In West End Games’ The Star Wars Sourcebook (1987) written by Bill Slavicsek there is a four-page technical write-up on the X-wing fighter. The text is an order of magnitude more detailed than any other write-up on the Incom T-65 X-wing ever written and filled with an abundance of elements that can be adapted and used by gamemasters for any Star Wars RPG scenario. What has been vexing me for a quarter of a century are several “Star Wars-esque” non-English words used in the book for names of equipment make and manufacturers. Even if the spelling does not reflect it, when they appear to be transliterated words from my own native Malay language. Tana Ire and Melihat are both flight sensor manufacturers who have developed sensory equipment for the X-wing fighter. Malay: Tanah Air, (IPA:/tanah air/) literally “soil and water”, meaning “motherland”. The Tana Ire electro photoreceptor needs to scans […]
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25 Years of Star Wars RPG (2014)
Every tabletop RPG blog post ever written and published on this blog. Some RPG actual play reports, some RPG thoughts, some RPG artwork.
Note: All posts herein are arrayed latest first and earliest last.
Patreon: Intrepid Mechanoids
Here is the 14th batch of RPG paper miniatures I created and released at my Patreon page. Call them mechanoids, drones, droids, bots, synths… they are useable for any science fiction RPG campaigns with droids. There are mechs than walk, waddle, roll and climb which can be used as player characters or non-player characters at your gaming table. There is space to write their character names too. Click here to go to Patreon and download the free Pioneer-class release. The Mariner-class release with enhanced colouring (like the ones in the photos above), and the Voyager-class release which also includes six full-sized printable character artwork, have also been released for patrons. Thanks to my Patrons for the opportunity to make these paperminis!
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Deep Dive into WEG Lore: Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide
After receiving it as an early birthday present from Ivan earlier, this month I discovered that DK Publishing’s Rogue One Ultimate Visual Guide (UVG) by Pablo Hidalgo which fills the Star Wars universe as seen in Rogue One with a multitude of world-building details, was also a treasure trove of lore which originated from West End Games. West End Games (WEG) published the Star Wars roleplaying game series of books from 1987 until 1998 or thereabouts after which the licence went to Wizards of the Coast. In that decade or so, the game company had created and populated the Star Wars universe with hundreds (if not thousands) of worldbuilding details enough for gamemasters and players to play in the setting without having to create, for example, the Imperial DMV. Similarly, species, location and technology (and corporations that made these technologies) were named and fleshed out. Which brings us to the […]
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Patreon: The Uplifts of Space
Returning to the themes of transhumanism for the Hishgraphics paper miniature releases on Patreon, here are some uplifted animals to be used in your campaign. There are two designs each of crow uplifts, octopus uplifts and chimp uplifts perfect for your science fiction campaign. Genetic modifications in the future allow for some animals to possess human-level thoughts and consciousness. Click here to download the free Uplifts of Space PDF file on Patreon.
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EOTE: Problem Child
Edge of the Empire: Problem Child Dramatis Personae: Amri as Grabow, male Wookiee doctor Ijam as Matwe, male human smuggler pilot Fazrie as Lumpy, male Wookiee mercenary soldier Just as it was more than 20 years ago in Sitiawan when a bunch of unfamiliar people asked if I could run Star Wars RPG for them, here I am in the same situation in Sitiawan where online friends I have never met before asked me to run a Star Wars RPG session for them! No big deal to me: it is a great way to make lasting friends! Unfamiliar with any form of Star Wars RPG, I brought the Edge of the Empire and Force and Destiny rulebooks along with some sourcebooks, the FFG narrative dice set, Force tokens and my trusty homemade paperminis. I forgot to bring the percentile dice so I used the phone dice roller app. I thought […]
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Patreon: Human Adventurers
I have uploaded a pair of new paper miniature releases for Patreon, but forgot to announce it here. So here are the two sets of freely downloadable PDFs usable as player characters (PC) or non-player characters (NPC) in any medieval fantasy roleplaying game campaigns. Rangers of Sword Valley Sword Valley was once the most dangerous regions of the wilderness and filled with deadly creatures and hideouts of murderous brigands. Until the Rangers appeared out of nowhere and cleansed the valley of evil and danger. Now the valorous services of the Rangers of Sword Valley are in demand throughout the land – even when there are whispers of a dire secret being kept by these skilled woodsmen. Click here to download the free Rangers of Sword Valley PDF file on Patreon. Wilderfolk of the Dust Plains In the arid, dry lands of the Dust Plains where death await even the most […]
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SWD6: The Chandrila Extraction Fiasco
Time is the Hunter Episode 05: The Chandrila Extraction Fiasco After their rescue of the rebel agent known as “The Skywalker”, who turned out to be a Togorian named Meow Skywalker, bounty hunter Jax Hunt (played by Irfan) and the amnesiac lady who then named herself Iris Helena (played by Ain) were taken aboart the VCX-100 frieghter Screeching Arrow to rendezvous with a Nebulon-B escort frigate at an unknown location in deep space. After three days of being cooped up in the Arrow, Meow finally approached them with a mission. “The mission will require you to travel to the Chandrila system in the Core Worlds to extract Imperial bureaucrat Ton Kelauae, his wife Aklu and his daughter Wencie. Land at Nayli Spaceport. The Kelauaes are holed up in Apartment 7C, Blackback Building. The Empire is looking for them and it will be a matter of time before they are discovered. […]
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Force and Destiny Core Rulebook
