Re: Star Wars: Dawn of Defiance OOC Thread

[Zeiss]

Hmm, does that mean you will be there for our Star Wars sessionn, but very tired? That's what I understood anyway.

[Kolson]

I thought he meant he wouldn't be there because he is too tired to play.

[K]

What, Rory? He's a total trooper, dude. He'll be there ready and able, you'll see.

[Rory]

My bad. I tend to over-exaggerate. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

[Rory]

Dawn of Defiance

Part "X": Caamas' Hospitality

Refreshed and restocked on fuel, food, and other amenities and ordinance, our heroes depart from Starforge on the smuggling job assigned by Enowen, delivering supplies and two last-minute guests to the planet Caamas. Though failing to evade detection, they were able to break past the blockade and land planetside, where they were met with open arms and gratitude.


One of the guests, Korrah, addressed and greeted the Head of State, on diplomatic errand from senator Bail Organa to understand and publicize the quiet oppression of the Caamasi. Upon dismissal, padawan Ominae revealed his Jedi upbringing and news of the destruction of the academy to the company in the room, much to Vahrran's chagrin, who was ready to engage at a moment's notice; but the Caamasi reacted with awe and empathized with his plight, albeit with much anxiety in light of recent events.

Just before the dinner planned, the Imperial presence on the planet arrived unannounced to enjoy the natives' company. Partway through the social visit, Moff Ian Cameron questioned the integrity of the new arrivals to the planet his detachment was blockading. Upon directing his dire implications toward Vahrran, the Chiss responded by engaging him in a subtle, venomous duel, subsequently shaming the Moff's intellect, that of the galactic empire's legislature, and alluding to a possible less-than-friendly, but all too hypothetical visit from the Ascendancy. When reigned in by a superior, the Moff let slip a feigned intent to discuss the switching hands of an item he termed the "item", which was swiftly declined by the Caamasi spokesman in favor of a more private discussion at a later time. The dining continued without further incident.

Afterward, the transaction for the supplies delivered took place between Dake and a representative of Caamas--in which artworks and precious elements were accepted in place of remaining credits lacked--and the group held a clandestine meeting in Korra's suite, whereupon Ominae insisted on visiting the Jedi temple, same as before our heroes contended with the planetary blockade. Vahrran disagreed, and was unconvinced when the Lorrdian explained the clear vision he had during hyperspace, the confession of which had Korra immediately convinced. The Chiss and the Lorrdian debated at length before Vahrran reached for his stun baton, all but announcing his ultimatum.

When Ominae verbally returned the ultimatum with one as equally willful, yet more potent, Vahrran saw no other path but to go along and provide his expertise in reaching the temple undetected and placating any disturbances, and informed Korra's bodyguard, Jim, his attempt to protect his charge in the heat of the moment would not be necessary.

Tomorrow, our heroes depart for the Jedi temple, their method of reaching it yet up for debate...

[K]

Once we retire to our quarters, i'll take the minimum sleep i need in order to be able to function the next day, and spend the rest of the night meditating.

Specifically, i want to ask the Force how the great the threat to the Caamasi is, and whatever else it can tell me about the situation.

Use the Force +10

[Rory]

I propose we plan and prepare during the day for a nightly covert operation to reach the temple without being noticed by Empire troops.

I would like to consult Korra on public knowledge(private, if she has it) of Imperial patrols, lookouts, and camps within a radius covering the distance between us and the temple and beyond, with the intention of planning a route along the path of least resistance.

Next, a flat Deception check between Dake and Korra to see who is a better liar. RP: they take turns telling Vahrran a lie for a total of 6 lies each and I judge whose lies are more believable. Sorry, we can't take Harley on this mission if we wish to remain undetected.

Then, Vahrran will call another meeting with the group, Korra and Jen(Jin? Jien) with the purpose of pooling their collective Deception skill to come up with the best disguise and resources needed to fashion a disguise uniform for each person(I may need to paint my face, and the others should paint their faces with some other Humanlike color anyway to avoid being easily recognized). Then, I will take Dake with me to browse for the items required to make the disguises and determine if we can cover the cost to obtain what we need.

Disguise + Frontman Liar + path of least resistance/most concealment. Unfortunately I do not have any good ideas for the disguise.

