Official Houserules 12/12/2012

We're in the middle of Sean's adventure. First we returned to Nar'Shabob to see if we could located Roopa, and to perhaps pick up some jobs from Mr. Melk. We contacted our old captain and did two quick missions. One was a simple cargo run, and the other was wiping out a gang in order to recover their stolen cargo of sniper rifles. Then we got a special mission to deliver Prakk to his family somewhere in Wild Space, which is where we are now, with a broken hyperdrive.

All that aside, we came up with concrete houserules for a couple of things last night.

Force Points
We haven't been using them hardly at all. So to incentivize their use, they are per session instead of per character level. And what can you do with them? One of three things:

• Roll 2d6, take the highest and add it to any single attack or skill check.
• Roll 2d6, take the highest, and add it to any defense score vs a single attack.
• Keep yourself from dying.

Damage Threshold and Condition Track

Hitpoint systems tend to keep characters fully functional until they have zero hitpoints. We wanted to see more of a decline in a character's effectiveness as they took damage. We also wanted to model the effects of taking big hits. To that end:

• Damage Threshold will only add 1/2 character level instead of full character level.
• Every 5 full points taken over Damage Threshold is another jump down on the condition track.

At the moment, three of the 4 of our characters have Improved Damage Threshold, which still makes up pretty hardy. But since we're 8th level, we'll each be dropping our score by 4 points.

If these rules seem to work okay, the next houserule is likely to change the attack and armor progression.

Failure to Archive

I don't remember deciding to stop creating the session write-ups, but the last entry was in 2010, and it's now mid 2012.  So in the interest of preserving at least a basic outline of the course of our campaign, here's the timeline I've been able to derive from fragmented notes:

Charlie - Nervisa Mor

• Combats, smuggling, bar fights, and medicinal herbs.

Mike - GSC-40756 and Neijwein

• Moving rocks, insanity, depression, and contract scientists taken by Imperials.
• Surviving scientist shoots another, falls from building, Roopa and Mallory are framed as assassins.

Matt - Nar Shabob, , Hestrom

• Incompetent shadowrun.
• Kidnap a bothan and punch his pregnant wife in the face.  And take her hostage. Compensate them for their trouble.
• Follow thin lead to Alephnaught HQ, get captured, and barely escape being turned over to the Sith.

Sean - Weird Force/Hyperspace planet

• Weird time-traveling Force/Hyperspace planet
• Retrieved the cargo, barely defeated the Sith guarding it.
• Tried to blow up the site, but something ate the explosion.

Charlie - Nervisa Mor

• Hijinks at the spaceport, more smuggling, and Alephnaught mercs kill Gilbraith family.
• Aquired a new ship when the buyers for the smuggled goods got greedy.

Matt - outside of the Dathomir system

• Zombie plague, Togorian Mandalorian, and a narrow escape.

Mike - Er'Kit in the Noonian system, and New Holgha in the Shirub system

• Blockaded system, and an offer from the Imperial Knights that Mallory couldn't refuse.
• Kill two Sith on the planet, steal their ship, crash it a little when a Dovin Basal doesn't let them leave.
• Agree to transport an emissary human (ex-slave) from a Vong settlement.
• Mallory goes off with Imperial Knight Casslyn to start his training.
• Party sells the Sith ship and gets relatively rich.

Matt - Havnevik

• Droid insurgency against mercs and pirates who enslaved a Honopium mine.
• Roopa takes off and leaves the party stranded.
• Allied with Togorian Mando again (Chimdi), picked up trigger happy Nagai (Kray Silva).
• Bought new ship from the droids, helped them regain control of the mine.

We've done more than I thought we would when we started this campaign, and it's been fun.  Sean's up next, and our characters are 8th level.  After only 2 years!

Into the Fire! 10/20 session recap

Two plans were devised.  One was to plant a homing beacon on the company ship that came to pick up the next batch of mercs, then follow it to wherever the secret source of revenue was.  The party even bought a homing beacon for this purpose.  They were stymied by how to get close enough to a secure landing site to attach it, however, and went with plan B.

