The Forge Archives

Fired up by the Episode Three Trailer my group went back to some old ideas I'd thrown around HQ forum. We had a prelim char-gen here on monday, finished it up and played a little yesterday. Here is how it went.

Characters:

Harn Ba'toor (Christian)
Crimson twi'lek jedi. Scarred from his time as a padawan and famous for leading the Arane Uprisng. A practical young twi'lek with great sympathy for oppressed people, loyalty to the Jedi Order all conflicting with him missing the family he never grew up with. Blue Lightsaber.

Saol Kriptke (Christer)
A young corellian jedi. Never one to stick out, his only feature being a birthmark. A bit monkish with loyalty to the order and his master. Thought to be a calming influence on his reckless compatriot Ba'toor. Green Lightsaber.

The Situation:
The planet Corrob is at a critical junction. War looms on the horizon between the Seperatists and the Republic, a war that will spill onto this planet. Its only hope is a small force made up of Jedi and troops from the Numorod Coalition of unaligned Worlds. (For more background got to the prep post here.)

We began aboard the Sentinel Fortress Tranquility Station with the two jedi sparring to try out the extended contest rules. I gave them some names and some more setting information, played ball with them and we identified a new power player in this entire conflict.

After some inital brain-twisting they began to understand the concept of masteries.

All set it was time to drop tonight's problem, a Cut Away described the presence of a trip-switch in the Tranquility Station Nexus, and in the subsequent briefing they learned that it was installed by a man called Kayter and that unless his demands were met a code would be transmitted that would shut down the entire station. Leaving the system wide open, Siik, the Jedi Liaison, stated that conservative estimates predicted an end to the cease-fire within seven hours. The former support manager had fled to the surface.

The characters had three options, Kayter's sister and neurosurgeon at the Corrob City Central Trauma Center, Kayter's former mentor dr. Hulkser and a high-security prisoner Saka Niskay, whom Kayter spent long time in hospital with.

Flying to the surface the two jedi sought out the Kayter's sister. Reports indicated that the Aquilan and Jagdannan ambassadors had communicated to the surface and that they could face mercenaries.

Here Ba'toor in an effort to help and hurry the Neurosurgon used his force healing to aid the patient she was working on, resulting in her having to start over and throwing both jedi out of her operating theater. Saol then said "Our attention (interrupted by explosions and screams outside) is needed outside".

Ba'toor stayed behind while Saol ran outside and began a battle with a Combat Speeder. A minor victory and a marginal failure later Soal could only watch as the Combat Speeder plowed into the hospital wall.

It was great fun to watch the conflict play out in just two rolls and the HQ system supported the type of heroic actions that Christer described his character taking.

We cut back to the jedi inside, who was attacked by mercs that forced their way through the ceiling. Faking a wound from intial blaster fire bo'tar quickly disabled the four mercs ending the struggle with a quip commentary "you can call security now dr Kayter." Only to hear a familiar voice say:" it is a little late for that brother."

Where we ran the previous conflict as a series of simple tests, this was an extended conflict and the system supported Christian's plan of faking going down only to lure the mercs to him and attack them. I think it wa quite a mind-job when he realised that this was a part of his initial bid and only one die roll.

Cut outside where two survivors from the crashed Combat Speeder faced Soak, who told them to drop their weapons and leave. A critical to failure had them drop their weapons and walk right into the Corrob Defense Force troopers who arrested them. Freed up, Soak ran in to join Bo'taar.

I know we used the Force as an affinity wrong here, but it was too cool to pass up. Another thing to read up on next session.

The duo entered Operating Room where Bo'taar's little sister, the bounty hunter Cay'sin held the doctor. Saying that the doctor was worth a world's ransom the bounty hunter fired her jet-pack and escaped through the hole in the room.

this here was the only Bang i tossed out that went Bang. I tried some more later but they fizzled. Annoying for me,but mostly unnoticed by my players.

A little argument with the hospital security manager (a marginal victory) and a long Speeder cab ride later and they found themselves in the tossed apartment of the late Dr. Hulsker. A white haired stranger fired up the Corrobian's Dislike Offworlders and despite attempts to sneak away the jedi had to face a crowd of angry citizens blaming them for the murder of one of their heroes.

Christian had a marginal victory, Christer a marginal failure.

Some poor choices of words and diplays of lightsaber-power later the crowd backed up, but their all gained Dislike Jedi, (a marginal victory). This clue panned out.

Hailing the CDF they traveled to Fort Tusker and the high security prison there. Offering Saka transfer to a jedi stronghold (more comfortable prison time) for the location of Kayter, they finally learned where the elusive blackmailer hid.

Scrambling a strike team from CDF the two jedi flew into the Smelter Sector, a large industrial zone that recycles ruined war-machinery. Among the fuming and glowing furnaces the jedi drove away a sentinel droid after a reckless gamble by Bo'taar before they found the hideout.

another extended conflict that was solved quickly. I fear I might be doing somethig wrong in these. Will be checking them out til next time.

Cay'sin had beaten them to the target and was leading him away. Bo'taar called in an airstrike that took out his sisters transport, and while Saol recklessly ran into the blaster fire of the mercs guarding Kayter Bo'taar faced his sister.

The two danced a brief dance, but Bo'taar's mastery of his lightsaber allowed him to detonate the bounty hunters rocket pack leaving her wounded on the ground. While taunting his sister he snapped at Soak, causing the Lure of the Dark Side to swell. Swallowing his anger Bo'taar retained his Balance.

I fear that the jedi Bo'taar is at the edge of a slippery slope, and though I haven't spoken with Christian about it I do not think it will be long before I can gently nudge him to step to far out on it. great drama to come.

The two prisoners were taken to Tranquility Station and we ended the game there.

Lessons learned:

Define the objective at the outset of the conflict. This was the cocensus after the game, and I think it will help us wrap our brains around the transition from task to conflict resoultion.

Need a more clearly defined (aka read the rules again) use of the force.

HQ facilitated the style and mood of play we wanted and this has now officially become my system of coice for Star Wars. Armed with characters and the seeds of greater conflict I'll set up an r-map and drive more bangs home next time.

It sounds like a fun game.  Other than the "lessons learned" at the end, what did HQ do to really help the Star Wars flavor?  

I played in a couple of d6 Star Wars games last year that had serious "scale problems"-- they weren't very heroic at all.  (Mostly "one smuggling run" or "one criminal enterprise" in scope, each over several nights.)  Your scope is much larger-- did the system help, or was that mostly just the adventure setup?

--Scott

HQ:Star Wars gives the star wars feel.

I particulary like the way key-words and conflict resolution supports the over the top heroics that we asosiate with Star Wars;

Like the Jedi Saol taking on a combat speeder with his lightsabre and defeating it or the show-down with the crowd outside the murdered dr.'s appartement.

Being old school Star Wars GM I always set scope big, I think it says something like "don't have the characters save a city, when they can save a planet" in one of the old WEG books. What I haven't ever felt is that the D20 and the D6 system has supported this scale of conflict. Heroquest does (not that I haven't saved planets with D6s mind you).

So to answer your question: Both.
I set the scope from the outset and in my prep and found systemic support in the HQ rules.