This game will use The Force Awakens: The Beginner Game, a boxed set by Fantasy Flight Games based on their Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny RPGs, but set in the time of the new Disney trilogy.
The Beginner Game is packaged with pregenerated characters, who are Jakku scavengers, but for the DreamLyrics version I want to fold us into the events of the films straight away. Love them or hate them (probably a bit of both for me), the new Star Wars films do give us more choice in character creation.
There has been an awakening in the Force. Anyone can potentially be a Force-user in this new era, so characters created in Force & Destiny aren't so constrained by the setting. That said, you could equally create a character from Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion, but note that this isn't a scum and villainy game; this isn't The Mandalorian.
I will post more information on these games for those who are interest. But you don't need to own them, you don't need to learn the system.
For character creation you'll provide me a short write-up of your character and I will build it for you. I've been playing an ftf campaign using FFG's Star Wars RPGs for about 2 years now and have a firm grasp of the rules--- Alas, it reminds me of D&D 3rd Ed, in that it's one of those systems where you can mechanically gimp your character at creation stage. (D&D 5th Ed seems much improved in that regard.)
So character creation will be more of a personal service.
As we play, I will handle the system on the back-end, making all the rolls and posting an action log in the footnotes. I will interpret your post into mechanical actions, and where it's not clear to me or I need an additional input, I will ask you.
Like when we playtested Dungeon World here, I will post a commentary on the system to help anyone trying to learn it. Of course, those who do will be able to have a more active input into their character's mechanical actions.
Were you absolutely clueless reading that teaser story? What is this 'Star Wars'?
What's the bare minimum Star Wars lore you'll need to play in this game?
Fortunately not much. If I parred it down to the absolute essentials, you could probably get away with only watching Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi, in that order.
That might not be anyone's list of Star Wars highlights, but it does contain all the story essential to this game (as far as I can tell).
So you've watched the films, read the teaser and want to play but how do you create a character?
CHARACTER CONCEPT
Put some thought into the character you want to play. All we know for sure is that your character is a volunteer in the Resistance.
The Resistance and the First Order
The Galactic Empire formed in a similar way to the Nazis and the Third Reich, out of the body of a corrupt and ineffectual democracy. Whereas the First Order is more like ISIS, having formed and spread out of sight of the First World.
The First Order was formed in the Unknown Regions by extremist Imperial officers who though the Empire was too accommodating, too weighed down by galactic politics and its own bureaucracy. They want a leaner, more draconian organisation that will reshape the Galaxy in an image it prefers. The First Order is the ultimate expression of the Empire's Death Stars and so it's not surprising that Plan A was to build Starkiller Base, the mega-Death Star destroyed in The Force Awakens, but not before it destroyed the New Republic.
Whereas the Empire recruited its Stormtroopers from a Galaxy-wide draft, perhaps explaining the variable quality of their troops, the First Order trains its Stormtroopers from childhood. It captures these child soldiers from their homes in raids across the Outer Rim Territories. Entire settlements are pillaged and left childless. The First Order is no less evil than the Empire, but it is a less insidious, more brutal evil.
The Resistance was formed by Princess Leia to combat the threat of the First order, funded by the New Republic's black budget and officially unaffiliated. The problem was, as long as the First Order stayed in the Outer Rim, intel on its activities was very patchy, there was little media interest and so the New Republic wasn't hugely concerned.
So why did your character join the Resistance?
An awakening in the Force
We also know that Force-users are suddenly becoming more aware of their powers in this era. The Jedi are all but extinct---only Rey carries that torch now---But the Force doesn't really care about religions or orders.
"It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together." --Old Ben Kenobi
An important component in building your character is deciding how dedicated they are to the Force, conceptually.
They may not be dedicated at all. You might decide you want to play a grizzled Resistance commando with no Force powers. You might decide you want to play an idealistic doctor from the colonies who has joined the Resistance as a raw recruit.
Your character might be Force-sensitive. A hotshot Resistance ace who can seemingly get in the minds of his opponents. A spy who can sense a lie or a double-cross.
