Boot

Man, I'm enjoying these old Star Wars comics! It's as if A New Hope was the first of a serialized space opera, and every week, there's a new episode (the various issues), with long story arcs and...not! I just read my first single episode story, but I think the antagonist will be back.

And, that story was dynamite--about a bounty hunter who picks up on an old man, dying in a medical institution. The bounty hunter used to be a Storm Trooper, and he blames Skywalker for all his woes since the kid blew up the Death Star.

So, the old man leads him to Aduba-3 (mentioned that above--the first story arc after A New Hope), where we revisit some of the characters from that story arc.

One was a kid, and at the end of the story, the bounty hunter realizes that he mistook the dying old man, Don-wan Kioteh, for Obi-wan Kenobi. And, he mistook the kid, Jimm (the starkiller kid), for Luke Skywalker!

Good story.

I wonder if Lucas ever read these, too. Because on adventure takes place on a water world (not Kamino from the prequels!). And, there is an adventure where R2 gets out on the surface of the Falcon as Han pilots the ship in a battle, where the droid has to fix the craft from the outside (like the scene in The Phantom Menace where we are introduced to R2 as Princess Amidala's ship escapes from Naboo).

There's a neat flashback tale that takes place in Luke's past on Tatooine, showing him bullseyeing womprats in his T-16 Skyhopper. And, there is talk about Owen Lars' brother....da, da, da, dah, dee, dah, dah, dee, dah.

Oh, and the next issue? Issue 18, published in December of 1978, is printed with the title, The Empire Strikes! No lie. This is four years before Episode V hit the screens.

I'm reading the old Marvel Star Wars comics from the 70's. Yeah, the art is 70's Marvel crap, but the book...the book is awesome! It's nostalgic. I'm reading the first of five omnibuses. These stories were written back when Star Wars was single movie. They're not encumbered by all the canon that has filled the Star Wars universe in the last 36 years.

There's a real sense of wonder in the writing of these books. It takes me back to that time, as a Jr. High School kid, having my dad drop me off at the movies to see a movie that will stay with me for the rest of my life. It was the first movie that I'd ever seen alone at a movie theater. All my friends had seen it and told me how amazing it was. My pops kept promising to take me, but weekend after weekend passed, until the movie wasn't in our area any more. Finally, my dad drove me to the other side of town and dropped me off. I sat there, with my popcorn and coke, a 6th grader, all wide-eyed and amazed hearing that music and seeing that Star Destoryer keep coming, and coming, and coming over my head.

If you can fall in love with a movie, I did, right there and then.

It was about three years after that I was introduced to role playing. D&D. Another love of my life that I will carry with me, probably to my grave. Then, in 1987, ten years after I sat in that theater, alone, watching that amazing movie, seven years after my love or role playing ignited, I saw the book that would marry those two loves: WEG's Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game.

I'm taken back to that time tonight because, as I read the old Marvel Star Wars comics, I am surprised at something I've found. Being a long time D6 Star Wars fan, I know that WEG paid close attention to the Star Wars comics--even integrating ships and characters.

When I first opened the Star Wars RPG, I saw some interesting character templates at the end of the book. One was for a "kid". Another for a Quixotic Jedi. I didn't think much of it--just guessing that the writers tried for a wide breath of character types.

Imagine my chagrin when, tonight, I'm reading the first story arc after the first movie adaptation in the Star Wars comic--a Magnificent Seven type of story where Han and Chewbacca, having just left Yavin 4 after blowing the Death Star, are putting together a team of spacers in order to help out a village from some ruffians.

And who is part of Han's motley team? Don-Wan Kioti (love that---Don Quixote, but with Don Juan, like Obi-wan), a crazy old coot who thinks he's the last of the Jedi Knights, and Jimm, a young kid who has never used a blaster before but wants Han to call him "The Star Killer Kid".

Really!

I never knew. All these years, I never knew. Those character templates were lifted right from the comics for the RPG.

Wow.

4. Alien Adventure Idea

After a harrowing night in the woods (whether the PCs camp or push forward until dawn), the PCs will exit the forest onto a plain and come to a makeshift town. Instead of a pre-fab installation, they see a tall, wooden barricade made from tree trunks. The place is all a mixture of higher tech parts and whatever the colonists can scavenge and convert from the planet.

Note the various scratches and burn marks, patched holes and wretched shape of the barricade.

What the hell happened here?

Inside are the survivors (all of them more fodder for the GM to destroy with the aliens). They're a scared, weary bunch.

"Are you the Marines?"

