Lit A look at Pirates and Privateers & Wanted by Cracken w/ Charlemagne19

West End Games provided a lot of authors a "Story Bible" so to speak of collected ship names, stats, characters, and concepts for flavoring their universe. Certainly, it helped everyone from Timothy Zahn to Michael Stackpole in expanding the universe. Not to mention thousands of tabletop roleplaying gamemasters in creating their universe.

I had a lot of fun examining the in's and out's of GALAXY GUIDE 9: FRAGMENTS FROM THE RIM. I also take great inspiration from @Havac and @GrandAdmiralJello in their Adventure Journal discussion. Here, I'm going to discuss TWO different books because one is full of flavor but not so much universe information and another is full of interesting rogues.



And



As if it needed to be explained Pirates and Privateers were an analysis of how piracy works in the GFFA while Wanted by Cracken provides about 40 criminals which the New Republic captured.

 

PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS PART 1



The introduction to this book basically starts us off with this flavor text and we're going to spend the majority of our time in this book discussing the uneasy relationship between the Rebel Alliance and their core of privateers.

The above conversation nicely fits with the fact that I think @GrandAdmiralJello would enjoy that the Mon Calamari are a people who are basically the British Empire in the fact they are a maritime people (no duh) who have adapted those qualities to space. They hate smugglers, pirates, and are very much proud of their traditions that are very much built on hating smugglers as well as pirates. I was pleased when these elements were brought over to canon by the comics with Han Solo being treated like garbage by Ackbar.

It's no surprise Mon Mothma is both leery of the concept of allying with pirates while also being more pragmatic than Admiral Ackbar. I feel Minister Ral'Rai Muvunc is a poor choice for the "third guy in all of this" because while he's nicely snarky, I don't know if he's ever brought up again and I think someone else would have been better to argue for privateering. Borsk Fey'lya, an early Bel Iblis, or even Princess Leia would have been a better choice IMHO.

Speaking of which, I'd have been very interested to get Leia's opinion on the subject. I'm inclined to think she would be more willing to bend than Mon Mothma but also very clear about the strictures which privateers for the Alliance would be willing to follow. After all, she is prone to loggerheads about dealing with criminals but also very much a friend to a certain one in the Rebellion.

The book gives a nice distinction between pirates and privateers for the laymen in the series. A pirate is a figure who is an independent starship bandit who robs and plunders across the starlanes. A privateer, by contrast, is exactly the same but has permission to do so of a government. The book is very clearly geared to having the player characters be pirates for the Rebellion as we see in the recent SOLO movie. We get the statement that piracy flourishes in times of war but this is before the KOTOR and Legacy era so it will only be about the Galactic Civil War.

"The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can’t. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you’ll have to square with that some day."
-Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean (duh)

The book basically states via example that being a privateer for the Rebellion is a chance to be a rebel among the rebels. FRAGMENTS FROM THE RIM indicated that groups like the Laramus Base Irregulars and other Wraith Squadron-esque misfits tend to be better for PCs than straight examples of people in the military hierarchy. The book begins by giving us a history of privateering in the Rebellion that turns out to have been a lot more checkered than people thought.

The story begins by the fact the Imperial Navy had managed to score some decent credibility in the eyes of the Republic from the Clone Wars period to the year 0 A.B.Y. by exterminating piracy in the galaxy, driving it from the main hyperlanes and onto secondary routes before devoting its attention full-time to the Rebellion. It's mentioned, before the Rebellion existed, that pirates were usually how the Imperial war machine justified itself despite the fact your average Victory Star Destroyer could destroy the largest fleets. The Baativ Pirates (which FRAGMENTS FROM THE RIM covered) are used as an example of an infamous Imperial victory.

The Rebellion started off in extreme need of ships, funding, provisions, and more which they found out they could not supply. Ral'Rai Muvunc then proceeded to note that privateering might be a solution because:



The result of this experiment?

IT WAS A COMPLETE DISASTER.

In one of the more clever bits from this book, they mention this is actually the SECOND time the Rebellion has attempted to use privateers en masse. The first time resulted in the privateers being restricted to Imperial military resupply, Alliance observers attempting to give the privateers commands (treating them as below any "real" Rebel officers), giving them last priority in any repairs, taking a HUGE chunk of their pay, and even outright sabotage or shoddy work of said repairs. The Rebellion, which did receive a big boost from it, found themselves seriously karked by the results. Many sympathetic criminals (i.e. Han Solo types) who were fully ready and willing to assist the Rebellion quickly spread the word throughout the Galactic Underworld the Alliance was not to be trusted.

