The StarWars RPG
So this epic RPG my friends and I have been playing has so far lasted two years - no, the story isn't that long. We just have so much trouble getting everyone together that we can go six months without a session. We have a shift worker, an engineer who can be sent out to mine sites for weeks at a time, a lab technician who sometimes works weekends... and me, a student who is nearly always free. In our last session, thia_cat who plays our smuggler, had to leave early for dinner with her parents. So I tried to write down an accurate summary of the session.
In a previous session, my main character got barbequed: it involved Jellybean's dug Jedi (see picture below), a flamethrower and an unfortunate dice roll. My character went up in flames but didn't die. I'm still waiting to hear how permanent her injuries are.
What you lookin' at?
So I started the session with control of two clonetroopers who'd been temporarily added to the party. We've been through quite a few clonetroopers - George Cloney, Clonan the Barbarian, Stella (NOOOO! STELLLLLLLLA!) and Monty are dead, dead, seriously injured, and waiting at a checkpoint we named 'Chasm of Bad Rolls', respectively. Of the two still with us, we called one 'Jimmy Clone', which we had proudly written down on a sheet of paper from the last session. We couldn't find the name of the second clone anywhere and nobody could remember it, so we named him 'Mystery Guy' which eventually became 'Mysterioso' for the rest of the day. There's only so many pun names you can come up with...
Whose name you laughing at, punk?
We had been dispatched into a mountain base to find a secret meeting and kill/arrest the people involved. We found ourselves in a control room with a couple of consoles. One was covered in light switches and door controls, none of which were labelled. Smuggler Antigone (Thia_cat's character) begged to be allowed to just randomly push buttons but was overruled. We continued on over a bridge and through a door. There were people to shoot but also, smack bang in the middle of the room, were two shiny speeder bikes or swoops. For those not as familiar with the Star Wars 'verse these particular bikes are like motorcyles that hover just off the ground using thrusters called 'repulsors', and they are generally as hard to drive and steer as real motorbikes.
Imagine this in a nice fire-engine red or a blazing yellow.
There was a lot of shooting and fighting, mostly by the Jedi and the two clonetroopers. The smuggler hung back and started flicking lights randomly on and off - this mostly worked in our favour. She also cut power to all the doors, meaning everything open stayed open and everything shut stayed shut. The stormtroopers got hurt pretty bad and retreated back across the bridge, leaving the Jedi by herself just as she discovered that the meeting we were sent to break-up involved a Sith. There were several Generals and grunts trying desperately to get out of the door our smuggler had sealed shut remotely.
The two stormtroopers were rapidly trying to heal each other when the unexpected happened : our usually cowardly smuggler ran across the bridge and vaulted into the seat of one of the speeder bikes. It's unusual for her to run towards danger so I can only conclude that the bikes were shiny enough to risk being shot at ;). She got the engine going, swung the bike around and used its guns to shoot back at the enemy, all the while being shot at. At this stage, the Jedi was being thrown across the room by the Sith and the two of them faced each other across a steady stream of blaster fire from the bike.
Sometime around then, the generals and their lackeys managed to score a few hits on the speeder bike. Smuggler was still unscathed but the bike's front repulsors activated and it shot backwards into a wall. Bike half-in and half-out of wall and still hovering above the ground, the bike successfully blocked off the corridor behind the wall and stopped the battle droids behind from getting in to join the fight. At this point the Smuggler started to worry that it was time to bail and grabbed a spanner to jam the guns into firing position. Unfortunately the bike was still taking a beating and the repulsors failed, dropping the bike abruptly onto the ground. This changed the firing angle to across the doorway, cutting off the recovered clonetroopers from coming to the aid of the Jedi.
So powerful was the firepower that a dead body was blasted off the ground and down the stairs. It flew in between the Jedi and Sith. The Jedi tried to force-push the body at the Sith and the Sith pushed back. So for a while the body was suspended between the two and started pancaking under the pressure. Then the Sith won the contest and the dead body went flying, knocking our poor Jedi across the room in the process.