At first Fantasy Flight Games released the Edge of the Empire rulebook which allowed players to be the scoundrels and smugglers of the galaxy. Then they released the Age of Rebellion rulebook for players to play soldiers and military spies. Finally, their final Star Wars role-playing game (RPG) rulebook is in my hands: Force and Destiny, where players are able to choose from a range of Jedi characters to play. It had been released for almost two years now, but I was not able to get my hands on it. I was unable to grab it off Amazon because I possess no credit card. Nor was I able to use Paypal to order it from Book Depository because it has been “out of stock” for many months. On a whim I offered to draw for the book and Erik Jensen on Google Plus accepted. So I drew this for him. […]
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Mini Six: Shadows Through The Mist
I have always stated that tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) can be amazing teaching tools, not only for language purposes but to develop critical thinking skills, social skills and general knowledge. Yesterday, I finally ran a game in an English for General Purposes class to see the students could be engaged enough for them to communicate with each other and me without being shy. The Setup Seeing that polyhedral dice were rare in these here parts, I thought I would run a game that used the ubiquitous six-sided dice. Thus, AntiPaladin Games’ Mini Six was chosen. Besides, the system is based on West End Games’ D6 system which runs the Star Wars RPG which I have been familiar with for the last 26 years. The previous week the students and I had agreed to participate after briefly explaining to them what the game is, how it would be played and what […]
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Paperminis: Phase II Clone Troopers
I thought I would get the ubiquitous Republic clone troopers from the Clone Wars out of the way before we get swept up by Rogue One fever in the coming months. These are just standard Phase II armour without any armour decorations. There are ten clone troopers and two clone commanders on the PDF. Everyone has one DC-15 blaster. Here is what you can do: Customise these troopers! Decorate it yourself with coloured markers, and write their name in the box. Go to town on them with a Sharpie. Now you will have customisable clone trooper paper miniatures for your Star Wars RPG campaign set in the Clone Wars! More clone trooper variants to come in the future! Click here to download the free PDF file for printing and assembling.
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The Saurials of the Lost Vale
Over the weekend, I worked on an art commission for Chris Constantin’s upcoming update for his book The Saurials of the Lost Vale! Drawing fantasy dinosaur people will never ever be uncool. Dinosaurs that did not make the cut from the concept pencils were a dimorphodon, an allosaurus and a psittacosaurus. Features included in this Dungeons and Dragons supplement include: The History of the Saurials and what has happened to them since the Finder Stone trilogy. The Saurials, now updated for 5e Dungeons and Dragons. The Lost Vale – gateway to Anauroch. The Saurial Homeworld – rediscovered and fleshed out. The Saurials of the Lost Vale is available from the Dungeon Masters Guild website here!
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Across The Stars: Impereporter
Presenting the second Across the Stars commission of the year, made last night: an Impereporter for the Technopapacy. The caption as written by Christopher Mennell reads: An impereporter prepares to film a congressional sermon lead by the senators of the technopapacy. The illustration above began as a quick doodle I made during a meeting on Tuesday: Someone cosplay this!
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Patreon: High Society Spies!
My latest Hishgraphics Patreon Papermini set has been released! Download the PDF files at the link above for use in espionage tabletop role-playing games, from Night’s Black Agents to Covert Ops! This series of paper miniatures display a group of secret agents in high society (or what I think is high society based on a miasma of movies that merge together in a single mass in my mind) trying to schmooze it up with guns and high tech devices. As per the previous releases, the Pioneer-class file (with flat colours) is free for download. The Mariner-class (with shaded and highlighted illustrations) and the Voyager-class files (like the Mariner, plus full-sized character artwork!) are also available for patrons. If I have some time in the next couple of weeks, I will create and release paperminis of mooks for these guys to fight it out with. A follow-up release to this in […]
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Across The Stars: The Bureaucrat
Across the Stars RPG artwork commissions have begun again! Below is the first illustration I made this year for this science fiction project: According to the caption: A Garçon organizes appropriation documents for Hish, who is worried how much he’ll pay in fines for the robot, a crashed starship, and insta-evac from the jungles of newly discovered Xanth.
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SWD6: Doublecross
Strikeforce Enteague Episode 08: Doublecross After their mission to Driscall, bouny hunters Shanna Toarinar and Ace Browning Crossfire along with the pirate Phoenix Avalon were assigned a new pilot, the Quarren hot dogger ace Dorniekke Nels and a temporary member, the elderly former Imperial Star Destroyer Captain Robetre. Their commander Drew Greyhelm informed them that one of their spies Cal Tynblade had discovered the location of the Imperial transport Rectifier packed with weapons and supplies which had been lost in the Kolben Asteroid Field. They were to commandeer it to the rebel outpost on Liesson for Alliance use. The Ambush at Kolben The Nexus Point, piloted by Dorniekke, entered the Kolben field while Ace scanned for the location of the Rectifier. It had been parked in a cave in a large asteroid. Ace and Phoenix donned spacesuits, cycled the airlock and pushed out toward the asteroid in space. As they close […]
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SWD6: Battle Among the Clouds
Strikeforce Enteague Episode 07 Battle Among the Clouds A CRY FOR HELP FROM IGMALAR! Drew Greyhelm received a signal from Rebel spy Ooogle Flutzgle at the swamp planet of Igmalar in the Enteague Sector. He had important information for the Alliance. Fresh from their mission to Belderone, Shanna Toarninar the bounty hunter and Viveede Briylle Colore the star pilot were assigned to meet the spy in Igmalar City to assess how dire this information was. The Igmalar City Imperative Viveede set the Nexus Point down in Igmalar City under a false ship ID. The city administrated the harvesting and processing of pharmaceutical materiel from the swamps of the planet and was crawling with Imperials. The local sapient species were the Grenben, who once built the city on a tall, flat mesa that towered over the rest of the swampland, and had been reduced to slaves in their own homes by […]
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