The second plan involved getting hired by the merc guild, Alephnaught, and then hoping they got sent to the secret site.  Or perhaps discovering where it was through daily interactions among the mercs.  To this end, they headed to the recruiting facility and said they wanted to join up.  A merc named Booker asked the party about their experience, and explained that there would be skills testing to back up their claims.  While this conversation was occurring, Treb noticed that the receptionist was discreetly looking down at this screen and then back up at the party.  He figured that it was probably some sort of a background check, and that even if their recent criminal deeds were exposed, that wouldn't necessarily preclude their acceptance into a merc guild.  Because, hey, it's a mercenary guild!

The party was ushered into a classroom and told to wait for the trainer/tester.  After a few minutes, Mallory had a sudden sense of danger as the blast door to the room slammed shut and gas started hissing from the vents.  Surprising both Treb and Prakk, he pulled out a lightsaber, took a deep breath, and started cutting through the door.  After about a minute, he had a small hole cut, and he burned his face getting a breath of mostly fresh air.  Prakk went to take a breath too and received a critical hit to the face from a stun blast.  Mallory handed the lightsaber over to Treb to keep cutting while he did everything he could to remain conscious.

The mercs then started lobbing stun grenades through the hole in the door.  Prakk grabbed a table and held it up against the hole to keep out the grenades for a short time.  Unfortunately, the mercs blasted it to pieces, sending shrapnel into Prakk and dropping him.  Mallory (and Treb, with a free hand) tried to return other grenades through the hole, but were only successful once.  Having a grenade detonate on them upset the mercs, and they started throwing frag grenades into the hole instead.  Treb had cut pretty far through to widen the hole, however, and the blast on the inside tore off a piece of metal and hurled it back into the mercs, killing one of them.  Mallory tried to roll through the opening, but landed belly-down on the stil molten edge of the door.  He dropped unconscious.  Treb then turned off the lightsaber, pulled Mallory off of the edge of the door, and put the weapon beside him.  He then successfully leaped through the hole and into a barrage of stun blasts.

The GM says we're only unconscious, but I'm counting it as a TPK.  Awesome!

We're Getting Warmer - 10/13 session recap

Prakk went into the building with the HR guy the party kidnapped, while the rest of the party drove around with his unconscious (and pregnant) wife.  He spent an hour or two getting hiring data, and discovered that there were a lot of recent hires of mercenaries.  A large percentage of those came from one system - Hestrom.  This system was apparently known as having a strong mercenary guild presence.

The party released the couple out in the agricultural section near a road, and Treb gave them 500 credits for their troubles.  They then rendezvoused with their ship and left the planet.

So what did the party do next?  They set course for Hestrom, of course.

No Seriously, We're Over Our Heads - 9/29 and 10/6 session recaps

The party hit both high, low, and middle class bars for info.  Prakk mingled at the high-class bar, but didn't appear to get any contacts.  He may have, but such information wasn't really relayed to his companions.  Treb and Mallory hit a dive bar and got the name of a hiring supervisor at a loading dock.  All of them went to the galactic version of an Applebees and got the name of an HR manager.

Prakk did some looking up on the public networks and came up with the address of the HR manager.

The party also rented a cheap and sleazy room in a flophouse with a network connection, and Prakk tried to hack the company.  He failed and drew down the police.  During the time they spent at the middle-class bar, Treb noticed on the news that they had a poor sketch of Mallory as the perp in the hacking investigation.

So what was the plan?  To kidnap the HR manager, use his credentials to get into the computers at the company, and then have Prakk hack it from the inside.

Treb shot out the video cameras in the back of the apartment building, and when the guards arrived to investigate, the party jumped them and rushed inside.  Prakk hacked the security system to silence the alarm while Treb and Mallory incapacitated the guards and took their uniforms.  While Prakk continued to hack down on the first floor, the other two went up to the HR manager's apartment.  They knocked on the door and told him it was an emergency, that he needed to come with them.  When he opened it up, they dropped him with a stun blast.

Treb wanted to make a quick getaway, but Mallory lingered a moment.  Then the guy's wife called out from the other room.  Mallory decided to go knock her out, so he went and punched her in the face.  Lovely.  So they got out of there, and went back down to Prakk.  Prakk had silenced the alarm, and then given all of the guards an injection to keep them unconscious for a while.