[Kolson]

Once we retire to our quarters, i'll take the minimum sleep i need in order to be able to function the next day, and spend the rest of the night meditating.

Specifically, i want to ask the Force how the great the threat to the Caamasi is, and whatever else it can tell me about the situation.

Use the Force +10

You can actually do both at the same time. Force Sensitives trained in the Use the Force skill (hereafter referred to as the UtF skill) can enter a Force Trance that let's them:

1. Regain hit points equal to their character level for each hour in the trance.

2. Gain the benefits of an 8 hour rest so long as they spend 4 consecutive hours in the Force Trance.

3. Remain fully aware of their surroundings while in the trance, allowing them to ignore the penalties to defenses and Perception checks while resting.

4. Go ten times as long as normal without food or water.

All it takes is a full-round action and a DC 10 UtF check (which you can no longer fail) and bam!--you are in the trance.

Visions, hints, and other drama:

[Kolson]

I would like to consult Korra on public knowledge(private, if she has it) of Imperial patrols, lookouts, and camps within a radius covering the distance between us and the temple and beyond, with the intention of planning a route along the path of least resistance.

If the Empire has secret agents on Caamas, Korra is not aware of them. The only public Imperial presence on the planet is the Imperial delegation negotiating for some unknown item.

Next, a flat Deception check between Dake and Korra to see who is a better liar. RP: they take turns telling Vahrran a lie for a total of 6 lies each and I judge whose lies are more believable. Sorry, we can't take Harley on this mission if we wish to remain undetected.

We aren't doing tests to see who rolls better at this. That request is way, way, way too meta.

If you want disguises have Dake and Ominae help you with it. If you ask nicely, Korra may also.

Then, Vahrran will call another meeting with the group, Korra and Jen(Jin? Jien) with the purpose of pooling their collective Deception skill to come up with the best disguise and resources needed to fashion a disguise uniform for each person(I may need to paint my face, and the others should paint their faces with some other Humanlike color anyway to avoid being easily recognized). Then, I will take Dake with me to browse for the items required to make the disguises and determine if we can cover the cost to obtain what we need.

Disguise + Frontman Liar + path of least resistance/most concealment. Unfortunately I do not have any good ideas for the disguise.

Korra's bodyguard is named Jim Raynor.

Wearing Caamasi robes and such and a cloak to hide your face should be enough, so long as no one looks too closely.

Korra suggests that you guys could sneak off to the temple in the middle of her fact-finding mission. It's a great cover since she will be traveling around a lot gathering information for Senator Organa and she was always planning to tour the planet to some extent.

[K]

Sneaking off during her fact-finding mission sounds good, but i'm wary of letting her out of our sight. Cameron knows she's here now, and if he wants to keep this blockade a secret, he may have no choice than to get rid of her.

Then again, if he REALLY wants to keep this blockade secret, he must now kill everyone on the planet. Still, the problem with our leaving is twofold:

One, the Empire's resistance to someone leaving will undoubtedly be far greater than it was to our entry. Two, if we somehow manage to escape, and Cameron is aware Korra is offworld, it may prompt him to step up his timetable before the truth of what they're doing here can be made known.

I'm not sure what the communication speed is in Starwars, but it seems to be real-time across huge distances. If we could somehow get a message to Bail (without the Empire intercepting it), and he could arrange for a ship faster than the Stalker to meet us at a designated point and take Korra back to Coruscant, we could shave some time off those 4 days travel (a huge window for Cameron to do anything he wants to the planet). I'll try to get a good map of the galaxy and see if i could find a safe point to make a short jump to (pretty sure we'll need to do one of those regardless, since the lane blockade we came through should now be on higher alert), just in case it turns out to be a good idea. Then again, if we could actually reach him, Korra could just present our findings to him directly and he could make it known immediately. And the Empire must've thought to Jam all communications just for that.

THEN AGAIN, if and once we clear the blockade and are out of jamming range, if we THEN tried to hail Organa, it might speed things up considerably.

EDIT: I couldn't find the Starforge Nebula's location, but i know it's in the mid-rim. However, Alderaan is right next door. If we can get Korra there, we can leave the rest to Organa, and it'll be a far shorter jump than back to Starforge.

(Sorry, i'm editing as i go)

[Kolson]

StarForge Station is located in the StarForge Nebula in the Ado sector of the Mid Rim.

