About this game
Star Wars: Junkyard Dogs is a Star Wars Saga Edition Roleplaying Game. It's being played online, play-by-post style, on the d20Radio.com Forum. There are two threads for the game:
- Out-of-Character thread — This is for out-of-character discussion, including talk about the game itself, recruiting, and requests to join the game.
- In-Character thread — This is for in-character play. This is where the game is played and the story is told.
Setting
The Rebel Alliance has not formed yet. At least, they have not acted out in a unified, public way. As the Empire tightens its grip and begins to show its true colors to the galaxy at large, everyone tries to find their place in the New Order. Criminal syndicates are thriving as powers change hands from planetary officials to Imperial governors and Moffs, and as Imperial officials accept bribes at a severely steadily increasing pace. Once honest merchant, trade and shipping companies being forced out of business or wrongly incarcerated are forming their own smuggling operations. Tightened Imperial regulations against defensive weaponry on civilian craft but neglect in the Imperial defense of shipping lanes proves a tasty feast for pirate fleets. Business is booming with bounty hunters who find no shortage of work from an Empire that finds it convenient to let others hunt their dissidents for them.
The players will find themselves in the role of a crack salvage crew. You come from a diverse array of backgrounds. Ultimately your histories are your own, but as a salvage crew you have been working together for some time and know each other quite well, at least on a personal level.
Your political stances may be as varied as your backgrounds, ranging from believing that the Empire brings order and stability - or steady business - if nothing else, to indifference, to having no love whatsoever for the establishment.
As the campaign opens you will set out to live your lives in a business-as-usual manner, until your lives are turned upside down and you are forced to re-think your team's role in the changing galactic stage…
Gameplay and Expectations
This campaign will, naturally, run in a play-by-post fashion on these boards. The target pace will be at least one GM post and players' response per week; very relaxed. I am seeking a party of 3-5 players at this time. I may adjust those numbers up if there is interest and the game warrants.
If you are interested, please respond below, and feel free to field anu questions. All participants are asked to let the group know if they will be unable to post on-time so we can keep the game moving. Just mind to courtesies and we're all good!
There are two threads for this game: This out-of-character (OoC) thread, and the in-character (IC) thread. This thread will be used for all administrative and chatty topics not occurring in-game. I try to discourage unnecessary meta-gaming, however if something is unclear about the game and dialogues, I'd rather you ask than wonder, forging on ahead into a speederwreck. :-) The worst that will happen is I won't answer all or part of a question (and I'll try to indicate why).
I'm told that I have a somewhat unique style to online play. I will make posts - chapters if you will. These will summarize the actions given by players' responses to previous chapters, and present in-game feedback. Players will then post their responses and actions based on that chapter. Rinse. Repeat. I do this to validate the actions, to make it clear what's working and possible, and quash the things that I think just don't make sense. It's been working well so far, but I always appreciate feedback. Once a chapter has been succeeded by another, we should be working only off of the latest chapter.
Character Generation
Players should roll 5th level characters using a…let's set it at 28 point buy. Don't forget to take your extra stats at 4th character level; that's not part of the 28 points! Jedi-lovers: remember that the Great Jedi Purge is wiping out any of your kind that aren't in hiding, and that frequent Force use will get you and your crew targeted by the Empire post-haste.
I'm not really placing any hard limits on species or class at this time. Just make sure that your species doesn't mention their discovery any time before the Dark Times. (For instance, the primitive Ewoks are not discovered until some years later at the Battle of Endor.)
Figure your HP according to the Dawn of Defiance standards. See the blurb and chart at the bottom of page 3 of that PDF. In summary, you'll take full HP your first level, and a fixed amount for every level after, depending on the HP die of the class you're classing into, as shown on the chart in the PDF.
If you're starting at the start of the game, your character will start with max credits plus 2,000 to apply towards gear. Those joining after the start of the game, contact me so we can figure you out. Nobles, if you take Wealth, make sure you hook yourself up with the appropriate credits for that at your second level.
Starting items that are Restricted, Illegal or Military, I want to know about. Restricted, I just want to know, and remember the license fee is 10% and not 5%. Illegal or Military, I need to roll your Gather Information to determine if you can have it and for how much. No one starts with Rare items unless you've got a really AWESOME roleplaying reason to back it up.
Please paint a quick background and fluff for your character. This doesn't have to be a novella! Just paint a picture about where this character comes from and what he's all about. It might be nice to also mention how your character came to be a salvager. Give some idea of how your character feels about the current conflict brewing within the Galactic Empire.
Last thing is I'd love to get your character stuff in the form of a stat block, but if a stat block just really isn't comfy for you get me the info however you can.
Please note that in my example stat block here, the background is pretty in-depth. You can do this if you want, but it's really not necessary. I'm long-winded. Plus the scope of our campaign in the game I�m using that character in is really tight, so I could afford to be that specific. Use it as a guideline but not as a rule!
Sourcebooks
In addition to the Saga Edition Core Rulebook, these books will be used for sure at various points:
- Scum and Villainy — This is a fringe-heavy campaign. Lots of smuggling, salvaging, bribing, maybe a bit of piracy.
- The Force Unleashed — This is not expected to be a Force-heavy campaign. However, there are a lot of Imperial themes and the game takes place during the Dark Times. This sourcebook covers a lot of ground there.
- Starships of the Galaxy — The heroes' salvage team will be traveling aboard company freighters a lot. Space combat is inevitable. Since I do not have the time to draw and keep maps updated, space combat in this play-by-post medium will be abstracted. For those players wishing to really benefit from maneuvers and feats in this book, please bear it in mind, but I will try to abstract the effects of your chosen feats, talents and maneuvers as best and fairly as I can.
Others may find a place in this game as it progresses, and new products become available. I will let you know in this thread, and this post will be edited as required.
I think that about covers it. Let me know if you have additional questions and I will continue to keep this opener up to date for you all.
