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| Andor s1 concept art by Luke Hull |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
