I sold some games on Craigslist the other day; Some old board games I’ll never use. I let them go for 25 bucks, which, if you were to buy those games individually, would probably be around $200. But I wasn’t playing them, as I said, and they needed to go.

So what did I do? Naturally, I went to the game store and bought The Force Unleashed Campaign Guide for Star Wars Saga Edition. I only spent about 15 bucks out of pocket, so it worked out well.

Additionally, for my birthday, I got a gift card to Amazon.com, and immediately ordered Martial Power II and pre-ordered Player’s Handbook III. I’m really excited about getting these in. I’ll let you know all about it when they arrive.

Additionally, I downloaded and tried out the Character Builder and Encounter Builder with my DDI subscription. So far, it’s one of the coolest things in gaming, from what I’ve seen. As soon as I’ve built a complete character, I’ll let you know the full details of what I think about it.

So, previously I mentioned how only having a couple hours a week to game makes things more cinematic (aka, like a movie). For proof, I offer up A New Hope. We’ll cover the first couple sessions, then fill out the rest of the campaign in a later post. We’ll take a look at it from the perspective of a group playing only 2-hour sessions. The PCs are: Luke, Obi-Wan, Han, Chewie and Leia.

Session 1: Look Sir, Droids!

Opening credits. The game begins with Luke receiving the droids. He sees the message from Leia. Plot hook! He removes the restraining bolt, hoping to get more details on the plot and be told by the GM where to go. R2, the NPC refuses to give him the information, and Luke fails a Perception check to realize R2’s bluffing him. R2 goes missing. Plot hook! All of this could be accomplished in 20 minutes, 30 tops. The next morning, Luke goes after him. Encounter with Tusken Raiders! In a standard game, there’d be a whole bunch of them. Not in this case. We don’t have time! One Tusken takes Luke down in a fight taking about 15 minutes. Obi-Wan arrives, using Bluff and the Force to scare off the Tuskens, avoiding a fight. They go back to Obi-Wan’s hut, where the GM hands Obi-Wan a paper of exposition for him to read to the other player to explain the Force. This takes about 15 minutes. We’re at the hour mark. Look how much we’ve accomplished! Luke heads out to find his parents, and runs across the Jawas. Obi-Wan makes some Perception and Insight checks and realizes this is the work of Imperial Stormtroopers (“Only they could be so precise!”) Luke rushes home to find his aunt and uncle dead. He goes back to Obi-Wan. Really cranking out the angst to earn some extra RP XP, Luke tells Obi-Wan he wants to multiclass to Jedi. All completed in one session of an hour and a half. And we’ve only seen one quick fight!

Session 2: A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

The players playing Han and Chewie are finally able to join the group that week. The GM tells them he’ll find a place to introduce them. The session starts with Obi-Wan and Luke overlooking Mos Eisley. The GM describes the city and how horrible it is. Obi-Wan makes a dry comment about scum and villainy. The GM awards a few extra points of XP for clever dialogue. They arrive in the town. There’s a heavy Imperial presence. Stormtroopers attempt to stop them. Whereas Luke’s player says, “hell, let’s fight them!” Obi-Wan’s more experienced player decides to try tricking them. A simple Skill Challenge and Use the Force skills later, and they’re done. It’s been 15 minutes. They arrive at the Cantina, where they do some Gather Information checks to try to find a pilot. Obi-Wan is introduced to another player who is running the Wookiee. An NPC begins pushing around Luke. With the threats they’re making, Luke’s player realizes they’re probably much higher level than him, and tries to avoid a fight. Obi-Wan steps in to calm them down, but to no avail. Using an opposed Strength check, the NPC throws Luke into a table. Roll Initiative! Turns out they’re just 1^st level Thugs, and with Obi-Wan winning initiative, one ends up dead, the other limbless. Ouch. The fight ends in one round. It’s been another 30 minutes or so. Han is introduced to the other players. They have a discussion, and haggle on the price. An opposing Diplomacy vs. Han’s Bluff skill roll, and they’ve got a deal. The GM tells Luke and Obi-Wan’s players to take a break so he can work out a scene with Han. As Han gets up to leave, he ends up in an encounter with an NPC, Greedo. Plot hook! After a quick discussion and a few failed Diplomacy rolls, Han wins initiative and gets a Sneak Attack in, scores a critical, and drops the NPC down to 0 HP. He departs, and arrives in the hangar bay where he runs into Jabba. Jabba makes some demands, forcing a Skill Challenge where Han haggles down the price with a few Diplomacy and Bluff checks. We’re one hour and fifteen minutes into the game. Only fifteen minutes left to go! Obi-Wan and Luke haggle with a merchant and fail, not getting much for the speeder. They arrive in the hangar bay, and have to rush aboard as stormtroopers arrive. Han fires off a few shots, and they’re away, into space! After a quick successful Astrogate to escape the star destroyers, and it’s the end of the session.

