[Role Playing in the Star Wars universe] A fun imagined conversation

[Charles Perez]

In the Star Wars universe, in a backwater cluster of a backwater sector, the following conversation took place.
Pordem La, Mon Calamari physician: "Merth, could you come to Deuteros and help with a situation we have here? The planetary governer and the deep ones are at odds here, and I was hoping that you could come and help straighten things out."
Merth Tendo, owner of a cargo hauler: "This one sounds like a job for a diplomat. I'm not a diplomat. I'm not any kind of mediator."
"Aren't you the one who whistles up an Imperial Star Destroyer whenever you want one?"
"It was only that one time. And I had something that Captain Deek wanted."
"Captain Deek of the ... ?"
"The Hammersmith."
"And the captain's full name is?"
"Philius Deek."
"And you call him Philius?"
"I call him Captain Deek."
"And he calls you ... ?"
"Mr. Tendo."
"So he knows your name."
"Yes."
"He knows your face."
"Yes."
"And you two get into conversations."
Pause. "Yes."
"And when you need something from him, you just call him up."
"If I have something he might want, yes."
"And if he doesn't want it, he'll tell you himself?"
Pause. "Yes."
"Then don 't tell me that you don't have pull within the Empire."

Granted, this conversation is edited somewhat, but it has been one of the more rewarding moments of playing out the story of Merth Tendo. The system I'm using is a Frankenstein's monster of techniques from Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (including the dice), In a Wicked Age, and Poison'd. The irony of that last is that piracy, in this version of the Star Wars universe, is looked on unfavorably by both the Empire and the Rebellion. The Empire doesn't like commerce raiders, and the Rebellion doesn't need the money, nor the bad PR, anyway.

Charles

[Charles Perez]

To be clear about this: the rewarding thing about this conversation is that it is a payoff from playing Merth Tendo in various situations in the local version of the Star Wars universe. Every part of the conversation was informed by prior events in play. Even the coming conflict, the one that see Tendo being called into it, is nothing more than a logical development of events already played out in the local setting. Knowing the local 'verse, and knowing what has gone before, one could totally see this one coming.

Charles

[glandis]

Hi Charles -

I think I'm missing a piece here. I see the transition from "I'm not a diplomat/mediator" to "you have pull in the Empire", but not the connection to "so you really should help us with our deep one/governor problem." It'd be especially interesting if there were system elements that helped show that connection - does the system make it clear that the same abilities/tactics/whatever that were used with Captain Deek would totally work on the governor? Or something.

That said, I can certainly see a payoff here - play-events and dialog forcing Merth Tendo the character to confront his capabilities/responsibilities in a way that the player of Merth Tendo probably wanted/suspected would happen. I've often found that kind of thing harder to achieve than expected. Congrats!

[Charles Perez]

In this continuity, Pordem La the Mon Calamari physician is already on friendly terms with Merth Tendo. They have done business in the past, and Pordem is one of Merth Tendo's contacts. In this system, a contact can be gained or lost as one possible result of a roll of the dice, even if the conflict is not directly about making or losing such a contact. Mechanically, 'contact' has a specific meaning: that an NPC will see a PC who has him as a contact, will take his calls; it doesn't mean any more nor any less than this. On these terms, even an enemy can be a contact, if that enemy is habitually willing to talk.

[Charles Perez]

[broken up to prevent a balk from the forum software]

Also, Pordem La had previously caught Merth as Merth was passing through Deuteros and showed him an interesting new thing. Deuteros is an ocean planet with some hot depths to it. The Deep Ones live in those depths, and find the water near the surface inhospitably cold and low-pressured. The new thing was an encounter tank that allowed an individual Deep One to interact with the outside world and with others whilst maintaining heat and pressure fit for its occupant. The Deep Ones were by no means low tech, and could travel to the surface and beyond in the equivalent of capital ships, but until the encounter tanks were perfected, EVA was a real problem, and there wasn't much point to going beyond their natural habitat. With the new encounter tank, though, the galaxy has been opened to them, and they want to claim it on their terms.

