Anyone Have Ghosts of Dathomir Yet?

[Maelora 5,807]

20 minutes ago, fist said:

soooooo.....

For those of us still awaiting the book in question, any more reviews and or comments on it?

It has Harley Quinn in it.  Although I'll probably have to cut her out, seeing as how the MarcyVerse is already full up to its quota on 'crazy'.

And the 'ghosts' are kinda disappointing.   There was the scope for some seriously cool stuff here, but... I dunno, it fell a bit flat for me.

And we needed moar Dathomir.  (And moar ghosts. Actual ghosts, not pretend ones.)

Edited October 18, 2017 by Maelora

[Absol197 5,296]

2 minutes ago, Maelora said:

It has Harley Quinn in it.  Although I'll probably have to cut her out, seeing as how the MarcyVerse is already full up to its quota on 'crazy'.

Wait, literally Harley Quinn, or do you mean a character who acts like her?  It's not Jerserra, is it?

I don't have the book yet...  ...

I don't mind spoilers, I'm gonna read the entire thing straight through anyway  .

Edited October 18, 2017 by Absol197

[Maelora 5,807]

Sorry, me being silly again! The unmasked Jerserra looks a lot like Harley with a plait wearing Joker's make-up.

Which would be very cool if the entire 'masked female psychopath' act wasn't already Kandy's shtick.

[Mindless Philosopher 154]

From the hints being dropped, this is upsetting.  I've never really been interested in buying adventures since I'm planning on mainly being a player, at least for a while, but this had me intrigued.  Alternate Force traditions like the Nightsisters sound really cool, and I enjoyed them in The Clone Wars.

[Absol197 5,296]

Ah, makes sense.  So we do see a picture of her unmasked?  Makes sense, I guess, seeing as she IS the main villain  .  Although keeping her identity a secret the entire adventure might have been neat, so that she can make additional reappearances afterwards.

Do we meet any witches on Dathomir, or is it just animals and ghosts of workers?

[Underachiever599 870]

22 minutes ago, Mindless Philosopher said:

From the hints being dropped, this is upsetting.  I've never really been interested in buying adventures since I'm planning on mainly being a player, at least for a while, but this had me intrigued.  Alternate Force traditions like the Nightsisters sound really cool, and I enjoyed them in The Clone Wars.

Sadly, you get virtually nothing of the actual Nightsisters in this book. There's a little blurb about them and how you should play them as a GM if the players absolutely insist on finding a clan of them, and there's a pretty pathetic "Nightsister ghost" enemy for the big final battle. You don't even get stats or anything for a standard Nightsister, if I recall correctly.

[Absol197 5,296]

14 minutes ago, Underachiever599 said:

Sadly, you get virtually nothing of the actual Nightsisters in this book. There's a little blurb about them and how you should play them as a GM if the players absolutely insist on finding a clan of them, and there's a pretty pathetic "Nightsister ghost" enemy for the big final battle. You don't even get stats or anything for a standard Nightsister, if I recall correctly.

Disappointing.  That's, like, the ENTIRE reason to go to Dathomir in a game, to run afoul of some witches. 

Although, this reminds me!  My sister, who is running her very first FFG Star Wars game is about to take her party to Dathomir to do some rancor-wrangling.  She knew that the only reason to go to Dathomir was to encounter some witches, and being a massive Xena fan, she asked me to stat up a pair of Inquisitors to be Xena and Gabrielle as Nightsisters (known as Darth Thraccas and Darth Rial, respectively, and yes, I know that the Darth title is technically incorrect here).

If anyone is interested, I'll gladly post the stats, shop you can have some proper "witch" action on your trip to Dathomir !

[Underachiever599 870]

23 minutes ago, Absol197 said:

Disappointing.  That's, like, the ENTIRE reason to go to Dathomir in a game, to run afoul of some witches. 

Although, this reminds me!  My sister, who is running her very first FFG Star Wars game is about to take her party to Dathomir to do some rancor-wrangling.  She knew that the only reason to go to Dathomir was to encounter some witches, and being a massive Xena fan, she asked me to stat up a pair of Inquisitors to be Xena and Gabrielle as Nightsisters (known as Darth Thraccas and Darth Rial, respectively, and yes, I know that the Darth title is technically incorrect here).

