Star Wars: Insurgency

[ixokai]

Star Wars: Insurgency

Alderaan is no more, but news of that fact is only starting to leak out to the Empire. Depending upon who you ask, it was the most heinous act of villainy in history, or a sign of strength and defiance against terrorism.

The Battle of Yavin ended with the destruction of the Death Star, but to think that the Emperor has been laid low by that loss would be a grave miscalculation.

Throughout the Galaxy, the Rebellion and the Empire struggle, and between them the mercenaries, bounty hunters, slicers and traders who care not for alignment to either faction try to make a life for themselves.

Corellia is not the most important battle ground, but it is an important battle ground. It is a strategic asset, gifted with abundant mines that provide essential minerals for the making of durasteel alloy, and its impressive shipyards produce most of the Imperial fleet-- including the Star Destroyers that bring such dominance to naval battles.

For the Rebels to take a Core World will take a different type of fighting: it will take an Insurgency. For the Empire to keep the Core World will require them walking the knife's edge between crushing resistance and not sending the Corellian's (known for their independent and wild streak) right into Rebel hands.

And as is the case with every conflict, there's money to be made. Gangs, mercenaries, slicers, agents of the Hutt Cartel,... There is so much in the air here on Corellia that there are great opportunities to be had... if one is willing to embrace the risk.

--

Star Wars: Insurgency is a RhostMUSH game set almost immediately after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. Although it takes place primarily on Corellia, plots can take place anywhere within the Galaxy, and (when we work it out) space combat and travel will be supported.

We are using Fate Core as the basis for the game system, with characters powered up a bit from the default rules as the Star Wars universe is a bit more cinematic then gritty.

As far as Force Users are concerned, in our version of the world, Order 66 happened but it was not as successful as in the canon, so more Jedi and potential Jedi escaped and are active in the world. Additionally, the Rule of Two was not a thing so there are more Sith and dark side users out there. There's also so-called 'grey' concepts that don't quite buy into either order.

But this isn't just a game for Jedi and Sith. Slicers, mercs, smugglers, commandos and the likes are all welcome and usable.

We allow Star Wars characters from both the canon movies, the prequels, and the Extended Universe/Legends. We also allow Original Characters of any sort. Star Wars Characters will (when we get this in) have activity requirements, though they won't be intense.

The game is in ALPHA state: we are in testing. RP is encouraged, apping is encouraged, but its important to note that specific details of +sheet's can not be guaranteed to not need revision when we move into BETA and then full opening. In ALPHA, we won't allow any player deaths, as we are continually play-testing systems and stats and game balance.

That said, the basic Corellia grid is complete, and most of the code is finished: the coder (hi) is finding it harder and harder to find things to do so he's been working on the wiki systems a lot.

As of now, it is no longer invite only but available for anyone to come check out.

The website is: http://www.starwars-insurgency.com/
The game is at: game.starwars-insurgency.com 1977

[ixokai]

It's worth noting: this game is absolutely not following canon. It begins at the end of Episode IV, and we consider Rogue One canon, but everything that happens after players hit the grid will unfold according to plots people run and interests of players and actions of players.

We'll take inspiration from Episode V+, from the EU/Legends, but we are not scripting out the game going forward to match the canon that unfolds later.

[Bobotron]

Super applause for confining the focus of the game to one planet. I think that'll help out with a number of the typical complaints about SW games. Fate is not my thing so I likely won't find myself here, but I'll keep good vibes and share the links if I can.

[faraday]

@Bobotron said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Super applause for confining the focus of the game to one planet.

As someone who spent most of my Star Wars RP looking at the WHO list and all the people on planets other than mine, +1 in agreement.

[Three-Eyed Crow]

I will try out this place solely because of the single-planet focus. I was always baffled by how dozens of planets did anything but spread RP thin and cause frustration.

[bored]

Took a look but honestly having FC characters makes it a very hard sell for me.

The success rate for this on Star Wars games, in my personal experience, is a flat 0%. Especially picking a specific planet that isn't in any of the movies, I don't really understand the motivation.

