Threat Assessment: Riff Tamson

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…

Hot off of yesterday’s Karkarodon stats, I give you my take on the Karkarodon commander from the first three episodes of this season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Riff Tamson – CL 12

Medium Karkarodon Soldier 7/Elite Trooper 4/Officer 1

Force 7; Dark Side 6

Init +13; Senses Perception +10; scent

Languages Basic, Binary, Mon Calamari, Quarrenese, Karkarodon

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Defenses Ref 28 (flat-footed 24), Fort 30, Will 25

hp 117; DR 2; Threshold 30

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Speed 4 squares, swim 8 squares

Melee bite +17 melee (2d10+12) or

Melee bite +21 melee (2d10+18) with Powerful Charge

Melee explosive knife +17 melee (1d4+10)

Base Atk +12; Grp +16

Atk Options Accurate Blow, Flurry, Impaling Assault, Maniacal Charge, Powerful Charge

Special Actions Commanding Presence, Conditioning, Indomitable 1/day, rage 1/day

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Abilities Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 9, Cha 8

Special Qualities delay damage, scent

Talents Accurate Blow, Armored Defense, Commanding Presence, Impaling Assault, Indomitable, Teras Kasi Basics, Weapon Specialization (simple weapons)

Feats Armor Proficiency (light, medium), Conditioning, Flurry, Increased Agility, Maniacal Charge, Martial Arts I, Martial Arts II, Powerful Charge, Weapon Focus (simple weapons), Weapon Proficiency (pistols, rifles, simple weapons)

Skills Initiative +13, Knowledge (tactics) +14, Perception +10, Persuasion +10, Pilot +13, Swim +15 (can reroll twice, must take the final result, can always take 10, even when distracted or threatened)

Possessions 4 exploding knives (see below), Karkarodon battle suit (treat as an armored flight suit without life support)

Here you have a character that can really make the character’s lives miserable if he catches them underwater. With an astonishing speed of 8 squares while swimming, he’ll be swimming circles around even the PCs with natural swim speeds of their own. Add in his deadly charge with the ability to avoid attacks of opportunity from those he passes through thanks to the Maniacal Charge feat, and he could really put the hurt on even the most seasoned warriors. His exploding knives are his real ace in the hole and can really be a surprise for the part that finds themselves on the wrong end of things. Speaking of which…

Exploding Knives

This weapon is a mix of simple elegance, and deadly trickery. The knife appears to be a simple combat knife, if a little bit shorter than average, with a serrated blade. What appears to be a decoration on the handle is in fact a detonator connected a timed explosive set to go off a short time later. The serration on the blade makes it difficult to pull the knife out once it is stuck into a person’s anatomy. If the attack hits the target, compare the attack roll against the target’s Fortitude Defense. If it equals or exceeds the target’s Fortitude’s Defense, it had become stuck in the target, and can only be removed with a move action and a successful DC 15 Strength check. Activating (or deactivating) the timer is a swift action, and at the end of the wielder’s next turn, the detonator explodes, dealing 4d6 points of slashing damage in a 2 square burst. Treat this as an area attack by a fixed explosive, meaning the attack is at a +10 versus the targets’ Reflex Defense. Noticing the switch to the timer (or realizing what the knife is) takes either a DC 25 Perception or Knowledge (technology) check. These knives can also be manufactured to have the switch hidden elsewhere, increasing the DC for either check by 5 or even 10, but at a major increase to the cost (an extra 500 per knife per 5 point DC increase). Because of the knife’s explosive property, it is illegal to own on many planets.

Explosive Knife – 500 credits – 1d4 damage plus special – 2 kg – Piercing – Illegal

Karkarodon – New Species

Inspired by the recent episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, I decided to stat out the Karkarodon, of which Riff Tamson is a member. After some initial feedback and editing on the d20 Radio Boards, I give you the following stats for use in your home games.

Karkarodon

Ability Modifiers: +2 Int, -2 Wis, -2 Cha. Karkarodon possess a keen predatory intellect, but are capable of being goaded into very rash actions.

Medium Size: As Medium creatures, Karkarodon have no special bonuses to penalties due to their size.

Speed: Karkarodon base speed is 4 squares. They have a swim speed of 6 squares.

Water Dweller: The Karkarodon cannot breathe air, and require special suits to survive in a non-water environment. Without these suits, they begin to sufficate (see Endurance page 66 SECR). Replacement suits cost 3,000 credits, and are difficult to find off of their home planet. Karkarodon characters start play with a suit at no additional cost.

Breathe Underwater: As aquatic creatures, Karkarodon can’t drown in water.

Expert Swimmer: A Karkarodon may choose to reroll any Swim check, but the result of the reroll must be accepted even if it is worse. In addition, a Karkarodon may choose to take 10 on Swim checks even when distracted or threatened.

