Being creeped out can be a good thing.

[notmalcolypse]

Firstly, this is very long winded. Sorry about that. Secondly, spooky stories can fit well in a Star Wars game, and I'd like to put out the call to get others to share any experiences they've had.

So...

It's Halloween night and I'm inexplicably remembering a great creepy moment from a game I played in many years ago.

The party was made up of a large group of padawans (four of us IIRC) who had been assigned to one master, and the master.

All the padawans were fresh out of youngling classes, hadn't had a great deal of training, and none of us had built a lightsaber.

Some of us really wanted a lightsaber.

Anyway, we ended up getting separated into two groups: One was the master and his most advanced student, the other was the rest of us paddies.

The master-less group was lost in a forest on a planet that had apparently been used as a base during a great war many years past. During our wandering we came to an ancient battlefield. Trees had grown up twisted, partially absorbing the skeletal remains of the people who died in the ancient war. There was nothing living in the area, which seemed cold to us, and we were afraid that the place may have been contaminated by the presence of the dark side.

After finding our way to a clearing in the woods, we saw a bunker door much like the endor bunker. More skeletons were scattered here, some sliced into multiple pieces. We new that a storm was coming and needed shelter and for some reason had convinced ourselves that there may be power and communication devices available inside this centuries old bunker.

As we approached the door, one of the skeletons raised itself up slowly and stood between us and the entrance. It ignited a lightsaber that had apparently survived it's time in the elements. A pale aura surrounded the skeleton and resolved itself into an image of a young human man wearing traditional jedi attire. We could still see the skeleton through the jedi ghost.

We were all freaked out by this, and our story teller was eating it up.

The creature took a step towards us and spoke.

"Identify yourself, state your purpose, and have no doubt that I will know if you speak the truth."

A brief whispered conversation only resulted in suggestions of run away and find the master or sit and meditate and try to contact the master through the force.

None of us were going to sit calmly while we had a lightsaber pointed at us, we had no idea where the master was, and all of us together probably couldn't roll high enough to contact him using the force. So we did what anyone would do in this situation, we stared dumbly at each other.

Then inspiration struck. The only way past the guardian was to tell him the truth. I approached, fighting my flight reflex the whole time.

"We are young jedi, and we need entrance to the bunker you guard."

The guardian replied, "I have sworn that no enemy will enter this bunker as long as I can stand in their way. I am too tired and weak to sense their approach until they are very near, so I cannot risk allowing the bunker opened while they are about, or they could overrun me."

"Let me fight in your place. I will take up the guardianship of this bunker from your enemies, and swear to you that none of them will enter it while I live."

The guardian replied, "You are too young, and unarmed as well."

"Give me your lightsaber. We are young, but there are three of us to watch, and we are well rested. None of your foes will sneak past us."

With a look of relief, the guardian replied, "You are brave and I am too tired to be an effective watchman." He held out his lightsaber to my character. When I took it, his cold skeletal fingers grasped my hand firmly. "I will rest for a while, then. Be safe and watchful. I will stay nearby, should you need me."

Then the figure flickered and disappeared and the skeleton fell lifeless to the ground. The lightsaber felt inordinately cool and heavy.

We holed up in the bunker, the guardian's long-dead enemies never came, and we were found and rescued by our master the next day. The lightsaber that I carried on my belt was never turned on again, which made the master's advanced student angry that I would carry it and not use it (a few sessions later he was given a lightsaber by a kindly jedi who was neither of those things, which he hid from the master and only used in desperation and fear).

My character started having dreams about the guardian, who started explaining to him how to construct his own lightsaber.

Anyhoo, the point of this story was the atmosphere that our story-teller created where we were all drawn to the things that terrified us. We looked closer at the tree-eaten remains, we wandered further into the terrible battleground, and we approached and conversed with an undead jedi, all the while shifting our eyes nervously and teasing each other to ease the creepiness we were feeling.

Capturing that eeriness in one of my games has been a long-standing goal
for me when I'm on the other side of the rulebook.

Has anyone else got a good creepy Star Wars story?

[Gry Sarth]

Oh yes. About as month ago I ran a quasi-zombie Star Wars adventure that was a hoot.

