Star Wars: Cost of Hope

[Hotfoot]

Clawdites are not currently in the game, here is the list of available races (Anything with an X is currently playable).

Also, White Haven, you are set.

[Hotfoot]

Also, some things on Gain the Advantage. For now, this is a discussion.

GtA is not as well defined in the rules as I would like. As such, I am going to use the following as possible clarifications to allow it to be better defined without adding undue complexity to starship combat.

GtA, when used, lets you choose the zone you are attacking from. This lasts until the Advantage is lost. Until advantage is lost, the only options are to try to move out of range and hope the enemy cannot follow you (fly action), Shake Them, or Turn the Tables.

Shake Them is a Gain the Advantage check one step easier than it otherwise would be, and resets the advantage tracker, putting both ships on equal footing.

Turn the Tables is a Gain the Advantage check that puts you in the position of advantage, and is done using the normal rules for Gain the Advantage.

That is the proposed alteration to the existing rules as written. It clarifies the existing system but should not invalidate talents down the line.

[rhoenix]

Hrm. After the playtesting I did last night, I'm okay with your proposed changes.

The flow of space combat, due to how vicious it can get, seemed to strongly emphasize being able to Take The Advantage if you can, and the maneuver to Turn the Tables makes sense in that light - as does Shake Them, which effectively makes it so nobody currently has the advantage.

[Josh]

Okay, trying this out...

AL-T34
Baktoid Commando Droid
Career: Soldier
Specialization: Commando
Soak 3
Wound Threshold 15
Strain Threshold 13
Defense 1/1
Brawn 3 (50 xp)
Agility 4 (90 xp)
Intellect 2 (20 xp)
Cunning 2 (20 xp)
Willpower 2 (20 xp)
Presence 1

Resilience 1 (Subspecialization skill)
Brawl 1 (Subspec skill)
Gunnery 2 (15 xp)
Melee 2 (15 xp)
Ranged 1 (5 xp)
Ranged heavy 2 (15 xp)

Toughened X 1
Point blank X 1
Physical training X 1
Grit X 1

Equipment
Now, here is where things get a bit tricksy, because I don't know what'll be authorized to be built-in. Here's what I have for built-in kit:

Flame unit
Heavy battle armor
Electrobinoculars

Other equipment
Light repeating blaster with harness and bipod
Ion blaster
Vibrosword
2XFrag grenades
1XAP grenade
1Xstun grenade
Climbing gear
4XExtra reloads
LBE

Motivations
Connection: No one (not many Baktoid commando droids still up and running these days.)
Belief: Species rights (Droids)

Duties:
Support 5
Combat victory 5

At the fall of the CIS, the Separatist Droid Army was smashed, hunted, and exterminated. Few surviving examples of the various battle droids used by the SDA are still in existence. However, a few of the more independent and intelligent models out on the Rim were able to escape the fallout of their defeat. AL-T34 was one such example, part of a small commando unit sent to wreak havoc behind Republic lines in various conflicts. A hardened survivor of the conflict, AL-T34 had the 'good fortune' of finding his way into a post-war mercenary unit that found employment in various intersystem squabbles after the war.

Dissatisfied with their lack of purpose, integrity, and amoral pursuit of credits, AL-T34 took his opportunity to explosively defect when a sector garrison hired the unit to hunt a rebel cell in a remote system. Having switched sides, he found that the general ideals of the Rebel Alliance are in accordance with his own goals, and acts to further both accordingly.

'34', as he is known to his companions, has made numerous alterations to himself over the time since the Clone Wars. Along with upgrading his built-in weapons systems and sensors, he has installed a better vocal unit to produce human-quality speech. He typically wears bulky overclothes that can even allow him to be mistaken for an organic from a distance or in dim lighting.

He has formulated a conception of the rights of droids as independent sentient beings and becomes very touchy when they are, in his opinion, mistreated.

***

If you want I can gin up more details on the merc unit, they could be a hassle at some point. And I have no idea how building in weapons affects the encumbrance. Obviously he's got way more gear than he can comfortably lug in one go.

[Josh]

And yes, I'm trying to play a non-psychopathic character for a change. How well this will work out is anybody's guess.

[Hotfoot]

With droids, most gear can be considered to be "built in", but it's up to the player and the GM as to what is reasonable. An E-Web on an astromech? Not built in, most likely. Armor, sure. A flame unit, no problem. Load-bearing equipment? Compartments in the chassis or external, either way. Climbing gear? Sure, either way is fine.

