Making your Star Wars RPG awesome
This week we start with a Minotaur stepping on the gas and it gets weirder from there. We talk about how you can plan for players being unpredictable and how you can recover from them doing something completely unexpected.
Continue reading “The Player Choice Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
The crew of Sky on Fire: Vuren, a Twi’lek gambler who won his freedom; 13-1LL, a one time sabacc dealing droid that Vuren won in a card game; the Gand kloo-horn fanatic and mechanic Kaav; and the Fire‘s captain and bounty hunter, the Selonian Barawyn, arrive on Formos to hear the great Fia Mund play in concert at the local Biscuit Baron. But, as this crew of misfit’s will soon discover, Formos is not like every other port of call.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 1 – “The Strange Incident of the Droid in the Dark””
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Jedi would have told you.
Friends, today we march boldly into a very long, very involved book. A book which begins thirty-five years before The Phantom Menace and ends just after that film does. Most importantly, it’s one of the best books in Legends canon.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me.
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way: Darth Plagueis”
Ben and Rissa talk about bringing meaning to your scenes and items. From making the blaster your gambler is carrying mean something extra to the framing of a dead body at the start of an adventure. We have ideas and tips for bringing your players into being more descriptive and making those descriptions matter.
Continue reading “The Expanding Narrative Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In the second half of our session 0, GM Ben and our Heroes: Kristine, Brandon, Leslie, and David talk Obligation, starships, and equipment for the new Heroes. Warning, this episode contains s0 much Star Wars nerdery.
Continue reading “Season 2, Session 0 Part 2”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
We’ve finally reached the prequel era! If you’ve only ever seen the actual Star Wars movies you’re going to start recognizing names now and to start with we have Count Dooku!
Wait a minute…what?
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me.
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way: Legacy of the Jedi”
Ben and Rissa talk about the differences in approach that character driven and plot driven campaigns can take and are generated for your players.
Continue reading “The Driven Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In the season 2 premiere, join GM Ben and our Heroes: Kristine, Brandon, Leslie, and David as they make plans to travel to the Edge of the Empire and introduce you to the new cast of characters we’ll find there.
Continue reading “Season 2, Session 0 Part 1”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Fun fact about Darth Bane, he’s actually one of the only characters we’ve seen in any of these books so far who is confirmed to have existed in the new canon. Revan showed up in a deleted scene from one of the episodes of The Clone Wars, but because it didn’t make it into the final cut his canonicity is dubious.
Bane, however, shows up quite clearly in the final episode of season six of The Clone Wars, played by Mark Hamill no less! Zannah too is referenced, but doesn’t actually appear in the episode. All that to say, it’s nice to see new canon taking good bits from Legends. Today we tackle the end of the Darth Bane Trilogy with Darth Bane – Dynasty of Evil, by Drew Karpyshyn.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me.
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way: Darth Bane – Dynasty of Evil”
We start talking about the different sorts of force traditions there are from the Gand Findsmen to the Dathomiri Witches and try to come up with ways to make it matter in your game.
Continue reading “The Traditional Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
To kick off season 2 of Heroes of the Hydian Way, each day this week we’re going to introduce you to a member of the team. Today meet Brandon, one of this season’s players.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Introduction 5 – Brandon”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
To kick off season 2 of Heroes of the Hydian Way, each day this week we’re going to introduce you to a member of the team. Today meet David, one of this season’s players.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Introduction 4 – David”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
To kick off season 2 of Heroes of the Hydian Way, each day this week we’re going to introduce you to a member of the team. Today meet Leslie, one of this season’s players.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Introduction 3 – Leslie”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Last week I praised Path of Destruction for going out of its way to set up plot threads for a video game that came out twenty some years ago. I also criticized it for seeming slavishly devoted to Darth Revan above all other Sith. It almost feels like Drew Karpyshyn somehow heard me, because book tells of the Darth Bane trilogy reaches even further back to 1993’s comic series Tales of the Jedi and ties the legacy of Bane’s Sith Order in with some of the older Sith that came before.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me.
