EOTE: The Azurite City Requiem

14 September 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Modesty Blazing

Episode 05: The Azurite City Requiem

In this game I thought I could finish this arc of the campaign in the second session. I failed.

Previously on Modesty Blazing...

Hello and Goodbye

Destiny Pool, not the kiddie pool

Uh oh. How many Dark Side Points?

As explosions wrecked the peaceful evening at Azurite City, the team began to regroup.

The Duros spy Vendrik told them that he had received an encrypted communique via the public channels. It was a code phrase ordering him to leave the planet. The team started to object. They would need his help if things went bad. Vendrik said, "I can't get involved now when the Empire appear to be using underhanded tactics to take over the system. They really want this system. If they knew that the Rebel Alliance is involved with their opposition, they'll call for a Base Delta Zero orbital bombardment killing everyone and everything on the surface of Ghyel. I know because I've seen them do it before on another world."

They said their goodbyes. Nora Romanova would help escort the Duros spy offworld.

Their vehicles wrecked, Zeltron Darter Kel, Trianii Qillian Ryn, Trandoshan John Tray'Essek and the droid VAX-11/750 jogged back towards their headquarters at the Ghyel Ministry of History and Archaeology.

Dark Skies over Azurite

The skies were dark, but seemed darker for the dozens of Lambda-class shuttles being regurgitated by the Imperator-class Star Destroyer hanging above Azurite City. They could be seen flitting between city buildings and were landing at every other open space in the city.

Darter called their employer, the 14-year-old Ghyel prince Zalo Hai whom they had rescued from a three hundred year carbonite slumber in an abandoned remote outpost. Darter reported their findings of the death of Councilman Drazi, the alliance Councilman Zirrus had with an Imperial officer, the homing beacon tagged on a saboteur's airspeeder and apparent Imperial political destabilisation tactics.

"We have to acquire evidence to present to the Council," said Prince Zalo. Suddenly he burst out, "They're here! An Imperial shuttle has landed. Troops are coming. You have to go to-" And then he was cut off. The team considered heading for the Ministry to rescue Prince Zalo, but it would take too long for them to reach it without a speeder.

 

EOTE: An Ode to Backwater Politics

17 August 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Modesty Blazing

Episode 04: An Ode to Backwater Politics

After saving the life of the long-frozen PRINCE ZALO HAI
of the GHYEL system, the crew of the MODESTY BLAZE has found themselves
contracted by Prince Zalo's descendant LORD ARANI HAI, a Ghyel loyalist.

The GALACTIC EMPIRE, unsatisfied with Ghyel providing raw materials
and manufactured goods to them, has bolstered an Imperialist faction
against the Hais' loyalists with Ghyel as their endgame.

Meanwhile, as the Prince is reintroduced to his people,
DARTER KEL, QILLIAN RYN and VAX-11/750 await the return of
JOHN TRAY'ESSEK and NORA ROMANOVA back into to their fold
at AZURITE CITY SPACEPORT...

It's been awhile since I gamemastered six players in a political intrigue session. Political intrigue is hard. More so when you don't gamemaster the campaign that often. So let's get down to it!

Previously on Modesty Blazing...

"Okay! Multiple DOUBLE Light Side points in the Destiny Pool. Game over. Everyone go home."

A Gozanti cruiser modified to be an unarmed commercial passenger liner manoeuvred herself for landing at the spaceport at Azurite City on the planet Ghyel.

In the passenger cabin of the ship, reptilian Trandoshan hired gun/marauder John Tray'Essek sat beside his blond teammate smuggler/scoundrel Nora Romanova who had just finished her scouting contract in Wild Space and was returning to rendezvous with the crew of the YT-1300 light freighter Modesty Blaze who had set up a temporary base of operations on Ghyel. Unbeknownst to them, in the seat behind them was a Duros known as Vendrik who was listening in to their conversation, learning about the Modesty Blaze crew's contract job attached to the Ministry of History and Archaeology under Prince Zalo Hai in Azurite City.