Rage: Once per day, a Karkarodon can fly into a rage as a swift action. While raging, the Karkarodon temporarily gains a +2 rage bonus on melee attack rolls and melee damage rolls but cannot use skills that require patience and concentration, such as Mechanics, Stealth, or Use the Force. A fit of rage lasts for a number of rounds equal to 5 + the Karkarodon’s Constitution modifier. At the end of its rage, a Karkarodon moves -1 persistent step along the condition track. The penalties imposed by this condition persist until the Karkarodon takes at least 10 minutes to recuperate, during which time the Karkarodon can’t engage in any strenuous activity.

Natural Weapon: The Karkarodon have a natural weapon in the form of a powerful bite attack. When making an unarmed attack, a Karkarodon can choose to use their natural weapon, dealing 1d6 points of piercing damage. Karkarodon are always considered armed with their natural weapons.

Scent: Karkarodon have a keen sense of smell. At close range (within 10 squares), Karkarodon ignore concealment and cover for purposes of Perception checks, and they take no penalty for poor visibility when tracking. The range increases to 15 squares if the Karkarodon is underwater.

Automatic Languages: Basic, Karkarodon

Big thanks to Flagwaver, angelicdoctor, PiercedGeek, Smugglers_Paradise, and FULONGAMER over at the d20 Radio boards for their input.

Threat Assessment – The Shrieking Eel

Part of the anniversary gift my wife got me this past weekend was a copy of The Princess Bride in Blu-Ray. As we sat down to watch it tonight, I was taken with the Shrieking Eel scene, and felt compelled to write the beast up in Saga Edition. So, without further ado.

Shrieking Eel CL 5

As long as a man is tall, the shrieking eels inhabit various bodies of water where they hunt for their food. Don’t expect a fair deal from one.

Medium Aquatic beast 6
Init +12; Senses Perception +3
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Defenses Ref 20 (flat-footed 16), Fort 12, Will 10; +6 natural armor
hp 39; Threshold 12
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Speed swim 8 squares
Melee bite +5 (1d6+1)
Base Atk +4; Grp +10
Special Actions constrict, Pin, shriek
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Abilities Str 13, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 2, Wis 10, Cha 6
Special Qualities serpentine
Feats Crush, Pin, Skill Training (Initiative)
Skills Initiative +12, Swim +9 (can reroll and take the better result)

Constrict - If the shrieking eel successfully grapples an enemy, it can use the Crush and Pin feats as normal. When crushing, however, the beast deals 2d6+4 damage.
Serpentine - The shrieking eel is treated as if he were one size larger for the purposes of grappling.
Shriek - As a standard action, the shrieking eel can emit a horrifying shriek that can unnerve its prey. The eel makes a special attack roll (1d20+3) against the Will Defense of all creatures within 20 squares. Success means the target is shaken, taking a -2 penalty to attack rolls and Reflex Defense. If the target is adjacent to the shrieking eel, it means the target is so taken with fear that they lose their move action on their next turn. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

Design Note: I toyed with the idea of giving the creature the Powerful Charge feat, as it’s favored tactic in the film clearly seemed to be a straight line run at it’s foe. However, after coming up with the Serpentine ability, I thought constricting it’s prey after they’ve been immobilized and dragging them down underneath the ocean crushing the life out of them while they simultaneously drown seemed scarier (as well as slightly more intelligent.

Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game

It’s game night. Fifteen minutes before the guys show up and you start rolling some dice and blowing off the stress of the work week. And, if you don’t say so yourself, you’ve really outdone yourself in your prep work this time. You not only have a compelling adventure including an awesome, possibly recurring villain, but you’ve thought of all the possible ways that the PCs might conduct their assault on his lair and come up with contingencies within contingencies, but you have a full write-up of dialogue for the old man that’s going to give them the quest as well as well thought-out answers to any questions the PCs might have for him. You sit down, and you introduce the scene.

Less than a minute later, it’s all over like a bad date. The party leader looks you square in the eye and says, “We want to go talk to the high priest about this tower that’s appeared outside of town.”

In shock, a look of intense disappointment on your face, you ask him “You want to talk to who?”

“The high priest.”

Looking down at your notes, you rifle through the various pages looking for something, anything that can help you out in this situation. You find nothing about a high priest. You’re not even sure if this town has a temple much less what religion they are! The next decision will be crucial. Do you:

A) Curl up into a fetal position and start crying?

B) Angrily insist that your players go to the bar and do the adventure like you’ve written it?

C) Close your eyes and fervently disbelieve your players sitting around the table? or

D) Call for a five minute break and reach for your copy of Masks from the guys at Gnomestew.com you have in your bag for just such an occasion to pull out an NPC to play the high priest?

If you answered D, you’re going to be just fine. If you answered any of the other three, it had better be because you don’t yet own a copy of Masks. And if that’s the case, then run, don’t walk, to www.enginepublishing.com to order yourself a copy of this book.

Seriously, everyone who GMs or even thinks that they might want to GM sometime in the future needs a copy of this book. It is that good, and that invaluable a resource.

