[Dapper Dog]

I will probably look at this more closely as the game stuff comes to and but this is a good place to ask questions or give feedback, or use your PF if you are not comfortable with it. I will give my honest answers on my reasoning and where I hope to take the game.

Any NPCs I ran if you want to know or have comments ask away. Some tthings will wait till true game end though, essentially Day 13 start.

[Dapper Dog]

Game Goals

My primary goal was to present a war story that was slanted towards the goals of the Republic and show the good fight and the tough choices people have to make. I wanted there to be more combat but hopefully not just slug fests but objectives that made players have to make choices on what to do. In just about any set piece the goal was often not just taking out all the enemies and I wanted to bring a variety of people to encounters. Provide opportunities for heroism and also defeat. The Power system was for choices which I am glad came into play in the later stages.

I did want to have the darker sides there too, traitors, war profiteering some shades of gray. I am glad people played those moments and hopefully enjoyed it. I wanted to have less Force things but I am not sure how successful I was there. I did want the big bads to have a chance to interact and show their side of the story so thank you to Neko and the players especially for the Moot.

I know some of the combats were hard, and this is something I struggle with, I tried to provide challenge but in some cases the players I think underestimate just how powerful they are. You have a lot of gear and many have optimized that gear with mods, so as to not allow a steam roller in some cases I have had to adjust, Unlike say Legend of the Five Rings where players reach a certain threshold and really don’t get too much more combat capable, the addition of gear can make a huge difference on output for some character types.

All that said, I think the players again won far more events and combats than lost so overall I think the challenge was just right.

[Lyseil Panteer]

Thank you for another game in the DapperInu Wars!

Apart from some minor hiccups, I've been overall very satisified with the game and enjoyed the Heroic Opportunity I had with Nai'tiri (and the little cameo of Yunda that pointed to her story/plot), as well as the chances you provided to Lyseil to take part in the story... she seemed to enter in on a lot of weird plot points in some stuff, but I think I found her place thanks to you and Nekoinu (as well as some great players).

There were times I hoped for combat that would be more geared towards the less optimized ones. Maybe Combats could've been labelled in accordance to difficulty, but I'm not sure if it would've changed much? Combat is fun in this system though, and I did get to have a great ritual duel with Nekoinu. Sadly no combat for Lyseil, even after she upgraded her pew-pew.

As always, I have great fun playing with you and Nekoinu! You take a lot of feedback from the players, admit mistakes and fix things where you can to make things more enjoyable overall for most players. But most of all, I enjoy how you allow ideas from players and seem happy to accomodate and listen to us.


Much love for both of you, and I greatly look forward to the next time!

[Niall Organa]

As I've commented before, I think it's really difficult to do a good heroic Star Wars story. Like, super hard. The players should be good guys, and being a good guy should be rewarding. But at the same time, if being good feels too easy, then it cheapens the experience. So, being good should be rewarding, but also hard. A bit of a contradiction!

I think that you did a very good job of threading the needle. It definitely felt like we were doing good; we had lots of opportunities to help people. And it felt hard; we put a lot of work into confronting the nastiness within the Republic, and resisting the temptation to take the easy way out in a lot of cases. Great stuff! Be rewarding... yeah, I'd say this has held up, too. I'm hoping we'll see a bit more of that at game's end, with smiling children and excited puppies or something.

On a personal note, I had fun playing Chief Inspector Organa. Since Niall doesn't really have detective skills, I appreciate that you let hard work and logic make up for his other shortfalls, even though that's probably more work for you.

I agree with Lyseil on wishing there was more combat for wimpier people. As a Tier 2 combatant, I was hesitant to go into most combats after the midpoint of the game; I would have gone into the Defense Grid one, but alas. It seemed like it was best when there were two combats in a day. Perhaps one could be marked easier and harder, and people will slot as appropriate? But that does require you to run two combats in a day.

I still feel that there was a bit of an issue with contributions. I've contributed to power both times, and as it turns out I'm very glad that I did, because we've got just enough power to do the bonus XP mission today. On the other hand, I wouldn't have minded getting a bit more stuff for myself, too.

Anyway, I had a great time. Thank you both so much!

[Teffa]

Thank you very much for running another Star Wars game!

