Hishgraphics

Hunting Pirates - Bad Example, Episode 2 Part 2

Episode 2: Crab Meat Beach Party

IV

Continued from Part 1

Ever the diplomat and unable to shoot from the back of the column, Hunter climbed up the nearest tree to get a clear shot as well as yell, "Don't shoot! It might be friendly." Annie brandished her talons and attempted to perform an acrobatic leap over Weapon-X and Ssssawar to get to Aden. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell facedown in the dirt.

Weapon-X was still trying to bear his blaster rifle on the creature, but Aden's military skills prevailed. His DC-15 rifle was up and he fired, but the bolt slightly grazed the side of the creature's head.

Shooting Zebras - Bad Example, Episode 2 Part 1

I ran the second episode of Star Wars: A Bad Example In The Spacelanes last weekend with the GOKL crew. Without Adrian, Tickley the Jawa Jedi would be relegated to behind-the-scenes NPC while the rest of the crew did their thing.

In Bad Example In The Spacelanes Episode 1: Pilot, Or Lack Thereof, some stuff happened which you can read here.

Here follows the story of the game that was ran:

Episode 2: Crab Meat Beach Party

Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

The shipping line to the mining community of Port Barrow on the planet Sriluur was under constant raid from pirates. Because Port Barrow was being developed and industrialized by the outlander human Tam Gromer, it was relatively shunned by the rest of the planet. However, after the arrival of the crew of the yacht Bad Example, three pirate YT-1760 freighters had been taken out of commission. Two had been captured and one destroyed.

Fearing a retaliation from the Five Skulls Pirates, the crew of the Bad Example planned take down the pirates at their base.

I

The drum-beat strains of the night remain in the rhythm of the newborn day. The captured pirate YT-1760, still stinking of garbage, and the battered Luxury 3000 yacht Bad Example sat side-by-side upon Port Barrow's landing field. Several kilometres into the city a column of smoke drifted upwards from the town's junk yard since the previous afternoon where the other YT-1760 crashed. The junk yard owners had been celebrating all night for their glorious bounty that had literally fallen from of the sky.

A Bad Example In The Spacelanes, Part 2

Continuing the adventures of the crew of the Bad Example on Sriluur...

III

Meanwhile, Aden, Ssssawar and Annie crossed a bridge over the river that led to the waterfall only several metres due west. Their destination, Spacer's Bistro, was on the other side of the river. Port Barrow had the expected large percentage of Weequay population in the streets, they saw. But there were also other species, including humans, several Rodians here, a few Duros over there. The Bistro was a domed building overlooking the cliff. There was a large window pane which allowed for spectacular view of the canyon and other mountains in the range.

It was still early, so there were not many patrons in the Bistro. A green and black clad human was drinking alone in a table. There was a Weequay passed out, presumably drunk at another table. A Rodian was at a table near the window downing shots of some kind of drink. The crewmates were largely ignored by the bartender who continued cleaning his glasses without skipping a beat when they walked through the door.

A Bad Example In The Spacelanes, Part 1

Last Sunday I ran my first face-to-face, over-the-table Star Wars RPG game since 1999, with the GoKL crew. It was a tramp freighter campaign, set in the Rebellion Era, using classic D6 rules. I was quite anxious about it seeing it's been a while since I was in practice - discounting the IRC chat-based Sabredart and Chronicles of the Wild Gundark campaigns I had several years ago.

There were seven of us. I was gamemaster and there were six players. We rolled 6-sided dice to detemine the outcome of our actions, and the players decided what to do based on the scenarios and encounters I described to them over the game. It was fantastic collaborative storytelling.

Ultimately, this was the story that came out at the end of the game:

Episode 1: Pilot, or Lack Thereof

Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... the galaxy is in turmoil. An Empire tightens its iron grip upon a million worlds. A rebellion arises to topple the corrupt government. But for quadrillions of beings, life goes on as usual. Demand exists. Supply is required.

With their cargo of machine parts, the crew of the Bad Example, a converted star yacht, arrives at its destination: The planet Sriluur and the township of Port Barrow.

