And again with the memories. When will I shut up? Well, probably for a little while after this post...
MARKO VS. THE DROIDS
As our campaign progressed, the population of droids on the ship grew steadily—mostly through 'acquisition' from raids on Imperial bases and then reprogramming—but some through outright purchase. There was T-3PO (stolen from Lira Wessex), L9-G8 (a "talkative" cooking droid, foisted on the characters by the Squibs), R2-6D9 (wow, weren't we clever in our naming?), "Doc" (the enthusiastic mining droid who was convinced he could cure 'finger cancer' with his plasma drill. Its.. a long story). Itchy and Scratchy (Mouse droids), A1 (Hugganut's recon drone and gambling partner), Bugsy (a security droid who spoke like a gangster)..and, well, I think that's it?
In any case, the sheer number of them suddenly dawned on me. It was like a whole community living right on the character's ship. And so...I got to thinking. One day, the group makes a pit-stop on Such-and-Such-a-Planet—I can't remember which, but they were doing it just for some R&R. Well, I decided that the droids (always cooped up on the ship) were going to have their own party while the rest of the party was out on the town. The ship's captain, Marko (the ex smuggler) came back to the ship for one reason or another and found it crawling with strange droids- invited by the ship-droids for a party of sorts onboard. As he walked into the lounge, all the droids froze, like teenagers caught by an angry parent. And Marko reacted just like an angry parent—chasing everyone out and chewing out the droids for their audacity. Leaving the scolded droids behind, Marko returned to the bar and finally back to the ship, where he passed out in his bunk.
When he woke in the morning, Marko found himself duct-taped quite thoroughly to his bunk. The droids made a point of cheerily passing by his cabin, bleeping and calling their good mornings. As the rest of the party woke, they joined in—passing by to wave at the trussed up Marko "Hey! Good morning!" They let it go for.. oh, maybe an hour before finally cutting him loose. Needless to say, the Droid's point had been made. They could have their parties from then on.
Ah yes. The fun of never memory wiping your droids.
OMAN VS. OOGA THE APE MAN
This is the incident that will forever live in infamy (if I have anything to say about it). Yes, folks, it is the incident that I just will not let die. It was the day that Oman the badass Mandalorian met his match. It happened on some survey/recon/scouting mission. The ship set down on a primitive planet, and while conducting preliminary scouting work, they were attacked by a band of ape-men armed with rocks.
Oman, who was on guard-duty in his mega Mandalorian armor, met the initial brunt of the attack. Even as he switched his weapon to stun, the Ape men launched a volley of hand-thrown rocks into the air (you know, in retrospect, he should be grateful they were flinging rocks instead of what monkeys generally fling). One of these rocks hit him...for enough damage to completely knock him out and put him in the medical bunk. Yes. He earned that dent that all mandalorians seem to have in their helmet. It makes one wonder if they send all Mandalorians to ape-man planets to prove themselves and get that dent—you know, like the way Predators have to hunt Aliens? Yeah... that's the ticket.
In any case, this is the one thing that Oman (and his player) just can't seem to live down.
BOB'S INTERROGATION
Another amusing moment from that wacky Tusken Raider Shaman. In this case, he was going undercover with the team to infiltrate a top-secret Imperial research base. Yes. That's right. The Tusken was posing as a scientist. He came up with an elaborate, ambiguously "alien" costume for this, complete with a breath-mask apparatus that allowed him to maintain his Tusken modesty. Also included was Bob's chest-mounted translation box. This was a running gag in our campaign—that Bob really only spoke in the gutteral Tusken language, but that he had this translator that broadcasted his words in Basic. Unfortunately for Bob (who had the highest Knowledge attribute in the party) his eloquent and intelligent responses were poorly translated by that box (which only barely understood the language), resulting in Bob sounding very..."simpleminded". For example:
Actual phrasing: "I think we should reconsider our intentions of going into the swamp. It seems rife with dark-side energies.",
Translation: "Bob say, stay out of swamp—bad ju-ju there."
There was one occasion, however, where this box came in quite handy—but not necessarily for its translations. Bob, posing as a scientist, was being interrogated by the secret research base's chief of security. The chief really didn't suspect the party of anything at this point, he was just randomly trying to frighten everyone on the off chance someone had something to hide. So the interrogator gets in Bob's face and starts accusing him of being a rebel agent—yadda yadda. He demands answers! Bob replies in gibberish—which his box translates as gibberish. Feigning frustration, Bob begins to wildly adjust the knobs and switches on the translator- only making it worse. Valiantly, Bob tries to "fix" the box, causing it to squeak and squelch loudly. The security chief gets more and more annoyed—especially when Bob begins to bang the 'obviously malfunctioning' device against the desk. Finally, since it wasn't a real interrogation anyway, the chief just orders Bob to get out and get the damn thing fixed. Bob retreats apologetically—victory was his.