[Dapper Dog]

As I've commented before, I think it's really difficult to do a good heroic Star Wars story. Like, super hard. The players should be good guys, and being a good guy should be rewarding. But at the same time, if being good feels too easy, then it cheapens the experience. So, being good should be rewarding, but also hard. A bit of a contradiction!

I think that you did a very good job of threading the needle. It definitely felt like we were doing good; we had lots of opportunities to help people. And it felt hard; we put a lot of work into confronting the nastiness within the Republic, and resisting the temptation to take the easy way out in a lot of cases. Great stuff! Be rewarding... yeah, I'd say this has held up, too. I'm hoping we'll see a bit more of that at game's end, with smiling children and excited puppies or something.

On a personal note, I had fun playing Chief Inspector Organa. Since Niall doesn't really have detective skills, I appreciate that you let hard work and logic make up for his other shortfalls, even though that's probably more work for you.

I agree with Lyseil on wishing there was more combat for wimpier people. As a Tier 2 combatant, I was hesitant to go into most combats after the midpoint of the game; I would have gone into the Defense Grid one, but alas. It seemed like it was best when there were two combats in a day. Perhaps one could be marked easier and harder, and people will slot as appropriate? But that does require you to run two combats in a day.

I still feel that there was a bit of an issue with contributions. I've contributed to power both times, and as it turns out I'm very glad that I did, because we've got just enough power to do the bonus XP mission today. On the other hand, I wouldn't have minded getting a bit more stuff for myself, too.

Anyway, I had a great time. Thank you both so much!

Yeah there is more I could have done with Contribution, and will try to adjust it if it comes back in the future probably on Hoth I think. There may not be a sub system at Ziost or Alderann or I may come up with something specific for those games given their specific locales.

As for Combat, yeah I think two a day will be the way to go if I do such a combat heavy game in the future, one for the hard folks one for the second tier, but that can be tough. A Jedi even a light combatant with a Lightsaber can really turn a light combat into a cakewalk due to Breach and Force abilities so it can be… difficult. Another thing is that gear can really turn a so-so fighter into a powerhouse very quickly.

But those are GM concerns and I will see what I can do to make those aspects better.

[Dapper Dog]

Thank you very much for running another Star Wars game!

Thank you for playing I hope you had fun.

[Zanebry Varliss]

Thank you for all the effort you put into the game dapper, it was fun.

I do agree that gear makes things difficult to balance, we will have to see how things go in the future with that.

[Illyria Acaran]

I think Star Wars really wants to be a narrative system, given the instability in the dice caused by a two-axis success system (successes/failures, advantage/threat), but it really glutted itself with all of the various types of guns, attachments, and mods. It incentives players to invest in gear heavily since it is easier to realize progress by adding on setback suppression, extra boost dice, more damage, etc. rather than spending XP to get a higher skill (though this avoids the problem as well that changing 1eA to 1eP doesn't really make it that much more likely an action will succeed), higher traits, etc. I don't know how to fix this without a full reset (so it likely won't happen in this series of games but maybe after the time jump), but if combat was more about characters and less determined by their "stuff" then I think this would improve. It likewise would probably have made Jo's offerings more attractive since "special" weapons would be more meaningful if people don't have uber tricked out guns, pistols, sabers, and armor.

It felt like Cortosis came rubber stamped on most enemies, and this is something that might alleviate it. Similarly, cortosis feels overly prevalent for the level of access PCs have to it. It's been pointed out/suggested that the book prices reflect the Age of Rebellion era with all the limitations that the Empire put on it, etc. In an era where plenty of people are walking around with swords made of plasma and armor that can repel it, then making that available to PCs equally might have lessened that sting since we are already locked in an equipment/uber weapon paradigm.

The fight that I commented on to you, specifically, No Man's Land, Layne's attack (and the only one to hit Iyana) had an 8% chance to succeed approximately. This would have been slightly easier for ranged characters were they able to catch her at Short range, but only slightly. An 8% chance, converted over to L5R, is the chance of rolling a 31 on 5k2 or an 82 on 10k10. By contrast, people attacking her had about a 25% chance of rolling at least one Despair (3eC). Sure, Coordination Dodge only works once per turn (because its fueled by destiny) but Sense + Adversary is still a weighty combination plus everything else Martial Artist can throw in the mix. In addition, she had the equivalent level TPK nuke that Baras did and that fight had to get rewound so players weren't murdered outright. Factor in minions as well and favorable fighting conditions and it looked worse than a fight that needed rewinding and downgrading.