They then went up to the server room, broke in, and stole the holo cubes containing the video footage.  Back down in the parking garage, Treb hotwired a vehicle on the third try, and they made their escape.

They woke up their hostage, and in the course of the conversation discovered that there was no external network access to the company, that if they wanted to hack the records, they'd need to do it from inside the facility itself.  And to get in, the hostage would need his badge.  Which was back in his apartment.  He called the party 2nd rate thugs, and they admitted that they were more like 3rd or 4th rate thugs.  Prakk then knocked the guy out again with a shot.

Treb disabled the GPS on the vehicle so they couldn't be tracked, and then they went back to the apartment building.  It was around 3 or 4am.  No one was stirring.  So Mallory and Treb went back to the apartment and got the guy's clothes and badge, as well as grabbing his wife.

Prakk did a full med scan on her, since she looked bad after Mallory's punch, and found she was pregnant.  They woke up the hostage again and explained that they'd be holding his pregnant wife (by the way, congratulations!) while he and Prakk infiltrated the building so that Prakk could hack it.

The party is made up of certified geniuses.

So that's the plan now.

In Over Our Heads - 9/22 session recap

The captain, Ochoa, said the party had 5 hours on station before he took off again.  So they went looking for a stunstick to replace the one Mallory lost on Neijwein.  There was a lot of dickering over price, but he finally selected one.  Prakk picked up a few grenades, and Treb picked up some Twi'lek porn.

Before they could get into any more trouble, the Captain called them back to the ship.  The Boss wanted to talk to them immediately.

The party flew to Nar Shabob, where they docked at a classy and heavily guarded skyscraper.  They were escorted to The Boss, who said that he'd heard that they were the kind of people to "get things done".  He said one of his rivals was getting a serious cash influx, and wanted to know where it was coming from.

Never ones to say no (because they're morons) the party accepted the assignment with no promise of payment or anything of the sort.  Treb figured that The Boss could sneeze more money on them if they succeeded than they'd normally get paid for a job.  Brilliant.

So the party flew to the world that housed the headquarters of the rival, and started snooping around in bars for rumors.

Despair and Paranoia - multi-recap through 9/1

GSC-40756(Gee-ess-see-four-oh-seven-five-six) is a red and orange binary system with one terrestrial world and three gas giants.  The innermost planet has an oxygenated atmosphere that unfortunately has a large component of volatile gases.  The world is young, and tidal forces are the cause of constant volcanic activity.  Native life seems to be comprised of early plants and insects that live around salty and poisonous pools of dilute acid.

Your ship, Temper's Folly, shudders as it slams through turbulent thermals and ash clouds.  "Shields are at 25% and dropping," says Roopa. "Too much ash in the air.  Too much lightning."

"Damned landing beacon isn't broadcasting," grunts the captain.  "We wouldn't have to fly low like this otherwise.  Just keep the shields up for a few more minutes and we'll be on the ground.  Intact, if we're lucky."

Treb sticks his head into the cockpit and bangs it on the doorway as the ship bounces through another thermal.  "Are we landing anytime soon?"  In response, a metallic thunk rocks the vessel to one side, and an alarm goes off on the console.

"Strap down back there!  Looks like we took a hit from falling rocks!  What the fuh-"

A rattle of stones on the hull precedes Roopa's commentary.  "Shields at zero.  Hull damage on left wing."  Treb disappears from the doorway and straps in beside Mallory and Prakk.  He looks at them and just shrugs.

The Folly drops rapidly, almost free-falling, and breaks through the bottom of a layer of smoke and steam.  Her wing is smoking from a few holes burned into it by still-molten ejecta.  Through the port you can see a rain of ash and glowing stones.  The ground rushes up, and you hear the whine of the engines slowly increase in pitch.  The next few moments seem to take forever, but then your seat slaps you in the rear and you know that you're down.  The cabin rumbles from tremors outside, but is otherwise stable.

