In my current campaign, I've decided to use the Charon from the old West End Games adventures Otherspace, and Otherspace II.

For those that have no idea what the Charon are, a quick trip to Wookieepedia will reveal that they are a race of humanoid-spider-like beings that are from a place called "Otherspace" - a dimension adjacent to Real Space. They do sound a little Tyranid (and even a little Vong-like), but are an interesting Horror Theme that fits as a backstory plot. But I digress.

In last night's session, they encountered two of these things, riding what appeared to be a bio-construct of sorts, which followed the group's ship as it entered the planet of Iselis' atmosphere. The ship was attacked by them, and during the fight, the Jedi of the group, not having much to do at the time, decided to try and use her Influence powers to change the creatures thoughts so it lost interest in the ship.

"Great idea", I said, and the player made the roll. The result was a single success, with several advantages. The Advantages were used to learn something about the "mind" that she had just touched. She learned that it was part of a hive mind, that it was filled with hatred and that it appeared "wrong" somehow, in that it didn't belong in the real world.

This lead to the PC asking if the Force existed in other dimensional spaces. This would be something that only an advanced Jedi Master might know, and may have even involved years of research on the subject. I asked for a Lore roll (Formidable) as I felt that this was information that not many would know the answer too. I didn't want the added complication of Despair, and so did not upgrade any of the difficulty in the check. The results of the roll is where the problem lay.

1 Success and 8 Threat.

I thought for a bit, and after several minutes of having a time out, I came back to the table admitting to not knowing how I should interpret the roll. I had decided that she knew that the Force did work inter-dimensionally, but that it was somewhat disconnected to the living force (me trying to be all mysterious).

So my questions:

1) Should I have asked for a roll at all in this circumstance, and instead just used a more narrative approach by explaining what I felt the character should know for the purpose of current and further story development?
2) Or should I have made the roll less "formidable" to begin with so as to not risk as many Threat?
3) And lastly, what sort of suggestions do you have for 8 threat??

1: It depends on where you thought the story should go. Saying "only a wise an ancient Jedi Master would know that" could have sent them haring off after a holocron, but it sounds like the issue was minor enough that it didn't really deserve a sidequest. A roll for an obscure but not plot-centric piece of information is fine. On the other hand, figuring out how to meditate in the Force so as to enter Otherspace would probably be worth an adventure or two all on its own, if that's the direction the group's heading (I'm not sure how important Otherspace is to your core plot).

...so as to not risk as many Threat?

2: You should never think of Threat as a risk. Threat (especially 8!) is an opportunity to add to the story!

3: Lots of 'em. 8 Strain is probably almost as much as a Despair, to be honest.

- 8 Strain (perhaps 4 to the Jedi, 1-2 to everyone else) as they contemplate things not meant to be contemplated, and fail to wrap their puny 3-dimensional brains around the idea.

- 4 Conflict representing either haunting memories from the Jedi's just revealed (i.e. retroactively added to her backstory ) previous Force interaction with Otherspace, or the potential of "unlimited power" that Otherspace Force presents.

- She knows this because of some previous encounter (retroactively added) with a foe who she had never told the party about (retroactively) who was from and/or drew on Otherspace. This foe is still out there and/or stronger than anyone thought.

In the EU, the ability of Force Psychometry allows you to read the history of objects or places, through the Force. You learn about important events in the past of the place or the object that made an impression on the Force, and what you “see” is what the Force “remembers” of that event.

I can’t imagine what kind of nightmares or “memories” might occur to a PC who accidentally touched Otherspace with their mind through the use of the Force. Maybe enough to draw serious attention to themselves, perhaps not from the Charon, or at least not members of that particular Charon hive-mind, but perhaps from others from Otherspace?

Can you imagine what kind of things might happen if you or your friends somehow became the “anchor” for a species that was at war with the Charon, and maybe wanted/desperately needed your help to defeat them?

What if this race of beings that is at war with the Charon actually started that war, and are the reason why the Charon are now investigating the invasion of Ourspace?

I can imagine lots of twists and turns here. And maybe the “bad guys” aren’t so bad after all? Or maybe they are, but the other guys are also “bad guys” or maybe even worse?

