On Thursday (May the Fourth!) we played Star Wars using the Fate game system in our ‘West Marches’ style game – a drop-in/drop-out world that allows multiple players to be engaged at different times and dates without major FOMO.
Fate is an intuitive and simple rules-set that is narrative based. Creating a character is as easy as writing a couple of bullet points called Aspects (no stats!) about who they are and takes <20 minutes.
For reference, our world is set using the following Aspects:
1. Mando Era – set after the fall of the empire, with a fledgeling New Republic struggling to maintain order.
2. Minor Warlords – lots of ex-imperials and others (inc. pirates) all over the place vying for territory and power.
3. Lots of Greed – related to the above – everyone is out for themselves right now and takes whatever they can get their hands on.
Our characters:
1. Bordo Nax – An ageing Rodian bounty hunter who has retired but keeps getting pulled back in to do jobs. Living vicariously through his ‘nephew’ and apprentice, Kif who is the son of his old bounty hunting partner. Has a big arsenal of ageing weapons, stashed aboard his ‘old warhorse’ – a G9-Rigger type light freighter with a few special modifications.
2. Kif Divion – A reluctant human (Mandalorian by birth) bounty hunter, but with a knack for the trade that makes Bordo push him to do jobs. Has not yet inherited his Mandalorian armour – “it’s out there somewhere, waiting for him”. Has a famous (infamous?) doppelganger running around the galaxy who he is occasionally mixed up with, and secretly dreams of being an ace racer – so much so that he takes piloting risks even when people tell him not to.
3. M’Vessa ‘Joan’ – A Dathomirian former assassin who has turned her back on her people’s dark natures and is leaning into the light but is pursued by her people for her conversion away from their traditions. Trusts bordo to an extent, knowing that he knows the ‘angles and faces’ and has a great ability for scrounging things thanks to her time on the run.
We open our adventure as Bordo, dragged once again from retirement, has rescued Kif from the clutches of Colonel Smenk with the help from Joan. Kif was doing a job for Qing-La the Bothan to secure a particularly valuable CM-8 shield generator which would benefit her ‘space station’ - Cirrus. The group are escaping the swampy planet Mirbool aboard Bordo’s G9 freighter, with the stolen imperial shield generator in the cargo hold and pursued by several tie fighters.
Kif, at the controls, made some special dodging manoeuvres as the rear shields began to fail under the weight of tie fighter blasts, while back in the engine bay, Joan pulled out some of the electronics and rigged up an extra boost of speed by shunting power to the engines. Bordo performed some quick hyperspace calculations for a jump after confirming with Kif and Joan that it was best not to jump directly home to Cirrus, lest the imperials track them – to perform several smaller jumps to throw them off their tail. The ship hurtled off into hyperspace, narrowly evading the ties.
With a direct jump, the crew arrived several hours later at Arrux-7, a bitterly cold world on the outer reaches of its star system and thought by many to be uninhabited – but Bordo knew better. ‘How did you know about this place’ asked one of the others, to which Bordo explained his ex-lover the Twilek named Jesk’Ha ran an illicit chop shop with a ragtag group of pirates from here.
They proceeded towards the side of a frozen mountain range as a hangar door opened up in the cliff face, to complete radio silence which was an ominous sign. Kif landed the freighter on the frozen floor as the massive hangar closed behind them, pitching them into darkness save for the running lights on their ship. Soon a gaggle of shady figures emerged through a door carrying wrecking equipment like blowtorches and power wrenches – seemingly intent on dismantling the old warhorse! Bordo the old bounty hunter charged down the ships ramp and, in a fury, threatened anyone who touched his ship, while Joan snuck around behind them and disconnected the tools from their hefty generators and tanks. The pirates scattered back up the corridor the way they had come rather than face any more of his wrath after he unveiled some of his arsenal of weapons, and as they were leaving Bordo mentioned that he was an old friend of Jesk’Ha and that he wanted to talk with her.
