Meditations On Hacking West End Games Star Wars Strike Force Shantipole Adventure By Ken Rolston For Your Old School Campaigns

 Introduction 


Coming out in '88 this classic Star Wars Rpg adventure for the  first edition Star Wars rpg puts the PC's right into the classic era cross hairs for a daring mission into the lions den. The blurb on the back of the adventure takes the PC's right into heat of the Rebellion against the Empire;
"Battle Imperial starfighters in the vastness of space, chase deadly probots through asteroid storms, and go up against a heavily-armed escort frigate in this explosive full-length Star Wars adventure.
In the Roche Asteroid Field, a secret Rebel project nears completion. Headed by Commander Ackbar, the Shantipole project has developed a powerful new starfighter for the Alliance arsenal.
But first, Shantipole must be safely escorted back to Alliance High Command. That's where you and your team come in. With a borrowed freighter, sealed holodisc orders, and a good blaster at your side, your ship emerges from hyperspace -- right in the middle of a TIE/LN starfighter patrol!
And they told you this was going to be a routine mission..."
So I know what your thinking what the hell does this have to do with OSR gaming and why is taking a classic West End  Star Wars adventure and talking about hacking it. Well its not to what you might think. This classic adventure by Ken Rolston brings the action of the Star Wars game right to the players door step and goes that extra push over the edge. This classic adventure allows the PC's to meet an iconic Star Wars character as an NPC and play a critical off camera role in the midst of the background of the movies all of the while a key piece of the Rebellion Alliance military hard wear keeps flying and out of the Empire's clutches.
When we begin looking below the surface of the adventure into the story line, background of the adventure plus the way things begin to play out we begin to see a pattern in the adventure's foundation.




Background, Plugging In Elements, and Sword & Sorcery  Because of the military aspect of  Strike Force Shantipole it is very easy to take certain plot and adventure elements and transport these over to your favorite retroclone or old school adventure. The thing to remember is the PC's are playing a central roll in the continuation of one of the most iconic fighters in the Rebel Alliance



Take the action, the background elements, and other messy plot point details and transport this adventure over into your favorite retroclone or AD&D 1st edition sword and sorcery style campaigns and suddenly the utility of the adventure is extended by years. Certain adventures are iconic and easily recognized and work on a number of levels for science fantasy play. Take these adventure elements and transport the whole plot lock, stock and barrel into a sword and sorcery game or campaign and things can get very interesting.


Sealed orders, the fate of a kingdom,incredibly dangerous encounters on the enemies home territory, and other surprises make this style of hack easy and incredibly fun.Throw in some iconic NPC's for various encounters and you have a mini campaign going soon enough.



According to Wookiepedia:"Research Station Shantipole was an asteroid in the Roche system. It was primarily staffed by Verpine. After the Battle of Yavin, the asteroid was the site of the Shantipole Project, in which Slayn & Korpil worked with Commander Gial Ackbar to develop the B-wing/E starfighter." So here's how this might translate over to a sword and sorcery campaign setting:

1. The isolated island was the site of an ancient military ship yard within a hidden base. 
2. A special fast pirate ship is being used by renegade forces and only PC''s are aware of it after their aboard and on their way into the jaws of death. 
3. Add in some pulpy minor monsters, a subplot, a bit of magickal mythology and legend not to mention the HP Lovecraft or Robert Howard connection and your almost ready to go. 
4. A cult or other faction could help to move the plot along. 
5. Rival forces for opposition to the PC's could make for some much needed melee and combat. 
6. Many of the over the top aspects of the Empire are perfect for keeping PC's on their toes with warlord tactics and management ideas. The Empire becomes a world level power and faction with the added twist of the ancient dark magic/religion being behind the rise of the power in your world.
7. The added dungeon crawling aspects of this adventure give just that much more of a classic D&D style dungeon crawl. 
8. Many of the plot pieces feel as though they belong to a classic fantasy film or WW II war picture many of these exciting elements can be worked into other plots. Don't try and rush this adventure there are a lot of moving parts and pieces. 
9. There's something about this adventure where the PC's are a party of rag tag fighters that works on a number of levels. 
10. This adventure could be adapted to other classic rpg genres such as a post apocalyptic adventure. I used this one as a part of a space going Mutant Future/Buck Rogers style crossover. This style of adventure with altered ships, details, and some backgrounds allowed it to work great at the time.
    
     Breaking Up The Beast, Parts, Pieces, And More
    
    
    As I said this is a beast of an adventure that has a plot that could be used potentially for lots of applications. This is especially true of using Star Wars adventures for WWII movie style role playing a fact that I've used several times in modern style role playing games such as Top Secret and others. The secret to this style of role playing is the movie serial. Breaking up the plot of a complicated or long  range module allows the DM and players to emulate the pulp style reels of the 1930's.
    
