19th Level

Welcome to the penultimate entry in this journey that has lasted a lot longer than I'd anticipated. I'm one of those Star Wars fans who were there at the beginning, seeing it for the first time at the age of five in a Brooklyn movie theatre - a big one, one with balconies. In the mid 1980s, Star Wars entered a lull. I still loved it but popular interest in it had waned. At Quassy Amusement Park, where I worked in high school, we had a few gazillion Snowtrooper figures redeemable with tickets from Whack-a-Mole and Skee-Ball. But it began picking up steam slowly. I remember being overjoyed at the first Star Wars Encyclopedia  that I picked up from a Stop & Shop that had a small book section. And in 1987 I remember seeing advertisements for a new Star Wars RPG. I was overjoyed. I'd tried my hand at adapting AD&D for Star Wars but it wasn't right. I'd had better luck with the Marvel Superheroes RPG oddly enough. The West End Games Star Wars RPG is my f...

I've waited a little while to post my thoughts on The Last Jedi  to give a reasonable delay for spoilers. This isn't a review per se as it pretty much assumes you've seen the film. Being a Star Wars geek I've seen it in the theatre three times. My 12-year old Jasmine came along for all those viewings. I think she might be a bit of a geek too (with additional family members at some of those viewings). Overall I liked it a lot - and surprisingly, I found my opinion going up with repeat viewing. My initial thoughts were I found the storyline with the Resistance Fleet being pursued to be a little bit weak and taking too short an amount of time to sync with Rey's story. Repeat viewings made me appreciate it a lot more. The Last Jedi goes for more subtlety than most Star Wars films. The Resistance Fleet storyline nicely exhibited the importance of leadership. If Poe, Rose, and Finn had done nothing, there would have been far fewer casualties. In most stories the h...

Watching season one of Stranger Things , I was thrilled to see the kids playing D&D. As I've said before, I was the same age as the kids - in fall of 1983 I was 12 years old, in the 7th grade. I'd been playing D&D since the end of the 4th grade in one form or another. I probably wasn't all that good at it when I started. Heck I'm still learning. My younger daughter is in the 7th grade. She's the geeky one of the two girls. Both my daughters are awesome, but when it comes to Stephen King, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and superheroes, she's the one. Quick aside - older daughter and I also share a lot as well. It was she who actually introduced me to Stranger Things , we both love New York City (and subway trains), Disney, and while little sister loves comics and superhero movies, big sister is the fan of the Arrow-verse shows. Anyways, while younger one was in the hospital recently, we were talking about Star Wars - and she expressed an interest in tryi...

On August 11, when describing the Dead Game I'd Most Like to Return  I nominated the original D6 Star Wars. Yesterday, just five days later, while waiting for a subway train I received an email from a player in our gaming group sharing with me the news that Fantasy Flight Games had just announced a limited edition reprint of the original D6 Star Wars game and its first sourcebook. I'm going to live with the illusion that someone at Fantasy Flight Games read my post and made the arrangements in record time. In all seriousness, I'm quite happy with this news. I've played D6 Star Wars recently and it has aged remarkably well. 

“Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself.” -  Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching It's been a rough journey for Luke Skywalker. He's gone from "I am a Jedi, like my father before me" to "it's time for the Jedi to end". With The Last Jedi not out for several months I find myself unable to avoid some fanboy speculation regarding Luke's declaration. It seems unlikely that Luke is totally ending the idea of an order of Force users who protect the galaxy. After all, from the teaser we can see he is training Rey. There's been some speculation that he'll bring balance to the Force by embracing both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force. I think there's something to this, but not in the sense of some order of "Grey Jedi". I'm pretty certain that Luke will remain a good guy - he was tempted by the Dark Side of the Force and survived by learning not to fight.  Looking at the Jedi Knights it seems they are ...