I'm getting shades of Bria Tharen here. In any case, the Alliance's problems grew more and more problematic as their lack of access to smugglers as well as privateers left them in severe financial straights. Which is why they've begun a SECOND phase of their privateering campaign with the following changes:

* Privateers can strike at any Imperial supplies be they corporate or private.
* They've increased the percentage which privateers can keep of their loot by a significant amount.
* Privateers were given equal validity to Rebel Alliance assets in repair outside of critical missions.
* Alliance observers were stripped of command privilege. This last one caught Alliance Intelligence by surprise because it was done by the Alliance Navy. The only thing they apparently hate more than pirates is the idea of non-sailors screwing with the chain of command.

This compromise was too little too late until Nebulon-B frigate Far Orbit and its commander struck out at the Core Worlds and looted numerous starships there, taking back a vast haul to the alliance of 120,000 tons of goods. Which sounds like a lot but it turns out the results were not measured in goods but the fact the Imperial fleet redeployed itself for six months and the resulting wasted effort actually cost the Empire a sector fleet's worth of production material. In effect, privateers had "defeated" the Empire in one of the Alliance's biggest victories through simply causing them humiliation.

The Far Orbit's actions also have lured a decent number of privateers to the Alliance and their criminal ties are improving. Ironically, this has just made the hardliners against them in the Alliance EVEN MORE set on ending the experiment. Ordinance and Supply is now their only defenders aside from Mon Mothma herself (and she is tepidly supportive) with the latter now considered by many to be barely above criminals themselves. Only time will tell if the second attempt at privateering will last.

 

I don't think you can discuss Pirates and Privateers without talking about the Far Orbit Project - sort of the application of the concepts brought up in the former.

 

I've gotten a copy of that as well, though I confess I wasn't a big fan of the more plot-heavy adventures by West End Games like it and Darkstryder. Neither left much room to be incorporated into existing campaigns.

If people want me to cover it as well in this thread, I certainly will.

 

Pirates and Privateers part 2

It occurs to me some background for this book might be necessary and I started a little too quickly. This book is by Timothy O'Brian who is a guy who managed to carve out his own little chunk of the Star Wars Legend canon before the end.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timothy_S._O'Brien

Timothy isn't someone I know personally but I can tell you something: this dude really loved pirates. Not only did he write this book but he did his absolute best to expand the material of it on multiple occasions. He's also the guy who created the Gree.

Timothy originally created the idea of Rebel Privateers in Star Wars Adventure Journal 2# and at some point I'm going to have to contact @Havac and go try to find his opinion on that article on the Jello Adventure Journal thread. If you don't own a copy of that book then you should check out The Best of Star Wars Adventure Journal, Issues 1-4.

The article summarizes a lot of what Pirates and Privateers will cover in more detail. Basically, the Rebellion doesn't really have a great relationship with privateers but makes use of them.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rebel_Privateers!

He also wrote the Far orbit Project which is the story of the Far Orbit and a mini-campaign where the player characters eventually manage to steal one of Palpatine's Treasure Ships heading to Wayland.

Or, at least that's where it was heading in my game.

BTW, Pirates have always had a fairly huge role in Star Wars' EU if not the movies themselves. A short list of the ones we know are:

* Crimson Jack: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Crimson_Jack
* Finhead Stonebone: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Finhead_Stonebone
* Celia Durasha: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Celia_Durasha
* Han Solo (who is a dabbler more than a professional)
* Prince Isodor (briefly)
* Celis Mott: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Celis_Mott
* Admiral Tavira and her gangs
* Hondo

 

It would be great if you could incorporate The Far Orbit Project without distracting too much from the other too. Also, thanks for covering this topic! The concept behind privateers aiding the alliance is awesome, and makes sense when you think about how "guerrilla" the alliance was operating. Pirates and Privateers and Wanted by Cracken are two of my favorite sourcebooks, ones I feel are quite overlooked at time. Awesome thread, I'll be tuned in for sure!

 

Pirates and Privateers Part 3

The next part of the book and the end of Chapter 1 is the discussion of Letters of Marque as well as what that means plus some basic elements of how being a privateer works. It's fairly straight forward and basically is a "license to pirate" from the Rebellion. It has the Rebellion willing to pay 50% of the cargo's value (which is more than I expected) and paying bounties for Imperial prisoners.

