Has anyone played the "Jewel of Yavin" adventure module on rpol or in other forms. Thoughts, criticisms or ideas for GM?

I've run it in a tabletop version. Well more accurately I used the raw parts to set up an adventure of my own.

It's fine, all things considered, just a bit complicated. If you've never run a heist game before then, in my experience, it is VERY different than a regular mission. The following thoughts are advice about how to run a heist in general as opposed to anything specific to this module

1) Put a time limit on it. Unless you know your players put them on a pretty tight timeline as otherwise I've seen groups just grind to a halt because they just sit back and plan and plan and plan or run off and explore this idea or that without ever committing to an attack line. Experience players tend to be able to just pick a plan and run with it but I've seen even experienced groups spend 2 full sessions (a total of 8 hours!!!) just sitting there and planning and planning only for one of the first rolls in the actual heist to be botched causing them to have to improvise and wing it.

Again if you know your players you can adjust accordingly but my view is that roleplaying tends to bring creative types into a room and if you ask a random group of six players to come up with a plan you end up with 4-5 different plans that can take them hours to form a consensus on.

Some groups love the planning session but in my experience what you end up with is 1-2 players who want to ask 8 zillion questions and plan everything to the nth degree and then 4-5 players who quickly get bored and just want to get on with it. It's something you'll have to learn as a GM to monitor and gauge the energy in the room but I've found putting a tight deadline on things both in game and in real time helps keep things moving.

Remember you can always fudge the time scale and give them extra time if they're having fun and things are moving but in my opinion I put the players on a fairly generous timeframe (1 hour to plan, 3 in-game days to get things ready) and they end up not needing any of it, or if they do that creates extra tension and drama.

2) Be prepared to go WAY off the rails. The real appeal of a heist game is that the players can flex their creativity so the last thing you want to do is to just sit there and say "no...no...no...". If you want to stick perfectly to the script then don't bother letting them plan. Just have their contact GIVE them the plan and you can proceed through it like a typical adventure.

3) Jewel of Yavin has a lot of notable NPCs to keep track of. There are several social scenes and a lot of important dialogues/encounters so make sure you do some prep work. Again you need to be prepared to go waaaay off script so make sure you're comfortable with all the NPCs in the room.

4) Expect the unexpected. One of the best bits of advice I have ever heard is if you're playing this in-person, feel free to call a break to get your thoughts in order. Heck even call the session early if you have to so you can prep properly when things go sideways.

Online is a bit easier because you can take more time and things develop slowly but feel free to "lock" a thread if players are going way off the reservation and just mention via OOC that you need some time to properly prepare a response. I've had that happen where I need a couple of days to figure out what is going on but the PCs are just rapidly posting and things just keep spinning and spinning.

In other games on here I have had to hit stop AND rewind. It sucks because it does nullify some player posts but sometimes things spiral and you as the GM need to take back control of your game.

5) Figure out what happens if the PCs fail. If things go really really wrong the PCs might be thrown in jail or make some powerful enemies. They might not get the jewel in the end as it isn't an easy scenario to pull off a clean sweep, so to speak, especially when you throw luck of the dice into it. Try and figure out fun ways that they can fail if things are heading in that direction so it doesn't feel like a total wash. Maybe they get tossed in jail but they make some good connections. Hell have Lando spring them and offer them a job :D

I have an idea for a campaign that I suggest calling Star Wars: Dirty Dozen. Could also be known as Star Wars: the filthy thirteen or Star Wars: suicide squad. It's hardly an original idea, but it's still good.

Imagine an imperial Commander trying to accomplish a seemingly impossible objective. They have limited resources and they can't afford to fail. So instead of risking a valuable crack team of Commandos or a company of Stormtroopers, they instead look in The Stockade. A group of deserters, looters, and other troublemakers are gathered together to perform one impossible task. This is their last chance to earn clemency for their crimes, so they hardly have a choice. It's up to these Misfits to accomplish their goal and hopefully survive. Naturally, if they succeed, they have nothing better to look forward to than more near-suicide missions. Unless they find a way to break the chains...

This would allow a game on the Empire's side of things without the PC's having to play bad guys. It would also explain why the Empire, with seemingly infinite resources, is so stingy with the party's equipment.

Since these characters would in theory be members of the military, I feel that age of rebellion would be an ideal game system. The careers and specializations are types of soldiers.

I would run this game myself, only I'm already running three Star Wars games, one of each type, and that is enough. I would contribute if invited.

Any Star Wars games starting up in the near future?  Looking to play again.