Next time: The heroes find the Death Star, a new player is introduced, and we look at how you could cover the entire Death Star escape in a single session!

Last week, the wife and I went to Central 111, a local club, for my friend’s 30th birthday. Now, mind you, it’s my first time in a club.

I’ve been to bars (quite a few in Manhattan), but never a club. It was an experience, let me tell you.

But, as always, I immediately thought of how this could be used in game. In Star Wars, characters always end up in cantinas and bars, but when was the last time the characters went into a club to look for their informant/contact? Try it out. Here’s some tips:

1. Go to a club

This is the best way you’re going to be able to really see what the club scene is like.

2. Employ dancers

There was a girl in a bra and hot-pants dancing around on a stage elevated above the dance floor, and after a while, she moved up onto the bar. One thing Bridget noticed, however, is how bored she looked. I imagine that if I had to stand there and gyrate for hours on end, I would get bored too. Put that into your game. A Twi’Lek dancer drawing all eyes to herself, but if you roll a high perception check, she appears to be completely disinterested in anything around her.

3. LASERS!

The club had a lot of lasers. They were shooting everywhere, getting in your eyes, and casting cool images all over the ground and walls. There was a lot of smoke, and other than that, it was very dark. You know what that means: concealment. If you’re trying to look for someone in the crowd, you’re going to have a tough time of it.

4. “Pardon me…”

Clubs are crowded! You’ll have a difficult time moving through a crowd. Perhaps reduce all speed by half. The mass of bodies always seems to close in on you just as you are trying to get by. Use this in your game.

5. “WHAT?!”

Clubs are LOUD! Good luck hearing your comlink ringing. You’re not going to be able to hear most (if any) of what someone else is saying to you. If your character and whoever they’re trying to talk to are Twi’Leks, using their lekku should alleviate that, but if not, you’re out of luck. You’re going to have to roll a high Perception check to hear anything. If all else fails, nod and pretend you know what the other person is saying. Maybe during the game, employ some really loud techno to set the scene. If you can stomach techno, that is. You’d be a bigger man than me.

6. Intoxication

There are hundreds of drink possibilities. What does this mean in your game? Lots of drunk girls. Drunk girls dancing on tables, drunk girls dancing with each other, drunk girls waiting for the bathroom and hitting on drunk guys. Let your players make up names for drinks, and have the bartender and waitresses know exactly what they’re referring to. Have the PCs constantly getting hit on by all kinds of girls: humans, zabraks, and… hutts… *shudder*

That’s about all I can think of. Do any of you have any further advice for making your clubs in Star Wars more realistic?

I’ve found, as of late, that I simply don’t have time for long encounters. We only have about 2-3 hours a week we’re together, so getting through multiple scenes is essential. There’s no time to spend the whole session whacking away at a pair of wyverns, so I’ve begun  ignoring the monster’s HP and killing the monster off once I think it’s time to move on.

