Star Wars game Night P. I
It feels really, really good to tell a story. I’d like to say I mean as a writer, and that I’ve found my self-discipline again and I’m writing diligently, but that’s just not the case.
Last night was Nerd Night at Grimm Manor (I have an apartment, don’t let my superfluous use of pretentious household titles fool you) and I got to really flex on the story for our Star Wars tabletop RPG.
It was straight back to the basics, too. Some action, sure. It’s Star Wars, but when it comes to the Star Wars universe, there’s a lot of story to be told, and it’s not all Republic / Empire / Galactic Civil War.
I ran a campaign that led into some horror elements I haven’t used for a Star Wars game since around 1997, when my brother Allen and I were playing second edition at Baywood.
In 1997, Allen and I saw the movie Event Horizon. It was probably the scariest sci-fi horror film to show since the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien hit theaters.
Event Horizon opened up so many possibilities to the space horror genre. Where Alien was a sci-fi horror that held the horror of being hunted in cramped spaces (and if you look beyond it, phallic horror and the horror of rape); Event Horizon has a similar feeling, except it’s an enormous ship, and despite its size, it still feels cramped and claustrophobic. It leaves the horror facets of sexual violence out in favor of attacking the mind of the movie going audience.
The horror of Event Horizon isn’t in being hunted by a predatory analogue (or being consumed by that predatory analogue in some way), but by being hunted by something that is both material and immaterial. Physically present and simultaneously omniscient and near omnipotent from its lack of physical presence.
The ensemble cast features Sam Neill, known best perhaps for his presence in the Jurassic Park movies, but whose horror muscles already flexed in the 1994 John Carpenter psychological horror film In the Mouth of Madness;; Lawrence Fishburn, who tasted horror in the 1983 nightmare horror A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3 and Kathleen Quinlan whose presence in the 1983 Twilight Zone Movie and the 1985 Warning Sign lends to the credibility of the film and our ability to suspend disbelief.
So, if you’ve not seen Event Horizon, check it out. It’s worth viewing.
I know this sounds more like a movie review than a commentary on Nerd Night at Grimm Manor but please bear with me.
As an adolescent who aspired to tell tales and write stories, horror has been largely my influences. Aside from Horror genres, Comedy, Science Fiction and Action are favorites. In that order.
So in 1997, after viewing Event Horizon (“Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes to see!”), my mind was opened wide to the possibilities. Thrusting player characters into situations they could not fight physically.
For gamers who play for the action, or the encounters (think D&D encounters), the setting of a derelict ship that won’t function, in the middle of empty wild space, it appealed to me.
Players simply cannot detail a campaign of this magnitude. It’s a one-shot adventure that could last anywhere between one and five sessions depending on how short or long your sessions.
Players may try to derail the story, but it won’t matter. Where so often players want to flex on a GM and show how in charge they are, how much co-control they have on a story, nothing they do can overwhelm the will of this darkness - this evil - is intangible.
They can’t blast it, or cut it down with a light saber. They can’t do anything to repel it as it slowly weaves paranoia, mistrust and misperception into your players and their characters.
This is where your players and their characters really develop. This is where your players find out who their characters really are.
Last night, my players were lost. Frantic. The ship they found was a pre republic ship, stranded in the far fringes of wild space.
Ambient dull yellow lighting, silence and stale air. The ship was operating in minimal power and as far as the characters know, it had been for hundreds of years or more (closer to a few thousand).
They were far from a star system, a sun or any inhabitable planets. The initial silence in this ship - still operational - was unsettling for a couple players (Valeria, Bethani). Later, after they *woke the ship up* it began to affect them. It began with sounds and worked at them immediately, first attacking their sense of safety, corralling them.
One of the players, Beth, noted out of character that it felt like the ship was pushing them in a particular direction. The group fled the bridge and wanted to find a hangar with the hopes they could find a smaller ship or shuttle to escape their predicament.
The ship itself is capital class frigate. The entirety of the crew is missing. They could have abandoned ship at some point or perhaps something more sinister happened. Much of the ship’s data was corrupted and the characters failed in succession to score an adequate repair on any relevant information.
So, the greenhorn group of characters, a twi’lek Ambassador, a Zabrak ex-soldier, a human engineer, and a human Jedi (just barely a Jedi) made the cardinal error that all characters make in this setting, and they sought to explore the ship until they could find the hangar bay.
When they fled the bridge, the characters ended up in wandering in an already unfamiliar ship and getting lost. After that, the real tension began to build. They ended up separated, unable to trust their perception. Trevor’s Zabrak soldier may or may not have killed an NPC out of concern that it wasn’t who it claimed to be.
Sewing mistrust between the characters is as effective an enemy as any Sith Lord or TIE fighter, except the characters can’t just kill it to make it go away.
Last night’s game was a grand return to simplicity, and for me an introduction of the players to who their characters really are. Each session has been a blast so far, but last night was particularly special as it allowed us all to immerse ourselves into the story for the first time without player characters feeling they had absolute license to act however they like. This was accomplished without railroading the players into the story.
As the story progresses, I know (should characters survive) we’re going to have some amazing adventures every Thursday from 6:00PM - 9:00PM.