They sent out a distress call nine months ago. No one has come yet. The PC ship is the first to respond. And, we see how well that's gone.

There are few survivors among these colonists. They'll tell a story of how a cargo trader crashed on the world, bringing the alien with it. They know that there's several of them out there. Sometimes, the aliens band together and test the barricade. It's getting close to a breach. Food is low. All supplies are low. They're completely out of ammo. All they have now is spears that they've made. Bow and arrows. Bolas. Slings and rocks. All mostly ineffective against the alien. They've managed to create a type of chain mail armor--it's a little protection, but not much. And, they've got one grenade left amongst them.

The colonists themselves are harried. They're haggard. Mostly men. All of stories of how their wives, children, friends and families have been taken by the aliens over the last nine months. You can see it in their faces. Some are maimed. There are only one or two children left. One, in particular, has have his face dissolved by acid.





At this point, the adventure is driven by the players' actions. Here's a couple of ideas for events that can take place.

Event: An expedition to the downed merchant trader vessel. It burned. There's not much left, and the colonists have already taken some parts from it for their barricade and other things. But, if a player gets a good idea about building a piece of tech that will help them against the aliens, the GM could allow the players to find the parts that they need from this wreck--at the price of attack from the aliens or some other hostile animal on the world.



Event: "...or some other hostile animal on the world." To spice things up, use the CT Animal rules to create something other than the alien for the PCs to encounter. This could hinder their progress as well as an alien.



Event: There is a door in the compound that the colonists guard and keep locked. If asked, the colonists are vague about it unless the PCs make an issue of it, then the PCs are told that they are guests here. And, if they can't follow the rules, then they are not welcome here and can try their luck outside the barricade.



Event: The colonists seem to be tight lipped about their predicament. This can easily be chalked up to battle fatigue, stress, and shock. But, on one of the nights in the colonist enclosure, one of the PCs will notice that several of the colonists sneak out of the compound at night, using torches, and go into the wood.

If a PC follows them, they will see that they carry something small, like a large loaf of bread, wrapped in a towel or blanket.

If the PC keeps following them and is not caught, that PC will see the colonists put the blanket item on the standing stone, then all of those colonists will run like hell away from the clearing, back to the compound.

If, after the colonists leave, the PC investigates what was left, unwrapping the blanket on the stone reveals...a baby. A human baby. This baby does not cry and barely moves, as if it were drugged.

If the PC remains in the area for long (and definitely if the PC takes the baby), an alien will appear from the woods. The PC will have to battle the alien alone. Or, if the PC remains hidden, he may see the alien go to the standing stone, rip something out of the blanket, and see that it is a human baby that it takes with it as it runs off back into the woods--and the PC will not be able to follow this fast moving creature without being caught by the alien.



Event: If the baby sacrifice is discovered, the colonists will come clean. The PCs will be taken to the locked door mentioned above. Inside are several vats with babies in them. These babies are grown here--something the colonists crated to help keep the aliens at bay. The babies are just skin and genetic make-up. They don't live for more than 4 hours--which is why babies are used and not larger items. The babies move, breathe, but make little noise (and move slowly, as if drugged). The colonists have found that the babies seem to satiate the aliens for a time. Sacrifices must be made once or twice a week.



Event: The PCs ship carried a group of passengers. Only one has survived to reach the colonist enclave. Unknown to everybody, these passengers are missionaries--priests--bound for the outer colonies (or returning home--whichever best fits with the GM's story).

One of these has survived--a female. As a great twist and reveal, it would be interesting for the GM to reveal that one of the NPCs from the PCs ship is actually a priest.

Imagine how this priest will act when it comes out in the open that the colonists have geneered babies to sacrifice to the demons in the woods.

Played right, THIS will be a real breath-taker in your game.



Event: I thought this would be neat. What if, at some point during the story--probably close to the end of the adventure--that the surviving priest is actually a...

...wait for it...

...replicant?

Wow. Think of the moral implications! A man's construct teaching the word of God!

Deep story.

Note: The GM should use the priest character as an input into the PC's decisions. The high road is not always the easiest road, and won't be in this adventure. If the PCs won't, the Priest will not allow any of the babies to be sacrificed--even if they are geneered constructs.



Event: When the babies stop showing up on the altar, the aliens will attack the compound en masse. Make this a hell of a fight--one that the PCs and Colonists all but loose. The barricade is breached, and the aliens rip those inside to shreads. Remember, the PC are fighting with spears and arrows at this point--they may have saved a few rounds of ammo and the single grenade.