 Ditto

I’m thinking about starting one but I want more experience with the system and RPoL first. Maybe in a month or so I will put it together.

I've been looking for a partner, specifically a Bash Brother, for a game where I run Dawn of Defiance using FFG. They would both be Iconic and Knight Level. I would be playing the other alongside the player.

I swear the thing is cursed or something. I've only ever seen the end of the first part and like half of the second. I've never spoiled myself on the rest and been in like half a dozen games that always fizzled out. Looking to take fate into my own hands

In reply to zeone3000 (msg # 107):

Did you ever find someone?

I did not, but I found someone to fun a solo game in exchange for another.

I have yet to get the "I run one, you run one" exchange to work but I don't think it is so much the format just more about how hard it is to get a long time running game going.

Does anyone know if Edge Studio is actually going to reprint any of the core rulebooks? I recently found FFG Star Wars (precious experience with WEG and WotC) and would like to give it a try but can only find very expensive used copies online.

I saw that FFG closed their roleplaying division and transfered to Edge Studios, but the last news story was from 2020 saying they were going to reprint and publish new material and haven't seen anything more recent.

In reply to Passer24 (msg # 111):

Near as I can tell, they announced a bunch of reprints back in March, but about 3 weeks ago, they announced production problems on a product they're actively supporting (Rokugan stuff), so while I believe they're in the pipeline, I wouldn't anticipate seeing the reprints before year's end.

In reply to Lillykins (msg # 112):

Thank you.

I guess I'll have to wait a little longer. I was able to find a new copy of the EoE starter game from a used bookseller for a normal price and picked that up.

Good evening (at least where I am currently).

I am looking for a team of DMs to help run a truly epic SW universe. If anyone remembers, there was an attempt at this sort of thing a while back. I can’t remember the name of the game but it was a lot of fun while it lasted.

In short, I would like to run a campaign with multiple teams, much like the movies/shows that have multiple plots all running simultaneously but also all tied to the main storyline. It could include the crew of a rebel ship, a group of criminals, a team of explorers, a squad of imperial operatives, a political entourage, etc. each run by a GM specific to their respective stories. Working together to move the main plot along.

Any interest?
This message was last edited by the player at 05:36, Tue 29 Nov 2022.

I'm definitely interested. I'm not as great anymore about daily updates but I can help provide a lot of support. Plot lines, NPC generation, occasional updates (~3/week) and I also do a lot of AI art generation so I can help provide cool graphics and backgrounds (although specific alien races aren't in my wheelhouse just yet...)

In reply to praguepride (msg # 115):

Thats awesome! Custom artwork would definitely add to the feel of everything. And i think updating 3/week would work perfectly fine for most people. Especially if there is a lot of original, pre-generated content to pull from (which is a goal of mine to create and avail to the group of GM's).

I am tentatively interested - the collaboration can help folks keep each other interested, and recent forays into solo roleplay has refreshed my interest in FFG's system.

Happy holidays! here's to another year!

In reply to That_1_Guy (msg # 114):

I'm interested in joining if this team was put together/

In reply to praguepride (msg # 118):

Happy holidays!

Thanks for letting me chat! Does anyone have an opening for a player in EotE?

Good Morning (or afternoon, or night, depending on your timezone),

Was away for the holidays and back now. Still interested in working on the collaborative star wars eote/aor/f&d compaign. Let me know if youre into it and I'll add you so we can get started on some ideas and infrastructure....

Just checking in. Still looking for more GM's to help with this collaboration. There have been some awesome ideas concerning plotlines and themes so far. Let me know if you're interested in helping to build this out.

link to another game

Sorry for the link going to the cast instead of the main page. Heres the right one.
link to another game

So Digital Corridor is a group of VFX artists that make really cool videos for Youtube.

They decided to make a video last year about a new twist on the lightsaber, reworking the whole idea from the ground up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAzY28C8Syc

It's a really neat video and figured I'd share it here.

edit: One commentator pointed out that during the "montage" the student demonstrates lightsaber style combat from all 3 trilogies and how they would work in the real world. The original trilogy were wild swings focused mainly on big offensive strikes with little regard for defense. The sequelogy is all about "looking good" with the student pausing to almost pose for the camera during the clash and then the last part is the prequelogy with lots of spins and flashy showmanship.

Contrast those three with the first and last section where it demonstrates choreography based on fencing and kenjutsu principles and not whatever the heck hollywood thinks sword fighting is.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:41, Mon 13 Mar 2023.