/SWG/ Star Wars general: The One Crystal edition

Could work if it's done as a Generation Kill-style miniseries about grunts messing around and doing grunt things in between the occasional naval battle. Just having it be about the pirate fights could get boring.

This. Just make IMPS a proper Netflix series that has generation kill style miniseries following units around.

So /swg/, in my campaign, the war is over and the Rebellion lost about half a year after failing to destroy the Death Star/not having the battle of Yavin IV.

What now? How would you go about rebuilding the Rebellion?

Who's still alive out of the Rebellion's leaders/potential leaders?

>Has anyone played the HoTAC stuff?
I have. It sucks. It becomes a committee game with everyone preparing dials and actions as a collective.

There become some stupidly overpowered ways you can kit yourself out. The enemies aren't hard to take down (but rely on numbers) and several key elements of the game are thrown out of the window.

'Sup

It sucks because it's not fun, or because it isn't enough of a challenge?

So here's a live grenade to get this thread started and take our minds of recent sadness.

X-Wing will be hitting five years in 2017. What does /swg/ expect to see in second edition?

Both? I mean, it can be challenging but in a RNG/'here are 17 TIEs for you to take out" kind of way. You won't actually be outsmarting an opponent or even a competent AI.

You need a bit more than that, but its really quite worth it user.

I've played it and its the tits

A cleaned up, probably rebalanced master list of actions, includes ones that aren't actually in the game at launch for forwards compatibility.
It will be in-date for about three waves, then in wave four, they'll introduce a new action on a reintroduced ship and make everyone who wants comprehensive rules start carrying around rule inserts again.

>What does /swg/ expect to see in second edition
Nothing. I know people who test the game. There is no second edition.

FFG has also proven in the past they are not really open to major game changes or revision.

The canon is full of small-scale rebel actions. Make one of them important. Pretty much every supplement has a way of getting the heroes into the rebellion.

If the Alliance to Restore The Republic fails, maybe the next Saw Gerrara group starts gaining traction. Unless you've made significant changes to the empire itself, there's always bound to be multiple xenos with an axe to grind. The small ones latch onto the big ones.

If you think the Death Star still needs to be dealt-with, maybe Neo-Bao-Dur smuggles a Mass-Shadow Generator to the station.

Maybe the "rebels" create a significant schism in the Empire, and either supports one side or builds forces in the cracks between.

Now with his fancy new tool, Sheev proceeds to destroy about a quarter of planets that complain too much. Now, the thing is, no matter how many loyalist there are, not all of them are okay with destroying entire civilizations filled with innocents just to teach a few a lesson. So you have members from all echelons, rebels, neutrals, defeated and imperials; thinking that maybe the Death Star is a bit too much. They might agree with the idea of it's existence, but not necessarily with it's usage. For more information, see atom bomb.

The best way to rebuild the Rebellion, is from inside the empire. Right now, the forces of the empire are scattered trying to take more ground of the galaxy since nobody dares to defy the Empire as soon as the big ball shows up, so the core systems are slowly losing volume of soldiers by the minute. So, more and more of those few who disagree with the existence of this superweapon gain more power and influence as the armies grow and disperse all along the growing empire. How long until a group of loyalist decide to give a hand or two to a bunch of now weakened and defeated rebels, only so they can either bring chains to the weapon through politics (Which they know won't happen with the Emperor in charge), or try to take down the new weapon, at least temporally again?

Another way, is that more and more systems are realizing that the weapons meant to protect them are being pointed against them, and they need to fight back against their new impotence in the empire. The criminal scum realize that it won't be long until the Death Star is pointed against them. And there is an even bigger one being built while the Emperor focuses on his conquest of the Galaxy...

Basically, it can play out in a lot of ways as you like, the Force Unleashed book for Saga deals with something like this, a time without true rebels and empire winning, but it's mostly what you want to run.

Well I mean, I'm not against having to work with the other players in a sort of squadron sort of deal. That's like the biggest draw of it for me.
I essentially want Ace Combat in Space.

Is there a system that lends itself well to squad-vehicle combat?

