Children of the Empire

Game Master Talmonis

Here's the discussion thread for Alpha Group.

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Present. Waiting for a response from someone about source locations.

Ianthe, I thought I had mentioned that Backgrounds were located in the Rebellion Era sourcebook. If not, my apologies. Were there any other books/rules you need looked up, clarified or otherwise?

Sweet, glad to be a part of this!

If our group survives the first mission, I'll look into ordering a group picture commission! :D

Hehe, you'll probably survive the first mission. Probably. I might have to "re-tune" it, depending on how it goes. I sure do like fighter combat...

Lt. Kira Wyndaru, reporting for duty.

Mainly dotting for future reference. :)

Just realized that I think I have to reply as my Character alias in order to Subscribe....or something. I'm still working out how exactly these boards work.

Fighter combat, eh? I've only ever done ship/space combat once, piloting an old XS Light Freighter against a squadron of Sith fighters while my buddies tried to keep them off us long enough to land in the enemy carrier's hangar bay. As I recall, vehicle combat in SWSaga is a little bit clunky, requiring a lot of player imagination and good description from the GM to make it exciting. Still, I'm excited to be a part of this.

Given that you've strongly hinted that you're running a harsh, gritty, pull-no-punches, kill-off-the-players kind of game, should I generate another character to have on standby in case Melgora bites it?

Forgot to add: If anyone in this game hasn't seen it, I'd say that this is required viewing to get psyched up for a gritty Imperial game:

I.M.P.S. - The Relentless

It's even narrated by Optimus Prime!

Just realized that I think I have to reply as my Character alias in order to Subscribe....or something. I'm still working out how exactly these boards work.

Fighter combat, eh? I've only ever done ship/space combat once, piloting an old XS Light Freighter against a squadron of Sith fighters while my buddies tried to keep them off us long enough to land in the enemy carrier's hangar bay. As I recall, vehicle combat in SWSaga is a little bit clunky, requiring a lot of player imagination and good description from the GM to make it exciting. Still, I'm excited to be a part of this.

Given that you've strongly hinted that you're running a harsh, gritty, pull-no-punches, kill-off-the-players kind of game, should I generate another character to have on standby in case Melgora bites it?

I'd stay your hand for a bit. If you start running low on Force Points though, you might want to take the initiative.

Looking through the Rebellion Era Sourcebook again.... With the Background system, there appears to be three different sections: Event, Occupation and Planet of Origin. Do we select just one? Or do we select one from all three sections?

You select one.

Yeah, I thought so too, but no harm in asking.

Also, if you haven't already, go watch IMPS! You won't regret it.

Forgot to add: If anyone in this game hasn't seen it, I'd say that this is required viewing to get psyched up for a gritty Imperial game:

I.M.P.S. - The Relentless

It's even narrated by Optimus Prime!

O_O

I mean...

O_O

Holy cow. I think I'm in love. This is basically what I've been wanting to do for years. That I'm just now being told of this, gives me a sad.

If Kira survives to see her get some custom equipment, man I'm gonna have fun with that.

I haven't considered getting so much equipment with the Miniaturized upgrade in my life. :)

Glad you enjoy it, Talmonis. ^_^ It was an instant classic in the old Jedi Academy RP servers I frequented back in the day, and it's pretty much exactly what came to mind when I first signed up for this game. Hopefully it'll help give you some ideas for the campaign.

Watching IMPS again after so many years (it first came out in 2005!), I noticed a neat little detail I had forgotten about: Imperial troopers in this use a numbering ID system to identify themselves individually when on comms and such.

The 501st Legion adopted this as well.

For example, as a Scout Trooper of the Golden Gate Garrison, I was TB-6440 (though I don't quite fit in the jumpsuit anymore, so the armor sits in a corner of my closet).

Come to think of it, I think I'll transfer that designation over to Melgora as well. Granted, as a TIE Pilot she'd be TI-6440 (which kind of sounds like a calculator), but the same idea still applies.

Actually, you'll all be TX's.