Your soak is a combination of your brawn and whatever armor you happen to be wearing, so keep that in mind for the total value, and the encumberence of armor is reduced by 3 when you are wearing it.

Backpacks of various types can also increase your total encumberence value, as can utility belts, so keep those in mind when gearing up for heavy combat.

Normal encumberence is 5+Brawn, putting you at 8 normally. The load-bearing gear gives you another 3, putting you at 11. The heavy battle armor counts as 3, and then you go from there.

[Josh]

So we're groovy on concept and stuff?

Got enough cash left over for a backpack, that'll be handy.

Also I left his drive at baseline, was more interested in having stuff to be on about than a few extra points/credits.

[Hotfoot]

Concept sounds good, I'm assuming that as far as general model of droid, you're talking about this style, if not that exact model?

BX-series_droid_commando.jpg (20.02 KiB) Viewed 9615 times

[Lys]

The flow of space combat, due to how vicious it can get, seemed to strongly emphasize being able to Take The Advantage if you can, and the maneuver to Turn the Tables makes sense in that light - as does Shake Them, which effectively makes it so nobody currently has the advantage.

Most of the commentary i've seen on FFG Star Wars space combats suggests that it strongly emphasizes winning initiative and then alpha-striking the opposition with torpedo volleys, winning the fight before manoeuvring even becomes an issue. Haven't test this myself, though.

[rhoenix]

Most of the commentary i've seen on FFG Star Wars space combats suggests that it strongly emphasizes winning initiative and then alpha-striking the opposition with torpedo volleys, winning the fight before manoeuvring even becomes an issue. Haven't test this myself, though.

I can't speak to that, as I only really had one proper test-firing of space combat with Hotfoot. However, with that experience, and several permutations of combat that it contained, the takeaway I had was that the disparity even between an Agility-monkey PC (like, say, mine) versus Minion-class TIE pilots, while my character did have an advantage in terms of dice, it wasn't a huge disparity.

I'd need to do more testing and such myself to be properly scientific and such about this, as I'm still rather new to how the systems work, but just based on my experience with playtesting, the ideas as posed make sense to me.

[Hotfoot]

Oh, and one more thing, ya'll should get some images you like for miniatures so I can put them on Roll20.

[Hotfoot]

27 hours from the time of this post until the deadline for characters. If I don't have them, there's no game this week.

[Josh]

Concept sounds good, I'm assuming that as far as general model of droid, you're talking about this style, if not that exact model?

BX-series_droid_commando.jpg

Yup, exactly that model originally though with some post-market mods. The optical receptors are modified, he's got the flame unit and tanks built into the one forearm, grapple gear and so on.

Armor-wise given the Wookiepeedia entry and what we saw in the show, I think the heavy armor could pretty much be considered a standard thing for that chassis, so visually he should have the same overall profile in that regard. Like I said, with his habit of wearing robes and hoods and shit he can even vaguely pass for organic from a distance or in dim lights.

Final tally on the built-in equipment, then:

Flame unit
Heavy battle armor
Climbing gear
Electrobinoculars
LBE
Weapon harness

Character quote: "My function is to bring the pain."

[Comrade Tortoise]

Alternatively

[General Havoc]

Name: Commodore Quinlan Darillian
Race: Human
Class: Commander
Specialization: Commodore
Specialization: Force Sensitive Exile

One Sentence Description: A veteran Imperial Navy Commodore, no longer able to stomach the abuses perpetrated by the Imperial government.

Brawn: 2
Agility: 3
Intellect: 3
Cunning: 2
Willpower: 3
Presence: 4


Skills:
Astrogation: 2
Coercion: 1
Cool: 2
Deception: 1
Discipline: 2
Gunnery: 1
Knowledge, Outer Rim: 1
Knowledge, Warfare: 2
Knowledge, Education: 2
Leadership: 3
Mechanics: 1
Perception: 2
Piloting, Space: 1
Ranged, Light: 2
Vigilance: 2