As you unstrap, the captain steps out of the cockpit and snaps a few orders.  "Roopa and Prakk, stay with me and help fix the Folly.  We want to be ready to go as soon as we can make the drop.  Mal and Prakk, head out there and see if you can find any of those researchers alive down on this rock.  If you can, get the landing beacon online so our customer won't crash-land.  And don't forget your masks."
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Mal and Prakk surveyed the landing pad and then checked on the landing beacon.  They found that it was intact, but there was no power coming from the thick cables running back to the underground facility.  They traced the cables, but found no breaks in the line.  They discovered cargo droids with depleted energy cells and an entrance into the base.  As they walked the corridors they encountered a quarren behind a stack of cargo containers.  He had a blaster leveled at them, and was about to fire.  Mal threw a rock into the containers hard enough to tumble them into the assailant and knock him unconscious.

They found a datapad on him, but it appeared to be scrambled.  Prakk administered some first aid, and when he became conscious, the quarren seemed to think they were pirates who had come to capture him.  Another shot of drugs, and the quarren was sedated.

In the computer center, they found that the main computer was powered down.  Further into the base, they came to the living quarters.  There were a dozen rooms, and all but one looked unoccupied.  The last one, however, was locked.  After some persuasion, they managed to get the resident to open the door.  A stench boiled out of the room and a filthy human stood in the doorway.  He looked feral, but calm.  Well, perhaps not calm, but despondent.  He perked up at the prospect of escaping this planet.

He said his name was Garram, and he said that he was a geophysicist.  He and the quarren, Sugglu, were scientists on contract to explore this world.  But the supply ship that was supposed to come at 6 months never did, and Sugglu went crazy.  He cut off the power, scrambled the computers, and terrified Garram into locking himself into his one-room quarters for a few months.

Garram became desperate, and said that he'd pay his entire savings of ten thousand credits if they'd take him off world.  So Prakk and Mal took both of the scientists to Temper's Folly, and the captain accepted the credits for their transport.

They went back to the station and were easily able to restore power.  The generator had just been turned off.  There wasn't any major sabotage there.  But when Prakk investigated the computer system, he found that it had intentionally been scrambled.  The landing beacon wouldn't come online without the computer, so he sat down to fix things.

Mal patrolled the perimeter for hours without seeing another soul.  Despair crept into his heart, and even though he knew something was not right here, he found that he was increasingly uninterested in searching for it.  This rock was a waste of space, and the sooner they were able to leave, the better.

Roopa caught up with him, and they did one last sweep.  Roopa's keen eyes picked up a flutter of fabric a short distance away, and he sent Mal to investigate.  It was a piece of a flight suit that had been torn off.  And Mal swore that he saw one of the many volcanic rocks move a little bit.  Roopa dismissed it for a while, and berated Mal for seeing things.  But then he saw a rock move himself, and took a couple of shots at it.  The shots had no effect, and he refused to admit that he had seen anything at all.

Prakk got the beacon back online, and Mal and Roopa returned to the ship without further incident.  Mal tried to tell Prakk about the moving rocks, but was ignored.

Soon enough, a sleek imperial ship landed, and two humans in suits emerged.  The captain handed over an armored suitcase, and the men (Mr. Ovit and Mr. Jass) handed over the credits.  They asked about the researchers, and the party told them about the deal they had to get them off-planet.  Mr. Jass explained that their contracts were not yet up, and that they should be given over into his custody.  Sugglu was still tranquilized, and was given no choice in the matter, but Garram agreed to go with them as long as he was getting off this rock.  The captain returned his credits to him, and he went with the two men.

A few minutes later, the suits went into the base where Prakk was still decrypting the computer system.  They seemed surprised to find him there, but explained that all of the research data here was confidential and proprietary.  The escorted him out of the facility without incident, and once aboard Temper's Folly, the captain raised the landing ramp and lifted for space.  Everyone got 1500 credits for a successful delivery.

A few days later, on a planet called Neijwein, the party was spending their hard-earned cash on drinks and women.  The captain called Prakk to tell him that an encrypted message had been sent to him via the ship's comm.  Prakk ignored it until morning, and then took the time to decrypt it.  It was a message from Sugglu, saying that he had some important information about the research facility, and to meet him.  He gave a time and a place, and it turned out that the time was only an hour away.  Prakk gathered his companions, and they walked to the rendezvous.

The designated spot was a landing pad on the roof of an aged shopping tower.  They stepped out of the lift, and Mal said that he saw someone duck behind the wall near the edge of the tower.  He charged forward, and Roopa drew his blaster while moving more cautiously forward.  Mal found Sugglu down on the ground with a blaster shot to the chest, and Garram was there with a blaster leveled at him.  Mal yelled out, "Man down!" and moved towards Garram.