Death On The Outpost Moon

Clone Wars Episode 5

This week, the GM decided to try out a one-shot scenario. He assigned no-name clone troopers for the players. A sergeant and a bunch of rookies who were tasked with housekeeping of a listening outpost on a Rishi moon. He made it clear that they were the first to know if a Separatist invasion force was on its way to sneak up and bomb the crap out of the clone trooper production world of Kamino. The outpost was descibed nicely by the GM: it was a small drab gray installation with a landing platform and large communication dishes, perched at the edge of a rocky cliff filled with holes.

Initially the players did great in giving each trooper a distinct personality despite their common appearance. They picked out quirky names for their PCs like "Sergeant O'Niner", "Cutup", "Echo", "Hevy" and "Fives".

Then, a meteor storm occurred. Someone rolled a shields skill to raise shields around the listening outpost. Easy enough; the meteors slammed harmlessly against the invisible barriers.

Riders of the Malevolence

Clone Wars Episode 4

The GM announced that this week was going to be a standard dungeon crawl, to which everyone shrugged and went, "Meh." However, after recapping last week's session, he started out with a bang by shifting the scene to two new PCs. Senator Padmé Amidala of Naboo and her protocol droid See Threepio were both on their way to a secret meeting with the Intergalactic Banking Clan, an enemy faction, when suddenly they reverted back in normal space right in the middle of last week's closing skirmish.

The PCs asked the GM why "Intergalactic" when they were only in a single galaxy? The GM reminded them of the map in Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which displayed a main spiral galaxy and at least one dwarf satellite galaxy. So, "Intergalactic" was technically correct. Anakin's player thought they'd better update all the official sources with this tidbit of information.

Failed space transport piloting rolls allowed the Malevolence's tractor beam to grab onto the Nubian H-type yacht and pull them into a hangar bay. Quick communication rolls allowed Padmé to contact the Resolute, alerting the rest of the PCs, Anakin and Obi-Wan to her plight.

Strikeforce: Shadow Squadron

Clone Wars Episode 3

After the last adventure, in which the party gathered intel on the Malevolence, the GM now changed the flavour of the campaign from a rescue to a starfighter combat scenario. It was a straightforward mission. A squadron of fighters will take off from the Resolute, take a shortcut through a nebula, then attack the Malevolence targeting its command tower at the other end of the nebula before it can destroy the Kaliida Shoals Medical Station, with its load of hospitalised clone troopers and cadre of doctors and medics.

There were supposed to be only four players this session. The PCs snapped up by the players this week were Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and two of the clone pilots named Broadside and Matchstick. The GM thought it would be awesome to give everyone a fighter from the original movies, like the Koensayr Y-wing. But since this was twenty years prior to the movie Episode IV: A New Hope, the GM tweaked the Y-wing stats a bit and renamed them the old-timey BTL-B variant Y-wings. The group was named "Shadow Squadron".

However Plo Koon's player from last week had a cancelled dentist appointment, so he was back this week as Plo Koon. He insisted on tagging along in his Delta-7B starfighter.

The Orbital Debris Field Manhunt

Clone Wars Episode 2

Obviously last week had merely been the gaming group's test run using a stand alone scenario in a single session. This week, the GM brought out the big guns. Literally.

The Republic fleet has been under attack by a colossal capital ship, known as the Malevolence. Which is why this scenario was titled "Rising Malevolence". Incidentally the Malevolence is a 7.9 km-long Subjugator-class heavy cruiser, which means the first ship of the line, the Subjugator, was still floating about somewhere in the galaxy. Great job by the GM, cause this gives the rest of us another ship to play with in our own campaigns.

There were seven players around the table. And the GM split them up into two groups. The first group's PCs consisted of the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, his Togruta padawan Ahsoka Tano and the trusty astromech droid Artoo-Detoo. The second group played the Kel Dor Jedi Master named Plo Koon, an unarmoured clone commander named Wolffe, and a pair of suited-up clone troopers named Boost and Sinker.

Battle At The Coral Moon

Clone Wars Episode 1

The scenario titled "Ambush" was designed so that the Player Characters (PCs), on the side of the Galactic Republic, set down on the moon known as Rugosa in a diplomatic mission. Rugosa's terrain was a thick forest of a multitude of hard, gigantic coral structures. If there was a sea once, it probably had dried out a long time ago. Tiny airborne subspecies of the neebray, like little sparrows, flit between the coral branches. Quite an exotic setting described by the Game Master (GM).

