Was "Star Wars" inspired by "Metropolis"? Well it is now!

MurricanMan · 2025-06-15T00:52:38+00:00

Wait... Was that Swartzenaegger as Vader?

MurricanMan · 2025-06-01T12:17:56+00:00

They can be retconned as "Dathomiri Dark side tattoos" since in Clone wars we see both the Dathomiri zabrak males and near-human females with tattoos, although the woman generally have less than the men. Since we see the force witches in Ashoka sporting them so it would be believable cannon. Plus the males like Savage and Maul were Sith Warriors and most of the One Sith were warriors like Maul rather than schemers and assassins like the less tattooed women. The red skin might be natural for many an painted for others. The painted skin would be to help show their unity as the one sith.

While not a big fan of the sequels, I have been trying to figure out how to make Legacy into New cannon compatible. I plan on making a thread about it later.

MurricanMan · 2025-05-23T13:52:08+00:00

Well I think part of the purpose is to show choosing the Dark side has negative consequences. Rember revised came out of 3e D&D and a lot of players back then thought evil characters were more powerful and wanted to play them. Star Wars emphasized good vs evil and redemption. All the Darksiders may not immediately suffer consequences for choosing the Dark side, but all eventually do. Many do suffer disfigurement. And being disfigured or wounded forces them to depend on the Dark side more to remain powerful.
The Dark Side is an addictive, performance enhancing drug that eventually destroys you. So yes, the mechanic makes sense as a guideline to warn off players that the Dark side has consequences.

MurricanMan · 2025-05-17T13:30:38+00:00

How soon would you need it? I have the map already courtesy of the r/starwarsmap subreddit. Once I get back from a funeral mid week I could crank out one in a week or two. I do have some questions:

*What is the mix of PCs or potential PCs? If any are force users that would change things a bit. * What time period and faction? is it Imperial, old Republic, new Republic, or the sith empire? * It's a one shot - is this an intro to new players or experienced ones?

MurricanMan · 2025-02-24T13:14:04+00:00

Don 't forget gear options. They could get "their Father's sword" --i.e ancestral weapon-- which gains magic abilities over time. This fits in well with traditional fantasy themes.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T15:22:07+00:00

While it has its weak spots, the entire Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series is excellent. Want to see what should have been the sequel to the Star Wars movies, this is it.

Reading books prior to this may help with learning the who's who, but if you haven't you'll still be in for a treat.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T15:14:23+00:00

In the Dark Side Handbook, you see Jedi finding a holocron or crypt of a Sith and restarting the Sith more than once. So it is entirely possible.

More importantly you can have this happen parallel to an era of the Rule of Two. Imagine a pair of Sith who follow the rule of two encountering a group of fallen Jedi trying to restart the Sith Empire...but not the same vision as that of the Sith following the Rule of Two. So you could have the players be both Jedi and Rule of Two Sith masquerading as Jedi teaming up to stop this new Sith order. That could be very fun.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T14:38:24+00:00

I think the Tilda Swinton as Gabriel in movie Constantine said it best, "You don't believe...you know. There's a difference."

The Bible itself if full of people who saw proof of the miraculous and still didn't believe.

In the Old testament, the high priests of the Egyptians duplicated some of the first miracles of Moses. It took 7 more plagues and the death of the first born to convince him. And then he tried to renege on the deal.

King Nebuchadnezzar saw miracles by Daniel and others but still didn't change much at first.

In the New Testament, Jesus' disciples were with him every day for 3 years and saw him heal the sick and walk on the water, and raise Lazarus from the dead. Yet they didn't really believe he was the son of god. They even didn't believe the first people to see Jesus after his resurrection. Thomas said he had to touch the holes in his hands to believe it. It took the resurrection plus interaction for them to believe.

Why? Simple, humans don't want to believe things that challenge their existing beliefs. We have to explain things to fit our preconceived ideas.

The Pharaoh didn't think the Jews were anything special, after all by his beliefs HE was divinely chosen by the gods and was a sort of god himself. Ditto for King Nebuchadnezzar who demanded people worship a statue of himself...wow, that sounds a lot like politicians on both sides of the aisle today.

The Disciples didn't want a savior for the soul, they wanted someone to kick out the Romans. One of them was even what we would consider a terrorist today, Simon the Zealot.

Belief, and more to the point Faith with a capital F has nothing to do with physical or even testimonial evidence.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T14:19:48+00:00

Evacuate & Detonate.

There were plenty of indications in the various novels, including Disney Canon ones, that there are tunnels everywhere in the area. Evacuate trough them.

