J is for Jawa

Whilst it's not likely to be kicking off for a few months due to D&D Next playtesting I am starting to plan what I want to do with Star Wars Edge Of The Empire.

As I've said a number of times this game has been a contributing catalyst to this 2nd Chapter and I want to look at how best to develop my ideas for it.  Critically though I want to do that with the players so that the setting is by their design.

Before I do any of that though I need to make the time to read the book more thoroughly as there seems to be a fantastic amount of GM style resources in there particularly around how you establish the "party origin".

To help with things like that I've been searching for additional ways to flesh out the background of the players and indeed the nemeses I plan to use.  This is where the internet really comes to your aid as there's always someone who's blogged about what you're looking for, you just have to know where to look for it.

One of the best blogs out there on EotE is Triumph & Despair not just because it has some great homebrew material but it has a funky EotE Alphabet which they use to generate scenario templates.  Now this is really nothing more than a collection of random encounter tables with additional fluff.  The beauty of it though is that fluff.  Now it might get a bit repetitive over time and to help with that I've come up with a different Alphabet, ok so maybe not come up with it and more a case of discovering.

There's a Flickr album out there with a Star Wars set of Alphabet Cards and I'm sorely tempted to write a companion to the Triumph & Despiar EotE Alphabet using these cards as the trigger.

Just remember that J is for Jawa!

Setting vs Context

One of the things that comes up when I'm working on a plot or setting for a game is source material.

There's a lot of inspiration out there within media in general not least of which is the Science Fiction and Fantasy section of your local bookshop or library.  If you're going to re-use a published setting or indeed take inspiration from it there are some ground rules to consider.

Will you use the setting as written?
Will the protagonists and antagonists from that source material appear in your game?

These 2 questions have already surfaced in my plans for a Star Wars EotE game.  Now it is Star Wars so most people relate to the characters in those films and in many respects the canon that the timeline represents.  So do you stick to the canon?

You can play a Star Wars game that plays on the outskirts of the story from Acts IV, V and VI of Star Wars and indeed you can play a game where that story is rewritten based on the actions of the player characters.  I've done both and something in between where the canon of the stories was practically irrelevant other than to set some setting specifics e.g. status of the Rebellion, how strong is the Empire's grip on the galaxy etc.

I suppose it comes down to what you want the game to be about rather than where the game is situated.  Or to put it another way - Setting vs Context.

Having a Fantasy scenario set within The Shire from Hobbit/Lord Of The Rings is a great setting.  The context of that scenario will define where in the timeline the scenario is occurring.  Assumption there is that it will be part of the canon timeline.  You could run a game set in The Shire using a "What If?" approach e.g. What if Bilbo didn't go on his unexpected journey?  I'm not entirely sure what you'd do with The Shire in that context but at the same time I can imagine how it could provide a great setting when looking at it in that context.  Choosing to retcon an existing setting to provide new options for play can result in some interesting stories.

Putting that context spin on a variety of established settings can make for a very different game.
Call Of Cthulhu is predominantly set during the 1920s and has a few context spins out there already. Spin it further and you could have it set during the Roman Empire with Cthulhu's agents working within the senate and having some sort of link with Neptune (God of the Sea).

Taking the context and skewing it can be fun but I suppose you have to go back to those original questions and then add - What do the other players want? - into the mix before deciding on a context.

After all being the Rebel Alliance strike team that helps to rescue Han Solo etc from a plan gone wrong sounds like fun too.

Real life situations. Fantasy worlds.

This idea is something that came to me through a variety of sources; many of which really don't add up when I write (type) them.  In the interest of getting to the point I don't plan on breaking it down but if you really want to know the inspirational elements let me know.  A condensed version would be "when magic is not enough".

So.  This is D&D focussed as I'm kicking off a D&D Next playtest game just now so a lot of my game ideas are going into that bucket.

• Setting:  Fantasy city.  Something the scale of York in England but coastal.  Thriving fishing economy and busy port for traders of all kinds.
• Situation: Disease / Plague.  Over the past 2-3 months an illness has spread amongst the people of the city.
• What's unusual?: The disease is only affecting Humans and only those under the age of 40.  The more unusual element however is that it's starting to spread across race with Elves, Dwarves and other races starting to experience similar symptoms...
• What's been tried?:  The Clerics of a variety of churches have called upon the Divine power to cleanse the city of the disease.  Spells work but only on individuals.
• Why didn't that work?:  The disease is spreading quicker than the Clerics can heal.  For every 50 people healed another 60 are infected and that ratio is getting worse for the Clerics.  Despite more coming to heal the disease continues it's march through the residents of the city.
• How do the players get involved?:  TBC.  I have a variety of ideas but given that I actually plan to use this as a kicker for a game I'm going to hold fire on revealing too much.  Ultimately though the situation is dire and it doesn't look like it's going to slow down any time soon so it'll be a race against time to do something...
• Who's behind it?: The immediate problem of the disease has been perpetrated by someone with strong ties to the city.
• Who do they work for?: Someone who has a vested interest in seeing the city fall but also more importantly certain individuals to fall along with the city.
• Who do they work for? 2: Ah yes, there's always a big bad right?  Well maybe not always but in this case, that'd be a yes.
• What's the answer?: Essentially this question is "What is the macguffin?"  Again because I plan on using this in-game I'm not going to give it all away here.  Ultimately though the answer to the disease is to find a cure. What form that cure takes though may be a surprise...

The options around this are quite large but the key to the plot is that the clock is ticking so the party need to get their act together and quickly.