Thank you for writing up the (mis)adventures of your players. The write-ups are fantastic.

Out of curiosity, does Episode 8 exist or did you just mis-number Episode 9?

Out of curiosity, does Episode 8 exist or did you just mis-number Episode 9?

9 was probably mis-numered but I am trying to remember back a few months now and the episodes tend to blend into one another (I've been refering to my notes for a lot of this write up which isn't ideal at the best of times). The timeline of events is straight but a double espisode might have crept in behind my back. Never mind. I've checked back and I haven't missed anything major.

What were you expectations of the other characters? I'm intrigued since I am currently running a campaign (when we get the chance) for my family and would like to make some comparisons later on between the two groups.

Harrkyn Syrus - Human Smuggler - The 4 of Staves

The player who created Harrkyn was the only other person who owned the Edge of the Empire core rulebook so he had a pretty good grasp of the system before we started (he also knew a lot of Star Wars background as well). I was a little bit concerned about Harrkyn originally as he seemed to be a Luke Skywalker clone; good pilot, lost his family, Force sensitive, parent was a Jedi etc. The player had decided that Harrkyn's motivation was that he had left home after his father had past away to look for his mother who had disappeared years ago. The player also decided that his character wasn't fond of Corellians (he was fed up of being mistaken for one due to his flying skills). He decided that Harrkyn would have genuinely wanted to get out into the Universe and explore (he was fond of marking off places he had been to on the Galactic map)

Harrkyn's high piloting skill allowed the party to get from A to B without any mishaps and he dabbled heavily in the Force Power Tree: Sense once he started gaining experience which ment to got to use the 'I have a bad feeling about this' line quite a lot. His character seemed to get on well with everybody in the group especialy with Leane who shared his passion for exploration and discovery. He also took the time to start teaching Chellruke how to fly the Idiot's Array after she expressed an interest in learning.

The discovery of his Jedi abilities and the possibility of learning how to control them was a major turning point for the character and served as a nice focal point for the first season. Whether he decides to face Inquisitor Bale is going to be an interesting question but I'm tempted to put it on the backburner as a potential plot line for a third season.

As a GM I was torn over Harrkyn. On one hand it made writing for him very easy but on the other hand it felt we were in danger of treading over the same ground that A New Hope had covered. A small bit of me was hoping that Harrkyn might initaly decide against becomming a Jedi, prefering to stay a pilot, and this decision could then be played upon once Bale comes after the party. Maybe then Harrkyn would be forced to become a Jedi in order to protect the people he cares about. It would have been an interesting twist on a Star Wars trope.

Liana Koor - Human Explorer - The 10 of Staves

Liana's player probably has the most experience out of all of us on the Star Wars universe. Not only have they read a lot of the expanded universe stuff but they've also previously run a Star Wars Scum and Villainy campaign using the old D20 system. They decided to go for a female explorer whose familiy had fallen on difficult times and that she, as the eldest, would go out and support them. The impression that I got from Liana was a tough frontierswoman, able to track, able to survive and able to shoot straight when it was needed. Due to her solitary life out in Wild Space she didn't seem comfortable with social situations prefering to let others to do the talking.

Liana was a really solid member of the party. She was a good shot so was useful in combat situations and was a skilled medic so was really helpful when the fight was over as well. The character was more well rounded than other members of the team like Zaq and Harrkyn who focused heavily on combat (Zaq) and Jedi abilities (Harrkyn). She was also quite smart, knowing a lot about history, the Outer Rim and the species that inhabited it. Liana got on well with Zaq who shared a lot of her interests but found MD difficult to understand due to his rejection of his medical origins.

The news over the disappearence of her brother served to shake her out out of the comfort zone she'd been enjoying with the organisation. It reminded her of the obligation she has to her family not only by providing for them but also watching over and taking care of them. Her younger brother might have paid a high price for her absence.

Liana is a nice charcter to have as a GM as she was a medic as well as a fighter which is role I think is often overlooked. I came up with the missing brother sub plot as a way to focus the character more on her obligation to her family.

X4N-101-MD - Droid Technician - The 8 of Staves

MD's player knew quite a bit about Star Wars and decided to go for a bit of a comedy character in the form of a Droid surgeon who had an aversion to blood (and medical proceedures in general). We decided that MD was an experimental design that had somehow escaped from a medical research facility and was now on the run with a large bounty on his head. After some discusion we decided that he would look like a slightly smaller version of the Imperial probe droid from the Empire strikes back as having that as your doctor would be nightmare fuel in itself. He also has a pretty crappy personality with absolutely no bedside manor.

Despite these 'personality quirks' MD is a really good mechanic being able to construct useful devices from little more than junk as well as upgrading the teams armour and equipment. He still has some of his old medical algorithams in his system and therefore cannot harm any sentient beings meaning that he wields a blaster that's permenantly set on stun. Having a large bounty on his head makes MD more suspicios and less trusting than other members of the team. He gets on well with Chellruke after he found out that she was on the run as well. His biggest worry is that Zaq might decide to turn him in since he found out about the price that's been put on his head.

Apart from his worries about the price on his head MD's obligation hasn't come back to bite him yet.

MD was a fun character to have in the party as he was quite well played. Even in a fairly 'serious' campaign it's always nice to have light moments and a good laugh from time to time.

Chelruke - Twilek Smuggler - The 9 of Flasks.

Chelruke's player is well known for playing Twliek rogues in previous Star Wars campaigns so it's no suprise to see a Twiliek thief in this one. After it turned out that we had yet another family obligation the player decided to mix things up by adding in Chelruke's sister Cell who tags along. This provided an interesting NPC to flesh out and made the players obligaion a bit more 'tangable'. The player decided that Chelruke would be a young teenager, deadset against the usual lines of work Twilek females can end up in when they are on the run.

Chelruke turned out as a real jack of all trades. Interested in turning her hand to anything that the rest of the party could do. She had Zaq teach her how to shoot straight, MD teach her how to fix stuff on the Array and Harrkyn to teach her how to pilot. This was on top of her ability to get into places she really wasn't allowed. She was also a lot more friendly and talkative than the rest of the team making her a spokesperson for the group. She got on well with the entire team due to her outlook and genuine interest to learn what they had to teach her. Her overriding goal was to look after her sister though which came before everything else.

Despite knowing that her family is after them Chelruke and Cell have managed to avoid drawing any attention to themsleves for the moment.

It's always good to have a 'face' in the team backed up by a player who is prepared to do a lot of the talking. It's also useful to have a player who you can predict what type of character they are going to play (and who knows how to play that character well). It was also nice for the PC to bring along an NPC which I could use.

I found this campiagn a fasinating story to read, keep up the good story telling!