Zebulon Space - Session 3

Picking up where we left off, our heroes are following a tribe of Ul-Mor through the desert, hoping to get somewhere more hospitable and figure out some options for getting off the planet. Soon enough they come to a mountainous area and find out that the clan intends to travel through some caverns to avoid the nastier parts of the desert.

Because they were not tribe members the group was forced to remain apart from the main body of the Ul-Mor. This had not been a problem but it was a major inconvenience once they went underground, even more  so once a cave-in cut them off from their guides.Firing up their glowrods, the party pressed on.

In a two day journey through the caverns the three encountered Womp Ratsies (dispatched via sabers and blasters), a sleeping Volturnian Cave Bear (dispatched in its sleep by the Rodian Scoundrel using a coup-de-grace), some fresh water (consumed), a lake of fire (crossed via mushroom bridges and force powers), a crazed Ul-Mor with fungus growing on his body (politely ignored), a large underground lake (crossed via giant mushroom cap turned upside down), a carnivorous water monster shark thing (dispatched via saber and blaster), and finally, a way out!

High points here were the boys figuring out how to cross the fire lake and then later figuring out how to cross the water lake. They were pretty happy with their mushroom boats. The shark fight was spectacular as it attacked Who's Rodian's raft, but Red's Jedi force-gripped it to keep it from attacking again while Blaster's Jedi leapt onto the beast itself, attacking with his saber as the Scoundrel shot it at point blank range. Once dealt with he leapt back off of it and Red released his grip, allowing it to sink beneath the surface. There was also some fun with fungus and the crazy Ul-Mor hermit.


Emerging back into the world they discovered the Ul-Mor tribe nearby, joined back up, and headed for the ritual site. After another day they made camp and informed the heroes to prepare. The tribe also loaned them some spears to help make up for their lack of limbs. Not surprisingly the Jedi decided to stick with their sabers and trust in the force. The Scoundrel had no intention of getting close enough to a wild beast to need one and kept his blaster handy. The next day the human, the rodian, and the kel-dor took on a strange-looking local predator and eventually slew it, Proving their manhood and becoming members of the tribe.

After beating the quickdeath (a lightly modified Corellian Sand Panther from Threats of the Galaxy) the boys were very happy to have completed this part of the adventure, to be part of the tribe, and to have reached 2nd level. This wrapped up SF-0 as well. Next time, we begin SF-1.

Star Wars: Zebulan Space - The Crawl and Act I

Well since I can't get the crawl creator to link properly to the blog here is the opening crawl for the new campaign:

STAR WARS: ZEBULON SPACE

Episode I: Volturnis Awaits 

 Trouble is brewing in the Galactic Republic. A Separtist movement led by former Jedi Master Count Dooku is gaining momentum.

Fearing a disruption of trade and possibly even war, a renewed  search for new resources and allies takes a small band of diplomats and explorers to the newly contacted Zebulon Star Cluster beyond the Outer Rim.

Lead Negotiator SHUB NURATH has agreed to meet with local trade representatives in the uninhabited star system of Volturnis. Aided by Jedi Master JEET KUNDO he hopes to secure a trade agreement with these distant worlds and open a new era of peaceful prosperity for them and for the Republic.

As the Republic Cruiser Serena Dawn enters the Volturnis system  strange signals are detected in space and on the planet below...

 I've probably violated several "rules of the crawl" in there but I'm happy enough with it. After we had spent an hour or so creating characters I ran it in the crawl creator on full screen with speakers blaring for the Apprentices and they were pretty excited. We then went into the other room and started up our first session.

(And yes, those are names of my old Star Wars characters in there. They can be quite silly, I admit this freely, but they at least "look right" to me)

Our heroes begin aboard the Serena Dawn, waiting for something to happen as the whole mission has been a mixture of boredom and excitement but no real action. Things are about to change. Our protagonists are:

• A Kel Dor Jedi (Padawan) played by Apprentice Blaster
• A Human Jedi (Padawan) played by Apprentice Red
• A Rodian Scoundrel played by Apprentice Who

(Character names have been left out as they needed more time to think of some good ones, although there was some discussion that the Rodian may be named "Tweeto")

As an alarm sounds and the ship shudders under multiple impacts, the padawans jump on the commlink and seek their masters.  Master Kundo is headed for the engineering section as there are reports of a boarding party there. Master Xeen (hastily named as the second Jedi character was a last-minute left turn) is already launching his starfighter to handle things outside. They order the Padawnas to sit tight for now but they may assist the crew if their help is requested.

"Tweeto" is a junior member of the crew (and the Republic Fleet) who is checking on some equipment when the alarm goes off so he runs down a corridor to his battle station.