I thought it might be interesting to post some stats for our Fate Accelerated Star Wars characters. The game is set in the time leading up to Rogue One and A New Hope , with our heroes working for Bail Organa. These stats are before any milestones are accounted for. Gaven Stark Refresh: 3 Fate Points: 3 High Concept: The old ways are gone and it's up to me to bring them back. Trouble: It may not earn me a medal but it will sure to get me noticed Other Aspects: I know my way around a blaster [two more aspects open] Approaches Careful: Mediocre (+0) Clever: Average (+1) Flashy: Good (+3) Forceful: Fair (+2) Quick: Fair (+2) Sneaky: Average (+1) Stunts Chest full of medals: +2 Flashy attack with a blaster Two more available without reducing refresh Background Growing up at the end of the Clone Wars, Stark had an idealized vision of the Old Republic and believed the Empire was a noble continuation of it. He served many years in the Imperial Arm...

Back in January I wrote  about how in the Star Wars universe, hyperspace travel seems more akin to an airplane trip than a trip by ship. You are typically not talking a journey of days - several hours most likely, with a worst-case trip being akin to a trip from say New York City to Tokyo. A direct flight would be around 14 hours, something with connecting flights would be perhaps a day and a half. What does this mean for starships in a galaxy far, far away? If you look at deck plans of such starships you will often see a lot of crew accommodations. In many cases, I'd argue they are unnecessary or, at the very least. more than is required. If you are, for example, a light freighter captain, you are something akin to a truck driver. A bunk or two is reasonable - you might have an overnight trip or you might find yourself in a very crowded spaceport or you might just need to save a few credits. But a large portion of your ship dedicated to crew accommodations cuts into your car...

This post is loaded with spoilers for Rogue One: A Star Wars story.  Having had some time to digest Rogue One I've discovered it ranks up there among the top tier of Star Wars films. I'd rank it up there with Empire Strikes Back and would say it simply a great movie. I have to confess my expectations weren't terribly high when I saw it - I thought it would be an enjoyable movie and I did take the whole family opening night (actually a 7 PM "midnight showing" the night before it opened). What is it that worked so well? First and foremost, it was a movie that told a story. It wasn't trying to build a cinematic universe or making certain it had hooks for sequels. I think, for example, that Amazing Spider-Man 2  was so focused on building a franchise it neglected its first priority in making a great movie. As a result, Rogue One was able to focus on delivering a great movie. It was able to be brave and let the characters sacrifice their lives for the Rebe...

One of the challenges I've seen people have with RPG settings like Star Wars  is how to make the player characters have an important role. After all, it was Luke Skywalker who blew up the Death Star and redeemed Darth Vader. Won't the players always be in the shadow of that. Personally, it's not a problem I've had - it's a big galaxy with a lot of opportunity for heroism. One of my longer campaigns spanned the timeline of the entire original trilogy, ending with the characters being commandos infiltrating the second Death Star. Unbeknownst to the movie audience, the Emperor had a deflector shield within the Death Star designed to protect the core. This assault team had to disable the shield in order to allow the Rebel ships to reach the core. Of course they ran into their arch-nemesis, High Inquisitor Tremayne, guarding the internal shield generator, allowing for a climactic battle. The characters got to join the dancing Ewoks when all was done. The animated...

Last night we had our first experience at using Fate Accelerated Edition (FAE) to run a Star Wars game. This was my third attempt at running a game using some variant of Fate. An Atomic Robo  game went ok while an attempt at a homebrew urban fantasy game using FAE didn't really work out. It will require a few more game sessions before I declare absolute victory but this session definitely did go far better than previous attempts. The session itself was a little rough on the technical side - one player was having sound issues (times like this I miss having an in-person group) so had to drop out and another had to leave a bit early. Real world stinks. I'll do a writeup of the session itself at a later point, this is more focused on my experiences running the game. The game is a pre-Episode IV Star Wars game, set a vague amount of time prior to Episode IV (close to it, but we've not fully nailed down if it is a few months or years). They are Rebels going on missions f...

