So, I know that there are quite a few Mandalorian sympathizers on these boards...or, at the very least people who don't openly hate Mandalorians.

I was thinking that those of us who do like Mandalorians can share our in-game experences running Mandalorian encounters, campaigns, and characters.

Kyla, Kom'rk, Orjo Creld, I'm looking at you all in particular, but anyone who has ever had Mandalorians in their game, please post here!

I'll go first. To be honest, my current encounter is not quite finished yet, but we're going to play this weekend and we'll see what happens.

My PCs were on Corellia when they happened to meet a pair of twins whose names were....Ordo and Mereel. (I know, I know. It really hooked my PCs in, though.) Exactly why they met them... well, when you walk into a perfectly normal restaurant, look around for anyone who might be an assassin for hire and roll a triumph....what do you expect?

The Force-sensitive thief decided to approach them, and straight out asked them if they would mind taking a job. She rolled moderately well, but they were quite jumpy. (No clue why, as that's a perfectly normal thing to be asked by a stranger in a restaurant!) After reasurances and negotiation she revealed that she wanted them to 'delay' the Inquisitor who was following the PCs. When she didn't roll so well, they got a little aggressive and she disarmed them under the table with the Force. Ordo and Mereel immediatly jumped up to get their weapons back as the thief tried to flee, so she scattered their weapons across the restaurant as she fled, to the great astonishment of the Corellian patrons.

After a minor scuffle with the Inquisitor, the party managed to escape Corellia with a shipment of blaster rifles and the shuttle they arrived on. (We're playing a mix of EotE and AoR.) One complete failure of an Astrogation check later, the party was in orbit around a planet that had been colonized by the Old Republic, but had been completely isolated for 300 years.

Fast-forward a couple of days in game-time, the players heard that just before they arrived, the colonists had seen two other ships fly overhead, and they wanted the players to see who they were.

The players flew out there, where they found a ship hidden in the forest. The pilot character decided to appropriate it, and moved it next to the PCs ship, before they set out to find out who else had landed.

One failed stealth check later, they looked up to find a strill landing on the Nikto! Currently, they are being confronted by some stranger in Mandalorian armor who is demanding to know why the players followed the Mandalorians half-way across the galaxy, and there had better be a pretty good explanation.

As you can see, we're not afraid to throw canon (or ex-canon) characters into our games, although to be honest, I only do it once in a great long while to give the PCs a memorable experience.

So what have you all done? Let the tales begin!

So, I know that there are quite a few Mandalorian sympathizers on these boards...or, at the very least people who don't openly hate Mandalorians.

Does anybody hate Mandalorians? I only hate Karen Traviss' travesty of Mandalorians. I really like the TCW and Rebels treatment of them so far.

I'm waiting to see what we get from them in the upcoming adventure.

I've always found it a cool concept, but I feel the 'Proud Warrior Race Guy' element is dialled up to 11 in some instances (I'm looking at you, Karen). It's a nice concept, but turning it back from 11 feels better for me.

I only know about the EU stuff, I'm never going to watch any of the cartoons, so I have a pretty clean slate to reimagine them for the MarcyVerse. I know they have a few fans at my table, so they should make a big impact.

Depending on what stats they give them, I'll likely reskin them as near-humans as I did with Corellians.

So far I'm thinking along these lines - 400-odd years ago, at the height of the Old Republic, they took on the Jedi that guarded the Republic at it's height. They fought well, but were soundly defeated. But they were treated with respect and permitted to keep their military. A hundred years later, they had a Weimar Germany moment and tried again, and once more were defeated. This time, they were thoroughly dismantled and demilitarised, and even whispers of nastier things if the rumours are true. So for the last 300 odd years, they have been split between the hawks and doves, those who want a third shot at the now-crumbled Republic and those who want to learn the lessons of previous failure.

So, to today, with the Galactic Civil War in it's 23rd year. The Imperium is in tatters, the 'scum and villainy' is faction ready to split under the weight of its runaway success, and the Jedi are slowly reclaiming their old centres of power at the Core, essentially declaring the Old Republic open for business once again. Bail Organa, one of the leading lights of the Alliance, has been working very hard behind the scenes to bring the Mandolorians in as official allies of the Alliance. It's a perfect fit - both sides hate the Jedi and have something to prove.

However, this shifts the goals of the Alliance from merely wanting sovereignty from the Republic and protecting its own worlds, to the delicious possibility of having enough power to seize the Core (with its Black Sun allies), crush what's left of the Empire for good and strangle the Jedi's new Republic in its infancy. This has split the Alliance for the first time, horrifying the higher-minded species like the Mon Cal, Ithorians and Gran who form the basis of its Council. They feel that the aggressive nature of humanity wants more than mere secession, and with its new allies, might finally have the firepower to take and hold the Core. In the middle, the pragmatic races like the Duros, Sullustans and Bothans, who haven't decided what benefits them the most yet. Some think that the leader of the humans in the Alliance intends to unite humanity across all the warring factions under one noble house, and declare herself Empress.

Whatever happens, interesting times for the MarcyVerse.

(Incidentally, the player I'm handing most of the development of the Mandalorians to is a big Heinlen fan, and he likes the concept of a Proud Warrior Race Guy species being militaristic, honourable and egalitarian, with full equality for the genders and acceptance of homosexuality... which I think is something we saw in canon? Anyway, the whole thing fits him like a glove and I'm interested to see what he does with it.)

