The Rancor Pit Forum Index
Welcome to The Rancor Pit forums!

The Rancor Pit Forum Index
FAQ   ::   Search   ::   Memberlist   ::   Usergroups   ::   Register   ::   Profile   ::   Log in to check your private messages   ::   Log in

Starfall Special Edition
Post new topic   Reply to topic    The Rancor Pit Forum Index -> Adventures and Campaigns -> Starfall Special Edition Goto page Previous  1, 2
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Bren
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral


Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA

PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zarm R'keeg wrote:
...he believes that Blissex's capture will result from the mission (well, he's not wrong about that)...
Always in motion the future is. Why does he think things will end well if the Rebellion does nothing. Wasn't it Mon Mothma (or maybe some Jedi master) who said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that beings of good will do nothing."
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zarm R'keeg
Commander
Commander


Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 481
Location: PA

PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 4:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, he seems to think that the stakes of Blissex seeing and making peace with his daughter before she dies are insignificant, and not worth exposing Blissex to the risk of being captured. Of course, the mission background involves the Alliance knowing this, but Blissex is determined to go anyway, so they're sending him with an escort- but he seems to believe that it would be better if the Alliance held Blissex against his will or otherwise prevented him from going...
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Bren
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral


Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Zarm R'keeg wrote:
Well, he seems to think that the stakes of Blissex seeing and making peace with his daughter before she dies are insignificant, and not worth exposing Blissex to the risk of being captured. Of course, the mission background involves the Alliance knowing this, but Blissex is determined to go anyway, so they're sending him with an escort- but he seems to believe that it would be better if the Alliance held Blissex against his will or otherwise prevented him from going...
It seems a Rebellion that tries to allow a man to reconcile with his daughter may be one better worth serving than one that actively prevents that from occuring.

I can envision a several negative ramifications to forcibly preventing Blissex from leaving and from having him never encounter his daughter. Perhaps the Jedi could have a vision about some of the negatives of holding Blissex against his will?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zarm R'keeg
Commander
Commander


Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 481
Location: PA

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I like that... yes, I think that's what I'll do.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Kaloth Varsk
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander


Joined: 28 Jan 2012
Posts: 121

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 12:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bren wrote:
Zarm R'keeg wrote:
Well, he seems to think that the stakes of Blissex seeing and making peace with his daughter before she dies are insignificant, and not worth exposing Blissex to the risk of being captured. Of course, the mission background involves the Alliance knowing this, but Blissex is determined to go anyway, so they're sending him with an escort- but he seems to believe that it would be better if the Alliance held Blissex against his will or otherwise prevented him from going...
It seems a Rebellion that tries to allow a man to reconcile with his daughter may be one better worth serving than one that actively prevents that from occuring.

I can envision a several negative ramifications to forcibly preventing Blissex from leaving and from having him never encounter his daughter. Perhaps the Jedi could have a vision about some of the negatives of holding Blissex against his will?


I don't think it takes a Jedi. Holding him against his will seems to be exactly the opposite of what the rebels are about. Sounds like a poor political move to me if they were to put him under house arrest.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Fallon Kell
Commodore
Commodore


Joined: 07 Mar 2011
Posts: 1846
Location: Tacoma, WA

PostPosted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Plus, Blissex is a smart cookie. He could probably engineer an escape if he so desired...
_________________
Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

Complete Starship Construction System
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Zarm R'keeg
Commander
Commander


Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 481
Location: PA

PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, in the end, the PC agreed to proceed with the mission if it was properly planned... leading to a 2 and 1/2 hour discussion which culminated in the group agreeing to put Blissex in a nondescript traveling cloak (to disguise recognizability for any bounty hunters of rogue Imperial elements who would be aware and staking out Kwenn since the location of the rendezvous was part of the widely-distributed tapes) and have one of the PCs dress up as Blissex's secretary as a backup plan.

After which they finally let me start the adventure... which began with the group already captured aboard the Subjugator. Wink

This is a typical exercise for my group.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Zarm R'keeg
Commander
Commander


Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 481
Location: PA

PostPosted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

...So then, they decided to 'kill' T-3PO for annoying them, after inventing ironclad logical proof that the droid was 'clearly' a spy that was 'clearly' trying to kill them, and the inter-party arguments basically derailed us for about 4 months of not playing; during which time I stopped coming around. Starfall, for some reason, is always a contentious module. Anyhow, finally just got together and finished it, and perhaps will be getting back on track. The way it turned out surprised me greatly, actually.