A couple of things which are notable is the fact the Alliance frees all slaves found on ships taken (no surprise there) but also the destruction of "all illicit substances." This doesn't really fit with Bria Tharen taking a huge amount of drugs to fund the Allinace in the Han Solo Trilogy but I always felt like that was going to get Mon Mothma and Leia up in arms when they found out. I feel like the Alliance, for all of Rogue One saying they did do nasty things, wasn't the kind of group which was going to get involved in narco-revolution.



The supplement tries a little too hard to explain all of this since it's fairly straight forward. It does, however, also explain that every Rebel privateer is hooked up to a specially encrypted Rebel Alliance transmission system that allows them to send messages to Rebel High Command and receive orders in return. This allows them to be directed to Rebel bases and keep in communication--which is a nice bit of Rebel information. We also get the Rebel Observer who is basically a Rebel agent assigned to make sure the pirates aren't misbehaving.

Code: Quasar is basically the all-purpose pass code for the Rebellion that is updated regularly but identifies a Rebel privateer as "friendly" to the Alliance. The possibility of a Rebel Alliance privateer vessel showing up and not being known to a fleet is something I'm wondering about because you'd think they'd all be somewhere in a databank.

There's a short story about one being assigned to a Nebulon-B frigate.





Man, the tension is just not getting any better with the Alliance and their criminal allies despite being on the same side.

One thing they don't mention which disappointments me is the Black Code which is something hilarious in the original Adventure Journal article. Basically, it's a "secret" BOSS code (which is the all-purpose Starship Registration of the Galaxy). You turn it on and your ship projects a scary pirate logo to the ship's you're approaching and they can't identify you as anything else.

In effect, yes, the Pirate Flag equivalent of the Star Wars galaxy.

Next up - THE FAR ORBIT PROJECT!

 

Yay! Far Orbit Project! I have to say, I do enjoy the banter bewteen Xhaxin and his rebel liaison. Also, once again, thank you for this read-through. I'm just getting back into the WEG books and I'm happy to see them get the love they deserve.

 

PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS part 4

THE FAR ORBIT PROJECT

West End Games did an amazing job with hundreds of supplements that dramatically increased the background for the Star Wars EU. However, all good things must come to an end. Ironically, in an age when every tabletop business including Dungeons and Dragons were going out of business--WEG was going strong under the Star Wars license. It was only due to its CEO shuffling money from it to prop up another failing company that wiped it out. Thus, the Star Wars license went to Wizards of the Coast and the company folded soon after.

The last supplement for West End Games was The Far Orbit Project which was part of a last ditch effort to revive interest in the failing Star Wars line (which wasn't actually failing). Previously, there was the Darkstryder campaign and both of them were part of an idea to create (essentially) movies for the players to enjoy.



The DARKSTRYDER campaign was hit and miss, to be honest. The problem was the game was not actually based on Star Wars. The premise was the PCs were headed into the Unknown Regions (yes, them again) on a mission to capture a fleeing Moth before he used the OMNIPOTENT POWER of the Darkstryder technology to conquer the galaxy. The PCs were part of the crew or could take over the pregenerated characters as they did a variety of low level adventures until they stopped Moff Sarn.

The problems with the Darkstryder Project are as follows:

* It was Star Trek, not Star Wars. Specifically, it was based on Star Trek: Voyager which was going on at the time and no one was a big fan there.
* The PCs had to answer to someone else not their own characters.
* The PCs if original didn't have much room to interact with the characters who had pre-planned arcs which didn't incorporate them going off the rails LIKE PCS ALWAYS DO.
* Corellian Corvettes aren't cool ships. They are the opposite of cool, in fact.
* They couldn't even make the bad guy a Grand Moff?
* There wasn't a lot of room to do much of your own gaming.
* No connection to Jedi, The Force, or the Sith save the Imperial woman dressed like the Black Widow on the cover.
* Tonally, the game had no interest in being swasbuckling heroics or WW2 in Space.
* It was expensive and used a lot of miniatures and tiny cards which were not really necessary.



The FAR ORBIT PROJECT is, by contrast, a lot better of an idea. It wasn't a boxed set, for one, but a single supplement which gave you everything you needed to run a campaign included in the game but had ample room to expand on the initial ideas. It was heavily connected to PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS (which we've only covered one chapter of but I'm an anarchic disordered mind ala Joruus C'boath) but not so much you needed it to run.

