... well anywhere really.

So to explain I have a fantastic Age group comprised of a Human, a Droid and a Wookie; to begin with this worked fine as the beginning plot lines when they encountered imperials were usually violent or they talked their way out of it. With the few moments of subterfuge being the Wookie in the pilot seat scanning comms and ready to take off or being able to sneak into a facility from the roof.

However as they are heading into wider space I'm struggling to think of ways they're going to get past imperial security without the Wookie becoming a joke. How do you guys handle non-humans in very human environments?

The galaxy far, far away is a place with over 20,000,000 worlds which are not human centric.

In very human imperial centric environments you can handle that wookie like a free black man, who is right in the middle of the confederate states.

A free Wookiee (with either official papers or faked papers) would be treated like a second class citizen by Imperials. However, on the Rim, there's a lot of planets who nominally belong to the Empire, but who have a presence of an officer and two Stormtroopers that are too fat to really fit into their armor anymore. There, they'd get treated slightly better. In shadowports meanwhile a Wookiee might find himself quite well-respected by people who aren't Trandoshans - Wookiee's are known for their immense strength, blood rages when attacked, and high skill in adapting machinery. A lot of smugglers and scum wouldn't want to mess with a seven foot walking carpet that can pull their arms out.

To the best of my knowledge a free wookiee doesn't legally exist, the whole species is imperial property.

3 hours ago, BipolarJuice said:

To the best of my knowledge a free wookiee doesn't legally exist, the whole species is imperial property.

They've been declared non-sapient by the Empire and mass enslaved, but privately owned Wookiee slaves exist. However, it is always up to the GM if 'legally' a free Wookiee can exist or not, like most things in the setting.

23 hours ago, Cynthorus said:

... well anywhere really.

So to explain I have a fantastic Age group comprised of a Human, a Droid and a Wookie; to begin with this worked fine as the beginning plot lines when they encountered imperials were usually violent or they talked their way out of it. With the few moments of subterfuge being the Wookie in the pilot seat scanning comms and ready to take off or being able to sneak into a facility from the roof.

However as they are heading into wider space I'm struggling to think of ways they're going to get past imperial security without the Wookie becoming a joke. How do you guys handle non-humans in very human environments?

Come up with whatever rule you want to resolve this. Either implement a "second class citizen" rule, and say to heck with the canon about them all being slaves. Or have them pretend to have the Wookie as property. There are many stories of characters pretending to hold a particular social class status, that they don't really have, in order to move freely in public. Have the droid and the human fabricate some fake "restraints" like a shock collar or similar devices, and just have him wear them like jewelry. The 3 of them know full well it's just a ruse, so he can move about Imperial planets without constant harassment, so it shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Bottom line, ask yourself this.

Do you want the Wookie's status in Imperial Space to be a significant part of the story going forward?

If Yes, then have the players come up with their own work around for him to be a free agent instead of a slave.

If No, then just make up whatever rule you want (you are the GM), and move on to the story you actually want to tell.

Don't ever let your narrative get bogged down in setting canon minutia. That stuff is there to inform your story, not restrict it.

2 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Don't ever let your narrative get bogged down in setting canon minutia. That stuff is there to inform your story, not restrict it.

Sometimes I have the feeling that this is a too common writer's approach. It literally cost you nothing to just change the setting to the rim or outside of direct imperial jurisdiction or let local law ignore the imperial ones. Restrictions based on other people's writing is what makes a coherent universe. And a galaxy far far away is big enough to have a plot around those restrictions without restricting your story itself.

There is little reason to break the canon here, literally millions of words, and millions of years during the timeline in which wookies don't have those issues. Now naturally, I would assume that a player does pick a wookie by choice, so having some runaway slave elements from time to time sound great. You could actually recommend just this as starting obligation for your player. Extra XP included. Does not come up often, but sometimes it does.