And what if the original thing that is/was drawing them to Ourspace is actually someone from our side who was trying to invade Otherspace?

If it were merely a Knowledge roll to "know" or remember something then I wouldn't have had a roll. I would've said it was so esoteric that the best you could hope for was maybe knowing who to ask that might know who to ask.

The interpretation that I would use goes something like this:

• "Lore" in the sense of the Force, isn't so much memorized knowledge as touching the force for intuitive answers or to tap buried hard-to-access memories.
• With the above in mind, the Lore roll was to sift through the feelings from the Force while guiding meditation toward the sought for answer.
• Therefore the Jedi opened their mind through the Force to Otherspace in a quest for the answer. There's your 8 threat, much as bradknowles described.

Or, you could put it more simply:

• Does the force work in other dimensions? Well, it works in hyperspace. Brief test... ouch, but not necessarily well.

And the roll using the second interpretation should have been average, or even easy.

What you did was cool, even the answer you gave... but I would probably have jumped on the occasion to exploit that 8 threat ; I wouldn't give him the straight answer. Have fun with it and see if your player jumps on it

You could... tell the jedi that after meditation, a few glimpse of the charon's mind he touched sprang back... one way to modify the hyperdrive to jump to Otherspace... only there could he really find out if the Force works there. It's a real bad idea but if he tries it, you could then just play the game Otherspace.

Or you could... tell the jedi that he doesn't know the answer, but that he might know 2 people who would... Obo Rin of Imperial Intelligence and Markos Tor, a rebel agent currently held captive in an imperial prison. Now if he really wants to know, he's just gonna have to go get them

Some people might argue that your player got 1 success and that implies he should get the answer... but threat can also mean an obstacle between yourself and your goal. Like rolling Survival to find a shortcut through a dense forest, 1 success and 8 threat might mean you found an old trail but a pack of ferocious animals are in the way. You'll then have to overcome an obstacle to achieve your goal.

Hope it helps

Sounds like a good call regarding whether to roll, but it is also something you could have hand-waved.

Either way, I definitely wouldn't fault you for calling for the skill check.

What to do with 8 threat?

I would give the player a bunch of pieces of information, one of which was true, and the rest of which were false!

What I'm moving towards is something that I can do "post-session". The moment has passed, so I am dealing with ramifications of the check, rather than an immediate result of the check. That, plus I have said I would "save the threat", and that she "thinks" the Force works across dimensions (since she succeeded), much like it works in Hyperspace, means its time me thinks for some subconscious play.

As her subconscious mind tries to comprehend a dimension other than real space and hyperspace, plus the connection she had with the Charon, she will be plagued for a while by vivid dreams. This will result in Strain and Conflict, and if things go really bad at some point, leaves it open for a "waking dream".

Another option of course is that the Charon could now use her as an anchor point of sorts in Real Space, but I think that would be the case if the threat came from the Discipline check rather than a Knowledge check....

1: It depends on where you thought the story should go. Saying "only a wise an ancient Jedi Master would know that" could have sent them haring off after a holocron, but it sounds like the issue was minor enough that it didn't really deserve a sidequest. A roll for an obscure but not plot-centric piece of information is fine. On the other hand, figuring out how to meditate in the Force so as to enter Otherspace would probably be worth an adventure or two all on its own, if that's the direction the group's heading (I'm not sure how important Otherspace is to your core plot).

Its certainly not in the core of the campaign plot. The "What happened to the Clone Troopers after Order 66" question is the focus of this "season" of the campaign. I put the Charon there as a foreshadowing of adventures to come.

The story is that hundreds of years ago, a scout ship breached the "Veil" and entered real space. There were few survivors, and without being connected to Otherspace and their hive-ships, they went crazy, and eventually feral. The world they landed on was also a desolate wasteland and they had nothing to feed on, or merge with (they ain't the Vong after all), and so they went into a sort of hibernation in the subterranean caverns below the surface...and waited.