Garram said, "Don't make me do this!" as Mal stepped towards him.  Mal struck him with his stunsticks, and the blaster shot went wide.  Prakk ran forward to Sugglu and immediately started emergency resuscitation.  Mal struck Garram again, and in his pain and disorientation, Garram stumbled back to the edge of the building and fell off.  Mal dove to the edge, hand outstretched, but missed Garram by inches.  Garram fell to his death several stories below.

Prakk was able to stabilize Sugglu, and Roopa started sneaking around the outer perimeter of the building.  He came around a corner and saw that what looked to be a gang of punks had emerged from the lift.  They sported various melee weapons, including a cybernetic arm, and they looked ready for a fight.  He aimed at the leader and told him to drop his weapon.  Two other gang members came up beside him and looked threatening.  As soon as the leader moved, Roopa dropped him with a single shot, and the other two charged him.  Two more had been out of sight, and they rushed forward as well.  One towards Mal, and the other towards Roopa.  Mal dodged his attacker's first blow, but took a hit to the shoulder as he leaped towards Roopa.  As he did so, the three thugs heading for Roopa slammed to the ground as it hit by a hammer.  Roopa shot the first of the three in the head to make sure he stayed down.  Mal's attacker turned his attention to Prakk, but his punch missed.  Prakk drew his blaster and calmly told him to surrender.  Fear widened the thug's eyes, and he made a run for the lift.  Roopa shot him in the back before he could reach it.

Almost immediately, the party heard approaching sirens.  Suspending Sugglu between two of them like a drunken companion, they got to the lift and made it to street level.  Amazingly, they were able to escape back to the ship without getting caught, and shortly thereafter the captain lifted off for the next mission.
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GNN - Neijwein Local Edition

Two Imperial scientists and five local band members were attacked today on the rooftop of the Jafaldin Shopping Tower by two hitmen.

The brutal attack left one scientist, Garram Levinson, dead.

One of his assailants beat him with stunsticks as he tried to defend himself, and then pushed him off the side of the building.  Surveillance cameras on a neighboring building happened to record the incident.

The other scientist, Sugglu Ch'bluumgr'u, was incapacitated and abducted.

No ransom demands have been made yet, but Imperial authorities suspect that it was his research that the assailants were after.

The members of punk band "Vong Breeders" seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but were slain as well.

The attackers have been identified by Imperial authorities as Mallory Dawntreader and Roopa Farooki.

These two appear to be some sort of hitmen, but it is unknown who hired them.  A bounty of 5000 credits has been placed on both of them by local authorities if they are brought in alive.  Sugglu is known to have a heart condition, and is not expected to survive his abduction, but a 5000 credit reward has also been offered for his safe return.

Imperial authorities have offered their condolences to the families of the victims, and have helped them arrange for funerals.

Leave Nervisa Mor, For Real This Time - 7/29 session recap

While loading cargo prior to takeoff, the party was visited by a lady and her bodyguards.  She smiled and beckoned to Prakk, and smitten with her, he took a few steps towards her to say hi.  Prakk didn't notice the baster she had pointed at him, but everyone else did.  As she fired, Dawntreader leaped in front of the shot intended for Prakk, and was knocked unconscious by the blast.  Before anyone else could react, her guards tossed concussion grenades and ordered everyone onto the ground.

Prakk and Roopa ran back into the ship and slapped the door control button while Treb leapt to Dawntreader's side to see if he was still alive.  Treb was grabbed, cuffed, and injected with something that knocked him out.  Before the door of the ship closed, Prakk and Roopa saw the guards haul their two companions away.

After a discussion with the captain and the local stormtrooper constabulary, Prakk thought he had a lead on where the attackers went.  It appeared that they rode beasts out towards the Deep, then met up with others with speeders.  Roopa fired up the air bikes, and the two of them set out to find their crewmates.

Meanwhile, Treb woke up to find himself bound and naked in the middle of the desert amongst the skeletal remains of other humanoids.  Dawntreader was beside him in a similar situation.  After a while, Treb was able to free his feet and hands from the rope, and he helped Dawntreader do the same.  Neither of them was in good shape, but they headed towards the only likelihood of shade and rescue at a plodding walk.

