Bib Fortuna was an ugly male twi`lek bastard, and all of Jabba`s female twi`lek slaves were all physically attractive.

That is fine, it made for the right mood in Jabba`s dark and sleazy palace and it described Jabba as the nasty and disgusting villain he was.

Orn Free Taa was also an ugly, male twi`lek bastard with attractive twi`lek females surrounding him. This too described the character with an easy relatable sleaze-factor.

But has anyone tried flipping the coin?

I was thinking of having a reoccuring npc be a gritty and scarred, slave-freeing twi`lek woman with a dark past. Her crew "the chainbreakers" also includes her still beautiful sister.

I was also thinking of having a hutt crimelord wih male slaves instead of female. Maybe hutt slavery will feel more like a real threat to my male players if I do this.

I want to try this to make slavery more "real" in my game and not have it be just sexy-girls-on-a-chain.

That reminds me, I am a bit embarrassed by objectification of women in geek culture...

If you want to completely flip the coin it could be a female Hutt too.

I remember reading somewhere a number of years back that with Twi'leks, the rule of thumb in Star Wars seemed to be that "the men were ugly as sin, while the women were built for sin."

I've employed "handsome Twi'lek men" as NPCs, including one as a recurring villain in the form of a fairly debonair yet thoroughly corrupt New Republic senator, but I generally try to steer away from over-usage of slaves as backdrop, regardless of gender, largely for personal reasons (namely, I find slavery as a concept to be utterly abhorrent). As such, I only employ said trope for an NPC that I definitely want the PCs to have an immense dislike/distaste for right off the bat. And in that regard, sad to say, it seems that having a "pretty female slave" (and not just limited to Twi'leks) is more conducive to establishing that dislike/distaste of the NPC, particularly if the players are female but also in male players too.

If you want to completely flip the coin it could be a female Hutt too.

I actually got the idea when I researched hutts and I found out that most sources say they are hemaphroditic. I don`t know if there is any official canon or anything that backs this up, so maybe this hutt can be female or at least chooses to be.

Slavery is one of the empire's many evils, they don't just kill Jedi and blow up planets they enslave any race they feel like. The clone wars were kind of like the American civil war where the south won.

I'm kinda glad that ffg didn't do an rpg where you play as a true servant of the empire, those are ugly people.

I'm happy to have slavery in a game as a backdrop or something to oppose, it's also a good source of motivation for non-human player characters.

Slavery is one of the empire's many evils, they don't just kill Jedi and blow up planets they enslave any race they feel like. The clone wars were kind of like the American civil war where the south won.

I'm kinda glad that ffg didn't do an rpg where you play as a true servant of the empire, those are ugly people.

I'm happy to have slavery in a game as a backdrop or something to oppose, it's also a good source of motivation for non-human player characters.

On page 15 of Lords of Nal Hutta, it reads:

"Despite Imperial efforts to stamp out spice smuggling, slavery , piracy and other illegal dealings central to many Hutt operations, the Hutts continued to wield extensive influence through the galaxy`s black markets and underworld. Occasionally, the Imperials made secret deals with certain Hutt clans to obtain slaves and rare goods banned by the Empire, as well as to extend Imperial influence into Hutt politics."

So a character could actually have joined the Empire to fight slavery. One step at a time. "Sure the Empire see wookies as animals you can own and droids are machines thar even non-imperials concider property.

But one step at a time, one step at a time... The Empire fights slavery, that will have to do for now!"

And even if he or she didn`t, it is ok to want to play the fictional villain now and again.

I didn't know that about twi'leks when I started playing one. I mean, I chose twi'lek because they were one of the few aliens I could recognize better than referring to them by some animal feature they had like the walrus guy, the camel guy or the that elephant musician guy. My character was going to be a twi'lek, gungan, ewok or wookiee. I play a human in real life.... BORING!

