So several days ago, while helping a budding GM and new players build their characters for their first foray into Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Roleplaying Game, I wound digging up up an older entry into the aging Unofficial Species Menagerie that Ben "Cyril" Erickson and I had collaborated on a surprising number of years ago.
The species in question was the Squib, which you can read about on Wookieepedia here. I'm not entirely sure what exactly it is that made these goofy little fuzzballs so endearing to me, but I am certain I can blame Kevin "Rikoshi" Frane for cementing just how off-the-wall awesome the species can be in the hands of the right player.
So, in light of unleashing the Squibs on an unsuspecting gaming group, which sadly I won't there to witness the initial fallout of this action as I'm not a player (at least not at the moment), I decided to look back and reassess the species based upon what I've learned about this system and what FFG has done in terms of published species.
Overall, the Squib as originally written is solid, if not anything overly exciting: Brawn 1, Agility 3, -1 to starting Wound Threshold, +1 to starting Strain Threshold, a free rank of Negotiation, a free Advantage on Mechanics checks, and Mechanics is always considered a career skill. A lot of this was informed by the Squib write-ups in previous Star Wars RPGs, namely WEG's Galaxy Guide 4 (which introduced the species) and Saga Edition's Unknown Regions (for which I got to write the Squib as a species), but upon further review and with the elements I'd mentioned in the paragraph above, I'd certainly tweak a few things.
First change is that I'd drop their Agility down to 2 and boost their Presence to 3. From the further research into the species that I've done, Squibs are generally gregarious and outgoing, even if it at times they get on other sentients' nerves. They're not Kender-levels of cheerful, but they're certainly not timid or reserved by nature.
Second change is that I'd remove the free skill rank in Negotiation, and replace it with the Savvy Negotiator talent from Disciples of Harmony, which is a ranked talent that removes a setback die from Negotiation and Streetwise checks. This does steer Squibs away from all being expert negotiators, allowing for members of the species that maybe can't sell you a bucket of air and keep the bucket, but does let them keep a cultural aptitude for haggling while also adding in some degree of talent for sussing things out simply by asking around in what is probably a complicated arrangement of little favors that lets the Squib find out things a bit more easily simply because the folks they're talking too are off-balance from trying to keep up with the increasingly convoluted chain of conversation. Or at least that's how I'd picture a Squib asking around as part of making a Streetwise check and paying for information, because you know full well that any Squib worth their fur isn't going to just say "Here, let me offer you a few credits in exchange for you answering a few questions!"
Third change is that to set their Wound Threshold to the default of 10+Brawn, as their lower starting Brawn already makes them a bit more frail than other species by default.
Fourth and final change is to tweak Tech Savvy so that instead of having Mechanics as a career skill that instead once per encounter Squibs can convert up to 2 Threat to an equal number of Advantage on a Mechanics check. Reason for this is that for a tech-minded Squib, having Mechanics as a career skill isn't much of a boon, and Squibs that aren't tech-minded probably aren't going to buy more than one or two ranks. However, if the player gets to swap out a couple of Threat results and instead add a couple advantages to the check, that's a lot more interesting even if the Squib character isn't much of a mechanic.
So with all that in mind, here's an updated version of the Squib species...
Squibs
Starting Characteristics
Brawn 1, Agility 2, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 2, Presence 3
Starting Wound Threshold: 10+Brawn
Starting Strain Threshold: 11+Willpower
Starting XP: 100
Special Abilities: Squibs begin the game with one rank in the Savvy Negotiator talent
Tech Savvy: Once per encounter, Squibs may convert up to 2 Threat from a Mechanics check into an equal number of Advantages.
Not sure this will become any sort of recurring series, given how many of the entries in the Unofficial Species Menagerie have since been supplanted with official FFG write-ups. as the years have gone by. There's a couple other species I've got my eye on revisiting, but time will tell when or even if I'll get around to doing so.
Showing posts with label Unofficial Species Menagerie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unofficial Species Menagerie. Show all posts
April 27, 2018
June 30, 2015
Karabast!
Well, in keeping with the prior post being about Star Wars Rebels, here's a little something that I'd originally planned for an update of the Unofficial Species Menagerie. But with that particular project having become defunct due to both myself and Ben being too busy with other things, I figure I'll post said update here. So without further blathering...