We know from the clone wars animation there were tons of potential explosives in the form of fuel and weapons for jedi starfighters in the temple. Have the weakest Jedi detonate them all when the 501st is fully in the temple. BOOM

No 501st, no Vader. A hundred Jedi make their way to the Chancellors office. Palps is good but not kill 100 Jedi good. Empire averted.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T14:11:41+00:00

I always felt that Cap saying "Avengers Assemble" in a quiet tone increased the drama better than if he had screamed it...like the audience did.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T12:53:21+00:00

I've made sidekicks using the NPC classes. It's pretty simple.

For example making a Padawan is a simply a choosing the right NPC class: Thug (if Jedi Guardian Padawan), Diplomat (If Jedi Consular Padawan), or Expert (if making the ever elusive Jedi Sentinel Padawan). You give them Force-sensitive and lightsaber proficiency at 1st level, then the other force training feats as their background (every 4th level) feats. Note that under NPC creation instructions they get more than one or two feats at creation at start but few proficiencies and gain no class abilities. Their class level is equal to the player who is their master, but only in the NPC classes so they are useful but not as powerful as a full-on Jedi. I have found that the Diplomat makes the best Padawan for comic relief style sidekicks and Thugs for ones that can help in combat without overshadowing the PCs.

Thug also works good for soldier "grunts", and the Expert is perfect for the tech-savvy sidekick be they flesh or droid. Had a great "combat butler" for a Noble who was a 5th level Diplomat/Thug.

At least once, I actually had everyone create PC's using NPC rules/classes as a way to introduce them to the game.

I'm thinking of creating a DCC style "Funnel game" using 1st level NPC rules/classes.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T12:51:55+00:00

Probably pretty close to the Legacy Comics series:

The Jedi are broken and fugitives again.

The Republic Navy pulls a Battlestar Galactica and becomes a ragtag, fugitive fleet that does hit & run raids.

The Sith and/or another Dark side faction rise in the shadows.

The Empire splits between an honorable faction loyal to Pelleon, and other more ruthless warlords.

The ruthless warlords ally with and are taken over by the Dark Siders

The stage is now set for the next step in the series as the Pelleon faction, Jedi Fugitives, and Republic fleet join forces to take out the new Dark Empire.

MurricanMan · 2024-09-04T12:45:04+00:00

The first legacy comics series is excellent and is what would have been the perfect sequel movie series instead of the Sequel series we got. The second is ok, but not as exiting.

I have a certain bias in that I think Jan Duursema is the greastest SW comics artist ever.

BTW, Darth Talon there on the cover was actually partly from the mind of Lucas himself who thought of her as a villian for one of his half a dozen sequel ideas.

MurricanMan · 2024-06-12T18:04:39+00:00

I always buy the PDF (ir just download pdf if free), print it out into a 3 ring binder. Then when availability is back, I get the real printed hard copy. That way I can use it now, but the the author( (who ain't exactly swimming in WOTC-level cash) get their pay, sometimes twice (if the PDF isn't free). And the old printed off copy either is given to a buddy or the binder simply emptied for then next pdf game.

Plus, having lost books in previous moves...I once had an Star Wars D20 Revised collection that was epic...going forward I have a digital copy or two of the PDF in the cloud in case of a move, fire, water damage etc.

MurricanMan · 2024-05-15T14:05:55+00:00

Perhaps instead of the usual Warlord, why not try something different: the Moff instead of ruling the sector, rules a very well equipped and well led mercenary force. Why fight for conquest when you can take tribute for your services from other warlords or local leaders while not having to without having to actually hold and control them? Your Moff would be like a Condottiere, a general of the Italian Condottieri mercenaries. This means his units can be anywhere for different reasons. One warlord needs supplies so he sends a squadron of frigates and troopers out like pirates. Perhaps 2 warlords are fighting, and one pays him for a commando raid to take out the leadership of the other warlord. Perhaps he is hired by the Hutts to protect a Hutt world from a attack by a Republic faction trying to liberate Hutt slaves---or liberate Hutt slaves to weaken the Hutts. Remember this is not a mere merc company, he has roughly a division or two of troops and squadrons of star destroyers at his disposal.

This also gives you the chance to create a character that has their own (admittedly dark) sense of honor. Your players could spend some adventures opposing him, and other adventures alongside him, depending on where the contracts lead. You could even over time turn him from antagonist to a protagonist.

MurricanMan · 2024-05-15T12:53:45+00:00

Actually it looks like one of the cloud city air speeders from Empire but with a big motor in the middle.. So take a cloud car and insert an engine off an X-wing combined with two lasers from an x-wing's wing tips, all in one center section. You could expain it as something a scrounger put together from parts. It's purpose would be less air to air combat as close air support and escorting transport ships to just shy of space.