    
    
    
    The serial approach allows the PC's to take center stage on a number of levels and allows the DM to break up the action of the adventure to be stretched into a mini campaign with the PC's playing their vital parts. This approach works especially well in a wartime style scenario or as a sword and planet or science fantasy vehicle. The Fifty Five film The Damn Busters really solidifies the idea for such an exciting adventure with a
    military theme.
    
    
     Once again we're going back to the roots of Star Wars in this case the Damn Busters a 1955 UK film that George Lucas used as inspiration for many of the Death Star sequences and trench run camera angles.Many of the action military films of yesteryear not only provide a touch stone with the roots of the film but also provide a clue for getting the most out of adventures that players might not be expecting.
    

Meditations On The What West End Games Star Wars Rpg Taught Me About Dungeon Mastering An Old School Campaign & Setting Building

Introduction



  I can remember the day I saw one of my favorite rpg from West End games in Dragon magazine in '87. The blurb really caught my attention and plugged into my kid Star Wars fever', "Experience the vast scope and sweeping power of the greatest space fantasy of all time!
Struggle against the awesome might of the evil galactic Empire, fly faster-than-light spacecraft, trade blaster fire with Imperial stormtroopers, fight lightsaber duels, and tap the mystic Force which binds all living things together. Explore a galaxy of a billion suns, each with wonders and dangers of its own — a universe of dire peril, where Rebels fight desperately against the eternal night of Imperial oppression.
In Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, you will face overwhelming odds, hard choices, impossible challenges — but if you meet them bravely, you will triumph, for the Force is with you always!"
I think I mowed about maybe seven or eight lawns to afford this bad boy and I've still got my first edition Star Wars rpg book.


May the fourth has passed without incident except for the usual load of internet related Star Wars memes and it brought back certain strains of memory and nostalgia. It also brought back a certain back straightening memory. You see way back when I got seven friends together who were life long Star Wars fans and we got together to play the game. They were life long Star Wars fans who knew the canon like the back of their hands and that's where the trouble began. See at the time Dragonlance was in full swing and I was involved in a friend's home campaign. This is where I learned the difference between approaches in world building between a 'canned' setting and an open setting like 'Greyhawk'. I was used to 'Blackmoor' & 'Greyhawk' where you could make your mark on the campaign setting from the get go. Dragonlance established canon, history, setting, and more. It was a lesson that would come around in spades with Forgotten Realms but that is a story for another blog post.
All of a sudden during my first planned Star Wars game the arguments started about 'official Star Wars canon' straight out of the gate. The game degraded as they often did back then. What was I going to do. Well the answer was I got sick with the flu. That might have ended that right there.
Star Wars, Samurai,VHS  & Shakespeare 


 Things picked up with an unexpected visit and a brand new campaign direction. After the flu got a bit well, iffy.

 The flu was a big deal for a kid like me, I've got a touch now of asthma but back then it put me down for a long time. This insured that I had friends who brought me my homework and such from school. And that's where one of my mentors comes into it. See back then we had video stores that did some great rentals and one I used to hang out in and I became fast friends with one of the part time workers. His daughter went to  my school at the time and he brought me homework that day. Michael noticed my copy of  West End's Star Wars and went back out to his car for a copy of a 1957 Japanese film co-written and directed by Akira Kurosawa called Throne of Blood. Now the reason why I was watching Throne of Blood was simple I had a report on William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Throne of Blood follows and retells the drama in a whole new light by transporting it to feudal Japan. Its vicious film and very well done and  it became a favorite of mine.
The plot follows Macbeth in its own way but there a lot of subtle differences but here's important points of the back plot;"Generals Miki and Washizu are Samurai commanders under a local lord, Lord Tsuzuki, who reigns in the castle of the Spider's Web Forest. After defeating the lord's enemies in battle, they return to Tsuzuki's castle. On their way through the thick forest surrounding the castle, they meet a spirit, who foretells their future. The spirit tells them that today Washizu will be named Lord of the Northern Garrison and Miki will now be commander of the first fortress. She then foretells that Washizu will eventually become Lord of Spiderweb Castle, and finally she tells Miki that his son will also become lord of the castle."

At the time I was watching a hell of a lot of low rent sci fi movies and Throne of Blood's plot fit right into the science fantasy background of Stars Wars. Everything came together with this two page spread in the game.

 The PC's were agents on the Galaxy Tours for various reasons who were aboard a luxury ship passing through the Tsuzuki system. An an asteroid collision puts the whole party in an escape pod rocketing down onto a back water planet. Where a dark side spirit has taken a hold of the local warlord and only his loyal R2 unit knows the extent of his descent into murder, and madness. The PC's had to figure out the tissue thin murder plot and help to restore the rightful heir to the throne of Spiderweb fortress.

 The R2 unit later became the backbone of this campaign which expanded into the Tsuzuki system which would later appear appear in my Wasteworld rpg in a totally new incarnation. 
The  Tsuzuki system is a backwater steeped in dark side mythology, misplaced alliances, bad deals, and lots and lots of blood.