Waiting for them on the platform below were the Zeltron smuggler/pilot Darter Kel, Trianii bounty hunter/assassin Qillian Ryn and the laconic droid technician/slicer VAX-11/750. They looked at the approaching cruiser. They gazed at the blue morning skies, the white clouds above and the contrail of a rocket which was streaking toward the landing ship! Darter thumbed his comlink on and barked, "Missile incoming. We can't take it out. If you can do something, do it now!"

The perceptive Vendrik heard the call from Tray'Essek's hand comlink. It startled him to know that the pair seated in front of him had immediate intelligence on an incoming missile. Vendrik tightened his seat belt. Nora leapt over Tray and sprinted up the aisle past startled attendant droids (with a successful Athletics roll). She lunged into the cockpit and tried to wrestle the control stick from one of the two astonished pilots. (Brawl check: Success with one Threat.)

The Gozanti veered to the left. The missile grazed the underside of the ship's port engine pylon and exploded. The vessel lost its repulsors and suddenly slammed into the ground kicking up a gigantic plume of dust and debris into the air. The port engine had snapped off and was spiralling away.

The insurance company is going to have a cow, man

"Ferra Sector Lines"

Darter and Qillian were aghast! Had their teammates just been killed by a rocket attack? They must be avenged! Leaving VAX to check on the crash site, Darter and Qillian ran for their Ministry-assigned Seraph-class "Flash" landspeeder, leapt onto the seats and rocketed out into the streets trying to determine the source of the rocket fire.

Because the ship fell only about 200 meters and the acceleration compensators were still active, most of the passengers were unharmed. The befuddled and dazed pilots tried to arrest Nora, but she charmed her way past them. Then Tray and her jettisoned the emergency hatch and jumped onto the tarmac unharmed thanks to the emergency gravity field activated outside the hatch upon a crash. All the other passengers, including Vendrik, followed suit and soon everyone was walking out into the debris and dust as police and rescue speeders arrived on the scene.

Vendrik introduced himself to Nora and Tray, then invited them both for a drink at the nearby spaceport cantina.

 

EOTE: The Prince In Carbonite

19 May 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Modesty Blazing

Episode 03 - The Prince In Carbonite 

5 white coins!

Destiny Pool seems pretty good for the players.

Previously, on Star Wars: Modesty Blazing... 

After disposing of the twisted IG-series assassin droid that took over the Imperial Biomedical Base on the icy world of Khov and freeing the captured prisoners at Smallberries Skystation on Hypori, the Modesty Blaze returned to the deserted outpost with a contractor to quickly salvage and sell off what they can. The hired gun Tray'Essek the Trandoshan opted to remain at Smallberries Station to ensure the prisoners' release properly.

The Tinhub Brothers Salvage Corporation employees first helped the droid 41-VEX, Zeltron explorer Darter Kel and Trianii bounty hunter Qilian Ryn modify the Blaze by increasing her manoeuvrability and replacing her dorsal cannon with one of two anti-aircraft quadcannons that was protecting the base.

Occassionally, tremors shook the walls and floor of the bay as they worked.

The crew allowed the Tinhub Brothers team to take apart one Lambda-class shuttle and one All-Terrain Armoured Transport for themselves, from which a net worth of 60,000 credits belonged to the Blaze crew. Stronger tremors rattled the structure sending dust and gravel falling and billowing from the ceiling.

Meanwhile, 41-VEX sauntered off to the droid reconstruction module. It had enough power and parts for one more use. VEX entered the resleeving pod. Automated waldoes took him apart and removed his droid brain. Then, a new body was assembled as requested by VEX. Once completed, the droid brain was plugged in. His eyes lit up. 41-VEX decided on a new name: VAX-11/750.

He returned to the bay just in time to see the Tinhub Brothers' Gozanti cruiser leave into the blue skies above, leaving the YT-1300 freighter Modesty Blaze all by herself. An even stronger quake cracked the walls and sent rocks and dust fall from the reinforced ceiling, Everyone was gathered beneath her deciding on what to do next. The consensus was, "We've got to get out of here now."

VAX-11/750 to be precise

A new body. New set of innate skills. What else has been hardwritten into his circuits by the fabricator, eh? 