[ixokai]

@bored said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Took a look but honestly having FC characters makes it a very hard sell for me.

This is understandable. Some people won't do it: I don't really care, myself, because I have no interest in playing any Star Wars FC's.

The success rate for this on Star Wars games, in my personal experience, is a flat 0%. Especially picking a specific planet that isn't in any of the movies, I don't really understand the motivation.

Now this is less understandable to me: we wanted a planet with cities and jungles, where there's shipyards and miners. A diverse planet. The thing is, Star Wars doesn't present very many of those in the movies as options. There's Coruscant for the cities, but that's all it is: one gigantic city. There's Naboo, but it has Gungans and no. Other then that, what do you have? You have a couple jungle planets, a desert planet or two, an icy planet.

Corellia doesn't appear in the movies but it is elaborated in the EU, and really, we can define its setting pretty easily. Its cosmopolitan so we can run a planet-focused Insurgency type resistance, but its got wild spaces so we can tuck a rebel base off in the middle of a jungle, it is a Core World but with an independent streak so there's some good potential for tension between the Empire and the Rebels.

Heck, IMHO, even 'a single planet' is a huge scope for a game: basing a game over a whole galaxy seems like complete death to RP. While plots and events can take place all over Corellia (and the galaxy for that matter) via +temprooms and the like, the grid is Coronet City and the surroundings and that's where we intend 'most' RP to happen.

The motivation is to make it as easy as possible to log on and find RP without having to jump through hoops: if everyone's relatively nearby then its not super weird to have a Cantina scene, or have a random gunfight as an ISB team raids a rebel warehouse.

[TNP]

@Bobotron said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Fate is not my thing so I likely won't find myself here, but I'll keep good vibes and share the links if I can.

Honestly, I hate Fate so very, very much. But I'm putting up with it for the sake of RP.

[bored]

@ixokai

I think you misread my comment about the single planet thing, although it's understandable as my sentence was ambiguous. I meant that, given your setting is totally divorced from anything in the movies, it makes no sense to get movie characters into things.

I didn't mean that I didn't get the motivation for picking a single planet, but for shoehorning in Luke Skywalker when we never see him do anything on Corelia anyway.

[ixokai]

@bored said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

@ixokai

I think you misread my comment about the single planet thing, although it's understandable as my sentence was ambiguous. I meant that, given your setting is totally divorced from anything in the movies, it makes no sense to get movie characters into things.

I didn't mean that I didn't get the motivation for picking a single planet, but for shoehorning in Luke Skywalker when we never see him do anything on Corelia anyway.

Ah, I did misread your comment.

Our position is between Episode IV and V, a lot happens. What? Who knows. On our game, there's a focus on Corellia. This didn't happen in canon: but we aren't a canon game. Episode V may never happen.

Its not 'shoehorning' Luke (a staff alt) or Leia (not a staff alt) into Corellia, its that from the point of Episode IV, we're telling a new story. The Rebel Alliance is going after a Core World. The movies never have such ambition.

We'll see how it plays out.

[Wizz]

@ixokai said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Its not 'shoehorning' Luke (a staff alt)

.........

I appreciate the transparency, I really like the setting, and I actually like Fate, but FCs are strike one and staff-played FCs are strikes two and three for me. Purely personal preference and opinion but I wouldn't touch the place unless Beta saw FCs done away with altogether.

[Arkandel]

@Wizz said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

.........

I appreciate the transparency, I really like the setting, and I actually like Fate, but FCs are strike one and staff-played FCs are strikes two and three for me. Purely personal preference and opinion but I wouldn't touch the place unless Beta saw FCs done away with altogether.

Fair enough. I think FCs done correctly could be a great way to set a game up, although I'd prefer them strictly as NPCs controlled by either staff or prominent players reporting directly to staff - there's a lot of potential to act as quest givers, caches of information and linking the MU* thematically to its original material.

But personal preferences are, of course, a thing. Not all games can satisfy all people.

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

But personal preferences are, of course, a thing. Not all games can satisfy all people.

While this is no doubt true, create a sandbox is you want one, but label it as such. I generally don't join games when I'm only going to end up being the lighting-guy.

