The campaign starts off taking place in the Kingdom of Kyrador, a Camelot/Brettonia (for those who play Warhammer) inspired nation ruled by a usually fair and benevolent king (though history has shown that that’s not always the case). The month is Eralreth (equivalent to March/April), and each PC has their own reasons for being in Kyrador (see biographies on the D&D main page by clicking on the tab above).
The group met up at a crossroads as Albrecht was being attacked by a small group of goblins and hobgoblins. After they came together to help the Forgewarden, they each figured out that they had all answered a bulletin put out by Baron Cyrus Drakclar. They traveled to Appledale, and inquired about the goblin attacks and then trekked off to find the lair of the creatures.
After a long and sometimes hard fought fight against the goblins in their own lair, the group found documents and maps denoting other goblin dens as well as their main lair in the Reflection Hills south of Port Kyra. They also find out that a bandit group called the Exiled Brotherhood is planning to kidnap the crown prince.
The party then headed off towards Syris to inform Baron of their progress and to inform the authorities (mainly the branch of Silver Knights) about the goblin lairs. After doing so, and re-equipping themselves, the group headed off once more, this time to cut the head off the goblin forces, or at least that is their hope. They are currently in the main goblin lair, about 4 or so encounters in. Already they have run across the expected goblins and hobgoblins, but have also come across bugbears, worgs, and ogres.
Sorry for the briefness of the recap at this point. Unfortunately I am about 2 months behind and could not possibly remember all of the details. Hopefully I will not fall so far behind and can give more detailed recaps from here on out.
I apologize for the lack of updates lately. I’ve been very much absorbed in replaying through the Mass Effect series recently. I’ve played through 1 and 2 on the Xbox 360 before, but I traded those in for the PS3 Trilogy because it had most of the DLC for all 3 games. So since all my saves were on the Xbox and not the PS3, I had to start all over, which I didn’t mind at all. Now I am a decent ways into 3 and enjoying the hell out of it. Kind of a best of between 1 and 2 so far.
Anyway, we have started up my AD&D campaign and as we move into Summer, we may end up missing a session here and there as people go on vacations, but it seems like it will weather that and continue on course every week after summer ends. I will put up at least a brief synopsis of the adventures thus far within the next week or so.
So we’ve been fighting off colds and other illnesses among our group for the past three weeks, so we haven’t been gaming unfortunately. This Sunday marks a change in all that, as well as a change in games. This may seem sudden, but in my mind, it’s been working up to this for a while now. But, let me elaborate a bit, so that maybe, those who DO read this blog will understand what has happened and why we are shifting games seemingly so suddenly (I mean we HAD just started our Star Wars game and I was really looking forward to it).
Let me start at the beginning. When I originally started my AD&D campaign, we had a roommate that was also a long time player at our table, and a close friend. It was myself as the DM, him, my wife, and my stepson, and it was a nice little group. This was back in January of this year, and I had started the game with the intention that the campaign would probably last until at least the beginning of next year, and longer if needed. We were all looking forward to a long-term game, and I was looking forward to FINALLY being able to run the campaign I had always wanted to run in my home setting,
Around this time the roommate had started seeing a girl but she was a non-issue at the time. Soon enough though she became a massive distraction even though she wasn’t there physically at the table. He would be sullen and moody because he was worried about what she was up to (because she couldn’t be trusted), and when that wasn’t going on, she would be texting him CONSTANTLY and telling him how she ‘hated’ his gaming, KNOWING that at that moment, that’s what he was doing, and that it was disrupting our fun. He would shrug all of this horrible behavior off stating that “He got it”, and “It’s kinda sweet”. No. It wasn’t. She’s a horrible person and she only hated his gaming because when he was gaming she was out of sight and out of mind and he wouldn’t stop everything just to go run her around in his car and be available for her every whim.
Well it happened that while he was in town constantly for her, he was leaving his son here with us constantly, basically making him our responsibility, which he was not. We have our own two children (well step-children for me) that we needed to take care of, and that was enough. We finally put our foot down and said that his son could not be here without him. At that point he seemingly moved out of the house even though his stuff was still here, and was barely ever home, even for game. I talked with him, and suggested that maybe we should shelve the D&D game for now so that he could concentrate on getting a place of his own and then we could pick it back up where we left off. He agreed, and I was fine with that at the time.
