Lit Fragments from the Rim: A look at Galaxy Guide 9 w/ Charlemagne19

Something I feel is missing in the book are space-nomad clans/societies: group of spacers who (like Poul Anderson's star nomads in Star Ways) travel in large groups (either in large ships or in schools of smaller ships) along the edges of known/civilized space. Living by trading, transporting, selling their knowledge and/or sometime raiding with the planets in the area they travel or outsiders.

They could function as some kind of local powerplayer that the PC:s has to deal with in the areas of space where the Republic never hold sway and the Empire's grip is rather lose. They could also be a kind of returning presence if the PC:s are planet hopers but wherever they go a ship belonging to Chla-Chla trade-clan leave just as they enter, a tradehouse-embassy lay just at the edge of the space-dockland where the PC:s are staying, etc.

 

I agree with @Gamiel. Space gypsies have a place in every SF franchise. Well, no, actually, they don't have a place, that's why they're gypsies. Anyway, yeah, lots of stories you can tell with gypsies. I often had some show up in my campaigns. Eventually, one of my players discovered that he had unknowingly been born the long-lost king of the gypsies. That's a fun revelation for the right kind of player.

 

Ironically, the Gitanyi, space gypsies that have played a large role in some of my campaigns are ... planetbound.

I may be doing this wrong. ;-)

 

Clicks on the 'Would you like to know more?' button.

 

I liked Han's companion in NJO after Chewie died who had a Romani-esque feeling.

 

Me too.

Even if his species was a bit on the nose on how inpiered by the romani they were in The New Essential Guide to Alien Species. If I got my hands on them I would probobly use cossacks elements to make them less obvious romani, toghether with stuff from other nomad Culture both real and fictional.

 

The Gitanyi are a group of nomadic humans living in the Juarezia Sector, the sector where games I GM occur. They are descended from groups of rural humans forced from their homes by the increasing urbanization of Thyforn, the most populous planet in the sector. The various clans of Gitanyi managed to travel to other planets in the sector, but typically had no ships of their own, and took to nomadic lifestyles on the planets which they found themselves. Their cultures diverged over time, so Clan Darl of Kibbick 2 lived a fairly typical foot-and-repulsorlift lifestyle (until an orbital bombardment decimated the clan and forced the survivors to travel with PCs offworld), the yet-to-be-named clan on Dyeridia has evolved into a swoop gang subservient to the Hutt lords of the planet, and the clans of Khagoja wound up actually settling down and emulating some of the Tapani-style nobility from local hegemon world Castano.

Droma and the Ryn were definitely a bit on the nose, but I liked that they gave the psuedo-Romani Ryn such an important role in the NJO, and left them recognizable for anyone remotely familiar to know it's them. It was a nice little thumb of the nose to anti-Romani bigots.

 

Given that one of the Ryn was actually named "Romany":

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Romany

it was a lot on the nose.

 

I feel if there was any Romani-esque group that included some of their more stereotypical aspects, they'd probably originate from Corellia.

 

Corellia is where the Space Jewish people live according to the medstar books.

 

Ok, now I want to know why you both think what you think.

 

About Corwin Shelvay, I'd like to point out that he actually wasn't a padawan, but rather a college student whose latent Force-sensitivity was discovered by Darrin Arkanian over ten years before EP. IV.

He's like Luke in that respect, he never as taught under the former structures of the Jedi Order, so most of his knowledge of the Force and such was rather improvised and D.I.Y. (which surprisingly is rather effective in creating successful Jedi apparently.)

 

Since I'm me I could not stop at just a comment but come up with some ideas. I guess Gamiel gonna Gamiel.

Ostersjon League: a group of herglic space nomads found in [whatever part of the Rim you want], they offer transport, trade, help with technology and gambling. When it come to the last part so are Ostersjon League infamous for it, in every spaceport’s League quarters you will find at least one gambling den (legal or not) and every Ostersjonic transporter is said to be a small casino.
The Ostersjon League trade with any realm/state/planet in their part of space that are willing to trade with them but they show a preference for landing near or in water.
Herglics from the Ostersjon League show ritualistic scarifications marking out family, rank, ship, honours and many other things. They put importance on cleanliness, especially on pure water and their internal currency is based on units of clear water.