The PCs task was simple: Land on Rugosa and make the planned rendezvous with the Toydarian King Katuunko, then persuade the good king to actively support the Republic in the war against the Separatists.The lead PC was Yoda, a Jedi Master with a fair amount of dice in his Force skills. He was aided by a trio of clone troopers, Thire, Jek and Rys.

However, the GM made sure that the main enemy NPC, the treacherous Sith Adept known as Asajj Ventress under orders from the Sith Lord Count Dooku has arrived ahead of them, turning the mission into bigger challenge.

Figuring Out the Y-wing

The third episode of The Clone Wars animated series prominently features the Y-wing fighter defending the Kaliida Shoals Med-Centre. Specifically the Koensayr BTL-B Y-wing fighter, in its intended role as a fighter/bomber. The BTL-B looks much different from the single-seater BTL-A4 variant we saw in the movies. The most distinct feature is that it has full fairings installed, as per the following concept illustration (originally found here):

Escaping the Death Star using Dice

Once upon a time, Sila brought back with her a Star Wars: Escape the Death Star Action Figure Game, which is actually a board game with two sets of rules (an easy and an advanced rule) as well as two Hasbro action figures, a Luke Skywalker in stormtrooper disguise with removable helmet and lightsaber, and a Darth Vader figure with removable helmet (complete with exposed back of head) and lightsaber.

It must have been ten years since, and I've never actually played it until recently. Because Irfan wanted to try it out. However, I realised that the easy rules were too easy and straightforward, and the advanced rules were too complicated for Irfan.

So the gamemaster in my blood took over, and I not only modified the rules so that the difficulty level of the rules are something in between and it's something Irfan can play and enjoy. Also, I can integrate what Star Wars action figures I had with me into the modded rules that I came up with. It took several runs with Irfan to refine the rules, but I think I've almost got it. Hopefully this game will also teach Irfan the basics of role-playing.

Here are the new rules:

Oh, Snap!

My old Boba Fett figure and Irfan's new Hulk figure act out the final fate of the galaxy's most feared bounty hunter.

Shenanigans on Christophsis and Teth - A Clone Wars Review

The short version of it is this:

I went in expecting three episodes of a Saturday morning cartoon series jury-rigged and strung together to form a 90 minute movie. And I got what I want and a bit more. I loved it. If you didn't already know, the movie is actually that: three episodes of the cartoon spliced together for a theatrical showing after George Lucas saw the episodes on the big screen during meetings with the production team. And I can't wait for further episodes.

The story is nothing heavy or dramatic. Amongst the many battles of the the Clone Wars, Rotta the Hutt, Jabba's infant son has been abducted and the Jedi assigns Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to investigate, pick up the trail and return the Huttlet back to its parent. In return, the Grand Army of the Republic would be allowed easy access through Hutt Space, which would allow better movement of troops and asset from the Core to the Outer Rim. However, the Confederacy of Indepedent Systems (a.k.a. the Separatists) will not make it easy for Kenobi and Skywalker to do so.

And to be even more precise, their onscreen misadventures also take place some time after the comics Star Wars Republic #67 "Forever Young" where the clone troopers still wore the Phase I armour at Zaadja. However, Anakin gets his scar from Asajj Ventress (who also makes an appearance in this movie) in Star Wars Republic #71 "Dreadnaughts of Rendili Part 3" when the Phase II armour (the Revenge of the Sith clone armours) have been long in use. So I'm guessing the troops serving with Kenobi and Skywalker were some of the last to switch over to the new suits. We also see reconnaissaince troops wearing a camouflaged scout variation of the Phase II armour like Commander Gree's aide on Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith.

Warning! Spoilers are dropping out of hyperspace beyond this point.

SWAG Request: Rhen Sannin

Shane's about to start a Star Wars RPG campaign and requested his major NPC Rhen Sannin, the freighter captain from the Star Wars Artists' Guild.

After giving some time for any other guild members to pick it up, I decided to claim the request earlier today... so I got to practice with the tablet and Painter Classic again, which is always good.

After some hours, here's Captain Rhen Sannin all made up and prettied, complete with blue milk on the side, cyborged limb and a datapad.

Click here for its SWAG entry page.

Hope this artwork gets some milage in your campaign, buddy.