Continue reading “Legends Of The Hydian Way: Darth Bane – Rule of Two”
To kick off season 2 of Heroes of the Hydian Way, each day this week we’re going to introduce you to a member of the team. Today meet Kristine, one of this season’s players.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Introduction 2 – Kristine”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
To kick off season 2 of Heroes of the Hydian Way, each day this week we’re going to introduce you to a member of the team. Today meet this season’s game master Ben.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Introduction 1 – Ben”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (maskofthepiratequeen): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
We talk about finding the stories that specializations want to tell and learning to find the ones that are there and not always forcing our own onto the career and specializations.
Continue reading “The Character Finding Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In the final Friends Like These discussion episode, the GM and players behind our Heroes: Ben, Kristine, Leslie, Chris, and Brent reflect on their experiences playing the Friends Like These adventure from Fantasy Flight Games. Along the way they answer listener submitted questions, goof off, and discuss the end of Heroes of the Hydian Way’s first season and reveal the plans and cast of season 2.
Continue reading “Friends Like These Discussion Part 3”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (friendslikethese): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
If you’re coming into all of these reviews having only ever watched the Star Wars films before, you might be confused by a lot of the stuff that’s happened so far. Specifically, you may be wondering why there are so many dang Sith running around. After all, doesn’t Yoda make it pretty clear in The Phantom Menace that “Only two there are, a Master, and an Apprentice?” Why are there whole empires and families full of Sith running around. Today, we learn the answer to how the Sith of the past came to be the Sith of the actual Star Wars films.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me.
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way: Darth Bane – Path of Destruction”
Ben, Rissa, and Leslie were talking about the absolute cheese that is in Star Wars and related products, how it’s baked into the essence of it, and discuss many ways to add it in and vectors to add some tension breaking levity to your adventures
Continue reading “The Cheese Wheel Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In the second of a three part discussion, the GM and players behind our Heroes: Ben, Kristine, Leslie, Chris, and Brent reflect on their experiences playing the Friends Like These adventure from Fantasy Flight Games. Along the way they answer listener submitted questions, goof off, and discuss the end of Heroes of the Hydian Way’s first season and reveal the plans and cast of season 2.
Continue reading “Friends Like These Discussion Part 2”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (friendslikethese): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
You may remember back at the beginning of all of this I that I remembered really loving a lot of the old Legends books back when I was growing up. So far, we’ve had some decent books, some interesting ones that didn’t quite measure up, and one really disappointing one. Today, my friends, we reach the first really, really good book in our Legends read-through thus far.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way: Knight Errant”
We talk about the players who shoot first and may remember to ask questions after they’ve looted the bodies. We get ideas on how to make the experience broader with them and how to try and how to make their actions matter to the stories you’re telling.
Continue reading “The Player Mayhem Tale”
Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
In the first of a three part discussion, the GM and players behind our Heroes: Ben, Kristine, Leslie, Chris, and Brent reflect on their experiences playing the Friends Like These adventure from Fantasy Flight Games. Along the way they answer listener submitted questions, goof off, and discuss the end of Heroes of the Hydian Way’s first season and reveal the plans and cast of season 2.
Continue reading “Friends Like These Discussion Part 1”
Podcast (heroes): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Podcast (friendslikethese): Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
We come full circle in The Old Republic this week, ending as we began five weeks ago with a novel by Drew Karpyshyn. Now, if you’ve read my review of Revan you may think that’s a bad sign considering my thoughts on that one but honestly, I tend to really like Karpyshyn’s work, so let’s see how we fare with The Old Republic: Annihilation.
Welcome to Legends of the Hydian Way, the chronicle of my attempt to read through and review all the novels that make up mainline Legends canon in chronological order. May the Force be with me
Continue reading “Legends of the Hydian Way – The Old Republic: Annihilation”
