Khazadune
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Posts posted by Khazadune
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I understand the Jakku trap trap and the subsequent exodus, the build up in unknown regions and the child abductions/political intrigues in the senate (buying candidates etc). I’m aware of the Mon Mothma moronic disarmament policy and the then need for the “Resistance” what I guess I’m stuck on are; 1) When did the FO openly engage in hostilities for the first time where the universe became aware of them? (As far as I can tell that’s during TFA.) 2) What amount of time passes between TFA and TLJ? (It appears to begin at the same moment for Rey, but then this could have been outside the rest of the story progression as we don’t see her travel time etc... so, do we assume a few weeks? Do we assume months? Is this established?)
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7 minutes ago, Giorgio said:What do you have in mind? A general overview of my work-in-progress campaign setting, or a detailed breakdown of the "why" of the decisions I have made as a GM in creating the campaign in a certain way (add this, subtract this, ignore this, change this...), for a certain play style and for a certain player audience?
Generally it’s a discussion of in progress game elements, but you can riff on what elements you plan on using and why, I think others will likely have some takeaways from that. (Myself included)
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On 2018-01-26 at 3:50 PM, SEApocalypse said:Countless fighters and small ships, about a million capital ships small than star destroyers, 25,000 star destroyers and a few command ships like the executor. Literally. ;-)
Okay, I take back my criticism, if that is an accurate figure, well, okay. I just thought it was one of those offhand remarks. I still assume the FO does not have nearly the fleet size for that. They couldn’t have abducted that many children. That’s probably why the pre-emotive strike was so important to their plans.
One thing I don’t get is the timeline, we know the FO came back to the universe with Starkiller Base, but when you read novels like “Canto Bight” they refer to the conflict as if it’s been raging for years. Even saying things that indicate a wealth of past associations. Yet we are also led to believe that only a few days pass between TFA and TLJ... has there ever been an official timeline of hostilities entered into canon?
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7 hours ago, Nytwyng said:I'd wager those are preorders through online or brick-and-mortar retailers, not directly through FFG.
That would make sense, that clears up my confusion. I always assumed I had, “missed my chance.” Thanks @Nytwyng, @EliasWindrider and @Absol197 for the clarifications.
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On 2017-12-19 at 1:19 PM, Maelora said:Absolutely you should!
(and yeah, brainstorming here helped a lot back in 2013; I picked up a bunch of useful ideas and I still raid the forum for cool concepts even today!)
I selfishly made a thread with that topic in mind, “share your story.” The hope is that as people share crazy adventures, character concepts and nemesi (is that the plural of nemesis? Nemeses?) that we can inspire one another. A Marcyverse and Giorgioverse breakdown would offer a nice discussion of how to take the game outside of traditional Star Wars stories.
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6 hours ago, JRRP said:My group is using the business rules from Far Horizons to own a mechanic's garage in an out of the way corner of the Great Gran Hyperlane Run. They started out just trying to scramble by and navigate the intrigues of the local underworld, but soon enough they were plotting to be movers and shakers in their own right.
Our next game (tenth session), they are running a podrace that one of the characters is competing in. The others are trying to maintain order and keep the peace, as they built the track the podrace is being run on out of an old mine they picked up dirt cheap (with a hefty loan from a Hutt in whose honor the podrace is being run). Shenanigans are going to go down.
Complicating the PC's plans are the other criminals, naturally, but also the fact that the Empire has nationalized their world and a budding rebel insurgency is making it more dangerous to live in the capitol city by the day. The newly installed Imperial Governor has also insisted on attending the race (they know it's against Imperial law -- they know this is a set up -- there isn't much they can do to avoid it), and has asked the PCs to ensure she gets a surprise introduction to the Hutt.
In short, I have a crazy group of gearhead race fans lead by a Falleen Charmer trying to make as many credits as they can before their scheme comes crashing down around their ears and they have to flee their homeworld. It's a trip.
That’s a nice twist, with the PCs in charge of the track. Between the Imps, the Hutt and whatever other criminal elements might be snooping around, they are gonna have to be on their toes to escape this one AND turn a profit! I really want to see podracing and swoop racing take a wider role in some of the FFG published works so there are more ideas. Keep us posted with how this one turns out! I love when there are a cluster of interests and the PCs are Center stage!