The Lasat
(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lasat/Canon)
Starting Characteristics
Brawn 3
Agility 2
Intellect 2
Cunning1
Willpower 3
Presence 1
Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn
Strain Threshold: 9 + Willpower
Starting XP: 90
Species Abilities: Lasat begin with one free rank in Athletics and Brawl. They still may not train Athletics and Brawl above Rank 2 during character creation.
So yeah, these guys are very tough, and stubborn to boot. Brawn and Willpower of 3 to start makes them solid combatants at 15 wound threshold and 12 strain threshold even without any increases. But their low Cunning can be a liability, which I think fits what we see of Zeb in SW Rebels. I considered setting their Intellect at 1, but nothing we've seen of Zeb really indicates that the Lasat as a species are particularly dim-witted. Still, they're definitely a warrior species, and would do quite well in the Hired Gun and Soldier careers.
As an added bonus, here's my take on Zeb's signature weapon...
AB-75 Bo-Rifle
(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/AB-75_bo-rifle)
Skill: Ranged: Heavy (rifle configuration) or Melee (staff configuration)
Damage: 9 (rifle configuration) or Brawn+3 (staff configuration)
Critical: 3
Range: Medium (rifle configuration) or Engaged (staff configuration)
Cost/Rarity: 2500 credits/8
Encumbrance: 6
Hard Points: 2
Special: Cumbersome 3, Dual Mode, Linked 1 (staff configuration), Stun Setting, Unwieldy 3
New Weapon Quality: Dual Mode
A weapon with this quality has two separate configurations. A character can spend a maneuver to convert the weapon from its current configuration to the other configuration.
The Lasat
(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lasat/Canon)
Starting Characteristics
Brawn 3
Agility 2
Intellect 2
Cunning1
Willpower 3
Presence 1
Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn
Strain Threshold: 9 + Willpower
Starting XP: 90
Species Abilities: Lasat begin with one free rank in Athletics and Brawl. They still may not train Athletics and Brawl above Rank 2 during character creation.
So yeah, these guys are very tough, and stubborn to boot. Brawn and Willpower of 3 to start makes them solid combatants at 15 wound threshold and 12 strain threshold even without any increases. But their low Cunning can be a liability, which I think fits what we see of Zeb in SW Rebels. I considered setting their Intellect at 1, but nothing we've seen of Zeb really indicates that the Lasat as a species are particularly dim-witted. Still, they're definitely a warrior species, and would do quite well in the Hired Gun and Soldier careers.
As an added bonus, here's my take on Zeb's signature weapon...
AB-75 Bo-Rifle
(http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/AB-75_bo-rifle)
Skill: Ranged: Heavy (rifle configuration) or Melee (staff configuration)
Damage: 9 (rifle configuration) or Brawn+3 (staff configuration)
Critical: 3
Range: Medium (rifle configuration) or Engaged (staff configuration)
Cost/Rarity: 2500 credits/8
Encumbrance: 6
Hard Points: 2
Special: Cumbersome 3, Dual Mode, Linked 1 (staff configuration), Stun Setting, Unwieldy 3
New Weapon Quality: Dual Mode
A weapon with this quality has two separate configurations. A character can spend a maneuver to convert the weapon from its current configuration to the other configuration.
January 25, 2015
So what did happen to the GSA?
Okay, I've been asked this by a number of folks, and while I'd prefer to keep my thoughts to myself, I do think
What happened to the GSA?
Some time back, there was an idea, the brainchild of Dave "GM Dave" Villegas and Brian "Fiddleback" Casey. Called the Gamer Security Agency, or GSA for short, it was meant to be a kind of repository for various members of the Gamer Nation to write and post articles discussing various aspects of gaming, and likely also a means to advertise Gamer Nation Studios and their line of games. Not too surprisingly, given that most of the d20 Radio community were big into Star Wars (heck, it was a Star Wars RPG podcast that lead to the formation of the d20 Radio community), when FFG's Edge of the Empire Beta got into our hands, the GSA had almost become an EotE fan site instead of the general gaming web site that had been intended. And then, Brian departed to go do his own thing, and the GSA pretty much went into hibernation. A lot of contributors, such as myself, waited to see what would happen... only for nothing to happen.
