Star Wars: Dawn of Defiance Campaign

Ten years after the rise of the Empire, the known galaxy in gripped by the tyranny of the Emperor Palpatine. The Jedi Knights, the once great order, has not only failed to protect the Republic, but has been decimated by the Emperor’s servant Darth Vader. The Dark Lord of the Sith hunts down and kills those Jedi who managed to survive in hiding. But the oppressed have begun to organize, and with the covert support of Senators who seek a return of the Republic, the Resistance begins to take form. This is the story of some who are ushering in the Dawn of Defiance.

This is the blog about my Dawn of Defiance Campaign run in the Star Wars universe set about a decade before the events of Star Wars IV: A New Hope (9 BBY). The campaign uses the Star Wars Saga Edition rules published by Wizards of the Coast and was written as a set of 10 connected adventure modules by the authors of the system and release as free downloads.

They are mostly well written, and I am running them with my home gaming group of more than 2 decades. I have also made changes (as always 8-) which I will periodically post along with their adventures. Without further ado, the protagonists.

Shroon-kor: A male Kel-dor Jedi padawan with great promise, and great struggles. Down 8 hp before Vital Transfer. XP: 15,750

Ehred: A female human Jedi padawan. Contemplative and determined to stay far from the darkness of her Dathomiri bretheren. XP: 18,750

Tex: Taung warrior. Rescued from slavers by Jedi, lost wife and sons. XP: 18,750

Bob-Nob: A Twi’lek who supports the Resistance, in return for their credits. With a knack for robotics, he is never far from his support droids. XP: 17,750

Bob-bob: A medical droid, Bob-Nob’s programming has been altered for “proactive protection.” XP: 13,750

TS “Sparktacus”: A former mining droid, he searches for his master. Currently damaged by Stormtroopers, and not fully repaired (hard to do). XP: 17,750

Nai-Keego: Not all are cut out for the Imperial Navy, even if you have the skills if you happen to be non-human. A Bothan pilot, Nai-Keego joined up with the Resistance, taking along with him his trainer Z-95.

@~46 hp after Medpac. XP: 16,750

Har-har: A Gungun Jedi, who has recently joined up with the Resistance. @ 23 hp after Vital Transfer. XP: 12,750

[Game Notes]

Campaign Changes

1. The game starts at year 9 BBY. This is 10 years after Order 66. This allows the Jedi characters to conceivably be around 18-20 years of age, as they had just started their apprenticeships before their masters were killed.
2. I plan to for PCs to be about level 16 at the end of the campaign. The d20 rules really start to break down past that point. Even the creators of the game acknowledge that (specifically, Rodney stated the difficulty of writing the last few modules of the campaign to be sufficiently challenging and still manageable.)

House Rules in Effect (and when they started)

a.     Roll stats rather than set

b.     May re-roll hp with Force Point

c.      Droids get Syntax Points (basically, Force Points)

d.     Using Force Point to avoid death costs ALL Force Points (Part 4)

e.     PC’s only get 1 Destiny Point per character level PLAYED (Part 4)

f.      Use the Force changed multiple times. Currently, Skill Focus only available to Knight Prestige class.

g.     Extra talents at base class levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, & 16. **Note, 1^st level Talents must be from different trees. Also, this 1^st bonus talent is not obtained when multi-classing into another class (just as not all starting feats are received.)

h.     Force Powers take 1 step longer to use. Practiced Force User Talent to reduce back one-step.

i.       Can only learn Force Powers with a teacher.

j.       Vital Transfer can’t be used to heal Vital Transfer (Part 4)

k.     Block and Deflect are one Talent

l.       Lightsabers deal 2d12 damage

m.   Movement: Diagonals cost 1.5 squares as D&D 3.5 (Part 3)

n.     Starship: Can flee a Dogfight as free action, but gives every opponent free critical attack from full attack. (Part 5)

Misc

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

I just finished watching episode 2 in preparation for running the next part of my Star Wars Dawn of Defiance Campaign. I had been working on the encounters as we gear up for our next session, and over this past weekend, I had an opportunity to visit some friends in Indianapolis. During the visit, my old Star Wars Old Republic game group was getting together to go see the re-release of The Phantom Menace in 3D - so, as much as I didn't want to give any more money to Lucas, I wanted to share the experience with them. It was fun reminiscing about waiting in lines for 9 hours at the original release and whispering to my friends as the MANY kids in the theatre ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the spectacle - but, I still couldn't help cringe at each mention of the midiclorians, and the "will of the Force".

Anyways, with that background, and swinging by the Disc Replay to pick up a copy of Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 1, I thought it would flow well to watch Attack of the Clones again since I hadn't seen it since the original theatrical release; so I picked up a DVD of that as well.

Well, I gotta say that my opinion of it hasn't changed. The lines were so bad (especially between Anakin and Padame!!!), the storyline so contrived at times, the "wise" Jedi so clueless, and the directing so bad that it made excellent actors into bland cardboard actors, that I couldn't help muttering and spouting off how just plain DUMB the lines were... and I thank my poor wife for putting up with me as she quietly read her kindle next to me (I was wearing earphones).