In general, it felt to me like a lot of fights were just arbitrarily hard "because" without personalization or development thrown in. This is made more difficult because you needed to establish most of the rogues gallery again every session as we moved from theatre to theatre, so that may just be the opportunity cost of the game's construction. Not a criticism per se, but I missed having a more developed supporting cast. This was also hindered because it seemed like the Mandalorians were resorting to horrific and extreme tactics without a lot of explanation (or I just missed it), which pretty easily allows one side to be painted as "bad" and one as "good". The Mandalorians seemed to be somewhere between humanoid Krogans and humanoid Klingons where anything was justified so long as it was in pursuit of 'Victory' - scifi cultures that have expressed that there is "honor" or even enjoyment to be had in brutally murdering non-combatants and that any tactics are permissible. Individuals might think that, but when the entire group does then it becomes very hard to engage with meaningfully because they are fairly objectively awful. It's outside of the Overton window, and that's what we started with rather than ramping up the awfulness on one or both sides as desperation and tension increased.


Please don't misconstrue the above as negative criticism. I hope it's constructive or thought provoking feedback, or at least interesting. I am always appreciative of your efforts to run games and this is no exception. Thank you for doing it, and I look forward to future ones!

[Durasay Mixo]

First of all, as others have stated: Thank you for running. It's a bear to run a game for a large group, and you pulled it off again. Thank you, for allowing me the opportunity to play.

I loved that you put in more setback dice in events due to various things, with the explanation as to what was generating them. It allowed people the opportunity to shine with species abilities, or talents that reduce setback, that maybe they didn't get the opportunity to before. It's one of my favorite things to do as a GM to put in setback that I know the players can ignore because it rewards a choice they made with their character. I know I took advantage of my abilities to do so when I could.

Contribution, in my experience, is the weakest of the three "theme" mechanics (the strongest being Obligation, and Morality being the most... boring?) It's hard to make it work, and the CRB doesn't give a whole lot of guidance. I wish that it didn't tie to generating Power for the Strike Force, but that's my only major complaint, as we're in an era when the Republic is economically powerful, so it took a little bit of the immersion of the setting out for me that we were feeling like a rag tag Rebel group vs. a well funded military (though if one was playing as a member of the Bankor Resistance, that would feel absolutely flawlessly perfect, so it might just be a problem of perspective). I get why you did though, because once you get past Contribution rank 2, that's when you start bringing in credits that are normally out of reach for PCs. All of a sudden, it's the gear issue and we're walking around with a veritable arsenal. It forces a choice, which is good for drama, but there were times that it felt punishing to take power as opposed to outfitting oneself, especially with the difficulty in shopping because, this isn't Nar Shaddaa or a major trade planet. We're in a warzone.

So I applaud your design choice there, as much as wished it wasn't the case, but that's more me wanting to see PCs always get more "stuff".

Of the three theaters, I loved the Viridian Sea the most. I felt it had the most flavor, and in my mind, the best character event for everyone. I am curious, what were the plans for the theaters not chosen? How would the prison mission have gone? Is there a chance we could see the events not made available?

Lastly: Thank you for your time with our conversations in my PF. I will say that I truly appreciate the open communication between players and GMs, and you did it marvelously. I look forward to future games.

[Nekoinu]

I might be taking a break from AGMing but it's been a pleasure working with you, most Dapepr of Inu o>

[Dapper Dog]

I am not sure how many had Cortosis for Neko but I think i had maybe a handful of villains that possessed it. There were reasons for why the Mandalorisn got savage and those details were sprinkled through out the game, so if you missed it that is fair.

No man's land fight was actually not that bad, she was built as a glass cannon, she could evade damage but not really take that much and was easily defeated with minimal issues even if things looked bleak. Players tend to be hyperbolic and are very focused on what happens to them as they should be, she was tough but obviously not insurmountable.

Mandalorians are difficult they don;t have a consistent personalization through the setting, even one of the most iconic members the Fett was pretty much just a gun for hire doing whatever it took to win. I don;t worry too much about the odds, because this system has many ways to get around those odds if players are willing to think dramatically like in the the fight to rescue the Resistance fighters. In most of the boss fights the objective often wasn't just stand there and punch other guy till they die.