Like their last success, Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots, Masks is a gaming aid. It’s designed to be system and (to a lesser degree) setting neutral in order to give the GM ready options should they find themselves stuck at the table for who the PCs should talk to or interact with. It’s filled near to bursting with the skeletons of NPCs just waiting for you to hang the skin over and make your own,  providing you with ways to roleplay them, give them proper motivation, and even a believable background to build on.

The first chapter is an explanation of how to use the book. More than that, it really goes into an explanation of what makes a memorable NPC well, memorable. It offers a variety of tips and tricks on how to fully utilize the various NPCs in this book, as well as make your own and give them that certain spark and staying power in your campaign world. It introduces and explains the various keywords that they use to describe their NPCs as well as gives insight into what I feel may be the most useful part of this book for some GMs- the Name Ribbon. On the bottom of every page containing NPCs is a list of names. On one page is a list of first names. On the opposite is a list of titles and surnames, all of them genre appropriate for the chapter they appear in. Did your PCs piss you off again by asking you the name of an NPC? Fret no longer! Just open to a page in the book and pick one out.

This chapter also gives some great advice on using the various NPCs in genres that they aren’t necessarily designed for in broad strokes. For example, is the character defined by a ranged weapon, like a marksman or a warrior? Well, this weapon could be a crossbow in a fantasy game, a rifle in a modern game, or a zat gun or a laser cannon in a sci-fi game. The characters in this book are written in such a way that nearly all of them can be easily “reskinned” into any of the other genres, and are a good start for writing your own in a similar way.

The 1,000 NPCs (and yes, there really are that many), are divided into three chapters, each containing three sections. They are first largely divided by genre – fantasy, science fiction, and modern (a catch-all term for everything not clearly defined as either fantasy or science fiction). They are then further divided into one of three groups: Ally, Enemy, or Neutral. Each of those is exactly what it sounds like – friend, bad guys, and everyone else.

Each NPC is presented in the following format

Name – The characters name

Two Phrase Description – This is a capsule description of the NPC, a headline if you will. Things like Stupid Bouncer, Alien Warlord, or Power Mad Sorcerer to give you a quick mental image of the character.

Descriptive Quote – This is a piece of dialogue that you can use to help get an early image of the character. From the mysterious assassin who you hear chamber his next round to the roustabout calling for another pint, this can sometimes be all the more you need to start playing the character.

Appearance Notes – This section describes what the NPC looks like, what they wear, and gives a general description on some of his mannerisms.

Roleplaying Notes – This section of the NPC write-up gives you advice on how to play the character at the table. What parts should you play up, what parts should you play down? What can you grab from this character to really make them “pop?”

Personality Notes – Is this character a little bit country? Or are they a little bit rock and roll? Or are they just plain creepy. This is a small description of the character’s personality and social mannerisms.

Motivation Notes – Characters don’t exist in a vacuum. Well… let me rephrase that. Believable characters don’t exist in a vacuum. What drives this character? What makes him want to do what he does?

Background Notes – “Jim was born to wealthy parents and was sent to the finest university where he promptly washed out, bought a bike, and started a gang.” Okay, so they aren’t that short, but that’s the basic gist of this section. It gives you a little bit of insight into the character’s history and as to why he is where he is today. This can also provide some great ideas should the NPC become recurring or a PC favorite.

Traits – This is a list of a few traits to describe the character in a few words that you can use at the table real quick. They are also one of the ways that the authors have indexed the NPCs at the end of the book. Looking for a beautiful young maid to woo one of the players? Flip open to the back of the book, find the “beautiful” trait and flip to the listed pages. The traits are described in further detail in the first chapter of the book.

So there you have it. Seriously. If you buy one gaming supplement this month, this year, make it this one. You may never read it cover to cover, but I guarantee that you will use it more than you think you will. Honestly.

Thanks for the book guys. I’m waiting on next years “1503 Items of Mystery.” ;)

 

Here’s where you can buy your copy of the book: http://www.enginepublishing.com/masks-1000-memorable-npcs-for-any-roleplaying-game

If you want to keep up with the Gnomes, you can do so here: http://www.gnomestew.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Build of the Week – The De-Buffer: Action Denial

Hey there, Gamer Nation! Guess what’s back? That’s right, I’m back with another character build for you all to enjoy. The de-buffer was put forth by my wife, @HotPinkJoystick when I was searching for a build to do. I quickly discovered that there were multiple ways to do this build, and will be bringing my second de-buffer build to you later, but for now it’s a character focused on de-buffing the enemy by denying them their actions.

The beautiful part of this build is that there is a lot that you can do to really make it your own. There are some species that do stand out, such as those that offer Persuasion rerolls, such as the Nagai, but it’s really not important. You do need a few trained skills, those being Persuasion, Deception, and Knowledge (Bureaucracy), but that’s it. Everything else can be customized to your liking.