Last night was Nerd Night at Grimm Manor (I have an apartment, don’t let my superfluous use of pretentious household titles fool you) and I got to really flex on the story for our Star Wars tabletop RPG.
It was straight back to the basics, too. Some action, sure. It’s Star Wars, but when it comes to the Star Wars universe, there’s a lot of story to be told, and it’s not all Republic / Empire / Galactic Civil War.
I ran a campaign that led into some horror elements I haven’t used for a Star Wars game since around 1997, when my brother Allen and I were playing second edition at Baywood.
In 1997, Allen and I saw the movie Event Horizon. It was probably the scariest sci-fi horror film to show since the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien hit theaters.
Event Horizon opened up so many possibilities to the space horror genre. Where Alien was a sci-fi horror that held the horror of being hunted in cramped spaces (and if you look beyond it, phallic horror and the horror of rape); Event Horizon has a similar feeling, except it’s an enormous ship, and despite its size, it still feels cramped and claustrophobic. It leaves the horror facets of sexual violence out in favor of attacking the mind of the movie going audience.
The horror of Event Horizon isn’t in being hunted by a predatory analogue (or being consumed by that predatory analogue in some way), but by being hunted by something that is both material and immaterial. Physically present and simultaneously omniscient and near omnipotent from its lack of physical presence.
The ensemble cast features Sam Neill, known best perhaps for his presence in the Jurassic Park movies, but whose horror muscles already flexed in the 1994 John Carpenter psychological horror film In the Mouth of Madness;; Lawrence Fishburn, who tasted horror in the 1983 nightmare horror A Nightmare on Elm Street, Part 3 and Kathleen Quinlan whose presence in the 1983 Twilight Zone Movie and the 1985 Warning Sign lends to the credibility of the film and our ability to suspend disbelief.
So, if you’ve not seen Event Horizon, check it out. It’s worth viewing.
I know this sounds more like a movie review than a commentary on Nerd Night at Grimm Manor but please bear with me.
As an adolescent who aspired to tell tales and write stories, horror has been largely my influences. Aside from Horror genres, Comedy, Science Fiction and Action are favorites. In that order.
So in 1997, after viewing Event Horizon (“Where we’re going, we won’t need eyes to see!”), my mind was opened wide to the possibilities. Thrusting player characters into situations they could not fight physically.
For gamers who play for the action, or the encounters (think D&D encounters), the setting of a derelict ship that won’t function, in the middle of empty wild space, it appealed to me.
Players simply cannot detail a campaign of this magnitude. It’s a one-shot adventure that could last anywhere between one and five sessions depending on how short or long your sessions.
Players may try to derail the story, but it won’t matter. Where so often players want to flex on a GM and show how in charge they are, how much co-control they have on a story, nothing they do can overwhelm the will of this darkness - this evil - is intangible.
They can’t blast it, or cut it down with a light saber. They can’t do anything to repel it as it slowly weaves paranoia, mistrust and misperception into your players and their characters.
This is where your players and their characters really develop. This is where your players find out who their characters really are.
Last night, my players were lost. Frantic. The ship they found was a pre republic ship, stranded in the far fringes of wild space.
Ambient dull yellow lighting, silence and stale air. The ship was operating in minimal power and as far as the characters know, it had been for hundreds of years or more (closer to a few thousand).
They were far from a star system, a sun or any inhabitable planets. The initial silence in this ship - still operational - was unsettling for a couple players (Valeria, Bethani). Later, after they *woke the ship up* it began to affect them. It began with sounds and worked at them immediately, first attacking their sense of safety, corralling them.
One of the players, Beth, noted out of character that it felt like the ship was pushing them in a particular direction. The group fled the bridge and wanted to find a hangar with the hopes they could find a smaller ship or shuttle to escape their predicament.
The ship itself is capital class frigate. The entirety of the crew is missing. They could have abandoned ship at some point or perhaps something more sinister happened. Much of the ship’s data was corrupted and the characters failed in succession to score an adequate repair on any relevant information.
So, the greenhorn group of characters, a twi’lek Ambassador, a Zabrak ex-soldier, a human engineer, and a human Jedi (just barely a Jedi) made the cardinal error that all characters make in this setting, and they sought to explore the ship until they could find the hangar bay.
When they fled the bridge, the characters ended up in wandering in an already unfamiliar ship and getting lost. After that, the real tension began to build. They ended up separated, unable to trust their perception. Trevor’s Zabrak soldier may or may not have killed an NPC out of concern that it wasn’t who it claimed to be.
Sewing mistrust between the characters is as effective an enemy as any Sith Lord or TIE fighter, except the characters can’t just kill it to make it go away.
Last night’s game was a grand return to simplicity, and for me an introduction of the players to who their characters really are. Each session has been a blast so far, but last night was particularly special as it allowed us all to immerse ourselves into the story for the first time without player characters feeling they had absolute license to act however they like. This was accomplished without railroading the players into the story.
As the story progresses, I know (should characters survive) we’re going to have some amazing adventures every Thursday from 6:00PM - 9:00PM.
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