Even the Varo fight is not like that. But yeah I am getting better at gauging and adjusting fights as need be, and that will be an area that will always be... contentious for me.

First of all, as others have stated: Thank you for running. It's a bear to run a game for a large group, and you pulled it off again. Thank you, for allowing me the opportunity to play.

I loved that you put in more setback dice in events due to various things, with the explanation as to what was generating them. It allowed people the opportunity to shine with species abilities, or talents that reduce setback, that maybe they didn't get the opportunity to before. It's one of my favorite things to do as a GM to put in setback that I know the players can ignore because it rewards a choice they made with their character. I know I took advantage of my abilities to do so when I could.

Contribution, in my experience, is the weakest of the three "theme" mechanics (the strongest being Obligation, and Morality being the most... boring?) It's hard to make it work, and the CRB doesn't give a whole lot of guidance. I wish that it didn't tie to generating Power for the Strike Force, but that's my only major complaint, as we're in an era when the Republic is economically powerful, so it took a little bit of the immersion of the setting out for me that we were feeling like a rag tag Rebel group vs. a well funded military (though if one was playing as a member of the Bankor Resistance, that would feel absolutely flawlessly perfect, so it might just be a problem of perspective). I get why you did though, because once you get past Contribution rank 2, that's when you start bringing in credits that are normally out of reach for PCs. All of a sudden, it's the gear issue and we're walking around with a veritable arsenal. It forces a choice, which is good for drama, but there were times that it felt punishing to take power as opposed to outfitting oneself, especially with the difficulty in shopping because, this isn't Nar Shaddaa or a major trade planet. We're in a warzone.

So I applaud your design choice there, as much as wished it wasn't the case, but that's more me wanting to see PCs always get more "stuff".

Of the three theaters, I loved the Viridian Sea the most. I felt it had the most flavor, and in my mind, the best character event for everyone. I am curious, what were the plans for the theaters not chosen? How would the prison mission have gone? Is there a chance we could see the events not made available?

Lastly: Thank you for your time with our conversations in my PF. I will say that I truly appreciate the open communication between players and GMs, and you did it marvelously. I look forward to future games.

The Republic is very powerful but this conflict is unpopular, no one wants to admits that there cis a full scale conflict which was the backdrop. Saresh scraped together what she could to even mount a strike force as the Republic anted to focus on larger goals. Thus the lower than average support for the team, which was my goal.

Gear will always be tricky, and yeah it didn’t as well as I would have liked but hopefully people will have a chance to use the last contribution if they get it to be selfish and get toys for the future.

The Viridna Sea was probably the clearest idea… the prison would have seen more a of breakout vibe, with infiltration and saving prisoners and hanging out with desert nomads. The Imperial section was interested it could have been a bi-week for the team depending on actions if they allowed Team Empire to join, otherwise lots of Ice and sneaky Imperials. The Resort would have seen a rancor and a behemoth sea creature vehicle battle.

Below are my preliminary notes for Garig Port Town which would have been a campaign but scrapped for length.


Garig Port Town Campaign - Operation Havoc Rancor

Garig Port Town is an important milestone controlling the Port gives the Republic Forces access to many useful military objectives on the planet and opens up supply lines for the ground forces while the Space Forces deal with tying up the Mandalorian. The Mandalorians have left Huya Vy of the Black Union in charge, a local crime syndicate with ties to the Black Sun families. Huya has no real loyalty to the Mandalorians and could be convinced to switch sides for the right amount of compensation.

