Executor
Other than editing photos of attractive people, I am spending most of my free time working on a Star Wars table-top game. This was inspired by a lot of things, but one of the things that got me rolling was seeing "Inglorious Bastards" which not only is a fantastic film, it got me thinking about war and storytelling.
Then I started to play in a tabletop, which is always inspirational because it gets me thinking what I'd like to do myself. I love a space opera, and the nice thing about Star Wars is that, with rare exceptions, it's such a cultural touchstone that you don't need to explain the world to people - they just sort of know. I can say "Ten years after the fall of the old republic," and wonderfully, most people know what I'm saying, which is fantastic to me because I'm talking about an event that never happened. So instead of world building, I get to dive right into the meat of the game.
And such meat it is.
I like to tell stories about people who are struggling with hierarchies. What I like to examine is what people do when the bad guys aren't always bad, and when the people who are supposed to be on their side are oppressive. What do you do then? Where do you go? How does that change your story?
This game is influenced strongly by Carry, by Nathan Paoletta. Years ago, I played in a game of Carry that Nathan ran, and I really enjoyed the context of war as a background setting. Since I'm a science fiction person, the idea of taking that concept and putting it in a scifi context is really appealing to me.
So the game is going to have these themes of oppression and war, and the characters are going to deal with moral questions of right and wrong. I'm lifting stories from WW II, Vietnam and the Iraq war to fill out the story, but it's also a space adventure, full of blasters and TIE fighters and aliens.
The characters are part of the Empire. They are all Imperial TIE fighter pilots, the best of the best, assigned to the brand new flagship, the Executor. It's an honor to be assigned to the flagship and so the characters are not starting level, but are accomplished individuals, already with a background and a story - a story that is coming together at this point in time, assigned to a new ship, with a secret mission.
Nine Episodes. Six Players. I'm thinking of it like a space Opera Extravaganza with a heart of gold.
What does all this have to do with these cute photos of Kate? Absolutely nothing. Kate's just pretty. And it's her birthday! Happy Birthday Kate! Let's be nerd friends forever.