One of my PC's is a sort of upstart journeyman Mandalorian; though the fact of him being a Mandalorian hasn't particularly been of great consequence yet (at least no more so than anyone else who insisted on wearing full laminate armor nearly 24/7).

So far the only real 'story' to come out of it was during a recent arc in which the PC's were hired to transport some preteen Force-sensitives from Naboo to Ilum and back again. One rather obnoxious boy was deliberately trying to antagonize him; asking why anyone would want to admit to being a Mandalorian when there were still people alive who remembered their sound defeat by the Jedi during the Clone Wars. The PC's handled it quite well; didn't take the bait and kept his cool.

I honestly don't think the Karen Traviss books were overdone - frankly, I rather enjoy them - but it's worth pointing out that the super-soldier characters in those books were "improved" clones, either the commandos that had better training and equipment than troopers, or the Null ARCs who were literally superhuman. Now that I read that back to myself, okay, maybe they were overdone... but that's not an impingement on Mando culture.

I'm playing a Mando wannabe in a Saga Edition game, running through Dawn of Defiance. Text wall ahead; you were warned!

At any rate, he's on a side quest now to find himself some beskar'gam. Wish me luck!

I'm waiting to see what we get from them in the upcoming adventure.

I've always found it a cool concept, but I feel the 'Proud Warrior Race Guy' element is dialled up to 11 in some instances (I'm looking at you, Karen). It's a nice concept, but turning it back from 11 feels better for me.

I only know about the EU stuff, I'm never going to watch any of the cartoons, so I have a pretty clean slate to reimagine them for the MarcyVerse. I know they have a few fans at my table, so they should make a big impact.

Depending on what stats they give them, I'll likely reskin them as near-humans as I did with Corellians.

So far I'm thinking along these lines - 400-odd years ago, at the height of the Old Republic, they took on the Jedi that guarded the Republic at it's height. They fought well, but were soundly defeated. But they were treated with respect and permitted to keep their military. A hundred years later, they had a Weimar Germany moment and tried again, and once more were defeated. This time, they were thoroughly dismantled and demilitarised, and even whispers of nastier things if the rumours are true. So for the last 300 odd years, they have been split between the hawks and doves, those who want a third shot at the now-crumbled Republic and those who want to learn the lessons of previous failure.

So, to today, with the Galactic Civil War in it's 23rd year. The Imperium is in tatters, the 'scum and villainy' is faction ready to split under the weight of its runaway success, and the Jedi are slowly reclaiming their old centres of power at the Core, essentially declaring the Old Republic open for business once again. Bail Organa, one of the leading lights of the Alliance, has been working very hard behind the scenes to bring the Mandolorians in as official allies of the Alliance. It's a perfect fit - both sides hate the Jedi and have something to prove.

However, this shifts the goals of the Alliance from merely wanting sovereignty from the Republic and protecting its own worlds, to the delicious possibility of having enough power to seize the Core (with its Black Sun allies), crush what's left of the Empire for good and strangle the Jedi's new Republic in its infancy. This has split the Alliance for the first time, horrifying the higher-minded species like the Mon Cal, Ithorians and Gran who form the basis of its Council. They feel that the aggressive nature of humanity wants more than mere secession, and with its new allies, might finally have the firepower to take and hold the Core. In the middle, the pragmatic races like the Duros, Sullustans and Bothans, who haven't decided what benefits them the most yet. Some think that the leader of the humans in the Alliance intends to unite humanity across all the warring factions under one noble house, and declare herself Empress.

Whatever happens, interesting times for the MarcyVerse.

(Incidentally, the player I'm handing most of the development of the Mandalorians to is a big Heinlen fan, and he likes the concept of a Proud Warrior Race Guy species being militaristic, honourable and egalitarian, with full equality for the genders and acceptance of homosexuality... which I think is something we saw in canon? Anyway, the whole thing fits him like a glove and I'm interested to see what he does with it.)

Umm...Is it too late to withdraw my petition? With that sort of devolving state of the galaxy...maybe the simple life on Socorro's not so bad. Sure it's hot and dusty, but...

And on the topic of Mandalorians, they haven't had much of an appearance in my campaign. The only mention of them so far has been in reference to our captain's wife, who was an Imperial spy who got made on a mission on Mandalore, sold into slavery on Zygerria, and was freed to become a Rebel Intelligence officer. I fully intend to introduce more Mandalorian characters, but right now the party needs to extract themselves from a mess they've gotten themselves into on Zygerria...

I'm waiting to see what we get from them in the upcoming adventure.

I've always found it a cool concept, but I feel the 'Proud Warrior Race Guy' element is dialled up to 11 in some instances (I'm looking at you, Karen). It's a nice concept, but turning it back from 11 feels better for me.

I only know about the EU stuff, I'm never going to watch any of the cartoons, so I have a pretty clean slate to reimagine them for the MarcyVerse. I know they have a few fans at my table, so they should make a big impact.

Depending on what stats they give them, I'll likely reskin them as near-humans as I did with Corellians.

So far I'm thinking along these lines - 400-odd years ago, at the height of the Old Republic, they took on the Jedi that guarded the Republic at it's height. They fought well, but were soundly defeated. But they were treated with respect and permitted to keep their military. A hundred years later, they had a Weimar Germany moment and tried again, and once more were defeated. This time, they were thoroughly dismantled and demilitarised, and even whispers of nastier things if the rumours are true. So for the last 300 odd years, they have been split between the hawks and doves, those who want a third shot at the now-crumbled Republic and those who want to learn the lessons of previous failure.

