The Path Less Trodden

Hello people, 

Last Wednesday night we got back to EotE with three of the group in attendance. Our rule of thumb is that we'll go one man down but one of our number has had to drop out for a while so we've lost Kardosh MIA. Sindori also required a longer soak in Bata juice than most.

As such it was Agenai, Perit and 7-UP-0 who faced a fairly scathing debrief with Sgt Chung as they assessed their planning effected their ultimate performance. A fair few frank one-way exchanges later there was no doubt as to their position with HI-HI........ Moving on they did get some credit for capturing a couple of "live" leads, and even some XP to spend, who were currently being "processed" for Intel.

Given that Kardosh was MIA the lads also got the loan of an Intel sliced DROID, cunningly disguised as a battered Rd, named R4-X2, who also provides a live feed back to HI-HI........

Recapping mission objectives it was decided that Kanto was still priority one along with Jared Tinson, the apparent Slicer brain behind Kanto's throne. Assessing the apparent leads the lads came up with the following options;
1. Head back to Ronsons (quickly vetoed by Chung)
2. Search Tinsons Tech for leads
3. Follow Kardosh's comms signal
4. Head back to the scrapyard and search Kanto's speeder again

Plumping for Option 2 the lads trundled off to Tinsons only to find it closed up. Going for the regular MO of a Perception check Agenai went big with a couple of Triumph to not only work out every minor crack in the storefront but also realise that the street vendor across the road might "know something"!

After a minor tiff with Perit, Agenai was originally going to take 7s with him until Perit informed him that HIS people were rather secular and unlikely to respond to silver-rod, the fleshy pair of the party approached the "meat on a stick" stall. There was a lovely display of crab juice ;)

Chucking up yet another Triumph Perit need not have worried as his fellow wanderer took to Agenai, digging him out a big stick with extra "sauce". He also informed them that the shop had been closed for almost a week and that the locals were worried for Jared especially after Oskar the tramp who lived in the alley had been found dead a few nights ago.

So helpful was the vendor that he even provided an introduction to the butcher keeping Oskar's body before Resyk collection which 7s was able to examine. Unfortunately it soon became clear that Agenai had stolen his die-fu as he spent all night rolling chod! As a result the top screen was somewhat indeterminate.

Further given the descriptions of the two local cantina patrons that had found Oskar the lads moved on. Strolling in Agenai made another Triumphant Perception check for anyone looking "shady". I cut it down to the two inebriated Samaritans and a particularly watchful Rodian at the back of the bar.

7s trundled up to the bar and started plying the good samaritans with the local brew to discover that they had almost literally tripped over Oskar one of them vaguely remembering some form of shadowy cloaked figure who may have been stood over him, a burst of darkness and the figure "flying off".....spooky!

Meanwhile Agenai managed to have a weird semi-coded conversation with the Rodian about needing to pick up a "package" from Tinsons with the Rodian telling Agenai that he definitely wasn't going to leave and meet him in the alley in ten minutes......

Ten minutes later Agenai edged into the alley with Perit covering him from a local vantage point and met the Rodian at the back of his running speeder........to discover that he's a gun dealer looking to move in on Tinson's recent closure.

So.....maybe nothing too much to write home about BUT a few leads picked up to develop further. More importantly the group as was on the night played to their strengths, using tech and soft skills to gather Intel, rather than finding a firefight they couldn't win (most of them!).

How's that for spending your XP? ;)

Joyful and Triumphant

Hello people,

Thursday night we got back to Star Wars Edge of the Empire and thus there was much rejoicing :)

Moving on from last time out, with two of the lads captured and one MIA, the last two standing (just about) called in for the cavalry. And lo did two other operatives rocked up with a speeder full of stimm-packs and a hefty price tag. In practice Mr C and Rob ran a couple of souped up pre-gens, Twilek and Wookie Bounty Hunters respectively, while thier main men languished in captivity.

Stimmed to the max the lads counted up the grenade stash, two stun and one frag, and planned thier assault on Twistys around them. Basically Sin and Agenai were going full frontal to shoot in a window and chuck in the stuns while the Bounty Hunter Brotherhood (BHB) went through the back door on detonation.

A decent plan and the Stealth rolls to get into position weren't too bad. However this was when the bad lads and I started rolling Triumphs and the stealth bit went a bit out of the window.

The lads then rolled particularly poorly for Intiative having the first action but then nothing until the fifth! 

For the record they were facing;

Boskk - Barabel Brawler (Rival)

Mange - Wookie Scout (Rival)

Rikks - Sullatan Slicer (Rival)

3 x Thug (Minion)

3 x Thug (Minion)

Somehow the bad lads started the shooting of any accuracy targeting Sin, but missing, only to blow out the front windows and shower him and Agenai with glass. Weathering the storm Agenai then hurled both Stun Grenades into Twistys......only to fail epically and discover they were BOTH duds. At this point Mr C's girly Twilek BH threw herself bodily at the LOCKED back door only to bounce off with a few Strain plus puzzled looks from the Walking Carpet variant. In a fir of pique Mr C blasted the lock into oblivion to his great annoyance when it didn't simply shoot open a la Death Star offerings. 
More puzzled look and a few "there, there" growls......

