Ashikaider
Ensign
Joined: 24 Jul 2018
Posts: 30
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2018 5:18 am Post subject: On running a Star Wars game for the first time |
 |
|
To start off with, I've only been a player for Star Wars rp, having played in several D20/D20R campaigns, and maybe some Saga Edition, but my group at the time wound up using it as an engine to run fantasy games. In addition, I play in a homebrew Cortex game at a con 2 years ago, where the players were delivering a package to Kylo Ren, who wound up swooping in to grab the package because the players were being help up by some First Order flunkies. (I hadn't seen Force Awakens at the time, but still had an enjoyable time.)
Cut to three weeks ago. I was looking around my local shop and saw the 30th Anniversary Star Wars D6 set on display. This reminded me that Star Wars D6 was one of the few remaining older rpgs that I was interested in acquring, but had not found at a price that I liked.
Realising that my finiances weren't able to cover my paying for the entire book,I quickly sold them on playing the game, and we all agreed to chip in towards buying the books at a later date.
I spent the next week learning all I could about the game, eventually finding this forum and the in-depth posts by Wajeb Deb Kaadeb about the game here.
Actual prep for running involved typing up some templates and stats for npcs that would appear in the first session.
After discussing things with one of the players, we both agreed that we wanted to play something without Force Users, as they can skew the game for both the the other players and the GM.In addition, I just wanted to run something that was more Scoundrels/Smugglers/Scum and Villainy anyway.
The following templates were provided to the players: Bounty Hunter, Smuggler, Gambler, Jawa Demolitions Expert, Outlaw Tech, and Spoiled Debutante. The Jawa and the Debutante were added for my own amusement, but the Debutante did come with a 3P0 unit, which could have become useful (and I could see the potential for some Spaceballs references).
The players went with the following;
Rodfar the Gambler
Scruffy Nerfherder, Female Smuggler
Qil'kit, aka 'Jim', a Jawa Demolitionist
and an unnamed Outlaw tech
Since I was going from memory of what I had seen of the Edge of Empire Beginner Box adventure, I had each of them come up with a reason as to why they were being chased by Teemo the Hutt. They came up with the following;
Rodfel and Scruffy had teamed up for a scam involving a fake space cruise, and then robbing people blind through gambling before the ship had even taken off.
'Jim' had gotten into trouble for blowing up some contraband belonging to Teemo.
and finally, the Tech had tried rigging a fake bomb to himself and threatened some of Teemo's men, who called his bluff.
The four of them took shelter inside a cantina, that strangely enough, only had a Devaronian bartender and a Twi'lek dancer inside. 'Jim' and the Tech sidled up to the bar and ordered a drink. Meanwhile Rodfel and Scruffy went over to the dancer, and managed to convince her that Scruffy was there to dance a set.
While Scruffy took the stage, Rodfel and the dancer had a conversation backstage in the dancer's dressing room.
It was then that I had a group of Gamorreans walk in. One of them totally blew his PER check, and the other two didn't do so hot. I ruled that the one who had failed had completely forgotten what he was supposed to be doing, while the other were just a little wary of what was going on. They went of up to the bar, and 'Jim' bribed the bartender to slip the Gamorreans a mickey.
Deciding that the bartender had a drink mixing skill of 6D, I rolled, and the result was somewhere in the mid 20s. The 3 guards had passed out after drinking the concoction that they were given.
Scruffy jumped off the stage and looted the guards, giving some of the money to the bartender, and pocketed the rest, saying that what she kept was her pay for the dance.
Meanwhile, Rodfel and the dancer, whose name was Juz'leboy, had hit it off so well, that she decided that she was going to follow along after him.
As they were getting ready to leave, the bartender told them about a ship that was waiting for a certain part so that it could leave. He mentioned that the ship's owner was a Trandoshan who was into some pretty dirty stuff, an that they should be careful around him. In addition, he told them about the shop that was holding the part.
(The players never questioned about what was going on, but I have some things planned that will come up later.)
After a quick reminder that they were still on the lam, and there would be others pursuing them, the party made their way through back alleys until they reached their destination.
