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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

RPG Cracken's Crew website and Clone Wars Sourcebook

Discussion in 'Archive: Games' started by JediAlly, Nov 26, 2005.

  1. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    I came across a reference to this site at SWRPGNetwork. This is what SWRPGNetwork had to say about it.

    We at SWRPGNetwork love to see new Star Wars RPG-related endeavors succeed, and we are pleased to help promote a great new source for RPG material. Community members at Fandom Comics have created a high-quality online comic book known as Cracken's Crew: The Invisible War. In addition to having great art and an intriguing storyline, the comics also come with complete RPG statistics in the form of a comic sourcebook, produced by the comic's creators. If you're looking for great new stories and some interesting RPG material, surf on over via the link below and check it out. Here is what Holonet member Nar Cranor sent me about the site:

    Fandom Comics is a new line of Star Wars comic books created by fans for fans. Fandom Comics is dedicated to bringing Star Wars fans quality fan material the likes of which are suited toward hardcore fans, but aren't economically viable for a large corporate like Dark Horse Comics.

    The current title Fandom Comics is running is called Cracken's Crew: The Invisible War. This story follows a group of a Rebel Intelligence Ops Team that is commanded by the legendary General Airen Cracken of West End Games fame. A host of newly created characters for the comic support a cast of the lesser used EU characters such as General Cracken, Ysanne Isard, Blackhole, Kapp Dendo, and Grand Admiral Martio Batch in a galactic struggle to acquire a new technology that may tip the scale of the galactic civil war.

    Cracken's Crew: The Invisible War is not just a web comic. It is supplemented by an RPG fan sourcebook, short fiction that provides more insight into events and characters that make up the Cracken corner of the Star Wars universe, sketchbooks that show the developmental process artist Steve Criado went through to create the comic, and much more.


    I'm not that much of a gamer, but I am interested in the stats of various characters. The fan sourcebooks that supplement the site are quite good.

    Now here's the treat - at the beginning of this month, the following was posted:

    This was something I was planning on releasing today but it wasn't ready for the update this morning. I'm glad to say that it's finished and I'm making it available now rather than waiting until the next update. In the Sourcebooks section you'll find a sneak preview to a project Keith and I have been working on - Fandom Comics Presents: The Clone Wars RPG Sourcebook. I hope you enjoy it!


    I just checked out the preview. My reaction: I quote from ANH, in a Jawa's accent, "Love it! Love it! Love it! Love it!" If this is the preview, I can't wait for the whole shebang.

    Here's the link to the website: Cracken's Crew: The Invisible War
     
  2. Bripe_Klmun

    Bripe_Klmun Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2005
    Gotta question for ya, since you checked these out...I see I have to DL a .zip file to read these sourcebooks, and that seems a bit dodgy to me as I don't really know what's in the file. Is it a PDF-formatted book, or what?
     
  3. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    All such sourcebooks are PDF files. Having them zipped may be a little pain, since you'd have to have an unzip program in order to read them, but it's worth it.
     
  4. NJOfan215

    NJOfan215 Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 17, 2003
    wow, those people did excellant work.
     
  5. Gry Sarth

    Gry Sarth Ex 2x Banhammer Wielding Besalisk Mod star 5

    Registered:
    Jun 24, 1999
    That's a nice looking book, very well done. However I have a major gripe: They have the "Ithorian War Throat", seen in Clone Wars Volume 2, as a Species Trait. The audio commentary of that series itself states that it is a Force Power that used the Ithorian powerful four throats. Having this amazing ability be something that any Ithorian can do is just silly....
     
  6. Bripe_Klmun

    Bripe_Klmun Jedi Youngling star 1

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2005
    Thanks very much for the reply. Whenever I see a zip file on a site I'm not really familiar with, I get a little nervous as to what may actually be in the file. Glad to hear.

    *off to download*
     
  7. Jedi_Winter_Knight

    Jedi_Winter_Knight Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 2005
    any word on when this sourcebook will be posted?
     
  8. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    The writers were planning to release it with the update at the beginning of this month, but it wasn't ready yet. When will it be ready? I don't know.
     
  9. sithreaper

    sithreaper Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Oct 8, 2004
    Wow very high production values. I think Cin Drallig, Krushk & Jesiel maybe a little bit to powerful but what the hay, very impressive.
     
  10. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    I agree with you about Jeisel, but some of her stats are missing. So I think she's still a work-in-progress.
     
  11. JoinTheSchwarz

    JoinTheSchwarz Former Head Admin star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 21, 2002
    Great stuff.
     