It was especially appalling as I decided to prolong the pain and watch some of the deleted scenes and featurettes.What particularly struck me, and pushed me over the edge to write this tonight instead of waiting until the morning, were the interviews with Natalie Portman. Now, she's been one of my favorite actors since I saw her in The Professional when it came out - and it was quite telling when SHE HAD MORE EMOTION IN HER FACE DURING THOSE 45 SECONDS THAN THE ENTIRE MOVIE PUT TOGETHER.

The greatest tragedy in my opinion (and there are quite a few in the prequels)? Every action sequence is a reminder of how much cooler this whole triology could have been if Lucas had been content to let someone else write the lines and direct, and he went hands off after the initial vision... kinda like for Empire - the best of the saga.

So, I hope my players appreciate the pain I put myself through to give them a good time and immerse them in the Star Wars Universe.

Star Wars Saga Edition Use the Force Fix

For the most part, I like the newest incarnation of the Star Wars RPG put out by Wizards of the Coast - the Saga Edition. However, the main thing that bugs me about it is the way the Force works. By having Use the Force (UTF) as a skill, its (usuaully) starts at an absurdly high level for what I feel a 1st-level Jedi should be able to do. Plus, it doesn't get a whole lot better as the character advances (a 20th-level Sith Lord only has ~10 more over that of a 1st-level - compare a 20th level Soldier with a 1st). Over the years, I've tried to come up with some fixes for it.

I've listed below some possibilities and have link to a table showing what a "typical" progression would look like.

1) Easy1: UTF cannot be a Trained skill until achieving a level of Jedi Knight/Sith Apprentice. A pre-requisite for the Feat Skill Focus (UTF) is a level in Jedi Master/Sith Lord. This significantly lowers the UTF for lower-level Jedi characters, but has the same maximum as the books. The problem is there are large bumps upon attained the Prestige Classes (not necessarily bad, as getting trained and taking skill focus for other skills does the same thing).

2) Easy2: A pre-requisite for the Feat Skill Focus (UTF) is a level of Jedi Knigh/Sith Apprentice. Similar to Easy1, but not as drastic a measure. This is what we are using in our current Dawn of Defiance Campaign.

3) Feel1: UTF is not a skill. Rather, it is a special check that is available to characters with the Force Sensitive Feat. The check is = character level + Cha mod + 1 per force-user level (ie. Jedi, Jedi Knight, Sith Lord, etc.) This leads to an extremely high final UTF at the higher levels.

4) Feel2: Same as Feel1, but the progression is only +1/2 per force-user level. This lowerls the maximum as compared to Feel1, but still leads to high UTF at levels 15+

5) Feel3: Similar to Feel1 & Feel2, but the check is = 1/2 character level + Cha mod + 1 per force-user level. This keeps the skill mechanic of adding +1/2 per character level. The same difficulty with high UTF at levels 15+

6) Mike1: UTF is a skill, but change the Feat Skill Focus (UTF) bonus to be a maximum provided by the level-based skill bonus, with a maximum of +5 at level 10.

7) Mike2: As Mike1, but the Skill Focus (UTF) bonus is equal to the Cha mod.

8) Mike3: A combination of Mike1 and Mike2, where the Skill Focus (UTF) bonus is capped at the lower of the level-based skill bonus or Cha mod.

I'd be interested to hear about other suggestions. My favorite at this time is Feel3; partially because it gives a good progression and follows the skill mechanic. A +33 is very high for a 20th level force-user, but I am of the opinion that the game really starts to break down past 16th level, and I don't plan on running games past that level. In addition, I don't see that as being a complete negative, as I would expect an equivalently leveled gun-fighter to have ~+28 on to-hit rolls and defenses to be around the same.

Link to the table. The light blue is what I expect most optimized force-user UTF will be with core rules, and the light green is where the various optional rules meet the inflection point as compared to that light blue column.

Game mechanics and player investment

Ideally, all of our players will be fully invested in each game that we as GM's devote countless hours preparing and planning. That they would like to see their characters interact with the world, developing relationships buillt upon shared struggles, delving mysteries still unsolved, charting unexplored jungles; but alas, it seems that many of the times, those are just means to the end of leveling up. It's not that I'm saying my players don't like the role-playing aspect - they do enjoy the storylines and we have a great time playing all the time, its just that power-gaming is inherent in our group.

Because of that, I think that this places quite a bit of bias in the game systems we tend to play as a group. Whereas I think my preferences now tend toward the rules-lighter, less "crunchy" systems like Hollow Earth Expedition's Ubiquity, there is by definition quite a bit less player investment in character mechanical development as compared to a d20 system on the opposite end of the spectrum. In the latter, a character is quite defined by the mechanical bits that comprise him, and these can be planned out in a multitude of combinations throughout the "growth" of the character's life. A player can (and my players do!) plan out which classes, feats, skills, talents, and equipment he will take at each level, as well as which prestige class he will qualify for and train in. In doing so, the mechanics define and shape the character just as much as - or even moreso, the original character concept. And that large investment of a player's time into planning out the character translates directly into the player's investment into his character.