Obe d’Mar Xhi: [seen earlier among pirates, presented here in a different way] an ancient and inbreed clan of duros space-nomads, with an contempt toward the Republic and its laws that goes back at least a thousand years. This contempt is just as strong for the Republic’s successor: the Empire.
As such they have no problem breaking Republic, and later Imperial, law. They are willing to trade with anything and anybody no matter what or who, legal or not. Known to keep their contract to the letter (if not the spirit) but having no loyalty with former trading partner once the deal has ended.
How large the Obe d’Mar Xhi clan is is a mystery, since its members are extremely tightlipped toward outsiders, it’s is spread out all over the galaxy and ships have been known to go unrecorded for decades and then reaper. The lowest guesses are around ten thousand while the highest believe that there can be billions of Obe d’Mar Xhi clan-members out there.

The Kull Mining Corporation-Clans: Seldom seen outside of their voidsuits the Kull are ryn who trade in the ore and stone they mine but are also known for their musicians, theatre-plays and void-warriors (all three groups which are for hire, as are the Kull’s miners and their knowledge).
The Kull are divided into Corporation-Clans which in turn are divided into shipholds. A clan usually lay claim on a territory – which is usually a system, a planet, an asteroid cluster – which gives them solo right among a Kull to mine and built in that territory, and they say in that claim until the ore run out or they are driven from their by other (more often it’s the later).
While ryn make up the majority of the Corporation-Clans do they sometime adopt in people from other species, even free droids (which doesn’t mean that they don’t own non-free droids) but the amount of non-ryn among the Corporation-Clans are belived to be between 1 - 5%.

White Red Sphere Triangle Explorators: this antediluvian group of space nomads is formed around a core group of gree who are supposedly continuing with an ancient mission given to their ancestors. In time those ancestors and their decedents gathered followers to help them when their own numbers grow smaller and their original equipment begun to fail them.
The Explorators can be found all around the galaxy, their original ships turned into the core of hyperspace capable spacestation created by all the generations of patching, upgrading and installing. Those spacestation are usually surrounded by smaller ‘ships repairing, patrolling, protecting, coming or going. By some unknown mean so do the different Explorator fleets (as they have become known as) keep in contact regarding all important information. It’s been suggested that they use ancient gree-tech, mystical abilities or some kind of astropathy.
What the Explorators mission is seemingly only known by the gree and they are not willing to explain to “beings who would just not understand”, but it has been theories by outside observers that not even the gree know and they are just continuing what they saw their forebears do.
The Explorator-servants of the gree comes from all manner of species that the Explorator ships have come in contacted with but share one elaborated an baroque culture. Many of them are masked, speak in strange ways and females among the Explorator-servants are sexually active with outsiders when given chance to prevent inbreeding.
To get in personal contact with the gree at the core of the Explorators outsiders will have to go through all manners of rituals and diplomatic talks.

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EDIT: Here's some old kickstarters that might be good inspiration for space nomads:

 

Since Charles had this "How I'd Fix Them" thing going on with some of the articles I thought I would use the lack of:

To do my own "How I'd Fix Them" with some of WotC's Force using non-Jedi groups that I think needs fixing. The groups are the Matukai and the Zieson Sha, both from the Hero's Guide

How I'd Fix Them


Matukai
Many Force-users require some sort of focus to concentrate their power. The Matukai, a sect of Force-users spread throughout the galaxy, teach how to reach out to the Force, which they know as Bob, using their own bodies the primary focus for their ability.

The first Matukai was a female from the world of Karvoss II who discovered her ability to touch the Force inside her while practicing a form of meditative martial arts, over a thousand years before Palpatine. Eventually, she become a relatively strong presence in the Force and began teaching other Force-sensitive students. Dutifully trained, these pupils continued to refine her teaching and in time begun to spread out into the galaxy to teach more.

One of the unique aspects of Matukai training is that it allows any being with otherwise negligible inherent strength in the Force to develop it into something formidable using their body as a focus. Through basic meditative martial arts, physical exercises, and somatic rituals, they fan the spark of the Force inside them, hoping the spark will one day become a flame.

With the passing of time, the Matukai way waxed and waned, and sometime splintered. During the Imperial-era there were five great monastery-schools known of, two who did not speak with the other three. There were also unknown numbers of lesser dojos spread out allover the known Galaxy.

Sadly the main monastery on Karvoss II, in the part of the land were the original master is said to have come into her insight, was destroyed some years in the Imperial regime by an explosion. Officially it was a malfunction in the power generators, which completely destroyed the temple with surroundings, killing at least 90 people. Many believe that this was not an accident but sabotage, something that is not unlikely since the explosion was much bigger then what’s possible for generators of that size and power.

The basic philosophy of the Matukai revolve around a balance and harmony between the spiritual aspect of the Bob and physical aspect of the body. The general tenets of the Matukai include keeping the body clean and strong, purifying themselves through physical activity, focusing on the Force through exercise and ceremony, and avoiding any bodily or spiritual taint.