>Cheapo arms drops into areas which have a high degree of unhappiness with the empire
>Sabotage groups ruining military infrastructure
>High ranking COMPNOR officials having 'terrible accidents'
>Psy-ops on isolated Empire troops
>Ruin their logistics with bribery, blowing shit up and allocating a lot of it to places it shouldn't be
>Encourage pro-rebel support with civilian populations

All that, read up on the French resistance during WW2 and the 1950's Malayan conflict

Second editions don't make money. Power creep does. Every X-Wing player I know buys multiples of the newest things without fail; why would the company move away from that? They don't need to balance things, just release new upgrades in new models that people have to buy.
It's the biggest scam since TCGs.

You can just play X-wing with each player controlling one or two ships for their side. That's what me and my friends do. 5 or 6 player 200~ point Imp vs Reb games. Lots of coordination to avoid friendly crashes.

You'd likely need 1 starter set per player and then a handful of TIE interceptors, bombers, advanceds, defenders, and a phantom or two, plus Y-wings for whoever wants to start in one and HWKs, B-wings and A-wings later when people want to swap ships.

It's not a convenient thing to jump straight into if none of you already play and collect X-wing minis.

starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Infinities:_A_New_Hope

There's always papercraft for the extra ships

True, but at that point why not just papercraft all of it? Buy one core set for the damage cards and templates and a bunch of spare bases, print out paper for everything else. You don't even really need to use dials, just print out the movement charts and have people place tokens on their moves since secrecy is irrelevant with an automated opponent.

Anyone have any ideas for a Age of Rebellion Campaign? I've just had the party steal a YV-929 armed freighter, and I was thinking of having them go on a series of missions to acquire more starships for the Rebellion.

Running supplies and weapons to commando units hidden on Empire fanatic worlds. Assassinating Imperial officers. Basically, look at what partisans and commando units did during WWII, and steal that shit wholesale.

A lot just got posted

Establish contacts with fringe groups for safe conduct/intelligence in systems. Pirates and the like.

Permelian Haul is certainly something you can do a few times.

A reb game based on the Ghost Army would be hilarious
>Fly empty transports in conspicuous circles around a system to make it look like a ton of soldiers are going here and there
>Set up fake bases that are just easy enough to spot that the Imps will waste time sending an attack eventually
>Conspicuously set down a few Z-95 in an airfield that is filled to the brim with life-sized rubber inflatable X-wings
>Hang out in bars dressed up as well known rebs so the ISB gets really confused when those guys strike somewhere on the far side of the galaxy

>Fly around in salvaged YT-1300s painted in a very specific manner with a pair of X-wing escorts

DJ Reb, a tradoshan cruising through the backblocks of imperial planets in his 50,000W sound system speeder truck, playing walker footfalls, repulsor whines, heavy blaster fire and creaking of tank treads

Perhaps try limiting the amount of time or how much you can say. Because there really is no autonomy and is just spending time figuring out what is the BEST move.

It is pretty bad and honestly the game often doesn't even feel like Star Wars anymore.

They actually could make money if they bundled it with new stuff too, like the starter boxes.

Maybe have an updated rules guide with all the new actions and some FAQ.
They could add in the needed T-65 title and maybe some new Tie fighter pilots or even a Imperial title to make swarms worth it again

Even at it's worst Xwing will always be 100% more Starwars than Armada.

Stop whining for picking up the wrong game and apologize to your FLGS for taking up the extra space.

>They could add in the needed T-65 title

I literally kill for this, how can X wings not be represented in their own game.

I went and made my own custom expansion because rogue one was awesome, and I was tired of waiting.

BB-8, R2-D2, stressbot, Integrated Astromech, Vectored Thrusters, Guidance Chimps, and a wide array of other great astros have done a lot to keep the T-65 afloat. It certainly helps that T-65 aces generally have good abilities. Wedge, Luke, Biggs, Wes, Hobbie, and Porkins are all still great fun to play.

I only really ever see Biggs anymore when I play against Rebels in my meta.

But I think we're a bit more competitive than most.

Anyone got a good link to watch Rebels? I need to get caught up on it.

Check the mega in /swco/ (its on /co/)

Do any of the FFG games have a fun system for space combat? Is it all just ToTM or is there any grid battlemap stuff?

I'd love to do an Imperial pilots campaign but it kind of hangs on if it's sustain-ably fun.

I don't play Armada. I play X-wing.

I participate in a hyper competative local meta and T-70s struggle to be on the table, let alone a T-65.

You will see Biggs though.