I wrote yesterday that I'm thoroughly enjoying the Star Wars Dawn of Defiance game that I'm currently running. And while I don't think that the d20 system is a good representation of the Star Wars universe (especially when compared to just Episodes IV - VI), I think each player's investment of many hours into planning how his character is going to developed has helped to continue driving the game onward - they want to play their characters just as much as they want to see their characters reach their goals of getting this prestige class or that feat combo. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing - in fact, I think its great that this aspect of character building really draws the players into knowing their characters VERY well (no, "wait, what's my bonus to hit now?") and gives them an attachment to the character such that a PC death does cause waves; its just, I would love for a system that combines this aspect with a more rules-light approach.

As an aside, one system that I think manages to balance well the rules-light flow along with a great flexibility of player options and foreplanning is Savage Worlds (and to a lesser degree, Warhammer 40K RPG). There's enough planning possible for the gamers who like the crunch, but still a very flexible and rules-light deployment of the mechanics. I think Savage Worlds would make an EXCELLENT vehicle for running a Star Wars campaign.

Why a Star Wars RPG is so fun

One of the most difficult things about starting up a new campaign is filling all the players in about the background of the setting such as important events and peoples in the world, all while doing so without boring them out of their minds. I've been recently reading through the Game of Thrones series (or, rather, the Song of Ice and Fire series for the purists) and would love to run a game in that setting; it's dark and gritty, with many multi-faceted individuals all intent on their own goals and agendas. But, there's no way I could convey even the basics of the background of Aegon the Conqueror and the Seven Kingdoms, Mad Aerys and Robert's Rebellion, or the Seven gods and the weirwoods in a reasonable blurb.

I mean, face it, we have all had (or been) players that could care less about the difference between a Lannister and a Stark without just wanting to know whom to attack and which dice to roll for the attack. And, save all (or at least, the majority) having read some of the books, it would quickly and easily turn into a generic fantasy campaign without a great deal of work on the GM's part to constantly drag the player's into the world. It's often hard enough to keep players focused on the game without going off on tangents as it is...

And so, that's a HUGE reason I'm thoroughly enjoying running my Star Wars Dawn of Defiance campaign right now. Regardless of what players may think about the validity of Episodes I-III, or how the d20 Saga doesn't do this right, ALL of us know the Star Wars universe. I don't need to fill them in on how a senator named Palaptine was recently elevated to Emperor, or how there was once a religious order called the Jedi that was decimated by his right hand man Darth Vader, or even that a Twi'lek is a humoid creature with long head tentacles. We all have the same background knowledge of the world, and its as simple as saying the Wookie bounty hunter wears a bandolier of thermonuclear detonators that fills the same image in all the players minds (and identifies him as one mean NPC not to mess with).

Prior to starting this campaign last year, we'd been playing in the World of Greyhawk for close to the past 10 years, well, actually, probably longer than that; and even then, it was still very much "wait, Veluna is a theocracy also? I thought it was the Theocracy of Pale?" With this being the first time I'm regularly running a "shared background" game, the difference is so refreshing!

I think in the past, that was why I enjoyed running games like Shadowrun, Dark Matter, or more recently, Gamma World - I could set it in the context of the real world, a truly shared background. In the future, I think this could very well be a much larger draw to bringing in others who otherwise aren't inclined to game with us. In particular, I'm thinking of all our wives/girlfriends, who wouldn't come near our games now agreeing to play a game based in the Harry Potter or Twilight universe.

Old Dwarven Forge Pictures–sneak peek!

Pictures of the upcoming DF stuff from Gencon 2011.

1) Sandra Garrity sculpting what eventually was included as the bonus ice serpent for the Ice Caverns set (and a few other figures)

2) The cool looking wooden buildings which were never produced...

[Originally posted at Dwarven Forge forums on 2011 Aug 17. Taken 2011 Aug 06]

Dawn of Defiance IV: Echoes of the Jedi

[Originally posted on Dwarven Forge forums 2011 Sep 07. Game date 2011 Jul 02]

Here are some pictures from our Star Wars Dawn of Defiance game (Episode IV – Echoes of the Jedi). This shows off the great versatility of DF – using Sci-fi and Return of the Ancient sets as the layout for an abandoned Jedi academy (haunted with creatures tainted by the dark side of the force) and the lower level combining the Caves with Sci-fi sets.

STAR WARS: DAWN OF DEFIANCE
Episode IV
ECHOES OF THE JEDI

It is a dark time in the galaxy. The Jedi Knights, peaceful guardians of the Old Republic, are all but extinct, exterminated by the Emperor’s sinister agents. But a few Jedi still survive, exiled from the galaxy they once protected and leaving echoes in the Force behind. The Emperor has sensed these remnants and seeks to control them, leaving no chance for future Jedi to arise from the ashes.

Most Jedi stay in hiding, some try to foil the Empire without revealing their existence, and others seek links to their former way of life, risking the wrath of the Emperor in hopes of re-igniting the flame of their ancient order . . .