Level 1 – Scoundrel 1 – Base Attack Bonus +0

Starting Feats – Point Blank Shot, Weapon Proficiency (pistols, simple weapons)

Level 1 Character Feat – Skill Focus (Persuasion): A lot of your talents and abilities are going to key off of this skill. Getting any bonus possible is going to help you. (SECR 88)

Level 1 Scoundrel Talent – Revolutionary Rhetoric: This talent allows you to make a Persuasion check as a standard action against an opponent’s Will Defense. If the check is successful, you deny the opponent their standard action next turn. (GoI 22)

Level 2 – Scoundrel 1/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +0

Starting Feat – Linguist

Level 1 Noble Talent – Rant: This is a neat little talent. When you successfully use the Persuasion skill to intimidate a target, instead of the normal benefits you instead deny that target their move action on their next turn and give an ally a move action they can use immediately as a reaction. (UR 20)

Level 3 – Scoundrel 2/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +1

Level 2 Scoundrel Bonus Feat – Silver Tongue: This feat allows you to use the Persuasion skill to either intimidate or change attitude as a standard action instead of as a full-round action. (GoI 29)

Level 3 Character Feat – Improved Defenses: Let’s face it. Even though you aren’t going to be throwing a whole lot of damage downrange, but you’re going to be the one with the big target on your chest when your opponents are finally able to take their full turns. (SECR 85)

Level 4 – Scoundrel 3/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +2

Level 3 Scoundrel Talent – Hesitate: This talent allows you to make a Persuasion check as a standard action against a target’s Will Defense. If successful, you drop the target’s speed by 2, and require it to spend a swift action whenever it would take a standard action until the end of their next turn.. (S&V 15)

Level 5 – Scoundrel 4/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +3

Level 4 Scoundrel Bonus Feat – Demoralizing Strike: This is a funky little feat. It states that whenever you damage an opponent with an attack of opportunity, you can make a Persuasion check to intimidate a target as a free action. Nothing stating that it has to be the NORMAL method of intimidation (see the Rant talent above). (GoI 27)

Level 6 – Scoundrel 5/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +3

Level 5 Scoundrel Talent – Sow Confusion: This talent builds off of the Hesitate talent we took two levels ago. You make a Deception check as a standard action once per encounter against every enemy you can see. If successful, you force each affected enemy to spend a swift action whenever they want to spend a standard action to attack. This lasts until the start of your next turn. (S&V 15)

Level 6 Character Feat – Combat Reflexes: The ability to throw out a few more attacks of opportunity a round isn’t necessarily a bad thing, even if you don’t get to use it every round or even every encounter. Remember, every AoO you get to make is an extra intimidation (and therefore, use of the Rant talent). As an added bonus, you can make these attacks of opportunity even if you find yourself flat-footed. (SECR 83)

Level 7 – Scoundrel 6/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +4

Level 6 Scoundrel Bonus Feat – Skill Focus (Knowledge [Bureaucracy]): This feat gets you into the Corporate Agent Prestige Class. (SECR 88)

Level 8 Scoundrel 7/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +5

Level 7 Scoundrel Talent – Opportunistic Strike: Once per encounter, this talent lets you take an attack of opportunity against an opponent that provokes an attack of opportunity from an ally, as long as the opponent is within point blank range. (KOTORCG 27)

Level 9 – Scoundrel 8/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +6

Level 9 Character Feat – Recurring Success (Opportunistic Strike): This feat lets you pick a feat or talent that can only be used once per encounter. This feat lets you use it one additional time per encounter. (GoI 28)

Level 10 – Scoundrel 9/Noble 1 – Base Attack Bonus +6

Level 9 Scoundrel Talent – Cheap Shot: Once per encounter, this talent lets you take an attack of opportunity against an enemy that withdraws from an ally as long as that opponent is within point blank range. (KOTORCG 27)

Level 11 – Scoundrel 9/Noble 1/Corporate Agent 1

Level 1 Corporate Agent Talent – Impose Hesitation: This talent lets you make a Persuasion check against the Will Defense of all opponents within a 6 square cone, and if successful, any target affected by the talent loses their swift action next turn. (KOTORCG 43)

Level 12 – Scoundrel 9/Noble 1/Corporate Agent 2

Level 12 Feat – Withdrawal Strike: This feat allows you to take an attack of opportunity against a target that takes the withdraw action against you. (KOTORCG 35)

Level 13 – Scoundrel 9/Noble 1/Corporate Agent 3

Level 3 Corporate Agent Talent – Impose Confusion: This talent builds off of Impose Hesitation by increasing the size of the cone to 12 squares. Also, once per encounter, you can cause the targets affected to love their standard actions instead of their swift actions. (KOTORCG 43)

Really, the rest of the build can go in whatever direction you want it to. I’d recommend taking another use of Recurring Success at 15^th level picking up a second use of Cheap Shot once per encounter, but aside from that, take what you want to tweak it to your specifications. If you’re having a hard time hitting on those attacks of opportunity, you may want some Soldier levels. If you want to throw some penalties on top of the denied actions, the Noble has some neat talents for you to look at. So, looking at the character, we have several tactics we can use to take away an opponent’s action. You start off with Revolutionary Rhetoric to halt an opponent’s standard action, and you eventually get several more ways to deny opponents other actions, and you can even do it on their turn with the Demoralizing Strike feat and the Rant talent. Some GMs may rule it a little bit differently, but the talent does state that it affects them on their NEXT turn, and then if your turn comes up before him, you can semi-regularly deny him two of his three actions. Like I said though, some GMs may rule it differently, so run it by them before you pursue this build to find out what his take on it is going to be.

