(Some of the stuff we do is published, some created by the GM and I have no idea which is which, so I've removed the names of any NPCs and left events as vague as possible, here. I veer close to making my point near the end, honest. )

Our game ended last week. We'd gone from fleeing Teemo, to getting rid of him, to living with the consequences of that (the Hutt's clan), to a sequence of linked, deniable missions that - as it turned out - supported a single objective: our Hutt patron finally assassinating an in-family rival so they could grab the rival's turf without the rest of the family objecting.

Our final mission was supposed to be the assassination of the rival's right-hand-man. Even though our patron had told us point-blank that turning the mission down (or failing but surviving) would see us on a hit list, Oskara (as I was playing her) was dead against killing for money (killing to keep herself or her crew alive and out of prison, sure, but assassination was a line she'd never wanted to cross). She was alone in this, but Pash, Manny and CC-2N8 seemed to really want her along. There was a long, in-character discussion where each made their case and she told them both practical reasons why they shouldn't and (I think) made it clear how sh*tty she'd feel about herself if she did help them. Then Pash - her best (perhaps only) friend in the galaxy - emotionally blackmailed her into doing it.

Things were turning sour and I was pretty much at my lowest point. Which is when Pash twisted the knife.
P: “Think about the reason you got involved in this business.”
He shocked me. For all his flaws, Pash is my longest-serving friend. He knows what the cold façade is for.
O: “You’re willing to go there? You know what that means?”
Pash shrugged, an impetuous smirk on his face.
P: “It is what it is,”Pash brought the bottle to his lips, the light from the table-top setting the whiskey and backwash aglow. “I’m Pash.”

(Florid as it is, that's actually the second draft for my group's blog - Pash's player told me I needed to make him sound more "douchey".)

So, having risked her life for her crew on several occasions, her illusions well and truly broken Oskara accepted and helped plan and implement the murder.

And it went, pretty much, like clockwork. We got away without a fuss and went to a surveyed but uninhabited world to lay low until our patron got in contact.

When they got in contact with us, we discovered that the deal Manny (our face, who'd quietly been lining his own pockets) had struck meant that we could not (not would not, could not) get paid until after their war against their rival was concluded. (Slow clap for Manny, the goof) To that end they wanted us to do one last job - murder their rival. Not only was it financially in our interest to do this (we wouldn't get paid for the murder we'd committed), refusal would, again, provoke lethal rebuke.

Yep, they were demanding two murders for the price of one, and there was Oskara having not wanted the crew to be involved in either.

The rival's ship had been attacked and had shot down their attackers, but had last been reported as about to crash on a world near to us. Our patron's other forces weren't close enough to finish the job before their rival was rescued.

M: “We should talk to [patron's rival]. If she makes a better offer than [patron], we can take them back to their base. If not, we do [patron]’s job and hope she honours the agreement.”
Things were getting tense again. They were about to get worse.
O: “We follow Manny’s plan. We go to [rival], we try to cut a deal and if we don’t like it we walk away.”
M: “Okay. But if we choose to kill them you understand you’re not getting a share in the reward, right?”
My mouth was dry.
O: “No.” I came to a decision and, because of my not-quite evaporated loyalty, I couldn’t keep it secret. “I mean if you try to murder them I’ll stop you.”
Pash was surprised. Manny turned to him,
M: “I don’t see how she could?” then back to me, “How about we drop you off somewhere? So you’re not involved?”
I looked him in the eye.
O: “It’s too late for that. You don’t have time to take me anywhere – if the clock wasn’t running, [patron] would have had time to send their own assassins against [rival].”
M: “We could leave you… here?”
O: “I stay here? With no way of getting back to civilisation if you fail? Not only that, with all that’s happening I just don’t trust you.”
P: “You think we’d leave you stranded? You think I’d do that? C’mon Oskara, we’re friends.”
O: “FRIENDS?! I thought we were friends but then – even after I made it **** clear how much I didn’t want to be involved in murder – you used what you knew about me. I warned you that what you were doing was significant, but you pushed anyway because you didn't want friendship – you just wanted a reliable weapon!”
Pash’s surprise was replaced by shock, quickly replaced by indignation. He hit the button to reconnect the line to [patron]. I guessed what that meant and handed CC-2N8 the knife I’d been using to prepare the animal we’d killed for the evening meal.
P: “No deal.”He shot me a look of raw, volcanic anger before igniting the engines.

Once again, we were on the run.

TL/DR:

Our game didn't end with a dangerous mission, or something blowing up, or a fight against someone we'd grown to hate - it ended with roleplaying. I doubt I've done it justice here, but it was **** satisfying.

The GM had sketched out 4 ways the game could end. We picked the 5th.

I mostly just wanted to get that off my chest. Anyone else got a war story to tell?

So, what's next, or are you retiring the characters?

Patron and rival will fight it out, but patron will win. To me, that should leave them so weakened that they'll be vulnerable to other organisations (and the resources our patron had hoped to acquire should be siginificantly diminished, too). I don't think our GM agrees with my assessment, though. Either way I expect there'll be revenge stories.

Looks like it's time to explore the other side of the galaxy.

Nah, not retired. The crew has been shaken up, their relationships uncertain, they can't be sure about the loyalty of their contacts, and they face stress from within and without - sounds like a good place to start another campaign, no? I think it'll be a while before we come back to them, however.

Instead (assuming we don't move on to other game systems) another GM in the group picked up the Age of Rebellion starter...

Gotcha. Our EoE rogue's gallery is growing and growing, we run it episodic and have so far about 8 characters that show up episodically to play, and I know my GM is all about farming the Traveler adventures, plus he wants to progress us a bit to JoY, and we just launched into BtR. I am thinking I will steer my campaign towards AoR and if someone wants to dip their toes in the Force waters integrate a character or two from F&D. We both like this system a lot and FFG's stuff is great, coupled with the mountain of material out there we will be on this game quite awhile I'd think.