Just GM'd my first game :)

[Bren]

Yeah. This party may have some problems communicating. The droid may be the best short term solution. Though there are other options.*
I looked up the Essatii.

[darkwing2k6]

[garhkal]

[Guardian_A]

I wouldnt worry too much about "Power gaming" If their additional abilities make them too powerful, then you just provide bigger challenges!

Zabrak appear throughout the galaxy even from the earliest days. After all, they were one of the earliest spacefaring species in the galaxy.

There were free Wookiees during the Dark Ages - Rebellion eras. They just had to be a careful in Imperial space.

Ultimately, do what works best for you. If you want the empire to give your Wookiee a hard time, go for it. If not, then dont worry about it. Its not about seeing how close you can keep things to cannon, its about having fun!

[garhkal]

That is true, but many prefer starting out to at least keep to some of the RAW/canon.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[darkwing2k6]

i appreciate the comments guys and garkhal your points are very valid but maybe not necessary with regards to my game for now. not meaning to dismiss you at all- hope it doesnt come across that way

the reason i say this is that this is my first attempt at being GM. out of my 3 players only 1 has past RPG experience (only AD+D) , the other 2 are completely new. power gaming (munchkin?) is not going to be an issue for quite a while yet. i would much rather that they get started in an adventure and have some fun to begin with. once they are settled and getting to grips with the rules and gaming system i will then start making it a little stricter and possibly go with your suggestion of setting it all in a certain time period and adapt the adventure sourcebooks to fit.

i hope that you understand what i am trying to get across. no offence is meant garkhal.

also by RAW/canon do you mean sticking to the SW history religiously? never heard that phrase before

[garhkal]

Understood.

As for Raw/canon, i mean sticking with the Rules as Written (eg in the RotE time frame wookies are slaves), or canon (slaves must be owned by someone).
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Guardian_A]

Most of what I have run has either followed canon, or I've played it in time periods there there isnt much/any material. I've also run a couple of short Infinities games that were good for a few laughs, . . . In the end, its about whatever is right for you and your players.

It sounds like you have the right idea. Have fun, learn the rules, then worry about the details. In that order!

[darkwing2k6]

so we played our game last night got all my prep work done etc. we started off making up the pc's. after a couple of mistakes we had them sorted. the language issue wasnt a problem as the essastii decided to put 4d into languages so that he could speak better basic etc which i was happy with.

so i gave them the backstory of how they all worked for the same guy but had decided to go it alone etc. essastii was just along for the ride and was planning on jumping ship after this one job as payment for getting him on his travels.

so off they went to Kalab where they met the first contact and took on the "delivery of special cargo" job. armed with all the info and a couple of easy astrogation and space transports rolls they landed up on Glova without a hitch.

as per the story the customs officer does his business and impounds the ship/45k credit tax on cargo/1 day to pay up. zabrak and wookiee start conferring on what to do but the essastii decides he needs to get back on the ship for something. again following the guidelines i explain he has to be escorted on. so the officer calls for the guards. 6 in total - 1 waits by the main customs office door at the bottom of the docking bay, the other 5 come over. so to try and deter any silly actions i have the essastii remove all his weapons and equipment and leave them with 2 guards left guarding the Zabrak and wookiee.

so the essastii is now in the cargo hold with 3 guards and with no weapons he decides to have a go at the 3 guards. 1 guard raises the alarm whilst other 2 fight essastii. the essastii is a lucky b-strd and deals with the first 2 quickly and then goes for the 3rd and sorts him out fairly quickly too.

as this is happening, outside the alarm is raised. zabrak decides to be cool and not react but the wookiee isnt so cool. he grabs his club and starts swinging! so the 2 guards and the 2 pc's now end up fighting. wookie takes a while but eventually he manages to crush his opponents chest with a massive home run hit. the zabrak and other guard standing toe-to-toe are trying to shoot each other and keep hitting pieces of armour etc. so in steps the wookiee to try and club this one to death too.

remember the 6th guard who was outside the office? well by now he has called for backup and is now joining the fight. he gets the jump on the zabrak and knocks him to the floor before trying to strangle him from behind. the wookiee has now just battered the other guard to death and turns his attention to the new arrival. zabrak manages to throw him over the shoulder and onto the floor. again wookiee starts swinging.

by this point the essastii has now got to the top of the landing ramp and is taking pot-shots at the last guard but nearly hits the zabrak!! and the 2nd wave of backup has just arrived- 10 more guards and they fan out in a line and aim blasters at the pc's. slightly recovered the zabrak goes for one of the grenades in amongst the essastii pack lying on the floor. but he botches his throw and the grenade detonates about 2m away from him. Guess what? nobody gets hurt not even a scratch!

i was trying to get the pc's to realise that they could surrender (and maybe look at doing a jailbreak or something to avoid them all dying). but no....

they decided to go all out and started taking it to the 10guards so what now ensued was a massive blaster fight. the zabrak went down first with a massive hole in his chest and was bleeding out. the essastii picked off 2 of the 10 gurads whilst the wookiee finished the 3rd guard in the middle.

wookiee decides then to stand still and go for his bowcaster. with which he doesnt get in one single hit!. Essastii leaves the ship and attempts to approach the wounded zabrak to give first aid all whilst returning fire.

in amongst the blaster the guards throw the odd stun grenade etc but surprise surprise they all survive again. cue more blaster fire and now the wookie is hit and is now sitting on the floor still attempting to hit with the bowcaster- which he doesnt.

then in one spectacular round the wookiee is hit 5 times and is now incapacitated, the essastii takes one in the kneecap and chest- incapacitated. the zabrak then decides to die.

The End

so after all that prep it was undone by one essastii.

thanks for all your help guys in getting us into our first game. everyone had a great laugh and are very keen to get cracking on the next scenario. i have some revision to do on some of the combat actions and opposing rolls.

thanks

John who is off to prep another adventure

[Guardian_A]

Just goes to show, You can never really predict what your PCs are going to do! It sounds like you all had a good time! It sounds like you did a good job of handling things once your players threw a wrench into things.

It sounds like everyone but the Zabrak was captured? If the Zabrak player wants to keep the character, you can always fudge things a little. With the other two in a jail somewhere, they can be setting in their cell at the start of the next session only to have their Zabrak companion thrown into their cell, smelling strongly of bacta. On the other hand, keeping him dead might encourage all of your players to think about their actions before doing something like that again.

Thanks for the update! It was a lot of fun to read.

[garhkal]

Where they dead + something, or just mortally wounded and bled out?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[darkwing2k6]

the zabrak bled out from a chest wound from a blaster shot and the other 2 suffered several hits to get them incapacitated again from blaster shots. i suppose i could keep the other 2 and get the zabrak pc to work on a new character for next session.

just as im typing this i have come up with a cracking idea of how to keep the captured pc's and introduce new guy and get into another adventure. cant say much about it on here now as i have given this sites details to them as they expressed an interest in learning more and dont want to give them any clues whats coming.

many many thanks again for helping to get us started. i need to go do some more rules reading and prepping for my next "killer" story

cheers
john

[Guardian_A]

You're welcome to use me as a sounding board for ideas. If you dont want your players to see any of it, you can always send me a PM.

PS: Its almost always better to keep playing existing characters instead of creating new ones all the time. That way both you and the players become attached to your characters, and a game always more fun if you care about the characters involved.

[Bren]

[garhkal]