Assuming all goes well we'll be trying out a Star Wars game using Fate Accelerated for our next game session. This has been a rather busy two weeks - the new semester has started for my part-time pursuit of my Master's, my wife is taking an advanced course in pursuit of her professional teaching license (she currently has her initial license), I've begun a new role at work, and took my daughter to her first political protest. I had a lot less time to prep for this adventure than I normally do. So what have I learned? Fortunately, it looks like prepping a Fate Accelerated (and presumably a Fate adventure in general) doesn't seem to involve as much statting up of characters. Given stat generation is incredibly quick in Fate (making the major NPCs took maybe a minute each) what I realized is I've a bit more freedom to allow my players to run off the beaten path and adapt on the fly. What I am nervous about is getting the flow of Aspects and Fate Points right....

Rewatching the Star Wars films and animated series, one thing I'm noticing is hyperspace travel seems to be an awful lot faster than most role playing games tend to assume. For example, in Rogue One , the protagonists bounce across the galaxy in fairly small vessels without anything really in the way of comforts. The Rebels series does show a ship with crew quarters, but one still gets the impression of fairly quick travel times. My own thought is the model of considering FTL travel in Star Wars as being akin to ocean travel may be a bit off the mark - it seems closer to modern airplane travel, where one might have an overnight trip but is unlikely to need full accommodations. That said, there are still some destinations pretty far off the beaten path and we do see the suggestion of trade routes and hyperspace lanes. I'm still contemplating how, if at all, I want to make use of these thoughts in our upcoming game. What connects the worlds of a sector? What does it mean ...

After a brief Gaslight/Pulp Cthulhu game in the autumn, this winter we'll be playing a Star Wars campaign using Fate Accelerated . The game will be set some time prior to Star Wars: A New Hope , with every possibility of advancing beyond it. I'll likely post my impressions of Pulp Cthulhu actual play at a later point. My overall impression was it worked fine but I think I have a preference for a classic-era and style campaign. That said, I liked gaming in the late 19th-century and I think I'd really enjoy a non-Cthulhu adventure game set in that period. The decision to use Fate Accelerated came out of a desire to use something less complicated than Fantasy Flight Games' various Star Wars RPGs. They are great games and I enjoyed Edge of the Empire  but with my pursuing my master's degree part-time and taking on a new position at work, low prep-time is a must. We gave some thought to Star Wars D6  but decided to go for something a bit more on the narrative sid...

I've been rewatching the Star Wars movies over the past few weeks in bits and pieces. Watching Attack of the Clones I'm coming to understand what my problems are with the Anakin/Padme relationship and the missed opportunities - and what worked. I do believe the fact that neither Anakin nor Padme are really equipped for a serious relationship was in fact intentional and probably a good dramatic choice (assuming it was). Anakin has spent his life first as a slave with his only real tie to his mother followed by a life in a quasi-monastic order. Padme has also spent a life of service, first as queen and then as senator. One gets the impression her personal life is fairly close to non-existent. Anakin can't see beyond the immediate "omigod I'm in love". Padme sees things a little more clearly, but nowhere near enough to view the possibilities of a relationship in any realistic manner. Clearly Palpatine wanted them together - it kept her out of the Senate a...

I'm old enough to remember quite well life before the internet - at least the internet as we know it today, When I was in college in the late 1980s and early 1990s going online was a process - the modem on my PC would connect to a BBS or to UConn's dial-up line to allow access to mainframe and Unix systems. Being poor college students. we'd often shamelessly copy installation disks to share games. I was reflecting on this with the whole Death Star plans plot of the Star War films  Rogue One and A New Hope . There's some really minor spoilers for Rogue One here so if you've not seen the film you might want to stay clear - though in all honesty, it's nothing major. In Rogue One , to obtain the Death Star plans on Scarif, the team has to reach a massive vault and retrieve the plans from that vault. They get transmitted to a Rebel starship whose crew copies them onto a data tape or disk of some sort - the same plans that Princess Leia passes on to R2-D2. At ...