Didn't an XXX list win a regional tournament in America a few months back? I remember one user mentioning something to that effect a number of threads ago.

What the fuck is that TIE variant?

It's a TIE/████████████

So I just opened my first "Imperial Fighter Squadrons II" for Armada. Can someone explain why the fuck Maarek Stele, the player character of Tie Fighter 1994, was changed to a black guy?

Picture relevant, it's the art for the card and it looks terrible.

Probably knew the name for hum could care less how he looked. Otherwise they probably had or wanted to meet some diversity thing.

Fine with me. Puts one more nail in the coffin of the empire being a "white racist empire" to normies.

>Implying the rebellion ever ends

Shitty fucking GM.

>explain
Someone at the art department was a moron. Probably the same idiot who green-lit the Y-wing in this card.

There was definitely a picture from some 90s product where he was black, kinda like wedge randomly turning asian in that one comic. They probably just used that one pic for reference

Garm Bel Iblis, the PCs, that's about it. They really bungled it.

The Rebellion isn't over, or else why would I be asking how to rebuild it?

I don't have an issue with him being black, but fuck that head is so lumpy and misshapen he looks like the guy from The Hills Have Eyes in blackface.

What is it with ace pilots and the ability to magically change ethnicity? We have Jackie Chantilles, a black-or-white Maarek Stele, and a Baron who is either white or the People's Champion. Even Vader sort of fits. What secondary ethnicity will Poe get?

Does anyone else want there to be more nobles in the Sequel Trilogy? We had Princess Leia and Viceroy Bail Organa as main players in the Alliance, then Queen Amidala in the prequels, but... both are on the good side.

Who wants an evil bastard noble in Episode VIII? Someone whose family was favored by the Empire and kept in power as a local governor. Kinda like Alderaan, but if it was never blown up. Or rebelled.

Poe is Latino + White already, right?

Absolutely. It would make the Empire feel much more like a classical empire of rich nobs and privilege.
Would fit perfectly into the sort of superiority complex and entitlement that Tarkin displays.

Good ideas, thanks.

He looks more like Adrian Brody than Jackie Chan in that comic. It's a stretch to say that he looks Asian at all in that, really.

>Everyone's dead
Damn, son. What about all the people who would have joined after Yavin in Legends/canon? Are Lando, Crix Madine, Tycho Celchu, Baron Fel, Kyle Katarn, Jan Ors, and Ace Azzameen all dead, too? If not, Rebellion 2.0 could be rebuilt by pulling them in.

No, they're very much alive, and that's a good idea.

I've posted here about my campaign going off the rails, but to give an overview:

Due to the PCs getting involved, Tarkin/Vader/the Death Star didn't initially track the Rebels to Yavin IV. Instead, it went to Target #2, Chandrila. And blew it up, before the Rebellion felt confident attacking (without their home base at stake, at least) or Sheev saying otherwise.

Sheev, kinda pissy that Tarkin is going around blowing up planets - even if they're the ones the leaders of the Rebellion are from - goes to the Death Star to take control. The Death Star moves on Mon Cala, using threat of blowing the planet up to subjugate the Calamari and Quarren/make them dismantle their own defenses.

So now the Rebellion is pissed and attacks, both from hidden pockets of resistance under Mon Cala's oceans and the Rebel Fleet from secret hyperspace routes. The battle is bloody.

Meanwhile, the ISB has finally located the Rebel base and reports that it is nearly undefended ('cause they're throwing everything at the Death Star). Sheev orders Tarkin and Vader to handle it, while he stays on the Death Star and teaches the Mon Cal a lesson for daring to fight back.

So there goes Mon Cal.

And then the Imperial fleet arrives over Yavin IV and base delta zeroes it. There's nothing left to mourn.

But a lucky hit manages to blow up the Death Star - with the Emperor aboard - and so here we are, with the PCs and a few fighter jocks left to lead and rebuild the Rebellion.

Whoops.

>Palps is already dead
Oh, good. I was going to suggest finding Tag and Bink and using them to assassinate him.

No Bink or Binks in my game, thanks.