The Smuggler was all for bailing from the bike but the rest of the party insisted she unjam the guns first so that the clones could get past. With a little muttering, she unjammed the guns. The bike's repulsors activated, jacknifing the bike up to crash into the ceiling, where the repulsors failed again and it came crashing down to the ground. Then it exploded in the smuggler's face. Thus leading to a new definition of re-scheming as 'revisiting the plan after the bike explodes'. Smuggler was virtually comatose and on point of death, which was thia_cat's time to leave but she hung around to see how the Jedi-Sith battle went.
Our little dug Jedi was pinned to the ground under the dead body, when she decided to be sneaky. She stealthily pulled a concussion grenade and force-threw it at the Sith. The Sith saw it coming and caught it with the Force. The two then had a Force-contest, generating a high pressure Force 'bomb' at the centre of which was a grenade. Our GM had to look that up and it did end as expected, blowing up in spectacular fashion. Fortunately, the explosion happened several metres away from the Jedi but only a foot from the Sith so the Sith took the brunt of the blow, killing him when he hit the wall on the other side of the room. We all cheered, especially since the Smuggler wasn't completely dead (not stable but not yet passed the point of no return).
We waved thia_cat goodbye just as lady-luinheniel arrived. We were still on a bit of a sugar-high and we'd played an RPG with lady-luinheniel before so we pretty much told her the entire afternoon's play and invited her to join us in the mop-up operation. With almost no prep, she became a clonetrooper p.o.w. that had been tied up in the corner and we continued on.
Jimmy Clone was least recovered from his injuries so he stayed to try to revive the Smuggler while Mysterioso went to help the others. He passed the new clone (who had just rediscovered his armour and weapons) and invited him to join us.
"Hey, you combat ready?"
"Sure."
And off we went again.
Our dug Jedi capped off single-handedly killing the Sith with almost single-handedly pursuing the fleeing Generals and lackeys. She steadily killed the lackeys while the Generals made a run for it. At the this point Mysterioso and the new clone managed to catch up and helped out. We ran past a couple of mounted anti-aircraft gun and managed to resist the urge to climb on and start shooting in a small, confined space. Only just resisted, possibly because the Smuggler wasn't there.
It was about then when Jimmy Clone managed to bring the Smuggler back from the brink of death. He dragged her away from the speeder bike and confirmed that the battle droids were still trapped behind the rubble and not about to come out shooting. He searched her for grenades and decided that the safest course of action would be to put her on the back of the surviving bike. Fortunately she was too unconscious to object to the safety of this maneouver. It might have been around then that he became referred to as "Mad" Jimmy.
He's helping. What did you think he was doing?
The others followed the Generals out to a landing pad where they were desperately trying to take off in their ship to escape. The new clone realised that he had an anti-armour attachment for his gun, and earned the nickname 'Psycho Bitch'. Mysterioso followed suit and they were soon launching explosives at the ship with glee. Half the ship fell off but the engines were still going. Mysterioso runs forward to hurl an EMP grenade up the open ramp and into the ship. Does some damage but the engines are still going. So the Jedi Force-pulls the General trying to close the ramp, dragging him all the way down to the ground. The General stands up and runs straight back into the ship. The Jedi repeats so the General tries a new tactic and leaps over the edge of the platform.
The Jedi tries to catch him but she's quite tiny and can't hold him, even when Mysterioso runs over to help. The guy falls for several turns (6 seconds) before he fires the jetpacks we didn't know he was wearing. He still hits the ground at the bottom but instead of dying he just breaks a lot of bones.
Meanwhile, Pyscho Bitch and Mysterioso board the ship, grappling with the pilot who is still trying to take off with half a ship and an open ramp. They grapple, Mysterioso gets in a miraculous EMP grenade throw which manages to bounce down inside his armour where it explodes in his crotch. Being an EMP grenade, it disables all the controls in the cockpit and the engine finally cuts out. The pilot is pretty shocked but EMP grenades are designed to affect machinary rather than people so he's mostly okay. The pilot surrenders, and is tied up with the Smuggler's synth rope.
Mad Jimmy guards the captive pilot and the unconscious smuggler while the others return to the control room. The Jedi, continuing her reign of awesome, reboots an emitter console so that we can call for help. Dropships turn up and pick up everybody, escorting us all to safety. It is also discovered that the General who jumped is still alive and is captured as well. At this point Psycho Bitch removes his helmet, and turns out not to be a clone at all...