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7 hours ago, Absol197 said:I'm fairly certain is because this book was announced before they added the "pre-order" option to their web site, so newer products have the option, but Fully Operational never has and never will.
Just a hunch, though. I do know for certain that Cyphers and Masks was the first Star Wars book to have that option.
I’ve seen a couple people report having preordered it, I don’t know whether they are accurate or not, but it is worth finding out. I think one was in @Absol197 your thread for predictions, rather recently.
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18 hours ago, Rebelarch86 said:We just started a campaign with 3 experienced and 2 new players.
The start: Rather than be given a ship, the group hatched a heist to steal a ship.
The set up: on an inhabited moon of a remote gas planet, the empire just gained control. In the transition somethings are going sloppy. 1 such weak point is the impound hangar.
The wild card: the moon has a cycle where it passes through the rings of the planet which is happening now. This has a chance of frying the power grids. (triumphs and despairs can be used to shut down powered systems... the party has 2 droids)
The hook: the impounded ship has illegal cargo that hasn't been unloaded by the empire yet and there are a number of parties with claims on the cargo.
The group did fantastic. They grasped the narrative style and ran with it using their skills to change the plot, up stakes, claim rewards. 2 of the party members really had huge impacts without ever firing a blaster. With no out of character conversation or stating what he wanted to do, one character talked the group into getting info on a better ship to steal:
Walked up to an info broker: "word is you have a list of the impounded ships." "[their rival] is bragging he's going to buy it from you for 500." "you sell it to us for 1,000 and skip the haggling." responding to everyone knows my price is 1,500 "fine we'll settle up for 1,500 and the info is ours"
Player completely dodged the fact that the broker usually considers them to low class to deal with by making the convo about the price.
Group decided to take out the power grid reasoning no one would bother investigating or putting it back on due to he lunar cycle that affects power. They set it up like a heist movie talked out the different stages of defense and fail safes, what tools and actions were needed to get past those.
Had 1 fight with storm troopers and 1 fight with the ship's original crew in the hangar trying to get their ship back.
Now they have a ship with illicit spice that a hut, ISB agent, black sun, rebels, and their rival crew wants and the only ones who knows how every party is involved is the GMs.
The crew is free to do with it what they want, dump it, sell it, settle up with an interested party. We don't plan encounters. Just rivals with goals.
This is amazing! Taking the usual start and adding in enough novel elements to shake things up and give players the freedom to make it awesome. I will likely borrow details of this for something I have planned, that lunar movement disruption due to Rings... it’s too perfect to pass up! Love it!
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1 hour ago, EliasWindrider said:There is the Sealable crafting upgrade which I forgot to add the advantage cost of, if you have it you can add vacuum sealed. It becomes a little bit like the wing commander flight suit which is soft and is vacuum sealed of the shelf.
Yeah it’s for sure possible, just wanted to point out the restriction to the OP so he was doing it RAW. I prefer the customizable Armor template as it gives a fair balance of HP and with my ungodly amounts of Advantage I can add in just about anything. (I’m averaging 15 Advantage and a Triumph... 550 Xip Mechanic/Scientist/Droid Tech with investments in eye for detail etc. 6 Int and 5 Mechanics and 5 Computers. Soon as I get the coin I’m getting a cybernetic to bring that to 7 Int. My party loves what a good crafter brings to the table!)
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2 hours ago, Ni Fang said:Most welcome! We're already planning their family now, two kids, NOT TWINS, one of which, their elder daugthter, will be Force Sensitive, her name at the moment is simply Bluebird due to her unnatural blue/black hair, her brother is currently unnamed but I am leaning towards Aigatis as he's going to be his sisters advisor and protector.
Further updates to come soon as we lost our writing location and have to rewrite a lot of the A-Wing race on Affavan
A real world connection to keep in mind.... bluebirds were what the soldiers called the Nursing Sisters during WWI because of their blue cloaks. The sight of a bluebird was seen as salvation, as the women worked to heal their wounds. Your eldest daughter as a force sensitive would be pretty amazing if she went the healer route. I love obscure references and little Easter eggs.
