[SWSE] Tarmadan Sector Session 4

[IMAGinES]

This is the third of a series of threads that I’ve been writing about my current Star Wars Saga Edition campaign. You can find the first thread, which covers initial development and the first two sessions, here, and the second, which covers development and play of session 3, here. If you’re not keen on wading through those threads, though, let me summarise: my players, P, Sa, Si and T and myself have created (and are still in the process of creating) a pocket sector of the Galactic Empire for us to adventure in, three years after the fall of the Old Republic and the birth of the Galactic Empire. The player characters, all now Level 2 after Session 3, are Dr. Tajo Basal (Si, Human Scoundrel), Noonai duKeege (T, Duros Noble/Scoundrel) Hargen Flont (Sa, Human Soldier) and A’ayag Koth (P, Zabrak Scout). They are captain and crew of the Princess Dugong, a light freighter (based on the Empress Marava-class Far Trader from Traveller) serving as an ambulance in the conflict-riven sector. We started late last year and although we intend to play fortnightly at Si’s house, our post-Christmas schedules have only just settled down.

It’s been two days since I ran Session 3 for P, Si and T (Sa was in Melbourne for ConQuest). I kicked it off with someone trying to break into the Dugong and Noonai being accused of collusion with pirates. It ended with a firefight versus a complement of Stormtroopers on an unmarked heavy freighter, from which the players escaped with a cryo-capsule containing – well, we don’t know yet; presumably a being of some sort.

As the session closes, the players are still in trouble with the Sector’s authorities over the initial charges plus skipping bail (although they can probably pin that on a kidnapping), the Empire is going to be (quietly) gunning for them and they still have no idea precisely who or what they’ve rescued – all they know for sure is that the being in the capsule has something to do with an Imperial project code-named “Jerakko”. Possibly on their side is a crew of a smuggler transport called the Broken Sky and a former colleague of Koth’s who’s become an investigative reporter on the planet of Platooine. Which leaves me with a pretty good springboard for Session 4!

Now, as we run every fortnight, I have a little under two weeks to work something up for Session 4 – which, when I consider that it took me nigh on four months to cook Session 3 up, seems a challenge. I’m more confident in my skills at winging it now, especially as I have a good selection of named NPCs with decent motivations; still, I’d to kick the session off with something solid and motivating.

I also want to try and get some decent groundwork laid for coming up with maps with varying terrain, obstacles and cover and things the players can do to gain advantage via using their skills.

[IMAGinES]

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m trying to run the Tarmadan Sector campaign in a rather reactive manner. My goal is to create a starting situation that puts pressure on at least one of the player characters without dictating how the player character is to respond, and then let the players run with it. I also want a list of possible actions that various NPCs can take if the pace of the session slows; again, these actions should be tied into the player characters. I don’t like villains who plan and carry out plots that the PCs can only get involved in if they give a shit enough to go hunting for breadcrumbs.

One problem with this is that the standard model for a Star Wars encounter requires planning. A map must be designed, environmental hazards considered, potential uses of skills, feats and talents catered for, Challenge Levels measured and balanced. The final whole must be intriguing, flavourful, memorable. The last combat (and the only one that session) is a great example of the opposite. As it occurred on a location that I’d made up bare minutes before, the map was bare save some quickly and randomly placed terrain and nothing for the players to do bar move from cover to cover and shoot; certainly nothing that played into the specialties of PCs or NPCs.

Still, I can’t help but feel that there’s a way of preparing a potential combat zone without having to prepare several thoroughly detailed and annotated maps in advance. It’s the GM’s dilemma; why spend hours or days working on the contents of a dungeon if the players can decide that they’re more interested in what might be further on down the road (see John Kovalic’s introduction to roleplaying games in Pokéthulhu)?

In my last thread, I mentioned the roleplaying game, Feng Shui. One of the sub-headings in its GM chapter is, “The Map is Not Your Friend”, a comment which certainly makes sense when placed in the context of the game’s free-wheeling style. Ironically, though, it lists another concept that might apply well to my campaign: Consider the fight to come, and make a list of “Cool things which could happen”. Let NPCs perform some of them in the hope of inspiring the players to do so (one Feng Shui fan, a fellow by the name of Bryant Durrell, even set up a list of fight locations and corresponding cool things for gamers to use).

So maybe I could do something similar: Consider a list of typical, Star Wars-esque fight locations, make up some rough map sketches (or see if there are similar locations in fan-created maps online), then come up with lists of Cool Things that can be included in a combat, probably even working up stats and CLs for some; then, when it looks like a combat is due, I can either pull one of my existing maps or just work something up from a bunch of appropriate Cool Things.

One counter-intuitive part of this idea is that one of the great advantages of Feng Shui’s fast and loose combats are that the players can indulge their imaginations and conjure up items to do Cool Things with almost anywhere on the map, whereas Star Wars map design virtually requires cool things be tied to specific locations. Still, I think tied-down cool things are better than none. Aware of the potential pitfalls, I’m going to work on the idea in the next week or so.

[IMAGinES]

Moving away from maps and combat details to character (the real meat of the campaign, I think), where do the events of last session leave the NPCs who guest-starred?