Outside the padawans' quarters they hear a scuffle and a cry for help. Padawan Red steps out and sees two obvious space pirates standing over a fallen crewman, blasters in hand. He orders them to stand aside. Padawan Blaster  steps out, sees two strangers standing over a fallen crewman and responds with a nice smooth motion of igniting, throwing, striking down with, and then catching his returning lightsaber. Tweeto comes around the corner after hearing the scuffle, sees the situation (including a saber arc) and shoots the remaining pirate in the back.

Greeting each other as they move to aid the injured crewman (they have spent some time together during the month-long expedition) they learn that pirates have attacked and boarded the ship near the engines and near the bridge. Since Master Kundo is headed for engineering, the padawans and the two crewmen decide to head for the bridge.

Moving through various hatchways and blast doors, the small group stumbles upon three thugs coming towards them. They ask the pirates to surrender but are greeted with blaster fire as a response. Padawan Red hits them with a force slam, knocking two of them out and the third stays upright long enough for Padawan Blaster to close and bring him down with a single sweep of his saber.

After this brief clashe the Jedi and the crewmen discover that the commlinks are jammed and they cannot raise anyone on the local commnet. At this point the wounded crewman decides to turn off to the medical bay with some spare blasters both to seek aid and to help defend it while the others continue to the bridge.

Impacts continue to shake the ship as the trio takes a turbolift to the bridge. The doors hiss open  and as the party opens the door to the bridge they are greeted with blaster fire from inside. Putting together a quick plan they are nonetheless surprised when another door slides open and a pirate with a blaster rifle begins shooting up the entrance area. Padawan Blaster once again throws his saber in a perfect arc, cutting down the pirate and regaining his saber. Padawan Red force slams the nearvy pirates on the bridge as Tweeto picks off another with his blaster. A pirate mate (an obvious leader type) is the only one left standing and he crosses swords with Red but is cut down in short order.

As sabers are put away, the team looks around and sees that outside the viewport the planet is gorwing larger and larger and the ship appears to be rotating irregularly. Blaster makes a heroic effort to set things right with a masteful display of piloting but various red lights indicate that the engines are gone and the ship is irrevocably out of control. Tweeto picks up a pirate commmlink and begins taunting the pirates but they just laugh and wish the trio a happy landing. Unable to contact their masters or the rest of the crew the heroes decide to find a way off of the doomed cruiser.

Quickly locating an escape pod bay the trio climbs aboard (noting that several other pods have already ejected) waits through the countdown, and launches into space. They manage to dodge some fire from a nearby pirate fighter and spiral down towards the planet below.

The pod's nav system steers them around to the dark side of the planet where they skip off of a rock outcropping or two and  slide to a halt in a rocky desert region as the sun begins to peek over the horizon. Volturnis awaits...

DM Notes: This session went really well and everyone was very happy with it. Character creation really did not take long (we only used the main book, that helped) and they were coming up with ideas for fleshing out their PC's before I even ran the crawl. 

Apprentice Who seriously considered another Wookie, but he ended up going with "a Greedo" and we had some fun with the idea of how a Rodian would wear a helmet, possibly cutting holes in it for his antenna to stick out. He focused on shooting people and being good at the Treat Injury skill.

Apprentice Blaster knew he wanted to play a Jedi from the start but wasn;t sure about the race. he ended up going Kel Dor because he liked their abilities and they looked cool (and I agree). I suspect that one played a pretty big role in some of the Clone Wars episodes was a factor as well. For his first talent he wanted something distinctive and ended up shoosing "Lightsaber Throw", again partly because it made sense (it gives him a ranged attack - short ranged, but still ranged) and partly because it looks cool.

Apprentice Red was thinking about a Noble but at the last minute went Jedi as well (no problem as this is Prequel Era and jedi are all over the place) but he went Human because he hasn't played a human in any of our rcent games and also because he liked the racial abilities. He took force powers instead of going for lightsaber abilities and settled on Force Slam as his main thing. It's a short-ranged cone effect that does damage and knocks back the targets - you see it used against battledroids a lot in the movies - and he was very pleased with his choices. 

The game played very fast - low level mooks go down quick - and 3 short fights let us begin to get used to the combat system. They looked for chances to use their skills too - piloting, diplomacy, perception, and treat injury were all rolled at various points and even though it's a bit of a railroad start (the ship is going to crash and there's not much you can do about it) they made it personal with the pirates, feel like they need to find their masters, and were thinking of other things they could have done on their way down in the escape pod. I was pretty happy with the way they looked for options. Their experience with old-school D&D's "tell me what you want to do" seems to have helped keep their initiative while their familiarity with 4E's very similar mechanics makes the system easy to grasp and lets the rules mostly stay out of the way - as it should be. Their excellent knowledge of Star Wars means they already know how the universe works and what it looks like so they are quite sure of themselves when it comes to moving about the world. 

