Good grief... what a difference two weeks made.
When I made this thread, I thought I'd had it with RPGs. My gaming group hadn't been able to get together prior to the posting for over a month (and a whole two months before that), I'd lost one of my more enjoyable gamers to a change in his job. I'd been to a gaming conventions three weeks prior where I didn't play any RPG games at all (just board games and in a battletech simulator - certainly all enjoyable, but noticeable that it was the first Con I'd been at in 15 years where I hadn't played an RPG).
This weekend, I got my sons, one of their friends, my wife and sister-in-law together and we played a game of WEG D6 Star Wars.
And it was a blast.
It's been a long time since I felt that good about the game (except the end - freakin' D6 starship combat). I'd come to the game with a loose adventure in mind, but it's the first time in what seems forever I was able to wing things and it just ... worked. Everyone was having a great time, getting into character and all around having fun. Myself most especially.
I won't say I'm "cured" of my funk, but this weekend certainly raised my spirits. I don't know if it was something about my old group, my overall mood (I think I may be a tad bipolar at times) or what, but I feel like I've found my groove once again. We're scheduled to play again next weekend, and I'm hoping the game will continue to interest and excite me.
Thanks to everyone for being supportive and understanding; I think it may have kept me from completely walking away from RPGs.
If anyone's interested in the Star Wars adventure
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A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away ....
[cue Star Wars Theme (Attack of the Clones - Star Wars Main Title/Ambush on Coruscant)]
EPISODE 3.1
It is a dark time for the Republic. Former Chancellor Palpatine has declared himself the Emperor of a New Order, and has ordered the destruction of the Jedi Knights, the defenders of the old Republic.
One of the young jedi of that order, named Varmillion, has escaped the hunt of the remainder of his order. Evading the forces of the Emperor's new associate, Darth Vader, the young jedi has hidden himself as a crewmember aboard the ragtag crew of the smuggling ship, the Corellian Star.
Owing a debt to the crime lord Bakaresh, a twi'lek Vigo of Black Sun, the crew of the Correlian Star returns to Ordan Rel from a recent supply run that has barely covered their expenses...
[we see the laser-scratched hull of the Corellian Star YT-1300 tranport as it lowers itself into the atmosphere of the swamp-planet of Ordan Rel; cut to the ship landing on a circular repulsor landing pad just outside the Ithorian swamp-stilt city of Ixan Prime]
The ship is commanded by Tyra, a female human (Corellian) smuggler [my sister-in-law]. She own a lavender and silver protocol droid, known as VT30 [my wife, who can naturally do the part without trying]. Accompanying her is her wookie bodyguard and deckhand, Tupuxoya (ta-PUX-o-ya) [my youngest son], and the mon calamari mechanic, Sar Ak'Babba [my elder son]. Of course, accompanying them as another deckhand is the human young jedi, Varmillion [my eldest son's friend].
The group is met on the landing platform by the crime boss's assistant, Selton - who is a Devaronian (the devil-looking guys). In a slick, but sinister-sounding voice, he first reminds Tyra that the first payment on her ship is coming up at the end of the planet's cycle (month). He then informs her that Bakaresh has an "opportunity" for her, and to meet him at the Stargazer Saloon at high sun - in about four hours.
After Selton has departed, the group takes a shuttle to the city of Ixan Prime, where they proceed to buy supplies.
Ixan Prime is a marvel of Ithorian architecture. The entire city is built on large stand of massive trees that rise out of the surrounding swamp. Atop this base the "pavement" of the city is made of thick peat moss, which gives the impression of walking on a squishy, green carpet. From this "pavement" rise the skyscrapers of Ixan, more enormous trees covered in ivy that bloom with flowers of various colors year round. While other cities are often draped in flourecent lights and billboards, Ixan Prime reverberates with the colors of each spire's flowers and topiaries. Buildings contain furnishings crafted often of still-living plant life and stores use glass shelving to display wares and not detract from the natural beauty of interiors. Transport around the city is by repulsor craft or rickshaw-like chariots attached to six-limbed horse-like beasts. Starships are required to dock on repulsor pads on the outskirts of the city, as most would crash through the "pavement" with their great bulk. The beautiful city attracted the attention of the Hutt clans, and they quietly confiscated power from the Ithorians and turned it from a garden paradise into a center of trade in the Outer Rim. Anything can be bought and sold on Orden Rel, and the beauty of its cities attracts all types of merchants to visit its beauties as well as engage in trade. The ithorians have only managed to enforce the ban of sale of one things - pets and other animals raised or bred on Orden Rel itself.
