My CD case GM screen

Earlier this year I made a GM screen out of CD cases that's served me well for several months.

Here's the Google+ post I wrote with pics and some notes about construction: https://plus.google.com/111339988892948840968/posts/DgeinLyLTao

Savage Worlds Star Wars!

We kicked off our Savage Worlds Star Wars campaign earlier this month with two Fast, Furious, and Fun sessions so far.

Since July I’ve been playing a regular every-other-Wednesday night RPG session with two of my friends.  We started off playing thru the new Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Starter Set Campaign.  That campaign wrapped up in November and I convinced the guys to let me run a Savage Worlds campaign next. 

Our first Savage Star Wars game started off In Media Res as our Heroes (Heroes might be too strong a word since they’re playing Bounty Hunters) chased the wanted Bith leader of the nefarious Krayt Dragons swoop gang thru the streets of the planet Rifrinis.

Imperial Wanted poster for Bura Melan - leader of the Krayt Dragon Swoop Gang

Sissk, the Trandoshan driver, won the initiative and swung their speeder car sideways in an attempt to hit the 3 swoop bikes.  He missed 2 but succeeded in hitting the bike of the gang leader, Bura Melan.  Melan lost control of his bike and slammed into a wall getting 3 wounds in the process.  Vengar, the Ubese bounty hunter, gunned the gang leader down with a well placed stun shot from his blaster rifle.

The PCs chase Bura Melan and 2 of his gangers.

Bura takes 3 wounds after losing control of his bike and hitting a wall.

After turning Bura Melan in to the authorities and collecting the bounty the PCs followed up on a job opening found by their fixer.  A starship - The Grinning Gundark - is looking to round out its crew for a delivery run.

The players meet up with the crew - Dace the Human Captain and Doda the Arconan First Mate - and the ship lifted off to jump to Hyperspace.  As the Captain pulled the levers to activate the Hyperdrive the entire ship shuttered and a “boom” was heard from the engine room!  The Grinning Gundark’s Hyperdrive Containment Coil had failed.  Captain Dace turned the ship around and sent the players off to a local scrap yard to pickup a replacement part.  As the players were leaving the scrap yard, 3 speeder bikes pulled up carrying - of course - members of the Krayt Dragons.  Recognition was made by both groups and - after a bit of blaster fire - our heroes left the scrap yard with a new Coil and a speeder bike.

Krayt Dragons arrive at the Scrap Yard looking for a fight!

As the Grinning Gundark traveled thru Hyperspace the players experienced a Cut Scene where a Star Destroyer arrived to Keshinbak, the players’ destination, and established an Imperial Blockade.  Cut Scenes were a staple in the old d6 Star Wars RPG and I really thought they added to the Star Wars feeling of the adventures.

Coming back from the Cut Scene the Grinning Gundark lands on Keshinbak, a forested world where a rare mineral is mined.  Captain Dace chooses to land outside of town in the forest to stay “out of the way” from the Imperials and their blockade.  He sends the players into town along with Doda the First Mate to find their contact and get their cargo.

The meeting location for the contact is The Cave - a cantina in an exhausted mine.  As they’re searching for their contact the players have a couple of colorful encounters with other bar patrons.  Eventually they find Aloren, the contact, who instructs them to meet her at a nearby warehouse.     

The players and Doda arrive at the warehouse with their cargo skiff and begin loading the cargo - huge crates with Imperial markings.  A lookout tells everyone that Stormtrooper patrols are in the area.  As the group leaves the warehouse a patrol rounds the corner and orders them to halt.  Blaster fire is exchanged.  The group escapes but Doda the First Mate is killed in the blaster battle.

The heroes dodge several other patrols as they make it out of the city into the forest on their way back to the Grinning Gundark.  As they approach the Gundark the path is blocked by an AT-ST which fires a shot into the ground in front of them!  Vengar stops the cargo skiff.  Sissk scrambles off his speeder bike onto the skiff.  Both players quickly start opening cargo containers until Vengar finds a PLX-2 missile launcher!  A great shot with the missile launcher sends the AT-ST up in a giant explosion.

Cargo Skiff is stopped short by an AT-ST!

 
The players arrive back to the Gundark and barely have enough time to tell Dace the bad news about his First Mate before they liftoff. 

As the Gundark lifts off the surface of Keshinbak the sensors pick up 3 signals - a Star Destroyer and two TIE fighters.  Dace says he can outrun the Star Destroyer but they’re going to have to fight their way past the TIE fighters.  The players man the Gundark’s blaster turrets and make short work of the TIEs as the ship jumps to Hyperspace to deliver their cargo.

The Grinning Gundark faces off against two TIE fighters.

The Grinning Gundark comes out of Hyperspace near an asteroid belt on the edge of the Gulsen Nebula.  The rendezvous with the client is inside the asteroid belt.

