Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Memoriam: Tales of the Rising Star

2013 was the start of my career in running larps. It was the start of my first DexCon, the first time I had ever been to a gaming convention that did not have the letters M. E. or S attached to them. I was there primarily for the Dresden Files larp being run by Phoenix Outlaw productions. The outlaws, I realized, don't do anything by halves. They were also responsible for part of the BattleStar Galactica Larp alongside Eleventh Hour Productions.

I didn't realize that until maybe five minutes between Dresden and BSG. I made a rookie mistake of not saving any fuel for the trip back, so I was running that game on fumes. I acted mostly as a runner between the STs, and adjudicator for a few challenges. Most of my job was spent in the operations room making sure the STs had what they needed.

So to describe what Rising Star is like. We suborned the Hyatt's learning center and with a lot of garbage bags, pvc and electronic, we made it feel like the deck of a ship. Computer monitors showed an interactive DRADIS system reporting damage, energy loss and incoming ships. We had an engine that the engineers could fix and tweak. We had a crew that knew what they were doing or could make it up on the fly. 

We were ready for business.

That night, we reenacted the "33", the first official episode of the BSG reboot series after the miniseries. Every 33 minutes after jumping, Cylons would appear to attack the fleet. after days of this, people were raw, the ships were being overworked, and somewhere something bad was going to drop. Walls had clocks with tape to denote the 33 minute mark from jumps, and prayed that the DRADIS didn't go off during that time. We also had them in the Operations room, outside of game, and I remember Shoshana and I sitting in there waiting for the inevitable panic, and then hush as the speakers blasted the sounds of the ship jumping to faster than light travel, and then the panic again as everyone needed to check to see how frakked the ship was. Meanwhile the officers and civillian government were ready to pop off at each other. Their last jump lead them off the radar of the rest of the fleet, and in to uncharted territory.

Four years and five games (I came in at the second) later, and we have just held our final BSG game at DexCon 2017. We went in with a plan. Not the Cylon's plan, because boy did that go nowhere. What happened was something that I find to be nothing short of the next best thing to primetime television. 

We saw a coup d'etat in the early minutes of the game. The pregnant former president thrown in to the airlock with the two Cylons she was accused of collaborating with. I saw the confusion and outrage descend as Martial Law was declared on the ship. I saw the Cylons beg the humans to remove the president from the airlock, if nothing than to save the child. I saw them offer to space themselves to do this. The guilt and frustration on the faces of the guards and the engineers preparing for a rough landing on a planet's surface visible. 

I saw the crew crash land on the surface, and then have to decide what systems they could cannibalize to maintain the other systems. I saw guards running around, officers trying to maintain some semblance of order. I saw the civilian government politick and deal with the new regime, ultimately getting the former president reinstated. I saw the crew encounter captured humans and the resistance, and linking up with both of them. I saw one crew member realize what she truly was, and excepted her status as one of the Sharon Cylons as she hooked herself to a machine that would send a repulse signal to the rest of the Cylon fleet. I saw her crew salute her as she died in sacrifice and carry her back on the ship. I saw the president be reinstated and resign in the same breath in order to find what might be Earth. I saw her successor be shot by the same man who usurped her. I saw the crew settle down with the notion of living forever on this planet, and then I saw the attempt to jump one more time averted by blowing up the engine, forever making their stand where they were.

I'm very honored to have been a part of the storytelling staff of this game, because I got one of the best seats for a show that's been off the air for years. The players knew their work, and went to work doing it. It had the air of desperation and hope in everything, all the tension in the air unsure of whose agendas would fly. That's the players putting the work in to it, investing themselves in it. This could have been a chuckle fest filled with tongue in cheek references, but the players kept the tone and beat and I am forever thankful to see such dedication.

I am also honored to work with a crew that made this whole thing possible. There was a lot of planning involved in this process, and then game happens and we run with it. The amount of backstage stuff to coordinate between groups was tremendous and if not for the love they had for the game and the group, this would not be possible. 

Before game, I had heard people asking why the need to end the campaign. I don't have the information or the authority to speak in an official capacity, but I am of the mind that this is not a game that could go on indefinitely.  BSG is always been about surviving the odds and rolling the hard six when you needed to. Eventually, that builds up, eventually, you start running out of lucky streaks and all of the little things you miss catch up. And the stakes keep getting higher and higher that eventually, you just wouldn't win. So we gave it the ending it deserves, a clusterfrak that ended in cliffhangers, tragedy, comedy, and a bittersweet sense of hope in the future. 

So when I hear 'All Along The Watchtower', I think more about the Rising Star than I do the Galactica. And I thank you all for that. And maybe this isn't the end. As the woman in red said: All of this has happened before, but will it happen again? 

Take care, so say we all.





Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Star Wars: The Seven Masters (Episode I)







This is a continuation of the series of games I'm running for my housemates and friends using Fantasy Flight Games Force and Destiny Star Wars Campaign. To see our previous installment, click here

After our first game, the first question I was asked by my players was "When is the next one?"

Unfortunately, June is a busy month for us all. Between convention preparations (I will be at DexCon working Battlestar Galactica: Tales of the Rising Star; Bright Story; and The Dresden Files Empire Stat Chronicles, all with Phoenix Outlaw Productions) and two of our players are also preparing for conventions and running a successful Kickstarter for their game ReMemorex. I also had two job interviews and a bad case of TMJ that really made wanting to do games a pain in my ass.

As someone who has only done tabletop a handful of times (I've been larping for nearly ten years now, tabletop experiences are in the dozens of sessions) and as a first time GM, I knew that if we lost momentum, the game would never get picked back up. So I decided on a day and prayed people showed up. My housemates did, and the Nerdy City folks were in the last stretch of their Kickstarter. That's a full time gig. Since they were also playing non-Jedi while the other four were, I didn't see that as much of a problem. There will probably be a side game at some point to catch them all up.

So, without further ado, here we go.

Episode I: The Breakout

Cast members:
Shoshana as Sanoia, Zabrak Jedi Aggressor
Nico as Kothalas, aka "Ko". Twi'lek Makashi Duelist.
Abigail as Zara Dawnwheel, Human Mystic
Josh as Shalya Fortuna, Twi'lek Gaurdian

We began our episode with an opening crawl. I found an online site that allows you to create your own Star Wars opening crawl, music and all. I had been planning this for months, since we first agreed to the campaign. If you're going to do Star Wars, you might as well go for the gusto.

The Crawl:,

The Jedi Temple Has Fallen! 

Elements of the SITH EMPIRE have invaded the headquarters of their Aeons long Nemesis and captured or killed those inside. 

You find yourselves in the brig of an Imperial Destroyer. Bound, Gagged, and Blindfolded, you feel yourselves adrift in space, headed towards darkness...


When we last left our cast, they were knocked out by something resembling a Jedi Holocron. Each of the characters awakens in a dreamlike room full of mirrors, alone. I'll go through each one:

Sanoia: Each reflection showed a different version of Sanoia, a different facet. Jedi Robes and Broad tattoos on her red skin to mark some different paths. Darker robes and more gnarly tattoos to show she had gone to the dark side. Swirling tattoos in a muddy blue woad that could only signify the Nightsisters of Dathomir. A voice, dispassionate and as controlled a central air conditioning, asks a question. "Whom will you be?" Sanoia walks away from the Nightsister versions of her, and from the Sith iterations. She comes closer to the Jedi. It is there she sees a younger Zabrak girl, whose features are pale. She points to her frame where she stands. Sanoia touches it, and she wakes up.

Kothalas: Ko is bound, this is not anything new. The mirrors around him show their family bound in service in a dusty Tattoine Den with the massive shadow of a Hutt looming above them. The same disembodied voice speaks to Ko. "You can free them. But do you free just your family, or do you stop the one who holds them and many others?" After some rationalization, Kothalas chooses their family. And then wake up.

Zara: Zara's mirrors show people, countless people, countless people in the reflections behind them. Countless people talking, and talking, and talking and talking.  The disembodied voice cuts through the noise. "You can silence them" it says. "Do you want that?" Overwhelmed, Zara nods in assent. Each of the reflections drops down dead. Zara looks on in horror, this was not what she had wanted. Repentant, she sees one person hasn't fallen: a human girl in white, with pale hair. She walks out of the  mirror and hugs her close. There are other ways, the girl says, to silence the voices. And then Zara wakes up.

Shalya: Shalya has only one reflection, a figure in a dark cloak. The figure walks out of their mirror, scarlet lightsaber drawn. Shalya holds their hands up, and claims that they are not their enemy and no harm comes. The dark figure attacks. Shalya grabs the saber, restraining the Dark Sider. Shalya has no conflict with this person. The Dark Figure draws their hood up, revealing a severely scarred Shalya. Shalya expected this, acknowledges this, and wakes up. 

Each Jedi awoke in a Jail Cell on board the SIS Vectivus, restrained and with their sight and speech taken from them. Force Users are a pain to deal with, and whomever had them was trying like hell not to give them any advantages.  Zara tries to use the Force to sense for anyone nearby. She hears the other padawans around her, plus one other in a cell and two guards down the hall. Kothalas meditates. Shalya does not resist, seeing themselves as a political prisoner. 

Sanoia is the one who struggles. After several failed attempts, she manages to break herself free using the Force. Shaken, but free, Sanoia sees Kothalas in the cell across from her. The Zabrak attempts to use the force to remove some of their bonds. They do, removing gag and blindfold, and then immediately drops them hard on the floor. Kothalas saw blinding lights at first, then briefly saw Sanoia, and then saw the ceiling of their cell in rapid succession. 