Your character might be a Force-user. A Resistance fighter who has been trained with Force powers and lightsabre by Leia, Maz and Professor Huyang. Maybe they've been trained by someone else entirely, a non-Jedi/Sith Force-using group like the Steel Hand Adepts. Maybe they found K'Kruhk sat on a mountaintop somewhere.
Not bad for a human
Star Wars is science-fiction. You don't have to be human. There are many alien species in the Galaxy that you can play. Some are simply Star Trek-like humans with head cosmetics (Star Wars prefers tentacles than ridges) and skinpaint. Others are very alien indeed.
And of course, there are droids. You already have one droid accompanying you on your mission, 2BB-2 so your team doesn't need a droid PC. But if you want to play a droid, there's nothing to stop you and they come in all forms.
Write up a short character concept, you shouldn't need more than about 200 words at this stage. The idea is to get us started on a greater creative process. Post it here, don't be shy.
OK, thinking of playing something entirely different, maybe a droid? Or maybe that race (insectoid) that I played in your last one-off Neil, can't remember the name?
Verpine are an interesting race, for sure. Alien yet relatable because the insectoid/hive trope is still based in real world concepts. I think they were inspired by the Prawns in District 9, who I thought were very sympathetic.
Other androgynous insectoid aliens with very different cultures:
Are you thinking of something that's specifically insectoid, or just not specifically male or female? If you're just floating ideas, also cool, please feel free to float 'em.
I am thinking of a holy man that believes in the tenets of the force and has trained all his life to no avail. Then suddenly with the Awakening, all of his training, his life of meditation and contemplation of the force, meant something. I see him as being spry for an old man, but mostly out of touch with modern society as he has lived a lonely remote existence for decades.
So, I was going to borrow a character from a game Jim had and adapt it.
Stev Beren. Although I have a female version who is vying for attention. Consider him to have been a force sensitive that was on the first order side previously. A spy and assassin who ended up ‘becoming the mask, growing a conscience and switching sides. Sort of a force sensitive dark Han Solo in a way.
Last edited by Art in the Blood; Sun 26/04/2001:18 UTC.
After the battles of Dathomir in BBY20 and BBY19 many night sisters went into exile, and any that had been away stayed away.
Given that Darth Sidious had personally intervened at Dathomir, most felt that it was too risky to return whilst he was still alive. There was only a general return of Dathomiri after the Empire and the Emperor was gone, around about ABY5.
Ketta had been born about then - as had a great many others, whose mothers had similarly put off childbirth until there was somewhere safe to bring up children.
With so many others her age competing for the limited resources of a planet recovering from devastation, once Ketta had reached maturity, she had opted for that well-worn off-world profession of bounty hunter.
She'd been a bounty hunter for a while, but realised she really didn't want the First Order to take things back to the way they were in the days of the Empire, devastating or indeed destroying planets - in particular Dathomir.
Everyone, let's focus more on your character concept's recent history. Why did they join the Resistance? The struggle between the First Order and the Resistance takes place in quite a remote area, compared to the Empire vs Rebel Alliance, which was Galaxy-wide. So your characters probably could have sat it out.
What drew your characters into the conflict? Did they live in the Outer Rim Territories and were literally caught up in it? Maybe they were living in the Republic, but saw recruitment posters and wanted to fight tyranny like their parents did? Maybe they were military in some system defence fleet in the Inner Rim and wanted to see some action. If they are human, they might have been Fight Order and defected, though bear in mind the First Order aren't a giant administration like the Empire. They're a hard core of zealots and extremists.
Never tell me the odds!
How powerful are starting characters in FFG's Star Wars?
Starting characters are very tough. They're hard to kill and must go through extensive levels of ever-increasing wounding before they get there. Think Luke vs Vader, Empire Strikes Back. It's not pretty but they should survive.
In terms of skill, they're competent and perfectly capable of holding their own against Stormtroopers, flying starships, etc. Again, think farmboy Luke in A New Hope. They aren't heroes yet but they know what they're doing.
They start with a career, an umbrella role containing lots of specialisations.
What starting characters don't have, is much Force ability. If your character is Force sensitive, they sacrifice some of their character creation points, which would have gone into their career, for a soupçon of Force ability.