Now to be clear, I have ZERO idea as to what actually caused Brian to take his ball and go play in a different yard; that's something you'll have to ask him. But if I had to speculate then I'd say that Brian and Dave had differing ideas about where the GSA should go, and thus parted ways, with the GSA lying dormant and no updates being made.
Then something happened a couple weeks ago, that took a number of folks by surprise. The GSA website vanished. Honestly, I'm not surprised at this, as I'm sure that paying money for a website that wasn't being updated and wasn't doing much to draw traffic to the d20 Radio website was a fiscal drain that Dave and Chris could do without. Frankly, I'm more surprised the site stayed up as long as it did.
So what does that mean for the content that was on the GSA? Given most of the contributors have either gone their own ways or jumped ship over to Brian's GSA knock-off site, odds are good most of those articles are lost to the ether and will require the Internet Wayback Machine to dig up.
Luckily, I saved soft-copies of all the GSA articles I posted. So as the weeks and months go by, I'll start posting some of those items here, such as the various starships I did for the "Exploring the Galactic Fringe" section of the Equipment Labs, the much enjoyed Unofficial Species Menagerie (more on that in a moment), and even some of the Heroes on Demand, though I will probably have a number of new ideas to offer given how many more books are out. Though with HoD, I may wind up revising several characters to account for the new core rulebooks but that will depend greatly on time available.
As for the Unofficial Species Menagerie, there had been plans to do a Version 4, but frankly those plans fell completely through. From the start, I had meant for it to be a joint project between myself and Ben "Cyril' Erickson, but it's become pretty clear that Ben's interests have moved away from Star Wars RPGs as well as his own personal life having several demands on his time.
True, I probably could forge ahead without him, but doing just feels wrong to me. Like I said, it was meant as a joint project, and if Ben's not contributing, then I feel the best thing to do at this point would be to set any further updates of the USM aside. Plus, there's the fact that a lot of the species we'd created are getting covered by FFG in their sourcebooks, so I'd be placing more and more species into the archive chapter than I would be adding new species.
That being said, I will post a link to the USM for folks to reference now that the GSA has passed on. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to push ahead with the mostly updated version that I have, or just simply post the link to version 3.5 and leave it at that.
What happened to the GSA?
Some time back, there was an idea, the brainchild of Dave "GM Dave" Villegas and Brian "Fiddleback" Casey. Called the Gamer Security Agency, or GSA for short, it was meant to be a kind of repository for various members of the Gamer Nation to write and post articles discussing various aspects of gaming, and likely also a means to advertise Gamer Nation Studios and their line of games. Not too surprisingly, given that most of the d20 Radio community were big into Star Wars (heck, it was a Star Wars RPG podcast that lead to the formation of the d20 Radio community), when FFG's Edge of the Empire Beta got into our hands, the GSA had almost become an EotE fan site instead of the general gaming web site that had been intended. And then, Brian departed to go do his own thing, and the GSA pretty much went into hibernation. A lot of contributors, such as myself, waited to see what would happen... only for nothing to happen.
Now to be clear, I have ZERO idea as to what actually caused Brian to take his ball and go play in a different yard; that's something you'll have to ask him. But if I had to speculate then I'd say that Brian and Dave had differing ideas about where the GSA should go, and thus parted ways, with the GSA lying dormant and no updates being made.
Then something happened a couple weeks ago, that took a number of folks by surprise. The GSA website vanished. Honestly, I'm not surprised at this, as I'm sure that paying money for a website that wasn't being updated and wasn't doing much to draw traffic to the d20 Radio website was a fiscal drain that Dave and Chris could do without. Frankly, I'm more surprised the site stayed up as long as it did.
So what does that mean for the content that was on the GSA? Given most of the contributors have either gone their own ways or jumped ship over to Brian's GSA knock-off site, odds are good most of those articles are lost to the ether and will require the Internet Wayback Machine to dig up.
Luckily, I saved soft-copies of all the GSA articles I posted. So as the weeks and months go by, I'll start posting some of those items here, such as the various starships I did for the "Exploring the Galactic Fringe" section of the Equipment Labs, the much enjoyed Unofficial Species Menagerie (more on that in a moment), and even some of the Heroes on Demand, though I will probably have a number of new ideas to offer given how many more books are out. Though with HoD, I may wind up revising several characters to account for the new core rulebooks but that will depend greatly on time available.