21 minutes ago, SEApocalypse said:

There is little reason to break the canon here

There is also little reason not to. No one cares what a GM does at their table, and I can bet that the majority of GM's break canon in little ways all the time. Because there is so much of it cluttering up the galaxy after decades of people "establishing" it via the EU. And canon also changes depending on when you are considering the canon. Pre-Disney, Post-Disney, etc etc. It's a giant freaking mess, that I personally can't be arsed to bother with, when I am just trying to have a fun game at my table with my friends. So if the PC's want to go into Imperial controlled space, because that's where they want to go, or the story happens to actually take place there, so be it. I don't owe anything to all of the fanfiction writers made professional of the EU, and the sometimes really stupid crap they established as canon. Or to George Lucas and Disney either. I, as the GM, can rewrite any and all of it I want.

As to the comment about restricting yourself to other people's work, making a coherent universe, so what? I'm not writing a published novel or anything, I'm playing a game at my table with friends. If the political structure of Naboo doesn't directly impact my game, then what does it matter if I change it because I didn't feel like researching it for a few hours before a session?

It hurts absolutely no one, for the GM to decide the Wookie can travel in Imperial space, because maybe he doesn't want to roleplay out the somewhat uncomfortable subject of the complete subjugation and slavery of an entire species. There are some subjects that people don't like to roleplay out, and for good reason. Perhaps they hit too close to home in some regards, or perhaps the GM just doesn't want to go there.

Which is why I gave him options based on the subject. If it's important to the story, like the players are actively trying to liberate the Wookie race or something, then yeah, his presence should be considered, given the social structure. If it's not, then who cares? For decades, the golden rule for GM's has always been "If you don't like it, change it." Since rule 1 is to have fun. So if it's more fun at his/her table to just not bother with the whole slavery thing, then go for it. If it is something they enjoy exploring, then go for it.

One of the big things to remember is that aliens are everywhere. If he is walking down the street, or on a private ship, Imperials aren't likely to waste their time hassling him. Unless there is a reason to.

Now if you are talking about infiltrating an Imperial Base, or an Imperial Moff's high society party, let the players figure out how he gets in. Just remind them that Wookiees are too big to fit into Imperial uniforms/armor, and let them figure it out. The droid will have the same problem, depending on what type he is. An astromech can probably get in with a paint job, but a IG assassin model is going to have problems.

Now I want to see a Wookie with too small clothing on, trying to "blend in" and failing miserably. This amuses me greatly.

I feel like it would be best as a Monty Python skit, where only one person points out that it's CLEARLY a Wookie in a Stormtrooper outfit, but everyone else is like "What on earth do you mean good chap? This is Private Rararurargrwarl! I've known him for years! Best Imperial soldier in this fine Navy!" With the person getting increasingly insane to nobody spotting the obvious.

Oooh! Now I'm picturing "Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!" skits too. Wow, I never realized how well Monty Python and Star Wars go together! Like chocolate and peanut butter!

54 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Now I want to see a Wookie with too small clothing on, trying to "blend in" and failing miserably. This amuses me greatly.

I feel like it would be best as a Monty Python skit, where only one person points out that it's CLEARLY a Wookie in a Stormtrooper outfit, but everyone else is like "What on earth do you mean good chap? This is Private Rararurargrwarl! I've known him for years! Best Imperial soldier in this fine Navy!" With the person getting increasingly insane to nobody spotting the obvious.

Oooh! Now I'm picturing "Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!" skits too. Wow, I never realized how well Monty Python and Star Wars go together! Like chocolate and peanut butter!

ROFLMAO!!!

11 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Now I want to see a Wookie with too small clothing on, trying to "blend in" and failing miserably. This amuses me greatly.

I feel like it would be best as a Monty Python skit, where only one person points out that it's CLEARLY a Wookie in a Stormtrooper outfit, but everyone else is like "What on earth do you mean good chap? This is Private Rararurargrwarl! I've known him for years! Best Imperial soldier in this fine Navy!" With the person getting increasingly insane to nobody spotting the obvious.

Oooh! Now I'm picturing "Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!" skits too. Wow, I never realized how well Monty Python and Star Wars go together! Like chocolate and peanut butter!

Oh jeez, my group better not see this post. They'll try it.

Sir Bearington

On 6/22/2017 at 9:16 AM, penpenpen said:

Sir Bearington

Never heard of sir bearington, but it doesn't surprise me someone's thought of that.