• As mentioned previously, Danta Libar, who was willing to plant evidence in order to bring to light what she was sure was Noonai duKeege’s complicity with the Black Fleet (which is commanded by Noonai’s parents) has had two wake up calls – one, the truth that Noonai didn’t even know that her parents were alive until Danta told her, and two, the utter lie that Noonai actually loves Baron Pless Vantai, Lord of the Tarmadan Sector Caucus. This, I’m sure, will leave her with the strong feeling that she made a horrible mistake in trying to frame Noonai. What will this mean for not just her desire to bring the mole within the CMA to justice, but also her unrequited love for Baron Vantai?
• Speaking of Baron Vantai, we last saw him getting stunned by Captain Rann Nassin of the Broken Sky while the latter was giving Noonai a chance to escape the Baron’s shuttle (the Baron was planning to take Noonai back to Throneworld and keep her there). From his perspective, Noonai has just been kidnapped, and I’m sure he’s about to muster any and all assistance to find her.
• Captain Nassin has just failed a delivery mission organised through the Network, and I narrated that he and his crew have already had work trouble in the past, so he’s out of money and running low on options. The Network node previously on board his vessel is now installed on the Princess Dugong, as is half his cargo, and he’s probably about to be fingered for kidnap after Pless Vantai and Danta Libar compare notes. Still, he’s not a bad guy; he stuck his neck out to repay the favour Dr. Basal did him, perhaps too much so.
• Researcher Jast Bolarsk, Dr. Basal’s principal nemesis and head of the Empire’s top-secret Project Jerakko, just got rather thoroughly shot up by the half-alien crew of the Princess Dugong, and adding insult to injury, they’ve stolen one of the two test subjects the Broken Sky was delivering. A human supremacist to the bone, Bolarsk isn’t going to take that lying down – at least, not once he gets out of the med bay, which might be a while.
• Aside from these four worthies, we also had Irinia, Koth’s contact, who’s probably got one hell of a story on her hands, probably enough that she’d consider the big risk that tracking down more info on Project Jerakko would involve. How will she spin her story, and precisely what will she find on the mysterious Project?

[Mr Teufel]

Small suggestion: perhaps give Bolarsk an obvious cybernetic part as a legacy of his injuries in the fight?

[IMAGinES]

Mr. Teufel, I like the way you think. Even though cybernetic hands seem to have been done to death in Star Wars, I'm tempted to give him one - the ultimate cold-handed surgeon.

[Mr Teufel]

Hah! If we're getting metaphorical, then maybe an Iron-man-esque bionic heart (big pulsing light centre-chest)?

Or maybe, since he's racist = biased = one-eyed = cyborg eye. With some of the aesthetics of a monocle. Nb: left = sinister.

edit: Hand is good too, perhaps with surgical impliments built in?

[A Letter From Prague]

Jacko-style cybernetic face?

[IMAGinES]

Geez, you guys are scarin' me! Keep it comin', though!

Prague, do you mean the way his face sort of opened up when he was playing himself-as-Transformer in that horrid Moonwalker film, or are you referring to his actual face nowadays?

Or am I getting my Jackos mixed up?

[Mr Teufel]

Originally Posted by A Letter From Prague

Jacko-style cybernetic face?

Yeah, I'm not sure I get the reference either.

[IMAGinES]

I'm now three days out from Session 4 and I've done precisely bugger-all prep work. I've tried sitting in front of the keyboard and brainstorming, but every time I've foud myself suddenly and aggressively not in the mood.

I'm not as worried about this as I might've been in the past. With the last three games under my belt I finally feel as though I have a firm grasp of the system and enough NPCs to bother my players with, and I still have at least three events from my Session 3 crib sheet that I can still chuck at them. Nonetheless, there are a couple of loose ends from last session that I want to develop:

What's In The Freezer?

Per the above, the players absconded from the Imperial freighter at the end of last session with one of two person-sized stasis pods that the Broken Sky had delivered. I’m sure that one of the first things the players do next session is to crack it open and find out who’s inside. Now, I've had a couple of thoughts about this:

1. A Jedi. Noonai has taken the Force Sensitive feat, and I want to give her the chance to level up in Jedi should she wish (I want to sit down with the group and talk Dark Side Score before that happens, though). I’m not willing to make it easy on Noonai, though. No, our Jedi’s going to be a rather unstable Padawan who’s spent the last three years on the run after watching his master get gunned down by clone troopers. I’m thinking he might encourage Noonai to use the Force to dominate the Baron Vantai…
2. I want to shift the spotlight a bit this episode, so I might have the pod’s occupant be an ex-prisoner of the Imperial work-camp that Tajo Basal was a medic at. I don’t think I’ll have him cast any aspersions at first, but he might pop up later, especially if the players decide they need some money quick and get Basal to hit the casinos. Suddenly the bouncers want to escort him to the manager’s office for a little chat about his empty credit balance…
3. Combine the two! Maybe, as revenge, the Jedi wants Noonai to practice her powers on the good doctor first…

And here’s a thought: Captain Nassin’s main priority is going to be getting the freezer back so that he can try and salvage the job and his already tarnished rep with the Network. Will it come to a fight? Maybe even (gasp!) the first honest-to-God starship combat in the campaign?

What does Irinia find out about Project Jerakko?

You know, for an item that at least one player identified as important, I’ve not fleshed Project Jerakko out as much as I should have. The idea I had over in the session 3 thread about creating a character who’s all about keeping the place a secret now seems a bit bogus. If P was interested in uncovering a secret, he would have picked a Discovery Destiny for Koth; instead, he chose Destruction. That tells me I ought to be just dropping the biowarfare plant into the group’s lap and then concentrate on the obstacles between Koth and the fulfilment of his Destiny. These obstacles need to be attractive, so that P gets something in exchange for the negative modifiers applied to Koth if he steps away from his Destiny.

So should Irinia then hand the coordinates of Project Jerakko’s base into their laps? Hmm. I want to make them work for it a little. If Captain Nassin wants the freezer back, might the players try rigging it so that it’ll give the coordinates of Project Jerakko’s base away somehow? Do I get Irinia arrested for poking her nose where it doesn’t belong, forcing the players to leap to her rescue? Have Koth make some kind of choice between her and the data?

Anyway, if you folks have any bright ideas I'd be happy to read them!