 In short - it was great and I can't wait to run it again. 

A note on conversions - I am using the original map and counters that came with Star Frontiers as the grid is too smal lfor miniatures. They didn't care at all and I kind of like using nearly 30-year old gaming paraphenalia with a group of players less than half of that age. I don't ramble on about plaing as parents and kids very often but there are occasions where I get a very powerful feeling of handing off to the next geenration and seeing that I was the same age when I got Star Frontiers as they are now it's a real kick to see it in play again.  Of course as I write this they are in the next room playing Rock Band 3 with a bunch of songs that were popular about that time too, so maybe it's not just the RPG that's pushing that button.

Actual conversion notes: I have about a page of notes plus a few index cards with generic "Thug" and "Pirate" and "Gang Member" stats from Saga edition written on them. I have the original module open in front of me (behind my screen) and I'm using the flavor text and descriptions from it while I use the game mechanics from my notes. I don't really do a full-document conversion, so it will be difficult to post it up on the blog in a useable form but I'll see what I can do for anyone who is interested.  I'm guessing if someone wanted to use this particular adventure with this particular ruleset, they could probably do it on their own as well as any notes I can give, but just in case I will post what I can.

A New Star Wars Campaign - Zebulon Space: Volturnus!

Yes, for my Star Wars Saga campaign I am using the old Star Frontiers adventure trilogy of SF-0, SF-1, and SF-2. I actually ran the first part of a conversion back in the d20 RCR days and it went pretty well until the group took an extended break, so this isn't a totally brand new idea for me.

The conversion itself is pretty easy - both games have space pirates, both games have various nasty creatures, both games have lasers/blasters, vibroblades, and armor. The tech is a little lower in Star Frontiers but that just means that the pirates jetcopter becomes an airspeeder and an Explorer ATV becomes a landspeeder - not a big deal. I actually have the original modules open at the table and use NPC's and monsters on index cards for stats when needed. It's a very easy way to keep the original flavor while using the relevant mechanics for whichever system - if it worked with RCR then it will work with everything from Saga to Savage Worlds.

The framework for the campaign is this: It is the time between Episode I and Episode II: Tensions are building and secession is in the air. The Republic sees that it may need additional resources in the future to support a war effort or in case trade is cut off.

As part of the search for new resources a diplomatic expedition has been sent to a newly contacted star cluster beyond the Outer Rim. Initial contact was made by Jedi pursuing some space pirates. They reported back that these systems include several large corporations, a somewhat lower level of technology albeit with widespread use of droids, and no organized force users such as Jedi. Now, after several months, the Republic is sending an official ambassador, a diplomatic party, some Jedi, and some guards for the group. The player characters are part of this expedition.

OK that gives us a reason to get the party together and points them all towards the same destination. It's a "mission" approach which is a little heavy handed but when starting a campaign I like the "reverse funnel" approach - start narrow and then broaden the horizons as the players (and the DM) get a better feel for things. We will be starting at 1st level.

The structure of the adventures breaks down like this:

Act I - Space Pirates! The PC's begin on board a Republic diplomatic cruiser. It comes out of hyperspace in the Volturnus system for a rendezvous with a diplomatic party from the Truane System, a local cluster government. The ship is instead attacked by space pirates and after some good old fashioned hallway combat the PC's are forced to head for the escape pods before the ship goes down.

Act II -  Crash in the Desert! The PC's take stock of their supplies and  begin traveling through the desert in search of water and shelter and some kind of civilization, encountering hazards, creatures, and space pirate patrols and eventually meet some natives, the Ul-Mor.

Act III -Creatures and Caverns! The Ul-Mor lead the party to a tunnel network that is the safest way to cross the rest of the burning desert. Along the way they will encounter some underground hazards, creatures, a crazy native, and a grounded space pirate before they finally emerge back into the sunlight.

Act IV - Ritual of the Quickdeath! The party talks with the native Ul-Mor and are given a chance to join the tribe by undergoing a tribal challenge. They then meet some other survivors who have joined the tribe and begin to piece together what's going on out here.

(This is the end of SF-0)

Act V - Kurabanda!  The Ul-More have seen other non-natives living with the Kurabanda, another race who lives in a distant forest. They guide the PC's across the plains to find them and discover a group of pirates fighting with a Kurabanda patrol. They talk to the tribe and aid in a hunt

Act VI -  Raid on the Pirate Outpost! The Kurabanda agree to lead the PC's to a pirate outpost which they infiltrate/attack/mind trick and discover that there is another alien race being used for slave labor and some offworld prisoners being held at a mining camp

Act VII - Fall of the Star Devils! The PC's journey to a village of the Edestakai, encountering hazards and creatures along the way. They meet the natives and try to convince them that the space pirates are not holy messengers but are evil. The Edestakai then lead the party to the pirate base and may even help them fight depending on how things went earlier. This is likely to begin with stealth or deception followed by a big battle. In the aftermath they see an unknown alien carrying a human body.