So, to today, with the Galactic Civil War in it's 23rd year. The Imperium is in tatters, the 'scum and villainy' is faction ready to split under the weight of its runaway success, and the Jedi are slowly reclaiming their old centres of power at the Core, essentially declaring the Old Republic open for business once again. Bail Organa, one of the leading lights of the Alliance, has been working very hard behind the scenes to bring the Mandolorians in as official allies of the Alliance. It's a perfect fit - both sides hate the Jedi and have something to prove.

However, this shifts the goals of the Alliance from merely wanting sovereignty from the Republic and protecting its own worlds, to the delicious possibility of having enough power to seize the Core (with its Black Sun allies), crush what's left of the Empire for good and strangle the Jedi's new Republic in its infancy. This has split the Alliance for the first time, horrifying the higher-minded species like the Mon Cal, Ithorians and Gran who form the basis of its Council. They feel that the aggressive nature of humanity wants more than mere secession, and with its new allies, might finally have the firepower to take and hold the Core. In the middle, the pragmatic races like the Duros, Sullustans and Bothans, who haven't decided what benefits them the most yet. Some think that the leader of the humans in the Alliance intends to unite humanity across all the warring factions under one noble house, and declare herself Empress.

Whatever happens, interesting times for the MarcyVerse.

(Incidentally, the player I'm handing most of the development of the Mandalorians to is a big Heinlen fan, and he likes the concept of a Proud Warrior Race Guy species being militaristic, honourable and egalitarian, with full equality for the genders and acceptance of homosexuality... which I think is something we saw in canon? Anyway, the whole thing fits him like a glove and I'm interested to see what he does with it.)

Your player sounds like someone I'd like to have at my table! That's how I run my Mandos too. As usual, I like the MarcyVerse treatment. Really, you should write up your galaxy. I would read that story!

I honestly don't think the Karen Traviss books were overdone - frankly, I rather enjoy them - but it's worth pointing out that the super-soldier characters in those books were "improved" clones, either the commandos that had better training and equipment than troopers, or the Null ARCs who were literally superhuman. Now that I read that back to myself, okay, maybe they were overdone... but that's not an impingement on Mando culture.

I'm playing a Mando wannabe in a Saga Edition game, running through Dawn of Defiance. Text wall ahead; you were warned!

Cresh's Story

My name is Cresh, or that’s what the Old Man calls me, at least. Let me tell you why I hate the Empire.

Up until a few months ago, my parents were Antarian Rangers. The Rangers were founded by a Gotal who wanted to be a Jedi, but wasn’t Force-sensitive. Though not officially sanctioned by the Jedi Order, the Rangers provided transport, supplies, and intelligence to Jedi throughout the galaxy. When the Clone Wars started, the Rangers also provided combat support to Jedi in the field, and many Jedi trusted them with their lives.

My family has a long tradition with both the Antarian Rangers and with the Jedi Order. Many of my ancestors were Jedi Knights, and my mother was related to Jedi Master Shaak Ti. Many other ancestors without the gift chose to serve the Force indirectly, through the Rangers. I was raised in a Ranger outpost on Toprawa, a forested world in the Kalamith sector of the Outer Rim. They brought me up in the culture of the Rangers, with a few things about our Togruti heritage thrown in as an afterthought. My parents taught me about marksmanship, staying out of sight, finding hidden signs, first aid, and how important the Jedi Order was to the galaxy. All with the goal in mind that I would one day become a Ranger myself. I went for long treks through the forest, sometimes for days at a time, practicing my skills as a hunter.

I was in the forest when that hut’uun Palpatine issued Order 66. When the clones that everyone trusted to defend the Republic’s ideals, trusted with their lives…murdered my parents and destroyed the Antarian Rangers, the Jedi Order, and anyone Palps deemed dangerous. I don’t remember the name of the Ranger who came to tell me that my parents had been killed. I remember that he was wounded, a blaster burn on his leg. He said that everything was crazy, that the clones had started killing the Jedi and then killing Rangers and anyone associated with the Jedi. He told me that the Rangers would fight back, that they would go underground if necessary, to safeguard any Jedi left alive and to fight against Palpatine and his clones. I was… stupefied. The Jedi Order had safeguarded the galaxy against tyranny for over a thousand generations. The Antarian Rangers had intelligence-gathering operations throughout the galaxy and agents and operatives in several sectors. Neither of them saw this coming. Neither their military prowess, nor the supposedly all-powerful Force was enough to keep them safe, or to keep my parents alive. I was too numb with shock to tell him what a fool he was.

I left him standing there and I just left. I walked out of the house and into the forest for, oh… a long time. Days, maybe? I don’t remember much about where I wandered, but eventually I met the Old Man. I had known he lived in the forest, of course. I was young, but I was savvy enough and stealthy enough to know what came and went in the forests around our home. A human hermit was not that unusual, but one who always wore scarred, dented battle armor and carried a rotary blaster cannon made us cautious in our travels. He never bothered anyone, though, and kept to himself except for an occasional trip to the market.

