Hi all, I am a nwe GM and I have run 3 sessions and we love the system and are enjoying ourselves.

There are some questions I have about Wookies. The species as a whole is enslaved and has standing bounties. Which I gather is not a big issue in the outer rim, except may for a occasional bounty hunter they can move freely about the planets since they are far away from the core worlds. However I have been thinking of moving the group closer to the core worlds but I do not know how to handle the Wookie in our group.

My first instinct is to have him hide from imperials when they land and he would have to hide on the ship or bribe customs to get off the ship without being caught. Even then he could be reported by concerned citizens. This would limit his movement and actual contribution to the group.

Is this in the spirit of how the Wookies were treated during the reign of Empire or am I being too harsh? How are you dealing with Wookies in your group?

Thank you for your input and for reading this.

I guess it depends on where and how the Wookiee species is supposedly enslaved.

If the only place they are supposed to be is on the spice mines of Kessel, then any Wookiee seen anywhere else would probably raise alarms.

But if they can be sold into slavery elsewhere, then if you were to see a Wookiee somewhere else and it was wearing what looked like the right type of slave collar, what assumption would you make?

In the EotE game where I played a Wookiee, the issue never came up. He might have had a bounty on his head for some of the crimes he and his group committed, but I don’t think that was related to his being a Wookiee — more that he participated in the killing of two different Hutts, and various other things.

There are plenty of planets populated enough to have a deep seedy "underground" where non-humans, droids, and the like can avoid Empire control, even in the core worlds. After all, even Coruscant has the lower levels.

Honestly there are so many options to choose from. The wookie could be convinced to act as a slave to the rest of the party when in public (not enough to demean of course, but enough to convince onlookers), they could be on a time sensitive mission (Let's hurry up and do this guys, we don't have a lot of time until we draw the attention of authorities), the wookie could provide some sort of support from the ship or a safe house (if the skillset allows), or even just handwave fluff away so that wookies are looked down upon but not going to get the patrols called on them. (it's your galaxy afterall).

Let the wookie win.

In my universe it depends on the location,

The more core ward you are the more chances you will be apprehended by local authorities.

Remember Han and Chewie were sitting at the booth giving a shrug when the storm troopers walked by looking for Obi and Luke.

Outer rim worlds a wookie is more apt to be able to walk around in company and not get acosted by the typical 2-3 man stormtrooper patrol.

First and foremost, it is the player who gets to settle this issue with respect to his character via the Obligation mechanic.

Shave him...

Shave him...

Pffft! You shave him. I'm not getting my arms pulled off...

How do you treat your Wookiees?

Preferably with stimpacks, medpacs and bacta.

What?

Set up a subplot to gather fake documents of the wookiee's freedom or ability to go to the core worlds or even maybe a proof of purchase from Kessel or an Imperial facility or something that customs agents and things like sergeants wouldn't be able to check up on. Like forgery, give your Skullduggery character or slicer a cool line of work or something.

In my campaign, the Wookiee species was enslaved by the Empire. In effect, they were political prisoners that were held in government-run work camps. Individual Imperials did not keep Wookiees as slaves.

There are several species in SW that have story factors that create difficulties for PCs of those species. Wookiees, Mon Calamarians, Nikto, and many others have issues that will arise beyond just the numbers on the character sheets. These story factors need to be considered just as much as the mechanical crunch - probably more so in this game since the mechanical differences among species are fairly minor.

In a game with a Wookiee PC, I would talk with the player about whether or not going into the Core Worlds with such a character is a good option. Hopefully this discussion takes place before the player makes the characters and/or before you decide the adventure path is headed into the Core Worlds.

How do you treat your Wookiees?

Preferably with stimpacks, medpacs and bacta.

What?

Or not. Gotta love that angry wookiee hitting things.

Based on the Cantina scene in ANH, Chewie seems to be pretty confident walking around freely and he and Han even give some troopers a very light stare-down.

So, at least in Mos Eisley, the Empire seems willing to let Wookies go about their business...

