Monday, February 18, 2019

Tierfon Mission: Downtime

Detailed here are some of the training exercises in which the PCs can participate during their downtime in a Rebel base, be it at the Tierfon Outpost, on Yavin or Hoth, or in similar locations.

-Nate



Tierfon Mission: Downtime
This collection of activities is intended to be used at times when the PCs have time between missions, whether it be at Tierfon Base, or at similar Rebel Alliance outposts. They can be run in the same manner as modular encounters, as featured in the supplement Strongholds of Resistance. Alternately, they could be used as a stand-alone session for PCs who've been newly recruited to the Rebel Alliance, giving them a taste of a soldier's life and thus earning some XP with which to start developing the appropriate abilities.

Target Practice
One of the more common activities for Rebels in training is target shooting, both with pistols and rifles—as befits the different situations in which they might need to operate.
  • This involves five shots using either Ranged (Light) or (Heavy) or Gunnery skill checks.
  • The range can start out at short, with one difficulty die, and then escalate to medium and long.
  • The character with the highest number of successes after five shots is the winner; advantage can be used to break any ties.
  • Target drones could be used to provide moving targets.

The Obstacle Course
This activity combines general physical fitness—that is, running—with a series of barriers that help development different skills.
  • The running part requires Athletics checks, with the difficulty determined by the length of time.
  • A climbing wall also requires an Athletics check, with the difficulty adjusted based on the height, slope and number of handholds.
  • Various parts of a ropes course, such as crossing a narrow beam, crawling under a net, or the like, require a Coordination check.

Hand-to-Hand Combat
Another important aspect of training is unarmed and melee combat. This can be run as a typical combat between characters, with the following considerations.
  • The characters fight with padded staves, which means that they do damage to each others' strain thresholds rather than wound thresholds—unless, of course, some chooses not to do so.
  • They are also issued padded armor, which provides some protection from the attacks and thus makes the training bouts run longer than might otherwise be the case.
  • At any time, one of the competitors can call off the bout after recognizing a superior opponent.

Medical Emergencies
While not part of the ordinary training process, it's likely that characters skilled in Medicine will be called upon to help in various situations.
  • When a transport returns carrying wounded Rebels, refer to the Critical Injury table (from page 231 of the Core Rulebook) to determine the problems with which the medic must deal.
  • After the initial first aid, characters can make Medicine checks to provide medical care for ongoing recovery, as detailed on pages 232-3 of the Core Rulebook.
  • The medic could also be called on to deal with the outbreak of a disease in the base, requiring the collection of appropriate medicines and the treatment of those affected by it.
Wilderness Training
Given the potential for Rebels to find themselves stranded on alien worlds with hostile environments, they must know how to find shelter, water and food.
  • Characters should make Survival checks in order to provide for their basic needs.
  • Success means that they can pass a relatively comfortable night in the wilderness, and maybe even accrue boost dice for future business; failure, on the other hand, inflicts setback dice on ensuing endeavors.
  • There's always the chance the a native creature could come prowling, forcing the PCs to scare it away, placate it, do battle, or handle the situation in some other manner.
  • Finally, in the event that bad weather occurs during one of these exercises, the PCs might even need to make Resilience checks to deal with exposure, or could be called upon to rescue other Rebels who've been caught unprepared in such conditions.

Stalking and Guard Duty
This activity also takes the PCs outside the base; in this case, some of them are positioned in a particular location, while the others are tasked with sneaking up on that position, as detailed below.
  • The approaching characters start out in the extreme range band from their fellows, and advance one band—to long, medium, short, and then engaged—with each successful Stealth check opposed by the stationary characters' Perception efforts.
  • There could be some kind of target for the stalkers, in the style of capture-the-flag; the character who can close to engaged range can claim it.
  • In that case, the defending characters could be armed with weapons set on stun, in order to address those who are not stealthy enough.

Technical Difficulties
There is plenty for mechanically-minded characters to to in a Rebel base, including the following.
  • It would be necessary to wipe the memory of a captured droid so that it can be used by the Alliance; in this case, success means that it has not remaining memories and serves faithfully, while failure means that it retains some old programming and could act against the Rebellion.
  • Just as with critical injuries, technicians could be called upon to repair critical damage to ships, vehicles and other equipment; refer to the table on page 258 of the Core Rulebook for details.
  • Characters could also be tasked with picking or locks or pockets, requiring Skullduggery checks opposed to the targets Perception efforts.

Vehicular Patrols
The Rebel base routinely runs patrols of the surrounding territory, either speeder bikes or airspeeders on the ground, or starfighters in space. To that end, the PCs involved in these tasks should make Piloting (plantary) or (space) checks as needed.
  • These patrols normally follow pre-established routes, which means that characters need only make piloting checks in order to run the usual courses.
  • Here again, native beasts could complicate these activities by attacking the vehicles that pass through their territory.
  • In the event that a vehicle suffers damage, PCs trained in Mechanics could be called upon to make repairs during battle.

Sunday, February 3, 2019

Star Wars Reading in 2019

We have a small-ish slate of books to look forward to in 2019, but they are not from the Sequel timeline, so they're promising.

Starting with a Young Adult novel on March 5, entitled Queen's Shadow, by E.K. Johnston. This one traces Amidala's path after stepping down as Queen of Naboo, but before becoming the Senator from Naboo. An intriguing time to explore. I am a fan of both Amidala and E.K. Johnston (author of 2016's Ahsoka and co-author of the short story By Whatever Sun found in the "From a Certain Point of View" anthology.)


Next in the sequence is another Prequel era book: Master and Apprentice, by Claudia Gray (Lost Stars, Bloodline, Leia: Princess of Alderaan). This one deals with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan before the events of The Phantom Menace. Interesting! Love both of those characters, and quite like Claudia Gray (Lost Stars and Leia were better than Bloodline). April 16 release date, here.


Then we have a strangely named book (considering the SW inhabitants have Aurabesh, no Alphabet): Alphabet Squadron by Alexander Freed. This one is the start of a trilogy from the author of the excellent Battlefront: Twilight Company and the very good novelization of Rogue One. This one is slated for June 11. This one will also tie-in to a 5-part Marvel comic series called Star Wars: TIE Fighter (tie-in...get it?).


July 23 will see the release of Thrawn: Treason, by fan favorite Timothy Zahn. This is the sequel to Thrawn: Alliances. I didn't care for that one, but I will very likely read this one, too.


The last books for the year are set to be a part of the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge media project, promoting the new attraction at Disney. First (in August) is a Young Adult Novel called A Crash of Fate. Then (in September) comes an adult novel Black Spire.