Event: The survivors of the colonist camp obliteration will eventually find each other in the woods. And, it will be clear that they've got to figure a plan to defeat the aliens, or everybody is going to die.

At this point, the GM should have wittled down most of the NPCs, leaving just the main characters--and maybe one or two NPCs just for effect.

Make the priest a hero--sacrificing herself for a PC, if need be. That'd be a great way to "save" a PC about to be killed--and have the shocking discovery that the priest is really an artifical human! White milk-like substance goes EVERYWHERE!

The PCs fight in the makeshift chain mail with whatever weapons they've managed to acquire--spears and such.

Maybe if all of the aliens could be lured into the PC ship, the grenade could be used, next to some combustable item on the ship, to blow the ship, and everything in it--hopefully all of the aliens--to smithereens.

Or, maybe the GM has whittled the aliens down to just one or a few, and the players figure a way to capture it. In the story I mention in #1 above, the colonists used a net to throw over the alien, then they all circled it and jabbed at it with their spears. Still, the alien ripped out of the net and chased them, when it fell into a pit with spike. This didn't quite kill it, and the alien was starting to wiggle off the spikes, when one of the characters in that story jumped into the pit with the thing and shoved the one grenade into its mouth--blowing up the alien and the hero at the same time.

Let any good creative idea work. The players have been the underdogs through this entire adventure. They've lost their ship and a butt load of NPCs. Let them be heroes and win the day at the end. You'll have a memorable adventure that way.



CLOSING EVENT: Once it's all done--once the PCs have overcome the aliens, they're stuck on the planet, no way to get home. Yet...there are lights in the sky. It's a ship!

As it lands, the ramp comes down, and the Colonial Marines appear. They've finally arrived in response to the distress signal!

Finito.

3. Alien Adventure Idea

Next, as the scouting party and what's left of the crew venture out, they'll most likely still try to find the source of the distress signal.

Man, I'm thinking of a fantastic action sequence here. Imagine the PCs and the few NPCs survivors, running through the woods on an uncharted world. It's dark now. And there's some Aliens in these woods, chasing them.

This would be particularly effective if the players keep trying to regain the ship. Have a few aliens--multiple aliens--kicking the crap out of them so that there is no chance but to flee.

Darkness. Low ammo. Aliens leaping up into the limbs of trees, then down on another poor soul.

Blood splatters everywhere.

Do we stop for him?

No, it's suicide. Keep running!

It seems like hours they run. Stragglers from the crew get torn to bits. But, finally, it seems that the aliens have had enough for the night. The PCs aren't sure when, but they seem to be alone know.

Keep moving or camp? Keep following the distress signal?

Here's where the players end up with a number of characters that the GM thinks is fitting to play out the adventure. Each player should have his main character and one or two NPCs that (the player doesn't know) will give the player enough characters to "lose" to the aliens later on.

In the forest, the ship's survivors come across a carved stone in the center of a clearing. It's a monolith with a flat top. It might remind one of the characters of the standing stones in Scotland, on Earth. Inspecting the pillar will reveal a reddish stain, as if someone has spilled port wine.





NOTE

Remember that it is important for the PCs to be very limited on their equipment and supplies, especially ammo. Give the player no hint of what is about to happen to the ship when the PCs go off to scout. Play the game from the scouting party's point of view. Maybe allow them find some native creatures. Move the discovery of the stone pillar (above) to this encounter instead of later, if you want. Maybe even give them a hit of the alien by allowing the scouting party to find deep claw marks on a tree trunk (where an alien has climbed up), or maybe some of that gooey stuff that they excreet on a batch of leaves.

The scouting party will not find the source of the distress call yet. And, they will return to the ship either because it is starting to get dark, or because they receive a short, frantic message on the comm as the aliens start to attack the ship. Then the comm goes dead.

Either way, the scouting party will return to the ship after the attack--or during the end of it.

Don't let the players get back inside the ship. The point is to keep equipment very limited. Don't give the PCs anything to fight the aliens. And, if the scouting party left the ship heavily supplied, make sure most of those supplies are used up (ammo depleted, NPCs carying equipment downed by the aliens) as the aliens start to come after them.

If the PCs stand to fight the aliens that have ransacked their ship, simply kill several NPCs until the players realize that it's not a fight that they can win at this point. Force them into the wood. Do the running battle with the aliens chasing them. Throw natural obstacles at them--a stream. A cliff to jump from.

At some point, the aliens will no longer be chasing them, and the survivors will stumble into the clearing with the standing stone.