Firstly, apologies for the lengthy post but just wanted to share my Edge experience this evening. I got my eight-year old daughter hooked on Star Wars a while ago and she’s wanted to play Edge ever since. We played it once and her RPGing technique was something along the lines of [rolls dice] “Ooh, one success – I win the game!!!”, and it got so difficult to get her thinking along different lines (though I can’t blame her for trying) that I wasn’t relishing the prospect of playing the game with her again.

Anyways, I relented this evening and had probably the best roleplaying experience of my GM career so far. She and I had planned to play D&D with a few others but they bailed and so we decided to return to the edge of the empire for a two player game which I’d GM and improvise off-the-cuff. She took the Oskara pregen and we used the Mos Shuuta map. Disregarding Oskara’s backstory, I explained that she’d been hired by the empire to track down a Bothan spy responsible for leaking the plans for the Death Star – one of those few who DIDN’T die to bring us this information She promptly set about making her way through the spaceport like a hard-boiled detective, shaking down Jawas and other esoteric life-forms until she discovered that her mark had been seen in (cliché alert!) the cantina. This is where she started to surprise me. Her first port of call wasn’t the cantina, but the junk shop where she enquired about some additional ammunition for her carbine (impressive… most impressive…). Alas, she paid top dollar for these – paternal note: must teach daughter to haggle.

She then made her way to the cantina, hanging at the bar like a pro, only to fluff a cool check and set the Bothan's spider senses tingling. Rather than leave, she walked through the clientele, sat right in front of the mark and proceeded to ask about his illicit activities and side projects. When advised that he had both hands under the table, she instructed him to show his hands and took out her binders. Here she fluffed a perception check so didn’t notice the rebel enforcer getting into position (I used the rebel cell leader card from the adversary deck - closest card to hand) and she was very lucky when the first shots started flying. At this point the Bothan ran for it, leaving her to get into cover on the stage while the rebel enforcer proxy leapt behind the bar. The rebel made a miracle shot and it was then that I flipped his card over and realised that he had a disruptor weapon (!!!), which did a good chunk of damage – must check these things in future. Oskara ran, failed a co-ordination check to make it through the panicking crowd and ended up in a heap on the cantina floor. When asked what her action would be, she asked if she could shoot from the floor (of course you can, my dear). She bumped up her pool with a destiny point and rolled a roaring success with a triumph. When asked about the nature of the triumph, her ice-cold roleplaying kicked in and she announced that the enforcer was dead. Not wanting to rain on her parade by pointing out that he wasn’t a minion (and admittedly a little perturbed by the monster I have created), I nodded and let it be.

What followed was a chase through the streets avoiding storm troopers and culminating in an awesome sequence in the landing bay. She used the successes on her perception check to rule that the mark was in the control room while I used her disadvantages to rule that he was on his comm-link and looking right at her while he was punching in commands. At this point she made her way into the control room (ignoring the blaster bolts streaking over her shoulders from security droids and the fact that two rebel soldiers were leaving the ship to assist), where she wrestled the comm-link out of his hand and bound his wrists. She took so long over it (another fluffed roll) that the Bothan’s team were closing in on her position along with the droids who had set up shop outside the door. When asked what she wanted to do in such a precarious position (her wounds and strain were looking risky at this point), she declared that she would, “grab the Bothan and jump through the window onto the roof of the ship". My heart soared. I gave her a bonus die for being awesome and, thankfully, she succeeded (albeit with five disadvantage – strain from broken glass). She bullied the Bothan at blaster-point into opening the hatch (difficult with wrists tied, so it gave an opportunity for her to be shot by the droids, which led to her rolling down the roof of the ship while the Bothan jumped inside – couldn’t seal the hatch with hands tied, thankfully). She jumped in after him, determined as ever, remembered to seal the hatch above her and then made a beeline for the boarding ramp to close it. She went as far as to bust the controls so that it couldn’t be opened by the enforcers from outside or by the Bothan from inside. She prioritised getting to the cockpit as soon as she felt the ship taking off, incapacitated another enforcer along the way and wasted no further time. She got to the cockpit where the Bothan was at the controls (having had time to slip his bonds) and he took the opportunity to pull some wild manoeuvres, flipping the ship onto its side with the luxury of a seat belt. I asked for a coordination check and used a destiny point to upgrade the difficulty and she rolled the most timely despair in any game I’ve run so far, losing her balance with a head-first thud and then unconscious. And she loved it! It was the perfect cliff hanger. I was proud of her narrative suggestions, imagination, resourcefulness and how she captured the feel of the saga. The moral of this long-winded story? Give it a go with the kids, if you haven’t already!