A character can gain a more joined-up approach to the Force by playing a Force user. The training with Leia and Maz gives you an open option for this. However, you still have to spend character creation points on gaining Force powers so there's no way around that trade-off.
There's no one optimal path, but simply be aware that you have to spend points on Force powers that you could spend elsewhere. Thus Force users aren't automatically more powerful than non-Force users at start.
A long time ago
To give you an idea of time scales, I've put together a very abridged timeline.
7955 Start of the Clone Wars (Attack of the Clones)
7958 Order 66, Great Jedi Purge, End of the Clone Wars, founding of the Galactic Empire (Revenge of the Sith)
7977 Luke Skywalker meets Old Ben Kenobi, Battle of Yavin, first Death Star destroyed (A New Hope)
7981 Battle of Endor, Ewoks, second Death Star destroyed, Emperor killed (Return of the Jedi)
7982 Battle of Jakku. Empire defeated, founding of the New Republic (Battlefront II)
8011 Hosnian Prime destroyed by First Order. Resistance destroys Starkiller Base, flees counter-attack (The Force Awakens)
8012 Present day (The Rise of Skywalker)
This uses the in-fiction dates. Fans tend to use BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After Battle of Yavin), with 7977 being 0 ABY.
So the events of the first Star Wars film were 35 years ago.
Being starting characters, there's a good chance your characters weren't born then. But they may be late-starters.
Guys PMing me, I will get around to replying today, but I've run out of time this morning alas.
OK, I'm back. Did a 10-mile cross-country and now sitting on the patio with a cold shandy.
Where did we get to? Ah yes. Why did your character join the Resistance?
I see this as the crux of your character's story. In some ways, that deep backstory you create when creating a character is like an actor creating backstory. It's used to facilitate the acting/role-playing and that's why it's important to us. To other players' characters though, they only see your character come alive in the interactions with their characters, NPCs, and the plot itself (which some would say is also a character).
We aren't using any group creation system here. Something like Hillfolk is great at what it does, but I want you to be free not to know each other very well and it's tricky to pull that off with Hillfolk.
Instead we're having this group brainstorming session and I'm looking out for hooks that might tie characters together, but am not bothered if they don't. The characters will get to know each other in the game.
Your characters must really want to fight the First Order. Work with that.
Once we have these strong motivations sorted, I think the rest of your character will start to fall into place, and we'll also have a better idea of who knows who amongst you.
Btw, if open brainstorming isn't your cup of blue milk, that's no problem. Send me a PM and we can go from there.
Pandemonium. Yes. I think that's a nice base for a character concept and there are a few ways I would go with building that character. For example, you could opt for a Force Adept, which is someone who has faith in the Force but isn't a Force user, like the Guardians of Whills in Rogue One. But what we're crucially missing is their motivation for joining the Resistance.
Angr. That's all doable, though we might be able to find a background more involved in the present than Dathomir. What is it about Dathomir that you like specifically? Also, bounty hunters are a cutthroat lot and their business didn't suffer under the Empire, who let the Outer Rim Territories look after themselves.
So I think we need to find a much stronger motivation for this lass to join the Resistance. As it stands, she might not like the look of the First Order but the Galaxy is a big place and they're even easier to avoid than the Empire. The phantom Emperor's declaration of war on the Galaxy would certainly rouse the Bounty Hunters Guild but that event is too recent (past few days) for it to have been the motivation for your character to join. (The Resistance have been in hiding for the past year.)
I like the Guardian idea. Let's use that. When was the Temple of Kyber destroyed? I see him as old, but I don't want him dottering either. I am not married to race, so we could bend things that way too. If he was at the Temple when it was destroyed, and later when he was playing hermit, the First Order came along and culled where he was residing, I could see him as being over the top interested in joining the resistance.
I was thinking that Dathomir would be a good rational to be a potential force user - but I am not especially wedded to that concept, if there were a reason for her to be a potential force user from anywhere else.
So - new concept
I think I will stick with human as I am not up to speed with the other races enough to do them justice.
I response to our challenge of why the character is in the resistance, what about her being Greer Sonnel's daughter?