An example: the heroes enter a room with three animated statues. They begin attacking. A half-hour into the assault, the players are looking bored, and all I really wanted the heroes to do was discover the secret passageway in the corner of the room. One of the heroes makes an attack, and knocks one of the statues backwards, which I conveniently have fall back into the hidden door, collapsing the weak stonework. Hey, look! The statue is destroyed in the collapsing rubble. Within the next round, the monsters are dispatched by the heroes. As soon as the plot point is figured out, the monsters simply run out of HP.

Is this cheating? Sure, but it doesn’t cheapen my players’ victory, since they aren’t aware I’m doing it. It’s simply advancing the plot.

I’m even lazier in Star Wars. Since most NPCs you encounter are humanoid, I just give them about 10-15 HP, an overall defense of 15 or so, then bump things up or down based on race and type of NPC. A Wookiee bodyguard might have 30 HP and a Defense of 20, whereas the pathetic Nemodian merchant they encounter and decide to dispatch has a Defense of 10 and 5 HP.

How about all of you? Do any of you do this?

I’m starting up a new campaign soon with some friends. We’ll be playing when our ship goes out to sea for training, so I decided to try out Wizard of the Coast’s Dawn of Defiance Star Wars Saga Edition campaign.

I’ve already begun reading through the adventures, changing them where I need to. I’ve been messing around a bit with Photoshop to make the game as dynamic as possible as well. Here’s the preview I sent out to my players. You can click to see the full sized image:

It’s a new comic! And this one is actually good, unlike every single other one. Just kidding. This one sucks like the rest of them.

Again… kidding.

As always, feel free to comment.

(p.s. An Editor’s Note from Capuchin Captions:  It’s Dicemonkey’s birthday today!)

How bothered would you be if you arrived at a new game, and the GM informed you that you would be able to choose one of a certain set of race/class combinations?

Let me make myself make sense:

You show up at a new game, ready with some character concepts floating around in your head. The GM says, “Okay, we need an Elf Wizard, a Human Fighter, and at least one Dwarf Paladin.” Would you feel like you could sit down with a certain level of restriction and design a character that was wholly your own? I think I could.

I bring this up, because, in the past, I have suggested this idea to my players. It usually begins with everyone thinking up ideas for a new game (we’ll use Star Wars as an example, since I’m on a Star Wars kick at the moment). Every single one of them is looking through the Ultimate Alien Anthology, trying to find the weirdest thing to play. I get a little irritated (I’m slightly Xenophobic when I play. I like to play humans, and get irritated when people think humans are “boring” [NO I'M NOT!]). I know that in the Star Wars films and books, humans are the most prevalent race, and a ship full of aliens isn’t all that common, and would be more realistic with more humans on board. I state, “I want at least half the crew to be human”. That goes down like a lead balloon.

This also happened, because I noticed that there wasn’t anyone to take the piloting role. I arbitrarily chose someone and told them that they were going to be the pilot, and should probably take the Skill Emphasis: Pilot feat. Luckily, they liked that idea.

Hmm…

Last big Star Wars game I ran, I added about three NPCs to the ship’s crew to add more humans to the mix (OK, one was a Zeltron, but they’re near-humans, so they’re human enough).

I’m normally not very controlling in my games. I let whatever happens, happen, and simply roll with the punches, letting the players direct the story.

Should I let my xenophobia go and just roll with the fact that the players are going to try to be a Hutt?

So, I’m beginning a new one-on-one Star Wars campaign with my wife. Yesterday, I was putting together her first encounter, in which she, a 1st Level Jedi, fights alongside 5 Clone Troopers (CL 2 each) and a Clone Trooper Commander (CL 5) against a squad of 5 Battle Droids (CL 1 each) and 4 Super Battle Droids (CL 2 each).

The CL for the Clone side, not including the Jedi, equals 10, whereas the CL for the droids equals 13.

The question is this: Does the CL between the two groups negate one another, leaving the CL of the total encounter at 3? I’m still trying to figure it out.

Any help would be appreciated.