So what could happen next guys? The obvious answer is that she wakes up in captivity with the rebel cell, but I’m all for not-so-obvious.

Awesome read!

Have her have to team up with the Bothan.

She wakes up to the ship being rocked by TIE fighters trying to shoot down the "stolen" craft. I know that she is working for the Empire, but in the fog of war maybe she cant communicate to the TIE's that she is on board. Communications took a critical.

Also, when they jump to hyperspace, have something go wrong with the hyperdrive placing them in parts unknown. You could have a social encounter that gets them to know one another and who knows where that could go.

I know that she is working for the Empire, but in the fog of war maybe she cant communicate to the TIE's that she is on board. Communications took a critical.

Or, if you want her to side with the Alliance, the comms ARE working and the TIE pilots tell her: "Well, bounty hunter, you had your chance, you failed. Looks like you are not that useful after all." and start shooting anyway.

Either of those could work - though given her approach in our last game I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to disable the ship and wait for a boarding party.

I love the idea of giving her and the Bothan a common enemy to team up against. If her allegiance to the Empire is that strong, make the common enemy pirates instead of Imperials or Rebels.

This could work well. A hasty jump out of a skirmish with the Empire could put them in pirate controlled space (any ideas where?). The ship is then boarded and the group captured (out of the frying pan and all that). This could lead into a tweaked version of the old Pirates of Prexiar adventure from the WEG SWRPG, which I have kicking about somewhere. Could end up with a helluva firefight between Vengar's pirate cronies, pursuing Imperial forces, rebels who want their Bothan back and Oskara who could be fighting for any of the sides at this point. This could be good.

The Taanab system had a bit of a pirate problem, at least, until a certain roguish gentleman pulled a "little maneuver" that brought the pirates down. If you wanted to introduce Oskara to Lando Calrissian, or keep it a little subtle and see if she picks up on the clues, you could go that route.

Otherwise, have them drop out near Gamorr and have to deal with Gamorrean Raiders.

I think we might smoke some bacon.

Found out that Gamorr's moon has a former seperatist base that was later occupied by pirates. I'll be repurposing Vengar's base from WEG SWRPG and putting it on this moon. I'm thinking that the Bothan will be captured by the pirates, along with the ship, and that Oskara and the Bothan's co-pilot will be hidden onboard. They'll have to work together to rescue the troublesome Bothan, leaving Oskara with the choice of doing it for the good of the Alliance or just so she can hand him over to the Empire later. I anticipate that Rebel and Imperial forces will converge on the moon and the choice will have to be made.

This is a fantastic post! I wish all players would think outside the numbers in front of them. I hope to see further adventures

We're aiming to get another game in this weekend, so I'll let you know how that goes. Regardless of whether she fulfils the Empire's contract or sees the light of reason, she'll need a new ship - which she won't have the credits for. So I'll be interested to see how she plans on getting around that.

On another note, how much should the Empire pay for the acquisition of this Bothan acquisition? Assuming he's acquired...

"Quick" update... my daughter and I had our second game and it ended on another all-guns-blazing high note for Oskara, our aspiring and hapless bounty hunter. She woke up in the smuggling compartment of the ship she'd been knocked out in. It emerged that they'd been chased from Tatooine by TIEs (as suggested above) and made a jump to the Gamorr system (as suggested above) where they were waylaid by pirates (as suggested) who disabled the already ailing vessel. The Bothan pretended to be the only crew member, allowing his remaining rebel accomplice to hide with Oskara and hatch a rescue plan. Oskara was told that if she wanted to get off-world alive, she'd need to help undo the mess she'd created - and help the alliance by extracting the Bothan spy. Before they left I had her roll a difficult perception, which she succeeded, to find a transponder (danger music!).