Missions & Events

• Wetworks Incorporated: Senator Saresh is meeting with a local resistance cell and the Black Union sees a chance to take her and the cell out. A hit squad storms the meeting and will kill the Cell leaders and critically injure Saresh if they are not intervened, will cost Trust if the leaders are killed, Day 1 combat event.
• Fire! Fire! Fire!: A Resistance cell has been found out and the Black Union has set fire to an apartment building, heroes have to brave the flames and rescue the Resistance, innocent civilians, while battling criminal forces during the fire.
• Off the Rails - Heroic Moment: A Resistance attack has gone awry and now a speeder train is barreling out of control, the Republic hopes to avert disaster and deploys a squad to try a deft defying rescue by boarding the speeding rail system and hopefully disabling, if not then someone may have to stay behind to guide the rail system into the sea and avoid a catastrophic accident and loss of life but it will cost them their life. Combo Combat and Skill based encounter.
• All in the Family: This is a combat encounter the Resistance has found out that the twin children of Huya Vy are enjoying themselves at a local casino. The Resistance wants the Republic to take them out, this is a combat encounter but the Republic has the Option to kill the twins which makes dealing with Huya Vy more difficult or sending a message by letting them live and killing off the other gangster and leaving the twins alive, they will submit and send the message but anger the Resistance; they have six rounds to complete this before they are overrun by reinforcements.
• Make a Deal - Heroic Moment: If the first event to get Huya fails then the Republic can try a more direct route by simply paying off Huya or defeating her powerful enforcers to get a line on her whereabouts. If the team decides to simply Bribe her it will cost 5 to 7 Power, otherwise this is a combat encounter against very strong enemies, but a hero could sacrifice themselves and detaching the crane which breaks off part of the room.
• Priceless Junk: Dr. Rexa has identified some black market goods that were stolen from the local museum and set to be moved off world. This is a skill based heist to get the goods back with minimal fighting.
• Too Fast, Much Furious: Street races with souped up speeders. dangerous route and a chance at a cool reward... swoop racing at its finest.
• Soup Kitchens: This is a Day 3 event, uses a variety of skills to try and aid the locals with helping run a soup kitchen and bringing succor to the beleaguered people.

Commander: Huya will be encountered in her estate and she will either join the Republic Forces or kill them based on choices made in the campaign and during the scene. Still working on the self sacrifice.

[Illyria Acaran]

In most of the boss fights the objective often wasn't just stand there and punch other guy till they die.

I do want to scalpel this out. I do agree with this in general and I'm very thankful for that. I'm glad there was often something to do or worry about rather than just making the bodies hit the floor, because that means there are stakes, context, and value in the scene/conflict rather than making the other poor dumb bastard die for their country instead of you. I would have liked it if it didn't seem like the players were almost always on the back foot or caught unawares, but I do have a clear personal preference for fighting smart instead of just hard. And though I prefer people joining events that they are interested in rather than just having the people who are "best" at events join them, having the incident take place with a little bit of advance notice to PCs or "on their own initiative" such as ambushing an enemy convoy, luring a stronger enemy into a fight that would be at a disadvantage, etc. would help address or at least lampshade the common necessity that PCs are usually the least informed members of the scene and they are always struggling to play catch up because they were the ones stumbling into a trap, or someone else stumbling into something everyone seemed to agree was a trap, or being otherwise caught out, etc.

[Garth Wayne]

Garig Port Town Campaign - Operation Havoc Rancor

Garig Port Town is an important milestone controlling the Port gives the Republic Forces access to many useful military objectives on the planet and opens up supply lines for the ground forces while the Space Forces deal with tying up the Mandalorian. The Mandalorians have left Huya Vy of the Black Union in charge, a local crime syndicate with ties to the Black Sun families. Huya has no real loyalty to the Mandalorians and could be convinced to switch sides for the right amount of compensation.

Missions & Events

• Too Fast, Much Furious: Street races with souped up speeders. dangerous route and a chance at a cool reward... swoop racing at its finest.

.

*cry*

[Dapper Dog]

In most of the boss fights the objective often wasn't just stand there and punch other guy till they die.

I do want to scalpel this out. I do agree with this in general and I'm very thankful for that. I'm glad there was often something to do or worry about rather than just making the bodies hit the floor, because that means there are stakes, context, and value in the scene/conflict rather than making the other poor dumb bastard die for their country instead of you. I would have liked it if it didn't seem like the players were almost always on the back foot or caught unawares, but I do have a clear personal preference for fighting smart instead of just hard. And though I prefer people joining events that they are interested in rather than just having the people who are "best" at events join them, having the incident take place with a little bit of advance notice to PCs or "on their own initiative" such as ambushing an enemy convoy, luring a stronger enemy into a fight that would be at a disadvantage, etc. would help address or at least lampshade the common necessity that PCs are usually the least informed members of the scene and they are always struggling to play catch up because they were the ones stumbling into a trap, or someone else stumbling into something everyone seemed to agree was a trap, or being otherwise caught out, etc.

