Good
lord, I never thought I'd make it through last week. I think I had about
two hours to myself. Not that last week was such a horrible week;
two Edge of the Empire games, Mechwarrior Online practice, and a welcome back All
Wings Report In episode for Erich Shafer made for a good week.
Oh,
and I completed my 39th trip around the Sun. So that's a thing now.
But
it means I've been up to my eyeballs in obligations. So much so I've definitely
been neglecting other ones, like the family. You gotta remember to put in
time for that. I do, anyway.
Mad, I Tell You
Before
I get into this week's GenCon Module update, I wanted to announce on my blog
that my former Holocron 2.0 co-host and fellow contributor to Order
66, Fiddleback, will now be hosting all of my Fragments From The Rim
bits that I recorded for the Order 66 podcast. They will be hosted
on his website for the gamer connoisseur, The Mad
Adventurer's Society. I'm really excited to make this
possible. I have to go back and write up little blurbs for them,
something Fiddy is already on my case about. He has good reason.
The first Fragments is up over there; my
first ever done in the new format. I actually forgot what the heck it was
about until Fiddleback wrote the info-blurb for it. More will follow as
soon as I get off my ass to write for them.
Strength in Diversity
On
to the topic at hand; the next PC group for my GenCon Module. This week
we go over what is arguably the main character of The Old Republic.
Without giving away any spoilers, the Jedi Knight storyline seems to be the one
with the most galactic impact in it. The one that seems to carry the same
magnitude of cause-and-effect as Luke Skywalker's. His companions come
from all walks of adventuring life; the plucky yet loyal Astromech, a feisty
padawan with a dark streak, a womanizing playboy doctor, a loyal trooper, and
(of all things) a deadly servant of the Emperor. Together, they changed
the face of the galaxy and saved billions of lives.
Now
all I have to do is replicate these characters using some unlikely Careers and
Specializations...
Race: Droid
Career: Technician
Specialization: Mechanic
Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect
3, Cunning 1, Will 2, Presence 1
Wound Threshold: 17
Strain Threshold: 12
Soak:7
Melee/Ranged Defense: 1/1
Skills: Astrogation 1, Brawl 3,
Computers 3, Discipline 1, Knowledge (Outer Rim) 2, Mechanics 4, Perception 2,
Skulduggery 1, Ranged (Light)2
Talents: Bad
Motivator, Contraption, Gearhead 2, Enduring 1, Toughened 2
Equipment:
Heavy Battle Armor, Blaster Pistol (Cybernetic Weapon), Implant Armor, General
Purpose Scanner (Cybernetic), built-in comlink
A
quirky droid with an independent streak, T7-O1 is the Jedi Knight's ranged
tank. He (or she, I try not to judge) is supposed to be this touch little droid
that can take a ton of punishment, yet is a mechanical genius and slicing
machine, just like another famous Astromech droid from the Star Wars
saga. The Mechanic specialization actually isn't bad for this; it's got
Toughness twice, and even the hard-to-find Endure talent to increase his soak
value. He doesn't get many actual combat skills or talents though, and
I'm okay with that. Tanks are supposed to take punishment, not
necessarily deal it out. Besides, this is an adaptation of a character
for tabletop play. T7 doesn't need to be a combat monster to be useful,
he has to have skills and abilities that are useful to the adventure he finds
himself in.
A
lot of T7's power and survivability are drawn from his equipment. To
portray that tough little droid that's survived for decades, he's got Heavy
Battle Armor and Implant armor. Combined with his Brawn that gives him a
considerable Soak value, and really only makes him worry about any enemy with a
Breach-quality weapon (like lightsabers).
Anyone
familiar with the Edge of the Empire book will notice he doesn't have
Solid Repairs or Fine Tuning talents. These talents specifically relate
to fixing vehicles, something I don't foresee much interaction with
directly. If the PCs do jump off the rails and somehow get into a situation
that warrants it, I'll add in these talents to whatever T7's PC attempts.
Otherwise they're just cluttering up the sheet.