Hours later, Prakk and Roopa had finally gotten a better idea of where to search based on sensor history and the help of Elder Gilbreth.  Two of the Gilbreth boys rode out with them to search 'The Boneyard'.  They discovered the recent tracks made by their friends, and set out to find them.  Eventually they spotted them huddled against a rock for shade.  No sooner had they gotten to them and given them water and clothing when a Berkle attacked.  It killed one of the Gilbreth boys and the party was able to escape before it ate any more of them.

Elder Gilbreth was sorry to hear about his kin, but the other boy was happy to be alive.  The Elder also told Prakk to keep quiet about his farm.

The captain, after getting clear of the official investigation, came to pick them up, and then they shot away into space.

Leaving Nervisa Mor - 7/21 session recap

Treb's premonition proved correct.  As the party sped by on air bikes, Marauders from the Deep ambushed them.  Prakk hit some sort of ionic mine that disabled his bike and caused him to nose into the dirt with the cargo.  Marauders that had concealed themselves in low trenches popped out and started stealing the cargo.

Roopa gunned his bike as soon as he heard the explosion behind him, then made a turn to bring him back to the fight.  Treb tried to run over one of the marauders but missed.  Prakk took cover and tossed a frag grenade at the four assailants near him.

Treb dismounted and sought cover behind his bike while searching the rocks for snipers.  He found one and started aiming.  Roopa swept around and did likewise.  Prakk tossed a stun grenade and knocked all four of the marauders unconscious.  He then pulled out a blaster and started finishing them off with shots to the head.

The sniper exchanged fire with Roopa and Treb for a few seconds, scoring a hit on Treb.  Finding it hard to hit from range, Roopa jumped on his bike and hung low on the side to gain cover while closing with the marauder on the rocks.  Treb missed again, and the sniper noticed Prakk picking off his fallen companions.  He unleashed a burst of fire in Prakk's direction, but missed.  Prakk gave him the finger, which enraged him.

Roopa finally got up close and dispatched the sniper.  Once everything was quiet, the cargo was reloaded, and the bodies were looted.  They set off towards town again.

About an hour later, they arrived and called Dawntreader.  He had just gotten to the Gilbreth farm, and hadn't expected the party to move so quickly.  He said he'd come back as soon as possible.  Roopa sold the marauders blasters to Galen at the bar, and then went to wait in the customs line at the starport with the cargo.  Treb kept a pack of jawas at bay during a wait of at least an hour.  Customs was uneventful, and the party was able to make the drop at docking bay 7.  They collected the credits, then dropped the air bikes at their ship.  The captain wasn't paying too much attention to them, so he didn't notice their wounds.  The captain apparently doesn't like for the party to do side jobs, since he doesn't get a cut of those profits.

The party returned to The Pit to drop off Galen's share of the money, and Treb noticed a bar fight about to erupt.  In classic style, someone got punched, then staggered into someone else, who spilled their beer on Prakk.  Other people's drinking got disturbed and it immediately turned into a free-for-all.  Our heroes showed some restraint this time, and only a few blaster shots were fired, mostly stunning shots or warning shots.  Eventually the bouncer got into the mix and sorted things out.

Everyone retired to recover from the past couple of days, and Galen was nice enough to send up a couple of his girls to entertain the party for the evening.  The next morning, the party reunited with Mallory and headed to the ship in order to get off this rock.  Before they left, however, they checked out docking bay 42, and found that it was empty.  Prakk checked the logs and found that no ship had docked there for about three weeks.  This was somewhat odd, but the party didn't pursue it.  Prakk said he'd have his dad take a look into Moff Drogen and straighten things out.

Character Dossiers, part 2

• Matt - Duros Scoundrel named Roopa Farooki, swoop bike pilot and badass
• Charlie - Masterless Human Jedi named Mallory Dawntreader
• Kevin - Twi'lek Scoundrel, slicer and security specialist
• Sean - Chiss Noble named Prakk, skilled in everything, with lots of money
• Mike - Human Scout named Treb Strakhov, ugly ex-Imperial recon

updated 7/22 for spelling corrections