Basic plot was that the group was stranded in an island in a water planet with a broken hyperdrive. They are told that about 6 months ago a ship crashed into the ocean not far from there so they decide to check out the sunken wreckage in search of the parts they need.

After some encounters with marine predators on the way down they eventually enter the wreck, and the horror slowly unveils itself. First they swim through cargo holds filled with floating dead wookiees. They reach a dry cargo area that's actually set to freezing temperature, and it's filled with frozen wookiees (and some blood smeared across the floor and walls). Eventually they find out that the ship is still inhabited by imperial personnel and stormtroopers who have been trapped down there, eating the wookiee slaves shipment for 6 months. Most of the stormies have gone completely mental from the isolation and wookiee-only diet. Some are paranoid, some are psychotic, some are blood-thirsty beasts, some are wearing wookiee "coats", munching on a wookiee arm as they charge the group. As you can imagine, horror and mayhem ensue. This was made extra dramatic by the fact that one member of the group is an ex-stormtrooper and the other a humanitarian Jedi, so they had some difficult choices ahead of them.
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"He's Gry Sarth, of course he has the stats for them."

[Bren]

I like the adventure idea. It sounds appropriately ghoulish and horrible. I just wish I had a chance to "borrow" it and run it before Halloween.

I might use Imperial Army or Navy troopers instead of Stormtroopers just because I see them more easily cracking under the strain.

Alternatively, I like the idea that there is some property of the environment (air, water, radiation, etc.) that causes humans (and possibly other species) to crack up. This would add a ticking clock to the heroes solving the mystery or getting off planet before they too turn into raving maniacs.

Still another alternative, the Imperial vessel is part of a secret research project and is carrying some device (new propulsion or power generating system, cloaking device, hyperdrive, Dark Side device, etc.) that emits radiation (or Force emanations) that causes mental instability. Now the heroes must discover the device and turn it off, destroy it, etc. before the emmissions cause them to turn into maniacs.

Thanks Gry!

[ZzaphodD]

The only thing I miss when playing SW, the horror. We used to play a Warhammer RPG wich is a kind of Fantasy Cthulu game...
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My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[notmalcolypse]

Does eating a member of of another sapient species count as cannibalism? Exo-cannibalism? Xeno-cannibalism?

[Whill]

[ZzaphodD]

Ill have to think of something Dawn of the Dead like if we are going zombies....but I think it will turn into horror-fun more than pure horror..

Also, Im thinking of bringing in the Tyranids as a 'behind the scene' threat with occasional encounters. They are very 'Alienesque' and can be used as a horror-inspiring threat while crawling around in abandoned space stations, starship wrecks and similar places.
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My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[Bren]

[garhkal]

It also depends on what the size was.. leg or smaller... an appetizer. Full chest.. meal!
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[atgxtg]

"Ewoks, there not just for breakfast anymore."

Do Gammoereans taste like pork?

[notmalcolypse]

green pork

[Azai]

I do enjoy a good thriller adventure.

The Star Wars universe offers a lot, if you view it in a certain way.

One thing that always could creep me out as a kid was the 'Galaxy of Fear' series.

I was young and I saw star wars so I was like "Read it to me mom!" And then I would be running to her room in the middle of the night.

[Whill]

According to Wikipedia, Galaxy of Fear was 97-98. You were a kid then? Great! I'm glad to hear that younglings are still getting into WEG Star Wars, a game that ended publication at that same time. It makes me sick to read about all the gamers that only play the flavor of the month and feel they can't support games that are not currently in publication.
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[Dustflier]

Youngling here as well, Whill. I was a little kid back in '98 too. In fact, my first successful date in High School was to the opening day of Episode III.

The girl I went with had a crush on Hayden Christenson, and I had an obsession with Star Wars. Worked out well.

But don't worry about the newer generations missing out on the beauty of a Star Wars RPG... though the creativity and roleplay present in a tabletop RPG are generally missing from video game RPGs, there are many ways for us kids to become acquainted with the right tools and knowledge for these "outdated" methods of exploring Lucas' universe. WEG's contributions may eventually die, but there will always be someplace to find this atmosphere that encourages independent roleplay and immersion, so long as there are seekers of such things.
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Also known as Kiss My Wookiee on Discord and Reddit.

[Fallon Kell]