Yeah, so again, one of the guys with the worst Con skills in the entire group pulls off a really smart deception. And I still laugh thinking about it.
ADREN VS. BLIZZ PINNIX
This was one of those rare occasions where dice and roleplay work together hand in hand to create a truly dramatic event. In this case, Adren (who had since gone 'part time' with New Republic Intelligence) was working on her professional Swoop-racing career. She had, during her adventures, run into a retired 'Blizz Pinnix', widely regarded as one of the Galaxy's best Swoop and speeder-bike racers. The two of them really hit it off (what with Adren being his biggest fan—she even had an action figure!). In any case, Adren was asked by a friend of hers to participate in an exhibition race—to help draw tourists to a newly Republicanized (and economically hurting) planet. Pinnix agreed to come out of retirement for this good cause. Adren was never expecting to win. She was just thrilled to be racing her hero. I ran the race anyway, and to my surprise, it seemed to get closer and closer—the lead going back and forth between the two as both racers would roll awesome one round, then crappy the next. It made for some very dramatic stuff as the two were neck and neck down the final stretch—and then came the final roll. The decider that wold determine the final victor. The rolls were made. The final tally taken and... holy crap. A tie! I couldn't have asked for a more appropriate or dramatic ending to it all. And there it was. The Force must have been working those dice rolls that day. In any case, Adren was ecstatic. She never really wanted to defeat her idol—her concern was to not 'go out like a punk'. Pinnix? Well, he was pleased, too—all warm-feeling about 'the next generation' of swoopers, even as he maintained his status as 'THE MAN' of swoop racing.
Oh, and for those Pinnix fans out there? No, he wasn't using his super-souped up special bike—nobody could catch THE MAN on that ;).
THE DEATH OF HOME ONE
This is the most recent RPG memory I have—considering it happened just this January on my trip back to South Dakota. Towards the end of our weekend-long adventure. The party (consisting of Arianne, Bob, Oman/Mandalore and Horatio) put into motion a crazy plan that Oman had come up with. The Nagai had launched a massive counterattack, utilizing the Hydian Way hyperspace lane to drive like a spike towards the heart of the New Republic—Coruscant itself. The Republic, spread out along the rest of the front, could only seem to slow them down (yeah, I mentioned this in a couple other posts already, so I won't hit too much detail here). In any case, the plan was to open up a dimensional vortex, within the hyperlane, just when the Nagai jumped. Hopefully, it would swallow up their fleet by sending them to 'Otherspace'—even if only temporarily.
To do this, they needed a huge, mobile power source. With all the major capital warships already fighting at the front, they had to look elsewhere. In this case, they looked to HomeOne—the now retired flagship of the Rebellion, which had since been turned into a museum and memorial in orbit above Coruscant. Hastily, Home One's engines were fired up and she was called into duty once more. As the Republic fleet stalled the Nagai at Arkanis, the old ship was moved into position—in deep space along the hyperlane routes. Engineers under the personal command of General Cracken worked frantically to set up the vortex generator. Meanwhile, Arianne and the rest were given command of the ship and its defense.
Of course they were discovered before they were ready. Advanced scouts for the Nagai detected them. It was Horatio's idea, I believe, to at first pretend to be a stranded refugee ship. After all, they were certainly unarmed (museums don't need working weapon systems). Horatio even broadcasted fake distress calls and pleas for mercy to keep up the deception. This kept the Nagai from seeing them as a threat. At least, initially.
The Nagai soon sent a larger ship to capture the 'derelict'. That's when the bluff finally had to fall through. Its funny, this only happened a few months ago, but the details are still muddled in my mind. As I recall, Arianne, at the helm, rammed the Nagai frigate, breaking it's spine. The surviving Nagai-troops attempted to board, only to be met in one of the ship's gift shops by a combination of Mandalorians and Republic Marines, led by Oman and Bob. Nagai fighters began to pummel the ship. With minimal shielding and no weapons, Home One was having a hard time holding them back. Oh sure, a few of the Republic shuttles launched to try and intercept, but it was looking bad. It was then that Arianne, still on the bridge, began to employ the ship's mooring tractor beams. Locking onto the wreckage of the Nagai frigate, she maneuvered the shattered hulk as a primitive physical shield, blocking the worst of the Nagai fighter's attempts at the main reactor.
Finally, the trap was ready—and just in time. The vortex began to open as the Republic troops made a hasty retreat in their shuttles. Out the viewports, they watched as Home One was sucked into the dimensional rift—the final voyage of a grand warship. Seconds later, the Nagai fleet—attempting to move through the hyperlane—followed, their ships sucked through the rift after Home One.
Even as we were playing it, I was thinking to myself—wow, this is a really dramatic and cinematic moment. I could see it in my mind as shots in a movie. So yeah...truly memorable. It will be with me forever.
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