Withdrawal From Khov 

The wall speakers crackled to life and a voice boomed throughout the hangar bay, "Khov base, this is the Imperial Star Destroyer Tempestuous on an unscheduled inspection, please reply." There was no time to improvise. The voice continued, "You know how crucial secrecy is to your base, Khov. Please reply or we have been ordered to enact Base Delta Zero in 15 minutes."

Yes, it was time to get out of there.

 

EOTE: Droid-like Typing Detected

20 April 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Modesty Blazing 02

Episode 02: Droid-like Typing Detected

Title logo

The Zeltron pilot Darter Kel had been detained for questioning by the authorities of Smallberries Skystation on HyporiAfter all he was the one who dealt with and was up close with the former Captain Razi Sunmote.

The errant Captain Sunmote used a droid caller to muster an attack force made of dormant battle droids. The droids had been reactivated from salvage taken from the Hypori. After dealing death and destruction within Section 12 of the skystation, Sunmote and his droid force jettisoned their captured section and jumped into hyperspace on a desperate mission of vengeance.

But Darter's shipmates, the droid 41-VEX, the Trianii bounty hunter Qillian Ryn and Trandoshan hired gun John Tray'Essek, were released on their own recognizance, after a good word from the entrepreneur they rescued, Gir Tashkent.

The crew of the Modesty Blaze was waiting for Darter's questioning to end when a sharply-dressed human came knocking on the ship's ramp struts. VEX, in the lower cannon turret, spun the weapon at him in retaliation to the knocking. Qillian rushed down to greet the man, who introduced himself as Colonel Zev Sleen an Imperial officer.

He offered 4000 credits to take him to and bring him back from the nearby Khov system.

Qillian took over the pilot seat, apprehensive over having to fly the freighter without their designated pilot Darter. He had trained for some hours (buying 1 Rank in Pilot (Space) with the last of his XP) and had gotten slightly better at it in the last few hours.

It should have taken three hours to reach Khov, but VEX forgot to carry the one in his calculations (with no successes in Astrogation) so they arrived three hours late.

Khov System

There was a blue white planet shrouded with clouds. Its polar caps is too frozen to support life. VEX scanned and spotted an automated intermittent signal from the liveable equatorial region. Colonel Sleen confirmed from the coordinates that it was their destination.

Qillian fought the winds as he dove under the clouds, causing the drinks Tray was serving Sleen to spill. Soon he was flying the Blaze through an overwhelming ice storm. The clouds cleared to reveal a cliff wall before them. The Trianii - to his own surprise - banked away and threaded his way through a canyon (thanks to a series of Piloting successes).

The signal led them to an open hangar bay at the foot of an icy mountain. Fifty metres above it on the steep mountainside was a command structure with a large window overlooking the frozen countryside. Both were dark and did not appear to have any lights activated.

Qillian had a bad feeling about this. A sudden downdraft tried to force the Modesty Blaze into a crash as it came in for a landing, but Qillian - again to his own surprise (with a success that involved 2 Triumphs) glided in with hardly a tremor.

There's something I don't see everyday.

Our first double Triumphs!

 

EOTE: Modesty Blazing

14 April 2014 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Modesty Blazing

Episode 01: Skyfall

Note: This GOKL campaign follows the Star Wars Edge of the Empire Beginners Game that started with GOKL Escapes Mos Shuuta and continued with GOKL Escapes The Insurmountable Ned. Now that the former Krayt Fang has been renamed Modesty Blaze (after a short stint as Babymetal before retcon renaming) after its major refitting on Rodia, the campaign will now be named "Modesty Blazing."

No Obligation roll just because.

Initial Destiny pool rolls resulted in this:

The Dark Side Destiny Points are all from Ivan's roll.

The Force was used repeatedly over the course of the game.

Ord Throsol

Ord Throsol was a white dwarf system with multiple asteroid fields and thick cometary clouds. The airless planetoid known as Ord Throsol was centre of mining refinery and manufacturing. The Modesty Blaze is berthed alongside the scout vessel, the YV-929 armed freighter Veracity Slush. The Blaze crew had just been commissioned to deliver machine parts to Gir Tashkent of Spacewell Manufacturing Inc. on Smallberries Skystation in the Hypori system.

