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Leona Makk Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Posts: 91 Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 5:37 pm Post subject: Instant Adventures for the Kids (Age 9+) |
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Great and scary news. I am starting an online game for children and it filled up! The youngest in the group is 9 yrs old. A "dad" player may be wandering in and out of the kitchen now and then. LOL. "Mentor" character. I will give you all a full report after our first session tomorrow afternoon.
ENTER: Agrovian Strike!!!!
Wish me Luck.
"god's speed rebels" |
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cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4853
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2020 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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Awesome! I started my kids pretty young on a thrown together system inspired by D6, so I know that thrill.
Please let us know how it goes! _________________ __________________________________
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. |
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Leona Makk Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Posts: 91 Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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Its a hit!
The kids really got into it! I have to say that they are naturals. We had a short "Session Zero" were I asked some time line questions and quizzed them on what kinds of ships they would like to pilot. they want a YT-1300 and an X-Wing, maybe a little tramp speeder from Rebel Source book; gotta love it!
Sadly for me, they wanted to fight the First Order more than the Empire, I don't know what it is with kids and the First Order. Oh well, we all have to make sacrifices.
The team consists of:
V-22 the bounty hunter droid (age:4, height: 2 meters , High STR, Junk: armor and shoulder mounted grenade launcher, glowing red eyes, generally nightmarish, speaks with a stutter)
Quin Topolis aka "Striker" the rebel saboteur (High Tech, Mom killed by old Imperial Governor, fun loving prankster/pyromaniac, Quote: "I'm doing this for Mom."
Oren Topolis aka "Dad" the semi retired Rebel Infiltrator (Martial Arts skills and tons of disadvantages like Bad knee and Skeleton in Closet, obsessed with finding a way to retire on a quite planet with some savings) |
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cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4853
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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Fantastic! Let us know how they do with their first encounter with the First Order. _________________ __________________________________
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. |
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Leona Makk Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Posts: 91 Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 1:14 pm Post subject: The Argovia Strike |
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Since these kids have never played an RPG before, I thought an INSTANT Adventure would be good for short attention spans.
I gave the Rebel Saboteur ("call me Striker") a mouse droid with a long range comm link to her Resistance Agent so she can receive assignments from afar. This agent is, naturally, Agent Nallok! I made a little mouse droid puppet out of cardboard and black tape and stuck an antenna on it whenever a transmission started to come in through the droid.
So the the team's first mission was, you guessed it, The Argovia Strike! Which of course features my favorite NPC, Skipper Leona Makk. I have GM'd this adventure 2 or 3 times now, so it was easy to convert it over to a First Order Listening Station or Spy Base as I described it.
I set the planet Argovia on the way towards Minos Cluster with questions like, "Why would the First order build a high tech base way out here?" "What is there to spy on in the middle of nowhere?" The kids were less interested in the FO's motivations than Dad was.
The kids started walking around the Mining Town looking for the gambling hall to find the forger and didn't quite understand why everyone was gambling their paychecks away and were surprised at the number of street fights going on in this wild west space town. "whoa! these guys are fist fighting in the street! um, I am walking away from THAT!"
The kids had fun scaring off the forger Battz's loan sharks. "Striker" sliced the sound system in the club and started publicly shaming the thugs. The whole club started staring at the loan sharks through the transparent walls which made them blush a bit, and V-22 pulled off an Intimidate roll. So, far, no blasters! I made Battz a cute and chubby 3 Eyed alien with glasses. Everyone rolled terrible Alien Species checks, which was funny and is becoming a trend.
Everyone gave poor Battz a hard time for needing so many credits, but they loved getting the tools and tech wear. Grey and orange! There were some jokes about Kylo Ren's Matt the radar tech, of course.
All in all, the team got into the Senor Net Complex without any trouble after being very curious about the enclosing Electric Death Fence. heh heh.
I added a "very helpful" protocol droid in the lobby which followed V-22 around asking if it could be of any assistance now and then. The group spit up and explored of course.
