On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 5:55 PM, Xcapobl said:

War. It has a glorious face. One where heroes are made, and their exploits sung about for ages. A face that shines in the light of brave men, women, and others as they defy death, both on the ground and in the skies (and in space beyond the skies, of course). Missions to accomplish this feel are often action and drama oriented. That daring escape from Hoth, where a ground combat is followed by a space chase, for example. Breaking a rebel spy out of a detention facility is another example, as this usually starts as a stealth mission, but more often than not ends up in mass carnage, a corridor chase, and several shoot-downs. Indomitable last stands against all odds are succeeded by marching band music and medal ceremonies. Even though it glorifies (non-descriptive) combat, this side is often open to frivolous banter, a joke or two, and that general Star Wars feel where the protagonists have time between shots to exchange witty quips.

War. it has a dirty face. For the sake of fun at the table this is often ignored. This might be the more gritty part you seek, though I am certain this style of play will not appeal to everybody. This is, where the characters are called upon to run a salvage mission after a major battle, finding mangled corpses in burnt-out wrecks of T-47 airspeeders. Or where they are to escort a convoy of (terribly) wounded casualties through hostile territory, forced to protect those, who can no longer protect themselves, at least until they have been to a cybernetics clinic to replace those lost limbs. A dirty face where the characters have been friends with an informant, only to one day get the order to pull a 'Cassian' on that informant, a direct order to eliminate the informant as she had become a liability. Or a dark pit of despair where the characters, geared for war and heroics, find themselves negotiating with foul criminals on Nal Hutta for necessary supplies and medical equipment from the black market. And we all know that angering the Hutts will have consequences.

Who dares making jokes now?

There's a lot of awesome packed into this post.

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 11:39 PM, HappyDaze said:

Pretty much every player ever. RPGs tend to attract players with a wide range of personalities, but in every table I've ever sat at there are always a few that will keep cracking jokes no matter what tone the game is intended to draw out. Most such players will make it in character humor too and they love to play smart-mouthed jackholes.

Yeah and the Deadpool movies have emboldened them I think lol. I am easy going irl and so I sometimes have a hard time shutting down the joking especially when it makes me laugh. I have one at my table now who does this with his concepts because he isn't the best comedian but hasn't figured that out yet. Comedy is hard. I do explain to players that overall I'm looking for a serious game, and that the kind of piss'n'vinegar tubed games are not really what I am interested in playing. In the last few years I have noticed that streamed games are really pervasive and the players who watch them want to do that same thing.

I was watching one game on youtube and they played for 4 minutes out of 30 minutes time spent just screwing around on average. There's always a fat guy playing a wookiee with a dumb name like Toobackoh or Chewballsy and aliens acting like human stereotypes like its the secret life of pets or something.

I just don’t think there’s really a way to stretch these kinds of themes into a longterm campaign, but short term is entirely possible (and more “realistic”).

I’d say start with a session zero where you discuss theme and character creation which should be reigned in (I agree that some races in this game can lead to silliness and shouldn’t be an option). Every player character should have an extreme reason for joining the Rebellion that’s established up front and while they play they should always have this in mind. You may want to even verbally run through each of these during this session as kind of “mini-sessions” without dice where the story of why each character joined the rebellion unfolds at the table (I’ve always felt that players care more about what they’ve done at the table than what they’ve created outside of it, this is a way of keeping their backgrounds meaningful).

There’s also several reasons why I say keep the campaign short term. In my experience campaigns can start really serious but always seem to devolve into a comedic farce given enough time. It’s just what happens when a group of friends gets comfortable doing a routine activity.

I also say keep the campaign short and tight because the interesting situations these kinds of things should be based on were. If you want real world “World War” examples then you need to look at the units most similar to the rebellion. These are smaller functioning groups designed to cause havok behind the enemy lines. Groups such as the SAS (there’s a great book called Rogue Heroes about them that can give inspiration) and missions such as Pegasus Bridge and the German Gran Sasso raid can be a great inspiration for the goals of these campaigns. Also there’s a ton of material on Britain’s SOE (Special Operations Executive) that you could use. There’s some heart wrenching stories there. My point for these examples also includes how short the expectations were to live through these kinds of operations. As an example: the two founders of the SAS were either dead or captured just months into their operations in North Africa. Rare were the individuals who made it through entire campaigns spent behind enemy lines, rarer still those who made it through the whole war.

Essentially as a GM you should do your best to keep their backs against the wall and remind them of theme. They should ALWAYS feel like they’re deep in enemy territory and never be comfortable. I can’t emphasize enough the attachment they should have to NPCs that will die or be captured if the players get too out of line which they should either feel emotionally through their loss and/or the loss of the mission.

So yeah, if you want that World War feel then go to the ACTUAL sources of it, not the Hollywood production version. There’s countless examples of real feats of incredible heroism in enemy territory to pull from as well as mission types/goals to use, you’re just most likely going to have to read about them rather than watch them.