Solo Skald |||

Star Wars d6 Solo - Part 4

I’m giving this one more show with another PC, albeit tied into the story line of course. I’ll stick with the One Page Solo Engine, and in fact I have new Star Wars playing cards to help!

So the story has something to do with Zato as a mole inside the Empire. Are we exfiltrating him? Just getting data? Either way, this fits well with Alliance Intelligence. He’s got lots of information on TIE Bombers: specifications, missile data, production plans, performance analyses, etc.

“A dedicated bomber, the TIE bomber can make precise surgical strikes against ground-based targets (unlike orbital platforms such as Star Destroyers).”

Who are we playing? Are we validating the intelligence, or exfiltrating him? Let’s try generating a plot hook (and perhaps a random event) first. That’ll inform the kind of character we need.

Setup

  • Objective: 6 Save an ally in peril
  • Adversary: 4 Local inhabitants
  • Reward: 4 Support of an ally

Does this mean we have two allies? One is Zato, but which? If he’s the one in peril, whose support would be won? He can be both: he wants to defect, bringing along all that data.

As for adversaries, local inhabitants” don’t sound like Imperial stormtroopers. Let’s roll something up with the NPC generator.

  • Identity: 4♠ - Tradesman / Mystical
  • Goal: 7♠ - Travel / Mystical
  • Notable Physical Trait: 3 Obvious physical trait

Mystical can mean the Force” in Star Wars, of course, but more generally it also has the sense of meaning or capability”. This could be about an Imperial re-education camp. But if we de-emphasize mystical”, this could also just be Sienar security, or even a political officer within that organization. With the goal of travel”, perhaps we’re looking at a relocation and Zato finds it a good opportunity to defect.

Oops, I should have rolled a detail for the physical trait. 3♦ - Large / Technical. I’ll take this to mean security droids until the control of this political officer.

Travel, of course, implies a spaceship or a travel hub (like a spaceport).

We also need a random event to kick things off:

  • Action: 2♥ - Seek / Social
  • Topic: 6♥ - Future plans / Social

They’re going on a planning retreat. But before we set the scene, we need to think about this second PC. We’ll create a rookie agent within Intel Operations. I couldn’t find a specific template (although perhaps one is out there), so I started from the Bounty Hunter instead and created Agent Kalu Sonhan.

  • Name: Kalu Sonhan
  • Description: Female, late twenties. Somewhat muscular. Amber skin, close-cropped hair.
  • Dexterity: 4D
    • Blaster: 5D
    • Brawling Parry: 5D
    • Dodge: 5D
  • Knowledge: 2D+2
    • Streetwise: 3D
  • Mechanical: 2D+2
  • Perception: 3D
    • Con: 4D
    • Hide/Sneak: 5D
    • Search: 4D
  • Strength: 3D+2
    • Brawling: 4D
  • Technical: 2D
    • Security: 2D+1
  • Force Points: 1
  • Background: Rookie agent in Alliance Intel Ops.
  • Personality: Perceptive and free-spirited
  • A Quote: I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”

Starport scene

Passengers mill about everywhere. This is technically Imperial territory, but it’s a civilian station (mostly used by tourists) so we don’t have stormtroopers patrolling the terminal. Banners with the Empire’s logo and the local sector governor’s face hang everywhere. Protocol droids bustle about, keeping everyone moving and the general flow of operations continuing. Otherwise there are very few non-humans, and even those are almost exclusively near-human themselves.

Following the procedure to Set the Scene in OPSE, we need to roll a Scene Complication: 4 An NPC acts suddenly. When we draw for the NPC, we get a Joker, which means we shuffle the deck and add a random event.”

  • Identity: A♠︎ - Lord / Mystical
  • Goal: 8♣︎ - Protect / Physical
  • Notable Feature: 3 Obvious Physical Trait
  • Feature Detail: 2♦︎ - Small / Technical

Now for that event!

  • Action: 2♥︎ - Seek / Social
  • Topic: 2♣︎ - Current Need / Physical

So a lord” wants to protect or be protected physically (or perhaps for their appearance). Perhaps they have some cybernetics and that leads to a physical need.

Kalu is having a drink in a spaceport bar, watching the passengers go by. Zato’s group, including security droids and a minder, are approaching their terminal. A noblewoman in fashionable teal robes collapses next to them as her cybernetic leg replacement malfunctions.

This is as good of a distraction as they’ll get. Kalu runs out of the bar and starts yelling, get out of my way, she’s hurt!” Zato tries to help, telling everyone he’s a cybernetic technician.

I decide that this requires two separate Con rolls, at Easy (rather than Moderate) because of the confusion and uproar.