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On 2018-01-22 at 10:04 AM, SEApocalypse said:Cool clip, appeals to nerds.
And most importantly. It is super ironic because star wars sold for 4 billion dollars.
Though I like this one literally even more:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-literallySpeaking of the use and misuse of literally: The empire has literally millions of capital ships and tens of thousand of them can literally destroy a planet. Have we mentioned delta base zero already?
Again, I don’t believe they literally have millions of ships in the Empire, but even if they did/do, we were talking about the First Order, which does not. That said... planet killing weapons are not new to the saga known for its introduction with a planet killing weapon. The USE of such means is what is abhorrent to the galaxy. That’s why after Alderaan there is such a boost to the Rebellion, and, one would imagine, after TFA there would also be a surge in those who abhor the First Order.
Many countries have Nukes, but the use of Nukes would probably lead to worldwide condemnation... if anyone was around to do so after.
The points that I have made above too many times to re-iterate here still holds true. The clip you showed has someone heroically sacrifice themself. Obi Wan heroically sacrifices himself so that Luke and co. can get away. Fin tries to heroically sacrifice himself against the stupid battering ram bull. Rose’s sister heroically sacrifices herself to take out the Dreadnaught. On and on, the entire SW universe is replete with heroic sacrifices.
TLJ wants to paint them as Pyrric... that’s another discussion for another point, but the fact that people continually do it and have the ability to hyperspace ram... that means we should see more of it, likely will see more of it... unless some argument can be made against its use. (Which I have also covered in previous posts)
I think you mistake my discussion as some validation of tactics in use, when really it’s pointing to the logical conclusion of what is and has been done vs. What is permissible and likely to be done (when permissible).
And again for the argument farther up the chain, for the millionth time, there is nothing in canon that prevents hyperspace impacts. In fact, it’s been established from the start that the reason you have to do such intense astrological checks is to prevent impacts... thus meaning that hyperspace ramming does not need to be outside hyperspace. You can disagree if you like, as you have, but it’s just what canon has established.
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22 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:Get the force and destiny book "keeping the peace" for the armor crafting rules with enough advantage/triumph reinforced clothing should fit the bill. 2 triumph for inbuilt attachment for superior and a i think 4 advantage for a +1 soak upgrade will get you to 3 soak another 6 advantage will get you 2 hard points for the vacuum sealed and maybe amphibious attachments assuming amphibious is 1 hp.
Reinforced clothing won’t work for vacuum sealed. It needs to be a fully enclosed like laminate Armor etc.
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6 minutes ago, Absol197 said:Do you pay for the book when you pre-order? Or when the book arrives and becomes available? I'll admit that I've not pre-ordered anything through FFG before, so I don't know exactly how it works. I've pre-ordered through my FLGS, but they don't charge until the item arrives. I suppose they may be paying the publishing company at the time of the order, but...
If you're right, though, then hurray! That means I'm wrong, and we might still see a new book in the next week or two!
You know I don’t know. I preordered the three books but I can’t tell you if they actually charged me yet or not....
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27 minutes ago, Absol197 said:You know, a thought just occurred to me, which is not a very happy thought, but it makes sense
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What with the reprinting debacle for Ghosts and the massive delays that followed, it's entirely possible that the entire budget for the SWRPG is on a razor's edge. Maybe they're waiting so long to announce a new book because they don't want it to be waiting In Development forever, but they just don't have the money right now to print anything new. So, they're waiting until some of the current books get to stores and they've earned some of their money back before they announce.
While many of us might have been assuming this, the facts of that scenario aren't very...happy. Best-case scenario from here, we start getting new books released in three weeks (1 more for boating, 2 Shipping Now). That puts us at February 15. And if they want to wait a little to see what cash flow they get...we may be waiting until March before we get another new book announcement
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I hope this is not the case, but...it's a possibility.
I doubt it, that’s the advantage of the preorder. They have had three books already sold for months. Now, it could be that the money from those three books was only enough to hold them over till now, but then they would just announce another book and print more money with preorders. Chances are it’s just a lull because they have a lot going on at once. Sucks for us, but they have a wealth of resources out there already, so we aren’t bereft.