As for the Unofficial Species Menagerie, there had been plans to do a Version 4, but frankly those plans fell completely through. From the start, I had meant for it to be a joint project between myself and Ben "Cyril' Erickson, but it's become pretty clear that Ben's interests have moved away from Star Wars RPGs as well as his own personal life having several demands on his time.
True, I probably could forge ahead without him, but doing just feels wrong to me. Like I said, it was meant as a joint project, and if Ben's not contributing, then I feel the best thing to do at this point would be to set any further updates of the USM aside. Plus, there's the fact that a lot of the species we'd created are getting covered by FFG in their sourcebooks, so I'd be placing more and more species into the archive chapter than I would be adding new species.
That being said, I will post a link to the USM for folks to reference now that the GSA has passed on. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to push ahead with the mostly updated version that I have, or just simply post the link to version 3.5 and leave it at that.
February 22, 2014
And back to Star Wars...
Okay, so got the musings on the Babylon 5 RPG out of my system, so back to all things Star Wars.
Over the past few weeks, LucasFilm/Disney has been releasing info on the main characters of the upcoming Rebels CGI animated series. Now, I'll admit that my initial response to this was rather tepid, as The Clone Wars generally left me cold (I really didn't care for Ahsoka at all, and would have preferred the series to focus on Jedi other than Obi-Wan and Anakin).
But, as details started to come out, I found myself becoming more and more interested. The fact that it takes place in the Dark Times Era (that 19 year time frame between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope) means that the showrunners and writers have a lot more free room to create their stories rather than trying to shoehorn them into the three-year span that was the Clone Wars.
There's also the matter that the lead characters of Rebels are all original characters, so no having to deal with pre-established leads that pretty much script immunity due to needing to appear in later films. The hero list started with Chopper, an astromech that's supposed to be as far from Artoo-Detoo in terms of personality as you can get; Artoo's been compared to a loyal canine, where Chopper is more akin to a cat in temperament. Next was Kanan, the "cowboy Jedi," and while several folks over on the FFG forums were upset that there was a Jedi character in the series, i can't say that I was surprised. While FFG may have pushed Jedi PCs to the third rulebook (Force & Destiny), Jedi remain one of the most identifying elements of the Star Wars franchise. However, Kanan is something of a "failed Jedi" in that while he survived Order 66, he's largely given up on being a Jedi, even going so far as to lock away his lightsaber.
The next character to be revealed gave me reason to chuckle. Said character, Ezra Bridger, has been described as a street smart kid with untapped Force abilities... which is almost exactly the character I've been playing in a Sunday Skype game. About the core difference is that while Ezra is pretty much clueless about the Force (he's only aware of his abilities as something that helps him get out of a tight spot), my character Valin was aware of the Force, being fortunate enough to receive a bit of training from a Jedi that survived Order 66 (I figure said tutor was a Padawan that managed to go underground rather than a Knight or full-fledged Master). I know the similarities are very much accidental, but it still amused me.
There had been some concern from a few of the female Star Wars fans that I follow on Twitter (such as dunc of Club Jade and Amy Ratcliffe) that so far, all we'd seen were the guys, particularly after the ToyFair convention at which the only Rebels toys shown were for male characters, with only a few hints at a female Mandalorian as a new character. Well, that's now changed as Sabine (female Mando explosive expert/graffiti artist) and Hera (Twi'lek pilot and "team mom" that's sensibly dressed) have gotten their official introductions. There was a bit of concern that Sabine's introduction used a lot of feminine buzzwords such as "sassy" and "feisty" and "kind of a tomboy", but I think it bears mentioning that the person using those words was the voice actress portraying the character, while Dave Filoni instead focused on her being a Mandalorian and thus an expert fighter, while a few others expressed the cool factor of having a character that expresses themselves through art.
I must say, out of the characters, the two that I'm most interested in are Ezra and Sabine. Ezra because frankly I enjoy playing teenage characters, particularly Force-sensitives when it comes to Star Wars RPGs; I've only played one character in various Star Wars RPGs that wasn't a young Force-user that wasn't for a one-shot using pre-gen characters. Plus, I've already been playing a character very similar to Ezra, so it should be fun to imagine to myself "how would Valin handle this situation?" while watching the show. I do agree that his look and backstory does merit the nickname "Space Aladdin," but given that I found Disney's Aladdin to be an enjoyable character, it's a comparison that doesn't bug me.