As they begin to right themselves, a security droid passes down the hall. It looks at Kothalas, and then to Sanoia. Standing there. Sanoia immediately tries to do Force Push the droid in to Kothalas' door controls to free him. It doesn't work. The droid looks to Sanoia, and closes its eye shutter quickly.

The droid just winked at her.

It activates a projector through her cell. The message is short, but clear:

There is no emotion, there is peace.

It moves to the door controls and begins unlocking them for the four padawan. They all reconvene as their droid friend approaches. It projects more of a message in a blue crawl. It has arranged for the ship they are on to be lax in their procedures. Their main priority is to get off the ship, but they also have two options: Retrieve the data core using a data spike the droid possesses, or sabotage the ship. They can't do one or the other. The padawans choose espionage over sabotage and retrieve the spike. 

The padawan become aware of the other person in the detention cell with him. He is a human, unbound and not restrained at all. He's banging on the clear plasteel door frame, trying to get them to free him. The padawans debate briefly, then ask the droid. The droid doesn't answer. They decide to free the prisoner. They quickly learn that the prisoner, Donalbain, is a pilot of a ship and was pulled in by the Imperials. With a ride and a pilot, the group begins to prepare for the Breakout.The droid gives them one final message before frying its circuits: 

May the Force Be With You.

Bereft of their traditional lightsabers, the group resorts to procure on site procedures. The first weapon has been given to them. As the doors to outside the prison cell opens, Kothalas Binds the two guards at the door while Sanoia Force Pushes the husk of basketball sized security droid at the two guards at the other end of the hallway. One of those guards is knocked completely out while the other is dazed. The droid breaks apart. Zara and (I think) Ko grab the blasters from the two bound. Zara blasts the disoriented guard. One of the bound guards is dispatched (I forget how) leaving one guard for them to question. The padawans lightsabers were destroyed when the were brought on board days before. 

The interrogation is cut short when Donalbain shoots the stormtrooper with one of the other guards blasters. Zara fumes at Donalbain, declaring the Stormtrooper helpless. The pilot doesn't seem nearly as concerned by that as she is. He says he knows the way through these Imperial Ships, and can get them to the data core. They follow, some clearly ill at ease by their trigger happy compatriot and by the desolate nature of this Imperial Star Destroyer. These ships are massive, with the largest ones being the size of Manhattan Island. To have no troopers, officers, or even droids moving about freely is unheard of. Clearly, their mysterious ally is pulling some strings. 

They make it to the main lift. At this point, Donalbain and Zara are having clear differences of opinion on how things should be done. As the awkward tension in the group builds, several riot troopers break in through the ceiling of the elevator. Zara's perceptions allow for them to move and move quickly. Sanoia moves to get the lift door open while Zara, Kothalas, Shalya and Donalbain handle the guards. Sanoia makes quick work of the door, while Zara slides out of the room. The human padawan takes the controls and makes the elevator lurch up and down fast. Everyone in the lift is floored. 

One of the guards makes their way up and hits Sanoia with a stun baton. Shalya and Ko deal with them as Kothalas grabs one of the guards frag grenades. Everyone in the room panics and stays still while the Jedi and their ally file out. They force the controls to take the guards down to the lower levels, buying them time. 

The group makes their way to the Data Center, where two squadrons of riot troopers are ready for them. Coordinating distractions, the team groups the troopers together and throws the frag grenade between all of them. The explosion takes out all of the squadron. Zara has the idea of masquerading as the troopers, using as much of the non-damaged armor as possible. However, storm troopers are still human centric: meaning the Twi'lek brain tails and the Zabraks horns make wearing the uniforms impractical. Zara and Donalbain, the only two humans, make the effort. Zara shifts them to pretending to be unconscious. 

Kothalas and the others grab some of the gear. Grenades. Kothalas grabs a stun baton. It may not be a lightsaber, but it will do in a pinch if needed. He inputs the data spike, and things go under way. The lift they took begins to rise again, the riot troopers are on their way back up. Shalya, manning the computers, halts the lift on a lower level. The troopers are now clearly climbing up the shaft itself. As the lift doors open, one of the group throws in a stun grenade. The troopers screams are heard, as well as distinctive thunks against the elevator. Then they hear the release on the already jostled elevator   come apart, and the lift crashes down to the lower levels. The guards, they realize, are definitely not coming back from that one. 

The data spike finishes its upload (and possible download) and the rest of them gain access to the safest route between the data core and Donalbain's ship, the Velciter. Zara has a vision during this. She sees before her a large mass in space blotting out the stars, and the inner timer declaring it will approach in five minutes. They make their way through the city wide ship easily enough, using lifts and smaller corridors to make it to the hangar without further conflict. They make it to the hangar, where the Velciter is stationed. 