After shopping around the city, the group decided to head to the Stargazer Saloon a little early. The climb to the saloon was up many flights of stairs to a large, circular open area with several "branching" vestibules where green-glowing tables offered a secluded place to eat or drink. The group noticed that most of the individuals here were not human, and one group in particular - a group of three lepi (giant green rabbits from an old Marvel Star Wars comic) who were armed to the teeth and in a booth on the far side of the saloon, were sizing the group up as they entered. After being warned that their protocol droid was unwanted in the saloon ("We don't allow no eavesdropping or surveillance in here" the bartender warned), VT30 and Sal decided to wait downstairs. The rest of the group took a table and ordered blue milks and Corellian starfruits to pass the time.
After a few minutes waiting downstairs, Sal the mon calamari was approached by a rather rich-looking kubaz (like the imperial spy in Mos Eisley), who begins motioning at VT30 and making strange noises Sal can't quite make out.
"Excuse me, mister Sal," VT30 interprets, "but I believe he is asking how much to purchase me."
Sal tries to explain to the bejeweled kubaz that VT30 is not for sale. However, once VT30 translates that she is not available for purchase, rather than walking on, the kubaz pulls a blaster and points it at Sal.
"Oh dear," VT30 states, holding up her hands. "I don't think he wants to take 'no' for an answer."
Thinking quickly, VT30 turns on her comlink so that Tyra upstairs can hear the conversation. "I'm sorry, sir," VT30 states to the kubaz, "but I don't think I caught that last sentence."
Clearly irritated, the kubaz waves the gun at VT30 and repeats his last command, to start marching down the street to his residence. Upstairs, Tyra hears the conversation between the kubaz and her two crew members, and is about to send Tupuxoya to investigate when the sound of blasters ring out from nearby. The group freezes, waiting to see if there is more gunfire or if it approaches them, but it does not. A few moments later, two of the lepi run past their booth and down the stairs. One has a blaster wound in their shoulder. Peeking out, Tupuxoya sees two squibs (small, rat-like scavengers) dragging the holed body of a one-eyed genosian towards a trash chute. Shrugging his shoulders, Tupuxoya runs down the stairs to save his friends.
Downstairs, as the two lepi come rushing out of the Stargazer Saloon, Sal decides to use the momentary confusion it creates to grab VT30 and run for it. Unfortunately, he's not quick enough, and the kubaz blasts him, knocking him down and wounding him. VT30 tries to make a run for it, but well, protocol droids aren't known for their amazing speed ... in short order, the kubaz has his prize and is directing VT30 down the street.
It's about that time that Tupuxoya reaches the bottom of the stairs, just in time to see the kubaz and VT30 go around the corner. The wookie sees Sal and bends down to help the mon calamari, but Sal waves him off - it's only a light wound he can get Vermillion or Tyra to patch up, but it's more important for Tup to get VT30 back.
It's not much of a race to catch up to the kubaz and VT30, the protocol droid can only waddle so fast. Roaring at the kubaz to get his attention, Tupuxoya charges. Before the kubaz even knows what is happening, the wookie hammers the kubaz over the head and down to the ground. One more threatening growl from the wookie an the kubaz surrenders, just in time for the wounded Sal to catch up. Sal takes one of the bejeweled ring from the kubaz and the three leave the wounded kubaz to limp back home bereft of his prize.
After patching up in the saloon, Selton arrives and makes his proposal to the group. It appears that Bakaresh's son, Jar'ed is on the nearby planet of Phantooine and needs transport home. Selton has been authorized to "forgive" 2,500 credits of Tyra's 25,000 credit debt. The catch? Jar'ed is being held in the Imperial garrison there. The good news is, he's just been released from custody.
Too heady with a chance to reduce their debt, Tyra forgets to ask why Jar'ed was put into custody in the first place. She agrees to the deal and has three days to bring Jar'ed back to Ordan Rel. After finishing their blue milk and starfruits, the group heads back to the ship and makes preparations to head to Phantooine.
It's a day's travel, so the group passes the time with Sal and Tup playing some dejerik chess, Vermillion and Tyra practice in a jury-rigged "shooting gallery" against a training remote rigged up in the crew area while VT30 whips up a meal for the group. Wisely, Sal "lets the wookie win" when a bad shot from Tyra (who had been mocking Vermillion's poor shooting skills) ricochets and hits the hyperdrive Nav computer. As the horrible sound of a hyperdrive spinning down echos through the ship, all kinds of alarms start going off in the cockpit. Somewhere in the depths of the ship's engine, there is the sound of an explosion and the whole ship rocks, nearly knocking down VT30 with a tray full of food.