Talents:
Command (+1 Blue to Leadership tests, +1 Blue to Discipline tests for inspired characters.)
Command (+1 Blue to Leadership tests, +1 Blue to Discipline tests for inspired characters.)
Commanding Presence (-1 Black to Cool and Leadership tests)
Commanding Presence (-1 Black to Cool and Leadership tests)
Galaxy Mapper (-1 Black to Astrogation tests. Astrogation tests take half normal time.)
Hold Together (Spend a Destiny Point to turn ship/vehicle damage into system strain)
Known Schematic (Make a Hard Knowledge test to know the schematics and salient points of a ship.)
Quick Draw (Draw or Holster a weapon as an incidental.)
Solid Repairs (When repairing Hull Trauma, repair 1 additional trauma.)
Street Smarts (-1 Black to Streetwise or Knowledge Underworld tests)
Touch of Fate (+2 Blue to any test, once per session.)
Uncanny Reactions (+1 Blue to all Vigilance tests.)
Uncanny Reactions (+1 Blue to all Vigilance tests.)
Uncanny Senses (+1 Blue to all Perception tests.)


Force Powers:

Foresee
- Control
- Strength
Sense
- Control

Morality: 54
XP: 5

Gear:
Cornet Arms H-7 "Equalizer" Fine Blaster Pistol (Damage 7, Crit 2, Range Medium, HP 3, Superior, Stun Setting)
Cornet Arms HL-27 Light Blaster Pistol (Damage 5, Crit 3, Range Medium, HP 2, Accurate 1, Stun Setting)
Armored Clothing (Defense 1, Soak 1, HP 1)
General Purpose Scanner
Stimpack x3
Breath Mask/Respirator
Imperial Navy Field Rations x5
Imperial Navy Canteen
PED-21 Distress Beacon
Thermal Cloak
Blastech Model 58 Concealment Holster
Extra Reloads x4
Tranlang Holo V Audio/Visual Translator

Antique Lightsabre from the Mycenean Age (7 Damage, 3 Crit, Endurance 2, 4HP, Accurate, Breach 1, Disorient 1, Sunder, Belt Pack)


6560 Credits



Background: The Force is a universal constant, active throughout the galaxy, touching the lives of those it chooses without reference or whim to the vagaries of local custom or authority. For thousands of years, the Jedi order has sought out children with the gift of Force sensitivity, seeking to train them in the ways of the Force, inducting them into a militant order of peacekeeping knights, revered and feared across the galaxy. Yet as long as there have been Jedi, there have been those who rejected them, some out of hatred, malice, or philosophical disagreement, and others simply because their own background or cultural viewpoint did not accord with that espoused by the self-proclaimed guarantors of peace.

Kuat, one of the foremost core worlds in the Galactic Republic, has been a center of ship and ship component manufacture for both the civilian and military markets since time immemorial, and for nearly four centuries, the Darillian family were near the center of it. Though not members of the Kuati aristocracy, the Darillians were nonetheless a well-connected, prosperous family concern, drawing on twelve generations of shipwrights and designers, and a wide network of suppliers, cadet branches, and distant relatives to produce everything from bulk carriers and deep-space miners, to military prototypes and elaborate pleasure yachts. Specializing in large-scale, heavy construction, and passed down from generation to generation, the Darillian Shipyard remains to this day a small but important element in Kuat's most famous industry, a source of pride to its owners, workers, and clientele alike. And it was this pride, and the insularity of a proud family dating back so far, that led Brea Darillian, the twelfth scion of the shipyard and matriarch of the Darillian clan, to turn away the Jedi consulars who had come to take her second child, Quinlan, when they determined by whatever arts they had that Quinlan was sensitive to the Force. No matter their pleas and exhortations, no matter the promises they made or the incentives they offered, Brea would not be moved, not even when her husband and brothers begged her to change her mind. Her son was no freak, to be immured within a monastery and trained to forget his family name and lineage. He was a Darillian, and a Darillian he would remain, as his ancestors before him had. So adamant was she of this rejection that Quinlan himself, scarcely a toddler and entirely ignorant of the cause of the upheaval he had so inadvertently caused, was never even told that the option had been offered, and left, along with all of his siblings, friends, and classmates, to think that there was nothing whatsoever abnormal about him, other than a deeply intuitive mind and a penchant for out-thinking his fellows.