If anyone is interested, I'll gladly post the stats, shop you can have some proper "witch" action on your trip to Dathomir !

I'd love to see what you statted up for a couple Nightsisters! I actually also have a Nightsister Inquisitor (in training) in my game. 

[Absol197 5,296]

Sure thing!  First, here is the student, Darth Rial:

Characteristics

Brawn 2; Agility 3; Intellect 3; Cunning 4; Willpower 3; Presence 5

Soak 3; Wound Threshold 22; Strain Threshold 23; Defense 0/0

Skills

Charm 2, Computers 4, Cool 2, Deception 3, Mechanics 1, Negotiation 1; Brawl 3, Melee 4, Ranged: Light 2; Knowledge (all) 2

Talents and Special Abilities

Adversary 3, Aura of Command, Force Rating 3, Intense Focus, Improved Scathing Tirade

Force Powers

Influence

Basic power, Control: Mind Trick, Strength, Duration 2

Equipment

Refined Cortosis Staff (Superior, Weighted Head)

Melee; Engaged; Dam 8; Crit 5; Concussive 1, Cortosis, Superior

Heavy Robes

Soak +1

 

And the Master, Darth Thraccas!

Characteristics

Brawn 5; Agility 4; Intellect 2; Cunning 3; Willpower 3; Presence 3

Soak 8; Wound Threshold 25; Strain Threshold 23; Defense 1/1

Skills

Coercion 2, Discipline 3, Leadership 4, Perception 2, Piloting: Planetary 1, Vigilance 2; Brawl 3, Lightsaber 4, Ranged: Light 2; Knowledge (all) 2

Talents and Special Abilities

Adversary 3, Force Rating 3, Intimidating Presence, Lethal Blows 2, Pressure Point, Terrifying

Force Powers

Enhance

Basic power, Control: Resilience, Control: Brawl, Control: Force Leap, Control: Vertical Leap, Control: Fast Leap, Range

Equipment

Lightsaber (Corrupted Crystal, Superior, Extended Hilt)

Lightsaber; Engaged; Dam 10; Crit 1; Breach, Sunder, Superior, Vicious 3; Add [DS] to all Force power checks while in use.

Light Chakram (Phase-Knife)*

Lightsaber; Engaged/Medium; Dam 7; Crit 3; Pierce 4, Superior, Vicious 1; May spend [AA] or [Tr] when thrown to return to hand.

Armored Robes (Superior)

Soak +3, Defense 1/1

*  Darth Thraccas has the Saber Throw talent only for throwing her Light-Chakram

[coyote6 416]

Canonically, I'm not sure there are any Nightsisters left. They eradicated Mother Talzin's bunch, and I'm not sure if the purge included the rest of the planet or not. No canon source has included anyone living on Dathomir post-Clone Wars - but they also haven't explicitly said it's depopulated (as opposed to, say, Geonosis). 

[Underachiever599 870]

1 hour ago, coyote6 said:

Canonically, I'm not sure there are any Nightsisters left. They eradicated Mother Talzin's bunch, and I'm not sure if the purge included the rest of the planet or not. No canon source has included anyone living on Dathomir post-Clone Wars - but they also haven't explicitly said it's depopulated (as opposed to, say, Geonosis). 

Canonically, I believe the Nightsisters are all dead. But this book actually makes mention of existing Nightsister clans. They're just not connected to the adventure in the book. It even has a blurb in there for if the players insist on finding the Nightsisters, and how to play them as the GM. It just doesn't give stats or anything, and just leaves it to a tiny blurb.

[vilainn6 306]

9 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

Canonically, I believe the Nightsisters are all dead. But this book actually makes mention of existing Nightsister clans. They're just not connected to the adventure in the book. It even has a blurb in there for if the players insist on finding the Nightsisters, and how to play them as the GM. It just doesn't give stats or anything, and just leaves it to a tiny blurb.

I am not really in conspiracy theory but this sound more and more like the first draft of the book had infos on the Nightsister but Lucas/Disney forced FFG to remove it to stay in the continuity of the canon set by The Clone War. That could explain the major delay.