[Charles Perez]

To put it prosaically, the planetary governor is cock-blocking them on this. The planet is claimed by the empire, but for all practical purposes, the Deep Ones are not Imperial subjects and their habitat is not Imperial territory. Until the encounter tanks, the situation was stable, with brisk commerce taking place between surface and depths, but now the Deep Ones want to establish independent colonies wherever they may, and the Empire won't be having that. Seeing as the Deep Ones as a people are not willing or ready to submit to direct Imperial rule, this presents a problem.

[Charles Perez]

Pordem La had already introduced Merth to one of the Deep One's VIPs, and when it became clear that the governor's office was simply a desk full of 'No' for the Deep Ones, Pordem called on the one person he knew who might be able to get the governor to listen and to talk. His faith has already turned out to be well placed, but Merth still has it in his future to adjust to thinking of himself as an influential politico.

[Charles Perez]

Test post.

[Charles Perez]

How Merth got the attention of the planetary governor is another story ...

[Charles Perez]

... which involves a Twi'Lek sl*ve girl whom Merth is chagrined to own and also how she danced her way through a trio of command performances on Kessel.  What he'll be doing with that attention is still to be played out, as of this writing.

[Charles Perez]

[Forum note]

So that's what was wrong. The forum software didn't like the word 'slave', and balked at posting that word without telling me why.

Charles

[Charles Perez]

Or rather, 'sl*ve girl'.

[Charles Perez]

Another test post: slave boy.

[glandis]

Ah - so Merth has the attention of the planetary governor, and also potentially something that governor might want (associated with the Twilek?), so the Captain Deeks parallel is well-begun. What remains is if Merth decides he's willing to trade with the governor like he does with Deeks, and how the governor responds to that? Is Pordem La's Contact status more/less at risk depending on what Merth decides? Is the governor a Contact? Might he become one? What about the Deep Ones?

(BTW, I love the potential issue of Deep One colonies spreading through the Empire worlds, present but not subject. Reminds me of Gas Giant empires occupying the same systems as Earth-class empires, which I recall seeing in quite a few SF books (though none are springing to mind - I may be too lost in fantasy right now to recall my SF. How sad.)

And ha! "slave boy" is OK but "sla\/e girl" isn't - not sure what to say about that.

[Charles Perez]

Na'Thena the Twi'Lek sl*ve girl dancer is not actually merchandise on display, she is, or has been so far, the star of her own local equivalent of the USO - much more troublesome, that. She put on three dance shows on Kessel, at different times so that different shifts of troopers and prison guards and the like could see at least one show. This was the payment for Moruth Doole, governor of Kessel, to lean on the governor of Deuteros and get that worthy to listen, at least, to what Merth Tendo has to say. If you look at it from Doole's perspective, the prison colony over which he presides is in the middle of bum-frakked/frelled/humped/srizonified nowhere, and his budget for bringing in attractive, talented entertainers from outside sits somewhere between jack and shit. This way, some shows got put on that will be the high point of the season for his people, and Doole gets to be the one who has used his authority and his connections to make them happen.

A colony of Deep Ones in their kind of habitat is really no skin off the Empire's nose. Hostile Environment colonies of Deep Ones that are in habitats hospitable to Imperial species are quite another matter, and the Deep Ones really need some of the second to make more of the first happen, at least off of Deuteros. Untangling this diplomatic and political snarl starts with Deuteros' planetary governor, who at last episode's end was just beginning to converse with Merth Tendo. Merth doesn't plan to trade anything of his own to resolve this, particularly not Na'Thena; he merely intends to untangle things if he can. Best of luck to him.

In this situation, many contacts might be gained or lost, for any of the reasons people have for talking to each other or ceasing to talk to each other. Some Deep Ones could easily become Merth's contacts, and Deuteros' governor might or might not. Pordem La could end up pissed and not wanting to talk to Merth anymore, depending on how things go. We shall see. [evil laugh]

Charles