And Sabine because frankly, she looks to be something that the Star Wars franchise has been missing for a while... a strong female lead. Princess Leia is a well-known character for a damn good reason, and has been cited as a role model for young girls as she's managed to be strong-willed and capable in addition to being a princess and being attractive without being reduced to mere fanservice (the slave bikini in RotJ only coming about due to Carrie Fisher asking for an outfit that let her show off her figure). With Sabine, you've got an attractive young woman that's wearing armor (no exposed midriff) that's capable of kicking butt right alongside Kanan and Zeb. In fact, she'd probably make a great basis for an RPG character in and of herself. Earlier today I gabbed with a female gamer that (sadly) has sense moved out of the area, and she expressed a lot of enthusiasm for Sabine, even going so far to say that she regretted the move simply because she's not had any luck finding a new gaming group. Which led to us discussing over Skype how to go about building Sabine as a PC.
Speaking of RPGs, what's interesting about the crew from Rebels is that on the surface, they look to be more at home in an Edge of the Empire style of game than an Age of Rebellion one. The party is operating out of a light transport (The Ghost, a VCX-100), waging their own battle against the Empire. Going by the Age of Rebellion Beta, a lot of the focus is on the PCs being a part of the Rebel Alliance and having notable support from the Alliance, particularly as they complete various missions. However, having played the WEG version of Star Wars back in the day, the set-up of Rebels sounds very much like a "Mission Ops Group" as described in Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim. In short, a disparate group of individuals (the PCs) are lumped together into a team, provided with a light freighter (if they don't have one already) and given missions by the Alliance to investigate or derail various Imperial schemes. Since Rebels takes place at a time when the Rebel Alliance hasn't quite formalized yet (or at least is not as we see them in the films), it makes sense that the crew of the Ghost are mostly operating on their own directives.
There's also the matter that Greg Weisman is one of the executive producers of the show, and given how much I've enjoyed his work, particularly on Gargoyles, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Young Justice, I'm hoping for the excellent characterizations for both heroes and villains that his shows have provided. Though sadly, for all the talk of Joss Whedon getting screwed over by Fox in regards to Firefly (he was), Greg's had it worse, with many of his shows getting cancelled after one or two seasons, or going down the tubes if the show does make it past that two season mark (Gargoyles: Goliath Chronicles is a prime example of that). I'm really hoping that Star Wars: Rebels bucks that trend, lasting for more than two seasons and maintaining a decent level of quality along the way.
Back to things pertaining to Star Wars RPGs, despite an earlier promise to myself that I was done and through with it, I've found myself returning to the Unofficial Species Menagerie, reviewing and revising a number of species as well as adding some new ones to the roster. But I guess there must be something in the air, as my co-author on the project, Ben "Cyril" Erickson has gotten a similar urge to review his own contributions and devise a few new ones. There's no telling when this would be finished, though I suspect it'll be a while.
I've also been poking around with my Ways of the Force supplement, in particular the Jedi Initiate. Being able to get some actual play-time with the spec has lead to seeing where things could certainly be changed and revised, which I've done. I'm also exploring taking some of the "minor powers" that I'd introduced and fleshing them out into full-blown Force power trees. One of them has turned out pretty good, while the other is still very much a "work in progress." Of course, what's going to make this interesting is that if the pattern holds true, then FFG should be releasing the Force & Destiny Beta rulebook at this year's GenCon.
Lastly, and I'm ashamed to admit this, but working on my contribution to Order 66 Kickstarter backer rewards had (until recently) stalled out. I'd hit a number of snags, including losing a nearly-finished copy of the adventure once and narrowly avoiding losing my computer entirely, as well as hitting a (brief) span of time where I simply didn't want much to do with Star Wars RPGs. Plus, it's hard to want to stare at a computer screen when you've just gotten home from a job that requires you to spend most of your day staring at a computer screen and trying to solve and sort out the problems that other people have created. But, things have improved, as I've gotten over a major hurdle in the adventure's second act, and I've gotten a good start on the third and final act, which should go much smoother in terms of getting it written. Of course, the issue becomes finding the time to write it, but with a bit of luck, I should have this done much sooner rather than a lot latter.