So, in playing Starfall, I was attempting to curb my unruly players- a paranoid group who figures every obvious or logical option is some sort of trap set by me, and the real way to suceed is to 'out-think' the game. a mentioned, they'd already 'killed' T-3PO (based on a completely invented rationale about the droid being a hostile enemy agent that knew their location and could report it back if allowed to 'live,' using comparisons to James Bond in the middle of a villain's lair, which just led to more debates on whether he'd randomly shoot a janitor at the base that came up to him and offered to help, and... it was a mess. Yeah.).

Despite the fact that, 4 months later, bringing up the stupid droid can STILL cause an argument, this twist ended up being fine, as I reworte the ending to include Locux Hyen (from Freedom From Edan) as part of an ongoing plotline in the RPG (they ended up killing him with a single head-shot while he held Blissex captive, a single sniper blast mid-monologue that left him unable to fight OR impart the crucial information he was about to give them to lead to their next adventure; ever since just blasting Bandor worked out for them in Crying Dawn Singer, they never give a madman time to talk anymore...) Smile Anyhow, I knew that the Lira confrontation could be replaced by Hyen- since she is a returning character, it seemed safer to keep her away from them. (Indeed, they rode their AT-ST down the cargo lift after the duel with Kolaff, and the same apranoid who advocated T-3PO's destruction tried to convince the group to blast the hooded, unknown figure of Lira from a distance with the AT-ST's canons as soon as they arrived).

But based on all this, I decided to put some insurance into place during the duel with Kolaff to allow it to actually BE a walker-duel; otherwise, I suspected that they would just start shooting at Kolaff's AT-ST with hand-weapons, climb and sabotage it, etc.- and with their unnaturally high rolls, end up blowing him away before combat could even start. So, I put in a row of probe droids designed to 'heard' players not in the AT-STs away from combat away from interfering- just to keep any interference at bay.

The combat went poorly at first- the group never went for the environemental controls, keeping the room smoky and giving the stormtroopers the advantage. Several of them didn't fire back at the stormtroopers, pinning ALL their hopes on the ascending elevator; two even got shot (one incapacitated) trying to reach it while ignoring the troopers. When Kolaff arrived, several (including the paranoid, despite her character's incapacity) continued to insist on sheltering on it once the troopers were defeated, at the feet of a hostile AT-ST...! The two players that decided to crew an AT-ST each elected a separate one, so one of them got blasted backwards when Kolaff shot and detonated it. The combat had the makings of an absolute disaster.

And then... one of those geniusly unexpected moments happened.

The walker duel went well (Kolaff started out sneering at the 'alien scum' Duro that he had to duel against. After a few shots exchanged and missed, Kolaff's walker took severe damage, the random table indicated a breakup, and Kolaff bailed out, on fire, wounded... landing in front of the Shistavanen trying to carry the incapacitated paranoid to safety- at which point Kolaff drew his blaster and exchanged fire with the wounded Shistavanen, railing about the alien scum once more, and closing in on the wounded man supporting an incapacitated comrade, blaster in hand- until the Duros stomped him flat with his AT-ST. A most satisfying conclusion). And at the conclusion, i expected the players to head down to the bay, fight Locux and the troopers (in place of Lira), warn off the rebel fleet, and flee the ship. Because the Kolaff battle had been satisfyingly climactic, I had the probe droids, merely programmed to prevent interference in the duel, go inert after Kolaff's walker went destroyed, not really programmed for anything now that the duel was ended.

And then the players took me by complete surprise... one leapt onto the probe droid, performed a heroic security roll to prevent it self-destructing and hack into it's systems, and reprogrammed it to transmit a message to warn the rebel fleet with the same high-power transmitter the Hoth droid must've used to reach the Executor. (A good thing, too, as they immediately blasted the control tower with the AT-ST on arrival below...)

The things that they think of sometimes...
Very Happy I had to drench that one in character points, man- I was floored by the ingenuity.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
DougRed4
Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral


Joined: 18 Jan 2013
Posts: 2258
Location: Seattle, WA

PostPosted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Awesome recap, Zarm! Boy, you've got some interesting players there!

I ran Starfall years ago (don't know if my version is the 'Special Edition' or not) for my kids, and we had a lot of fun with it. It is indeed wonderfully paced, with great action and thrills.
_________________
Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)


Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10286
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy

PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:18 am    Post subject: re: Starfall Reply with quote

One thing I always thought was stupid was Walex Blissex not knowing how to use computers. How the hell can you be an engineer and starship designer in the Star Wars galaxy without knowing how to use a computer?!

