The Rebellion Approaches

A Big Shiny Red Book

I am getting very excited about the upcoming Age of Rebellion RPG from FFG. While I plan to begin writing adventures for the game once it's released, I am definitely new to the system. In fact, I own only the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game and have only played in one adventure thus far (the intro adventure found in the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game...GMd by Nate).

I am still trying to wrap my head around the dice used in the game and what, in particular, they really mean. I was leery, at first, leaving my good old standard polyhedrons at home for this new system. I have noticed a few positive side effects, however, inherent in these mechanics. The main one is speed. Think of it this way: old fashioned dice, as great as they are, only serve to generate random numbers. Many times these numbers must then be compared against a table or chart in the rulebook. This takes time.

The custom dice used in the new SW RPGs are random result generators. A subtle, but important, difference, I think. The piece-wise cancellation of symbols, read from the rolled faces of the dice themselves, can yield a fairly complicated result in a relatively easy way. This result is influenced by random elements (the different sides of the dice that can be rolled), skill level (the types of dice added to the initial die pool), difficulty of the task (a negative type die, also added to the actor's dice pool--a nice way to ensure that only a single roll of the dice will be needed for most actions; you essentially roll for and against yourself, all at once), positive factors which may aid success (but themselves can't contribute a net negative effect), and negative factors which do the opposite.

In addition to determining the straight-up success or failure of a character's attempted action, the dice symbols go one step further...toward aiding and empowering the telling of a story. In this way, the dice not only keep one from having to look up results on a table or chart, but they also prompt and direct the narrative. Saving time, keeping the action-filled pace up, maintaining interest and investment by players and GMs alike, and building a potentially deeper (and a bit random, but still player influenced) story during the adventure.

All the dice

The green Ability Die has an evil twin, called the purple Difficulty Die.

The green Ability Die also has a big brother, called the yellow Proficiency Die.

Unfortunately, the purple Difficulty Die also has an evil big brother called the red Challenge Die.

The yellow die is like an improved green die. The red die is like an even worse purple die.

I feel these four should be arranged like this in your mind. Far left is great, then good, then bad, then terrible. The number of each die that goes into your dice pool is dependent on your skill and the level of difficulty for the task at hand (plus extraneous factors).

Basic Task Success or Failure?

Now we look at the positive and negative factor dice, that may help or hurt you. The good die, the light blue Boost Die, can only help (but it might not). The bad die, the black Setback Die, can only hurt (but it might not).

Extraneous Factors?

The last one is the white Force Die, which, as the name implies, probably doesn't come up very often.

Only Luke uses this?

Finally we will look at the symbols found on these dice. There are no numbers, so you have to get used to interpreting the runes. The success or failure of an activity is determined by the following symbols found on the Proficiency, Ability, Difficulty, Challenge, Boost, and Setback Dice.

Arcane Symbols

Here again we have a nice symmetry (I am a big fan of that). Successes are good, Triumphs are better. Failures are bad, Despairs are worse. They piece-wise cancel each other. The net result after all cancellations have been made, determines whether or not you succeeded at the task at hand. In addition to counting as a Success, a Triumph may "be spent trigger a positive consequence". The Despair has a similar role; in addition to counting as a Failure, it may "be spent trigger a negative consequence".

But wait, we have more arcane symbols!

We're Not Done Yet!

Interestingly enough, these supplemental positive and negative symbols cancel each other, but do not influence the overall Success or Failure state of the task at hand. They will simply add a random element of extra story in the form of side effects or consequences. So you could fail to accomplish something, yet still move the story forward, at least indirectly.

This is great for driving those things that make Star Wars roleplaying games memorable: Imperial Entanglements and Unintended Consequences. Basically a mechanic-based way for sneaking people to accidentally step on a twig or a falling person to inadvertently press the right button on the console or something. You messed up what you were trying to do, but you did wind up doing something kinda useful (or the opposite of that). My guess is this is a way for GMs to really tie the action into the setting; most of these side effects would be related to the environment the characters are in, I would guess.

Here is a look at the relative abundance of the various symbols throughout the dice, taken from the 2013 Free RPG Day adventure "Under a Black Sun".