They also teach a sort of flexibility of spirit. This belief entails never allowing oneself to become flustered of upset; keeping oneself in a natural state of relaxation and rest to give the body the greatest channel for using the Force; and ensuring that nothing causes anguish, fear, apprehension, or other forms of stress that have negative physical side effects.

The typical training methods of the Matukai often seem very simple when observed by the untrained masses. Through each Matukai’s training differs based on the instructor’s decisions, most involve the learning of a complex series of martial arts forms, slowed down to act as a form of physical meditation. Matukai trainees are frequently required to push themselves further than they normally could physically while drawing upon their inner Bob for strength and healing. Each lesson taught to a Matukai begins with some feat of strength or stamina but results in a lesson in their way as well. A Matukai apprentice frequently spends hours or even days at a time holding one pose or stance in an attempt to let the Bob flow into him, often in harsh weather or while under some other great physical strain.

Those who complete the training and become Matukai are in good physical health thanks to both the influence of the Force and the rigorous training they undergo. Additionally, Matukai are identifiable by the distinct tattoo that covers part of the forehead and the side of the face at the eyes. It is a symbol adopted when a Matukai completes her training.

The Matukai emphasis on the body as a focus for channeling the Force has allowed many who would not otherwise be able to tap into the Force to do so consistently. Many who have mastered the way of the Matukai actively seek out others to train, while some simply prefer to focus on their own training.

Rules: A disciple of Matukai can only begin with dices in Control and cannot learn Sense or Alter unless she find a teacher or similar. She also has to begin with at dices in Acrobatics, Brawling and Stamina and her Control cannot be greater than the highest of those three skills.

Variation: Since the Matukai tradition is over a millennium old and is spread out so can a player just as well be a martial art specialist (putting most points in Brawl) as one who only use the teaching and the Bob to keep themselves pure and balanced (putting only one dice in Brawl), and can come from most kind of cultures and technological levels.

[Creator’s comments: most of this are copied from WotC’s Hero’s Guide with some changes and removals. I mostly remove the parts mentioning Jedi and that they had a signature halberd-like weapon since I did not really feel they added anything worthwhile. I changed the presentation so it felt less “gamey” to me and made the Matukai a larger and more split organization so it felt more likely that they PC could be one or meet one (the original text had them at less than 100) and we could have Matukai with different philosophies, just as we have martial artist with very different outlooks and styles. The D6 rules for the Matukai are all mine.]


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Zeison Sha
"In the heart of Outer Rim, there is a tribe of warriors known as the Zeison Sha. They strike fear into the hearts of all they cross. The Zeison Sha are masters of the throwing knife, wielding blades said to have been blessed by the Force itself. Their aim is so murderously accurate, they can decapitate *three men*... with one strike."
- Free-trader and entrepreneur Amar

If there ever was a sect of Force-users built for survival under harsh conditions, it is the Zeison Sha. On the harsh world of Yanibar they developed: a planet of seasonal extremes – dry, blistering summers and frigid, wet winters – with fickle weather and hardy native life.

Believing that their ancestors was abounded there by the Jedi around two millennia ago, Zieson Sha and all other Yanibaree look upon them, their ways and their work with nothing but mistrust and suspicion. They fully believe that the Jedi kidnapped children to train and was behind the Clone War, even if they have no love for the Emperor and his Imperium.

The Zieson Sha are the guardians, protectors and sometime leaders of the people of Yanibaree. They use their talents to fend off the dangers native to Yanibar and defend those who cannot defend themselves. Whether protecting a home from a violent storm or fending off a pack of wild Voorcats terrorizing an outlying region, the Zeison Sha train to ward off any threats.

Their teachings are focused on self-reliance and independence. To survive on Yanibar the Zeison Sha came to be completely self-sufficient, and passed on to their descendants the ideals that allowed them to survive such harsh conditions. The Zeison Sha philisophy centers on being able to take care of oneself and one’s family, teaching not only autonomy but also ways to manipulate the Force for one’s own defense.

In addition to the independence that is such a large part of their philosophy, the Zeison Sha encourage helping those in need; though each member of the community is expected to take care of himself, using one’s powers to assist someone else is a noble and honorable pursuit.

Unfortunately, their philosophy of self-reliance has caused a number of losses to the dark side over the years. Self-sufficiency can quickly turn into selfishness, independence transforms into bitterness, and their knowledge often lend themselves well to attack rather than defense. Fallen Zeison Sha are not common, but every few years one or two trainees are lost to the dark side and must be turned back or eliminated.