From an early age, Quinlan was fascinated by starships big and small, but mostly big. Having watched, firsthand, as his mother and aunts designed and built the systems, engines, or hulls of successive generations of massive warships, his childhood dream was to sail one of them across the galaxy, an outlet and an audience for the sorts of ambitions only such vessels could bring to life. With his sister set to inherit the family business in line with Kuati tradition, Quinlan, upon reaching majority, chose to forego a career in building ships in favor of one serving upon them, joining the ranks of the Kuati Defence Forces at the age of 17, one of the many eclectic naval flotillas maintained by major members of the Galactic Republic. His mother, sister, and the rest of his family took this for some adolescent rebellion, a common enough thing among Darillian (and Kuati) men, several of whom had become gamblers, adventurers, even bounty hunters for a time, before seeing sense and returning to the family business. And so it might have proven for Quinlan, had not events overtaken his time in service.

Even by the standards of the turbulent history of the Galaxy, the Clone Wars were a traumatic event, a trans-galactic war which stood many assumptions and long-standing galactic traditions on their head. Quinlan was just a young officer in the Kuati fleet when the wars exploded into full force, but the devastation they unleashed, and the consequent movement towards producing a united Republican navy to meet them, offered him an opportunity to fulfill ambitions he could never have satisfied in a lowly planetary defense force. His family protested, insisting that he not involve himself in someone else's war, but the opportunity to join in the ground floor of something truly new, of a galactic navy that would once and for all put an end to the sanguinary wars of the separatists, pirates and slaver-barons, was too much to resist. Resigning from his position as a helmsman in the Kuati forces, he took demotion to Ensign in the hopes that, with the new navy being created out of whole cloth before everyone's eyes, the opportunities for advancement would be swift.

And so it proved. Quinlan's natural talent for naval command, buttressed by a Force-sensitivity he still had no idea even existed, had never been given the opportunity to shine in the restrictive and conservative ranks of the Kuati Defense Forces, but the Republican Navy, forming itself out of disparate elements in the middle of the greatest war in living memory could not afford to squander a promising young officer so. Thrown into the maelstrom of galactic combat, first as a subordinate officer and then as a ship commander in his own right, Quinlan proved an inspiration, serving in dozens of major battles and hundreds of smaller skirmishes as the Clone Wars raged across the galaxy. Alone, in squadrons, as an element leader in stupendous fleet battles, Quinlan's skill at command, aided silently as ever by his unknown force talents, earned him rapid promotion and notice, and within three short years after joining the fight, Commander Quinlan Darillian was being recognized by his superiors and even by his own family as one of the foremost rising stars of the now-rechristened Imperial Galactic Navy. No longer bound to the shadow of his ancestors, sisters, and mother, all of Quinlan's fondest dreams seemed to have come true.

The transition from Republic to Empire was not a traumatic one, not at first. Quinlan, who had joined the navy to put an end to the disorder, lawlessness, and violence that was plaguing the galaxy, even welcomed the transition at first, as the collapsing, dysfunctional republic was swept aside by a vibrant professional class led by former Chancellor Palpatine. The suppression of the Jedi and suspension of the republic's constitution were small matters to him, for the Jedi were myopic fanatics whose monopoly of force over the galaxy at large had led to the crisis of the Clone Wars, while the Republic itself was a tottering supra-national entity of dubious value, whose internal gyrations and charter revisions were of little concern. Loyal to the Navy he had helped create, Quinlan's war record and evident skill earned him an independent command on the frontier of the Galactic Empire, with a mandate to bring order to the chaos of the outer rim, and end the predation of those who profited from said chaos. It was, for an ambitious, adventurous officer, a choice posting, and one he carried out with distinction through a whole series of tours far from the core, battling the Hutts, crushing slavers, dealing with independent worlds, breaking up smuggling rings and dueling with pirate fleets. Promoted to Captain, and then to Commodore, Quinlan was eventually given command of a Victory-class Star Destroyer, the VSD Alderaan, and a task force of lighter ships with which to patrol, succor, defend, and protect Imperial interests and the interests of order and peace across the Outer Rim.