Come to think of it, I think I'll transfer that designation over to Melgora as well. Granted, as a TIE Pilot she'd be TI-6440 (which kind of sounds like a calculator), but the same idea still applies.

TI-6440? It does sound like a calculator. Like one of those Graphing Calculators that I had back in the day.

Well, good for tracing out someone's curves, perhaps. >:)

I'll have to check out that link when I get home.

EDIT:

Actually, you'll all be TX's.

holds out hope to be THX-1138 :)

TX-6440 it is!

Incidentally, any chance I can get a GM cookie for telling you of the glory of IMPS? :)

Hehe, we shall see.

Ianthe, I thought I had mentioned that Backgrounds were located in the Rebellion Era sourcebook. If not, my apologies. Were there any other books/rules you need looked up, clarified or otherwise?

The Rebellion Era Sourcebook I have makes no mention of backgrounds, just data about planets. It isn't on you, no worries. I was thinking about a background for a Coruscant-born tech head that found she enjoyed commando work.

Whoa.. we're the 501st.. *considers* Well, without the threat of Vader or the Emperor, that's a lot of looming stress gone. Neat.

No no no, we're not the 501st, that's just how they desginate. Whew, those nutcases are fanatics.

Do you have the Saga Edition Rebellion Era Sourcebook, or the D20 one?

The Saga Edition book that has backgrounds in it is the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide.

The Rebellion Era Sourcebook was the old Star Wars d20 source book.

TI-6440? It does sound like a calculator. Like one of those Graphing Calculators that I had back in the day.

Well, good for tracing out someone's curves, perhaps. >:)

Well, 16 CHA + exotic dancer + skin-tight undersuit = quite a lot of curves to be traced. >:)

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Actually, I wanted to ask about that subject, but I didn't want to post this while at work, hence my delay of a few hours.

With two physically attractive women in the squad, what's everyone's OOC attitudes towards innuendo, suggestive and/or mature physical descriptions, and the like? Does everyone want to keep it strictly G-rated, or are people okay with more mature portrayals? Nothing outright NSFW, but I can have Melgora's descriptions and emotes be a bit more….detailed…if everyone's OOCly okay with it.

Full disclosure: As mentioned in her backstory, my character was an exotic dancer who was captured and enslaved for her physical beauty. In other words, this means (bluntly) that Melgora has long legs, a big butt and very big boobs. It won't be a focus of her character, but they would be mentioned from time to time in her emotes, actions and her descriptions.

Kira mentioned that she's being played by a guy (which the GM seemed to be fine with), so I should mention that I'm playing cross-gender as well. As an adult straight guy who's been around the Internet a few times, I'm comfortable separating my character's identity from my own. However, given that it's impossible to know other people's real ages and genders online, I figured that it would be courteous to raise this subject with everyone right now, before the game actually gets started.

I realize that just by demographics alone (we're playing a Star Wars version of DnD over the Internet, for crying out loud) it's unlikely that anyone in the group is a minor (or female, for that matter)….but it is possible. Hence, having slightly raunchy/adult characters might be an issue for some fellow players without me necessarily realizing it.

So, is everyone here an adult? Is everyone okay with mildly suggestive descriptions of female bodies in text? Would such a thing make anyone uncomfortable?

No problem, describe your character as you like.....

This does leave open descriptions of my heavy repeating blaster.....

I would prefer it be kept SFW, but other than that, as long as it's not disrespectful, ok.

I agree about keeping it SFW, but otherwise I'm ok with it. Personally, I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum. Done that a lot over the years, so for once I'm seriously going to try something different.

Other than being SFW, knock yourself out :)

No complaints here, as long as you write it well.

All righty, then! I updated her description to reflect her physique a bit more, added a few other details. I think I kept it around PG-13 level, let me know what you guys think of her.

Solid.

Updated my background to the planetary background of Coruscant.

Hopefully it's alright for me to tweak Kira slightly. Wanted to have my class levels as Soldier 4 / Scoundrel 1 (instead of Soldier 3 / Scoundrel 2). Everything else will remain the same. Realized that it'd be better for my build that way.