And so there you have the De-Buffer focusing on Action Denial. I’ll be back soon with the “Penalty Giver” build for the De-Buffer.

Gen Con 2011 Gaming Review

Yes. I was at Gen Con this year. My first ever Gen Con and I had the pleasure of attending it with my lovely wife as our honeymoon (her idea, even), and many, many members of the Gamer Nation. And lo and behold, I did manage to snag a few games that will receive the review treatment on this blog – namely Luke Crane’s Burning Wheel and Greg Stolze’s Progenitor setting for the Wild Talents rules (which I had been very, very bad in not having yet picked up yet. I remedied that as well with the Essential rulebook).

Expect those to come down the pipe sometime soon. There was also a galvanizing effect the convention had on me in regards to Saga Edition, coming from finally getting a chance to play the game as well as the success of my convention module, so I’m hoping that helps to focus my efforts once again with that little system, and I may be toying with the idea of tweaking a few of the things within the rules that irk me in order to get the game juuuuust right. More on that as it develops as well.

I got the chance to play under the now internet famous Chris Witt, aka GM Chris several times during the convention. The first was Friday night when he threw down the first half of his Secret of the Corellian Kitehawk module. The second was Saturday night (more appropriately Sunday morning) when he and his other GMs gave the gamer nation the gift of running a pick up game of the Black Nova Gambit, the 18 person, 3 GM delve event they had registered for Friday night that sold out in minutes when registration opened up. Both of them were absolute things of beauty. If any of you ever get the chance to run a game with this man, please do so. The stories are not embellishment in the least.

I also got a chance to play in a pickup game of Murder on the Executor (an old Gen Con Star Wars module) that Duncan, aka vadersson was awesome enough to throw down. That was an absolute blast as well.

Finally, I got the chance to throw down Hard Contact in its new iteration. While the group was unable to finish it because of time constraints, the module appeared to be doing its job. They would have been walking into the last encounter with very few Force Points left, no Destiny Points, and pretty well banged up. The odds were heavily in my favor that they would not have survived the final encounter. That’s good. That’s what I’ve designed this module to do. And most importantly – the group had a blast getting the snot kicked out of them throughout the adventure. They did play very smart, using autofire and other area attacks to help whittle down tough baddies, and they were the first group to realize that the rocks at the corner of the map in the river were an escape path that they should maybe take when the enemies are being reinforced.

It was great. I can’t wait to polish it up a little bit more and run it again.

So, in summation, I’m home safe and sound with some loot under my arm and the burning desire to write about them. Now I just have to finish reading them and get them on the table.  Wish I’d been able to see some more stuff and put my hands on the Fantasy Flight X-Wing and Star Wars Card Game demos, but I just ran out of time. Too much to do, and just enough time to get it accomplished. I will be going back to Indy though. I had an absolute ball.

The Announcement That Shocked Few

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2528

Word was broken today that Fantasy Flight Games has acquired the comprehensive Star Wars license. Now, while this is big news, it really doesn’t come as a surprise to this gamer, and quite a few others, including Gary Sarli and newbiedm. There were a lot of developments over the last year that put a lot of it into perspective for me, but I’m not going to get into that just now.

Lets just suffice to say that I’m pleased to see the first two products they are announcing have nothing to do with an RPG. The Starship minis game has be excited to be sure, and the card game, while interesting, will have to be seen and played I think before I can pass judgement. I’ll be watching the news on the eventual RPG front with great interest though. It’s going to take a lot to break me away from Saga Edition I think.

More on this as it develops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AGE Of Heroes

Justice League – ASSEMBLE!

I don’t usually run Superhero games. It’s never really been my preferred genre.

But I do sometimes get the urge to run comic book villains, and no other genre does it quite as well. The problem is, I’ve never really been able to find a system that does IT for me. There’s lot of games out there that I’ve taken a look at that are interesting, but I’ve so far seen nothing that has made me say “I need to get that on the table!”  The closest I’ve been able to come to this feeling is the GODLIKE/Wild Talents games written by Greg Stolze. This performs admirably and I have a blast every time I run it (as do my players), but the fact that it’s so frelling lethal makes it hard for characters to feel sufficiently… well, super.*

So, I was paging through some rulebooks the other night as I often do for inspiration on some completely unrelated stuff. I wound up in the Dragon Age Set 1 Players Handbook from Green Ronin Pubishing. I don’t know why, but my mind suddenly made the connection, and a lightbulb went off in my head.