But first, Zeltron pilot Darter Kel, the droid 41-VEX, the Trianii assassin Qillian Ryn and the new Trandoshan hired gun Tray'Essek bade farewell to Nora Romanova, the Wookiee Lowhrrick and Twi'lek Oskara who have joined the crew of the scout vessel for a job beyond the Saijo Sector. A moment later the trio was gone with the Slush.

As they prepared to raise ship, an RA-7 droid stopped them. He had a package that also needed to be delivered to former Imperial captain Razi Sunmote of Sunmote Trading on Smallberries Station. Darter was reluctant to take on any impromptu jobs but the droid was very transparent. He showed the holo message from Sunmote, which had the proper documentation, and opened up the package to reveal the old droid caller inside.

An extra 1000 credits earned from going to Hypori couldn't hurt.

On the Road

VEX calculated the hyperspace jump perfectly (with 3 Successes on Astrogation) shaving some time off the journey. However, they were violently pulled back into realspace 20 light minutes away from the planet Hypori. VEX scanned the area and discovered a gravity field projected from a nearby asteroid. Also, three R-41 Starchasers were accelerating to attack speed toward them.

Darter's superior piloting skills allowed him to execute a tight turn keeping the fighters boxed inward of their turning arc. (Successes and Triumph on Darter's Piloting roll gave everyone else an upgraded skill and a Boost dice.) 41-VEX angled the shield as Qillian loosed a barrage which missed. However, one of the Starchasers were slammed by Tray's multiple blasts and disintegrated catastrophically. First kill!

One upgrade and extra boost!

Most successes with the least dice we've ever seen thus far. 

 

GOKL Escapes The Insurmountable Ned

21 April 2013 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

Earlier today I ran Star Wars Edge of the Empire for GOKL for the second time, using the Beginner Game truncated rules and extra stuff found on the internet.

Everyone was given 10 XPs from the previous session with an option to advance their characters. Qillian Ryn the Trianii and Darter Kel the Zeltron advanced their characters. 41-VEX the manumitted colonist droid saved his XPs for later.

That's my stash of custom Star Wars RPG paper minis

NPC stats and GM notes and stuff

A Brief Prologue

A brief prologue was run to account for the absence players of Lowhhrick, Oskara and Nora. The commandeered Corellian YT-1300 light freighter Krayt Fang landed on a small oceanside shadowport on Rodia. Actually before landing, they kicked the ousted slaver captain Trex out into the humid Rodian swamps a hundred klicks from nowhere. An outlaw tech would be able to install a new BoSS transponder on their ship, but only for 10,000 credits as times are tough. Seeing that the crew did not have the money, the outlaw tech suggested they look for work at the Ithorian herdship that just made orbit recently.

Landing Bay 1138

This particular Ithorian herdship, named Green Fields, was an interstellar starship that was disc 5 klicks in diameter and had a giant transparisteel canopy 4/5th of the diameter that has a living jungle and ocean biomes.There was a central island that formed a mountain 400 meters tall. This type of herdship travelled from system to system and opened their doors to locals as tourists, encouraging them to visit their biomes, to stay in their hotels, to go on safaris and to generally spend a lot of money there.

Krayt Fang was berthed at Landing Bay 1138 at the rim of the Green Fields. Darter, 41-VEX and Qillian went out into the bustling landing bay which was able to support two medium ships and eight light ships such as their own. There were technicians, deck officers, tourist groups heading to or from their ships, load lifter droids, security droids, hustlers, businessmen, entrepreneurs and wanderers. Thanks to some fast talking Darter found a terminal that listed immediate job ads. Most did not pay well, but one ad from Captain Beru Highbringer paid 4000 credits per successful applicant. The job: crew of a Corellian YV-664 converted freighter - now a tour ship - that brought tourists offship to visit gorgeous astronomical sights of the region.

Landing Bay 1142

There were three Lambda-class Imperial shuttles berthed in Landing Bay 1142. Worried, Darter asked around about them. An Ithorian deck officer told them not to worry. Imperials were always boarding the herdship wherever they stopped; always looking for rebels - especially when there were so many outsiders aboard the ship. So far none had been found on Green Fields.