Back to the Star Wars Rpg, the Tsuzuki system campaign became one of my longest running and sustained rpg campaigns ever. It lasted three and half years and bits of it are still floating in my back brain to this day.
Rules, Settings, Worlds & Mayhem




The West End Star Wars was one of my first smacking into the weight & back history of a fictional universe. Fictional settings & universes are something that people get very, very, attached to. It was also one of the times when departing from the official canon also meant blazing your own path. For some people this can be a very scary proposition. It also makes one of the real differences between new school and old school games for me. New school games seem to have worlds and settings already built into the system itself, this includes Vampire the Masquerade, Rifts, and too some extent West Ends Star Wars rpg.  I can hear the teeth grinding and whatnot but let's talk about second edition AD&D for a moment. They had all of those wonderful worlds such as Ravenloft, Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms, etc. All of these are premade world settings and that's not a bad thing and they do allow a DM to colour outside the lines to some extent.  

But there's also a huge number of differences with old school products such as Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Arduin, etc. That's the fact that its really up to the DM to fill as much or as little  of the campaign setting as they'd like. Here are ten things that I've learned about world building from West End Games Star Wars Rpg that I've applied to OSR campaign building :

1. Colour outside of the lines always. Don't be afraid to go outside of the comfortzone when it comes to 'official' canon. 
2. Rip, rip, rip off rip from the paperbacks or other merchandise that comes out for a game world, movie franchise,etc. These often have grey areas that you as DM can exploit to their fullest extent. 
3. Twist player expections in various ways, build the world or campaign events that you always wanted to see into your games and don't give an over arching reason. Just do it. 
4. Don't listen to so called 'experts' or super fans. Never let the official reason for something keep you from doing what you want. These are your games. 
5. Mark and make a game world or setting out as your own. Make a check list of bullet points of things, places, alien races, etc. you want in a game.
6. Create, create, dream, and create the adventures that you and your players want to play. 
7. Pick the black points on a map and go to town. Be sure to map out what areas you want for your universe. 
8. Don't be afraid to borrow from classic literature, plays, or other sources. Often times the origin points for movies or other franchises have things that the writers, directors, etc. never used. With a bit of research these can yield campaign diamonds that can add that extra facet. 
9. Pick your players brains, often times I see DM over prepare adventures and write out dizzying adventure scripts with maps, outlines, histories,etc. by themselves. Sit your players down and as a whole decide what your going to do and then twist from their. The whole experience should be about group enjoyment of the game. 
10. Stop over analyzing movies and settings. Instead let things develop organically from group table top play. Have fun.

Star Wars Tie Fighter Fan Short Film As Fodder For Your Old School Campaigns

If your a Star Wars fan and you haven't seen this really wonderful piece of animation then you don't know what your missing. Animator Paul Johnson has been working on an Empire inspired 80's anime style seven minute short that pulls on the traditions of shows like Robotech, and other anime classics for this wonderful little short. 

According to what I found on the net - Animator Paul Johnson has labored the past four years in his spare time animating an anime-inspired “Star Wars” fan film entitled TIE Fighter that shows a space battle from the POV of the Empire, humanizing the Stormtrooper pilots and even making them heroes!

A shorter version of this short set to different music has existed on the web for several years, but this is the first time TIE Fighter has been shown in its seven-minute entirety. 

Here’s what Johnson had to say about it: “Don’t support me on Patreon, because I don’t have one! And don’t donate to my Kickstarter, because I don’t have one of those either. Instead, if you enjoyed this, give someone at your workplace, uni, school or whatever a random bar of chocolate or can or Coke or something. Seriously, it’ll probably make their day. That would totally make my day.”
Original story right over HERE

This short takes the Empire's Imperial forces and humanizes them and comes complete with signature characters, implied back story, and more. Seriously this is a solid way of making me almost sympathize with the Empire. Notice I said almost though.  Even though this pulls from the same mental cloth as may of the 80's and 90's Japaneseanimation imports from a bygone era. There is something decidedly weird about rooting for the Empire and goes against the grain of the the Star Wars fan in me. That being said, this is a utterly brilliant little short and the animator deserves an award for his utterly brilliant fan film. Could this be used as the backdrop for a old school Star Wars rpg campaign? Absolutely it could be used as a rather brilliant back story for an old school rpg campaign or adventure. 

Many of the ships, equipment, etc. are all ships that have appeared in both the West End Star Wars books or the D20 material. The story and animation has enough meat to really pull some great ideas from the back drop and whip them around to produce a rather enduring long term campaign.

The animation is tight, the story brilliant, the characters interesting and this is something that I'd watch but there's something that pulls at my conscience. Its somehow wrong that I'm rooting for the Empire. All in all this is a rather great idea for a campaign and one that I'm sort of filing away for the future.