Ah you'll be ok, Garm will make the galaxy great again

>with a wall of dead imperials

Can't harm the Garm

Well...
The two things are, that without Palps, everyone calls himself emperor and tries to take over. Depending on what canon you are using, both Maul and Vader are the top Sith dogs, but neither has the highest political or military rank to ensure being top dogs in the empire, so now you have a fractioned empire and half of the world finding the oportunity to set back the senate with all/without all the corruption and excessive bureaucracy. Depending on the viewpoint, perfect time for plenty of jedi to come out since nobody outside of the Emperor was putting too much pressure against them due to atheism.

And there is the issue of the second Death Star, that is still being built, so the most likely suspect for new emperor is whoever is in charge of it because as soon as it finishes, he will be emperor one way or another.

>set up back the senate
>opportunity
english no work today

Another theme you could think about exploring is the sundering of the Empire. While the Rebellion is on it's last legs, I doubt the Empire is doing very well either. Vader and Tarkin could be at odds about the future of the Empire and who should govern it. Vader would probably try to take direct control while Tarkin would assemble a tribunal of Moffs to wrestle control from him. Seeing a civil war between Vader and Imperial warlords could be neat.

If the Emperor is dead, who is the New Emperor? Tarkin? Vader? Sate Prestage? Ysanne Isard? Grand Admiral Thrawn? A power struggle between them and other major political/military figures in the vacuum left by the Emperor would be fertile opportunity for a new Rebellion, or in the alternative one side could be backed by a new Rebellion in the hopes of reforming the Empire.

If Vader still lives, you also need to consider the fact that Yoda is still waiting to train the one who will bring about the fulfillment of the Prophecy. Assuming Luke and Leia are both dead, any Force Sensative PCs is an obvious choice, but if you're worried that would be too much there are plenty of fun Force Sensative characters running around the Expanded Universe to become the Guy Who Resurrects The Jedi (or some totally new force order, whatever.) Kyle Katarn is always a good choice since he's already been mentioned, and I personally have a soft spot for Corran Horn.

>a tribunal of Moffs

Addendum to this: Vader is doubtless seeking an Apprentice if he is now truly the Dark Lord of the Sith. If Luke and Leia are both gone, that can also be an important plot hook. The Rule of Two demands that Vader have someone underneath him to train as a True Sith, to push him to greater heights as a threat and/or to slay him for the good of the Dark Side if he is too weak. Him needing that as much as Yoda needs a replacement savior could be a very big motivator for how he conducts himself.

You acquire that skill somewhere around the 122nd kill. It's an ace thing. Hell, Hartmann passed himself off as malay for a good decade.
It's all in the reflexes

Well, with sheev dead and the rebs seemingly not a threat no more, the empire would surely be collapsing into an absolute dumpster fire as everyone and their brother goes full warlord trying to get the Big Boss seat. That would be a goddamn opportunity and a half for rebels, AND would surely also massively increase their potential support. (I mean, just think about a world where the rebs had the opportunity to ALSO play the "peace, order and good government" card along with everything else. Hell, odds are they could pick up more than a few good-guy former imps adrift in the sea of warlord hell)
Like, picture this: Gilad Pellaeon and Garm Bel Iblis co-leading a faction of old rebels and imps, offering peace, security and freedom in the midst of First Succession War: Star Wars Edition

I've been challenged by my GM to come up with some Original Star Wars Lore because he likes us to go on off-camera side-quests between adventures so we can flesh out our characters more. Since my character is a Rodian force user, he challenged me to go on a hunt for a legendary beast.

I have some ideas about the story, but what I don't have is ideas for the animal. Suggest me some ideas for an Original Content Star Wars animal /swg/. You're my only hope.

Palleon never really had much in the way of ambition and he was more than willing to turn a blind eye to the dirty dealings of the Empire for the sake of the military as an institution, at least before Thrawn taught him to feel true Imperial Pride. I think it would take some really significant story stuff to happen to him before he'd agree to join forces with a rebel as notorious as Garm against all other Imperial factions. I mean, until Thrawn came along he served a succession of Warlords for years no matter how shit they got.

Speaking of Interesting EU Imperials, wait until Tarkin's faction gets its back up against the wall and he pulls Dalaa and all the Maw Installation's toys out to play. SUN CRUSHER LOL.

>Tarkin? Vader? Sate Prestage? Ysanne Isard? Grand Admiral Thrawn?
Rath Sienar should also be an option. Also Thrawn never gave a shit about ruling himself. The warlords got so fucked they vested power into him. Isard, etc, all voted to have him as emergency Supreme Commander of a very decentralized Empire. If he doesn't get the support, he'd probably just loiter around the Unknown Regions with his force and biding his time.

