Hi all,

So I wrapped up episode II of my groups current adventure last night, loosely based on "Onslaught at Arda I"

I have injected an Inquisitor to "deal" with our force using starfighter ace.

So end of the session, Var Narek has captured the Senior Advisor, and the Inquisitor showed up to play with and capture the Force user. Team is left split, heavily wounded and without their pilot.

My questions are, with a month to plan for the opening of episode III.

1) Inquisitorial torture: How have people dealt with this. I want the end result to be that the player has a greater understanding of the force (opening up the lightsaber style specialisations), but going down a dark dangerous path. Are there rules for torture? (I have cyphers and masks inbound in the mail)

2) Entire session (probably) split party. keeping everyone engaged while the other scene is playing out. tips and tricks please

sex in advance for any and all advice.

The way my group has dealt with torture in the past is using coercion for the torturer and either discipline or resilience to resist the torture. Either a competitive roll where both side assemble their positive dice pool and then the results are compared against 0 difficulty or one where the victims stats are used for the difficulty. Since fear and pain can lead to the dark side, failing these checks could lead to conflict points being slapped on, quite badly on despairs to resist or triumphs for the torturer. Which could also lead to the insights that falling to the Dark Side is not just something one chooses because they want more power or they're evil, it's something that comes easier to victimized people because they crave the power to stop being victims or just to make the pain and fear go away. But this power is seductive, it gives you the ability to stop being the victim and make others the victim, which will make you safe since now you're the one holding the tools of torture, and as long as you make others suffer, you won't have to be the one to suffer.

Split party can be a bit more tricky, you don't want scenes to last too long for anyone. Shorter scenes lead to more engagement and makes sure people have an easier time to keep track of what's going on. You can also let the others in the group come up with suggestions for triumphs and despairs to make sure that they are still engaged in the action.

Hope that helps out a bit. Sounds like you have a pretty decent group that is able to accept losing as well as winning and getting to be the big god **** heroes.

4 minutes ago, Darth Revenant said:

Sounds like you have a pretty decent group that is able to accept losing as well as winning and getting to be the big god **** heroes.

oh ho, no, some were really bummed at the last minute turn of events (they thought the adventure was wrapping up and tea and medals all round) it was glorious (cue GM manic cackling)

Ironically the force user is quite excited, as he will have the opportunity soon to unlock lightsaber skills and talents

If you are wanting them to unlock lightsaber skills, maybe rather than torture it's honey. It's not as if a dark sider offering to show a character how to use their powers more effectively is unusual. Then it is up to the character whether to "give in" and learn !

15 hours ago, Funk Fu master said:

1) Inquisitorial torture: How have people dealt with this. I want the end result to be that the player has a greater understanding of the force (opening up the lightsaber style specialisations), but going down a dark dangerous path. Are there rules for torture? (I have cyphers and masks inbound in the mail)

2) Entire session (probably) split party. keeping everyone engaged while the other scene is playing out. tips and tricks please

Have the Jedi Return.

What I mean is, start it off like Return of the Jedi, the opening scene is a month later as well, and the players are executing an insane rescue operation to get the pilot (and party) back.

It's a film simulator and you're doing the sequel. to date, only 1 Star Wars Movie featuring the same player characters* has started off less than a month from the one preceding it.

*Yes, Rogue 1 and ANH are literally hours apart, but the "player characters," (Jyn, Cassian, K2, ect.) are not the same as the ones in ANH (Luke, Han, Leia). Where TFA and TLJ also take place within a day or two of each other and feature the same player characters (Poe, Fin, Rey).

Perhaps the Inquisitor seeks to turn the PC into her apprentice. The classic 'join me and together we will rule the galaxy' line.

Building on @Darzil's suggestion, the Inquisitor could use both carrot and stick on the PC. The seduction of the dark side coupled with demonstrations of power. Sparring matches with practice sabers, intense conversations with dramatic backdrops, witnessing the interrogation of captured rebels.

If you are going to have actual torture happening 'on screen' be sure that everyone at the table is comfortable. One tactic I've seen successfully employed is an 'x card' that anyone at the table can flip, ending the current scene with no questions asked. Another is saying something like 'fade to black' when the subject matter becomes uncomfortable for a player or GM.

Interesting suggestions @O the Owl I like that

On ‎8‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 8:39 AM, O the Owl said:

Perhaps the Inquisitor seeks to turn the PC into her apprentice. The classic 'join me and together we will rule the galaxy' line.

Building on @Darzil's suggestion, the Inquisitor could use both carrot and stick on the PC. The seduction of the dark side coupled with demonstrations of power. Sparring matches with practice sabers, intense conversations with dramatic backdrops, witnessing the interrogation of captured rebels.

If you are going to have actual torture happening 'on screen' be sure that everyone at the table is comfortable. One tactic I've seen successfully employed is an 'x card' that anyone at the table can flip, ending the current scene with no questions asked. Another is saying something like 'fade to black' when the subject matter becomes uncomfortable for a player or GM.

I think that is quite clever, the X card thing. Do they tend to use it to shut up monologuing bad guys though, or only when things have gone to some unpleasant or offensive subject?

20 hours ago, Archlyte said:

I think that is quite clever, the X card thing. Do they tend to use it to shut up monologuing bad guys though, or only when things have gone to some unpleasant or offensive subject?

Definately the latter - the BBG has to get his monologue!

It is something I first heard James D'Amato of One Shot Podcast talk about. The idea being that a player's evening could be ruined by a subject bringing up bad memories or associations, and they may not want to go into detail in front of the group as to why. The 'x card' gives everyone a no-questions-asked way to move on if something like that comes up. A sort of safety word.