The premise is simple: The Far Orbit is an Imperial Nebulon-B frigate with a mission to suppress piracy in the Outer Rim territory. Its captain Vocis Kenit is an abusive, arrogant, awful Imperial who throws his men's lives away for fleeting glory. After getting his TIE pilot brother killed, 1st officer Dhas Fenoep Vedij (what is with these names?), gathers together a mutiny then defects to the Alliance.



Can you tell this guy is the bad guy?



Sate Pestage gives Vocis Kenit a second chance to avoid being executed and puts him in charge of a small fleet to hunt down and destroy the Far Orbit. The Far Orbit's new captain meanwhile offers the Rebellion a deal: they will go into the Core Worlds and loot the ships there for vast wealth to fuel the Alliance's war machine in exchange for a hefty cut of the profits. There's a ticking timer here as eventually the Empire will clue in and they will be forced to flee back into the Outer Rim.

It's pretty much original Battlestar Galactica to Darkstryder's Star Trek but different enough that it works. The PCs have to constantly move and loot enough ships to make themselves a profit without degenerating into bad guy behavior or getting the Empire on their back. They also have to avoid Vocis Kenit's traps. They also have more enemies than they expect as ex-pirate hunters, they are loathed by a number of gangs already operating in the Core.

The campaign consists of six short adventures but is something that climaxes in the discovery of an Imperial Treasure Ship (Star Galleon) that contains 100,000 tons of treasure. The book says you can make it even bigger with it possibly being something carrying relics to Wayland. Vocis' screw up gets him executed by Palpatine himself and the resulting redeployment of the fleet is enough to mess up the Empire's reputation and bring massive publicity to the Rebellion.

The campaign consists of six short adventures but is something that climaxes in the discovery of an Imperial Treasure Ship (Star Galleon) that contains 100,000 tons of treasure. The book says you can make it even bigger with it possibly being something carrying relics to Wayland. The Alliance Observer is also a hardnosed Marine who loathes the crew for being A:] Ex-Imperials. B:] Criminals they recruited from a shadowport.

The adventures aren't great but they're not bad, either, involving tales of revenge and practicalities like refueling. The PCs can potentially destroy a small Imperial fleet which has the result of "winning" early but also getting the Underworld to turn against them as they're too "hot" now.

Ways I'd modify the FAR ORBIT PROJECT

1. The campaign would start with the Mutiny itself and the PCs would either be the Mutineers or they would be captured in the hold. It would also be after a disastrous battle which the captain showed himself to be completely incompetant and almost got them all killed. Worse, he was going to blame the 1st officer and his crew for it in order to protect himself. The PCs can turn what is going to be a complete failure (the Captain and the Stormtroopers prepared to kill everyone) into a rousing success.

2. The PCs would be hunted by High Inquisitor Tremayne and Captain Kenit on the Inquisitor rather than just having it be Kenit. How did Kenit get a promotion from being a failed captain to being head of an Imperial ISD? He's not. Captain Kenit is actually Vocis' older brother and the former was required to execute the latter for his incompetence. Kenit has been driven insane by it and has diverted the blame to the PCs.
Basically, an homage to FARSCAPE.

3. Vedij will be murdered by a attractive female ISB agent at some point while at port and replaced with a surgically altered male ISB agent (or maybe "she" is a Changeling). His mission will not be to stop the ship but actually just turn it into an actual pirate ship and full of atrocities. The PCs will have to mount their own mutiny and replace him.

4. The Star Galleon is sent for Wayland after all. That's why it was so lightly guarded and also has Inquisitor Tremayne onboard for an epic duel in his replica of the Emperor's throne room.

The wealth onboard is enough to bribe the Corporate Sector Authority to turn over 3 Sector Fleets to the Rebellion and give them the sudden push necessary to take the Outer Rim in the months following Endor, which results in many more Imperials defecting en masse.

The Far Orbit's legend being an inspiration to overworked and underpaid Imperials everywhere.

 

You know, the DarkStryder Campaign might have made a decent novel! I appreciate what they were going for and my all-encompassing love for Star Wars keeps it in my collection, but honestly, like you said, absolutely no freedom for players (without it being a pain)

I appreciate the idea, but it doesn't work for a role-playing game, would've been a better book or comic

 

Oops, there's a double sentence in my post above. Any mods willing to help with that?

@Havac?

 

Far Orbit Project also heavily used the SWAJ article on the Ringali Shell sectors, making it unique in having a Core Worlds setting for the campaign.