I remember the second time I ran this adventure, Blissex could use computers like you would expect, but I had Blissix trip and fall into a doorway so a blast door could come down and crush both his hands. The PCs got Blissex to a medical bay and got a damaged medical droid to amputate his ruined hands and add two of those medical stump things (like Luke got on the Falcon after getting his hand cut off) to get him through the rest of the adventure. Then when the Rebels were trying to set the ship to self-destruct, Blissex had to coach a PC because he had no hands to do it himself. Later when Crisis on Cloud City was played, Walex had two cybernetic replacement hands.
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Zarm R'keeg
Commander
Commander


Joined: 14 Apr 2012
Posts: 481
Location: PA

PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice! I like that concept- may use it if my new players ever get to Starfall.
_________________
Star Wars: Marvels, the audio drama: www.nolinecinemas.com

Hard core OT, all the way!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
Whill
Dark Lord of the Jedi (Owner/Admin)


Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 10286
Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA, Earth, The Solar System, The Milky Way Galaxy

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2016 6:01 pm    Post subject: Starfall (Revisited) Reply with quote

Starfall (Revisited)

I really like the idea that Lira says she wants to defect to the Alliance but only trusts her father to take her in. The Alliance would still be rightfully skeptical, but it would be too good of an opportunity to pass up if it was true. I thought up a way to run this adventure more than once in the same campaign universe with different gaming groups...

GM Behind-the-Scenes Set-up

After Blissex and his Rebel escort team go to the rendezvous, the Alliance discovers that it was a trap and sends a second team to try to intercept them, but it's too late and both teams are captured separately. Walex and each Rebel team are put into three different detention blocks on the star destroyer (Walex in his own cell by himself). They are each interrogated by one of three different command officers, the captain handling Blissex himself. The captain and the first officer handling Blissex's Rebel escort team each lie to their prisoners saying that the other is dead, and neither of those officers even mention the second Rebel team. The officer handling the second Rebel team lies to them saying that Walex and the first team are all dead. These three officers could have a reputation for being from the top of the same class at the academy and cut from the same cloth of multitalented fanatical Imperials wingnuts.

What neither Rebel team is aware of is that in Walex's same cell block is another group that were captured first. This group could have a Rebel affiliation, or be a group looking to join the Rebellion, or even be complete independents like tramps or smugglers that have nothing to do with the Alliance. They just happened to have been captured by the same star destroyer before the adventure begins. The captain personally interrogates this group too.

First time adventure is ran

When the star destroyer is attacked and the prisoners have a chance to escape, Blissex joins up with the independents because together they all have the best chance to survive and escape. Blissex believes that his Rebel team are dead so they are on their own. If the PCs ask Blissex questions about the first team, he starts to sob uncontrollably that they are all dead and it's all his fault which should end any questioning. During the adventure, the captain and his top two command officers take turns taunting the escaped prisoners over the intercom and keep the shipwide announcements non-specific to the parties for most of the adventure. Of course each run-through's primary villain could have more localized announcements only that particular PC group would hear. (The events of this first two run-throughs should be logged in a fairly detailed manner for the sake of the last two times the adventure is ran.) Blissex and his new friends confront Lira Wessex, and when they get to the end of the adventure, they confront the captain in the AT-STs and escape the star destroyer before it is destroyed. A few other ships are mentioned to have escaped as well.

Second and third times ran

In a separate detention block, Blissex's Rebel team escape and journeys through the star destroyer. To replace Blissex's knowledge of the star destroyer, the Rebel team could have one of Blissex's personal droids with them that they rescued. I figure the ship is big enough and with the chaos of it being severely damaged, it would be possible for the groups to not run into each other. The Rebel team could escape their cell a little later than Blissex so their routes through the destroyer are staggered in time as well, so if the Rebels look for Blissex they won't find him. Along the way the Rebel team could even learn about the first group of escaped prisoners also trying to escape but of course never catch up with them. The encounter with Lira could be an actor trying to trick them that she still trying to defect to lure them into a trap. They could make up time at the end to make it to the adventure's final AT-ST encounter near the same time that Blissex had, but into a different hanger section and against the first officer (who had interrogated them back in their cell, and maybe the first officer even has a personal connection with a PC from this group). The Rebel team escapes the star destroyer before it blows up with a few other ships.