The Velciter is a very old VT-49 Decimator, a ship that was designed to rival the YT series Corellian Freighters. It looked like it was built with scrap and prayer. The group approaches it when a woman's voice comes over the comms, ordering them to stand down. A viewscreen the size of a building turns on in the hangar, revealing the woman. She is wearing the white uniform and cape of an Imperial Admiral. Her hair is braided, mixing in her mostly black coils with a single silver one. She introduces herself as Rear Admiral Lucrezia Camorra of the Sith Imperial Fleet, commander of the SIS Vader. Zara's vision comes true as a massive Jet Black Super Star Destroyer comes out of Hyperspace. The stars around them are eclipsed as an Imperial War Machine comes in.

The group begins to run towards the ship, when Camorra gives the code: Imperial Command Line: Falls the Shadow. Darth Vicious: Rise.

Heavy machinery can be heard from the distance, and a hangar door opens near the landing ramp of the Velciter. This is the first time for many of the padawans to be this close to such a potent source of the Dark Side. It feels numbing and electric at the same time, like they were thrown in to a frozen lake and a generator was thrown in with them. The make to the landing ramp, knowing that they'll have to face the dark sider along the way.

The thing they see is massive, 8 feet tall and half that around. The sith black and muddy red tattoos on his skin peppered with what look like rocks and bones protruding from parts of his cheek, arms, and legs. His eyes burn orange with hatred.

The terrifying presence of this Sith makes Kothalas drop his weaponry. Donalbain drops his weapons as well and runs to the ship, Zara behind him to try and keep him from doing anything stupid (like abandon them). Sanoia decides to make a stand, at least to slow down the Sith. Shalya, terrified, takes up Ko's fallen stun baton and assumes a ready position to attack the Sith. Lightsaber drawn, the Sith lord stares down his prey.  Sanoia uses the force to try to slow down Vicious, it doesn't make a dent in the massive Sith. The dark sider unleashes a massive blast of Dark Side energy at the two. Sanoia, already wounded, puts Shalya behind her, taking the hit. Kothalas and Zara provide cover fire while the two of them get aboard the ship. Donalbain, calmed by Zara, begins to take off. 

To keep the Sith from jumping aboard, Kothalas uses the fear instilled in him to bind Vicious to the ground. The dark side flows through him as the massive Sith watches their ship take off. Without any weapons, a damaged navcomputer, and a Super Star Destroyer barreling towards them, the group on the Velciter need to make some decisions. The NavComputer has three coordinates still in its data banks: The Ring of Kafrene, Naboo, or Mandalore. The group, desperate to make a decision, decide that anything is better and tell Donalbain to punch it. 

The ship goes in to hyperspace, the stars dragging to streaks, and the streaks dragging in to cosmic energy. Days pass, healing begins. Donalbain is all of his crew to survive, but there are droids on the ship. They start coming out of hyperspace to find the desert terrain pocked by domed cities. Several bulk freighters prepared for combat approach the ship, asking why they have enter Mandalorian Space.

And that was game. 

Post Mortem:
I wanted to make this game an easy tutorial for the players. It's a new system for everyone and the level of Star Wars knowledge between players varies. So a good old 'you find yourself in the dungeon' opener was as good a place as any (worked for Leia). 

One of the things that I noticed was that the entire room was full of game developers. So a lot of this game was spent trying to wrap our heads around the system. There was some dissonance based on the use of visual instead of the usual numerical. People did eventually get there. 

One of the themes of this game is going to be choice. The players have options, and those options have consequences. The hall of mirrors was as much way to show character as well as to get them to make a starting decision on where they stand. Also, the decision to free Donalbain (who was not intended to be a pilot, but our pilot PC was out of this game. Needs must.) was completely at the discretion of the players. Finally, the decision as to their last destination will have consequences.  This is a  BioWare inspired game. 

During the game, I ran in to an old friend: power spamming. It's something you run in to a lot in Mage games, because everyone is trying to find the best utilization of their powers/see what they do . The rules for Force Powers aren't as developed as I would like, so I've established using powers in rapid order causes strain. Overtrying hurts. 

This was also a combat heavy game, and not a lot of people got to shine throughout it. That will hopefully change once everyone sets foot on Terra Firma (or Mando'a Firma).

The Sith Lord, Darth Vicious, has a story that will most likely be revealed through this campaign. I'd like to thank Dave Harold for permission of using his characters from the old days of Lightsaber Stage Combat. For those of you from those days and are reading this, yes, I am a bastard. 

And for my next trick, getting the remaining players to Mandalore for the next game. We'll get there, and then we'll see what trouble we can cook up.

I hope you enjoyed. May the Force be With you.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com