Andor Game Prologue: Mission Briefing

This is the briefing the players of my Andor game received prior to start of game. 

YAVIN IV BRIEFING ROOM
Mid-day. Three months after the Battle of Yavin & destruction of the Death Star.

"Greetings, comrades, and welcome to Operation Lamplighter. You can call me Gadfly; I will be your case officer. 

"Gadfly"
(Rachelle Diedricks in Andor)

The Kubari Group was a Rebellion cell operating on the planet Derethon, in the Ord Oranna cluster of the Dusk Nebula. Kubari's objective was to monitor the nearby Imperial Academy and identify potential candidates within the student population for recruitment. They transmitted their information through a fractal radio operated by another Derethon cell."

A month ago, the Kubari Group broke protocols and transmitted information about a new Imperial project being developed at a research facility in the nearby Yeldii system. They informed Alliance Command about a defector, Major Lexsil Vehk, who had made contact with Kubari and wanted to provide details of this project, but would only speak to Alliance High Command once out of the sector. Unfortunately, this did not happen.

As of ten days ago, the Kubari Group has been neutralized. Right now, fifteen of the group are in an Imperial prison outside the sector, awaiting trial. The ISB rounded them up at a secret meeting in an isolated complex on the outskirts of Broken Sword, the Derethon capital. Complete security was observed, yet when they came out of the complex they found the place surrounded by ISB troops; resistance was pointless.

We must assume the traitor is someone in the group – or what is left of the group – which is now in hiding. 

Your initial mission is to insert onto Derethon and reconstruct the Kubari network. You’ll have to assemble and reinspire the survivors, and also recruit and train new members to cover the losses. You’ll also have to identify and eliminate the traitor if they are still a member of the group.

Major Lexsil Vehk
(Still from Return of the Jedi)

Once you have established operational security, your objectives are to:

1) Uncover what information you can about the Yeldii research facility and what is being developed there.
2) Rebuild the identification and recruitment arms of the Kubari Group to resume monitoring the Academy and extracting potential Alliance recruits.
3) Acquire space assets for in-sector operations.
4) Identify and designate targets of opportunity for Alliance action.

Be aware that both resupply and extraction will be extremely difficult, due to the isolated nature of the sector. While there are other Alliance units within the sector, details of their strength and location are classified for your protection and theirs.

Your cell will be provided with a fractal radio to maintain contact with me personally. Be cautious when using this; extended communications are likely to be detected by Imperial sensors. This radio cannot be captured. If it is at risk, destruction of the radio is your highest priority."  

 

Andor! The Game

Andor s1 concept art by Luke Hull

So starting out with: Andor is great, depressingly timely, and probably the best Star Wars media made to date (including the original films).

After watching its second/final season, I was very much inspired to begin running a Star Wars campaign - which I kicked off at the end of July. I had written about Star Wars campaigning before, but this was my chance to put it into practice. Building upon the insurgency framework I discussed, the campaign is centered around running a Rebel cell operating in the Dusk Nebula, a region written up by an Internet friend as part of a still-to-be-released work. 

This game is very much inspired by not just Star Wars fun, but equally by real-world events happening literally right down the street ('benefits' of living near DC). To be clear, elfgames are not praxis (as others have noted), and fighting fictional space fascists doesn't mean a thing compared to fighting back against real-world fascism -- but for me, having a fictional framing to process real-world events, articulate how they affect communities and people, and gain inspiration through stories of resistance is helpful. 

Map of the Dusk Nebula Sector (my version)

 

I'll add in session reports (backfilling from previous games), but the players are currently in the Ophelia Cluster, rebuilding a Rebel cell after it got compromised and partially rolled up by a traitor. 

The campaign is framed as a strong sandbox - while there are other Rebel assets operating in the Dusk Nebula sector, the PCs are on their own re: operational objectives, beyond some core goals (find out what's going on at the Imperial research station in the Ophelia Cluster, do as much damage to the Imps as you can). 

I'm using the first edition WEG d6 system for this - there's a wealth of material available for it (both original WEG stuff and later fan creations), it has very quick resolution and a flexible skill system, and the pain points that are usually associated with the system (centering around Jedi and Force use) are simply not relevant for the type of campaign I'm running. 

The sandbox framework and running a covert cell can be an odd fit, and I'm working on putting together some tools to help ease both the mechanical preparation on my end, and the overwhelming possibilities (leading to analysis paralysis) for the players. It's important to present enough hooks for the players to latch onto something, and enough direction for them to meaningfully engage with what's going on in the world around them. I actually wrote into the Go Bag Podcast (centered on espionage roleplaying) and they were kind enough to respond to my letter; you can check out the episode here.

Map of Broken Sword, the base of current PC operations.
Made of course with Medieval Fantasy City Generator
by Watabou

 

 

Core Appendix N:

• Andor (obviously)
• The X-wing books by Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston, especially Aaron Allston's Wraith Squadron entries (Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, and the timeskip-sequel Mercy Kill)
• World War II resistance movements and SOE operations
• Milton Dank's "The Dangerous Game" and "Game's End," the latter of which provided the core details for the first major plothook that the PCs dealt with

Useful non-WEG Resources

• Traveller (GDW and Mongoose editions both) 
• Cities Without Number (Sine Nomine Publishing)
• Stars Without Number (Sine Nomine Publishing)
• Augmented Reality (Geist Hack Games) 
• SWRPGGM, particularly their Andor Source Guide for  
• Hill Cantons blog entries: 
• "Campaign News and Presenting Behind the Scene Mechanics" 
• "Rethinking Domain-Level Play in the Hill Cantons" 
• and the Coupbox series, starting with "A Traveller 'Coup Box'" 

I played in the online HC campaign for like a decade, so it's obviously a regular source of cribbing off of my big bro's work inspiration. 

Oh, and shoutout to Jenx (Gorgon Bones) and Scipio (on the Sly Flourish Discord) for continually encouraging me to pick up the blogging part of things again!