Go for it. A lot of my picking is due to posting style, activity and ideas in general.

Speaking of which, is Harry still around?

Sorry bout the silence there, have to remember that I'm not receiving updates on my main profile until I've posted once.

Lets see...

cat-fights and innuendo? Bring it on. SFW? Eh, gotta compromise somewhere, right? I'm on board.

The designation thing escaped me until now; good thing somebody had that sorted out beforehand.

As for close quarters? Well a rifle can still do the job, and I'll have a blaster pistol on hand too. I don't really see myself as the heavy combat specialist. Looking over it objectively now, I seem to have painted myself as the party skillmonkey crafter. Heh. Old habits die hard.

Huh. funny random thought: got a haircut recently and noticed all the silver comin out on my sides. Makes me look a little more like my avatar here. LOL.

Great. Soldier 4 / Scoundrel 1 it is.

I imagine Kira to eventually be shooting things at range with a Blaster Carbine, closing in for the kill with a thunderous open-handed chop.

Teräs Käsi Training + Teräs Käsi Basics + Teräs Käsi Mastery + Dual Weapon Mastery I-III + Stunning Strike + Devastating Attack = Awesome (Although that won't be for quite a while).

@Perallus: Nothing wrong with being the party skillmonkey/crafter. You get to make all of our gear super cool, and get to slice through stuff when being subtle counts. Just as long as you're not bored handling that, it's cool :)

What level will Kira need to be to pull that combo off? And what are the effects when she does?

What level will Kira need to be to pull that combo off? And what are the effects when she does?

The full combo? Around level 15. Quite the ways away, I know.

Around level 12, I'll have Dual Weapon Mastery I and Teräs Käsi Mastery, along with Teräs Käsi Training at level 9, with Martial Arts I-III by level 10, and Stunning Strike by level 8.

As a standard action (thanks to Teräs Käsi Mastery), I can make 2 unarmed attacks as if Dual Wielding (-5 penalty to both attack rolls). If I hit, for each damage roll that exceeds the targets damage threshold, I move him 2 steps down the condition track. Once per round, Teräs Käsi Mastery lets me reduce the damage threshold by 5. And each damage roll will be doing 2d12 + 3 + 1/2 character level. So good chance I can pull it off by then. 4 steps down the condition track in one round is nuts.

At higher levels, I'll just get better at it.

EDIT: Hmm, maybe that's too powerful. I can always change things to tone it down...

I guess we could all generate our alternate characters while we are ironing everything out...

Well, if I'm gonna specialize in stuff like tech specialist, starship designer, and all the gadgety, doohickey tinkering stuff, then it doesn't hurt to have someone specced the other way to take up the slack. I'll try to make sure I'm no slouch with a rifle, but I'm no Jango Fett...

I was just rewatching IMPS again this morning, and I love the banter these guys have. It's been too long since I saw this.

"Okay boys, time to earn your combat pay."
"....It's not that much...."
"Just move it."
"Ugh, we always go in first...."
"....."
"....."
"....."
"...They couldn't shut up before, and now they're quiet?"

I much preferred the episode 2 drop procedure. I really think the folks who made it have some military experience of some kind.

I guess we could all generate our alternate characters while we are ironing everything out...

Good idea. Anything in particular you plan to shoot for? I'm just gonna make a tried-and-true ground trooper assault grunt.

I much preferred the episode 2 drop procedure. I really think the folks who made it have some military experience of some kind.

That's pretty likely. During my time with the Pathfinders (501st's Biker Scout division), I can say that plenty of people in the 501st are real-life military, Marines, Air Force, etc. In the world of Star Wars fandom, it's pretty hard to get a large number of accurate-looking costumes without involving the 501st in some manner. IMPS Relentless seems like just the kind of project that a local Garrison would love to get behind.

So who is the leader of this outfit?

Not me, Melgora's not a leader type.