[Arkandel]

@Ganymede said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

@Arkandel said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

But personal preferences are, of course, a thing. Not all games can satisfy all people.

While this is no doubt true, create a sandbox is you want one, but label it as such. I generally don't join games when I'm only going to end up being the lighting-guy.

But that's why I said FCs would need to be 'done correctly'. If they take over - well, few people want to play the sidekick role, but they don't have to. If the big names are in every scene, doing all the cool things while everyone else is on standby that's the opposite of what they should be there for.

Now, if you have Leia overwhelmed with bureucracy trying to keep everything together she's unable to go out on those tricky diplomatic meetings or investigate a streak of suspicious assassination hundreds of miles away - so she can delegate the investigation to PCs. If on the contrary she shows up in every goddamn scene you have stealing the spotlight because the person playing her wants to show her off then it's a problem since why is your character there at all?

The same obviously applies to combat, etc.

FCs aren't the problem. Their players sometimes are.

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

FCs aren't the problem. Their players sometimes are.

"Sometimes"?

I can give people the benefit of the doubt, but I also am aware of history. Some people play child PCs well too, but we, as a community, eschew them on games because they have been, by and large, played: (1) poorly; and/or (2) as sex toys, which squicks the fuck out of a lot of people.

FCs as NPCs? That's fine. FCs as PCs, and, especially, staff PCs? Dear God, no.

[Arkandel]

@Ganymede said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

FCs as NPCs? That's fine. FCs as PCs, and, especially, staff PCs? Dear God, no.

I specifically made the distinction though (if you're replying to me) - they should be NPCs. In fact I'm a firm believer they should be 'special' which means they need to be rarely seen; if you meet Luke fuckin Skywalker every goddamn time you log on he's just a... person. Plus you start to notice all the player's faults, the way Luke is posed, any mistakes you think are being made in his portrayal - rightly or not, compared to your expectations.

But see him once a month when he comes in after your group is done wiping that cult off the face of the planet and compliments your character for his efforts in front of everyone? Yeah, that counts. You just got praised by Luke Skywalker, dude. It's a good milestone after he gets back into his ship and takes off, not to be seen again for another several weeks.

Make him a PC and he'll be played as one; every day, in bar scenes, making small talk about nothing. That's not awesome.

[TNP]

I have a similar reaction to FCs since my one and only experience on a Star Wars game was exactly as @Ganymede is complaining about and said we shouldn't do that. However. I'm pretty sure no one on staff has ever staffed on a Star Wars game before. If they have, they haven't mentioned it. Several have played on them though and have seen first hand that problem. We're not going to repeat it.

@ixokai isn't playing an FC. I"m not playing an FC. Only two of the five staff have FC characters. We're not going to let OCs take a back seat to FCs and while that's easy enough to say, keep in mind those staff OCs. We're not going to be 'the lighting guy' either.

So yeah, give us the benefit of the doubt. Quit if it turns out to be business as usual for SW games.

[Ganymede]

@Arkandel said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

I specifically made the distinction though (if you're replying to me) - they should be NPCs.

Not directly on that point, no. I quoted a very specific thing: namely, that personal preferences are a thing and not all games can satisfy all people. Which is true, but sandboxes are sandboxes and should be advertised as such.

---

@TNP

As staff, sure. In allowing FCs? I can do that because I have some familiarity with you and am willing to trust on that alone.

But you're using FATE, and my distaste for that system is near-legendary.

[TNP]

@Ganymede I hear you. I made my feelings about it known above (and since the system first came out for that matter). I think (hope) the RP will be fun enough to counterbalance it.

[ixokai]

@Wizz said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

@ixokai said in Star Wars: Insurgency:

Its not 'shoehorning' Luke (a staff alt)

.........

I appreciate the transparency, I really like the setting, and I actually like Fate, but FCs are strike one and staff-played FCs are strikes two and three for me. Purely personal preference and opinion but I wouldn't touch the place unless Beta saw FCs done away with altogether.

That's fair and entirely understandable, but isn't going to happen.