Also, it's only a few more weeks until I board a plan to head to Fort Worth, Texas to attend GamerNationCon, aka 3 Days of Gaming Goodness. I'm looking forward to this, more to meet and hangout with folks that I mostly know through the d20 Radio Forums, but also for a chance to get some Star Wars gaming in, something I've not been able to really do since the Sunday game I was in went on hiatus. I'm also running a couple of events and even helping table a seminar on RPG writing, so if nothing else I'll at least have those to keep me busy.
My next post will probably be in the wake of GNCon (at least at the rate I post on this blog), so see you in March.
Over the past few weeks, LucasFilm/Disney has been releasing info on the main characters of the upcoming Rebels CGI animated series. Now, I'll admit that my initial response to this was rather tepid, as The Clone Wars generally left me cold (I really didn't care for Ahsoka at all, and would have preferred the series to focus on Jedi other than Obi-Wan and Anakin).
But, as details started to come out, I found myself becoming more and more interested. The fact that it takes place in the Dark Times Era (that 19 year time frame between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope) means that the showrunners and writers have a lot more free room to create their stories rather than trying to shoehorn them into the three-year span that was the Clone Wars.
There's also the matter that the lead characters of Rebels are all original characters, so no having to deal with pre-established leads that pretty much script immunity due to needing to appear in later films. The hero list started with Chopper, an astromech that's supposed to be as far from Artoo-Detoo in terms of personality as you can get; Artoo's been compared to a loyal canine, where Chopper is more akin to a cat in temperament. Next was Kanan, the "cowboy Jedi," and while several folks over on the FFG forums were upset that there was a Jedi character in the series, i can't say that I was surprised. While FFG may have pushed Jedi PCs to the third rulebook (Force & Destiny), Jedi remain one of the most identifying elements of the Star Wars franchise. However, Kanan is something of a "failed Jedi" in that while he survived Order 66, he's largely given up on being a Jedi, even going so far as to lock away his lightsaber.
The next character to be revealed gave me reason to chuckle. Said character, Ezra Bridger, has been described as a street smart kid with untapped Force abilities... which is almost exactly the character I've been playing in a Sunday Skype game. About the core difference is that while Ezra is pretty much clueless about the Force (he's only aware of his abilities as something that helps him get out of a tight spot), my character Valin was aware of the Force, being fortunate enough to receive a bit of training from a Jedi that survived Order 66 (I figure said tutor was a Padawan that managed to go underground rather than a Knight or full-fledged Master). I know the similarities are very much accidental, but it still amused me.
There had been some concern from a few of the female Star Wars fans that I follow on Twitter (such as dunc of Club Jade and Amy Ratcliffe) that so far, all we'd seen were the guys, particularly after the ToyFair convention at which the only Rebels toys shown were for male characters, with only a few hints at a female Mandalorian as a new character. Well, that's now changed as Sabine (female Mando explosive expert/graffiti artist) and Hera (Twi'lek pilot and "team mom" that's sensibly dressed) have gotten their official introductions. There was a bit of concern that Sabine's introduction used a lot of feminine buzzwords such as "sassy" and "feisty" and "kind of a tomboy", but I think it bears mentioning that the person using those words was the voice actress portraying the character, while Dave Filoni instead focused on her being a Mandalorian and thus an expert fighter, while a few others expressed the cool factor of having a character that expresses themselves through art.
I must say, out of the characters, the two that I'm most interested in are Ezra and Sabine. Ezra because frankly I enjoy playing teenage characters, particularly Force-sensitives when it comes to Star Wars RPGs; I've only played one character in various Star Wars RPGs that wasn't a young Force-user that wasn't for a one-shot using pre-gen characters. Plus, I've already been playing a character very similar to Ezra, so it should be fun to imagine to myself "how would Valin handle this situation?" while watching the show. I do agree that his look and backstory does merit the nickname "Space Aladdin," but given that I found Disney's Aladdin to be an enjoyable character, it's a comparison that doesn't bug me.