He claims that he didn’t sneak up on me, that he hailed me from a polite distance and only approached when I didn’t answer. I don’t remember any of that. I only remember eating a small game animal that I had killed, and looking up to see a T-visor helmet appear on the other side of the fire. Certain that a clone scout had come to finish the job of murdering my family, I dove for my rifle and woke up in the Old Man’s kitchen when the effects of his stun-pistol wore off.

It turns out that he had some contacts in the Rangers. Other places, too. He knew what had happened across the galaxy, knew that my parents had been murdered in cold blood. Osik, he even knew the entire text of Order 66. He knew that I was lost, and alone, and that I didn’t much care if I lived or died. He was determined to do what he could to help me.

It turns out he was one of the Cuy’val Dar, Those Who Are Forgotten. He was one of the 100 professional soldiers, bounty hunters, mercenaries, and ori’beskaryc hand-picked by Jango Fett to train clone commandos for the Republic. The Old Man told me a lot and knows even more. He told me how the entire war with the Separatists seems to have been planned by Palpatine. How there were actually two clone armies… the one we see now is the second army. These “stormtroopers” are quickly-grown, flash-trained clones whose sole purpose is to look scary in their shiny white armor and show the limitless might of this new Empire. The first clone army, the one trained by the Cuy’val Dar, was hardened in the fires of battle with the Separatists and tempered with the knowledge and guidance of its Jedi generals. We were always told that the Grand Army of the Republic was grown and designed to win the war with the CIS, but that was all lies and propaganda. The GAR was for one thing, and one thing only: to rid the galaxy of the Jedi Order. In other words, to eliminate the only force capable of stopping Palpatine’s grab for power.

Listening to the Old Man talk made me realize that I was ill-prepared to claim vengeance by killing Imperials. He offered to train me, to give me the tools I needed to accomplish something of merit. If I died at the hands of those hut’uune, I wanted it to at least be memorable. I stayed with the Old Man for almost four months and they were the hardest months of my life. He pushed me from well before sunup to well after sundown every day. I ran, did calisthenics, ran, drilled with weapons, ran, assaulted mock fortifications, ran, conducted reconnaissance, ran, and ran some more. All while wearing armor, while searching my surroundings for hidden attackers, reacting to the Old Man’s ambushes, and trying to stay awake. He taught me his language, his culture, the Resol’nare, and taught me about the cin vhetin, the metaphorical virgin field of snow that everyone who put their past behind them has a right to walk upon. I ate it all up because his teachings obviously worked. The clones he had helped teach had battled the Separatists to a stand-still and then eliminated the supposedly all-powerful Jedi. My parents on the other hand, along with the Rangers, had gotten lumped in as “Jedi sympathizers” and summarily killed. Scraped from Palpatine’s boots like a pile of osik he’d stepped in on accident. He praised my marksmanship, but he had a lot more to teach me; we never got around to explosives & demolitions, or vehicle-mounted weaponry, or closely studying the tactics of our enemy.

In the end, we ran out of time. His network of spies and informants, which he called his “little birds,” told him that an Imperial Inquisitor was nosing around the sector and going from system to system, looking for… well, we never really found out what he was looking for. The Old Man had to bas’lan shev’la, to scatter and regroup somewhere else. He wanted me to come with him, but I was champing at the bit to start scoring tally-marks onto my rifle’s sling; to grab the Empire by the gett’se and spit in its eye. He found me passage on a freighter whose skipper had a soft spot for the story of my parent’s death. The other two crewmen seem odd. Maybe they’re hiding something? There’s no love for the Empire among us, though, and that is good.

I still have comm channel information for a few contacts in the Rangers. Maybe I’ll be able to pass along some intelligence; maybe I’ll be able to ask a favor. Who knows? The Old Man didn’t seem to think we’d ever see each other again. He never told me how or where to find him again, and he never told me his name. The last thing he said to me, though, was “K’oyacyi.” Look after yourself.

Maybe I’ll never have the chance to take Palpatine’s head off with one well-placed shot. Maybe I’ll never be able to bring one of their new “Star Destroyers” down in fire and ruin. But my hatred of the Empire burns bright, and I intend to do as much damage as I can before they gun me down in a hail of blaster fire like they did to my parents. If I live long enough, I may one day find a new family, a new aliit, and fulfill the Resol’nare . Until then, I am alone in the galaxy. I will cling to the teachings of the Old Man as best I can, and hope that one day I can call myself Mandalorian and die with honor.

At any rate, he's on a side quest now to find himself some beskar'gam. Wish me luck!

Ori'jate, vod. Akaanir ti ijaat!

Very good, brother. Fight with honor!

I presume that is your backstory? I like that one Did the Old Man adopt him with the Gai bal Manda?

Hopefully you find your beskar soon! Sounds like you will have an intense and interesting adventure!

So, I know that there are quite a few Mandalorian sympathizers on these boards...or, at the very least people who don't openly hate Mandalorians.

Does anybody hate Mandalorians? I only hate Karen Traviss' travesty of Mandalorians. I really like the TCW and Rebels treatment of them so far.

I'm waiting to see what we get from them in the upcoming adventure.

I've always found it a cool concept, but I feel the 'Proud Warrior Race Guy' element is dialled up to 11 in some instances (I'm looking at you, Karen). It's a nice concept, but turning it back from 11 feels better for me.

I only know about the EU stuff, I'm never going to watch any of the cartoons, so I have a pretty clean slate to reimagine them for the MarcyVerse. I know they have a few fans at my table, so they should make a big impact.