Like many naval officers, Quinlan never paid much attention to the Rebellion as such. To him, it was nothing more than another terrorist organization, one of dozens he had dealt with in the past, all with such deceptive names as "The Alliance to Restore the Republic", or some such high-minded political twaddle. A military man to his core, Quinlan dealt with such Rebels as crossed his path as he would any other pirate or smuggler, paying minimal lip service to the ever-more obsessive commands to concentrate all efforts on the rebels' extermination. Alone on the edge of space, with his task force of ships and a veteran, hand-picked crew, Quinlan could, and did, simply leave the Imperial government to see to itself while he carried out his mission, but as time went on, and the Empire's grasp on the galaxy grew tighter, this luxury began to become less and less available. The first hint were probably the treason trials of a number of outspoken officers back on Coruscant, several of whom Quinlan knew, and whose implication in plots against the government made no sense, not to him, and not to his officers. The deployment of political officers to fleet units, first on an advisory basis and later with actual command authority, struck him and his fellows as the worst sort of civil interference in military matters, and when he ended by simply tearing up their reports of seditious behavior on the part of his own officers and throwing the political hacks out of his squadron, the stinging reprimand that descended upon him was the occasion of much angry grumbling among the command staff of the Alderaan. Still, these were nothing more than annoyances on the larger scale, minor missteps in a storied and successful record. It was not until Quinlan's last promotion, one intended as the capstone on his remarkable career, that everything came crashing down.

The position was a plum one, the command of the Imperial Star Destroyer Avenger, one of the most powerful fleet units in the galaxy, a post regarded correctly as a stepping-stone to the Admiralty itself. But unlike Quinlan's slapdash commands on the frontier, the Avenger was a core unit of the Imperial fleet, employed within a larger battlegroup under the command of Fleet Admirals and Grand Moffs. It was here, on a ship that should have been his ticket to the highest levels of military command, with a senior officer corps selected by his predecessor, that the full, terrible evolution of the Navy he had helped to found was brought home to Quinlan in the most direct way possible. Rather than protecting the galaxy from the threats that afflicted it, Quinlan's new task was to enforce the absolute rule of the Emperor by any possible means, up to and including widespread, indiscriminate murder. Though Quinlan, like everyone, had heard rumors of corruption and criminality within the core formations of the Imperial Navy, he had never given them credence, dismissing them as the sour grumblings of discontented slavers. How wrong he had been was hammered home in the most horrific form possible when he and his ship were ordered to engage in a practice known as "Base Delta Zero", the obliteration of an entire planet via sustained bombardment by turbolaser fire. Surrounded by officers he could not trust, and unable to conceal his horror at what had befallen the shining navy he had joined so many years before, Quinlan managed, by dint of frantic maneuverings both military and political, to avoid participating in the overt war crimes being performed as a matter of course, but could not quiet his own disgust, as every ideal he had spent his life fighting for was discarded before his eyes by the military he had had such a hand in forging. Trapped on his own flagship in mounting despair, Quinlan tried to rationalize what was being done as the necessities of war, or emergency measures used to quell destructive rebellion, but the excuses were all hollow and he knew it, as ever-more-poisonous ideals of racism, absolutism, and the arbitrary rule of fear and extrajudicial murder permeated his beloved galactic navy before his very eyes. One after another, he saw fellow officers who could not stand the turn that their navy had taken discredited, forced into retirement, even arrested or executed as traitors, and replaced by sycophants, sadists, and sociopaths regardless of seniority, qualification, or respect to rank. Treason accusations and a culture of distrust and suspicion ran rampant through the fleet, destroying the careers and even the lives of those they touched upon. So endemic, so deep had the rot gone that for the first time in decades, Quinlan did not know what to do nor how to proceed. His intrinsic abilities allowed him to navigate the currents of betrayal better than most, but the task of rehabilitating or restoring the Navy seemed increasingly impossible, so drenched in blood and guilt had they all become. Again and again he thought of resigning, retiring to Kuat or elsewhere, but the prospect of abandoning the Navy that had been his life's work stayed his hand each time, as he equivocated on what course of action he could or should take.

And then Alderaan happened.

The destruction of the entire planet and every living thing upon it, all for no purpose other than spreading terror across the galaxy, made every crime so-far amassed by the Imperial Navy look like a dress code violation. At last, what few illusions Quinlan or anyone else could possibly have as to the nature of the Empire were removed, and Quinlan was left with no choice but one, to stay and serve the twisted mockery that the Navy, his Navy had become, or to leave, whatever the risk, whatever the cost. Biding his time, he laid plans to desert quietly, to fake his own death or arrange re-assignment to a mythical posting, but the destruction of the Death Star at the hands of the Rebels forced his hand. The defeat at Yavin touched off a seismic reaction within the ranks of the Imperial Navy, as inquisitors, political commissars, and Hands of the Emperor swarmed through the fleet looking for "traitors" and "Rebel spies", condemning officers to death for chance remarks or the mere appearance of disloyalty. Tipped off by a loyal contact that his name had appeared on the headhunters' lists, Quinlan had no choice but to flee, hijacking an Imperial shuttle and disappearing with it before anyone knew that he was gone. Making for the nearest starport, Quinlan sold the shuttle to an unscrupulous buyer and boarded the first transport to anywhere outside the Galactic Core.