The Ado Sector isn't marked on this map but it's somewhere along the Rimma Trade Route, so either M16 or M17: http://goo.gl/rDRR0t

Korra would also like to got with you to the Temple. She's curious to see what you will find.

[Rory]

Korra can come, I guess. Her protection is primarily Jim's responsibility, though.

Robes and cloaks. Good enough. We wear cloaks as a tradition for our pilgrimage. We don't talk about that.

Would buying materials to make my hands look more Caamasi needlessly complicate things or create a penalty when used in junction with the robes and hoods idea? Otherwise I'll settle with painting my hands to have a "human" color. I think in a setting with rare visits and very few of my kind present, the reputation of my species would be working against me and make my appearance a near dead giveaway.

hands disguise:

[K]

Guys, something came up. I'm needed to go do some digging at a place in the mountains about 100km from here (wish i was kidding), and they're planning on leaving next thursday night, up till saturday.

I'm still holding on to hope they'll change their plans, but i know my luck when it comes to these things. I most likely won't be able to attend the next session.

Sorry about this.

[Rory]

Holes 2: Yelnat's Mountain.

It's okay, man. We can start earlier or shorten it if we can't play with our token Jedi.

[Kolson]

Our group is too small to play our campaign without someone, especially with a heavy Jedi focused part coming up and our Jedi not being available.

That said, would you guys like to play something else? I have a few light systems for occasions like this that we could do something with. If you guys are interested, we can discuss what kind of story we want to play and I can throw something together for Thursday.

I'll need you to answer the following questions:

1. Are you interested in doing this?

2. Which system do you prefer (see below)?

3. What kinds of genres are you interested in? Examples: High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Giant Mecha, Mystery, Slice of Life, Paranormal, Old West, Steampunk, Cyberpunk, etc. Feel free to give examples from movies or whatever and don't be afraid to mash them up.

Wushu:

FATE Accelerated:

[K]

Guys, it seems my uncle's changed his plans. Departure time's been moved down to friday morning. I thought this might happen, but the problem is the scheduling for these things can be kind of fickle. I tried to make sure it was final, but i wasn't speaking to him directly. If it gets closer to thursday and they change it again, i'll try putting my foot down, but the problem is there's someone i can't let go alone if it comes down to me staying (which i'd otherwise have zero problem with).

Sorry to be posting stuff and reversing myself, but i wanted to keep you guys as up to date as possible.

Anyway, if it stays like this, i'll be able to join.

[Rory]

If we're going to, we need to make the plots only last one per session, with missing players during the mock sessions explained away with redshirt excuses(but no actual deaths). Nothing we can get super involved with. We need to catch ourselves in case we start bemoaning someone's absence during a game we're playing because of someone's absence.

1. So yes, I am interested.

2. So I read Wushu. I don't think I like it. Don't think it's my teacup of tea. I nominate FATE.

Not this guy though, he has a different Fayt, HAHAHA my puns.

3. "Slice of Life"? They have that? Okay, Old West!

There is one very specific game I've had my eye on, and if you've paid attention to my recently purchased games on Steam lately, you'll know what I'm talking about. But that game comes with a system all of its own, so perhaps not this time.

We should create a Gunsmoke campaign, set after the main plot of Trigun. What, don't like it? But think about how much cooler the setting would be if YOU(nameless GM) took the reigns! Aliens! Machines! Cowboys! Cyberpunk a little bit! Space stuff maybe! It'll be awesome!

[Kolson]

Hmm, Trigun is awesome. I like it. Some questions since some time has passed in the setting.

1. Mecha- Yea or Nay

2. Aliens- Yea or Nay

3. Playable Aliens- Yea or Nay

4. Robots/Androids- Yea or Nay

5. Bullets/Rail Gun, Laser and Plasma, or all of the above?

6. Spaceships- Yea or Nay

7. I assume you guys want some combination of Grav-Lift Vehicles, Wheeled and Tread Vehicles, and Animals (mostly horses), right? Any preferences on the mix?

8. Law Men, Criminals, or Neutral?

[Rory]

1. I think for the Old West to work, the technology's advancement, as well as its availability, needs to be limited enough to limit the long arm of law 'n' government(s) to require stand-ins of tin stars, mercenaries and the like to carry out justice and substitute in where officials would for the sake of enforcing through presence, "speak softly and carry a big stick" etc. We should limit the mechas to being viewed by popular opinion(however slight or landslide that opinion might be) as a scope, drainpipe project that may be in funding, but without prototypes if so.

