info on the old republic (KotOR,TotJ, & other legit sources)

hmmnnn, some good points there..

however in the game KotOR, Canderous mentions sith involvement in the mandalorian conflict..

IMO, what we have is TotJ as the starting point.. advance 40 years and we have KotOR...

 

Yeah. My understanding is that we have the events of the Sith War occur, as depicted in TOTJ: Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Lords of the Sith, and The Sith War. The Sith War ended 3996 BBY. Ten years later we see the training of Vima Sunrider and the redemption of Ulic Qel-Droma and Sylvar, as depicted in the comic TOTJ: Redemption. Thirty years afterwards, we have the Mandalorian Wars, and if I recall correctly, five years later the Second Sith War, the conclusion of which takes place in the computer game.

 

Entirely, absolutely, spot-on, one hundred per cent correct on that.

You got the timeframe nailed down perfectly, except that the Second Sith War begins three years following the outbreak of the Mandalorian Wars, rather than five. As for "Timetales," they're right now in the process of updating their entries, but everything that they have concerning the earlier war dealing with Exar Kun and the Mandalorians is also solid. Basically, the progression goes:

The Beast Wars of Onderon ==> The Freedon Nadd Uprising ==> The First Sith War (encompassing the previous two affairs, and the Mandalorian involvement) ==> Training of Vima Sunrider (and Ulic's death) ==> The Mandalorian Wars ==> Corruption of Malak and Revan ==> The Second Sith War (several years, leading to the events in the game)

Here's something of a slightly condensed timeline for the events in KOTOR, but it gives you an overall idea of the scope involved (comes from another thread, but I figured that it'd be quicker to cut-and-paste rather than rewriting everything from scratch, and simply because I didn't feel like doing it this morning ).

And hopefully, it will aid in composing some nifty gaming storylines for your Tales of the Jedi-period characters:

3,962 BSW4:

• (Approximate) The Mandalorian Wars erupt when the Mandalorian forces begin slowly conquering worlds just outside the boundries of the Republic. The Republic does not put the pieces of what's going on together until it's too late, at which time the Mandalorians simply pour into Republic space. They come in through three different invasion corridors in adjacent sectors, utterly smashing anyone who either puts up a fight, as well as those who don't. There is no difference whatsoever.
  
  The Mandalorians feel that the Republic utilizes "shameful" defensive tactics, such as placing major military bases within and nearby civilian population centers. They felt that the Mandalorians would not use appropriate force against their bases in major cities...which is proven fatally wrong when the complete annihilation of cities by nuclear weapons and the like begins.
  
  However, some Mandalorians, including Canderous Ordo, feel that there is no honor in "turning cities into glass," but the doctrine of "necessary force" is adhered to, for the nonce.



• During the early days of the war, the fighting spreads closer to the Outer Rim worlds, including the planet Cathar. The Cathars' reputation as fierce warriors appealed to the Mandalorian sense of "honor," and so they seek to test themselves against this world. Their military forces converge from space, bombarding the surface, first destroying all interstellar communications arrays and orbital spacedock facilities, and then descending to the surface, slaughtering most of the planetary population in the process.
  
  Because they had fought against Exar Kun and the Mandalorians in the First Sith War, they suddenly realize why they've truly been targeted, and that there would be no mercy for their species or world in the end. And because the Cathar are not members of the Galactic Republic, they are left to fend completely for themselves. Not even the Jedi Knights are permitted to intervene.
  
  The final act of the Cathar race is to pack the only surviving able-bodied people left who are able to withstand spaceflight into what few ships remained, and send them off into the void as quickly as they possibly can. Juhani's family escapes aboard one of these refugee flights, and lands on Taris.



• At the beginning of the war, the Republic forces were not that much of a threat to the Mandalorians, but once the Jedi Knights Revan and Malak defy the Jedi Council and take command of the Republic fleet, this changes.
  
  Revan's gift of tactical genius completely turns the war around, but Revan also commits several rather unsavory acts, such as leaving several "non-strategic" civilian planets completely undefended -- stripped of their forces and

 

WOOOHOOOOO....


HONEYPOT!!!!!!


thank you for the timeline. now that is just the type of good stuff i have been hoping for



thank you thank you thank you

 

Not a problem whatsoever. I live to bask in the radiance of others' appreciation.

As a longtime Tales of the Jedi fan, I strongly applaud the fact that the game's designers made the wise decision to fully integrate the previously-established TOTJ chronology and continuity, rather than simply wiping it clean and overwriting it, or ignoring the texture and flavor altogether for its own sake.

