Living on the Edge- Episode 1
I started running a Star Wars: Edge of the Empire game this weekend. We had played a few sessions with the beginner game before and were all eagerly anticipating the full books release here at the end of April. When the book got delayed, we faced a choice; continue with the beginner box characters, wait until the book launches in July or surge ahead with a fresh campaign using what resources we could find off the internet.
Fortunately, I found a couple of “cheat” sheets people had put together for use in their games. This included information on talents and how to create a character. This was all we needed to be able to make characters and get started. We have a group of 5 players, though unfortunately, were only able to get three of them together to get the adventure started (one works on oil rigs so will only be able to join us sporatically and the other called in sick this morning).
Mass Transit IV Map by Maps of Mastery
Our adventure takes place in the Arkanis Sector of the Outer Rim (where Tatooine is). The PC’s are the crew of the Wayfarer class transport Pink Lady. I’ve always loved the Wayfarer class and found some stats someone made for her for EoE. Though, we are using the floor plan for the Paragon class, because I wanted to use the great map by Chris West of Maps of Mastery
Zeltron courtesy of Star Wars WIki
The esteemed Pink Lady is captained by the Zeltron, Verci, who is literally pink lady. A former Cafarel, she fell in with a smuggler named Toggs Starburns. Slowly, she “borrowed” enough credits from him to to buy her own ship. For her Betrayal, she feels a bit of an Obligation to her old consort.
The ship’s piloted by the young Allyria, Ria to most, a human from Alderaan. She grew up in a sheltered wealthy family. While studying at University she fell into a politically active crowd and started working for the Alderaanian Mercy Fleet. This kept her off Alderaan when it was mysteriously destroyed. She feels an Obligation to her Duty to defend the survivors of Alderaan and to champion non-human rights. This political motivation and naivety has a tendency to get her into trouble.
The ship is also home to a down on her luck doctor, known as Evie. She was the TA for one of Ria’s classes and when they ran into each other in the Outer RIm, this got her a position as the ship’s medic. Unknown to the others, Evie feels Responsible for a plague outbreak on the small colony of Gorno, when a disease she was studying some how got out of her lab and forced the abandonment of the colony.
Previous to our adventures, the crew ran shipments of Greel Wood out of the Pii system for the Greel Wood Company. Shifting political pressure has changed the companies policy on hiring, politically suspect freighters. With the loss of their stable work, the crew decided to accept an offer from their former contact at Greel Wood, Morani Alwaid, a mid level shipping manager. As a female and alien, Morani felt some sympathy for the down on their luck. She also has interest in getting into the lucrative spice trade using embezzled Greel wood she’s stolen from the company.
After debating the merits of getting into the spice trade, the crew were confronted by a mysterious, and very flirty man, named Cease Fullari. He carried an ornately carved box made out of Greel wood and asked the crew to take him to the Cranan system. As a dealer in “valuable merchandise” he promised to get them a contact in the underworld to sell their illicit wood to in exchange for spice.
The journey to Cranan was uneventful but upon exiting hyperspace, they received a distress signal from a nearby freighter. Always one to trust others, Captain Verci moved into assist. After docking, they learned the ship’s pilot had come down with a terrible illness. Upon inspecting the man, Dr. Evie immediately recognized the symptoms of the Gorno Plague. Working as desperately as she could, she tried to tend to him. While she did succeed in treating his wife and son, the man was to far along. Only advanced, and expensive drugs, could help me now.
With the poor man out of her reach, the crew helped bring in the stranded freighter to Cranan and the woman was left with instructions on what her husband needed to survive. Cease departed the ship for his meeting on the planet, asking the crew to wait for him. Still in need of an underworld contact, they remained in the starport.
It did not take long before their passenger came running into the starport, local security forces hot on his heels. Calling for them to take off immediately, Captain Verci obliged her passenger and Ria blasted the ship out of the starport. An IPV-1 system patrol craft operated by the Arkanis Mining Guild, the dominant power in the Cranan system, gave chase. Desperately the crew tried to race away from the much more powerful craft. The navicomputer ticked down with the ship barely holding together.
Now fleeing the Arkanis Mining Guild, the crew hastily tried to make repairs. Cease promised full repairs to the ship as compensation for getting him off world though still proved reluctant to reveal what was in his mysterious box. Unable to resist the temptation, young Ria slipped into the man’s room at night and opened the box.
Inside, she found a cylindrical tube which her deep education allowed her to identify as a lightsaber. Activating it revealed a purple blade, a distinctive color Evie remembered from holovids of the Clone Wars. She surmised the weapon was once that of Jedi Master Mace Windu. The players had a lot of fun when I pulled out a lightsaber prop I had made a few years ago when Ria opened the box.
Outraged at his privacy being invaded, Cease tried to take the blade back, receiving a burn to his arm. All attempts to charm him into forgetting the incident failed, leaving Captain Verci with a sense of Despair. Cease took the blade back, swearing to uphold his agreements but that dealings with the crew would be over once they reached Kemal space station.
Knowing they’ve lost one potential friend in the underworld, the crew arrived at Kemal station, which they believed to be a thriving smuggler den. The station proved to be a decrepit refueling depot with barely any inhabitants. Droids were dispatched to make repairs on the ship, as Cease promised and the crew waited for their buyer to arrive.
Bored and eager to see the station, Ria led the crew on a tour of the small facility, journeying into restricted areas, eliciting a sharp scolding from the Twi’lek station overseer. With no excitement to be found, the crew rested until a Sullustan by name of Taygeta Panaybe arrived. The captain of the Barloz class freighter, Dirty and Rotten, Taygeta worked out an arrangement to exchange the crews Greel wood for several crates of spice, electronic lock slicers and rare Syntonium ore. Fortunately for the crew, Captain Taygeta was a fair trader, as their inexperience in underworld dealings became immediately apparent when young Ria pointed out that by spice, they weren’t talking about paprika.
Our heroes ended their adventure awaiting a mechanic who would help them install a hidden smuggler compartment in which to hide their illicit cargo..
This first adventure turned out to be a lot of fun for everyone involved. The Edge of the Empire narrative dice really does an excellent job of allowing the story to unfold in fun and unexpected ways. Everyone felt empowered with the ability to try interesting things, as they didn’t feel constrained to only make skill checks of things they were trained in.
Aside from being pursued by a system patrol craft, no combat occurred during the session. Not once did anyone draw a blaster or try and kill someone. And yet no one was bored.
We did run into some issues at not actually having access to the books, even the beta. I had a lot of rules from the beginner game and the cheat sheets I had found but these were designed as reference material. They did not explain things very well, forcing us to make up a few things as we went along. But this is a good group of experience roleplayers who were in it for a fun story, so we got past the hurdles.
We’ll continue our adventures next week, in honor of Star Wars day on May the Fourth. One of our missing members will make her appearance as she arrives to install a smuggler compartment on the Pink Lady….
Living on the Edge
2 Comments
Jedi_Rabbit · April 27, 2013 at 9:18 pm
That sounds awesome can’t wait to hear more about it as the campaign progresses.
leif · April 28, 2013 at 3:36 am
The absurd situation has turned out
Comments are closed.