Star Wars at Rod's

After holding out for a couple of years, thinking a 3rd edition would soon arrive, I finally got my new revised Star Wars RPG book yesterday, as a 13th anniversary gift from my wife. Thank you Penny! I encourage anyone in a relationship who is reading this to take our advice: support each other in your hobbies.

I made a level 10 Soldier/5 Starship Ace, and played last night in Rob's Old Republic campaign at Rod's. Rob has built his campaign from thousands of years before Episode 1, using a lot of ideas from a video game set in that era.

Cap'n Rann Daak is a pretty specialized character who happens to fit into the Han Solo mold; since he's a human from Corellia, he could be a distant relative. An experienced Republic soldier who happens to be force-sensitive but has no formal training in it, Daak uses two customized blasters much in the manner of an Old West gunfighter, and pilots the Ebon Hawk, the group's infamous light freighter that is actually painted red and silver, not black as the name suggests. At the start of the adventure, there was something about a delivery mission that would have gone sour, then didn't, then did; and there was a big explosion that the characters would prefer not to be associated with but probably will be. I'm still catching up on the storyline, but there was plenty of action that included Carson's Jedi character, Demetrius's force illusion of a black globe to hide us after we chased an evil warlord from the scene in an airspeeder, only to discover we were outnumbered 50 to 1 hours later, and the bad guy got away. Then, another Jedi mind trick (I can't remember if it was Rod's Jedi, Viesha Marr, or Demetrius) set the bad guys fighting against each other, so all we had to do was wait while they took each other out. Later, Daak flew the party to Kashyyyk, where Lance's wookie Rrolffllbacca would use a legendary weapon to battle an evil overlord who had sold his people into slavery to Zerka Corp. On the way there, Daak was swallowed whole by a collosal snake, something like 165 meters long, and had to cut his way out with his pair of vibro-daggers. Rann later helped deal with bodyguards during Rrolffllbacca's final confrontation with Jandar, the sleazy wookie traitor, and of course Jandar was defeated and the wookies were liberated. At some point, Daak met Candoris, head of a militant branch of Mandalorians, on Duxon, the moon of Ondoran. Also during this adventure, Daak met his new commanding officer, Shawn's recently promoted admiral, Zap Brannagan (yes, just like the guy from Futurama).

Back at Yavin Station (which is owned/managed by Shane's tech specialist, Garth Pancake), Rann Dack owns the Crimson Vulture, an old YT-13 (the 1300 is not made yet) Rann is in the process of customizing; it is painted mostly black and gold, not red, as the name suggests...

Thank you guys, and good adventure Rob. I really enjoyed playing this new character, because even though he has 15 levels, Cap'n Daak is full of new possibilities for later on. I will be running my next game in a couple of Sundays.

Invasion of Phobos

Weary after night after night of defending the gnome city Ponoblish Bimpitigora, the party took the battle to the Elves of the Purple Order on the moon Phobos. Captain Fergus Dowrimple's spelljammer stealthily chased the dark elves in their pre-dawn retreat, a simple task since the party's ship looks identical to the enemy's. From within one of the giant landing bays, the crew watched the drow, driders, mind flayers and umber hulks repairing and re-loading a good portion of fhe fleet. When the time was ripe, the party began the counterattack.

The characters Lola, Alice, Martin, Nightsong, Aiko, Fergus, Mick the Gangly, Henderson and Telpin all fought well, each finding ample opportunities to work in their areas of specialty. Geena, the great dwarven archeress, sniped targets of opportunity, including a drow priestess/sorceresses/general. Revan found enough room to maneuver for several deadly lance charges using his pegasis, while remaining nearly untouchable with his armor and magical protections. Brother Joseph Prax, Brand of Cuthbert summoned a couple of powerful Angels to assist in the battle, while also carrying on the fight personally. Though one angel was sent back to his plane of origin by an evil priestess, the other continued to succeed for the entire fight, and the priestess was defeated. Taito, with a combination of drunken master skills and magic, grew to giant size and went on a rampage, taking out every enemy in sight with whirlwind attacks and improvised weapons. Black Eyed Bill, with a swagger in his step, chose his opponents with more precision, taking out specific threats in a swashbuckling way. Sincony Thipern (Phil's new half-elf rogue) snuck through the shadows to attack a couple of targets of opportunity.