So it was that I started up the Sunday Star Wars game with another friend of ours that we couldn’t have over because the gaming days that were good for the roommate was not good for this friend (he could only come out after 6pm on the weekdays and we started at 3). This Star Wars game was going to be fairly easy for me to run, and I set it up that way on purpose. If we started the AD&D game up again, I would have time to prepare for AD&D (which takes a bit of preparation in comparison to Star Wars), and not have to worry about the Star Wars game as it would run itself essentially. So win-win right?
Well at this point, I have come to the realization that the now ex-roommate is not the same person I became friends with. His actions, broken promises, and fucked up morals have caused me to want nothing to do with this individual, which is fine, because I get the idea that as long as this girl wants to be with him, he could give a shit less. On the heels of that revelation came another – we would never game with him again. Which meant the AD&D game was dead in the water, permanently.
So I got to thinking over the past three weeks while everyone was sick – we will never restart that AD&D game, and we’re only 3 sessions in on the Star Wars game. Originally I told my players that I would at least run the first story arc of Star Wars and then we could start AD&D up. Then it hit me; if we’re not that far into the Star Wars game, why wait to switch? Why get attached to the characters and put in that time and work just to switch games? Why not switch now and run the Star Wars game after the AD&D campaign ends? So this Sunday we will be doing character creation for AD&D and I will FINALLY be able to run the campaign that I have always wanted to run with little to no hiccups, pauses, or stops (I hope!).
So despite a major setback and the loss of a close friend, we’re coming out ahead. I think this group will be more fun to run games for now that he isn’t involved anyway (to be honest he had a lot of little habits that drove us nuts and he did make it hard to run games unless they were set up a certain way. We dealt with it because he was our friend). I know it’s harsh to say, but it is the truth, but that’s as much as I will say about that.
Here’s to our new group, and the fun that we will be having at our gaming table in the near future!
Quick note – in the last few minutes of the last session, they came out of hyperspace over Nar Shadda and were told that they had to wait to land. They discussed getting a new transponder and name for the ship to hide the fact that it was stolen.
Last we left our group, they were in orbit around Nar Shadda, awaiting permission to land. It was given after a few hours and after they landed Vin told them that he needed to go to a droid shop to pick up A6, his old combat medic droid. He told the rest of the group that they should do some shopping while they were there. So they did, and afterwards they met up with Vin in front of the droid shop. With him was a rather rag-tag looking droid with a dark copper chassis with dark silver limbs and a dark silver head. He looked pretty mismatched.
“So these are your new companions master?” the droid asks as the rest of the group approaches.
“Yes, A6.” Vin answers patiently.
“Then I see no reason to shoot them.” A6 says with all confidence. Vin sighs, rolls his eyes and pats the droid on the shoulder.
“That’s good A6, I’d hate to dismantle you for hurting my new friends.” Vin says, shaking his head.
“At least I could patch them up if I had made a mistake, master.” A6 states.
“Yes. Yes you could.” Vin mutters.
“Nice droid.” Ali says, “Do you have the new transponder for the ship?”
“A6, do you have that transponder we were going to use for my old ship?” Vin asks.
“Right here master” A6 confirms.
“Good. Well then I believe you guys wanted to meet with the Alliance?” Vin asks.
“Yes. Very much so.” Torr says with a ready agreement from Kat.
“Alright, let’s get back to the ship. I was told to make contact on Alderaan.” Vin says.
The group travels back to the ship, only to find it surrounded by Imperial Stormtroopers. An Imperial officer is with them. It strikes them as a bit odd because the officer is a female.
“I am Lieutenant Pelthroes of the Imperial Navy. In the name of Moff Gerador I order you to drop your weapons and surrender for questioning. ” the officer calls out.
“She means interrogation, master” A6 whispers to Vin. No one else hears it.
“I know, A6” Vin mutters.