The trio met with Captain Highbringer at the cantina at Landing Bay 1142. She was a grizzled spacer, as grizzled as a 28 year old human female with long, wavy blond locks could be. It disturbed them that she kept disrupting Darter's spirited job application pitch to her by whispering strangely to the old force pike by her side as if it was alive.

It was even more disturbing that she hired them and paid them half in advance because the inanimate force pike had somehow "allowed" her to.

Before leaving they noticed four humans in casual tourist garb slipping into the cantina, a woman and three men. They were all clearly on edge, as if on the run from pursuers. The group decided not to interact with them.

They returned to the Krayt Fang to pick up their gear as well as extra space suits. (Yes, even VEX grabbed a space suit for arcane reasons.) They had a light lunch with Nora, Oskara and Lowhhrick before returning to Landing Bay 1142.

Pash isn't used in this campaign

The group's initial pool of 4 Destiny Points among 3 PCs 

 

GOKL Escapes Mos Shuuta

18 February 2013 | Hisham | | GOKL Actual Play, Modesty Blazing, RPG Actual Play, Role Playing Games, Star Wars
 

I've already run Star Wars Edge of the Empire RPG Beginner Game adventure for Irfan, so now I would see how it would fare with half a dozen experienced tabletop RPGers, namely the guys at GOKL.

From the available pregenerated characters in the adventure Escape from Mos Shuuta, Ivan played 41-VEX as a manumitted medical droid, Razzman played the Twi'lek bounty hunter Oskara, Macx played the Wookiee hired gun Lowhhrick and Doug tweaked Pash the smuggler into Nora Romanova. Darren and Kai jury-rig a character generation using the Beta rule notes found online and became, respectively, Qillian Ryn the Triannii assassin and Darter Kel the Zeltron scout and bush pilot. I might have screwed up the chargen a bit because of lack of complete rules.

The adventure's encounters are designed so GMs and players get the hang of the system. For example, the first encounter teaches us about options on hiding in a cantina. The second encounter takes us through combat with a drift of Gamorreans. The third forces players to interact with NPCs to acquire a gear important to the story.

However, GOKL players being GOKL players, things blew up and died in encounter one.

We're at Darren's place!

The Cantina

Nora, Oskara, Lowhhrick, 41-VEX and Qillian had crossed the local crime lord Teemo the Hutt, and Teemo's band of cudgel-bearing Gamorreans were now combing Mos Shuuta for them. The group ducked into the Devaronian's cantina to look for the pilot they hired beforehand, namely Darter, just before Gamorreans spotted them and chased in after them.

Oskara flipped a table. Nora jumped over the bar. Qillian slipped his knuckledusters on and crept into the shadows by the doorway. VEX orders a drink - a pitcher of motor oil. Darter, following the band of newcomers' example bounded to the dance stage where the Twi'lek dancer was dancing by a pole. He immediately tried to charm the pants off her.

As the pig guard burst in, the person with the keenest eye, fastest reflexes and swiftest hand moved first. It was VEX. He cooly downed his drink much to the bartender's slack-jawed surprise. However, the guards saw Oskara who was already behind the flipped table with her blaster rifle ready. She had the advantage and blew a hole in the lead Gamorrean. From the stage, Darter wriggled his butt, reached into his tight pants and a dart gun appeared was in his previously-bare hands. He took a firing stance and shot a dart at another Gamorrean, which sadly bounced off his thick bacon-smelling hide. Nora popped up from behind the bar and fire a wounding shot into his shoulder while Qillian snuck up from behind the Gamorreans and punched one with his knuckleduster, dazing the pig guard. All had fallen but one, who turned to the one who had shot him: Nora. But then VEX drew his blaster, spun and fired. The last thug fell.

Nora introduced Darter, their new pilot, to the group and the horrified Devaronian bartender yelled at them to get out of his bar. Darter explained that he too was in Teemo's bad books for seducing Teemo's daughter. The others would have lost their lunches at his story if they had eaten something for lunch.

Epic droid roleplaying going on...
 
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