Star Wars Stuff?

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

I've got questions....

1*. I'm re-watching Return of the Jedi. In the opening scene, when Vader arrives at the Death Star, he is met by Commander Jerjerrod. If you look at all the troops lined up as Vader's honor guard, there are several officers of higher rank standing at attention, off to the side of Vader and Jerjerrod walking up the middle.

Wouldn't you think an Admiral or a General would be in charge of constructing the Death Star II?



2. This movie is the first to show Luke in his X-Wing in a non-Combat situation. Wouldn't you think that taking the X-Wing everywhere just screams, "Hey! I'm a Rebel!" I mean, with all the seedy people in Mos Eisely, no one would send a message to the Empire--or just tell the local authorities--that an Alliance fighter is in a docking bay?

Or, maybe Luke parked out in the desert by himself.



3. More of a comment than a question. Damn, I hate that stupid blue elephant alien.



4. And...to tie this all to the RPG....

Boy, old Boba Fett sure is having a bad time on this game session, huh? He's flipping and floppin' all over the place, straight down the Sarlacc's gullet. He's bricking some crucial rolls.





*In the novel and in the Imperial Sourcebook for D6, Jerjerrod is a Moff, though Vader refers to him as a Commander. That could be to Jerjerrod being a base commander--hit position, not his rank--but the rank tabs on this chest indicate a Commander.

[Whill]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Naaman]

Honestly, that whole skiff scene seems to be a slapstick affair. Not a single thing that happens seems to be on purpose (even the "success rolls": it's as if the rolls themselves were all 1s except for the wild die, which exploded 7 or 8 times per roll for the heroes, but otherwise would have been a major failure).

[Kytross]

Boba Fett was singled out for no disintegrations by Vader, is the only person in the galaxy able to track the Falcon including the entire might of Vader and Death squadron, Fett talks back to Vader, he fends off Leia and Chewie, he's the only person in Jabba's palace not to freak out when a disguised Leia pulls the thermal detonator, the ladies love him, and he goes mano-a-mano with Luke and nearly wins.

Yes, his death is ignoble, but every moment he's on screen before that he is awesome.

[MrNexx]

Another possibility, though unlikely given then Empire... Jerjerrod might have had that combination of staff rank, family connections, and technical competency that made him a good commander for the Death Star project. 4D in Knowledge, Perception, and Technical, maybe with some Engineering skills to go with Command (he might not be the best engineer around, but construction won't be delayed because they need a left-handed hydrospanner)
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[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

GG1 says that Jerjerrod was a desk general, promoted to Moff, because he was someone Palpy could control. Yet, his rank tabs still indicate Commander. And, he passes some Generals standing at attention while talking to Vader.

[Sutehp]

There's a story blurb in the Shadows of the Empire WEG Sourcebook where Jerrjerrod is leaving Palpatine's throne room after a meeting with him and runs into a rival officer who mocks Jerrjerrod for being a desk jockey. Jerrjerrod replies out loud that he's just a servant of the Empire willing to do the non-glamorous jobs that the Emperor assigns him for the good of the Empire. The other guy walks away, presumably for his own meeting with the Emperor while Jerrjerrod smirks to himself as he's finally is going to get the respect he deserves as the Emperor just assigned him to be in charge of constructing the second Death Star. And the thing is, if Jerrjerrod wasn't one of those quietly competent Imperial officers, Palpatine would never have assigned him to such an important project, so Jerrjerrod's glee seems justified.

Out-of-universe, I think Whill has the right of it. The Imperial rank insignias have absolutely no pattern to them whatsoever so it's useless to try to use them them for any ranking system at all. In fact, it's on record that the costuming department didn't pay any attention to the rank insignia in ANH and ROTJ with at least one person saying that they only have any consistency in TESB. Hell, the badges the Rancor Pit uses for its post count is WAY more accurate, but at least it has the benefit of hindsight since even George didn't bother to make a list of actual Imperial ranks and try to form a consistent system. Like Whill said, maybe adding more rocks to R2's hiding place in the Jundland Wastes was a bigger priority.
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Only some of it is for D6 Star Wars.
Just repurchased the X-Wing and Tie Fighter flight sim games. I forgot how much I missed them.

[Whill]

[Whill]

[Bren]

[Wajeb Deb Kaadeb]

[Whill]

[Kytross]

Whill, you're right, Leia and Chewie were shooting at the Slave 1, not at Boba Fett directly. I was writing from memory and it's been a few years since I watched ESB. I'm sorry about that.