They made their way off the ship once the pirates had finished gutting it and stealthed through the jungle shipyard. Oskara distracted a pirate by lobbing a hydrospanner somewhere, checked the bag he left at his work station and found a spare blaster (she'd been disarmed by the sceptical rebel accomplice). I asked if she wanted to pocket the weapon on the sly, she said no, missing the point entirely and so I had her reluctant companion take the weapon off her

They travelled through the jungle to Vengar's pirate base, accosted a pirate who was having speeder bike trouble, and finally reached the camp. They waited until nightfall to infiltrate and managed to avoid detection by a typically dim-witted Gamorrean. The rebel accomplice took up residence in a guard tower to provide fire support (a contrivance to help Oskara if she started to struggle) and it all promptly went to hell. Rather than investigate the repair shed, she went to the barracks and fluffed a stealth check, alerted the base and had to evade a search party (setback dice for alarms and pressure). She secured some weaponry (destiny point) and started lighting the place up. This provoked the ire of Vengar himself, who engaged Oskara in full-on boss battle mode. I used the stats for a pirate captain nemesis because pain is an effective teacher. The fight ended with Oskara waking up in the repair shed, fastened up beside the Bothan ("Some rescue attempt, huh?"). I then flipped a destiny point to make SOMETHING AWFUL happen; a huge explosion and blaster fire from outside. After freeing the Bothan, she peered outside to see stormtroopers fighting from a dropship and tearing the place apart. As the voice of the dark side, I reminded her that her original task was to bring the Bothan to the Empire for money, but no matter how hard I tried, she was firm in her change of heart and decided to help the acquisition instead.

She took the opportunity to get the Bothan close to the ship, but the Bothan was seen by a stormtrooper who shot and severely wounded him. Oskara braved hell-fire to get the wounded Bothan onboard Vengar's corvette and sealed the door. It was at this point that I had the Bothan drop the bombshell that he wasn't prepared to leave without his accomplice. Oskara contacted him on the comm and he informed them that he was pinned down and that they should leave. I made it clear that she had the choice and it ended with Oskara clenching her jaw, taking her blaster and lowering the boarding ramp...

Hi, I just wanted to say that reading your daughter's adventure is a blast. She is definitely a creative player. I hope one day I'll be able to do same with mine, but will have to be patient as she is only 3 weeks old.

If you continue adventuring with her, please post (that goes for other parents playing with kids).

Pac_Man3D - your daughter is awesome, and congrats to you for playing such a cool game with her! I think she would get along great with my wife - the penchant for blowing things up is extraordinary!

Thanks Iosuah and Ceodryn! I'll tell her that people have been saying good things about her gaming

We're planning another session for the weekend or early next week. I'm in two minds about how the Bothan will proceed once Oskara gets back into the melee. One possibility is that he will take control of the corvette and fly it out of the compound, over the jungle canopy to a safer extraction zone for Oskara and her newfound rebel accomplice. This could lead to a cool chase through the jungle on either the local cargo skiff or on the speeder bike they saw before then entered the base. They'd have to rendezvous with the corvette and get off-world, all the while chased by pirates and the Imperials (they don't know about the Imperial forces in orbit yet). The other, more cynical possibility is that the Bothan will take control of the ship and simply do a runner, leaving Oskara and his (expendable) accomplice to fend for themselves. This could work because a) he's a Bothan first and a rebel second, and b) the Bothan has no real reason to trust Oskara (other than she risked her life and patched him up - but again, he's a Bothan, and he wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for her).

I'm torn between possibilities, so any suggestions are welcome.

Amazing roleplaying, sounds like brilliant fun!

Hi folks - here's another instalment of Oskara's adventures, for those of you who are interested lots of weird rolls in this one, with frequent zero successes and crazy amounts of advantage which were at times difficult for my daughter or me to justify from a narrative POV (might give the new D&D a go soon, just to take a break with its binary success/failure mechanics).

Anyway, here's what happened.

Oskara descended the boarding ramp of Vengar's corvette and got into cover among the various cargo crates (she didn't think to look in them, alas) while stormtroopers and pirate scum were shooting the hell out of each other. She didn't get chance to look at any of the dead pirates and therefore didn't see their Black Sun tattoos - that'll be a surprise for later. She located her newfound rebel affiliate via comlink and dodged blaster fire to get to him. Trading shots with stormtroopers and rolling TWO TRIUMPHS, she made her way back towards the corvette and killed two of the boys in white. I flipped a destiny token to have the Bothan take off as pirates and stormies were converging on his position. Oskara was rather annoyed at this development and was concerned about betrayal (in reality, he was heading to a clearer extraction zone). She had the awesome idea of jumping onto the landing gear (she added, "because the legs will go into the ship later" - clever girl) and I made her roll, which she promptly failed due to her character's poor athletics. This led to her stealthing up on the last stormtrooper, who was holed up on the nearby cargo skiff. She pushed him over the railings, and with the rebel accomplice in tow, smashed through the fence and into the jungle.