Back out the front Sin was attracting the majority of bad guy fire with a double Triumph to negate his dodge ability, as he clung to the floor, and put a Dazed Critical Hit on him. Agenai threw caution to the wind and went for the frag grenade only to fail badly again and re-model a portion of Twistys roof structure. the one up was that Sin was doing a good job at blasting Boskk holding to the of adage of "remove the head".

Around the back Walking Carpet set about the back door with his chainaxe with encouragment in the form of expressive dance. this wasn't helping Sin too much who took another Triumph induced Critical Hit while Agenai also came in for some blaster-love.

Sin did at least drop Boskk, who had moved back to use Perit as a Gand-Shield only for Mange, remember him?, to have a go with his new toy, Perit's sniper rifle and drop Sin unconscious in return. 

Things were, once again, looking pretty grim as the lads put on the Hindsight 20-20 goggles and wondered why they'd bothered with the back door.
"It's pretty tough, though a Triumph would get through it in short order!" said I, never believing that Rob would produce the good. So thusly Lady Luck smiled her benevolence upon him and the door splintered!

Rolling in the BHB had time to witness Mange complete the set by dropping Agenai as one Thug group attempted mouth to mouth on Boskk.......for a Triumph!! Walking Carpet went Wookie on Wookie with Mange while Mr C inspired Thug group 1 and Rikks to dive through the front window and beat a tactical treat.....across Sin and Agneai's recumbent forms :)

Meanwhile Thug group 2 were dragging Boskk through the window while Walking Carpet was beating Mange to his knees. Some rapid fire from MrC saw Boskk dropped quicker than a Beiber quote about 1945 with Mange loosing the roaring contest to surrender.

So.....two of the lads unconscious, two coming round, one MIA for the capture of barely breathing Bossk and a partially shaved Mange. Thank the Force for the Bounty Hunter Brotherhood!!

In honesty this was a game of 8 Triumphs, 5 rolled by the GM. Her Ladyship has struck again!

A Comm-Link, a Comm-Link, my Kingdom for a Comm-Link!!

It's that time of the fortnight again as I gleefully present another AAR from an evenings endeavours of Star Wars EotE. This time I had a plan, a back story and even a couple of contingencies. Strangely, none were required.

Having all arrived at Twistys last time out Perit and Agenai snuck in from the North, Sindori snuck in from the South (having left Kardosh, Kanto and sleeping beauty with the speeder down the road) while 7-UP-0 blundered in from the West. Basic Perception all round told everyone that it was quiet, TOO QUIET, even for the 3am stagger home time that it was.

Perit found a fire escape and went for the high ground on top of a warehouse while Agenai had a scout to the East on to be chased down by an overly keen 7s who finally let someone know that the comm-links had been hacked suggesting that they should be binned, as he already had.

He also finally explained his rather cryptic code. The main issue was that it was effectively a visual, book type code that he'd communicated verbally. After pointing this out in a number of lesser syllabled phrases Agenai ditched his comm and head South around the back of Twistys sending 7s after Perit who also dumped his comm.

Meanwhile Sindori ghosted in from the South and thanks to a Triumph on his Stealth check combat rolled right up to one of Twistys windows. His Perception check however came up with just one Advantage at which point he made it out to be a bar of the spit and sawdust variety but very little else.

Bumping into Agenai at the back of Twistys, also dumping his comm, they both noticed a bit of recent activity by the bins (ooh er). They also noticed reinforced back door and it's RECENTLY INEXPERTLY HACKED LOCK, for reasons unknown. For once they didn't fancy Route 1 and decide to go back to speeder to pick up Kardosh and Kanto as reinforcements. The only issue was that they didn't both to tell Perit or 7s before they set off. If only someone had a comm!

Perit and 7s meanwhile had come down from their perch and stealthed off after Agenai's last known position. Both manage their rolls thought Perit far more successfully which meant he made more ground,....blocking Agenai and Sin's departure from his line of sight. 7s was slower but failed his two Perception checks. 

On his second attempt 7s made a appropriate Perception check, a couple of Threat, to think he saw movement around the back of Twistys. He informed Perit thusly.

Appropriate Perception checks meant that they also noticed reinforced back door and it's RECENTLY INEXPERTLY HACKED LOCK, for reasons unknown. 7s went to investigate.

An appropriate Perception check, Sucess with Threat, left 7s reckoning that a clawed hand had scratched up the lock and frame, maybe even a Trandoshan claw?