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Arkanian are in Disciples of Harmony, the Consular Sourcebook.
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In the canon Star Wars Battlefront 2 from EA the main character has a miniature probe droid that folds up into a disc and mounts into her back like a backpack. It’s a ID 9 or something. I’m sure you can look up the details.
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10 minutes ago, Ahrimon said:I did find this. "OXYGEN UNIT This unit can provide an additional twelve hours of oxygen when connected to any rebreather, breath mask, or environmentally sealed suit" from forged in battle. It's for the military modular backpack, but I don't see why it couldn't be added to a suit of armor as well.
Depending on how slavish to the wording you wanted to be it wouldn't provide any additional protection to vacuum or gases though. I think EotE is written loosely enough that most GMs would allow that protection to continue though.
Other than those though, I haven't found anything.
Source(s): Forged in Battle, Page 55Amphibious Modification, pg 57 Special Modifications. When combined it gives you hours of air. I agree though, vacuum sealed should have just had this as mods rather than necessitating entire additional hard points being used. I have 6 hard Points on my Armor for my Engineer and he has vacuum sealed, amphibious, radiation shielding, thermal and cold weather at the moment.
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6 hours ago, SEApocalypse said:An enemy that has literally a million capital ships. Yeah, sacrifice yourself, because fighting another day is such a bad idea. Especially when doing as much damage as you can and just jump into hyperspace had been an option to to this point in star wars. TLJ is using hyperspace tracking for the first time in star wars history. Before that point just jumping out had been a successful strategy for basically everyone ... even when you had sometimes to eliminate the interdictor cruiser first.
I don’t think you know the meaning of literally.
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So @Absol197 when can we reasonably expect the next benchmark for either new product details or the arrival of the on the boat products?
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13 minutes ago, jayc007 said:The sad part is that what the mystics are suffering through isn't even a hiccup compared to what we engineers have been suffering through for almost a year... but at least we had articles... And if I'm not mistaken the mystic book has really been moving along quite quickly... statistically speaking anyway.
Yeah. I seriously began three engineers when this book came out. Two of the campaigns have run their course already and the last one is well along. I have not boycotted FFG but I am beginning to get rather disillusioned. The unreasonable length of time to get a product to market is the only thing I haven’t liked about this game.
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3 hours ago, OddballE8 said:Why couldn't any of those ships be used at any time?
umm... because it would result in the death/suicide of up to thousands of people on board the larger ones?
As for seeing most or all of your fleet destroyed, most battles don't play out like computer games do... in most battles, one side will retreat or surrender long before you've been completely destroyed. In fact, most would retreat long before there's substantial damages to the fleet.
You seem to have gone away from the drone thought and into some sort of weird suicide cult where every pilot (and crew member) in the entire rebel fleet would be willing to suicide right into enemy ships en masse...
It makes little sense to actually use this on a large scale!
If you keep suicideing your troops, it's going to be real difficult trying to recruit new members to the rebels!
Most people would fight for a brighter future, not only for others but for themselves and their families too.
Yes, most would be ready to die for that ideal, but most wouldn't be ready to suicide bomb themselves as a main strategy!
Holdo did this out of sheer desperation.
It's not something that would be viable in the long run.
As for having to be in weapons range, she not only turns around, but she also keeps approaching them for quite a while. It seems obvious that you have to be within a certain range to do damage before entering hyperspace, and that is certainly within weapons range.She has to plot the course and turn around. If hyperspace had a range requirement it wouldn’t be hyperspace.
Heroic sacrifice is not something an insurgency group has ever convinced its population to do? Clearly there are quite a few willing to die for their causes, and as for desperate, what would you refer to any instance of the rebels/resistance if not desperate? You are stuck on this as a planned and methodical course of action as opposed to something possible.
Your argument has followed these three questions. First it’s a question of cost/benefit, Second it’s a question of scope/scale, third it’s a question of motivation.
1. One vs Many, simple math.
2. Smaller ship destroys largest ship in creation and fleet of others, simple physics.
3. The enemy that literally destroys whole worlds. Yeah, feeling like your sacrifice is probably most appropriate now.
Seriously.