They followed the pirate corvette (which was veering wildly over the jungle canopy for reasons yet unknown, ie. Vengar onboard) and had a firefight with pirates on speeder bikes. These were dispatched just in time for me to flip another destiny point and bring an Imperial troop transport into the fray. Oskara took a shortcut through the jungle as the corvette came crashing down into the jungle, tearing up the trees in a long furrow and coming to a stop at long range. Oskara failed a piloting check in the face of oncoming trees and crash-landed the skiff as the shuttle was touching down and disgorging stormtroopers behind. She had the choice of going into the corvette and rescuing the Bothan or holding off the Imperials while her accomplice did the heroics. She chose the first option and headed into the downed vessel, blaster bolts chasing her. She had to lever open the damaged door and she ruled that her advantages meant the Bothan had collapsed in the corridor ahead. I ruled that Vengar stepped around the corner, battered, bruised and irate. Remarkably, Oskara won initiative and loosed off a flurry of shots which damaged Vengar's armour. Sans weapon, he tore off his molten chest piece and then charged towards Oskara, grabbed her and held her aloft. The dice result led to Oskara being held up by her feet, gun falling elsewhere while the pirate went into one of his "you meddling rebels..." speeches. Oskara flipped a destiny point to notice a weapon on his belt (I suggested miniaturised thermal detonator), which she stealthily activated with a kind of demented, childish glee. Vengar dropped her, giving an opportunity for her to escape with the Bothan before the explosion went off. Kids being kids, she didn't think to confirm the kill That might come back to haunt her.

They mopped up the stormtroopers in a jungle skirmish that outstayed its welcome and finally had chance to plan their next move. With the Imperials dead, they had access to a troop transport (no hyperdrive) and the choice of travelling to Gamorr itself (bad idea) or to the waiting Imperial picket ship (Vigil class). Oskara decided to head out to the Imperials under the pretence of handing the wounded Bothan over, with the rebel accomplice disguised as a stormtrooper. This way, they will potentially get a nice fat credit stick and the Bothan will be attended to by medical personnel before his interrogation. At this point, their plan will be to bust him out before he goes to the cells, but they will need to disable the tractor beams, locate a hyperspace-faring vessel and get the hell out of dodge.

In short, I think Oskara's adventure is about to hit a whole new level of crazy.

I've run games for seasoned players who didn't do things as fun as this

Remarkably, Oskara won initiative and loosed off a flurry of shots which damaged Vengar's armour. Sans weapon, he tore off his molten chest piece and then charged towards Oskara, grabbed her and held her aloft. The dice result led to Oskara being held up by her feet, gun falling elsewhere while the pirate went into one of his "you meddling rebels..." speeches. Oskara flipped a destiny point to notice a weapon on his belt (I suggested miniaturised thermal detonator), which she stealthily activated with a kind of demented, childish glee.

My favorite part.

I'm not sure that this was Vengar's favourite part And the parts that are left might have a lot to say about it in a future installment. I anticipate that some Imperial officer will enquire as to whether Vengar was killed or not. If Oskara isn't certain then the officer will send troops down to confirm the kill. If Oskara lies and the officer believes her, then she'll get additional payment. And a nasty shock some time later.

It's been a while but we finally got another game in earlier today. Here's what happened:

Oskara and her new rebel friend (disguised as a stormtrooper) took the troop transport back to the Imperial corvette that was looming in orbit. They were greeted by a contingent of troops and an Imperial jobs'-worth who had the disguised rebel report for debriefing (being the only survivor of his unit) and the Bothan spy taken away for medical treatment prior to interrogation. The officer informed Oskara that her exploits had caught the eye of the ship's captain who would very much like to speak with her. She met with the captain and incurred his wrath by being cheeky and for lying that the emperor had sent her on some secret mission. This called for the corresponding check which she promptly failed and earned a reprimand. Oskara was paid the credits for capturing the Bothan but the captain wasn't pleased to hear that Vengar may still be alive. He would send a detail to confirm the kill or make it a certainty. At this point I had the ship rocked by an explosion and a frantic communication announcing that rebel ships had just jumped into the system all guns blazing. The captain instructed the attendant stormtroopers to take Oskara to a bunk where she could wait until the Imperials put an end to "what is bound to be a minor skirmish".