An appropriate Logic check, Successes, meant that he worked out which keys had been hit and the probability of the pattern. The lock un-engaged with a CLUNK and the door hung a jar.

Pushing the door open 7s made an appropriate Perception check, four Fails, to spot a heavy set figure sporting scales, claws and a tail. Maybe a Trandoshan called Agenai?

Calling his name and stepping in 7s made an appropriate Perception check, two Fails, to reckon that Agenai had something of a nasty cold coming on and needed some techno TLC.

Perit had been watching all of this through his sights and, with an appropriate Perception check, had even heard 7 call Agenai's name. Following in Perit made another appropriate Perception check to notice a large and previously encountered Barabel plus a number of his hangers on.

If only someone, anyone had a COMM-LINK!

Meanwhile Sin and Agenai had made it back to where the speeder HAD been parked on to find the recently blastered body of sleeping beauty and a scree of gravel suggesting an exit to the East.

It should be noted that I'd previously been rolling "random" dice that weren't so random and hadn't gone well for the now missing Kardosh. He had got off a quick comm-blast bit Perit hadn't got the Perception check he needed. Agenai and Sin swore and headed back for Twistys. 

IF ONLY SOMEONE, ANYONE HAD A COMM-LINK!!

Back at Twistys Mr Bar A Bel got the drop and, failing his Perception to notice Perit as his major threat, blasted 7s with a stun-bolt. Perit acted next stepping out if the bar and slamming the door behind. A few more stun-bolts did for 7s but the door did better holding off the bad lads.

Next round saw the door wrenched open and Perit away on his toes pursued by a slightly mangy Wookie tracker and a small group of random thugs. Perit took Strain for a bonus manoeuvre and opened a gap. Mange-E went for Athletics and picked up a Triumph to keep in touch.

Perit stayed on his toes and put a stun dart into Mange-E who was almost felled but managed another Triumph to keep his feet. Random thugs made a desperate shot as Perit seemed to be making his escape......only to hit the dirt as yet another Triumph rocked up!!

First off the highest of compliments and respect to the boys for avoiding the meta-game and keeping to thier characters and the dice, as much as they understandably grimaced throughout. 

Yes there was a distinct lack of planning, coordination or standing to task and a few poor decisions but the dice were particularly and cruelly punishing. 

So that's three out of five of the party captured, Kanto lost with the last heading back to a world of potential pain without the slightest idea of circumstance!

It's going to take some proper work to get out of this one, including from me! I still had a plan, a back story and even a couple of contingencies. Might just need them eh?

Someone, anyone got a Comm-link!?

Comms Check 1...2... .....4?

Hello again people. I've missed writing these up.....they're just so much fun :)

After another missed session we got back to things last Wednesday with the group dispersing from a relatively corpse packed Ronsons in three different directions. Sindori and Kardosh took the speeder with Kanto and the unconcious ganger while Agenai and Perit chose a brooding alley and 7-UP-0 wandered off up Main Street.....with a box!

Splitting the group in such a manner is always a challenge to run, everyone has to NOT meta-game. Thankfully my lads are pretty good at this.

Some or all of the chaps were being tracked by surveillance drones which some or less of the chaps actually noticed! 7s also managed to notice SOMETHING ELSE, which he felt the need to share with the group but somewhat carefully. There was also another issue, which Charlie beat me to, which was that of a certain amount of jamming of the comm-link. 

 As something of a standard MO I get the guys to write the message and then make a Computer Use check. Pass big and it all gets through complete, otherwise I scrub a number of elements. 7s did well so the first message was complete including "meet at Mc Twistys as planned"..... Shame there was no such plan! Next message only two of a dozen words got scrubbed. The main issue was that he decided to use code, a code which he had just made up.....that no one else knew..... ;) 

In honesty I knew what was going on and why but the looks of confused bewilderment amongst the group were awe inspiring. So inspiring in fact that Twistys turned out to be a real place......fancy that!

Meanwhile Agnecai and Perit were subject to a drone strike, set to stun at least, which saw them both diving into some excellent cover. Unfortunately GM dice once again struck and soon saw Agenai as so many, many kilos of particularly sleepy Transdoshan. Perit meanwhile saw of the drone with ease and dragged Sleepy off to the local night bus sans kebab.

Back in the speeder Kanto was doing a good job of trying to cut a deal with the equally cutthroat Sindori, who has a history with this sort of thing! Talking a good game the hook was baited with Sin itching to bite into a juicy offer of guns, creds and more guns ;) 

So, as the evening drew to a close each of our groups find thier way to Twistys, a now disused biker bar of some local repute. Approaching from the north was Agenai and Perit whilst Sindori crept in from the south, leaving Kardosh, Kanto and sleeping beauty in the speeder a few minutes away. All very sensible.

7's blundered in from the east heading straight for Twistys.........OH MY!!!