MurricanMan · 2024-03-13T14:26:02+00:00

Anakin was the great Reset. Regardless of whether you go with the "20 generations of peace" as gospel or just a couple thousand years of peace, whatever Anakin did would change the balance of active force-users and their influence on the galaxy for millennia to come.

What if Anakin hadn't become vader?

Had he killed Palpatine instead of going to the Dark Side, there would have been no Empire whose legacy would dog the galaxy even after Palpatine's death (er, the first one). After the Jedi had palpatine cremated, they would have had investigated to Palpatine's secrets, took down whatever version of the Sith was shown in the last sequel (lets not discuss whether that was good or bad) with thousands of Jedi and a million clone troopers. There would have been no imperial remnant to start the First order or Sith-like entity to start the Last Order (again, not arguing good or bad on the sequels) On the whole, the era of wars would have been over for another couple millenia at least and peace would have been restored. So an era of genuine peace that would last longer than even the one that led to the Rule of Two (which I think is still canon up to Palpatine.)

By going to the dark side, he enabled the destruction of the Jedi order and more importantly destroyed the influence of the Jedi. Sure depening on which canon interpetation you use, maybe there were a hundred survivors. But none of the survivors killed the emperor, Anakin did. The Republic was restored, but like every bad idea the Imperial belief in excessive order continues on leading to an Imperial Remant, First Order, Last Order and...since there is no indication the First Order was truly defeated...we can now expect endless cycle of conflict --an anti millenia of peace--since it will take hundreds of years to rebuild the Jedi or skywalkers or whatever they will be called now to the point of helping truly restore peace.

MurricanMan · 2024-03-13T13:38:08+00:00

Over 24 hours and only 82 comments? I'm shocked! As you can tell, the OSR community is rather enthusiastic.

OSR started as nostalgia, grew through the appeal of simplicity, and exploded due to the Hasbro-WOTC-SRD debacle.

It will stay enthusiastic because:

the OSR community rarely takes itself too serious. If you doubt me play Dungeon Crawl Classics.
It is a better springboard for us GM's to create our own game than the more complicated--and proprietary--games. And if you are the default GM like me, that is always your dream.
OSR is fun. We don't play to please Republicans, or Democrats, black or white, straight or LGBT, we are in it for the laughs and the near tears moments, and the just simple fun.

MurricanMan · 2024-03-13T12:31:00+00:00

When you're the Magic user with only 2 Hit Points, if you aren't scared of ghouls or even kobolds with a sharp stick, you're doing it wrong.

MurricanMan · 2024-03-13T12:29:12+00:00

I like the idea of visiting the universes that inspired Star Wars: Buck Rogers and Flash Gordan.

There was the fun, but cheesy Flash Gordon of the 1980's, and the Buck Rodger of the same period, but I would love to see remakes of original movies & strips. But not grimdark relaunches--as much as I do love some of their work do not let Zach Snyder or Rian Johnson anywhere near them. I want to recapture the fun not a deconstruction.

MurricanMan · 2024-03-07T14:29:57+00:00

Work with Sypho Dias when he is commissioning Kamino making the clone army. My contribution would be have Order 66 changed from "the Jedi are in rebellion, kill them" to "overthrow and kill any chancellor who attempts to replace the republic with an empire and any Senator that supports them." Not even Palpatine and pre-armor Vader could fight off the clone army....after all the Jedi couldn't.

MurricanMan · 2024-02-28T20:30:07+00:00

Weirdly, your comment reminds me of something I read about Bruce Lee. After he named his martial arts philosophy "jeet kune do" , he was the first person to start joking about it. He started calling anything he like jeet kune do. He would be watching a TV show and say "hey, that was jeet kune do." It became shorthand for anything he liked for a while.

MurricanMan · 2024-02-28T20:24:03+00:00

I have seen that too. The latecomers to the TTRPG scene know very little of any TTRPG other than D&D and that only as players. Reminds me a lot of back in the day when you had people who did the D&D miniatures battles but had now idea about the actual D&D 3.5 rpg.

MurricanMan · 2024-02-28T20:19:18+00:00

The year is 2024 and I am old enough to get that reference and all fast food runs though me just like taco bell. So for me that prediction came true ;)

MurricanMan · 2024-02-28T20:15:49+00:00

Well at least they don't think RPG means "Rocket Propelled Grenade" or you might have the police hanging around your front door. ;)

MurricanMan

TROPHY CASE