Faces of Dice

I do not know the origins of this symbol-based dice system (it appears that, at least, the FFG incarnation of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay uses something very similar), but I think it has potential. Certainly potential to allow FFG to sell us stuff we already own (i.e. polyhedral dice)*, but also the potential to make gaming quicker and richer in terms of story-telling.

The system kinda drags you, whether you like it or not, into a twisting narrative style of play (at least twisting along the margins of the narrative), because you have to somehow explain all the weird symbols that crop up when you attempt to do anything. This very likely keeps both players and GMs a bit more on their toes, as the system encourages everyone to chime in with ideas on what the heck, exactly, just happened when you tried to shoot your blaster rifle at those stormtroopers while standing beside stacked up carbonite-encased blocks of spin-sealed Tibanna gas.

Questions? Comments? As I mentioned, I am a newcomer to this system (but not SWRPGs). Nate has been running an Edge of the Empire campaign for quite some time (starting the day the Beta book or Beginner Game was released or something...). He'll chime in if I've made any errors in reporting the facts. Won't you, Nate?




*FFG is very good at making stuff. Boxes with books and dice and miniatures and cards. With supplement cards. And boxes. And books. And dice....Good thing they have superior quality stuff; because you will be buying ALOT of it.




References
At the Core: A Preview of the Star Wars(R): Edge of the Empire(TM) Beginner Game

Under a Black Sun: A Star Wars(R): Edge of the Empire(TM) FreeRPG Day adventure

Preparing for First X-wing Mission

One of the goals for this Tierfon site is to make a series of missions for a continuing campaign using the X-Wing Miniatures Game from FFG.

Along these lines, I am interested in "realistic" missions for Tierfon's Black Squadron, not so much the standard fare of 100 points per side, dogfight until one side is dead kind of thing. The missions I have in mind would likely fall into the game's Cinematic realm.

My thought is to have a slate of pilots and equipment and allow the player to use almost whatever they want to accomplish the jobs set before them. The notion is that this will be more of a marathon than a sprint; an effort to try to manage the resources given by Alliance High Command in order to keep up with a demanding slate of mission assignments as time rolls on. Surviving pilots could get better, and, of course, some pilots will not make it. Replacements (both in personnel and equipment) will be a bit difficult to come by.

One idea I am toying with is to reduce the reliance on cards and whatnot for the X-Wing missions. I am going to work on an idea of a small character sheet for the X-wing pilots instead of using the pilot cards included in the Miniatures Game. Points for squad building, etc, will not be very important to me, at least at first. The character sheet idea will allow for growth (or regression?) of the individual pilots in the squadron as time goes on. More on this later, as it develops.

So what makes for a "realistic" mission profile? In my mind, the Rebels will almost always be acting in a 'death by a thousand cuts' mode. They never wish to engage the Imperial fleet in a fair fight. They do, however, want to stretch the Imperial military to the limit, everywhere throughout the galaxy. The Rebel Alliance High Command is on the run, in hiding. The Rebel Fleet is dispersed, with explicit orders to avoid the Imperial Navy at all costs. The idea is to keep all local Imperials 'at home', reducing their ability to fan out and effectively hunt for the Rebels. Darth Vader has been tasked with finding the Alliance High Command, and has a fleet specifically built for that purpose, but Mon Mothma and the other Rebel leaders want to make it as expensive as possible for the Imperials to pull resources away from defending any given place in the galaxy. Right now the Rebels are essentially stalling for time, as with each passing day more worlds and systems join the fight against the Empire.

For most sector commands, like Tierfon's Sumitra Sector, the primary goal of starfighter operations is to harry and harass Imperial shipping, making it too costly for the Empire to send unescorted transports and supply vessels along the hyperlanes. In addition, precision strikes on communications, supplies, and command and control targets can aid joint operations, making the jobs of spies or Spec Force commandoes easier.

Another goal of this site is to make adventures for the upcoming Age of Rebellion RPG. In most cases, these adventures can tie into the X-Wing missions in some way. The adventurers, whether a Spec Force team or a group of "freelance troubleshooters" might need starfighters to knock out a holonet array before mission begins, or they may need patrolling TIEs eliminated in order to make a clean break from a planet after a mission ends. Failing the X-Wing Miniatures Game mission could spell disaster for the RPG side of things, and possibly vice versa.