This gave me a chance to role play some bratty and entitled First Order Officers who complained about EVERYTHING not getting done fast enough and not being EFFICIENT enough. The kids fell right into to giving a ton of Star Trek inspired technical nonsense which bored the officers to tears, "ugh, Just get it done, already."
Dad hung out in the office to listen in on some Officer Meetings. This was a good opportunity to do some General Hux speeches. Turns out there are lots of refugee and colonist ships flying out to Minos Cluster and maybe the Kathol Outback to get away from all the conflicts between the FO and Republic. The FO set up this long range spy base to track these unguarded ships and then pounce on them!
"Stealing the children from their parents and brainwashing them to be the new generation of Stromtroopers!!! HAHAHAHAHAH"
Now the players were, like, "OH! We are totally blowing this place up with everyone in it."
In the end, they convinced the Protocol Droid to get them a speeder "since their shift was done early." and they sped out of there shooting grenades behind them at Stormtroopers. The group kind of got caught on the way out, but they sliced the Death Fence, and deactivated it for only 60 seconds! A tense final minute to escape and then BOOOOM!!! The base exploded! A complete victory!!!
No one wanted to stop playing and we got the adventure done in one night!
Dad was surprised the kids sat still for so long! We had and hour break for dinner when everyone got hungry. But the kids love the game and can't wait to play again! They are into the character they made and want to do lots of drawings!
The request was made for a more "Bounty Hunter adventure" next time. So I am adapting the Treasure of Celis Mott to include a bounty puck on the pirate villian, Xeciel "sea-shell."
So far, so good at corrupting the youth with d6 Star Wars!!! |
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The Bissler Commander
Joined: 08 Jun 2016 Posts: 262
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for taking the time to provide a wonderful write up! It sounded like great fun and it's heartwarming to hear that another generation of Star Wars D6 RPGers are on the way! Parenting done well! |
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cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4853
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2020 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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That's awesome! Yeah, I'd just run that adventure with my group just a few weeks ago. Nice touch seeding it with Nallok so they have a connection to him. I mean... I'm assuming he's going to go missing at some point.
I really dig the Instant Adventures. It's just enough of an idea to build a concept and some stats into a game, and it leaves you free to put some meat on its bones if you want.
I also got some inspiration from the Ultimate Missions books that WotC had done for their miniatures. But those were REALLY short adventures that I was running for 5 and 7 year olds. Sounds like your kids are doing just great with the Instant Adventures. _________________ __________________________________
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. |
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Raven Redstar Rear Admiral
Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 2648 Location: Salem, OR
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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I love Instant Adventures! _________________ RR
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cheshire Arbiter-General (Moderator)
Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 4853
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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It's a book that really deserved a Vol. 2. _________________ __________________________________
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. |
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Whill Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)
Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Posts: 10435 Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy
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Leona Makk Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Posts: 91 Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2020 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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Agent Nollak is TOTALLY going missing!!! |
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Leona Makk Lieutenant
Joined: 03 Feb 2018 Posts: 91 Location: Minneapolis, MN
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:29 am Post subject: The Treasure of Celis Mott |
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Well, we had a slow Sunday so everyone was, like, d6 Star Wars in an hour? What is a GM to do but say YES?
The kids DO NOT have a ship yet and even after looking through that amazing Starships Guidebook with the blueprints of each ship and sample modified ships, they said they really wanted a Stock YT-1300 one day. OKAY, I can relate to that.
I had the players get dropped off at Kwen Station (tatooine manhunt), with the rumor that old Durn, the doomed spacer was looking for one of the characters at the bar and a bounty hunter guild member was looking for V-22 the bounty droid.
This gave me a chance to introduce the "bounty puck" and "tracking fob." I made up another alias for Xishel ("Ko-ral") and gave him a dead or alive bounty of $4K. I made Xishel a resentful pirate crewman for the credit pinching Celis Mott. So now there is an excuse for high bounty (decades of piracy) and a personal motive to find Mott's treasure (the old man owes me!!!)
Everyone was astounded by the dying words, "beware Sea Shell....uuuuuggghhh." and demanded that I repeat myself.
"Did you say SEA SHELL??"
"Sorry, poor Durn is dead. He can't repeat himself."
"oh. That makes sense."