Your perspective seems jaded to me. I could be wrong, that's just how it comes across to me. Boba Fett succeeds at everything we see him attempt to do, except for his fight with Luke. Even in his fight with Luke, he does far better than everyone else there.

Yes, he missed his two blaster shots, but as a GM I would have upped that difficulty level a bit. They're on two different Skiffs, both of them moving. Boba Fett is probably stunned from his fall, putting him at -1D. From how small Luke is compared to Boba, I'd guess he was at least 10-15 meters away. Luke is only a little bigger than Boba's Helmet in that part of the scene, so it could be further, but we'll go with 10-15 meters, medium range with the wrist laser. That's 11-15 difficulty, plus both skiffs moving, so +5-10 difficulty giving a GM the discretion of 16-25 difficulty. Boba has 6D in armor weapons. Stunned puts him at 5D. 5D x 3.5 average = 17.5 average roll. He missed, widely. Bad roll.

We don't see the effect of the second shot. Maybe he hit, but Luke deflected? Maybe he missed again. Stun effects would have been gone, he'd be rolling 6D. Did the skiffs move farther away? We don't know. We aren't shown. I can't do a detailed write up of something I can't see.

Keep in mind that Luke's skill level is good enough to let him take down Vader later in the movie. At this point, he is one of the best lightsaber fighters in the series. Probably from a combination of innate talent, training, and the help of Obi-Wan and possibly Qui-Gon Jinn and any other force immortals/ascended masters. But I digress.

If you're going to compare Boba's fight against Jedi to Jango's fight against Jedi then you have to compare the fight with Obi-Wan and the fight with Mace Windu. Jango didn't fair too well in that second fight. That Luke is able to defeat Vader at this point arguably puts him closer to Mace Windu's level of skill, if not beyond it. Luke certainly treats Boba with the same casual attitude that Mace treated Jango.

It is the interactions with Vader that define Fett in ESB. Vader interacts with four subordinates in ESB. Ozzel, Piett, Needa, and Boba Fett. He kills Ozzel and Needa for failing him. Piett is noticeably frightened of Vader. Fett stands up to Vader and talks back to him. No one else talks back to Vader in the entire series without getting some sort of reprisal. The officer on the Death Star in ANH gets force choked. Leia gets interrogated with drugs. Lando makes a plea to Vader that Vader was changing the deal and Vader tells him too bad and threatens Lando. Fett talks back to Vader and Vader promises to compensate him. Fett is different than all the rest of these characters, Vader treats him with respect. That's excellent characterization, and great storytelling.

Boba Fett is one of five named antagonists in the OT that directly interact with the protagonists. Vader is the main villain through the series. Tarkin is the major villain in the first film, but only interacts with a captured Leia. Jabba is a threat through the films but we only see him in RotJ, and a cut scene in ANH reintroduced in the special editions. He is a lethal threat but immobile. And there's the Emperor facing down Luke. Like Jabba, the Emperor does not chase down our heroes, he brings the heroes to himself. Both are viable threats, but neither is imminent. Vader and Fett are the only two imminent and viable threats to our heroes.

There may be a better word than imminent for what I'm trying to say, but I can't think of one. Unexpected? These two can meet the heroes anywhere, not just in their lairs. They are 'in the field.'

What this leaves us with are two villains from the OT to use in most of our playing and imagining between 1983 and 1999. So yeah, I think the fans may have obsessed over both of them a bit too much.

The stats West End Games gives him makes Boba Fett the third most lethal villain in the series, after Vader and the Emperor. At 9D Fett has the highest blaster skill of any villain, only Han has a higher ranged weapon skill, blaster of 9D+1 and heavy plaster pistol specialization of 10D. Chewbacca also has a bowcaster skill of 9D.

Do I think Boba's been blown out of proportion by the fans? Yes, definitely.

Do I think he's been blown out of proportion by the EU books? Without a doubt. Did you read the bounty hunter trilogy? I didn't bother to finish it. It was a Boba Fett love fest.

Would we have ever had Jango if the fans hadn't blown Boba out of proportion? No. Emphatically no. Boba Fett was never supposed to be in that cut scene with Jabba in ANH, he was pasted in with computers to service the fans. Jango is a continuation of that fan service.

Was Boba a great villain who I loved to watch on screen? Yes. Oh yes indeed.

I guess what I would change my argument to is that he's the second best villain in the OT. I'll grant you that he's overrated in the EU, but that doesn't make him less of great villain on screen.

I had a lot of fun doing this write up. Cheers!

[Bren]