Clone Wars Episode 1 The scenario titled “Ambush” was designed so that the Player Characters (PCs), on the side of the Galactic Republic, set down on the moon known as Rugosa in a diplomatic mission. Rugosa’s terrain was a thick forest of a multitude of hard, gigantic coral structures. If there was a sea once, it probably had dried out a long time ago. Tiny airborne subspecies of the neebray, like little sparrows, flit between the coral branches. Quite an exotic setting described by the Game Master (GM). The PCs task was simple: Land on Rugosa and make the planned rendezvous with the Toydarian King Katuunko, then persuade the good king to actively support the Republic in the war against the Separatists.The lead PC was Yoda, a Jedi Master with a fair amount of dice in his Force skills. He was aided by a trio of clone troopers, Thire, Jek […]
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She got it where it counts, kid
Articles on the blog that feature various aspects of Star Wars from the films to artwork to tabletop games to comics and more! Because I like the Star Wars universe.
Figuring Out the Y-wing
The third episode of The Clone Wars animated series prominently features the Y-wing fighter defending the Kaliida Shoals Med-Centre. Specifically the Koensayr BTL-B Y-wing fighter, in its intended role as a fighter/bomber. The BTL-B looks much different from the single-seater BTL-A4 variant we saw in the movies. The most distinct feature is that it has full fairings installed, as per the following concept illustration (originally found here): Here’s another angle of the BTL-B. Another feature is the rear gunner’s turret with the bubble canopy. These were originally designed for he original Y-wing designs by Colin Cantwell in A New Hope, but were left out. You can also see that the fairings totally cover the Koensayr R-200 “Ion Jet” engines, even the thrust-controlling vectral frames at the back. Compare it with the BTL-A4 twenty years later in Massassi Base on Yavin 4, below. They’re no longer new and shiny, though they […]
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Escaping the Death Star using Dice
Once upon a time, Sila brought back with her a Star Wars: Escape the Death Star Action Figure Game, which is actually a board game with two sets of rules (an easy and an advanced rule) as well as two Hasbro action figures, a Luke Skywalker in stormtrooper disguise with removable helmet and lightsaber, and a Darth Vader figure with removable helmet (complete with exposed back of head) and lightsaber. It must have been ten years since, and I’ve never actually played it until recently. Because Irfan wanted to try it out. However, I realised that the easy rules were too easy and straightforward, and the advanced rules were too complicated for Irfan. So the gamemaster in my blood took over, and I not only modified the rules so that the difficulty level of the rules are something in between and it’s something Irfan can play and enjoy. Also, I […]
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Oh, Snap!
My old Boba Fett figure and Irfan’s new Hulk figure act out the final fate of the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter.
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Shenanigans on Christophsis and Teth – A Clone Wars Review
I finally saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The short version of it is this: I went in expecting three episodes of a Saturday morning cartoon series jury-rigged and strung together to form a 90 minute movie. And I got what I want and a bit more. I loved it. If you didn’t already know, the movie is actually that: three episodes of the cartoon spliced together for a theatrical showing after George Lucas saw the episodes on the big screen during meetings with the production team. And I can’t wait for further episodes. The story is nothing heavy or dramatic. Amongst the many battles of the the Clone Wars, Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s infant son has been abducted and the Jedi assigns Generals Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to investigate, pick up the trail and return the Huttlet back to its parent. In return, the Grand Army of the […]
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SWAG Request: Rhen Sannin
Shane’s about to start a Star Wars RPG campaign and requested his major – NPC Rhen Sannin, the freighter captain – from the Star Wars Artists’ Guild. After giving some time for any other guild members to pick it up, I decided to claim the request earlier today… so I got to practice with the tablet and Painter Classic again, which is always good. After some hours, here’s Captain Rhen Sannin all made up and prettied, complete with blue milk on the side, cyborged limb and a datapad. Click here for its SWAG entry page. Hope this artwork gets some mileage in your campaign, buddy.
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Arakyd Diamondback Droid Stats
It was during the Enteague Sector campaign for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game which I GMed perhaps fifteen years ago. A new team of the Strikeforce Enteague, consisting of younger members, had to investigate the Malc Toldreyn Library on the planet Neeuderni to solve the campaign mystery arc of why an Imperial Admiral (no names here, cause in retrospect the NPC naming convention I used at around this time sucked) wanted Ham Slacker the tongue-tied engineer dead. Naturally, the Imperials attacked during the investigation. Radio communications on and around the planet was jammed. It turned out that the Imps had deployed a Diamondback droid which is designed to jam planetary and interplanetary communications. The group borrowed the local defence forces’ CloakShape fighters to attack the droid, which had its own defences in the form of anti-fighter cannons. I’ve rewritten down the D6 stats slightly modified from my original pencil notes […]
Continue readingSteampunk Star Wars
Via Boing Boing, I came across Sillof’s Workshop that displays awesome custom made figures… of classic Star Wars characters in steampunk forms. Unbelievably awesome and of fantastic quality. I wish they were selling this en masse in the stores. Also, I can see an awesome alternate-universe Star Wars RPG campaign running based on these figures with Rebels and Imperials and Jedi with steampunk tech at turn-of-the-20th-century Earth, with clockwork droids and balloon-powered speeders and such. Check out the figures (as well as other coolness such as custom Dune and Gaslight Justice League figures) at the link above. Addendum: More Steampunk Star Wars concept art can be found in this thread at CG Society Forums. [[image:steampunk_sw.jpg:League of Extraordinary Rebels and Imperials:center:0]]
Continue readingTwo Alien SWAG Requests
It’s been a while since I took some time off to draw requests for SWAG. Here are two new characters: Colonel Toby Aambar, as requested by “donp” and Whistler, as requested by “Velovich”. Toby is an Ortolan not an ortolan, and Whistler is a Tynnan, whose species first appeared in Brian Daley’s Han Solo’s Revenge. Click to expand images: [[popup file=”swag_aambar.jpg” description=”(thumbnail)” alt=”Toby Aambar” align=”left” ]] [[popup file=”swag_whistler.jpg” description=”(thumbnail)” alt=”Whistler” align=”left” ]]
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A Donovian Technician on SWAG
Here’s Frobi-wan Kenobi’s request which I did on Star Wars Artists’ Guild, a female tech from the rainy world of Donovia, Kaydra Leeronel. Click here to read the request thread. Click here to see a bigger picture on SWAG. Click here to an even bigger picture on deviantArt. Click here to play Chasm. It’s Irfan new favourite game and it has nothing to do with this post at all.
