"Losing is fun." - Dwarf Fortress

People have been trying to do “Star Wars, but better” since the first groundbreaking Star Wars movie came out in 1977, including the visionary who made the original film and the most powerful multimedia company in the world. I don’t think I’m the guy who’s finally going to do it-- at least not in the near future-- so I’m not going to try to do it.  What I’m going to try to do is take some of the feel of the Original Trilogy-- and the forgotten Expanded Universe and Prequel Trilogy, which are considerably darker-- and combine it with medieval political fantasy (including church politics) and crime drama.

I’m expecting players to be at odds with each other, to come to blows. I expect some PCs to do the best they can, and most PCs to end up with blood on their hands. I expect, by the end of this game-- hopefully years from now!-- that the galaxy will be a very different place than when it started. Whether it’s for the better, or for the worse, will depend entirely on the choices you make.

That's the tone I'm aiming for here. We are R-rated here, but I’m not looking for a bunch of gratuitous sex, violence, and profanity-- just hard choices, ugly consequences, and the precious sweetness of victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

I’m an old-school, OSR-style Dungeon Master. You may not understand what that really means, so I’m going to lay out some things you can expect from me, and what I’m going to expect from you:

I Don’t Have a Plan: In order to make the most room for my players to make meaningful choices, I don’t have a plan and I’m not following a plot. I’m going to set up your starting positions, and I’m going to throw out a bunch of opportunities to go have an adventure… but I’m not going to tell you where to go or what to do, and I’m not going to fudge the dice or goose the narrative to keep you on track.

You have the freedom to try to do anything that makes sense for your character, and you have the freedom to win or lose on your own.

The Game Only Happens While We’re Playing It: This is play-by-post, so any player can post any time they want, for any scene they’re present in. But we’re going to be building our galaxy together, before the game starts, and we’re going to build our characters together. We’re all going to know, OOC, who everyone else is. And that’s going to be everything there is to know about your characters until we start playing.

Don’t bring previously-used characters to this game, and don’t bring a backstory. Your character will develop a backstory as we go along, and it’ll be more fun because the other PCs will be involved in it.

I’m Playing for Blood The Old School is (mostly fairly) known for its high-lethality approach to games. I’m not doing that; it’s not appropriate for Star Wars to have named characters to just drop dead. However, you’re going to tell me what’s important to your character-- their hopes and dream, their hatreds and fears-- and I’m going to stick that into your character like a knife and twist it until they scream. You’re going to love it.

You’re going to win more than you lose… I can practically guarantee, but making sure that your defeats have painful, long-term consequences is how I make sure you never forget your victories.


Now, this last one isn’t specific to old school style, but it’s probably the most important:

I’m Here to Help You Have a Good Time: When your PC is lying on the ground, their hand and their father’s lightsaber hopelessly lost, and I tell them I’m their father-- I’m not wringing my hands in sadistic glee because I enjoy hurting you, I’m having fun because I think you’re having fun. If you’re not having fun, or especially if I’m actually hurting you… I want to stop, and I want you to tell me to stop. If anything that I, or my co-DM, or any other player is doing is making you uncomfortable, please PM GM Shroompunk or DM Governor immediately. We can't promise that we'll adjust the game to your liking, but we'll take your concerns seriously, without judgment, and try to find the solution that's best for everyone.

I’m Your Biggest Fan: I want you to win. I want to watch you win. I want you to look cool while you’re winning. I’m cheering for you every step of the way. In fact, the only reason I’m going to keep hurting your character so bad is because it’s more fun for you that way. In the end… you’re not all going to win, you’re not all going to be able to ride away into the sunset, but by then I hope you understand that losing is fun, too, and you’re going to look even cooler when you do it.

On the other hand, there are some things I expect from my players to maximize everyone’s enjoyment:

Play the Setting, Not the System: The default rule in 5e is that the DM calls for dice rolls-- which I enforce in all of my home games, regardless of system. It’s not practical on RPOL.net, so go ahead and roll your dice when you think you need to, just don’t touch the dice until you’ve told me what your character is doing that necessitates the dice. Most of the time, you’re going to succeed or fail based entirely on what you say your PC is doing and whether or not they can reasonably do it. This works out in your favor. Tell me what your character is trying to do, and how, before you touch dice.

Don’t roll Perception or Insight at all, just do not.

Do Something Interesting: Your character is the protagonist of a space opera. Act like it. You’re not going to have fun unless your character actively goes out and tries to do something-- and the flip side of having the freedom to do anything is that I’m not going to bring the game to you and make you do anything.

Murder Is Nothing Personal!: Your characters are all coming from different sides in a long and ugly war. Some of your goals are going to be mutually exclusive, and sometimes the most sensible thing to do is going to be shoot first or ignite your lightsaber. And that’s okay. We’re all friends here, and breaking each other’s toys just means we’re having fun. But… try to have a good, in-character reason for doing it-- don’t attack other player characters for metagame reasons, don’t attack them just because they’re Jedi/Sith/Republic/Separatist.

Don’t try to kill someone unless it helps you achieve something worth dying for.

Everyone’s Here to Have a Good Time: Help them. Help them help you. Assume that In Character aggression is intended to be friendly roughhousing, and that Out of Character aggression is a matter of miscommunication. Share the spotlight, and help other characters look good for their moments in it. And if something in this game is keeping you from having a good time-- PM GM Shroompunk and/or DM Governor about it.