The default Star Wars RPG campaign tends to be a Rebellion against the Evil Galactic Empire. It's actually been a while since I ran such a game - my previous Star Wars campaign was focused on smugglers and bounty hunter type characters who, while not fans of the Empire, were not outright Rebels. During the WotC era I found the Knights of the Old Republic campaign to a lot of fun. Taking place some 4,000 years before the Star Wars films, it dealt with the Republic fighting threats like the Mandalorians and the Sith Empire. Dark Horse Comics first explored this era in their Tales of the Jedi  comics, followed by BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic video games. Dark Horse later did their own Knights of the Old Republic comic - one of the best Star Wars comics written, dealing with the renegade padawan Zayne Carrick and his motley group of companions. Though no longer a part of the official Star Wars canon, the tales remain fantastic and are now available from Marvel Comics ...

I've been giving some thought to Fate Accelerated and Star Wars. As an exercise I've tried a build of Luke Skywalker as of Episode IV. As I went through the building process it became clear there's an infinite number of ways to build a character in Fate but I overall am ppleased with the build I came up with: Luke Skywalker (Episode IV) Aspects: High Concept: Farm boy seeking to be a hero Trouble: Over my head off the farm Other: Best bush pilot in the outer rim territories, learning to trust the Force, my father’s lightsaber Approaches: Careful: +1 (Average) Clever: +1 (Average) Flashy: +3 (Good) Forceful: +2 (Fair) Quick: +2 (Fair) Sneaky: +0 (Mediocre) Stunts: Because I am learning to trust the Force, gain +2 when I carefully attack Room for 2 more at three refresh Refresh: 3 For aspects, I tried to think what Luke was like in Episode IV. His high concept is that of a dreamer. He wants more to life than what he has on the farm -...

Bran thought about it. 'Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?' 'That is the only time a man can be brave,' his father told him. George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones I've just returned from a New Year's Eve viewing of Rogue One, taking my eleven year old daughter and her friend to see it. This time around I was able to notice quite a bit more subtlety. These thoughts will be full of spoilers so let's let K-2SO keep us clear of spoilers.

"To me, she's royalty." - Lor San Tekka, Star Wars: The Force Awakens It's hard to believe Carrie Fisher passed away this week, taken from us at the far too young age of 60. Like nearly everyone, I was first introduced to her through Star Wars though I've grown to greatly enjoy and admire the way in which she redefined herself after the popularity of Star Wars faded - as a novelist, a script doctor, a brutally honest advocate for mental health. And a totally engaging personality whenever she was interviewed. Her role of Princess (and later General) Leia Organa defined for me - and probably my generation - a bad-ass princess. The story of the knight going to rescue the princess is an ancient one. But Star Wars gave us a new take on this story. Though captured by the bad guys at the start of the film, our princess was far from helpless. She hid the Death Star plans with R2-D2 and stood up to Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. She refused to betray the Rebel...

As expected, recently seeing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  channeled that GM ADD fully into thinking about Star Wars games. Our Call of Cthulhu heroes are still alive for the time being, albeit trapped in a dimension with mutant dinosaurs... [Note - discussion of Rogue One in this post will stay clear of spoiler territory.] Rogue One takes us away from the dramas of the Skywalkers. While it's possible one or more of the heroes might be Force sensitive, if they are, they aren't aware of it. This is a story of fairly ordinary people doing rather extraordinary things - obtaining the plans to the Death Star. The Empire we see in Rogue One  is not the Empire that gets defeated by Ewoks. The Death Star is not a plot device to be destroyed but a terrifying weapon that has the potential to end all thoughts of resistance to the Empire. Our heroes are not as pure or as certain as they ae in the main films. They're not bad people, but many of them are compromised and have ...