“What are we being brought in for?” Ali asks, as she unholsters her blasters and begins crouching slowly to put her weapons on the ground. Torr had let his staff fall to the ground already, and Kat has already dropped his vibroblade and his blaster rifle. He was fighting with the strap of his bowcaster, but hadn’t unshouldered it yet.
“Like I said, questioning.” The lieutenant answered back.
“Are we under arrest?” A6 asks as he steps forward.
“Your droids can stay here. You will come with us, and no you are not under arrest.” the lieutenant states again.
“Then die, armored human scum!” A6 yells a she draws a blaster from a compartment inside his leg and opens fire. Everyone else dives behind cover and begins firing. All except Torr who moves with sudden speed and begins to take out Stormtroopers….with his bare hands! During the fight, Lieutenant Pelthroes calmly walks away and into a side door.
The group makes quick work of the Stormtroopers with no injuries, and quickly boards the ship. As Vin pilots the ship into the atmosphere (doing some tricky maneuvering through air traffic), and into space (with even more maneuvering between skyhooks, space platforms, other ships, space stations, satellites and various space debris), he calls back for Ali to man the turret.
Four TIE fighters move in to attack, Ali clips one with laser fire, and it spins off into a space platform. A furious fire fight with the remaining TIEs staying just behind the newly minted (thanks to the new transponder) Vornskyr’s Fang ensues, that eventually sees Vin’s superior piloting abilities making short work of two of the TIEs as they careen off into various other space objects, though one managed to get a good shot in on the Fang, and Ali’s misfiring caused part of a platform to rain down on top of the ship doing some damage as they flew under it.
As the ship makes the jump to hyperspace, the final TIE Fighter, whose weapons had been damaged, peeled away. They had escaped. Again. Vin told the group that it should be 16 days or so before they reached Alderaan, so to just relax. The group did just that with both Ali and Torr doing various meditation exercises and with Ali learning from the holocron.
After the 16 days was up, the group came in to the cockpit to find Vin furiously typing away on the consoles.
“What’s wrong? I thought we were supposed to be there by now?” Torr asked.
“We were. Damned fire fight took out a portion of the astrogation array, and it looks like we drifted off course. We’re going to be another ten days.” (Vin rolled a 1 on the Wild Die when making his astrogation roll, so it added time to the trip)
“Well back to practice,” Ali stated as she took up her practice blade and headed to her room. After the extra ten days, they finally came out of hyperspace over Alderaan, looking as pristine as always. An inquiry as to the ship’s name and what business they had on Alderaan had Vin answering back that they were to pick up a shipment from House Organa and drop it off on Coruscant. The reply was for them to land with coordinates.
Those coordinates led them to land at a small private spaceport near the Organa Palace. They were then escorted to a small group of speeders and taken to the place and escorted inside to a luxurious room. They were offered refreshments and told that they could relax until the Senator could see them (this is of course before the Imperial Senate was abolished by Palpatine, being 3 BBY).
Bail Organa walks into the room, and notices Vin.
“Where have you been? I was expecting that shipment weeks ago!” Bail says. As he berates Vin for being late, he nods at the guards who shut the doors. He then pulls a device from a pocket and pushes a button on it. There was an audible sound of several objects powering down.
“There, now that we can have a private conversation, what can I do for you?” Bail asks.
“We were told you could help us get in contact with the Alliance to Restore the Republic.” Vin says as he shakes Bail’s hand.
“I can. Here, on this datapad are my personal seal used only within the Alliance. They have a base on Dantooine. Go there and present this. They will know where you are needed most.” Bail says as he looks over at Ali and goes silent. “Aayla…no it can’t be. You’re too young, but the resemblance is… Apologies. Just the mutterings of an old man, you just remind me of someone I once knew. Anyway, go there, they will appreciate the help.” with that, Bail leaves the room, and the guards escort the group back to their ship.
“Well…that was weird.” Ali says as they board the ship again.
“He was concise and to the point though. I like him,” Torr says.
Well. Off to Dantooine, home of farmers, swoop gangs and Kath hounds.” Vin says as he starts the ship up. They leave Alderaan and Vin starts up the Hyperdrive (and rolls yet ANOTHER 1 on the Wild Die for astrogation…another long trip thanks to that damaged astrogation array), the stars streak and they are off to join the Rebellion.