“These character backgrounds are practically begging to be used as superhero origins!”

From there, it continued to snowball. As I looked at the book, a number of things immediately jumped to my mind making me believe that this is the perfect system for superhero roleplaying.

-The three class system of Warrior, Mage, and Rogue can be retrofitted to work with the Bruiser, Blaster, and Acrobat hero archetypes.

-Talents as they are written give a natural progression to abilities that scale. Superpowers could easily fit into these existing molds with few problems (the biggest being on making them general enough without making them too general and filling most of a sixty page book).

-Stunts. Well, do I really have to say anything about stunts? I have heard more good things about the stunt system (and witnessed it firsthand I should add) than anything else about this game.

-The game’s fast, not overly lethal, but tough enough that players aren’t not going to be challenged. The small number of rules allows for fast, fun play and really emphasizes the ‘rule of cool’ which is necessary to a game like this.

So, for the past few days I’ve been slowly picking away at this, and I think I’ve made some serious progress. I’ve got a couple of ideas jotted down for some origins, some talents ready to be filled in with crunch and meat, and I’m looking forward to rolling out a ‘first pass’ document sometime soon** and doing some playtesting on it to refine it. I’ve come across a few stumbling blocks, but nothing that’s been insurmountable yet. And if I’ve made it this far, it doesn’t look like I’ll run into any too bad. I’ll keep you updated, Gamer Nation.

 

*Note that this is by no means a shot at they system. The game is brilliant, and the lethality of it really reflects well on the kind of game it’s designed to simulate. GODLIKE, for those of you who don’t know is supposed to tell the story of normal men and women who have suddenly developed larger than life powers in the middle of World War II. These powers grant them the ability to do things a normal soldier couldn’t do and survive longer than a normal soldier could hope to. However, as is the nature of war, even the supers have a very short life expectancy when the bullets start flying. To date, I’ve run about a half a dozen GODLIKE one shots. I’ve never not killed a player.

** Sometime within the next few months. Don’t be expecting it next week.

Star Wars Legacies: The Story So Far…

Yeah. I’ve been really terrible at keeping up with these session recaps. Many apologies for those that have been reading them. The game has not faded, I’ve just been lazy about keeping up on documenting them. So, what you get now is a short recap of the last six or so sessions that have been played in the interim.

Legacy Era

The party was given the assignment of bringing several members of the gang who had left mysteriously down and “made an example of.” They had been going on an absolute spree through the city, murdering and kidnapping dozens of people. Infiltrating the city’s law enforcement office, they were able to find the location of the last set of murders. Talutah was able to track the four rogue gangsters down thanks to her Anzati heritage, following the trail to an abandoned warehouse, wherein, they encountered their targets. The battle was an intense one, and it left all but one of the gangsters dead and the fourth, a Togorian, unconscious. They questioned him as to what was going on, but the bewildered gang banger had absolutely no idea where he was or what he had been doing for the past few days. The last thing he remembered was being contacted by Tsun, and meeting someone else in his office from the larger syndicate. After knocking him out and leaving him for the police, the party returned to their base to find that the source of the money transfers to Tsun’s account had been traced to the next city over, one that was ruled by the larger syndicate family.

Gathering their things, they left to go and find out what they could. As they entered the city, the began hearing rumors about lights coming from a droid shop in the industrial park that had been recently shut down. The party made a plan of attack and moved to investigate, encountering only one man in the shop. After stunning him, they began to search the place, finding it completely abandoned. The security cameras were not live and there was no sign of people having been in the building for a little while. Talutah however entered a second floor above the garage to find dried blood on the wall and a large area that appeared to have been the place for some sort of large object. As they explored the area, they caught sight of the guy they had stunned earlier fleeing the area. They gave chase and wound up at an operational droid factory. Trying to head inside, they were stopped by the foreman who asked what was going on. When they explained that they were chasing a possible fugitive who may have ducked in to hide, he let them into the building to look around, saying that he might have used the turbolift to escape and hide out in the upstairs. The PCs took the turbolift up to be greeted by two men, one in a smart business suit the other wearing heavy armor, both of them glowing malevolently in the Force. The man in the business suit shook his head at the PCs, claiming that they just didn’t know when to leave well enough alone, claiming that his apprentice would prove to be more than enough for them. Then he revealed his insurance policy, and several hidden turbolifts opened behind him and a small squad of stormtroopers stepped out of them. He left the room as the armored man drew a large two handed lightsaber and ignited a crimson red blade.