Continue readingThree Recent SWAG Requests
[[popup:berdan.jpg:(thumbnail):Berdan Angantire:left:1]][[popup:ryavar_dyarek.jpg:(thumbnail):Ryavar Darek:left:1]][[popup:jacen_fel.jpg:(thumbnail):Jacen Fel:left:1]]Here are three recent Star Wars Artist Guild requests. Each thumbnail is a link to a bigger artwork. From left to right: Berdan Ngajio Angantire is a Mandalorian Death Watchman‘s son, Ryavar Darek is a Togorian Jedi and Jacen Fel is an Imperial Knight from the Legacy era. Click on the links on their names to view even larger pieces of artwork on deviantArt. There are links to the SWAG pages from the deviantArt pages.
Continue readingStarships of the Galaxy by Uncle Gary
Another one of Irfan’s Uncle Gary’s writing project has been officially been announced by Wizards of the Coast, which is Starships of the Galaxy for Star Wars Roleplaying Game – Saga Edition Core Rulebook the third edition of the d20 gaming rules. The book was a collaborative effort between Gary, Owen Stephens and Rodney Thompson. I’ve seen the Saga Edition Core Rulebook on display at Kinokuniya the other day, but I haven’t bought it yet. I’ve heard good reviews about it and maybe someday I’ll get a crew together to sit down and play it. Heck, I’ve only played the d20 revised core rule book version via a Play-By-E-Mail game that didn’t really finish. Maybe I’ll start a new crew beginning with this little guy beside me not really quietly playing with the N-1 fighter I got 8 years ago free with a Happy Meal. But the real question about […]
Continue readingDesktop-Adorning Mandalorians
[[popup:mandalorians.jpg:(thumbnail)::left:1]]So the other day I put up a thumb to the desktop wallpaper that was on my Ubuntu side of the computer. Here’s the wallpaper on the XP side of the laptop, its size reduced from 1280px by 800px. There’s a whole bunch of folks in Mandalorian armour. I found the image for the wallpaper on DeviantArt but now I can’t seem to find it again to link it here. Click on the thumb to view the image.
Continue readingGungan Slicer, A SWAG Request
[[popup:gunganslicer.jpg:(thumbnail):… with a bad attitude:left:1]]My first official completed SWAG request since this blog went live is done. The artwork was requested by Acheron and he wanted a picture of a Gungan slicer (a Star Wars term for a hacker, is all). So, here’s a purple skinned Gungan like Captain Tarpals, wearing a headgear with a comlink and a blaster pistol, quickly typing on the keyboard to retrieve some restricted data from a computer database. Hopefully, he isn’t discovered by guards any time soon. As a bonus, here’s a SWAG blog (Swog?) entry of the picture taking it through three days as a work-in-progress in this laptop, from its pencil work in Painter Classic to what it turned out to be.
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Fragments From The Rim
All my life I’ve loved the idea of the Star Wars universe. When I discovered that there was a Star Wars Roleplaying Game published by West End Games back in 1987 I was excited. But this won’t be about how I got into RPGs, but the review of one of the best SWRPG supplements ever: Galaxy Guide 9: Fragments From The Rim Here is a list of why this supplement by Simon Smith and Eric Trautmann rocks: It’s a well-written book. It has tragedy and humour all packaged up in the entries and the vignettes in the book. The characters to be used as Non-Player Characters (NPCs) have fantastic backgrounds. Parts of the book are designed to actually make you chuckle, not in a non sequitur humour kind of way, but well within the context of its universe. It’s diverse. It shows you a dozen aspects of life in the […]
Continue readingThe Return of SWAG
[[image:swaglogo01.gif:SWAG banner:left:0]]Five years ago today, a bunch of tabletop roleplayers and artists and web programmers who met by chance on SWRPGNetwork’s Holonet Forums and shared a common dream (well, two really) finally launched the Star Wars Artists’ Guild after months of planning. One of the founding members was me. The Guild was created in order to create Star Wars artwork for the RPG, whether it be D6 or d20 or even if you made GURPS or Wushu or Fate games out of the setting. Today, in the hands of Kris Vanderwater, SWAG is relaunched (using Drupal replacing the old pMachine as its content management system) and all that’s old is new again. Thanks for your effort in relaunching the site, Kris, and Happy 5th SWAGDay. And also thanks to everyone from Bob Rogers, Chris Curtis, Derek Jones, Daniel Falconer and all the others who helped conceive and ran it initially […]
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