setting

Last time I laid out the approach I took to the rules I wanted to use for a Star Wars quick shot of sessions.  This time, we look into setting up the world and scenario in which to play.

(As an aside, I find that these sorts of licensed games are best suited to a "mini series" rather than the open ended long running game-play of fantasy RPGs.)

The first decision is, which era of the Star Wars galaxy to play in.  There is material aplenty to run a game from the Ancient Republic through the decades following the events of the Original Trilogy (Not to mention 2 sets of continuity from which to pick and choose). 

For me it was a no brainer to go with a time frame where the Empire is active.  If folks are playing Star Wars, they want it to look like Star Wars, and that means Storm Troopers and Star Destroyers.  I settled on a time right between the Prequels and the OT, this makes it easy to have Imperials, hidden Force Users, etc. without worrying about bumping into continuity or playing second fiddle to movie characters.

Following that train of thought, I next had to think about what the characters would do in this setting.  Again, I want it to feel like Star Wars, but not be hemmed in by continuity.    A quick trip to  Wookieepedia (best named fan community ever) and after looking around at whats happening 10 years before A New Hope and Hutt Space looks like a good candidate.  There is probably all kinds of interesting things going on the borders between Imperial and Hutt control.

Next it is time for some Pre-Gens. Why Pre-Gens? Speed and Simplicity, this is going to be a short set of sessions, my players tend to be less interested in mechanics and more about getting into "make-believe".  Plus, as we discussed, I made some house rules, so it is easier to present an archetypal character and not have to guide 4-5 people thought making one.

What sort of characters make a Star Wars story?  A scoundrel, a translator/diplomat, a force user, a droid, a pilot, and someone will want to be  a Wookiee. With 4 players to start, I set to make 6 characters, so there are options.  I dont want off-brand copies of existing characters, but nothing too oddball.  Finally, I settle on 5th level for these characters, powerful enough to feel like they are accomplished in there "jobs" but not too powerful that system (and house rules) break down.  Since this is a "mini series" character advancement is not a goal/concern.

When done, I ended up with:

• Human - Force Adept 5
• Wookiee - Soldier 5
• Twi'lik - Scoundrel 5
• Human Pilot - Scout 5
• Battle Droid running Protocol Droid OS - Soldier 1 /Expert 4
• Human - Noble 5
  

A nice mix of weird and fun.  I ended up putting the characters sheets face down in the middle of the table and let the player's pick at random.  A pair traded, and everyone was happy (the Force User and Noble got left in the pile)

1776

Every year I make a point to watch 1776 on July 4th.  (I also try to squeeze in the John Adams miniseries, and this year we are going to add Hamilton to the mix)

Its a good reminder of the ideals of the nation, and how frequently we fall short, and why it is important to keep striving.

Especially this year.....

Star Wars Quick Shot: Rules

Last Spring my "sandbox" campaign had been meandering and then a few players were going to be leaving town in short order.  With schedules all over the place, rather than try to force some sort of conclusion to the sandbox, I opted to run a set of Star Wars sessions with the idea that whoever could pop in, would.  One of the players leaving is big into Star Wars, so it figured it would be a good send off as well.

What System?

There are 3 major Star Wars ttrpgs, (and perhaps a 4th coming?), I wasn't in a position to re-learn the old West end Games d6 version or invest in the latest version, so I went with the d20 version.  It has two major advantages, One - the mechanics were close enough to what my player's were used to, so they could quickly pick it up, Two - I already owned the book.

d20 Star Wars has its own set of problems, as evidenced by the fact that it had 3 editions in 7 years. In order to address these, I set about the process I typically use to prepare for a game: make a GM cheat sheet, make a character sheet, and make some pre-gens.  Below is a quick review of the issues I came across and the solutions.

Skills: The standard d20 skill list is bloated, and once you add in Force skills, way too long.  So step one was to cut that down to the dozen or so we see in 4th, 5th edition and other games.  For now Force Skill stay the same.

Wound and Vitality Points: A big flaw in the game is Critical Hits bypass "Vitality" and go direct to "Wounds" which proves too lethal.  So I took that out, and Vitality just sits on top of Wounds.

Jedi Stuff and Balance: The system around Jedi, and some other class abilities, really breaks down at higher levels.  But I knew I was going to stick around 4-7th level, so I wast too worried.  The last bit of business is one of personal taste, I don't like "Jedi" being a starting class.  The resulted in me tweaking the Force Adept Class and Jedi Prestige classes to fit my taste.

Droid Characters: Strangely these are not an option, so I made them one.  At least for Protocol and Astromechs.

This sounds like a lot of work for someone who wanted to start quickly, but the truth is, most of these ideas were floating around my head for years.  It was just a matter of committing them to paper.

With a basic rules framework in place, I was ready to think about the game itself.....

My History with the Game

Before I played D&D, I had sort of heard of it.  I knew it was a game, at the time I assumed a computer game, and I new it was "nerdy" and had something to do with medieval fantasy.

I myself was pretty into nerdy things and fantasy. I played a lot of Dragon Warrior and owned what I would come to learn was a D&D knock off board game called Dark World.  I was primed and ready when some fellow nerds in school introduced me to D&D.

I joined a campaign in progress when another played moved on.  Erdrick the Druid joined, Bull the Dwarf, and a "Quarterling" Thief (who's name escapes me at the moment) to save Thunder Rift from an invasion by Drow.  The game was a weird mix of basic D&D and 2nd Edition as we read and acquired more book.  I was hooked, and it wasn't long until I had read and committed the core rules to memory.