In most cases, Alliance Intelligence will be working hard to identify likely targets for Black Squadron raids, using the vast networks of Rebel spies throughout the galaxy. Many times observers stationed at or near starports can glean information about transit routes and times for Imperial supply shipments. Intell would also work to coordinate the squadron's interactions with other assets in the field.

In the end, realistic X-Wing missions will likely be unbalanced, asymmetrical type engagements (a few X-wings versus an entire squadron of TIEs, for instance) where Rebel victory is not defined by eliminating the enemy forces, but by accomplishing some type of task quickly and surviving long enough to make the jump to hyperspace.

Names!

Please welcome a boatload of new named NPCs for the Tierfon Campaign! A couple of the Alliance High Command Chiefs were never named anywhere, as far as I could tell, and General Vernon has never had a first name (before now).

The rest are made up. Hopefully they all sound Star Wars enough for our purposes.

High Command

Alliance Intelligence Chief General Roan Vernon (human male)

Alliance Sector Command Chief General Joba Dass (human female)

Alliance Support Services Chief General Seti Nee (Gran female)

Tierfon Base

Sumitra Sector Command:

Major Kento Moorla (human male) - Tierfon’s commanding officer

Captain Prestor Sykes (human male) - Tierfon second-in-command

Lieutenant Sola Bast (human female) - Tierfon Security Chief, Juno’s sister

Starfighter Command:

Squadron Leader Kareene Argent (human female) - Black Squadron leader

Flight Lieutenant Bren Axmis (human male) - Black Squadron pilot

Flight Officer Natasi Clovis (human female) - Black Squadron pilot

Flight Officer Nar Syndulla (Twi’lek male) - Black Squadron pilot

Flight Officer Tomaas Hardeen (human male) - Black Squadron pilot

Flight Officer Zeva Kuro (Zabrak female) - Black Squadron pilot

Flight Officer Raako Tosh (Mon Calamari male) - Black Squadron pilot

Technical Sergeant Resh Waydeen (human male) - Black Squadron ground crew lead

Intelligence:

Lieutenant Juno Bast (human female) - Tierfon Intelligence Lead, Sola’s sister

2nd Lieutenant Oro Omas (Mon Calamari female)

Spec Force:

Sergeant Trak Bondaloo (human male)

First Trooper Noa Sarn (human male)

Support Services Command:

Senior Trooper Kal Bandi (human male) - Tierfon base cook

Sumitra Sector Imperials

Overall Command

Moff Bevel Jusik (human male) - in charge of both civilian planetary governors and the Imperial military throughout Sumitra Sector

Imperial Navy (Sumitra)

Fleet Admiral Cantari Rast (human male) - Sumitra Sector Fleet Commander

Rear-Admiral Astor Drall (human male) - Sumitra Sector TIE Commander

Imperial Army (Sumitra)

Major-General Malcor Nu (human male) - Sumitra Sector Ground Commander

2312th Stormtrooper Legion (currently assigned to Sumitra Sector)

High Colonel Vilim Kael (human male) - Legion Commander

Imperial Inquistion (Sumitra Sector)

Inquisitor Xemus Drallig (human male)

From Travel to Personnel

I have finished my Gazetteer for hyperspace travel times, and I think I am happy with it. The time required to cross the entire galaxy (using a class x1 hyperdrive) is 21 hours...which translates into 42 hours for a group in a stock light frieghter (with a x2 drive). The chart also jives with a few key references in Star Wars lore, among them a quote from Vader that says

"This will be a day long remembered. It has seen the end of Kenobi, it will soon see the end of the Rebellion."

Vader kills Obi Wan at the wreckage of Alderaan, then the Death Star goes through hyperspace to Yavin. My chart says that trip would about 20 hours with a x4 hyperdrive, so we're just on the edge of calling Vader's quote literally true. This also allows the Rebellion something like 17.5 hours to study the stolen Death Star plans to find the thermal exhaust port weakness.

Another key component is the travel time from Tatooine to Alderaan, which isn't explicitly stated in the movie, but certainly seems like a few hours (not a day or more). The chart says the Falcon could make that trip in about 4 hours.