Angr. I think you're onto something there, defo. The great thing about this new era is that you don't have to explain why your character has Force ability. It's not about who your parents were anymore. There has been an awakening in the Force, and I think the implication at the end of The Last Jedi, with the stable boy using the Force on his broom, was that it's wide open for new stories.
Greer's probably too young to have an adult child, but I know someone who does have a daughter who would be the perfect age! Have you watched The Mandalorian, episode 4? Omera was a lovely character, though I think Julia Jones the actress is great in everything. Her daughter, Winta, was I think meant to be about 5-6, which would make her about 28-30 in our game but there were younger kids in the village. Having met a Mandalorian and Baby Yoda would look pretty good on your Star Wars resume. Her motivation to join the Resistance would be pretty clear if she heard the First Order were raiding villages and taking people's children. It's almost exactly what the Klatooinians did when she was a kid.
Career-wise she could have any focus you wanted really. Sure, she might have been a villager much of her life, just like Luke was a farmboy but that's not a restriction.
Pandemonium. Jedha City was destroyed about 35 years ago, though your character might have only been a novice, living in the street with the other Guardians who had been kicked out of the Temple of the Kyber by the Imperials. So he might have only been in his twenties at the time, making him 55+ in our game. Since then he might have become a wanderer preacher of the Church of the Force.
Gypsy. Were you thinking Mechanically-inclined for your Verpine, btw? Makes a lot of sense, they are very good at it.
Right, I'm starting to toy with character builds for you and am reminded of a decisive question that you all need to answer.
Does your character wield a lightsabre?
If they do, they must effectively be a Force user (unless they want to risk chopping their own head off), so must be created using the careers from Force & Destiny. This is neither a good or bad thing, it just immediately shortlists a bunch of options.
Next, working with another player, I gave them some further guidance on the First Order, the bad guys, which they said they found helpful. I'm reposting it here.
Remember that the First Order are not corrupt, Machiavellian villains like the Imperials. The First Order have been radicalised since childhood and they are cra-crazy.
General Hux's speech from The Force Awakens shows the difference between them and the Empire. Both are capable of the same evil. The Empire blamed the destruction of Aldaraan on the Rebel Alliance. The First Order wanted the Galaxy to know they destroyed the Hosnian System.
There's not really any wiggle room if you're in the First Order. They have designated executioners for carrying out formal beheadings of deviants, so not only must it be a common occurrence they also like to make a show of it.
If SIra Beren could be described as anything its intense, and dark. Moody. Force sensitive but with a skillset more suited to a secret agent. Human, perhaps in the range of 19 or twenty. Acknowledged as generally razor sharp but oddly focused, with skills and skill gaps.
I think for my Guardian/preacher didn't use a lightsaber before, but I think as soon as he was awakened, he would have begun training because it is the symbol of all that he believes in.
Angr. Excellent. You still need to inject your creative juices into her backstory from year 6 onward, so you can't rest on your laurels yet.
Gypsy, if you're a Resistance medic then there's a good chance you'd have treated/operated on Art's character, who was retrieved from the site of the Battle of Ansett Island on Batuu. Someone had inconsiderately put a force pike through her face.
I'm going to start some builds and slotting characters into mechanical niches that fit their concepts.
Don't worry about the mechanical side; I'll take care of that. It's more important that you're happy you know who your character is and what they do 'in the fiction', so to speak.
Neil and I have been talking about my character who can shift in a couple of directions, depending on what we need after the others figure out their toons
Well, so far I am seeing a ‘special forces/infiltrator sort(basically the imperial agent skill set from SWTOR, a medic, Niman disciple lightsabers force user, another lightsabery force user.
So if yo go really basic, we have two Fighter/mages, a ranger, a cleric ...
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So you've watched the films, read the teaser and want to play but how do you create a character?
Her daughter, Winta, was I think meant to be about 5-6, which would make her about 28-30 in our game but there were younger kids in the village. Having met a Mandalorian and Baby Yoda would look pretty good on your Star Wars resume. ![[Linked Image]](https://i.imgur.com/0WsJwSj.jpg)
