Lit Fantasy Flight Games and the Star Wars TCG

They might also be drawing influence from the pre-Saga Edition starships guide, too.

It's a side-on view of the Nebula, but you can still see the side engines and the same superstructure.

 

So, my group of fifteen years is switching up RPG systems at the end of our last campaign, as we are wont to do, and it looks like we're switching to doing a round-robin GM game using FFG's Star Wars RPG. There's six of us in all, and two haven't run before, so it was decided that it was the best one to use, as everyone was familiar with the setting (meaning the OT). Last Friday we worked on character design, and we have:

1. Female Devaronian Bounty Hunter Survivalist
2. Male Trandoshan Hired Gun Marauder
3. Female Twi'lek Colonist Doctor
4. Male Human Guardian Soresu Defender
5. LOM Series Droid Spy Slicer.

I haven't created a character myself - I'm running first - but I've been eyeing the Duros Archaeologist. I'm going to ease into things and probably run a published adventure, and we'll see how it goes.

 

Myron, the Soresu defender is going to struggle massively in there. We should talk about morality.

 

Background: Outlaw Agent.

 

Sure, but I'm sitting at 100 morality now, which is great for the +2 strain and +1 automatic lightside destiny token; but it's not satisfying gameplay wise. The Order 66 podcast on conflict is a good guide that I'd recommend considering before system-mashing like this.

 

That is freaking awesome, Jello.

 

"B-wings doing a strafing run? On my bridge? I have more important things to worry about."

 

So my old campaign, where I was a Sentinel Shien Expert, has come to an end and I'm going to be GM'ing an AoR game.

The plan to make GrandAdmiralJello the basis for a Senator is in place, but he doesn't yet know he'll become a prominent Rebel leader and left wing activist.

Yet.

 

Why is fighting for freedom from tyranny an assumed left wing activity?

 

So it was designed to troll or designed to foster a discussion?

 

a) the rebels are clearly lefties. They're dirty, for one.



See? Unwashed.

b) it's not like they're fighting on behalf of the Space French for an economic imperative then retrospectively reimagining it as an organic colonial fight for freedom from tyranny.

GrandAdmiralJello - so, if he swapped out elegant purple robes for practical, red, common working man's garments, that would be bad?

 

Props to your first point: they are indeed dirty.

That said, I would argue the fight to establish, or in this instance, re-establish a republic is both a classically liberal (i.e. right-wing) act and goal. I've always seen the Rebel Alliance as a band of right-wing rabble rousers, but to each his/her own.

 

Classically liberal would be more centrist, but I have this instinctive reaction to the American Revolution parallel. Mostly because I want to assume that the Rebels are better than that; and because America gives so many great examples of how to run the Empire in a game that yeah... would feel strange.

 

And thus explaining our difference in perspective. I would note that classically liberal in no way is "centrist" from an American viewpoint. Not sure how America gives so many great examples of how to run the Empire, but would be interested to hear in another thread.

I see actual real parallels between the Empire and ancient Rome, the old colonial monarchies of Europe, Nazi-era Germany, and even the former Soviet Union.

 

Well yes but to be frank, I don't really look to American definitions on ideology since the ideologies are consistently defined outside the US; and when your sole contribution to the ideological database of the world is libertarianism you forfeit the right to be taken seriously.

(For context; I don't look to my country either.)

The best example I can think of for the storied nature of liberalism is the Nederlands. The governing Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie - VVD - is a conservative liberal government; but the Democraten 66 (D66) made significant gains at the recent election and they're progressive liberals.

So maybe the latter being a part of the alliance, for sure. But using the anti-Nazi imagery further, you would have liberals and communists in uneasy alliance. Europe's really good for giving you an insight into how socialist and non-socialist left can work together and infight - which later become validated in Rogue One.

As for how America can influence the Empire in your games now? Well two things. Firstly, any imperialist power can be an inspiration because they're absolutely going to have brutalised, repressed and denigrated whole groups of people with blithe indifference. Secondly, Nixon was an inspiration for the Emperor.

 

I get that the left-wing comment was just to get a rise out of Jello, but this is a topic that I've always found fascinating. The Rebel Alliance is undoubtedly a hodgepodge of different political ideologies united by their opposition to authoritarianism. After all, it consists of countless worlds who each bring their own species, histories, cultures, structures, and views to the table. They may not agree on how the galaxy should be run after the Empire is replaced, but they don't have to, because it's a moot point so long as the Empire deprives them of the democratic means to debate and determine that course for themselves. One of the trickier parts of determining the political ideologies of each subgroup within the Alliance has always been that it's a shared universe with different authors, some of whom may have little grounding in political theory or at the very least have strong partisan leans that shape their view of who the "good" guys and "bad" guys are. For example, I've tended to find that Bail Organa has views that can be regarded as classically liberal or progressive depending on who's writing him at the time. Mon Mothma can probably best be described as a progressive most of the time, while Garm Bel Iblis is fairly consistently a right-wing libertarian. The planet Uyter is undoubtedly libertarian in its views as well, although its Senator Jebel is a squishy centrist. And then, of course, you have the worlds that are hard to nail down, whether because their actual political ideology hasn't been spelled out implicitly or - perhaps more accurately - it varies depending on the public mood at any given time.

 

Yes but I would point out coalition leftist resistances against right wing regimes have tended to be more benevolent than the inverse, unless of course one thinks the Contras embodied well the spirit of our Alliance heroes. They've also been historically divided on partisan lines - Greek resistance, French, Dutch etc.

So part of R1 I loved was that the Rebels had a variety of attitudes to outright civil disobedience. Some were gung ho for conflict, others timid. That felt authentic in the historic context. Though if ANY of my AOR players try to be woke I will end them so fast.

so, so fast.

 

That's because America has invented it's own left-right dichotomy, not typically utilised everywhere else in the world.

The Civil War against the Empire isn't a left-right war in the mainstream sense (i.e the Empire aren't liberals and the Rebels aren't conservatives in the American context). That's why it's so successful - it doesn't choose between mainstream beliefs.

The Empire is portrayed as an authoritarian far-right state - the iconography is fascist and they are described as 'fascist' in the script. Lucas, being a 'left-winger' in the Vietnam era, based the Emperor upon a nightmare scenario where Njxon lurched to right. While its meant to be fascist in the films, in the books, etc, they are portrayed as also having traditionalists and conservatives who accept the authoritarian nature of the Empire however may not agree with its more 'fascist' elements.

The Alliance is, well, an alliance between anti-authoritarians and anti-fascist united by their pro-liberal democracy stance. Within this framework you would have everyone from left-libertarians, social democrats and classical liberals to social conservatives and right-libertarians.

 

Erm, we're talking about RPGs here gais

 

What are you a nerd Ender Sai?

 

What thread is this?

 

The Rebellion board game now has a Rogue One & Rebels-themed expansion (mostly Rogue One, but the Interdictor at least, comes from Rebels):

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/5/rise-of-the-empire/