And the fact that there exists a coherent timeline for the game -- following perfectly with the preexisting LFL tapestry -- speaks volumes for its integrity.

 

Someone said Ulic was in KOTOR... where?

E_S

 

no ulic in KotOR, however it is possible to recover some qel-droma robes on korriban in the cave

 

And, of course, there's also the matter of Ulic and Cay's cousin -- Duron Qel-Droma -- from the game.

Shame what happens to him on Korriban.

 

I'm about to start running my TotJ/KOTOR era game, and I thought I'd give a run down of events here.

(Notice how we'd all talk about our TOTJ era games until KOTOR came out and suddenly it's our KOTOR era games? )

Aric ti-Lorn was a great Jedi Knight during the Sith War, one of the pride of the order. On the verge of becoming a Jedi Master, he took his students - a Cathar, two humans, and a twi'lek, with him on an Academy sanctioned mission to Korriban. He was supposed to ensure, in conjunction with a small Republic military contingent, that the tombs of Freedon Nadd and Naga Sadow were sealed completely.

He never returned to the Academy on Dantooine. Instead, he emerged as Lord Asacar, a Dark Lord of the Sith. Taking control of several key systems, he petitioned Coruscant for the right to address the Senate. There, he told the Republic he had no imperialist ambitions and instead wanted a peace and mutual recognition treaty. Republic politicians, and lawyers were eager to avoid another costly war, and agreed, despite Jedi misgivings.

Master Gofai, a leading Jedi on Dantooine and life-long friend of Aric, found a prophecy contained within a Greater Holocron of the Coming of the Five - Five Jedi who would bring balance and harmony to the force. Though their names and whereabouts remained unknown, their images had been impressioned upon the Holocron. One of them was Gofai's student, Ardennia Narcassan, sister of Valin Narcassan, Jedi Knight. SPOILERS FOR MY PC'S WHO POST HERE! More alarmingly, she was Aric ti-Lorn's daughter, named after her mother, Cara Narcassan. /SPOILERS. Research produced the others - a bored merchant clerk in a Neimodian firm, a hunted scout on Naboo, and a duellist and a racer on Tatooine. Having brought them together, the Five would be trained, so that if Asacar attacked, they would be ready...

I'll add some more later, but how does that work for a backstory?

E_S

 

No kidding. It seems to have totally subsumed all of our present-sense perceptions of the era, and overtaken TotJ as the "dominant" storyline from this historical period. But I don't think that's even a Bad Thing at all.

Quite an interesting scenario, but there's one thing that I caught which might be jostled slightly by the continuity: one of your characters hails from the Naboo system, which -- depending upon what year your campaign falls during -- might be an anachronism of sorts, due to Naboo not having been founded until around circa 3,900 BSW4 by a Republic colonial expedition (a link to the Timetales page that has some more info on this event).

Then again, it's a game, so it really don't matter all too much if you're running a "personal continuity" campaign, as tiny stuff like this can be fudged a bit to make things more interesting.

I take it that this campaign is to be set some point before the Mandalorian Wars, and after the events of the First Sith War (going by your one NPC's investiture as the interrim Dark Lord)? Very, very good, as far as backstories go that can serve to "hook" your players into exploring the finer story nuances a bit more here and there.

From my experiences in running campaigns in years past (back when there was a mythical beast known as "free time" in my life), Ghu knows that it was difficult enough sometimes to shoo them along into delving into the more out-of-the-way nooks and crannies of a world rather than simply banging headlong into the "firefight-with-the-Imperial-Stormtroopers" phase of the game. Sometimes, it's those tiny, memorable details that "make" a campaign for the folks involved. (Stephen King once said that "Hansel and Gretel" could be stripped down to create a story about a guy who married a bitch and another woman who was bigtime into cannibalism, but it still wouldn't fly all that terribly far without Hansel's infamous trail of breadcrumbs.)

But if they're at all familiar with the tropes of the era setting, it should pique things up for them rather substantially.

 

Ah, about Naboo... Good point...

I'm running this game to be concurrent with the time of KOTOR, but without KOTOR ever having existed per se. There may be a Carth Onasi or a Bastila Shan, but there's no Revan or Malak or Star Forge...

E_S

 

Don't worry about it, though.

You're only looking at a few years' difference either way, so no point in letting it interfere with what could be a potentially brilliant campaign by losing sleep over it. (Besides which, it's doubtful your players will even catch it. )

 

True...