Finally, the EU chimes in with a couple of references from the Michael Stackpole X-wing books (very appropriate to quote from these here, at this X-wing blog!). While one reference (Yag'Dhul to Thyferra) needs to be completely tossed out the window, two others are right on the money in agreement with other factors (8 hours for X-wing to go from Alderaan to Tatooine and 12 hours for an Interdictor to go from Centares to Alderaan).

Sadly, the chart I have made disagrees completely with at least three bits of Star Wars conventional wisdom: for one thing it is said that it would take weeks to cross the galaxy (re-stated in the Edge of the Empire RPG main rulebook), for another it is said that somehow the density of mass shadows affects travel times (even though in a standard spiral galaxy the numeric density of stars near the core would be literally hundreds of times higher than out on the rim...but nobody suggests travel times in the core should take hundreds of times longer!), and finally they seem to suggest that the known hyperspace trade routes are somehow safer, preferred, and possibly required travel paths. I can get behind the notion that BoSS collects (anonymous?) route data for all ships landing at heavily populated worlds, then uses these calculations to produce up to date "fresh" maps for people. But I don't think the trade corridors are anything more special than just that: heavily traveled trade routes connecting a ton of planets that like to trade with one another.

As for any calculations related to subspace speeds and whatnot, I cannot muster up enough energy to wish to work on that. I think using the shorthand method of "minutes required to reach a hyperspace jump point", etc, is good enough.

Next up is to begin the process for naming all the NPCs involved thus far, both Tierfon personnel and the Sumitra Sector Imperials who most directly oppose them. After that, the goal will be to write the first X-wing Miniatures Game mission, the first Age of Rebellion adventure, and the first Tierfon Tales short story. Sounds fun!

More Travel

I have been on a quest to finish my galactic gazetteer, quantifying hyperspace travel times between 48 different interesting locations in the Star Wars universe. This equates to 1128 separate measurements on the map! You can see my progress by clicking on the "Gazetteer" link along the top of the blog (only 325 measurements left-ugh).

I have been having a one-sided conversation with myself (Join in! See comments section of this post) regarding how long, exactly, hyperspace travel should take. As mentioned, my first cut at this is to simply have a set travel time per inch of map traveled. I am using a hand-waving argument to dismiss the Star Wars hand-waving argument that travel times vary greatly based on numeric density of stars.

My thought process goes like this: of course there are issues with travel times and distances and whatnot quoted in the myriad sources that make up the old levels of Star Wars canon (now called Legends). However, we do not need to further complicate the issue of a lack of carefully controlled coordination across disparate sources by adding in some hokey arguments and smokescreens. In my opinion, a gazetteer should be possible. And it shouldn't have much to do with how closely packed the stars are, otherwise travel times near the galactic core would be hundreds of times longer than in the Outer Rim. I will admit that there is something about making a gazetteer of cold, hard facts that eats away at some of the mystery and excitement of the unknown so important to Star Wars. Loosey-goosey traveling "at the speed of plot" seems more like space opera, of course, but a bit less like Science Fiction. I hope to bring a bit more balance to that scale.

As long as I am thinking about traveling from Tierfon to somewhere else, I thought I would share these ideas, too.

*On an earth-sized planet (~100 km thick atmosphere), an X-wing launching from the ground takes about 6 minutes to get to space (full throttle, straight up). This is using the conventionally quoted 1050 kph atmospheric speed for the X-wing. One strange thing is that an X-wing is much slower than an SR-71 Blackbird (at least 3540 kph).

*With an earth-sized planet (7918 km diameter), an X-wing takes about 14 minutes to get to the hyperspace jump point (6 planetary diameters away). This is a bit more interesting. It uses a WEG factoid (6 diameters), some calculated numbers for acceleration (based on some very careful film study of the Millenium Falcon in action), the published MGLT numbers for various craft (interpreted as acceleration values), and some kinematic equations.

*With an Jupiter-sized gas giant (521,286 km diameter), an X-wing takes about 47 minutes to get to the hyperspace jump point (6 planetary diameters away).



I am curious as to what people think of this. Too much information? Kills the free-spirited Star Wars vibe?

A Report on the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game

A couple of weeks ago I picked up the Age of Rebellion Beginner Game from Fantasy Flight Games. On May the 4th I ran it for some people over at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center, seeing as it was International Star Wars Day and all. Here are a few reactions.