And Sabine because frankly, she looks to be something that the Star Wars franchise has been missing for a while... a strong female lead. Princess Leia is a well-known character for a damn good reason, and has been cited as a role model for young girls as she's managed to be strong-willed and capable in addition to being a princess and being attractive without being reduced to mere fanservice (the slave bikini in RotJ only coming about due to Carrie Fisher asking for an outfit that let her show off her figure). With Sabine, you've got an attractive young woman that's wearing armor (no exposed midriff) that's capable of kicking butt right alongside Kanan and Zeb. In fact, she'd probably make a great basis for an RPG character in and of herself. Earlier today I gabbed with a female gamer that (sadly) has sense moved out of the area, and she expressed a lot of enthusiasm for Sabine, even going so far to say that she regretted the move simply because she's not had any luck finding a new gaming group. Which led to us discussing over Skype how to go about building Sabine as a PC.
Speaking of RPGs, what's interesting about the crew from Rebels is that on the surface, they look to be more at home in an Edge of the Empire style of game than an Age of Rebellion one. The party is operating out of a light transport (The Ghost, a VCX-100), waging their own battle against the Empire. Going by the Age of Rebellion Beta, a lot of the focus is on the PCs being a part of the Rebel Alliance and having notable support from the Alliance, particularly as they complete various missions. However, having played the WEG version of Star Wars back in the day, the set-up of Rebels sounds very much like a "Mission Ops Group" as described in Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments from the Rim. In short, a disparate group of individuals (the PCs) are lumped together into a team, provided with a light freighter (if they don't have one already) and given missions by the Alliance to investigate or derail various Imperial schemes. Since Rebels takes place at a time when the Rebel Alliance hasn't quite formalized yet (or at least is not as we see them in the films), it makes sense that the crew of the Ghost are mostly operating on their own directives.
There's also the matter that Greg Weisman is one of the executive producers of the show, and given how much I've enjoyed his work, particularly on Gargoyles, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Young Justice, I'm hoping for the excellent characterizations for both heroes and villains that his shows have provided. Though sadly, for all the talk of Joss Whedon getting screwed over by Fox in regards to Firefly (he was), Greg's had it worse, with many of his shows getting cancelled after one or two seasons, or going down the tubes if the show does make it past that two season mark (Gargoyles: Goliath Chronicles is a prime example of that). I'm really hoping that Star Wars: Rebels bucks that trend, lasting for more than two seasons and maintaining a decent level of quality along the way.
Back to things pertaining to Star Wars RPGs, despite an earlier promise to myself that I was done and through with it, I've found myself returning to the Unofficial Species Menagerie, reviewing and revising a number of species as well as adding some new ones to the roster. But I guess there must be something in the air, as my co-author on the project, Ben "Cyril" Erickson has gotten a similar urge to review his own contributions and devise a few new ones. There's no telling when this would be finished, though I suspect it'll be a while.
I've also been poking around with my Ways of the Force supplement, in particular the Jedi Initiate. Being able to get some actual play-time with the spec has lead to seeing where things could certainly be changed and revised, which I've done. I'm also exploring taking some of the "minor powers" that I'd introduced and fleshing them out into full-blown Force power trees. One of them has turned out pretty good, while the other is still very much a "work in progress." Of course, what's going to make this interesting is that if the pattern holds true, then FFG should be releasing the Force & Destiny Beta rulebook at this year's GenCon.
Lastly, and I'm ashamed to admit this, but working on my contribution to Order 66 Kickstarter backer rewards had (until recently) stalled out. I'd hit a number of snags, including losing a nearly-finished copy of the adventure once and narrowly avoiding losing my computer entirely, as well as hitting a (brief) span of time where I simply didn't want much to do with Star Wars RPGs. Plus, it's hard to want to stare at a computer screen when you've just gotten home from a job that requires you to spend most of your day staring at a computer screen and trying to solve and sort out the problems that other people have created. But, things have improved, as I've gotten over a major hurdle in the adventure's second act, and I've gotten a good start on the third and final act, which should go much smoother in terms of getting it written. Of course, the issue becomes finding the time to write it, but with a bit of luck, I should have this done much sooner rather than a lot latter.
Also, it's only a few more weeks until I board a plan to head to Fort Worth, Texas to attend GamerNationCon, aka 3 Days of Gaming Goodness. I'm looking forward to this, more to meet and hangout with folks that I mostly know through the d20 Radio Forums, but also for a chance to get some Star Wars gaming in, something I've not been able to really do since the Sunday game I was in went on hiatus. I'm also running a couple of events and even helping table a seminar on RPG writing, so if nothing else I'll at least have those to keep me busy.
My next post will probably be in the wake of GNCon (at least at the rate I post on this blog), so see you in March.
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