Do I mind that my character is cute? No way! It hasn't mattered in our campaign, though. My dad's the GM. THAT would be weird. :-&

I didn't know that about twi'leks when I started playing one. I mean, I chose twi'lek because they were one of the few aliens I could recognize better than referring to them by some animal feature they had like the walrus guy, the camel guy or the that elephant musician guy. My character was going to be a twi'lek, gungan, ewok or wookiee. I play a human in real life.... BORING!

Do I mind that my character is cute? No way! It hasn't mattered in our campaign, though. My dad's the GM. THAT would be weird. :-&

I liked your post, even if you said gungan..

If you want to completely flip the coin it could be a female Hutt too.

It would hit most male players harder if the Hutt were still "male" and kept male slaves. It will drive home the unwilling aspect harder to them to see a male Twi-lek kept there as a trophy by a Jabba like figure. I have Hutts as hermaphroditic anyway and their male / female persona mostly a convenience for dealing with all those gendered species that the Hutts probably find so odd. It's probably a little like an atheist trying to exist in a society of Christians and Satanists. "I'm an athesist", "Yes, but are you an atheist who favours god or one who favours satan?" "Fine... I'm a Satanist atheist if that helps you."

Anyway, I fully support making the slavery more immediate to the players in such ways. It's a horrific practice and it often gets sexualized in media such as Star Wars in ways that hide that from the viewer.

On the subject of the Empire and Slavery, I have filled in a few of the gaps in ways that make it more plausible to me. For instance, my Empire (and I think this fits with canon) is ostensibly against slavery. What it does have is work-camps for prisoners - which most of the galactic populace are probably and depressingly in favour of - "they're thieves / murderers / traitors, of course they should work off their debt to society". So Wookies being worked to death on Kessel? Yes, absolutely. But the Empire also being "against slavery"? Yes, and not incompatible with the former. Also, there are legal ways to dress this stuff up. Someone referred to a Twi-Lek in my game as a "slave" and got an angry retort that they were an "indentured servant". It was insulting to the Twi'Lek that they should be called a "slave". A bit like how there are polite terms for certain jobs and disrespectful terms. If you called someone cleaning your house a "skivvy" or referred to a bartender as a "wench", it would be similarly disrespectful. Okay, the latter one is so far out of modern usage that it would be treated as quaint rather than an insult, but I think you get what I'm saying. Just ratchet it up a little.

As to why Twi-Leks are a prevalent "slave" race, I've made a couple of minor contributions to canon that make it work for me. For a start Ry'Loth is a dessert world that cannot support a huge population the way that Correllia does for example. So there is commonly a "surplus population". Secondly, Twi-Leks we know to be a very family / clan / caste orientated culture. So from these two canon things, I extrapolate my own notion that it's not uncommon for young or low-caste members to sell themselves into indentured servitude contracts to outsiders. This supports their world and their families back home.

Many such cases are actually respectable (in so far as it goes). Of course it bleeds into darker aspects or outright slavery if you get out away from more civilized areas such as the Outer Rim or into regions like Hutt Space. Anyway, consequently, a PC in my game might find a Twi'Lek slave to consider their bondage to actually have helped their family. They're a very family / clan orientated culture, after all.

I've toyed with taking it a little further than that and adding in that Twi'Leks don't have the same sexual mores as humans. Put them as Europeans to America's more puritan culture. So sexual service may not be seen as wildly different to other forms of physical labour and even preferable in some cases. This may account for the highly visible presence of Twi-Leks (male or female). I've also toyed with saying that their is a gender imbalance amongst Twi'Leks to account for the fact that we see female Twi'Leks far more commonly than male Twi'Leks. Both of these things fit with cannon quite well but they also obviously take things in a more adult direction so currently they are just hypothesis things that I may or may not allude to in my game.

Anyway, these are my rambling thoughts on the subject. I hope they're of interest to some.

I didn't know that about twi'leks when I started playing one. I mean, I chose twi'lek because they were one of the few aliens I could recognize better than referring to them by some animal feature they had like the walrus guy, the camel guy or the that elephant musician guy. My character was going to be a twi'lek, gungan, ewok or wookiee. I play a human in real life.... BORING!