  • Kalu: 4D => 18 vs 10, even the droids step aside.
  • Zato: 3D+2 => 17 vs 10, same.

In a low voice, Kalu gives Zato the passphrase (so he recognizes she’s the one here to exfiltrate him) and says she has a ship docked here. Just in case, she palms a comlink over to him. But what if that’s seen? I decide to roll Hide / Sneak at Moderate difficulty, 4D => 9 vs 15. The minder sees this and immediately calls it out. What is that?”

Kalu attempts to Con the minder by telling them it’s a tool for disabling the cybernetic limb. I decide to roll this against the minder’s Perception, 4D vs 3D => 16 vs 10, this satisfies the minder for now.

But then Zato tries to discharge the electricity in the limb at the minder. This is a Moderate Technical roll, so 4D => 11 vs 15, failure!

I decide to roll a Failure Move from OPSE, 5 Reveal an unwelcome truth. What’s this about? The Topic Focus is 9♥︎ - Rumors / Social. The minder was told that Zato was a flight risk and draws their stun pistol. Combat ensues!

First we’ll roll Dexterity for initiative, which yields the order Minder, Kalu, Zato. All three declare their actions:

  • Minder will shoot a stun pistol at Zato and then Kalu.
  • Kalu will shoot a blaster at Minder.
  • Zato will only dodge this round.

The Imperial political officer (minder) shoots at short range, which is a default difficult of 10. This means 3D vs 10+3D+1 => 16 vs 18, and the shot just misses.

Kalu then fires at the minder, who is not dodging, giving us 5D => 19 vs 10, there’s a hit. We roll damage versus strength for resistance, 4D vs 3D => 15 vs 10 results in a wound (and thus -1D for the minder’s subsequent rolls).

That minder would shoot again, but this is the second segment in the first round. They thus suffer -1D on the roll, which combined with -1D from the wound means 1D vs 10 and they can’t hit. The shot goes wild.

Kalu and Zato now take off running, with the political officer screaming, STOP THEM!” The droids fire, and I decide just to roll the to-hit together. On a successful hit, they’ll do substantial damage and I’ll roll a failure move against the Rebels. On a miss, the Rebels will make it around the corner.

  • Kalu: Dodge is 5D => 14
  • Zato: Dodge is 3D+1 => 13
  • Droids: 5D vs Moderate + Dodge => 20 vs 24 & 23

The shots go just over the pair’s heads as they duck into a side corridor and attempt to hide from the droids. Both of these Hide rolls will be at Moderate.

  • Kalu: 4D => 10 vs 15, fail
  • Zato: 5D => 18 vs 15, success

Kalu’s spotted! We’ll roll a Failure Move to see what happens: 6 Add a Random Event to the scene.

  • Action: 7♦︎ - Create / Technical
  • Topic: 4♥︎ - Community / Social

I think this means that some of the other Sienar engineers with Zato find them. Take us with you!” Kalu is worried about getting these folks out of here, but it’s a high risk / high reward situation. She tells Zato which docking bay has her ship and tells them she’ll meet them all there.

Zato takes the 1D => 5 engineers and runs. I feel the need for a pacing move here to see what’s going on: 5 Advance a Plot. We’re in the thick of this one already. Should we roll another plot hook?

  • Objective: 4 Escort or deliver to safety
  • Adversary: 5 Enemy horde or force
  • Reward: 6 Unique item or power

I interpret this as emphasizing where we are: we need to deliver these Sienar defectors to safety to get their knowledge and expertise. The wounded Imperial officer is on their comlink, frantically requesting stormtrooper backup.

Kalu looks around and sees a power bank here. She decides to shoot it with her blaster pistol, hoping that the resulting explosion will render the droids inoperable and allow her to get to her ship. 5D vs Moderate => 19 vs 15, success!

Let’s fast forward a bit. Have the engineers and Zato gotten aboard the ship already? This is an Easy Dexterity roll, so 2D+1 => 10 vs 10, just barely. Punch it! We need to outrun the port’s security ships. Kalu will make a Moderate Starship Piloting roll, and I decide to add a die for the help from all these ship designers (or at least Zato in the copilot seat). 3D+2 => 15 vs 15, we enter hyperspace just in time and escape!

Conclusion

I think I’ll let this one end here. It’s fun, but I might actually prefer reskinning Scum & Villainy to Star Wars. That will open up all that generative and suggestive material and the rubric will be less cumbersome. I really don’t like the combat mechanics in this game, for example. But I want to continue to play in this setting in the future, regardless of the game system!

Up next Star Wars d6 Solo - Part 3 A Torch in the Dark - Review
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