Making your Star Wars RPG awesome
From policing what or why your character would act a certain way to figuring out ways to make sure your split party compartmentalizes we have ideas on how to get your players and characters to identify closer to each other. We talk about how to metagame with a much freer conscience and a few simple ways GMs can gently push their players forward from planning to action.
Continue reading “The In Character Tale”
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You unlock this hyperlane with the key of astrogation. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a galaxy of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twydian Way.
Continue reading “The Twydian Way Part 2”
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Your players do weird things and will deal with situations out of the order in your head. We talk about some of our experiences with players going left when we’d have expected them to go right, and give a few ideas on how to deal with it otherwise.
Continue reading “The Plotting Tale”
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You unlock this hyperlane with the key of astrogation. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a galaxy of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Twydian Way.
Continue reading “The Twydian Way Part 1”
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Leave it to James Luceno to reignite my enthusaism for this project. As you may have noticed the past month or so was rough for me reading wise, cramming in 20+ young adult novels about Obi-Wan Kenobi to the point that my phone can now write entire coherent sentences about Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon using only autocorrect. Watch:
“Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discover that the Jedi Temple and Siri herself are going to be attacked by the Offworld Xanatos Company and I don’t know what to do about it.”
It’s unreal. Anyway, after all of that, it has been refreshing to dive in to James Luceno’s short story Darth Maul: Saboteur and remember that Star Wars is for grown-ups too.
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 Maul – Saboteur”
Ben has players that through paying attention to all the little throw away ideas he had have found enough parts to go into business for themselves as an arms manufacturer. This boggled his mind, so he asked Rissa for advice. Also there are tales of a wookiee rescue and commune.
Continue reading “The Going into Business Tale”
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Sometimes players get analysis paralysis and it gets frustrating for both the GM and the players alike. We have a few strategies to lessen the effect of it at the start of a session when the last session seems so long ago
Continue reading “The Player Guidance Tale”
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After facing down the vile Daro Blunt and his gang of smugglers, the crew make their way to the flophouse. What will they find inside? Will Billie be able to keep Kaav away from the blasters? Will Vuren ever discover how to turn off the annoying ringtone on his pilfered comlink?
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 6 – “Capers and Cave-Ins””
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I really should have seen this coming. Today’s book really could have been a part of last week’s look at Jedi Apprentice Special Editions because although it does not bear the Jedi Apprentice branding it most definitely is a third special edition for that series. What makes this one different? It’s all about Jedi in love, at least ostensibly.
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: Secrets of the Jedi”
Ben is joined by Heroes Kristine and Leslie to talk about character backstory and motivations. From informing the characters actions to providing hooks for the Game Master to propel the story along we dive deep in these concepts.
Continue reading “The Backstory Tale”
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Following a lead Billie gained playing sabaac, the crew traveled to a flophouse in Formos’s industrial sector, but were stopped in their tracks by blaster fire. Wild blaster shots, tail sweeps, and a stolen forklift later Barawyn, Billie, Vuren, and Kaav are entrenched in a fight against the smuggler Daro Blunt and his gang.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 5 – “Blunt Force Trauma””
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The Jedi Apprentice series was a natural fit for a young adult novel collection just after the release of The Phantom Menace. Obviously Obi-Wan was a popular character and his teenage years in the Jedi Order provide a fertile field for adventure stories about someone the age of the target audience. Equally natural then was the decision to do a sequel series about Obi-Wan and Anakin in the wake of the events of The Phantom Menace, called Jedi Quest.
It’ll be a bit more time before we get there, but Jedi Quest was also written by Jude Watson and has two crossover specials with Jedi Apprentice. Since these books are both published under the Jedi Apprentice name, it feels appropriate to review them now.
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: Jedi Apprentice Special Editions 1 and 2”
We talk about challenges we’ve had as GMs to get players engaged with the stories we’re trying to tell and some of the solutions we’ve had for when the players actively try to derail your plot.
Continue reading “The Lost in Space Tale”
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Frightened, embarrassed, and statically charged, the crew of Sky on Fire reunite to look over their leads for the smuggler Bandon Doba.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 4 – “Waylaid at the Warehouse””
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With the Xanatos saga well and truly over, Jedi Apprentice has pivoted from a series of one-off adventures all connected by the looming threat of Qui-Gon’s former apprentice to a series of character-developing arcs with cool-down one offs before and after. I think it’s a change for the better, as we’ll see this week when we finish of the main series of Jedi Apprentice!
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: Jedi Apprentice Books 13-18”
Rissa and Ben set out to talk a little about making careers in Genesys, that idea was a red herring apparently as they fall into the trap of making a whole murder mystery one shot for you to use.
Continue reading “The Murder Mystery Tale”
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Having gained information on a dangerous but potentially lucrative bounty: Bandon Doba, and having thoroughly embarrassed themselves, Vuren, Kaav, Barawyn, and 13-1LL prepare to leave the Biscuit Baron with their Rodians, half a protocol droid, and remaining few biscuits in tow.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 3 – “Locks, Shocks, and One Smoking Selonian””
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Obi-Wan Kenobi has had a pretty rocky start to his life as an itinerant Jedi. In fact, he’s been a Padawan for all of a few weeks at best and already he’s decided to quit the Jedi Order and then changed his mind. Currently we find him learning it’s not so simple to undo such a declaration.
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: Jedi Apprentice Books 7-12”
From discipline to astrogation many skills are forgotten by the whole table. We talk about several ways to make them more valuable for you and your players.
Continue reading “The Forgotten Skill Tale”
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In pursuit of their new friend Vreebo and with a fresh droid carcass in hand, the crew of Sky on Fire finally arrive at the Formos Biscuit Baron.
Continue reading “Trouble Brewing Episode 2 – “This Gand Doesn’t Have a Kloo Horn””
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This week led to one of the more difficult decisions I had to make logistically about doing these reviews. Legends canon contains a number of series aimed at younger readers that are still techincally part of the canon. The first of these chronologically is Jedi Apprentice by Dave Wolverton and Jude Watson. There are eighteen books in this series, but each book is very short, so instead of spending 18 weeks on a kids series we’re going to spend three and just do a third of it each week.
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: Jedi Apprentice Books 1-6”
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”
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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””
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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”
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