Arakyd Diamondback Droid Stats

It was during the Enteague Sector campaign for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game which I GMed perhaps fifteen years ago. A new team of the Strikeforce Enteague, consisting of younger members, had to investigate the Malc Toldreyn Library on the planet Neeuderni to solve the campaign mystery arc of why an Imperial Admiral (no names here, cause in retrospect the NPC naming convention I used at around this time sucked) wanted Ham Slacker the tongue-tied engineer dead.

Naturally, the Imperials attacked during the investigation. Radio communications on and around the planet was jammed. It turned out that the Imps had deployed a Diamondback droid which is designed to jam planetary and interplanetary communications. The group borrowed the local defence forces' CloakShape fighters to attack the droid, which had its own defences in the form of anti-fighter cannons.

I 've rewritten down the D6 stats slightly modified from my original pencil notes and uploaded them to Phil Hatfield's site D6 Universe for posterity's sake.

I've reproduced it here for my own reference.

Steampunk Star Wars

Via Boing Boing, I came across Sillof's Workshop that displays awesome custom made figures... of classic Star Wars characters in steampunk forms.

Unbelievably awesome and of fantastic quality. I wish they were selling this en masse in the stores. Also, I can see an awesome alternate-universe Star Wars RPG campaign running based on these figures with Rebels and Imperials and Jedi with steampunk tech at turn-of-the-20th-century Earth, with clockwork droids and balloon-powered speeders and such.

Check out the figures (as well as other coolness such as custom Dune and Gaslight Justice League figures) at the link above.

Addendum: More Steampunk Star Wars concept art can be found in this thread at CG Society Forums.

Two Alien SWAG Requests

It's been a while since I took some time off to draw requests for SWAG. Here are two new characters: Colonel Toby Aambar, as requested by "donp" and Whistler, as requested by "Velovich". Toby is an Ortolan not an ortolan, and Whistler is a Tynnan, whose species first appeared in Brian Daley's Han Solo's Revenge.

Click to expand images:

A Donovian Technician on SWAG

Here's Frobi-wan Kenobi's request which I did on Star Wars Artists' Guild, a female tech from the rainy world of Donovia, Kaydra Leeronel. Click on the thumbnail to view the full picture.

Click here to read the request thread.

Click here to see a bigger picture on SWAG.

Click here to an even bigger picture on deviantArt.

Click here to play Chasm. It's Irfan new favourite game and it has nothing to do with this post at all.

Ha.

Three Recent SWAG Requests

Here are three recent Star Wars Artist Guild requests. Each thumbnail is a link to a bigger artwork.

From left to right: Berdan Ngajio Angantire is a Mandalorian Death Watchman's son, Ryavar Darek is a Togorian Jedi and Jacen Fel is an Imperial Knight from the Legacy era. Click on the links on their names to view even larger pieces of artwork on deviantArt. There are links to the SWAG pages from the deviantArt pages.

Starships of the Galaxy by Uncle Gary

Another one of Irfan's Uncle Gary's writing project has been officially been announced by Wizards of the Coast, which is Starships of the Galaxy for Star Wars Roleplaying Game - Saga Edition Core Rulebook the third edition of the d20 gaming rules.

The book was a collaborative effort between Gary, Owen Stephens and Rodney Thompson.

I've seen the Saga Edition Core Rulebook on display at Kinokuniya the other day, but I haven't bought it yet. I've heard good reviews about it and maybe someday I'll get a crew together to sit down and play it. Heck, I've only played the d20 revised core rule book version via a Play-By-E-Mail game that didn't really finish.

Maybe I'll start a new crew beginning with this little guy beside me not really quietly playing with the N-1 fighter I got 8 years ago free with a Happy Meal.

But the real question about the book is: does it have the stats and a write-up for the super awesomely fast Millennium Hawk in there?

You can't have a starship book without the Millennium Hawk for sure.

Meanwhile, Gary's brought me to the attention of the planet Irfan at the Star Wars Wiki, which is the planet he named for our Irfan back in 2004 in the article in the now-defunct Polyhedron magazine. Here's an old Hishgraphics blog article mentioning it. I've actually tried once looking for the entry for Irfan at the Star Wars Wiki, but it was more than a year ago so the article might not have existed then.