1. It felt good to run a scenario for Rebel agents. Back in the day I ran a good deal of the West End Games d6 RPG, pretty much one campaign a year in college, and I played in a lot of adventures run by my buddy Shawn in junior high and high school. After 1999, though, we shifted to prequel-era d20 games, with the Living Force campaign, some home games, and then the Dawn of Defiance campaign. I can confidently say that Rebellion-era games are the most fun. It's nice to fight against the Evil Galactic Empire, at least for me as the GM.

2. The adventure provided, "Takeover at Whisper Base," provides a good introduction to the game, but there's much more potential for going "off the rails" than was the case with the Edge of the Empire Beginner Game. Since the scenario involves storming a secret Imperial compound on Onderon, rather than fleeing a Hutt crime boss's enforcers, I think the players are likely to be more methodical and thus more creative in their tactics. Also, there are lots of opportunities to use explosives.

3. On a tangent, it was nice to see Onderon used as the setting for the adventure. I was intrigued by it as the setting for some of the Tales of the Jedi comics back in the mid-nineties, and again with one of the story arcs in the last (full) season of The Clone Wars.

4. All in all, I liked the scenario. It seems a little bit too convenient when run for experienced players, but the GM could always modify it accordingly. Since the downloadable adventure Operation Shadowpoint builds upon "Takeover at Whisper Base," it can make a launching point for many sessions of play. What is more, word on the (virtual) street is that the Age of Rebellion GM Screen will have suggestions for combining its adventure with that from the core rulebook and the aforementioned. I, for one, cannot wait.

-Nate

Galactic Travel

I have been working on a gazetteer lately, trying to quantify the hyperspace travel times between a large group of planets all across the Star Wars galaxy. It has been an interesting journey, with the Essential Atlas at my side, digging into facts about the structure of real galaxies in an attempt to solve the problem.

Many Star Wars sources deliberately leave out details on the thorny issue of hyperspace travel, likely because of the vast number of contradictory tidbits of information out there. One of the common quotes in this arena is "Ships travel at the speed of plot."

As in, "Forget about it."

While this free and easy notion might work well for a movie, it grates on my nerves when thinking about an otherwise quasi-realistic Sci-Fi universe. We need to know how long it takes to get from point A to point B, and it should be consistent and understandable. There is a lot of hand-waving in the Star Wars canon about how local space effects can make travel times much different than one would guess, based simply on the straight line distance between trip endpoints.

As a first order approximation, I am measuring the distance between each planet pair on my list (see below) on the master galaxy map found in the Essential Atlas. I have a couple of reference distances to compare against in order to convert my distance measurements (in inches) into light years (namely, the distances from Coruscant, Tatooine, Naboo, Hoth, and Yavin to the Galactic Core). At this point, I will have to figure out a hyperspace travel speed in terms of light years per hour (for the x1 drive multiplier). Then things get messy...how does one incorporate things like the variable density of stars throughout the galaxy? For my first order approximation, I won't bother with this. I tend to think these sorts of arguments are more "retcon" type ideas, generated after-the-fact, made to gloss over the widely varying apparent travel times from different quoted sources. Stay tuned for more updates as my work continues...

For the sake of argument, here is the list of planets in my gazetteer thus far: Abregado-rae, Alderaan, Ansion, Arda, Bespin, Bogden, Bonadan, Bothawui, Brentaal, Cato Neimoidia, Corellia, Coruscant, Dagobah, Dantooine, Dorvalla, Endor, Eriadu, Felucia, Fondor, Gamorr, Geonosis, Hoth, Kamino, Kashyyyk, Kuat, Lianna, Malastare, Mandalore, Mon Calamari, Mustafar, Muunilist, Mygeeto, Naboo, Nal Hutta, Onderon, Ord Mantell, Polis Massa, Rodia, Ryloth, Saleucami, Subterrel, Sullust, Taanab, Tatooine, Thyferra, Tierfon, Utapau, Yavin.

Did I miss any you would include? Tell me in the comments section.

Another question for you: how long should it take for a smuggler in a light freighter to cross the entire galaxy? A day or two? A week?

As an arbitrary point or reference, a group of people in a motor home could go from New York City to Los Angeles in something like 45 hours or so (that's a bit like a light freighter crew crossing the galaxy, isn't it?)