Act VIII - City of the Ancients! The PCs are taken to the ruined city of the gods by the Edestakai and attempt to locate the beings who live beneath the ruins. Exploring the place they find that a partial high-tech base is still online, run by a race known as the Eorna who ruled the planet long ago. They have awakened from cryosleep recently and are monitoring activity in the system and are concerned that an artifact left on the planet may alert their old enemies the Satahr that hyperspace entires and exits have been detected.

Act IX - The Pylon! - the PC's travel to the ancient Satahr artifact and attempt to explore and disable it, learning in the process that the Satahr are an ancient Sith servitor race. They also learn that an alert has already been sent and that the Sathar are sending a battle force to destroy the interlopers.

(This is the end of SF-1)

Act X - Mounds of the Mechanons!  Having determined that the best way to defeat the Sathar is to unite the races of the planet in a grand alliance, the PC's travel to the lands of the droid-like Mechanons, the fourth "younger race" of Volturnus to convince them to join the war effort.

Act XI - The Great Game! The PC's participate in an annual ritual of the Ul-Mor to convince them to join the alliance

Act XII - Sacred Idol of the Kurabanda! The PC's attempt to convince the Kurabanda to join the alliance by recovering a sacred idol of their people.

Act XIII - Capturing Justice! The PC's attempt to convince the Edestakai to join the alliance but they have to capture a dangerous animal alive to seal the deal.

Act XIV - The Battle of Volturnus! The PC's gather the allies they have recruited and using both their skill and their combat prowess attempt to  throw the Sathar invasion forces off of Volturnus.

This is the end of SF-2 and the first arc of the campaign. Acts 10-13 can really be played in any order leading up to the big battle at the end. Assuming each act takes one session to play that's a pretty good start to the campaign. Assuming they level up about every other session then the party would be in the 7-8-9 range by the end and ready for new challenges. Jedi will be ready for "Knight" status, Soldiers would be eligible for commands of their won if they choose to join an organized force. Other classes might make a big payoff with their local crimelord or be awarded something for exploring a new world and adding to galactic knowledge. In some fashion, it's a significant turning point in the characters' carers.

Cool things about these adventures:

• Space pirates make good practice dummies for learning about combat then they go away about halfway through and get replaced by a Sith type race - nasty!
• The Sathar use cybernetically modified monsters, warbots, and also fight in person - this lets me work in some critters from Tales of the Jedi and other places and some of the old sith weaponry more commonly found in KOTOR.
• The "convincing the natives" parts use a cool mix of combat and RP to get a decent result. I'll experiment with making some of them a 4E style skill challenge but not all. Everyone should be happy.
• There are a lot of Star Wars tropes in here too - escape pods, deserts, forests, battle droids, riding native mounts across some wild terrain, encounters with wild creatures, hand to hand battles, ambushes, infiltrating hostile installations - it's a nice mix of stuff. 
• I can compress or expand the amount of time spent in many of these sessions by deciding how much time to spend on the "travel" section - sometimes there might be a lot of encounters, sometimes there might be none to speed things along. It also helps with controlling the speed of advancement in the party.
•  Long term if the players want to stick around out here I can use some of the other Star Frontiers material and let them go exploring or have them assigned to hunt down Sathar. If they want to go back and fight battledroids alongside clone troopers then we can do that too. Longer-term, assuming any of them avoid Order 66 (assuming that still happens) then this would be a nice place for a force-user to run and hide for a few years or decades.  

 I haven't filled in every potential blank spot:

• If a character dies I can drop in other survivors early on but once the pirates are wiped out in Act 7 that gets a little tougher to do.  I suppose I will handle this on the fly if it comes up.
• I want a space battle going on during the big ground battle finale so I have to work in a Republic fleet arriving but without massed troops to reinforce the natives. Considering the events of Episode II this shouldn't be an issue - they apparently do not have an army until the clones arrive! Dead PC's could be replaced by Jedi or other characters at this point too, but it's almost late.
• Future complications - by introducing a dark side race into the game I am creating a potential wild card where Palpatine and Dooku are concerned - would either of them make an effort to reach out to these aliens? How would that go? It could be fun for the future as introducing factors like this can blow up the canon storyline and let the players know it's all up to them - nothing is written in stone. If it turns out to be a long-term problem then maybe the Death Star's first live test firing is somewhere out beyond the rim.