My New Campaign - One Minor Change...

[Ray]

So, started my new campaign, it is six months after The Battle Of Hoth. Han Solo is encased in Carbonite. Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia Organa, Baron Lando Calrissian, and Chewbacca are all missing. The Rebellion is starting to have severe problems with equipment and maintenance.

The game started with the group rescuing Rebels from an Imperial POW Camp that was being turned into a Mass Disintegration Camp that was going to mulch the prisoners up for reactor fuel for the Imperial Navy. They got most of the prisoners out, when they got back to base to see... This:

Luke Skywalker appears on the holo-braodcast, wearing a black flightsuit with a open set of dark brown robes over it, munching casually on some green berry-like foodstuff. He finishes the last one, and carefully puts the bag away and nods his head as if to start recording when it already had.

“I am Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. Over the past six months, numerous truths were brought forward to me and associates of mine that will help explain the situation of Known Space as it is. The first, and foremost of these is the simple fact that the Emperor, Palpatine, is a Sith Master who is more properly named Darth Sidious.

“Few people in the galaxy remember truly what the Sith are, but they stand for all that is dark and corrupt in the universe. In fact, utilizing Sith Sorcery, extensive drugs, and cybernetic manipulation, he has made one of his more fearsome weapons from that of my father, Clone Wars hero and one of the few surviving members of the Jedi Council, Anakin Skywalker. He moulded a public figure for this horribly trapped Jedi Master and corrupted him into a force known to the universe, wrongly, as Darth Vader.

“However, with extensive work, I have been able to remove many of those aspects away from him, returning Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker to himself, and once more the Jedi Council is starting to attempt to bring about the Jedi role of being guardians of peace when the universe is once again able to stabilize into the stability of the Republic, which the Empire has failed to do since its creation over two decades ago.

“As such, we are declaring the creation of the Jedi Protectorate.

“We now claim the area previously known as Hutt Space as Protectorate space. Where we will bring about responsible government that is not in the hands of the Hutt Cartels and their corrupt ways. We renounce any form of slavery in that area, and, with the assistance of our Mandalorian allies, we will free all slaves. This will include the slavery that the Republic instituted in its last days with the creation of the Clonetroopers that made up The Grand Army And Navy Of The Republic.”

The camera zooms back, showing a trio of Mandalorians in their traditional armor, dripping in a variety of weapons ranging from primitive knives of raw steel all the way to the latest in longarm blaster technology. One, without a rangefinder on her helmet but with a bulky rocket pack on her back is in orange armor. The middle is wearing heavily worn and scratched red accented armor on a dark green base, and has more weapons than the others attached to his armor. The last has a hefty, but snub nosed repeating blaster in his arms, and is wearing predominantly black armor with gold accents. Each also wears upon their belt a lightsaber. The scene is obviously now at some ancient temple, whose massive doors are slowly grinding up and down on heavily abused machinery.

Luke Skywalker continues as a blue glow starts to come forth from the entranceway, “For those beings living in the Protectorate in honest, honorable ways, you are welcome to stay, and enjoy the new prosperity that a proper government will bring.

“For those members that have corrupted the governments and subjected the mass populous to terror, theft, and worse…”

Luke Skywalker stands aside, and motions to the form inside the building as the entrance finally opens fully. Clad in mostly black, but with some obviously modified and unpainted equipment added onto his suit, Darth Vader, Dark Lord Of The Sith, or more correctly Jedi Councilmember Anakin Skywalker steps forward, an ignited blue lightsaber in his hand, and he speaks in his massive baritone voice, “Justice comes for you.”

With that, Master Skywalker’s free hand comes from behind his back, and the levitating disembodied head of Jabba The Hutt hovers into view of the holo-recording.

Luke Skywalker once again takes center stage, “The Light Side of the Force is once more being returned to the people of the galaxy. The Protectorate will support the common peoples of the worlds. There will be peace in our time, and the Jedi with their allies and friends will bring it about.”

The holo ends.

[Zarn]

Reviving the Mandalorian Knights?

I can dig it.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mandalorian_Knights

[Dredwulf60]

Is there any significance to the stuff Luke was eating?

If there is, I'm missing it. Maybe like an allusion to drinking kool aid; like Luke is setting himself up like a David Koresh style cult leader?

[Ray]

Actually, this was because someone found some Star Wars branded green grapes, was a reference for them.

I swear, if I find Star Wars: The Flamethrower...

[Ray]

And we haven't had a game since.

[Raven Redstar]

I hate when that happens. I've had a few players where I put in a ton of effort prepping the sandbox for them to play in, and we play once... maybe twice, and that's it.
_________________
RR
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[Ray]

YAY! The game happened again! This time, I was able to give a full-on mission for the group, although due to people being unable to make it (stupid adults and their schedules) only two players and their characters made it to game.

It started out with the group's small escort fleet (Corvette/Carrier like the FarStar "Kerrarrcha's Quiver" with four Y-Wing Two-Seaters and one Y-Wing Longprobe, Corellian Gunship "Aegis of Tenneveron", and the PC's SFS Lone Scout-A TIE craft "The Freedom Rings") escorts a series of refugee ships and a group of POWs to the Rebellion Diplomatic Fleet, made up from, among other things, a trio of Dark Fleet Dreadnoughts, including the Katana herself (Remember, a few changes are being made to make things more epic. And, well, I couldn't help but use a Flagship named the Katana!).