Sal rushes to the engine compartment as Tyra races to the cockpit to see what kind of damage she's done. In her haste, she knocks the tray of food VT30 was holding in the air, and the wookie goes berserk, and starts tearing at the ship to make the alarms shut up.
Sal reaches the door to the engine compartment to find it sealed shut. Sal starts flipping switches and controls in the cockpit to silence the alarms and assess the damage, to find a blinking red light going off to which she can't figure out how to shut off. Unable to reach the engine, Sal races back to the cockpit to help Tyra, stepping on the sandwiches littering the floor that VT30 is attempting to pick back up.
When Sal reaches the cockpit, he determines that the flashing light indicates there's a fire in engine room. He deftly activates the fire suppression system, analyzes the damage and reroutes power to the backup hyperdrive and even manages to fix a hiccup in the ship's primary engine coupling (a 30 on his skill check).
With the crisis averted (and the wookie calmed down after given a slightly flattened and soggy sandwich), this ship continues to Phantooine. As it drops out of hyperspace and enters the system, the little ship finds itself hailed by a victory-class Star Destroyer orbiting the barren-looking planet.
"This is the Star Destroyer Annihilator. Transmit your B.O.S.S. code and do not deviate from your current course." Just as Tyra nervously transmits her code, a pair of Tie/In scream past the Corellian Star and swing around to form an escort. After a few tense moments, the B.O.S.S. code is cleared and they are directed to land at the imperial garrison on the planet.
Phantooine is a barren planet with no indigenous intelligent life. It sits just outside the border of the Core worlds of the empire and is considered part of the Outer rim. The only structure on the planet is an octagonal imperial fortress large enough to hangar a victory-class star destroyer. The fortress is patrolled constantly by pairs of AT-AT walkers. Phantooine is a staging point for operations into the outer rim, and with Emperor's recent orders to solidify control in the outer rim, it is a source of much military activity. The fortress itself is a sprawling maze of barracks, supply centers, ship refitting hangars, detention centers and ammo dumps. Currently, the Star Destroyer Annihilator is posted to guard and protect the imperial bastion, though the base itself is outfitted with a myriad of defenses and even a shield array to protect it from attack.
Once the group had landed at their designated coordinates, they found an imperial lieutenant and two army troopers waiting for them to disembark. Knowing the empire's dislike for alien races, Tyra ordered Tupuxoya, VT30 and Sar to remain aboard while her and Vermillion went to retrieve Jar'ed. Upon disembarking, they were greeted by Lt. Marson, the epitome of imperial self-superiority and disdain for "Outrimmers". After submitting to an ident check (which Vermillion only passed because all records of him had been purged from the Jedi temple by Obi Wan and Yoda during their last visit), they were led to Jar'ed cell, whom they discovered was twi'lek (Tyra had assumed Bakaresh was a hutt - I hadn't told them Bakaresh's race when I read the opening crawl). On the way back to the ship, lt. Marson attempted to weedle some information out of Tyra about who she worked for. Thinking nothing of it, she openly told the lt. that she was "in the employ of Bakaresh" [this blunder may become apparent later].
After getting Jar'ed back to the ship and off the planet, the young twi'lek opened up. He offered to pay the group 1,000 credits if they would swing by the nearby planet of Norell so he could inform his "friends" of his release. Though Tyra was tempted by the offer, she was reluctant to go out of the way with only a back-up hyperspace drive in operation. However, when VT30 informed the group that the drive fire had destroyed all the ship's food stores, Tyra decided that a stop at Norell "to resupply" and maybe fix the primary hyperdrive wasn't a bad idea at all.
Norell, only a half-day hyperspace flight away was a temperate world of forests and plains. Its many cities subsist off trade through Orden Rel, with it's primary resource being huge cattle beasts and crops that feed many other planets in the sector. There are many rural areas on Norell, but the capital of Silverwhite is also the central hub of most interplanetary trade. The city is so named for the massive silver towers (and white marble "defensive" walls) spread throughout the city that are, in fact, the base of several sky elevators to anchored space stations in orbit. These space elevators were used in ancient times to cheaply transport goods from the surface to waiting starships in orbit, but have been turned into residences and shops for the wealthy and/or tourists.
Tyra brought the Corellian Star to one of the starports on the surface in the capital city. While Tyra and VT30 tried to contact some local merchants to make arrangments for parts and food, Vermillion and Sar accompanied Jar'ed to meet with his friends. Unknown to the others, Jar'ed had noticed Vermillion's hidden lightsaber and had seem to taken a liking to the young jedi.