To be continued, hopefully sometime this weekend. *Fingers crossed*
In a previous session, my main character got barbequed: it involved Jellybean's dug Jedi (see picture below), a flamethrower and an unfortunate dice roll. My character went up in flames but didn't die. I'm still waiting to hear how permanent her injuries are.
What you lookin' at?
So I started the session with control of two clonetroopers who'd been temporarily added to the party. We've been through quite a few clonetroopers - George Cloney, Clonan the Barbarian, Stella (NOOOO! STELLLLLLLLA!) and Monty are dead, dead, seriously injured, and waiting at a checkpoint we named 'Chasm of Bad Rolls', respectively. Of the two still with us, we called one 'Jimmy Clone', which we had proudly written down on a sheet of paper from the last session. We couldn't find the name of the second clone anywhere and nobody could remember it, so we named him 'Mystery Guy' which eventually became 'Mysterioso' for the rest of the day. There's only so many pun names you can come up with...
Whose name you laughing at, punk?
We had been dispatched into a mountain base to find a secret meeting and kill/arrest the people involved. We found ourselves in a control room with a couple of consoles. One was covered in light switches and door controls, none of which were labelled. Smuggler Antigone (Thia_cat's character) begged to be allowed to just randomly push buttons but was overruled. We continued on over a bridge and through a door. There were people to shoot but also, smack bang in the middle of the room, were two shiny speeder bikes or swoops. For those not as familiar with the Star Wars 'verse these particular bikes are like motorcyles that hover just off the ground using thrusters called 'repulsors', and they are generally as hard to drive and steer as real motorbikes.
Imagine this in a nice fire-engine red or a blazing yellow.
There was a lot of shooting and fighting, mostly by the Jedi and the two clonetroopers. The smuggler hung back and started flicking lights randomly on and off - this mostly worked in our favour. She also cut power to all the doors, meaning everything open stayed open and everything shut stayed shut. The stormtroopers got hurt pretty bad and retreated back across the bridge, leaving the Jedi by herself just as she discovered that the meeting we were sent to break-up involved a Sith. There were several Generals and grunts trying desperately to get out of the door our smuggler had sealed shut remotely.
The two stormtroopers were rapidly trying to heal each other when the unexpected happened : our usually cowardly smuggler ran across the bridge and vaulted into the seat of one of the speeder bikes. It's unusual for her to run towards danger so I can only conclude that the bikes were shiny enough to risk being shot at ;). She got the engine going, swung the bike around and used its guns to shoot back at the enemy, all the while being shot at. At this stage, the Jedi was being thrown across the room by the Sith and the two of them faced each other across a steady stream of blaster fire from the bike.
Sometime around then, the generals and their lackeys managed to score a few hits on the speeder bike. Smuggler was still unscathed but the bike's front repulsors activated and it shot backwards into a wall. Bike half-in and half-out of wall and still hovering above the ground, the bike successfully blocked off the corridor behind the wall and stopped the battle droids behind from getting in to join the fight. At this point the Smuggler started to worry that it was time to bail and grabbed a spanner to jam the guns into firing position. Unfortunately the bike was still taking a beating and the repulsors failed, dropping the bike abruptly onto the ground. This changed the firing angle to across the doorway, cutting off the recovered clonetroopers from coming to the aid of the Jedi.
So powerful was the firepower that a dead body was blasted off the ground and down the stairs. It flew in between the Jedi and Sith. The Jedi tried to force-push the body at the Sith and the Sith pushed back. So for a while the body was suspended between the two and started pancaking under the pressure. Then the Sith won the contest and the dead body went flying, knocking our poor Jedi across the room in the process.
The Smuggler was all for bailing from the bike but the rest of the party insisted she unjam the guns first so that the clones could get past. With a little muttering, she unjammed the guns. The bike's repulsors activated, jacknifing the bike up to crash into the ceiling, where the repulsors failed again and it came crashing down to the ground. Then it exploded in the smuggler's face. Thus leading to a new definition of re-scheming as 'revisiting the plan after the bike explodes'. Smuggler was virtually comatose and on point of death, which was thia_cat's time to leave but she hung around to see how the Jedi-Sith battle went.