Depending on what stats they give them, I'll likely reskin them as near-humans as I did with Corellians.

So far I'm thinking along these lines - 400-odd years ago, at the height of the Old Republic, they took on the Jedi that guarded the Republic at it's height. They fought well, but were soundly defeated. But they were treated with respect and permitted to keep their military. A hundred years later, they had a Weimar Germany moment and tried again, and once more were defeated. This time, they were thoroughly dismantled and demilitarised, and even whispers of nastier things if the rumours are true. So for the last 300 odd years, they have been split between the hawks and doves, those who want a third shot at the now-crumbled Republic and those who want to learn the lessons of previous failure.

So, to today, with the Galactic Civil War in it's 23rd year. The Imperium is in tatters, the 'scum and villainy' is faction ready to split under the weight of its runaway success, and the Jedi are slowly reclaiming their old centres of power at the Core, essentially declaring the Old Republic open for business once again. Bail Organa, one of the leading lights of the Alliance, has been working very hard behind the scenes to bring the Mandolorians in as official allies of the Alliance. It's a perfect fit - both sides hate the Jedi and have something to prove.

However, this shifts the goals of the Alliance from merely wanting sovereignty from the Republic and protecting its own worlds, to the delicious possibility of having enough power to seize the Core (with its Black Sun allies), crush what's left of the Empire for good and strangle the Jedi's new Republic in its infancy. This has split the Alliance for the first time, horrifying the higher-minded species like the Mon Cal, Ithorians and Gran who form the basis of its Council. They feel that the aggressive nature of humanity wants more than mere secession, and with its new allies, might finally have the firepower to take and hold the Core. In the middle, the pragmatic races like the Duros, Sullustans and Bothans, who haven't decided what benefits them the most yet. Some think that the leader of the humans in the Alliance intends to unite humanity across all the warring factions under one noble house, and declare herself Empress.

Whatever happens, interesting times for the MarcyVerse.

(Incidentally, the player I'm handing most of the development of the Mandalorians to is a big Heinlen fan, and he likes the concept of a Proud Warrior Race Guy species being militaristic, honourable and egalitarian, with full equality for the genders and acceptance of homosexuality... which I think is something we saw in canon? Anyway, the whole thing fits him like a glove and I'm interested to see what he does with it.)

Now, I'm of the opposite opinion. I really liked what Karen Travis did with the Mandalorians. Whatever falling out she may have had at the end, does not change that. She gave the Mandalorians a very detailed and fleshed out culture that made perfect sense for a warrior culture.

I haven't yet had the chance to play a Mandalorian, though I did start trying to make one (A Force Sensitive female) back towards the end of the D20 RCRB run. I even made a custom figure of her. I am tempted to try and build her in FFG as a Guardian Peacekeeper/Armorer.

I also loved the Karen Traviss books, which were my introduction to Mando culture. I thought that she captured the feel of a particular culture far better than the majority of EU books did. Granted, I thought that most of the female characters could have been better written, but aside from that I loved them.

One of my players said that she did such a good job writing controversial characters in the books, that people argued about them IRL.

I haven't watched the cartoons a lot, but I like what I see so far when it comes to Mandalorians in Rebels.

My PCs finished their adventure today, so I'll post the conclusion in a little bit.

One of the things that I liked about them (the Republic Commando books) was the portrayal of Jedi; flawed, full of anxiety, doubt, and insecurities. Even better is the foreshadowing and allusion to the dark side clouding the Jedi Order's perspective. In that light, it's easy to imagine Order 66 as the catharsis to the Jedi's hubris. Once this thread started, I decided to re-read them again; I've been working my way through Hard Contact on my breaks at work.

Jealous! I need to get my own copies. I got started with a friend's, so I still need my own.....My personal favorites were Triple Zero and Order 66.

My group finished their adventure yesterday. I was very proud of them, they all kept their heads and successfully negotiated for the contact to meet a contact who would put them in touch with some interesting weapons. Nothing too special to finish, but they said they loved the adventure, so I feel good about that!

Here is the backstory of my human character- Ryxmer Jansen, Archaeologist- a bit of a twist on the Mando culture.

Ryxmer Jansen is not your average scholar. He isn’t your average explorer. He is the first to talk your ears off about events millennia BBY during the middle of a pitched gunfight. Still, he is the first to do what he can to help his friends out of a jam.

Ryxmer Jansen studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Coruscant while earning an ROTC Scholarship to serve the Empire. Ryxmer graduated with good grades and applied for the advanced archaeology program at the University and was accepted. He spent another three years there pursuing his master’s degree part time while working as an Imperial customs inspector. Not thrilled with the work he was pursuing in service of the Emperor, he took a year off between his second and third year of studies to accelerate satisfying his obligation to the Empire. He applied for a transfer to an infantry (stormtrooper) unit under the command of his father. Ryxmer’s father, Oleg Jansen, was a battle proven storm trooper commander. Oleg was proud of his son and sent him on many important missions.

The Jansen family has cultivated long held family stories handed from generation to generation of great warrior prowess in the face of unspeakable evil. These stories always inspired young Ryxmer, especially the ones where the Jansen’s faced off against unspeakable hordes of Mandalorians in the defense of freedom and their families. These stories intrigued Ryxmer so he decided to focus his thesis on the Mandalorians and the study of their campaigns.