Sidenote – All of the decisions thus far have been the players. I have no set plans outside of a few plot points that I want to cover as the game progresses, otherwise everything, from them stealing the bounty hunter’s ship to deciding to join the Alliance has been all them.
So this week our heroes found themselves headed towards the Starway Hotel to question the owner, a bothan by the name of Rede Vorg. They arrive at the hotel and see that it is very extravagant. The lobby is huge with a large crystal chandelier and a fountain. Behind the counter is a short brown furred bothan, who greets them warmly.
“Welcome to the Starway Hotel friends! What can I do for you fine folks this day?” he says as they approach.
Ali walks up to the counter and smiles brightly.
“Well we were hoping we could get some…information, we were told you had.” she says.
“Uh. Information? I’m sorry, all I have are hotel rooms. Can I interest you in a room? Your friends look weary.” Rede says, looking confused.
“We were told you have information that might be important to us, how much can we…?” Ali asks again.
“No. Sorry, You must have the wrong person. Hey! I know, you look like you want luxury. A woman of your beauty surely could use some pampering! How about I give you a discount on the penthouse suite!” Rede counters.
Ali shrugs and gives up the chase.
“Sure. How much?” she asks.
“A hundred credits, for you and your friends, for the week. It comes with anything and everything you could possibly need or want!” Rede exclaims.
“Anything?” Ali says, hinting again.
“Except this information you seem to think I have. I’m not that kind of bothan.” Rede interjects.
“Fine, fine. Here,” Ali says as she slides a 100 credit chip onto the counter.
“Excellent! Now if I can take your stuff, and if you will follow me!” Rede says as he shoulders their packs and leads them into a lift that takes them to the top floor. When they arrive they see that Rede was not exaggerating. The main room has a lowered central area with two sets of steps leading down to it. It has comfortable looking sofas and lounges and a huge holovid screen complete with Holonet access, a rarity these days.
Off to one side is a tub full of hot bubbling water, and a cleaning droid nearby. A huge a balcony overlooks the rest of the city, and there are six other rooms branching off from the main room, each one a large bedroom.
Kat and Vin both sit down to enjoy the holovid while Ali goes to pick a room and Torr goes to do the same. A few hours later, Vin and Kat are almost dozing as a nature special on Kath hounds is playing on the holovid. Ali is toying with the strange cube she bought at the market, and Torr is meditating in his room. Torr hears something, a whisper of a sounds really, coming from his closet where all of his and Kat’s stuff is.
Torr opens the closet door to find that a fake wall panel had been removed to reveal a hidden tunnel. A sheepish looking Rede is crouched over one of their packs with his hand in it, and Kat’s bowcaster is sitting in the tunnel already.
“What are you doing?” Torr asked, eyebrow raised.
“Uh…making a few extra credits?” Rede says obsequiously.
“Bad idea.” Torr says as he whistles sharply, calling everyone else’s attention to the room. Everyone immediately piles in and takes stock of the situation.
“That’s my bowcaster!” Kat roars angrily as he advances forward and pushes Rede aside so he can reclaim it.
“So what do we do with him?” Ali asks.
“Well there is a window…” Vin points out.
“No wait! Information yes? You wanted information? Well ask and I’ll see what I can do! then we can just forget this whole thing happened! yes?” Rede begs.
“Okay. Well we’re looking for the voice passcode to activate…”Ali begins.
“Syn’s ship right? Yes I have a datapad with that information I believe!” Rede says, cutting Ali off.
“That’ll do, yes,” Ali nods.
“Wait, right here. I’ll be right back with it!” Rede exclaims.
“No, no. Ali go with him, make sure he actually has what he says he does.” Torr advises.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Ali says as she pushes the bothan into the tunnel .He leads them to a dilapidated stairwell in a portion of the building that had obviously been bricked over and forgotten. the stairway leads to a cellar that looked more like a warehouse. As they hit the bottom of the stairs and Rede opens the door into the room, Ali sees and hears an attractive female human with silver hair wearing a skimpy outfit and a name badge that marks her as the owner at the shop across the street.