 

I know this wasn't meant to be a complete list, but any list of Star Wars pirates is diminished if it doesn't include the closest thing the franchise has to Jack Sparrow. Reginald Barkbone, Scourge of the Seven Sectors, a flamboyant Star Galleon-flying alien pirate so utterly infuriating that he gained the personal hatred of not one but two Grand Admirals and inspired the creation of an entire branch of the Bounty Hunter's Guild.

 

The Core World adventure journal was one of my favorite of them. I also feel setting this adventure in the Core Worlds made the events feel more important because the player characters are pretty much the ONLY rebel operatives in that region.

 

I love all those suppliments, even if they have problems as well thought out for the SW game. Particularly Darkstryder, which I just enjoyed reading through; I agree with DarthJaceus that it might be fun to see in novel form. As far as railroading goes, I played with it in my head as I ran through it and changes to make things interesting in accordance with my liking suggested themselves. There's one adventure, I think called Little Empires, where the ship is impounded and the crew separated and dispersed to a bunch of different locations; I enjoyed the suggested aftermath were the crew reassembles and imagined that as a more vast undertaking. One possibility is they don't get their Corellian Corvette back, but reassemble on 2-3 other ships. It makes it hard to run sabotage programs the main villain has laying in wait within their ship's computer system, but those can be re-jigged (or not). Some potential is lost from later adventures, but the material written is still there to inspire a GM. That's my experience, though, I found a lot of fun in going over the material and speculating about the ways it could be cannibalized to make it more interesting for myself and potential players, just as a mental creativity exercise.

Note too, that I even played with the idea of ditching the Corellian Corvette. However, the corvette isn't cool!? More so, the opposite of cool? I liked the material covering the ships status and capabilities, as an inside look on a heavily modified variant of the first ship we ever see in the SW movies. Don't get me wrong, any given ship in the movies is fair game as something that doesn't work for another person, I understand. You're not keen on the look?

I'm enjoying your write-up for this stuff, though, even for the Darkstryder campaign. I like the Pirates and Privateers suppliments.

 

Re: The Coolness of the Corellian Corvette

One of the things which I've always liked about Star Wars is the fact that it plays heavily with scale. The Corellian Corvette is a wonderfully fascinating ship we get to see but it's actually build-up for the seconds later reveal of the much-much larger IMPERIAL STAR DESTROYER which is huge on screen--especially close up.

A thing I've always struggled with in West End Games is the game really doesn't want you to playing with the Big Boys and it got annoying more than once. Darth Vader and Palpatine are stated so that any encounter with them might as well be you attacking the Sun. At the rate of experience gained, you could never gain enough Exp to kill either.

Why High Inquisitor Tremayne exists as Vader-Lite. Similarly, Jodo Kast was created so player characters could fight Boba Fett except not really.

WOTC did a much better job by making Darth Vader 18th level and restricting Palpatine to 20th level. Both of them remain the biggest badasses in the universe but they're actually things you could theoretically defeat in your campaign. Indeed, there was a "Road to 20th level" campaign which allowed the player characters to blow up the prototype for the Executor.

I feel like Darkstryder suffered for the fact you got the absolute SMALLEST and weakest ship in the Rebellion that just made you feel like you were irrelevant. WOTC also screwed up because they ran a contest called "What's His Story?" where they pointed to one of the nameless mooks in a still of Star Wars. Versus, you know, Luke and Han and Leia. The people you want to tell similar stories to.

I feel like the game could benefit from avoiding the constant attempts to dial down the heroics of the PCs. One of my all-time favorite adventures for WEST END GAMES is Starfall where you have to escape a Victory Star Destroyer on the verge of self-destructing. Even then, I had to wonder, "Why a Victory Star Destroyer?" Well, it turned out people were iffy about giving the players even a taste of an Imperial Star Destroyer.



Other adventures had you do small-time stuff like protecting Mon Calamari mines, blowing up Imperial factories, and so on. It's why Crisis on Cloud City was so great because that adventure was straight up, "Rescue Cloud City from Skynet."

 

Interesting, that makes sense. Thanks for explaining the rationale regarding the corvette I confess, maybe I'm a weird one, I like the idea of scaling things down for characters in the game, or using villains that are similar but different from those seen in the movies (the Inquisitor does seem like an interesting character but I agree Jodo Kast is just way too on-the-nose as a cut-rate Boba Fett). I'm reading through the 1st edition rules for the first time (thanks to the anniversary re-release) and even though the game emphasizes setting within the original trilogy, I kind of like Brian Daley's innovation of the galaxy having many different corners that characters can make a difference in.