My mom was worried about the rumors she heard about D&D, this was the early 90's and the Satanic Panic stories were relatively recent.  After the first time we played at my house and she saw the silliness of it all, she stopped worrying.

The campaign ended a few months later in victory over Lolth.  We spent the next few months planning, but never getting around to playing, our next game.  Real world responsibilities prevented us from getting everyone around the table at a time, so instead, we wrote, and planned and discussed more and more of what our "Dragonlords" campaign would be like. 

Eventually we realized that out planning and talking had pretty much covered the ground we wanted to, and that acutely playing through it would kinda be boring in comparison.  We ended up playing a few small games, inviting others, and playing in different groups in the meantime.  Then, I got a car, and that opened things back up and we started a long running 2e campaign that took us through graduation, and a summer break or two from college.

College itself saw a few short 2e games, before on took off, and a sequel game when 3e came out.  The switch to 3e was interesting, we were very reluctant at first to some of the things we heard (no racial limits, open multi classing, etc.)  I think we changed our tune just because it was nice to have clean new edition of set rules.  Not that we didn't try to shoehorn 3e ideas into 2e instead at first.  3e games big an small carried me through the rest of college.

After college 3.5 and a lack of time pushed us back to rules light Basic, and our own Home Brew retroclone (not that the term was known yet).  We would spend the next few years hopping between 3e, our HomeBrew, and Arcana Unearth/Evolved.

Then nothing for like 6 years (4e came and went in this period, so while I own the books, I never played).  I did re-write my homebrew a few times based on things I learned following OSR blogs over that time (still am).

The past few year has seen my settle down in an area and find players again.  We stared with my homebrew since I found it an easier jumping off place for new players.  Then back to a 2e game.  We were about to move to a 3e game, but a few folks moved away or had other life changes.

Mixed in there are short games of Mutants and Masterminds, Call of Cthulhu, Star Wars, etc.

Now I am back to my retroclone on Skype.

Still want to get that Ptolus game going though.....

What am I playing right now

I guess this is more an exploration of why I am playing what I am playing…

A little over a year ago my long running game ended (what would turn out to be) abruptly.

One player got busy, then another moved away, then I got busy, then 2 more had life changes.

Oddly Covid is what breathed new life into gaming for me. I made an off hand comment on social media, and a week later I had 3 players on Skype for a game.

This game came together quickly, was going to played over video chat (which was all new to me), and 2 of the players were all new. I knew I needed something easy to get into and run, something without the need for a battlemat to run combat.

So, long story short, I broke out my home made retro clone and stripped some of the fiddly bits out. The system, which we call “Redbox Revisited” (So Original), started almost 20 years ago and has seen several major revisions as my sensibilities changed.

Currently it consists of the standard 6 abilities scores with unified modifiers, Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and 3 classes (Warrior, Sorcerer, and Rogue). Resolution is your standard d20 plus modifiers vs Target number. The spells currently use Delta's OED Book of Spells, which is very nice distilling and standardizing of original D&D magic user spells.

I will probably post more about the system and its past and future iterations another time.

Having no idea if this was going to work, or last, I wanted to use something basic and self contained as the setting. So I pulled out Dyson’sDelve (link) which is a nice small set of dungeons stacked atop one another. I also grabbed his Baraloba maps and plopped the whole thing into Hyperbora, using the events of Taken from Dunwich as a hook to explore the delve.

We are now three months in, the characters are about to hit level 3, and confront one of the big bads. I can’t say how much longer it will go for, but it really informs how much you can distill the game down and still have a good time.

RPG Influences

For the last 10 years my approach to the game has been heavily influenced by the OSR movement.  I would not consider myself a grognard, having come to the game via 2nd edition, and quite liking 3rd Edition and its relatives.  However there is an appeal to plumbing the depths of the games origins.

I have taken more knowledge than I can count from the two gentlemen below:

• https://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/ Dan digs into the history of the game, the underlying math, and takes an analytical approach that really helps you dig down into what the game is doing, making it easier to run in the process.
  
• https://www.paulsgameblog.com/ Paul also digs into the history of the hobby, bringing in more from other games and 5e.
  
• https://wanderingdms.com/ Paul and Dan also have a show on Youtube, so check that out.
  

Seriously, just go read through their stuff, their sites are way better than this one.

Its impossible to include all the places I have drawn inspiration and ideas from, but a quick list below should give an idea of what has shaped my sensibilities:

• Grognardia (No longer Updated)
  
• Inzeladun (Gone from the Web)
  
• Malhavoc Press (Defunct- this is starting to be a trend....)
• Matt Colville (Not always my cup of tea, but lost of food for thought)

And of course, I was greatly influenced by my first Dungeon Master way back when.

Introductions

Me and the Hobby

Started in the 90s with a mix of Basic and 2nd Edition, saving the denizens of Thunder Rift.

Originally skeptical of 3rd, but quickly won over.

3.5 pushed me back to Basic.

Have bounced around in the world of home-brew ever since.

Why Dungeon Stew

D&D (Fantasy RPGs) are a delicious stew. Its a mix of ingredients thrown together, sharing flavors.

The ingredients can be high quality, or tossed in based on what you have handy.

Although you can put almost anything into the pot, you probably don't want to put everything in the pot at once.

So throw things together and let them steep is how I approach the game.

What am I going to do with this space?

I'm not sure.  A mix of thoughts about RPGs, other topics, play reports, maybe even some usable material.  Probably try to make it look prettier too.

First!

This is a first post, should it be something profound?

Anyway, everyone else has a RPG blog, so here is mine.

Only took 20 years for me to get around to it.