What does work, though, is that the character is a scout who looks somewhat...weather beaten. His hair looks like Quinlan Vos' - long, matted, with perhaps the odd dreadlock thrown in - and like the ranger he sort-of is, he's not the most social of peoples. Making Naboo an infant planet was already on the cards; this helps even more...

E_S

 

I'm curious as to how I'd adapt KOTOR lightsaber crystals to d20.

My saber had a combination that I'd gotten from gamebanshee.com's KOTOR page; "Solari & Upari with the Mantle of the Force, the damage becomes 6-42 Energy vs. Dark Side, and 4-30 Energy vs. everything else, with +6 to attack, and an incredible +8 to Blaster Bolt Deflection."

Normal sabers are 2-16, which is our beloved 2d8. What's that combination? 4d8 is the closest I can think of, but how on earth do you factor in the additional damage to Darksiders, the +6 to attack, and the Deflect (Attack/Defence) to your character?

E_S

 

i have posted some info i found online about lightsabers on the first page of this post..

in addition i love the freedom of the time period , which IMHO needs a place where it can be more detailed for source material and thus why i started this thread..

i love everyones enthusisam in here and am enjoying the posts .

thank you all.

BTW, i will post the opening threads i have before every episode of my sessions, hope ya'all like em

 

Be watching for those chronicles, if you decide to put them up.

As for the KotOR lightsaber crystal question...here's an interesting chart that's out there, breaking down all of the various and sundry properties distinctions amongst them, that may help somewhat:

• Bondar: On Hit: Stun 25% vs. DC10 for 1 Round



• Eralam: AB: 2, DB: Energy, 2



• Firkrann: AB: 2, DB: Ion, 2d6



• Opila: DB: Energy, 3
  Massive Criticals: 2d6



• Solari: AB: 3, DB: Energy, 3 DB: Physical, 1d8 vs. Dark Side -- Light Side Only

And a useful chart of some combinations; some featuring the new "expansion" crystals:

• Light Side Players: Solari + Upari
  
  With a normal 2-16 saber, and not using the Heart of the Guardian or Mantle of the Force, the damage becomes 6-27 Energy, +1d8 Physical vs. Dark Side, with the almost unequaled +6 to attack.
  
  With a normal 2-16 saber, and with the Heart of the Guardian, the damage becomes 5-38 Energy, +6 to Attack, and +4 Blaster Bolt Deflection.
  
  With a normal 2-16 saber, and with the Mantle of the Force, the damage becomes 6-42 Energy vs. Dark Side, and 4-30 Energy vs. everything else, with +6 to attack, and an incredible +8 to Blaster Bolt Deflection.



• Non-Light Side Players: Upari with your choice.



• Blaster Deflection: With two sabers, this can become amazing: Heart of the Guardian + Jenruax + Solari = +11 BBD. Mantle of the Force + Jenruax + Upari = +13 BBD, for a virtually impenetrable blaster barrier of +24.



• Vs. Droids: Firkrann + Luxum adds 3-18 Ion Damage with +4 to attack to a normal saber. With either Heart of the Guardian or Mantle of the Force, this combo adds an astounding 5-30 Ion Damage on top of the energy damage, with +6 to attack.



• Manic Force Regeneration: Mantle of the Force + Damind or Rubat + your choice = an almost inexhaustible Force-point well, at +2 or +3 to regeneration.

 

From Game Banshee?

E_S

 

Yes, I think this is where this came from (quite a nice "walkthrough" section they've got on this one).

And certainly helpful for the hard, "canon" facts on stuff like this, along with WOTC's stats for many of the game's characters.

 

What stats. WOTC only has Malak's and HK-47's.

 

the cast of characters includes
jaice.. a padawan, serena.. princess of marlavva, morris.. her loyal bodyguard,as well as a pair of smugglers named joku & kyle

heres the lead in


STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 1 : Fury reborn

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

The galaxy stands at a crossroads. From the far reaches of space the mighty Sith have reappeared, and the Mandalorian warriors continue their attacks on republic outposts.........

The jedi knights, a loosely organized group of warriors, now are being asked to bring peace and justice to the republic. From the planet of Dantooine the jedi assembly debates the order's involvement in the coming conflict......