I had one other question I forgot to ask, I'm dabbling a bit in exploring the Adventure Journals, and you allude to a discussion about those...? I tried looking that up but search skills are lacking, can you point me in the right direction?

 

There's a thread where @Havac discusses the Adventure Journal articles one by one from beginning to end.

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/we-hav-to-go-on-an-adventure-with-jello.50039275/

My only regret is there's no index.

 

I personally am okay with being on a lower scale than the movie characters as well as being on an even level with them.

Like you once said, there has to be tens of thousands of Rebel heroes who are hitting the Empire left and right.

Who is to say these aren't their stories?

Like your force-sensitive PCs probably may not be the First of the New Jedi, but nothing says they can't be the Second or Third.

 

It depends what your players want.

I tend to prefer characters who are their own legends.

But ONTO THE NEXT PART!

 

What's to say they aren't even with the material provided?

 

Pirates and Privateers part 5

We're not going to dwell on each individual section of the book because a lot of it is what I call "practical supplemental material." It's not world-building like High Inquisitor Tremayne, Imperial Storm Commandos, or the Thalassian Slavers. This is something of a shame because you'd think a book like this would have benefited from a lot more NPCs, pirate groups, and write-ups. There's some in the books but not nearly as many as in Fragments of the Rim or Wanted by Cracken.

The book discusses the following topics instead:

* The kind of people who join a pirate crew
* How you loot a ship in-game.
* Articles of Piracy (i.e. Rules of Conduct)
* Starship Equipment
* New Starships (none of which are particularly interesting, I'll be honest)

Then we finally get to the actual NPCs section of the book. Unfortunately, I'm going to say I wasn't blown away by most of them as they're not particularly theatrical or Pulpy. However, they're solid workman characters who could easily be put into campaigns.

Urias Xhavin a.k.a "Grayclaw", Captain of the Free Lance

This is the signature character of the book and he's a male human pirate with a hook. He has a Nebulon-B frigate like the Far Orbit and I can't help but wonder if the Rebel Alliance can really spare that many Nebulon-B frigates from the actual navy for this. The Far Orbit, after all, brought their own frigate with them. Sadly, I can't say much about his past because, literally, his past is MYSTERIOUS.

Chrag'mak'al, Given Pirate

Chrag is an interesting character as he's a pirate who used to be a Given mathematics priest. However, he got caught up in the suppression of the Fractal Heresy (actually a thing) which led him to decide to become a freebooter instead. He's a character who seems to be quite entertaining and would make for a good one-on-one encounter.

Gundan Mabin, Aqualish Pirate

Gundan Mabin is a pirate without any of the redeeming qualities of other pirates. Basically, she attacks the ships she encounters on the star lanes, goes into them, captures the crew, sells them into slavery, and then takes the ship. It's a very lucrative process for her even with attacking small freighters but the bounty on her head has shot up to 50,000 credits dead or alive so she's not long for the galaxy.

Gap'p'Tashi, Nikto Pirate

Gap is an interesting character and is very similar to the slavery plot from Fate of the Jedi. While unbelievable (in 20,000 years, no one has ever thought to take a serious stand against slavery?), I felt it was one of the better plotlines of that series. Basically, Gap is a Nikto who noticed the galaxy was a pretty oppressive place when he debated joining the Rebel Alliance. Instead, he stole a lesser Republic frigate and started a campaign in HUTT SPACE instead. The Hutts have not been amused but he's actually inflicting serious damage on their bottom line. They've put a 200,000 credit bounty on his head.
Obviously, the PCs have the easy job of recruiting him for the Alliance and the moral ambiguity of whether to recruit him despite the fact the Rebellion has no real interest in taking down Hutt Space. MORAL DILEMMA!

Bakken, Snivvian Privateer

He's a Snivvian (small pigman) and a pirate! Also, a poet! Basically, he was very famous and very bored before he decided to leave his successful career for a life as a buccaneer. The character is meant to be more curious than threatening. I'm imagining him a bit like Stede Bonnet from Assassins Creed: Black Flag (who was a historical character).

Abin-Ral-Xufush, Tiss'shar pirate

A commodore pirate. Abin-Ral-Xufush is a Tiss'shar with a growing fleet of stolen starships, capital ships, and military supplies. He's moved on from petty piracy to sacking small worlds. He is virulently anti-human and has actually racked up a 200,000 credit bounty on his head--which is apparently very rare for non-political criminals in the Empire.

There's also two SHADOWPORTS in Ord Atalaha and Starforge Shipyard (no, not that Star Forge).

Which are decently done.