Jar'ed, Vermillion and Sal eventually reached a warehouse in a nearby district. There, Jar'ed was met by two of his friends - Lobos, a cyborg similar to Lobot and Janrexia, an umbaran. Jar'ed revealed Vermillion to be a jedi to his friends, who were, in fact rebels. It turns out that Jar'ed had been arrested for being a suspected rebel, but he had assumed the charges had been dropped when his father had quietly bribed the imperial officials at Phantooine.
As the group discussed how Vermillion could be an icon to help lead rebellion on Norell, the doors to the warehouse burst open as lt. Marson, two imperial troopers and stormtrooper burst in to arrest them all. Apparently, Jar'ed release had been a trap, meant to lead the imperials to Jar'eds contacts on Norell [and, if you caught it, possibly implicating Bakaresh as a rebel sympathizer, if not an agent...].
Of course, a firefight erupted as Jar'ed and Sal dove for the cover of nearby crates, as did Janrexia. Lobos, hiding behind a computer console used his cyborg interface to power up loader in the rear area of the warehouse. Meanwhile Vermillion drew both his blaster and lightsaber and stood in the open while the imperials competely ignored him to try and blast Jar'ed and Sal as they leapt and raced for cover.
However, once Vermillion tore into the first imperial army soldier, lt. Marson turned his attention to the young jedi. But before he could bark an order or shoot, Jar'ed managed to knock the lt. down with a well-placed shot from his blaster (which one of his friends had given him upon reaching the warehouse). Sal managed to throw his calamari spear at the second imperial trooper, but unused to fighting on land, it missed his mark.
With the lt. temporarily down, Vermillion advanced on the trooper Sal had missed, and easily cut him down. The stormtrooper, faced with an advancing jedi, backed away firing. Luckily for Vermillion, the young jedi had donned a blast vest, and managed to soak the stormtrooper's harried shots. However, the stormtrooper failed to notice Lobos's power loader behind him, and the vice-armed machine picked the trooper up and crushed him in it's motorized arms.
Once the shooting had started, Sal had taken a time to yell into the comlink to Tyra "It's a trap!" [we'd been waiting all session for that one!]. Though they had defeated the troopers on hand, they feared more were coming.
Tyra was too far away to speedily reach the group even as she could hear more blaster fire over the comlink as reinforcements were clearly arriving. Instead, Tyra fired up the Corellian Star's engines and the ship slid out of the hangar bay and towards the warehouse, tracking Sal's comlink. As the ship raced across the cityscape, the voice of flight control came over her ship's comlink "Corellian Star, you are not cleared for take-off. Return immediately to your docking bay or you will be escorted back."
After telling flight control what they could do with their orders, the ship pulled up on the warehouse as Tup headed to the turrent gun to fight off any "escort" that was sent after them. There was no place to land the Corellian Star, so Tyra instead brought the ship around to the ship's roof and lowered the landing ramp. A few moments later, Vermillion, Sal, Jar'ed and his friends burst onto the roof, racing towards the landing ramp and being hounded by ill-aimed blaster fire from their pursuers.
The heroes had no sooner gotten on the ship and the Corellian Star started to pull away as VT30 announced, "Sir, I'm picking up that escort. It appears to be two imperial Tie/in. They are ordering us back to the landing bay."
Instead, Tyra "punched it". The ship zigged and zagged over the cityscape, trying to lose the two fighters as Tup tried frantically to gun down the pursuing tie fighters. As the ship weaved and banked, Vermillion made it to the cockpit to man the ship's shields - only to find it had none. "I think we're in trouble," he muttered.
"I meant to get a hold of some after our last shipping run," Tyra countered as the ship slid between two marble towers. She'd hoped the fighters would have to break off or even collided with the structures, but the two ships instead weaved around the outside and nimbly caught back up with the ship.
Tyra could see the white walls of the city's edge, and drove the ship downward so that it skimmed just above the buildings below. "Follow me now," she muttered under her breath.
That was when green laser fire lanced out from the second tie fighter and caught the the Corellian Star in the rear quarter. The already damaged hyperdrive engines protested, then gave up violently as the back quarter of the ship exploded in fire. The ship pitched into an uncontrolled spin, and Tyra's grip tightened on the controls as she realized the Corellian Star wasn't going to clear the wall - if it didn't pitch first into the buildings below... [The Tie/In hit and it's 5D lasers scored a 22 against the YT-1300's hull 4D roll of 6; Severely Damaged. A subsequent roll of '6' means the ship normally would explode, but I'm going to let them use a force point to instead "crash", and go from there].
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