Full Throttle campaign notes

[kookalouris]

[kookalouris]

Hello! I'm kookalouris and I'm new here.

I'm developing a Star Wars campaign for my real-life buddies and I might as well share my notes with you.

Trouble is, I procrastinate and don't have a lot of time. There's a good chance I won't complete the campaign notes.

This is why I put Zura as the first post so at least readers will get something out of the thread should it fray.

Still, the thread is certainly worth the price of admission.

More to come (I hope )...

[cheshire]

Thanks for sharing.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Ankhanu]

Cool.
Don't suppose this has anything to do with the late 90s Lucas Arts game Full Throttle??
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[kookalouris]

"We're going in, and we're going in full throttle."

Actually, I wanted to give a quote from the movies that would capture the essence of this campaign.

Star Wars in general is a very simple (in the best sense) and uncomplicated Space Opera. The setting can be explained in under a minute to those who have never heard of Star Wars. The elegant WEG rules can be explained in about the same time.

So, in no time, you go from start to Full Throttle.

More notes from me later tonight, I think...

[kookalouris]

Quite simply, I believe the Star Wars RPG rules by West End Games are amongst the very best games out of the hundreds of games ever developed. SW WEG is also, in my opinion, the very best game to introduce new players to to role-playing games in general.

The Star Wars setting is very well-known and very popular, simple and uncomplicated.

The WEG system is elegant and fast. It can be easily adapted and modified.

Together, the two mean that designing characters to first encounter can happen in under an hour even for beginners. It's even faster for those who have played the game before. 'Full Throttle' is the name of the game.

So I thought I would put together a 'beer-and-pretzles' game for when my real-life group isn't playing anything else. And since creating a campaign is 99% percent of uploading it to this forum, I thought I would give these scraps to whoever can use them...

That said, let's begin...

Full Throttle (FT) works best when the heroes are underdogs. The best time for this would be the time of the Rebellion (as in the WEG supplements, between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back). But FT can be tweaked to work with any of the other timelines, especially if the Opposition dominates the Galaxy.

What happened in the six movies the material from the WEG supplements is generally canon for FT. The Expanded Universe is too expanding for my tastes and I don't have time to keep up with it. Besides, the EU generally occurs in FT's future. Different bits and pieces of the EU can be used if they are particularly apt.

The locations of the FT campaign are generally backwater, isolated locales. Most of them are in a globular cluster called Arkeedan but they will work in any podunk bits of the great big Galaxy.

The rules sytem is the Star Wars Rules, 2nd Edition, Revised and Expanded. I may use some of the D6 system, the evolved child of the original WEG rules (particularly D6 Space & D6 Starships).

Coming up, Q-droids, one of the many tools in a rebel's (and scoundrel's) bag of tricks...

[kookalouris]

(rough draft, to be modified by feedback later)

Q-droids

Droids modified for subterfuge and deception have many names throughout the Galaxy, the Rebellion calls them Q-droids. There are several common modifications that can turn an ordinary droid into a Q-droid. The modifications are generally divided into hardware and software.

HARDWARE

Rebels are particularly hesitant to add clandestine devices to a droid. Software is easier to hide. There's almost no chance an actual Q-device can be casually explained away. There are still a few devices that are worth the effort.

False Restraining Bolt: A FRB is simply a restraining bolt that has been disabled in some believable way. The bolt makes all the right beeps and flashes when triggered by the remote. The droid plays the part by acting frozen. The FRB costs no more than any other restraining bolt (that's what an FRB is until altered). Authorities are quite familiar with FRBs but they are a cheap ruse.

Secret Compartment: A secret compartment costs about 100 credits in time and effort to make. Hiding anything more than a kilo and/or cubic decimeter will become obvious (allowing a difficult Perception check but the viewer gets +1D for every kilogram/decimeter past the first).

Secret Device: A secret device usually requires storage within a dedicated secret compartment as detailed above with the same chance of being detected. A secret device can be almost any small object that can be commonly bought. It costs ten times the normal price and takes up to an hour to install.


SOFTWARE

Divided Memory: It is possible for a droid to have a secret section of memory that can hold illict files, memories, skills or personality traits. The droid cannot typically access what is in the hidden memory and may not even be aware of it.

The hidden memory is custom and has to be installed. This is still very hard to detect short of a droid lab. To setup hidden memory on any ordinary droid starts with Difficult rolls. Once installed, the droid's owners (or perhaps even the droid) decides what will be placed into the hidden section. When the contents of the hidden section are decided, a trigger for the hidden memory is decided upon.

There are two kinds of triggers, objective or subjective. An Objective trigger is a trigger not open to interpretation. For example, an objective trigger might be a specific code phrase or number. Just enough awareness is setup in the hidden block to notice the objective trigger. The trigger must be EXACTLY as this subroutine expects it to be. If a code number is just one digit off, for example, the hidden memory will not activate no matter how dire the situation or how needed the hidden contents are, the situation is completely out of the droid's control.

A Subjective trigger is managed by the droid's subconscious. The droid will activate the hidden memory if it feels it is needed or is ordered to. If accessing the hidden memory is attempted, the droid must make a Willpower check to access it. The difficulty of the Willpower check is set when the operator or droid sets up the hidden memory. But caution must be used, if the roll is too easy, the droid will manifest hidden memory too often and obviously; too difficult, and the data may never be accessed when it is needed.

A droid that suddenly accesses hidden memory will act differently, often very obviously during the first few rounds of recall. This is because the hidden memory's activation must be a complete surprise to the droid. Also, a simple examination of the droid's memory will reveal the secret section of memory (the difficulty is equal to the difficulty of accessing the memory). A full examination in a Imperial base or Star Destroyer will have all memory decoded in an hour.

A droid can simply erase its hidden memory in a round. Once done, the data is GONE and cannot be retrieved by anyone or anything.

Alternate Skills: Q droids often have skills they shouldn't. These skills are taken from the memory banks of the droids and other skills have to be reduced to compensate. But the vast majority of droids are used and have seen better days so reduced skill levels are easily explained away.

Alternate Personality: An alternate personality can be buried within hidden memory. In most cases, a Q droid simply loses inhibitions against independent action. Although a droid will use violence as a last resort.

Here are some standard Q droids used by Rebellion in Arkeedan.

3PQ Droid - as standard 3PO unit but with optional false restraining bolt, hidden memory section (unassigned), Cultures 4D, Languages 7D, Con (Mimicry) 5D. Unassigned hidden memory is normally used as a active recording rod, storing a record of the mission for recovery later.

RQ Droid - as standard R2 unit but with optional false restraining bolt, hidden memory section (unassigned), Astrogation 4D, Computer programming 3D, Starfighter repair 4D, Security 3D

Q1-B Medical Droid - as standard 21-B droid but with hidden memory section (unassigned).

Let me know what you think of these preliminary rules, I welcome your feedback.