Oskara was taken to sleeping quarters and once the door was closed, she helped herself to some of the weaponry stashed away, breaking into a locker to do so. A huge success with threat meant that she opened the cabinet and filled her pockets in time for an officer to walk in and see what was going on. She tried to blag her way out of this but was escorted out of the room (though not before pocketing a spare blaster rifle, map and a couple of frag grenades). This was when I had an enormous explosion take out the corridor ahead and plunge the shop into chaos, with the rebels boarding the ship elsewhere. Oskara couldn't get further due to burning wreckage and smoke, and so had to prise open an elevator door. I had the elevator out of action so she had to climb out. A couple of threat led to the elevator falling and Oskara holding onto the cable. She climbed the cable and a couple more threat led to the cable snapping as she reached the doorway above, leaving not much in the way of security should she fall. She opened the door with some difficulty and found herself beside cross-fire between stormtroopers and rebels. She darted across the skirmish without getting hit and made her way into the medical bay in the hope of finding her Bothan friend. The scene was fraught with medical staff attending to the wounded, so the chief was very brusque with her. She learnt that the spy had been patched up and taken to the detention centre, but her line of questioning alerted the doctor and he requested that security forces come immediately. Oskara heard this and gunned them down after a small firefight. She then ushered the rebels from the corridor into the room, covering one of the soldiers while they sliced the doors to seal them. A barricade was set up, the medical staff held hostage and the rebels decided to hold this position while Oskara secured the Bothan. She arrived at the detention centre and unceremoniously charged down the corridor, blasting through the guards and wounding the officer inside. She intimidated the cell code out of him but it took so long and she had to be so noisy about it that security droids showed up to investigate. The lights in the ship were very temperamental at this point and so she opted for discretion, avoiding the droids while she located the cell. She freed the Bothan (cueing smart remarks about bringing the whole Alliance when just a couple of nerd-herders would do) and helped him out of the facility.

Oskara got in touch with her rebel accomplice on the comms and found out that he was with some other troops in the hangar bay but were having some difficulties. On the way there, they noticed that they were seeing more droids and less humans. They stopped to question a wounded officer, who coughed up that the high ranking officers were abandoning ship and that droids were being assigned to direct the stricken vessel towards the rebel flagship on a suicide run. Oskara ensured that the Bothan reached the hangar and the rebels. She then had the choice of trying to avert a catastrophe by interfering with engineering (big job), sending a communication (boring job) or going to the bridge and blowing **** up (that wasn't how I phrased it). She chose the bridge and I started a counter to keep her on her toes (and yes, I would have let it reach zero - she knows I'm a tough GM). She reached the bridge, taking out security droids along the way, and found that one young officer/sacrificial lamb was overseeing the direction of a skeleton crew of droids. They had a MASSIVE gun duel in which both were critically injured but culminated in Oskara coming out on top by figuring out which droid was controlling the ship's direction, using him as a meat(?) shield and gunning down the rampant Imperial. She then changed the bearing of the ship and used her grenades to blow up the droids.

A race to the hangar ensued. She got her posse onto the shuttle, escaped the failing craft and got shot at by X-Wings until realising that she had to convince them that they were friendlies. On the way to the rebel frigate she noticed the escape pods from the Imperial vessel making their way towards Gamorr (out of the frying pan etc) and I remarked that no doubt the captain got away and word will spread of her exploits today. In other words, Oskara has netted herself some serious Obligation - and possibly some Duty because I'm thinking of bringing in elements of Age of Rebellion, given the shift in allegiance.

What she doesn't know yet is the nature of the information that the Bothan is carrying. In the next session, it will emerge that he has knowledge of a hush-hush Imperial project... The Dark Trooper Project.

Got another game in yesterday evening. This time we were joined by my brother-in-law who took on the role of Cael from the AoR Beginner Box. We decided that Cael was the real name of the alliance operative who had helped Oskara on her recent missions. In the weeks since her escape from the clutches of the Empire and her daring rescue, Oskara had become a member of the Alliance, though still regarded with suspicion by some. Despite reservations from some quarters, she was assigned to Special Forces who would be able to use her talents.

What followed was a heavily altered version of the Whisper Base scenario with a couple of interesting deviations from the script towards the end.