I think this is the case for this style of game where there are so many and I can't personalize every combat/scene for a small group of 3 to 5.

[Illyria Acaran]

That's reasonable. Still, thank you for making many/most of the encounters about something other than "kill the baddies, 'cause they're bad".

[Dapper Dog]

That's reasonable. Still, thank you for making many/most of the encounters about something other than "kill the baddies, 'cause they're bad".

That was a goal so I am glad it worked.

[Tethys Carrack]

Mandalorians are difficult they don;t have a consistent personalization through the setting, even one of the most iconic members the Fett was pretty much just a gun for hire doing whatever it took to win.

Just chiming in to say I personally think you and Nekoinu did a nice job with the Mandalorians; they felt very Canderous-y (plus a bit of Boba Fett, depending on the character) and those are admittedly the ones I'm most familiar with. On the whole, they were a good foil for us to feel heroic while not being two-dimensional (at least from my perspective).

Sad that I didn't get to spend a day in a soup kitchen now, though. As we know, there's nothing more Jedi-like than soup.

[Rav Devaroo]

Thanks from me for yet another awesome game! I think you've done an amazing job of making the Star Wars system work for pbp and this many players.

I wasn't initially that enthusiastic about a Republic only game but I really enjoyed myself so thanks for making it feel suitably heroic. The personal plot stuff was great and I'm really interested in seeing where the Star Cabal stuff goes (is that in SWTOR, I don't remember encountering them)

[Dapper Dog]

Thanks from me for yet another awesome game! I think you've done an amazing job of making the Star Wars system work for pbp and this many players.

I wasn't initially that enthusiastic about a Republic only game but I really enjoyed myself so thanks for making it feel suitably heroic. The personal plot stuff was great and I'm really interested in seeing where the Star Cabal stuff goes (is that in SWTOR, I don't remember encountering them)

Star Cabal plays a major part of the second and third arc of the Imperial Agent storyline. They will be playing a major role in the games to come for sure.

Mandalorians are difficult they don;t have a consistent personalization through the setting, even one of the most iconic members the Fett was pretty much just a gun for hire doing whatever it took to win.

Just chiming in to say I personally think you and Nekoinu did a nice job with the Mandalorians; they felt very Canderous-y (plus a bit of Boba Fett, depending on the character) and those are admittedly the ones I'm most familiar with. On the whole, they were a good foil for us to feel heroic while not being two-dimensional (at least from my perspective).

Sad that I didn't get to spend a day in a soup kitchen now, though. As we know, there's nothing more Jedi-like than soup.

It was interesting Neko added the suicide bombers for the Mandos but I did want to give some reason for why they got so brutal, and provide a wide range of motivations. The Kryze kids may show up later.

[Niall Organa]

Just a quick note, T7 was an amazing partner!

[Delmi Koor]

Thanks for running the game. Takes a lot of work and thought to make something like this run smoothly. Thanks for giving us the platform to run around and play.

[Luth Khalan]

Thank you for running! I was really excited when you told me you had a story idea for Luth if she went to Bankor, and that sealed in my choice to bring her. Then you definitely delivered on that promise. I wish I'd been able to get to know Draagh a little better, do that last thread we were talking about and develop their connection more, but this was a very busy game with lots of combats, so I didn't want to make too many pure RP demands on your time.

You put in a ton of work in the game and for me personally, so thank you!

I wonder if her activities with Zash will have consequences?

[Rav Devaroo]

Oh yeah, thanks for making Jenkins canon I got a kick out of setting him crop up in various other places!

[Nekoinu]

The use of suicide bombers on their part was for a multitude of reasons. The first was to establish them as the 'bad guys.' I wanted to make it clear that the Republic was doing good in stopping Eralynn, at least. The second was that it was meant to be an IC and OOC test, of sorts. Test the players' resolve in helping people despite the dangers. Lastly, I thought it was an interesting point that she only started doing so after the Resistance used such tactics against her. And then it became up to the players to criticize their own side as well.

As for Cortosis, the much-loved snipers themselves didn't have it on their armor. They were not front-line combatants so I felt like it made sense if they didn't invest in Beskar'gam. Since Eralynn, Aaroth, and Garreth were all important to the Clan Varad Arc, I figured they had earned Beskar'gam and other well-made equipment.