Among the drow were a number of sorceresses, but they were understandably reluctant to use fireballs around their prized fleet of spelljammers. Fergus was not reluctant, and Telpin was okay with using lightning bolts. The drow also had a few Rust Spitters to set upon the party, but these were dealt with before they had a chance to interfere with the party's metal weapons and armor. And thought Eldrich Moon Knights continue to present a challenge in battle, they were caught off guard, having just expended all of their spells attacking Ponoblish Bimpitogora during the night.

As we have been doing lately, we played D&D for about two hours, then Star Wars for about 4 hours (see other entry). Experience: 2,500. Next session: Sunday, April 23, noon.

Pop quiz: what is the name of the party's spelljammer?

Coreward at Wallathilla

The "Akbar's Trap" arrived at the orbital starport of Wallathilla after making a number of unremarkable cake runs delivering goods and passengers. While taking care of the basics of selling off unremarkable cargo and refueling the ship, the group learned more about what was going on dirtside. Wallathilla is a coreward world with an above average law level and tech level and a moderate climate. It is nearly unliveable and hugely overpopulated, but well connected. It is 60% nonhuman, with an insectoid race dominating the census. While self-governed, Wallathilla does have a small Imperial presence, with a slightly larger Hutt and Rebel influence. The Empire, along with wealthy local business families, have stripped Wallathilla of every resource of value, while dumping industrial wastes at will. With nothing left of value and no strong Rebel threats nearby, the Empire removed its forces about 5 years ago, leaving only a "diplomatic" presence. Following this power vacuum, due to the great differences of opinion on culture and government, this world is currently in a civil war.

On the plus side, the group found a great new mechanic, Mike Skaruyabutivich, who is like a doctor with any Repair task, though the Balosar does not have a very good engine side manner. So far, the one-armed JP-12 "Jackpot" gambling/protocol droid has been upgraded with more games, and can now accept both credsticks and hard credits. The GT-8 Grav-Toaster, which can burn spy-grade floorplans on toast, can now do the same with "pop-tarts," including raised surfaces such as mountains or walls. Frank, the party's rabbit-eared medical droid, is still waiting for his upgrades. Archu King has developed her four arms into an intimidating martial arts or blaster force. The Codru-Ji is such an asset to the party, that to replace her would require at least three soldiers. Speaking of soldiers, Alpha Vega is one, and he has proven to be alert and stay in line with the orders of... whoever is paying him the most (pretty much the theme of this group).

Speaking of the group, captain Garik Gracus negotiated an excellent trade of whatever crap was in the cargo bay (I think it was booze) for better crap, at a nice profit. I'm a bit out of sequence here, but as a result of one adventure, the party now has about 75 tons of "junkyard" scrap, which actually contains a lot of valuable machine and electronics parts. Along with the talented but grumpy new tech specialist, this could really lead to some items of value. Also, 40 passengers at about 2,000 credits per head, with berths sold at auction at the city of Zendril as Imperial star destroyer turbolasers levelled nearby areas. In the captain's stash are many casks of Zendril rum, also. About 50 additional tons in the cargo bay are occupied by highly valuable luxury goods (see the following for a short account of what lead to that.

Jaina Brioli did what she always does, and that is make a whole lot of trouble, and somehow skate away. She and the Falleen, Destro S'Xauron, with some help from the computer expert Jarn Thro, managed to thieve and ninja their way onto the Palpatine's Boot, an Imperial shuttle. Wearing vac-suits, and after a lot of amazing sneaking, they managed to catch the shuttle's occupants on their lunch break, and opened the airlock, spacing them. They then flew the shuttle to the surface, just as the Imperial garrison they had previously arranged for arrived and began blasting away at "rebel" targets. The rebels, had paid Destro for information on Imperial military operations, and the Empire had also paid Destro for information on the planned Rebel ambush. Additionally, Milus Doritterny, the lawyer for the Rapshadi family (the family that sold off Wallathilla's resources and brought in insectoid workers and industrial waste) bought passage for himself and his clients and their prized belongings on the Palpatine's Boot. After an ugly incident, the end result is that the 50 tons of belongings and Milus are now under the party's control, along with a lot of credits. Call it Hutt justice, if you will.

The pilot/doctor and Jedi counselor Pieda Bowman II, while disturbed by many of the group's methods, held his tongue for many of them. In the end, it all worked out because the greater good was served, and wrongs were righted in their own way. And for once, he didn't really have to patch anybody together.