Maybe nobody pursued him. Maybe the Emperor assigned his best men to the task. Quinlan has no idea, and is not, honestly, certain that he cares. For the last year he has run, from planet to planet, backwater world to backwater world, disguising himself as an itinerant merchant or pilgrim or just another wanderer in the deepest edges of space, making his way slowly and painfully through sectors ruled by warlords who once trembled at the very mention of his name. His career in ruins, his very name discarded lest his enemies pursue and destroy him, Quinlan has had plenty of time to ruminate on the utter failure of all his hopes and dreams for the brilliant Galactic Navy he once so-eagerly joined. With most of his peers arrested, shot, forcibly retired, or revealed as monsters, and the very navy he served a symbol of oppression, criminality, and blackest evil, he has nothing left but his regrets and a few, scattered mementos of his former life, among them a pair of embossed, Cornet Arms blaster pistols, presented to him at the pinnacle of his career as a farewell gift from the thankful crew of the bitterly-named VSD Alderaan. For months now, he has spun his wheels uselessly, taking up such menial work as is offered to him, trapped between the Empire he served and the criminals he spent his entire life fighting. Even his formerly-sure grasp of the future, the Force-inspired visions that he has always ascribed to diligent calculation and an overactive imagination seems to have failed him, as he can see nothing before him but the further degradation of an old age spent contemplating his own role in helping to perpetrate the most vile horrors that the galaxy has ever witnessed.

And he has no conception of what he can possibly do about it.




Contacts:

Metarie Darillian: Kuati society is strictly Matriarchal, with properly handed down from mother to daughter by law and custom. So it was that Quinlan's twin sister Metarie was, from birth, destined to inherit the family holdings. And inherit them she did after the death of their mother Brea, becoming the thirteenth scion of the Darillian clan to run the shipyard and its subsidiaries while her wayward brother ran off to play Defender of the Galaxy. Despite this however, of all of Quinlan's extended family, Metarie has always been the one most accepting of his choice to join the Imperial Navy and of his ensuing career therein, and is also the only one still alive who knows about his Force Sensitivity, having made the appropriate deductions from her vague memories of her brother being visited by important men in Jedi robes.

Unfortunately, Quinlan's defection from the Imperial service has placed everything in jeopardy, for while the Darillians are well-connected on Kuat, there is no telling what lengths the Empire will go to punish those who betray it. Quinlan cannot even send word to his sister, nor gain any information on what may be happening back on Kuat without risking drawing further reprisals down on her head. At the moment, all he can hope is that Metarie has had the sense to publicly disown him and avow loyalty to the Empire, and that this will somehow be enough. It is not a comforting hope.


Commander Mirax Petothel: The only daughter of poor farmers on the fringe agricultural world of Etruna, Mirax joined the Imperial Navy after watching her parents small holding ransacked and burnt one too many times by offworld raiders, hoping to leverage the most powerful military force in the galaxy to stop such attacks on her world and countless others. With no contacts or resources for promotion other than raw merit, Mirax' break came when she was plucked from an obscure post on a picket corvette by then-Commander Darillian for service on his Frigate, the Krayyt, as part of one of his "hunches". As usual, the hunch proved accurate, and Lieutenant-turned-Commander Petothel rapidly ascended the ranks of the Navy under the patronage of Commander-turned-Commodore Darillian, culminating in her appointment as the replacement Captain of the VSD Alderaan following Commodore Darillian's re-assignment to the Avenger.