“So Rede whacha find this time?” the girl asks.
“A twi’lek!” Ali says as she comes into view behind Rede.
“Oh no Rede. You got caught again?” the girl who’s badge reads Zyra asks.
“Yeah. they just want some old datapad, and they’ll forget the whole thing happened.” he says as he begins rummaging through cabinets, shelves, and crates. He eventually finds the pad and hands it to Ali. Ali turns it on and sees that it’s a schematic for Syn’s ship, a heavily modified YT-2400. The schematic was obviously drawn up by Syn, with the passcode on it so that a mechanic could work on the ship. The passcode reads ‘Despair to those who sin.’
With her prize in hand Ali takes another set of stairs that lead sup to the office behind the lobby area and then back up to her room. The group decides to move immediately to take the ship now, while it’s still night time. They head to the spaceport and see that the private docking ring is guarded by a pair of Stormtroopers. As the group whispers among itself and discusses their options, one of the troopers calls over.
“Hey! Are you here to haul that cargo from Port 4?” his voice crackles from behind the helmet (the Stormtroopers not only failed their Perception check, but rolled a ‘1’ on the Wild Die).
“Why. Yes, yes we are!” Ali calls back. She looks back to the group “Just roll with it.”
They make their way to Port 5 where Syn’s ship is located, well out of sight of the Stormtroopers. they find that the port’s blast door is down. Kat smiles and walks over to the panel that controls the door and deftly punches in a code which opens the door immediately.
“Common port security code,” he brags.
“So do we have anyone who can fly this thing?” Ali asks as they approach the ship.
“Sister, do you have to ask?” Vin asks with confidence.
“I can fly too.” Kat offers as they board the ship through the lowered ramp. “Can I co-pilot at least? he asks as Vin takes the pilot’s chair. Torr translates and Vin gestures to the seat next to him.
“Go for it!” he says as the console begins to glow red. A voice comes over the speakers.
“Please state the passcode,” it says.
“Despair to those who sin.” Ali calls out.
“Passcode accepted. Welcome back Syn,” the computer says as the ship begins it’s start up procedures.
“Alright, hang on to something. Here we go.” Vin says as he deftly maneuvers the ship out of the docking ring and into the atmosphere, and eventually into space. As the ship makes its escape from the planet’s gravity, the consoles begin glowing red again, locking Vin out, and hissing can be heard throughout the ship as hydraulic steam shoots from various sections.
“Well figure it out!” Torr exclaims as he looks around, bewildered.
“What’s with this thing?! Is it going to explode now?!” Ali asks in a panic.
A few seconds later the bottom turret ejects itself from the ship, followed by the concussion missile launchers, the extra shield regulators, and the hyperdrive attachment, leaving the ship in it’s stock configuration and leaving all of the upgrades floating in space.
“That clever bitch,” Vin whispers to himself before calling back “Looks like there were other reasons she wasn’t worried about the ship being stolen. We just lost all of the upgrades. They’re just out there now, waiting to be picked up by the Imperials so she can attach them to a different ship, which will no doubt be provided by the graciousness of the Empire.”
“What about a tractor beam, can’t we just pull them back in?” Kat asks. Torr quickly translates.
“Tractor beam was one of the components that just launched itself into space. And…we have bigger worries!” Vin says as he takes some sensor readings as is his habit when leaving a planet. “Looks like there’s a space station in orbit on the far side of the planet, and they just launched fighters. Someone man that remaining turret! Kat adjust the shield polarity! Full aft!”
The TIE fighters scream in, lasers firing their brilliant green light. The first batch sizzles across the top, near the turret that Torr is now occupying. He returns fire and grazes the closest one, and then takes a second shot and hits it square in the center, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks and flames.
The second TIE takes another couple of shots, missing entirely as Vin rolls the ship first to the left then to the right to avoid the fire. The TIE then dips under the ship, realizing that the turret is on top of the ship (yes I do use rules to simulate differences in ‘height’.
“Can you quit doing that?!” Torr calls over the intercom as his lunch threatens to evacuate him.