One week that Ryxmer spent deep in the vaults of the University, he discovered some ancient Mandalorian texts. These texts described vicious assaults launched by a leader with the name “Jansung”. Ryxmer did a lot of investigation into his family line and Jansung was his family surname millennia ago. The ancient records went on to state that the Jansung’s took great pleasure slaughtering Mandalorian male warriors in front of their families. They then killed the mothers in front of the children and then the children. Ryxmer approached his father with what he had discovered and his father went into a rage and asked him to leave. That was approximately 13 years ago. Ryxmer has been essentially disowned by his family.

Ryxmer is 6 foot 2 inches tall and weighs 215 pounds. He is a large man and could have pursued a soldier’s career as a stormtrooper commander like his father. Ryxmer is 43 years old, his brown hair is graying. He is friendly to those people he gets to know. He enjoys laughing with his friends, if for no other reason than to forget his pain. His loneliness is so deep that it has driven him to drink which he does to excess at sometimes inopportune times. He jumps from job to job, happy to live as a contractor archaeologist. Sometimes he assists at the university, sometimes he helps at dig sites, sometimes he fills in as a substitute teacher. Ryxmer keeps in contact with agents of the Empire for the simple fact that he knows they have access to vast resources. He is able to work his connections and volunteers to help as a steward on Imperial capital ships as a means to get to planets in search of the latest rumor of ancient mandalorian society. Ryxmer hopes to one day reconcile with his family, uncover the truth about what happened on Mandalore and earn respect for being one of the most noted Mandalorian scholars in history. Ryxmer will never kill another individual, he sees this as his way of honoring those his family slew in cold blood so long ago.

Good idea!

Vestij jai Galaar, while I like your idea of Ordo and Mereel, I hope that they don't become indestructible. Can happen.

Great stories so far everyone! Keep 'em coming!

Great stories so far everyone! Keep 'em coming

BTW, does anyone have an idea for a Mandalore-based adventure?

Sorry about all that. New on fff & saw Mandalorian thread. love

mandalorian concept, but can't stand much that isn't fansourced.

Vestij jai Galaar, while I like your idea of Ordo and Mereel, I hope that they don't become indestructible. Can happen.

I thought of that. The PCs are still pretty low on XP, and I had given them warnings in game so that their characters should have known not to try anything, which they didn't. If they had, I was comfortable with handing out some.....consequences, and they knew that going in.

Vestij jai Galaar, while I like your idea of Ordo and Mereel, I hope that they don't become indestructible. Can happen.

I thought of that. The PCs are still pretty low on XP, and I had given them warnings in game so that their characters should have known not to try anything, which they didn't. If they had, I was comfortable with handing out some.....consequences, and they knew that going in.

Cool. any pc join the mandos?

I never really got why the Nulls/Omega/Walon Vau/Delta /Kal Skirata never do much besides hide. If the're the most dangerous men in the galaxy, why are they hiding out & doing nothing on a planet the Republic deserted? don't get that...

I always figured that it was because they were done with spending their lives fighting. The clones grew up doing almost nothing but fighting for thirteen years straight, and Kal and Walon are getting old. After a while, I think you're just done.

None of the PCs have joined yet, but I know that one of the players wants his character to eventually. That's going to be a whole 'nother story arc though (Just pretend that that emoji is a wicked GM grin!)

In the campaign with Ryxmer (run by my son), one of the players has a Mando. Unfortunately his attendance hasn't been consistent so that story arc really didn't get to play out unfortunately.

So....uhm, I feel terrible about this, but I really haven't had a lot of Mandalorian action at all in my game! I've always liked the Mandalorians ... well the idea of a Spartan/Special Forces/Pragmatic Warrior species at least, but I always felt they were best used as garnish on a solid story as opposed to the meat of the story itself.

There are only two ties to the Mandalorians in my current game, the first being an NPC named Kryze, who was a bounty hunter specializing in capturing Jedi. He was actually part of a group that used the Cloning technologies from the abandoned Kamino facilities to replicate DNA fragments from the Jedi that they "captured" and then relocated the Jedi to abandoned sections of the galaxy with better credentials and proper cover identities. They hadn't been caught in the farce yet, but the PCs were targets of Imperial Bounties, and so they followed them to 'evac' them to a more stable situation. Kryze himself was the continuation (at least in the Kylaverse) of the Satine/Obi-Wan romance in TCW series. The son of the pair after their brief time together during her exile, Satine hid Kryze's birth from Obi-Wan due to his confession that he would have left the Order for her. Rather than bear the responsibility for Obi-Wan leaving what he loved (even if it was for another love) and taking such a valiant hero from galactic service, she vowed to raise Kryze on her own. This ended with her own death, and so Bo-Katan, Kryze's aunt, raised him instead. Her hatred of the Jedi and off-world "interlopers" resulted in Kryze never being trained in the ways of the Force (outside of his own searching and those things he picked up from the Jedi he rescued). Though he was raised with Bo-Katan's prejudices, he also had the stories of his mothers love for Kenobi, and so he began his rescue and relocation antics partially out of honor for his father, but mostly because it allowed him to track his father down without raising undue suspicion.