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1 hour ago, OddballE8 said:Wait... you're doing it again... you're mixing arguments here.
You said they could just use an old freighter... which I said would get shot to pieces fast, and then you say "why is anyone still building capital ships at all when they can be shot down as easily as you say"...
Either it's a cheap and disposable freighter or it's a massively expensive and not very disposable capital ship. Pick one for your argument here...
Let's use both of the examples here:
Capital Ship
This would just be too resource expensive. You're using up massive amounts of precious metals and materials, not to mention expensive and large systems like engines and shields to essentially build a gargantuan missile.
And once it's been used once, the enemy will know about it and adapt their tactics for it. Intercepting it with fighters and medium ships before it even reaches the launch distance to use the hyperspace drive. These could easily take out the engines and render the whole thing useless before it even becomes a threat, since there won't be anyone manning the guns, unless this is a mass suicide mission (actually, there wouldn't be any guns anyway, as a cost saving measure, I bet).
"Any old freighter"
This would be risky from the get-go, as you'd have to hit a capital ship in the right spot to take it out for good (and not just cripple it, leaving it to be repaired later). And then the other issues still remain.
You'd either have to fit the ship with high-capacity shields and make it maneuverable and have a droid pilot, or you'd have to have a lot of them to make sure you'd get your shot.
Because after that first incident, the enemy will start targeting all "old freighters" in the enemy fleet as a priority.
You'd need a fighter screen to keep enemy fighters off them long enough, and you'd need some battleships or capital ships to keep off anything larger.
And if you're doing that, you're already up to the size of what you'd need to effectively fight the enemy ship in regular combat anyway, and you're just wasting money on very expensive and single-use projectiles with no guarantee that they'll work.As for costs, even ships that are knocked out or even destroyed in combat often leave raw material behind that can be salvaged. Often times, vehicles that are knocked out can be refitted and repaired at a much lower cost than building a completely new one.
But every single one that does a hyperspace ram is vaporized, it would seem (or sent into hyperspace, I don't know. But there didn't seem to be much left of the ship after that ram)
(Oh and "instant death radius for combat"? Hyperbole much? Let's have a civilized argument here, ok?)Your argument imagines some particular invented ship specifically for ramming. That’s not even required. Take your thought of conventional fleet warfare. If it’s 35 ships or so and all their fighters against the Supremacy and FO fleet... why can’t any one of those ships be used at any time? And why would this be less cost effective than say a straight up battle that will probably see most or all of your fleet destroyed? Because you can’t reuse the ramming ship? You can’t reuse the destroyed ship either. And we’ve seen it take more than a single ship to inflict the kind of Dmg that happens in TLJ.
If it’s cost benefit you are analyzing, then it’s flat out wrong. A single A Wing striking the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer crippled that ship. A squadron of X Wings out of the battlegroup could jump at the FO all day long. Miss? Do it again. One ship for much more is a win. Plus, there is no evidence that you even need to enter conventional weapons range, in the movie she is only because she has to turn around and they are literally following on her tail.
I still don’t know why I’m engaging in this argument as I find the whole thing a silly Deus Ex Machina plot device that was horrible in conception and which destroys the continuity of the universe as a whole (as currently envisioned). So yeah, this is my last post on this topic, it’s been talked to Death, but using the logic applied in your own argument, it makes little sense not to use this.
TLDR: TLJ was poorly thought out and causes nearly irreconciable issues with continuity to the universe’s own internal logic.
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55 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:It would still be prohibitively costly to use that tactics.
Let's say you use an old freighter like you said in your example.
Now, the Raddus is (in rough numbers) 3400x700x460 meters in size. If you look at the Gif in this thread of the impact on the Supremacy, it doesn't really do much more than cut through it in a straight line. You don't see a massive explosion in the Supremacy, you see it getting cut in half.
Yes, there are plenty of damage to the other ships behind it, but the main damage to the Supremacy seems to be a relatively clean cut right through it.
So it stands to reason that the impact is less of an explosive one and more of a cutting one.
If you did that with an old freighter (let's use a G9 rigger for example) against a Venator, you'd most likely get a bullethole straight through it. In a best case scenario, you'd get the same cutting effect that Holdo acieved on the Supremacy.