Kif set about searching through the piles of spaceship parts all over the hangar, finding several valuable shield projectors that he could use to fix those the tie fighters had shot out on the G-9. A short while later, a middle aged Twi’Lek woman with greenish tinged skin appeared in the doorway to the hangar – casually tossing a thermal detonator up and down in her hand while lounging against the door frame. ‘I’d been meaning to re-decorate this room’ she said, with a toss of the detonator ‘Not with our innards please!’ begged Bordo. Joan snuck nearer the woman in case trouble broke out, but when Kif popped his head up from behind the shelf of parts he was scrounging through the situation defused as she was delighted to see him, enquiring about his old dad and admonishing Kif for still hanging around ‘the old has-been’ Bordo. Bordo told her they had ‘acquired’ a CM-8 shield projector and were willing to do a deal if she had the credits – this pleased Jesk’Ha - ‘Follow me’ she said as she proceeded up the tunnel away from the hangar, just as an alarm started ringing through the base.
‘What have you idiots done?’ she asked, as she broke into a sprint, demanding they follow her. Shrugging, the group followed behind and a few levels up entered a control room with a couple of pirates monitoring screens. ‘Imperials’ stated one of her lackeys, zooming in a video monitor to show a large hovering circular droid with several mechanical ‘tentacles’ below it – a probe droid! Jesk’Ha turned on the group ‘Let me guess, you idiots boosted an *imperial* CM-8 shield projector and didn’t check it for tracking devices?’ ‘Yep’ replied a sheepish Bordo. ‘Then you’d best get out there and clean up this mess before it sends a signal’ she said – the group complied, not wanting to anger their host any further as she fiddled with the thermal detonator in her pocket. They ran back down to the hangar to get some cold weather gear if they were going outside, spending a few minutes in the ship adding layers of clothing. Too late, the probe droid was already cutting through the hangar door, sending sparks flying everywhere. Joan stayed safely inside the ship, while Kif had a bright idea – he hopped in the gunners chair and brought the ships weapons online, weapons powerful enough to destroy a starship would make short work of a solitary droid! A circular section of the hangar door fell inward as the floating probe entered, emitting a high pitched squealing noise as it transmitted a binary signal through hyperspace just as Kif sequeezed the trigger spraying laser all over the hangar – slagging the droid but also catching the very expensive starship parts he’d been eyeing off earlier and turning them to scrap.
Jesk’Ha and a couple dozen of her pirates entered the docking bay to survey the mess, and berating Bordo and Kif for their idiocy and the damage. Jesk’Ha demanded the CM-8 be given to her as compensation, so Kif brought it down from the hold on a repulsor-sled. Her crew immediately took to dismantling it looking to find and remove the tracking device even as they hauled it back up the tunnel and into their base. ‘I think that thing got a message off’ she said ‘and you all owe me big time. I bet there are imperials on their way right now, and we need time to get as much of our stuff onto our cruiser and get out of here. Buy us an hour and we’ll call it even’ Jesk’Ha demanded, and Bordo was quick to agree. She turned around and led her pirates back up the tunnel, the last of which to leave – a large male Zabrak with cruel looking horns on his head like a crown – turned and gave a long stare at Joan, then gave her a grin that was more grimace. She returned his gesture with a feeling of dread building – had she been recognised as a Dathomirian apostate?
Kif took the controls again and Bordo hopped in the gunners chair, while Joan strapped into a flight seat in the rear hold. An hour was all they needed to give Jesk’Ha and her pirates, so Kif took the beat up old G9 freighter out of atmosphere and towards an asteroid belt. They soon picked up an imperial Gozanti cruiser on their scope as it launched a flight of 4 tie fighters which were quickly on their tail, with Kif leading them on a merry chase.
The chase twisted and turned though the asteroid field as Bordo managed to eliminate one tie with the cannons, before in a complete surprise the old rigger freighter was rocked by blasts from below – a Z-95 Headhunter had entered the fray as well and was now shooting at them from another direction! The comm channel crackled to life and the Z-95 pilot announced that he was Uthrak, a devotee of the Dathomirian Nightsisters who had recognised Joan (M’Vessa) and that he was going to claim glory for her elimination once and for all.
To make things worse, as the fight twisted and turned through the asteroid field (was Kif actually taking them *closer* to the giant space rocks?) one of the smuggling compartments in the hold flew open and out tumbled a young girl, perhaps ten years old, who bumped her head thanks to the jerky motions of the freighter as it rocked from laser blasts. ‘Who the hell are you’ asked Joan, strapping the girl into one of the flight seats. ‘I’m Matha, I only came in here to steal your stuff, I didn’t know you were going to take off I swear!’ replied the youngling. The crew thought it best to deal with her *if* they survived the fight.