Mirax was Quinlan's most promising protege for six years, a cunning and highly unorthodox flag officer whose skills of improvisation and lateral thinking safely exceeded Quinlan's own, as well as the rest of his command staff. Considerably younger than Quinlan, she did not see service in the Clone Wars, but joined afterwards, fired by the same vision of the all-conquering Imperial Navy routing the slavers, pirates, and thugs that made her family's existence on Etruna so perilous. Perhaps Quinlan saw something of himself in her or simply wanted to help a kindred spirit, but she was the natural choice to replace him aboard the Alderaan, a decision he only came to regret in retrospect. What became of Petothel and the Alderaan following his defection, Quinlan does not know, save that the Alderaan was renamed "Relentless" in the wake of the destruction of its eponymous planet, and recalled to join the fleets engaged in hunting down what remains of the Rebel Alliance. What horrors might lie in store for a young and idealistic captain such as Mirax, Quinlan does not know, but he fears the worst.


Flag-captain Tornik Graccus: Some officers reacted with horror to the changes that Palpatine's administration forced on the Navy, and others grumbled and suffered in silence. Captain Graccus of the ISD Avenger is not one such officer. A crafty, politically-minded attack dog, Captain Graccus served as Quinlan's XO aboard the aforementioned Imperial Star Destroyer from the moment of Quinlan's appointment, to his eventual desertion. Ruthless, ambitious, and utterly without scruple, Tornik Graccus is a tremendously dangerous man, a judgment that Quinlan made the moment he met him and has never seen fit to alter. Wholeheartedly in support of the accelerating zeal with which the Navy is being made to pursue the Rebels in general and enemies of the state in specific, Graccus was appointed commander of the Avenger following Quinlan's departure, and has spent the intervening time making a name for himself as a harsh, uncompromising commander, involved in several of the most heinous crimes that even the Empire records. Rumors are that he has been fast-tracked to become an Admiral, once the Imperial Security ministry finishes rooting out the "traitors" that remain within the Admiralty. If these are true, Quinlan expects that Graccus will use his newfound authority to mete out even more death and violence on an even wider scale. This is, in all likelihood, what the Emperor is hoping for.



Notes:

Imperial Assets in House:

Rear Admiral Baskilar's Task Group:
Victory-II-class Star Destroyer Stalker
Praetor-II-class Battlecruiser Indefatigable
The Ark Hammer

Lt Reinmark and Captain Orton of the Base.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Havoc, if you dont see "Good, our first catch of the day" at least once, I will have sad feels

[Hotfoot]

Okay, with nine out of the ten players pretty much ready to go, I'm going to tentatively say game is on for Sunday, barring any other major disasters.

Some key points:

1. You're not all starting off as part of "the crew" necessarily. You may have history with each other, and if you do, great. Otherwise, you'll each have your own reasons for being in the place you are.

2. If you're actively working for the Rebels, I'll be talking to you prior to the game.

3. Starting Duty if you took the extra XP is 10, if you didn't, it's 20. Starting Obligation if you took the extra XP is 20, 10 if you didn't. Higher Obligation is bad, higher Duty is good.

Any other questions, post them here or hunt me down on Skype.

[Karrick]

Josh, I see you also have a mercenary past. Think it'd be reasonable to be from the same unit? If so, it sounds like I parted on good terms from a unit you may have, uh, blown up.

[Hotfoot]

Invites have gone out to the Obsidian Portal page, except for Josh, who needs to give me his email.

[Josh]

uttgeneric@gmail.com

Josh, I see you also have a mercenary past. Think it'd be reasonable to be from the same unit? If so, it sounds like I parted on good terms from a unit you may have, uh, blown up.

"Explosive" could also refer to "explosive decompression". Organics have so many weaknesses.

Um.

Non-psychopathic! They were bad people!

And sure, cool.

[Hotfoot]

Email sent

[Josh]

Okay, got an emergency call this afternoon, a regular with a lot of owie. That'll kick off around 5:30CST, with any luck I'll be done at 6:30, usual half-hour drive home and I'll be able to jump right on the Skype. But if I'm a bit late that's because the owie was noncooperative with my gentle ministrations.

[Hotfoot]

It's cool Josh, we'll see you when we see you.

Havoc, I do need one more thing from you before we get too far into it, and that's your character's Emotional Strength and Emotional Weakness. One word descriptors should work just fine.

[Josh]

Okay, so maybe I'm just not that good at the whole non-psychopathic thing...

But all the same...

SUCK IT, ORGANICS.

[Hotfoot]

When the Stormtroopers got fooled, I almost imagined your droid going "By the Maker, we were never THAT stupid, were we?"