The second Rebel team could also have another droid belonging to Blissex, then simply repeat and rinse as above with the captain's second officer as their main antagonist. Of course you could put more work into each run-trough to further differentiate the course of events between each run-through and individualize each adventure. You can even have NPCs from earlier run-throughs appear in subsequent run-throughs in ways that do not contradict the events of the prior run-through(s).

Variations

There are a couple options for only two run-throughs instead of three and for different orders of the PC-group types. If you only do two Rebel groups and no independents, then reunite Blissex's original Rebel team with Blissex in the detention block for the first run-through and run the second Rebel team as the first one above. If you run the independents then only one Rebel team, then you just won't do the second Rebel team of the third run-through above (which Blissex and the his Rebel team never knew about). If you want to have a Rebel team first and then a second run with independents, just put Walex with his Rebel team but have the independents find Blissex's droid, but the false Rebel defection plot will be less meaningful with only Walex's droid with the group eventually confronting a Lira Wessex impersonator. And you can personalize the main Imperial antagonist of each run-through to its particular group of PCs in any way that makes the final AT-ST confrontation more meaningful. The only combination I don't see is multiple non-Rebel groups going through the adventure.

The great thing about all this is, you don't even have to know in advance how many times you are going to run this aventure. The first run-through will always have Blissex himself with the PC group, and confront the real Lira Wessex and the star destroyer's captain as the main antagonist like in the published adventure. All you have to do is establish that Walex had brought a droid with him that doesn't come with his journey through the star destroyer, and leave things open enough for the possibility of one or two more PC groups also traveling through the ship at the same time. A second run-through has Blissex's droid that had come with him and his Rebel Team, a Lira Wessex impersonator and the ship's first officer as the main villain. A third run-through has another droid of Blissex's (that had come with the second Rebel team), another Lira Wessex impersonator and the ship's second officer as the main villain at the end.

Where all this came from and my plans for this

After having several campaign universes early on, I've had the same campaign universe since 1997. But I want to retire it and start a new one that incorporates the prequels even more and some newer ideas I've come up with, and I want this next universe to my last. I want to run my favorite adventures (that I've already ran multiple times) one final time each, and I also have a goal for the long term to make use of every single WEG RPG product I have in my collection, which I just completed in 2008.

My first campaign in my next universe will be a tramp/smuggler campaign that will slowly involve the Alliance more and more, with the crew doing occasional and more minor jobs of the Alliances before getting more heavily involved and finally outright joining the Rebellion. The campaign starts out about 2 ABY and a year later I want to run Crisis on Cloud City as a behind-the-scenes adventure taking place concurrently to TESB. While the film heroes are still on Hoth and split up between the asteroid field and Dagobah, the PCs are hired to take Walex Blissex to Cloud City for the plot of that adventure. After Cloud City is saved, Lando comes in with a bunch of guards and arrests everyone, saying that he'll sort this out later but he has more serious problems to deal with right now. Little do the PCs know that Vader has entered the system. The events of the film from that point occur while the PCs and everyone from the module are being held in the city's security tower, until Lobot releases the PCs to make room for the stormtroopers and Imperial officers they had captured ("Hold them in the security tower, and keep it quiet."). Then the PCs try to sneak Walex out of the city until all hell brakes loose and everyone in the city is trying to escape the Imperial forces. One PC and an astromech droid get to fly Luke's X-Wing. In all the chaos of the mass exodus, Fett just trying to get away with Solo and Vader concentrating on the capturing the Falcon, I envision an exciting but not impossible climax for the PCs.

Of course Crisis on Cloud City is a sequel to Starfall, so I thought up the idea of my first run-through of Starfall above as how non-Rebel PCs could first meet Walex Blissex as fellow prisoners on the star destroyer and escape with him, and Blissex's original Rebel escort team could be a future run-through. Then as an afterthought I thought of the possibility of a second Rebel team sent to save the first one and also getting captured. Then following the Starfall adventure Walex and the Alliance would have a reason to trust smugglers to take him to Cloud City for the next adventure.

Just like tying CoCC in with TESB, the multiple run-throughs of Starfall are creating new continuity running concurrent with previously established continuity. We all do this already in a more general way, just not normally so close to the same location. Anyway, thoughts? Do you see any problems with any my ideas? Do you have any suggestions for solutions or possible alternatives?
_________________
*
Site Map
Forum Guidelines
Registration/Log-In Help
The Rancor Pit Library
Star Wars D6 Damage
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    The Rancor Pit Forum Index -> Adventures and Campaigns All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group


v2.0