The second is a leftover from the Lessons of the Past adventure wherein the PC's eventually find a desolate ship which was the site of a big clash between Mandalorians and a Jedi Master in exile. The PCs eventually have to face an aging and mostly insane Basilisk war droid.I personally thought that the build up to the Basilisk war droid was a little weak, and if not given some more context it would lake for a "big bad droid" scenario that wouldn't quite encapsulate the tragic qualities of this battle. It was set up to be a story about a Jedi Master and painter who disagreed with the warlike tendencies of the Order going into self imposed exile with her students in order to see sights never before witnessed and live out their lives in peaceful harmony. This exile is ended by the very war that the Jedi back home became embroiled in, and throughout the journey in exile the Master realizes that while violence isn't and should never be the action, avoidance of your responsibility to the galaxy at large isn't the solution. Here, in a forgotten and remote location, that realization resulted in the final battle of her existence, and was lost potentially forever, if not the intervention of the PCs

I always felt this wasn't put across in the exploration of the ship and the battle with the Basilisk, and so I wrote in a subtext that it was the Lady Mandalore, wife of the Mandalore at the time who led the assault on the Jedi Master's ship. Indeed, it was her personal Basilisk that had survived, and now guards vigil over what it considers to be her grave. The PCs were forced to then explore not only the history of the Jedi Master, but also the Mandalorians in order to uncover which of the many corpses belonged to the Lady Mandalore. Through this, they not only were they able to identify which set of ancient armor belonged to her (thus enabling one of the female PCs to don the armor thanks to Kryze being there and disable the Basilisk without getting roflstomped) but also gave them a chance to learn the events that inevitably led to these two powerful women to face each other - both for reasons that (though diametrically opposed) served their people for the better, and what eventually led each to understand more of the others ways. It really played up the tragedy at the same time as providing a powerful subtext to the scenario.

It also led to a great scene wherein the Basilisk referred to the PC as "Lady Mandalore" much to Kryze's chagrin. This later led to a great scene wherein everyone started calling the PC "Lady Mandalore" and Kryze finally losing it, which resulted in the revelation that he was Satine Kryze's own son (in his opinion, the true Lady of Mandalore). It wasn't until much later, when they were wandering a museum on Cato Nemoidia dedicated to the Clone Wars, that they realized who his father was. They wandered by a recruitment poster for the Republic Navy showing the "heroes Kenobi and Skywalker" and saw the spitting image of him.

Vestij jai Galaar, while I like your idea of Ordo and Mereel, I hope that they don't become indestructible. Can happen.

I thought of that. The PCs are still pretty low on XP, and I had given them warnings in game so that their characters should have known not to try anything, which they didn't. If they had, I was comfortable with handing out some.....consequences, and they knew that going in.

Cool. any pc join the mandos?

I never really got why the Nulls/Omega/Walon Vau/Delta /Kal Skirata never do much besides hide. If the're the most dangerous men in the galaxy, why are they hiding out & doing nothing on a planet the Republic deserted? don't get that...

Why should they? Their war is over. Everything they want is a life in peace with their families. They don't have any reason to wage war against the empire. Yes - the emperor ****** them over, but why should they give up everything they have to go for a sith-hunt? The gazillions of credits they have is a bit of overdoing by Traviss but even if they were poor as the skywalkers on tattooine i see no reason for them to go out to make money. They are happy to have a life with their wifes and children. Why risk that for revenge or personal gain? The part when Yayax-Squad and Levet are happy to breed robas and are proud of themselves for building a barn from the farming-manual is the best example for that.

I don't think that the Traviss-Mandalorians are as bad as they are seen by many. Kal Skirata and Walon Wau and the other Cuy'val Dar are the Star Wars version of some old navy seals or SAS/SBS Commandos. They are good but they are not unique in the whole galaxy far far away. There are non- mandalorian Cuy'val dar mentioned in the books and the average mandalorian is not so good in comparison to the average human. Yes - they are a bunch of preppers and libertarians but apart from the elite-mercernaries they are not better by the default than the average frontier-worlder. Han Solo is no template for the average smuggler as is lando calrissian if it comes to charmer and gambler. Anakin Skywalker is not the average jedi. There are Mandalorians that are overpowered but i don't think that they are unique in the galaxy. There are more examples of warrior-races or cultures with a reputation as good/fear inducing as that of the mandalorians. Like the Gank for example. The Echani and the Noghri are also despicted as uber-assassins and uber-warriors.

What makes the mandalorians outstanding is their culture and there way of life. But they are far from beeing the warrior-gods as some Traviss-critics see them portraied in the republic commando series.

So....uhm, I feel terrible about this, but I really haven't had a lot of Mandalorian action at all in my game! I've always liked the Mandalorians ... well the idea of a Spartan/Special Forces/Pragmatic Warrior species at least, but I always felt they were best used as garnish on a solid story as opposed to the meat of the story itself.