  12. Jedi_Matt

    Jedi_Matt Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2002
    good find jedi ally, and thanks for sharing :) i can't wait to see more... i hope there are republic commando stats too... something i'd like to see :)
     
  13. Jedi_Winter_Knight

    Jedi_Winter_Knight Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Oct 30, 2005
    YES! Republic Comandos!!! I didn't even consider that. :)

     
  14. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    I just checked and the first chapter of the Clone Wars Sourcebook is up, and it's titled the Dark Side. Gotta check to see if the stats there on Anakin, Palpatine, Dooku, and Sora Bulq matches what's presented on the WotC website and in the GATORTS (Sora Bulq only). But they got stats for Asajj, Tol Skorr, Kadrian Sey, Sev'rance Tann, and other prominent dark siders. Nothing about Kar Vastor, though.

    Edit: just checked. Anakin's stats are the same as those presented on the WotC website. Palpatine's, Dooku's, and Sora Bulq's stats in the CW Sourcebook are different than what's presented on the WotC website and GATORTS. Don't know whether or not to take the stats presented in the CW Sourcebook over what's presented in the books and website.
     
  15. Jedi_Matt

    Jedi_Matt Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2002
    just another note, there are a couple of nice people who have created stats for most of the clone commanders, bly, cody, gree et al, as well as the other troop types. These stats can be found on the WotC SWrpg forum, in particular: here --> http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=542701

     
  16. SBD-518

    SBD-518 Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Nov 10, 2005
    Two great finds. Cheers for sharing.
     
  17. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Wow, I didn't know this thread existed! I'm Keith Kappel, one of the co-founders at fandom comics. Wanted to thank you guys for checking out the sourcebook material first and foremost! I am not familiar with Kar Vastor myself, if you could give me a line on what source he is from, we can see about including him.

    as for some of the stat changes, we know the stats presented in some other sources speak differently, but for the dark sider baddies of the clone wars, we wanted to present what we felt were more definitive versions. Obviously the official material is the official material. Ours is just fan material. But the Sora Bulq as presented in the GATORW book just isn't a challenge to a medium level party. He isn't even built right. He doesn't have half the pre-reqs he needs to have some of the feats they gave him. So we felt a rebuild from the ground up was neccesary in several such cases. Obviously, as for which one you should use in your own games? Use what works for your campaign best. Most of our re-stats are built a lot tougher, for higher level campaigns.

    The official stuff is out there, and we don't want to duplicate it. The darth vader we present is supposed to be a darth vader only moments into his armor, so he has not modified or tweaked it at all, and it is still more cumbersome then helpful.

    As for the Ithorian War Throat ability, we made it a very weak species trait. What the guy does in the cartoon is a force enhanced version. I believe we outline how we see the entire scenario in game terms on our forums somewhere. I would have to ask Ryan, since he wrote that.

    In any case, be on the look-out for more updates in the months to come. Jedi are next on our list, and we already have about half of the 100+ jedi done, some of which you saw in our preview.

    Also, for those who can't stand the wait, our rebel and imperial cracken's crew D20 material has additional NPCs and some new PRCs, the Demolitionist and the Imperial Commando, so give those a look too!
     
  18. Anstrona

    Anstrona Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    May 14, 2005
    Hi, I'm Ryan Brooks, the other co-founder at Fandom Comics. I just wanted to say I'm really pleased that you guys have found our site and enjoy the material that we're working on. My partner Keith has said pretty much everything I was going to address to your concerns. But I would like to input a couple of extra things.

    First off, we DO have Kar Vastor on the list (Keith put him on the list I guess he just missed the name on the there) but we have him slated to be in our "Fringe" section since he's not in league with Dooku or being controlled by Sidious so he really doesn't fit into our Dark Side chapter as those are all the Sith and those they control.

    The other thing, I understand that the ability Roron Corobb used in the Clone Wars series was an amplification of a scream through their four throats and two mouths, but I felt it was warranted for them to have an actual d20 ability to amplify in the first place. On our forum (and on a few other forums in fact) I posted two scenarios breaking down in d20 terms just what occurred when he used that ability. The post can be located here:

    http://fandom.swnsu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=86

    Hopefully that'll help shed some light on what I had in mind. The ability itself is rather weak and limited. When used against organics it simply does stun damage, but against droids and inanimate objects it does normal "vibration" damage. The scenario break-downs will help explain it better.

    Anyway, thank you again for the kind words and please keep stopping back at our site to check out our updates!
     
