Monday, March 10, 2014

Perfectly Star Wars-ish!

This episode seemed to me to be perfectly in tune with the Star Wars feel, and I offer it up for your enjoyment. Again, I am using StarCluster 3, with specific "Star Wars-ish" modifications.


So the PCs are temporarily stranded in Tibannopolis, the abandoned floating city on Bespin, their ship's landing gear broken, sitting on a landing pad. Sharaska, Dindar, and Delilah wanted to explore a small ship they saw through a break in the clouds, sitting on a pad about a quarter of the way around Tibannopolis. There was no way to go there directly, so they had to go into the abandoned city, then out the other side. They left the droid and Lyssia aboard, working on the landing gear.

The layout of Tibannopolis is as follows - each landing pad is linked to other landing pads like a cluster of grapes, with the stem leading to a door. Inside, the level of the landing pads is a commercial level, with bridges arching up from each landing pad stem  and meeting in the center at a small park - all plants dead now, of course -  with waist-high parapets on each side of the bridge. All around the periphery are stores, shops, eateries, and bars, with occasional others beside the bridges. Between the periphery and the center are two radial roads, like a spiderweb. There is a void/atrium under the center area, going down the four levels of residential living area, and a clear glass dome overhead. All very airy and clean. Below the residential levels are a couple of maintenance levels, with work docks and a well equipped hospital, then the huge work levels, extending downward, where the Tibanna gas is extracted and refined.

The PCs had gone to the center and headed back along the proper bridge, when they met up with a tall figure in black jedi-style robes and a deep hood, accompanied by five stormtroopers. He demanded the party turn over Duke, as his master - assumed to be Vader - required his (Duke's) services. This was in response to Duke 'throwing in' with Vader to avoid being thrown into carbonite last weekend. Sharaska refused to say whether they had Duke or not. The Dark Jedi got impatient and force-choked Dindar, picking up the Wookie and dangling him over the void/atrium, then demanded Duke again, the stormtroopers readying their blasters.

At that point, Delilah broke out into a song and dance - being a former entertainer, she pulled it off well. All eyes turned in her direction. At that moment, Sharaska launched herself through the air, knocking the Wookie across to the inner circle bridge with her, and breaking the force choke. She called immediately for the Jedi on the ship to come to their aid. At this point, while attentions moved back to Sheraska, Delilah darted into a small alleyway between two buildings, and hid herself - Delilah is at her most dangerous when you don't know where she is.

In a short, sharp fight, the dark jedi gravely wounded Sharaska, though not before she got an excellent hit on him, whch he half-healed. Dindar hid from the jedi, as not only was he badly wounded by the force choke, he is a bit of a coward. Three storm toopers went down the alley to locate Delilah, while two remained, covering the Dark jedi.

The troopers went right by where Delilah hid, and she slipped out behind them. She sneak killed two, leaving the leader alone while hiding again. The leader turned around at the end of the alley, and seeing his two mates dead on the ground behind him, and nothing else there, he opened up at random, then dashed back to the mouth of the alley. Again, Delilah slipped in behind him and her knife flashed once more, and none were left.

Meanwhile, the jedi from the ship - Hosea, his padawan Torota, Duke, and Daykon - came in on the scene. The Dark Jedi stood, one foot on Sharaska, his light saber on and pointing down at her back. He offered to trade Sharaska for Duke, implying that she was of far more use to them than a jedi who was definitely darker than he ought to be. They conversed, while Hosea readied a TK. He flung a pebble, loosened in the fight with Sharaska, up into the Dark Jedi's light saber, turning it off for a crucial moment.

The two covering storm troopers immediately started firing - and missing! I couldn't roll anything at all on ten total dice! - and the Dark Jedi grabbed Sharaska and force jumped down four levels to the floor of the atrium. At this point, with four jedi against him, he was just trying to escape. He had only known of Duke and Daykon, but four was a bit much, even for a very dark adept.

Torota leapt and killed one of the two stormtroopers. Daykon grabbed his blaster rifle, and began shooting at the Dark Jedi below. Duke and Hosea followed the Dark Jedi, matching his leap. and confronting him below. This time he held Sharaska up with his light saber at her throat. He bargained, offering to let them have Sharaska if they would let him go. He had his lightsaber in shield mode, and it would take a lot to batter that down. Meanwhile, Torota killed the last storm trooper. Daykon, firing from above, couldn't penetrate his defense, as he slowly backed towards an opening.

Duke offered to let him go, abiding by the deal. The Dark Jedi refused to accept his word, as he had proven himself false already. Hosea, a jedi slightly on the light side, took his offer, promising to let the Dark Jedi leave if he left Sharaska behind, alive, and agreed to cut off Duke's head if he intervened, promising to do so "by the light side of the Force." 

The Dark Jedi took Hosea's  word, letting Sharaska go and steping back towards the door behind him. Duke grabbed Sharaska and dragged her away to safety, but Hosea attacked, becoming forsworn, and gaining dark side points while losing light side points. Between Hosea and Daykon, shooting from above, they had beaten down his defenses, but had nothing left to actually harm him, when Torota force leapt from on high, coming down behind him, slaying him with her light saber.

With this, they located the hospital level and patched up Dindar and Sharaska, Daykon and Torota contributing jedi Healing as well. Then they moved the partly repaired Albireo, and the Dark Jedi's small ship, down to the garages below to hide from sight and finish all repairs, and as well to reconfigure both ships so that they looked somewhat different.

2 comments:

  1. Nice! It does have that classic Star Wars feel. I'm not familiar with StarCluster 3 though. Is it a WEG D6-based system?

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  2. No, it's one of my own games. The resolution mechanic is swappable, though, and I have a d6 additive dice pool with exploding sixes mechanic available for download, but this game was played using a D20 roll under stat, count successes dice pool.

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