What could have been a really tough battle was made easier as Talutah gave into her darker emotions and grabbed the apprentice by the throat with the Force, dangling him a few inches above the ground slowly choking the life out of him. R-66Y moved to engage him with his lightsabers after he was effectively defenseless while Jacob revealed a silver bladed lightsaber that no one had seen yet, attacking the stormtroopers with a vengeance, screaming at them for being traitors. The apprentice eventually sagged in Talutah’s grasp and R-66Y ended his life at the point of his lightsaber. The party however was forced to evacuate quickly as one of the stormtroopers leveled his repeater at the open core that powered the plant, and unloading into it. They party barely made it out before the place blew as the core overloaded.

As they were escaping, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by three robed figures. A tense situation was resolved when the assailants identified themselves as Jedi. They brought the party to their hideout before laying into them for blowing their investigation with their brash action. They had been tracking down the Sith Lord who had laid the trap for them for months and had been about to move in and take him out when the PCs interfered. Their contact at port authority had contacted them shortly after the battle telling them that a small ship had taken off. Believing it to be the Sith Lord fleeing, the Jedi told the PCs they would have to go after him while they reported back to their superior and find out what to do next. They were given a ship and the Sith’s transponder codes so he could be tracked and took off, quickly finding out his escape vector and some approximate coordinates to his new location, one that took them deep into the Unknown Regions. They jumped, spending the next week or so in hyperspace.

During the travel, several things came up, including the fact that Talutah was on the run from her Master and that Jacob shared the family name of Fel, that of the current Emperor in Exile.

The party eventually came out of hyperspace and were immediately struck by two things. One was an aging satellite orbiting around a terrestrial world. The second was the gutted hulk of a Venator-class Destroyer used by the Republic during the Clone Wars. They were ordered to land in the satellite where they would be transported to the planet below. Inside the dock, they found the stolen ship, but the few crew they talked to inside didn’t know who it belonged to. They got permission to search the station, even though most of it had been sealed off for years after a battle aboard the station. However, they broke the seals and took a turbolift down into the station, where they encountered a number of creatures they had never seen before. They carried no sense of life, but a strong presence in the dark side of the Force. However, they were quickly dispatched and turned their attention towards a blinking monitor on the wall. They found a video recording of a security feed from years ago. The hit play and watched a small group exit the turbolift into the bowels of the warehouse.

Clone Wars Era

The party quickly began moving through the hallways, the sound of fighting coming from deeper inside the station. After being cut off from Hurrgh when a part of the station collapsed between them, they pressed on, finding a Gungan Jedi knight locked in a fierce battle with several large red-skinned warriors. They joined the battle and dispatched their foes, regrouping afterwards. The Gungan introduced himself as Commander Gee Dan who had been sent over to the station to check it out while the PCs did their thing on the surface.

They pressed deeper into the station, taking another turbolift down to a small room at the bottom. There they encountered a man in heavy armor standing behind what appeared to be an altar of black stone. He looked up at the PCs and without any preamble, drew and ignited a red lightsaber, engaging the PCs. He was a tough foe, but they took him down through superior numbers. As he succumbed to his wounds, he cursed the PCs, telling them that the Eternal Empire would not stop, could not be stopped, and would return.

Legacy Era

The video feed ended the party moved further down into the station, taking the same turbolift to the bottom of the station they had seen in the video. In the same room, they encountered the Sith Lord they had been chasing standing next to the same altar that had been in the security footage. But it seemed to have grown. It now appeared as a column, extending from the floor to the ceiling. Surrounding the column was several bodies, that suddenly jerked and spasmed as something animated their bodies. They attacked the Sith Lord, but at the height of the battle, the station around them shook and the party found themselves bounced around the room before they fell unconscious, the station falling out of the sky.

——————-

And that will have to be enough for now. I’ll finish bringing you up to speed on the two most recent sessions in another post. I’ll make sure to do it before another six months has passed though. Promise. Until then Gamer Nation.

Star Wars: Legacies; Session Six Write-Up

New Party Member – Tarpals – Force Sensitive Gungan warrior

 

This session picked up where the last one left off. The PCs were told to get some rest after their last mission. As they went to talk to their handler the next morning, they heard reports on the local news of a large explosion that happened during the middle of the night. They were still pulling bodies from the wreckage, though considering the area of town that was destroyed, the newscasters stated that it was probably no one that would be missed too terribly.

 

As they approached their handler, they noticed a Gungan standing next to him. Without offering any introductions, their handler gave them their next mission. They had found someone that could give them some information on Corell Tsun’s financial records. A Rodian information dealer by the name of Chido could get them the information for a price. Due to how adeptly they handled themselves on the last assignment, they were to be given free rein over how they would obtain the information. A meeting had been set up with Chido at the shipping and loading docks.

 

A short trip later, they walked into the meeting area, a relatively open area just past a parked freight tram. Chido was standing at the far end of the platform, a human bodyguard standing right next to him. The party also noticed several men wearing blaster pistols and carrying vibrodaggers milling about the area as well. Chido caught sight of Tarpals and called out to him, asking how many of them there were. Tarpals signaled back that there were five, and Chido called them over. Talutah marched over to stand in front of the Rodian while the rest of the party hung back and kept a watchful eye over the proceedings.