Do I mind that my character is cute? No way! It hasn't mattered in our campaign, though. My dad's the GM. THAT would be weird. :-&

Well the Twi'Lek slavery thing is not a hard rule, it's more the usual Star Wars approach of Planet of the Hats (if people are familiar with the term). We see one Hutt who is a gangster in the OT and suddenly the Hutts are all gangsters. Han Solo is a charming, risk-taking scoundrel? Suddenly that's what Correllians are known for. One character from the World of Wollotupia is seen wearing a hat? Suddenly Wollotupia is the planet where everyone wears hats. :/

Basically, we had one poor Twi'Lek woman chained to Jabba's throne and Twi'Leks are a slave race. We also got Senator Orn Free Tarr (I may have spelled that incorrectly) who liked to have a couple of Twi'Lek women accompanying him but for all we know they're his bodyguards! I personally like having this aspect in the game because I need a few elements to make my campaign a little darker and sinister, but it's something easily discarded if people wish.

..On the subject of the Empire and Slavery ..... So Wookies being worked to death on Kessel? ...

..As to why Twi-Leks are a prevalent "slave" race...

Aren`t both these issues adressed in the core rulebook, under the species descriptions in character creation?

..On the subject of the Empire and Slavery ..... So Wookies being worked to death on Kessel? ...

..As to why Twi-Leks are a prevalent "slave" race...

Aren`t both these issues adressed in the core rulebook, under the species descriptions in character creation?

Perhaps. I am away from my books. I like mine and I think they fit with what we see on screen in the movies and TCW. And as pointed out in LoNH, the Empire is "against" slavery on the surface at least.

I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to say the male Twi'lek Performer next to the talent tree from Far Horizons is hot.

..On the subject of the Empire and Slavery ..... So Wookies being worked to death on Kessel? ...

..As to why Twi-Leks are a prevalent "slave" race...

Aren`t both these issues adressed in the core rulebook, under the species descriptions in character creation?

Perhaps. I am away from my books. I like mine and I think they fit with what we see on screen in the movies and TCW. And as pointed out in LoNH, the Empire is "against" slavery on the surface at least.

Your interpretations are just that, interpretations, and they didn`t really contradict anything much as far as I can see. And so what, if they did?

I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to say the male Twi'lek Performer next to the talent tree from Far Horizons is hot.

I was actually thinking it would be fun to make a charming male twi`lek smuggler scoundrel/performer, who was charming, hot and sly enough to charm just about anyone, regardless of gender.

I found that concept very interesting. And I am mostly interested in playing ugly bastards or weird aliens.

I'm a fan of this type of inversion. In one game, I had a nearly-nude male Twi'lek dancer employ Distracting Behavior on a pair of male PCs. Very effectively, I might add.

It would be very nice to see some more examples of powerful, Presence heavy female NPCs who do not drip with overt, male-gaze sex appeal. Presence can mean gravitas, authority, and over-riding self-possession. I try very hard to remember that when I'm populating my games with NPCs.

One way to drive home how nasty slavery can be is have the pretty "house" slaves who look nice and are polite but then have the "field" slaves who do the hard work.

So on one hand they see the polite "slavery isn't all that bad" group of slaves who get fed ok, treated ok and have some loyalty to their master but also have the slaves that work in the factories or mines who are treated worse than driods, obvious mistreatment or scars, very little to no medical care and boarderline malnutrition. The slaves that are worked to death and then replaced because they have very little in the way of skills or value. It's easier to brush over slavery as an issue if the slaves are ok and it can hit harder if with such a change.

I think it would be an good thing to take a leaf out of FF books and represent the sexes the same so if the slave uniform was hotpants and vests have good looking slaves of both sexes walking about in hotpants and vests. The entire point of that kind of sleeze is to show how little the NPC's value life and dignaty so go with it.