NEXT UP - WANTED BY CRACKEN!

 

Wanted by Cracken part 1

Some of the most despicable criminals in the galaxy are on the loose, and it is up to the soldiers of the New Republic to bring them in and pick up the reward. Inside this book are Imperial military officers, bounty hunters, smugglers, assassins and many other criminals who represent a threat to the New Republic: over 50 individuals in all! Each entry includes game statistics, a personal history of the criminal, the amount of the reward offered by the New Republic and an illustration. Many entries contain additional information on henchmen, specialized equipment and hidden bases, as well as adventure hooks and hints on using the criminal in your Star Wars adventures.

One of the hardest things you can do in a roleplaying game is come up with a good antagonist. What makes Star Wars so great is Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Inquisitor, the Emperor, nd Boba Fett. The player characters come up with their Hans, Lukes, and Leias so it falls to the Gamemaster to great the bad guys.

WANTED BY CRACKEN is a collection of villains with the premise of being enemies of the New Republic. Curiously, they chose to do this during the New Republic era vs. the Galactic Civil War for whatever reason as that changes a number of the themes involved. I've always had a special place in my heart for Wanted by Cracken because I used this book extensively for its characters who, while not amazing, did include a lot of really entertaining villains. I also note that it's an essential for a Bounty Hunter campaign.

There are some odd notes, though, which I'll bring up in this thread, though.

Opening

Basically, just an explanation of the books and the fact that the player characters may be making TOO MUCH money from the bounties here. It's also encouraged these bad guys be the result of a lengthy adventure versus something they can do in a session.

CHAPTER ONE: IMPERIALS

West End Games has never had the problem with the novels (or comic books) have with the treatment of the Galactic Empire. While they listed how to play Imperials in some of the books, they've always been firmly on the side of "The Empire is an illegal government and its leadership is a collection of criminals." This is notable because it comes up a couple of times in the discussion of the Rebellion and a few races (like the Iotran) who are notoriously Lawful Neutral and legalistic. Their take on the Empire was the Emperor didn't rise to power legally because he had no authority to dissolve the Republic.

While the novels were talking about "noble Imperials" and worthy opponents, West End Games took a pre-canon approach that the Empire was dissolved at Endor and the subsequent military officials who acted as warlords were criminals. This isn't actually an entirely irrational argument because without the Emperor, who exactly are they flying the flag of? There's no central government after the fall of Coruscant and every Imperial is for themselves. Grand Admiral Jello points out there's an "Imperial Ruling Council" in the Essential Chronology that theoretically backed Thrawn but frankly I'm inclined to think that is as an illegitimate government group as the Mofference.

Why do I bring this up? Does General Cracken talk at length about Imperial legalities? No, it's just that the Intelligence officer lists most of the Imperials in this chapter as guilty of the following crimes:

* Treason
* Sedition
* Murder of New Republic Personnel
* Destruction of New Republic Property

 

Wanted by Cracken part 2

Captain Dor Reder



AGE: 42

CRIMES AGAINST THE NEW REPUBLIC: Treason, Sedition, Murder of New Republic personnel, destruction of New Republic equipment.
REWARD FOR CAPTURE: 45,000 credits

Dor Reder was a junior officer aboard the Star Destroyer Pulsar during the Battle of Endor when his ship was forced to surrender (which contradicts only two Star Destroyers were taken during the battle). Reder fled his post and went down to Endor where he stole a Rebel transport with his "former troopers" (Cracken really loves to treat the Empire as illegitimate). Mind you, he refused an order to surrender and deserted his post so there's some nuance there. Dor Reder then joined with Admiral Drommel and became a warlord.

Cracken notes that Dor is particularly heinous as a criminal because he decrypted the troop transport's computers and located a large number of Rebel safeworlds as well as bases, which he launched a campaign of terror against after Endor.

Thoughts: Dor Reder seems like a great Imperial captain to have pursue the players as he's competent, repulsive, and interesting. I also don't disagree with the fact he's a criminal and not part of the "Empire" Empire since he is a deserter and joined a warlord.

Gaen Drommel



AGE: 55

CRIMES AGAINST THE NEW REPUBLIC: Treason, Sedition, Murder of New Republic personnel, destruction of New Republic equipment.
REWARD FOR CAPTURE: 75,000 credits

Gaen Drommel is probably the most famous Imperial from Wanted by Cracken as he's a captain of one of the Empire's five Super Star Destroyers (The Lusunkya, Executor, Reaper and Iron Fist being the others). He was in charge of Coruscant's defenses prior to the Battle of Endor and basically kept it parked over the planet. Drommel showed just what sort of hero he was as he left Coruscant immediately after hearing of the Battle of Endor to conquer his home sector. He took three Star Destroyers with him and launched a devastating campaign against the Rebellion with Dor Reder's help.