Side note, I just realized I calculated Melgora's abilities and Reflex Defense wrong. 22 point buy lets her have 12 WIS and 16 CHA. Looks like that undersuit got a bit tighter ;)

Furthermore, in Saga Edition, a character can gain either their character level as a bonus to all Defenses, or their armor bonus, but not both. If you wear armor, the armor's bonuses replace your character level bonus.

So for Melgora at level 5, wearing her Scout Trooper armor (with a +4 Reflex Defense bonus) actually makes her more vulnerable than if she was running around naked with her full +5 character-level bonus). The only way to circumvent this is to be a Soldier who places talents into the Armor Specialist talent tree.

I get that they're trying to rationalize how an un-armored Han Solo can stand toe-to-toe with armored Stormtroopers, but.....it's always seemed like a fairly clunky solution to me. =/

I liked the old DR solution that Star wars D20 used, but meh.

As for this game, you can wear your armor without any hindrance, you can still use the character level as the score while wearing armor. At that point it's mostly cosmetic. Barring of course, the comms systems, the rebreathers, the low light vision enhancement, etc.

Also, I may have read it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the Fortitude save bonus that armor gives is in addition of the character level, unlike the reflex.

I liked the old DR solution that Star wars D20 used, but meh.

As for this game, you can wear your armor without any hindrance, you can still use the character level as the score while wearing armor. At that point it's mostly cosmetic. Barring of course, the comms systems, the rebreathers, the low light vision enhancement, etc.

Also, I may have read it wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the Fortitude save bonus that armor gives is in addition of the character level, unlike the reflex.

So basically, we get Armored Defense for free?

When calculating your Reflex Defense, you may add either your heroic level or your armor bonus, whichever is higher. You must be proficient with the armor you are wearing to gain this benefit.

Given the wonky way armor works in Saga, and given that this is an Imperial soldier campaign, you might want to look over the rest of the Armor Specialist tree to see if any of the other talents there make sense as part of our military training. You also might want to glance at Imperial Military Training (Rebellion Era Campaign Guide p29).

I thought that was the way things always were. Hmm. We could do that. There is no way that armor would make you more easily damaged. The very idea is nuts to me.

Yeah. One way of looking at it is that at low levels, you're still unsure and hesitant in a combat situation, so your armor is your best defense as your character can only concentrate on a few things at a time.

As he levels up and becomes more experienced, he gets more confident in moving around under fire, taking cover, dodging blaster bolts and melee swings, gaining an instinctive "feel" for a combat zone and better anticipating enemy movements and tendencies. This means that unless he's someone who's put the hours and training into incorporating his armor's encumbrance into his combat style (e.g., taking the Armor Specialist talents), the bulk and weight of it actually slows him down, making him more of a target.

....At least, that's the only possible logical explanation I can think of.

EDIT: Just rewatched IMPS Chapter 2. Unfortunately I don't have any direct military experience myself, but their jargon and exhaustively extensive flight checklist definitely seems plausible. I've got a friend formerly in the Army who did two tours in Iraq, I'll show these to him and see what he thinks.

I always thought the way Saga Edition handled armour was a little wonky. One of my house rules was to let the Armored Defense talent be a general rule for any armour you were proficient with. I think I made it that no armour provided any bonuses unless you were proficient with it, but it's been a while so I don't remember.

Then, I changed Armored Defense to the following:

Once per encounter, as a reaction, you may gain damage reduction equal to one-half your armor bonus until the beginning of your next turn.

It didn't seem to be unbalancing in the home game I ran, and it still gives you access to all the other interesting talents in the Armor Specialist talent tree.

As a general PSA: Since Saga doesn't have an SRD, it's often difficult to locate things spread across a number of different splatbooks. In order to help with that, allow me to present a wonderful tool that I (and my GM) have found indispensible:

http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/showthread.php/16157-Star-Wars-Saga- Completed-Omegadex-1-9

It's basically a giant index of all Talents, Feats, PrCs, Equipment, everything in the game and a listing of where to find it. Great stuff.