One of the animating ideas behind this blog is the concept of a central place to act as a grounding point for multiple forays into the Star Wars universe. The obvious two are using the outpost as a home for starfighters in an X-wing Miniatures Game campaign and at the same time using the outpost as a base for Age of Rebellion roleplaying.
Why stop there? It occurs to me, as I work to flesh out the back-story of the Star Wars world and the base itself, we can use this shared resource for much more than one or two groups. Setting up a believable base filled with interesting characters rooted in the Star Wars milieu is an interesting task. See the number of "pages" along the top navigation bar; including Dramatis Personae (a nod to Timothy Zahn novels), Alliance Military, and Imperial Military, to name three (there will no doubt be more). I start by gathering as many resources as I can find on a given topic, then comes the task of synthesis and filling in the gaps with reasonable guesses and extrapolations. The end result will not be Star Wars canon, but hopefully it will be built on solid canon foundations (for believability and accessibility, if nothing else).
At any rate, cobbling together such a collection of information cries out for it to be used...and in more than one way.
This small Rebel outpost can be home to a number of groups of semi-related characters. One group is a rag-tag band of somewhat loosely-affiliated 'free traders', flying a light freighter on troubleshooting missions (this is the 'standard' RPG campaign, as far as I am concerned). These guys could be among the privateers sanctioned by OaS, they might also be a team put together under the auspices of Alliance Intelligence (Irregulars). Loose command structure, no formal uniforms, wide-ranging missions not confined to just the Sumitra Sector. The base serves as a place for rest and refit, as well as a source for recurring NPCs and adventure hooks (likely in the form of missions).
Living at the same base at the same time might be a small group of Spec Force soldiers. Perhaps the outpost acts as a training location in addition to a nice spot for a rapid reaction type force to live (right next to hyperspace-capable transports, for one). The free-traders with the YT-1300 might ferry these guys in or out on a mission or two, here or there. The PCs might also play the Spec Force guys for a few sessions as an exciting (and likely more deadly) change of pace.
The ground troops assigned to protect the base itself can also serve up a different RPG experience. No doubt their regular patrols through the wilderness surrounding the outpost (on foot or airspeeder) sometimes yield interesting encounters. A fire team (5 soldiers) of 'regular' infantry would make another interesting way to explore the region and setting.
In the miniatures game, having both X-wings and a YT-1300 (at least) on hand make for some interesting linked missions. Damaged craft need repairs, spaced pilots need rescue. A demanding slate of required patrols, escorts, and strike missions will begin to take its toll on the operational capabilities of the outpost. Such a campaign of resource management and combat efficiency would breathe a new life into the otherwise mundane game of "dogfight until one side is dead".
Linking all of these aspects together into a cohesive whole, wherein each aspect might affect the others, wherein the outpost itself becomes an interesting central character in its own right, is the goal of this site.
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