[Daeglan 5,950]

24 minutes ago, vilainn6 said:

I am not really in conspiracy theory but this sound more and more like the first draft of the book had infos on the Nightsister but Lucas/Disney forced FFG to remove it to stay in the continuity of the canon set by The Clone War. That could explain the major delay.

It would not explain the delay. As it would have still been in the in developement phases and nevernwould have said it was printing. 

Now i agree that i can see lucas telling them no to Dathomir witch info

[Maelora 5,807]

Quote

I am not really in conspiracy theory but this sound more and more like the first draft of the book had infos on the Nightsister but Lucas/Disney forced FFG to remove it to stay in the continuity of the canon set by The Clone War. That could explain the major delay.

Seeing the paucity of actual Dathomir stuff in there, I did wonder if that was one of the reasons for the delay. "Many Bothans disappeared died to bring you this Core Book"

I assumed it was some silly cartoon thing where the Nightsisters had been retconned out of canon or the like.

Oddly enough the book mentions they exist, but then has them literally just laugh at the characters and toss them out if they want to talk to them. 

That seems like a huge missed opportunity for a book with 'Dathomir' in the title. That place hasn't been done to death like Tattooine/Hoth/Bespin etc and a sourcebook/gazetteer would have been nice.

I mean, even in canon, this is the ideal time for all these non-Jedi/Sith traditions to really shine.

Part of the disappointment is the  forced structure of FFG adventures (minimum of three locations, one per chapter) as the first two chapters could easily be reduced or taken out -they feel like they were left over from some unpublished EoE adventure.  But part of it feels like Disney is just saying 'this is why you can't have nice things'. 

The more I think about it, the more the story makes more sense if we saw it from Harley's perspective, which is why I decided to run it for Red.

Not a bad book per se, but a disappointing, missed opportunity.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Maelora

[Tramp Graphics 2,328]

13 hours ago, coyote6 said:

Canonically, I'm not sure there are any Nightsisters left. They eradicated Mother Talzin's bunch, and I'm not sure if the purge included the rest of the planet or not. No canon source has included anyone living on Dathomir post-Clone Wars - but they also haven't explicitly said it's depopulated (as opposed to, say, Geonosis). 

 

12 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

Canonically, I believe the Nightsisters are all dead. But this book actually makes mention of existing Nightsister clans. They're just not connected to the adventure in the book. It even has a blurb in there for if the players insist on finding the Nightsisters, and how to play them as the GM. It just doesn't give stats or anything, and just leaves it to a tiny blurb.

I've got to agree with @Underachiever599, I'm pretty sure the Nightsister clan is dead, though that does not preclude other clans of Witches surviving.

[Absol197 5,296]

2 hours ago, Maelora said:

Oddly enough the book mentions they exist, but then has them literally just laugh at the characters and toss them out if they want to talk to them.

Seriously?  Wow.  Just...that is a major missed opportunity.  I mean, sure, no Nightsisters, Greivous wiped them out in The Clone Wars, sure.  But as Tramp said, the Nightsisters are not the only clan of witches on the planet.  In fact, they were the black sheep of the witches, the clan the OTHER WITCHES told people to avoid!

That's...very disappointing. 

[Duciris 1,347]

2 hours ago, Maelora said:

Seeing the paucity of actual Dathomir stuff in there, I did wonder if that was one of the reasons for the delay. "Many Bothans disappeared died to bring you this Core Book"

I assumed it was some silly cartoon thing where the Nightsisters had been retconned out of canon or the like.

Oddly enough the book mentions they exist, but then has them literally just laugh at the characters and toss them out if they want to talk to them. 

That seems like a huge missed opportunity for a book with 'Dathomir' in the title. That place hasn't been done to death like Tattooine/Hoth/Bespin etc and a sourcebook/gazetteer would have been nice.

I mean, even in canon, this is the ideal time for all these non-Jedi/Sith traditions to really shine.

Part of the disappointment is the  forced structure of FFG adventures (minimum of three locations, one per chapter) as the first two chapters could easily be reduced or taken out -they feel like they were left over from some unpublished EoE adventure.  But part of it feels like Disney is just saying 'this is why you can't have nice things'. 