Years passed, and the Confederacy of Independent systems came along and started mining the place. Numerous mining colonies sprung up and the world was their oyster with one large Corporation taking control (this world is a bit of LV-426 clone). Eventually one colony mined in an area where the caverns of the sleeping Charon lived. They awoke...and now they had something to feed off.

They wiped out the colony - the entire colony, leaving only the well protected colonies to survive.

The reason the PCs are here in the first place is to collect a shipment of ore from the planet and take to the Imperials. What they know is that the ore is known to be used in cybernetics. What ISN'T known is that the ore will be used to make the cybernetics parts for the Phase 0 Dark Troopers that are being created in a secret base in the Dominus Sector.

2: You should never think of Threat as a risk. Threat (especially 8!) is an opportunity to add to the story!

Hence why I am here - and the suggestions have been great.

If people want to to know about the world, check here:

Islelis

Well, the force works in hyperspace, that's 2 out of 3 known spaces so why not. For the threat, since the main body of charon are a death cult you could have what remains of their bio-fleet begin to gather to continue their crusade through realspace.

Alternatively you could say that this particular ship has gone crazy and simply follows the players everywhere they go. Have it keep popping up near them but always out of reach. If they try to catch it the ship slips back to otherspace. Perhaps down the road they can find a way to befriend the ship and use it (farscape) for a mission that no regular ship could accomplish. What if they had to get to a secret imperial base surrounded by interdictors and black holes. Realspace is too slow, hyperspace is out due to the natural barriers leaving only otherspace.

Perhaps you can keep it small scale and run an aliens style adventure after that ship and the players are captured by the empire. After a week in the brig suddenly the alarms go off, evacuation is sounded and then nothing. The players escape a few hours later and have to survive their way to their ship with a few imperial survivors.

Or you could run a Lost in Space scenario where they later find that ship stuck to another. after exploring for a while all heck breaks loose and they have to fight their way back to their ship

Eight Threat? Tell me, are you familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft?

Without direct experience with interdimensional travel, or consulting someone with the same, I would say the only way for the player to have ascertained any such knowledge would be meditation or some other means of connecting with the Force. She would get the vague sense that, yes, the Force does exist there, but it's... different. Not like the Living Force she's familiar with.

Then she gets the sense of something, like she's been staring into the void and suddenly the void is staring back. Something touches her mind, something like the sensation she got earlier from the Charon they encountered, but it's colder, it's deep, it's sinister. And it carries a message:

"I see you."

She recoils, eyes snapping open, breathing hard and covered in a cold sweat, her body reacting to the sheer otherness of what she encountered. Worse, no matter what she does, she feels like it's still connected to her somehow, keeping track of her. Maybe it's even calling to her.

You could present this stuff after the fact as a sort of dream/Force vision. With so many Threat, I don't think it's beyond consideration that she's picked up an extradimensional hive mind stalker.

8 threats could result in some kind of obligation like effect too yeah? Something that can be activated each session to strain the character representing the stress of the encounter, or cause more difficult fear checks in encounters with the Charon, like adding a Challenge die, or adding difficulty die, or an upgrade... of course I'd not make it randomly activate for any session, but for sessions in Otherspace in particular, but also other sessions where the Charon play a prominent and present role.

Eight Threat? Tell me, are you familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft?

No more calls please, we have a winner.

Dear god that's a brilliant idea. I wish I was handed a gift like that as a GM, to be able to run with that! You lucky dog you.

Eight Threat? Tell me, are you familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft?

Without direct experience with interdimensional travel, or consulting someone with the same, I would say the only way for the player to have ascertained any such knowledge would be meditation or some other means of connecting with the Force. She would get the vague sense that, yes, the Force does exist there, but it's... different. Not like the Living Force she's familiar with.

Then she gets the sense of something, like she's been staring into the void and suddenly the void is staring back. Something touches her mind, something like the sensation she got earlier from the Charon they encountered, but it's colder, it's deep, it's sinister.

And it carries a message:

You taste a … language? … more alien than you could possibly imagine.

You hear the color of something infinitely darker than the blackest black.

You see the stench of … you can’t tell what.

You smell the words as they are burned on the back of your brain.

"I see you."