 

Chido told them that he had the information that they were looking for. Talutah bluntly asked him what he wanted in exchange for the information. Chido thought for a while, and told them that he did have one thing in mind. He explained that one didn’t survive long in this type of business without attracting certain enemies. One of these enemies in general was beginning to take direct action against him to take him out… a woman named Iella. If they would take her out for him, the information would be there’s.

 

The PCs began getting some basic information about this woman, gathering intel about where she was based, what sort of defenses she kept, and if there were any vices they could exploit. However, before a plan could be struck, Jacob, R66-Y, and Luro heard some footsteps and hushed voices on the other side of the train. Jacob called out there we were going to have some company shortly. Talutah took the warning to reach out with the Force and see if there were any Force users on the other side of the train. She felt none, but she did feel three within her own ranks. And one of them was not the Mandalorian. Then there were a series of small explosions that forced open the several doors on the freight tram. Several thugs and toughs stepped through with weapons raised, and they were led by a familiar looking, heavily built Duros. Chido cursed, yelling something about a set-up and started running. Red Eye’s goons moved in and started blasting several of Chido’s men. The party moved to begin engaging several of Red Eye’s goons, and then found out they were coming under fire from Chido’s men as well, thinking them to be involved in a set up.

 

Talutah yanked a large crate off the ground and placed it in front of the door that Red Eye was standing in front of, forcing them to be able to exit the car through a narrow choke point. R66-Y moved to engage Red-Eye in melee combat, pulling out his stun baton. However, Red-Eye pulled out a Force Pike and struck R66-Y a vicious blow, nearly dropping the droid in a single blow. His goon finished the job with a blaster pistol shot, dropping the droid to the ground. As the battle quickly took a turn against them, Talutah used the Force to call to Chido to stop using telepathy. Meanwhile, at the same time she drew on her considerable potential to create the illusion of a full-grown Rancor raising up from the ground on a platform, breaking its chains and taking a lumbering step forward. Then she turned and went after Chido. Chido’s men, seeing the Rancor first broke ranks and ran. A number of Red-Eye’s men also broke ranks after seeing the monster as well, but a few others kept fighting. Luro stepped into the freight car and fired a short burst of autofire, wounding Red-Eye and killing his other man in the room. Red-Eye moved to try and escape, but Luro kept on him, wounding him again. As the rest of the battle wound down, Jacob and Tarpals managed to get into the confrontation with Red-Eye as well, who finally threw his weapons down and raised his hands in surrender. Luro switched his weapon over to stun and knocked the Duros into unconsciousness.

 

As Talutah continued to chase Chido, the Tarpals and Luro went to R66-Y’s aid, kneeling down beside him to get a good look at the damage. They were surprised to find however, that while the droid carried the requisite gears and circuits that made up the droids body, but it didn’t seem like that was what was powering his body. They couldn’t put their finger on it, but there was something odd about the droid to be sure.

 

Meanwhile, Talutah managed to get Chido to slow down to the point where she could catch up with him. She managed to convince him that they weren’t with Red-Eye, and in fact, had him in their custody. If he really wanted to find out what the Duros wanted, there was only one way to find out. Chido relented, and took the party back to his base of operations, taking the Duros into his private office. They woke him, and began questioning him. Talutah tried to pump him for information, using the same tactic she had used on Habukh, but only succeeded in knocking the Duros back out. Chido told them to get some rest in exchange for helping with the fight and that he would get them when the Duros awoke.

 

After a few hours the Duros woke back up, and the party was called back into Chido’s office. They began questioning him again, but they weren’t able to make much headway in breaking his will. Finally, R66-Y moved in front of him, waved his hand and told Red-Eye that he wanted to tell them why he was at the meeting. Red-Eye spilled his guts after that, telling the party that Tsun wanted them out of the picture for poking their noses where it didn’t belong. However, he didn’t know any more information than that, like who his boss was actually working for. With that information in hand, Chido agreed to give the PCs the information they had came for without any further cost to them and let them go. He told them he’d take care of Red-Eye. As the party left his office and made it halfway across the main floor of Chido’s headquarters, they heard a blaster shot from his office.

 

As the party got back to their base and analyzed the data, they found the usual deposits into Tsun’s account, including the money he was taking from the larger syndicates. However, they also found several large deposits that only carried the letter “S” as their source. Their handler told them they would analyze this data a little further and see if they couldn’t come up with a plan of attack to tackle Tsun and find out what was going on. However, in the meantime, they had several veteran members of the gang that had recently turned on them and left the organization. It was yet unknown whether or not they were going to join another faction or start their own, but they needed to be made an example of. The PCs were to find them, and execute them with extreme prejudice. This marked the end of the session, with the new mission leaving a sour taste in the mouths of several of the party members.