'Jim' volunteered to wait outside and alert them if trouble showed up. Meanwhile the others went in to see the shopkeeper kicking an R2 unit that had dropped something on the floor. The droid grumbled something sarcastic in Binary and rolled outside.
While the Tech snuck into the backroom of the store, and liberated some medpacks, repair kits and blaster power packs from off the shelves, Rodfel began to talk circles around the shopkeep. (Rodfel had 6D in skill I added called Charm, that was used to sweet talk people. His dice were on fire that session, as he rolled somewhere around 3-4 totals of 29 with that skill).
Outside, 'Jim' saw the R2 using its electrical arc welder to to perform the equivalent of kicking a can around. He went over to the droid, and talked to it. Since he was a Jawa, I ruled that he had a pidgin knowledge of a few languages that included Binary and Basic. Talking to the droid, he discovered that the droid wasn't too happy with it's current situation, and offered to steal whatever his group needed as long as they took the R2 along with them. 'Jim' agreed and managed to get what he needed to say across.
Seeing the R2 wander in, snatch the part they were after and roll out the back door. Rodfel continued pouring on the smarm, and distracted the shopkeep. It was at this point that 'Jim' came in and managed to convey that something bad was headed their way. Scruffy and the Tech slipped out after the R2, while Rodfel turned around, pretended to hear something, and told the shopkeep that some kids were messing around with something in front of the store.
While the shopkeep got into 'Get offa mah lawn!' mode, Rodfel and 'Jim' joined up with with others out back. Before they left, they heard the shopkeep get into a shouting match with some strormtroopers out front.
Quickly making their way to the Starport, Rodfel talked his way into the ship, and began arguing with the Trandoshan about how much they were going to get paid for delivering and installing the part.
While the majority of the party was in the engine room, 'Jim' started sneaking around, and found a false wall in one of the cargo bays. He moved it aside, and found a number of cages, including one holding a Zeltron woman. "Jim' released her, and alerted the Trandoshan at the same time.
The Tech pulled out his blaster and tried shoot the Trandoshan, but missed. Angered, the Trandoshan pulled out his own blaster, while Rodfel tried to calm him down.
It was at this point, due to not running for a few years, I panicked for a second, and then remembering that the R2 had been using its welder to move a can around, gave it 5D in a special skill with the welder, and used that on the Trandoshan. It hit, and managed to stun.
'Jim' came running in and tried to tell them about the cages. Once they understood what he was talking about, they kept the Trandoshan stunned, and dragged him off to the cages, locking him up while looting him. Juzzy took the Zeltron girl off to the refresher, and Rodfel donated some clean clothes to her.
It should be noted that since they had entered the ship, they had noticed a terrible stench permeating the place. While Scruffy went to the cockpit to start prelaunch procedures the others looked around and found an area that had a couch and a holochess table that had rotting meat piled on and around them.
A message came across the ship's comms, from the port overseer, who was asking what was going on. Rodfel went out to talk to her, and in his attempt to convince her to let them leave without ant troubles, he rolled a 29 on his charm. Seeing as he'd rolled quite a few 29s with that skill, I said that the overseer, who was a human woman had fallen in love with him, and happily followed him onto the ship, where she sent the codes to release the docking clamps.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group had managed to finish dumping the meat into a box and had it set in the air lock. As they flew out of the port, they saw a squad of stormtroopers on the ground. Scruffy decided to buzz them as the ship flew by, dumping the rotten meat on the stromtroopers. two of them had managed to dodge, but the other two weren't so lucky getting pelted with rotten meat and a slurry of melted flesh.
I narrated that the flew off into space, and then jumped into hyperspace from there.
Up next I plan on running Heavy Lifting, and if they do well at the end of that adventure, establish some down time, and grant them some pips for stats and skills as a reward. (I'll probably start giving out XP after that).
From this session alone, I have potential plot points with the Bartender and dancer, the droid, and the stormtroopers. I figure after the downtime they'll start running into bounty hunters and Imperials that are after them.
Thoughts? Comments? |
|