Kira Carsen
Race: Human
Career: Jedi
Specialization: Jedi Sentinel
Brawn 2, Agility 4, Intellect
2, Cunning 3, Will 2, Presence 2
Wound Threshold: 16
Strain Threshold: 13
Soak: 4
Melee/Ranged Defense: 2/2
Skills: Athletics 2, Cool 1,
Coordination 1, Discipline 2, Lightsaber 2, Skulduggery 1, Stealth 2,
Streetwise 2, Vigilance 2
Talents: Balance,
Deflection Training, Dodge, Grit, Sleight of Mind 2, Toughened 2, Shii-Cho,
Jar'Kai, Shii-Cho Master
Force Powers: Force
Rating 3, Enhance (May roll Enhance power check as part of Athletics,
Resilience, Coordination, or Piloting (Planetary) skill checks: Force points
may be spent to gain Success or Advantage on the check, May make a Force
Leap Maneuver to any point Horizontally or Vertically within short range, Spend
a Force Point to increase range of Force Leap by 1 band), Sense (Spend Force Point to sense all living things
within short range, Spend Force Point to sense the current emotional state of
one living target at Engaged range, Commit Force Die- twice per round upgrade
the difficulty of an incoming attack twice, Commit Force Die- Twice per Round
when making an attack upgrade the ability of that check twice)
Equipment:Saberstaff
(Lightsaber; Damage 10; Crit 1; Range [Engaged]; Breach 1, Cumbersome 2,
Defensive 1, Sunder, Vicious 2), Padded Armor (+2 Soak), 2 Stim-packs, Commlink
Kira is the first character presented that draws from my Edge of the Jedi document. Ironically, this team has two such characters. While she uses a Saberstaff and wears Consular-style clothing in the game, her skillset is more compatible with my Jedi Sentinel specialization. This gives her career-access to Stealth, Skulduggery, and Streetwise; all of which appear in her cut-scenes or her backstory. She's not overly-skilled at any one thing, and is pretty diverse. Her Agility 4 gives her some skill with her lightsaber and with Coordination checks, but everything else basically slightly above-average. She's got 2 Ranks in a lot, but those associated characteristics are also 2s, so she's rolling two challenge dice for a lot. Sleight of Mind gives her quite a boost to Stealth checks, but that's her only skill-enhancing talent. Everything else is combat focused. With a Wound threshold of 16, and a Soak of 4, she'll need to be careful (or lucky) to stay in the fight long enough for her talents to shine.
The combination of Shii-Cho and Jar'Kai turns Kira into a minion-slaughtering machine. Wind her up and send her at groups of minions (or dual-wielding melee opponents) and watch the light-show. Kira never did much that was particularly "showy" with her Force Powers, no real feats of telekinetic prowess or Force sight. She mostly used the Force to enhance her prowess, so I gave her two powers that catered to that; Sense and Enhance. For Sense, Kira has Control Upgrades 1 and 2, the Duration Upgrade, and the Strength Upgrade. For Enhance she has Control Upgrades 1,2,3, and 8, and the Range Upgrade for the Force Leap application.
Race: Human
Career: Colonist
Specialization: Doctor
Brawn 2, Agility 3, Intellect
4, Cunning 2, Will 2, Presence 3
Wound Threshold: 12
Strain Threshold: 15
Soak: 3
M/R Defense:
1/1
Skills: Charm 2, Cool 2,
Knowledge (Core Worlds) 1, Knowledge (Education) 3, Knowledge (Lore) 1,
Medicine 3, Ranged (Light) 2
Talents: Surgeon
3, Resolve 2, Grit 3, Stim Application, Improved Stim Application, Anatomy
Lessons, Dodge
Equipment:
Armored Clothing, Heavy Blaster Pistol, Medkit, Stim-packs (4)
Doc's write-up was pretty straight forward; be the best doctor
that you can. He's a great support character with his Stim Application talents, but also a nasty fighter with Anatomy Lessons (able
to spend a Destiny Point to deal additional damage equal to his
Intellect). Being something of a charmer, and brilliant surgeon, Doc has
the social skills and the Presence to sweet-talk his way out of (or into) many
situations.
Nothing
real deep in design theory here. I gave him a bunch of talents and skills
that seemed to fit his role and character. We'll have to see how
effective it is in combat. If anything, I'm worried about him being a
little fragile.