Joan hopped on the comms and taunted the Zabrak pilot, letting him know that even though she had turned to the light, she’d seen the same ‘weakness’ in him as well – this caused his flying to become sloppy as he wrestled with her words. Kif used this as an opening and made a manoeuvre that caused the Z-95 to scrape an asteroid, loosening one of its stabilisers. Bordo got the guns on a hot streak and eliminated the three tie fighters with a single burst from the cannons. Of course, Kif wasn’t doe with the crazy flying – diving out of the asteroid field and directly *at* the imperial cruiser, which opened with its own cannons trying to bring them down, while the Z-95 behind them hammered them with lasers, bringing down their rear shields. With an amazing feat of flying, Kif got them through and out behind clear of the Gozanti, but the Z-95 was not so lucky, the combination of loose stabiliser and sloppy flying from Joan’s taunts meant the Zabrak was struck multiple times by the imperial lasers and left a sitting duck when the larger ship caught him in their tractor beams.
Free of pursuit for now, the G9 freighter’s sensors picked up the larger pirate cruiser making good its escape, with nary a ‘farewell’ from Jesk’Ha. Satisfied that they had cleared their debt with her, they accelerated away from the imperial cruiser and its captured Z-95 before entering hyperspace on a jump to an isolated planet, not planning to stay for long but rather to change course and keep moving using multiple jumps as per their original idea, so that the imperials wouldn’t follow them *again*. Sitting down at the table with their young stow-away, Joan gave her some food and asked a few questions – establishing that she had snuck aboard back at the pirate chop-shop and that her dad, Manid, was Jesk’Ha’s chief engineer. They were going to be so mad with her. The crew committed to taking her back – if only old Bordo could think about where his ex-lover might go now that her operation had been busted up. He considered but discarded the idea she’d return to her ex-husband (the man she left for Bordo in the first place, all those years ago) and then settled on Kildare – a Huttese shipyard that was known for working with pirates and chop shops like hers. He pulled up the holo-net and called an old contact he knew living there, a rogue by the name of Mekel who quickly confirmed that Jesk-Ha and her cruiser full of pirates had arrived at one of the orbital shipyard stations an hour or two ago. Asking what cargo Bordo might have in his business with Jesk-Ha, Mekel demanded 10% fee for helping – to which Bordo cautiously responded that 10% of *this* cargo might be unfeasible.
At the next transition point they keyed in coordinates for Kildare and were soon on their way to reunite Matha with her family and the pirates they had just thought to be rid of. Some hours later they arrived and docked where Mekel had instructed, and were met by the man himself and a pair of hulking Gamorrean guards carrying disintegrators. ‘My Friend’ began Bordo, but Mekel cut him off – ‘I really must insist on my 10% cut of whatever you are carrying now’ he insisted. Joan gave Matha a shove down the ramp and said ‘I doubt you’ll want 10% of this little one’ – which combined with insistence from Kif and Bordo, was enough to convince Mekkel that they were simply returning the girl to her father. Mekkel waved the Gamorreans away and led them through the orbital dockyard thrumming with activity of all kinds, mercantile and illicit.
As they walked through the space station, Mekkel told Joan that he’d seen her recently – stopping them at a cantina door where they could surreptitiously see the bounty hunters gathered around a vid screen. Later rather than sooner an image of the Dathomirian exile woman appeared on the screen with a bounty of 5000 credits, and even as they were watching the number ticked up to 7000 – someone was updating this thing right now! Deciding that walking around with an active bounty in a space station filled with scum and villainy was a bad plan, Joan went back to the ship and applied a hasty disguise with some green tinged cosmetics and a hooded outfit. While Joan was doing this, Kif and Mekkel got into a discussion about the ‘big race’ that was starting this afternoon, and before long Kif was hooked and had committed to pilot a speeder owned by Mekkel in the ‘Hutt Death Race’ with a 50% survival rate on a good day. You see, Mekkel had lost his last pilot in an unfortunate situation where he tried to ‘thread the needle’ through a gap that was just too small. Joan and Bordo decided to take Matha back to her father on their own so headed off in the public shuttle to another spaceport nearby while Kif got ready for the race in the hangar bay.