“Sure! You mind us getting hit and exploding?!” Vin calls back as he puts the ship into a steep ‘dive’.
“Yes I do mind! Keep doing it!”
As the ship blasts past the remaining TIE fighter Vin points at a button near the communications console.
“Ali! Push that button!” he commands. Without thinking, she picks the button she thinks he’s pointing at and pushes it. Turns out to be the right one as she sees a message that states that the TIE’s communications have been jammed.
As they get even with the TIE fighter, Torr takes a couple more shots and strikes the fighter enough to cause the pilot to eject. Vin then makes the calculation to make a jump into hyperspace, the ship jerks, the stars streak, and they are off.
I have the header that displays our current game disabled until my wife can get a Star Wars logo designed for it. I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking we’re playing something we are not, so no header is better than the wrong one at the moment.
So just to be clear, we are playing Star Wars, and nothing else at the moment.
As the character entered the diner they saw an older male twi’lek with blue skin wiping down the counters. Torr noticed a few pictures of the man that pegged him as a shock boxer. There was a younger twi’lek female with purple skin that spoke with the older man (Ali catching a part of the conversation and hearing that the girl was the older man’s daughter) before heading over to take their orders. Ali happened to notice a wistful look in the twi’lek’s eye as she noticed the girl’s nametag which read Kiri.
“So what can I get you folks today?” Kiri asked as she came to their table.
“Five pounds of Bantha Steak!” Kat’Urra immediately roared.
“Wow, your friend must be hungry,” Kiri stated in amazement.
“You have no idea.” Torr said as he ordered soup and bread.
“I see you keep looking out at the cantina, what’s over there that’s so interesting?” Ali inquired.
“He is.” she said simply as if it explained everything.
“Who?” Ali asked.
“Moravik.” Kiri said.
“Isn’t he a bit old for you?” Ali asked.
“No! Isn’t he too old for you?” Kiri asked gesturing towards Vinthar.
“Uh…whoa! Put on the breaks there little missy…we’re not..!” Vinthar protested.
“Oh no way! Never!” Ali said, giving the waitress an incredulous look.
“Hey!” Vinthar protested once again as Kiri went back to give the orders to her father.
“So what do we do?” Vinthar asked.
“We never did talk with the bartender at the cantina.” Torr pointed out.
“No. We didn’t.” Ali said in agreement.
The group finished their meals and headed over to the cantina once again. In normal fashion they slipped the bartender some credits to keep her talking. She informed them that Syn bragged that she didn’t have any heavy security measures on her ship, that her reputation kept would be thieves away. She had said once that she did have a passcode to start the ship however. When asked who might have an idea as to what that passcode was, the bartender said that if anyone would have that information it would be the bothan that ran the Starway Hotel down the road. So as we left off our first session, the group is heading towards the Starway Hotel to question the bothan owner while avoiding Imperial patrols. More to come next week!
So we had our first Star Wars session, and it went pretty well!
It started out with a quick opening narrative stating the nature of the current era. After that it was established that each of the characters had come to Rychel, a desert canyon world, because it was a backwater outer rim planet and they thought it would be a good place to avoid the Empire. They found out shortly that they were wrong, though the Imperial garrison here was small. All of the characters happened to be at a central marketplace (with Ali’kara making a purchase of an odd looking cube that she felt drawn to) in the only large settlement on the planet when a commotion between a human customer and a rodian blaster merchant broke out.
The rodian wasted no time in shooting the customer, but the human had friends with him, and they shot back at the rodian, whose security droid joined in on the firefight shortly after. It was this commotion that brought a squad of Stormtroopers to the area with orders to “put down the disturbance and anyone involved”. In this case that was everyone in that market square including the characters!
Torr and Kat acted quickly, running over to Ali’kara (Torr had been sent by an image of his master to protect her) and telling her that they would protect her. She gave them both dubious glances before opening fire on the Stormtroopers and making a run for it. She managed to hit one, and wound him, but he was still in the fight. That’s when Vinthar motioned to the newly formed group (and anyone who was nearby and wanted to follow) and said “This way, there’s a place to hide not too far from here.” With that he opened fire and incapacitated two Stormtroopers (including the one Ali had wounded earlier). The Stormtroopers opened fire, and made some shots towards the group (which all missed), but were otherwise firing into the unsuspecting crowd and dropping civilians left and right. As the group ran from the conflict, Ali’s droid tripped Kat’Urra up a little and gave him a rude beep or two as he tried to stay caught up with the group.