Unlike some Force traditions, like the Jedi, do the Zeison Sha stay part of their family and often create families of their own. Children who show talent in the Force are usually taught by their parents or a close relative if possible. When a Force-sensitive child is born to non-Zeison Sha parents, the youth is assigned to an experienced member of the organization for training while still remaining at home to grow as an individual in a normal setting. The child stay with their first master until they are considered old and educated enough (this is typically around 14 years) and are then handed over to another Zeison Sha under whose tutelage they will be expected to learn the higher arts while also facing harsher and more dangerous situation than before.

The Zeison Sha use the Force to be masters of their domain, they know how the weather is going to be, predict coming natural disasters and to guide their knives against threats. An integral part of training is the use of the throwing blades, the chosen weapon of Zeison Sha warriors. The throwing blades are a focus for their discipline and telekinetic ability, and come in many different shapes, from simple throwing knives to large, multibladed kpingas.

Roles: A Zeison Sha begins with 1D in Control, Sense and Alter. They begin with Absorb/Dissipate Energy, Danger Sense, Predict Natural Disaster, Telekinesis, Weather Sense, and four other Force powers that are chosen by the player. The PC also has to begin with dices in Thrown Weapons and Survival.

All Zeison Sha ad their amount in Alter when using their Throw Weapons skill and when using Weather Sense always count Yanibar as Difficulty: Easy.

The Zeison Sha don’t know any Force Powers that involves space travel (like Instinctive Astrogation) or any powers affecting electronics (like Electronic Manipulation) but a PC may later learn them.

Variation: What species the Yanibaree are made up of to have been left open so the player can choose what they want but it shouldn’t be any species that don’t have a long history as space travelers.

[Creator’s comments: most of this is copied from WotC’s Hero’s Guide with some changes and removals. I removed most of the backstory and compromised it since what really happened nearly 2000 years ago is not that important for how the Zeison Sha think about it and just take up space. I also changes the presentation of their powers to be more focused on what’s I think should be really helpful on a world like Yanibar than cool and combat useful telekinesis. I also took away their signature weapon the discblade and instead had them using throwing knives, this because I found the discblade unaerodynamic and not as cool or practical as real world throwing weapons. The D6 rules for the Zeison Sha presented here are all mine.]

 

It feels to me that I should give the Zeison Sha more of an disadvantage compared to Jedi, since they did originally only have very little real Jedi knowledge to work with and have only existed for a comparably short time. As they are presented here the only disadvantage compared to the Jedi are a lack of less then a handful of Force Powers.

I was thinking that maybe the experience points needed to increase Control, Sense and Alter should be higher, to represent that they are not as knowledgeable as the Jedi. But at the same time I was thinking that Force Powers could be treated as skills, so you could have Alter 1D+1 but also Telekinesis 1D, meaning that you get 2D+1 when using TK, representing that a person is better in TK than any of the other Alter powers.

 

When I wrote "I want to know why you both think what you think" I meant it as a hint to explaining why you have those images in your mind. It just feel so different to me then the usuall depiction of Corellia

 

Mostly, it's the matter of Jos Vondor and his issues of falling in love with a woman who isn't from the Double Planets of Corellia. Apparently, there was an extreme taboo regarding this matter and a strong family based culture which tied to tradition as well as religion plus bloodline. So much so that marrying a human from another planet (Lorridian in this case) was actually considered to be taboo.

 

For me, it's because of the reputation Corellians have as spacers and scoundrels.

 

The expansion of the Correllian Sector has been interesting in many ways.

Not only with the Corellian Trilogy but also various other worlds not mentioned.

There's Lando's (Legends) homeworld of Sacorro aka Old Corellia, which is a planet of old traditions and feudalism that the rest of the Corellians treat as somewhat ridiculous as well as eccentric.

So this is a Double Planet stereotype.

Also, we have Corran Horn who is a By The Book Cop who HATES Han Solo's reputation applying to them all and Wedge Antilles who is a Working Class Hero.

 

but didn't he later become a Renegade Cop?

 

Corran's enormous hypocrisy is an actual character trait.

 

Adventure idea
The Assassin Droids are not in droideface, they are real reprogramed assassin droids, now programed to be musician and only kill when they or "Boba" is threatened and no other alternative is present. The problem is that before the reprograming they had some really interesting information stored in their mainframe, information that might still be there and people are willing to do much more than kill to get and some of those people (maybe the droids previous owner/s) have now found out that the Assassin Droids are the droids they are looking for...

