Operation Lamplighter Hub Page

"Berserk!" by caesar120 for West End Games

I'm making a single reference page for Operation Lamplighter (my Andor campaign) that will be
updated with descriptions of the various PCs throughout the campaign, links to the various session reports and other generated materials, and any additional or related blogposts that I make.

The PCs:

• Sergeant-Doctor Grozdak, Wookiee M.D. -- a Wookiee doctor turned guerrilla demolitionist. In civilian guise, wears a cyber-monocle and his autotranslator speaks with an upper-crust British accent. One of the original Operation Lamplighter team. 
  
  
• Icar Oberk -- a former enforcer for the Hutts who walked away from crime and began turning his skills towards more prosocial goals. Another Operation Lamplighter plankowner. 
  
  
• Fronz Veneto -- a mercenary from the Outer Rim who joined the Rebellion after Alderaan's destruction. Some things you can't just look away from. Another Operation Lamplighter plankowner.
  
  
• Nusha, Brash Smuggler -- a human smuggler from the Dusk Nebula, who attended the Imperial academy on Derethon years ago. Joined the group after her weapons shipment to another Rebel cell got interrupted by the Imps and her extraction options failed. 
  
  
• Umpy Kern -- a hard-as-nails forager from the rural planet Ophelia. Native of the Dusk Nebula, who joined the group after their initial operations began. 
  
  
• Zip Calfor -- a Twi'lek engineer from the Dusk Nebula, and another recent member. They have an R5 unit named Cloudburst.
  
  
• Luno Moireena -- a Clawdite smuggler from the Nebula, her family was wiped out by Burran "the Butcher" Borfelt.
  
  
• Kodo Jindall -- a Republic asteroid warden and bureaucrat, who saw the Empire take and take and take from those who had nothing. 
  
  
• Gil Kara -- a pilot from one of the old gem mining families of Chaldea Prime, who tries to separate his fighting for the Rebellion from the world of old money that his family inhabits

PCs Emeritus:

• Captain Vim Burnak -- a retired Imperial captain. Assigned to Operation Lamplighter, but forced to withdraw before the cell began primary operations. (Player had to step back from the campaign, alas!) 

Star Wars Blogposts

•  Gaming Insurgencies in a Galaxy Far, Far Away - my first noodlings towards this campaign idea, back in 2018
• Andor! The Game - announcing the start of the current campaign

Session Reports: 

1. Prologue: Operation Lamplighter Mission Briefing 
2. Session 1 (8/2/25): Arrival on Threshold (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Vim)
3. Session 2 (8/9): Threshold, Pt 2 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz)
4. Session 3 (8/16): Threshold, Pt 3 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz) (+2 CP, objective completed!)
   
   The first three sessions dealt with entry into the sector, followed by a surprise scramble mission to destroy a sensor net being operated by Sienar Fleet Systems. 
   
   
5. Session 4 (9/27): Arrival on Derethon (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz)
6. Session 5 (10/11): Broken Sword, Pt 1 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Nusha)
7. Session 6 (10/18): Broken Sword, Pt 2 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz)
8. Session 7 (10/25): Broken Sword, Pt 3 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz)
9. Session 8 (11/8): Broken Sword, Pt 4 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Umpy, Zip) (+2 CP to Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, objective completed!)
   
   The next set of sessions focused on the group making their way to the planet of Derethon (their primary staging grounds), making contact with the Kubari Group, and rooting out the traitorous operative who had sold out to the Imps and compromised the network. 
   
   
10. Session 9 (11/15): Derethon, Pt 5 (Grozdak, Icar, Umpy, Zip)
11. Session 10 (12/6): New Iridonia, Pt 1 (Grozdak, Fronz, Umpy, Zip)
12. Session 11 (12/13): New Iridonia, Pt 2 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Umpy, Zip)
13. Session 12 (12/20): New Iridonia, Pt 3 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Umpy, Zip)
14. Session 13 (01/03): Karkaran (Grozdak, Icar, Kodo, Luno)
    
    The group managed to acquire a YT-2400, the Nemesis Silver, in a fighting tournament organized by the smuggler queen Captain Baynaz. As a condition for winning the ship, Captain Baynaz required that the group extract a fugitive Twi'lek, Ranna Teis, off planet. She directed them to travel to the space station New Iridonia, where her associate Voth Vitaan would guide the crew to the hidden shadowport of Karkaran, where Teis could leave the sector and change her identity. After helping Voth escape from some bounty hunters who were tracking him down, the group managed to get Teis to Karkaran and fulfill their obligation to Captain Baynaz. 
    
    
15. Session 14 (01/10): Naurill Research Station, Pt 1 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Kodo, Luno)
16. Session 15 (01/17): Naurill Research Station, Pt 2 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Kodo, Luno)
17. Session 16 (01/24): Naurill Research Station, Pt 3 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno)
18. Session 17 (02/07): Naurill Research Station, Pt 4 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno, Umpy, Zip) (+2 CP to Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Kodo, Luno, Umpy, Zip, objective completed!)
    
    The group then took on a job from Major Noldo Drinyan, a mercenary commander seeking to extract his command from a siege. Drinyan's mercs had been contracted to guard a research station on the gem-moon Naurill, but after the research team made a breakthrough, the Empire seized the project and forced a partial evacuation when alien creatures attacked the research base. Drinyan's command was left stranded on the moon after his pilot was killed in the first evacuation op, and he needed others to help get the rest of his command out (in exchange for a great deal on his unit's transport freighter). Operation Lamplighter discovered a hidden ISB research project on the moon, eliminated the Imperial Army squad that was unknowingly guarding it, and evacuated Drinyan's command. 
    
    
19. Session 18 (02/21): Broken Sword, Pt 6 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz)
20. Session 19 (02/28): Broken Sword, Pt 7 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno, Kodo)
21. Session 20 (03/14): Starlight Beacon, Pt 1 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno)
22. Session 21 (03/21): Starlight Beacon, Pt 2 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Kodo)
23. Session 22 (03/28): Starlight Beacon, Pt 3 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno, Kodo, Gil)
24. Session 23 (04/18): Starlight Beacon, Pt 4 (Grozdak, Icar, Fronz, Luno, Kodo, Gil)
    
    Rebel High Command at Yavin informed the group that the Yavin base was being abandoned (a few months after the Death Star had been destroyed), and that a courier would be en route with further information. When the courier arrived, they brought a message from Kleya, the remaining leader of the Axis network, to Luno, the group's Clawdite infiltrator. Kleya informed Luno that Captain Borfelt, the Star Destroyer captain responsible for eliminating Luno's family and friends growing up, would be taking a cruise on the Starlight Beacon, a horrifying interstellar liner connected to the highest levels of both organized crime and Imperial operations within the Dusk Nebula Sector. Axis (Kleya) had managed to secure  passes for the Operation Lamplighter team to board the Beacon and assassinate Borfelt...

 

Andor Game Prologue: Operation Lamplighter 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 
• Advice & Inspiration for Gaming Andor, over at Hobby Games Reece 
• 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!