  19. Jedi_Matt

    Jedi_Matt Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2002
    I'm looking forward to seeing the other stats you guys have come up with, great work so far and the info about the characters is great too, rather than what just happened in the movies.

    Kar Vastor interests me greatly, i reckon he'd be a Force Adept/Force Warrior combo, I'd like to see the stats on the Korunnai weapons too, the wrist weapons that repelled lightsabers.

    Great work so far guys, glad you see it's appreciated, because i'd hate for you to stop :p

     
  20. MasterKazur

    MasterKazur Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    May 13, 2004
    I agree with Jedi_Matt... You guys are doing a GREAT job.

    I really like your Dooku stats. In my book they're "official"!
    Much better done than the ones by WotC...
    I also like your take on Sora Bulq.
    The Ventress stats seem to be a bit too high level though, but I'm not sure at which point in time they are meant to represent her.

    Keep it up. Can't wait for the next chapter!
     
  21. JediAlly

    JediAlly Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 31, 2000
    Kar Vastor was one of the main enemies Mace Windu went up against in Shatterpoint. You can find out more about him from the Star Wars website and the Unofficial Encyclopedia that's available at this webiste.
     
  22. Koohii

    Koohii Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    May 30, 2003
    Just don't waste your time actually reading Shatterpoint. Horrid book.

    If I have to struggle to make myself keep reading a Star Wars novel, there's a problem. If you want to read a book, try Conrad's Heart of Darkness, or just rent Apocolypse Now and imagine puttign it in the Star Wars universe. This is getting to be more of the litterary section, not the RPG area, so I'll stop now. check out the reviews on Amazon before you buy. I've learned that one the hard way more than once.

     
  23. Jedi_Matt

    Jedi_Matt Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 11, 2002
    pah, your words are poison :p it's one of the greatest star wars books, but for one reason or another was either loved or hated. but yeah, stay on topic ;)
     
  24. sabarte

    sabarte Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 8, 2005
    I like this a lot. Sora! Sev'rance! (but she's taking on a quarter of the High Council and killing a Jedi Master with only 5 Force-user levels?) Just a pity they're using the clone theory to explain New Droid Army instead of the Force Doppleganger theory - the 8x acceleration at the very least needed to get a clone up to Dooku's age by the Clone Wars is just stupid. If Dooku was cloned, the clone would rationally be a younger man. Consular Dooku does make a lot more sense to me than Guardian Dooku.
     
  25. NarCranor

    NarCranor Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Mar 1, 2005
    Thanks for reading through the chapter! As for your concerns with the Dooku clone, the new essential chronology does refer to it as a clone doppleganger, and doesn't mention the possibility of it being force created. Now, there are a few different ways to explain this.

    1.) Spaarti Creations. The republic/separatists dont really take over this factory until two months after the new droid army game, but roshton said it was a fairly new technology, as in, there were other prototypes out there, who knows quite for how long. The spaarti tanks can grow a clone TEN times faster than normal. meaning they either age 20 years for every year, possibly. More likely, however, is that the clones are grown at full gestation and flash trained while growing, and then age normally. This is how the process seems to go in the thrawn trilogy. If the dooku clone was grown this way, then it would explain why he was less powerful and the same age.

    2.) Force assisted cloning. Alright, the entire point of the dooku clone was to be a body double for dooku. Someone who would be recognized as him to confuse the republic. To this end, some judicious amounts of makeup, holo disguise, or mental force persuasion could be in use to help sell a younger dooku clone as being the older genuine article.

    3.) Sith Alchemy. It might be possible for sidious to take another force user, one of his cabal of dark jedi, and through sith alchemy transform that jedi to identically resemble Count Dooku, to act as a distraction to the republic and confuse intelligence reports. This would seem to be within the realm of the possible for sith alchemy, which mutates beings. It is possible that sidious' true face is the hideous one, and through sith alchemy he was able to construct the more apealling ian mcdiarmond one. The lightning damaged and removed the alchemy? A possibility.

    Now, in my mind, any of these scenarios are infinitely more plausible than a new "force doppleganger" force power. We just don't see the force as being able to conjure things like this. However, that is just my opinion. Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own.

    As for Tann. In the video game, she doesn't really engage all those jedi masters. They just kind of stand there, shocked. She just kills the padawan and bails. I think the Jedi were a bit surprised to find another dark sider on planet. And they may have been under the impression she was the second sith, and were being overly cautious. Beyond that, shes no slouch for a level 11 character, and she did have quite a few military units under her control.