 

To continue wit this, now with the Blazing Chain from The Unknown Regions :


THE BLAZING CHAIN
The Blazing Chain is a nomadic nation of pirates and raiders who ply their way through the Unknown Regions in search of poorly defended settlements and starships from which they can plunder whatever they need. Blazing Chain ships are painted with variations of a fiery chain wrapping across the vessel, an intimidating and fearsome symbol.

The Blazing Chain operates as a dozen small autonomous fleets, scattered throughout the void they see as theirs. The fleets are made up of a wide variety of ships captured over the years. Each fleet is led by an Adacap, a strong-willed, charismatic, and intelligent captain-admiral, able to keep his/her followers in line through threat, bribery, or genuine respect. Rarely does a single leader emerge to head the entire Blazing Chain. However, the fleets regard each other as brethren and rarely combat each other directly. United raids are carried out on an ad hoc basis.

There exist no homeworld for the Blazing Chain nation proper or any of the fleets. However they often have some shadowy planetary- or spaceports of call and the largest of the fleets even have spacestations as part of their fleet. Most members of the Blazing Chain live and die aboard their vessels.

Many of the fleets have also established hidden strongholds on isolated worlds, kept secret from outsiders and other fleets. Those strongholds serve as rallying points, supply caches, fortifications, meeting locations and (if needed) hiding places.

The Blazing Chain’s people consider manufactory work or recourse gathering (mining, farming, etc.) beneath them and instead raid, trade or use slaves for that kind of things.

What makes the Blazing Chain so dangerous is that they have Force users among them. Called wyrd, wyrdman/-woman and similar (often something combining ‘wyrd’ and their main duty) those Force users use their wyrdcraft to foresee danger, find good hunting grounds, increase their fighting and/or leadership capability. Most of the pirate nation’s leadership come from the ranks of their wyrd.

The wyrd have a very basic understanding of the Force, which they combine with a belief in spirits, glyphs of power and often a hodgepodge of other things variating between fleets. Many of them use drugs, rituals, blot and sorcerer-scientific devices to increase their powers when needed; whatever works (or they think works) to get an edge over their prey and opponents.

Rules
Wyrd cunning: a Blazing Chain member can during character creation spend skill dices on Control, Sense and Alter. The PC can’t begin with more than 3D in any Force skill and it get three Force powers for each of the Force skills it knows, and it can get extra Force powers by spending a D+1 of his skill dices starting pool. The Force powers chosen can be dark side powers. Also, if the player want to so can the PC begin with 1 dark side point.
Rudimentary understanding of the Force: Once the game begins any Force skills the PC have (or don’t have) count as Advanced Skills. They can’t also begin with the Force powers: Beast Languages, Create Force Storms, Doppleganger, Emptiness, Force Harmony, Lightsaber Combat, Predict Natural Disaster, Weather Sense or any of the Sith disciplines.
Not from around here: a Blazing Chain member comes from a more primitive area of the Galaxy that has not had much contacted with the Republic or Empire therefore they get -1D on Astrogation, Sensors, Starship Shields, and any Repair skill. They can also not use any of their Knowledge skills for something involving Republic/Imperial space unless the GM says so.

[Creator’s comments: most of this is copied from WotC’s Hero’s Guide with some changes and removals. I removed most of the backstory and all the rule-talk* since I did not find it important for a short introduction like this and added the 'wyrd' parts since I felt that Force users should have some kind of title like cunningman. The D6 rules for the Blazing Chain presented here are all mine, if people have thoughts/suggestions on them just post them.
* am I alone in feeling that WotC people seems to have no ide how belief works and instead write stuff like the PC:s know how the game system work?]

 

I like this interpretation of the Blazing Chain. I get a GotG Ravager vibe from it, which has a lot of potential.

 

That’s not something I thought about but you are right and I like that comparison.

The original presentation on the Blazing Chan was rather poor in things that a player/GM could use to give them life. They were basically this ancient pirate group that used the Force to be better pirates and beside some comments about how they governed themselves so was there not much to work with. They were described as having a practical use-what-works view of the Force (what that now means in this ‘verse of magic, mysticism and god- & spirit-like beings) and there was a surprisingly long write-up about how they saw the dark side which read as if the Blazing Chain had read the role books chapter about the dark side and how it affected you.

I gave them the we-do-not-sow attitude to explain why they are still nomadic pirates instead of having settled down if they have existed for over a thousand years. The wyrd-parts was inspired by the chapters talking about ‘folkmagic’ in UK during the 18th to early 20th century in Ronald Hutton’s The Triumph of the Moon, to give them a bit more personality and the use of “drugs, rituals, blot and sorcerer-scientific” was added since I felt something like that would fit their use-what-works view.