..On the subject of the Empire and Slavery ..... So Wookies being worked to death on Kessel? ... ..As to why Twi-Leks are a prevalent "slave" race...

Aren`t both these issues adressed in the core rulebook, under the species descriptions in character creation?

Perhaps. I am away from my books. I like mine and I think they fit with what we see on screen in the movies and TCW. And as pointed out in LoNH, the Empire is "against" slavery on the surface at least.

Your interpretations are just that, interpretations, and they didn`t really contradict anything much as far as I can see. And so what, if they did?

I'm a fan of this type of inversion. In one game, I had a nearly-nude male Twi'lek dancer employ Distracting Behavior on a pair of male PCs. Very effectively, I might add. It would be very nice to see some more examples of powerful, Presence heavy female NPCs who do not drip with overt, male-gaze sex appeal. Presence can mean gravitas, authority, and over-riding self-possession. I try very hard to remember that when I'm populating my games with NPCs.

I'm really not at all certain what point you're trying to make with the last two replies to me. I never called what I wrote anything other than interpretations - they obviously are.

Hey man, I am agreeing with you! You have some very interesting interpretations! I am all for that.

And I added that your take on things didn`t really contadicted much, and that it wouldn`t really matter even if they did:)

I'm comfortable enough with my sexuality to say the male Twi'lek Performer next to the talent tree from Far Horizons is hot.

I think this is the very first time I've ever read anything on this forum that made me regret being blind!

I think it's reasonable (despite being morally wrong) that there are most Twi'lek slaves are 'pretty slave girls.' Twi'leks are known for their dancing (mentioned in the Core Rulebook), which means that they're likely to be employed as dancers. They also have a lot of slavery on Ryloth (mentioned in Oskara's bio in the Beginner Box, and I believe it's mentioned somewhere in the CRB), and since Twi'leks are better known for dancing than hard labor, they end up as slave dancers. Then it's only a question of the buyer's gender/preference; considering that many baddies out there are male, they're more likely to get female dancers as entertainment.

Of course, this doesn't mean it's fine; I agree that whenever the PC's encounter slavery they ought to view it in distaste at the least. However, it is also important to consider how the galaxy might reasonably work. There will, of course, be male Twi'lek slave dancers, likely for female owners (although possibly male owners), and there will, of course, be droves of un-pretty ladies running around (not saying that's a bad thing--my personal philosophy is to base upon the beauty on the inside, not the outside); the important thing is to use that stuff to your advantage. Make a crimelord who hates 'ugly' people, or an 'ugly' person who hates 'pretty' people. Make pretty jerks and ugly saints. Make it more diverse than the Planet of Hats!

Speaking of Oskara, she's a great example of what the OP was asking about, one of the few female Twi'leks in Star Wars lore who doesn't seem custom made for the male gaze.

Speaking of Oskara, she's a great example of what the OP was asking about, one of the few female Twi'leks in Star Wars lore who doesn't seem custom made for the male gaze.

Psshh...she's the hottest Twi'lek ever.

I was piqued by the concept of slavery being legal under the Empire, so I'm just gonna toss this out:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Decree_A-SL-4557.607.232

Basically it was a decree that said "slavery is legal and slavers are legitimate businessbeings".

But then in "The Essential Atlas" it was written that the Empire outlawed slavery.

Since Star Wars is all fiction, you may pick the circumstances of your game world.

I use legal Imperial slavery within my game world because it gives me more avenues for adventure and conflict to run. It makes my bad guys badder and the heroes more heroic.

As far as Twi'leks go, they come from Ryloth, major exports being spice and slaves. If good looking male Twi'leks serve your story and enrich your game world, by all flipping means use them! I used a male Falleen noble with male slaves (basically ripped straight out of a book on Roman Caesars) and he was certainly one of my most memorable NPCs, he was a character that the PCs (grudgingly) worked for as much as (eagerly) worked against. We were all having fun, so I was doing it right.