There are only two ties to the Mandalorians in my current game, the first being an NPC named Kryze, who was a bounty hunter specializing in capturing Jedi. He was actually part of a group that used the Cloning technologies from the abandoned Kamino facilities to replicate DNA fragments from the Jedi that they "captured" and then relocated the Jedi to abandoned sections of the galaxy with better credentials and proper cover identities. They hadn't been caught in the farce yet, but the PCs were targets of Imperial Bounties, and so they followed them to 'evac' them to a more stable situation. Kryze himself was the continuation (at least in the Kylaverse) of the Satine/Obi-Wan romance in TCW series. The son of the pair after their brief time together during her exile, Satine hid Kryze's birth from Obi-Wan due to his confession that he would have left the Order for her. Rather than bear the responsibility for Obi-Wan leaving what he loved (even if it was for another love) and taking such a valiant hero from galactic service, she vowed to raise Kryze on her own. This ended with her own death, and so Bo-Katan, Kryze's aunt, raised him instead. Her hatred of the Jedi and off-world "interlopers" resulted in Kryze never being trained in the ways of the Force (outside of his own searching and those things he picked up from the Jedi he rescued). Though he was raised with Bo-Katan's prejudices, he also had the stories of his mothers love for Kenobi, and so he began his rescue and relocation antics partially out of honor for his father, but mostly because it allowed him to track his father down without raising undue suspicion.

The second is a leftover from the Lessons of the Past adventure wherein the PC's eventually find a desolate ship which was the site of a big clash between Mandalorians and a Jedi Master in exile. The PCs eventually have to face an aging and mostly insane Basilisk war droid.I personally thought that the build up to the Basilisk war droid was a little weak, and if not given some more context it would lake for a "big bad droid" scenario that wouldn't quite encapsulate the tragic qualities of this battle. It was set up to be a story about a Jedi Master and painter who disagreed with the warlike tendencies of the Order going into self imposed exile with her students in order to see sights never before witnessed and live out their lives in peaceful harmony. This exile is ended by the very war that the Jedi back home became embroiled in, and throughout the journey in exile the Master realizes that while violence isn't and should never be the action, avoidance of your responsibility to the galaxy at large isn't the solution. Here, in a forgotten and remote location, that realization resulted in the final battle of her existence, and was lost potentially forever, if not the intervention of the PCs

I always felt this wasn't put across in the exploration of the ship and the battle with the Basilisk, and so I wrote in a subtext that it was the Lady Mandalore, wife of the Mandalore at the time who led the assault on the Jedi Master's ship. Indeed, it was her personal Basilisk that had survived, and now guards vigil over what it considers to be her grave. The PCs were forced to then explore not only the history of the Jedi Master, but also the Mandalorians in order to uncover which of the many corpses belonged to the Lady Mandalore. Through this, they not only were they able to identify which set of ancient armor belonged to her (thus enabling one of the female PCs to don the armor thanks to Kryze being there and disable the Basilisk without getting roflstomped) but also gave them a chance to learn the events that inevitably led to these two powerful women to face each other - both for reasons that (though diametrically opposed) served their people for the better, and what eventually led each to understand more of the others ways. It really played up the tragedy at the same time as providing a powerful subtext to the scenario.

It also led to a great scene wherein the Basilisk referred to the PC as "Lady Mandalore" much to Kryze's chagrin. This later led to a great scene wherein everyone started calling the PC "Lady Mandalore" and Kryze finally losing it, which resulted in the revelation that he was Satine Kryze's own son (in his opinion, the true Lady of Mandalore). It wasn't until much later, when they were wandering a museum on Cato Nemoidia dedicated to the Clone Wars, that they realized who his father was. They wandered by a recruitment poster for the Republic Navy showing the "heroes Kenobi and Skywalker" and saw the spitting image of him.

Lady Mandalore! That's awesome!!!

Vestij jai Galaar, while I like your idea of Ordo and Mereel, I hope that they don't become indestructible. Can happen.

I thought of that. The PCs are still pretty low on XP, and I had given them warnings in game so that their characters should have known not to try anything, which they didn't. If they had, I was comfortable with handing out some.....consequences, and they knew that going in.

Cool. any pc join the mandos?

I never really got why the Nulls/Omega/Walon Vau/Delta /Kal Skirata never do much besides hide. If the're the most dangerous men in the galaxy, why are they hiding out & doing nothing on a planet the Republic deserted? don't get that...

Why should they? Their war is over. Everything they want is a life in peace with their families. They don't have any reason to wage war against the empire. Yes - the emperor ****** them over, but why should they give up everything they have to go for a sith-hunt? The gazillions of credits they have is a bit of overdoing by Traviss but even if they were poor as the skywalkers on tattooine i see no reason for them to go out to make money. They are happy to have a life with their wifes and children. Why risk that for revenge or personal gain? The part when Yayax-Squad and Levet are happy to breed robas and are proud of themselves for building a barn from the farming-manual is the best example for that.

I don't think that the Traviss-Mandalorians are as bad as they are seen by many. Kal Skirata and Walon Wau and the other Cuy'val Dar are the Star Wars version of some old navy seals or SAS/SBS Commandos. They are good but they are not unique in the whole galaxy far far away. There are non- mandalorian Cuy'val dar mentioned in the books and the average mandalorian is not so good in comparison to the average human. Yes - they are a bunch of preppers and libertarians but apart from the elite-mercernaries they are not better by the default than the average frontier-worlder. Han Solo is no template for the average smuggler as is lando calrissian if it comes to charmer and gambler. Anakin Skywalker is not the average jedi. There are Mandalorians that are overpowered but i don't think that they are unique in the galaxy. There are more examples of warrior-races or cultures with a reputation as good/fear inducing as that of the mandalorians. Like the Gank for example. The Echani and the Noghri are also despicted as uber-assassins and uber-warriors.

What makes the mandalorians outstanding is their culture and there way of life. But they are far from beeing the warrior-gods as some Traviss-critics see them portraied in the republic commando series.