Gaen Drommel was an early "target of opportunity" for the Rebellion, though as he was cut off from the rest of the Empire and they managed to destroy his three Star
Destroyers as well as heavily damage the Guardian. He escaped into another system but the Rebellion has since marked him for defeat. Cracken says he'd like to mark Drommel off as dead but they've had reports of Shuttles entering Imperial territory and bartering for parts which could be used to repair a Super Star Destroyer.
Cracken states that Drommel has high morale from his troopers despite his defeats and they're all intensely loyal to him--which is kind of ironic given how he dies. Canonically, Gaen Drommel is killed by a New Republic task force in an Adventure Journal after his second in command shoots him in the back.

The Guardian



The Guardian is currently in orbit of the planet Soullex, which was a isolated Pre-Hyperdrive planet that Drommel conquered in violation of the Prime Dir...oh wait, wrong series. The Guardian is basically a Super Star Destroyer with half its weapons and a nonfunctioning hyperdrive and hyperdrive backup. If they manage to get its hyperdrive back up, Drommel is planning on either joining one of the larger Imperial Remnants like the Pentastar Alignment or trying to take over a chunk of the Empire again.

If Drommel succeeds, he's in a perfect position to give it to Grand Admiral Thrawn and that's not a good thing for anyone.

 

I like the first two entries into WANTED BY CRACKEN as DOR REDER and GAEN DROMMEL both manage to be believable antagonists for the player characters to take down as well as epic enough to be the kind of enemies which player characters might want to deal with. After all, who wouldn't want to either capture or blow up a Super Star Destroyer?

This is a lot higher stakes than your typical West End Games campaign. I also like the fact Dor Reder and Drommel are both depicted as complete scumbags. Dor Reder is a deserter, coward, and guy who attacked a bunch of Rebel soldier's families. Drommel is an Imperial who immediately became a warlord and takes over primitive worlds.

They could both be the villains in a New Republic campaign. The only problem of them is they are somewhat hard to make characters who'd fit into an Imperial campaign. You'd have to make them like Grand Admiral Zaarin or Harcov if you wanted to insert them into the Galactic Civil War.

Adventure Hook Ideas

1. Dor Reder's actions have caused some Rebel Alliance soldiers to desert and hunt down his family, friends, and collegues. These war crimes are things which have been widely publicized and are a source of major bad publicity for the Rebellion. The Rebels who have done it have all lost their families, some of which were already victims of Imperial atrocities. His wife and child are currently kidnapped and the Rebels want the PCs to rescue them. The thing is, Dor Reder DOESN'T CARE and when his star destroyer shows up to sack his home system, he spares no attention to them.

2. Dor Reder was promoted to captain of his ISD by Gaen Drommel. He is considered a criminal to the Empire as his abandoning of his post led to the capture of his starship as well as the death of his Grand Admiral. Captain Pellaeon has posted an Imperial bounty on Dor Reder's head and has sent some agents to let information about him to fall into Rebel hands. Even cooperate with them if necessary. The PCs find out its origin and must ask themselves if they want to work with the Empire against another Imperial or whether to betray both (for once, the Empire is playing it straight).

3. Gaen Drommel has decided to invite Grand Moff Kaine to his location and pledge his allegiance to the man. Grand Moff Kaine is intending to come but has no particular interest in fairly dealing with a treacherous snake like Drommel. The New Republic knows of this meeting and has an opportunity to eliminate two of the worst warlords in the Empire but would love to make sure the two fight it out first. Grand Moff Kaine is bringing his flagship and three other Star Destroyers, which would make short work of the Guardian even with Dor Reder's backup. Unless the PCs can sabotage Kaine's ship as well as the peace talks. If the PCs do the former and not the latter, it will result in Kaine giving Drommel the position he wants.

4. Dor Reder has seen the writing on the wall and wants to sue for immunity with the New Republic as well as a substantial credit fee. This despite the fact he is a war criminal who murdered younglings, noncombatants, and worse. The opporunity to seize the Guardian is too good, though, and the PCs are sent as an escort for him to take them to the Guardian as well as summon the Rebel fleet. He is a snake, though, who will sell them under the bus the moment things look like they're going south.