Vader is likely to care even less about the Rule of Two than Sheev did.

I was thinking Tarkin would set himself up as Regent (assuredly refusing the title of Emperor until the best candidate could be determined) and grab ahold of the Outer and Mid Rims.

Vader, at odds with Tarkin but preoccupied, would disappear into the Deep Core to make sure Palps doesn't come back as a clone.

Coruscant will be run by a council of the late Emperor's advisors in conjuction with... probably Isard.

And once Tarkin has fought off the smaller warlords and established his rule within... Thrawn will invade from without.

Just in time for Vader (and potentially reborn Papa Palpatine?) to come racing in from Byss with a massive fleet the galaxy didn't even know existed.

In the center of this celetial meatgrinder sits the party of PCs, who are way out of their league.

I'm picturing it, stealing it, and using it in my game. You can't stop me.

You bring up an interesting idea, though a bit indirectly.
Like, in this situation, I could easily see an "empire, but not terrible" faction arising and getting a lot of popular support, like pellaeon's remnant, but fifteen years earlier. How would the neo-rebellion interact with a group like that? They want a future not dissimilar to the planned New Republic, but still with the name 'empire' on it and a giant federal army and navy to murder pirates and slavers and hutts.
What would the rebels think? Whst would they *do*?

I could even see that happening with Vader leading it. He was never as muahahaha evil as Palpatine, but was trapped by the past.

Released of that, he might actually be a decent ruler once he forced out any competition. A beneficent tyrant, as he said he wanted in AotC.

Well, Sheev cared in that he only had one actual apprentice and none of his other Darksider minions were in any way a threat to either him or Vader. He was the same way with Dooku for that matter. When Maul started becoming too strong on Mandalore he identified him as "A Rival," and broke him, and he threatened to do the same thing with Dooku, ie naming him Rival rather than Apprentice and taking him out, when Ventress became too powerful and herself was more akin to Sith Apprentice than simple Darksider Minion.

That being said, you do have a point that Vader likely doesn't give a shit about Sith traditions at all despite being a Sith's apprentice for two decades. But that sort of begs the question: what would Vader's motivation be in a world with no Emperor? He just seemed to be going through the motions or losing himself in whatever orders Palpy gave him, not really having any kind of personal drive or passion in ANH. Its only after he realizes that Luke is his son that he wakes up and puts his all into turning him so they can RULE THE GALAXY AS FATHER AND SON.

If Luke and Leia both die before he learns they were his children, and Palps is dead, and Obi-Wan is dead, and he doesn't know Yoda is still alive, and the Rebellion is gone, what is driving him to get out of the proverbial bed in the morning anymore? Does he even try to become Emperor or does he stay in neutral and pledge himself to serve another Imperial side so he can stay lost in the fog of war and never confront what got him here?

What, if anything, Vader latches on to to give his life purpose and direction will have a very large impact on the setting methinks.

>I could even see that happening with Vader leading it.
Christ Almighty, could you imagine how apocalyptically dire Vader leading a double-digit percentage of the imperial military on a death crusade against hutts and slavers would be?

...

Newcomer questions.
Which is better points format to start X-wing?

I could imagine him being Tarkin's enforcer. They were 'friends' (well, more of allies). He just keeps doing what he did for Sheev until at one point even VADER goes 'Yo Tarkin, this is a bit too much' when Tarkin decides to go full ham and try to blow up Coruscant because say, someone sneezed and he thought it was an insult on his first name.

If Papa Palpatine was to come back, everyone'd bend the knee. Its what they did when Dark Empire happened. Everyone from the most moderate to the most self-obsessed warlords bent the knee and joined up with Sheev once more.

Pretty sure that the "Massive Fleet" in the Deep core was mostly from the various warlords from Ardus Kaine on down all bending the knee.

That's to the level of the hutts fucking up their own space lanes and hiding in the Boontana.

Anyone know where I could get a copy of the Star Wars: Essential Atlas? Am planning to GM a campaign and could use the reference material

hungry-ewok.ru/sw/all_books.htm

It's worth every penny to buy though even if they do put some of the systems out of order for no good reason in the sector closeups.