After explaining the backstory surrounding Onderon, the Imperial presence on the planet and the political machinations of the local Moff, I explained to the group (or pair) that they were to take part in a three-pronged assault. The initial assault would be a ruse, whereby a Rebel ground force would enter the atmosphere with enough noise to draw attention from Whisper Base. They would land on the planet and eliminate whatever patrol was sent to investigate, with a view to drawing most of the troops from the listening outpost. A second (and more quiet) ground force would take the communications array offline to cut Whisper Base off from the outside world. The third team (our heroes) would be the ones responsible for getting into the base, capturing or killing Lieutenant Sarev and winning the day.

Oskara and Cael began their portion of the mission lurking in the jungle, spying distance from the huge blast doors prior to the diversionary assault. It was very clear that just getting inside would be quite a feat. They were under orders to wait for confirmation that the comm array was down before attempting to gain access, which meant a lot of sweating (and strain grain) in the jungle. The blast doors started to groan open and disgorged a swarm of speeder bikes and an AT-ST into the jungle, presumably on their way to intercept the rebels – as per the best laid plans. Though they hadn’t received confirmation regarding the comms yet, Cael pointed out that this was their best opportunity to gain access before the doors shut – which they were now in the process of doing. Athletics checks from both of them left them with failures, so rather than lock them out, I ruled that they had exerted themselves with further strain and throwing themselves/rolling between the doors meant they had both either damaged or dropped a piece of equipment. Oskara lost her comlink and one of Cael’s stimpacks was broken.

They had little chance to catch their breath in the enormous garage. The gloom meant they were hidden from the pair of Imperial troops but getting to one of the doors might be a risk. Stealth checks led to Cael getting to the door but frightening a mouse droid, thus attracting the interest of one of the troops. Oskara’s stealth check suffered a setback because of this, but she reached Cael without incident. The door to the facility was locked, so Oskara set about slicing the control panel. She said she wanted this done quickly, suffering a setback in the process to get the job finished without attracting attention. Cael kept his cool and so didn’t alert the troops to their activities. With the door swishing open and light pouring out from the corridor, one of the troops decided to make his way over for a quick look. Our heroes wasted no time, got into the corridor (devoid of Imperial presence) and started checking corners to ascertain where the threats might be. There was one stormtrooper posted outside the briefing room and one on patrol heading their way. They decided to head the opposite way, splitting up to cover different junctions. Oskara positioned herself near the far garage door, which opened to reveal one of the troopers from earlier. He was dumbstruck enough to allow time for Oskara to put her hand over his mouth, stun him and lay his body down in the garage. Cael lurked in wait for the patrolling stormtrooper and brawled him into slumber with the butt of his blaster rifle. The sleepyheads were concealed in the garage while the alerted trooper from earlier was trying to fathom what the mouse droid wanted to tell him. Cael used this distraction to change into the stormtrooper’s armour and hatched a plan to dispatch the remaining garage trooper. Cael-in-disguise lured him to Oskara, who then rendered him unconscious. Further plans were made whereby Cael would escort Oskara through the base as a rebel captive taken from the jungle. They used this opportunity to get the measure of the facility on the way to the Imperial shuttle pad, the cover story being that she was to be detained aboard the Nilos – an unlikely story, but the dice were with them all the way. On the way, they were accosted by a stormtrooper on patrol, making small talk about how they thought the battle was going with the rebels. At this point, I had Cael’s comlink go off, with a voice on the other end LOUDLY announcing that the base’s comms were down and they could begin their assault on the base. To his credit, Cael managed to convince the stormtrooper that the comlink belonged to Oskara and he had merely confiscated it. Phew.

They talked their way past two troopers on guard near the elevator and gained access to the landing pad. Here they met Toor, the grumpy, sarcastic and utterly loveable droid and a sentry on guard. They talked their way aboard the ship (again, admirable rolls and roleplaying) and Oskara was left onboard to do her worst. Cael and Oskara parted ways, with the plan being for him to gain access to the control centre and Oskara to take the shuttle offline, with the action cutting between them. Cael had a number of near-misses where his cover was almost blown, but reached the locked control centre.

Meanwhile Oskara was having a hard time dealing with the shuttle, fluffed rolls on stealth led to the sentry suspecting something was afoot, particularly since she could be seen in the cockpit by anyone with at least one eye. Oskara had to dispatch him before pressing on with slicing the systems. A despair and failure on computers led to it taking longer than anticipated to take the ship offline – and the attention of Toor who came onboard to enquire about the nature of her business.