It was coming into this area, and dodging some horribly parked starfighter hyperdrive sleds, which were just dropped even more sloppily and slovenly than combat releases, that the group realized just how bad things were for the Hutts and how far the Jedi Protectorate group was willing to go. Luxury ships of all different makes and models were in the area, almost all of them with combat damage. Dropping off the refugee ships loaded down with bureaucrats and managers, the Freedom Rings was ordered to dock with the Katana herself, in order to offload a series of equipment from the Quiver, and to meet up with General Hera Syndulla. As they park in the secondary docking bay on the Katana, they are aghast at seeing mass after mass of Hutts draped out in jewellery and their bodyguard escort dressed in the same, as if they grabbed the gemstones and ran as quickly as their speeder sleds could carry the fat crime lords.

But the group quickly found out that these were the losers of the Hutts that ran to the Rebellion for help. The smarter ones, the ones that the Rebel Alliance was negotiating with, brought something far more valuable than shiny things. They brought information. Bank accounts, blackmail on Imperial officers, secret hyperdrive lanes that only the Hutts knew about, so on, so forth. And it was from one of these meetings that the group "saved" General Syndulla.

Taking the group to the Flag Bridge, she introduced them to General Walex Blissex, the R&D and Starship Design genius that somehow made the various hulls the Rebellion could get their hands on, and turned them into a threat to the Empire. After getting Walex his mediation, the group was briefed on their mission.

In the previous game, the group had saved 1000 POWs from an Imperial Death Camp, but had their back-up Hyperdrive and hyperdrive coolant tank destroyed in the assault by a AT-DP. With the coolant tank replaced, the crew had an "excuse" for going to SFS's StarForge TIE Fighter Factory and secondary R&D facility, in order to buy a back-up hyperdrive and "have it professionally installed, unlike those heavy handed idiots on Blah Station." A certainly believable story, especially with the fixed up battle damage on the bottom of the craft. But, after getting the craft onto the station, they had to somehow go out, and rescue the only person Hera trusted in turning the Hutt's primarily pirate and mercenary crews into something semi-honorable that the Rebellion could use.

She wanted to turn them into Privateers, but needed someone that knew all the tricks to ride herd on them. Someone that she could have Rebel Intelligence keep a close, close eye on.

She needed the PCs to rescue Hondo Ohnaka.

Walex, on the other hand, had gotten intelligence reports on what StarForge was working on for the Empire, and needed the PCs to get into the R&D labs, and insert a "Data Spike" into the system, which would software delete, then hardware electrify and cook the computers, erasing everything.

A tertiary mission was also given to them, try to take one of the prototypes. Even if the Rebellion couldn't use it, they would hamper and slow down the Empire that much more from being able to use it themselves, and maybe even make the project run so far behind the timeline and so much over budget that it was just canned.

After a bit more prep, and having the bad luck of meeting Chopper, Hera's knock-off astromech, the group went out, with the Aegis backing them up from a microjump away with a boarding shuttle and fifty Navy Troopers connected to her, just in case.

Getting in, the group wasn't held in any kind of suspicion thanks to some really good acting by Captain Drake, former Imperial Captain, who put on an accent from the most annoying freighter bum he ever had to deal with while doing customs work. They also found out that the station had a "freighter crew ready room" to segregate the outside personnel from the station's own. However, because the kaff was better in the "civilian" section, the security teams typically drank it there rather than suffer the swill that is in their own ready rooms, and they made sure the surveillance systems were on the very, very bottom of the repair orders, meaning they never got fixed.

After knocking out the security team, and putting on their uniforms, the group had a bit better free range around the station. They were able to find Hondo quickly enough using the Code Cylinders that the uniforms came from, and found the R&D facility as well...

And I'm tired now, so, the rest of it will come later.

[Ray]

Also, about the grapes.

[Ray]

In the R&D facility, they found a variety of projects ranging from "Pie In The Sky", "Ya Right!" projects that were burning up budget so R&D can get the same budget next year, and some nearly completely projects that they just needed to figure out how to mass produce at a rate that'll make them a decent profit without being too expensive for the Empire. Including, in two different launch bays for finished TIE Craft, the "TIE/AC Ace" upgraded TIE Interceptor, an the "TIE/BS Broadsword" which is a "TIE Bomber" but with a massive Turbolaser instead of a projectile launcher, and only half the bomb rack payload available.

Now, getting out with Hondo after nuking the computer system would have been more than sufficient for Rebel Command, but my group of players don't think small like that. Instead, they knocked out the one scientist working on an upgrade to the TIE Fighter Helmet, shoved him into a crate, and quickly came up with a plan with Hondo to take their Fat TIE Fighter (a Lone Scout-A) with as many physical projects as they can, while they steal the prototype fighter craft.

I should point out that neither one of them know how to work a starfighter beyond their default attributes.

What ended up happening was one epicly long chase scene with the Corporate-style TIE Fighters (like the Mining Guild TIEs in Star Wars Rebels) going after the group of fleeing craft while they tried to get under the safety of the Corellian Corvette Aegis' guns.

Despite limited damage to the craft, they were able to dock with the capital ship and Lone Scout-A, and FTL'd back to the fleet after a few hops to make sure they weren't followed.

For this task, the PCs were awarded the Silver Starburst medals for Actions Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty. And were promptly informed of the bad news: "The reward for a job well done? More difficult jobs."