In the hangar bay Mekkel left Kif to look over the racer – a sort of fighter craft with oversized engines – while explaining that yes, the racers would be shooting at each other too! Joan and Bordo finally reached Jesk-Ha and Manid and handed over Matha to them – for which they were very grateful. Jesk-Ha nervously asked where Kif was, worried he’d been injured. Bordo told her not to worry, as he was simply preparing for the big race this afternoon, and not to worry. This elicited a gasp from Jesk-Ha, as her underworld contacts had told her the race was rigged and that every pilot was going to die except one – a pilot hired by a local gangster named Dell. The race was guaranteed to eliminate all the other pilots, and there had been heavy betting (including by Jesk-Ha) on the ‘race favourite’.
In a panic, Bordo and Joan left the pirates and raced back, using their commlink to let Kif know about the race-rigging. Kif decided to do a once over on his fighter, and found several irregularities that he fixed, even going so far as to improve the performance of the craft by 3%. As he was doing this, he noticed something odd – the ship belonging to Dell was loaded with an unconscious or dead person while the pilot of the ship hopped out and sneakily made his way to a back room. Odd, thought Kif, and returned to his preparations.
After a time, Bordo and Joan arrived back in the hangar – on hearing from Kif about the suspiciuous behaviour at Dell’s ship, Joan decided to sneak out the back door to investigate. As soon as Joan had stealthily disappeared through the door, a woman with several men trailing behind entered the hangar bay through the main entrance. Kif looked up and recognised Major Ada Smenk, the imperial remnant officer they had recently stolen the CM-8 shield projector from – at which point he and Bordo also realised that the men with her were clearly imperial stormtroopers despite not having any uniform or armour here in Hutt territory. Between the stormtroopers they carried a beaten and limp Zabrak who had clearly been tortured. The alarm to start the race sounded, and with an almost apologetic wave to Bordo, Kif closed the canopy and exited the hangar through the forcefield leading out to open space.
Alone, against several armed imperials, Bordo began to back up as they circled him and corralled him towards the shimmering forcefield and open vacuum beyond. Inside the back rooms, Joan snuck past a couple of guards and discovered Dell and his pilot in a remote control booth – driving their racer from the safety of this room. She used her data-pad to record their conversation as she listened to them discuss the double-cross they were pulling. Dell had let word get out that the race was rigged in favour of his driver, but he himself had put a vast sum of money on a driver named Sterrickson. Then he had swapped his driver out for a corpse and was intending to put on a good show but ultimately allow the racer to be destroyed – ruining his competitors while enriching himself. Having seen enough, Joan decided to head back out to the main hangar.
Out on the race field, the fighter craft swooped and hurtled though the beacons marking the course – by now already over 50% of the racers were either dead or pulled out, and the field was narrowing by the second as they fired upon each other with their ships cannons. Back in the hangar, Bordo was cornered and rather than fight the imperials all by himself he made a desperate move – he shot out the power coupling keeping the force field functional. In an instant the stormtroopers and Zabrak zealot were sucked out into space as they unleashed blaster shots at Bordo, slightly injuring him, but Smenk managed to grab hold of something as did Bordo, leaving them in a rapidly depressurising hangar. Joan came back out the door into a scene of chaos but sprung quickly into action – using the depressurising chamber to assist her, she made an enormous leap across the hangar to the manual override handle and pulled it, sending herself, Bordo, and Col. Smenk falling to the floor.
The remote-piloted ship used by Dell crashed out, leaving Derrickson and Kif left in the race – Kif took the lead but got shot up a lot for his troubles by the ship behind him. Changing tact, he pulled off an impressive manoeuvre that got Derrickson out in front of him just as they headed down the home straight towards the finish line. He lined the other racer up in his crosshairs and squeezed the trigger – eliminating the competitor and crossing the finish line through the expanding fireball which used to be his opponent. Col. Smenk hopped to her feet and unloaded her blaster pistol at the ageing Rodian, causing him to severely injure his back (the perils of age!) as he dodged for cover. This gave Joan an opening to leap forward and stab the imperial officer several times with her knives. Bordo lifted his blaster one last time and eliminated Smenk.
As Kif landed the racer in the hangar, an enraged Dell emerged from the back room to find Joan and Bordo standing over the woman’s corpse. Dell demanded answers, but Joan blackmailed him with the video evidence of the rigged race. Kif collected his prize money – more than enough to exit this situation at a slight profit – and the group limped back to the old warhorse of a freighter they called their own.
The End.
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