2. Lets leave aliens out for now, Gunsmoke has had very little contact, unwittingly so, with aliens. Because of how rare that instance of contact was, with why they were contact-prone left to interpretation, I think it would be safe to assume that as far as we know, the aliens--whether distant or closer than we might think--haven't come around yet and are content to be absent, if they are aware of us at all.

3. Playable aliens no thank you. With Trigun, I like the idea of alien contact being slow to progress, especially with multiple species. And right now the only one they have contact with is too close to Mary Sue than I feel comfortable having in fellow players. As for yes or no, I think I'll leave the maybe up to you.

4. Robots are yes! We need to have something we can beat up without being worried about their feelings. Appearance should be limited by function, though. A butler robot or a bartender robot are good for putting on a face, but when it comes to combat, they're bullet sponges, though they could probably be programmed to escort civilians in an emergency.

5. Bullets! It's all about the bullets! Rail guns are okay but make them early stages, akin the cannons of firearms before small arms were invented. Lasers are totally doable, and necessary when fighting robots if you can't be bothered to aim accurately; however, they should be more expensive, so packing laser heat would be a vital preparational must, but save the energy cells and opt for the cheaper alternative: bullets. Plasma's for aliens, and therefore tied to them and thus included at your discretion.

6. I imagine by this point, a space program(s) akin to NASA has been built, with certain people overseeing and guiding the decisions to ensure mankind doesn't mess anything up, for themselves or the planet they live on, focused on guiding the people in the right direction rather than having any hand in their governing(also being encouraged along certain lines). I suppose spaceships would be logical given what they have to work with, but energy, fuel, and resources would keep them(or the one) from getting any further than, say, the nearest uninhabitable moon or planet. We ourselves have only begun projects towards the goal of giving Mars a go at landing, so that's actually quite generous considering the contrast between Earth and Gunsmoke(perhaps a name change is in order for the planet, eugh).

7. As long as the vehicles are as common as they are obtainable in relation to their expense, use your best judgment. Branching off of that, the "thomas" is a fictitious animal, so you could potentially create your own nature freak animals(we certainly left horses behind on earth).

8. I can't go evil, Kolson. For your sakes, I wish I could do it. But the types in question are hardly one way or the other. I would go with something that gives the group some freedom to operate. I wouldn't mind going with Lawmen in a general jurisdiction(maybe if someone wants to go the hardline Lawful Good route, they could be a skilled and capable representative), or people who have retired or been abandoned or have reformed, or up-and-coming fame seekers(that would be Neutral, I suppose). I can't really speak on Criminals.

My current PC idea is a tin-star Lawman(backstory in mind, details yet to be ironed out), whether he's retired or still active service determines where the others decide to go with their characters.

[Zeiss]

I know nothing about Trigun. I am indifferent about this choice of setting.

Since it would be for just one session, I would prefer the Wushu ruleset. Less complicated.

[Rory]

There is a manga, but I own the series. If we really wanted to get the setting laid out, I could start watching it and take down every single detail. I already remember half as much as Dan O'Brian would if he had material on it to make a video about it on OPCD.

Nevermind I give myself too much credit. Just a few names.

[Kolson]

I don't need a lot of detail. Between the Trigun wiki and my own memory of the series (Lucky I watched the movie a few months ago) I can fake it well enough for a short adventure.

@Zeiss Think of this as one of the things we might do whenever someone, other than me, is not available. I see this more as a series of short stories in no particular order about the same group of people, rather than just a one-shot or a campaign. That means we need just enough to keep going without it overshadowing the normal game, which means I will need your input. So please, think about the kinds of things you'd like to see and do because it will help you put together a character and overall make for a better experience.

It's also too late to switch to Wushu. If you had responded yesterday, there would have been time for debate but I need at least one day to put something together that's up to my standards, ideally two, and Rory has already stated he's not interested in it.

[Zeiss]

Wait, we're playing that this Thursday? Thought K said he was available.

[Rory]

We'll keep it in mind. Something like this could still happen in the future.

[K]

I've been reluctant to ask that question myself, since it's my fault this all started, but i've been wondering what we'll be playing tomorrow for a bit now.

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