The group followed Vinthar into a nearby alleyway, where he led them into what looked to be an abandoned apartment.
Ali looked around and then gave Vinthar a slightly disgusted look “Is this your place?”
Vinthar just smiled and shook his head, “No way sister, I just happen to know that quite a few of these places no longer have tenants.”
Outside a loudspeaker crackled to life and a voice came over the device stating that he was the Moff of the planet and that he had to send troops to quell a terrorist action in one of the market squares. He then went on to say that several of the terrorists had managed to escape justice and refused to turn themselves in, and that it was the duty of every civilian to report the locations of such individuals if they saw them.
Ali, again questioning the situation looked around and asked “So does that include us?”
Torr spoke up and stated “Yes. Most likely.”
Ali laughed “So how is anyone going to know what we look like? It’s not like he gave descriptions.”
“Look outside,” Vinthar pointed out.
Ali did so and saw one of the large holoscreens projecting an image of several pictures, all of whom were in the marketplace during the incident, including them. She shook her head and noted, “Well, looks like we made the list. Yay.”
“I suggest we stay here and hide out until things die down.” Torr suggested.
“Here?” And what’s to stop them from looking in a window or opening the door and seeing us?” Ali asked.
“Good thing I’m familiar with this place.” Vinthar stated as he lifted up a moth-eaten rug, revealing a trapdoor, “This area has some pretty strong seismic activity form time to time, so people build reinforced basements to hide out in.”
“How do you know all of this?” Ali asked, incredulously.
“Well, let’s just say that the ladies around here like talking to ‘ol Vinthar.” Vinthar said proudly.
So the group hid out in the basement, once even hearing Stormtroopers enter the building and search overhead, but never finding the trapdoor. After a while, Vinthar decided to sneak out and check out the area. He came back down and reported that everything was clear. The group decided then and there that they needed to get off world as soon as was possible.
“So where do you think we can find a ship, or at least someone that might let us onto their ship when or if they leave?” Ali asked.
“Well there are no shipyards around here. Maybe would should ask around at the cantina?” Vinthar suggested.
“Or the diner.” Kat’Urra spoke up, rubbing his stomach.
“We’re not going to the diner,” Torr said, “The cantina is the best place for information.”
“But I’m hungry, and I get…cranky, when I’m hungry.” Kat said, sounding disappointed.
“Not yet Kat,” Torr insisted.
“Fine I’ll go anyway,” Kat said, and walking towards the cafe.
“Go ahead. And what are you going to do if a squad of off-duty Stormtroopers are in there and we’re over there?” Torr asked pointedly.
“Oh. Good point.” Kat said, finally giving in.
The group headed into the cantina, called the Bantha’s Trough. Ali’s eyes immediately lit up when she saw a devaronian with a sabaac deck in one corner.
“I think I can get us some information” Ali stated as she unzipped her jumpsuit to show a little more skin and headed towards the devaronian. “Care for a game?” she asked as she sat down at the table with the horned alien.
“For you gorgeous? Anytime. Name’s Moravik,” he said, “What are the stakes?”
“You can call me Ali. I want to play for information.” Ali stated with confidence.
“I doubt you know anything that I would have an interest in. How about we play for your credits against my information?” Moravik asked.
“Fair enough, deal” Ali said. “So, who has a ship that might be willing to give us charter off this planet?”
After a few hands of Ali losing to the devaronian, she finally won a hand.
“Fine. None of the locals owna ship. You can check and get a charter at the spaceport. You can leave by getting in good with the Imperials and taking a supply ship out of here, or you could…take her ship.” he said motioning towards a short but beautiful woman at the bar. She had on customized armor, and on the bar near her was a helmet that looked to be of old Clone Commando make. She had several weapons and explosives on her person, and it was apparent to everyone that she was a bounty hunter.
“Who is that?” Ali asked.