Our little dug Jedi was pinned to the ground under the dead body, when she decided to be sneaky. She stealthily pulled a concussion grenade and force-threw it at the Sith. The Sith saw it coming and caught it with the Force. The two then had a Force-contest, generating a high pressure Force 'bomb' at the centre of which was a grenade. Our GM had to look that up and it did end as expected, blowing up in spectacular fashion. Fortunately, the explosion happened several metres away from the Jedi but only a foot from the Sith so the Sith took the brunt of the blow, killing him when he hit the wall on the other side of the room. We all cheered, especially since the Smuggler wasn't completely dead (not stable but not yet passed the point of no return).
We waved thia_cat goodbye just as lady-luinheniel arrived. We were still on a bit of a sugar-high and we'd played an RPG with lady-luinheniel before so we pretty much told her the entire afternoon's play and invited her to join us in the mop-up operation. With almost no prep, she became a clonetrooper p.o.w. that had been tied up in the corner and we continued on.
Jimmy Clone was least recovered from his injuries so he stayed to try to revive the Smuggler while Mysterioso went to help the others. He passed the new clone (who had just rediscovered his armour and weapons) and invited him to join us.
"Hey, you combat ready?"
"Sure."
And off we went again.
Our dug Jedi capped off single-handedly killing the Sith with almost single-handedly pursuing the fleeing Generals and lackeys. She steadily killed the lackeys while the Generals made a run for it. At the this point Mysterioso and the new clone managed to catch up and helped out. We ran past a couple of mounted anti-aircraft gun and managed to resist the urge to climb on and start shooting in a small, confined space. Only just resisted, possibly because the Smuggler wasn't there.
It was about then when Jimmy Clone managed to bring the Smuggler back from the brink of death. He dragged her away from the speeder bike and confirmed that the battle droids were still trapped behind the rubble and not about to come out shooting. He searched her for grenades and decided that the safest course of action would be to put her on the back of the surviving bike. Fortunately she was too unconscious to object to the safety of this maneouver. It might have been around then that he became referred to as "Mad" Jimmy.
He's helping. What did you think he was doing?
The others followed the Generals out to a landing pad where they were desperately trying to take off in their ship to escape. The new clone realised that he had an anti-armour attachment for his gun, and earned the nickname 'Psycho Bitch'. Mysterioso followed suit and they were soon launching explosives at the ship with glee. Half the ship fell off but the engines were still going. Mysterioso runs forward to hurl an EMP grenade up the open ramp and into the ship. Does some damage but the engines are still going. So the Jedi Force-pulls the General trying to close the ramp, dragging him all the way down to the ground. The General stands up and runs straight back into the ship. The Jedi repeats so the General tries a new tactic and leaps over the edge of the platform.
The Jedi tries to catch him but she's quite tiny and can't hold him, even when Mysterioso runs over to help. The guy falls for several turns (6 seconds) before he fires the jetpacks we didn't know he was wearing. He still hits the ground at the bottom but instead of dying he just breaks a lot of bones.
Meanwhile, Pyscho Bitch and Mysterioso board the ship, grappling with the pilot who is still trying to take off with half a ship and an open ramp. They grapple, Mysterioso gets in a miraculous EMP grenade throw which manages to bounce down inside his armour where it explodes in his crotch. Being an EMP grenade, it disables all the controls in the cockpit and the engine finally cuts out. The pilot is pretty shocked but EMP grenades are designed to affect machinary rather than people so he's mostly okay. The pilot surrenders, and is tied up with the Smuggler's synth rope.
Mad Jimmy guards the captive pilot and the unconscious smuggler while the others return to the control room. The Jedi, continuing her reign of awesome, reboots an emitter console so that we can call for help. Dropships turn up and pick up everybody, escorting us all to safety. It is also discovered that the General who jumped is still alive and is captured as well. At this point Psycho Bitch removes his helmet, and turns out not to be a clone at all...
To be continued, hopefully sometime this weekend. *Fingers crossed*