As the Gundark carefully maneuver thru the asteroids, sensors pick up 2 ships closing fast.  They quickly make visual contact with the ships - a pair of X-Wings.  The X-Wings challenge the Grinning Gundark and then escort them deeper into the asteroid field to dock with The Liberator - a Rebel Blockade Runner.  Yes - their client is the Rebellion and they are selling them stolen Imperial weapons.  As payment the Rebels give the players a datapad with an encrypted account code.  This ensures they can’t cheat their Patron.  As soon as the transfer of cargo is complete the Rebel ship announces Red Alert because a Star Destroyer has just jumped into the system.

The Grinning Gundark docked with a Rebel Blockade Runner on the edge of the Gulsen Nebula (it's amazing what you can do with paper towels!).

The Rebel X-Wings move to engage 4 TIE fighters as the Blockade Runner evades and escapes.  The heroes have two choices - fight their way past the TIE fighters and the Star Destroyer or go into the Gulsen Nebula.  They choose the Nebula.  Visibility within the gas and dust of the Nebula is reduced to just 6”.  Our players make several Piloting rolls to avoid asteroids in the Nebula.  One roll misses and they strike an asteroid.  The Gundark impacts the asteroid near the bridge killing Captain Dace!  Vengar rushes forward to the bridge and regains control of the ship.  They emerge from the Nebula and jump to the Hyperspace coordinates already programmed into the computer - Tatooine.

Upon arriving to Tatooine they learn that the Patron is Tesso the Hutt who gladly accepts the datapad and pays the players for successfully delivering the cargo.  Tesso laughs when the players tell him of the fate of Dace and Doda.  “Looks like you have your own ship now!  Well done!”

The players now have a ship and a patron who’s ready to send them on a new delivery mission.

Another Star Wars Hero Kids Game

Our son and I played another Star Wars Hero Kids adventure recently - this time with his friend who was spending the night.  + Justin Halliday has released a sci-fi mod to his awesome game.  I used those templates and skills as a starting point for this adventure.

The boys were Rebels tasked by General Dodonna to get a vaccine to help heal the many Rebels who had fallen ill at another Rebel base.  They were to meet a Rodian contact on Tatooine to pickup the medicine.

Watch out for the asteroids - and pancakes!

The 4 Rebels (each boy controlled two characters) were a Wookie, a droid, a pilot, and an alien Soldier.  After getting their instructions from the General the Rebels piled into their starship and blasted off for Tatooine.  As their ship neared the planet they encountered an asteroid field!

One boy flew avoiding the asteroids (rolling Ability Tests against his Dexterity with an plus for his Pilot skill) while the other used his Gunnery skill to try and blast them out of the way of their ship.  The ship made it thru the asteroid field with only a few bumps and scratches.

Moving to their Rodian contact.

 The Rebels landed and began the search for their contact.  General Dodonna told them they were looking for a Rodian.  They would know they'd met the right alien by using a code phrase to which their contact would respond with a different code phrase.  There were 3 Rodians on the map.  The Rebels successfully found their contact on the third try after fighting their way past a nosy Stormtrooper squad.  Their contact led them to a quiet place away from the roving patrols and laid out the conditions for him handing over the medicine.  The Rodian had a driver who was going to race in a speeder bike race this afternoon but had gotten hurt and couldn't race.  The Rebels would have to race in his place!

Racing around the ruins.

Two of the Rebels (1 for each boy) raced two other speeder bikers around ruins in the desert.  I was going to make it 2 laps around but saw that the boys were losing focus so partway thru the first lap the race organizer made an announcement (I cupped my hands in front of my mouth and used a funny voice) that the race was being cut down to only 1 lap due to Stormtrooper patrols approaching.  The boys bought my cheat and perked up a bit.   

The speeder bikes were a fan made product for the old Star Wars Miniatures game.  I printed them on cardstock and cut them out.

Let the Wookie win!

The speeders could Go Slow (move 6 squares and make 90 degree turns with no difficulty) or Go Fast (move 6 squares plus 1d6 more squares).  In order to have his speeder bike Go Fast the player had to successfully pass an Easy (Target 4) ability check (plus for Pilot skill).  Failure meant the speeder didn't move that turn.  While Going Fast the speeder could move straight or diagonally forward but could only make a 90 degree turn by passing another Easy ability check.  Failure on this ability check would stop the speeder on the square where the check was taken.

The Wookie Rebel won the race and the Rodian made good on his promise to hand over the medicine.  Our heroes blasted off from Tatooine, rushing to the Rebels who were in distress.

When our heroes landed near the Rebel Base with the sick troopers they found it under attack by Stormtroopers.  Our heroes snuck thru the woods (Easy Dexterity ability test) behind the Stormtroopers and blasted them when they got close enough.  After a couple of exchanges of blaster fire our heroes were past the remaining Stormtroopers and safely inside the base where they could go about healing their allies.

Both boys had a good time (as well as this Dad) and asked that I run them another game some time soon.

Here are their Rebel character sheets along with the minis they used.