“Syn. She works directly for the Moff.” Moravik answered as Syn nodded at the bartender, put on her helmet and left.
Ali played a few more hands before Torr convinced her to give up on the gambling since she was losing. And she outlined the ideas to the group.
“…or we could steal the bounty hunter’s ship.” Ali said, finishing up the list of possible options.
“Whoa! Whoa! We are not stealing a bounty hunter’s ship!” Vinthar protested.
“Well let’s check the spaceport then,” Ali suggested. Once they arrived at the spaceport, they talked to a service droid who explained that the next charter ship would not arrive for another standard month. Feeling dejected, the group gave in to Kat’s want for food and headed to the cafe to think over their remaining options.
It seems that we just can’t quite get a full campaign run in a game anymore. When we have the players and the time, we can’t settle on any one game for very long. When we have something long term planned out, real life comes and bites us in the ass to remind us that it’s there along with all the responsibilities that come with it. C’est la vie.
Our AD&D game is being shelved for the time being after we have one more session to finish up our current adventure. Our roommate and fellow player is trying to get his life back on track and has been busting his ass trying to get things in order so he can get his own place again. The character bios will remain as we will be coming back to the game once he has things settled and has the time to play again. Luckily with this blog I have a running backlog of where the group has been and what they have done so we won’t lose track of our game no matter how long we go without playing. So even if no one reads it except for myself, it serves a purpose at least. If nothing else this blog is a personal gaming journal for me. If others read it, then that’s just icing for me.
Now that AD&D is shelved I have a lot less time having to prepare the game, which is fine by me for right now. I love making adventures, but it can be time consuming sometimes, though I was trying out a technique that would have cut on my preparation time and it seemed to be working.
Either way, we have begun a Star Wars game that will take place on Sundays, and we already have characters made and ready to go for this coming Sunday. We had some stumbles in character creation, but we understand it now, and two of the characters has been fixed. The last character will have to be fixed on Sunday right before game, but once that’s done, we’ll be off! I already have some great ideas for the game, and anytime inspiration hits me, I make sure to make a note of it in a specific document so if I need an idea I can open it up and look at what I’ve come up with so far.
Despite starting a new game, it’s a more free form type of system with more similarities to World of Darkness than D&D, so I can run a game with minimal planning. Usually I will just need a decent plot outline, NPC bios and stats and I’ll be good to go. So even though this will take a lot less preparation, I may end up spending some extras time on it anyway. Not because I have to, but because I want to. I have some ideas for a Merit and Flaw type system for the game. It already has one through some other non-Star Wars supplements for D6 in general, but I don’t feel they are in depth enough or really give that Star Wars feel, so I’ll be writing up my own. I also want to do stats for the ships and vehicles found in the Old Republic MMO. But because the system is so basic and simple, I don’t feel it will be too difficult to do.
Either way, I am sad to see our AD&D game halted. I’ve been trying to get this campaign going for, well since ever, and I am beginning to think that it’s cursed, that I will never be able to run it to it’s end. I hope that I can. One of these days anyway. Hopefully this Star Wars game will last for a long while to come. Looking forward to Sunday.
So we had our character creation session on Wednesday and through some stumbling (and me asking on the forums at Rancor’s Pit – thanks guys!) we managed to finish up two of them earlier this evening (Thursday). I was over-analyzing character creation and made a mistake in how it was done. Since that is fixed now, the characters are looking a lot more believable as just starting out.
So now we have a young Twi’lek who is Force Sensitive and has picked up her surrogate father’s bad gambling habits with an unknown destiny ahead of her, an older human monk who has trained in the ways of the Force with the Aing-tii, and a Wookiee warrior that owes the monk a life debt after he rescued the Wookiee from Imperial enslavement. I will post full bios on the Star Wars page once I get them in hand from the players.
I am looking forward to running this game, as it will be something I can run free-form with very little pre-planning that consists of basically come up with a decent plot idea, some NPCs, and I’m good to go. After all it’s not Imperials & Complexes, it’s Star Wars, and it should run more like a story (almost like WoD) rather than a dungeon delve. Sunday can’t get here fast enough.
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