King Theomore and his daughter, of the planet
Marlavva have been dispatched by the senate to negotiate a settlement with the Jedi and escort representatives to the galactic seat of power on coruscant

 

STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 1
Fury Reborn
PART 2


a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Having being waylaid by Mandalorian troops, while on a mission to enlist the Jedi into the coming war, the princess Syrena and her loyal bodyguard Morris Oldin are rescued by the Jedi padawan Jaice Cale. Along with pilot Kyle Sinistaar the group head to the remote mining colony of Tatooine , where they plan to meet with Jedi master Hymmn-vo and King Theomore...

After crashlanding and being attacked by a dark Jedi, Jaice is now in posession of a Sith amulet that raises more questions than it answers. Bruised and battered the group heads toward the port of Mos Eisley where smuggler Joku Bu, friend and business associate of Kyle, and his ship are being held...

Time runs short for the group as they wait for the jedi master and the king.. They have drawn the attention of both the Mandalorians and the Sith.....

 

STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 2
Agamemno?s Amulet

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..

The situation for the Republic grows grave.. The Mandalorians continue their assaults, and the Jedi Assembly has declined to intervene. As the Republic gears for all out war , a handful of Jedi knights led by Master Revan have split from the Jedi Assembly to aid the Republic.

Meanwhile Jedi master Hymmn-vo and King Theomore of Marlavva have begun a search for the Mandalorian forces who hold the king?s wife prisoner. Theomore?s daughter Syrena and the padawan Jaice, along with their new companions, begin looking for clues on the mid-rim world of Coachelle Prime, homeworld of the Lepi.

Little do they know, that they have become embroiled in the dastardly plot of the Sith Lord Darth Vahlk, to recover the lost artifact ,Agamemno?s Amulet. The amulet was created by the first Sith and its legend promises ultimate power to whomever possesses it . only recently ,that very amulet was in the hands of padawan Jaice Cale.....

 

STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 2
Agamemno?s Amulet
Part 2


a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..

Unknowing of the peril of his new friends, the pilot Joku Bu ferries King Theomore and the Jedi Master Hymmn-vo in search of queen Larannah, the kings wife, who all involved believe was abducted by the war-like Mandalorians. So far their travels ahve already taken them to several outer-rim worlds, where neither the kings political influence, or the reputation of the Jedi has been very helpful in turning up any clues.
Now approaching the planet of Nar Shadda, one of the political strongholds of the vile gangster-like Hutts, the three men will have to rely on different skills and ways to find information, being as they are far from any offical Republic assistance and the Jedi mind-tricks are nearly useless on the long lived Hutts...


Meanwhile, the sinister plans of Darth Vahlk play more into the picture every minute. Joku Bu is on Nar Shadda, while three of his friends face untold dangers in the Tomb of Agamemno, and the princess is alone on the surface of Coachelle Prime...

 

STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 2
Agamemno?s Amulet
Part 3


a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..


Deep in the tomb of Agameno , Jaice and Kyle have discovered the remains of 40 missing Jedi Knights. While Morris and Kerrik have been battling their way through different parts of the tomb. Their experiences have led them to believe that they are all captives in a giant death trap...

After becoming worried, the Princess Syrena goes off in search of her companions. Along with her Lepi bodyguards she finds a hidden entrance to an underground cloning facility, where she is captured...

Meanwhile Joku has stumbled onto a plot which may or may not be the product of Hymmn-vo or the King. While Joku finds and deals with a handful of clones that resemble Theomore , his new companion Tiny is whisked off planet with Hymmn-vo in their ship...

All the time the shadow of Darth Vahlk looms over the group...

 

STAR WARS
the roleplaying game
Episode 3
The Mandalorians Strike Back


a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..


The Jedi masters from the council chambers on Coruscant, have removed the Carbonite encased Tomb of Agamemno from Coachelle-Prime. Having taken it to a secret location the masters have temporarily thwarted the plans of the dark warrior who now holds the Amulet, but is still seeking the crystals entombed with Agamemno...

In the mean time the political climate on Marlavva grows more grave by the hour. The king and his family have been replaced with clones. Clones who answer to someone who is an enemy of the Republic. After being attacked by Mandalorian shock troops in the skies of Coruscant, Syrena , along with Joku and Jaice now face the treacherous road to assume the throne as the new Queen of Marlavva...

The Princess Syrena has approached the Republic Senate to gain their support in her attempt to gain the throne of Marlavva...

Meanwhile, the Jedi Master Hymmn-vo, along with Syrena?s personal bodyguard Morris, and Kyle return to Marlavva ahead of the new queen, to prepare for her arrival. Little do they know the planet is already entrenched with troops form the Mandalorian clans. Now they need to find out who will support the new queen, and who will be her enemy...