However, if one were to cause trouble, charges would be probably be trumped faster than .5 past light speed.

How common are Wookiees in the galaxy or how commonly known are they? There are a lot of species in a galaxy far far away.

Since we're quoting the movies, one of the Imperials on the Death Star asked Han, "Where are you going with that... thing?". It seems to me this implies that not all Imperials (or everyone else, for that matter) necessarily recognize Wookiees on sight. It's a big galaxy with lots of different species, so it's not a stretch to imagine that most people won't know what a Wookiee is when they see one. They're not terribly common in the galaxy, so anyone without at least a rank or two in Xenology probably won't know what they're looking at.

Partially ninja'd by kaosoe there...

I take the "species enslavement" to be not exactly comprehensive. Whilst many of them are slaves I don't take it to be a galaxy wide edict that all are. My party has a Wookie who was a slave and experimental subject until the rest of the party freed him (he also speaks Basic because the Imperials modified him so that they had someone who could report to them without them having to learn basic, an idea I stole from some of the EU books). Now that he's free I have no intention of having him arrested on site as I don't see how that would make the game more fun, it's not like they're not getting themselves into enough trouble already.

Since we're quoting the movies, one of the Imperials on the Death Star asked Han, "Where are you going with that... thing?". It seems to me this implies that not all Imperials (or everyone else, for that matter) necessarily recognize Wookiees on sight. It's a big galaxy with lots of different species, so it's not a stretch to imagine that most people won't know what a Wookiee is when they see one. They're not terribly common in the galaxy, so anyone without at least a rank or two in Xenology probably won't know what they're looking at.

Partially ninja'd by kaosoe there...

I always assumed the officer was just using the word "thing" as a pejorative slur.

I always assumed the officer was just using the word "thing" as a pejorative slur.

What, you mean like “Fuzzball” or “Walking Carpet”?

Like rugs.

Giant, angry, wargarbling rugs.

I always assumed the officer was just using the word "thing" as a pejorative slur.

What, you mean like “Fuzzball” or “Walking Carpet”?

Those are bromantic terms of endearment.

This is only an issue if you want it to be. Technically most droids are also property, making them slaves as well. Nobody has any issue with droids roaming around.

In all likelihood, your Wookiee PC would have to worry about added scrutiny on the part of Imperial officials or xenophobic administrators. A Star Wars equivalent of a conceal and carry is probably out of the question, as would the IPKC bounty hunter license.

For the player in my group, he's treated like one's favorite cut of meat. For the other Wookiees in the galaxy, we treat them with respect. And yes, the player knows this, but he thinks we're joking.

Shave him...

Or just keep him clean...

In the game I'm currently playing in as one, wookiees are recognized as an enslaved population. That being said, we've gotten away with it by sticking to predominately alien only areas of cities, and making it appear he owes a life debt to a human member of the group. I've also walked around apparently unarmed with tools and a backpack, in the back of the group, or just out of sight.

While the life debt is no small thing, and is taken seriously, so far no one has questioned us about it. The other option that the trandoshan in our group suggested was to put a slave collar on my character, at which point he nearly lost his arms. The backstory is that the wookiee is an escaped slave, and has the obligation to back it up; which has already caused some problems for the group.

How common are Wookiees in the galaxy or how commonly known are they? There are a lot of species in a galaxy far far away.

See, this is something you've gotta take into consideration.

There are lots of illegal things going on in the galaxy.

Query: Is everyone in the galaxy 100% knowledgeable of everything that is legal and illegal, given the multitudes of worlds, species, items, foodstuffs, animals, narcotics, alcomohol, whathaveyous, and phlebotinum? In other words, does everyone (or anyone, for that matter) possess infinite knowledge of the legalities of the Star Wars galaxy?

Answer: I should hope not. That would be one scary sonofaschutta.

Application: Not everyone is even going to know what a Wookiee is, much less have the knowledge of their species' enslavement by the Galactic Empire.

But yeah, still, you might get detained for questioning! That could be an awesome adventure seed...