The more I think about it, the more the story makes more sense if we saw it from Harley's perspective, which is why I decided to run it for Red.

Not a bad book per se, but a disappointing, missed opportunity.

*Quietly pulling hair out*

The reason I got excited about this book (over a year ago) was that I wanted rules for running/playing Night Sisters and Dathamir(ians?).

The Night Sisters, which we heavy in Clone Wars (even without Ventress), have shown up in Rebels as well.  My understanding was that Disney's Star Wars Cannon (at the real world timeline when the Force Awakens released) was limited to the 6 movies, I think both Clone Wars (but definitely the second) and Rebels.  Night Sisters, which were exterminated by A New Hope, were & are part of cannon.  And assuming that The Phantom Menace is part of cannon, so are Dathamir(ians), ala Maul.

There are several races & sects which use the force in ways other than light and dark in the cannon.  I'm disappointed that, after waiting since last October, we don't get FaD rules for running one of them.

[Maelora 5,807]

There's a sidebar about the PCs trying to reach the Nightsisters which ends 'if they PCs seek to learn from the witches, the clan laughs and rebuffs them'.

I guess if you really want to mirror their powers, there's likely to be something in the Mystic book that will let you do that.

But an actual adventure which completely forbids you interacting with them, feels like trolling, given the title.

In the aftermath section, it mentions 'the Nightsisters are highly unlikely to agree to train outsiders in their ways, but PCs might be able to establish a working relationship or trade that could periodically enable them to learn more about the Force, albeit from the Nightsisters viewpoint'.  But any such interaction is entirely at the creation of the GM.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Maelora

[Absol197 5,296]

Wow, that...really sucks.  I mean, this adventure has Dathomir in the title, and they give you nothing on the one thing that makes Dathomir iconic?  Werewolf the Forsaken!

I mean, sure, other adventures take you to iconic planets.  You get Ord Mantell in Mask of the Pirate Queen and Korriban in Chronicles of the Gatekeeper, but neither of those adventures actually have the name of the iconic planet in the title, and from the sound of it, those adventures give you more of the iconic flare of those planets than Ghosts does!

Edited October 19, 2017 by Absol197

[Rationalinsanity 129]

Ugh, this is really disappointing. Here's hoping that Fully Operational and Ciphers and Masks aren't gutted/botched.

[Maelora 5,807]

1 hour ago, Absol197 said:

Wow, that...really sucks.  I mean, this adventure has Dathomir in the title, and they give you nothing on the one thing that makes Dathomir iconic?  Werewolf the Forsaken!

I mean, sure, other adventures take you to iconic planets.  You get Ord Mantell in Mask of the Pirate Queen and Korriban in Chronicles of the Gatekeeper, but neither of those adventures actually have the name of the iconic planet in the title, and from the sound of it, those adventures give you more of the iconic flare of those planets than Ghosts does!

You get a breakdown on the planet and everything (the MarcyVerse version has far more than 8000 people on it; I'd envisaged migrating tribes and an ecosystem of kaiju-size rancor-like creatures and that 'Nightsister' was a broad title like 'Muslim' or 'Christian' that actually had dozens of different sects and beliefs).

It's just that the last third feels rushed. Dathomir should have been the core of it, not just the last act, in my opinion. 

I feel like you could have whole campaign set here alone, but as it is, you'd have to make it all up yourself or extrapolate it from the existing lore.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Maelora

[Absol197 5,296]

Well, that's better than I feared, although still less than expected.  I dunno, we'll see when I finally get the book.  It's tomorrow!  OMGBBQ!

[Maelora 5,807]

You might have completely different take on it

I've actually enjoyed most of the other FFG adventures, even if I've had to chop them up to make them fit. 

Maybe our expectations were running a bit high on this one?

[Absol197 5,296]

Almost certainly, and it also just as probably had to do with the extreme amount of time taken for the book to be finished.  After an entire year, it just built up in our heads and we possibly expected too much from it?  Maybe?

[Maelora 5,807]

Yeah, I think so.  A loooooooooong wait and an iconic location/organisation did peculiar things to our poor, book-starved expectations.

I hope the logjam starts to shift now and we get the last AoR splatbooks relatively soon.