Cael, in the meantime, had announced a CRAZY plan to get Sarev to leave the control centre. He spoke with the room’s occupants over the internal comms, asking to speak with Sarev personally. He was invited into the room to report, where he noticed a striking young female officer alongside Sarev. This officer was a character I’d cooked up as a fail-safe if the heroes couldn’t get into the room. The idea was that she would execute “fellow” officers in the room to help the heroes gain access, with the cover story that she was an undercover agent for the alliance. This would all be a huge fabrication of course, because she is actually a member of the ISB hoping to infiltrate the heroes’ circle and isn’t above killing her colleagues if it makes her story a little more watertight. Ultimately, this little subplot didn’t come to fruition.

When asked what this disturbance was regarding, Cael spun a yarn about how the captured rebel agent had come with an offer from none other than Mon Mothma herself; an offer which Sarev would find most appealing. At this point, as GM, I rolled my mind’s eye, and looking at the stats thought it was highly unlikely that this would work. Cael rolled against a difficulty pool that consisted of lots of red and amazingly, won the roll. I asked what he wanted Sarev to do as a result and we had the officer leave the room, instructing Cael-in-disguise to accompany him to his quarters where they would discuss this delicate matter in private. I let Cael sweat a bit when Sarev had him lead the way, meaning that the player had to deduce which of the two quarters were Sarev’s personal quarters. There was this wonderful tension because it was all on Cael, without the aid of dice, to arrive at the correct room. I let him sweat over that while we cut back to Oskara…

…who had decided to “hostile the droid” – her own words, and a use of the word ‘hostile’ that will now become a whole group trait. She "hostiled" the droid into helping her sabotage the vessel, although he pointed out that he “wasn’t programmed to participate in such matters and could therefore only assist in an advisory capacity, and not only that, but he would be obligated to fix any problems that had occurred as a result of this sabotage once his accomplice had left the general vicinity”. This was me trying to tempt Oskara into blowing the droid to pieces once the job was done, but instead, after the sabotage, she invited him to join their cause. One less restraining bolt later and Toor was on the level.

Back in the base, Cael had stopped outside Sarev’s quarters (pure luck). Inside, Sarev asked the trooper to highlight the particulars of the offer. Cael struggled with the RPing here, so Sarev asked him to remove his helmet because he was unsure of what the stormtrooper just said. [TENSION MUSIC!]

At this exact moment, Oskara was stepping out of the elevator with a view to finding Cael, forgetting about the two sentries even though their tokens were right there on the map [kids are awesome and cue blaster fight – finally!].

Cael had taken his helmet off while turning away from Sarev, who was more concerned about the blaster fire from down the corridor. Cael used this opportunity to lock himself and Sarev in the room and hold the officer at gunpoint. What unfolded was a lengthy exchange where Cael hit the sweet spot between bribery and blackmail, turning Sarev into a double agent for the Alliance. Sarev issued the order for all troops to stand down and the day was pretty much won. Sarev advised that his troops and some of the officers would need to be disposed of if the ruse were to last for any length of time, and on return to the control centre they found that Sarev’s secret exit (a plot contrivance from the book that I despise) had been revealed; the implication being that my secret ISB plant had escaped to inform the Moff about the base’s fall. [Drama music].

So, all in all, not a bad twist on the base takeover quest and I'm pleased that the heroes achieved their goals without turning the whole thing into a bloodbath - a change of pace from previous games. Our next step(s) will be to make our way through a version of FFG’s follow-up adventure, which we’re all looking forward to. The majority of Imperial personnel will have to be taken off-world to an Alliance prison planet and the heroes will have to fend off the Moff’s eventual counterattack. Also, Oskara isn’t aware of what’s going on behind the scenes and how much duty she has accumulated:

1) Some of Vengar's limbs survived and what's left of him will want her dead.

2) Vengar works for Black Sun and you know what they’re like.

3) The ship the Bothan escaped on in the very first adventure was the Krayt Fang, which belongs to Teemo the Hutt. He’ll be “inviting” Oskara to return to Mos Shuuta to discuss this matter (Debt obligation).

4) There is also a certain Imperial Captain who lost his command because of a pretty Twi’lek bounty hunter and her meddling friends (Hunted obligation).

So much to be done and many plates to spin. I’m excited about the idea of causing a rebellion on Onderon, and I like the potential plot seeds for Jedi-related shenanigans, given the planet’s history – just in time for F&D to be released.

Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts.

wow. awesomness.

I was at a game today and our GM told us about this thread and the creativity and fun destiny use. Great read!