Well, they had a great shoot out with the hired guns. I had a floppy hat for the red-eyed cyborg gunslinger and played up a spaghetti western voice. Everyone was rolling
Mom walked through the room at this point and said, "You are a DORK." When she is right, she is right.
The Wookkie and the gunslinger ran for it when the other goons got wasted (smoke grenade!!!!), swearing to get even some day.
The group found bay 15, poured over the ship looking for clues, found the data disc, and tried convince R2 they were the good guys. In the end they fixed the ship up in a jury rig fashion (not the 4-5 days in the adventure).
That's when BEEP BEEP BEEP the tracking fob starts going off.
I really played up Xishel's sleazy side, making him super "charming" and slimy. The fun thing about bad guys for a kid's game is that you HAVE to make them cheesy COMIC BOOK/PULP evil. Sometimes the kids are like, "Gee, is this NPC nice or not???" Let's make it easy for them, right? Its space opera.
Well, the players don't sell old Xishel the disc but get him to reveal that he runs the Coral Survey Corp.
"AHA! "Coral" and "Ko-ral" And the fob was going off! This is the guy for sure!!! But how do we get him when he has a dozen armored guards!?"
The kids decide to play it cool, and are of course shortly thereafter driven off the station by the next group of pirate goons. We get a bit of space ship battle and everyone fights over which chair they get to sit in! Turns out that every player put a die in PILOTING and no one took Gunnery!!! After they got shot at by the Y-Tie Uglys, someone said...wait...does THIS ship have any weapons??? LOL!
Anyways, they make their first bad Astrogation check but arrive at the coordinates with minimal damage, bounce off some rocks and manage to find the treasure after the space walk.
Now here is the part that really impressed me. When they found Mott's treasure chest, the boys wanted to open it right then. BUT, our girl Quin (call me Striker) stopped everyone, pointing out that there was NO GRAVITY produced by this small asteroid. "The treasure will be lost to space!" Keep in mind this player is nine years old. Everyone was super impressed by her quick thinking!
So here is the part in the adventure I really switched up. Since this is only the second game session, I didn't want to give them $12k-17k credits each. Some of you might be HOWLING right now, "HOW DARE YOU! RUN THE ADVENTURE BY THE BOOK YOU CHEAP @$$! THOSE POOR CHILDREN NEED THOSE CREDITS!"
Okay, okay. But I used the opportunity for a little Star Wars joke. I left a Holo recording from the pirate king Mott saying that "he finally invested his hard stolen credits in a worthy cause that was going to pay off big time in the near future." When they opened the treasure chest they found MILLIONS OF CREDITS! I let them run their hands through them greedily for a minute until they notice that the credits all had a noble man's face printed on one side....And I showed them a picture of Christopher Lee.
"COUNT DOOKU!?"
"WAIT! These are Separatist credits!?"
"YOU MEAN THEY ARE WORTHLESS!!!????"
That is when the fob starts beeping and old Xishel shows up with all his ships, demanding the treasure. The kids admit they are no match for him and he has them outmatched in guns and brains. Xishel gloats a bit of course.
So what do the kids do? Well they have a few Thermal Mines left over from the Argovian Strike spy mission so they plant the mines in the treasure chest! They give it a evil thought or two and set the explosives to go off AFTER the Holo from Celis Mott plays!
This was a fun chance for the bad guy to say he would let them go after getting the treasure and then turning to the pirates and saying, "blast them out of the stars once I get the goods." Well there was some satisfying and hammy acting from Xishel, realizing the treasure was worthless, cursing that old fool Mott, and then finding the bombs TOO LATE.
KA-BOMB!!!
The kids flew off in a beat up, run down YT-1300 with a R2 npc as a new friend (now there is an R2 and 3P0 in the game, heh heh). We agreed that they should get the Bounty for killing Xishel, too, since the Mouse Droid with spy camera recorded everything from the cockpit.
So the kids got their 4K bounty and a used tramp freighter as a reward. See! I am not such a cheap GM after all.....
.....now maybe, just maybe the ship they inherited is called....The Smoking Blaster.
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