Sergeant Rusk
Career: Soldier
Specialization: Heavy (adapted from Dangerous Covenants)
Brawn 3, Agility 3, Intellect 2, Cunning 3, Will
2, Presence 2
Wound Threshold: 17
Strain Threshold: 12
Soak: 6
M/R Defense: 0/0
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Coercion 2, Resilience 2, Vigilance 3,
Gunnery 3, Perception 2, Ranged (Heavy) 2, Leadership 2
Talents: Burly 2, Barrage 2, Brace 2, Spare Clip, Side Step, Armor Master, Toughened
2, Rain of Death
Equipment: Laminate Armor, Rotary Blaster Cannon, StimPacks (2)
Sergeant Rusk may be one of the easiest PCs to stat out for this
party, mostly because I’ve already done it. Ultimately, Rusk is very close to
Aric Jorgen from Havoc Squad. Using those stats as a baseline, I can
tweak the skills and abilities to fit Rusk a little better. Both are
squad leaders, but Rusk seems to have a bit of Coercion in his command style.
Also, while I gave Aric the Heavy Hitter talent, allowing him to give his
attacks a Breach quality, Rusk is able to gun down multiple foes with his Rain
of Death talent, that lowers the difficulty to use Autofire with a mere
maneuver action.
Otherwise, Rusk is nearly identical to Aric Jorgen. Similar stats, talents, and equipment. Certainly makes my life easier. There isn’t an official Chagrian race, and instead of using anything unofficial I’m just going to re-skin a human. It works for a Convention game, a game that most folks will only play once.
Lord Scourge
Race: Sith Pureblood
Career: Jedi
Specializations: Guardian/Strong Lightsaber Style
Brawn 4, Agility 2, Intellect
2, Cunning 3, Will 3, Presence 2
Wound Threshold: 18
Strain Threshold: 14
Soak: 8
M/R Defense:
1/2
Skills: Cool
3, Deceive 2, Discipline 2, Leadership 3, Perception 2, Resilience 2, Vigilance
2, Lightsaber 2
Talents: Toughened
2, Defensive Stance 2, Knockdown, Inspiring Rhetoric, Balance, Sixith Sense,
Enduring 2, Grit, Shien, Side Step, Juyo
Force Powers: Force
Rating 3, Foresee (Spend Force Point to gain vague hints of events to
come up to a day into the future, Spend Force Point to pick out one specific
detail, Roll Forsee Power Check as part of Initiative check: spend Force Point
to add Success to the check), Move (Spend a Force Point to move a
Silhouette 0 item within short range any point within range, default range is
short, Spend Force Point to increase Silhouette able to be targeted by +1,
Spend Force Point to increase range by 1 range bands, Hurl Objects to damage to
targets with Discipline check)
Equipment:
Heavy Battle Armor, Lightsaber, Comlink, 2 Stimpacks
Lord Scourge is a
beatstick. A melee monster comparable to Kira, except aimed more towards
the damage tanking aspect of the game. With a huge soak value and highest
wound threshold in the party, Scourge should get up into the face of any
opponent as quickly as possible and lay into them. Shien and Sixth Sense
give him some ways to deal with ranged attackers, and the Move power can be
employed to either make ranged attacks or to bring targets to Lord Scourge.
Just like the Chagrian race for
Rusk above, for the Sith Pureblood I just used basic human stats as a
base. No real advantage or disadvantage, no funky racial abilities (not
for a Con game, anyway). I figured that he'd need a good check for
Deceive to keep his ultimate intentions from his fellow Sith. Some would
arge he should have a higher Discipline, or Lightsaber, or even Brawn and
Willpower, but there need to be some consideration for player balance. His
stats may not reflect the power his backstory says he should have, but he is
only a companion character, and does need to be somewhat in line with the other
PCs in the party.
One unique aspect to playing
Lord Scourge is that I consider him to be a Dark-Side character. He was
the Emperor's Wrath for over 300 years. He's a Lord of the Sith.
When a player uses his Force powers, they will see that Lord Scourge uses the
more plentiful (but slightly less potent) Dark Side facets of the Force die to
power his abilities. Because of this, I'm almost tempted to give him a
Force Rating of 4. We'll see how it tests out.
Testing, Testing, One Two...
I'm going to have to start
running these characters and getting some testing done on the module,
pronto. It's almost the end of April, and in less than 4 months I'll be
at GenCon. Time to get some folks together and put these teams through
their paces.
Next up, I'll probably post the
Scoundrel's companion team. Another unusual and eclectic party, with some
characters and options I didn't expect, but look like a blast to play.
I hope.
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| Notice Lord Scourge's absence? Sith are not very photogenic... |