But unless you hit that Venator just right, you'd most likely not take it out of commission completely.
And it would still be a one-shot weapon that costs a lot more than say a couple of heavy turbolasers that can fire an almost infinite amount of shots compared to that one-shot weapon that may or may not do damage to the enemy. (remember, you can't just buy any old G9 and smash it into the enemy. You'd have to set it up as a drone or at least have a capable pilot droid in there, increasing the cost of the unit)
And if it was a commonly used tactics, then any navy would start to target those old freighters first, so you'd have to either fit them with more armour and heavy duty shields (because they'd be going up against turbolasers, Ion cannonsand missiles and the like), or possibly buying better and more agile freighters (for a much higher price), or you'd have to have a lot of them to make sure you'd score a hit.
Now, that might sound great to you, but to a military that can build weapons that don't require ammo, having an armada of one-shot weapons that cost more than several capital class weapons with infinite ammo wouldn't make much sense unless it was guaranteed to work every time.
But it's not.
The first time, yes.
The second time? Maybe.
The third time? Not a chance. The enemy would be all over those freighters in a heartbeat and concentrating all their fire on them immediately.
Now, you could argue about how it was hard to stop kamikaze planes during WWII, but they were hardly flying old transport planes, now were they? And besides, they were still not all that effective. According to the US Navy: "Approximately 2,800 Kamikaze attackers sunk 34 Navy ships, damaged 368 others, killed 4,900 sailors, and wounded over 4,800. Despite radar detection and cuing, airborne interception and attrition, and massive anti-aircraft barrages, a distressing 14 percent of Kamikazes survived to score a hit on a ship; nearly 8.5 percent of all ships hit by Kamikazes sank"
Now, like I said, those were not done by pilots flying old transport planes. They were flying agile fighter planes in most cases.
Again, this comes down to effectiveness versus cost.
And this is effectively just "ammunition" that costs more than several Heavy Turbolasers combined... for one shot.That’s a misrepresentation of the cost/benefits of this strategy but I think you know that.
I am loathe to discuss movie displayed combat scenes and call them “accurate” as they tend to exist on screen until it’s expedient for them not to... but I’ll go there for a second. In ROTJ we see a single A Wing slam into the bridge of a 16 km long SSD and that impact cripples the vessel.
In TLJ a single Mon Cal slices through the largest ship ever created causing it to be cut in twain and presumably lost. (We see Phasma fall into a crevasse the size of a small spaceport filled with flames, and the entire main hangar completely in ruin.) That’s before we talk about the ISD’s behind it that also suffered severe damage. To inflict equivalent damage to a fleet of 30 capital ships and The Supremacy would have taken at least a dozen Capital Ships, with squadrons of fighters and hundreds of thousands of people... which would have all been lost in the process.
Now, to win the battle you would be talking something in the order of 35-40 ships, probably 6 wings of fighters at least and almost a half million people for skeleton crews alone.
So I’ll let you calculate the cost of one Mon Cal Cruiser and Holdo verses a fleet on the scale of those at Jakku or Endor to inflict the same damage.
There is no way that a cost/benefit analysis could see these as remotely equivalent. Your turbolaser example fails to account for the chances that said weapon will actually accomplish the goal. Employing any of the many turbolasers on Holdo’s ship would not have been likely to take a single Imperial ship down. To effect the same results you would need fleets if batteries and the resulting shields, engines, hulls, communications, fighter screens, crews etc etc etc that make that possible.
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3 minutes ago, OddballE8 said:Well, the answer to that is simple.
Because they weren't meant to win.
Palpatine was behind the whole thing and he didn't want them to win, so he would have forbidden such a tactic on a massive scale.
I think he was merely controlling all outcomes. If CIS wins, he wins. If Republic wins, he wins. He only came on the Republic side when he was sure he had the win in the bag.
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Hyperspace Ram (quasi-spoilers)
in Star Wars: Age of Rebellion RPG
Posted
I’ve played through the campaign and the expanded content post TLJ so I’m familiar with the story, but it still isn’t a clear cut timeline... but it’s something, obviously travel times are not shown but yeah, it’s a rough outline.